By Lori Rackl, Tribune News Service

On my right, Jurassic fern fronds and violet morning glories cascade over a steep cliff. I can hear the crystalline water smashing into the craggy shore hundreds of feet below.

To my left, lime-green succulents cling to a wall of volcanic rock.

“You can see why Portuguese call this ‘The Garden in the Ocean,’” says Sílvia Mota, a Backroads guide for the tour operator’s new walking and hiking trip in Madeira.

This lush, 286-square-mile island — almost three times the size of Martha’s Vineyard — has inspired a lot of nicknames. The Portuguese isle has been dubbed The Pearl of the Atlantic, a nod to the ocean that surrounds its namesake archipelago. Madeira’s reputation for comfortable year-round temperatures spawned another dreamy moniker: The Island of Eternal Spring.

The word madeira means “wood” in Portuguese. That’s what explorers found when they discovered this densely forested, uninhabited island in the 15th century. Six hundred years later, it’s tourists who are discovering this so-called Hawaii of Europe. The island of roughly 260,000 residents welcomed a record-breaking 2.2 million overnight visitors in 2024.

Earlier this year, United Airlines became the first U.S. carrier to fly nonstop between the States (New Jersey’s Newark Airport) and Madeira’s Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport, named for the soccer superstar who hails from the island’s capital city of Funchal. United recently announced plans to resume these seasonal flights in mid-May, three weeks earlier than its inaugural 2025 schedule.

Backroads added Madeira to its thick portfolio of trips this year. From March through December, the active travel company offers six-day, guided itineraries that take small groups on adventures spanning the coast to the clouds. Actually, above the clouds. One trek along a portion of the island’s most famous hike — Stairway to Heaven — had us hovering around 6,000 feet above sea level, peering down at what looked like a fluffy, white duvet tucked between jagged peaks.

(The majority of this iconic trail remains closed after a 2024 wildfire, but the portion that’s open doesn’t disappoint with its panoramic views.)

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Hiking is a huge draw to this natural playground, home to the planet’s largest surviving expanse of laurel forest. This prehistoric type of subtropical vegetation once covered much of southern Europe and North Africa but largely disappeared after the last Ice Age. An estimated 20% of Madeira is still covered by this evergreen-rich, biodiverse ecosystem that’s now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Our group of nine headed to São Vicente on the north side of the island, where the laurel forest is more concentrated, to check it out. We wandered through nearly 5 miles of movie set-worthy scenery, a tableau of mossy waterfalls, ancient laurel trees and flowering plants. Sílvia handed out headlamps for us to wear in the dark tunnels that are so prevalent on this mountainous island.

Another highlight of hiking in Madeira is that many footpaths follow a network of irrigation canals called levadas. These narrow channels were built to funnel much-needed water from the northern highlands to the towns and farms in the dry south. The levadas’ origins date back to the 15th century, but this engineering feat is still used today to distribute water — and to guide hikers through the island’s diverse terrain.

Walking next to these slow-moving aqueducts added a calming, peaceful vibe to our hikes, which we typically did in the morning, followed by another trek in the afternoon. In between, we’d stop at a local restaurant or winery for a hearty lunch of fried cornmeal cubes, skewers of beef, fresh-caught tuna and tender scabbardfish. Seafood was sometimes topped with bananas, which are next-level good when grown in Madeira.

“They’re smaller and sweeter,” says Sílvia, as she treats us to a post-hike snack of her homemade banana bread. We wash it down with cups of poncha, a citrusy cocktail made with sugarcane juice.

We walked next to hanging clusters of “bananas de Madeira” growing at Fajã dos Padres, an organic farm on the coast. It’s only accessible by boat or with a cable car ride down the sheer rock face of a mountain. The cable car dropped us off for a farm tour, lunch and a refreshing dip in the ocean.

Even though it’s billed as a hiking trip, our itinerary had time for us to be in and on the water. We took two rides on inflatable Zodiac boats, including a “sea safari” that had us traveling with a playful pod of Atlantic spotted dolphins, their babies in tow. Two of the three hotels we stayed in fronted the ocean (and they all had inviting pools), making it easy to go for a swim.

When it came time to fly home, I peered out the plane’s window for a bird’s-eye view of Madeira. The terra cotta-tiled roofs slowly disappeared. Soon, all I could see was a blanket of green surrounded by chalk-white clouds and cobalt blue water, a garden in the ocean.

©2025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Washington National Cathedral on Thursday hosts a bipartisan show of respect and remembrance for Dick Cheney, the consequential and polarizing vice president who in later years became an acidic scold of fellow Republican President Donald Trump.

Trump, who has been publicly silent about Cheney’s death Nov. 3, was not invited to the 11 a.m. memorial service.

Two ex-presidents came: Republican George W. Bush, who is to eulogize the man who served him as vice president, and Democrat Joe Biden, who once called Cheney “the most dangerous vice president we’ve had probably in American history” but now honors his commitment to his family and to his values.

Moments before the service began, figures of recent but now receded power mingled: Bush and Biden and their wives sitting in a row together, former Vice Presidents Kamala Harris and Mike Pence chatting side by side in their pew with Al Gore and Dan Quayle together behind them.

Biden greeted Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, the former longtime Senate leader, and his wife, former labor and transportation secretary Elaine Chao. Behind them sat Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker.

Daughter Liz Cheney, a former high-ranking House member whose Republican political career was shredded by Trump’s MAGA movement, will join Bush in addressing the gathering at the grand church known as “a spiritual home for the nation.”

Others delivering tributes at Thursday’s funeral are Cheney’s longtime cardiologist, Jonathan Reiner; former NBC News correspondent Pete Williams, who was Cheney’s spokesman at the Pentagon; and the former vice president’s grandchildren. Hundreds of guests were expected.

Trump’s vice president was not among them. JD Vance, on stage at another event in the morning, was asked about Cheney and said: “Obviously there’s some political disagreements there but he was a guy who served his country. We certainly wish his family all the best in this moment of grieving.”

Cheney had lived with heart disease for decades and, after the Bush administration, with a heart transplant. He died at age 84 from complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease, his family said.

The White House lowered its flags to half-staff after Cheney’s death, as it said the law calls for, but Trump did not issue the presidential proclamation that often accompanies the death of notable figures, nor has he commented publicly on his passing.

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The deeply conservative Cheney’s influence in the Bush administration was legendary and, to his critics, tragic.

He advocated for the U.S. invasion of Iraq on the basis of what proved to be faulty intelligence and consistently defended the extraordinary tools of surveillance, detention and inquisition employed in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Bush credited him with helping to keep the country safe and stable in a perilous time.

After the 2020 election won by Biden, Liz Cheney served as vice chair of the Democratic-led special House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. She accused Trump of summoning the violent mob and plunging the nation into “a moment of maximum danger.”

For that, she was stripped of her Republican leadership position and ultimately defeated in a 2022 Republican primary in Wyoming. In a campaign TV ad made for his daughter, Dick Cheney branded Trump a “coward” who “tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him.”

Last year, it did not sit well with Trump when Cheney said he would vote for the Democrat, Harris, in the presidential election.

Trump told Arab and Muslim voters that Cheney’s support for Harris should give them pause, because he “killed more Arabs than any human being on Earth. He pushed Bush, and they went into the Middle East.”

Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.

The numbers aren’t pretty for quarterback J.J. McCarthy, who ranks dead last in the NFL with a 52.9 completion rate.

The tape is even uglier when seeing how often McCarthy is missing players running wide open down the field.

Some of those struggles were illuminated by former NFL quarterback J.T. O’Sullivan last week via The QB School as he did a deep dive on McCarthy’s performance in the 27-19 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

It was more of the same this week, as O’Sullivan provided an equally lengthy film review of McCarthy’s performance in the 19-17 loss to the Chicago Bears.

Though he wasn’t nearly as negative as some of the rhetoric circulating on social media, O’Sullivan still has issues with the way McCarthy currently plays the position.

“It doesn’t look easy,” O’Sullivan said. “He’s making things harder on himself.”

Here are some of the highlights from the most recent breakdown via The QB School:

The leg whip

The first thing O’Sullivan brought up was the leg whip during McCarthy’s follow through. It presented itself on the first throw of the game, when McCarthy completed a pass to Adam Thielen to move the chains.

“He can rip it,” O’Sullivan said. “It’s just going to be really hard for most people to be consistent with that kind of lower half action.”

O’Sullivan noted how McCarthy’s mechanics are much more linear than rotational. In other words, McCarthy seems to generate his power by shifting his weight toward intended target rather than turning his hips while rooted in the ground.

That motion was also evident on the most egregious miss of the game, when McCarthy sailed star receiver Justin Jefferson with a ball that looked like it was about 10 feet over Jefferson’s head. As he rewound the play multiple times, O’Sullivan seemed genuinely shocked by how badly McCarthy missed Jefferson.

“That’s going to struggle to hit water falling out of a boat,” O’Sullivan said. “That’s thing is way out of there.”

The common thread for O’Sullivan in both of those misfires was the leg whip during McCarthy’s follow through.

“You just don’t see a lot of guys with that kind of follow through like that anymore,” O’Sullivan said. “He’s just so linear at getting that back hip through like a damn pitcher.”

It’s worth noting the leg whip during McCarthy’s follow through was also on display in the final minute of the game, when he threw strike to receiver Jordan Addison for a touchdown. It’s not ideal. It’s also not disqualifying — as long as he finds a way to control it.

“This is a hell of a strike,” O’Sullivan said. “Is this my favorite way to throw this from the lower half? No. Is it really hard to be consistent as a thrower with somebody who consistently does that? Yep. That’s still a big time throw.”

The ball trajectory

The first miss came on the opening drive, when McCarthy underthrew Addison deep down the field.

It would’ve gone for a big gain had McCarthy put a little bit more on it. Instead, he threw it on more of a line, and it went down as a missed opportunity.

The part that seemed to frustrate O’Sullivan more than the ball trajectory, however, was that McCarthy didn’t rip it to Jefferson on the deep crosser over the middle. Though it wasn’t necessarily wrong to go to Addison, it would’ve been easier to go to Jefferson.

“Just throw it to the (expletive) best player,” O’Sullivan said. “This is not even hard.”

The struggles with the ball trajectory also popped up for McCarthy on the incompletion to Aaron Jones in the end zone, then on the incompletion to tight end T.J. Hockenson near the sideline with nobody around him.

“A little touch makes it much easier,” O’Sullivan said. “We’ve had a couple of opportunities for plays down the field and the balls have been flat.”

It was a similar story on the interception McCarthy threw to Addison in the end zone. There wasn’t enough air on the ball, which, in turn, allowed cornerback Nahshon Wright to rise up for the interception.

“This ball is flat and behind us,” O’Sullivan said. “That’s a terrible pick.”

After watching the play back a few times, O’Sullivan added that the ball to Addison probably should’ve gone to receiver Jalen Nailor, who was running wide open in the intermediate part of the field

“I think it’s probably a poor read,” O’Sullivan said. “For whatever reason, things appear, to him, as covered when they’re not.”

The pocket movement

A pretty good throw by McCarthy early in the game went down as an incompletion because Addison dropped the ball.

As critical as O’Sullivan was of the drop, he was also critical of the pocket movement from McCarthy. He needlessly steps up into the pocket without pressure around him.

The decision to do that messed with the timing of the play itself. It caused McCarthy to be late on the throw, and while it should’ve been caught by Addison, it could’ve been better executed prior to the release.

“It’s not played on time,” O’Sullivan said. “It’s unfortunate. I don’t think he played it well. I think he played it better than that drop, though, that’s for sure.”

There was a completion from McCarthy to Jefferson later in the game on which the pocket movement needed to be better. Never mind that there’s no pressure around McCarthy. He still aggressively climbs up a half a step.

Chicago Bears safety Kevin Byard III (31) intercepts a Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy (9) pass to wide receiver Justin Jefferson (18) from in the second quarter of an NFL football game at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

“It feels like he has a tendency to make things harder on himself than he has to,” O’Sullivan said. “Not that this is an easy throw. It just looks like he’s thinking about making a violent movement when he doesn’t have to. Just sit right there and throw it.”

Maybe the most glaring example of the pocket movement continuing to plague McCarthy came on his interception on a pass intended for Jefferson. He put himself in danger by up stepping up into pressure. It results in him getting hit while throws, which, in turn, made life easy for safety Kevin Byard III to swoop in for an interception.

“There’s nobody close to him,” O’Sullivan said. “Just stay back there and throw the ball.”

Interestingly, as he concluded the film review, O’Sullivan tried to downplay some of the struggles with McCarthy’s mechanics. The man who last week called it a “floating dumpster fire” decided this week to pour water on the flames.

“Has it been good? No it hasn’t been good,” O’Sullivan said. “Has it been like we’re going to torch the place and start over? No I don’t think so either.”

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I love a Western.

Maybe it’s because my dad had old movies playing on the TV throughout my childhood, or maybe it’s because I grew up in rural California, where it was easy to imagine cowboys and campfires.

Nowadays, I gravitate toward what I would call “modern literary Westerns,” with their strong sense of place and complex look at the issues and ethics in how this side of America was built. Plus, they’re usually good yarns. 

What follows are novels, but I’ll add a nonfiction recommendation, too: One of the themes in these books concerns aging lawmen, soldiers or Texas Rangers who lament the things they’ve done for pay or progress. A nonfiction companion that gave me some perspective, especially for stories set in Texas, is “Empire of the Summer Moon” by S.C. Gwynne, a biography of the Comanches as they interacted with those men who sought their destruction.

So if it’s been a while, here’s a small sample to get you started on your next adventure.

“Lonesome Dove” by Larry McMurtry

No list of Westerns should begin without “Lonesome Dove,” the greatest of them all. At its heart, it’s a story about how people, places and perspectives change over time – for better and for worse. Decades after winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1986, it’s still incredibly readable, full of quirky characters, adventures, humor and so much empathy. 

“In the Distance” by Hernan Diaz

A Western unlike anything else I’ve read. An immigrant boy gets separated from his brother on the voyage to America and ends up in California instead of New York. Alone and isolated by both culture and language, he journeys east against the flow of prospectors, naturalists, homesteaders and religious zealots. The writing is beautiful, heartbreaking and puts a fresh spin on the origin lore of the West through the eyes of an innocent outsider. 

“Butcher’s Crossing” by John Williams

An Ivy League college grad heads west to learn about something he can’t learn in books, and heads out on a buffalo hunt. This is as much eco-fiction as it is a Western, with gorgeous descriptions of nature and a brutal, inevitable reckoning.

SEE ALSO: How the American West story reveals the nation’s triumphs and tragedies

“True Grit” by Charles Portis

A master class in voice, told from the point of view of a 14-year-old girl set on avenging the death of her father. You’ve probably seen a movie version, maybe the one starring John Wayne, but the book is somehow visceral and charming at the same time and is worth a read. 

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“Hombre” by Elmore Leonard

Written about seven years before “True Grit,” this one also deals with the moral ambiguity of delivering justice. It’s told as an eye-witness narrative about a stagecoach ride gone wrong, in which the passengers of questionable character and common sense become dependent on the titular gunsman they snubbed to save them.

“News of the World” by Paulette Jiles

An aging Army captain finds himself alone after the end of the Civil War and takes up traveling through Texas, reading newspapers aloud to the townspeople. At one stop, he’s conscripted to return a kidnapped girl to her relatives through a perilous and emotional journey. There is a lot of empathy in this short novel, with themes of found family and questions about what we consider “civilized.”

Further reading suggestions: “Deadwood” by Pete Dexter, “The Plague of Doves” by Louise Erdrich, “Wounded” by Percival Everett, “The Buffalo Hunter Hunter” by Stephen Graham Jones, “Lone Women” by Victor LaValle, “Outlawed” by Anna North, “Inland” by Téa Obreht, and “How Much of These Hills Is Gold” by C Pam Zhang.