26 Oct 2023

High school football: Class 6A first-round playoff predictions

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Here are some of Friday’s most interesting high school football games in the East Metro and western Wisconsin. Teams are listed by section seeds:

No. 5 White Bear Lake (3-5) at No. 4 Eagan (3-5), 7 p.m.

White Bear Lake responded to a rough start this season by winning three of its final four regular-season games. The Bears were able to establish the ground game with Avian Atkins. Eagan, meanwhile, lost four straight games before downing rival Eastview in the regular-season finale. Free from the blender of their regular-season schedule, perhaps the Wildcats could regain form and make a run? OUR PICK: Eagan 24, White Bear Lake 14

No. 5 Prior Lake (4-4) at No. 4 Mounds View (4-4), 7 p.m.

Mounds View put together a strong season with a few impressive wins and very competitive losses to earn a home playoff game. Its reward? A date with Prior Lake, which has won three straight and is a team few higher seeds would want to see in the early rounds. OUR PICK: Prior Lake 24, Mounds View 16

No. 6 East Ridge (2-6) at No. 3 Anoka (6-2), 7 p.m.

An aerial attack is sure to break out, as Anoka’s Peyton Podany and East Ridge’s Tanner Zolnosky can fill it up through the air. Who can stop the other team, and maybe force a couple of mistakes, should prove to be a separator. OUR PICK: Anoka 28, East Ridge 20

No. 6 Wayzata (2-6) at No. 3 Forest Lake (5-3), 7 p.m.

Forest Lake has hung its hat on physicality all season. It will be challenged in the first round, as West Metro teams are well known for their physicality. And don’t be fooled by the Trojans’ two wins — Wayzata has narrow losses to the likes of Prior Lake, Minnetonka and Shakopee this season. OUR PICK: Forest Lake 17, Wayzata 13

WISCONSIN SECOND-ROUND GAMES

Division 2: No. 3 Menomonie (8-2) at No. 2 New Richmond (9-1), 7 p.m.

New Richmond beat Menomonie 35-7 in late September. On that night, the Tigers’ offense couldn’t be stopped. Frankly, on a lot of nights this season, New Richmond’s offense couldn’t be stopped. OUR PICK: New Richmond 30, Menomonie 17

Division 4: No. 4 Baldwin-Woodville (8-2), at No. 1 St. Croix Central (9-1), 7 p.m.

If Baldwin-Woodville quarterback Cal Smith, who has missed playing time recently, is in Friday’s game, this one could be interesting. If not, well, it’s tough to see Baldwin-Woodville pulling the upset. St. Croix Central has scored 42-plus points in nine of its 10 games this season, including a 54-21 win over Baldwin-Woodville in early October. OUR PICK: St. Croix Central 49, Baldwin-Woodville 16

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26 Oct 2023

Judge says Georgia’s congressional and legislative districts are discriminatory and must be redrawn

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By JEFF AMY and KATE BRUMBACK (Associated Press)

ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge ruled Thursday that some of Georgia’s congressional, state Senate and state House districts were drawn in a racially discriminatory manner, ordering the state to draw an additional Black-majority congressional district.

U.S. District Judge Steve Jones, in a 516-page order, also ordered the state to draw two new Black-majority districts in Georgia’s 56-member state Senate and five new Black-majority districts in its 180-member state House.

Jones ordered Georgia’s Republican majority General Assembly and governor to fix the maps by Dec. 8, saying he would redraw districts if lawmakers did not. Hours after the ruling, Gov. Brian Kemp issued a call for a special session to begin Nov. 29 to redraw congressional and legislative districts, although a spokesperson for the governor said that is a scheduling decision and doesn’t mean the Republican opposes an appeal.

Jones’ ruling follows an eight-day September trial in which the plaintiffs argued that Black voters are still fighting opposition from white voters and need federal help to get a fair shot, while the state argued court intervention on behalf of Black voters wasn’t needed.

“Georgia has made great strides since 1965 toward equality in voting,” Jones wrote. “However, the evidence before this court shows that Georgia has not reached the point where the political process has equal openness and equal opportunity for everyone.”

The Georgia case is part of a wave of litigation after the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year stood behind its interpretation of the Voting Rights Act, rejecting a challenge to the law by Alabama.

Courts in Alabama and Florida ruled recently that Republican-led legislatures had unfairly diluted the voting power of Black residents. Legal challenges to congressional districts are also ongoing in Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.

Jones wrote that he would not allow the 2024 elections to be conducted using districts he has found to be “unlawful.” That would require a special session, as lawmakers aren’t scheduled to meet again until January.

Jones’ order explicitly anticipates an appeal by the state, and such an appeal could slow down that schedule, and maybe even let the maps be used again next year. The U.S. Supreme Court has previously ruled that judges shouldn’t require changes to districts too close to an election.

A spokesperson for Republican Attorney General Chris Carr, whose office defended the plans in court, declined comment, saying lawyers were still reading the ruling. Other Republicans want to keep fighting.

“The majority party went to great lengths to draw maps that were legal, fair, compact, and kept communities of interest together,” state Senate Republicans led by Majority Leader Steve Gooch of Dahlonega said in a statement. “Obviously we strongly disagree with the ruling and expect that all legal options will be explored to maintain the maps as passed by the legislature.”

A new map could shift one of Georgia’s 14 congressional seats from Republican to Democratic control. GOP lawmakers redrew the congressional map from an 8-6 Republican majority to a 9-5 Republican majority in 2021. Jones ruled that lawmakers could not eliminate minority opportunity districts elsewhere when they redraw maps.

“I applaud the district court’s decision ordering Georgia to draw maps compliant with the Voting Rights Act,” said state Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler, a Stone Mountain Democrat. “We are eager to help pass fairer maps that comply with federal law.”

Orders to draw new legislative districts could narrow Republican majorities in the state House, where the GOP has a 102-78 edge, and in the state Senate, with a 33-23 edge. But on their own, those changes are unlikely to lead to a Democratic takeover.

Jones wrote that he conducted a “thorough and sifting review” of the evidence in the case before concluding that Georgia violated the Voting Rights Act in enacting the current congressional and legislative maps.

The judge wrote that despite the fact that all of the state’s population increase between 2010 and 2020 was attributable to growth among non-white populations, the number of congressional and state Senate districts with a Black majority remained the same.

That echoed a key contention of the plaintiffs, as one of their lawyers noted after the ruling.

“In 2021, the General Assembly ignored Georgia’s diversification over the last decade and enacted a state legislative map that demonstrably diluted the voting strength of Black voters,” Rahul Garabadu, an American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia attorney, said in a statement. “Today’s decision charts a path to correct that grave injustice before the 2024 election cycle.

Jones wrote in a footnote that his order “in no way states or implies that the General Assembly or Georgia Republicans are racist.” The Voting Rights Act does not require him to find that the challenged maps were passed to discriminate against Black voters or that the Legislature is racist, he wrote. “Nothing in this order should be construed to indicate otherwise.”

26 Oct 2023

2% of kids and 7% of adults have gotten the new COVID shots, US data show

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NEW YORK — A month after federal officials recommended new versions of COVID-19 vaccines, 7% of U.S. adults and 2% of children have gotten a shot.

One expert called the rates “abysmal.”

The numbers, presented Thursday at a meeting held by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, come from a national survey of thousands of Americans, conducted two weeks ago.

The data also indicated that nearly 40% of adults said they probably or definitely will not get the shot. A similar percentage of parents said they did not plan to vaccinate their children.

In the late summer, government health officials made the nation’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign more like the annual flu campaign.

Officials approved updated shots that have a single target, an omicron descendant named XBB.1.5. They replaced vaccines that targeted the original coronavirus strain and a much earlier omicron version. Last month, the CDC recommended the new shots for everyone 6 months and older.

The government also transitioned to a commercialized system that relied on the health-care industry — not the government — to handle the distribution of the shots. Many people who immediately went for shots said pharmacies or doctors didn’t have them.

Americans have been urged to get different iterations of the vaccines for more than 2/12 years. This year, COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations fell to lower levels than seen in the previous three years.

Cases remain low compared with the pandemic’s early months. Even so, health officials say about 18,000 hospitalization and 1,200 deaths are still being reported each week.

One expert at the meeting, Dr. Camille Kotton of Harvard Medical School, called the numbers “abysmal” and said part of the problem may be patient confusion. She urged stepped-up public education efforts.

Dr. David Kimberlin, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, also expressed dismay.

“The recommendations are not being heard,” he said.

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26 Oct 2023

Vikings defense has more celebrations planned. Now the hard part: More turnovers to unveil them.

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Maybe the most stoic person the Vikings have on their coaching staff, defensive coordinator Brian Flores always encourages his players to have fun. So much so that he recently appointed rookie cornerback NaJee Thompson as the defense’s celebration coordinator.

As a result, the Vikings have started carving out a few minutes each week to discuss potential defensive celebrations. They got to bust out a couple of them on Monday Night Football against the San Francisco 49ers, performing a variation of “The Limbo” using cornerback Akayleb Evans as the bar, then the classic “Duck, Duck, Gray Duck” with safety Josh Metellus taking center stage.

It raises the question: What else do the Vikings have in store?

“We’ll see what they come up with next week,” Flores said. “We’ve got to earn the right to do those things.”

That isn’t lost on the Vikings as they prepare to play the Green Bay Packers on Sunday at Lambeau Field. They have more defensive celebrations planned. Now they have to force turnovers to unveil them.

“It’s almost like a test for us,” Metellus said. “If we say we want to do this dance, we have to have somebody show up and make a play so we can get there.”

The concept of defensive celebrations has only recently become a thing. After decades of offensive players hamming it up for the cameras, defensive players have started taking matters into their own hands. Nowadays, it’s not uncommon for a defensive player to race toward the end zone after forcing a turnover, and more often than not, there’s a full convoy of teammates behind him.

“The opportunities on the defensive side don’t come too often,” Metellus said. “You make a play, and it deserves to be celebrated.”

That’s exactly what the Vikings did on Monday Night Football. After a forced fumble by veteran safety Harrison Smith, the defense assembled in the end zone with Evans being held up horizontally by a couple of teammates, with everybody else walking underneath him.

“I have mixed feelings on it because I’m usually so tired and these guys get an interception or something and they just take off (for) 50 yards,” defensive tackle Harrison Phillips said. “I’ve got to make a business decision, like, ‘Do I really want to run all the way down there and be cooked?’”

Unfortunately for Phillips, he didn’t have a choice on Monday, since he had been designated to hold up Evans with the help of linebacker Ivan Pace Jr.

“I had to get my (expletive) down there to do it,” Phillips said with a laugh. “It was a lot.”

Not long after that, Metellus recovered a fumble, then with his teammates seated in a circle, he tagged pass rusher Pat Jones II and took off running around. Though the turnover call was reversed upon further review, the defensive celebration couldn’t be taken back.

“I would say having NaJee be our celebration coordinator definitely made us step up our game,” Metellus said. “He has a plan for us every week and it’s going to be a big part of what we do moving forward.”

As for Flores, he prefers to watch from the sidelines, letting his defensive players have the spotlight.

“I’m not the big jump-around-smiley guy,” Flores said. “I’m celebrating with them in my own way when those good things happen.”

Briefly

For the second straight day, left guard Ezra Cleveland (foot) was a limited participant in practice. Tight end T.J. Hockenson (foot) and receiver Jalen Nailor (hamstring) were also limited participants, while linebacker Brian Asamoah (ankle) did not practice at all.

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