WEATHER

141st Year, No. 114

Christian StanleyFifth grade, Annunciation

High 95 Low 73Mostly sunny

Full forecast on page 3A.

FIVE QUESTIONS1 If you are lucky enough to have lunch with FLO-TUS, who are you sharing a meal with?2 What poet wrote “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” — T.S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein or Wallace Stevens?3 What kind of vehicle often has a transom, a gunwale, a thwart and some spinnakers?4 Harry Caray did not announce games for which baseball team — Chicago, New York or St. Louis?5 Which California beach city is not in Orange County — Laguna Beach, Long Beach or Newport Beach?

Answers, 6B

INSIDEBusiness 5BClassifieds 6BComics 3BCrossword 6B

Dear Abby 3BObituaries 5AOpinions 4A

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LOCAL FOLKS

Josiah Langford has lived in Starkville for 34 years. He is a musician and self-described nerd.

PUBLIC MEETINGSAug. 3: Lowndes County Board of Su-pervisors meeting, 9 a.m., Lowndes County Courthouse, facebook.com/LowndesCountyMis-sissippi/Aug. 4: Columbus City Council, 5 p.m., Municipal ComplexAug. 16: Lowndes County Board of Su-pervisors meeting, 9 a.m., Lowndes County Courthouse, facebook.com/LowndesCountyMis-sissippi/

Antranik Tavitian/ Dipatch StaffSederick Henderson, a volunteer at St. James Methodist Church, watches over a pile of catfish during a charity event on Wednesday. Henderson has been volunteering for the church for approximately 10 years. The church gave away five tons of live catfish to needy people in the community, saving approximately 500 pounds for mem-bers of its congregation.

Barbecue joint to open downtownPLUS: Studio Pilates holds soft opening this weekendBY MARY POLLITZbiz@cdispatch.com

Months be-fore open-ing, Jimmy Sherrod already started build-ing his clientele for his new restaurant.

In fact, you’ve probably seen cars and customers lining up at a mobile food unit at 2526 Main St. on Fridays and Saturdays. Now, Sherrod said he’s excited to finally open 1028 W/ Mo-Jams BBQ on the same spot in two weeks.

For now, customers can still enjoy barbecue plates Friday and Saturday from 10:30 a.m. until dark.

Once the full restaurant opens, Sherrod said he’ll have a little something for everyone. With menu items ranging from barbe-cue specials, pastas, crab legs, burgers and more, Sherrod said anyone who pulls up will surely find something they can enjoy.

“I wanted to go all out,” Sherrod said. “We got all of it.”

He added he wants to make it a family affair.

“We’re a really tight-knit fami-ly,” he said. “We feel the (custom-ers) needed a place where people love to cook and it’s not just a job. …We’re based off of love and good vibes. We hope people roll up feel-ing pretty good and roll out feeling even better.”

The mobile unit first started serving customers outside of a con-

BUSINESS MOVES WITH MARY

Mary Pollitz

BY SLIM SMITHssmith@cdispatch.com

As part of her duties as minister/chaplain at St. James United Methodist Church in Columbus, Eve Preister adminis-ters the church’s food program.

In that role, she has worked with groups like the Mississippi Black Farmers Alliance to provide vegetables and fruits to those in need.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, churches and organizations have regularly distributed food and other supplies to the needy, but Wednes-day’s distribution was unlike any Priester had ever seen before.

It was over before it started.“It was supposed to start at 2:30,

but the truck got here about an hour

early and people were already start-ing to line up,” Priester said. “So, we went ahead and started.”

In an hour’s time, St. James mem-bers and volunteers had distributed close to five tons of live catfish. By 2:30 p.m., only about 500 pounds re-mained, reserved to be distributed among the church’s needy congre-gants.

“I’ve been working on this a long time,” Priester said. “I knew it would be popular because it’s some-thing different.”

The fish were donated by Leigh Holland, a commercial catfish oper-ator based in Indianola.

An 18-wheeler, pulling a large container filled with water and cat-fish, arrived at the parking lot of the church on Military Road, opening one chute at a time as thousands of wriggling catfish descended down a ramp and into an open trailer where the fish could be distributed to peo-

ple carrying ice coolers.The catfish, weighing anywhere

from 5 to 25 pounds or more, may have been too large for the commer-cial market — two pounds is the pre-ferred size — but were a godsend to those who turned out for the event.

“One of these fish could prob-ably feed a whole family,” said St. James Pastor Dwight Prowell, watching as a volunteer held aloft a monstrous albino catfish that likely weighed 25 pounds or more.

“We had been get-ting fruits and vege-tables to give out, but we wanted something different,” Prowell said. “The first idea was to find some meat and we got hooked up with the fish company. You can see, it was a big success. Everybody likes catfish.”

Local church’s food program distributes five tons of live catfish to those in need

‘EVERYBODY LIKES CATFISH’

Priester

BY ISABELLE ALTMANialtman@cdispatch.com

S t a rk v i l l e - Ok t ibb eha Consolidated School District administrators presented a proposed budget of about $64.5 million in expenditures for Fiscal Year 2020-2021 at the school board’s meeting Tuesday night, about $2.5 million more than expected revenues.

While the state Legisla-ture has not yet passed an education budget approved by the governor, SOCSD

Chief Financial Officer Tam-mie McGarr presented what she called a “conservative estimate” of $61,972,004 in revenues, almost $30 million of which will come from local sources and another $25 mil-lion of which she projects to come from the state.

“That ($2.5 million differ-ence) would be taken out of our reserves,” SOCSD Su-perintendent Eddie Peasant said.

McGarr specified the $2.5 million will come out of funds reserved from pre-

vious years in the district’s construct ion, debt service and other bud-gets. In its re-serve fund at the end of last fiscal year, the district had a little over $12 million in reserves.

McGarr had previously told the school board the district might see a funding cut from the state as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and that state legislators had warned school districts they may have to dip into reserve funds for the upcoming school year.

In the proposed budget she presented Tuesday, Mc-Garr projected the district will receive $22,879,257 in Mississippi Adequate Ed-ucation Program funds, about a 2-percent decrease from last year’s allocation of $23,346,181.

However, she said the dis-trict does not expect to need a tax increase to help cover the shortfall. While the dis-trict will request $27,875,294 in operational ad valorem taxes — about a $1.2 million increase from last year — the increase will come from new properties paying taxes.

“We are not asking for

SOCSD presents tentative budget pending Legislature’s approval of school district allocationsDistrict will not ask for tax increase; $2.5M shortfall to be covered by reserve funds

See BUSINESS, 3A

Peasant

Prowell

See SOCSD, 6A

CPD searching for man missing since July 14DISPATCH STAFF REPORT

Police are search-ing for a Columbus man last seen July 14, according to a press release from the city this morn-ing.

James Ryan Tay-lor, 39, who lives on Plymouth Road, was last seen driving a silver Ford Fiesta with the license plate LTE 7723. He has brown hair and brown eyes and was wearing a white t-shirt and jeans.

See MISSING, 6A

Taylor

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com2A THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2020

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MINNEAPOLIS — Incarcerated people and their fam-ilies said they are c l o s e l y w a t c h i n g c o n g r e s -sional de-bates about the next COVID-19 relief bill for proposed legislation that would drastically push down the cost of prison and jail phone calls.

For years, they have advocated lowering rates that run as high as $25 for a 15-minute call. Now, they said, with the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, the costs are especially debilitating, separating families at a crucial time.

“It’s hard for guys try-ing to be husbands, trying

to be fathers, trying to do the right thing,” Thomas Gant, who is incarcerat-ed at Wende Correctional Facility in New York, said Tuesday. He said the sus-pension of most in-person visits at facilities nation-wide have made calls back home even more im-portant.

The coronavirus out-break has put a spot-light on the conditions in America’s prisons and jails, which house more than 2.2 million people, with people of color mak-ing up a disproportionate number of those impris-oned. Overcrowding, substandard medical ser-vices, and a shortage of masks and disinfectants have made correctional facilities incubators of disease.

People in correctional facilities are 300 percent more likely to get coro-

navirus and 500 percent more likely to succumb to the virus, according to a study by researchers at Johns Hopkins and UCLA published this month in the Journal of the Ameri-can Medical Association.

Adnan Khan, Execu-tive Director of Restore Justice, is fielding calls from families with rela-tives inside San Quentin State Prison in California, which has been especially hard hit by the coronavi-rus in recent weeks and is now in lockdown.

“It’s been heartbreak-ing. If we do contact trac-ing for mental health, how much of that would be linked to prisons?” said Khan, who is familiar with that anxiety and stress. He was released from San Quentin last year after serving 16 years.

In May, the U.S. House passed the Mar-

tha Wright Phone Justice Act as part of its stimulus bill, which would give the FCC authority to regulate all prison and jail calls, including the 80 percent that originate and end in the same state also known as instate calls — something currently barred by a 2017 Court of Appeals ruling.

Senate Majority Lead-er Mitch McConnell and Senate Chair of the Com-merce Committee Roger Wicker of Mississippi will be the key decision-mak-ers on whether this leg-islation makes it into the Senate’s stimulus bill ex-pected this week.

In a letter to the pres-ident of the National As-sociation of Regulatory Utility Commissioners on Monday, Federal Com-munications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai noted that the FCC recently capped rates for inter-state calls — those that cross state lines, which the FCC does have au-

thority to regulate — at 21 cents for prepaid calls and 25 cents for collect calls. And last week, the FCC proposed a cut to the rate caps that would bring them down to 14 cents per minute in prisons and 16 cents per minute in jails.

But that will take time

to implement, and inter-state calls represent only 20 percent of all calls made from prisons and jails nationally, he wrote, pointing to the clear lim-itations of the FCC’s au-thority to address “the burden of egregious rates.”

Incarcerated people look to Senate to cap prison phone ratesMitch McConnell, Roger Wicker will be key decision-makers on whether legislation makes it into next stimulus bill

BY REBECCA SANTANA AND JONATHAN DREW The Associated Press

CLINTON, La. — The statue of the anonymous Confederate soldier has stood in front of the white-columned East Fe-liciana Parish courthouse for more than a century, leaning on his rifle as he looks down on trucks hauling timber and res-idents visiting the bank across the street.

It withstood an attempt to remove it in 2016. The local doctor who asked the southeast Louisiana parish to move it lost two friends in the controver-sy, but the statue stayed. In 2018, a Black man who was a defendant in a tri-al petitioned to have his case moved, saying the statue was a symbol of racism. He lost that fight, and the statue stood.

Now, as protests sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minne-apolis focus attention on the hundreds of Confed-erate statues still stand-ing across the Southern landscape, officials in the rural parish of roughly 20,000 people have vot-ed 5-3 to leave the statue where it is.

In recent weeks, doz-ens of Confederate stat-ues have fallen across the country — often in more liberal-leaning urban cen-ters. But in many smaller places like Clinton, the effort to remove markers that many view as racist relics has stalled or has yet to arrive.

John Sanders, a Black businessman and min-ister in Clinton, wants the statue removed and thought the national spot-light on the issue present-ed a slight chance that parish officials would vote to move it. But if not now, he thinks it will happen — some day.

“I think that it has to come up again. It’s not a matter of ‘if.’ It has to come up again, and the reason I say that is that

there is no way that we can sit around and be on the wrong side of history,” he said.

At least 63 Confeder-ate statues, monuments or markers have been re-moved from public land across the country since Floyd’s death on May 25, making 2020 one of the busiest years yet for removals, according to an Associated Press tal-ly. Most were removed by government officials, though protesters have toppled some.

All but eight have come down in cities or metro-politan areas larger than 50,000 people. Most of the areas lean politically left, with 41 of the monuments removed in counties or equivalent areas that vot-ed Democratic in the 2016 presidential election.

AP’s exclusive tally verified removals through government announce-ments, AP news coverage and other sources, then analyzed them based on census data and voting patterns.

Still, in a sign that the removal movement might be spreading, local gov-ernments in several less populous areas of Mis-sissippi, Louisiana and South Carolina have re-cently approved removals but not yet taken down the monuments.

The sheer number of Confederate monuments still standing shows the enormous task for those seeking removals: More than 700 remain on pub-lic land, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Laws that protect the monuments in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee

are slowing efforts. Vir-ginia this year amended a similar law to let local governments take statues down.

“It’s unclear how long this will continue, wheth-er this is going to be a full movement that really

leads to a cascade effect where more and more are removed,” said Adam Domby, a College of Charleston historian who wrote “The False Cause: Fraud, Fabrication, and White Supremacy in Con-federate Memory.”

Nationwide push to remove Confederate monuments stalls in rural AmericaLaws protecting monuments in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee are slowing efforts

INSIDEn RELIEF BILL: Senate Republicans, White House closer on next COVID bill.

Page 5A

House votes to remove Confederate statues from CapitolTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — The House has approved a bill to remove statues of Gen. Robert E. Lee and other Confed-erate leaders from the U.S. Capitol, as a reckoning over racial injustice con-tinues following the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minne-apolis.

The House vote also would remove a bust of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, the author of the 1857 Dred Scott de-cision that declared African Americans couldn’t be citizens.

The bill directs the Architect of the Capitol to identify and eventually remove from Statuary Hall at least 10 statues honoring Confederate officials, including Lee, the commanding gener-al of the Confederate Army, and Jeffer-

son Davis, the Confederate president. Three statues honoring white suprem-acists — including former U.S. Vice President John C. Calhoun of South Carolina — would be immediately re-moved.

“Defenders and purveyors of sedi-tion, slavery, segregation and white su-premacy have no place in this temple of liberty,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said at a Capitol news confer-ence ahead of the House vote.

The House approved the bill 305-113, sending it to the Republican-con-trolled Senate, where prospects are uncertain. Seventy-two Republicans, including House Minority Leader Kev-in McCarthy of California and Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana, joined with 232 Democrats to support the bill.

Cheap thrills.Go for a walk.

SOLUNAR TABLEThe solunar period indicates peak-feeding times for fish and game.

Courtesy of Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks

Thurs. Fri.MajorMinorMajorMinor

3:26a9:31a3:53p10:27p

4:19a10:38a4:44p11:04p

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Entered at the post office at Columbus, Mississippi. Periodicals postage paid at Columbus, MSPOSTMASTER, Send address changes to:

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The DispaTch

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2020 3A

BY LEAH WILLINGHAM Associated Press/Report for America

JACKSON — Mississippi’s leaders continued to express concern Wednesday over the

impact that rapidly increasing cases of coronavirus and hos-pitalizations will have on the state’s health care system.

The Mississippi State De-

partment of Health reported that 490 people were hospital-ized with COVID-19 on June 27, followed by 602 on July 1. On Wednesday, 942 people were hospitalized with the virus.

“That is a 55 percent in-crease in patients in the month of July,” Gov. Tate Reeves said at a media briefing. “We’ve added over 340 patients in less

than three weeks, in less than 20 days.”

Reeves and State Health Of-ficer Thomas Dobbs have re-peatedly warned in recent days that hospitals in Mississippi are running out of beds. In the past week, the state’s top hospitals have had from zero to only a handful of beds available for ur-gent patients.

At Wednesday’s briefing, Reeves once again implored Mississippians to wear masks. He referred to President Don-ald Trump tweeting Monday that wearing a mask is patriotic.

“If you love the president, join him, be patriotic and wear a mask,” Reeves said. “If you don’t like the president, then just wear a mask to spite him.”

Hospitalizations increase by more than 50 percent in weeksIn the past week, Mississippi’s top hospitals have had from zero to only a handful of beds available for urgent patients

BY GARRICK HODGEghodge@cdispatch.com

Unemployment num-bers ticked up slightly in June across Lowndes, Clay and Oktibbeha coun-ties, yet statewide unem-ployment numbers contin-ued to decrease according to preliminary statistics released Tuesday by the

Mississippi Department of Employment Security.

Clay County is ranked 76th out of Mississippi’s 82 counties, the seventh worst mark statewide, with an unemployment rate at 14.5 percent, a slight increase from its 14.4 percent mark in May. An estimated 1,130 people

are out of work. In June, West Point

Ward 4 Selectman Keith McBrayer told The Dis-patch the unemployment figure is “still nowhere near where we want it to be.”

Noxubee County is right behind West Point at 77th with a 14.7 per-

cent unemployment rate in June, with an estimated 560 residents out of work. Noxubee’s unemployment rate spiked from 12.6 per-cent in May, which was a stark decline from a yearly high rate of 17 percent in April.

Lowndes County had a 10.7 unemployment rate

in June compared to 10.4 percent in May, ranking it 55th in Mississippi with an estimated 2,540 people unemployed.

Lastly, Oktibbeha County went from a rate of 9.2 percent in May to 9.9 percent in June, with an es-timated 2,110 residents out of work. Oktibbeha Coun-

ty’s unemployment rate ranks 44th in Mississippi.

For the month of June, Mississippi saw a state-wide unemployment rate of 9.7 percent.

Statewide unemploy-ment hit a yearly-high in April at 15.7 percent before decreasing to 10.4 percent in May.

Unemployment in Golden Triangle up slightly in June

AREA ARRESTSThe following arrests

were made by Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office:

n Taforest Chandler, 38, was charged with pos-session of a weapon by a felon.

n Sara Gibson, 35, was charged with possession of methamphetamine.

n Barry Jennings, 31, was charged with posses-sion of marijuana more than an ounce and posses-sion of cocaine.

n Donta Kirby, 36, was charged with possession of a weapon by a felon.

n Evelyn McBryde, 41, was charged with posses-sion of methamphetamine.

The following arrests were made by the Oktib-beha County Sheriff’s Of-fice:

n Napoleon Holbert, 50, was charged with flee-ing the law.

n Willis Miller, 42, was charged with a bench war-rant.

n Chadquavin Rice, 20, was charged with MDOC hold, possession of a sto-len firearm and posses-sion of a weapon by a felon.

n Octavious McMul-len; 20, was charged with hold for other agency and two counts burglary of a vehicle.

n Sebastian Freyre, 21,

was charges with fraud.n Kenny Ward, 34, was

charged with grand larce-ny.

n Tommy Dora, 27, was charged with possession of a weapon by a felon.

n Darius McGee, 23,

was charged with child abuse and aggravated do-mestic assault.

n Jawanz Frazier, 22, was charged with pos-session of controlled sub-stance.

n David Stepp, 29, was

charged with aggravated domestic assault and leav-ing the scene of an acci-dent.

n Lexus Weaver, 24, was charged with two counts possession of weapon by a felon, sale of

cocaine and MDOC hold. n RB Varner, 30, was

charged with MDOC HOLD and disorderly con-duct.

n Clinton Williams, 67, was charged with DUI 3rd offense.

DoraWard

FreyreMcMullenRiceMiller

WilliamsVarnerWeaverSteppFrazierMcGee

HolbertMcBrydeKirbyJenningsGibsonChandler

BusinessContinued from Page 1A

venience store, but now, Sherrod said he’s happy and ready to open.

“We’re almost there,” he added. “I’m always getting good feedback. But if the people love the barbecue, I know they’re going to love the rest of the menu. I’m going to keep the flavors coming.”

Be sure to check out the new restaurant on the block and get a hot plate for lunch or dinner on Friday or Saturday.

Speaking of restau-rants, Columbus has

added another Mexican restaurant to its reper-toire. Jalisco’s Mexican Grill, 1921 Hwy. 45 N., just opened on Monday. Jalisco’s is located in the former La Fiesta build-ing, which closed in 2018.

When you’re feeling a hankering for some chips and salsa, give Jalisco’s a try Sunday through Thursdays 11 a.m.-10 p.m. and Friday and Sat-urdays until 10:30 p.m.

Moving back to Main Street, you may have seen a building listed

for sale. Frye Tile, 2102 Main St., is officially list-ed for sale. Kenny Frye confirmed the building’s listing to The Dispatch. Frye added Frye Tile closed its tile store ap-proximately five months ago to primarily focus on house construction.

Also downtown, a new Pilates studio is having its soft opening this weekend.

Studio Pilates, 115 Fifth St. S., will offer var-ious small-group classes to help those looking to

increase their health and wellness.

For those interested in a sneak peek of the new space head over to Fifth Street Friday 5:30-7 p.m., Saturday 9-11 a.m. and Sunday 1:30-3:30 p.m.

Owner and found-er, Laura Vernon, will instruct various Reformer Pilates classes for clients. For those concerned with COVID-19, Vernon said classes will be incredibly small, with no more than four at a time. Machines and areas will also be dis-

infected regularly before new clients come inside.

Initially Vernon hoped to open in May; however, COVID-19 took its course right after she signed her lease. Just shy of August, her dream for more than a decade is finally coming true.

“I wanted to do it for the past 15 years,” Vernon said. “This spring I fell in love with the building. I thought, ‘It’s now or never.’ I signed my lease in March and COVID shut us down

almost immediately.”Vernon added that

Pilates classes are for everyone, men and wom-en, who are looking to strengthen muscles, burn calories and even recover from injuries. The classes are designed for all body types and starting points.

Interested clients can view class schedules and prices online at www.studiopilatesms.com. Be sure to stay up to date and give Studio Pilates a follow on social media.

4A THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2020

OpinionPETER BIRNEY IMES Editor/PublisherBIRNEY IMES III Editor/Publisher 1998-2018BIRNEY IMES JR. Editor/Publisher 1947-2003BIRNEY IMES SR. Editor/Publisher 1922-1947

ZACK PLAIR, Managing EditorBETH PROFFITT Advertising DirectorMICHAEL FLOYD Circulation/Production ManagerMARY ANN HARDY ControllerDispatch

the

SLIMANTICS

It’s more than a gameA s the

COVID-19 pandemic

continues unabated into the summer, Americans are grappling with the consequences. We remain justifiably concerned about the financial and health impacts and are beginning to realize that we are nowhere close to a resolution.

It’s likely to get worse than better. Our President, who has never been wrong about anything and is better at recognizing a picture of an elephant than anyone in recorded history, says so.

Along with the sickness and death and financial strain, the virus has taken a psychological toll, too. We are, by nature, social beings and restraints — either dictated or self-imposed — have left us all feeling a little isolated, maybe even lonely.

In times of chaos, we look for signs of normalcy, a reason to be optimistic.

For a lot of people, what happened Wednesday provided a little tonic for what ails us psychologically.

Eight Major League Baseball games were played Wednesday, marking the beginning of a season that normally begins in April.

It’s a much-truncated season to be sure. Instead of 162 games, teams will play just 60, most of them against division rivals. There will be no cross-country road trips. Of greater significance, all games will be played in empty stadiums.

Even so, it’s still baseball and that matters.

Each year, about 70 million people attend Major League Baseball games, which speaks to the games’ continuing popularity.

So, even though people cannot attend the games, the interest in them remains.

Those who aren’t baseball fans might be inclined to be dismissive of the significance of Wednesday’s Opening Day.

But historically, baseball — once considered “as American as apple pie” — remains a reliable institution.

Our nation has not faced times this uncertain since the opening days of World War II.

Back then, there was some question if baseball should resume, given the great challenge our nation faced. Some believed it unseemly to play the game as American boys were sent to the Pacific and Europe to fight and bleed and die.

There were misgivings even in the highest ranks of the game.

In January of 1942, just weeks after Pearl Harbor, Baseball Commissioner Kennesaw Landis asked President Roosevelt to make the decision on whether or not to continue with the 1942 season.

FDR responded with a resounding “yes.”

“I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going,” FDR wrote Landis. “There will be fewer people unemployed and everybody will work longer hours and harder than ever before. And that means that they ought to have a chance for recreation and for taking their minds off their work even more than before.”

The 1942 baseball season proceeded as scheduled using a mix of players too old or too young to serve or those deemed 4F and disqualified for service. That was the year that gave us Pete Brown, a one-armed outfielder with the St. Louis Browns. That a player with just one arm could make a big league roster tells you all you need to know about the quality of players available.

But it didn’t matter. People came, watched, cheered. For them, it was not just a diversion, it was a symbol of defiance, of persistence, and resiliency.

It was a belief that the struggles America faced, painful as they were, would someday end. America would recover. Baseball was a symbol of that unconquerable spirit.

Today, we face a different but no less grave challenge.

But America is playing baseball.We ain’t licked yet. Not by a long shot.Slim Smith is a columnist and feature

writer for The Dispatch. His email address is ssmith@cdispatch.com.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Voice of the peopleProposes moving only monument statues with private funds

In recent letters to The Dispatch, Jere Wineman and George Hazard Jr. proposed our Confederate monu-ment be moved to Friendship Cem-etery but without the base. Local historian Rufus Ward has told me he favors the same strategy. Mr. Ward said state statutes prohibit making changes to war monuments but he is sure the Dept. of Archives and Histo-ry would approve a move without the base. Leaving the base in place and mounting the monument on a slab at the cemetery would save some money and lower the overall height, but not by much in either case. The base is 30 inches high and the monument rises another 28 1/2 feet above the base. An early estimate of the relocation cost was $70,000 and a subsequent guess was $100,000. And even at 28 1/2 feet, the monument would be overwhelming in the Civil War section of Friendship Cemetery.

I propose instead of moving the monument, with or without the base, we move just the three statues that are affixed to the monument. But can we do that?

The first statute addressing such matters is ironclad:

(1) None of the following items, structures or areas may be relocated, removed, disturbed, altered, renamed or rededicated: Any Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican-Amer-ican War, War Between the States, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Persian Gulf War, War in Iraq or Native American War’s statues, monuments, memorials or nameplates (plaques), which have been erected on public property of the state or any of its political subdivisions, such as local, municipal or county owned public areas, and any statues, monuments, memorials, nameplates (plaques), schools, streets, bridges, buildings, parks preserves, reserves or other pub-lic items, structure or areas of the state or any of its political subdivisions, such as, local, municipal or county owned public areas, which have been dedicated in memory of, or named for, any historical military figure, histori-cal military event, military organiza-tion or military unit.

However, the next paragraph grants some latitude in dealing with unpredictable realities. This statute was passed in 2004, by the way, and it seems that the legislators were anticipating conditions such as we face now:

(2) No person may prevent the pub-

lic body responsible for maintaining any of the items, structures or areas described above from taking proper measures and exercising proper means for the protection, preservation, care, repair or restoration of those items, structures or areas. The governing body may move the memorial to a more suitable location if it is deter-mined that the location is more appro-priate to displaying the monument.

This language suggests that local authorities acting in good faith and with common sense have great leeway in resolving issues with war monu-ments.

Each statue is six feet tall and, standing on simple bases, they would be in proportion to the site at Friendship. Both Union and Confed-erate dead are buried at the site, and the statues can’t be identified one way or the other. The cost of moving the statues would be a fraction of the cost of moving the entire monument, even if the base was not moved.

The monument was erected with private funds and I think that any costs involving changes should be covered by private contributions. I spoke to a half-dozen friends and all but one said they would contribute. The exception thought the monu-ment should be moved but wanted the city to pay for it. Everyone agreed that local black leaders have shown maturity and restraint in dealing with this issue and that it is important to resolve it cooperatively.

Using private money to make the changes would eliminate the need to hire an engineer to oversee the work and would help insulate us from any unwanted meddling by the Dept. of Archives and History.

The monument without the statues would remain an attractive complement to the courthouse — es-sentially a weathered marble gazebo. The architectural components are similar — in fact, the monument dome is almost identical to the court-house dome. The inscriptions could be sandblasted away or veneered with new marble, but it’s possible that with the statues gone these inscriptions, and in fact the entire structure, might be viewed differ-ently.

Roger LarsenColumbus

Concerned with ‘surge’ in American cities

I wish to respond to Mr. Ramirez’s cartoon from July 22. No one, I think, objects to the arrest of people committing the crimes listed in the

cartoon. People do object to the gen-eralization that everybody protesting is committing these crimes. When police — local or federal — arrest people simply for being present during a protest, they ARE violating their constitutional rights.

In Crimea, then a province of Ukraine, Russian troops arrived to protect ethnic Russians there. Now, Crimea is effectively a Rus-sian province. This is called Casus Belli, and is usually more contrived than real. It is nearly always used to justify coups d’etat. Protecting federal property strikes me as a casus belli. It would be a stretch to call the deployment of federal troops in cities with Democratic mayors, or in states with Democratic governors, a coup d’etat, but it has that flavor. This comes very close to violating the Posse Comitatus Act, as no nuclear weapons, drugs, or WMDs are involved. No one, as far as I have read, is attempting to overthrow the government. I say nearly, because the federal agents involved are not officially military, but one would never know that by looking at them. Since they do not identify them-selves, we do not know who or what they are. This idea is heightened by President Trump’s use of the term “surge” to describe his deployments. This is the term used by President Bush in 2006 to describe deploying 20,000 troops to Afghanistan, and again later in 2009 to “target and eliminate terrorist leaders.” Portland as Kabul.

Bill GillmoreColumbus

Celebrates Kylin HillThank God for everyone he

empowered to help Kylin Hill become the man He is. Ms. Hill, I’m super proud of you and your love and sup-port of your son.

Glory to God! Kylin Hill is a change-maker.

Pat Fisher DouglasColumbus

A letter to the editor is an excellent way to participate in your community. We request the tone of your letters be constructive and respectful and the length be limited to 450 words. We re-serve the right to edit letters for clarity, grammar and length. While commen-tary on national issues is always wel-come, we limit candidate endorsements to one per letter-writer. We welcome all letters emailed to voice@cdispatch.com or mailed to The Dispatch, Attn: Letters to the Editor, PO Box 511, Columbus, MS 39703-0511.

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The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2020 5A

BY LISA MASCARO AP Congressional Correspondent

WASHINGTON — Senate Ma-jority Leader Mitch McConnell is set to unveil a $1 trillion COVID-19 rescue package on Thursday, push-ing past a Republican revolt over big spending and differences with the White House as the virus crisis worsens.

The package, called CARES II, is made up of separate bills from 10 senators as McConnell seeks to rep-licate an earlier strategy to launch negotiations with Democrats. But the path will be tougher this time. GOP senators and President Don-ald Trump are at odds over prior-ities, and Democrats say it’s not nearly enough to stem the health crisis, reopen schools and extend aid to jobless Americans.

The Republican leader is expect-ed to deliver a speech shortly after the Senate opens, and then senators will begin rolling out their separate parts of the package, according to

a Republican granted anonymity to discuss the plans.

“Very productive meeting,” Trea-sury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said while exiting a session late Wednesday at the Capitol.

The centerpiece of the GOP effort remains McConnell’s liabil-ity shield to protect businesses, schools and others from coronavi-rus-related lawsuits.

The package is not expected to provide any new money for cash-strapped states and cities, which are clamoring for funds, but Repub-licans propose giving $105 billion to help schools reopen and $15 bil-lion for child care centers to create safe environments for youngsters during the pandemic.

The $600 weekly unemployment benefit boost that is expiring Friday will be reduced, likely to $200, and ultimately adjusted according to state jobless benefits rates. Some Republicans say the boost is a disin-centive to work, but others prefer a phased approach.

“We cannot allow there to be a cliff in unemployment insurance given we’re still at about 11 percent unemployment,” said Sen. Rob Port-man, R-Ohio.

The bill is likely to be silent on the potential housing crisis as a federal eviction moratorium on mil-lions of rental units expires in days.

One key holdup in the talks was Trump’s push for a payroll tax cut, according to a Republican granted anonymity to discuss the private talks. Hardly any GOP senators sup-port the idea. Instead, McConnell and some other Republicans prefer another round of direct $1,200 cash payments to Americans.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said there will be another boost for small business lending in the Paycheck Protection Program. “It’s going to be big,” he said.

The bills will also include tax breaks for businesses to hire and re-tain workers and to help shops and workplaces retool with new safety protocols.

The breakthrough on testing money was key after days of debate between Republicans and the White House.

McConnell set to unveil new virus aid, despite Republican revoltThe $600 weekly unemployment benefit boost that is expiring Friday will be reduced, likely to $200

BY COLLIN BINKLEY AND HANNAH FINGERHUTThe Associated Press

BOSTON — Virtual instruction. Mandated masks. Physical distanc-ing. The start of school will look very different this year because of the coronavirus — and that’s OK with the vast majority of Americans.

Only about 1 in 10 Americans think daycare centers, preschools or K-12 schools should open this fall without restric-

tions, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs. Most think mask requirements and other safety measures are necessary to restart in-person instruction, and roughly 3 in 10 say that teaching kids in class-rooms shouldn’t happen at all.

The findings are a sharp contrast to the picture that President Donald Trump paints as he pressures schools

to reopen. Trump said Wednesday that he would be “comfortable” with his son Barron and grand-children attending school in person this fall.

“I would like to see the schools open,” he told re-porters.

Few schools, however, plan to return to business as usual. Many of the na-tion’s largest school dis-tricts have announced that they’ll be entirely vir-tual in the fall or use a hy-brid model that has chil-dren in classrooms only a couple of days a week.

The poll finds only 8 percent of Americans say K-12 schools should

open for normal in-per-son instruction. Just 14 percent think they can reopen with minor adjust-ments, while 46 percent think major adjustments are needed. Another 31 percent think instruction should not be in person this fall. It’s little differ-ent among the parents of school-age children.

The poll also shows Americans feel the same about colleges and univer-sities reopening this fall.

AP-NORC poll: Very few Americans back full school reopeningRoughly 3 in 10 say that teaching kids in classrooms shouldn’t happen at all

BY COLLEEN LONG AND JILL COLVIN The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced he will send feder-al agents to Chicago and Albuquerque, New Mexico, to help combat rising crime, expanding the administration’s intervention into local enforcement as he runs for reelection under a “law and order” mantle.

Using the same alarmist language he has employed to describe illegal im-migration, Trump painted Democrat-led cities as out of control and lashed out at the “radical left,” which he blamed for rising violence in some cities, even

though criminal justice experts say it de-fies easy explanation.

“In recent weeks there has been a rad-ical movement to defund, dismantle and dissolve our police department,” Trump said Wednesday at a White House event, blaming the movement for “a shocking explosion of shootings, killings, mur-ders and heinous crimes of violence.”

“This bloodshed must end,” he said. “This bloodshed will end.”

The decision to dispatch federal agents to American cities is playing out at a hyperpoliticized moment when Trump is grasping for a new reelection strategy after the coronavirus upended the economy, dismantling what his cam-paign had seen as his ticket to a second term. With less than four months until Election Day, Trump has been warning that violence will worsen if his Demo-cratic rival Joe Biden is elected in No-vember and Democrats have a chance to make the police reforms they have en-dorsed after the killing of George Floyd and nationwide protests demanding ra-cial justice.

Trump deploys more federal agents under ‘law and order’ pushPresident painted Democrat-led cities as out of control and lashed out at the ‘radical left,’ which he blamed for rising violence

BY WILL WEISSERT The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Joe Biden said Wednesday that President Donald Trump was the country’s “first” racist president.

The presumptive Dem-ocratic presidential nom-inee’s comments came during a virtual town hall organized by the Service Employees International Union. When a questioner complained of racism sur-rounding the coronavirus outbreak and mentioned the president referring to it as the “China vi-rus,” Biden responded by

blasting Trump and “his spread of racism.”

“The way he deals with people based on the color of their skin, their nation-al origin, where they’re from, is absolutely sick-ening,” the former vice president said. “No sitting president has ever done this. Never, never, never. No Republican president has done this. No Dem-ocratic president. We’ve had racists, and they’ve existed. They’ve tried to get elected president. He’s the first one that has.”

Biden also suggested that Trump is using race “as a wedge” to distract

from his mishandling of the pandemic.

Many presidents — in-cluding the nation’s first, George Washington — owned slaves.

President Woodrow Wilson, the country’s 28th president, is having his name removed from Princeton University’s public policy school after recent protests against institutional racism and police brutality. Wilson, who served in the early 20th century, supported segregation and imposed it on several federal agen-cies.

Biden calls Trump the country’s ‘first’ racist president

BY EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS The Associated Press

JACKSON — Charles Evers, who led an eclectic life as a civil rights leader, onetime purveyor of illegal liquor in Chicago, history-making Black mayor in deeply segregated Mississippi and contrarian with connections to prominent national Democrats and Republicans, died Wednesday. He was 97.

Evers — who was the older brother of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers — died of “natural causes” at a home in the Jackson, Mississippi, suburb of Brandon, where he was surrounded by rela-tives, Rankin County Coroner Da-vid Ruth told The Associated Press. Ruth said the cause of death was not the coronavirus, and no autopsy is planned.

Charles and Medgar Evers both served in the military during World War II, and they became active in the NAACP when they returned to their home state of Mississippi and continued to face discrimination.

Medgar Evers had been field sec-retary for the Mississippi NAACP for more than eight years when he was assassinated outside his Jack-son home in June 1963. In 1968, a former fertilizer salesman and self-avowed white supremacist, Byron De La Beckwith, went on trial twice in the killing, but all-white juries

deadlocked and did not convict him.The case was later revived, and

a jury of eight African Americans and four white people convicted Beckwith of murder in 1994. The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld that conviction in 1997.

“Before, the killer of a Black man would go free. Now we know you just can’t go out and kill a Black man or woman and nothing is done,” Charles Evers said after that Supreme Court decision. “Justice finally came.”

Charles Evers was appointed to lead the Mississippi NAACP after his brother was killed. In 1969, he was elected mayor of the southwest-ern Mississippi town of Fayette, becoming the first Black mayor of a multiracial town in the state since Reconstruction.

During his long career, Charles Evers ran several businesses in Chi-cago and Mississippi. A Mississippi Blues Trail marker commemorates his career as a concert promoter with blues legend B.B. King, and it notes that Charles Evers was once in the bootleg liquor business.

In his office at a Jackson radio sta-tion in 2008, Evers displayed photos of himself with two former Republi-can presidents, Richard Nixon and George W. Bush; and with Demo-crat Robert F. Kennedy. As the U.S. attorney general, Robert Kennedy sat with Charles Evers at the funer-

al of Medgar Evers. Charles Evers worked on Robert Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign and with him the day Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles. Evers was among the passengers on the plane that took Kennedy’s body from Los An-geles to New York.

Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi said in a statement Wednesday that Charles Evers was one of his favorite peo-ple, with a career that “covered the spectrum from his roguish youth to a respected civil rights leader, may-or, businessman and radio host.”

“Charles Evers was never afraid to challenge the accepted norms or fly in the face of political correct-ness,” Wicker said. “As an elected official, he navigated the circuitous route from Freedom Democrat to Independent to Republican. ... He used his powerful personality and platform to change Mississippi for the better.”

Evers ran unsuccessfully for an open U.S. House seat as a Demo-crat in 1968. He served on the Dem-ocratic National Committee in the mid-1970s.

He ran as an independent for Mississippi governor in 1971 and for a U.S. Senate seat in 1978. Although he lost those elections, Evers influ-enced the outcome of the Senate race by drawing support away from the Democratic candidate. That led to a victory by Republican Thad Cochran, who later became chair-man of the powerful Appropriations Committee and remained in the Senate until early 2018.

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com6A THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2020

Mississippi politico, civil rights figure Charles Evers diesCharles Evers was appointed to lead the Mississippi NAACP after his brother, Medgar Evers, was assassinated in 1963 in Jackson

SOCSDContinued from Page 1A

any increase in taxes,” she said. “...We do have an increase (in the ad va-lorem revenue), but it’s all due to the new property that’s been added to the tax rolls.”

McGarr told The Dis-patch Wednesday the board should vote on the budget at its Aug. 11 meet-ing.

“If nothing changes, it will be approved that night, and then when we get our final alloca-tion from the state, we will have to amend that budget and take that amended budget back to the board for approval,” she said.

The Legislature is currently not in session, and Rep. Rob Roberson (R-Starkville), who sits on the education commit-tee, says he doesn’t know when the Legislature will be called back to pass the

budget for schools. Earli-er this month, Gov. Tate Reeves vetoed the first such budget legislators passed because it would have changed a teacher bonus pay plan.

“There’s a possibility I would think over the next two or three weeks that we would have special session, but I haven’t been told when exact-ly to lock those times down yet,” Roberson said.

Still, he said he does not expect the education budget to have changed significantly since last year, despite the pandem-ic.

ExpendituresThe upcoming school

year’s total expendi-tures are projected at $64,435,688, according to McGarr’s presentation. That includes the dis-

trict’s operating budget as well as debt service and facilities acquisition and construction.

Salaries and fringe benefits are expected to be $39,283,407. Opera-tion and maintenance is budgeted for $4,764,060. Transportation is bud-geted at $3,127,895, and technology is budgeted at $1,040,616.

Board member Sumner Davis said overall the district appeared to be in good financial shape, despite the pandemic and delay in MAEP funds.

“Long story short, we’re in a really good budget con-dition con-sidering all of the vary-ing factors s w i r l i n g around our situat ion,” he said. “Is that a fair statement?”

Peasant said he would agree “wholeheartedly.”

McGarr

Roberson

Davis

MissingContinued from Page 1A

His family last saw him around 7 or 8 p.m. on July 14, and a family friend said they saw him around 2 a.m. the next morning, according to the press release.

Columbus Police Chief Fred Shelton said Taylor “is not in trouble” and “has many friends.” The police department is accepting calls at 800-530-7151 from anyone who has seen Taylor.

AROUND THE STATE

Mississippi Corrections Department investigates inmate death

JACKSON — The Mis-sissippi Department of Corrections said Wednes-day that it is investigating the death of an inmate at the South Mississippi Correctional Institution in Leakesville.

Nathaniel Bryan Tay-lor, 32, was taken by ambu-lance to the Greene Coun-ty Hospital on Wednesday and was pronounced dead in the emergency room. An autopsy will be done.

Taylor was at least the 54th Mississippi inmate to die since late Decem-ber. Several inmates died during outbursts of vio-lence in late December and early January. The

U.S. Justice Department announced in February that it is investigating Mississippi’s prison sys-tem.

Taylor was serving 20 years for four convic-tions. He was convicted of robbery in Washington County and armed rob-bery, possession of stolen property and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in Leflore County. He was sentenced April 4, 2015, for the first convic-tion and Feb. 12, 2016, for the other three crimes.

Prominent restaurant owner indicted in April shooting

JACKSON — The own-er of a prominent restau-rant in Mississippi has been indicted on a murder charge in the April shoot-

ing of a man outside the li-quor store she also owns.

A Hines County grand jury handed up indict-ments last month against Greta Brown-Bully for murder, drive-by shoot-ing and tampering with evidence, according to the Clarion Ledge r.

Larry Lee, 65, was shot several times on April 24 outside of Brown-Bully’s Jackson liquor store.

Brown-Bully shot Lee from inside her SUV and reset or deleted items from her smartphone af-ter learning police issued a search warrant, accord-ing to the indictments.

Brown-Bully’s lawyer told the newspaper she acted in self-defense af-ter she closed her liquor store and Lee came up to her vehicle.

“I think any reason-

able person will feel this shooting was justifiable,” defense attorney Trent Walker said.

Brown-Bully and her husband, Tyrone Bully, own Bully’s Restaurant. The restaurant won a James Beard America’s Classic award in 2016.

BY BEN PORTNOYbportnoy@cdispatch.com

STARKVILLE — After conclud-ing his Mississippi State career by becoming the second player in his-tory to lead the Southeastern Con-ference in batting average, home runs and RBIs, Brent Rooker has climbed the minor league ladder in short order.

In the three years since his final season in Starkville, Rooker has hit a .267 with 54 home runs and 178 RBIs between varying levels of the Minnesota Twins organization. Now entering his fourth profes-sional season, he’s among the 60 players in the Twins’ 60-player pool ahead of this fall’s COVID-19-short-ened campaign.

With MLB teams set for Opening Day on Thursday, Rooker caught up with The Dispatch this week to discuss his offseason, training with the Twins and adjustments he’s made since last season:

Ben Portnoy: To start off, what have the last couple weeks been like with the MLB getting back go-ing and kind of being in a bubble with everything going on?

Brent Rooker: First of all it’s been really good to be back and get to do baseball stuff again. Kind of get back to you know a little bit of a little bit of normalness. So that’s

been good. As far as the bubble stuff goes, I think the league as a whole, individual teams, are doing a really good job with it. The test-ing numbers have all been really good. They’ve gone down I think every time every round of test-ing we’ve had so far, so what we’re doing is working and I think everyone’s even more optimistic now than they were at the beginning that we real-ly are going to get through a whole season.

BP: Last time we talked, we dis-cussed this being a year you wanted to make that jump from the minors to the majors. What’s that been like for you and how did you find out you were in the 60-player pool?

BR: So our pro director called me probably on a Saturday or Sun-day, I think. We had to be here by Friday, so it was kind of a quick turnaround. But we were all follow-ing it and kind of what was going on with negotiations and stuff. So we all kind of knew that we were get-ting close to being able to get back and get started again. It wasn’t a huge surprise but at the same time it was really exciting to kind of hear the news that we get to get back and get back to work.

BP: With that, what’s it been like now being in major league training camp and what’s the adjustment been like?

BR: Opening day for us is on Friday. (The active MLB Roster) is in Chicago right now, so our taxi squad or player pool, whatever you want to call it, we’re still in St. Paul working out. Our job is to just be ready to go whenever we’re called upon. With this being a shortened season we kind of know anything can happen and we’re all just try-ing to stay ready to go. Trying to balance getting our work in, trying to work on things, improve while at the same time making sure we’re in game shape and we’re ready to go given a moment’s notice to get that call and go off to the big league club.

BP: You kind of touched on it there, but what’s it been like being stuck in limbo, for lack of a better term, being in that extra player pool and what’s your experience been like with that?

BR: We’ve got a really good facil-ity here in St. Paul to do our work. The active roster left to go start their season in Chicago — we were doing a lot of intersquad stuff with them. Just making sure we’re now as prepared as possible for what-

SECTION

BSPORTS LINE662-241-5000Sports

THE DISPATCH n CDISPATCH.COM n THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2020

Rooker

GIRLS SOCCER

PATRIOTS AT THE ‘PINNACLE’ AHEAD OF KEY SEASONBY THEO DEROSAtderosa@cdispatch.com

When the Heritage Academy girls soccer team finished above .500 last fall but failed to quali-fy for the playoffs, the Pa-triots were disappointed.

Coach Tom Velek said the dichotomy reveals a lot with regard to the ex-pectations within the pro-gram.

“I think it says a lot when you have a winning season and people are pissed off,” Velek said.

Now, last year’s ju-nior-heavy team has become a senior-heavy squad this fall. In what Velek called a “bubble at the top,” the Patriots have seven seniors, just one junior and a sole soph-omore. That means the high expectations have only gotten higher.

“They’re going to have to step up in a way that they haven’t in the past,” Velek said of his seniors.

Haven Tuggle, Sarah Curtis, Kelly Bell, Hanna Hardy and Carly Rogers have all played for Heri-tage Academy since Velek took over when the five were in eighth grade; Tug-gle, Curtis and Bell were on Velek’s first Columbus United U8 Development Program girls team when they were 7.

“Seeing this group graduate is meaningful, but it’s also kind of the thing that you’ve been building for,” Velek said.

Back when this year’s seniors were eighth grad-ers, Velek thought, “Man, if we can keep them all playing, in four years it’s going to be huge.”

That time has come, and Velek said he tries to impress upon his seniors the responsibilities they face this fall.

“‘You’ve been working at this for a long time,” Velek tells them. “Make your senior year extraor-dinary. You’ll never regret it. You might regret not working hard, but you’ll never regret putting in ev-erything you have.’”

No clarity yetThat is, he cautioned,

if the Patriots even have a season.

As of July 15, things are on as normal for Heritage Academy, which is set to kick off the 2020 cam-paign against Starkville HomeSchool on Aug. 3. Velek said the Midsouth Association for Indepen-

dent Schools has said nothing to the contrary so far, and he’s preparing for a season to be played as normal.

“What I tell parents is that I have to schedule and plan like we’re having a season,” he said. “We might have all of the sea-son. We might have some of the season. We might

have none of the season. We might have the season in spring. But until there’s some clarity on that, we have to train.”

But Velek has his own doubts, and reading a Yahoo! Sports article ti-tled “Time to face reality: ‘No one is playing college football in the fall’” some-how didn’t help them.

“If there’s not college football, there’s proba-bly not going to be high school soccer,” he said.

So far, there still is, and the Patriots have been training for a “deep” schedule featuring two games against Columbus Christian Academy, two against Starkville Home-School and an overnight

trip to face Laurel Home-School and Presbyterian Christian on Aug. 6-7.

District games against Starkville Academy — which beat the rival Pats twice last season — and Lamar School also high-light the slate.

“I’m looking forward to Lamar just so we can

Garrick Hodge/Dispatch file photoHeritage Academy’s Sarah Curtis, left, battles for control of the ball during a high school girls soccer match last season against Marshall Academy at the River Walk Soccer Complex in Columbus. The Patriots are still on pace for an on-time start for the season opener on Aug. 3.

Catching up with former MSU standout Brent Rooker Betts gets $365M, 12-year deal with Dodgers through 2032THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES — Even before Mookie Betts played his first game in Dodger Blue, the superstar outfielder decided his future is in Los Angeles.

Betts and the Dodgers have struck baseball’s first big-money deal since the coronavirus pan-demic decimated the sport’s economics, with Betts agreeing Wednesday to a $365 million, 12-year con-tract through 2032.

The massive deal removes the top offensive play-er from next offseason’s free-agent class and puts the longtime Boston Red Sox slugger in the middle of LA’s lineup for what he thinks will be the rest of his career. The Dodgers only acquired Betts in a trade Feb. 10, but he eagerly bypassed the uncer-tainties of free agency for a secure future with an organization that already feels like home.

“I just love being here,” Betts said in a video conference call from Dodger Stadium, where he will make his Dodgers debut Thursday against San Francisco. “I love everything about here. I’m here to win some rings and bring championships back to LA. That’s all I’m focused on.”

Betts’ new deal is baseball’s second-largest in total dollars behind the $426.5 million, 12-year con-tract for Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout covering 2019-30. Trout and Betts are arguably the top two outfielders in the game, and now they’ve both got deals that should keep them playing 32 miles apart for at least the next decade.

“I’m excited for him,” said Trout, who texted his See ROOKER, 2B

See HERITAGE, 2B

See BETTS, 2B

ever, whenever the need comes up that whoever gets called upon is ready to go and contribute and help the team win games.

BP: What has your off-season been like given all the uncertainty regard-ing COVID-19 and every-thing that’s come with that?

BR: I treated it just like a normal offseason. Just kind of continuing my workout routine, whatever program that was, as well as hitting, keeping the arm in shape. So I didn’t treat it any differently than I do during Novem-ber, December, January in a normally structured offseason. Just kind of a gradual build up period to make sure you’re kind of peaking when it’s time to go back and report and get started again.

BP: Where have you been working out this off-season?

BR: Before we came back to camp I was in Nashville the whole time. And then we came back to half of our camp in Minneapolis half of it in St. Paul. We got up here, I guess the last couple days of June, the first couple days July, whenever that was. So I’ve now been at St. Paul for about three weeks I guess. Before that during the shutdown while all the negotiations were happening, they were trying to figure ev-erything out, I was in Nashville.

BP: You mention main-taining a normal routine, how difficult, if at all, was it to maintain a normal workout routine like you would during a regular offseason?

BR: We had the quar-antine period where everything was closed for three or four weeks, whatever that was, and I just spent a bunch of time working out in my garage doing whatever I could do. But that’s when thing started opening back up and my workout facili-ty opened back up and I was able to pretty much mirror what a normal off-season routine would be. So it really wasn’t much different, which was nice. It made the transition to come back to spring train-ing, or summer camp, just kind of jumping right back into it, pretty easy.

BP: I know space was limited for a while, but what were one or two of the biggest things you worked on during the off-season?

BR: Nothing too spe-cific. I liked the plan that I’ve had the last few off-seasons. I felt good during the past couple seasons. But I performed well, so I just kind of get the same routine going. Obviously kind of looking at some things that happened last year offensively, some things I struggled with, some things I did well and attacking those things whether it be swing changes or adjustment to approach things like that. Maybe doing some more specific hitting drills or what have you to attack certain areas, but noth-ing crazy, nothing out of the ordinary. Just kind of making sure that I was ready to go for the first spring training and then when we got shut down, just kind of going through that whole routine again, making sure I was ready to show up and compete and continue to improve when I came back for summer camp.

BP: You talked about the hitting, I know your strikeout rate was a little higher than you wanted it to be last year, was that something you simulated or worked at this offsea-son?

BR: That was a lot of approach stuff. So you can break it down before my first month and then after that I made some adjustments after the first

month of triple-A and the 40 games I was healthy af-ter that the strikeout rate when rates went down, the walk rate went up, barrel rate went up. So I think I made a lot of those adjustments that paid off a lot during the season last year and I just kept work-ing on those things.

BP: On that front, with how crazy and uncertain this offseason has been, how encouraging was that to have righted some of those wrongs at the plate toward the tail end of last season?

BR: Yeah, it’s nice. I felt really good about the progress and the steps I’ve made at every level so far. Since being drafted I’ve, I’ve been promoted fairly quickly. I’ve moved up the minor league sys-tem and levels pretty rap-idly and at every stop, I’ve kind of struggled in the beginning and I’ve made adjustments and I’ve been able to have a lot of success at each level. So that’s encouraging for me just kind of knowing that I have the ability to learn and to adjust and to adapt to each level because that’s obviously some-thing I’m gonna need moving forward as well.

BP: With climbing the Twins’ minor league ladder as quickly as you have, what has that expe-rience been like for you?

BR: It’s been fun. Ob-viously, it’s what you want. It’s kind of what you want to get into when you get into pro ball. At the same time, it’s been a challenge

having short adjustment periods at each level, but I think that’s been good for me. It’s helped me to learn a lot and has put me in a position to hopefully get where I want to be in the near future.

(Note: this interview has been edited and for-matted for grammatical and formatting purposes)

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com2B THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2020

RookerContinued from Page 1B

have a really good game against them this year and give them all we’ve got,” said Rogers, a defen-sive midfielder.

Apart from the over-night trip and a dis-trict game at Magnolia Heights, the Patriots won’t have to travel more than 90 minutes — Velek’s intention and not an uncommon one. North-point Christian School in Southaven was slated to come to Columbus to play the Patriots on Aug. 14, but Northpoint canceled the game because the Tennessee Association of Independent Schools won’t permit such a long trip.

So far, Heritage Acade-my has been careful with temperature checks and COVID-19 checklists, but Velek knows changes could come soon. If so,

they’d come at a cost for the Patriots’ seniors, who are at the ‘pinnacle’ of their high school careers and could see their final season taken away.

“We’re just hoping and praying that we get to play,” Velek said. “To miss it would be terrible.”

Driven by defenseWith the promise

the Patriots hold, disap-pointment would be nat-ural should the season they’ve been preparing for fail to take place.

The team’s seven se-niors and a crux of talent-ed younger players will give Heritage Academy a solid foundation on the field, particularly on the back line. Though Velek said the Patriots have re-vamped how they attack and make their runs off

the ball on offense, their strength lies in defend-ing.

“We have a strong defense this year, and I think it’s really going to help us,” Rogers said.

Bell will be a leader on the back line, where she will be joined by eighth grader Sophie Starks and ninth grader Chloe Boyd. Ninth grader Reagan Merchant — now in her third season as a starter — and Hanna Hardy will contribute, though both will be moved from their normal position as out-side backs; Columbus High School transfer Destinee Flowers will also join the picture on defense.

“I think Destinee’s going to contribute in a big, big way and really help us in the back with some athleticism that

we may have been miss-ing,” Velek said.

Senior goalkeeper Haven Tuggle joins Han-na and Bell as a leader for the Patriots on the defensive side of things. Velek has coached Tug-gle since she was 7 and ranks her among the best keepers in the state, while the players in front of Tuggle can speak to her talent and leadership qualities.

“She knows what she wants on the field, and she’ll tell us without a doubt where she wants us, how she wants us to play,” Rogers said. “She takes good control of the team.”

Curtis, also being moved to a new position, will play a big role in lead-ership as well, and Velek said sophomore Caroline Milan and freshmen Kar-

en Hall and Emma Britt are expected to step up.

Apart from myriad po-sition changes, Heritage Academy switched up the formation it employs after bringing in Atlan-ta United FC Academy Head Scout Mark Farm-er for a team camp in ear-ly June.

“If these are your goals, this is what you

need to change,” Farmer told the Patriots.

Change, they did, and Heritage Academy feels confident about the sea-son to come.

“I think we’re going to have a good season,” Rogers said. “Definitely a little bit to work on, but I think we’ll have a real-ly good team — really strong.”

HeritageContinued from Page 1B

congratulations to Betts. “We kind of went through the same situation. I was laughing be-cause of the physical he proba-bly had to take, because mine lasted about 10 hours. Being so close to him now, it ’s pret-ty cool to have him out here. Southern California is great.”

Betts, who turns 28 in Oc-tober, was acquired along with pitcher David Price for three

promising Dodgers prospects in a blockbuster trade that sig-naled Los Angeles’ determina-tion to win the World Series af-ter claiming the NL pennants in 2017 and 2018.

While Price opted out of the current season because of family health concerns, Bet-ts will be at the heart of the Dodgers’ lineup as they pur-sue their first championship

in 32 years as a World Series favorite.

The deep-pocketed Dodg-ers have run their payroll with remarkable discipline under president of baseball opera-tions Andrew Friedman, even when he occasionally frustrat-ed fans with his caution. Fried-man had no such concerns about handing this massive commitment to the 5-foot-9

Betts, the 2018 AL MVP and one of the majors’ top all-around players.

“It was front of mind for us,” Friedman said. “It was some-thing we really wanted to do. ... We were hopeful that he’d get here, fall in love with it, go out there and win a bunch of games.”

Friedman began discuss-ing a long-term deal with Bet-

ts’ representatives in March before the coronavirus pan-demic upended the season. They picked up discussions again last week, and a deal was reached rapidly.

“Our desire to get some-thing done didn’t change at all,” Friedman said. “It helps when both sides are coming at it from a standpoint of wanting to get a deal done.”

BettsContinued from Page 1B

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2020 3B

Comics & PuzzlesDear AbbyDILBERT

ZITS

GARFIELD

CANDORVILLE

BABY BLUES

BEETLE BAILEY

MALLARD FILLMORE

HoroscopesTODAY’S BIRTHDAY (July

23). For your birthday, you’ll be served cosmic justice. You get more because you can handle more. New and tantalizing options open up next month. You bring the fun with you wherever you go, and you attract admirers and followers. You’ll work with a partner on an issue that matters deeply to you. Sagittarius and Aries adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 8, 11, 13, 45 and 2.

ARIES (March 21-April 19). You can thank today’s smooth ride to your own clean karma. Moral questions come up this

evening, but nothing that needs to be solved immediately. Think it over.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20). Your fantasy of a relationship doesn’t quite match the reality of it, and this is causing some tension. It’s easy enough to resolve, if you’re willing to adjust your expectations.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21). If you place too much signifi-cance and value in the wrong things, this is a human mistake. You’ll learn quickly. Experience is the only way to really under-stand what’s important and what’s not.

CANCER (June 22-July 22). The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche lived by the concept of amor fati, Latin for “a love of one’s fate.” You’ll take a similar approach to the day, deciding to love destiny’s delivery in whatev-er form it comes.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). You’re wanting a result, and you’ll get it, but the timeframe is the matter in question. It is very difficult to predict how long things will take. Be patient and willing to adjust.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). You’ve been a leader, and you’ve been a follower. When you’re acting to the best of your ability, the roles are equally demanding. You’ll be at the top of your game this afternoon.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). Don’t lean on things that worked before. The same thing that caused a triumph yesterday could be ineffective tomorrow. The importance of context cannot be underestimated. Stay awake and alert.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). You don’t need to control a situation to work it to your ad-vantage. You need only be ready to take your turn and hop on the opportunities that open up.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). You don’t have to comment on every statement or have a judgment of everything going on around you. It’s enough to be a witness. Save your energy. You’ll need it later.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). People find you attractive, and they will want your atten-tion and time. Both of these commodities are precious, and today they will be best given in the spirit of investment instead of charity.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). A sense of calm will alight on your decision-making process. There is no need to overanalyze — if you even need to analyze at all. You simply know what to do.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). You don’t have to antici-pate every outcome. Get a gen-eral idea and then act. There is an opportunity that can only present itself when things aren’t exactly going as planned.

SOLUTION:Without a backward glance

FAMILY CIRCUS

DEAR ABBY: A casual friend sent me a

video of a comic doing a very lewd and vulgar routine. I was offended by it and forwarded it to my girlfriend to find out what she thought about it. She got very upset and told me I was being disrespect-ful to her by even passing it on to her. I should add that we met online and have been talking on the phone with each other for only a month during this shelter-in-place time.

This incident nearly ended our new relationship. Was I wrong to send her the video? And what should I do now to save what I think is the most wonderful relationship I have ever had in my life? — NO LAUGHING MATTER

DEAR NO LAUGHING: Before sending the video, you should have warned your new girlfriend that it was vulgar and asked if she wanted to see it, which would have given her the opportunity to refuse. What you should do now is apologize for having offended her and tell her how much you value your relationship with her. Then cross your fingers that she still feels

the same.DEAR ABBY:

My wife had some health issues over the last four years and gained 40 pounds. She keeps saying she wants to lose the weight, but doesn’t do any-thing about it. Her blood pressure is high, so she needs to do it. When I try to bring it up, she gets mad and always mentions the

health issues. But those issues are now totally behind her. What can I do or say to get her going again? — FULL OF CONCERN IN NEW JERSEY

DEAR FULL: Tell your wife you don’t mean to come across as a nag, but you are worried because of her blood pressure issue. She is far from the only person who procrastinates when faced with changing one’s lifestyle.

Many folks are overindulging now because of the challenge of social isolation. Something that might benefit you both would be to encourage her to get out and start walking with you on a regular basis. And drop the subject of weight for now. Take it up again once your lives begin to normalize and she may be

less defensive.DEAR ABBY: My college-age

daughter, “Dahlia,” refuses to take seriously the social distancing necessary to control the spread of COVID-19, even though her college, like many others, has closed. She says it’s all overblown, even though her father and I are older and she has a pregnant sister at home.

Dahlia is young, and she thinks she’s invincible. I think my daughter is selfish for not caring about anyone else. What can I say to her? — FOLLOWING THE RULES IN WEST VIRGINIA

DEAR FOLLOWING: Many people still are having trouble accepting the fact that we are all at risk because of an invisible and silent “enemy,” COVID-19. Because you are unable to get through to Dahlia, assert yourself as the adult in the household and establish some rules to protect yourself, your husband, your pregnant daughter and your unborn grandchild. First among them: Dahlia must follow the govern-ment guidelines regarding social distancing, handwashing, etc. or find another place to live.

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.

Dear Abby

Opening day amid virus: Masks, empty parks, social justiceTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Opening day, at last.A baseball season that

was on the brink before it ever began because of the virus outbreak is set to start Thursday night when excitable Max Scherzer and the World Series champion Wash-ington Nationals host prized ace Gerrit Cole and the New York Yan-kees.

When it does get un-derway — the DC fore-cast calls for thunder-storms, the latest rocky inning in this what-can-go-wrong game — it’ll mark the most bizarre year in the history of Ma-jor League Baseball.

A 60-game season,

stars opting out. Ball-parks without fans, players wearing masks. Piped-in sound effects, cardboard cutouts for spectators. Spray-paint-ed ads on the mound, pitchers with personal rosin bags.

And a rack of strange rules. DHs in the Na-tional League, well, OK. An automatic runner on second to start the 10th inning? C’mon, now.

“Gosh, it’s going to be fun,” Cole said. “It’s going to have fake crowd noise, and going to be 2020 coronavirus base-ball.”

Plus, a poignant re-minder of the world we live in. A Black Lives Matter stencil can be put

on mounds throughout the majors during the opening weekend.

And still there’s a team that doesn’t know where it’s going to play — barred from Toronto because of health con-cerns, Vladimir Guerre-ro Jr. and the Blue Jays had hoped to roost in Pittsburgh or Baltimore or Buffalo or somewhere else.

“This is 2020 base-ball,” Scherzer said.

To many fans, that will do. No other choice, real-ly. Four months after the games were supposed to start, strange ball is bet-ter than no ball, right?

We’ll see.Opening day brings

a tasty doubleheader: a

marquee pitching match-up in Washington, fol-lowed by the nightcap at Dodger Stadium when star outfielder Mookie Betts, fresh off a $365 million, 12-year contract, and his new Los Angeles teammates take on the San Francisco Giants.

One player Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw won’t face: six-time All-Star, three-time cham-pion and former MVP Buster Posey. The Gi-ants catcher and his wife have adopted twin identical girls who were prematurely born, and he’s among about a dozen players who have chosen to sit out this year.

“From a baseball standpoint, it was a

tough decision for me,” Posey said. “From a fam-ily standpoint, making a decision to protect chil-dren, our children, it was relatively easy.”

Dodgers pitcher Da-vid Price, Washington in-fielder Ryan Zimmerman and Atlanta outfielder Nick Markakis also are sitting out.

Other players won’t be ready by the weekend — on Wednesday, the Roy-als announced Hunter Dozier (26 home runs, 10 triples) had tested posi-tive for the virus and was being put on the injured list.

For those are who healthy, it’s time to play. For how long, with the vi-rus looming, we’ll find out

soon enough.Something that will

be firmed up by the first pitch: how many teams will make the playoffs. A decision is due by then after renewed talks about expanding the postsea-son field.

Tossing out the first ball at Nationals Park to begin a schedule clob-bered by COVID-19 will be Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert.

“I used to play base-ball as a young boy,” the 79-year-old Fauci told CNN. “I hope I don’t bounce it too much.”

Don’t worry, Doc. Even before the first pitch, this season already has han-dled plenty of bad hops.

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com4B THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2020

Charlie HolmesCharles David Holmes, Sr., age 71, of

Columbus, MS, passed away July 20, 2020, at Baptist Memorial Hospital.

Graveside services will be Saturday, July 25, 2020, at 11:00 AM at Canton City Cemetery in Canton, MS. Visitation will be Friday, July 24, 2020, from 5:00 – 7:00 PM at Memorial Gunter Peel Funeral Home & Crematory 903 College St. location.

Mr. Holmes was born September 21, 1948, in Canton, MS, to the late Rudolph Henry and Hallie Christian Holmes, Jr. He was a 1966 graduate of Canton High School and a 1970 graduate of the University of Mississippi. He majored in banking in finance and was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. Mr. Holmes also completed the LSU School of Banking in 1977. He spent 45 years in the banking industry in Canton, MS, Ridgeland, MS, Tuscaloosa, AL, and Columbus, MS. Mr. Holmes retired as executive vice president with BankFirst Financial Services. He owned and operated Ridgeland Waste Disposal, Inc. and was a member of Green Oaks Golf Club where he was a former board member and was also a member of the Columbus Kiwanis Club. He was a member and deacon of the First Presbyterian Church.

In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his brother, Rudolph Henry “Rudy” Holmes, III.

Survivors include his wife, Dianne Daniel Holmes of Columbus, MS; son, David Holmes of Memphis, TN; daughter, Whitney Holmes of Columbus, MS; sister, Harriet Porter and her husband Dick of Brandon, MS; and sister-in-law, Sally Ann Holmes of Houston, TX.

Memorials may be made to the First Presbyterian Church, P.O. Box 9681, Columbus, MS, 39705.

Sign the online guest book at www.memorialgunterpeel.com College Street • Columbus, MS

Charlie HolmesVisitation:

Friday, July 24 • 5-7 PMCollege St. Location

Graveside Services:Saturday, July 25 • 11 AM

Canton City Cemetery Burial

Canton City Cemetery College St. Location

Gerald DarrellIncomplete

College St. Location

memorialgunterpeel.com

BY JEFF MARTIN The Associated Press

ATLANTA — The na-tion will pay its final re-spects Thursday to the Rev. C.T. Vivian, a pioneer of the civil rights move-ment who helped end seg-regation across the South and left an abiding imprint on U.S. history.

The funeral for Vivi-an, a close ally of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., is set for 11 a.m. at Provi-dence Missionary Baptist

Church in Atlanta. Vivian died Friday in Atlanta at age 95.

Vivian’s friends and sons are expected to speak at Thursday’s ser-vice, and his six grand-sons are serving as pall-bearers, according to representatives of the C.T. and Octavia Vivian Muse-um and Archives.

Video tributes by Hank Aaron, Oprah Winfrey and presidential candidate Joe Biden also are planned, fu-neral organizers said.

The poem “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay will be read during the funeral, according to the program. “If we must die, O let us nobly die, so that our precious blood may not be shed in vain,” the poem states.

More than a decade before lunch-counter protests made headlines during the civil rights movement, Vivian began organizing sit-ins against segregation in Peoria, Illi-nois, in the 1940s.

He later joined forces with King and organized the Freedom Rides across the South to halt segrega-tion.

Vivian was honored by former President Barack Obama with the Presiden-tial Medal of Freedom in 2013.

On Wednesday, a horse-drawn carriage took his casket from the Georgia Capitol, where a memorial service was held, to King’s tomb in At-lanta.

Civil rights trailblazer C.T. Vivian to be laid to rest

AREA OBITUARIESCOMMERCIAL DISPATCH OBITUARY POLICYObituaries with basic informa-tion including visitation and service times, are provided free of charge. Extended obit-uaries with a photograph, de-tailed biographical information and other details families may wish to include, are available for a fee. Obituaries must be submitted through funeral homes unless the deceased’s body has been donated to science. If the deceased’s body was donated to science, the family must provide official proof of death. Please submit all obituaries on the form provided by The Commercial Dispatch. Free notices must be submitted to the newspa-per no later than 3 p.m. the day prior for publication Tues-day through Friday; no later than 4 p.m. Saturday for the Sunday edition; and no later than 7:30 a.m. for the Monday edition. Incomplete notices must be received no later than 7:30 a.m. for the Monday through Friday editions. Paid notices must be finalized by 3 p.m. for inclusion the next day Monday through Thursday; and on Friday by 3 p.m. for Sunday and Monday publication. For more information, call 662-328-2471.

James HunterCOLUMBUS —

James Earl Hunter, 60, died July 20, 2020.

Arrangements are incomplete and will be announced by Lee-Sykes of Columbus.

Nakisha RichardsonCOLUMBUS — Na-

kisha M. Richardson, 46, died July 22, 2020.

Arrangements are incomplete and will be announced by Lee-Sykes of Columbus.

Shirley MasseyNORTHPORT, Ala.

— Shirley Frances Massey, 81, died July 21, 2020, at Glen Haven Health and Rehabilita-tion.

Graveside services will be at 11 a.m. Friday, at Greenhill Memorial Gardens, in Reform, with George Shaw officiating. Dow-dle Funeral Home of Millport is in charge of arrangements.

Mrs. Massey was born Dec. 17, 1938, in Aberdeen, to the late Samuel and Frances

Easter Allen. She was a member of Aber-deen First Pentecostal Church.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, Raymond Dewitt Massey; son, Sammy Massey; and brother, Henry Allen.

Pallbearers will be Jimmy Massey, Keith Quillen, Eugene Allen, Calvin Poole, William Massey, and Roger Burns.

George WhiteCOLUMBUS —

George “Frankie” Franklin White, 40, died July 15, 2020, at Bap-tist Memo-rial Hospi-tal-Golden Triangle.

A memo-rial service will be at 5 p.m. Saturday, at the New Hope Community Center. Norwood-Wyatt Chapel is in charge of arrangements.

Mr. White was born Feb. 13, 1980, in Aber-deen, to the late Wil-liam Paul White Jr. and Carolyn Jean Nichols White.

He is survived by his wife, Lyyanna Swan-igan; children, Ethan Franklin White, Brian-na Kaelin White, Pais-ley Isabella White and Carlos Franklin White; and siblings, Tammy Harcrow, William Paul White III, Tonya Byrd and Timothy White.

Marguerite BrelandSTARKVILLE —

Marguerite Houlditch Breland, 102, died July 20, 2020, at Trinity Personal Care. Family only graveside services are at 10 a.m. today, at Memorial Garden Park Cemetery of Starkville. Welch Funeral Home of Starkville is in charge of arrangements.

Mrs. Breland was born July 29, 1935, in Montgomery, Ala-bama, to the late Louie and Estelle Bowman Houlditch. She was

a graduate of Dixie High School and was formerly employed teaching speech and expression and as the director of Noxubee County Library. She was a member of First Methodist Church.

In addition to her parents, she was pre-ceded in death by her husband, Thomas A. Breland Sr.; and broth-er, Owen T. Houlditch.

She is survived by her children, Thomas A. Breland Jr., Jacque-line Breland Worley and Rita Breland Stu-art; six grandchildren; and six great-grandchil-dren.

Memorials may be made to Trinity Per-sonal Care, 250 Airline Road, Columbus, Mis-sissippi 39702.

Bob SmithSTARKVILLE —

Bob L. Smith, 87, died July 19, 2020, at Sanc-tuary Hospice House of Tupelo. Graveside services were held Wednesday, at Memori-al Garden Park Ceme-tery, with the Rev. Bob Whiteside officiating. Welch Funeral Home of Starkville was in charge of arrange-ments.

Mr. Smith was born Sept. 1, 1932, in Spring-field, Colorado, to the late Oliver and Myrtle Smith. He was a gradu-ate of Springfield High School, Adams State College and Western State College. He was formerly employed as a teacher and coach in Vilas and Springfield, Colorado and as princi-pal with Starkville Pub-lic Schools. He was a member of First United Methodist Church.

In addition to his parents, he was preced-ed in death by his wife, Katie Marie Miller Smith; and siblings, Olive Marie Smith Mc-Farland, Billie Alvoret-ta Smith Tempia and Merton Oliver Smith.

He is survived by his wife, Norma Jean Smith; children, Terri Delynn Smith Patter-

son and Conni Gail Smith Sockwell; eight grandchildren; and three great-grandchil-dren.

Pallbearers were Jonathan Leslie Pat-terson, Benjamin Hart Patterson, Joseph Lee Patterson, Michael Allen Reid, William Pickering and Jordan Heathcock.

Memorials may be made to Palmer Home for Children, 912 11th Ave. South, Columbus, MS 39701 or to First United Methodist Church in Starkville, MS.

Elnora LanierTEMPLE, Texas —

Elnora Lanier, 83, died July 21, 2020.

Arrangements are incomplete and will be announced by Lee-Sykes of Columbus.

Roxanne Washington COLUMBUS — Rox-

anne Washington, 50, died July 15, 2020.

Arrangements are incomplete and will be announced by Lee-Sykes of Columbus.

Kimberly PylesCOLUMBUS —

Kimberly N. Pyles, 35, died July 21, 2020.

Arrangements are incomplete and will be announced by Lee-Sykes of Columbus.

Brenda WilliamsCOLUMBUS —

Brenda Williams, 51, died July 19, 2020, at her residence.

Arrangements are incomplete and will be announced by Carter’s Funeral Services of Columbus.

Earnest Bland Jr.NOXUBEE — Ear-

nest Bland Jr., 63, died July 17, 2020, at Aurora Health and Rehabilita-tion.

A private family only graveside service will be at 2 p.m. Friday, at St. Paul UMC Ceme-tery. Private family only visitation is from 2-5 p.m. today, at Carter’s

Funeral Services. Car-ter’s Funeral Services of Macon is in charge of arrangements.

Mr. Bland was born May 14, 1957, in Noxu-bee County, to the late Earnest Bland Sr. and Zan Bland.

In addition to his par-ents, he was preceded in death by his sister, Dorothy Moore.

He is survived by his siblings, Betty Beasley, Earnestine Mickens, Ada Edwards, Rye Weston and Annie Bryant.

Gerald DarrellCOLUMBUS — Ger-

ald N. Darrell, 81, died July 22, 2020, at Bap-tist Memorial Hospi-tal-Golden Triangle.

Arrangements are incomplete and will be announced by Memori-al Gunter Peel Funeral Home and Crematory College Street location.

White

BY DARLENE SUPERVILLE The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Trump administra-tion will pay Pfizer nearly $2 billion for a December delivery of 100 million doses of a COVID-19 vac-cine the pharmaceutical company is developing, Health and Human Ser-vices Secretary Alex Azar announced Wednesday.

The U.S. could buy another 500 million dos-es under the agreement, Azar said.

“Now those would, of course, have to be safe and effective” and ap-proved by the Food and Drug Administration, Azar said during an ap-pearance on Fox News.

Pfizer Inc. and Bi-oNTech SE announced separately that the agree-ment is with HHS and the Defense Department for a vaccine candidate the companies are devel-oping jointly. It is the lat-est in a series of similar agreements with other vaccine companies.

The agreement is

part of President Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed vaccine program, under which multiple COVID-19 vaccines are being developed simul-taneously. The program aims to deliver 300 mil-lion doses of a safe and ef-fective COVID-19 vaccine by January 2021.

Under the initiative, the government will speed development and buy vaccines — before they are deemed safe and effective — so that the medication can be in hand and quickly distributed

once the FDA approves or authorizes its emergency use after clinical trials.

Trump, during a Wednesday briefing, de-scribed the agreement as “historic.

“We think we have a winner there. We also think we have other com-panies right behind that are doing very well in the vaccines, long ahead of schedule,” he told report-ers.

Pfizer and BioNTech said the U.S. will pay $1.95 billion upon receipt of the first 100 million doses it produces, follow-ing FDA authorization or approval.

Americans will receive the vaccine for free, the companies said.

Azar said the contract brings to five the number of potential coronavirus vaccines that are under development with U.S. funding. Nearly two doz-en are in various stages of human testing around the world, with several enter-ing final test to prove if they really work.

As early as next week, a vaccine created by the National Institutes of Health and Moder-na Inc. is set to begin final-stage testing in a study of 30,000 people to see if it really is safe and effective. A few other vac-cines have begun smaller late-stage studies in other countries, and in the U.S. a series of huge stud-ies are planned to begin

each month through fall in hopes of, eventually, having several vaccines to use.

Pfizer is finishing an earlier stage of testing to determine which of four possible candidates to try in a larger, final study.

Other countries are also scrambling to get a vaccine for COVID-19, which has killed more than 617,000 people, ac-cording to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins Universi-ty.

Nearly 4 million Amer-icans have been infected by the new coronavirus and at least 142,000 have died from COVID-19, the disease it causes, accord-ing to Johns Hopkins.

US signs contract with Pfizer for COVID-19 vaccine dosesAgreement is part of President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed vaccine program, under which multiple COVID-19 vaccines are being developed simultaneously

cdispatch.com

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2020 5B

Business

City of ColumbusJuly 13-16, 2020■ Andrew Hayden Jr.; 273 Madeira Drive; bathroom addition; same■ Paul and Elisa Sampson; 1723 5th Avenue North; Re-pairs; same■ Fox Run Apartments of Co-lumbus LLC; 636 31st Avenue North; reroof Bldg 1, Apts 105-110; J Miller Roofing■ 1811 Main LLC; 1811 Main Street; concrete slab and met-al bldg; Cole Builders LLC■ Huckleberry Rentals Inc.;

3933 Highway 45 North; Install metal detail shop; Weathers Construction Inc.■ Joyce Turner; 1910 8th Ave-nue North; electrical; Nickoles Electric■ Alphonso Hayden; 910 Mili-tary Road; electrical; Nickoles Electric■ James D Dupree/Johnny Ledbetter; 1314 10th Avenue North; electrical; same■ Margaret Bobo; 227 McHall Drive; electrical; Jimmie Chism■ Antioch Missionary Baptist Church; 2304 7th Avenue

North; electrical; Jimmie Chism■ Brooke Carter; 1022 4th Av-enue South; electrical; Collins Electric■ Rusty Green; 2420 7th Street North; mechanical; E&H Heating & Air■ Julia Brown; 1923 3rd Avenue North; plumbing; Tabor Plumbing■ Country Air Apartments; 186 Lehmberg Road, AptE35; plumbing; Tabor Plumbing■ Brenda Heard; 1608 9th Avenue North; plumbing; John Caddis

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WALMART105 Market Street1.68SPRINT308 Hwy 12 E & S Montgomery1.69MURPHY USA1012 MS-121.69

BY PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON — Restaurants helped revive the U.S. economy after the Great Recession of 2007-2009.

This time? Don’t count on it. As the nation struggles to rebound from a now-resurgent coronavirus, restaurants seem much less like-ly to deliver an economic boost. They’ve suffered a heavy blow from lockdowns and occupancy restric-tions, and it’s unclear how readily Americans will return en masse to dining out.

Consider the Barrel Room, a San Francisco wine bar and restaurant whose owner cautiously reopened this month, hoping to salvage as much of 2020 as possible. To stay afloat after a lockdown took effect in March, the restaurant tried selling groceries and delivering alcoholic drinks to customers. Owner Sarah Trubnick also fought through red tape to obtain federal aid — a pro-cess she likened to living in a Kafka novel.

As confirmed infections climb, Trubnick is bracing for the worst.

“We are prepared at any minute to close again,’’ she said. “It’s a very stressful situation.’’

Across the nation, millions of restaurant jobs have vanished in the face of lockdowns. Just when eater-ies of all categories and price levels had been anticipating a summer-time comeback, new viral cases are upending everything.

The damage extends beyond darkened kitchens and dining rooms to the farms and wineries that supply them and the shopping centers that have grown to depend on restaurants as anchors to replace now-vanished stores that couldn’t compete with Amazon and Walmart.

Chris Shepherd, owner and exec-utive chef of Underbelly Hospitality in Houston, said in an online essay that he might have to close his four restaurants because his company’s revenue is just 30 percent of what it was a year ago.

“I employ 200 people in this com-munity,” Shepherd wrote. “When I shut down, they lose their jobs. I’m no longer able to pay my farmers, cleaning companies, valet compa-nies, linen companies, wineries, dis-

tilleries. Our reach is long.’’ Before the pandemic, restaurants

had employed 11 million workers nationwide — more than the num-ber who work in construction or in factories that produce high-priced manufactured goods. They gener-ated more revenue than grocery stores. From 1990 through Febru-ary this year, restaurant jobs grew more than twice as fast (91 percent) as overall jobs (40 percent).

“The restaurant industry’s role in the economy is outsized com-pared to its share of overall GDP,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “As it is often among the first jobs for many work-ers, it is critical to the training of the American workforce. It is also a vital source of jobs and incomes for less-er-skilled and educated workers.’’

The struggles in the restaurant industry also disproportionately hurt Black and Hispanic workers. Together, they account for more than 40 percent of restaurant jobs, versus 30 percent of overall U.S. jobs.

As restaurants and bars reluc-tantly closed their dining rooms, their sales sank from $66 billion in February to $30 billion by April — the lowest such total, adjusted since inflation, since 1983. In June, boost-ed by delivery and takeout custom-ers, sales rebounded to $47 billion. But many restaurants desperately need to reopen their dining rooms.

As restaurants endure economic losses, others feel pain, tooBefore the pandemic, restaurants had employed 11 million workers nationwide — more than the number who work in construction or in factories that produce high-priced manufactured goods

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Why are coins hard to find during the pandem-ic?

The Federal Reserve has seen a significant decline of coins in cir-culation because people are not spending them as regularly at businesses, many of which are either temporarily closed or not accepting cash.

Coins are still plen-tiful. In April, the U.S. Treasury estimated more

than $47.8 billion were in the market, up by more than a billion dollars com-pared to last year.

But in recent months, people have not been spending those coins at places like laundromats, banks, restaurants, or shops because the busi-nesses are closed, or peo-ple are not visiting them as often as they were be-fore the pandemic.

“The typical places where coin enters our so-

ciety have slowed or even stopped the normal cir-culation of coin,” said the Federal Reserve, which manages coin inventory, in a June statement.

Sales at restaurants, bars and gas stations dropped more than 40 percent in April compared with a year ago. Sales have since picked up, but some businesses — like bars — remain shuttered in certain states, while others can only operate at

a limited capacity. The Federal Reserve

has encouraged banks to order only the coins they need and to make depos-iting coins easy for cus-tomers. One Wisconsin bank system offered its customers a $5 bonus for every $100 in coins they brought into exchange at a branch.

The program was so successful, the bank suspended it after only a week.

Why are coins hard to find during the pandemic?

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SudokuSudoku is a num-ber-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty spaces so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level increases from Monday to Sunday.

Yesterday’s answer

ACROSS1 Ready to pick5 Javelins11 Diva’s piece12 Finish13 Music’s Waller14 Cleopatra’s love15 Forebear17 Crude abode18 Like some athletes’ wrists22 Energetic24 Church topper25 “Exodus” hero26 Make a knot in27 “Jurassic Park” critters30 Indiana player32 Fragrance33 Tough wood34 Lickable sweet38 Glib41 Short skirt42 Makes amends43 Ready for business44 Mend one’s ways45 Three-piece piece

DOWN1 Tennis star Nadal, to fans2 Turkey neigh-bor3 Turpentine source4 Slacken5 Try for a fly6 Some wines7 Snare8 Bustle9 Enter the race10 Mole, e.g.16 Pig’s digs19 Choirmaster’s aid20 Lake near Buffalo

21 Woodland grazer22 Knee protec-tors23 Rocker Clapton28 One way to shop29 Hot30 Buddy31 “Foundation” author35 For fear that36 Some bills37 Cream buy38 Distant39 Had dinner40 Beat walker

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Sudoku YESTERDAY’S ANSWER

Sudoku is a number-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty spaces so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level increases from Monday to Sunday.

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General Services

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A & T TREE SERVICES

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J&A TREE REMOVAL

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General Help Wanted

AREA BUSINESSis seeking a mature,

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SERVICE TECHNICIAN forlocal pest control company.Applicant must be organ-ized, dependable, work wellwith the public, and havegood driving record withvalid driver's license.Drug test required.Apply at 107 Gardner Blvd.No phone calls.

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Apts For Rent: North

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HOUSE FOR RENT

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HOUSE FOR RENT.

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1187 MOTLEY Rd.

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Excellent timber & buildingsites. $72,000. For moreinfo, call 205−799−9846or 205−695−2248.

garage SaleS two free SignS

Estate Sales

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Appliances

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General Merchandise

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Lawn & Garden

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Motorcycles & ATVs

2005 HONDA 250 REBEL

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Good Things To Eat

CANNING TOMATOES,

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Travel & Entertainment

PUBLIC CATFISH POND

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