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IN LIFE THE MOST ENTERTAINING PERSON OF 2016 KATE MCKINNON BY DAN MACMEDAN, USA TODAY

Cop videos: Public record or not? Vexing questions linger about privacy, value of police footage Miranda S. Spivack Special for USA TODAY

It took more than a year for Chicago police — under pressure from the media and the public — to release video footage of the shooting in 2014 that left Laquan McDonald dead, 16 bullets in his body. When a judge ﬁnally insisted the video be released, it cast doubt on the police department’s version of events. Witnesses and family members maintained that McDonald hadn’t lunged at police with a

knife. The 17-year-old did have a knife and slashed a tire on the police cruiser. The video, which was from a police dashboard camera, showed him walking away before he was fatally shot. Officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with ﬁrstdegree murder. The long delay in the video’s public release points to questions that have vexed many police departments, civil liberties advocates and elected officials: Under what circumstances should footage from police body and dashboard cameras be made public, and how much should be released?

The purpose of body cameras is to “build upon efforts to mend the fabric of trust.” Attorney General Loretta Lynch

CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT VIA AP

Laquan McDonald, right, walks down the street moments before being shot by officer Jason Van Dyke in Chicago in 2014. The issue has become more pressing after the Obama administration’s award of more than $41 million in the past two years to help law enforcement agencies

buy body cameras for officers. The purpose, outgoing Attorney General Loretta Lynch said, is to “build upon efforts to mend the fabric of trust, respect and com-

mon purpose that all communities need to thrive.” The grant money came with little guidance about how localities should handle the resulting requests for the public release of hundreds of hours of video footage. Are these ordinary public v STORY CONTINUES ON 2T

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Babies at risk of disability, death

Russians still struggle with new identity

GAO study says states fail to meet standards for disease screening WEEKEND SPECIAL This is an edition of USA TODAY available to subscribers as an e-Newspaper every Saturday and Sunday. It contains the latest developments in News, Money, Life and Sports along with the best of USA TODAY’s reporting, photography and graphics. Expanded content from USA TODAY can be found at our website, usatoday.com, on our free apps for Apple and Android devices, and in print Monday through Friday.

Some older citizens have nostalgic memories while younger people don’t comprehend or show no interest at all Kim Hjelmgaard l @khjelmgaard l USA TODAY KAZAN, RUSSIA

Welcome to Barviha and your host, Roman Galimov. He posts racy pictures of himself and his model wife on Instagram. His hipster bar offers a moody, dimly lit atmosphere, sophisticated brioche-bun burgers and emotive electronic beats that pulse from an expensive-looking sound system. Galimov’s dream is to open his next Barviha in Miami, but for now, you’ll have to visit him in this central Russian city. Ask Galimov, 28, about the Soviet Union, which collapsed a quarter-century ago this Christmas, and he’ll look surprised. “Does anyone even care about that place any longer?” Galimov said. “The life I lead now would be unimaginable then. Soviet people had one task: to conform. For me and other young people, we just live however we choose.”

USA SNAPSHOTS©

Decking the PJs

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of Americans celebrate the holidays wearing matching Christmas pajamas.

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Kobzarro, 19, who “train surfs,” is known as Moscow’s Batgirl. “It’s like a mystical experience,” she says.

SOURCE zulily survey of 1,002 adults who celebrate Christmas MICHAEL B. SMITH AND JANET LOEHRKE, USA TODAY

KIM HJELMGAARD, USA TODAY

Some baby dinosaurs lost their teeth as they grew up Limusaurus probably became a vegetarian Traci Watson Special for USA TODAY

If the Tooth Fairy operated during the Jurassic, the dinosaur called Limusaurus would have kept her busy. Scientists discovered that the pony-sized Limusaurus lost all its teeth as it grew from hatchling to adult, the ﬁrst known reptile to do so. A Limusaurus hatchling came into the world armed with

at least 42 sharp little gnashers, but an adult had only a toothless beak, according to a new study. One explanation for the tooth loss: The beaked adults were vegetarians, their toothy offspring omnivores. The ﬁnd is “fascinating,” says Gregory Erickson of Florida State University, who was not involved with the study. Most dinosaurs gained teeth as they got older, but “here we’re seeing it go the other way, where they start off with teeth and just abandon them.”

Limusaurus PORTIA SLOAN ROLLINGS

As an animal that dispensed with all its teeth as it matured, Limusaurus was deﬁnitely the weird kid in class. Dinosaurs generally had more teeth as adults than as hatchlings, Erickson says. And they didn’t just add teeth as they grew; many constantly swapped out their teeth for new teeth. Champion tooth-grower Nigersaurus, for example, replaced each tooth as often as every two to four weeks, according to a previous study, and Erickson has found a number of dinosaurs that replaced their teeth every month or two. When the ﬁrst Limusaurus skeletons were discovered in Chi-

na about 15 years ago, paleontologists were confused. Researchers thought at ﬁrst that they’d found two very similar species, one with teeth and one without, says study author Shuo Wang of China’s Capital Normal University. They named the one with a beak Limusaurus inextricabilis, or inextricable mud lizard, because the little animals had died in mudholes that probably formed from the footsteps of bigger animals, such as giant dinosaurs. A closer look at the fossils, which date to roughly 160 million years ago, showed they all belonged to just one species. “We couldn’t believe it,” Wang says.

USA TODAY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016

Some older Russians yearn for yesteryear v CONTINUED FROM 1T

Many older Russians long for the old days. Fifty-eight percent of people surveyed said they would approve if the Soviet Union were restored, according to recent data by the LevadaCenter, an independent Russian research organization. The same survey found that nostalgia for the Soviet Union is higher than at any point since 2000, when Russian President Vladimir Putin came to power. Younger people who may not have even been born in 1991 display a fascinating range of emotions from genuine disinterest to an emotional tug beckoning them to at least understand a time that, really, was not that long ago. Consider an adventurous teenager, a kickboxing champion and a tech entrepreneur: uKobzarro, 19, who never reveals her real name but is known as Russia’s Batgirl, used to be a quiet office worker. Now she puts on a mask and cape and balances on trains as they speed through Moscow and other parts of Russia. “It’s like a mystical experience for me,” Kobzarro said of her dangerous hobby. She pursued it initially to escape overbearing parents and an oppressive home life. It has evolved into a pastime that symbolizes, she said, her rejection of a stiﬂing Soviet state — although one she never experienced. “I admire people who create their own rules, who live their lives according to their own internal ideas about freedom and what’s possible.”

“The life I lead now would be unimaginable then.” Roman Galimov

In addition to train surfing, which has resulted in run-ins with the police and several fines, Kobzarro routinely, also illegally, explores abandoned Soviet-era hospitals, factories and other buildings. She does this, she said, to connect with a physical Soviet past. “It helps me understand it better. That doesn’t mean I would prefer that time to now,” she said. uIsabelle Magkoeva, 25, spent her early teens campaigning for a return to a kinder, gentler form of socialism capable of addressing Russia’s income inequality and other societal ills. “I am not a fan of the Soviet Union. It was a horrible time, but the situation is not good in our country,” she said. “I am against all the privatization in Russia,” Magkoeva said, referring to the period after the Soviet dissolution when the government auctioned off 1.5 trillion acres of arable land, as well as banks, factories, energy, minerals — about 200,000 inefficient stateowned enterprises in all — to private individuals. That led to the creation of instant billionaires, known as Russia’s oligarchs. Magkoeva quit Russia’s political scene four years ago. Police had warned her she was in danger of being arrested for taking part in demonstrations that had erupted against Putin after he was elected to the presidency for a third time. Instead, she took up Thai boxing, eventually winning a major Russian title. uIlya Chekh, 27, a Belarussian who runs Motorica, a technology start-up based in Moscow that makes prosthetic devices, laughed dismissively when asked if Russia’s Soviet past has any persisting influence on what he does. “The older generations in our medical institutes don’t know what 3-D printing is,” he said. Andrey Sebrant, 62, a former Soviet physicist who is director of product marketing at Yandex, a large Russian consumer technology firm, understands why people who are young and people who were once young have such very different views of the Soviet Union. “For people in their 70s, for example, the time of (former Soviet leader Leonid) Brezhnev is the time of their youth,” he said. “The best years of their life, where the memories are always good. Not everyone was suffering in the Soviet Union because of a lack of freedom. Lots of them were genuinely happy. It is normal they would dream about this time — that doesn’t mean they dream about communist rule. That’s different.”

A Los Angeles police officer wears an on-body camera during a demonstration in 2014.

Little or no guidance on requests for police videos v CONTINUED FROM 1T

records that would be disclosed under most state public records laws? How do agencies protect private information — such as bystanders’ identities — that in documents might be blacked out? More than 60 jurisdictions in more than half the states and the District of Columbia have adopted body cameras, but many almost immediately restricted public access to the footage. The types of limits range widely, but some states — including Kansas, Missouri, North Carolina and South Carolina — make it nearly impossible to release footage. Florida has enacted restrictions that give wide leeway to law enforcement agencies to withhold footage from the public, saying videos shot in private settings or those in which the subject has a “reasonable expectation of privacy” can be exempted from public disclosure. Other states are trying to craft similar exemptions.

ful to police, who can use them to prove that accusations against them are untrue, and, perhaps more significantly, as investigative tools. In theory, though largely undocumented, the threat that video footage could be made public can affect, and possibly improve, both police and civilian behavior. A study conducted over 12 months in 2012 and 2013 by the Rialto, Calif., police chief found that when police and civilians know they are being filmed, everyone behaves more calmly, and use of force is less common. In 2015, the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy at George Mason University in Virginia did a survey of the state of research on body cameras’ impact on behavior and public disclosure of footage. The findings suggest that much more information is needed to measure the effectiveness of body-worn cameras and public disclosure. The survey concluded, “The

“It raises knotty questions about the tensions between privacy and the values of public disclosure.” Rachel Levinson-Waldman, New York University School of Law

“This is an area that is difficult,” said Rachel Levinson-Waldman, senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, which tracks police body camera use. “It raises knotty questions about the tensions between privacy and the values of public disclosure.” In Baltimore, which is in the process of outﬁtting about 1,400 officers with body cameras, officials hope the devices will help explain police actions more clearly, even as the city has been roiled by an incident that was only partially caught on camera. It was a civilian with a cellphone who shot video of police loading Freddie Gray, 25, into the back of a police van in April 2015. Gray died of injuries while in police custody, prompting a series of failed prosecutions and citywide protests. The pressure to place body cameras on law enforcement officers grew in part from the proliferation of civilian videos from smartphones documenting police conduct up close and in real time. Civil liberties advocates say police abuse exposed by such videos is not new, but it had been almost impossible to document before everyone had the technology in their pockets. CAMERAS’ PRESENCE MAY AFFECT BEHAVIOR

Police body and dashboard cameras may provide additional proof of abuse, overcoming ambiguities common in police-civilian disputes. The videos also can be use-

need for more research in this area is paramount, as the adoption of (body-worn cameras) will likely have important implications for police-citizen interactions, police management and budgets, safety and security, citizen privacy, citizen reporting and cooperation with police, and practices in the courts.” One thing is certain: The body camera clipped to an officer’s clothing has vastly improved the quality and clarity of police videos. Though many departments have had dashboard cameras for several years, the body camera, usually pointed at the person with whom the officer interacts, provides clearer images, more close-ups and better audio. It’s unclear whether the Obama administration’s professed goal of using these cameras to provide greater transparency and police accountability will be realized. The incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump and his attorney general nominee, Sen. Jeff Sessions, RAla., have staked out a distinctly pro-police platform in which local control is preferred over federal involvement, leaving it likely that decisions about publicly releasing body camera footage will be made by state legislatures, city councils, county officials, police chiefs and sheriffs. During the campaign, Trump ﬁlled out a questionnaire from the Fraternal Order of Police. He was asked about body cameras and whether his administration would guarantee that footage

would not be used to discredit ofﬁcers’ privacy or reputations, particularly during contract negotiations with police unions. Trump answered, “The federal law enforcement agencies that will be using Body-Worn Cameras will do so with the proper balance between good management and protection of privacy. Abuse of power is never tolerated, whether such actions are taken by individual officers in the performance of their duties or by supervisors following up on procedure and protocol.” Carlton Mayers, policy counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said the public should be able to get data that police can cull from the videos about who gets stopped by police, as well as where and why they are stopped, and that data should be sorted by race and gender. That way, he said, the public can assess whether there is any illegal proﬁling. “We have been pushing to condition data collection … on having it be publicly reported,” he said. “The data belong to the community.” There is debate over whether the body-camera videos tell a complete story of what happened. What is recorded can vary greatly, depending on the camera angle, lighting and sound quality and whether an officer narrates the video as it is recorded. POLICIES ON CAMERA USE VARY — IF THEY EXIST AT ALL

A recent study done for the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights by Upturn, a Washington consulting ﬁrm, found a wide range of policies about when and for how long cameras should be turned on; whether officers can review footage before writing their reports, which could skew the results and limit the value of the footage as an accountability tool (most are allowed to see the video before a report is ﬁled); whether they can use facial recognition technology in videos for other investigations (many can); and whether department policies about the use of body cameras are easily accessible by the public. The report found that as of August, 43 of the 68 major city law enforcement departments used body cameras and had created written policies to guide their use. Getting access to those policies — never mind viewing the footage — can be a challenge. The report said 24 agencies did not make their policies available on their websites, an omission that “hinders robust public debate about how body cameras should be used.” Steve Tuttle, a spokesman for Taser, which has supplied more than 3,500 law enforcement agencies with its Axon body cameras, said the technology has advanced enough to diminish the

tension between those who push for more public release of videos and those who say it’s too onerous. Now that a seek-and-find and redaction system are available, it’s far easier for law enforcement agencies to zero in on one object or figure, use an algorithm to search for it and black it out, he said. “We make it very simple,” Tuttle said. Images in a one-minute video can be redacted “in seconds,” he said. Until recently, it took at least six times longer, he said. Along with more cameras comes more video, which creates a “tsunami of digital information,” he said. When someone requests a video of an officer’s entire shift, that creates an extreme burden on an agency. Police work is “a lot of walking around. It’s like war. You can go for a week and have a five-minute battle,” Tuttle said. Miranda S. Spivack, a former Washington Post editor and reporter, is the Pulliam Distinguished Visiting Professor of Journalism at DePauw University. This story was funded in part by the O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism at Marquette University.

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USA TODAY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016

States fail to protect newborns Federal standards on disease screening not met, GAO report says Ellen Gabler Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Most states have not met federal benchmarks to screen newborns in a timely manner for serious yet treatable genetic disorders, according to a report released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Although progress has been made, no states met a goal to have 95% of results reported to pediatricians within ﬁve days of birth for babies with the most time-sensitive conditions. No states had 95% of samples reach their lab within 24 hours of collection. As part of a bill signed by President Obama in 2014, the report was required in response to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation that found infants have died and suffered permanent disabilities because of screening delays by hospitals and state labs. The investigation was triggered by a Wisconsin baby who nearly died and was left brain damaged because of a delayed screening in 2012. The bill authorized nearly $20 million in spending for programs that support the country’s staterun newborn screening system. The GAO is an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress to investigate how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars. LATE SAMPLES

Nearly every baby in the country is tested for genetic disorders shortly after birth. Blood is collected on a card that is sent to state public health labs for testing. In 2013, the Journal Sentinel found that thousands of hospitals sent babies’ blood samples late to state labs, more than half of which were closed on weekends. In Colorado, a baby with a treatable disorder died before his newborn screening test was completed because the state lab was closed over the weekend. Though the GAO highlighted many changes states made to im-

KRISTYNA WENTZ-GRAFF, MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL

A newborn is tested for rare diseases. A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation found infants have died and suffered disabilities because of screening delays by hospitals and state labs. prove timeliness, the agency said its analysis indicates “substantial work remains for the majority of states to achieve the recommended benchmark by 2017.” The benchmark was set by a federal advisory committee that advises the U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services. In 2015, the committee set goals for three stages of newborn screening and said states should have at least 95% of babies’ blood samples meet these marks: uBirth to collection: A baby’s blood should be collected within 48 hours of birth. uCollection to arrival at lab: The blood sample should arrive at the lab within 24 hours of collection. uLab arrival to reporting results: Results for the most timesensitive conditions should be reported to doctors within ﬁve days of birth, and all conditions should be reported within seven days of birth. The GAO did its analysis by reviewing data collected by the Association of Public Health

Laboratories, which represents state labs across the country and has received about $9 million in federal grants to help states improve newborn screening. One of the government-funded programs is a data repository to better track states’ progress. The GAO reported 37 states and Puerto Rico had submitted data, so the agency could not assess the entire country. The Journal Sentinel had the same problem with its investigation, as only 31 states initially released newborn screening data. Participation in the data repository is voluntary, although the lab association says it hopes all states will join by April. The following had not submitted data: Connecticut, District of Columbia, Guam, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, Oklahoma, Utah and West Virginia. PROGRESS AND BARRIERS

The GAO listed several challenges states face to improve timeliness,

many of which were identiﬁed by the Journal Sentinel in 2013: limited lab hours, staff turnover, nursing protocol, limited courier availability, lack of feedback to hospitals on performance and relying on the mail to communicate results. Dozens of states and thousands of hospitals throughout the country signiﬁcantly changed how they approach newborn screening. They opened labs on weekends, required couriers for rural areas and provided hospitals with monthly performance reports. The changes weren’t enough to meet the benchmarks laid out by the federal advisory committee. “We are making progress, but we are certainly not where we want to be, ” said Cynthia Pellegrini, senior vice president of public policy and government affairs for the national March of Dimes, which advocates for newborn screening. “Even though this system looks relatively straightforward on the surface, once you start digging into it, it becomes unexpectedly complex.”

The Association of Public Health Laboratories said it works with state lab officials to make improvements and doesn’t think enough time has passed to evaluate states’ progress. Some states have met individual goals: In 2015, 10 out of 35 states had 95% of blood samples collected within 48 hours of birth. It is unclear which states have made progress because data submitted in the repository are not public. In response to the Journal Sentinel’s investigation, some states began posting hospitals’ performance online. The information is not always easy to find or kept up to date. Many states keep the numbers secret, leaving parents in the dark over newborn screening performance that could affect their baby. The lab association said keeping data private provides incentive to participate. “Bottom line: If we revealed state data, they wouldn’t contribute,” according to Jelili Ojodu, director of newborn screening and genetics for the lab association. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., who supported the newborn screening bill in 2014, is a member of a Senate committee that received the GAO report. “This new report shows that we still have more work to do,” Baldwin said in a statement. “I stand ready to continue my work to ensure that critical newborn screenings are completed quickly and accurately and to improve consistency in newborn testing across the country.” The GAO noted that although newborn screening has largely been the responsibility of state health departments, the federal government plays an influential role in providing grants, and the federal advisory committee was charted to recommend improvements to states and provide advice to the secretary of Health and Human Services. A Journal Sentinel investigation this month revealed that newborn screening lab policies and protocols vary widely from state to state, and many states ignore scientific advances. As a result, children can suffer catastrophic harm.

AG nominee Sessions A SHORT HISTORY ON THE ARMS RACE rethought drug sentencing The history of the U.S.-Russian nuclear arms race gained relevance last Ray Locker l @rlocker12 l USA TODAY

From hard line and hard penalties, he shifted stance in response to crack’s racial imbalance

Sen. Jeff Sessions

Mary Troyan @orndorfftroyan USA TODAY WASHINGTON When it comes to long prison sentences for crack cocaine, attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions was for them before he was against them. Sessions, as a federal prosecutor in southern Alabama in the 1980s and early ’90s, was one of the most hard-charging soldiers in the war on drugs who aggressively pursued dealers and users, big and small, and touted the harsh sentences as an effective deterrent. As a Republican senator in the 2000s, he grew critical of a cocaine sentencing policy that was tougher on crack than powder and the racial imbalance it created in federal prisons around the country. Sessions had seen firsthand how 5 grams of crack drew a mandatory five-year sentence, while it took 500 grams of powder to trigger the same sentence. He introduced legislation in 2001 to narrow the gap. “I think we’re at a point now where this 100-to-1 disparity that does fall heavier on the AfricanAmerican community, simply because that’s where crack is most often used, has got to be fixed,” Sessions said during the debate in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sessions hammered out a final deal in the Senate gym with Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. An enthusiastic drug war lieutenant acknowledged that prisons were clogged with low-level offenders, many of them black, who needed treatment, not decades of incarceration. As President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Sessions’ views on race and criminal justice are under scrutiny. Allies highlight his work to reduce the crack/powder disparity as proof of his commitment to racial justice. “Senator Sessions has been intimately involved in assuring that even as the department combats the scourge of illegal drugs, the penalties imposed on

defendants do not unfairly impact minority communities,” five former U.S. attorneys general wrote to congressional leaders Dec. 5. The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to hold a confirmation hearing for Sessions, starting Jan. 10. This is the same panel that rejected Sessions for a federal judgeship 30 years ago amid concerns about racial bias. Well before Sessions was in Washington arguing that the mandatory sentencing disproportionately affected African Americans, he was in Mobile, Ala., prosecuting more crack cases than almost every other district in the country. In 1992-93, one year before he ran for attorney general of Alabama, only the District of Columbia had more federal crack convictions per capita than Sessions’ Southern District of Alabama, according to a Mobile Press-Register report in 1997 based on data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission. “He would say that ‘these cases were sent to me and I had to try them,’ but under his tenure, there were probably more people prosecuted than any other U.S. attorney in the history of the Southern District,” said Frederick Richardson, vice president of the Mobile City Council. Richardson, who researched the effects of the drug wars in Mobile, was critical of the high number of drug conspiracy convictions under Sessions, but he supported Sessions’ role in scaling back the sentences for crack. “He has changed,” Richardson said. Sessions was appointed U.S. attorney by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and held the office until May 1993, when he left to clear the way for President Bill Clinton to appoint a successor. After joining the Senate, Sessions acknowledged the harm done by mandatory sentences for possessing even small amounts of crack. “There is valid concern about the disparity between crack and powder, that it implicates racial concerns in America, and it also is not an effective use of our prison beds and detention facilities,” he said in 2006.

week following President-elect Donald Trump’s tweet about expanding U.S. nuclear capability and his comments about being willing to let another arms race happen if necessary. Between 1945, when the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan to end World War II, and 1972, when the first comprehensive nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union was signed, both nations sought to build and deploy as many nuclear weapons as possible. Here are some questions and answers about the arms race: When did the arms race start?

QA: It started in 1945, when the United States exploded its ﬁrst atomic bomb on July 16 in Alamogordo, N.M., after a massive research campaign known as the Manhattan Project. The successful test of the bomb led to its use on two Japanese cities in August 1945, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Soviet Union knew of the U.S. work on the atomic bomb and began work on a bomb of its own. When the Soviets get the bomb?

QA: The Soviets exploded their ﬁrst atomic bomb on Aug. 29, 1949, at their facility in Semipalatinsk in what is now Kazakhstan. U.S officials, who believed they would have a longer monopoly on atomic weapons, detected the Soviet explosion on Sept. 3, when a spy plane ﬂying over Siberia detected signs of airborne radioactive material. President Harry Truman told the American people later that month about the Soviet bomb. What is the hydrogen bomb?

QA: The thermonuclear, or hydrogen bomb, which some of its developers called the “Super,” was first exploded over the Pacific atoll of Eniwetak on Nov. 1, 1952. The Soviets exploded their first true hydrogen bomb on Nov. 22, 1955. Hydrogen bombs are far more powerful than atomic bombs and fuse isotopes of hydrogen to create a more powerful explosion. What is mutually assured destruction?

QA: This was a policy developed during the Kennedy administration in the 1960s in which both the United States and Soviet Union would be deterred from starting a nuclear war be-

According to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, the United States had 32,040 nuclear warheads in 1967, while the Soviet Union peaked at 45,000 in 1986.

cause of the knowledge that each side would be destroyed by the other. Neither the United States nor the Soviet Union could be assured that the side that struck ﬁrst would knock out enough of the other’s weapons to avoid being destroyed in a retaliatory strike. What was the peak of the arms race?

QA: According to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, the United States had 32,040 nuclear warheads in 1967, while the Soviets peaked at 45,000 in 1986. Which treaties curbed the arms race?

QA: On Aug. 5, 1963, U.S., Soviet and British foreign ministers signed the Test Ban Treaty that stopped nuclear tests in the earth’s atmosphere. On May 26, 1972, President Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed the ﬁrst Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty, which called for the ﬁrst reductions in the number of nuclear weapons. A second treaty limiting anti-ballistic missile systems was also signed that day. What is the Strategic Defense Initiative?

QA: SDI, which was popularly known as Star Wars, was ﬁrst proposed by President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983. It called for a series of satellites and groundbased missiles that would shoot down incoming missiles from the Soviet Union and other nations. Opponents, including the Soviets, believed it would destabilize the anti-ballistic missile treaty of 1972 and encourage the United States to believe it could launch a ﬁrst strike against the Soviets. One of its major proponents was Edward Teller, the nuclear scientist who helped develop the hydrogen bomb.

USA TODAY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016

‘JESUS THE REFUGEE’

Churches connect Christmas story to migrant crisis Emily McFarlan Miller Religion News Service

This Christmas season, churches across the country will tell the story of one refugee child. The toddler and his parents made a late-night escape from their home country in the Middle East. Not long after, all boys his age, 2 and under, were ordered killed by the oppressive regime they fled. The details seem to recall stories in the newspaper this year, perhaps that of Omran Daqneesh. A picture of the little boy — sitting stunned and bloodied in the back of an ambulance after a bombing in Aleppo, Syria — went viral in August. But the story told in church this Christmas comes from the account of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem and flight from King Herod into Egypt, recorded in the biblical book of Matthew. “It’s maybe a part of the story we don’t like to focus on so much,” said Matthew Soerens, U.S. director of church mobilization at World Relief. “We like to end the story with the wise men bowing down before Jesus, and then the curtain comes down, and we go home and have Christmas dinner. That’s not where the scriptural story ends.” World Relief, one of nine private agencies contracted with the U.S. government to resettle refugees, saw a significant increase starting last year in churches that wanted to help refugees, according to Soerens. Many have connected the plight of today’s refugees with the Christmas story in the weeks leading up to the holiday, when Christians commemorate Jesus’ birth. At the opening of this year’s Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis said the experiences of refugees recall “that of baby Jesus, who at the time of his birth could not find a place to stay when he was born in Bethlehem.” Pastors in churches across the country have reached out to World Relief, looking for resources to place current events into the context of Christmas, Soerens said. “It’s not a fun topic for Christmas, but it is part of the story, and I think that’s why it’s so important — because it’s part of what’s happening in our world today,” Soerens said. One is Ray Kollbocker, senior pastor at Parkview Community Church in the Chicago suburb of Glen Ellyn, Ill. “Up until recently, I never thought of Jesus this way. I know the story, I’ve read the story, I’ve studied the text, and yet I’ve never put this together,” Kollbocker said

THOMAS COEX, AFP/GETTY IMAGES

An Iraqi boy, who ﬂed the violence in the northern city of Mosul during a government operation to retake the city from jihadists, stays at Hasan Sham refugee camp. Dec. 4 in a sermon titled “Refugee Jesus,” part of Parkview’s message series “Reclaiming Christmas.” His lightbulb moment came months ago when the Parkview staff was brainstorming ideas for its annual Christmas giving initiative and someone pointed out, “You know, if you think about it, we were saved by a refugee,” Kollbocker recalled. In another sermon titled “Jesus the Refugee,” Jim Mullins, pastor of vocational and theological formation at Redemption Church in Tempe, Ariz., recalled a photo of the tiny body of 3-year-old Alan Kurdi, washed up on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea after he and his mother and brother drowned trying to escape from Syria. Jesus was close to the same age during his experience as a refugee, Mullins said. “He entered into the same little small shoes that you see in that picture as a part of his incarnation,” he said. Redemption Church connected to the refugee crisis two years ago when it gathered its members as a human shield around a nearby mosque that serves a large refugee population. It is starting a “Good Works” team to help refugees ﬁnd meaningful employment in the Tempe area, according to the pastor. This month, Parkview hopes to raise a quarter-million dollars for three organizations working with refugees — World Relief, The Re:new Project and Preemptive

LOUISA GOULIAMAKI, AFP/GETTY IMAGES

A child lives at the Ritsona refugee camp, north of Athens. More than 60,000 refugees and migrants are stuck in Greece. Love Coalition — through its giving initiative and, like Redemption, carry its work on behalf of refugees into 2017. It plans to help World Relief, by volunteering as airport pickup assistants and “friendship partners,” Discipleship Pastor Kim Whetstone said. This summer, the church hosted Jeremy Courtney of the Preemptive Love Coalition as a speaker, and its executive pastor, Dave Davis, visited several refugee camps in northern Iraq with the organization. Some of the women of the church have started partnering with the women of Re:new, refugee artisans creating goods for sale at the store in Glen Ellyn and online. “The reality of Jesus’ experience has caused me to think more carefully about and sympathize more readily with the plight of refugees in general,” Kollbacker said.

For other churches across the country, Christmas is a continuation of the involvement they’ve had with refugees for years. Some, such as Lakeland Community Church in Lee’s Summit, Mo., collect essential items for refugees during the season of giving. Last Christmas, Lakeland donated more than 1,500 thermal foil emergency blankets to the Migrant Offshore Aid Station. The refugee crisis hasn’t been Lakeland’s focus this Christmas, but the church still collected 70 welcome kits, valued at $6,000 to $7,000, that it plans to deliver to the World Relief office several hours away in Moline, Ill. For Pastor Marta Gillilan, making the connection between the refugee crisis and her mother’s experience as a Japanese immigrant during World War II moved her to get the independent Presbyterian church involved.

“It’s not about being political. It’s about helping the refugees that don’t have anybody else to come alongside them. If not the church, then who?” she said. Members of St. Mary of Bethany Parish in Nashville threw a Christmas party for the fifth straight year at the Stonebrook apartment complex, which has a large immigrant and refugee population, according to Jeanette Veile. They collected presents for 500 children, who also received a candy cane and a picture with Santa Claus (actually, Veile’s husband, Bob). The evangelical Anglican church was planted two years ago in the South Nashville neighborhood — in part because of the involvement the Veiles and other founding members had with refugees in the area, she said. The church rents an apartment in Stonebrook for the summer lunch program she started after seeing the need as an English-as-a-second-language teacher in a neighborhood school, and weekly meetings of its sister church, Burmese Worship Fellowship, as well as other events. “It’s the heart of Jesus. It’s what Jesus does,” Veile said. “We’re not there to evangelize or to convert.” The reaction to the sermon series and giving initiative at Parkview has been overwhelmingly positive, Kollbocker said, though “I think it rocks any Western, suburban, white Christian’s world when you begin to talk about Jesus in ways other than … white Jesus with the long, flowing hair we see in the classic pictures that depict him.” Some wrestle with “some of the misinformation and some of the fear” surrounding refugees, he said. For instance, Whetstone said, one woman at a recent Bible study on the topic of the refugee crisis said half the world’s refugees were resettled every year in the USA. In reality, that number is less than one-half of 1%, Soerens said. In fiscal 2016, nearly 85,000 of a total 21.3 million refugees were resettled in the USA. Most of those refugees came last year not from Syria but from the Democratic Republic of Congo, he said. About an equal number are Christian and Muslim. “It’s not necessarily the situations people have in their minds,” Soerens said. By speaking out about the shared experiences of Jesus and modern-day refugees and involving Parkview in organizations working with refugees, Kollbacker said he hopes to help people realize that the refugee crisis begins abroad but stretches across oceans to their own communities. “It’s a huge crisis, but we can play a role in it,” he said.

Berlin refugee community braces for backlash After truck attack, ‘we don’t want Germans to turn against us’ Kim Hjelmgaard @khjelmgaard USA TODAY

After police killed the asylum seeker suspected of the deadly truck rampage, migrants expressed relief that a terrorist was caught but also anxiety about a renewed backlash against them. “We come from another country, so it’s difficult for us to see this happen,” Omrr Mohebzada, 26, who is from Herat, Afghanistan, said Friday after Tunisian national Anis Amri died in a shootout with police in Milan, Italy. Mohebzada said he ﬂed Afghanistan 18 months ago because his father’s logistics company works with the U.S. military and radical Taliban insurgents trying to regain control of the U.S.backed government threatened to kill him. “Germany has been very good to us,” he said. “We feel bad when we hear this news. We don’t want Germans to turn against us.” It’s a reasonable concern in a country that accepted approximately 1 million migrants from war-torn countries in the Middle East and elsewhere during the past two years under Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door poli-

BERLIN

cy. Her welcoming stance has come under increasing assault from an anti-immigration party that has shown strength in elections this year. A backlash against the flood of refugees flared a year ago, when gangs of recent arrivals were accused of mass sexual assaults of women during New Year’s Eve celebrations in Cologne and other cities. Since then, there have been other attacks by migrants that have put Merkel under pressure to reverse her refugee policy. Amri, 24, the suspect in Monday’s truck attack at Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz, which killed 12 people and injured 48, spent time in jail for theft and vandalism. His German asylum application was rejected because authorities feared he had become radicalized. He avoided deportation because of a bureaucratic mix-up, and he had been under surveillance as a potential terrorist but had not done anything to justify an arrest. The truck attack occurred five months after a Syrian man killed a woman and wounded five people with a machete. Also in July, a teenage refugee from Afghanistan injured five tourists from Hong Kong with an ax and knife on a train. In a separate incident, a Syrian blew himself up outside a bar, wounding 15 people. Because the Berlin attack was the most deadly terror incident, it has heightened concerns among asylum seekers that they will be

AFP/GETTY IMAGES

A woman holds a “Refugees Welcome” sign outside the building in Berlin that houses German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office. Merkel has had an open-door policy on asylum seekers. targeted for retribution. There have been more than 1,000 incidents, dozens of them violent, targeting refugee shelters and asylum seekers in Germany since the start of this year, according to the Interior Ministry. Odeh Diab, 20, a Syrian refugee, said that in Berlin, the vast majority of his interactions with Germans have been positive and helpful, but a backlash is noticeable in small ways. “Often when I get on the subway and sit down, people immediately move away from me because they think I am dangerous,” he said. He pointed out that there was a far-right, anti-immigration

demonstration at the site of the Christmas market attack on Wednesday night, but a simultaneous counterprotest was far larger. “The idea of a huge ‘backlash’ against the refugees is being pushed by the right-wing political agenda of some political parties and groups,” said Gregor Wendler, a Berliner with a government-funded organization that helps refugees ﬁnd work in Germany’s capital. “That only works on people who don’t know how they feel about refugees.” About two-thirds of Germans approve of Merkel’s decision to stand for a fourth term in next year’s general election, according

to a poll published in late November — before the attack — by PoliBarometer. An earlier survey published by Germany’s Focus magazine found that 60% of Germans want Merkel to put a ﬁxed limit on the number of refugees Germany accepts, a proposal she has repeatedly rebuffed. The nationalist, anti-immigration Alternative für Deutschland party has seen its popularity soar in recent parliamentary elections, although it has peaked at about 15% nationwide. “This attack is bad news for all of us refugees who live in Germany,” said Mohammad Soltani, 25, a former bodyguard for a wealthy political family in Kabul. Like fellow Afghan Mohebzada, Soltani said he sought asylum in Germany because the Taliban made repeated threats to kill him, and he saw no other option. “A lot of my friends in Germany are very sad about this attack,” he said. “I hope they captured the right guy. I hope the government does not change its mind about refugees.” Mohebzada said he hopes the death of the Berlin attack suspect will allow people in Germany and throughout Europe to enjoy Christmas. Like most asylum seekers in Germany, he and his wife and two small children are Muslim. “Wait, remind me,” he said. “What is the name of the guy with the big, white beard and red clothes?”

USA TODAY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016

COLLAPSE OF THE

25TH ANNIVERSARY THE BREAKUP OF A SUPERPOWER Twenty-five years ago this Christmas Day, the Soviet Union disappeared. A superpower was suddenly gone, and 15 separate countries appeared in its place:

Former Soviet Union countries

Kara Sea

East Siberian Sea

Gross Domestic Product per capita

Berents Sea

RUSS RU SSIA IA A RUSSIA $23,895

ESTO ES TONI NIA NI A ESTONIA $26,930

LITHUANIA $26,397

LAT LA TVIA TV VIA A LATVIA $22,628 BELARUS BEELA B ARU US $16,621 UKRAINE U UKRA UK UKRAI KRA RAI AIIN INEE $7,450

KAZAKHSTAN K KAZA KA AZA ZAKH KHST KH S AN STAN ST N $24,353

MOLDOVA $4,742

KYRGYZSTAN KYRG KY KYRG GYZ YZST STAN ST AN N $3,225

JAPAN

TAJIKIST TAJIKISTAN T TA AJI J KI KIST ST TAN AN $2,616

$9,109 ARME AR ARMENIA M NI NIA A $7,899 AZERBAIJAN AZ A AZE AZERBA ZEER ERB RBA RBAIJAN BAIJ B AIJJAN N $16,695

Pacific Ocean

MONGOLIA

$1,878

CHINA

TURKMENISTAN T TU URK R ME MEN NIST NI N NIS IS STAN ST AN N $7,987

USA USA US $52,549

7 UNEXPECTED THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED SINCE THE 1991 BREAKUP 1. WEALTH GAP GROWS

2. CHANGE IS TRAUMATIC

After 74 years of authoritarian communist rule in which supposedly everyone was equal, Russia is one of the world’s most unequal countries, according to a 2016 Credit Suisse global wealth report: 75% of its wealth is controlled by the richest 1%. In 1991, there were no billionaires in Russia. Today, there are 77 with a combined net worth of $283 billion, according to Forbes’ list of richest people.

THE WORLD’S TOP 1% Countries with the highest and lowest concentrations of wealth among the top 1% (Top 1% share of wealth):

1 Comoros

99.0 2 Zambia

83.8 3 Russia

74.5 4 Namibia

73.7 5 Botswana

73.7 20 World

50.8 37 United States

42.1 144 Hungary

17.6 145 Montenegro

17.5 146 Belarus

17.1 147 Slovenia

13.6

The transition to new systems was cataclysmic. “It wasn’t the collapse of the Soviet Union that was the problem,” says Michael McFaul, U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014. “It was the economic dislocation. It created an economic depression that was far harsher than what was experienced in the United States in the 1930s.”

5. REPRESSION PERSISTS Belarus is one of the world’s most repressive regimes, where criticizing the president can lead to a lengthy jail term. Uzbekistan and other ex-Soviet Central Asian “Stans” have enjoyed stable leadership and big oil revenue, but corruption and human rights abuses remain endemic. “It’s becoming harder and harder to speak out against these crimes, and it is worse now than it’s been at any point since Soviet times,” says Svetlana Gannushkina, 74, a former Russian lawmaker, now a human rights lawyer. Gannushkina is regularly named as a potential Nobel Peace Prize winner. In Russia's predominantly Muslim and restive province of Chechnya, “there is no law, no constitution, only the order of (Chechnya leader) Ramzan Kadyrov,” Gannushkina says of Russian President Vladimir Putin's ally. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International say Kadyrov uses public shaming, torture and abductions to keep a tight grip on the province, which waged a guerrilla war for independence against Russia for more than a decade before conceding defeat in 2009.

3. BALTICS LOOK WEST The tiny Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have joined the European Union and NATO and adopted a Western liberal democratic order. They are nervous about their vulnerability to Russian expansion, fearing they would be easiest to swallow up and wondering if U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will uphold NATO members' commitment to defend any other member that is attacked.

6. RUSSIAN DEMOCRACY FADES Russia embraced democracy after the Soviet breakup but has been sliding back toward authoritarianism. Vladimir Putin, who has called the collapse of the Soviet Union the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century,” has undermined civil liberties as he tightens his grip on power. He has jailed critics, imposed restrictions on news and social media, reclaimed Crimea from West-leaning Ukraine, abetted pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, cracked down on foreign non-profit groups and stoked the flames of right-wing nationalism. After years of neglect, the military has been restored and has taken a lead role in Syria to help President Bashar Assad win a 5-year-old civil war. “Putin thinks the state is legitimate because it is the state,” says Alex Kliment, a Russia specialist at Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy. “He has a philosophical belief that popular revolutions against state power are always illegitimate, and always end in tears.”

148 Slovakia

10.1 SOURCE World Economic Forum; Credit Suisse global wealth report; PHOTOS AFP/Getty Images KIM HJELMGAARD, JIM SERGENT AND JANET LOEHRKE, USA TODAY

Chechnya's leader Ramzan Kadyrov votes during Russian parliamentary elections, outside Grozny, on Sept. 18.

4. SATELLITES VEER OFF Former Soviet-sphere nations in Europe have gone their own way. Poland, free of Soviet dominance, has turned Western to become the largest economy in Central Europe. It is a member of the EU and NATO, along with former Soviet satellites Bulgaria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Romania.

7. RUSSIA TILTS TO TRUMP Russia has developed one of the world’s most sophisticated cyberwarfare networks — one that the CIA says interfered in America’s election to help Donald Trump. The president-elect has dismissed the allegation, but Congress vows to look into it. Whatever the outcome of that investigation, Russia and Trump seem

Secretary of State nominee and ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson meets with Vladimir Putin in 2011.

to be on a path toward friendship and international cooperation that would have been inconceivable after Russia reclaimed Crimea in 2014. Trump has spoken positively about Putin and his choice for Secretary of State, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, who has negotiated energy deals with Russia, said he has “a very close relationship” with Putin.

USA TODAY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016

MONEY DIVISIVE ELECTION SPELLS ‘HARMONY’ FOR AD EXECS Promos emphasize togetherness, hope and acceptance Jefferson Graham @jeffersongraham USA TODAY LOS ANGELES It’s the end of the year, a time for heartwarming images from marketers. In 2016, brands are pouring it on but with a twist. Togetherness, after the heated presidential election, is pushed as well. “The spots resonate more than they might in a less contentious year,” says Nat Ives, the executive editor of Advertising Age, a trade magazine for the ad industry. Apple’s holiday ad, “Frankie’s Holiday,” shows an oddball Frankenstein monster type in a Dickens-like community town square, who ﬁnds acceptance. “Open your heart to everyone,” Apple urges viewers. Microsoft’s tag on its holiday ad, which features a group of people the company says is “making a difference” in the world, is to “spread harmony.” “For many, this has been a challenging year,” Microsoft Vice President Kathleen Hall says. “Our objective with the Art of Harmony campaign was to offer a sense of hope and positivity.”

APPLE

A Frankenstein-monster-like character ﬁnds acceptance in an Apple ad titled “Frankie’s Holiday.”

SAUL LOEB, AFP/ GETTY IMAGES

Ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s says there’s room for more than one ﬂavor in the world.

Ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s proclaims it’s “one sweet world,” and we don’t “live in a one-ﬂavor world,” in a spot that’s running in Europe, which saw in 2016 massive protests against immigration, plus a vote by the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. “It’s sometimes easy to think the world is becoming increasingly divided,” the company says in a YouTube description for the ad. “So we’ve been thinking about how we can amplify a message of unity and love using the thing we know best ... ice cream!” Beyond marketers, charities look to unite folks.

Donald Trump says thank you to his supporters Dec. 17 in Mobile, Ala. MARK WALLHEISER, GETTY IMAGES

“We must continue to seek new means of moving forward together,” the Polyphony Foundation, which works to bring together Jewish and Arab musicians, wrote in an appeal to donors. Ives says that after the holidays, he’ll look to the Super Bowl to see whether the election will have an impact on how brands sell on what is traditionally the No. 1 day for showcasing advertising in the USA. The Super Bowl is TV’s most viewed event of the year, and 2016’s edition brought in 167 million viewers. “Will the new administration and the campaign themes it won on be reﬂected in the ads?” Ives asks, mentioning patriotic and “Made in America” themes. “Or will they be lighthearted? Everyone’s looking to the Super Bowl to ﬁgure it out.”

Shipping containers could house homeless Silicon Valley mogul wants to use them as mini-apartments

It’s “time to turn my attention to creating a very cost-effective solution to housing the homeless and very low-income people.”

Jon Swartz @jswartz USA TODAY SANTA CLARA , CALIF.

A Silicon Valley real estate developer has a new ﬁx for the region’s growing homeless problem: shipping containers. Billionaire mogul John Sobrato wants to build 200 microapartments for the homeless and low-income families on a 2.5-acre plot of city-owned land in Santa Clara, Calif., 3 miles south of Levi’s Stadium, home to the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers. Sobrato envisions 240- and 160-square-foot units made out of shipping containers large enough to house a kitchenette and bathroom with shower. Sobrato declined comment. During a presentation Dec. 6 to the Santa Clara City Council, which was videotaped, Sobrato said it was “time to turn my atUSA SNAPSHOTS©

Gift card gift

50%

of consumers plan to give gift cards,

27%

want to receive them. SOURCE Bankrate.com survey of 1,000 U.S. adults JAE YANG AND VERONICA BRAVO, USA TODAY

John Sobrato, real estate developer

TREVOR HUGHES, USA TODAY

A homeless man sleeps on the street, covered by a large sign advertising a new development proposed for the site of the former Flax Art & Design store. The nine-story building in the Market and Octavia area of central San Francisco will contain about 160 apartments. tention to creating a very cost-effective solution to housing the homeless and very low-income people.” Under the project, called Innovation Place, the Sobrato Organization would build and own the dwellings and lease them to Santa Clara County, which would provide homeless services and property management. The facility could open as early as 2018. “The approved (Exclusive Negotiating Rights Agreement) with Sobrato simply allows them, as the developer, to complete the preliminary analysis of the property to determine capacity for a proposed development and to conduct extensive outreach to hear what the community would like to see designed,” Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor said in a statement. “Any proposed project must fit within the needs of the community first and foremost.” The project was first reported by The Santa Clara Weekly. Shipping containers have become a low-cost, versatile option

CITY OF SANTA CLARA FOR USA TODAY

A sketch lays out a shipping container complex that could be used for affordable housing in Silicon Valley. for residential and commercial use in the USA. Los Angeles is the site of shopping centers, pop-up coffee shops

and hillside dwellings made of the material. A centrally located business park in downtown Las Vegas is composed primarily of

shipping containers. In St. Charles, Mo., city officials are weighing the regulation of shipping containers as homes. Sobrato’s plan is the second in recent weeks to address a decades-old problem in the backyard of Silicon Valley billionaires. This month, Facebook said it was pumping $20 million into a community investment program. Since 2010, 55,588 housing units have been built in the state despite the creation of 500,000 jobs in that time, according to the California Department of Finance and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, a regional planning organization. At the same time, it’s never been more expensive to live in the San Francisco Bay Area. The median price of a single-family home in San Jose-SunnyvaleSanta Clara, the heart of Silicon Valley, soared $780,000 in 2013 to $950,400 last year, according to the National Association of Realtors. San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland are three of the four most-expensive U.S. cities to rent in, according to Zumper’s National Rent Report for December. Silicon Valley workers, on average, earn $121,000 a year, compared with $118,000 last year and $108,000 in 2011, according to data compiled by market research PayScale for USA TODAY.

USA TODAY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016

PERSONAL FINANCE PETE THE PLANNER

Caring about your job is in your interest Employee engagement contributes to ﬁnancial wellness for company and you Peter Dunn Special for USA TODAY

You’re supposed to care about the success of your employer. No, I didn’t just leave an underwhelming experience with a disgruntled retail worker. And I’m not just some middle-age man griping about a high school kid who mumbled to me at the electronics store. I’ll air those grievances to the appropriate audience at the appropriate time (Christmas Eve with my family). Instead, I’m a person in the ﬁnancial industry who sees the negative impact of not caring. It’s in your best interest to truly care about your job and your employer. Personal pride is reason enough, but sadly it doesn’t have enough teeth these days. At the most elementary level, you should care about the success of your employer, so you can keep your job. The basic employment construct illustrates this point. You, the worker, give your time and effort to your employer. Then your employer compensates you for your time and effort. As long as your efforts result in proﬁts, you keep your job. It’s almost always been this way. But little do you know how much the importance of your caring has changed.

Before the 1980s, your retirement success was mostly dependent upon the company you worked for, primarily in the form of a defined benefit plan (pension). You worked your entire life for the company, and when you hung up your work boots or your briefcase, the company kept paying you a significant portion of your work income until the day you died, and after you died, it paid your spouse until your spouse died. Because your employer made the contributions to the pension, your only role in the retirement equation was to keep your job and to stay interested in the success of the company. In 1975, nearly 88% of workers in the private sector had a pension and the reality I just described. The company needed you to care, so it could remain profitable and fund your retirement. Then along came the 1980s and the shift to defined contribution plans (401k, etc). The company still needed you to care, because it still needed to remain profitable, so it could continue to exist and you could continue to have a job. But the retirement onus completely shifted to the American worker. Before this shift, you could successfully retire without having really done anything to contribute to a successful retirement. You can’t get away with that today. It’s been nearly 40 years, but no one seems to have figured this out. Retirement plan participation rates and contribution levels prove

ZAK KENDAL GETTY IMAGES/CULTURA RF

workers don’t understand their own role in their own retirement, don’t care or are simply masochists. Caring matters a lot more. You need your employer to “hit their numbers” so you can retire. But of course, it’s not nearly that simple. The company wants you to care deeply about its ﬁnancial goals. But why would an employee care about his company’s goals when the company doesn’t care about his goals? I call this the circle of engagement. You want the company to care deeply about your ﬁnancial goals. However, like millions of Americans, you haven’t accepted

MANTRA FOR 2017:

BE WARY OF BOND RISKS. BE WARY OF BOND RISKS. BE WARY OF BOND RISKS. It’s good to rebalance your portfolio at year’s end, but take into account volatility predicted for bond market in 2017

Russ Wiles The Arizona Republic

This is the time of year when investors like to tinker with their portfolios in an annual exercise known as rebalancing. The idea is to take some profits out of accounts that have performed well and redirect the proceeds into laggard investments. This year, as in most years, that means skimming some profits from stocks and stock funds and reinvesting them in bonds and bond funds. That’s the usual scenario because equities typically outperform fixed-income investments. The pattern has held in 2016, too. In this sense, rebalancing helps to dampen the riskiness of a portfolio. “If you’ve been taking a handsoff approach to your portfolio — and that’s usually a pretty good strategy — its contents are likely to have shifted ... stocks have likely grown in importance,” Christine Benz of Morningstar noted in a re-

cent commentary. “The net effect, especially of an enlarged stock position at the expense of bonds, is that your portfolio likely has more volatility than it did even a year ago.” The problem with rebalancing into bonds this time around is that bonds could be more treacherous than normal. The bond market weakness of the past month or so could be the beginning of a prolonged move, making it worrisome to divert a lot more money to ﬁxed-income investments. Most people need some bonds for stability, and interest rate movements are difficult to predict anyway. But if rates continue to increase and inﬂation bubbles higher, bond prices could get clobbered. Stocks also could get clobbered, but everyone knows that. Not all investors are aware that bonds and bond funds can be volatile, too. Bond prices move inversely with the general level of interest rates, so if rates commence on a sustained upward trajectory, prices will drop. That’s a fairly predictable mathematical relationship, unlike with stocks. Equity prices often appreciate even when rates are increas-

the fact that your chances at retirement success fall solely on you, thus you haven’t set specific financial goals to achieve retirement success. At this point, the circle of engagement breaks down, because your employer can’t possibly care about goals you haven’t even defined for yourself. Financial wellness fixes the broken circle of engagement. It helps employees define their financial goals, put together a plan to fund them, then shows employers how to rally around them. Your employer asks you to care about the company’s goals, you ask your em-

ing, especially when yields are below 5%, as they clearly are now, noted Larry Puglia, a stockfund manager at T. Rowe Price. Stocks can advance despite rising rates because rates often increase when the economy is strengthening and corporate profits reflating. Contrary to conventional wisdom, bonds actually fall more often than stocks if you focus on prices only and exclude stock dividends and bond interest payments. The reason stocks get such a bad rap is that their declines typically are much larger and much scarier. Now could be the start of a precarious period for bonds. While stocks as measured by the S&P 500 are up about 9% this year through November, including dividends, the broad U.S. bond market is only about 2% higher, including interest income. Many types of bonds have lost ground in recent months on the assumption economic growth and possibly inflation will perk up next year. If you are planning to rebalance by shifting money into bonds or bond funds, be careful — especially about securities with long maturities above 10 years or so. These are the fixedincome assets most vulnerable to rising rates. Here are some other tips: uDecide on a strategy. Though some experts recommend balancing once a year, you also could do it when your mix gets out of alignment by a certain amount. uRecognize other benefits. Along with bringing your allocation back into line, rebalancing can be viewed as a discipline for buying low and selling high. That’s because you are selling a portion of your assets that have performed well while transferring the proceeds to underachievers. uFavor tax-sheltered accounts. Any selling of investments will trigger taxable transactions, presumably capital gains, in an unsheltered account. That’s why the strategy works especially well in Individual Retirement Accounts, workplace 401(k) programs and other plans where taxes aren’t an issue.

ployer to care about your goals, and everyone complies. The company cares because you care. Or you care because the company cares. It’s a circle, it’s beautiful, and it works. As bold as it may be, the next time the company asks for you for buy-in on its goals, ask it for buy-in on your goals. You’ll both be better for it. Peter Dunn is an author, speaker and radio host, and he has a free podcast: Million Dollar Plan. Have a question about money for Pete the Planner? Email him at AskPete@petetheplanner.com

Make sure you ‘account’ for any changes Mark Grandstaff Special for USA TODAY

If you “set and forget” your personal accounts, you could leave a lot of money on the table. The terms of bank and credit card accounts and auto insurance often change. It pays to reread the ﬁne print to make sure those accounts are still the best choices, said Brad Barber, associate dean for the Graduate School of Management at UC Davis.

Banks, credit card and insurance terms shift regularly

BANK ACCOUNTS

It sounds counterintuitive, but overdraft protection temporarily allows purchases even if they put the account in a negative balance. This “protection” incurs fees with every such transaction, and they can add up fast. Consumers should stick to ﬁnancial institutions that offer free checking accounts. A recent Bankrate study showed 76% of credit unions offer free checking, compared with 37% of banks. AUTO INSURANCE

“Make sure you’re comparing apples to apples when you go to other companies,” said Paul Golden, spokesman for the National Endowment for Financial Education. “You’re very likely going to want to have comparable coverage.” If a consumer stays on top of car maintenance and enjoys a history of safe driving, he or she might look to lower costs by increasing the deductible, he said. CREDIT CARDS

Consumers should make sure their accounts ﬁt their spending patterns. A card’s annual percentage rate and list of rewards are more relevant to someone who makes frequent purchases and runs a balance than for someone who uses their card infrequently, Golden said.

“Make sure you’re comparing apples to apples when you go to other companies.” Paul Golden, National Endowment for Financial Education

USA TODAY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016

TECH Apple’s latest wonder has multitude of less prominent talents

There’s a lot more you can do with your new iPhone than simply take photos, listen to music and make calls.

Marc Saltzman So you’ve scored a new iPhone over the holidays. Lucky you. These new devices are Apple’s best yet. Hopefully you can spend a few days playing around with its many features, download a few apps and use the iPhone’s stellar camera to capture holiday memories with friends and family. Because we use only about 10% of what our consumer electronics are capable of — sort of like our brains, perhaps? — we’ve got a few lesser-known suggestions on getting the most out of your new device. If you have any of your own tips and tricks, be sure to share them.

Kim Komando @kimkomando Special for USA TODAY

What’s the secret to getting on the ﬁrst page of the Google search results? I want to create something, but no one visits my site.

GET REMINDERS BY LOCATION

You probably know Siri, your voice-activated personal assistant, can be used to set a time-based reminder: For example, you say, “Siri, remind me to call my brother at 4 p.m.” Did you know you can set location-based reminders, too? You can say, “Remind me to call mom when I get home,” and you won’t be notiﬁed until you step up to your door. For this to work, you’ll need to create a Contact card with your info on it, including your name, address, relationships (who your brother is) and so on. Similarly, you can say something like this before you walk into the mall: “Remind me to get gas when I leave here later,” and you’ll be notiﬁed when you drive away. TURN EBOOKS INTO AUDIO BOOKS

Like most smartphones, the iPhone has a number of Accessibility options. One feature is called Speak Screen, and it can read aloud any text on the screen at your command. Though it’s designed primarily for the seeingimpaired, anyone can take advantage of this feature if he or she wants to turn an e-book into an audiobook. You can listen while commuting to and from work, while closing your eyes in bed or when jogging down the street. To activate it, go to Settings, then General, followed by Accessibility, and ﬁnally Speech. Activate Speak Screen. In any app you’re in, swipe down with two ﬁngers from the top of the screen to hear the contents of the screen read to you, such as an ebook, email, article or notes. You can tweak the voice (gender, language), speaking speed and more. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF 3D TOUCH

Those new to iPhone — Mom, I’m looking at you — might not know about 3D Touch available in 2015 and 2016 models of iPhone. In short, this feature can help you get more done in less time. Simply press down on app icons or notifications, and you’ll probably see a list of shortcuts you can take advantage of. For example, press and hold on the Camera icon from your home screen, and you can choose to take a selfie, record video, shoot a slow-mo video and so on. Even from your locked iPhone, press and hold on a notification, and you will see some convenient options, such as replying to an iMessage without having to unlock your device. Have fun experimenting with 3D Touch on various apps.

10 THINGS YOUR PHONE CAN DO

PICASA APPLE

APPLE

You can swipe two ﬁngers down on the screen to have your iPhone read to you. THERE’S A HIDDEN TRACKPAD

Speaking of 3D Touch, stop me if this sounds familiar: You’re composing a message, email or note, and you need to change something you typed before sending or saving. On your new iPhone, simply press and hold on the keyboard, and the cursor will automatically become a mouse-like trackpad. Keep your ﬁnger or thumb on the screen, and drag around the cursor to reach the part of the text you want to tweak — or to highlight text, just press a little harder while continuing to slide your ﬁnger — then let go for the keyboard to return, so you can make your changes. IT’S A FLATBED SCANNER

A number of apps, such as Microsoft’s free Office Lens, turn your smartphone into a ﬂatbed scanner. Simply snap a pic of a document, whiteboard or blackboard, receipt or business card, and it’ll

TAPEACALL

In case you want or need to record a phone call, the handy TapeACall app can assist you. be immediately digitized onto your device. Not only can you trim each document once imported, but printed and handwritten text can be automatically recognized, using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology, so you can then search for text by keyword, as well as copy, edit and share digitized text. If desired, you can import what you’ve scanned into Office apps (Word, PowerPoint, OneNote), save to OneDrive or other cloud storage or convert it into a PDF. RECORD PHONE CALLS

Though it’s not easy to do this without the help of an app, many people like the idea of recording a phone call. Available for $7.99/year, TapeACall — as the name suggests — is an app that lets you easily record phone calls, whether they’re calls you’re already on or calls you’re about to make.

Once you’re done, the recordings show up instantly and ready for you to save or share. Simply open the app and press the big red record button, then tap to add call (merge), dial a number or select a name from your contacts, hang up when you’re done with the conference call, and a recording of it will immediately download from TapeACall’s secure servers to your phone (and time-stamped). Tap the recording to hear or share via text, email, cloud account, social media sight and so on. AND A FEW MORE…

uThe fastest way to take a picture when iPhone is locked? Simply swipe left to access the camera. uWhen iPhone is connected to your car via Bluetooth or by plugging in (CarPlay), Apple’s Maps app automatically marks where you park. Tap Parked Car to ﬁnd your way back to it. uYou can change the feel of the circular Home button. Go to Settings, then General, and ﬁnally Home Button to pick the option you like. uiPhone has a hidden bubble leveler in case you want to hang a picture frame in your home. Launch the compass, swipe right to reveal the leveler, and it’ll use your iPhone’s built-in gyroscope sensor to see whether an object is perfectly level (horizontal or vertical). Follow Marc on Twitter: @marc_saltzman. E-mail him at askmarcsaltzman@gmail.com.

Zuckerberg finds it tough to create ‘smart home’ Facebook founder building system that’s inspired by ‘Iron Man’ Jessica Guynn @jguynn USA TODAY SAN FRANCISCO Artificial intelligence is moving into our homes, particularly Mark Zuckerberg’s. But this stuff of science fiction may still be more fantasy than utility for now. The Facebook founder and CEO, who for the last year has been building a smart system in-

Get to the top of Google searches

Alexa service or Google’s spired by the Iron Man Home. character Jarvis as a virNearly a year ago, the tual butler to run his Facebook CEO said he household, updated folplanned to build an AI lowers on the project’s system as one of the perprogress Monday. sonal growth challenges His conclusion? Hookhe gives himself each ing up artificially intelliyear. For Zuckerberg, this gent homes may not be AFP/GETTY IMAGES was a return to his proready for prime time, at gramming roots. This least for most of us. Zuckerberg wanted to use his isn’t the first time he has returned voice to control everything in his to coding. His personal growth house, from the music to the challenge in 2012 was to code evlights to the temperature. He ery day. This challenge connected wanted Jarvis to swing open the him to a new wave of computer front gate for friends by recogniz- science vital to his company. “My goal was to learn about the ing their faces. Essentially, the Jarvis project is like Zuckerberg’s state of artificial intelligence — homemade version of Amazon’s where we’re further along than

people realize and where we’re still a long ways off. These challenges always lead me to learn more than I expected,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. Morgan Freeman, known for his iconic timbre, agreed to voice the assistant. One of the biggest challenges Zuckerberg faced: connecting all of his home devices. Most appliances aren’t connected to the Internet, he said. “For assistants like Jarvis to be able to control everything in homes for more people, we need more devices to be connected, and the industry needs to develop common ... standards for the devices to talk to each other,” Zuckerberg said.

A: This is a big question. It’s so big, in fact, that thousands of people dedicate their careers to ﬁguring out how to make websites stick out on the Internet. It’s vital to have a relevant and well-designed website. You may be familiar with the term “search engine optimization,” or SEO. The best websites use keywords, social media and searchable headers to make themselves visible. You can use online marketing and interactive tools to draw people in. The most important thing is to stay active; the Internet is an everchanging landscape, and you have to work to keep up. I keep hearing about the “Dark Web.” what exactly is it? How do you get to it?

A: It sounds sinister, doesn’t it? “Dark Web” might make a good title for the next Dan Brown novel. The “Dark Web” is basically a portion of the Internet that isn’t completely public and you need special software to access. Many newbies use the terms “Dark Web” and “Deep Web” interchangeably, but they are two very different things. When you think of creepy and illegal shenanigans, you’re probably thinking of the “Dark Web.” Anyone can access this online nook if they do the extra legwork, but it’s best to avoid. The “Deep Web,” on the other hand, is designed for security and privacy that the “surface” Internet does not have. The Deep Web can’t be accessed by a search engine and consists mostly of data stored on private networks of corporations. I heard you tell a caller she could skip the security line at airports with an app. Can you please tell me more?

A: Before you get too excited, remember you still have to scan your luggage and step through the metal detector, just like every other passenger. If you’re ﬂying internationally, you can skip through U.S. Customs and Border Protection with an app called “Mobile Passport.” American entry points are some of the busiest and most thoroughly policed, and the lines can be hundreds of people deep. I am getting a new PC for Christmas. How do I make sure all my personal information is off the old one before I donate or sell it?

A: So many people get rid of their old computers without even thinking about what’s on them, or they delete a few ﬁles and believe their personal information is safe. Make sure to transfer all the information you wish to keep into the new computer. Take all the time you need, because you will never be able to get it again. Then you want to pull up Darik’s Boot and Nuke. I know when my car runs out of gas, it won’t go anymore. How do you know if your hard drive is failing?

A: That’s a good metaphor, but a failing hard drive is a little more serious than running out of gas. It’s more like the “check engine” light coming on or even the car stalling out for no reason. Like that aging clunker, a computer will usually show signs of age, such as software glitches, a noisy fan or just really slow operations. Most people will want something more precise, which is why your motherboard has its own monitoring system.

USA TODAY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016

TRENDING

ON CAMPUS

MYVR

A new virtual reality social platform, lets you freely customize unique “rooms” for you and your friends to virtually hang out in. Visit each other’s spaces and have group voice chats while watching videos, listening to music, reading articles and recipes or browsing the Web together. myVR users can easily discover, save, stream and share online content in up to 21 feeds, ranging from sports and pets to food and travel. The app also works in Google Cardboard, and soon, Android users could jack in using GearVR and Google Daydream, too.

Student raises $1,000 for man Junior shoots video to change thinking about homeless Brianne Garrett USA TODAY College

SCORE A NEW IPHONE FOR THE HOLIDAYS?

ROOMS INC.

DOWNLOAD THESE APPS

BEST OF THE NEW DOWNLOADS

Marc Saltzman

ou’ve unwrapped a slick new iPhone and begun to test out its call quality, camera and video playback. m Now what? It’s time to customize your device by downloading a few dozen apps. m Having more than 2 million apps available at the App Store, it could be daunting to know which ones are worthy of your time. Not including games, the following are a few free favorites, divided into gotta-have-it “classic” apps that have been around for a while and a handful of newer 2016 picks.

OLDIES BUT GOODIES

PRISMA LABS

WAZE

Always ﬁnd the fastest route to your destination.

DUOLINGO

PRISMA

Learn a new language with Duolingo, which makes it fun to tackle Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, English and many others. In bite-sized lessons, you’ll start off matching words with pictures, hearing what they sound like and saying words into your phone. Duolingo has a “gamiﬁcation” element, so you’ll earn XP (experience) points and hearts.

One of the best apps of the year, Prisma turns your photos and videos into works of art. Taking ﬁlters to the next level, the app cleverly applies artiﬁcial intelligence while scanning your captured images and creates something new in the vein of van Gogh, Picasso, Munch and nearly 30 other famous painters or art styles. Easy to use and share, Prisma lets you tweak results in various ways.

WAZE

You’ve heard of Google Maps, but drivers should consider loading up Waze on their smartphones as it’s the world’s largest community-based navigation app. By crowd-sourcing traffic and road info from millions of Waze users (“Wazers”), you get real-time info on the roads around you, such as accidents, construction zones, speed traps and more. It gives you the fastest route to your destination. TUNEIN RADIO

Though there are awesome music apps such as Pandora, Spotify, Slacker Radio and Google Play Music, be sure to tune into TuneIn Radio, which gives you more than 100,000 radio stations from around the world, covering all genres of music and all kinds of talk, news, sports and more. Plus, this app delivers millions of podcasts. Optional, but for a one-time price of $9.99, TuneIn Radio Pro lets you record what you’re listening to and does not have banner ads. Other recommended “must have” free apps include Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), Evernote, Facebook, Twitter, Flipboard, Google Maps, Yelp, Uber, UberEATS, Plex, Mint and FaceTime.

HOTELS.COM

Hotels.com is a comprehensive travel app. HOTELS.COM

At a quarter of a century old, the longest-standing hotel booking service — a mega-popular app — beneﬁts from a clean interface, maps and Uber integration, support for Apple Watch and Apple TV, a “secret price” feature and the best loyalty and rewards program around (including a “stay 10 nights and get the next one free” feature). To reduce the likelihood of fake reviews, all customers who rate or review a hotel must have stayed there.

NETFLIX

Watch thousands of movies and TV shows, including some exclusives, wherever you’ve got your iPhone. NETFLIX

If you’re a Netflix subscriber, you can bring your favorite videos with you in your pocket. Stream many thousands of TV shows and movies, whether you want to search by keyboard, browse by category or pick up where you last left off (even on another Netflix device, such as a Smart TV). Plus, you can finally download your favorite movies and shows. Other great video streaming apps include Amazon Prime Video, HBO GO, Hulu Plus and Crackle.

2016 OVERDRIVE

Borrow books and audiobooks for free. OVERDRIVE

You’re aware you can buy ebooks and audiobooks for your iPhone. Did you know you can borrow them for free from your library’s website? Read: No late fees! As long as you have your library card and the free OverDrive app installed on your iPhone, there are more than 30,000 supported libraries worldwide. It’s not just old classics but many of the newer New York Times bestsellers, too. Follow Marc on Twitter: @marc_saltzman. E-mail him at askmarcsaltzman@gmail.com.

BITSTRIPS

BITMOJI

From the folks who brought us Bitstrips comes Bitmoji, your own personalized emojis you can use as stickers in instant messaging platforms such as iMessage, Snapchat, Facebook Messenger and others. Similar to Bitmoji, you can create an expressive cartoon avatar of yourself (or yourself with a friend or partner), along with fun words and phrases to help spice up your chats. HOUSEPARTY

If Skype had a teenager, it would be Houseparty. This free social app lets you video chat with your friends, using your smartphone’s camera, but other friends can drop in to the party chat at any time, and you’ll see each other instantly (up to eight windows in one session). Naturally, you can choose who can join, but with Houseparty, the more the merrier.

Hackers at OurMine try to make Netﬂix theirs Brett Molina @brettmolina23 USA TODAY

The hacker group OurMine has a new Twitter target: Netﬂix. The group compromised the streaming service’s Twitter feed Wednesday, sending a string of tweets that it was testing security. Initially, it appeared Netﬂix

had resolved the issue, but tweets from OurMine continued streaming onto its Twitter account. The tweets were removed. The group also targeted several Twitter accounts tied to Marvel Entertainment, including official accounts for The Avengers, Thor and Guardians of the Galaxy. “Hey, it’s OurMine,” the message read. “Don’t worry we are

TWITTER

OurMine sent tweets through Netﬂix’s feed.

just testing your security, contact us to help you with your security.” In a statement, Marvel said it was “investigating and taking immediate action to remedy the situation.” Netﬂix could not be immediately reached for comment. OurMine has targeted Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek.

Blake Smith, a Boston University junior, turned a class assignment into a Christmas gift. His task? “Create a video that persuades people to think about something differently” for a communication course. Smith’s immediate idea was to craft a video showcasing a man he knows as Freddy, a friendly homeless man in Boston’s Kenmore Square. Freddy is known for “always sending good vibes” to people who walk by him, said Smith, who passes Freddy every day on the way to class. The two developed a quick friendship. “A lot of people just kind of ignore homeless people or think they’re lazy and that’s why they’re in that position,” Smith told USA TODAY College. “But Freddy sits out in the cold at 30 degrees — that’s not someone who’s lazy. That’s someone who walks all the way from the Boston hospital, because there’s a shelter there that he’s at, and he walks all the way to Kenmore just to get a couple of dollars every day for food.”

BLAKE SMITH

Blake Smith says Freddy was “overjoyed” by the generosity. Smith’s video tells the story of a young wealthy character who walks past Freddy — who plays himself in the short ﬁlm — every day, throwing out leftovers, then going home to a fridge full of food. Later in the video, the wealthy character has a change of heart and offers his takeout meal to Freddy. The video ends with the two men sitting down to share the food together. “I learned from (making) this video to be grateful for what you have,” Smith said. “Maybe you don’t need the new iPhone, but you could help somebody else. Take the time to stop and talk to somebody, see how their position is in life.” Smith’s efforts did not stop at creating the video. He started a GoFundMe page, hoping to raise money for Freddy as a holiday gift. In nine days, Smith raised $700 for Freddy, then went on to hit his fundraiser’s goal of $1,000. According to an update on the GoFundMe page, Smith continues to accept donations. “I’ll give Freddy the money when I’m back in town” after the holidays, he wrote. “He gave me a huge hug and was really happy for everything,” Smith said. “He was overjoyed, and he told me that he was going to go get a room and get out (of) the cold and try to get a place to stay for a little while.” Freddy’s reaction was exactly what Smith hoped for. “That’s what it was for, basically,” Smith said, “to help him out for a while.” It may have started off as an idea for a project, but Smith said the gesture was about much more than a grade. He hopes to continue impacting lives like Freddy’s with his social activism documentary class next semester. “I didn’t want to just make a video to get a good grade — I was kind of sick of doing projects that way,” Smith said. “I wanted to do something that could help someone outside of class.”

10T

USA TODAY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016

Irresistibly adventurous.

Meet our new app, now with virtual reality. Be transported to unusual destinations, must-see landmarks, and the hidden gems for your inner world-traveler.

USA TODAY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016

11T

SUNDAY

The Star Wars style galaxy, 13T

Walk with the penguins in Antarctica, 14T

KOHL’S

LEAH MURR

OUR 2016 ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR

KATE MCKINNON She chased ghosts on the big screen and the White House on ‘SNL,’ and she kept us laughing the whole way

Who else made their marks? Entertainer of the year runner-up: Lin-Manuel Miranda Musician of the year: Beyoncé Movie star of the year: Dwayne Johnson TV star of the year: Sterling K. Brown Author of the year: Colson Whitehead See what made them our most memorable people 2U

Andrea Mandell and Cara Kelly USA TODAY

t the start of 2016, we didn’t know how much we’d need Kate McKinnon. This summer, as the Ghostbusters reboot became the latest big-budget female-led comedy to be sucked into a misogynistic Twitter vortex, it was McKinnon’s comic stylings that answered our call. What the movie lacked in critical love was made up for in her memorable take on Holtzmann, a profoundly and charmingly weird engineering whiz (whose science vibes gave zero cares about that nearby hottie Chris Hemsworth). Her film career has since taken off. She’s in theaters now, stealing scenes in the ensemble comedy Office Christmas Party, playing it straight as the company’s uniquely helpful HR director. And it was just announced McKinnon is set to star in her own film as a scarily magical school cafeteria worker in The Lunch Witch. But it was this fall on Saturday Night Live that she truly harnessed her talents. She had long played Hillary Clinton on the show, but as Election Day neared, she translated the candidate with new fervor, earning the icon status last awarded to Tina Fey as Sarah Palin in 2008. Week after week, dressed in an array of pantsuits, McKinnon satirized the campaign’s political jousting, often saying what the real Clinton couldn’t. “I’m better than ever. Let’s do this,” she said in the season opener, ducking and rolling before taking a fighter’s stance. It was a play on Clinton’s bout of pneumonia, though it could just as easily have applied to McKinnon’s hand in returning SNL to must-watch status. After the second debate, she mocked Trump’s attempts to divert attention by giving front-row seats to Bill Clinton accusers. “Wait, I’m sorry who’s here? Mistresses? Bill, how could you? How could I go on with the debate? ... Oh, Donald, no!” she said sarcastically. “Get real. I’m made of steel. This is nothing. Hi girls!” Alec Baldwin, like the politician he played, may have dominated headlines, but McKinnon, who won an Emmy in September for her work, anchored the new wave of SNL. In the waning days of the campaign, McKinnon bounced seamlessly from the role of Clinton to Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager and frequent surrogate on news talk shows. She delivered one of the best sketches of the year when she brought an exhausted Conway to life, imagining the spokeswoman’s hard-won day off, Ferris Bueller-style, repeatedly cut short by calls to ap-

USA SNAPSHOTS©

Most sung holiday song?

Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” from the “Love Actually” soundtrack tops the DIY karaoke hit list.

SOURCE Smule social network analysis of 120,000 performances on its Sing! Karaoke app TERRY BYRNE AND JANET LOEHRKE, USA TODAY

VALERIE MACON, AFP/GETTY IMAGES; INSET: HOPPER STONE

WILL HEATH, NBC

McKinnon’s Hillary Clinton sang Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah Nov. 12 in an SNL tribute that transcended comedy.

CALENDAR Plan your week in entertainment with these highlights and pop-culture milestones:

MONDAY WATCH: HBO’s Every Brilliant

Thing premieres at 8 ET/PT. The adaptation of the hit off-Broadway one-character show of the same name, written by Duncan Macmillan, stars Jonny Donahoe and recounts a life lived in the shadow of suicide.

TUESDAY

pear on CNN to explain Trump’s never-ending tweets. And McKinnon’s still at it, this past weekend morphing from Conway prepping Trump for office to Clinton, in a pointed Love Actually-themed sketch, making her last-gasp case on a voting member of the Electoral College’s doorstep. Yet no SNL appearance was more effective than on Nov. 12, when McKinnon delivered one heck of an electoral ﬁnale. Sitting at a piano in a white pantsuit, she sang Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, a moving tribute to those who had hoped for a ﬁrst female president, and to Cohen, who had died just days before. No jokes. No cue cards. Just one woman, offering catharsis to a divided nation. This year, we tip our hat to Kate McKinnon.

THURSDAY

WATCH: The 39th Annual

GO: The SnowGlobe

Kennedy Center Honors airs on CBS at 9 ET/PT. This year’s inductees include pianist Martha Argerich, The Eagles, Al Pacino, Mavis Staples and James Taylor.

Music Festival kicks off in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. The three-day event, which culminates on New Year’s Eve, includes performances by The Chainsmokers, Flume, Major Lazer and Odesza.

WEDNESDAY SEE: Mel B, aka Scary Spice of the Spice Girls, returns to Broadway, this time in an eight-week run as Roxie Hart in the Tony-winning revival of Chicago at the Ambassador Theatre in New York.

From the Ghostbusters red carpet (above) to the big screen (inset), Kate McKinnon showed the entertainment world why she was who we’d wanna call.

Mel B JON KOPALOFF, FILMMAGIC

DAVID LEE, PARAMOUNT PICTURES

FRIDAY SEE: The drama Fences,

starring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, is out nationwide this week. The ﬁlm tells the story of a former Negro League player (Washington) as he struggles to provide for his family in 1950s Pittsburgh. Compiled by Mary Cadden

USA TODAY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016

12T

PEOPLE OF THE YEAR ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR RUNNER-UP

TV STAR OF THE YEAR

Lin-Manuel Miranda Kelly Lawler @klawls USA TODAY

Hamilton was just the beginning. The smash Broadway musical hit the Great White Way in 2015, but 2016 was the year its creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, became a phenomenon in his own right. This year alone, Miranda walked away with three Tonys and a Grammy for the musical. His championing of Alexander Hamilton helped keep the founding father on the 10-dollar bill. Hamilton’s America, a documentary melding the life of Hamilton with Miranda’s journey to create the musical, premiered on PBS in October. And though Miranda took his ﬁnal bow on the Broadway stage in July, he managed to incorporate music’s biggest names into Broadway’s biggest hit on The Hamilton Mixtape, a compilation of covers of the musical’s songs by artists ranging from John Legend to Sia. His fame has now gone beyond Hamilton with his work on the music and lyrics for Disney’s animated Moana, which has made more than $200 million worldwide. The composer/lyricist/actor/ producer/artist shows no signs of slowing down, with deals to help bring Mary Poppins back to life in 2018 and produce a ﬁlm and TV

RON BATZDORFF, NBC

Brown’s role as the tormented Randall in the family drama This Is Us has drawn critical raves and awards attention.

Sterling K. Brown Bill Keveney @billkev USA TODAY DAN MACMEDAN, USA TODAY

Lin-Manuel Miranda conquered the stage with Hamilton and the screen with Moana, but he’s hardly done yet. adaptation of Patrick Rothfuss’ fantasy-book trilogy The Kingkiller Chronicle. If you’re worried that Miranda’s new success and opportunities will take him away from the musical that made him a star, don’t worry. “Every time I see a performance, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t I get a little jealous about Hamilton,” he told USA TODAY

in November. “I don’t think that role is done with me yet. It’s a matter of ﬁnding the time to jump back in.” Miranda sums up how he became such a force in popular culture quite simply in his bio on Twitter, where he regularly uplifts and entertains his more than 1 million followers: “Making you something new, always.”

MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR

Beyoncé

There were bigger stars in The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, but none shone brighter than Sterling K. Brown, who embodied the nobility, pain and conﬂict of Simpson prosecutor Chris Darden. The St. Louis native, 40, had achieved success as a working actor (Army Wives), but FX’s O.J. was a coming-out party. His scenes with Sarah Paulson’s Marcia Clark displayed a vulnerability and compassion as the two prosecutors deal with pressure and loss. Those with Simpson attorney Johnnie Cochran (Courtney B. Vance) show a searing deﬁance in the face of condescension. All three won Emmys.

O.J. by itself would mean a huge year for most actors, but Brown then moved on to broadcast TV’s buzziest fall hit, NBC’s This Is Us, a family drama that has drawn critical praise and high ratings. He plays Randall, a business executive and family man who is emotionally torn after ﬁnding his birth father, who is dying of cancer. This month, Brown snagged Screen Actors Guild nominations for both those roles. He also appeared on the big screen in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot and ﬁlmed Marshall, due in 2017, which focuses on Thurgood Marshall’s legal work before he became a Supreme Court justice. “To have come from O.J. to this is extraordinary,” Brown told USA TODAY. “I feel like recently there’s just been an abundance of blessings that have been coming my way. I hope it continues.”

AUTHOR OF THE YEAR

Colson Whitehead Jocelyn McClurg @jocelynmcclurg USA TODAY

KEVIN MAZUR, WIREIMAGE

Beyoncé’s inﬂuence this year spanned musical, visual, cultural and political platforms.

Maeve McDermott @maeve_mcdermott USA TODAY

Perhaps the biggest artist of her generation, Beyoncé just had her biggest year. Her timeline of success is undeniable, bookended by her Super Bowl performance in February and her nine Grammy nominations in December, with her Lemonade ﬁlm/album double whammy and its world tour in between. Headlines, memes and political controversies aside, Queen Bey had some competition for her domain over 2016’s music narrative. Drake trumped the competition with his staggering sales, blazing a path through hip-hop’s hierarchy

with Views, an album that, despite middling reviews, outsold the competition in record-breaking numbers. And if our musician of the year was determined by outrageous headlines, Kanye West would win the title; his sweeping 2016 consisted of a boundarybreaking album, clothing line and spectacular tour before skidding to a halt with his hospitalization. Perhaps it helps that Beyoncé’s album, according to critics’ consensus, was better than theirs — and better than most of her other peers’ work this year. Remarkably, Lemonade simultaneously dominated music’s mainstream and rejected it, positioned as a sumptuous audiovisual experience rather than a parade of hits. Continuing her trend away from the Hot 100-topping singles of

her early career, she rejected the bloated, streaming-friendly records her competition released in favor of a concise, playful collection of songs that renewed our faith in the album — not the No. 1 single — as music’s most essential unit. And music’s most mainstream institution reaffirmed Lemonade’s power, with Beyoncé leading the Grammys pack. But beyond her “slaying” and “hot sauce in her bag,” the singer’s social activism cemented her status as one of her generation’s most important voices, which she leant to the Black Lives Matter movement time and again this year. Only time will tell how Beyoncé makes her voice heard going forward, but as she has proven this year, hers is among culture’s most essential.

MOVIE STAR OF THE YEAR

Dwayne Johnson Bryan Alexander @BryAlexand USA TODAY

Dwayne Johnson had never sung onscreen before tackling Disney’s South Paciﬁc adventure Moana, with an original song specially written by — gulp — Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda. Miranda gave the man known universally as The Rock vital advice for performing You’re Welcome, a song-demand for mortal thanks from Johnson’s demigod Maui for legendary deeds. “The key thing Lin told me beforehand, he said: ‘Own it. Own the the song. I wrote it for you. There’s no one else on this planet who can sing, ‘You’re Welcome’ with a smile and make people feel good,’ ” Johnson told USA TODAY. It’s true. No one else could sing “I know it’s a lot, the hair, the bod. When you’re staring at a demi-

god” and bring laughs like Johnson can and did. The Rock owned You’re Welcome and threw his outsized personality into Maui. He was the engine that propelled the animated Moana to box office smash success over Thanksgiving. Johnson, 44, could make You’re Welcome a theme song for his movie career, which is hitting unlikely legendary status. The former college football player turned pro wrestler turned one-man movie industry churned at full throttle in 2016, the year he was named People’s Sexiest Man Alive. There are the continuous projects, like Dec. 13’s mega-event Rock the Troops on SpikeTV to honor the military. He also completed a second season of his HBO drama Ballers as a former athlete turned ﬁnancial manager. Onscreen, he teamed up with Kevin Hart for the buddy-comedy hit Central Intelligence. The two are giving master classes on how to work it in Hollywood, grinding

The Underground Railroad (Doubleday), Colson Whitehead’s gloriously inventive novel about slavery, kept picking up steam as 2016 rolled along. uOprah Winfrey picked it for her book club in August, and it became an instant USA TODAY best seller. uPresident Obama, fresh off vacation, said Americans should read it. uIn a final wow, it won the National Book Award for fiction in November. For all those reasons — and because The Underground Railroad is, simply, a well-told story that’s wonderful to read — Whitehead is USA TODAY’s Author of the Year. The success of Underground Railroad has elevated Whitehead, 47, to a whole new level of fame and acclaim. He wrote his first novel, The Intuitionist, about elevator inspectors, in 1999. Like The Underground Railroad, it dealt with race and included fantastical elements. Railroad, Whitehead’s sixth novel, combines harsh reality — slavery in the antebellum South — with a vividly imagined alternative world, one in which the Underground Railroad is a literal subterranean network of tracks

MICHAEL LIONSTAR

Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad moved readers. and stations. Whitehead’s heroine, a runaway teenage slave named Cora, is a strong-willed survivor, a girl on a train escaping, she hopes, to freedom. Getting there will not be easy. Winfrey, who played a slave in the movie version of Beloved, described The Underground Railroad as “one of the most grim, gripping, powerful novels about slavery I have ever experienced.” And in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, Obama called Whitehead’s novel a “terrific book, powerful in discussing some of the issues around race and American history.” Terrible things happen in Railroad, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. As Winfrey said in making her selection: “At the end you feel a sense of inspiration. … I think (there is) no better book for a time such as this.” Corrections & Clarifications

PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER DAN MACMEDAN, USA TODAY

On top of it all, Johnson’s the Sexiest Man Alive. non-stop, reaching out on social media (The Rock has 10.7 million Twitter followers and 72.5 million Instagram followers) and ﬂashing superstar smiles. He has set himself up for an even more demigod-like 2017, adding his franchise Viagra to The Fate of the Furious (April 14), showing that bod and those comedy chops in the R-rated Baywatch (May 26) and the year-ending release of the adventure Jumanji. So, Rock, you’re deﬁnitely due for this: Thank you.

John Zidich

USA TODAY is committed to accuracy. To reach us, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones at 800-8727073 or e-mail accuracy@usatoday.com. Please indicate whether you’re responding to content online or in the newspaper.

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Patty Michalski CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER

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PUZZLE ANSWERS

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USA TODAY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016

FASHION

How to be a ‘Rogue’ rebel

STAGE A COMFORTABLE REBELLION ... Who says freeing the galaxy from tyranny can’t be done in comfort? Cozy up with the Deﬁance Women’s Parka from Neff ($110), which takes inspiration from Rogue One protagonist Jyn’s (Felicity Jones) look without being too literal.

Who says you need to cosplay to dress in your Star Wars best? In addition to inspiring all the toys and video games you could ever want, Rogue One has also inspired its fair share of fashion. USA TODAY’s Kelly Lawler rounds up the best of the ready-to-wear options.

A GALAXY OF CHIC The Juniors’ Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Mockneck Dress from Kohls ($39.99) takes the Star Wars galaxy to a whole new level. The starry print ads drama to a basic design without going too far into costume territory.

GO ROGUE (LITERALLY) If something literal is actually more your style, you should try the Star Wars Rogue One Jyn Rebel Alliance Girls Jacket from Hot Topic ($56.17). The look, complete with headscarf, directly mirrors one of Jyn’s costumes in the ﬁlm but is still ready to wear.

DARK SIDE OF DESIGN Show off your allegiance to the Dark Side, subtly. The insignia of the evil Empire is the pattern that gives the Juniors’ Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Printed Jumpsuit from Kohls ($39.99) an extra bit of ﬂair. You’ll stand as tall as Darth Vader in this look.

... AND A CASUAL REBELLION The Squad R01 Crop Fleece from Neff ($60.00) shows Rebel pride in a casual, hang-around look. Wear with jeans, leggings or a cute circle skirt to complete the look.

STAY WARM IN SPACE If you want a more classic T-shirt, try Target’s Force4Fashion Rogue One “Go Rogue” Tee ($12.99), a stand-out in the very crowded T-shirt market. Plus, $5 from shirts sold in the Force4Fashion line will go to support UNICEF Kid Power.

CELEBRITY SUPERLATIVES

Honoring Dad, baring the Oscar

MOST LIKELY TO CALL IT HOW HE SEES IT: JOHN LEGEND

Everybody Knows Legend isn’t afraid to speak his mind — and, in a recent interview, the crooner did just that, addressing Kanye West’s meeting with Presidentelect Donald Trump. “I don’t think it’s impossible to talk to (Trump) about issues, but I won’t be used as a publicity stunt. I think Kanye was a publicity stunt,” Legend told French outlet Clique in a video published on RollingStone.com. “I think Trump has been corrosive; his message has been corrosive to the country. I think the things he’s promised to do have been very concerning for a lot of people, and for Kanye to support that message is very disappointing. Whatever’s in his mind, I disagree with him.”

USA TODAY’s Jaleesa Jones digs through the latest celebrity news for highlights ... and lowlights. Think high school yearbook superlatives — if John Legend and Jimmy Kimmel were classmates.

MOST LIKELY TO RISK IT ALL: LAUREN JAUREGUI

The Fifth Harmony member’s experience at Dulles International Airport hit a sour note when she was stopped by security with marijuana in her bag. After receiving a citation, Jauregui was released and tried to join the rest of the group to perform in São Paulo. “Lauren Jauregui was not arrested and detained as reported, but simply given a citation ... and released on her own recognizance,” attorney Dina LaPolt said in a statement to USA TODAY. “She will address the matter appropriately through the legal system. This will not interfere with any future scheduled performances or activities.” Unfortunately, Jauregui did not make her ﬂight. She tweeted an apology to her Brazilian fans.

JAUREGUI BY MIKE WINDLE, GETTY IMAGES, FOR IHEARTMEDIA; THICKE BY CHARLEY GALLAY, WIREIMAGE; LAWRENCE BY GREGG DEGUIRE, WIREIMAGE; LEGEND BY STUART C. WILSON, GETTY IMAGES; KIMMEL BY LESTER COHEN, WIREIMAGE

SWEETEST ALAN THICKE TRIBUTE: ROBIN THICKE

He was a beloved TV dad, but for Robin Thicke, he was so much more. The singer paid tribute to his talented father’s memory in the early hours of the morning Dec. 14, taking to Instagram with a heartfelt message. “My father passed away today,” he wrote. “He was the best man I ever knew. The best friend I ever had. Let’s all rejoice and celebrate the joy he brought to every room he was in. We love you, Alan Thicke. Thank your for your love. Love, your grateful son.”

BEST DRESSED: JENNIFER LAWRENCE

The fashion odds always seem to be in Lawrence’s favor — and this was no exception. At the Los Angeles premiere of her latest feature, Passengers, the actress and Dior spokesmodel donned a strapless white gown from the French label’s Spring/Summer 2017 Readyto-Wear collection. The dress featured an off-white bodice with a heart motif and a spotted tulle skirt that billowed out. Lawrence accessorized with a delicate choker and a cranberry lip.

MOST LIKELY TO SPILL ON THE OSCARS: JIMMY KIMMEL

For those who have wondered about the going rate for hosting the Oscars, Kimmel just revealed the number: a smooth $15,000. “I’m not sure I was supposed to reveal this,” Kimmel joked during an interview with Kevin & Bean on KROQ, according to Indiewire. “But nobody told me not to. I consider this their fault. … I wonder if you get a raise if you do it more than once, like ‘We’re going to give you a 3% raise.’ ”

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USA TODAY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016

TRAVEL

GET HAPPY FEET

DISPATCHES

MATT STROSHANE, DISNEY

Disney World’s new holiday show combines classics, cutting-edge tech.

Disney drones on for holidays Drones are being used for aerial photography and video, but there’s another application for the lightweight, unmanned flying devices that you might not have considered: entertainment. It will probably be a few years before an Amazon drone delivers to your door, but at Disney World the future for drone entertainment is now. On Nov. 16, the resort introduced Starbright Holidays, an aerial light show featuring a fleet of 300 drones. Unlike nighttime shows that incorporate two-dimensional projections, dronebased objects can have a sense of depth. And unlike fireworks, the drones can maintain their luminosity and integrity. The presentation begins with a few bars of When You Wish Upon a Star, followed by the appearance of twinkling lights above you in the night sky. Holiday favorites such as We Wish You a Merry Christmas and O Christmas Tree play as the drones re-form and light, a few at a time, into the unmistakable shape of a Christmas tree. Intel’s Shooting Star drones are made of Styrofoam and plastic and weigh a little more than half a pound. They are outfitted with LED lights that are capable of over 4 billion color combinations. The drone show is being presented twice nightly, at 7 and 8:30, through Jan. 8 over the lagoon between Disney Springs (previously known as Downtown Disney) and Disney’s Saratoga Springs hotel. Admission as well as parking is free at Disney Springs, and the show is complimentary for all guests. Arthur Levine

LEAH MURR

Intrepid visitors who make the trek to Antarctica are rewarded with spectacular scenes and entertaining penguins.

Follow the trail of penguins in Antarctica Sarah Sekula | Special for USA TODAY

It’s 10:30 a.m. on Danco Island, and clearly it’s time for the penguins to make the daily trek to the icy water. As they waddle down the snow-covered mountain, visitors strategically perch on rocks at the end of the penguin highway, a well-worn trail allowing for a single-file parade.

ANTARCTICA

IF YOU GO PENGUIN SEASON:

Penguins return in November and December. There are eggs around Christmas and young chicks in January. DAVID GOLDMAN, AP

Atlanta’s Hartsﬁeld-Jackson, the world’s busiest airport, may top 2015.

Travel hits new heights This year’s holiday travel season is expected to lift U.S. airlines and the world’s busiest airport to new heights. U.S. airlines expect a 3.5% boost in December holiday travelers, capping a year when the number of passengers is projected to surpass 800 million for the first time. “We are on track to eclipse last year’s all-time high,” John Heimlich, chief economist for the trade group Airlines for America, told USA TODAY. “This holiday push will be the final frontier.” Last year was the first time since the Great Recession that airlines carried more passengers than in 2007. Airlines are expecting 45.2 million passengers from Dec. 16 through Jan. 5, according to the group, with an average 73,000 more passengers each day during the holiday period. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world’s busiest, is also poised to break the record it set in 2015. Buoyed by a surge of more than 4 million fliers during the end-of-year holiday window, Atlanta airport officials say “if projections hold,” it will top the tally of 101.4 million passengers that passed through its terminals last year. Bart Jansen, Ben Mutzabaugh

PRICING:

Cruise season is mid-October to late March. Cruises range from $4,500 per person for 10 days to highend charters starting at $50,000 per person for 12 days. FLIGHTS:

For cruise departures from Ushuaia, Argentina, you need two round-trip ﬂights: your departure city to Buenos Aires (starting at $600 from U.S. cities), and onward to Ushuaia for about $550.

Minutes later, the ﬁrst Gentoo shows up. Its fur-like feathers glisten in the sunlight. Close behind are four dozen of its webfooted cohorts. Clumsy step after clumsy step, they reach the highway’s end, which gives way to pebbles, boulders and glassy water. One by one they take unsteady hops from rock to rock. Necks down. Tails up. Wings back. One plunges in and out of the water in ﬁne torpedo-like fashion. Another stands just beyond the shoreline and raises its beak to the sky, letting out a string of squawks. A handful of neighbors do the same in what becomes an impressive penguin choir of guttural gurgles and sounds reminiscent of squeaky toys. “There’s no land-based predators, so these penguins are really curious of us,” says Martin Garwood, a penguinologist aboard Polar Latitudes, the ship that shuttled us to the remote seventh continent. “They’re not scared of humans; they just go about their day, and you get to be a part of it.” Whether it’s a Chinstrap penguin snatching pebbles from a neighboring nest or an Adélie tobogganing its way down the mountain, these creatures are certainly engaging. What makes these moments even more special is that not many humans get to experience this.

THE LAST FRONTIER Only an estimated 43,855 people will visit the great white continent during the 2016-2017 season, according to the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators. Tourism there is still relatively young. In fact, 2016 marks only the 50th anniversary of organized voyages to the region. “As travel in general gets more accessible, people want to go farther,” says Jonathan Goldsmith, a polar-region specialist with Audley Travel, a company that specializes in customized itineraries. “Trips to Antarctica are on the rise because tours are more available at a wider range of price points than ever before.” Of course, penguins aren’t the only draw. Antarctica’s chilly waters are ﬁlled with crabeater seals, orcas and humpback whales. Overhead, it’s easy to spot fast-ﬂying petrels, Antarctic terns and albatrosses with wingspans

THOMAS KOKTA, POLAR LATITUDES

An Adélie penguin builds its nest pebble by pebble. of up to 11 feet. A visit to Antarctica will also have you following in the footsteps of adventurers from the Heroic Age of Exploration. Among the list of brave souls was Ernest Shackleton. And 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of his Endurance Expedition (1914 – 1917). When his ship was demolished, he left his crew on Elephant Island and traveled 800 miles in a lifeboat to ﬁnd help. He did not lose a single crew member. “Remoteness, vast open icy landscapes, unblemished nature and 24 hours of sunlight are all notions that capture a traveler’s attention and desire to visit Antarctica,” Goldsmith says.

IN-YOUR-FACE WILDLIFE On an afternoon excursion to Hannah Point, we meet gregarious elephant seals and their pups, or weaners as they are called. “Go get some weaner love,” says Hannah Lawson, our expedition leader. We enthusiastically hop out of the Zodiac. A male elephant seal, who likely weighs at least 5,000 pounds, makes belching noises in the distance. Its distinctive snout ﬂops to and fro as it tosses its head in a sign of dominance. Closer to shore, two young males rise up and begin slamming each other’s chests. Our view, however, zeroes in on a group of seal pups. With oversize almond-shaped eyes

they stare inquisitively as we sit down. And just a few minutes later, we discover what weaner love is. One pup caterpillars its way toward my sister, lays its head on her boot and makes a sneezing noise. My sister imitates the sneeze, and it takes that as a cue to inch closer. And closer. Until it successfully snuggles right next to her. Its head lifts up just a foot away from her face and attempts to nibble her backpack strap. Weaner No. 2 makes its way onto my outstretched legs. Even though its likely about 30 days old, it already weighs 300 pounds. Later, on board the Hebridean Sky, which has specialized in small-ship excursions to Antarctica since 2010, Lawson reminds us there are rules against approaching the wildlife. However, there is no rule against wildlife approaching visitors. “They are choosing to interact with you,” she says. “And that is pretty special.”

SOAKING UP THE SOLITUDE Time around the animals is noisy and boisterous. But time among the icebergs is the opposite. “Part of me wants to peek around that iceberg,” says Garwood, our Zodiac driver on one foggy, snowy morning. As we approach the cathedrallike formation, Garwood kills the engine and asks us to be silent. Camera clicks halt. Chatter stops. All we hear are ice chunks clinking against each other, the swell as it reaches the iceberg and the occasional petrel chirping. “There aren’t many places left in the world that are free from manmade noises,” says Garwood. That’s what makes the bottom of the world so special. Not only is it absurdly beautiful and peaceful, for many, it’s often the seventh continent to scratch off the list, a reward in itself. And the fact that you have to brave the notorious Drake Passage, 600 miles of rough seas between South America and Antarctica, makes it that much more gratifying.

Gentoo penguins hang out with a Weddell seal on Useful Island, Antarctica.

USA TODAY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016

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10BEST: Great hikes to kick off 2017 If you’ve resolved to make 2017 a year of healthy living and exercise, why not kick off it off with a hike? More than 800 state parks in all 50 states will offer special programs and guided excursions on New Year’s Day as part of the national First Day Hikes program. “The activities of the holiday season can be kind of overwhelming. The hikes are a tonic for mind, body and spirit,” says Lewis Ledford of the National Association of State Park Directors. He shares some favorite offerings with Larry Bleiberg for USA TODAY. A complete list can be found at StateParks.org BLUE HILLS RESERVATION MILTON, MASS.

TETTEGOUCHE STATE PARK SILVER BAY, MINN.

This park south of Boston popularized the idea of a First Day Hike in 1992 to attract visitors during the dead of winter. Now, the natural area offers three easy-to-moderate excursions beginning at 1 p.m., including a pondside stroll for families with young children. There’s also hot cocoa, a warming ﬁre and a live wildlife show. mass.gov/eea/ agencies/dcr/ massparks/

If you’ve got snowshoes, you might want to bring them for a 3.4-mile roundtrip hike to the park’s historic logging camp. The well-groomed trail is easy to navigate in boots as well. Whatever you choose, dress warmly: The hike will run as scheduled unless the temperature dips below -15 F at the 1 p.m., starting time. dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks

MAGNOLIA SPRINGS STATE PARK MILLEN, GA.

GASTATEPARKS.ORG

Once a Civil War POW camp, Georgia’s Magnolia Springs State Park has a variety of wildlife.

ANTELOPE ISLAND STATE PARK SYRACUSE, UTAH

Once home to a huge Civil War POW camp, this park south of Augusta now draws visitors with a crystal-clear spring ﬂowing seven million gallons of water a day. On New Year’s Day, rangers will lead a 10 a.m., hike along the three-mile Lime Sink and Beaver trails, where a boardwalk leads past habitat for turtles and alligators. gastateparks.org/ MagnoliaSprings

This park on a Great Salt Lake island will offer three different New Year’s Day hikes: a one-mile interpretive stroll; a more demanding two-mile loop that gains 350 feet elevation; and a fourmile loop. A highlight for all visitors could be catching a glimpse of the park’s bison herd, which numbers more than 500. “This is a spectacular park, a truly special place,” Ledford says. stateparks.utah.gov/parks

CITY OF ROCKS STATE PARK FAYWOOD, N.M.

TISHOMINGO STATE PARK MISS.

Known for its volcanic formations, the aptly named City of Rocks park offers visitors a surprising landscape in the Chihuahuan desert region of southwestern New Mexico. A two-mile hike leads past geologic oddities like pinnacles towering up to 40 feet on paths that resemble city streets. www.emnrd.state.nm.us/SPD/

Located in the Appalachian foothills along the Natchez Trace Parkway, this park welcomes New Year’s visitors on its Outcroppings Trail. Hikers will pass waterfalls, cross a swinging bridge and encounter massive rock formations with fern-ﬁlled crevices. mdwfp.com/parks-destinations

VIRGINIA STATE PARKS

Hikers may ﬁnd themselves in the company of wild ponies while visiting Grayson Highlands State Park in Mouth of Wilson, Va. MORE 10BEST: TRAVEL.USATODAY.COM

See lists for travel ideas online.

PEARRYGIN LAKE STATE PARK WINTHROP, WASH.

MOUNT SAN JACINTO STATE PARK IDYLLWILD, CALIF.

Snowshoers and fat-tire bicyclists are welcome to tackle the 3-mile Rex Derr loop trail through the hillside above this north central Washington park. “Cycling in the outdoors has gained in popularity,” says Ledford, citing the balloon-tire bikes that can handle snowy single-track rides. After the excursions, visitors can enjoy a free barbecue lunch with hot cocoa and coffee, although participants should contact the park to RSVP. parks.state.wa.us/563/ Pearrygin-Lake

Visitors can access this Golden State park on a 2.5-mile tram ride from Palm Springs, assuring an adventure before they even hit the trail. Rangers will lead hikes on snow-covered paths through pine forests, although given the 8,500-foot elevation, some may choose to stay near the tram station and enjoy sweeping views of the Coachella Valley and the California desert. “The park shows the great diversity of California,” Ledford says. parks.ca.gov

GRAYSON HIGHLANDS STATE PARK MOUTH OF WILSON, VA.

Hikers may ﬁnd themselves in the company of wild ponies along the park’s poplar Rhododendron Trail. The equines were released in the area in 1975 to control brush, and there are now about 150. “It’s a beautiful area in southwest Virginia that gives you splendid vistas,” Ledford says. dcr.virginia.gov/state-parks

SILVER LAKE STATE PARK HOLLIS, N.H.

New Year’s Day visitors will wander along a spring-fed lake and then into an apple orchard on a self-guided nature hike. Afterward, hikers can warm up at a beachside campﬁre, complete with snacks and warm beverages. Depending on the weather, the park has snowshoes to lend out. Dogs on leashes also are welcome. nhstateparks.com/silverlake.html

It’s time to rethink frequent ﬂier programs those miles in higher merchandise costs. By one estimate reported on Forbes.com, it costs a bank about $250 to acquire a new credit card customer, $100 of which goes to buy the bonus miles airlines award, and perhaps as much as $50 per card in commissions to websites that tout the cards. Many consumers get the bonus miles and quickly cancel the cards. Who pays for this? We all do in the form of higher credit card fees and interest rates.

George Hobica Special for USA TODAY

As much as I fly, I’d never had “status” in a frequent flier program. That’s because I fly on whatever airline has the cheapest fares. But last year, I received a tempting offer from American Airlines: Fly a set number of miles, reduced from the normal level, within a given time, and they’d give me “platinum” status. I took the bait and for a while enjoyed what I consider to be the main (and only) benefit of loyalty: free upgrades to business or first class. But it looks like I wasn’t the only one to get this offer, because soon I noticed there were 20 or more people on the “free” upgrade lists at the airport and on many flights no one was upgraded at all. Now I feel like I was suckered in, and I’m not alone. A recent poll on Airfarewatchdog.com tells the story: When asked if airline loyalty still pays, almost 80% of more than 1,500 respondents said “no.” What’s going on here? Upgrades are harder to find these days because airlines have slashed first and business class domestic fares, enticing more people to buy them rather than play upgrade roulette. And airlines are offering cheap last minute “buy ups” to first and business class when you buy an economy airfare. By 2018, Delta, for example, plans to sell 70% of its business and first class seats rather than give them away; in 2011 they sold only 31% and gave away the other 69% to elite fliers. Ditto for its premium economy, with more seats sold and fewer upgrades. Not only are free upgrades harder to find, but airlines have increased the number of miles/ points needed to obtain award seats. Plus they’re awarding fewer miles for flights, and they’ve added fees and surcharges to what were truly free awards. Originally, there was just one award seat redemption level (typically 20,000 or 25,000

THE NEW GREEN STAMPS

CHRISTOF STACHE AFP/GETTY IMAGES

As planes become more crowded and free tickets and upgrades harder to come by, some passengers are questioning the value of frequent flier programs. miles). Now there are at least two and it’s increasingly hard to find seats at the lower ones. A 2015 audit by the Transportation Department of 660 flights on Delta and American found that slightly less than two-thirds had award seats at the lowest award level. That may not sound so bad, but what the study didn’t control for was whether the seats were available for a morning nonstop or a red-eye with a tight connection, nor whether they were in economy, business or first class. In August, American announced it would follow United and Delta by awarding as few as 25% of miles flown on alliance partner airlines (it used to be 100%); “status” is harder to earn now that airlines require minimum annual “spends” (before, you could get status simply by flying a required number of miles

Not only are the programs worth less, but their hidden costs are going up and being paid for even by those who don’t ﬂy at all. each year, no matter what the ticket cost); and many airlines add fees and surcharges as high as $700 per passenger to more exotic destinations. Not only are the programs worth less, but their hidden costs are going up and being paid for

not just by airline customers but even by those who don’t fly at all. One of their most obvious but insidious aspects is the incentive to pay more for airfares. If one airline has a $400 round-trip but another has it for $230, will a flier ask the corporate travel agency to book the flight that helps enhance his or her status? The temptation is real, and although it’s impossible to quantify, it is probably costing consumers and corporate travel budgets. ‘CREDIT CARD MILES’ AREN’T REALLY FREE

Even those who don’t ﬂy pay for these programs. Credit card issuers pay airlines billions to buy miles, which they award to customers using the cards. Stores award miles for purchases made through the airlines’ shopping malls; consumers may pay for

The programs remind me of S&H Green Stamps, which were once awarded by grocery stores and gas stations. When I was a kid, I would help my Aunt Freda paste these stamps into booklets, which she then traded in for housewares and other items. Sometimes a supermarket would be offering double Green Stamps, so she’d shop there, even if its prices were higher. Like Green Stamps, frequent flier programs generate hidden costs. Back when they started (Texas International Airlines launched the first in 1979, followed by American in 1981), airlines were operating with load factors of about 58%. So it cost them little to fill those empty seats with award fliers. Today, most U.S. airlines report load factors of 85% or more, so they’re giving away seats that they could otherwise sell at the right price point. Airlines make up the lost sales opportunity one way or another, mainly in higher fares and fees. As frequent flier programs approach their fourth decade, it’s time to rethink them. They were a great idea before the four major U.S. airlines controlled 80% of domestic travel, but today they’re a shadow of their former selves, and involve too many hidden costs. Perhaps there are better reasons for being loyal than collecting miles, such as rewarding those airlines that provide good service and lower airfares. George Hobica is the founder of airfarewatchdog.com.

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USA TODAY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016

BOOKS

BOOKS WE LOVED READING IN 2016 These fiction and non-fiction titles were big hits with USA TODAY’s reviewers KEVIN MAZUR, GETTY IMAGES FOR THE RAINFOREST FUND

Bruce Springsteen performs Baby It’s Cold Outside at The Revlon Concert for the Rainforest Fund Dec. 14. The 67-year-old rocker’s memoir, well, rocked.

1COMMONWEALTH 2 by Ann Patchett (Harper, ﬁction)

Sharp and funny, Patchett’s entertaining, decades-spanning novel encapsulates the fallout from divorce on six kids in a blended family; it’s the ultimate Boomer book.

WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR

by Paul Kalanithi (Random House, non-ﬁction)

A young neurosurgeon receives a terminal cancer diagnosis, and in his remaining days explores what makes life meaningful in this devastating, unforgettable memoir.

6BORN A CRIME 7

NEWS OF THE WORLD

by Trevor Noah (Spiegel & Grau, non-ﬁction)

by Paulette Jiles (William Morrow, ﬁction)

With warmth, wit and insight, the urbane host of The Daily Show recalls coming of age in South Africa during and after apartheid’s rule.

This ﬂinty Western set in 1870s Texas turns surprisingly tender with its moving depiction of the friendship that blooms between a young white girl kidnapped by Indians and the old man hired to return her to relatives.

3SWING TIME

4BORN TO RUN 5END OF WATCH

In her reliably beautiful prose, Smith explores the friendship between two black women growing up in Northeast London whose off-and-on connection powerfully captures the complex intersections of race, class and popular media.

Analytical but not self-absorbed, the rocker’s memoir is a rich and colorful chronicle of a legendary life, deﬁned (and ultimately saved) by his complicated relationships.

8TRUEVINE

9THE NIX

10LAROSE

With velvet-ﬁsted fortitude, a journalist extracts the oddbut-true story of albino black brothers taken from their Virginia home more than a century ago to become part of a carnival’s “freak show.”

The Nix has some of the wisest observations of the year, and also the funniest, and neither parents nor video game nerds are safe in Hill’s masterful debut novel about a writer commissioned to deliver a book about his estranged mother.

Two families reckon with a boy’s accidental killing in this poignant novel, which sets Native American tradition against modern-day challenges of pain-pill addiction and PTSD.

by Zadie Smith (Penguin Press, ﬁction)

by Beth Macy (Little, Brown, non-ﬁction)

by Bruce Springsteen (Simon & Schuster, non-ﬁction)

by Nathan Hill (Knopf, ﬁction)

by Stephen King (Scribner, ﬁction)

The gripping conclusion to the superb Mr. Mercedes trilogy, which introduced a couple of unforgettable characters — namely P.I. Bill Hodges and serial-killing nut job Brady Hartsﬁeld — proves that the Master of Horror has redeﬁned the detective story, too.

by Louise Erdrich (Harper, ﬁction)

Contributing reviewers: Jocelyn McClurg, Matt McCarthy, Eliot Schrefer, Matt Damsker, Brian Truitt, Gene Seymour, Mark Athitakis

USA TODAY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016

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BOOKS

New and noteworthy

by James Hamblin (Doubleday, non-ﬁction, on sale Tuesday) WHAT IT’S ABOUT: A

USA TODAY’s Jocelyn McClurg scopes out the hottest books on sale each week.

physician answers pesky questions about health and more in this book Hamblin subtitled A Guide to Operating and Maintaining a Human Body. THE BUZZ: “Charming, engrossing,” says Elle magazine.

HALLIE BATEMAN

If Our Bodies Could Talk

Books for Living

by Will Schwalbe (Knopf, non-ﬁction, on sale Tuesday) WHAT IT’S ABOUT: The author of The End of Your Life Book Club returns with this collection of essays celebrating meaningful books, from Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin to A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. Schwalbe THE BUZZ: It’s an Indie Next pick of independent booksellers. “Schwalbe’s voice leaps off the page,” says Miriam Landis of Island Books in Mercer Island, Wash.

The Bikini Body 28-Day Healthy Eating and Lifestyle Guide

poulos is a typical teenage boy in many ways, but he’s no ordinary 16-year-old. In fact, his Greek surname hints at his true identity: he’s Apollo, son of the Greek god Zeus, cast down to Earth as a mere mortal as punishment by his really annoyed dad. Now Lester/Apollo is back in The Dark Prophecy, The Trials of Apollo, the second book in a five-book series for young readers by Rick Riordan. It’s due on May 2 from Disney-Hyperion, and USA TODAY has a first look at the jacket and an exclusive excerpt at books.usatoday.com. The first book, The Hidden Oracle, hit No. 2 in May.

KENA BETANCUR, AFP/GETTY IMAGES

thousands of colorful sticky notes that became a mass cri de coeur in the New York City subway system after the presidential election will now make their way into a book. The publisher Bloomsbury tells USA TODAY it will publish Subway Therapy by artist Matthew “Levee” Chavez in October 2017. Chavez (Levee is his artistic moniker) provided Post-Its to subway riders who wanted to express their feelings after the contentious election, and soon a wall in the Union Square station was ﬁlled with countless messages. Widely covered in the media, the wall is now a memory — the notes were removed Dec. 16. But they’ll be remembered in Chavez’s book. Jocelyn McClurg

Small Admissions

by Amy Poeppel (Emily Bestler Books/ Atria, ﬁction, on sale Tuesday) WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Debut novel

about a young woman who gets a job in the admissions department at an elite Manhattan private school. Poeppel THE BUZZ: “Quickwitted … excellent,” says Publishers Weekly.

WHAT AMERICA’S READING®

BOOKLIST.USATODAY.COM n Rank this week

THE TOP 10

n Rank last week (F) Fiction (NF) Non-ﬁction (P) Paperback (H)Hardcover (E) E-book

Publisher in italics

Double Down: Diary of a Wimpy Kid Jeff Kinney

Youth: Greg Heffley and his friend, Rowley, decide to make a scary movie; 11th in series (F) (H) Amulet Books

The Whistler John Grisham

In Florida, lawyer Lacy Stoltz investigates a claim that a corrupt judge has gotten rich through a casino (F) (H) Doubleday

Killing the Rising Sun Bill O’Reilly, Martin Dugard

Subtitle: “How America Vanquished World War II Japan” (NF) (H) Henry Holt and Co.

Tools of Titans Tim Ferriss

“The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers” (NF) (H) Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Island of Glass Nora Roberts

The story of Riley, an archaeologist who studies Ireland and is targeted by a “dark goddess”; third in series (F) (E) Berkley

8 12 The Magnolia Story Chip Gaines, Joanna Gaines

Husband-and-wife team behind “Fixer Upper” tells the story of their relationship and business (NF) (H) Thomas Nelson

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: Screenplay/Rowling

British magizoologist Newt Scamander brings his case of magical creatures to New York; movie (F) (H) Arthur A. Levine

9 11 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child J.K. Rowling, et al.

Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy try to ﬁnd their places in Hogwarts the way their fathers did before them (F) (H) Scholastic

The Undoing Project Michael Lewis

Tells the story of the studies of Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky (NF) (H) W.W. Norton

10 9

Tom Clancy True Faith Jack Ryan must come to the rescue as a and Allegiance security information breach threatens the Mark Greaney nation (F) (E) G.P. Putnam’s Sons

The book list appears every Thursday. For each title, the format and publisher listed are for the best-selling version of that title this week. Reporting outlets include Amazon.com, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble.com, Barnes & Noble Inc., Barnes & Noble e-books, BooksAMillion.com, Books-A-Million, Costco, Hudson Booksellers, Joseph-Beth Booksellers (Lexington, Ky.; Cincinnati, Charlotte, Cleveland, Pittsburgh), Kobo, Inc., Powell's Books (Portland, Ore.), Powells.com, R.J. Julia Booksellers (Madison, Conn.), Schuler Books & Music (Grand Rapids, Okemos, Eastwood, Alpine, Mich.), Sony Reader Store, Target, Tattered Cover Book Store (Denver).

THE REST

11 14 The Girl on the Train/Paula Hawkins 12 16 Hillbilly Elegy/J. D. Vance 13 7 Take Heart, My Child/Ainsley Earhardt and Kathryn Cristaldi, art by Jaime Kim 14 13 Cross the Line/James Patterson 15 20 Born to Run/Bruce Springsteen 16 24 Cooking for Jeffrey/Ina Garten 17 19 Dork Diaries: Tales of a Not-So-Friendly Frenemy/ Rachel Renée Russell 18 25 First 100 Words/Roger Priddy 19 23 Guinness World Records 2017/Guinness 20 17 A Man Called Ove/Fredrik Backman 21 43 A Dog’s Purpose/W. Bruce Cameron 22 27 Two by Two/Nicholas Sparks 23 18 No Man’s Land/David Baldacci

25 26 27 28

36 31 39 21

The Underground Railroad/Colson Whitehead Pokemon Deluxe Essential Handbook/Scholastic Milk and Honey/Rupi Kaur Night School/Lee Child

29 33 Small Great Things/Jodi Picoult

‘Therapy’ session: The

by W.E.B. Griffin and William E. Butterworth IV (Putnam, ﬁction, on sale Tuesday)

In the third installment in the Clandestine Operations series about the ﬂedgling CIA, Soviet agents in Griffin 1946 Munich kidnap two WACs at knifepoint. THE BUZZ: The ﬁrst two books in the series, Top Secret and The Assassination Option, were Top 30 USA TODAY best sellers.

WHAT IT’S ABOUT: 200 recipes and weekly menus to get that body into shape for bikini season (holiday fun is apparently over, folks). THE BUZZ: Itsines has gained legions of young female followers (including celebs) online with her high-intensity workouts.

24 26 Settle for More/Megyn Kelly

A woman sticks a note to Subway Therapy at the Union Square station.

Curtain of Death

WHAT IT’S ABOUT:

by Kayla Itsines (St. Martin’s Press, non-ﬁction, on sale Tuesday)

SCWALBE BY JOSEF ASTOR; TOMATOES BY JEREMY SIMONS; GRIFFIN BY G.W. MILLER III, PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS; POEPPEL BY GEORGE BAIER IV; HAMBLIN BY KASIA CIEPLAK-MAYR VON BALDEGG

BOOK BUZZ NEW ON THE LIST AND IN PUBLISHING Holy Zeus: Lester Papado-

Stuffed Tomatoes With Quinoa and Lentils

30 30 All the Gallant Men/Donald Stratton, Ken Gire 31 46 Hamilton: The Revolution/Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jeremy McCarter 32 38 Giraffes Can’t Dance/Giles Andreae 33 15 Blood Vow/J.R. Ward 34 54 Atlas Obscura/J. Foer, D. Thuras, E. Mortan 35 47 Alexander Hamilton/Ron Chernow 36 32 Give Please A Chance/Bill O’Reilly, James Patterson 37 28 Talking as Fast as I Can/Lauren Graham 38 34 Shaken/Tim Tebow 39 29 Turbo Twenty-Three/Janet Evanovich 40 40 How the Grinch Stole Christmas!/Dr. Seuss 41 60 Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children/ Ransom Riggs 42 42 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: Illustrated Edition/J.K. Rowling, art by Jim Kay 43 51 The Hammer of Thor/Rick Riordan 44 10 The Elf on the Shelf/Carol Aebersold, Chanda Bell 45 48 Thank You for Being Late/Thomas L. Friedman 46 50 Born a Crime/Trevor Noah 47 49 Polar Express/Chris Van Allsburg 48 52 Pete the Cat: Snow Daze/James Dean 49 65 The Book of Joy/Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu and Douglas Carlton Abrams 50 22 Jesus Always/Sarah Young

Psychological thriller about the disappearance of a young married woman (F) (P) Riverhead Subtitle: “A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis” (NF) (H) Harper Children: A lullaby about a parent who encourages a child’s dreams (F) (H) Aladdin The murder of the chief of detectives in Washington draws both Alex Cross and his wife, Bree, into the case (F) (H) Little, Brown Memoir: Rocker opens up about his career and personal life (NF) (H) Simon & Schuster Barefoot Contessa’s collection of recipes most often requested by her husband and friends (NF) (H) Clarkson Potter Youth: Nikki Maxwell has to face her arch nemesis, MacKenzie Hollister, in a school exchange program; 11th in series (F) (H) Aladdin Children: 100 everyday words for children to learn and build their vocabularies (NF) (H) Priddy Books Record-holding figures and feats from around the world (NF) (H) Guinness World Records A man finds his solitary world shattered when a family moves in next door (F) (P) Washington Square Press Dog searches for purpose as he’s reincarnated several times (F) (P) Forge Ad man Russell Green finds himself jobless and a single father to a 6-year-old (F) (H) Grand Central Publishing Army special agent John Puller investigates the murder of his own mother 30 years earlier; fourth in series (F) (H) Grand Central Publishing Memoir: Fox News host talks about President-elect Donald Trump, former boss Roger Ailes and how she made it big (NF) (H) Harper Teenage slave Cora moves between safe havens in a bid for freedom in the 1850s (F) (H) Doubleday Subtitle: “The Need-to-Know Stats and Facts on Over 700 Pokemon” (F) (P) Scholastic Poetry collection that is divided into four chapters that explore four pains (F) (P) Andrews McMeel Publishing It’s 1996 and Jack Reacher and other operatives are enlisted to prevent a terrorist attack and hunt an unknown American who is demanding $100 million (F) (H) Delacorte Ruth Jefferson, an experienced black nurse, is asked by white supremacists not to touch their newborn baby — who goes into distress (F) (H) Ballantine Subtitle: “An American Sailor’s Firsthand Account of Pearl Harbor” (NF) (H) William Morrow A companion volume to the smash Broadway musical about Alexander Hamilton, by the show’s creator and star (NF) (H) Grand Central Publishing Children: Gerald the Giraffe wants nothing more than to dance; board book (F) (H) Cartwheel Books Paranormal romance: Axe becomes a bodyguard for Elise after her cousin’s death; second in series (F) (E) Ballantine Subtitle: “An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders” (NF) (H) Workman Bio of first treasury secretary: Maker of friends and enemies (NF) (P) The Penguin Press Illustrations from different artists remind readers of the importance of saying “please” (NF) (H) Jimmy Patterson Subtitle: “From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls (And Everything in Between)” (NF) (H) Ballantine Subtitle: “Discovering Your True Identity in the Midst of Life’s Storms” (NF) (H) WaterBrook Press Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum works undercover at an ice cream factory to find a killer; 23rd in series (F) (H) Bantam How every Who in Who-ville almost lost Christmas; movie (F) (H) Random House Jacob, 16, discovers the crumbling ruins of an old home that may still be inhabited (F) (P) Quirk Books Youth: The first book in the series about the boy wizard comes in a new edition with more than 100 illustrations (F) (H) Arthur A. Levine Youth: Magnus Chase and his friends have to get Thor’s hammer out of enemy hands (F) (H) Disney-Hyperion Children: Santa relies on elves to find out who has been naughty and who has been nice (F) (H) CCA and B Subtitle: “An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations” (NF) (H) Farrar, Straus and Giroux Subtitle: “Stories From a South African Childhood” (NF) (H) Spiegel & Grau Children: Only believers can hear the bell; won the Caldecott Medal (F) (H) Houghton Mifflin Books for Children Children: Pete the Cat discovers there may be such a thing as too many snow days (F) (P) HarperCollins Subtitle: “Lasting Happiness in a Changing World” (NF) (H) Avery Subtitle: “Embracing Joy in His Presence” (NF) (H) Thomas Nelson

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USA TODAY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016

SCREEN CHECK TONIGHT ON TV CALL THE MIDWIFE/RICHARD III PBS, 7:30 ET/PT (TIMES MAY VARY)

PBSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; not exactly holly-jolly Christmas kicks off with a 90-minute Midwife special that ďŹ nds Sister Julienne and her team traveling to South Africa. Then itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s off to Richard III (9 ET/PT), which features a big draw even for those who are not usually drawn to Shakespeare: Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role.

ROBERT VIGLASKY, CARNIVAL FILM & TELEVISION

CRITICâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S CORNER

THE DISNEY PARKS MAGICAL CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION ABC, 10 A.M. ET/PT

Robert Bianco

If you want a TV special to keep you occupied Christmas morning, or if you just want something playing in the background while you go through gifts and drink eggnog, ABC offers this two-hour special, ďŹ lmed in part at Floridaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Walt Disney World. You get performances from Trisha Yearwood, Garth Brooks and Kelly Clarkson â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and your kids get the idea that a trip to Walt Disney World would make a great 2017 Christmas present, which is the whole point.

@BiancoRobert USA TODAY

CAPRA VS. STURGES TCM, 8 ET/5 PT

This being Christmas, ignore the combative title TCM has given this string of classics and just enjoy the ďŹ lms. The run starts with Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (8 ET/5 PT) and includes Sullivanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Travels (10 ET/7 PT), It Happened One Night (11:45 ET/8:45 PT), The Palm Beach Story (1:45 a.m. ET/10:45 p.m. PT), Meet John Doe (3:30 a.m. ET/12:30 PT) and Hail the Conquering Hero (5:45 a.m. ET/2:45 PT).

JACQUELINE NEIL, DISNEY PARKS

Garth Brooks gives the gift of music on Christmas Day. SONY HOME ENTERTAINMENT

Spend the holiday with Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert and 1934â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s classic It Happened One Night.

CHAT WITH ROBERT

PUZZLES

Answers placed on Life page 2 Play more puzzles at puzzles.usatoday.com Puzzle problems? Contact us at feedback@usatoday.com

CROSSWORD BY Fred Piscop

SCRAM!

JOJO WHILDEN, CBS

USA TODAYâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Robert Bianco chats with readers Mondays at 2 p.m. ET at facebook.com/ USATODAY. Read edited excerpts below, email questions to askbianco@usatoday.com or tweet them to @biancorobert and visit him live online. Do you know if NetďŹ&#x201A;ix I very much enjoy Blue Q Q is going to have a new Bloods except for one Season 6 of Longmire? thing: dinners with the whole clan. Their table manners are Yes, I do â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and yes, LongA mire will have a another run, deplorable. Couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t someone give these folks some lessons though the news is not entirely good for the showâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fans. Longmire will return next year for a 10-episode sixth season, but NetďŹ&#x201A;ix and the producers says that will be the showâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s last. On the plus side, the producers now have the chance to give the show a proper sendoff. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t blow it. It seems (NCISâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s) DiNozzo and Michael Weatherly are one and the same and are now just playing Bull. Not watching it anymore. I certainly endorse the â&#x20AC;&#x153;not watching itâ&#x20AC;? part: Bull practically deďŹ nes disposable â&#x20AC;&#x201D; indifferently acted, lazily written and sadly detached from the real world. But while Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not wild about Weatherlyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s turn as Bull, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not ready to put all the blame on him. For all we know, heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s doing what the scripts, the directors and the network are telling him to do.

Q A

on how to hold a fork and knife so that they look like they might be able to cut meat properly? Then there are the arms on the table. Apparently they did not have instruction when they were growing up. I know this probably is not the use usual type of question, but I needed to vent to someone besides my longsuffering daughter. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m happy to have you vent to me, and I completely understand your complaint. Most of us see have things on or about TV that drive us just a tiny bit crazy. So if what you want from Blue Bloods is better etiquette, I hope someday you get it. In the meantime, the next time I watch the show, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d be happy to scream â&#x20AC;&#x153;get your arms off the tableâ&#x20AC;? at the screen in solidarity.

Jamie (Will Estes), Frank (Tom Selleck), Linda (Amy Carlson) and Danny (Donnie Wahlberg) discuss family business over Sunday dinner on Blue Bloods.

ACROSS 1 Student at the Citadel 6 Prima donnasâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; problems 10 Lillian of the silents 14 Radiate, as charm 15 Kidvid explorer 16 Norsk Folkemuseum city 17 Make even tighter, say 18 Tabloid twosome 19 Lena of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Havanaâ&#x20AC;? 20 Scram 22 Verne submariner 23 Absorb, as a loss 24 ___-day (current) 26 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Seinfeldâ&#x20AC;? goofball 30 Just picked 32 Bourbon Street city, informally 33 Court plea, for short 35 Stuyvesant or Minuit 39 Reply to â&#x20AC;&#x153;Are you hurt?â&#x20AC;? 40 Cafeteria workerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hairnet 42 Strauss of denim 43 With 54-Across, Ore-Ida morsel 45 Bake-Off contest entry, perhaps 46 Engulfed by 47 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Be silent,â&#x20AC;? on a score 49 Oxy 10 target 51 Catererâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fuel 54 See 43-Across 55 â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Harpâ&#x20AC;? constellation 56 Scram 63 Crude cartel 64 Eye wolfishly 65 Gooey campfire treat 66 Pickled peppers measure 67 Pickle choice 68 EOS camera maker 69 Pre-coll. exams 70 Genealogistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s diagram 71 Modify, as a bill

ÂŠ Universal Uclick

DOWN 1 Bennett of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s My Line?â&#x20AC;? 2 Rink leap 3 Importerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s expense 4 Do cutting-room work 5 Giggling sound 6 Formal decree 7 ___ guy (dependable sort) 8 Cookie in some cheesecake crusts 9 Bakery freebie 10 Scram 11 Speck in the sea 12 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ghostbustersâ&#x20AC;? goo 13 Right to tee off first 21 Brings in 25 Cleopatra biter 26 Make a cardigan, say 27 Oblong tomato variety

12/25

28 29 30 31 34 36 37 38 41 44 48 50 51 52 53 54 57 58 59 60

Oodles Scram Parade vehicle Corner-square piece In days of old Seasonal employee Up to no good Tilt-A-Whirl, e.g. Greyhound stop Did laps Rowan, to Martin Lake source of the Mississippi Feeds, as hogs Go-getterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s personality Standing tall Start of many limericks Stravinsky of music Model builderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s need Mosque official Without a partner

Answers: Call 1-900-988-8300, 99 cents a minute; or, with a credit card, 1-800-320-4280.

61 Anemia suffererâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s deficiency 62 Keep watch over

CROSSWORDS ON YOUR PHONE mobilegames.usatoday.com

USA TODAY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016

19T

QUOTE OF THE DAY THE BIGGEST THING I LEARNED FROM JIM — AND I LEARNED A LOT — IS TO BE YOURSELF. JIM IS WHO HE IS, AND THAT’S THE COOL PART ABOUT IT. THAT’S WHAT I LEARNED FROM HIM: BE YOU.” Maryland football coach D.J. Durkin, on coaching under Jim Harbaugh at Michigan in 2015. Durkin’s Terrapins face Boston College in the Quick Lane Bowl on Monday in Detroit.

SPORTSLINE

EVAN HABEEB, USA TODAY SPORTS

FIRST WORD WHEN YOU DREAM OF BEING IN THE NFL, YOU DREAM OF GOING INTO HOSTILE ENVIRONMENTS IN HIGH-PRESSURE SITUATIONS WHERE A LOT’S ON THE LINE AND PEOPLE ARE INTO IT. YOU PICTURE GOING INTO A PLACE IN FRONT OF 70,000 PEOPLE WHO HATE YOU. THAT’S WHAT MAKES IT FUN.” Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco, on facing the Steelers in Pittsburgh on Sunday. MAGIC NUMBERS

24-21

The Steelers’ edge in their series with the AFC North rival Ravens. Baltimore has won the last four meetings.

58-55

The Chiefs’ edge in their series with the AFC West rival Broncos, which dates to 1960 when the Chiefs were the Dallas Texans.

HILL BY DENNY MEDLEY, USA TODAY SPORTS

ALMOST LAST WORD “HE PERFORMS BIG ANY TIME HE’S OUT THERE. IT NEVER SEEMS ‘TOO BIG.’ EVEN GOING BACK TO MINICAMP, HE’S HANDLED AND PREPARED HIMSELF VERY WELL. ... HE’S A DIFFERENCE-MAKER.” Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith on rookie receiver/return man Tyreek Hill, who has 10 touchdowns (six receiving, two rushing, two returns) this season. LAST WORD “I DON’T TAKE IT LIGHTLY. I AM HUMBLED AND HONORED BY IT, TO BE A PART OF WHAT IS TRADITION AND MEMORIES FOR FAMILIES. WHETHER IT’S THANKSGIVING, CHRISTMAS OR NEW YEAR’S, I AM EXCITED.” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, on his team playing on Christmas Day. Edited by USA TODAY Sports staff

USA SNAPSHOTS©

Hoops for Christmas The NBA will play games on Christmas Day for the

69th

time in league history.

SOURCE NBA ELLEN J. HORROW AND VERONICA BRAVO, USA TODAY

DURKIN BY TOMMY GILLIGAN, USA TODAY SPORTS

ALLEN HONORS MILITARY WITH USO HOLIDAY TOUR Ex-NBA star grew up with dad in Air Force AJ Neuharth-Keusch @tweetAJNK USA TODAY Sports

Growing up with a father who was an Air Force mechanic, Ray Allen was no stranger to military bases. From California to Germany to England to South Carolina, he hopped from city to city, country to country, only to be met by new faces and new cultures. Fast-forward to today, 30-some years later, and Allen — a retired, 10-time NBA All-Star and surefire future Hall of Famer — hasn’t forgotten where he came from. “Every day I would be on base, life would be the regular life I’ve always known on a military base,” Allen said in a phone interview with USA TODAY Sports, reflecting on his childhood at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina in the early 1990s. “And as (the USA) went to Operation Desert Shield, we had a lot of young men and women getting deployed. ... People started moving out, and it affected me firsthand. I realized, ‘Wow, they’re actually going to war.’ “And in a lot of cases, a lot of them were excited, because they had trained their whole life. ... They were trained to go to war. I tried to put it in perspective, if I went to training camp all year and I never got to play a basketball game.” In some ways, Allen’s military upbringing — the uprooting, relocating and time spent on the basketball court with airmen twice his age — molded him into one of the hardest-working NBA players ever. In other ways, it shaped the type of person he became. “That’s kind of the evolution of me as a young person, watching on the news and seeing us losing people in battles,” Allen said. “We go to Afghanistan, Iraq, you see so much conflict around the world, and I just know people that I grew up with, a lot of them,

DAVE GATLEY, USO

“It’s the least that we can do,” Ray Allen, who holds the NBA record for career three-pointers, said of his time visiting military members with the United Service Organizations. friends of mine that I grew up with in the military, they’re actually serving overseas as well. I know ﬁrsthand — these are real people, doing an honest day’s work. They’re doing whatever they can to protect their country, and they feel honored to be able to do that.” So early this month, as winter crept in and the holidays inched closer, Allen — along with a group led by Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. that included Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans and Craig Campbell — teamed with the United Service Organizations (USO) for a six-day, four-country holiday tour to visit military members stationed overseas. From Turkey to Qatar to Afghanistan to Germany, Allen was back on military grounds. “It’s the least that we can do,” Allen said. “We’re afforded so many privileges. I think at times we can become entitled in this country. We think certain things

“These are real people, doing an honest day’s work. They’re doing whatever they can to protect their country.” Former NBA star Ray Allen

are supposed to be the way they are. I can use up all these products and throw them in the trash, then take my trash and put it out to the curbside. I can get in my car and drive down the street of a road that’s paved. I can use a park system and drink water from a park. So many different liberties that we have in this country that a lot of us take for granted, and, in a lot of instances, those freedoms are being protected by people in other countries.” Noting how important it is to not only show appreciation to the military but also to physically “step foot into their territory,” Allen ended with a message for the

rest of the sports world. “I (felt) more protected than I’ve ever felt in my life being on that tour,” he said. “I had some bad guys with me. Guys who knew how to handle weapons, that had been in combat. I’m looking to my left and right, and I’m like, ‘I’m safe, I feel good about where I am, because these guys know what they’re doing.’ “And that’s what I want to tell everybody, any athlete, from the NBA to baseball to football ... join up with the USO and take a tour. It’ll give you a greater perspective on war, it’ll give you a greater perspective on the people that are ﬁghting the war.”

Christmas Day games can be classics Kobe, Shaq stand out in fond memories AJ Neuharth-Keusch @tweetAJNK USA TODAY Sports

A look back at five memorable NBA games played on Christmas Day: New Jersey Nets at New York Knicks (1984): In what still stands as the greatest individual scoring performance, Hall of Fame forward Bernard King scored 60 points on 19-for-30 shooting, grabbed seven rebounds and tallied four assists, but it wasn’t enough to get the win at Madison Square Garden, as the Knicks fell to the Nets 120-114. King became the third player in NBA history to score at least 50 points on Christmas Day, joining Wilt Chamberlain (59 in 1961) and Rick Barry (50 in 1966). Chicago Bulls at New York Knicks (1986): Michael Jordan’s first Christmas Day appearance (30 points, five assists and six steals) was spoiled by Patrick Ewing (28 points and 17 rebounds), who hit a fadeaway putback at the buzzer to give the Knicks an 86-85 victory. Little did

MATT SAYLES, AP

The Lakers’ Kobe Bryant is fouled by Shaquille O’Neal of the Heat during their Christmas Day showdown in 2004. we know that these two teams would end up forming one of the ﬁercest rivalries in NBA history for years to come. Orlando Magic at Houston Rockets (1995): For the ﬁrst

time in NBA history, the teams from the previous season’s Finals met on Christmas Day. Superstar big men Shaquille O’Neal (22 points, 18 rebounds and ﬁve assists) and Hakeem Olajuwon (30

points, 12 rebounds and six assists) stole the pregame headlines, but Magic guard Penny Hardaway played the role of hero, knocking down the eventual game-winning jumper with three seconds remaining to give the Magic a 92-90 victory. Miami Heat at Los Angeles Lakers (2004): For the ﬁrst time since being dealt to the Heat, O’Neal went toe-to-toe with Kobe Bryant and a Lakers squad with whom he had spent the previous eight seasons and won three consecutive NBA championships. O’Neal recorded 24 points and 11 rebounds but fouled out late in the fourth quarter (on a Bryant drive, nonetheless), while Bryant had 42 points but missed a potential game-winning three at the buzzer, giving the Heat a 104-102 overtime win. Boston Celtics at Los Angeles Lakers (2008): In this bestin-the-East vs. best-in-the-West rematch, the Celtics (27-2) entered the Staples Center on a 19game winning streak to match up with the 23-5 Lakers six months after beating them in a six-game Finals series. It was sweet revenge in Laker Land, as Kobe Bryant scored 27 points, grabbed nine rebounds and dished out ﬁve assists to lead L.A. to a 92-83 victory.

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USA TODAY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016

NBA

SAM SHARPE, USA TODAY SPORTS

From left, Kyrie Irving, LeBron James, Kevin Love and the defending NBA champion Cavaliers will be short-handed for the next two months because of injuries.

Cavaliers facing roster questions Long-term injuries to Smith, Andersen will test defending champs Jeff Zillgitt jzillgit@usatoday.com USA TODAY Sports

What once looked like a painless stroll through the regular season to the top seed in the Eastern Conference is now more challenging for the defending NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers. Before last week, the Cavs’ biggest opponents through midApril were boredom and complacency. But Chris Andersen is out for the season, J.R. Smith will miss 12 to 14 weeks recovering from a broken right thumb (shooting hand) suffered Tuesday against the Milwaukee Bucks and Mo Williams is out for an extended time recovering from knee surgery. For at least the next two months, the Cavs have 12 active

players. That might not be a problem short term — the Cavs beat the Bucks on a back-to-back without Kevin Love for both games and without Smith for six quarters. Andersen wasn’t playing much, and Williams has been inactive all season. But long term, the lack of bodies could take its toll, and that’s the concern for the Cavs. Holding off the Toronto Raptors, who are 11⁄2 games behind for the top spot in the East, just got more difficult. The Cavs don’t want a situation in which they drop further than a 2 seed. Winning one series on the road is one thing. Winning three series on the road is another. Such is the backdrop for the Golden State Warriors-Cavaliers matchup on Christmas, one that is much-anticipated, considering it’s the ﬁrst meeting between the two teams since Game 7 of last season’s NBA Finals when the Cavs completed a 3-1 series comeback with a 93-89 victory in Oakland.

Fans are interested and TV ratings should be strong, but the result is meaningless when it comes to drawing sweeping conclusions about which team will win this season’s championship. Just as Golden State’s Christmas win against Cleveland last season was not a harbinger. There are no absolutes in a December game between two of the league’s best teams. If anything, it will give Cavs general manager David Griffin a chance to see what he has — or more important, what he doesn’t have — as he makes plans before the February trade deadline. The Williams situation is an albatross for the Cavs. The team thought he was going to retire before the season but he didn’t, instead using his player option to stay. He had surgery in October and is taking a needed roster spot. Why not just eat Williams’ salary and add a player? The Cavs are over the luxury tax and are expected to have another luxury tax bill to pay after this season — about $30 million right now — after paying $54 million last summer. Waiving Williams and adding a minimum salary guy would result

in a $13 million payment in salaries and luxury tax. But the Cavs have options. They can make a deal before the trade deadline, and they also have a $9.6 million trade exception to use. Depending on who that player is if they use the trade exception, it would add salary and increase the luxury tax payment. But for the right player, who can help win another championship, the Cavs are willing to make that deal. What do they need? A backup point guard or a perimeter player who can generate offense and a perimeter defender. The Cavs need offensive help when LeBron James and Kyrie Irving are not in the game, but they are 15th in defensive efficiency (104.5 points per 100 possessions). The point guard/offensive player is a need now but won’t be as big of a factor come playoff time when rotations shrink and James and Irving play more minutes. A wing defender will be more important in April, May and June. Griffin has done a fantastic job creating a roster around stars James, Irving and Love. He ac-

quired Love, Smith, Iman Shumpert, Timofey Mozgov, Channing Frye and Mike Dunleavy during the last two years, and he has made tremendous use of trade exceptions. Before any deals are made, guards DeAndre Liggins, Jordan McRae and rookie Kay Felder at times will play valuable minutes, and that will help their development and create more depth. The front office will do its job, and Cavs coach Tyronn Lue and the players will do theirs. “Every single game, every single week, just continue to keep getting better,” Lue said. “For us defensively, we took that challenge the last six or seven games of trying to be more defensive-minded and have a defensive mind-set. “So for me, just continue to get better and continue to get better at what we’re good at and continue to work on the things we need to get better at, and we got a long season ahead of us.” FOLLOW NBA REPORTER JEFF ZILLGITT

@JeffZillgitt for breaking news and analysis from the court.

Warriors know Cavaliers showdown is moot Golden State focused on title Sam Amick sramick@usatoday.com USA TODAY Sports

Of all the interesting revelations that have surfaced about these 2016-17 Golden State Warriors, there’s one that stands out above the rest. They’re starting from scratch. Yes, the Cleveland Cavaliers fans who are on an extended victory lap still torture their Twitter timelines with “3-1” references about the Warriors’ NBA Finals collapse. And yes, the pain from that experience still resides deep in the souls of the Warriors players who remain. But beyond all the obvious advantages that came with Kevin Durant’s arrival in July, the reality for the Warriors is that he was their reset button. It might have been the best post-Finals loss bounce-back move in league history. And for the purposes of this Christmas Day showdown with the Cavaliers that looms so large in the eyes of the fans and media, it means one thing for the Warriors: With their eyes ﬁxed on the bigger prize, this game doesn’t

matter in the slightest. Ironically, it was the Cavs who taught them last season that these regular-season showdowns can count as mulligans. A quick refresher course … uChristmas Day 2015: The Warriors down the Cavs 89-83 at Oracle Arena, a playoff-style game in which their defense won the day (the Cavs’ Big Three of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love shot a combined 19for-57 (33.3%). uJune 19, 2016: After the Cavs pull out the 93-89 win in Game 7 of the Finals, James and his teammates treat the Warriors’ arena like it’s their favorite road hotel. The champagne flows, including a jumbo-sized bottle that James — who is wearing enormous goggles like all the rest of them — carries through the tunnels as Warriors players head for the exits. But should the Warriors and Cavs become the first teams to face off in the Finals for a third consecutive time, it’s their habits — not the history — that’s going to help Golden State get back on top again. To that end, they find themselves in a fantastic spot at the moment. Five months in, there are no signs of a superstar squabble. Durant (25.7 points per game), backto-back MVP Stephen Curry (24.7) and two-time All-Star Klay Thompson (21.4) are leading the way on offense, with Draymond

JESSE JOHNSON, USA TODAY SPORTS

The Warriors responded from their Finals loss by signing Kevin Durant. Green (10.6 points, 8.8 rebounds, 7.2 assists) giving balance while looking like a defensive player of the year front-runner on the other end and veteran sixth man Andre Iguodala heading the second

unit. And while it has taken a mature approach from all involved to make it work, no one deserves more credit than Curry. Curry, who had recruited Durant in the Hamptons in July

alongside his Warriors teammates, coaches and executives, has long since set the tone on their selfless culture that remains intact. And while his individual numbers are down (he’s on pace for “only” 311 three-pointers after hitting a league-record 402 last season), his willingness to share the spotlight with another former MVP has been impressive. “I think it still is his team,” said Marcus Thompson, a columnist for the Bay Area News Group who has covered Curry’s career and whose book, Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry, comes out in April. “I think he still is the glue that makes all this work. It’s just not in scoring 30 points (per game). There is a part of him that wants to beast, right, to say, ‘I told y’all,’ right? And then there’s a part of him that’s fine saying, ‘You know what, I had mine. This is cool. Remember me as the guy who took the sacrifice.’ Because later on ... when we’re talking about it, that’s what we will remember. We’ll say, ‘Man, he gave his seat up to Durant.’ ” What we won’t remember, however, is what happened on Christmas Day. FOLLOW NBA REPORTER SAM AMICK

@sam_amick for breaking news and analysis from the court.

21T

USA TODAY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016

NHL

OVECHKIN GIVES NOVICE SHOT TO REMEMBER Breakaways the downfall for amateur goalie

USA full of skill at world juniors

A.J. Perez Kevin Allen

@byajperez USA TODAY Sports ARLINGTON, VA . I could have begged for mercy. “Hard shots or not hard shots?” Washington Capitals sniper Alex Ovechkin asked. The project, pitched my way by an editor months earlier, was about to go down: A beer league goalie (me) vs. Ovechkin (the greatest scorer of his generation, whose shots can exceed 100 mph and who makes the world’s best goalies look silly on a regular basis). “Go easy for a couple,” I replied since it had been a few days since I had faced a shot, during a pickup game at a nearby rink. “Then, go as hard as you want.” Ovechkin began playing organized ice hockey at 8, and by 16, he was playing in Russia’s highest professional league. I was a junior at San Jose State when I first played hockey. I was hooked, and I quickly ran up my credit cards buying equipment as I found a beginner league to play in. The beer leagues in the Bay Area, Southern California and Northern Virginia didn’t prep me for facing this guy. Ovechkin, being nice at first, flung his first couple shots at me. I stayed at the top of the crease like you’re supposed to, trying not to give him much net to shoot at. “So, now harder, or no?” Ovechkin asked. One of my friends in the stands at Kettler Capitals Iceplex yelled, “Yeah, harder!” Great. There were two things I did after Capitals vice president of communications Sergey Kocharov gave us the green light for the project: I acquired a padded shirt to protect my collarbones — I wanted extra support in case I couldn’t react quickly enough. And I crammed, taking two goalie lessons, after having had all of one in my life beforehand. But so far, so good. I was making more stops than I expected. The pucks were hitting my gear, and I felt no pain. Ovechkin, seeing I was being aggressive as I inched toward him, flipped one over my head. This was where my years as a baseball player came in handy. “Yeah, that’s too high. It won’t go in,” I thought to myself. I was right. It missed, and I dodged Ovechkin humiliating me, at least for one moment. I could tell his shots didn’t have the same vigor as fans are used to seeing during games, but Capitals goalie coach Mitch Korn assured me that’s normal. “He shoots hard, but on a dayto-day basis, I think he’s respectful (in practices),” Korn said. “He

@ByKevinAllen USA TODAY Sports

BRAD MILLS, USA TODAY SPORTS

Capitals star Alex Ovechkin fires a slap shot at USA TODAY Sports’ A.J. Perez. understands that his shot can kill you, and if he’s going to kill anybody, it won’t be a teammate.” Ovechkin said afterward he was going at “60% intensity,” about how hard he shoots in practice. Goalies, even beer league goalies like myself, have a crazy streak in them. Who else wants to stop a 3-inch vulcanized rubber disc being shot at them dozens of times a game? I’ll be the first to admit I can be surly on the ice, so when Korn reviewed the footage, I had to chuckle when he noted the No. 27 on my jersey. “Ron Hextall?” he asked, referencing the former Philadelphia Flyers goalie who was one of the most volatile (and violent) goalies in NHL history. In fact, when we did this event, I was serving a three-game suspension for fighting at my local rink. The No. 27, I explained to Korn, was actually a tribute to my favorite baseball player, the late Los Angeles Dodgers utility player Mike Sharperson. Ovechkin was done firing slap shots, and now it was time for his trademark one-timers from the circle to my right. This is Ovechkin’s favorite spot from which to shoot, and he has scored a good portion of his 540 goals over his 12 NHL seasons from there. I took my position at the top of the crease as Ovechkin was fed pucks. He might have taken it easy on me during the slap shots,

See the mismatch Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin is the NHL’s top goal scorer of his generation. See video of USA TODAY Sports reporter and amateur

but he was ripping them now as I slid to my right each time in hopes of stopping him. “A lot of his shots are from one-timers off of a pass,” Korn said. “That forces a goalie to move from one spot to the other. You have to be mobile.” Shockingly, I stopped a few — one with my face. Ovechkin apologized, but this was my badge of honor. I smelled rubber after the puck ricocheted off my mask, so I knew he got me good. But I didn’t know until afterward that he had put a dent in the cage. I had a souvenir. The one-timers gassed me. Beyond being a USA TODAY Sports reporter, I also run a personal training business. Ten days before facing Ovechkin, I completed 53 miles in the World’s Toughest Mudder, a 24-hour obstacle race held outside Las Vegas. I’m in above-average shape. But I felt like I had just done a few dozen burpees, and we weren’t done. Now, it was time for breakaways. Sadly, I didn’t have much left,

goalie A.J. Perez facing off against him in the virtual reality section of the USA TODAY app. Subscribe at YouTube .com/VRtuallyThere.

and this is where it became clear that most of my goalie “instruction” came from watching Dominik Hasek, the 2014 Hall of Fame inductee whose unconventional style of strategic ﬂailing appealed to me. I stopped one of Ovechkin’s breakaways. I’m convinced it was because Ovechkin had no idea why I was lying across the crease as he skated in. It still counts. I knew my usual weapon in beer league on these kinds of chances, a desperation poke check where I dart my stick out, could not be used. Imagine if Ovechkin tripped on my stick and got hurt. I envisioned hundreds of people rocking the red at my house with pitchforks and torches. Overall, he made me look silly on the breakaways. As we ﬁnished up, I thanked Ovechkin for the opportunity and asked for an assessment of my play. He paused for a moment, as if to be searching for a delicate way to deliver bad news. “Not that good, obviously,” Ovechkin replied. “But it’s OK.”

The World Junior Hockey Championships, a tournament showcasing the world’s top teenage NHL prospects, begins this weekend in Toronto. The Americans, a bronze medal winner last year, open their schedule Monday against Latvia. Here are five American players to watch: Charlie McAvoy, defenseman (Boston University, Boston Bruins first-rounder): “Mac has a twinkle in his eye,” U.S. coach Bob Motzko said. “He wants to knock you on your rear end and score a goal on the same shift. He is going to be a guy we lean on heavily in all situations.” Luke Kunin, center (Wisconsin, Minnesota Wild first-rounder): Named captain of the team. “He’s the engine,” USA general manager Jim Johannson said. “He can be the pulse of the team. He competes in all aspects of the game. Has a great shot.” Clayton Keller, center (Boston University, Arizona Coyotes first-rounder): He’s the American game-breaker, a smallish scorer with the potential to be a dynamic NHL presence. Tage Thompson, winger (Connecticut, St. Louis Blues first-rounder): Draws comparisons to Winnipeg Jets winger Blake Wheeler. “Can really shoot the puck and has become a physical presence,” Johannson said. “He can shoot the puck.” Colin White, forward (Boston College, Ottawa Senators first-rounder): A versatile player who can make a difference in a variety of ways. Expected to be a major factor for the Americans.

TIMOTHY T. LUDWIG, USA TODAY SPORTS

Clayton Keller, a ﬁrst-round pick of the Coyotes, has 15 points in 10 games this season with Boston University.

BASEBALL

Encarnacion’s big money worth it to Indians Slugger boosts AL champions Ted Berg @OGTedBerg USA TODAY Sports

The Cleveland Indians signed free agent slugger Edwin Encarnacion to a three-year deal that guarantees him $65 million with a $25 million option on the fourth year. That sounds like a lot of money, and by all reasonable standards it is, but it represents significantly less money than Encarnacion hoped to score as one of the prizes in a weak crop of free agents. The first basemandesignated hitter reportedly rejected a four-year, $80 million offer to remain with the Toronto Blue Jays and sought nine figures

in guaranteed salary on the open market. The knock on Encarnacion is that he’s limited enough defensively to mitigate some of his offensive value. Encarnacion likely will split time with Carlos Santana at first base and DH in Cleveland, replacing free agent Mike Napoli in that role. He’s a fairly large upgrade. Napoli’s a fine hitter, but Encarnacion has been one of the best in the game for five years running. Encarnacion lacks the defensive value of Blue Jays teammate Josh Donaldson and never made headlines like Jose Bautista, but he’s been every bit as big a slugger in Toronto as his better-known colleagues. Since 2012, Encarnacion’s .912 onbase-plus-slugging percentage ranks sixth in the majors — behind only those of Miguel Cabrera, Mike Trout, David Ortiz, Joey

Votto and Paul Goldschmidt. He will provide a massive boost to the Cleveland offense. Encarnacion struck out at a higher rate in 2016 than he did in any season since 2009, which might be a red ﬂag, and he’ll turn 34 before opening day. But hitters of his caliber don’t often fall apart, and even if the Indians are paying for the back end of his tenure as an effective major leaguer, it appears to be a great deal. Encarnacion has ranged from 3.6 to 5.0 over the last ﬁve seasons in Wins Above Replacement, and guys that good and consistent typically can expect more money. Yoenis Cespedes, who’s younger, a better defender and an inferior hitter to Encarnacion, scored a four-year, $110 million contract to re-sign with the New York Mets last month. The slugger’s price almost certainly was driven down by draft-

NICK TURCHIARO, USA TODAY SPORTS

Edwin Encarnacion tied for the AL lead with 127 RBI and has averaged 39 home runs the last ﬁve seasons. pick compensation rules that will change next offseason — unfortunate timing for Encarnacion. By signing a player who rejected his team’s qualifying offer to enter free agency, the Indians must

give up their 2017 ﬁrst-round draft pick. But the Indians just reached the World Series, and now they’re even better. Starters Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar are under team control for the full length of Encarnacion’s contract. And since clubs in small markets such as Cleveland can’t often compete with big spenders on the coasts in free agency, they need to do everything they can to capitalize on their windows of contention. The addition of Encarnacion represents a sensible effort at propping open that window. He becomes the big bat in the middle of a good lineup that already included Santana, Francisco Lindor, Jason Kipnis and Jose Ramirez and will help the Indians score more runs for their stellar pitching staff. After all, he hits lots of home runs.

22T

USA TODAY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2016

WEATHER

WEATHER ONLINE USATODAY.COM

TODAY’S FORECAST Seattle 37/31c

NATIONAL FORECAST

Helena 13/-1sn

Portland 40/28c

Bismarck 30/11sn

Portland 33/11s

Billings 14/9sn

Boise 25/9pc

Mpls-St. Paul 37/27i Rapid City 22/9sn

San Francisco 53/39pc

Omaha 56/26t

Salt Lake City 29/17sn Denver 42/21sn

Las Vegas 47/34s Los Angeles 57/44s

San Diego 59/45s

Milwaukee 39/35r

Casper 17/9sn

Sacramento 49/29pc

Wichita 63/29t

Kansas City 61/31t

Albuquerque 39/22sn

PRECIPITATION

Detroit 36/34c Cleveland 41/38c Chicago Pittsburgh 39/36r Indianapolis 42/39c 50/47sh St. Louis Washington 63/51c Cincinnati 49/37s 54/50sh

Little Rock 69/62c

Birmingham 75/61pc

Dallas-Fort Worth 73/54t Houston 78/68c

El Paso 53/32pc

San Antonio 77/65sh

Tampa 85/68pc

Alaska

Precipitation c Cloudy dr Drizzle

10s

20s

Thunderstorms

f Fog h Haze

i Ice pc Partly cloudy

Rain

r Rain s Sunny

30s

Showers

sf Snow flurries sh Showers

Hilo 78/66sh

Juneau 34/31sn

40s

50s Snow

Miami 83/74pc

Honolulu 80/70pc

Anchorage 33/25sn

Below 10

Baltimore 48/32s

Charleston 72/53c

Atlanta 73/54pc

Hawaii

Temperatures (°F)

New York 46/31s Philadelphia 46/31s

Orlando 83/65pc New Orleans 74/62sh

Boston 38/23s

Charlotte 64/47pc

Nashville 71/62c

Memphis 72/63c

Tulsa 70/39t

Phoenix 55/39s

Albany 37/16pc

60s

70s

Snow flurries

sn Snow w Windy t Thunderstorms

80s

90s

100s

Ice / wintry mix Note: The forecast highs are for the 24-hour period of that day. Low-temperature forecasts are for the upcoming night.

YOUR SAY SECOND LOOK

110+

TODAY

MON

MON 39/37c

Providence

43/22s

42/39pc

Albany, N.Y.

TODAY 37/16pc

Raleigh, N.C.

59/41pc

55/49c

Allentown, Pa.

45/26s

44/43c

Reno

35/10pc

35/15s

Atlantic City

48/38s

51/50pc

Richmond, Va.

51/36s

52/47c

Augusta, Ga.

74/53pc

66/53c

Rochester, N.Y.

34/23pc 48/34r

Austin

79/62c

73/58t

San Jose, Calif.

54/35pc 55/35s

Bakersfield, Calif.

51/35s

54/34s

Sarasota, Fla.

85/65pc

Baton Rouge

76/64pc

78/64pc

Savannah, Ga.

75/55pc

70/55c

Boise

25/9pc

22/7pc

Shreveport, La.

77/66c

74/58t

Buffalo

34/25pc 50/32r

South Bend, Ind.

38/36r

54/24r

Cedar Rapids

45/33r

Spokane, Wash.

27/16pc

25/23pc

Colorado Springs

42/20pc 38/17s

Springfield, Mo.

64/46sh

55/27pc

Columbia, S.C.

70/51pc

61/51c

Syracuse, N.Y.

32/19pc

42/36r

Columbus, Ohio

44/42sh

60/32r

Toledo, Ohio

37/36c

56/26r

Dayton, Ohio

45/43c

61/30r

Tucson

53/34pc 62/42s

34/20pc

85/64pc

Daytona Beach

79/65s

80/62pc

Des Moines

50/29sh

34/22pc

WORLD FORECAST

Duluth, Minn.

30/27sn

29/7sn

Athens, Greece

56/45pc

57/42s

Fort Myers, Fla.

87/68pc

87/66pc

Baghdad

64/41c

63/42pc

Fresno

49/32pc

52/31s

Beijing

37/28c

31/15c

Grand Rapids

36/34r

50/25r

Berlin

48/47r

50/38sh

Greensboro, N.C.

58/43pc

54/48c

Buenos Aires

80/67r

75/56r

Greenville, S.C.

65/50pc 57/51c

Cairo

64/52pc

65/52pc

Harrisburg, Pa.

45/29pc 44/40c

Caracas, Ven.

85/75pc 84/74pc

Hartford, Conn.

41/16s

40/38c

Freeport, Bahamas

82/70pc 82/70s

Huntsville, Ala.

73/62pc

69/60c

Hong Kong

73/67c

77/62s

Jackson, Miss.

74/63pc

77/64pc

Jerusalem

48/42pc

50/42pc

Jacksonville

76/59pc

77/57pc

Kingston, Jamaica

89/76pc

87/76s

Knoxville, Tenn.

66/51pc

65/55sh

London

58/42c

49/32s

Lexington, Ky.

60/54c

66/40c

Madrid

56/35pc 57/36pc

Louisville

60/56c

66/36sh

Manila

87/76c

Lubbock, Texas

59/29pc

59/30s

Mexico City

73/45s

83/78r 73/46pc

Madison, Wis.

38/36i

39/20pc

Montreal

19/6s

34/32sn 31/30sn

McAllen, Texas

86/70pc 85/68pc

Moscow

29/27sn

Mobile, Ala.

75/61pc

Nassau, Bahamas

83/73pc 83/71pc

Myrtle Beach, S.C.

66/50pc 61/55c

New Delhi

73/47pc

73/46pc

Nags Head, N.C.

51/45s

58/52s

Paris

54/49pc

52/31c

Norfolk, Va.

47/41s

57/52pc

Rome

58/39pc 59/40s

Oklahoma City

65/36t

57/30s

Sydney

82/70pc 85/70s

Palm Springs

55/42s

58/43pc

Tokyo

51/40s

Pensacola, Fla.

75/64pc

73/61pc

Toronto

28/24pc 49/30r

74/59pc

57/53c

Tracking the nation’s conversation

TOON TALK

NEW VIEWS ON TALKERS TO FIX VA HEALTH SYSTEM, HIRE VETS Being a veteran, I have to honestly say that my recommendations to veterans before the data release was that waiting lists at VA medical centers were just waiting-to-die lists (“VA reverses course, releases health care quality data,” USATODAY.com, Tuesday). But there is a way to fix the VA medical system: Hire veterans in as many positions as possible. By doing this, the VA would have qualified people who could actually communicate with the veteran and who would be more likely to make the veteran feel comfortable. Veterans can be extremely fragile. But if a veteran walks into a doctor’s office and hears language and sees an approach that’s familiar, he’ll feel at ease. If the patient and the doctor find out they have served in the same places, the bond between the two would grow even stronger. There are a good number of medical personnel leaving the military. The Department of Veterans Affairs could devise a program that would tap into this resource. I feel, without a doubt, that the VA’s medical care system would improve tremendously and that the improvements would happen rather quickly.

ANDY MARLETTE, PENSACOLA (FLA.) NEWS JOURNAL

DOUG MACGREGOR, THE (FORT MYERS, FLA.) NEWS-PRESS

Frank E. Shirley Yakima, Wash. GARY VARVEL, THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR

TO COMMENT

STEVE BENSON, THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC

Have Your Say at letters@usatoday.com, facebook.com/usatodayopinion and @USATOpinion on Twitter. All comments are edited for length and clarity. Content submitted to USA TODAY may appear in print, digital or other forms. For letters, include name, address and phone number. Letters may be mailed to 7950 Jones Branch Drive, McLean, VA, 22108.

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