OBITUARIES ...A2 OPINION ...A4 POLICE/FIRE ...A5 LOOK! ...A8 SPORTS ... B1-2 COMICS ...B4 DIVERSIONS ...B5 CLASSIFIED ... B6-7 BUSINESS ...B8
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VOL. 142, ISSUE 192
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By Sam Minton ITEM STAFFSAUGUS — The town is buzzing after hearing that entomologists have discov-ered “coffi n fl ies” in Saugus.
Tony Kiszewski, an ento-mologist and professor at Bentley University, was orig-inally brought in to investi-gate the town’s fl y issue as a part of a WBZ I-Team inves-tigation, which was prompted when residents complained about the insects causing a nuisance on Pemberly Drive near Fiske Brook.
Town Manager Scott Crab-tree stated that the town and the health department have been investigating this issue for about six weeks. The town started looking into the matter following the news report and has enlisted Kiszewski as a consultant.
“Any town issue like this is pretty serious,” said Crab-tree. “We’re working with the state and obviously a consultant we have brought on board to help us assist in trying to identify the source of what’s creating this issue.”
A resident told WBZ-TV that they have found the fl ies — which go by multiple names including scuttle fl ies — in their food and drinks, and have even breathed them in while sleeping. The issue has been so dire that residents don’t even feel comfortable eating in their own homes.
As part of his investiga-tion, Kiszewski took sam-ples from residents’ homes and the brook. The fact that these fl ies are in Saugus caught the entomologist off guard because they are usually found in tropical cli-mates, Kiszewski said.
“My fi rst encounter with them was as a U.S. Navy en-tomologist working in Okina-wa, Japan with the USMC’s 3rd Medical Battalion,” said Kiszewski. “I once discov-ered larvae and pupae of this species infesting ketch-up bottles (in) a Marine mess hall on Camp Hansen. Their larvae can exploit a wide va-riety of substrates, but they are particularly well known for infesting animal carcass-es and human corpscarcass-es.”
Town Director of Public Health John Fralick men-tioned that the area by the brook is heavily wooded with “a high instance of coyote ac-tivity.” Fralick also told The Item that his department is looking for possible ruptures in sewer lines.
“We’re working very closely with the DPW (Department of Public Works) to verify no or-ganic matter is leaking out of the sewers and we’re working on a plan of attack in terms of investigating the surrounding
By Sam Minton
ITEM STAFF
NAHANT — Michael Marston pleaded guilty in Essex Superi-or Court Wednesday afternoon to repeatedly raping his step-daughter over a fi ve-year peri-od in their Nahant home, abuse that started when the girl was just 13 years old.
Marston, 45, pleaded guilty to
eight counts of child rape, four counts of rape, two counts of in-decent assault and battery and one count of human traffi cking. Following the plea, Associate Judge Tom Drexler sentenced Marston to six to eight years in state prison, followed by fi ve years of probation that will in-clude GPS monitoring.
The maximum sentencing for the counts of child rape and
child rape with force was life in prison. The rape charges car-ried a maximum sentence of 20 years.
“I don’t know if there is ever a perfect sentence,” said Essex As-sistant District Attorney Maria Markos, adding that the victim agreed with the sentence recom-mendation.
Markos said Marston start-ed sexually abusing his
step-daughter (The Item does not not name victims of sexual as-sault) in 2014 when she was 13. The abuse continued for fi ve years, Markos said, and was discovered during a counseling session. It was there that the victim described the abuse, say-ing that it made her feel like a prostitute at times and led her to cut herself and drop out of school. During that time period,
Markos said the victim began to feel intimidated and threatened by Marston, who also hit her at home.
Despite the sexual abuse and physical violence the victim en-dured at the hands of Marston — who was arrested in July 2019 for the crimes — the victim said she still views him as a father
Coffi n
fl ies are
bugging
Saugus
Nahant man pleads guilty to child rape, human traffi cking
By Allysha Dunnigan
ITEM STAFF
LYNN — More than a doz-en residdoz-ents appeared before the Zoning Board of Appeals Tuesday night to speak in opposition to a planned lux-ury condominium develop-ment on Blossom Street.
Prior to the meeting, a peti-tion had been circulating on social media, calling for res-idents and abutters to show up to voice their displeasure with the project, which is being developed by property owner Patrick McGrath.
When completed, the four-story residential build-ing at 150 Blossom St. will feature 75 one-bedroom units and 15 two-bedroom units.
City zoning dictates that the development requires 135 parking spaces, but the current plan only calls for 104 parking spaces.
Saying he was speaking on behalf of more than 26 residents who had signed a petition in opposition to the developer’s parking plan, Lynn resident and Reverend Everett “E.E.” Schofi eld read the document during the meeting.
“We believe the exception to this rule should not be allowed at this time,” said Schofi eld. “More needs to be done to make sure this project doesn’t hurt people and the surrounding neigh-borhoods. The project needs to benefi t and include Lynn residents, not people coming from outside into Lynn.”
McGrath’s attorney, Paul Keating, said the project complies with all other as-pects of the city’s ordinance, but they are seeking relief from Section 9 of the zoning bylaw regarding required parking spaces. Keating brought a petition seeking zoning relief to the ZBA, say-ing the development team needs the variance passed in order to continue with the project, which he said will bring in an annual tax rev-enue of approximately $1 million.
One parking spot will be provided for each condo. Ninety-one spaces will be lo-cated in a parking garage be-low the units and there are plans for 13 surface spaces.
The 71,000-square-foot property was previously oc-cupied by former newspaper distributor North Shore News and will be constructed in the same manner as McGrath’s other housing development at 164 Blossom St.
The planned development will include new landscap-ing, such as trees and bush-es around the perimeters, and the installation of a new 6-foot sidewalk and planting along the street.
Following Keating’s pre-sentation, the ZBA read letters
Condo
parking
dispute
Blossoms
in Lynn
By Mike AlongiITEM SPORTS EDITOR
SWAMPSCOTT — Kim Hughes-Floutsakos remem-bers the fi rst time she met NBA superstar Giannis “The Greek Freak” Antetokounmpo.
It was 2001 and the Swamp-scott native was teaching En-glish in a suburban Athens private school called Athens College, and all of a sud-den one of the male faculty
members walked into her classroom with a tall, skinny 7-year-old.
“Giannis wasn’t enrolled in the school at the time, but he was hanging out in front of the school’s gate and one of the men at the school just kind of assumed that he should be in school and brought him into my class-room,” said Hughes-Floutsa-kos, who is the daughter of the late Jim Hughes, a
well-known Swampscott business-man and coach. “He and his family were very poor at the time, and we all did our best to help him out with things like clothes and food and whatever else we could give.”
Antetokounmpo’s rise from son of impoverished immi-grants to NBA superstar and champion with the Milwau-kee Bucks is one of the most
‘The Greek Freak’ gets
an assist from Swampscott
Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks to the NBA champi-onship Tuesday, but Swampscott native Kim Hughes-Flout-sakos remembers “The Greek Freak” as a skinny little boy who showed up in her English class in 2001.By Anne Marie Tobin
ITEM STAFF
LYNNFIELD — Many town residents are familiar with the town’s historic bell, which dates back to 1859 and was used as a fi re alarm at the Meeting House from 1903-1960.
Restored last month by Skylight Studios in Woburn, the bell was returned to its home on the Town Common on July 2.
But what most people don’t know is how the bell got there in the fi rst place.
Now, they do, thanks to Historical Commission Chair Kirk Mansfi eld’s re-cent discovery of an old let-ter penned by former Parks and Cemetery Commission-er Donald R. Ross.
“The history of the bell is well known, but for me, how it came to be placed on the common is a more fascinat-ing story,” said Mansfi eld. “Turns out it was destined for the dump when the town was in the process of tearing down the old Town Hall and By Tréa Lavery
ITEM STAFF
BOSTON — Gov. Charlie Baker this week signed a bill approving $350 mil-lion through the Chapter 90 program for municipal and state transportation infrastructure projects, including fund-ing for local communities on the North Shore.
“In addition to investing $200 mil-lion to ensure the safety of our roads and bridges, I’m proud that this legis-lation invests $150 million across the Commonwealth in creating a more af-fordable and environmentally-sustain-able transportation system,” said state Sen. Brendan Crighton (D-Lynn). “This legislation will fund projects like dedi-cated bus lanes and other critical im-provements to public transit that will help create a more affordable, reliable and equitable transportation system.”
Of the approved funding, $200 million will go to cities and towns for projects to maintain, improve and repair road-ways, bridges, sidewalks and bikeways. Locally, Lynn will receive $1,495,100, Lynnfi eld will receive $406,241, Mar-blehead will receive $451,912, Nah-ant will receive $90,765, Saugus will receive $638,779 and Swampscott will receive $294,285, .
“Chapter 90 money is so important to all our towns and cities,” said state Rep. Donald Wong (R-Saugus). “It pays
Lynnfi eld bell
mystery: Solved
Reps drive
road funding
for region
ITEM FILE PHOTO | SPENSER HASAK
Lynnfi eld DPW employees Rick DeGrande, left, and Steve deBettencourt install the newly-re-stored town bell at the common.
INSIDE
Lynn
Anti-Semitic, offensive graffi ti found in Lynnfi eld. A6
LOOK!
Lynn’s Hood Ink Tattoo Zoo donates school supplies. A8
Sports
Newhall named 2021 Item Player of the
Year for softball. B1
BELL, A6
FUNDING, A6
BLOSSOM, A6
GIANNIS, A2
FLIES, A7
A2
THE DAILY ITEM THURSDAY JULY 22, 2021
OBITUARIES
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LYNN - Joseph was survived by four children Kelly Upham, Kim Upham, Nick Upham & Lance Upham also four children and two Great Grand-children. You would never see Joe without a smile on his face or without putting one on yours with his quick wit. He always had a joke and a great story to tell. He lived a great life, was a hard worker, he loved Lynn and his time building his lake house in Shapleigh, ME where he enjoyed his time on the lake and always planned to spend his remaining days!
Joseph W. Upham Jr, 81
1940 - 2021
LYNN - Complete obituary at Solimine.com
Service Information: In-ternment Service for Edmund Carleton Brown, Senior will be held on WEDNESDAY, July 28, 2021, at 1:00PM in Pine Grove Cemetery, 145 Boston Street Lynn, MA. 01904. Of-ficiant Reverend Bernadette Hickman-Maynard, Pastor, Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church
We will be assembling at the Pine Grove Cemetery entrance for the Funeral Pro-cession at 12:45
We will be practicing Mas-sachusetts COVID-19 Safety Protocols
Further information and link to view Service can be found on www.solimine.com or call Solimine Funeral
Homes 781-595-1492
Edmund Carleton Brown Sr.
LYNNFIELD - With great sad-ness we announce the passing of Dr. David F. Donohoe of Lyn-nfield, MA, formerly of Woburn, MA, on July 18, 2021 at the age of 82. Beloved husband of Patricia B. Donohoe for 52 years. Born in Lowell he was the son of the late Edward T. and Mary A. (Sheeran) Dono-hoe. He is the loving father of David S. of Pittsburgh, PA; Kara (Tony) Scivetti of Marblehead, MA; and Alison (Alexis) Albert of Paris, France. Adored Papa of Tony, Max, Ava, Zachary and Charlotte Jane. He was pre-deceased by his sister Edwi-na Rapp and his twin brother Edward. He is also survived by sever-al nieces and nephews. David earned his Bachelor of Science from Boston College and graduated from Georgetown University Dental School. He subsequently at-tended Boston University and Columbia University. David proudly served in the United States Army during the Viet-nam War at the 93rd Evac Hos-pital 36th Division from 1966 to 1967. Following his return home from the service, David practiced oral & maxillofacial surgery in Woburn for over 40 years. When not working he enjoyed golf, antique cars and non-fiction. David will be remembered for his faith, in-tegrity, generosity, intellect, and
humor.
Service Informa-tion: Family and friends are respect-fully invited to attend visiting hours that will be held Friday, July 23rd, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the McLaughlin - Dello Russo Family Funer-al Home, 60 Pleasant St., in Woburn. A funeral Mass celebrating David’s life will be held Saturday, July 24th, at 10 a.m. in St. Joseph Catholic Church, 173 Albion St., Wakefield, followed by burial with Military Honors at Woodbrook Cemetery in Woburn. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be sent to the Wounded Warrior Project, P.O. Box 758516, To-peka, Kansas 66675-8516 or another charity of choice.
Dr. David F. Donohoe, 82
1938 - 2021
LYNN - Alice L. McFarlane, age 76 of Lynn, died Tues-day at Salem Hospital after a brief illness. Born in Lynn she was the daughter of the late Charles B. and Margaret (By-rne) McFarlane, she was also predeceased by her sister Jane Snow, her brother Charles B. McFarlane, her Niece Kathryn A. McFarlane and Nephew, Charles K. McFarlane. She at-tended Lynn schools and grad-uated from Lynn English High School, Class of 1962. Alice also graduated from Chandler School for Women in 1964 and in later years took ad-vanced courses in education at Northeastern University, which placed her on the dean’s list. Alice worked as an executive secretary for many years at General Electric, Lynn Gas & Electric and various medical offices throughout Lynn. Alice also substitute taught in the Lynn school system in later years.
A lifelong resident of Lynn, Alice served on the Alter guild at St. Stephen’s Memorial Episcopal Church and ascend-ed to Grand Chief Daughter of Victory Lodge 90, Daughters of Scotia. Alice loved her involve-ment in the organization and was also a strong animal lover, having several dogs and cats throughout the years. Alice was a beautiful, kind and thoughtful person who won many people over with her good humor and concern for others. She will be greatly missed by friends and family alike.
She is survived by her Niece, Maureen McFarlane of Ridge-field, CT, Cousins Pamela Liver-more of Glastonbury, CT, Brian
& Cathy Livermore of Woburn, MA, Kevin & Jean Livermore of Lynn, and Wayne Livermore of Bedford, MA., Sue McFarlane of Lynn, MA and her daugh-ter Amanda, Jim McClean of New Hampshire, Martha and Claude Scales of Brooklyn, NY and many more extended cousins.
Service Information: Al-ice’s funeral will be from the Parker Memorial Funeral Home 35 Franklin St. Lynn on Friday at 11:00 AM fol-lowed by Funeral services at St. Stephen’s Memorial Epis-copal Church at 1:00 PM to which relatives and friends are invited to attend. Buri-al will follow in Pine Grove Cemetery. Please make me-morial donations in Alice’s name to Alzheimer’s Associ-ation.
Website https://www.alz. org Guest book at parkerme-morialfuneralhome.com
Alice L. McFarlane, 76
1945 - 2021
SALEM - Marion B. Burke of Salem (formerly of Swamp-scott) passed away on July 15, having recently celebrated in May her 100th birthday with family and friends. Mrs. Burke died peacefully in her sleep surrounded by family members after a very brief illness. Never wanting to live so long that she lost her independence or use of her keen mind, “Centennial Woman” left her family of 6 children, 20 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren, on her own terms, living a robust, in-dependent and active life until her final hours. Mrs. Burke was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, on May 25, 1921. She spoke every day with her sister, Sadie Saxe, until Sadie’s death in 2005. Mrs. Burke also main-tained a close bond with her two brothers, Dr. Alfred Winer and his wife Dr. Miroslava Bil-jana “Billy” Nikitovitch-Winer, of Lexington, KY, and David Winer and his wife Shirley, of Boynton Beach, FL. Even at 100, Mrs. Burke used her iPad to Face-Time with her brothers. When Mrs. Burke was 12, her beloved 9-year-old brother, Bernard “Sonny” Winer passed away. She adopted the middle name “Bernice” as a tribute. Her family endured the depression, food rationing and her broth-ers going to war. She credited her forever closeness with her parents, Joseph and Sarah Winer, and siblings to growing up under difficult circumstanc-es. Mrs. Burke received a full scholarship to Radcliffe Col-lege, but chose not to attend as her family required her sala-ry working as a legal secretasala-ry for a judge in Boston.
The “Roaring 20’s” was a de-cade of significant change and adapting to new technology prepared Mrs. Burke for the fu-ture. Mrs. Burke lived through a decade of innovations such as radio, cars, and the family’s first 4-party telephone line. The family gathered weekly to listen to “The Shadow” on the small family radio and savored each episode. She marveled when comparing the technology of her youth with her current abili-ty to stream shows on her iPad. She especially loved courtroom dramas. She anticipated with excitement the wireless arriv-al of photos and video of her newest great-grandchildren and was thrilled to ride on the Nahant causeway in a self-driv-ing Tesla. She often said, “I never thought I’d live to see the day,” and welcomed the oppor-tunity to experience modern innovations. Upon marrying Al-bert Burke, she joined her hus-band at Fort Lewis in Tacoma, Washington, where she served as a shorthand stenographer for military trials. After the war, they returned to raise six children in Swampscott. Mrs. Burke was known to rise early to start laundry, house-clean-ing, and prepare lunches and breakfast before anyone awoke. Her straight vacuum cleaner lines rivaled the grass stripes at Fenway. She was a taskmaster, getting her family to the beach or on the ski lift by 8 a.m. to enjoy the best part of every day. She was proud of her involvement in the lives of her children, including her 25-year leadership role with Tem-ple Beth El (Lynn) PTA. Mr. and Mrs. Burke divorced in 1980 and he passed away in 1998.
In 1980, Mrs. Burke became a real estate broker. Her 40-year career began with Carlson Real Estate, where she was awarded every level of recognition for her production. Around the same time, her sons, Joe and Jim, started Burke Bros. Construc-tion. While they did the build-ing, Mrs. Burke provided input on the design of single-family homes and handled all as-pects of marketing and sales. Joe Burke described that the only time the construction sites came to a halt was when their mother visited to check on progress. In 2008, she moved her desk to Raveis Real Estate in Marblehead. She adored her extensive real estate fam-ily. Even though Mrs. Burke ceased going to her office daily in February 2020 because of the pandemic, she never real-ly retired as she still checked property listings every day. She was highly regarded by her peers for her preparedness, never leaving her home without dressing impeccably and treat-ing everyone with respect and honesty. Many of her original clients from the 1980’s re-turned to work with Mrs. Burke, as did their children. Through-out her life, Mrs. Burke greeted each day with optimism, let by-gones be byby-gones and hugged and kissed strangers like they were family. Her life was made full by seeing her children and grandchildren daily, enjoying family dinners and walks along Kings Beach.
Mrs. Burke was not shy about her greatest achievement – her six children, 20 grandchildren and 21 great-children. Those she leaves behind include Ani-ta (Melvin) Weissburg and their children, Jesse (Candace), Ariel (Ronald) Weissburg-Ri-vera, Micayla (Jeremy) Hirsch, Alexandra (Brendan) Connolly, Adrianna and Gabrielle; Jamie (Chester) Goldberg and their children, Jaren (Ron) Landen, Sarah (Brent) Chandler, Lerrin (Steven) Reinecke, Jordan and his fiancé Nate Rosenblum, Brielle (Jeremy) Stewart and Jackson; Donald “Alexander” Gardener; Joseph and his fi-ancé, Patricia Ryan, and his former wife, Susan and their children Jennifer (Suraj) Krish-namurthi, Jeff (Caitlin) and Dana; James (Virginia) and their children Lindsay and Ash-ley (Sam); and Scott (Heather) and their children Cameron, Kendall and Avery. In addition to 21 great-grandchildren, Mrs. Burke leaves behind numerous nieces, nephews and cousins. A memorial service was held to celebrate this remarkable woman. Burial was at Pride of Lynn Cemetery. Donations may be made to a charity of choice.
Marion BURKE, 100
1921 - 2021
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From A1unlikely stories in all of sports, and Hughes-Flout-sakos had a front row seat to the early days of that rise.
But things were not easy for the Antetokoun-mpo family in Greece. For the first 18 years of his life, Antetokounmpo — who is now 26 years old — couldn’t travel outside the country and was ef-fectively stateless, having no papers from Greece or Nigeria because, despite being born in Greece, he didn’t automatically re-ceive Greek citizenship; Greek nationality law follows “jus sanguinis,” or determining one’s cit-izenship based on their parents’ nationality. His parents’ status as immi-grants made it hard for them to find work, forcing Antetokounmpo and his brothers to help provide for the family.
Despite all of the chal-lenges, Hughes-Floutsakos remembers Antetokoun-mpo’s selflessness and de-termination to provide for his family above all else.
“He was such a sweet boy, and he was also sup-porting his family at the time so he really grew up fast,” said Hughes-Flout-sakos, who currently lives in Swampscott. “He would bring lunches from school home to his family and things like that, but he was also always such an outgoing, positive and smart person. He was just a really good kid through and through.”
And she can’t remem-ber a time when he wasn’t playing sports, especially basketball.
“He was always a gifted athlete and he pretty much always played basketball,” said Hughes-Floutsakos. “He was so outgoing; he was always the one who was organizing the games and leading the other kids.”
In her time teaching Antetokounmpo subjects like English, Greek and Arabic over the years, she came to know his family as well. Antetokounmpo’s father, who died at age 54 in 2017, was a former professional soccer player
in Nigeria and his mother is a former high jumper. Three of Antetokounmpo’s four brothers — Thanasis, Kostas and Alex — are currently professional basketball players, with Thanasis right beside Gi-annis on the Bucks roster.
“They’re an incredi-bly proud family and they’re so close,” said H u g h e s - F l o u t s a k o s . “Their mother is such an amazing woman and all of the kids have just become such great people.”
Antetokounmpo was drafted 15th overall by the Bucks in 2013 — making him an instant millionaire. The stories of him sending all of his money back home to his family in Greece have been talked about since then, including the time when, in 2014, he sent so much money to his fam-ily that he didn’t have enough for cab fare from the Western Union to the arena for practice. He ran most of the way there in 20-degree weather before a local couple gave him a ride to the arena.
In the eight years since he’s been drafted, Ante-tokounmpo has turned himself into the quintes-sential NBA superstar. And on Tuesday night, after defying the odds once more and taking home an NBA champi-onship, the young man that Hughes-Floutsakos taught English to 20 years before stood in front of an international audience and spoke perfect English.
“I mean, he’s just a super-star,” said Hughes-Flout-sakos. “It’s so funny to look back at the young, skinny kid I knew all those years ago and then see him now with all he’s accomplished.
“And it’s not even just what he’s done on the court, it’s what he’s done for the kids of Athens and other disadvantaged kids,” Hughes-Floutsakos said. “I’m just so proud of who he’s become, and I know everyone else in his life is just as proud.”
Mike Alongi can be reached at [email protected].
NBA champ
Antetokounmpo
gets assist from
Swampscott
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THURSDAY JULY 22, 2021 THE DAILY ITEM
A3
By Sean Murphy
ASSOCIATED PRESS
OKLAHOMA CITY — Republican U.S. Sen. James Lankford would seem to have all the con-servative credentials he’d need to coast to reelection in deep-red Oklahoma.
A devout Baptist, Lank-ford was the director of the nation’s largest Christian youth camp for more than a decade. He speaks out regularly against abortion and what he describes as excessive government spending. And his vot-ing record in the Senate aligned with former Pres-ident Donald Trump’s po-sition nearly 90 percent of the time.
But like several other seemingly safe GOP in-cumbents, Lankford, who didn’t even draw a prima-ry opponent in 2016, fi nds himself under fi erce at-tack by a challenger in his own party. The antagonist is a 29-year-old evangeli-cal minister and politievangeli-cal newcomer who managed to draw more than 2,000 people to a “Freedom Ral-ly” headlined by Trump’s former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, at which Lankford was ac-cused of being not
conser-vative enough.
“When James (Lank-ford) certifi ed the big lie, he joined the big lie,” Jack-son Lahmeyer told the raucous crowd in Norman, citing Lankford’s failure to endorse Trump’s false claims about the election outcome. “The 2020 pres-idential election — that was a stolen election and we will never, ever allow it to happen again.” The state’s GOP chairman, John Bennett, has already endorsed Lahmeyer in the race.
Similar scenes are play-ing out in other red states where ultra right-wing challengers are tapping into anger among Republi-cans over Trump’s election loss and coronavirus-re-lated lockdowns. Some incumbents suddenly are scrambling to defend their right fl ank, heating up their own rhetoric on social media and ripping into President Joe Biden at every opportunity.
In Texas, GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, who faces a con-tested reelection primary next year, is pushing loos-er gun laws than he evloos-er previously embraced and proposing unprecedented state actions, including
promises to build more walls on the Mexican bor-der.
“I think it’s unquestion-ably attributable to the aftermath of the 2020 election and the insur-rection and former Pres-ident Trump’s claims of voter fraud,” said Alan Abramowitz, a political science professor at Emo-ry University in Atlanta.
Some conservative in-cumbents are obvious targets for right-wing challenges — notably U.S. Reps. Liz Cheney in Wyo-ming and Anthony Gon-zalez in Ohio, who voted to impeach Trump. Geor-gia Gov. Brian Kemp’s offense was refusing to block Georgia’s electoral votes from being awarded to Biden.
But with the 2022 election cycle approach-ing, the backlash is also touching even those who backed Trump consistent-ly through countless con-troversies. Texas’ Abbott echoed Trump’s partisan positions and has banked $55 million in campaign funds, more than any sit-ting governor in history.
But he’s drawn a chal-lenge from Allen West, who until recently was
the chairman of the Tex-as GOP. West, a tea par-ty fi rebrand and former Florida congressman, has attacked Abbott’s leader-ship after Democrats tem-porarily thwarted a GOP voting bill by decamping to Washington.
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By Aaron Morrison
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Landscaping was hardly his lifelong dream.
As a teenager, Alton Lu-cas believed basketball or music would pluck him out of North Carolina and take him around the world. In the late 1980s, he was the right-hand man to his musical best friend, Youtha Anthony Fowler, who many hip hop and R&B heads know as DJ Nabs.
But rather than jet-set-ting with Fowler, Lucas discovered drugs and the drug trade at the height of the so-called war on drugs. Addicted to crack cocaine and involved in traffi ck-ing the drug, he faced de-cades-long imprisonment at a time when the drug abuse and violence plagu-ing major cities and work-ing class Black communi-ties were not seen as the public health issue that opioids are today.
By chance, Lucas re-ceived a rare bit of mercy. He got the kind of help that many Black and Lati-no Americans struggling through the crack epidem-ic did not: treatment, ear-ly release and what many would consider a fresh start.
“I started the
landscap-ing company, to be honest with you, because nobody would hire me because I have a felony,” said Lucas. His Sunfl ower Landscap-ing got a boost in 2019 with the help of Inmates to Entrepreneurs, a na-tional nonprofi t assist-ing people with criminal backgrounds by providing practical entrepreneur-ship education.
Lucas was caught up in a system that imposes life-time limits on most people
who have served time for drug crimes, with little thought given to their ability to rehabilitate. In addition to being denied employment, those with criminal records can be limited in their access to business and educational loans, housing, child cus-tody rights, voting rights and gun rights.
It’s a system that was born when Lucas was barely out of diapers.
Fifty years ago this
summer, President Rich-ard Nixon declared a war on drugs. Today, with the U.S. mired in a deadly opi-oid epidemic that did not abate during the corona-virus pandemic’s worst days, it is questionable whether anyone won the war.
Yet the loser is clear: Black and Latino Amer-icans, their families and their communities. A key weapon was the imposi-tion of mandatory
mini-mums in prison sentenc-ing. Decades later those harsh federal and state penalties led to an crease in the prison in-dustrial complex that saw millions of people, primar-ily of color, locked up and shut out of the American dream.
An Associated Press re-view of federal and state incarceration data shows that, between 1975 and 2019, the U.S. prison population jumped from 240,593 to 1.43 million Americans. Among them, about 1 in 5 people were incarcerated with a drug offense listed as their most serious crime.
The racial disparities re-veal the war’s uneven toll. Following the passage of stiffer penalties for crack cocaine and other drugs, the Black incarceration rate in America explod-ed from about 600 per 100,000 people in 1970 to 1,808 in 2000. In the same timespan, the rate for the Latino population grew from 208 per 100,000 peo-ple to 615, while the white incarceration rate grew from 103 per 100,000 peo-ple to 242.
Gilberto Gonzalez, a re-tired special agent for the Drug Enforcement Ad-ministration who worked for more than 20 years
taking down drug deal-ers and traffi ckdeal-ers in the U.S., Mexico and in South America, said he’ll never forget being cheered on by residents in a predomi-nantly Hispanic neighbor-hood near Los Angeles as he led away drug traffi ck-ers in handcuffs.
“That gave me a sense of the reality of the people that live in these neigh-borhoods, that are power-less because they’re afraid that the drug dealers that control the street, that control the neighborhood are going to do them and their children harm,” said Gonzalez, 64, who detailed his fi eld experiences in the recently released memoir “Narco Legenda.”
“We realized then that, along with dismantling (drug traffi cking) organi-zations, there was also a real need to clean up com-munities, to go to where the crime was and help people that are helpless,” he said.
Still, the law enforce-ment approach has led to many long-lasting conse-quences for people who have since reformed. Lu-cas still wonders what would happen for him and his family if he no longer carried the weight of a drug-related conviction on his record.
By Gillian Flaccus
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PORTLAND, Ore. — Wildfi res in the Ameri-can West, including one burning in Oregon that’s currently the largest in the U.S., are creating hazy skies as far away as New York as the massive infer-nos spew smoke and ash into the air in columns up to 6 miles high.
Skies over New York City were hazy Tuesday as strong winds blew smoke east from California, Or-egon, Montana and other states. Oregon’s Bootleg Fire grew to 616 square miles — half the size of Rhode Island.
Fires also grew on both sides of California’s Sier-ra Nevada. The Dixie Fire, which broke out near the site of the 2018 Camp Fire that killed 85 people in the town of Paradise, ballooned to more than 133 square miles, with 15 percent con-tainment. More than 800 structures were threat-ened. In Alpine County, known as the California Alps, the Tamarack Fire caused evacuations of
sev-eral communities and grew to 61 square miles with no containment.
The smoke on the U.S. East Coast was reminis-cent of last fall when mul-tiple large fi res burning in Oregon in the state’s worst fi re season in recent mem-ory choked the local skies with pea-soup smoke but also impacted air quali-ty several thousand miles away.
“We’re seeing lots of fi res producing a tremendous amount of smoke, and ... by the time that smoke gets to the eastern portion of the country where it’s usually thinned out, there’s just so much smoke in the atmo-sphere from all these fi res that it’s still pretty thick,” said David Lawrence, a me-teorologist with the Nation-al Weather Service. “Over the last two years we’ve seen this phenomenon.”
Tony Galvez fl ed the Tamarack Fire in Califor-nia on Tuesday with his daughter at the last minute and found out later that his home was gone.
“I lost my whole life, ev-erything I’ve ever had. The kids are what’s going
to matter,” he said as he fi elded calls from relatives. “I got three teenagers. They’re going to go home to a moonscape.”
The Oregon fi re has rav-aged the southern part of the state and has been ex-panding by up to 4 miles (6 kilometers) a day, pushed by gusting winds and crit-ically dry weather that’s turned trees and under-growth into a tinderbox.
Fire crews have had to retreat from the fl ames for 10 consecutive days as fi re-balls jump from treetop to treetop, trees explode, em-bers fl y ahead of the fi re to start new blazes and, in some cases, the inferno’s heat creates its own weath-er of shifting winds and dry lightning. Monstrous clouds of smoke and ash have risen up to 6 miles into the sky and are visible for more than 100 air miles.
The fi re in the Fre-mont-Winema Nation-al Forest merged with a smaller nearby blaze Tues-day, and it has repeatedly breached a perimeter of treeless dirt and fi re retar-dant meant to stop its ad-vance.
50-year war on drugs imprisoned millions of Black Americans
Massive wildfi res in U.S.
West bring haze to East Coast
Seemingly safe GOP incumbents
under attack from right wing challengers
PHOTO | ASSOCIATED PRESS
A tanker drops retardant over the Mitchell Monument area at the Boot-leg Fire in southern Oregon.
PHOTO | ASSOCIATED PRESS
A4
THURSDAY JULY 22, 2021
OPINION
Biden has a better plan
to help the disabled
EDITORIAL
TO SUBMIT YOUR LETTERS, PLEASE MAIL TO THE DAILY ITEM, P.O. BOX 5, LYNN, MA 01903 OR EMAIL TO [email protected]
I thought of Charles Wil-bur last month when con-gressional Democrats in-troduced the Better Care Better Jobs Act. Wilbur worked in the 19th centu-ry promoting and operat-ing institutions for people then called “feeble-mind-ed,” who were warehoused in asylums and “poor farms.”
In the 20th century, institutionalization of people with intellectual disabilities steadily in-creased, peaking in 1968 as the influence of eugen-ics — a geneteugen-ics purifica-tion movement — waned and the modern disabil-ity-rights movement be-gan. Much work has been done since to help people move into the community.
Better Care Better Jobs, if passed, will carry out President Joe Biden’s promise to invest hun-dreds of billions into home and community-based ser-vices for people with dis-abilities. This legislation stands to be game-chang-ing, not just for what it promises but for how it can redress mistakes of the past.
Yet the services they re-ceive today too often de-pend on which state they live in rather than their real needs.
While 17 states have stopped using large state institutions, others lag behind. A third of people with developmental dis-abilities in Mississippi re-side in large facilities, as do 25 percent in Arkansas and 14 percent in Illinois, while less than 1 percent in Vermont, Maryland and Oregon do. Most services
in these latter states are provided in more individ-ualized settings.
Such disparities cannot be explained by severity of impairment. People with developmental disabilities are not more disabled in Illinois, Arkansas or Mis-sissippi than they are in Oregon, Vermont or Mary-land.
The differences result from policy choices. Some states help people with disabilities live life on their own terms, and oth-ers offer intensive services only in congregate facili-ties.
Why does this matter? Can’t high-quality ser-vices be delivered in large settings as well as small ones? Perhaps. But there is reason to be skeptical.
Institutions do not just segregate people with dis-abilities from society — they also congregate peo-ple to create economies of scale. But to safely super-vise many people who re-quire ongoing assistance in one location, providers must limit the range of personal choices available. Restrictions are imposed, not out of malice, but for practical reasons. Yet they still regiment people’s lives. The right to decide when to eat breakfast or how to spend one’s day are precious liberties — as people who have been de-nied them in institutions can attest.
Much research has found that people with disabil-ities have less choice and autonomy in larger set-tings than in smaller ones. Most people with dis-abilities and their family
members want to avoid institutionalization, even if it means going without support altogether. Un-der Medicaid rules, states must pay for institutional care, but they may main-tain a waiting list for com-munity services.
Across the country, hun-dreds of thousands of peo-ple with disabilities wait for support in the commu-nity. Meanwhile, family members — usually wom-en — leave the workforce to provide uncompensated care. Thus, the proposed legislation could support gender equality by ensur-ing women don’t have to leave their jobs to care for relatives with disabilities.
The Better Care Better Jobs Act would encour-age states to increase the availability of home care by expanding the federal government’s share of the cost. To receive these dol-lars, states would need to improve their programs, including by raising work-er wages and making it easier for people with dis-abilities to qualify for sup-port while working.
States can and should shift their services for peo-ple with disabilities away from institutions and oth-er congregate facilities and toward more indi-vidualized services. And Congress is right to help, with greater investments in community-based sup-port.
Ari Ne’eman is a doctoral candidate in health policy at Harvard and a visiting scholar at the Lurie Insti-tute for Disability Policy at Brandeis.
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ARI NE’EMAN
A little warning
would’ve been nice
Washington Street in Lynn turned into a construction zone for three blocks Wednesday. Oxford Street was blocked off at Central Avenue and traffic slowed to a crawl on Willow and Liberty streets.
Reconstructing and repaving streets and constructing new curbs and side-walks are periodic municipal projects just as buying new appliances and re-placing a roof are unavoidable home-owner expenses.
But advance notice and clear commu-nication about the scope of Wednesday’s street construction work downtown and the resulting traffic congestion and de-tours were clearly lacking.
Closing Oxford Street to traffic be-tween Central Avenue and Washington and Market streets meant missed deliv-eries and no customer or employee park-ing for residents and businesses along the street.
How hard would it have been to pro-vide downtown drivers, residents and business owners and employees with ad-vanced notice about the scope and scale of Wednesday’s work?
LED signs, phone calls and emails would have met the threshold of modern communication, but even a few card-board signs taped to downtown light poles would have done the trick.
Most people understand that street work is a periodic necessity.
Repaving crowded and congested downtown streets means annoyances and inconveniences for everyone who lives, works or drives on those streets. But the irritation could have been less-ened if basic attempts at communication and advance notice had been attempted. The blame for that lack of communi-cation can be spread around with City Hall, and downtown roadwork contrac-tor Allied Paving, bearing some of the burden.
The final piece of the nearly yearlong downtown street-repair project is sched-uled to come next week when repaving will take place after utilities conduct preliminary street work.
Once the exact date for doing the work is pinned down, the city should provide advance notice on work start times and detours.
Sleek and smooth new streets will be a welcome addition to downtown just as new sidewalks and street lighting have improved the area’s appearance. But downtown businesses and residents should be kept informed about the re-maining steps and inconveniences in-volved in the street project.
Allied Paving is making money off the surfacing and repaving work. In return, the company should certainly do its part to inform residents and businesses about upcoming street closures and pav-ing locations.
Cutting ourselves some slack
Buried in the sweetness of a return to some sort of pre-pandemic life is the dread of something less palatable: an uncomfort-able date with my scale.
I know it’s going to tell me I’ve gained 10 pounds. And with that knowledge, there’s a fleeting thought that maybe I’m not ready to put on a public face, at least not yet — not while I’m looking like this.
Before you judge me, know that I’m really not a shallow person. Hon-est. I’m at a place in my life where I rarely worry about what other people think of me, because I know how rarely they do. I even teach mindfulness and self-compassion to other health care workers, showing them how to han-dle their negative self-talk with grace and gentle-ness. So why let a modest weight gain during a plan-etary crisis get under my skin?
I’m hardly alone in my up-a-size boat. A research letter recently published in JAMA suggests that Americans who sheltered in place gained an average of 20 pounds during the pandemic. And perhaps I’m primed to be even more sensitive, because like 9 percent of the pop-ulation worldwide, I once struggled with an eating disorder. It’s a part of my life I consider to be over, the work done to leave it in the past. But even when old habits die, their shad-ows often linger.
Is a bit of regression re-ally so shocking, in light of everything we’ve been through in the past 18 months? We’ve home-schooled kids, cared for elderly parents, learned to live with fear and uncer-tainty and, in far too many cases, lost people we love. It’s common for my
col-leagues and I to dutifully say to one another, “Well, at least we still have our health.”
Or do we? In the spring, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. Even though my mind-fulness practice gives me meaningful relief, I often wonder what role chronic stress (or asymptomat-ic COVID-19) could have played in that condition — and what role it may have in aggravating my ongo-ing symptoms and even weight gain.
The deeper truth is that the unrelenting, toxic pressure of living through the pandemic has affected our health in myriad ways.
Those who experienced financial instability, per-sonal illness or loss, com-plex grief and moral injury will likely show a wide ar-ray of physical and mental health effects in the years to come. Some groups have borne some of the worst stress and trauma, espe-cially communities of col-or that have been dispro-portionately affected by COVID. Many of us may find we need to tend to old injuries that have sudden-ly flared up.
But too often, we fail to tend to those injuries at all. We restrict, we re-press, we fixate, we berate, aiming a stream of vitriol squarely at ourselves for not being thinner or stron-ger or tougher or better able to take the blows as they come. I did that for years.
These summer mornings, my extra 10 pounds and I get up early and walk my dog along the shoreline of the lake where I bring my family every year for a few weeks of reprieve. I sit on a bench while my pup’s fleshy petal of a tongue licks my forearm.
During this COVID
mar-athon, I feel like I’m finally coming up for air, a pebble settling in water, no longer clenched like a fist. I’m re-membering that there is a place beyond this tension, that before the pandemic I found peace in my life, and I will find it in the after-math, too.
I had a friend in univer-sity who loved to feed me. I think of her every time I smell the first hint of garlic spitting in a slick of hot oil: the Indigo Girls on in the background, my friend saying shyly, “I’d never go to all this trouble just for myself.” I always wondered, what did she eat when I wasn’t around — concrete paste and wa-ter? Why did she need me there just to do something nice for herself?
For everyone who has been more tightly coiled during the pandemic, whatever demon you are carrying, may you find a way to do something nice for yourself this summer, something that reminds you that, yes, you are worth a little bit of trou-ble.
And you know what else? Nobody cares if you gained 10 pounds, or more; almost nobody will even notice if you emerge looking gen-erally like a swamp crea-ture. Of course we should all eventually try to get back to a healthier weight, but I’m not going to preach — only offer a gentle re-minder.
If you think you’ll finally approve of yourself when you lose weight or write that bestselling book or run a marathon, you have it backward. Start by cut-ting yourself a little slack. Everything else may just fall into place.
Jillian Horton is a Cana-dian physician and writer.
JILLIAN HORTON
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THURSDAY JULY 22, 2021 THE DAILY ITEM
A5
All address information, particu-larly arrests, reflect police records. In the event of a perceived inaccuracy, it is the sole responsibility of the con-cerned party to contact the relevant police department and have the de-partment issue a notice of correction to the Daily Item. Corrections or clar-ifications will not be made without express notice of change from the arresting police department.
LYNN
Arrests
Beven Eglin, 34, of 86 Mall
St., was arrested on four war-rants and charged with two counts of resisting arrest, two counts of OUI-liquor second offense, Class B drug posses-sion, animal cruelty, disorderly conduct, operation of a motor vehicle with a suspended li-cense, motor vehicle operator refuses to identify self, marked lanes violation, negligent op-eration of a motor vehicle and operation of a motor vehicle with a revoked registration at 11:45 a.m. Wednesday.
Hakeem Hall, 30, of 143
Bowdoin St., Boston, was arrested and charged with assault and battery, mali-cious damage to a motor ve-hicle, credit card fraud under $1,200, receiving a stolen credit card and identity fraud at 1:17 p.m. Wednesday.
Accidents
A report of a motor vehicle crash at 3:52 p.m. Tuesday at Market Square and S Common Street; at 4:05 p.m. Tuesday on Park Street; at 2:22 a.m. Wednesday at 190 Lewis St.; at 1:18 p.m. Wednesday at Es-sex and Stewart streets.
A report of a hit-and-run mo-tor vehicle crash at 4:15 p.m. Tuesday at 436 Lowell St.
A report of a motor vehicle crash with personal injury at 6:46 p.m. Tuesday at 570 Western Ave.; at 7:25 p.m. Tuesday at 478 Chatham St.
A report of a motor vehicle crash involving a police vehicle at 12:25 p.m. Wednesday at 65 Memorial Park Ave.
Assaults
A report of an assault at 12:14 p.m. Wednesday at 391 Chatham St.
Breaking and Entering
A report of a motor vehi-cle breaking and entering at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday at 32 Shepard St.
Complaints
A report of a gunshot at 11:32 a.m. Tuesday at 78 Rockaway St.Overdose
A report of an overdose at 7:51 p.m. Tuesday at 170 Lib-erty St.Vandalism
A report of vandalism at 11:40 a.m. Tuesday at 20 Lin-coln St.MARBLEHEAD
Complaints
A West Shore Drive resident called at 7:31 a.m. Tuesday to complain that there were no “Crosswalk Ahead” signs on the street and that cars were speeding.
Report of a car which almost hit two bicyclists and a pedes-trian at 8:58 a.m. Tuesday on Atlantic Avenue.
An Auburndale Road res-ident called at 12:32 p.m. Tuesday to report that for the past month, she had seen her neighbor dumping a liquid at the base of her privacy trees.
Police received an anony-mous complaint at 1:52 p.m.
Tuesday that there were three abandoned and unregistered vehicles parked in a driveway on Barnard Street and that someone had taken a bat to the windows and mirrors of one of the vehicles.
A Vine Street resident called at 3:16 p.m. Tuesday to re-port that she had had a bag delayed after a flight for three days and had received a call that it would be delivered that day. When it wasn’t delivered on time, she called again and the person started screaming “Oh my God” on the phone. When the delivery person ar-rived, she started screaming at the caller and shoved her, and then left without giving the bag back. The resident eventually got her bag back.
A report of a man walking unsteadily on Pleasant Street at 5:43 p.m. Tuesday. Police located the man and his wife came to pick him up.
Theft
A Hawkes Road resident called at 10:01 a.m. Tuesday to report that someone had stolen the recently-restored historical sign from his house.
PEABODY
Accidents
A report of a motor vehicle crash at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday at 10 Margin St. and 68 Driscoll St.; at 4:44 p.m. Tuesday at 5005 Heatherwood Lane; at 6:06 p.m. Tuesday at 93 Gard-ner St. and 50 Margin St.; at 5:04 a.m. Wednesday at 2 County St. and 91 Lynn St.; at 8:47 a.m. Wednesday at FedEx/Kinko’s at 240 Andover St.; at 11:51 a.m. Wednesday at 56 Washington St. and 5 Aborn St.
A report of a hit-and-run mo-tor vehicle crash at 9:58 p.m. Tuesday at 7 Andover Terrace.
One person was taken to Salem Hospital after a motor vehicle crash was reported at 8:32 a.m. Wednesday at 82 Lowell St.
Complaints
A report of suspicious activ-ity at 2:38 a.m. Wednesday at 198 Washington St. A caller re-ported his neighbor had seen a man going through cars. The suspect was described as a tall, skinny Hispanic man with a goatee who was dressed in all black.
Suspicious activity was re-ported at 9:24 a.m. Wednes-day on Railroad Avenue. A fire lieutenant reported homeless people had broken into the project mobility vehicle and were living in there. Police re-ported it did not appear to be a break-in. The fire department gave the woman a day to move her residence to a new loca-tion.
Overdose
A report of an overdose at 4:26 p.m. Tuesday at 7-Eleven at 23 Newbury St.Theft
A report of a larceny at 3:15 p.m. Tuesday at Precision Colli-sion Repair & Auto Painting at 58 Pulaski St. A caller reported tools were stolen from his vehi-cle while it was being repaired. The caller later told police that he didn’t want to file a report.A larceny was reported at 9:46 a.m. Wednesday at Ar-rington Towing at 151 New-bury St. Items were reported missing from a vehicle. Police took a report for four items that were taken.
SAUGUS
Accidents
A report of a pedestrian struck by a motor vehicle at
5:15 a.m. Tuesday on Broad-way. One person was taken to Massachusetts General Hos-pital.
A report of a motor vehicle crash at 4:52 p.m. Tuesday at Broadway and Osprey Road; at 6:05 p.m. Tuesday at Burger King/Janco Central at 1449 Broadway
A report of a motor vehicle crash with injuries at 6:34 a.m. Wednesday at 469 Walnut St. Two people were taken to Mel-rose-Wakefield Hospital after a two-car crash.
Complaints
At 11:47 a.m. Tuesday, a call-er from 27 Walden Pond Ave. reported she was doing yard work and found some bones in her yard. Police reported the bone was from a dog.
A report of a suspicious person at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at Riverside Cemetery at 164 Winter St. A caller reported a woman dressed in all pink clothing appeared to be taking things off gravestones and put-ting them in a duffle bag. The woman told police that she was a witch and was picking up sticks for a spell she was casting later in the day. Police reported the woman checked out and was sent on her way.
A report of suspicious ac-tivity at 3:19 p.m. Tuesday on Sweetwater Street. Melrose Police reported to Saugus that they had received a call for an exchange of firearms or paint-ball markers between vehicles. Saugus Police reported finding a parked vehicle with an airsoft gun inside.
A report of a disturbance at 4:50 p.m. Tuesday at Target at 400 Lynn Fells Parkway. Target reported a man and two small children were playing a violin in the parking lot and were re-fusing to leave. Police reported the people left prior to their arrival.
SWAMPSCOTT
Accidents
A report of a pedestrian ac-cident with injuries at Home-Goods at 1:43 p.m. Tuesday.
Animals
Animal control was notified about a raccoon in a trash barrel at the police station at 10:37 a.m. Tuesday.
Complaints
A report of fireworks in the area of Atlantic Avenue and Humphrey Street at 5:21 a.m. Tuesday.
A report of a woman pan-handling outside HomeGoods at 2:56 p.m. Tuesday.
A report of extremely loud music coming from Vinnin Square at 5:52 p.m. Tuesday.
Report of a suspicious person in a car behind Uno Restaurant at 7:10 p.m. Tues-day.
A Shelton Road resident called at 7:50 p.m. Tuesday to report that the alarm on a car parked outside had been going off for several hours.
Police received a report at 11:02 p.m. Tuesday of a car in the train station parking lot that was running, unoccupied and making a lot of noise. The car was gone when police ar-rived.
Report of a person walk-ing down the middle of Burrill Street setting off fireworks at 1:27 a.m. Wednesday.
A Carson Terrace resident reported at 4:04 a.m. Wednes-day that they heard a car alarm go off and could see that the hood of their husband’s car was open.
Hazardous conditions
A report of a tree down and no power on Roy Street at 1:35 a.m. Wednesday. By Heather Hollingsworth and Jim Salter ASSOCIATED PRESS MISSION, Kan. — COVID-19 cases tripled in the U.S. over two weeks amid an onslaught of vac-cine misinformation that is straining hospitals, ex-hausting doctors and push-ing clergy into the fray.
"Our staff, they are frus-trated," said Chad Neilsen, director of infection preven-tion at UF Health Jackson-ville, a Florida hospital that is canceling elective surger-ies and procedures after the number of mostly unvacci-nated COVID-19 inpatients at its two campuses jumped to 134, up from a low of 16 in mid-May.
"They are tired. They are thinking this is déjà vu all over again, and there is some anger because we know that this is a largely preventable situation, and people are not taking ad-vantage of the vaccine."
Across the U.S., the sev-en-day rolling average for daily new cases rose over the past two weeks to more than 37,000 on Tuesday, up from less than 13,700 on July 6, according to data from Johns Hopkins Uni-versity. Health officials blame the delta variant and slowing vaccination rates. Just 56.2 percent of Amer-icans have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine, ac-cording to the Centers for Disease Control and Pre-vention.
In Louisiana, health of-ficials reported 5,388 new COVID-19 cases Wednes-day — the third-highest daily count since the
be-ginning of the pandemic in early 2020. Hospitalizations for the disease rose to 844 statewide, up more than 600 since mid-June.
"It is like seeing the car wreck before it happens," said Dr. James Williams, a clinical associate professor of emergency medicine at Texas Tech, who has recent-ly started treating more COVID-19 patients. "None of us want to go through this again."
He said the patients are younger — many in their 20s, 30s and 40s — and overwhelmingly unvacci-nated.
"People were just begging for this," he said of the vac-cine. "And remarkably it was put together within a year, which is just astonish-ing. People don't even ap-preciate that. Within a year, we got a vaccine. And now
they are thinking, 'Hmm, I don't know if I will get it.'"
As lead pastor of one of Missouri's largest churches, Jeremy Johnson has heard the reasons congregants don't want the COVID-19 vaccine. He wants them to know it's not only OK to get vaccinated, it's what the Bi-ble urges.
"I think there is a big influ-ence of fear," said Johnson, whose Springfield-based church also has a campus in Nixa and another about to open in Republic. "A fear of trusting something apart from scripture, a fear of trusting something apart from a political party they're more comfortable following. A fear of trusting in science. We hear that: 'I trust in God, not science.' But the truth is science and God are not something you have to choose between."
POLICE/FIRE
By Melinda Deslatte
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana House law-makers Wednesday failed to overturn Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards' veto of legislation ban-ning transgender athletes from school sports teams, a significant blow to Re-publican-led efforts to enact the new law in an historic veto session that has seen no bill rejections
overridden so far.
While the Senate nar-rowly agreed to the veto override, the House fell two votes short of the needed two-thirds sup-port required to bypass the governor. Republi-cans were unable to sway the handful of Democrats needed to reach the super-majority hurdle to mark what would have been the first time in nearly 30 years that the Louisiana Legislature has
overrid-den a gubernatorial veto. Edwards learned of the failure while on the air for his monthly radio show. He said the veto override would have risked mak-ing Louisiana lose major sporting events or con-ventions for a problem that does not exist.
"The last thing you want to do is to lose those ma-jor events in exchange for a bill that doesn't change anything on the ground in Louisiana. It just isn't
happening," the governor said.
The Republicans' failure came in an unprecedented veto session, the first time under the nearly 50-year-old constitution that law-makers came back to the Louisiana Capitol to con-sider enacting bills a gov-ernor had rejected. The prior two veto overrides in the 1990s happened in a regular session when lawmakers already were in the building.
FILE PHOTO | ASSOCIATED PRESS
Doctors inject sisters Claudia Scott-Mighty, left, and Althea Scott-Bonaparte, who are pa-tient-care directors, and Christine Scott, an ICU nurse, with their second shot of the Pfizer vaccine at New York-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville, N.Y.
PHOTO | ASSOCIATED PRESS
House Speaker Clay Schexnayder waits to hear results of votes in the Senate Chambers during a veto session in Baton Rouge, La.
COVID-19 cases in U.S. triple over
two weeks amid misinformation
Anti-Semitic, offensive
graffiti found in Lynnfield
Weinstein pleads not guilty to
sexual assaults in California
Louisiana House fails to reverse transgender sports ban veto
By Andrew Dalton
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES — Har-vey Weinstein pleaded not guilty in a Los Angeles courtroom Wednesday to four counts of rape and seven other sexual assault counts.
Sheriff's deputies brought the 69-year-old convicted rapist into court in a wheel-chair. He was wearing a brown jail jumpsuit and face mask. Attorney Mark Werksman entered the plea for the disgraced movie mo-gul a day after Weinstein was extradited to Califor-nia from New York, where he was serving a 23-year prison term.
Weinstein spoke only to say "thank you" to Judge Sergio Tapia, who wished him good luck as the hear-ing ended.
He now awaits a second trial on a second coast, and the possibility of another lengthy sentence.
Weinstein's indictment
involves five women in inci-dents spanning from 2004 to 2013. Most are said to have taken place in the ho-tels in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles that the New York-based Weinstein would make his headquarters for Hollywood business. Some took place during Oscars week, when his films were perennial contenders be-fore the #MeToo movement brought him down.
He pleaded not guilty to four counts of rape, four counts of forcible oral copu-lation, two counts of sexual battery by restraint and one count of sexual penetration by use of force, charges that together could bring a sen-tence of 140 years.
Werksman told the judge that he was filing doc-uments requesting the dismissal of three of the counts, saying they were beyond the statute of lim-itations.
"They're baseless, they're from long, long ago, they're uncorroborated,"
Werks-man said of the charges after the hearing. "We are confident that if we have a fair trial he will be acquit-ted."
The terms of Weinstein's extradition require that his trial begin by November. Werksman said Weinstein had yet to waive that right. But it would be unusual for the trial to begin that quickly. Weinstein returns to court for a motions hear-ing next week.
The women were not identified in the indict-ment.
A New York jury found Weinstein guilty of rap-ing an aspirrap-ing actress in 2013 in a Manhattan ho-tel room and forcibly per-forming oral sex on a TV and film production assis-tant in 2006 at his Man-hattan apartment.
He is appealing that con-viction, seeking a new trial. Weinstein maintains his in-nocence and contends that any sexual activity was con-sensual.
By Anne Marie Tobin
ITEM STAFF
LYNNFIELD — Town of-ficials were notified Wednes-day morning of the presence of anti-Semitic graffiti at Glen Meadow Park.
The graffiti included a swastika, the name “Hitler” and an obscene image. Police were im-mediately notified of the
incident and documented the scene. After the scene was documented, the De-partment of Public Works painted over the offensive images.
This crime is under in-vestigation. Police are asking anyone with infor-mation about this incident to call the Police Depart-ment at 781-334-3131.
In a statement released
by the town Wednesday afternoon, town officials said they are confident that “the Police Depart-ment will, as it has in the past, take the necessary measures to successfully identify the perpetrators of this crime and hold them responsible.”
