e Edition Edition SUNNY 69 • 54 | MONDAY, JULY 13, 2020 | theworldlink.com Follow us online: facebook.com/theworldnewspaper twitter.com/TheWorldLink instagram.com/theworldlink The World NORTH BEND — A Coast Guard aircrew medically evacu- ated a 26-year-old man Saturday morning off the fishing vessel McKenzie Rose 100 miles west of Coos Bay. The fishing vessel’s captain used a marine radio to hail watchstand- ers at Coast Guard Sector North Bend at approximately 5:30 a.m. to report a member of the crew sustained a head injury and was in need of medical attention, accord- ing to a press relase from the U.S. Coast Guard, Astoria attachment. The McKenzie Rose began to transit toward shore to more quickly rendezvous with the Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter aircrew, stated the release. A con- stant communication schedule was established between the sector and the fishing vessel. The aircrew hoisted the injured fisherman shortly after noon and transported him to the Coast Guard airbase where his care was transferred to emergency medical services personnel. “Getting this man to emergency medical care was a coordinated effort between the McKenzie Rose crew and the Coast Guard,” said Petty Officer First Class Mi- chael Halasz, Sector North Bend watchstander. “The teamwork greatly aided in the swift transport and treatment of the injured crew member.” The current condition of the man is unknown. A Coast Guard aircrew medically evacuates a man from a fishing vessel operating 100 miles west of Coos Bay on Saturday, July 11. The aircrew hoisted the injured fisherman safely and transferred him to emergency medical services personnel. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Ben Loy Coast Guard medevacs fisherman Bandon to ask voters for rate increases AMY MOSS STRONG The World BANDON — The City of Bandon will ask voters in the Sept. 15 election to approve two rate increases — one for sewer and one for water. Both the city’s water and sew- er rates fail to pay for the city’s costs of running those utilities, according to City Manager Dan Chandler. Between the two funds, this fiscal year’s shortage will be around $400,000. City city’s overall 2020-21 fis- cal year budget is approximately $3.5 million less than last year’s budget. Chandler said the ballot measures are asking voters to approve an increase of $8 per month for water and $7 per month for sewer. Residents living outside city limits would see an increase of $11 in their water rate and $11 in their sewer rate. This would be a permanent increase. The base rate includes 2,000 gallons of water and covers 90% of customers most of the year. There are no proposed changes to the city’s electric rates. The city is prohibited from raising rates without voter ap- proval. The city is not asking for rate-setting authority, as it has in past failed ballot measures. “The only place to make up the shortfall is from the city’s General Fund,” Chandler ex- plained. “... It’s really the only place to make it up.” Chandler went on to explain that the city budget has a number of funds. The General Fund is the most flexible and comes from property taxes, utility taxes and lodging taxes. Other funds are for utilities, roads and other specific purposes. This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent temporary closure of local lodging establishments, the city’s transient occupancy tax receipts are down significantly. Those TOT receipts make up 16% of the General Fund. “It is unlikely that Bandon will see anywhere near its normal tourist traffic this year,” Chandler said. “Lodging has been down around the state, even in juris- dictions where the hotels stayed open.” Bandon also has the lowest permanent tax rate in the state for cities with populations of 750 or more. The city’s police department is funded entirely out of the Gener- al Fund, and accounts for 40% of General Fund spending. The next largest category is Administra- Enjoying the sun at Laverne Park Amy Moss Strong, The World A family enjoys the sun and water at Laverne County Park on Sunday, July 5. Laverne Park, a popular spot for camping and day use, consistes of 350 acres located on the North Fork of the Coquille River, approximately 15 miles north of Coquille on the Coquille-Fairview Road. The frequent 80 to 90 degree temperatures in the summer make swimming, picnicking, fishing, camping or playing a pleasure. The spacious day use area has three covered picnic shelters, softball fields, horseshoe pits, large barbecue grills and a developed swimming area. There is also a fort-like playground area. Hiking trails are nearby. The park is open year-round for RV or tent camping. Campsites are available for online reservations at www.co.coos.or.us. For group camping and to reserve day use shelters, contact the park’s reservation line, 541-396-7755. 3 different missions aim at Mars CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Mars is about to be in- vaded by planet Earth — big time. Three countries — the United States, China and the United Arab Emirates — are sending un- manned spacecraft to the red plan- et in quick succession beginning this week, in the most sweeping effort yet to seek signs of ancient microscopic life while scouting out the place for future astronauts. The U.S., for its part, is dis- patching a six-wheeled rover the size of a car, named Perseverance, to collect rock samples that will be brought back to Earth for anal- ysis in about a decade. “Right now, more than ever, that name is so important,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said as preparations went on amid the coronavirus outbreak, which will keep the launch guest list to a minimum. Each spacecraft will travel more than 300 million miles (483 million kilometers) before reaching Mars next February. It takes six to seven months, at the minimum, for a spacecraft to loop out beyond Earth’s orbit and sync up with Mars’ more distant orbit around the sun. Scientists want to know what Mars was like billions of years ago when it had rivers, lakes and oceans that may have allowed simple, tiny organisms to flourish before the planet morphed into the barren, wintry desert world it is today. “Trying to confirm that life ex- isted on another planet, it’s a tall order. It has a very high burden of proof,” said Perseverance’s project scientist, Ken Farley of Caltech in Pasadena, California. The three nearly simultaneous launches are no coincidence: The timing is dictated by the opening of a one-month window in which Mars and Earth are in ideal align- ment on the same side of the sun, which minimizes travel time and fuel use. Such a window opens only once every 26 months. Mars has long exerted a pow- erful hold on the imagination but has proved to be the graveyard for numerous missions. Space- craft have blown up, burned up or crash-landed, with the casualty rate over the decades exceeding 50%. China’s last attempt, in collaboration with Russia in 2011, ended in failure. Only the U.S. has successfully put a spacecraft on Mars, doing it eight times, beginning with the twin Vikings in 1976. Two NASA landers are now operating there, InSight and Curiosity. Six other spacecraft are exploring the planet from orbit: three U.S., two Euro- pean and one from India. The United Arab Emirates and China are looking to join the elite club. The UAE spacecraft, named Amal, which is Arabic for Hope, is an orbiter scheduled to rocket away from Japan on Wednesday, local time, on what will be the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission. The spacecraft, built in partnership with the University of Colorado Boulder, will arrive at Mars in the year the UAE marks the 50th anniversary of its founding. “The UAE wanted to send a very strong message to the Arab youth,” project manager Omran Sharaf said. “The message here is that if the UAE can reach Mars in less than 50 years, then you can do much more. ... The nice thing about space, it sets the standards really high.” Controlled from Dubai, the celestial weather station will strive for an exceptionally high Martian orbit of 13,670 miles by 27,340 miles (22,000 kilometers by 44,000 kilometers) to study the upper atmosphere and monitor climate change. China will be up next, with the flight of a rover and an orbiter sometime around July 23; Chinese officials aren’t divulging much. The mission is named Tianwen, or Questions for Heaven. NASA, meanwhile, is shooting for a launch on July 30 from Cape Canaveral. Perseverance is set to touch down in an ancient river delta and lake known as Jezero Crater, not quite as big as Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. China’s much small- er rover will aim for an easier, flatter target. To reach the surface, both spacecraft will have to plunge through Mars’ hazy red skies in Please see Rates, Page A2 Please see Mars, Page A2
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The World
NORTH BEND — A Coast Guard aircrew medically evacu-ated a 26-year-old man Saturday morning off the fishing vessel McKenzie Rose 100 miles west of Coos Bay.
The fishing vessel’s captain used a marine radio to hail watchstand-ers at Coast Guard Sector North Bend at approximately 5:30 a.m. to report a member of the crew sustained a head injury and was in need of medical attention, accord-ing to a press relase from the U.S. Coast Guard, Astoria attachment.
The McKenzie Rose began to transit toward shore to more quickly rendezvous with the Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter aircrew, stated the release. A con-stant communication schedule was established between the sector and the fishing vessel.
The aircrew hoisted the injured
fisherman shortly after noon and transported him to the Coast Guard airbase where his care was transferred to emergency medical services personnel.
“Getting this man to emergency medical care was a coordinated effort between the McKenzie Rose crew and the Coast Guard,” said Petty Officer First Class Mi-chael Halasz, Sector North Bend watchstander. “The teamwork greatly aided in the swift transport and treatment of the injured crew member.”
The current condition of the man is unknown.
A Coast Guard aircrew medically evacuates a man from a fishing vessel
operating 100 miles west of Coos Bay on Saturday, July 11. The aircrew hoisted the injured fisherman safely and transferred
him to emergency medical services personnel.
U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Ben Loy
Coast Guard medevacs fisherman
Bandon to ask voters for rate increasesAMY MOSS STRONGThe World
BANDON — The City of Bandon will ask voters in the Sept. 15 election to approve two rate increases — one for sewer and one for water.
Both the city’s water and sew-er rates fail to pay for the city’s costs of running those utilities, according to City Manager Dan Chandler. Between the two funds, this fiscal year’s shortage will be around $400,000.
City city’s overall 2020-21 fis-cal year budget is approximately $3.5 million less than last year’s budget.
Chandler said the ballot measures are asking voters to approve an increase of $8 per month for water and $7 per month for sewer. Residents living outside city limits would see an increase of $11 in their water rate and $11 in their sewer rate. This would be a permanent increase.
The base rate includes 2,000 gallons of water and covers 90% of customers most of the year.
There are no proposed changes to the city’s electric rates.
The city is prohibited from raising rates without voter ap-proval. The city is not asking for rate-setting authority, as it has in past failed ballot measures.
“The only place to make up the shortfall is from the city’s General Fund,” Chandler ex-plained. “... It’s really the only place to make it up.”
Chandler went on to explain that the city budget has a number of funds. The General Fund is the most flexible and comes from property taxes, utility taxes and lodging taxes. Other funds are for utilities, roads and other specific purposes. This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent temporary closure of local lodging establishments, the city’s transient occupancy tax receipts are down significantly. Those TOT receipts make up 16% of the General Fund.
“It is unlikely that Bandon will see anywhere near its normal tourist traffic this year,” Chandler said. “Lodging has been down around the state, even in juris-dictions where the hotels stayed open.”
Bandon also has the lowest permanent tax rate in the state for cities with populations of 750 or more.
The city’s police department is funded entirely out of the Gener-al Fund, and accounts for 40% of General Fund spending. The next largest category is Administra-
Enjoying the sun at Laverne Park
Amy Moss Strong, The World
A family enjoys the sun and water at Laverne County Park on Sunday, July 5. Laverne Park, a popular spot for camping and day use, consistes of 350 acres located on the North Fork of the Coquille River, approximately 15 miles north of Coquille on the Coquille-Fairview Road. The frequent 80 to 90 degree temperatures in the summer make swimming, picnicking, fishing, camping or playing a pleasure. The spacious day use area has three covered picnic shelters, softball fields, horseshoe pits, large barbecue grills and a developed swimming area. There is also a fort-like playground area. Hiking trails are nearby. The park is open year-round for RV or tent camping. Campsites are available for online reservations at www.co.coos.or.us. For group camping and to reserve day use shelters, contact the park’s reservation line, 541-396-7755.
3 different missions aim at MarsCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.
(AP) — Mars is about to be in-vaded by planet Earth — big time.
Three countries — the United States, China and the United Arab Emirates — are sending un-manned spacecraft to the red plan-et in quick succession beginning this week, in the most sweeping effort yet to seek signs of ancient microscopic life while scouting out the place for future astronauts.
The U.S., for its part, is dis-patching a six-wheeled rover the size of a car, named Perseverance, to collect rock samples that will be brought back to Earth for anal-ysis in about a decade.
“Right now, more than ever, that name is so important,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said as preparations went on amid the coronavirus outbreak, which will keep the launch guest list to a minimum.
Each spacecraft will travel more than 300 million miles (483 million kilometers) before reaching Mars next February. It takes six to seven months, at the minimum, for a spacecraft to loop out beyond Earth’s orbit and sync
up with Mars’ more distant orbit around the sun.
Scientists want to know what Mars was like billions of years ago when it had rivers, lakes and oceans that may have allowed simple, tiny organisms to flourish before the planet morphed into the barren, wintry desert world it is today.
“Trying to confirm that life ex-isted on another planet, it’s a tall order. It has a very high burden of proof,” said Perseverance’s project scientist, Ken Farley of Caltech in Pasadena, California.
The three nearly simultaneous launches are no coincidence: The timing is dictated by the opening of a one-month window in which Mars and Earth are in ideal align-ment on the same side of the sun, which minimizes travel time and fuel use. Such a window opens only once every 26 months.
Mars has long exerted a pow-erful hold on the imagination but has proved to be the graveyard for numerous missions. Space-craft have blown up, burned up or crash-landed, with the casualty rate over the decades exceeding
50%. China’s last attempt, in collaboration with Russia in 2011, ended in failure.
Only the U.S. has successfully put a spacecraft on Mars, doing it eight times, beginning with the twin Vikings in 1976. Two NASA landers are now operating there, InSight and Curiosity. Six other spacecraft are exploring the planet from orbit: three U.S., two Euro-pean and one from India.
The United Arab Emirates and China are looking to join the elite club.
The UAE spacecraft, named Amal, which is Arabic for Hope, is an orbiter scheduled to rocket away from Japan on Wednesday, local time, on what will be the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission. The spacecraft, built in partnership with the University of Colorado Boulder, will arrive at Mars in the year the UAE marks the 50th anniversary of its founding.
“The UAE wanted to send a very strong message to the Arab youth,” project manager Omran Sharaf said. “The message here is that if the UAE can reach Mars in
less than 50 years, then you can do much more. ... The nice thing about space, it sets the standards really high.”
Controlled from Dubai, the celestial weather station will strive for an exceptionally high Martian orbit of 13,670 miles by 27,340 miles (22,000 kilometers by 44,000 kilometers) to study the upper atmosphere and monitor climate change.
China will be up next, with the flight of a rover and an orbiter sometime around July 23; Chinese officials aren’t divulging much. The mission is named Tianwen, or Questions for Heaven.
NASA, meanwhile, is shooting for a launch on July 30 from Cape Canaveral.
Perseverance is set to touch down in an ancient river delta and lake known as Jezero Crater, not quite as big as Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. China’s much small-er rover will aim for an easier, flatter target.
To reach the surface, both spacecraft will have to plunge through Mars’ hazy red skies in
Please see Rates, Page A2Please see Mars, Page A2
eEditionEdition
The World
NORTH BEND — A Coast Guard helicopter crew diverted from a tran-sit flight Sunday to rescue a 58-year-old kayaker who became stranded on the rocky shore after his kayak capsized at the base of Humbug Mountain.
A good Samaritan wit-nessed the incident from shore and called 911 to report the distress, accord-ing to a news release from the U.S. Coast Guard 13th District PA Detachment Astoria.
A 911 dispatcher con-tacted Coast Guard Sector North Bend watchstanders at 12:35 p.m. and relayed that a male kayaker had overturned in the water near Humbug Mountain and was missing. The man was reported to be wearing a T-shirt, shorts and a life jacket.
An MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew from Coast Guard Sector North Bends’s air facility in Newport, that was already in the air for a routine transit flight, diverted to help search for the man. A 29-foot Response Boat-Small crew from the Coast Guard Search and Rescue Detachment Rogue River also responded to the dis-tress.
The Oregon State Police and Curry County Sheriff’s Office, who had responders on shore near where the kayak overturned, said they could see the kayak in the water but not the man. The Coast Guard Dolphin aircrew spotted the missing
man on a rocky shore at the base of Humbug Mountain’s ocean side at 1:30 p.m.
A rescue swimmer de-ployed from the helicopter to help hoist the man safe-ly from the rocks up into the helicopter. The kayaker was transported to Cape Blanco State Airport where his care was transferred to emergency medical services personnel. He was reported to be in good
condition.“Since drowning is the
leading cause of death for boaters, it was good news to hear the kayaker was wearing a life jacket,” said Petty Officer First Class Michael Halasz. “Even a strong swimmer can become exhausted or disoriented in the water, and wearing a life jacket can greatly aid in a person making it to shore and back home to their family.”
Advertise Your Business for $20 per week. 2 Days in The World, 1 Day in The Link and 5 Days a Week in The World Online! Call today to get your custom ad started
tion at 16%.“If water and sewer rates
are not raised to cover the cost of water and sewer operations, the General Fund will need to cover
those costs,” Chandler said. “Since public safety makes up the largest por-tion of the General Fund, the city would almost certainly have to make cuts in the police department, at least in the short term. This in turn would mean less coverage, and that certain
types of calls would not get an immediate police response.”
Chandler uses an exam-ple of having to pay for car repairs.
“If you have an old car, you don’t know what’s going to break this year, or what it’s going to cost, but
you know something will,” he said. “This is our besst effort to be able to balance the books
While there was a base rate to support new capital improvements a few years ago, Bandon’s last water rate increase for operations was in 2006, Chandler
said. Bandons last sewer rate increase was in 2012. The inflation rate has been 28% since 2006.
Over the past 13 years (water) and nine years (sewer), operation costs have increased with in-flation, particularly as the plant and pipes age.
“The city cannot sub-sidize water and sewer from the General Fund without impacting public safety, parks and other services,” Chandler said. “The proposed rates should put water and sewer into a break-even position for the next few years.”
RatesFrom A1
Kayaker rescued near Humbug Mountain
Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Cynthia Oldham
A MH-65 Dolphin helicopter aircrew from Coast Guard Sector North Bend’s air facility in Newport rescues a 58-year-old man who became stranded on the rocky shore at the base of Humbug Mountain after his kayak overturned in the water Sunday, July 12. After being hoisted into the helicopter, the man was transported to Cape Blanco State Airport where his care was transferred to emergency medical services personnel.
what has been dubbed “sev-en minutes of terror” — the most difficult and riskiest part of putting spacecraft on the planet.
Jezero Crater is full of boulders, cliffs, sand dunes and depressions, any one of which could end Perse-verance’s mission. Brand-new guidance and para-chute-triggering technology will help steer the craft away from hazards. Ground controllers will be helpless,
given the 10 minutes it takes radio transmissions to travel one-way between Earth and Mars.
Jezero Crater is worth the risks, according to scientists who chose it over 60 other potential sites.
Where there was water — and Jezero was apparent-ly flush with it 3.5 billion years ago — there may have been life, though it was probably only simple microbial life, existing perhaps in a slimy film at the bottom of the crater. But those microbes may have left telltale marks in the
sediment layers.Perseverance will hunt
for rocks containing such biological signatures, if they exist.
It will drill into the most promising rocks and store a half-kilogram (about 1 pound) of samples in doz-ens of titanium tubes that will eventually be fetched by another rover. To pre-vent Earth microbes from contaminating the samples, the tubes are super-steril-ized, guaranteed germ-free by Adam Stelzner, chief engineer for the mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena.“Yep, I’m staking my
reputation on it,” he said.While prowling the sur-
face, Perseverance as well as China’s rover will peek below, using radar to locate any underground pools of water that might exist. Per-severance will also release a spindly, 4-pound (1.8-ki-logram) helicopter that will be the first rotorcraft ever to fly on another planet.
Perseverance’s cameras will shoot color video of the rover’s descent, providing humanity’s first look at a parachute billowing open at
Mars, while microphones capture the sounds.
The rover will also attempt to produce oxygen from the carbon dioxide in the thin Martian atmo-sphere. Extracted oxygen could someday be used by astronauts on Mars for breathing as well as for making rocket propellant.
NASA wants to return astronauts to the moon by 2024 and send them from there to Mars in the 2030s. To that end, the space agency is sending samples of spacesuit material with Perseverance to see how
they stand up against the harsh Martian environ-ment.
The tab for Persever-ance’s mission, including the flight and a minimum two years of Mars opera-tions, is close to $3 billion. The UAE’s project costs $200 million, including the launch but not mission operations. China has not disclosed its costs. Europe and Russia dropped plans to send a life-seeking rover to Mars this summer after falling behind in testing and then getting slammed by COVID-19.
MarsFrom A1
COOS BAY POLICE LOGJuly 9
1:47 a.m., graffiti calls, 400 Madison St., out on location at Madison Elementary School and Sunset Middle School for graffiti at both locations.
1:57 a.m., warrant ser-vice at N. 10th St. and W. Commercial Ave., arrest-ed Janet Austin-Lincoln, 39, on a Coos Bay Police Department warrant chariing failure to appear on unlawful possession of methamphetamine. Austin-Lincoln was cited in lieu of custody.
7:27 a.m., subject previously trespassed and is back on the property at the Nancy Devereaux Center, 1200 Newmark Ave. Cortny Ann Lib-bett, 36, was cited in lieu of custody on charges
of criminal trespass 2, disorderly conduct 2 and interfering with an officer.
9:53 a.m., criminal trespassing at Burger King, 2021 Newmark Ave. Arrested Cortny Ann Libbett, 36, on the charge of criminal tres-pass 2. Libbett was cited in lieu of custody.
11:23 a.m., warrant service at the Choshi Bridge in Mingus Park, as the result of a pa-trol check, Shad Scott Ebinger, 49, was cited in lieu of custody on a Curry County warrant charging failure to appear on an original charge of criminal trespass 2.
1:18 p.m., shoplifter at Fred Meyer, 1020 S. First St. Arrested Sarah Martin, 25, on a charge
of theft 3. Martin was cited in lieu of custody.
1:20 p.m., theft and criminal trespassing re-ported at Whit Industries, 1475 Ocean Blvd.
7:59 p.m, theft of services reported at The Boat restaurant, 102 E. Hall Ave.
9:02 p.m., arrested David Breakfield, 35, on charges of DUII in the 3200 block of Tremont Ave. Breakfield was cited in lieu of custody.
9:39 p.m., illegal camping reported in the 1900 block of Thompson Road.
11:25 p.m., arrested Chaira C. Fall, 28, on a charge of driving while suspended in the area of Ocean Blvd. and High-land Ave. Fall was cited in lieu of custody.
Coos Bay woman arrested on charges of manslaughterThe World
LANE COUNTY — A former Coos Bay woman has been arrested and is being held in the Lane County Jail on charges of first-degree manslaughter following a Feb. 29 crash that resulted in the death of her daughter.
Nichole Ruth Sokol, 28, was arrested at 8:15 p.m. Saturday, July 11, on a Coos County warrant charging that she caused the death of her daughter, Madelyn Sokol and endan-gered the lives of two oth-ers while driving under the influence of intoxicants.
Sokol, who also lists a
Port Orford address in pre-vious court records, was indicted on June 30 by a Coos County grand jury of manslaughter 1 (a Class A felony), assault 2 (a Class B felony), and the Class A misdemeanor charges of assault 3, DUII, reckless driving and three counts of recklessly endangering another person.
Court documents allege that on Feb. 29, Nichole Sokol “did unlawfully and recklessly under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life, cause the death of Madelyn Sokol.”
Documents allege that
also on Feb. 29, Sokol caused serious injury to Jerry Sokol and Kelley Quinn by means of a dan-gerous weapon resulting from the operation of a motor vehicle.
“The defendant, on or about Feb. 29, 2020 in Coos County, Oregon, did unlawfully drive a vehicle upon premises open to the public while under the influence of a controlled substance ... and in a manner that endangered the safety of persons or property,” court documents state.
This story will be up-dated as more information becomes available.
eEditionEdition
DEAR ABBY: “Darlene” and I have been friends for 40 years. She moved to Arizona with me in the ‘80s from Michigan. Her boyfriend drove out and convinced her to return to Michigan and get married, which she did, but she’s always hated Michigan. She raised two girls. I was always called “Aunt” and was considered close.
Years passed and the marriage was struggling. I invited Darlene to come and visit to get away for a bit. She fell right back in love with Arizona. She expressed her unhappiness in the marriage, and I told her that if she ever needed a place to stay, she could live with me. She came out for another visit, found a job and decided to stay.
Her girls, now in their early 20s, were shocked and hurt by their mom’s deci-sion to divorce their father. One of them blames me, blocked me on Facebook and no longer talks to me. It has been three years, and when Darlene’s daugh-ter comes to visit, I have to stay away. Darlene refuses to talk to the daughter to smooth things out between us. I think she should do something to defend me. Am I wrong? -- WRONGLY BLAMED IN THE WEST
DEAR WRONGLY BLAMED: No, you are not wrong. You did Darlene a favor by welcoming her to Arizona, but you were not responsible for her divorce. It appears no good deed goes unpun-ished. She should not be letting you take the heat for the fact she left her husband.
Darlene should have explained to her daughter the marriage was an unhappy one for a long time, and regardless of where she chose to live afterward, it wouldn’t have been near their father. Darlene and her daughter owe you an apology. Because you are required to stay away when Daughter visits, perhaps it would be better if Darlene found an-other place to live rather than your home.
DEAR ABBY: During my sister’s pregnancy, she made very clear that the only people she wanted to transport her child would be her, her husband and our mother. I disagreed, but because of her pregnancy, I kept silent and abided
by her wish that I not purchase my own car seat in the event of an emergency. (I don’t have any children of my own.)
Now that the child is in day care, I found out through a third party that my sister has listed me as an emergency contact. The first question that came to mind was “Why?” but all I could do was acknowledge the information. Would it be out of line for me to ask her about this, and if she confirms it, to remove my info from her emergency contact? Or should I just hope that I never get called? I don’t want to be unprepared, but I know that emergencies do happen. -- TAKEN ABACK IN THE EAST
DEAR TAKEN ABACK: Emergen-cies DO happen. Lives can be changed in only a moment. Before listing you as an emergency contact, your sister should have asked for permission and discussed it with you. It would not be out of line to tell her you have just been informed about it and ask why she did it without telling you.
While you’re at it, ask if the child has any medical conditions you’re not aware of and EXACTLY what she wants done in an emergency situation. If you decide to follow through with this, you should know the name of her doctor, what -- if any -- medications the child is taking, and what hospital the ambulance should deliver the kid to if it becomes necessary, since you don’t have a child seat in your vehicle and don’t want to risk being cited should you be stopped on the way.
-------------------------------Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van
Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.
For an excellent guide to becoming a better conversationalist and a more sociable person, order “How to Be Popular.” Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $8 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby, Populari-ty Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)
DEAR ABBYBy Abigail Van Buren
Friend lets woman take the fall for her divorce
Largest single-day increase in COVID casesST. PETERSBURG, Fla.
(AP) — Florida shattered the national record Sunday for the largest single-day increase in positive coro-navirus cases in any state since the beginning of the pandemic, adding more than 15,000 cases as its daily average death toll continued to also rise.
According to state Department of Health statistics, 15,299 people tested positive, for a total of 269,811 cases, and 45 deaths were recorded.
California had the previ-ous record of daily positive cases — 11,694, set on Wednesday. New York had 11,571 on April 15.
The numbers come at the end of a grim, record-break-ing week as Florida reported 514 fatalities — an average of 73 per day. Three weeks ago, the state was averaging 30 deaths per day. Since the pandemic
began in March, 4,346 peo-ple have died in Florida of COVID-19, the state says.
Testing has doubled over the last month, going from about 25,000 tests per day to almost 50,000, but the percentage of people testing positive has risen even more dramatically. A month ago, fewer than 5% of tests came up positive on a daily average. Over the past week, the daily average exceeded 19%.
About 10.7% of Satur-day’s 143,000 tests came up positive, with an average age of 38. “I still think we need to increase our testing a little bit more,” said University of Florida epidemiologist Dr. Cindy Prins, adding that the state and local health depart-ments should ramp up their contact tracing.
Prins said that she’s still concerned about large crowds, gyms and some
restaurants as being places of mass transmission. Reports of illegal clubs and raves in South Florida is also a worry, she said.
“I really do think we could control this, and it’s the human element that is so critical. It should be an effort of our country. We should be pulling together when we’re in a crisis, and we’re definitely not doing it,” she said. “I know people want to live their lives. There have been a lot of other times, people have made those sacrifices in order to benefit our society. It’s almost like a war effort. That’s what we need right now.”
Terry Shaw, Adven-tHealth’s president and CEO, said Sunday on CBS’ Face the Nation that the peak of COVID-19 hospi-talizations in Florida will be “sometime in front of us in July.”
While on the program, he said that the health system, which has hospitals in nine states including 30 in Florida, has adequate PPE, a stockpile of ventilators and a clinical team that’s learned how to better treat the disease.
“I give you an example. Our length of stay in our ICU for COVID patients has dropped in half. The number of people coming in to our hospital with COVID that need a ventilator, we’ve also been able to cut that in half. And because of those things, our death rate has also been cut in half” since the beginning of the pandemic,” he said
The health system’s ICU capacities in Florida are currently running at about 85% to 90%. He said the system could turn some “progressive care units” into ICU units if needed.
Hospitals in several
counties have stopped doing elective surgeries. HCA West Florida have ceased inpatient elective procedures at hospitals in Hillsborough, Pinellas and six other nearby counties, said an HCA spokeswoman on Sunday. Florida ceased elective surgeries statewide from March until early May in order to free up beds, and to reserve personal protec-tive equipment for health care workers caring for COVID-19 patients.
Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach are the top three counties for hos-pitalizations, with 3,232 people hospitalized — 42 percent of the 7,542 people in hospitals statewide for coronavirus.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez told CNN on Sunday that his county’s hospitals will soon reach capacity, but he said more beds can be added,
including for intensive care. “We still have capacity,
but it does cause me a lot of concern,” he said.
Throughout May and into June, the state reopened much of its economy with some restrictions — and the number of positive cases began rising, but it wasn’t until the last week that the daily death total began rising, too.
Because of the increase in cases and the positivity rate, doctors have predict-ed a rise in deaths, saying the mortality rate usually increases two to four weeks later as some of those in-fected get sicker and even-tually die. Health experts are concerned that people are gathering in crowds, and have expressed concern that the Republican National Convention’s nomination party for President Donald Trump will be held in Jack-sonville in August.
Federal officers use tear gas used on protestors
PORTLAND (AP) — Federal law enforcement officers used tear gas and crowd-control munitions on people protesting near Portland’s federal court-house during a protest that started Saturday night, Portland police said.
Oregon Public Broad-casting reports that friends and family of a demonstra-tor say a 26-year-old man was struck in the head and injured by an impact muni-tion fired by authorities.
Desiree LaBella, the mother of Donavan LaBel-la, said he suffered facial and skull fractures. He came out of surgery early Sunday morning and was responding to doctors.
“He was awake enough to give the OK to talk to me,” she told OPB. “He’s had some facial reconstruc-tion surgery. They’re just watching him right now.”
Video posted to social media showed the man apparently being struck in the head after holding a speaker aloft.
Federal officers at the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse asked for help from city police at about 2 a.m. Sunday after pro-testers resisted arrest and threw bottles, the Portland Police Bureau said. An-nouncements were made for protesters to leave the area, and the crowd dis-
persed around 3:20 a.m., police said.
Fires were started in trash cans and dumpsters, but no buildings were threatened, police said. One person was arrested on suspicion of unlawfully pointing a laser.
In a statement, Gov. Kate Brown called for federal officials to scale back their response to the protests, which have roiled Oregon’s largest city for six weeks following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“The events of last night at the federal courthouse were the tragic and avoid-able result of President Donald Trump, for weeks, continuing to push for force and violence in re-sponse to protests,” Brown said.
Portland Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty criticized the federal officers.
“This reckless and ag-gressive behavior has now put someone in the hospi-tal,” Hardesty said. “This protester is still fighting for their life and I want to be clear: this should never have happened. If this continues a life will be taken and it won’t matter whether a federal officer or Portland Police officer did it -– it won’t bring that person back.”
Last week Portland’s
Deputy Police Chief, Chris Davis, said an “agitator corps” of violent protest-ers are responsible for vandalism and chaos in the city. Davis made a distinc-tion between Black Lives Matter protesters, whom he said were not violent, and a smaller group of people he repeatedly called “agita-tors.”
On Friday, one person was taken into custody af-ter hitting a federal officer in the head and shoulder with a hammer during a protest at the nearby Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Fed-eral Building. No details were released about the officer’s injuries. Several other people accused of pointing lasers into the eyes of federal officers were also taken into cus-tody.
Federal officers also used tear gas during that protest.
The Department of Homeland Security has de-ployed officers in tactical gear from around the coun-try, and from more than a half-dozen federal law enforcement agencies and departments, to Portland as part of a surge aimed at what a senior official said were people taking ad-vantage of demonstrations over the police killing of George Floyd to engage in violence and vandalism.
Trump criticizes Texas border wall built by his supporters
HOUSTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday criticized a private-ly built border wall in South Texas that’s showing signs of erosion months after go-ing up, saying it was “only done to make me look bad,” even though the wall was built after a months-long campaign by his supporters.
The group that raised money online for the wall promoted itself as sup-porting Trump during a government shutdown that started in December 2018 because Congress wouldn’t fund Trump’s demands for a border wall. Called “We Build the Wall,” the group has raised more than $25 million promoting itself as supporting the president.
Former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon joined the group’s board and Trump ally Kris Ko-bach became its general counsel. Kobach is now seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Kansas.
The company that built the private section in Jan-uary, North Dakota-based Fisher Industries, has since won a $1.3 billion border wall contract from the fed-eral government, the largest
award to date. The section in question is
a roughly 3-mile (5-kilome-ter) fence of steel posts just 35 feet (10 meters) from the Rio Grande, the river that forms the U.S.-Mexi-co border in Texas. That’s much closer to the river than the government ordi-narily builds border barriers in South Texas because of concerns about erosion and flooding that could violate U.S. treaty obligations with Mexico.
Trump tweeted Sunday in response to a ProPubli-ca-Texas Tribune report that the riverbank has started to erode. A federal judge on Wednesday ordered attor-neys for Fisher Industries and opponents of the pri-vate wall to set a schedule for experts to visit the site and inspect any erosion.
“I disagreed with doing this very small (tiny) sec-tion of wall, in a tricky area, by a private group which raised money by ads,” Trump wrote. “It was only done to make me look bad, and perhsps it now doesn’t even work. Should have been built like rest of Wall, 500 plus miles.”
Tommy Fisher, CEO of Fisher Industries, said
Sunday that he thought the president “just got some misinformation on this stuff” and that he had “com-plete respect” for Trump.
Fisher acknowledged that there had been some erosion on the land in front of the fencing caused by rain and the natural flow of the river. He said his crews planned to install more organic material to fill the gaps or insert rock if erosion continues, but that other parts of the wall remained untouched.
“The wall will stand for 150 years, you mark my words,” Fisher said.
Experts and people who live and work near the property have warned that building so close to the river would cause flooding or a break in the fence. And a binational commission earlier this year found that the project violates U.S. treaty obligations and called on Fisher to make changes.
Marianna Trevino Wright, executive director of the nonprofit National Butterfly Center, has long opposed the project and warned it could damage the center, which is adjacent to where the private wall was being built.
Weekend update: 741 new COVID-19 cases, 2 new deaths
PORTLAND — The Oregon Health Authority reported 741 new con-firmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 over the weekend, bringing the state total to 12,170.
There have been 10 new cases reported in Coos County since last Monday, bringing the Coos County total number of cases to 53.
The OHA reported 409 new cases statewide on Saturday and 332 new cases on Sunday.
In addition, two more lives were lost to COVID-19 on Sunday, raising the state’s death toll to 234, according to OHA. There were no COVID-19 deaths on Saturday.
The new cases Sunday are in the following coun-ties: Baker (1), Benton (2), Clackamas (33), Deschutes (16), Douglas (4), Hood
River (1), Jackson (2), Jefferson (5), Klamath (2), Lane (10), Linn (8), Malheur (71), Marion (28), Morrow (7), Multnomah (70), Polk (4), Sherman (1), Umatilla (27), Was-co (1), Washington (35), Yamhill (4).
The new cases report-ed Saturday are in Baker (2), Benton (6), Clacka-mas (29), Columbia (1), Coos (2), Deschutes (15), Douglas (2), Hood River (2), Jackson (5), Jefferson (4), Josephine (3), Klamath (4), Lane (13), Lincoln (1), Linn (2), Malheur (16), Marion (61), Morrow (7), Multnomah (99), Polk (2), Sherman (1), Umatilla (50), Union (1),Wallowa (1), Wasco (10), Washing-ton (55), Yamhill (15).
Oregon’s 233rd COVID-19 death is an 86-year-old woman in Malheur County who
tested positive on June 29. The date and location of death are still being con-firmed. She had underlying conditions.
Oregon’s 234th COVID-19 death is a 93-year-old woman in Washington County who died on July 7 and tested positive post-mortem on July 11. Additional details are still being confirmed.
Stay informed about COVID-19:
Oregon response: The Oregon Health Authori-ty and Oregon Office of Emergency Management lead the state response.
United States response: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention leads the U.S. response.
Global response: The World Health Organi-zation guides the global response.
Coos Bay Speedway cancels Tuesday eventThe World
Coos Bay Speedway had to cancel its touring show sched-uled for Tuesday, July 14, after the 360 Winged Sprint Cars canceled Speedweek due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Typically, the series races at several tracks each year during Speedweek.
That means no mid-week race this week, though the speedway will host one of its biggest drag racing events with Wally Week-end July 17-19.
Wally awards will be given Sunday in all divisions to the weekend’s winners.
The weekend starts with a test and tune and Friday night street drags.
The main racing is Saturday and Sunday, with the bracket winners Saturday guaranteed a chance to race for a Wally on Sunday.
Saturday’s action also will conclude with a Member Track Madness Gambler event.
The Saturday bracket winners race the Sunday winners for the Wally awards at the end of the day Sunday.
On Friday, the gates open at 6 p.m., with racing and test and tune from 7 to 11. The entry fee
for drivers and passengers is $20 while spectators pay $5. Kids 6 and under get in free, as with near-ly every event at the speedway.
On both Saturday and Sunday the gates open at 8 a.m., with time trials at 11 and bracket racing starting at 1. The entry fee for drivers is $50 and the specta-tor fee is $12.
This past weekend, the oval dirt track was busy with every division filled with drivers from the South Coast and other parts of Oregon.
Nearly 90 cars were entered across all divisions.
Only two of the main events
were won by South Coast driv-ers. Preston Luckman won the America’s Mattress Super Late Models, beating Jason Johnson of Gresham and 10 other drivers.
Griff Smith again won the Junior Stingers, with fellow Ban-don driver Alex Butler second and Lane Hitner of Myrtle Point third. Alexus Baker of Coquille won the B feature and was fourth in the main event.
Aaron Bloom of Cottage Grove won the Sportsman Late Models ahead of Ryan Emry of Corvallis and Scott McCombs of Albany.
Dokota Goddard of Corvallis
won the Street Stocks, a field that included 17 drivers. Phil Lov-vorn of Corvallis was second.
Scott Beaudoin of Portland won the Mini Outlaws, with Mat-thew Emry of Corvallis second.
Isaac Stere of Cottage Grove was the winner for Hornets, fol-lowed by Bart Pulse of Roseburg and Mike Bales of Florence.
Doug Coffman of Roseburg won the IMCA Sportmod divi-sion with Matt Sanders of Brook-ings second and Dustin Comer of Springfield third.
Results will be included in Saturday’s print edition of The World.
Rookie races to NASCAR victory
Redskins nickname to change
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Washington NFL franchise an-nounced Monday that it will drop the “Redskins” name and Indian head logo immediately, bowing to decades of criticism that they are offensive to Native Americans.
A new name must still be selected for one of the oldest and most storied teams in the Nation-al Football League, and it was unclear how soon that will hap-pen. But for now, arguably the most polarizing name in North American professional sports is gone at a time of reckoning over racial injustice, iconography and racism in the U.S.
The move came less than two weeks after owner Dan Snyder, a boyhood fan of the team who once declared he would never get rid of the name, launched a “thor-ough review” amid pressure from sponsors. FedEx, Nike, Pepsi and Bank of America all lined up against the name, which was giv-en to the franchise in 1933 when the team was still based in Boston.
The team said it is “retiring” the name and logo and that Snyder and coach Ron Rivera are working closely to develop a new name and design.
Native American advocates and experts have long criticized the name they call a “dictio-nary-defined racial slur.” Over a dozen Native leaders and organi-zations wrote to NFL Commis-sioner Roger Goodell last week demanding an immediate end to Washington’s use of the name. Goodell, who has fielded ques-tions on the topic for years, said he supported the review.
Protests against the name predate Snyder buying the team in 1999, and, until now, he had shown no willingness to consid-er a change. Strong words from sponsors — including a company run by a minority stakeholder of the team — changed the equation.
FedEx earlier this month became the first sponsor to announce it had asked the organization to change the name, particularly important because CEO Frederick Smith owns part of the team. FedEx also paid $205 million for the long-term naming rights to the team’s stadium in Landover, Maryland.
The lease at FedEx Field expires in 2027, and dropping the name keeps open various possi-bilities in Maryland, Virginia and Washington for the team’s new stadium and headquarters. Dis-trict of Columbia mayor Muriel Bowser has said the name was an “obstacle” to Snyder building on the old RFK Stadium site, which is believed to be his preference.
Washington recently started cutting ties with racist found-er George Preston Marshall, removing his name from the Ring of Fame and renaming the lower bowl at FedEx Field for the team’s first Black player, late Hall of Famer Bobby Mitchell. Marshall, who renamed the Boston Braves the Redskins in 1933 and moved it to D.C. four years later, was a segregationist and the last NFL owner to integrate their team.
SPARTA, Ky. (AP) — Cole Custer saw an opening and, with help from a friend, squeezed through for the most fulfilling moment of his young racing career.
Custer became the first rookie regular to win in the NASCAR Cup Series in nearly four years, surging to the lead in a four-wide, final-lap scramble Sunday at Kentucky Speedway.
Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. were dueling side by side for the lead on the Lap 266 final restart when Custer — with a push from Matt DiBenedet-to on the outside — made his move from sixth in the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford. As the leaders bunched in Turn 1, Custer slid ahead and outlasted Truex’s Toyota.
“I knew I just had to get to the top,” said Custer, who led twice for five laps — the first of his young career. “The top rolled pretty good and once I got past and I was like in third I was like, ‘I’ve just got to take a shot and do whatever I can here.’
“And it ended up the 4 (Har-vick) and the 19 (Truex) got together a little bit and I was able to take advantage of it.”
Making his 20th series start, the 22-year-old Custer celebrat-ed with a frontstretch burnout as his crew happily ran to greet him.
He’s the first rookie to win a non-rain-shortened race since Juan Pablo Montoya in 2007. Brad Keselowski won a race in 2009, Trevor Bayne in 2011 and Justin Haley in 2019 while not racing full seasons. All three would have been classified as rookies had they been competing a full year. Chris Buescher won a rain-shortened race in August 2016 while competing for rookie of the year.
Custer also won at Kentucky last July in the Xfinity Series.
Matt Kenseth’s Turn 4 spin forced the final caution and cre-ated the opportunity for Custer’s victory.
DiBenedetto was third, and Harvick fourth — both in Fords. Kurt Busch, the winner last year, was fifth.
“I got a good restart and was curious what he was going to do,” DiBenedetto said about helping Custer. “When he pulled to the top, I was like, ‘Yeah, that was a good move right there.’ And I just decided to shove him since I couldn’t go around to the outside.
“It helped him to get to the win and I joked with him that he owes me $100. But he did a great job.”
The final hundred laps cre-ated plenty of lead changes but nothing like the final 20 where Harvick, Truex, Blaney all had their shots.
Please see NASCAR, Page B2
IROC racing series will return in 2021CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP)
— Remember the old IROC Series, where the best drivers from various disciplines raced each other in equally prepared cars? It ran for 30 seasons be-fore Tony Stewart won its final championship in 2006 and the series quietly went away.
Now Stewart, along with fellow NASCAR Hall of Fam-er Ray Evernaham, has teamed with a group of heavyweights to bring an all-star circuit back in 2021. The Superstar Racing Experience plans a six-race, short-track series to air in prime time on CBS in a Satur-day night summer spectacular.
SRX envisions fields of 12 drivers competing on famed short tracks across the country in cars prepared by Evernham, the architect of Jeff Gordon’s early career and a noted car designer. Stewart plans to be one of the participants and already has a wish list of drivers he’ll pursue, and he’ll likely offer up Eldora Speedway, his short track in Ohio, as one of the venues.
The idea was driven by Evernham, eager to see a series that featured cars that don’t rely on aerodynamics and reward mechanical grip and driver skill. The three-time championship winning crew chief and former team owner was able to talk the vision up to a group of supporters that includes former NASCAR executive George Pyne, who also was President of IMG Sports before founding Bruin Sports Capital, as well as Sandy Montag, chairman of talent representation firm The Montag Group.
Stewart signed on and the vision was sold to CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus.
It’s an invigorating venture for both Evernham and Stew-art, who have essentially been
given a blank sheet of paper to create the type of racing they think will entice fans.
As Evernham told The As-sociated Press, he’s looking to build a full-body car that relies on existing safety advances, fits within a budget and “is a car that the racing public can relate to, as well.” He’s had talks with at least one tire maker and is seeking manufac-turer support.
“We envision a hybrid of all different series — we don’t see it looking like a crazy dunebuggyish type car,” Evernham told the AP. “To me, it’s got to be a really cool look-ing car that also puts it back in the drivers hands, mechan-ically-wise and allows it to be more affected by the pedals.”
Evernham doesn’t expect speeds to exceed 150 mph on half-mile tracks, and he listed Stafford Motor Speedway in Connecticut, Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, New Smyrna Speedway in Florida, Eldora, Knoxville Raceway in Iowa and Terre Haute Action Track in Indiana as possible venues. Evernham would also like a road course and a modi-fied oval on the schedule.
“You know, drivers retiring and being out of the sport so young, we think there are guys who still want to race, still can race, but just don’t want to run 200 mph,” Evernham said.
Evernham’s dream list includes Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Jimmie Johnson, Gor-don, Juan Pablo Montoya, Paul Tracy and short track racers and up-and-comers who have proven their skills but can’t get a break.
Stewart will be the main recruiter and plans to begin selling the series soon. He wants to lock in drivers before they commit to other things
next summer, as well as work through conflicts that would prohibit their participation. Without a manufacturer cur-rently on board, SRX hopes to avoid branding loyalties that would eliminate a driver from racing in the series.
NHRABilly Torrence won in the
NHRA Mello Yello Drag Rac-ing Series return, beating Doug Kalitta in the Top Fuel final Sunday in the NHRA Nation-als at Lucas Oil Raceway.
The drivers raced in front of limited fans in the first of two straight events at the track in the NHRA’s return from a more than four-month break because of the coronavirus pandemic. The NHRA Sum-mernationals are next week.
Matt Hagan won in Funny Car, Jason Line in Pro Stock and Ryan Oehler in Pro Stock Motorcycle.
Hagan raced to his 34th vic-tory, beating Tommy Johnson Jr. with a 4.328 at 215.00 in a Dodge Charger.
Line drove to his 51st win, running a 6.647 at 207.21 in a Chevrolet Camaro to edge Jeg Coughlin.
Oehler won for the first time, topping Mike Smith with a 6.974 at 194.16 on an EBR.
TRUCKSSheldon Creed won the
NASCAR Trucks Series race Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway when rain washed out the final stage.
The 22-year-old won for the first time in 37 series starts, taking the second stage just before the thunderstorm hit the track.
Ben Rhodes, the race winner two two years ago, 2015 win-ner Matt Crafton and Johnny Sauter were next in Fords.
Dixon’s IndyCar win streak ends in WisconsinELKHART LAKE, Wis.
(AP) — Scott Dixon’s win streak finally ended. Chip Ganassi Rac-ing just kept rolling along.
Felix Rosenqvist overtook Pato O’Ward on the next-to-last lap and earned his first career win Sunday in the second half of an IndyCar doubleheader at Road America. Rosenqvist became only the second driver to win an IndyCar event this year after Dixon posted three straight victories to start the season.
Rosenqvist and Dixon, who finished 12th, are Chip Ganassi Racing teammates.
The race turned into a duel between Rosenqvist and O’Ward, who were both chasing their first career victories. O’Ward pulled ahead on the 43rd of 55 laps, but his margin steadily decreased be-fore Rosenqvist finally passed him.
“You’re never really too con-fident,’’ Rosenqvist said. “But when I saw the gap with Pato decrease the last four or five laps, I only had one thing on my mind and my crew also had only one thing on my mind, and that was winning the race.”
This weekend’s doubleheader marked the first time spectators
were allowed during this pan-demic-delayed season. IndyCar organizers are allowing fans on a case-by-case basis, relying on local and state health guidelines wherever the races are held.
Those fans got to see quite a finish.
Rosenqvist went to O’Ward’s left and passed him on Turn 7 of the 14-turn road course that is just over 4 miles long. Rosen-qvist took over from there and won by 2.8699 seconds.
O’Ward, who had the pole po-sition for the first time in his ca-reer, said he was struggling with his rear tires down the stretch. O’Ward also was affected by traffic involving lapped drivers, including Conor Daly. Those two drivers had made contact Saturday in a move that wrecked Daly’s Chevy and knocked him out of that race.
“We were just unlucky at the end,” said the 21-year-old O’Ward, who had his first career podium finish. “We couldn’t make it happen. But I’m proud of myself. I gave it absolutely everything I had.”
Rosenqvist became the first Swede to win an IndyCar race
since Kenny Brack’s 2002 victory at Mexico City. Rosenqvist had two second-place finishes last year.
Alexander Rossi, who won at Road America last year, finished third for the best result of what has been a disappointing season for the Andretti Autosport driver.
Rosenqvist’s victory at least temporarily ended Dixon’s season-long dominance. Dixon was the first driver to win three straight IndyCar events since Simon Pagenaud in 2016.
Dixon started the year with victories at Texas and Indianap-olis before winning Saturday at Road America.
But he was never much of a factor Sunday.
“I guess you can’t win them all, but we sure tried to with the start to the season we’ve had,” Dixon said.
In Saturday’s race, he beat Will Power by 2.5386 seconds. They were followed, in order, by Alex Palou, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Colton Herta.
The other drivers to win at least three straight races to begin a sea-son are A.J. Foyt (seven in 1964), Sebastien Bourdais (four in 2006) and Al Unser Sr. (three in 1967).
LOW: 54°Shown is tomorrow’s weather. Temperatures are tonight’s lows and tomorrow’s highs.
Shown are tomorrow’s noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
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FOUR-DAY FORECAST FOR NORTH BEND
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Morikawa beats Thomas in playoffDUBLIN, Ohio (AP) — Collin
Morikawa figured his tournament was over if he didn’t make a 5-foot par putt on the 15th hole at Muirfield Village.
He couldn’t have imagined all the fun was just starting.
Still three shots behind Justin Thomas with three holes to play, Morikawa made only one birdie and it was enough for a 6-under 66 to force a playoff.
The three times he played the 18th hole, he twice could only watch as Thomas had 10-foot putts for the win.
The other time, Morikawa had to make a 25-foot putt to keep playing.
The only dull moment Sunday at the Workday Charity Open was the end, when Morikawa took two putts for par from just inside 10 feet to beat Thomas on the third playoff hole and win for the second time in his career.
“Amazing,” Morikawa said when asked how he would sum up the day to someone who only saw the result.
That covered a lot of territory.Morikawa never looked like the
winner until it was over.Thomas had 10 straight one-putt
greens, the last one a 25-foot eagle putt on the par-5 15th for the three-shot lead with three holes to play. And while he made two bogeys for a 69 that allowed for a playoff, he had reason to think it was over when he made a 50-foot birdie putt from the
back of the 18th green.“I never assumed it was over,”
Thomas said. “Percentages would say that it heavily is close to being that way. ... I just tried to keep my head down and think he’s going to make it, but hoping he’s not, selfish-ly, but he did.”
Thomas missed a 10-footer for par in regulation, and a putt close to that same line for birdie on the second extra hole. He was done in by a tee shot on No. 10 that wound up in the rough behind a tree, forcing him to pitch out 102 yards short of the green. He missed his 15-foot par putt, leading to Morikawa’s two-putt par and the win.
It was a wild ride for Thomas, too. He started with a two-shot lead, trailed by three after just five holes, made four straight birdies and was ahead by three shots 10 holes later, and ultimately lost in a playoff.
“It’s completely unacceptable to give up a three-shot lead with three to go,” Thomas said. “I’m upset, I’m disappointed in myself. But at the end of the day it’s over with now, and I just need to take some time this af-ternoon and tonight to build on it and figure out what I can do better going into next week.”
They return in four days for the Memorial on a Muirfield Village course expected to be as fast as a U.S. Open.
This was a big win for the 23-year-old Morikawa, who in his 13 months
since graduating from Cal already has established a reputation for a high level of consistency. His only victory was at an opposite-field event last summer. He beat a field at the Workday Charity Open that featured five of the top 10 in the world.
“This is a huge kind of stepping stone,” said Morikawa, who goes to No. 13 in the world, one spot ahead of Tiger Woods. “We got No. 1 out of the way. We got No. 2. Let the gates just open and let’s keep going.”
It was his second playoff since the PGA Tour returned June 11 from the COVID-19 pandemic. Morikawa lost on the first extra hole at Colonial by missing a 3-foot putt. He had a 2-foot putt in regulation on Sunday that caught the left edge of the cup and swirled in. “My heartbeat must have skipped a billion times,” he said.
The only thing missing was a handshake from Jack Nicklaus. He’ll be there next week for the Memorial, as the PGA Tour stays at Muirfield Village.
Viktor Hovland of Norway had a 71 and finished alone in third. He was in the final group of three young stars, all of whom had the lead at some point during the final round.
Hovland’s hopes ended with two shots — finding a bunker from the 10th fairway for bogey, and a driver on the reachable 14 that only missed by about 5 feet, enough to slowly tumble down the bank and into the water.
Former tennis player wins celebrity golf title
STATELINE, Nev. (AP) — U.S. Davis Cup captain Mardy Fish won the American Century Championship on Sunday, holding off former Buffalo defensive tackle Kyle Williams a day after a record-setting round.
The 38-year-old former tennis player jumped into Lake Tahoe in celebration.
“I’ve wanted to play well here for a long time,” said Fish, a six-time winner on the ATP Tour.. “It just doesn’t suit my eye very well, so I haven’t put it all together. And thankfully I put it all together yesterday because it wasn’t today and it wasn’t Friday.”
The celebrity tournament was played without fans at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course because of the coronavirus pandemic. The $600,000 purse and additional money will be donated to organizations supporting COVID-19 relief efforts, the Equal Jus-tice Initiative and Lake Tahoe regional non-profits.
Fish birdied the par-5 16th and 18th holes for a 21-point day and 76-point total — nine better than Williams — under the modified Stableford scoring system.
On Saturday, Fish birdied the final five holes for a course-record 9-under 63 and event-record 37-point round. The left-hander won after finishing in the top five five times in his previous six starts.
The nearly 300-pound Williams was trying to become the first lineman to win the event. He had 15 points in the final round.
“I’m happy for Mardy,” Williams said. “I don’t like that he did it at my expense, but he was the best player this week.”
Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz was third with 58 points after a 21-point round.
Hamilton wins Formula One’s Styrian Grand PrixEven seven-time Cup
champion Jimmie Johnson — back behind the wheel after missing last week’s race in Indianapolis follow-ing a positive coronavirus test — was running in the top three late with a chance to win. A spin into the front stretch grass on a lap 255 restart ended his quest and left his No. 48 Chevy 18th in his final Kentucky start.
Johnson’s day wasn’t a complete bust. The track named one of its entrances Jimmie Johnson Boule-vard, and a banner over the infield tunnel entrance read, “Thank You, 48.”
The race’s intrigue wasn’t shocking the concerns centered around
Kentucky’s first day race since Kenseth won a rain-postponed event in 2013. While it favored pre-vious winners — including five Cup champions who combined for nine wins — the opportunity was there.
Aric Almirola made his case at the start, pushing pole-sitter Kyle Busch for-ward from the outside and chasing in the early laps before taking over nine laps later and threatening to run away from it. Almirola led 128 of the first 137 laps — nearly 40 more than he has led all season.
Blaney and DiBenedetto took their turns in front be-fore Keselowski inherited it on pit road during green-flag pit cycles. That didn’t last long as Truex took over on 181 in hopes of his third Kentucky win.
SPIELBERG, Austria (AP) — Lewis Hamilton won the Styrian Grand Prix from pole position on Sunday to clinch an 85th career win and move within six of Michael Schumacher’s Formula One record.
Most of Schumach-er’s wins were during a dominant spell with Ferrari, but his old team is struggling badly. For the second time in the past four races, Charles Le-clerc and Sebastian Vettel crashed into each other and went out.
When Hamilton stood on the podium he raised a clenched right fist.
Hamilton’s record-ex-tending 89th career pole on
a rain-drenched track was one of his best in extreme conditions, but during the race he was hardly challenged as he finished a sizeable 13.7 seconds ahead of Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas and 33.7 ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Because of social dis-tancing amid the coronavi-rus pandemic, the drivers on the podium had their trophies delivered by a remote controlled device.
“What a weird year but (it’s) great to be back driving with this kind of performance. The team did a fantastic job, it was just for me to bring it home,” said Hamilton, who fin-ished fourth last week after
a time penalty. “Difficult weekend last weekend but this was a great step forward.”
Bottas won last week-end’s season-opening Austrian GP on the same Red Bull Ring track in Spielberg at the foot of the Styrian mountains — hence the name change.
Despite the sizeable margin of Hamilton’s win, Bottas maintains he can challenge for the F1 title. He leads in points 43-37.
“I have no reason to doubt any of my ability or skills. I know what I’m capable of,” the Finnish driver said. “I really feel some improvements in my driving since last year that’s why I’m confident
it will be a good battle for the championship this year.”
Like last Sunday, drivers again wore black T-shirts with “End Racism” and most took the knee a few moments before the nation-al anthem.
Red Bull driver Alex-ander Albon did well to fend off persistent attacks from Racing Point’s Sergio Perez and finished fourth ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and Perez, who dropped to sixth after touching wheels with Al-bon late on.
McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr. started from third and finished ninth, but collect-ed a bonus point for the fastest lap.
