eEditionEdition PATCHY DRIZZLE 68 • 55 | TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2020 | theworldlink.com
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Zack Demars, The World
Front Street in front of the Coos Bay Village construction project is closed this week as crews improve the road and prepare to install an intersection with access to U.S. Highway 101. One of the development’s two buildings has a nearly completed facade, which will house locations of Starbucks, Face Rock Creamery and Charter Communica- tions as soon as November of this year. The stretch of the street in front of the Coos Bay Village is scheduled to be closed all week.
Coos Bay Village Front Street construction
‘Rest of state’ less likely to take precautions ZACK DEMARS The World
SOUTH COAST — Orego- nians living outside of the Port- land metro and Willamette Valley areas are less likely to take precautions against the transmis- sion of COVID-19, a new state report shows.
The report, commissioned by the state and released last week, surveyed about a thousand Ore- gonians on their fears about the coronavirus and the precautions they’re taking. Statewide, the report showed that most people in Oregon are taking safety mea- sures — but that some groups are still taking risks with their health.
Eric Gleason, the assistant director of Coos Health &
Wellness, said in a press briefing Monday that the statewide num- bers painted a rosier picture of the county’s situation than what he’s seen.
“I don’t think that that’s representative of our communi- ty, for the most part,” Gleason said. “While I think that a good number in our community are taking precautions, I think that it’s a pretty divisive topic and we still have yet to make headway with, still, a large number of our population.”
Of particular concern for Gleason were figures about wearing face coverings, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said slow the spread of the virus.
“I don’t think it matched
the numbers in those reports,” Gleason said of Coos County’s mask-wearing tendencies.
The state survey estimated that around 85% of people wear masks when in public indoors, and around 60% do the same outdoors. But Gleason says that’s not necessarily true in Coos County.
“If you just go somewhere, you could probably start taking some polls and you’re probably about 50-50,” Gleason said. “I don’t think it matches the num- bers in that report.”
Other indicators in the report suggested that South Coast residents are taking the virus less seriously than other parts of the state.
In the “rest of (the) state,”
which is how the survey de- fines areas outside the Portland tri-county area and the Willa- mette Valley region, a quarter of people have been to 11 or more social gatherings in the last two weeks, the survey shows. Statewide, only 16% of residents report attending that many gath- erings, and over half reported attending three or fewer.
Attending social gatherings outside the home increases the risk of COVID-19 transmission, according to the CDC.
The report also found that peo- ple in the “rest of state” region are less concerned about the state’s situation, less worried about get- ting sick with the virus and less in- clined to get a COVID-19 vaccine when one becomes available.
The study had a number of other findings, including that half of respondents statewide have traveled more than an hour away in the last two weeks, and that over 40% have eaten at a restau- rant in that time frame.
People’s primary motivation for wearing protective masks is to protect family, friends and the community, according to the study, and Gleason noted that protecting the community is an important reason to take precautions.
“We cannot diminish its sever- ity because it hasn’t affected you personally. And I think that we see that a lot,” Gleason said. “I think we still need to be mindful, we still have to take the precautions that we’ve been pushing since February.”
Trump turns focus to Harris SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)
— Grasping for a comeback, President Donald Trump and his Republican allies are intensifying their focus not on Democratic nominee Joe Biden, but on his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris — arguing without evidence that it’s Harris, the first Black woman on a major party ticket, who would really be in charge if Dem- ocrats win the White House.
The effort is laced with sexist and racist undertones, and one that is aimed at winning back Republicans and independents who are comfortable with Biden’s more moderate record, but may associate Harris with Democrats’ left flank, despite her own more centrist positions on some major issues.
During the past week, Trump told Sean Hannity of Fox News that Harris would assume the presidency within “three months” of Biden’s inauguration. During a conversation with Rush Lim- baugh, he warned that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would “re- place” Biden with Harris. And the president called her a “monster” during an interview with Maria Bartiromo of Fox Business.
Trump’s focus on Harris is building as he tries to regain an advantage against Biden, who is leading most national and battle- ground state polls three weeks before the election. Trump has long sowed doubt about Biden’s fitness for the job, but is especial- ly eager to shift attention after contracting the novel coronavirus and confronting his own health scare.
At his first campaign rally
since being hospitalized for the virus, Trump told a Florida crowd on Monday that Biden has “a lot of bad days coming.”
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump ally, is pushing the president to make Harris a campaign centerpiece.
“If voters understand the total- ity of her radicalism, they would conclude that she would be a very high-risk person to put in the White House,” Gingrich said.
He went on to call Biden “doc- ile” and Harris “aggressive.”
The sexism and racism associ- ated with such language, includ- ing Trump’s reference to Harris as a “monster,” are aimed at Trump’s most loyal supporters.
“It is really an effort to say to their base, ‘Look, we don’t want a Black woman to be president,’” said Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, a former chair of the Congres- sional Black Caucus. “’We don’t want this Black person to take over in case something happens to Joe Biden.’”
Fudge said efforts to brand Harris as radical don’t align with her record, particularly on law enforcement. Harris and Fudge are both former prosecutors.
Republicans “consistently talk about law and order to the only person in this race that has a law- and-order background,” Fudge said.
Still, there are some signs that Trump’s message is resonating with his base.
“I’m scared that if Harris gets in, it will be a Harris administra- tion ’cause old Joe’s got some is- sues,” said Bob Stanley, a retired orthopedic physician assistant
who lives in Johnstown, Pennsyl- vania, and said he will be voting again for Trump.
Joshua Dyck, an associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, said the focus on Harris is a sign that Trump’s attacks on Biden aren’t working.
“This is a desire not to run against Joe Biden, to run against anybody but Joe Biden,” he said.
There’s little evidence that Trump’s strategy will change minds. While vice presidential picks generate buzz, they rarely sway voters, said Dyck, who also runs the UMass-Lowell’s Center for Public Opinion.
One exception may be 2008, when Republican John McCain chose little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. McCain was 72. A New York Times/CBS News poll taken just before the election found 59% of voters said Palin was not prepared to be president.
A vice presidential nominee’s ability to step in as commander in chief has long been a prime qualification for a running mate. Either the 77-year-old Biden or the 74-year-old Trump would become the oldest president ever inaugurated.
Biden last released medical records in December 2019, during the Democratic primary. Biden’s doctor called him “healthy, vigorous” and fit to execute the duties of the presidency. He takes a statin medication for cholesterol and has a “persistent” atrial fibril- lation, a type of irregular heart beat. He takes a blood thinner to prevent risks like blood clots or
stroke. A Pew Research Center poll
released in August found that among Biden supporters, 31% called his age or health a concern in an open-ended question. Just 1% of Trump’s supporters said the same about the president, though the survey was taken before Trump contracted the coro- navirus.
Harris and Vice President Mike Pence deflected in last week’s debate when asked if they had conversations with Biden and Trump, respectively, about proce- dures in the event of presidential disability.
Harris did not address the ques- tion directly or speak to Biden’s health at all, instead pivoting to their shared values and her own political background, an implicit nod to her fitness for the top job if need be.
“I serve on the Senate Intel- ligence Committee, where I’ve been in regular receipt of classi- fied information about threats to our nation and hot spots around the world. I’ve traveled the world. I’ve met with our soldiers,” she said.
It was a rare moment of Harris talking about herself. As typical for running mates, she regularly pivots to Biden’s record in a clear demonstration that he is the one running to lead the nation.
Biden and Harris can best respond to the attacks by focusing on their agenda and policies, said Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee of California. Other allies can denounce Trump’s comments, as the women of the Congressional Black Caucus recently did.
California orders GOP to remove unofficial ballot boxes
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s chief elections official on Monday ordered Republicans to remove unofficial ballot drop boxes from churches, gun shops and other locations and Attorney General Xavier Becerra warned those behind the “vote tampering” could face prosecution.
Republican refused, saying they are taking advantage of Cal- ifornia’s liberal ballot collection law that allows anyone to collect ballots from voters and deliver them to county election offices.
“As of right now, we’re going to continue our ballot harvesting program,” California Republican Party spokesman Hector Barajas said.
Due to the coronavirus and concerns about health safety at polling places, California for the first time mailed ballots for the Nov. 3 election to all active registered voters — more than 21 million people. The ballots come with pre-paid envelopes for vot- ers to mail back, free of charge.
State law also allows county election officers to set up drop boxes throughout the county where people can drop off their ballots in person. The secure boxes can sometimes weigh more than 600 pounds and are monitored frequently by local election officials.
Republicans have set up their drop boxes at churches, gas stations and gun shops in at least three California counties. Some are identified as “secure ballot dropoff location,” while others say “approved and bought by the GOP.”
The party declined to say precisely how many boxes have been distributed and where they all have been placed.
Secretary of State Alex Pa- dilla, a Democrat, said state law only allows county election offi- cials to set up official ballot drop boxes, with rules for how often the ballots are retrieved. He said these unofficial drop boxes lack those protections, making them vulnerable to tampering.
Padilla had his chief legal counsel send Republicans a letter on Monday ordering them to remove those boxes by Thursday. He also ordered them to provide the state with the names, address- es and birthdays of all voters who have already dropped off ballots.
Attorney General Xavier Becerra, also a Democrat, went further, threatening to prosecute “anyone who knowingly engages in the tampering or misuse of a vote.”
“We hope that the message goes out loud and clear to anyone who is trying to improperly solicit, obtain, and manage a citi-
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6 more cases reported from breakout at Harbor facility The World
HARBOR — Another six cases of COVID-19 were reported to Curry County Public Health on Monday from an outbreak at Sea View Senior Living Memory Care in Harbor.
The cases were tested through Vikor Labs and are in addition to 11 cases reported over the weekend. All are patients in the long term memory care facility and as of Monday, only one had COVID-19 symp- toms and was hospitalized, said Sherrie R. Ward, Cur- ry County’s public health
administrator. CCPH is working with
the administration of Sea View Memory Care Center to make sure the individuals are isolating and monitoring for any symptoms, Ward said. In addition, CCPH is conducting contract tracing for the cases and will reach out to anyone suspected of exposure to COVID-19. CCPH also has reached out to first responders who may have to respond for medical issues at the location.
The new cases report- ed Monday bring Curry County’s total to 55 cases since the pandemic
began. There have been 29 recovered cases, 26 active cases, one hospitalization and no deaths. A total of 21 of the cases have been staff members or residents at Sea View Senior Living Long Term Memory Care, Ward said.
“Please remember, it is important that we all follow the OHA and CDC guidelines and Governor’s directives about social dis- tancing, wearing facial cov- erings in public buildings and protecting yourselves by staying home to slow the spread and save lives,” Ward said.
Suspect in custody after taxi robbed Monday The World
NORTH BEND — A Coos Bay man was arrest- ed Monday after allegedly robbing a taxi driver near the North Library between Union Avenue and Con- necticut Avenue, according to a release from North Bend Police.
The man approached a Yellow Cab while it was picking up a customer, police said. He threatened the driver with a gun and demanded the driver’s money before leaving the area with an undisclosed amount of cash.
Police responded around 8 a.m. Monday and appre-
hended a suspect. The man didn’t have a gun, and the stolen money was returned to the driver.
Coos Bay resident Dan- iel Duran, 60, was arrested on suspicion of second-de- gree robbery and a pro- bation violation. He was transported to the Coos County Jail, police said.
Court: U.S. can’t target reporters at protests
PORTLAND (AP) — In a split opinion, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has restored a court injunc- tion that bans federal law enforcement from using force, threats or dispersal orders against journalists and legal observers who are working at protests in Portland, Oregon.
The 2-1 ruling issued Friday restores an injunc- tion issued by U.S. District Court Judge Michael H. Simon. That injunction was put on hold when the Trump administration chal- lenged Simon’s order. The ruling by the 9th Circuit restores the ban while it considers the U.S. govern-
ment’s appeal. The federal agencies “as-
sert a very important public interest, but the record fully supports the district court’s conclusion that the Federal Defendants’ interest does not require dispersing plaintiffs,” according to the majority opinion. “They have not threatened federal property, and the journal- ists, in particular, provide a vitally important service to the public.”
The Justice Department did not immediately com- ment on the ruling.
The ACLU of Oregon, which filed the initial class-action lawsuit on behalf of journalists and
legal observers, applauded the news.
“This is a crucial victory for civil liberties and the freedom of the press, which are critical to the function- ing of our democracy. The court’s opinion affirms that the government cannot use violence to control the narrative about what is happening at these historic protests,” said attorney Matthew Borden.
The lawsuit included affidavits from journal- ists, including a freelance photographer for the Associated Press, and legal observers who had been shot by federal officers with non-lethal munitions.
Protest fallout dominates mayoral race PORTLAND (AP) —
In most election cycles, America wouldn’t pay attention to the Portland, Oregon, mayoral race — but this isn’t a normal year.
Months of protests against racial injustice and police violence have made Portland national news in a divisive election year, and President Donald Trump routinely derides Mayor Ted Wheeler as a weak lib- eral unable to stop unrest in his “anarchist” city.
But as Wheeler spars with Trump, the mayor is also facing a threat at home from the opposite end of the political spec- trum: a far-left challenger who supports $50 million in law enforcement cuts and slams her opponent for what she describes as an aggressive police force. Hemmed in by critics, Wheeler recently lent his campaign $150,000 as he struggles to fend off Sarah Iannarone.
“The race is really in flux,” said Jim Moore, a Pacific University political science professor. “The thing that will cause him to lose is responding to the protests in all their com- plexity. That’s why Port- land’s election is important nationally, not just because of the protests but also
because of the president. The president brings it up all the time.”
Wheeler narrowly missed winning a second term outright in May but the career Democrat’s approval ratings plummet- ed as protests dominated headlines into the fall. Business interests and moderates are angry that he’s let the protests go on so long, while pas- sionate, far-left-leaning progressives are embracing the unrest as necessary for rooting out systemic racism.
Many of those voters are backing Iannarone, who has attended three dozen protests and touts cam- paign bumper stickers that read “Everyday Antifas- cist. Always.”
Recent polling shows Wheeler trailing his challenger, but with many undecided voters. Oregon, a universal vote-by-mail state, will send out ballots this week.
“The hard thing for a candidate like me in a time of near revolutionary fervor for change is that I seek the elusive center,” Wheeler recently told The AP. “I don’t believe com- promise is a dirty word, and I still govern with an eye to the future rather
than the emotion of the moment — and right now we’re in a very fearful, anxious and emotional time in our history.”
Since May, the city has cut about $15 million from the police budget — in- cluding a gun violence re- duction team, transit police and a school resource offi- cer program — but Wheel- er has resisted pressure to take away more from the bureau’s nearly $250 million budget without a safety net for mental health and homelessness calls that police handle daily.
Wheeler, as police com- missioner, has also taken heat for allowing officers to use tear gas. He banned it entirely last month, and says police have made some mistakes but done some things right, too.
“When people call 911, they expect to get a response. If you’re going to eviscerate the police bureau, then you have to be able to answer the ques- tion ... ‘What is the plan to actually fill the gap?’” he said. “And so far, we have not had that conversation.”
But Wheeler’s failure to engage with Black activists and other protesters cost him local support, critics say, even as he drew na- tional attention for getting
tear-gassed by U.S. agents when he attended a protest outside a federal court- house.
“I’m still trying to pin down what Ted Wheeler re- ally stands for,” said Cam- eron Whitten, founder of The Black Resilience Fund who’s endorsed Iannarone. “He’s a wind vane, he’s got no base and the community is divided because of it.”
Iannarone supports calls to cut $50 million from the police budget and paints Wheeler as an establish- ment candidate beholden to corporate interests. She repeats an oft-cited criti- cism: That Wheeler failed to build critical relation- ships as he tried to please all sides.
A passionate advocate for public transportation and bike commuting, Iannarone has an ambitious plan for a green economy,
wants free municipal Wi-Fi and has proposed increas- ing taxes on Airbnb for a renter bailout fund.
But she also stirred con- troversy in August when she said on KGW-TV that peaceful protests “might not necessarily be moving the conversation forward.” And some of her policies, such as eliminating parking for more trees, legalizing all sex work and allowing non-citizens to vote in local and state elections, might be a bridge too far for some voters.
“She is further to the left — whatever that means in Portland — of the average voter and she’s taken up positions that I think many voters would find disqualifying,” said John Horvick, political director at non-partisan public opinion firm DHM Research.
“I think that the tensions are much greater there than her campaign would acknowledge publicly.”
Recently, Iannarone has sought to temper concerns about her views on the protests. She says she rejects violence but is quick to add that “an- ti-fascist protesters wind up on the receiving end of police brutality more” than Trump-inspired, right- wing group members who have held several “law and order” rallies in the city.
“Opposing fascism in 2020 is a good thing. And I’ve tried to normalize that,” Iannarone said in a phone interview. “What we try to do is pull it out of this realm that Donald Trump would have it in — where he’s making people who oppose fascism the enemy — and make it more acces- sible to everyday people.”
No new deaths reported for second straight day in Oregon The World
For the second straight day, Oregon had no new reported deaths from COVID-19, leaving the state death toll at 599 since the pandemic be- gan, Oregon Health Au- thority reported Monday.
In addition, 222 new confirmed and presump- tive cases statewide were reported Sunday, bringing the state total to 37,467.
New cases reported Monday were in the following counties: Clackamas (13), Clatsop
(1), Columbia (1), Curry (2), Deschutes (5), Hood River (1), Jackson (17), Jefferson (1), Josephine (1), Lane (31), Linn (7), Marion (21), Multnomah (44), Polk (1), Umatilla (12), Wasco (5), Wash- ington (40), and Yamhill (19).
citizen’s vote that they are subject to prosecution,” Becerra said. “I’m trying to be careful with how I say this, but the reports we are hearing are disturbing.”
Padilla declined to spec- ulate on why Republicans
would be collecting votes via unofficial drop boxes.
“Our interest is in pro- tecting the integrity of this election,” he said.
Barajas said the party’s drop boxes just provide voters with “another opportunity” to cast their ballots.
In a news release, the California Republican
Party said state law does not specifically ban them from collecting ballots in a box. They say the law only prevents tampering or forg- ing ballots and that people collecting the ballots can- not be paid for doing it.
“It appears Republicans are well within their right to collect ballots in this manner. It’s just that Dem-
ocrats don’t like it,” Re- publican state Sen. Melissa Melendez posted to her official Twitter account.
The controversy sur- faced during the weekend after state election offi- cials received reports of the boxes in Fresno, Los Angeles and Orange coun- ties, all areas with highly competitive U.S. House
races. Democrats have blasted the use of the un- official boxes and say they fear Republicans could use them to gather and discard ballots.
Officials in Ventura County also said Monday that they had received reports of groups promot- ing unofficial ballot drop boxes.
In California, state law says voters who can’t return their ballots them- selves can ask anyone else to do it for them. Previ- ously, people who returned a ballot for someone else also had to sign it and list their relationship to the voter. But a separate law passed in 2018 eliminated that requirement.
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Barrett tells senators she’s not Scalia WASHINGTON (AP)
— Supreme Court nom- inee Amy Coney Barrett said Tuesday that while she admires the late Justice Antonin Scalia, she would bring her own approach to the high court. She is facing senators’ questions Tuesday for the first time at confirmation hearings on track to lock in a conser- vative court majority for years to come.
Barrett, a former law professor, described herself as taking a conservative, originalist approach to the Constitution - “text as text” — and believes a judge “doesn’t infuse her own meaning into it.”
She told the Senate Judiciary Committee, “You would not be getting Jus- tice Scalia, you would be getting Justice Barrett.”
Barrett, family in tow, is on Capitol Hill for a second day of hearings. The mood is likely to shift to a more confrontational tone as Barrett, an appel-
late court judge with very little trial court experience, is grilled in 30-minute segments by Democrats strongly opposed to President Donald Trump’s nominee, yet virtually powerless to stop her. Republicans are rushing her to confirmation before Election Day.
The committee chair- man, Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., gaveled open the session under coronavirus protocols with a focus on health care, and ending the Affordable Care Act.
Graham also quickly asked if the Catholic judge would be able to shelve her personal beliefs to adhere to law.
“I can. I have done that,” she said. “I will do that still.”
Graham praised her as a conservative woman of faith and the best possible nominee Trump could have chosen.
“I will do everything I can to make sure that
you have a seat at the table. And that table is the Supreme Court,” Graham said.
The Senate, led by Trump’s Republican allies, is pushing Barrett’s nomi- nation to a quick vote be- fore Nov. 3, and ahead of the the latest challenge to the “Obamacare” Afford- able Care Act, which the Supreme Court is to hear a week after the election.
Republicans also hope to seat Barrett quickly enough to hear any legal chal- lenges after the election. Democrats are demanding that she pledge not to take part in any election case, but she has made no such commitment.
One of the two Republi- cans on the panel who test- ed positive for COVID-19, Sen. Thom Tillis, joined the committee for the first time Tuesday, after ending quarantine.
Barrett presented her approach to the law as conservative and fair on
Monday at the start of fast-tracked confirmation hearings. Democrats cast her as a threat to Ameri- cans’ health care coverage during the coronavirus pandemic.
With her husband and six of their seven children behind her in a hearing room off-limits to the public and altered for COVID-19 risks, Barrett delivered views at odds with the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the liberal icon whose seat Trump nomi- nated her to fill, laying out a judicial philosophy she has likened to that of her conservative mentor, the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
“Courts are not designed to solve every problem or right every wrong in our public life,” declared the 48-year-old federal appeals court judge, removing the protective mask she wore most of the day to read from a prepared statement.
Americans “deserve an independent Supreme
Court that interprets our Constitution and laws as they are written,” Barrett told the committee.
Ginsburg’s legacy was felt throughout Monday’s session, with some Dem- ocrats wearing lapel pins with her likeness. Barrett also praised the liberal icon, saying she was “for- ever grateful” for Gins- burg’s trailblazing path as a woman on the court.
Yet Sen. Kamala Harris of California, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s running mate, warned that Barrett’s nom- ination puts in jeopardy ev- erything Ginsburg fought to protect.
Testifying from her office because of the pan- demic, Harris said that the court is “often the last ref- uge for equal justice” and that not only health care but voting rights, workers’ rights, abortion rights and the very idea of justice are at stake.
Barring a dramatic
development, Republicans appear to have the votes to confirm Barrett to a life- time seat on the Supreme Court, and they spent their time portraying her as a thoughtful judge with im- peccable credentials. She would be Trump’s third justice.
Underscoring the Repub- licans’ confidence, Graham set an initial committee vote on the nomination for Thursday, even before the last day of hearings wrapped, which would allow final approval by the panel for one week later and a vote for confirmation by the full Senate on Oct. 26.
Protesters rallied outside the Senate buildings with the hearing room largely closed to the public.
Democrats already were enraged that Republicans are moving so quickly, having refused to consider President Barack Obama’s nominee after Scalia’s death in February 2016, well be- fore that year’s election.
Biden makes big push into Ohio, once a longshot state CINCINNATI (AP)
— Joe Biden made two campaign stops Monday in Ohio, attempting to ex- pand the battleground map and keep President Donald Trump on the defensive in a state long thought to be out of reach for Democrats after Trump’s wide margin of victory there four years ago.
The Democratic presi- dential nominee stressed an economic message and touted his own record while casting Trump as having abandoned working-class voters who helped him win Rust Belt states that put him in the White House in 2016. The president’s reelection campaign countered that few expected Trump to win Ohio so comfortably four years ago and that he would repeat a similar upset on Election Day.
In Toledo, Biden addressed United Auto
Workers who represent a local General Motors’ powertrain plant. The for- mer vice president spoke in a parking lot with about 30 American-made cars and trucks arrayed nearby, and he struck a decidedly populist note, praising unions and arguing that he represented working-class values while the Repub- lican Trump cared only about impressing the Ivy League and country club set.
“I don’t measure people by the size of their bank account,” Biden said. “You and I measure peo- ple by the strength of their character, their honesty, their courage.”
Biden highlighted his role as vice president as the Obama administration rescued the U.S. auto industry after the 2008 financial collapse. Pres- ident George W. Bush signed the aid package
after the 2008 election, but the Obama administra- tion managed most of the rescue program.
“The auto industry that supported 1 in 8 Ohioans was on the brink,” Biden said at the drive-in rally, eliciting horn honks from people listening from their vehicles. “Barack and I bet on you, and it paid off.”
Trump was resuming campaign travel for the first time since testing pos- itive for the coronavirus, with a Florida rally. The president tweeted, “We have far more support and enthusiasm than even in 2016.” And Vice Present Mike Pence staged his own event in Ohio’s capi- tal, Columbus, concluding remarks at Savko & Sons, an excavation company that hosted Obama at one of its job sites in 2010, shortly before Biden took the stage in Toledo.
“You said yes to
President Donald Trump in 2016, and I know the Buckeye State’s going to say yes to four more years,” Pence told the crowd.
In a nod to Senate con- firmation hearings on Amy Coney Barrett’s nomi- nation to the Supreme Court — where Biden’s running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, was participating remotely — Pence declared to applause that “We’re going to fill that seat.”
He also noted that Biden has refused to say whether he will heed the calls of some progressive Democrats who would like to see the party expand the number of seats on the Supreme Court, should Democrats win the White House and the Senate on Nov. 3 while retaining control of the House.
“It could be nothing less than the biggest power
grab in American history,” Pence said. “Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won’t tell the American people what they’re going to do.”
Biden has called for the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat to remain vacant until after the elec- tion but hasn’t answered questions about whether he would be open to ex- panding the court. He says doing so would be playing politics by Trump’s rules.
Trump carried Ohio over Democrat Hillary Clinton by a comfortable 8 percentage points in 2016, but recent polls show this year’s presidential race tightening in the state.
The Biden campaign has increased advertising in Ohio lately, even as Trump has scaled back his efforts in the state and elsewhere. Biden’s perceived increases in sup- port have largely come as the president has seen his
backing slip in cities — but he is looking to cancel that out by further ex- panding his already strong support among voters in rural areas.
“We are thrilled to see Joe Biden wasting a valu- able day on the campaign trail visiting a state he cannot win,” Trump cam- paign spokesperson Tim Murtaugh said Monday.
Biden argued that Trump has mishandled the coronavirus pandemic, exacerbating the resulting economic fallout. He said the Trump administration “squandered” the strong economy it inherited from the Obama White House four years ago, and he promised to create new, high-paying union jobs once the country gets the virus under control.
“He turned his back on you,” Biden said of Trump. “I promise you, I will never do that.”
John McCain’s mother Roberta dies at 108
PHOENIX (AP) — Ro- berta Wright McCain, the mother of the late Sen. John McCain who used her feisty spirit to help woo voters during his 2008 presidential campaign, has died. She was 108.
A spokesperson for daughter-in-law Cindy Mc- Cain says Roberta McCain died Monday. A cause of death was not immediately released.
“It is with great sadness that I announce the death of my wonderful Mother In-law, Roberta McCain,” Cindy McCain posted on Twitter. “I couldn’t have asked for a better role mod- el or a better friend.”
In a tweet, granddaughter Meghan McCain thanked her “Nana” for teaching her how to live life with “grit, conviction, intensity and love.”
“There will never be an- other one like you, you will be missed every day. I wish my daughter had gotten to meet you,” said McCain, who gave birth to her first child last month.
At 96, Roberta McCain became the Republican senator’s secret weapon at campaign stops as evidence that voters need not worry about her son’s age — then past 70 — as he sought the presidency.
She once said her son liked to hold her up as an example of “what he hopes
his lifespan will be.” In August 2018, howev-
er, it was the mother who ended up mourning the son when John McCain died of brain cancer. Despite being slowed by a stroke, Roberta McCain attended the me- morial and burial services in Washington and Mary- land for the middle son she called “Johnny.”
She remained ener- getic and active into her 90s, traveling often with her identical twin sister Rowena, who died at age 99. She attended the 2008 Republican National Convention, where her son credited “her love of life, her deep interest in the world, her strength, and her belief we are all meant to use our opportunities to make ourselves useful to our country.”
It was 1933 when a 20-year-old Roberta Wright defied her family and eloped with John McCain Jr. Documents released in 2008 showed that as a young ensign, John Jr. got into trouble when the couple decided to marry and he left his ship without permission.
“I got married young,” she told The Muskogee Phoenix in her native Oklahoma in 2008. “I was 20 years old, and it was the best decision I ever made.”
She married into a storied military family — her hus-
band retired in 1972 with the rank of four-star admiral, the same rank held by his father, John S. “Slew” McCain Sr. Her son was held as a pris- oner-of-war in Vietnam even as his father was command- er in chief of Pacific forces in the late 1960s.
Roberta McCain was a young woman when her three children were born, later telling the Oklahoma paper that she was “too young and irresponsible to know you were supposed to worry about them. I just let them go. I got a kick out of watching them.”
The senator said in 2008 that his “father was often at sea, and the job of raising my brother, sister and me would fall to my mother alone.”
Her other son, Joe, told The Associated Press in 2007 that the family had endless dinner-table discus- sions about history, politics and legislation led by their mother.
“We were all basically on the same side of the fence,” Joe McCain said. “But it was like Talmudic schol- ars arguing about a single word or an adjective in the Testament.”
Joe McCain was at his mother’s side at her Washington home when she died, according to a state- ment from Cindy McCain. Roberta McCain’s daughter, Jean McCain, died last year.
Georgia has big turnout as early voting begins
ATLANTA (AP) — The chance to cast ballots on Georgia’s first day of in-person early voting Monday had thousands of people waiting for hours to make their voices heard.
Eager voters endured waits of six hours or more in Cobb County, which was once solidly Repub- lican but has voted for Democrats in recent elec- tions, and joined lines that wrapped around buildings in solidly Democratic DeKalb County. They also turned out in big numbers in north Georgia’s Floyd County, where support for President Donald Trump is strong.
With record turnout expected for this year’s presidential election and fears about exposure to the coronavirus, election offi- cials and advocacy groups have been encouraging people to vote early, either in person or by absentee ballot.
Many answered the call on Monday, showing up in numbers that over- whelmed some locations.
Cobb County Elections and Registration Director Janine Eveler said the county had prepared as much as much as it could, “but there’s only so much space in the rooms and parking in the parking lot.”
“We’re maxing out both
of those,” she said. “Peo- ple are double parking, we have gridlock pretty much in our parking lot,” she added.
Hundreds of people slowly moved along a line that snaked back and forth outside Cobb’s main elec- tions office in a suburban area northwest of Atlanta. Good moods seemed to prevail, even though some people said at 1 p.m. that they’d been waiting for six hours. A brief cheer went up when a pizza deliverer brought a pie to someone in line.
Steve Davidson, who is Black, said the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis and others had fought too long and hard to secure his place at the polls for him to get tired and leave.
“They’ve been fighting for decades. If I’ve got to wait six or seven hours, that’s my duty to do that. I’ll do it happily,” David- son said.
At least two counties briefly had problems with the electronic pollbooks used to check in voters. The issue halted voting for a while at State Farm Arena, where the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks play. Technicians resolved the problem and the lines soon cleared at the arena, which is Georgia’s largest early voting site, with 300 voting machines.
“We’re disappointed that it happened,” Hawks CEO Steve Koonin told reporters, but he noted that there are still plenty of days left. Early in-person voting runs through Oct. 30 in Georgia.
Problems with the elec- tronic pollbooks — along with high turnout, the consolidation of polling places and shortages of poll workers — bedeviled Georgia’s primary in June. The dysfunction renewed questions about Geor- gia’s ability to conduct fair elections, two years after the state drew heavy scrutiny during a closely watched gubernatorial election that also saw long waits and other problems.
While voters must vote at their assigned polling place on Election Day, they can vote at any voting site in their county during early voting. Some people lined up before dawn Monday to be among the first to vote. Turnout also may have also been boosted because Monday is a federal holi- day, so some people were off work.
Natalie Rawlings, 49, had prepared to vote absentee but didn’t trust the postal service, so she turned in the blank absen- tee ballot to poll workers before voting in person Monday.
Herbert getting crash course in close losses
Braves rally in ninth to beat Dodgers
Margot’s homer, big catch highlight Rays’ win
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Justin Herbert won the Campbell Trophy, which is nicknamed the Academic Heisman, at the University of Oregon last year for his smarts on and off the field. The quarter- back is getting a crash course in close losses as a rookie in the National Foot- ball League.
Herbert became the first rookie to throw for four touchdowns in a Monday Night game, but the Los Angeles Char- gers squandered another 17-point, sec- ond-quarter lead in a 30-27 overtime loss to the New Orleans Saints. The Chargers — who became the first team since the 2003 Atlanta Falcons to squander leads of 17-points or more two straight weeks — have lost four straight by a combined margin of 18 points.
“To be so close in these past four games it hurts a lot,” said Herbert who completed 20 of 34 passes for 264 yards. “I’ve been told that games come down to a possession or less and I have found that out very quickly. We have to learn to finish these games.”
Statistically, Herbert — who was the sixth overall pick in April’s draft — has held his own with three former league MVPs in Kansas City’s Patrick Ma- homes, Tampa Bay’s Tom Brady and New Orleans’ Drew Brees. But he has also had to watch from the sideline as all three rallied their teams from double-dig- it deficits.
The loss to New Orleans was similar to the Chargers 38-31 defeat at Tampa Bay on Oct. 4. In both cases, the Saints and Bucs were able to score just before halftime while the Chargers were unable to muster much in the third quarter.
Even though the defense has been unable to make double-digit leads stand three of the past four weeks, coach
Anthony Lynn expressed confidence in defensive coordinator Gus Bradley. Lynn has shown he is not averse to making changes. He fired offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt at midseason last year.
“You’ve done it before (getting it back on track) and I’m confident he can do it again,” said Lynn, who is off to his sec-
ond 1-4 start in four years as Chargers’ coach.
Herbert has continued to amaze coach- es and commentators with his ability to complete passes under pressure and in tight windows. His first touchdown of the night, a 17-yard strike to Keenan Allen, had a completion probability of 27.7%
according to the league’s Next Gen Stats. The most improbable completion of his career happened late in the fourth quarter with a 29-yard throw to Mike Williams down the left sideline with two defenders within a yard (21.6%).
“Our front seven got after him pretty well. He made a lot of great plays down the stretch. ... He may be a force to be reckoned with for years to come,” Saints defensive tackle Cameron Jordan said.
Herbert joins Daniel Jones, Baker Mayfield, Deshaun Watson and Marcus Mariota as quarterbacks since the merger to throw for 250-plus yards, four or more touchdowns and no interceptions in a game. Jones did it three times last season with the New York Giants.
Herbert also continues to put up great numbers despite not having four offen- sive starters. Right tackle Bryan Bulaga and right guard Trai Turner were inac- tive due to injuries, running back Austin Ekeler is on injured reserve and Allen suffered a back injury during the second quarter and did not return. The upcoming bye week, rescheduled to this week be- cause of a myriad of changes to the NFL schedule due to the coronavirus pandem- ic, couldn’t come at a better time.
Los Angeles didn’t commit a turnover for the first time since its Week 1 win at Cincinnati, but was unable to be consis- tent on offense. Of its 350 yards, more than half came on four plays (179). Th Chargers averaged 2.6 yards on their other 65 plays and often were behind the chains as they struggled to get big plays on first down.
“I hate this for him. He still hasn’t gotten that first win as a starter but he has been playing out of this world,” said tight end Hunter Henry, who had four recep- tions for 23 yards and a touchdown.
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Atlanta Braves fans were still doing tomahawk-chop chants as they filed out of the stadium, real people who replaced the cardboard cutouts players got so accustomed to this season.
One game, but a big boost for the Braves in their first National League Championship Series since 2001.
Austin Riley led off the ninth inning with a tiebreaking homer that sparked a four- run rally Monday night for a 5-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first major league game this season with fans allowed to attend.
“It was awesome — fun to play in front of fans again,” Braves slugger Freddie Freeman said. “11,000 people, really felt like 50,000 to us because we haven’t had any all year.”
Riley greeted reliever Blake Treinen with a 448-foot drive to left-center, giving Atlanta a 2-1 lead and generating a familiar noise in the ballpark that only got louder.
“I didn’t feel my legs when I was running around the bases, so it was a good feeling,” said the 23-year-old Riley, left off the post- season roster last year.
And the Braves weren’t done. Ronald Acuña Jr. followed with a double
and scored on a single by Marcell Ozuna that chased Treinen. Ozzie Albies added a two-run homer off Jake McGee.
“It’s what these guys do. I’ve said we’re like an NBA game, you don’t want to leave because a lot of things don’t happen until the last third,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “These guys never quit, they keep grinding at-bats and doing their thing, and it’s a pretty neat trait for a ballclub to have.”
Game 2 in the best-of-seven series is Tuesday, with Atlanta rookie Ian Anderson set to face three-time Cy Young Award win- ner Clayton Kershaw.
Riley became the youngest player with a go-ahead homer in the ninth inning of a postseason game or later since Braves star Chipper Jones in 1995.
“That’s a pretty good 9-hole hitter we’ve got,” Freeman said. “We believe in every single guy, and Austin was the guy tonight.”
In a matchup of teams that ranked 1-2 in the majors for runs and homers, and in the first NLCS opener since 2007 with both teams undefeated in the postseason, the Braves delivered another impressive pitch- ing performance even without a shutout.
Max Fried struck out nine over six sharp innings, Will Smith worked a perfect eighth for the win and Mark Melancon closed it out. Atlanta, which threw four shutouts in its first five playoff games against Cincinnati and Miami, has allowed a total of six runs while going 6-0 this postseason.
Los Angeles had won nine straight going
back to the regular season. Before the ninth, the only runs came on a pair
of solo homers. Freeman went deep in the first and Kiké Hernández connected leading off the Dodgers fifth.
It was the first time since March 12, the day spring training was suspended because of the coronavirus, that there were fans in the stands for an MLB game.
All 10,700 tickets available to the general public were sold, in addition to another 800 or so utilized by MLB and the teams. That was about 28% of the 40,518 capacity at the new Texas Rangers ballpark, where the retractable roof was open for the first NLCS game played at a neutral site.
The Braves had the bases loaded in the eighth after reliever Dustin May hit pinch-hitter Pablo Sandoval with a pitch. Victor Gonzalez came on and struck out pinch-hitter Charlie Culberson, punctuating the inning-ending out with an em- phatic fist pump on the way back to the dugout.
Dodgers starter Walker Buehler pitched past the fourth for the first time in his three playoff series openers this fall, while apparently now dealing with blisters on both his middle and index fingers and with his seemingly tight pants trending on Twitter.
Buehler struck out seven in five-plus innings, joining Hall of Famer Randy Johnson as the only pitchers with at least seven strikeouts in nine consecutive postseason starts — coming in the first nine for Buehler. He also walked five, a career high.
“I feel like I’ve been decently successful,” Buehler said. “I don’t want to walk guys. We’re trying to keep runs off the board. I can go deep- er. I can be better.”
Two years ago, Fried pitched in relief for the Braves in every game of the Division Series as they lost to the Dodgers in four.
The left-hander was born in Santa Monica, went to high school in Los Angeles and was the seventh overall draft pick by the San Diego Padres in 2012, two years before he got traded to Atlanta.
“There was a lot of energy from both sides,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Walker matched that intensity. You’ve just got to give credit to Fried cause he pitched a heck of a ballgame.”
There were chants of “M-V-P! M-V-P!” when Freeman homered in the top of the first — a 429-foot shot to right that landed among fans well beyond the roped-off first five rows closest to the field. It was his first homer this postseason.
Atlanta didn’t get another hit until consec- utive singles opening the sixth that chased Buehler. Brusdar Graterol quickly got out of the jam.
“We’ll throw this one away and come back tomorrow with a fresh mind,” Hernández said.
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Back in the ballpark where he started his big league career, Manuel Margot of the Tampa Bay Rays had a breakout game in the AL Championship Series with a three-run home run and a spectacular catch while tumbling over a wall in right field.
Asked which was bigger in the 4-2 victory against the Houston Astros, Mar- got said through a translator: “Definitely the home run. The home run didn’t hurt.”
The home run was huge, for sure, because it helped the Rays get halfway to the World Series with a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series.
But they’ll be talking about the catch for a long time.
With two outs in the second and run- ners on second and third, Margot tracked George Springer’s long foul ball to right field while shielding his face from the sun. He caught it as he tumbled over a padded railing atop a wall and landed on a walkway near the seats down the line at Petco Park.
Margot popped up, smiled and held up his glove with the ball in it after a 102-foot sprint.
Margot was shaken up a little but stayed in the game.
“Approaching it you don’t really real- ize how high it is but it gets a little low- er once you go over the wall, so once I actually started to flip and realized it was a little bit further of a drop, that’s when I got a little scared,” Margot said.
Margot played with the San Diego Padres from late in the 2016 season until being traded to Tampa Bay in the offseason. He played one game in right field in 2016 and the rest of his time in San Diego was spent in center.
“To have the ability to know where you’re at, and kind of be able to say, ‘Forget it, I know I’m going to hit some- thing but I’m going in,’ and still hang on to the ball, was really, really impres- sive,” manager Kevin Cash said.
His teammates raved about the catch. “He sold out,” winner Charlie Morton
said. “Those guys are all in for each oth- er and they put their bodies on the line. They’ve been doing that all year. That play was unbelievable.”
Shortstop Willy Adames said Margot “was going with determination. He was going to do whatever it took to make that catch. It was an unbelievable play that he made on the right field line, putting himself in a dangerous place. I’m just happy for him, after that homer. It was amazing. I hope he continues to
help the team win like that.” Margot homered to straightaway
center field on an 0-1 pitch from Lance McCullers Jr. with two outs in the first. It followed the first of two errors by sec- ond baseman José Altuve on a grounder to shallow right field by Ji-Man Choi. Altuve’s throw hit the ground before going in and out of first baseman Yuli Gurriel’s glove.
The play originally was ruled an error on Gurriel, but the official scorer later charged the error to Altuve. When Gur- riel returned to the dugout, he slammed his glove onto the bench.
Margot’s big plays made a winner of 36-year-old Morton, who helped Houston win the 2017 World Series, and spoiled an otherwise fine effort by Mc- Cullers, who lost despite striking out 11 in seven innings. Three of the four runs off him were unearned.
Margot had a rough regular season. He was placed on the COVID-19 injured list in August as a precaution after he traveled to the Dominican Republic following the death of his father due to the virus.
“He’s been put through the ringer along with other family members, but we’ve turned him into our family,” Cash said. “Everybody is really, really supportive of him and just so happy for what he’s accomplished.”
Morton improved to 4-0 with a 0.90 ERA in the last two postseasons.
Tampa Bay held on through a tense ninth, when Nick Anderson twice loaded the bases. One run scored when Spring- er hit a one-hopper to second baseman Brandon Lowe, who stepped on the base and started a double play. After walking Altuve and Michael Brantley on four pitches each, Anderson got Alex Breg- man to fly out on the first pitch to center fielder Kevin Kiermaier, a step in front of the warning track.
Game 3 is Tuesday night, when the Rays will send Ryan Yarbrough against Houston’s José Urquidy. Because this is a neutral site, the Rays, the top seed in the AL, were the home team in the first two games and Houston will bat last in Games 3 and 4, and Game 5, if neces- sary.
Teams with 2-0 leads have won 72 of 85 best-of-7 series.
“It’s not business as usual. Tomorrow is a must-win situation for us,” said Car- los Correa, who homered for the Astros. “You don’t want to be down 0-3 in a series with a great team like the Rays.”
CLEVELAND (AP) — Rising high above downtown Cleveland on an un- usually warm autumn night, the Termi- nal Tower was bathed in bright orange lights on Sunday, a glowing tribute to a team that has this football-obsessed city fired up.
For the first time in 26 years, the beloved Browns are 4-1.
Talk about an October surprise. Showing resiliency, depth and maybe
their legitimacy as a playoff contender, the Browns held on to beat the India- napolis Colts 32-23 on Sunday for their fourth straight win under unflappable first-year coach Kevin Stefanski, who in five games has already surpassed former Cleveland coach Hue Jackson’s win total over three seasons.
It’s still early, and a visit to unde- feated Pittsburgh is up next. But the Browns, who haven’t been in the postseason since 2002 and didn’t win a single game three years ago, are grow- ing more confident each week.
They believe. “We’re a different unit this year,”
offensive lineman Chris Hubbard said Monday. “We’re a very hungry team.”
Cleveland passed what was hyped as a test to prove its veracity in the match- up against the Colts, who came in with the NFL’s top-ranked defense.
The Browns built a 27-10 lead and then survived a comeback — and quarterback Baker Mayfield shook off some sore ribs — to get past Indianapo- lis with several unsung players making key contributions down the stretch.
Safety Ronnie Harrison returned an interception 47 yards for a touchdown in his first start. Hubbard, who made 29 starts at right tackle the past two seasons, went in at guard for the first time in a regular-season game after Wyatt Teller went out with a strained calf. Hubbard delivered a key block to spring running back D’Ernest Johnson, playing only because Pro Bowler Nick Chubb is hurt, on a game-icing 28-yard run in the final minutes.
There were others: backup safety Sheldrick Redwine came in when Harrison went out with a concussion and made a late pick, and wide receiver Rashard Higgins, who had been inac- tive twice this season and seemingly buried on the depth chart, caught a TD pass.
It was a total team effort by a team on the rise.
A different team. “I have been here for 0-16, and just
to see everything turn around, it is amazing,” Higgins said. “Night and day.”
October surprise: Browns look like contenders
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