Usa today december 26 2016 by 24news

USA TODAY MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2016

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‘Swamp’ likely to win vs. Trump Presidents try to overhaul federal government — and largely fail Donovan Slack @donovanslack USA TODAY

brilliant artist. My heart goes out to his family and all of his fans.” Michael sold more than 100

WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump frequently pledged during the campaign that he would slash the size of the federal government and rein in spending, once proclaiming “we will cut so much, your head will spin.” But the bombastic business titan is about to come face to face with Washington, that “swamp” he wants to drain. And both non-partisan specialists and others who have tried before suggest the odds are not in his favor. Most presidents in modern times have mounted an effort to streamline the federal bureaucracy, and all have largely failed. President Obama in 2012 proposed merging parts of six agencies and cutting more than 1,000 federal jobs. Congress wasn’t having it. “It worse than died, it was assassinated on the Hill,” said Donald Kettl, University of Maryland professor and author of Escaping Jurassic Government: Restoring America’s Lost Commitment to Competence. Likewise, President George W. Bush put forth a “Management Agenda” to overhaul the bureaucracy, and Bill Clinton pushed a “Reinventing Government” plan. “In each case, executive branch efforts to reform management were viewed with skepticism (by Congress),” John Kamensky, deputy director of Clinton’s initiative, and Jonathan Breul, a budget management adviser during both administrations, wrote in a paper about lessons learned. “As a consequence, few pieces of signiﬁcant legislation were enacted.” President Ronald Reagan in 1984 convened a commission of private-sector executives and experts who offered more than 2,000 recommendations to reduce waste, improve management and restructure the government. The so-called Grace Commission said the changes would save taxpayers $424 billion over three years. “Absolutely nothing came of

v STORY CONTINUES ON 2T

BORIS GRDANOSKI, AP

SANTA SELFIES People dressed in Santa Claus costumes take a selﬁe before the start of a Santa Claus race in Macedonia’s capital of Skopje on Sunday. More than 400 people dressed as Santa Claus participated in the race through downtown. For complete holiday coverage, go to usatoday.com.

WEEKEND SPECIAL This is an edition of USA TODAY available to subscribers as an e-Newspaper. 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.

USA SNAPSHOTS©

Winter eye protection

Only

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of Americans wear sunglasses during the winter even though the sun’s rays are harmful year-round. NOTE Snow reflects 80% of sun’s UV radiation. SOURCE American Optometric Association survey of 1,000 adults MICHAEL B. SMITH AND JANET LOEHRKE, USA TODAY

APPRECIATION

Singer George Michael dies at 53 Charttopping British pop star also beset by personal struggles

Elysa Gardner and Andrea Mandell USA TODAY

Few teen idols have made critics eat their words more handily than George Michael did back in his late-’80s heyday, when the former Wham! frontman emerged as one of the most successful and admired singer/songwriters of that decade. But in the years that followed, Michael, who died at home in England over the Christmas holiday at age 53, made news more frequently for his professional struggles and personal scandal, even as he continued to record and tour proﬁtably and inspire younger acts. “I am in deep shock,” Elton John wrote on Instagram. “I have lost a beloved friend — the kindest, most generous soul and a

2012 AP PHOTO BY FRANCOIS MORI

George Michael was a topselling artist in the 1980s.

ANDREW HARNIK, AP

Some are optimistic Donald Trump can get more done than his predecessors to improve bureaucracy.

“For all their talk about getting rid of this or that, the truth is that they don’t want to get rid of any of it.” Kenneth Baer, former associate director of the White House Office of Management and Budget

Immigrants help gird USA’s sluggish population growth Births not as robust; 8 states tally net loss Jessica Durando and Alan Gomez USA TODAY

The U.S. population this year showed the slowest growth since the Great Depression, and would have been even slower had it not been for an increase in immigrants, according to the 2016 U.S. Census Bureau report. Nationally, the U.S. population grew only by 0.7% to 323.1 mil-

lion. That slowdown is due to an increase in deaths among Baby Boomers and a drop in births among younger generations, resulting in eight states losing overall population during the year. The only saving grace for many communities, especially in the Northeast, was immigration. In 34 states, international arrivals outpaced domestic arrivals (people who move from one state to another). Three states — Maryland, Massachusetts and Rhode Island — would have lost population if not for international arrivals. New York’s loss of 1,894 people could have been staggering without the 118,478 foreigners

GIVE AND TAKE ON PEOPLE TALLIES Top 10 states in percentage growth: % State chg. 1. Utah 2.03% 2. Nevada 1.95% 3. Idaho 1.83% 4. Florida 1.82% 5. Wash. 1.78% 6. Oregon 1.71% 7. Colorado 1.68% 8. Arizona 1.66% 9. District of 1.61% Columbia 10. Texas 1.58%

Bottom 10 states in percentage growth % State chg. 42. N. Mexico 0.03% 43. Kansas 0.02% 44. New York -0.01% 45. Miss. -0.02% 46. Pa. -0.06% 47. Wyoming -0.18% 48. Conn. -0.23% 49. Vermont -0.24% 50. Illinois -0.29% 51. W.Va. -0.54%

NOTE Includes D.C. SOURCE Census Bureau

who moved to the state. Overall, the nearly 1 million immigrants who entered the country in 2016 were down from previous years, but still made up 45% of the nation’s population growth. That ﬁgure could drop considerably under Presidentelect Donald Trump, who vowed to slow down legal and illegal immigration under his administration starting next month. “The population is aging, the Baby Boomers are aging, but international migration has been fairly consistent,” said Randy Capps, director of research for U.S. programs at the non-partisan Migration Policy Institute. “If we

really did curtail immigration substantially, that would really slow population growth quite a bit.” The rise in the immigrant population came almost entirely through legal immigration. The federal government grants about 1 million green cards a year, and the immigrant population in the U.S. grew by nearly 1 million, according to the Census data. Illinois lost more people than any other state (37,508), and West Virginia saw the biggest percentage drop (-0.54%). Other states losing population: Connecticut, Mississippi, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Wyoming.

USA TODAY MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2016

In Trump vs. ‘swamp,’ odds favor swamp v CONTINUED FROM 1T

it. Absolutely nothing,” said Paul Light, New York University professor and author of 25 books, including Thickening Government: Federal Hierarchy and the Diffusion of Accountability. Light said the last successful major overhaul of the federal government was in the 1950s. He said there are a mix of forces fighting to keep the status quo, not the least of which is Congress. “All duplication and overlap flows downhill from Congress,” Light said. “Committees create these different programs, and they don’t want to do anything about it.” Kenneth Baer, who was associate director of the White House Office of Management and Budget when Obama made his push, said there’s no incentive for members of Congress to cut anything. “For all their talk about getting rid of this or that, the truth is that they don’t want to get rid of any of it,” he said. The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office has been issuing annual reports since 2011 on wasteful spending, and has identified hundreds of fixes that could save taxpayers billions of dollars. The GAO report this year said the IRS could be collecting $385 billion more in taxes annually, and millions could be saved by reducing overlapping programs. Food safety, for instance is overseen by 12 different agencies. Eight agencies administer more than 100 programs supporting individuals suffering from mental illness. Of 544 fixes recommended by GAO in the past five years, 244 have been completed. Orice Williams Brown, a GAO managing director who helped coordinate this year’s report, said that because eliminating programs is so difficult, Congress often just layers new ones on top. “There really wasn’t an appetite to step back and say, ‘Let’s put aside what we currently have, and let’s think about what we would do if we were starting over today,’ ” Williams Brown said. Some people are optimistic about Trump’s chances of improving the bureaucracy, particularly given his Cabinet picks so far, which include executives from the private sector and members of Congress. His pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget, Rep. Mick Mulvaney, RS.C., is a deficit hawk. “In my view, they are better positioned than the members of prior administrations, high-ranking members of prior administrations, to come in and start getting to work right away,” said Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, a group founded by the leaders of Reagan’s commission. Corrections & Clarifications 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.

Israel summons U.S. ambassador in protest Oren Dorell @orendorell USA TODAY

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu summoned U.S. Ambassador Daniel Shapiro and 10 other ambassadors to Jerusalem on Sunday to protest a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank. The United States had abstained from the vote Friday rather than issue a veto, as it has in previous anti-Israel votes before the Security Council. Netanyahu accused the Obama administration of playing a major part in the measure’s conception and passage. “From the information that we have, we have no doubt that the Obama administration initiated it, stood behind it, coordinated on the wording and demanded that it be passed,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “This is, of course, in complete contradiction of the traditional American policy that was committed to not trying to dictate terms for a permanent agreement, like any issue related to them in the Security Council, and, of course, the explicit commitment of President Obama himself, in 2011, to refrain from such steps.”

DAN BALILTY, AP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, arrives for a weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday. Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security advisor for strategic communications, denied on Friday that the U.S. played any role in drafting the resolution. “The notion that we were somehow involved in drafting this is just not true,” Rhodes told reporters in a conference call. President-elect Donald Trump had urged Obama to veto the resolution and later condemned the U.N. and Obama for allowing the measure to pass.

The U.N. resolution passed against a backdrop of a stalled peace process, a Middle East facing a widespread terrorist threat, accelerated expansion and development of Jewish settlements on land Palestinians want for a future state and terrorist incitement among Palestinian leaders. The Obama administration has repeatedly exhorted Israel to refrain from continued settlement construction or to block planned projects.

Battled record label after success v CONTINUED FROM 1T

million albums globally, earned numerous Grammy Awards, and recorded duets with Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Luciano Pavarotti and John, among others. Born Georgios Panayiotou in North London — his father was a Greek immigrant — Michael met another aspiring musician, Andrew Ridgeley, while both were attending secondary school in Hertfordshire. By 1982, they were recording together as the bubblegum duo Wham!, and within two years they would be among the world’s most popular acts, with bouncy hits such as Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go and Freedom becoming staples of the early MTV era. One song from Wham!’s American breakthrough album, Make It Big, was credited to Michael as a solo artist when it was released as a single: the lovelorn ballad Careless Whisper, which reached No. 1 in the U.K., the USA and various other countries. That feat, and subsequent well-received solo turns, including a duet with Franklin (1987’s I Knew You Were Waiting for Me), led many to suspect that Wham!’s frontman had abilities and ambitions beyond making little girls scream.

In 2004, the Radio Academy declared that Michael’s music had been played on British radio more than that of any artist between 1984 and 2004. Michael’s first solo album, 1987’s Faith, confirmed that. With six top-five singles — among them the title track, the then-controversial smash I Want Your Sex and the rhapsodic Father Figure — Faith dominated the charts for much of 1988, and has sold more than 25 million copies worldwide to date. But Michael’s solo debut, which earned a Grammy Award in 1989 for album of the year, was more than a commercial milestone. Faith’s artful blend of pop, funk and blue-eyed-soul textures made it the first album by a Caucasian artist to reach the top position on Billboard’s R&B chart. Michael’s intense creative involvement — he wrote all the songs, most independently, and also produced — helped reshape the template for pop acts. Even Michael Jackson hadn’t been quite so autonomous, collaborating heavily with Quincy Jones and others on his ’80s megahits.

If Faith clearly demanded a new level of respect, some viewed Michael’s behavior in its wake as self-defeating. He refused to actively promote his much-anticipated follow-up album, 1990’s Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1, and didn’t appear in its music videos; for the hit single Freedom! ’90, he memorably tapped a bevy of supermodels, among them Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell, to lip-sync the lyrics. Listen yielded other hits, notably the chart-topping ﬁrst single Praying for Time, but didn’t approach the massive success of its predecessor. Michael wound up suing his label, Sony Music, for insufficiently supporting him, and a Vol. 2 was abandoned amid legal battles. He continued to release albums — Michael’s last studio effort, the aptly titled Patience, came out in 2004, and his ﬁnal album was 2014’s live Symphonica — but his music career would be overshadowed by his tabloid exploits. Longstanding questions about Michael’s sexual orientation came to the fore in 1998, when he was arrested for lewd behavior after revealing himself to another man, who turned out to be a police officer, in a public restroom in Beverly Hills. Michael would later make light of the incident, and became more

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open about his homosexuality. Having lost a partner, Brazilian designer Anselmo Feleppa, to a cerebral hemorrhage in 1993, Michael began a long-term relationship a few years later, with Texas-born businessman Kenny Goss; they split in 2009. The singer, whose charity work dates to his participation in the 1984 Band Aid single Do They Know It’s Christmas?, also raised money for AIDS research and terminally ill children. There would be other run-ins with the law for Michael, who between 2006 and 2010 was arrested several times in London for possession of drugs and driving under the inﬂuence. He was hospitalized in November 2011 in Austria for pneumonia after postponing a series of concerts. In 2004, the Radio Academy declared that Michael’s music had been played on British radio more than that of any artist between 1984 and 2004. That year, Michael told USA TODAY that he “was kind of glad that my success level went down in America. I got more of a life, got to enjoy being in America, with less attention than I was used to in Europe. But now I’m strong again. I feel ready to take on the world.” Contributing: The Associated Press

No survivors on Russian plane crash Day of mourning for 92 victims, including 64 members of the Red Army Choir

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Last week, the Israeli government agreed that Amona, an outpost that Israel’s Supreme Court said was illegal and must be dismantled, would be moved to another location on the same West Bank hilltop. The solution averted a likely confrontation Sunday with Jewish extremists but is considered by settlement opponents to be just as illegal. Netanyahu summoned ambassadors from 10 of the 14 countries that voted in favor of the resolution and have embassies in Israel: Britain, China, Russia, France, Egypt, Japan, Uruguay, Spain, Ukraine and New Zealand, according to Reuters. The U.S. action was widely panned by U.S. lawmakers. Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he was “very disappointed by the United States’ acquiescence to a one-sided, biased resolution at the United Nations Security Council.” “This resolution places the blame for the current impasse in negotiations entirely on Israel, asking nothing of the Palestinians,” Engel added. Secretary of State John Kerry said the U.S. allowed the measure to pass because it would “preserve the possibility of the two state solution.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a day of mourning after a Russian military plane carrying the world-famous Red Army Choir to Syria crashed into the Black Sea on Christmas morning minutes after taking off from the coastal town of Sochi. All 92 aboard apparently died, the Russian Defense Ministry said. Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov arrived in Sochi on Sunday to convene an investigative mission, according to the Tass News Agency. The minister said all possible causes are being considered, including a terror attack, according to The Associated Press. While officials said they did not believe the crash was caused by terrorism, Russian broadcaster MKRU reported that security

MAXIM SHIPENKOV, EPA

Mourners visit a memorial outside the home stage of the Alexandrov Ensemble, also known as the Red Army Choir, in Moscow on Sunday. Sixty-four members died in a plane crash. cameras nearby recorded a bright ﬂash near the plane before it went down. Viktor Ozerov, head of the defense affairs committee at the upper house of Russian parliament, downplayed the possibility of terrorism, according to the AP. The Tu-154 was operated by the military, so the crash may have stemmed from a mechanical problem or a crew error, Ozeroy said

The plane disappeared from radar two minutes after taking off from Sochi, AP reported. The crash site is less than a mile from the shore. The plane, which belongs to the Russian Defense Ministry, was carrying 64 members of the Russian army’s official choir, also known as the Alexandrov Ensemble, to a military base in Syria for a New Year’s concert, accord-

ing to Turkey’s Daily Sabah. Russian forces have helped the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad gain the upper hand against rebel groups in the country’s nearly 6-year-old civil war. Last week, the rebel stronghold of Aleppo in northern Syria, the country’s commercial capital, was recaptured by Syrian government troops. It was a major defeat for the rebels, who had held eastern Aleppo for most of the war. The Russian Army choir, established in 1928, for decades presented a human face of the Soviet Union’s military by traveling the world during the Cold War to perform Russian folk songs and spiritual music. Also on board was humanitarian activist Elizaveta Glinka, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, according to state-owned broadcaster RT. Glinka was a “social and political activist, but she was outside any politics, above any politics,” Zakharova said. Recovery crews pulled several bodies from the water as drones, divers, helicopters and ships searched for the remains of other passengers, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

USA TODAY MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2016

Pot sales run high for holidays As a stocking stuffer, product shows it’s become mainstream Trevor Hughes @trevorhughes USA TODAY

It appears Santa was stuffing stockings with a little extra green this holiday season: marijuana. Pot shops report the average purchase was up 21% in the week before Christmas, according to the marijuana-software firm Baker, which runs store customerservice systems. The most popular items: marijuana-infused edibles like brownies or cookies. Also near the top of the list are vaporizers, pipes and other smoking accessories, Baker reported. The company said the data holds true across the states where it serves medical and recreational stores: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington. That there’s a rush in sales around Christmas is no surprise. The biggest sale days of the year traditionally come around Thanksgiving’s “Weed Wednesday” and “Green Friday,” said Baker’s CEO, Joel Milton, although April 20, known as 4/20, remains the biggest marijuana sales day nationally. Other big sales days tend to come on Fridays before federal holidays, according to an analysis of Washington state sales dates by New Frontier Data. “Holiday gift-giving is a perfect example of this once-taboo product making its way into the mainstream retail environment,” Milton said. “We have a feeling people will like cannabis gifts a lot more than a traditional … box of chocolates.” Colorado’s biggest marijuana retailer, Native Roots, has seen significant increases in edibles sales at its ski-town stores. The company has 17 locations, and those stores near resorts tend to draw significant numbers

DENVER

PHOTOS BY TREVOR HUGHES, USA TODAY

“We have a feeling people will like cannabis gifts a lot more than a traditional … box of chocolates.” Joel Milton, CEO of marijuana-software ﬁrm Baker

of tourists, said CEO Josh Ginsberg. Edibles are a popular option to smoking marijuana because they’re discreet and can be more comfortable for empty-nest Baby Boomers trying cannabis for the ﬁrst time in years. Native Roots stores were selling holiday bundles, starting with

T-shirts like this one are popular Christmas gifts and a must-buy for tourists, marijuana store owners say.

the $40-$45 “Stocking Puffer,” which included a small amount of marijuana and some joints, and expanding to the “Mary Cannabis,” which included marijuanainfused candy and other items, and topping out with the “O’Chronic Tree” at nearly $300. “We also see a huge increase in our apparel sales,” Ginsberg said. “People want something that says dispensary, that says Colorado. They want something that says they went into a dispensary on their ski vacation.” Next Christmas could be even bigger: Voters last month legalized recreational cannabis in California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada, and stores in at least some of those states could be up and running next year.

Marijuanainfused candies known as edibles are among the top sellers around Christmas, according to store managers and cannabisindustry experts.

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FAMILY WATCHES AS SINKHOLE CONSUMES HOME FRASER , MICH .

Sue Albu and her husband awoke to sounds of popping at about 4 a.m. ET Christmas Eve. Two hours later, she had trouble opening the doors in her house. Its frame had begun to shift. Her home was sinking into the ground. “I mean, it was just trying to grab what we could to salvage it,” Albu said. Her house, on the corner of 15 Mile Road and Eberlein Drive, was partially collapsed late Saturday. The sinkhole is endangering other structures and forced the closure of the 15 Mile Road in both directions. Homeowners on Albu’s street quickly evacuated while authorities cut power for several hours to almost 900 customers to allow electrical services to be rerouted. By Saturday afternoon, the shingles on Albu’s house would buckle, and the gutters were bent. Two neighboring homes also were ordered evacuated.

BELL RINGER RECEIVES SPANISH SHIPWRECK COIN SEBASTIAN,

FLA . A Salvation Army bell ringer received a coin with ties to a ﬂeet of Spanish galleons sunk in 1715 off the coast of Vero Beach. Longtime volunteer Jim Bessy received the gold Spanish escudo worth several thousand dollars from a donor who wished to re-

main anonymous. He said the donor handed him the coin for safekeeping Thursday so it wouldn’t get mixed up with the other coins in the kettle. Bessy then turned over the coin Friday to Salvation Army Lt. Jay Needham in Vero Beach. When Needham, in his ﬁrst year as Salvation Army corps officer in Indian River County, began researching the coin on the Internet, he said he was amazed to learn of its history. The coin is in a plastic case, marked with the words “1715 Fleet 1 Escudo.”

Workers watch fire billowing from a fuel tank at a refinery in the northern Israeli coastal city of Haifa on Sunday. Firefighters finally brought it under control after about 10 hours.

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POPE CALLS FOR PEACE, END TO TERRORISM

Christmas Day celebrations included a call by Pope Francis for peace and an end to terrorism, as well as a traditional holiday meal for hundreds of U.S. soldiers in Iraq ﬁghting the Islamic State. Pope Francis wished Christmas peace for people scarred by wars and for those who have lost loved ones to terrorism. He spoke at the Vatican before an estimated 40,000 people in St. Peter’s Square and to a global audience. Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth II, 90, did not attend the Christmas morning church service near her Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England, because of a bad cold. Her absence from the service, a ritual, has raised concerns about the health of Britain’s longest-serving monarch.

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USA TODAY MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2016

MONEY Judge warns VW diesel owners

Don’t let platforms like Amazon own your soul

Don’t strip vehicles before attempting company buyback

Ray Fisman and Tim Sullivan

Sure, they’re sweet to you now, but their real goal is total domination

Nathan Bomey @NathanBomey USA TODAY

A federal judge warned Volkswagen owners not to strip parts out of their diesel vehicles before attempting to sell them back to the automaker through the its emissions settlement. U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer’s warning came after reports on the automotive blog Jalopnik of a Cincinnati man who “completely stripped“ his 2010 Golf before attempting to qualify for the buyback. The man ripped out the “doors, seats, hood, bumpers, hatch and a big portion of the interior” before trying to turn in his vehicle, according to Jalopnik. VW rejected his attempt to qualify for the buyback, which would have been worth $14,897 to $15,557 for the typical 2010 VW Golf diesel. Volkswagen Group agreed in June to the nearly $15 billion settlement with the U.S. government, California regulators

AUDI AG

Variants of this 3.0-liter TDI turbocharged diesel engine were used in some VW, Audi, and Porsche models.

and consumers over 2009-2016 model-year 2-liter diesel cars that violated emissions standards. Owners qualify for buybacks or a free fix and compensation, assuming VW can deliver a repair authorized by the Environmental Protection Agency. The 2-liter buybacks ranged from $12,500-$44,000, adjusted for mileage. Owners of 2-liter models who qualify for and receive a free repair will receive $5,100-$9,852 in payouts. The judge also confirmed a class-action group of consumers has reached a settlement in principle with VW for owners of 3-liter, 6-cylinder diesel vehicles, including crossovers and SUVs, that also violated emissions standards. That $1 billion deal — reached by the Justice Department, EPA and California Air Resources Board — will deliver buybacks for the 20,000 owners of the 2009-2012 Volkswagen Touareg and 2009-2012 Audi Q7, as well as a free fix and payouts for 63,000 owners of 2013-2016 3-liter diesel models. FRIDAY MARKETS INDEX

Dow Jones 19,933.81 x Nasdaq composite 5,462.69 x S&P 500 2,263.79 x T-note, 10-year yield 2.54% y Oil, light sweet crude $53.02 x Euro (dollars per euro) $1.0452 x Yen per dollar 117.26 y

CHG

14.93 15.27 2.83 0.01 0.07 0.0019 0.34

SOURCES USA TODAY RESEARCH, MARKETWATCH.COM

USA SNAPSHOTS©

Victims of elder abuse

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SOURCE Allianz Life Study of 1,000 caregivers JAE YANG AND PAUL TRAP, USA TODAY

Special for USA Today BOSTON During a recent ride with ride-hailing service Lyft, one of us struck up a conversation with the driver, Victor, about how he liked his job. His enthusiasm seemed genuine. He talked the entire way to the airport about the glories of Lyft — about how it cared about its drivers and wasn’t just transactional, like its competitor, Uber. Lyft paid more, for instance. But only if you logged nearly a full-time job’s worth of hours. So, Victor was working for Lyft exclusively and reaping the beneﬁts. Lyft had Victor right where it wanted him. It had turned him into a “single homer,” as economists who study platform businesses would call him — a person who uses one service exclusively. It’s where every platform business — services that connect users on two or more sides of a market, such as Facebook (users and advertisers), Apple’s iPhone (users and content producers), and Amazon (sellers and buyers) — would like to have each of us: locked in, and at their mercy. Lyft doesn’t pay more than Uber out of the goodness of its heart. Nor is that why credit cards offer cash back. No company wants to be your friend. Each is trying to keep you captive on their app, site or card. Platforms’ search for ascendancy in any category involves a “virtuous” cycle of ever-more customers, making your platform ever more attractive than alternative options. Think of the telephone: One is useless for making calls, two are only slightly more useful, but a few million and you have a network that everyone wants to join. Amazon is your go-to e-commerce destination only if it really is the Everything Store

JOHN LOCHER, AP

Because of competition, Uber and Lyft have to offer deals to lure customers. Airbnb’s dominance means it doesn’t have to.

AFP/GETTY IMAGES

and indispensable to merchants precisely because it’s your go-to e-retailer. Sometimes, though, consumers should spread their business around, despite the allure of free shipping or 1% cash back. Consider the case of Amazon a little more deeply. It’s not trying to be “nice” by offering Prime two-day delivery, offering 35 days of Black Friday discounts or neat new gadgets such as the voice-activated Echo. It’s trying to lock you in. Despite its $300 billion-plus valuation, the company goes through streaks of making slim or even no proﬁts. Yet it continues to invest in efforts such as Prime. Why? Because once it has enough of us locked in, Amazon is going

to raise prices (in fact, it already loyalty to one platform can bring. has raised them for free-ship- Or second, each of us can do our part to make sure Amazon and ping minimums). Because once a platform is others never get to the point of indispensable to both sides of a ubiquitous domination. It might transaction — to the providers of introduce a bit of hassle and ina service and the purchasers — convenience into your life, but you have a license to print money. only a tiny bit. But by taking on But it’s even more insidious this challenge, you’ll be doing the than that. Once a platform van- job anti-trust authorities, in an quishes its competition, it’s near- ideal world, might take care of on impossible for a our behalf — ensurstart-up to come in ing consumers and Once a and challenge its workers, rather platform is dominance. than the owners of We see the home- indispensable capital and algosharing platform rithms — get a piece to both Airbnb exploiting of the surplus that’s sides of a its dominance alcreated by new ready. It doesn’t ofbusiness ideas. transaction, fer sweet discounts Option one preyou have to lure customers or sents us with a prethosts because it ty dire picture of a license to doesn’t have to. It’s what the future print money. twice as big as the might look like. nearest competitor, And option two HomeAway, so even without a comes with very little downside, discount it provides more value, it’s easy to do and can also help us given the greater choice offered to overcome our inertia to ﬁnd to both hosts and guests. ourselves better deals. So we, as participants in platforms’ ﬁght for world domina- Ray Fisman is the Slater family profestion, have two alternatives. First, sor in behavioral economics, Boston University, and Tim Sullivan is the you can succumb, paying a little editorial director for Harvard Business more for the convenience that Review Press.

8 stocks lead march to Dow 20,000 Goldman Sachs is tops with 14% gain since 19,000 Matt Krantz @mattkrantz USA TODAY

The dream of Dow 20,000 is nearly a reality. A handful of stocks led the march. Eight stocks in the Dow Jones industrial average, including Goldman Sachs, Travelers and UnitedHealth, added 40 or more points to the market measure apiece — making them the biggest contributors to the much-awaited feat. These eight together added 611 of the 1,000 points needed to break 20,000, since hitting 19,000 on Nov. 22. The Dow is constructed in a way that stocks with the highest per-share dollar values contribute the most points. It’s not just points, but dollars, too. These big winners added $92 billion in market value to investors’ pockets — nearly half of the $215 billion in market value added by all 30 Dow stocks since the market ﬁrst closed above 19,000. “No matter your view of whether prices are expensive or inexpensive, a new record level for the market is to be celebrated,” says Michael Farr, CEO of

TIMOTHY A. CLARY, AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Wall Street has seen the Dow Jones industrial average rally from 10,000 in March 1999 to 19,934 on Friday. money management firm Farr, Miller & Washington. Stocks that gained the most in part reflect investors’ hopes for the government’s direction after the surprise election of Donald Trump as president. But being so near a record 1,000-point move, which is a less impressive 5.3% climb, also highlights what investors are looking for: uMore profits for financials. Trump’s campaign promise to reduce government regulation and borrow money to finance government-led infrastructure plans has helped banks and other financial firms. Goldman Sachs is the biggest winner since the Dow hit 19,000, single-handedly delivering a 14% gain to $240.97 a share, which translates into 204 Dow points. Goldman’s contribution to the Dow is more than twice that of the second-largest

contributor in terms of Dow points, United Health. Financials are expected to benefit from fewer rules that inhibit the types of loans they can make. Additionally, rising long-term interest rates are seen as a benefit as bank customers must pay more for loans. Two other financials are among the eight best Dow stocks, including insurer Travelers and JPMorgan Chase, making the sector the one with the majority of big winners. “Financials have taken the baton and run with it,” says Ryan Detrick, market strategist at LPL Financial. uGains from all corners. Unlike other market rallies in history that left large groups of sectors or stocks behind, the march to 20,000 has lifted almost all stocks. Just three Dow stocks — credit card processor Visa, Walmart and drugmaker Merck —

have slipped since Dow 19,000. And even Merck is down just 3.5% to $59.56. Merck’s slip has cost the market measure less than 15 Dow points since it hit the 19,000 mark. uEnergy, industrials pick up steam. It has been some time since energy and industrial stocks have participated in the rally, but they’ve been big players since Dow 19,000. Three of the biggest winners from those two sectors, including Chevron in energy and Boeing and 3M among industrials. Oil prices have risen roughly 12% since the Dow hit 19,000. President-elect Trump is likely to enact rules to help industrial and energy companies. In the longer term, the Dow’s rally from 10,000 in March 1999 to 19,934 shows that while some stocks have disproportionately beneﬁted since the election, others haven’t as much. Apple, with its 9,120% gain since Dow 10,000, has been the biggest winner among current Dow members in that time frame. But since Dow 19,000, Apple’s 32-point contribution and 4.2% gain ranks it outside the top eight. Health insurer UnitedHealth continues to be a big winner. The company’s stock rose 2,400% since Dow 10,000 — second best since then — and also added 74 Dow points since 19,000. “Remember the rule of buying low. This isn’t low or anywhere near low. So, be happy, be optimistic, but be careful,” Farr says.

USA TODAY MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2016

TECH

Pinterest: Diversity more important than ever Social network cites progress hiring blacks, Hispanics Jessica Guynn USA TODAY FRANCISCO At Pinterest’s weekly staff meeting after the presidential election, co-founders Ben Silbermann and Evan Sharp and diversity chief Candice Morgan got up and reiterated the company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. The high-tech industry is appealing to a global marketplace, where women and minorities increasingly wield economic power. Yet concern had spread among women and people of color alienated by Donald Trump’s campaign that tech companies would shrink from diversity efforts in the changing political climate, reversing the small gains Silicon Valley has achieved so far. Pinterest executives say changing the demographics of the industry never has been more

SAN

2014. They showed huge, important. “Evan and I growing populations have always believed largely have been left out that building diverse of the tech economy’s teams is essential to rapid wealth and job building great products. gains. In sharp contrast Diverse teams come with tech’s varied users, with a broader set of exthe industry is dominatperiences, which means ed by white and Asian they often have new perPINTEREST men. Underrepresented spectives and ideas,” SilPinterest minorities comprise a bermann said. distinct minority among The San Francisco diversity start-up has been at the chief Candice Silicon Valley tech companies, including Pinterforefront of making a Morgan est. They make up 6% of public commitment to hiring more women and under- employees vs. the 22% of employrepresented minorities since one ees in non-tech ﬁrms in the area, of its former engineers issued a according to the Equal Employcall to action in 2013. Tracy Chou ment Opportunity Commission. Pinterest, which describes ituploaded a spreadsheet to the code-sharing platform Github self as “the world’s catalog of and challenged tech companies to ideas,” is a digital pinboard that make public the number of private investors have valued at $11 billion. Its executives say they female engineers in their ranks. Leading tech companies from must build a diverse workforce to Google to Facebook stepped for- thrive. So they responded in July ward, reporting diversity statis- 2015 by setting ambitious goals to tics on an annual basis, starting in hire more women and minorities

and, in a rare move, it shared those goals — a vow to remake the company’s demographics in the public eye. This month, the company offered a status report on its progress. Its overall demographics have not budged much. Some goals were met; a key one wasn’t. Pinterest didn’t achieve the 30% hiring rate it set for women in engineering roles and has now decreased that goal to 25% for 2017 because it was too aggressive. The company had a 22% hiring rate for women in engineering roles in 2016, it said. Pinterest says it more than doubled the number of people in the company from underrepresented ethnic backgrounds to 7%. It increased the hiring rate of engineers from underrepresented ethnic groups to 9% from 1%, surpassing its goal of 8%. The number of underrepresented ethnic minorities who are new engineering graduates rose to 9% from 2% in 2015. About 20% of engineering interns in 2016 came from underrepresent-

ed ethnic groups, up from 4% in 2015. Overall, Pinterest increased the hiring rate for people from underrepresented ethnic backgrounds in non-engineering roles to 12% from 7%. “You look around and you really see it. I’ve had many people remark to me how amazing it is to see that diversity in the faces around the office and in the building,” Morgan said. Nearly half the company is white and 41% is Asian. Underrepresented minorities made progress but remain a tiny fraction of the Pinterest workforce. African Americans account for 2% in engineering, 2% in tech and 3% in business. No African Americans held leadership roles. Hispanics fare slightly better: 4% overall, 3% in engineering, 2% in tech, 5% in business, 4% in leadership roles. Leadership at Pinterest is 70% white, 22% Asian. Morgan says Pinterest didn’t make as much progress as it would like but that it learned a great deal that will help boost efforts to increase diversity in 2017.

Got a new smartphone? Here’s what to do with your old one Brett Molina @brettmolina23 USA TODAY

THINGS YOUR TABLET CAN DO

It’s hard to believe the first iPad was released in 2010. We use tablets for entertainment, work and even to pay for a mocha at the local cafe. The device that once looked like science fiction is now a staple of American homes. But most of us don’t realize how many different ways we can use our tablets. Switch around a few settings or download the right app and you can perform all kinds of digital magic tricks. Here are five things you didn’t know your tablet could do. Kim Komando @kimkomando Special for USA TODAY

1Desktops

USE YOUR COMPUTER FROM YOUR TABLET

are a double-edged sword: They’re powerful and have large screens, but they also tend to sit in one place. What happens when you’re on the road, and you need to nab some ﬁles off your desktop back at home or the office? It’s not a problem if your tablet and PC or Mac is loaded with Splashtop. Simply download and install the free Splashtop Streamer software on your computer, get the app for either iPad or Android, create an account and then log into both target devices for instant remote access. You can be holding your tablet on a beach in Maui, but the display shows your desktop just as if you were sitting in front it back home in Minnesota. The app costs $9.99, and an annual subscription costs $16.99 — a great way to go for travelers.

TRANSFER FILES WIRELESSLY FROM YOUR TABLET TO YOUR COMPUTER

Have you ever emailed a file, such as a photo or a document, to your Mac from your iPhone or iPad, even as you sit right in front of your Mac? Yes, I’ve done it, too. That’s because using email to move files around works pretty well as long as your file is small enough to be attached. There’s a better way to move files among your gadgets or even among your friends’ devices. Apple AirDrop is a built-in app that lets you seamlessly move files between nearby desktop Macs and iOS gadgets like iPad, iPhone or iPod touch using a Bluetooth connection. This is particularly handy for iPad owners, who can start AirDropping in a matter of seconds. To enable AirDrop on an iPad, swipe up on the Home screen to access the Control Panel. From here, you can set AirDrop to receive from Contacts Only, Everyone, or Off. Newer Mac computers also have this ability, and you can find AirDrop in Finder. Not to be outdone, Android tablets have a nearly identical

system in a third-party app called Airmore. You can move music, movies, photos, and apps from your Android tablet to any compatible device, along with your call logs and text messages.

3 Tablets are designed to be intuTURN YOUR TABLET INTO A POWERFUL TV REMOTE

itive, and sometimes they’re even more intuitive than a time-tested gizmo like a TV remote. With the right system in place, you can replace your remote entirely. Some tablets are designed with television in mind. The Galaxy Tab, for example, has a built-in IR transmitter, which you can use as a universal TV remote. As with your old-fashioned remote, you’ll have to aim the Tab directly at the TV. iPads and Androids don’t have an IR transmitter, but if you’re feeling handy, you can buy an external transmitter that attaches to the audio jack, just like your ear buds. There’s a more sophisticated way to control your television from a distance. You can invest in a Harmony Home Hub or the Bluemoo, which are designed to turn your smartphone or tablet

SPENCER PLATT, GETTY IMAGES

into a remote control. Not only can you change channels on your TV, but you activate any Bluetooth gadget in your home, including speakers, smart lamps and security devices. The best part: You don’t have to aim your tablet at anything, you just have to be within the Bluetooth’s range.

4 Many smart TVs already give you SHOW YOUR PHOTOS AND VIDEOS ON YOUR TV

access to YouTube, Vimeo and Flickr, so you can easily upload your online content, including home videos, and watch them on your TV. But with your tablet, you don’t have to use these services. For example, if you have an iPad and Apple TV, you can use Airplay to project your tablet’s display on the big screen. Just swipe upward from the bottom, and you’ll see the Airplay icon. If you don’t have Apple TV, or you’re not near a Wi-Fi signal, you can ﬁnd a VGA adapter and plug your iPad directly into the set. For Android users, there’s another option: You can use an app called AllCast, which will connect your Android to many different services, including Amazon TV, Apple TV and Roku, among others.

5 Professional musicians tend to carry electronic guitar tuners. TUNE YOUR GUITAR

But if you’re a weekend strummer who wants a quick tune-up, or you want a backup device during your concert tour, look no further than Guitar Tuna, a free app for iOS and Android. Using your iPad or Android tablet’s built-in mike, Guitar Tuna is fast, accurate and easy to use. What’s more, it works with all popular string-based instruments, from guitars and basses to ukuleles and mandolins. The app also has advanced tools, like a metronome, guitar learning tools and alternative guitar tunings. For daily tips, visit Komando.com.

Whether it’s as a gift or just to treat yourself, getting a new smartphone is awesome. Once you’ve adjusted settings, downloaded apps and imported your contacts, you might be left with one last question: what do I do with my old smartphone? There are two big steps you must take before doing anything that’s not keeping it or stuffing it in a drawer: back up the device’s data, then erase and restore the device to what it was when it ﬁrst came out of the box. The backup will save you the trouble of inputting all those contacts into your new smartphone. Erasing and restoring your old phone will prevent anyone from getting access to any data such as contacts or social media accounts. OK, now that the phone is back in default form, let’s review your choices: uGift it: Maybe your husband or wife want a new phone, but aren’t hung up on having the latest model; or you have a small child and want them to have their own device. For adults, it’s simple: give them the phone and they can replace their old phone. Giving your old phone to kids is good, too, since you don’t need to have the phone connected (making it a Wi-Fi only device) and you can tailor the experience using parental controls and other settings to best manage the experience, especially if it’s for a younger child. uTrade it in: There are plenty of places you can accomplish this (through your wireless carrier, the phone maker themselves or through third-party sites such as Gazelle or Amazon). But do your homework. The price you get will vary depending on several factors, most importantly the condition of your smartphone. uSell it: If you’re hoping to make a little extra off that old smartphone, you could try to sell it through eBay or Craigslist. The beneﬁt here is you might be able to snag a little more cash for your phone depending on condition. uKeep it: Thanks to a variety of apps, smartphones can tackle a lot of clever roles, such as security camera, remote, digital photo frame, digital camera or something as simple as a dedicated entertainment device. uRecycle it: If you managed to get by with an old smartphone sporting a busted touchscreen or too many scratches and dents, you could recycle it. Some device makers including Apple and carriers such as Verizon offer programs where you can recycle your smartphone. The Consumer Technology Association offers a handy list of retailers supporting recycle programs near you.

USA TODAY MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2016

PERSONAL FINANCE

Don’t ‘anchor’ yourself to minimum credit card payments Research shows it’s costing U.S. consumers millions of dollars in needless interest

Robert Powell Special for USA TODAY

Do you carry a balance on your credit cards from month to month? Do you pay just the minimum or near-minimum due on your monthly statement? You’re not alone. In fact, three in 10 card holders (113 million credit card accounts) do just that, and it’s costing them millions of dollars in needless interest payments, according to new research published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Jialan Wang, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois, is one of the research co-authors along with ....

WHAT’S GOING ON?

For starters, something called “anchoring” is to blame for card holders paying just the minimum, according to the co-authors of the research, Benjamin Keys, an assistant professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and Jialan Wang, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois. In the world of behavioral ﬁnance, anchoring is a bias toward salient — but sometimes irrelevant — cues, Keys and Wang say. And in the case of credit card statements, the big cue is the “minimum amount due.” According to Keys and Want, the minimum payment — which typically represents 1% to 2% of the outstanding credit card balance — is

... Benjamin Keys, an assistant professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Powell is editor of Retirement Weekly and contributes regularly to USA TODAY, “The Wall Street Journal” and MarketWatch. Got questions about money? Email Bob at rpowell@ allthingsretirement.com.

GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

the amount needed to stay in good standing with the lender and avoid any late fees or trigger higher interest rates. And what’s interesting to note, Keys and Wang say, is that the minimum payment is based on a formula that is applied to millions of accounts that might not be related to how much a customer can afford to pay or how much they would need to pay to get out of debt. In fact, the researchers estimate that some 9% to 20% of credit card holders could afford to make higher payments on their credit card debt. By way of history, in the 1970s, the minimum amount due on credit card balances was much more like 5% of the balance, which, the authors say, led borrowers to pay off their debts much faster. And this change in the minimum amount due on balances from 5% then to 1% or 2% now has had “important implications for how much outstanding debt households have,” the authors say. Of note, credit card debt in the U.S. totaled $665 billion in 2015. To be fair, some consumers may be making near-minimum payments because they are struggling with financial difficulties and cannot afford to pay more. However, the researchers say a significant number of consumers aren’t sure how much to pay, are strongly influenced by the required minimum and could save a significant amount of money by paying more each month. “Paying more would speed up the repayment period and sharply reduce the cumulative interest paid,” Keys and Wang say. The researchers also say a sizable fraction of credit card holders — young and old, rich and poor — make relatively small payments and thus incur interest each month. “This behavior isn’t isolated to a small part of the credit card population,” Keys and Wang say. “It’s surprisingly universal.” THE CHALLENGE OF CREDIT CARD DEBT

To be fair, it’s somewhat understandable that consumers anchor to the minimum amount due on their monthly credit card statement. “Credit card debt is challenging for households because there’s no set schedule for how to pay it back in a timely fashion,” Keys and Wang say. “This makes it very different from a mortgage, auto loan or student loan, which tend to have a ﬁxed amortization schedule — a 30-year mortgage or 10-year student loan, for example — and a predictable repayment date.” In contrast, the researchers say it would take more than a decade for a consumer with just $2,000 in credit card debt to pay it off by making only the typical minimum payment, and that would

entail thousands of dollars in interest costs. What’s more, most consumers continue to spend on their cards, making it even more difficult to ﬁgure out how much they should repay, Keys and Wang say. “Our research suggests that many consumers could be paying down more on their credit card debt,” they say. “Tools and techniques that help them set and achieve repayment goals could save consumers billions of dollars per year in interest costs.” So, what are some of the tools and techniques that you can use to save money each year in interest costs?

Researchers say it would take more than a decade for a consumer with just $2,000 in credit card debt to pay it off by making only the typical minimum payment, and that would entail thousands of dollars in interest costs. uAnchors away. According to Keys and Wang, credit card holders should resist, when making ﬁnancial decisions, the urge to “anchor” to an easily available benchmark and instead carefully choose the repayment amount that best meets their goals. “Instead of anchoring to the minimum payment on their credit cards, consumers should pay down as much as they can on high-interest debts given their budgets to minimize their interest costs.” uTry the 36-month plan. Credit card holders — because of the CARD Act of 2009 — also learn on their statements what payment is required to pay off their balance in 36 months. According to Keys and Wang, 1% of credit card holders adopted this alternative suggested payment, and that resulted in $62 million in interest savings per year. However, the savings could have been $2 billion per year if all anchoring consumers had adopted the new suggested 36-month payment. uCreate a monthly budget. Keys and Wang say consumers ought to create a monthly budget and allocate any money that isn’t being used for immediate needs, 401(k) matching contributions or their emergency fund toward paying down their debt. Tools such as Mint, Chase Blueprint and ReadyForZero can help consumers create a budget, pay down debt faster and reduce interest costs. “For many households, the interest rate on the credit card is their highest-cost debt, so they should make it a priority to pay it back,” Keys and Wang say.

Unsatisﬁed receivers, gifters:

Watch out for return policies Courtney Jespersen l NerdWallet

You might find yourself trudging through a congested shopping center the day after Christmas carrying bags full of pants that are too short and sweaters that aren’t your style. But the crowds and the heavy load might not be your biggest frustrations. Before you embark on your post-holiday mall trip, beware of the following: RETURN WINDOWS It’s wise to bring misguided gifts back sooner than later. Kmart is allowing shoppers until Jan. 31 to return items purchased from Nov. 1 to Dec. 24. But it applies only to items that typically have a 30-day return window. Some are excluded, including those sold by third-party sellers, floor care equipment, vacuums and major home appliances. Don’t assume your product qualifies for a retailer’s extended window. Look online to see which deadline fits your gift.

DOCUMENTATION To avoid a wasted trip, arrive armed with ID, your receipt or packing slip and

all packaging and parts of the product. Sometimes tags must be attached, too. Most stores require a gift receipt and/or order number to process the return. Macy’s, for instance, sends back gifts returned by mail that are missing an invoice or gift receipt.

REIMBURSEMENTS If you’re returning a gift you purchased, you might receive a refund to your card, a store credit or cash. For instance, Best Buy will reimburse you for most returned items the same way you paid. But if you paid more than $800 in cash or more than $250 by check or a debit card without a major credit card logo, you’ll be mailed a refund check within 10 business days.

WARRANTY LOOPHOLES The Better Business Bureau warns that warranties sometimes exempt stores from liability for damaged products. Send those items directly to the manufacturer for a replacement.

FINAL SALE ITEMS Some products can’t be returned at all. At Wet Seal, lingerie, swimwear, jewelry and clearance purchases aren’t eligible for return or exchange. At Steve Madden, purchases of clearance items and jewelry are ﬁnal. Tory Burch won’t accept anything that has been worn, altered or washed. If you’re unsure of a retailer’s return policy, call customer service or look it up online before you make a trip to the

GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

store or post office in vain. Jespersen is a staff writer at NerdWallet, a personal ﬁnance website. Email: courtney@nerdwallet.com.

Twitter: @CourtneyNerd. NerdWallet is a USA TODAY content partner providing general news, commentary and coverage from around the Web. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.

USA TODAY MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2016

LIFE LIFELINE

MOVIES

ROYALS REPORT CHRISTMAS WITH THE MIDDLETONS Prince William and Duchess Kate celebrated Christmas with the Middleton family in Buckleberry, Berkshire. The festivities included a trip with children Princess Charlotte, 1, and Prince George, 3, to their first Christmas Day church service at St Mark’s in Englefield.

SAMIR HUSSEIN, WIREIMAGE

HOW WAS YOUR DAY? GOOD DAY ‘FULLER HOUSE’ FANS The house will apparently get even fuller. Netflix announced over the weekend that a third season of the ‘Full House’ spinoff will debut in 2017. Seasons 1 and 2 are available to stream now.

SECRETS TO SUCCESS AND ANIMAL MAGNETISM IN ‘SING’ atthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon and Scarlett Johansson M really did burst into songs for Sing (in theaters now ). Director Garth Jennings says it had to be the A-list actors’ own vocals for the animated movie about animals who compete in a singing competition: “There’s much more rooting interest knowing the actors are really doing this.” USA TODAY’s Patrick Ryan and Bryan Alexander reveal the stories behind the performances: REESE WITHERSPOON (AS ROSITA)

TODD PLITT, FOR USA TODAY

NETFLIX

HOW WAS YOUR DAY? GOOD DAY KACEY MUSGRAVES The country singer got a new sparkly accessory for Christmas: an engagement ring. Musgraves, 28, wrote on Instagram that fiancé Ruston Kelly “got down on one knee in my little pink childhood home” in Texas to propose on Saturday. “I finally know what everyone means when they say ‘you just know.’ ”

GETTY IMAGES

MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY (AS BUSTER MOON)

SING PHOTOS BY NORMAN JEAN ROY/ILLUMINATION ENTERTAINMENT

SCARLETT JOHANSSON (AS ASH) Johansson is a recording pro, having released two alternative-rock albums. But she went hard core as the punk porcupine, especially on the original anthem Set It All Free. “That may be a musical departure for me, personally, but it’s the perfect representation of Ash’s experience.” Her studio secret was “lots of Throat Coat (tea) and gusto and letting go of my inhibitions.” Johansson also gave the full version of Call Me Maybe: “I mean, it’s certainly catchy.”

TARON EGERTON(AS JOHNNY)

Carly Mallenbaum

USA SNAPSHOTS©

A little birdie told us 2016’s most tweeted-about musician hashtags:

1. #Exo 2. #Jimin 3. #Prince SOURCE Twitter rankings of hashtags Jan. 1-Nov. 14 by unique user

Voicing the gung-ho koala who hosts a singing competition to save his struggling theater, McConaughey tears into Carly Rae Jepsen’s Call Me Maybe. Not pretty, but fun. “I said, ‘Look, nothing’s written for me to sing, but if you come up with something, I’d love to give it a shot,’ ” McConaughey says. In the recording booth, Jennings asked about Call Me Maybe. “I’d heard the song, obviously,” McConaughey says. “So I said, ‘Leave the recording (going) and I’ll do it over and over 20 times and we’ll pick one out of there.’ ”

As the overstressed housewife with 25 piglets, Witherspoon belts out three pop showstoppers: Katy Perry’s Firework, Bananarama’s Venus and Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off. But the actress wasn’t entirely conﬁdent in her singing, despite winning an Oscar as June Carter Cash in Walk the Line. “I ran into Katy when I was recording Firework and Taylor when I was recording Shake It Off, and explained to both of them that they should brace themselves for my version,” Witherspoon says. “You sound really good in your car or your shower, but then you have to actually go into the recording booth and it’s hard to sing those songs.” Her trick to nailing the vocals? M&M’s. “It just gives me a sugar rush.”

TORI KELLY (AS MEENA) The American Idol star surprised herself as the shy elephant with killer pipes who does a stunning version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah and a breathy Happy Birthday. But Kelly reached personal vocal heights for Stevie Wonder’s classic Don’t You Worry ’Bout A Thing. “I didn’t think I could hit those notes. I was stretching my vocal ability.” Chalk it up to studio coaching, technique and lots of car practicing. (“I feel hidden from people there.”) It paid off: “When I found out Stevie Wonder heard it and loved it, I freaked out.”

Egerton, the Welsh star of Kingsman: The Secret Service, showed surprising vocal ability, earning the part of soulful gorilla Johnny after an Otis Reddingﬁlled audition for Jennings. Singing Stay With Me “really stretched me,” Egerton says. “Sam Smith’s falsetto is really insane, but I gave it a go.” Johnny brings the house down with I’m Still Standing by Egerton’s hero Elton John. Like Johnny, Egerton doesn’t play the piano (“I wish”), but he can nail Can’t Help Falling In Love on his ukulele.

TERRY BYRNE AND VERONICA BRAVO, USA TODAY

Director and star Washington builds a powerful ‘Fences’ Denzel Washington’s key to directing Fences is unleashing the full prowess of his powerhouse cast of thespians — himself included. MOVIE The knockout adREVIEW aptation (eeeg out BRIAN of four; rated PG-13; TRUITT in theaters now ) of August Wilson’s 1983 play is paced by standout performances from its entire cast, not only Washington and Oscar contender Viola Davis but also character actor Stephen Henderson and newcomer Jovan Adepo. It’s a Shakespearean family drama set against 1950s suburban Pittsburgh, with everything orbiting one tragic African-American patriarch. Troy Maxson (Washington) is a garbage man with a personality big enough to ﬁll any room or backyard. He’s motormouthed,

casually misogynistic to his wife, Rose (Davis), and has tales for days. “You got more stories than the Devil’s got sinners,” his best friend Jim Bono (Henderson) tells Troy, a one-time baseball player in the Negro Leagues who never made it to the majors and spent time in jail for murder. Washington gives Troy a playful style and an empathetic nature when dealing with his mentally challenged brother Gabriel (Mykelti Williamson), though even early on hints at a self-centered darker side. Troy gets promoted to trash-truck driver — the ﬁrst black man at his company to do so — but as his life starts to look up, he’s harder on those in his family he thinks are disrespecting him. Most of his ire is aimed at son Cory, a college

football prospect, and tension rises to a violent boil when Troy pulls him off his school team. Fences smartly doesn’t mess with Wilson’s great screenplay, which offers a nuanced look at race relations of the time. Troy makes waves in crossing the color barrier on the job, yet in many ways keeps his loved ones from reaching their dreams: He tells Cory that discrimination will keep him from being a sports star, but there’s some jealousy there. Davis plays the dutiful wife for the ﬁrst half, but she gets her moment to shine later, as Rose confronts Troy in an intense scene where the actress explodes with such raw, rapturous emotion you can’t keep your eyes off her. Rose is never the same, and neither is the movie as the aftermath shakes every player to the core.

DAVID LEE, PARAMOUNT PICTURES

Tension and jealousy boil between Cory (Jovan Adepo) and his father, Troy (Denzel Washington), in Fences. Washington ﬁlmed Fences as a play rather than a movie — the production is mostly limited to the Maxsons’ home and yard, where Troy is forever building a literal as well as metaphorical fence. While not a conventional cinematic experience, it does create a sense of forced intimacy among its characters that becomes more combustible as the story progresses.

But with the level of acting talent involved, Fences could have been ﬁlmed in the parking lot of a pet store and still been just as effective. Washington has put together a troupe that crafts a retro story that’s still completely relatable, no matter one’s race, and brilliantly plays a protagonist that ﬁnds the sweetest spot between lovable and loathsome.

USA TODAY MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2016

MUSIC

essential tracks from Kid Cudi’s ‘Passion, Pain, & Demon Slayin’

Kid Cudi performs at the 2015 Lollapalooza festival at Chicago’s Grant Park. His new album, Passion, Pain, & Demon Slayin’, is out now.

His new album, coming at the end of a troubled year, doesn’t dispatch his demons

Maeve McDermott @maeve_mcdermott USA TODAY

Kid Cudi needed some good news. The rapper has spent 2016 in the spotlight; the troubles began with a series of high-proﬁle rants against Kanye West, Drake and other rappers and ended with him entering rehab for depression. The artist’s outburst and subsequent hospitalization wasn’t the only time a high-proﬁle rapper sought help this fall. In 2008, Cudi and his former collaborator Kanye West made it OK for rappers to make music about their feelings, even their depression, on West’s 808s & Heartbreak. In a cruel twist of fate, both sought treatment this year for their mental health, with West entering the hospital in November for exhaustion. Even as he was headed into darkness, Cudi had one bright spot ahead: the release of Passion,

Pain, & Demon Slayin’ (eegE out of four), his new album that he wrote and mostly produced himself. Stretching over an hour and a half, broken up into four mini-movements and featuring guest spots from Andre 3000, Pharrell Williams, Travis Scott and Willow Smith, the album takes its passion and pain seriously, showing Cudi grappling with his depression, not quite slaying his demons yet. Along with his frank treatment of his mental health, another constant in Cudi’s career has been his ambitious recording projects; which sometimes, like his 2015 alt-rock album Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven, descend into selfindulgence. Like many other high-proﬁle rap albums this year, Passion’s long run time is its weakest point; its symphony-like structure stretches at least one movement too long.

But there’s plenty to celebrate in Passion’s contemplative downtempo rap and colorful psychR&B, showing Cudi returning to, and expanding, the spacey production that ﬁrst made him famous on his 2009 debut, Man on the Moon. As his past year has shown, the singer is still chasing the Pursuit of Happiness he sang about on his eerily prescient breakout hit. On Passion, he has accepted that “you could try and numb the pain, but it’ll never go away,” as he repeats to himself on Passion track Swim in the Light. Thankfully, he’s still swimming. Ready to listen? Start with these ﬁve tracks: STEVE C. MITCHELL, AP

ILLUSIONS This is classic Kid Cudi, tracing his lifetime of nightmarish hallucinations over spare production, struggling to banish “the demons in my head.”

MICHAEL HICKEY, GETTY IMAGES

DOES IT While Cudi spends much of Passion in his monotone singing voice, he switches gears on Does It with sung-spoken verses full of braggadocious lyrics, proving he’s not quite finished talking trash. BY DESIGN featuring Andre 3000: This song is the better of Passion’s two features from the former Outkast member as he does his best approximation of Cudi’s flow over hints of steel drums. ROSE GOLDEN featuring Willow Smith: The combination of Cudi and Smith is Passion’s most logical pairing, featuring the spiritual artists’ church-like chants about the universe’s higher power. SURFIN’ featuring Pharrell Williams: Passion’s final track is its most celebratory, thanks to production by Pharrell as Cudi ends the album with a message of resilience: “I ain’t ridin’ no waves / Too busy making my own waves, baby.”

MOVIES

The Force is strong in this ‘Star Wars’ movie ranking Brian Truitt USA TODAY

Unless you’ve been held captive by a Wampa, crash-landed a TIE Fighter on Jakku or were eaten by the Sarlacc — we see you there, Boba Fett, keep hope alive — it’s probably not news that there’s a Star Wars movie out. For everybody who hasn’t seen the Death Star onscreen enough, Rogue One is the flick for you. Nerds and civilians alike are again busting out their Star Wars tapes and DVDs, special editions or original recipe, and rewatching the seven previous films to get jacked up for the first standalone Star Wars movie and eighth chapter in this galactic saga. And fourth prequel if we’re being technical. We’re no different. We binged them again, too, and these are the rankings you’re looking for, y’all — including Rogue One.

1Empire is like a Star Destroyer — ‘THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK’ (1980)

full of great scenes: Vader’s reveal to Luke about being the kid’s father; Luke training with Yoda and each kinda getting ticked off; Han and Leia’s “I love you/I know” exchange before he gets frozen in carbonite. It’s the chapter that takes a cool sci-ﬁ fairy tale with Arthurian overtones and sends it on its way to being a masterwork of storytelling.

2The original remains the real ‘STAR WARS’ (1977)

LUCASFILM

Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) in Star Wars. “Let me look on you with my own eyes” to Luke before dying.

‘ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY’ (2016)

LUCASFILM

Darth Vader. deal mostly because of all the great moments. Luke looking out over the horizon of Tatooine and knowing his destiny lies beyond. Han explaining that hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster. Leia being brave as she faces the destruction of her planet. We don’t need to know much about their history to quickly fall in love.

3 Director J.J. Abrams gets danger‘THE FORCE AWAKENS’ (2015)

ously close to recycling old material, but instead he uses those

familiar motifs to set the stage for an exciting third trilogy and crafts arguably the best ﬁnal shot ever in a Star Wars ﬁlm.

4 What makes this movie so special ‘RETURN OF THE JEDI’ (1983)

are all the satisfying conclusions. Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) says goodbye to Yoda in a touching moment; and Leia (Carrie Fisher) ﬁnding out about her sibling connection to Luke is emotional but not cloying. Check yourself for a pulse if you’re not getting chills when Vader says

the best one. Anakin ﬁnally has his full turn to the Dark Side, though it’s a little whiplash-y how quickly he goes from broody, anti-authoritarian kid to childkilling, baddest man in the galaxy.

For its maiden standalone voyage, Star Wars brass blended the old (the Rebel Alliance freaking out about the construction of the Empire’s mighty Death Star) with something new (a war movie digging into the battleﬁelds on land and in space with insurgents rising up against “the Man”). The results are a mixed bag: Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) heads up armed misﬁts to steal the Death Star plans, though a snarky droid ends up being the best character in the bunch. (For the record, K-2SO is way cooler than C-3PO.)

7 There are so many sleek special

6 It’s no coincidence that the pre-

rap and, well, they kind of deserve it. What basically is a two-hour trailer for the rest of Anakin Skywalker’s story is kind of a mess — he was immaculately conceived? And as for Jar Jar Binks … yeah.

‘REVENGE OF THE SITH’ (2005)

quel that’s closest to the original trilogy in tone, story and theme is

‘ATTACK OF THE CLONES’ (2002)

effects that you miss the spitand-gum ﬁlmmaking of Lucas’ originals. Also, Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman have zero chemistry as lovers Anakin and Padmé. All that said, Clones isn’t a bad ﬁlm and it’s pretty good whenever Ewan McGregor’s ObiWan Kenobi is around.

8 George Lucas’ prequels get a bad ‘THE PHANTOM MENACE’ (1999)

USA TODAY MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2016

QUOTE OF THE DAY I MISSED IT, AND I WAS REAL UPSET. ... THIS YEAR, I’M GOING TO TRY AND GET OUT THERE WITH THEM AND TRY TO HELP WIN ANOTHER GAME AND KEEP GOING FORWARD.” Defensive end Jadeveon Clowney, after the Texans clinched the AFC South, ensuring his first playoff appearance. He missed last year’s game with a foot injury.

KEVIN JAIRAJ, USA TODAY SPORTS

SPORTSLINE FIRST WORD Wishing everyone a joyous holiday season filled with peace & cheer in the New Year!” Wizards guard John Wall, extending his holiday wishes to all in a tweet. TWEET OF THE DAY @AdamSchefter Here’s how unique Derek Carr injury is: Since playoffs began in 1933, no QB with 12+ regular-season W’s has failed to start postseason game. ESPN’s Adam Schefter, on Raiders quarterback Derek Carr, who suffered a broken leg in the AFC West leaders’ win Saturday.

BRIAN SPURLOCK, USA TODAY SPORTS

LeBron James celebrates a dunk with Kyrie Irving during the Finals rematch Sunday. Irving’s late jumper sealed the Cavs’ win. CARR (4) BY KELLEY L. COX, USA TODAY SPORTS

NUMBER OF THE DAY

$300,000

Approximate value of the custom-engraved, personalized bottles of Louis XIII cognac that defensive end Olivier Vernon gifted to his Giants teammates, coaching staff and other organization members, as reported by, among others, ESPN’s Darren Rovell and NJ.com’s Dan Duggan.

JAMES AND IRVING SAVE CHRISTMAS IN CLEVELAND AJ Neuharth-Keusch @tweetAJNK USA TODAY Sports

One hundred eighty-nine days had passed since the Cleveland Cavaliers completed the most historic comeback in NBA Finals history, climbing out of a 3-1 hole to knock off the defending champion Golden State Warriors in dramatic fashion. At Quicken Loans Arena on Christmas Day, LeBron James and Kyrie Irving picked up right where they left off. Forget the fact the Cavaliers were without starting shooting guard J.R. Smith, who is expected

CLEVELAND

VERNON BY JEFF HANISCH, USA TODAY SPORTS

ALMOST LAST WORD Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! So grateful to wake up to my family! So happy I get to do what I love on this holiday!!! #iLoveThisGame Cavaliers guard Iman Shumpert, tweeting about how his Dec. 25 started and would unfold hours later in a home game against the Warriors.

to miss the next 12 to 14 weeks with a thumb injury. And forget the fact that the Warriors’ newest addition, Kevin Durant, put on an MVP-type performance, finishing the game with 36 points and 15 rebounds. James and Irving weren’t going to let the Warriors steal Christmas in Cleveland. Irving, who caught fire in the fourth quarter after struggling offensively for the majority of the game, hit the eventual winning jumper over Klay Thompson with 3.4 seconds left — a brutal reminder to Dub Nation of the lastminute, go-ahead three he hit in Game 7. Irving had 25 points, 10 assists and seven steals, and James finished with 31 points and 13 re-

bounds, helping the Cavs overcome a 14-point fourth-quarter deﬁcit for a 109-108 victory in a heavyweight bout that lived up to all 189 days of hype. “He’s just a killer on the court,” Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue said of Irving after the game. “We put the ball in his hands at the end of the game to go one-on-one against Klay, who’s a great defender.” “The kid is special,” James said. “It was never in doubt.” Though this was a statement victory that marked the Cavs’ fourth consecutive win against the Warriors, there was no sense of satisfaction after the game, nor was there talk of a Finals rematch.

Cowboys’ Elliott out in front for MVP Tom Pelissero

LAST WORD “IT’S BEEN UP AND DOWN ALL YEAR AND THERE WERE A LOT OF TIMES THESE KIDS COULD HAVE QUIT AND THEY STUCK TOGETHER, NOT ONLY FOR THE SENIORS, BUT FOR THE FANS AND THE SUPPORTERS OF WARRIOR FOOTBALL.” Hawaii coach Nick Rolovich, after the Rainbow Warriors blew out Middle Tennessee to win the Hawaii Bowl, their first postseason victory since 2006, and finish the season 7-7. Edited by Joe Rayos

USA SNAPSHOTS©

Always on court Cavaliers center Tristan Thompson will play his

400th consecutive game Monday night, the longest active streak in the NBA.

SOURCE NBA ELLEN J. HORROW AND JANET LOEHRKE, USA TODAY

“It’s Dec. 25th,” Irving said. “We’ve got a ways before we even start considering the carryover or anything else like that. It’s just a Christmas Day game, another classic with a great team. It’s exciting. It’s just all respect when we go out there and play. Just high-level players making highlevel plays.” “The competition is what you live for,” James said. “It’s always fun when you get an opportunity to play on Christmas, and it’s even that much more fun to be home. It lived up to what everybody wanted it to.” The teams won’t have to wait quite as long to see each other again, as they’re set to face off Jan. 16 in Oakland.

tpelissero@usatoday.com USA TODAY Sports

If the national panel that selects the NFL’s recognized MVP award is seeing this season the same way as the league’s top evaluators, the vote is going to be divided — and could potentially produce a rare rookie winner. Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott was the MVP pick last week in a USA TODAY Sports poll of high-ranking executives representing 12 NFL teams who discussed their votes on the condition of anonymity because they’re not allowed to comment publicly about other teams’ players. In the USA TODAY Sports poll taken before Week 16 started, Elliott received ﬁve votes. New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady received three, Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan two and Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr one. The other vote was split among Brady, Carr and Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. That’s not overwhelming support for Elliott. Those making the case against him point out he’s running behind the NFL’s best offensive line, is surrounded by passing game weapons who can give him favorable matchups and

STEW MILNE, USA TODAY SPORTS

Despite missing four games, Tom Brady has put up MVP numbers, including 22 touchdown passes and two interceptions. arguably isn’t even the most impressive rookie on his team, with quarterback Dak Prescott playing a more challenging position at a high level. But those who back Elliott make a strong case, too. His 1,551 rushing yards are 327 more than the next closest player. Nobody has more runs of 20-plus yards (13). He’s averaging 5 yards per carry, has scored 14 total touchdowns and is the driving force behind the Cowboys’ turnaround from 4-12 last season to 12-2, in line for the No. 1 seed with two games to play. “He’s changed their team,” one NFL general manager told USA TODAY Sports. “They’ve had that offensive line for a couple years now. He’s come in there and

dominated games. He’s running over people and smashing people. He’s a dominant force.” Fifty media members (I’m one of them) will vote by Jan. 4 for awards given out by the Associated Press, which began awarding the MVP in 1961 and has never given it to a rookie. (Cleveland Browns fullback Jim Brown did win what was then called NFL Player of the Year in his rookie year in 1957.) There’s still time for things to change. Brady, a two-time MVP, has been playing catch-up since his four-game Deﬂategate suspension expired. He has made the most of it, passing for 3,278 yards and 25 TDs with two interceptions as the Patriots have won 10 of 11 games to wrap up a record

eighth consecutive AFC East title. “His numbers, touchdown-topick ratio — who does that? If you’re talking about the ‘most valuable player,’ he’s it,” said a GM who voted for Brady. “Ezekiel will get his at some point, but you’ve got three all-pros blocking for you, you’ve got a quarterback that’s (playing well) — that makes it easy living as a back.” One hole many poke in Brady’s case is that the Patriots went 3-1 without him. But he keeps winning with less around him on offense than Elliott — a task that got tougher when all-pro tight end Rob Gronkowski had seasonending surgery a few weeks ago. Ryan is having by far his best season (34 TD passes, seven interceptions, 115.5 passer rating). Rodgers, another two-time MVP, has been spectacular in the Packers’ ﬁve-game winning streak, which has given them a shot to rally from a 4-6 start for the NFC North title. There’s really no wrong choice. But considering it’s been almost six decades since a rookie was voted the NFL’s top player and a running back has won MVP just once (Adrian Peterson in 2012) since Shaun Alexander and LaDainian Tomlinson went-backto-back in 2005 and ’06, perhaps the most notable aspect of this race is so many keen eyes think Elliott is the right choice. FOLLOW NFL REPORTER TOM PELISSERO

@TomPelissero for breaking news, insight and analysis.

USA TODAY MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2016

10T

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

GIVEN TIME, HUSKIES COULD UPSET Washington’s Petersen master of preparation Dan Wolken @danwolken USA TODAY Sports

Between the road game environment they’ll face at the Georgia Dome, the questions about their schedule and the overall dominance of the team they’re facing, there are plenty of reasons to dismiss the Washington Huskies’ chances of upsetting top-ranked Alabama in the College Football Playoff semifinals. They’re new on the national scene, a team that has been completely remade in three short years and delivered a Pac-12 title ahead of schedule. But as good as No. 4 Washington has been this season, it is a decided and deserved underdog, the kind of program that made a quick leap from 7-6 to 12-1 and might need to take one or two swings at this Playoff deal before being able to fight in Alabama’s weight class. But Washington seemingly has one factor in its favor. Starting with his very first team at Boise State, which upset Oklahoma in a legendary Fiesta Bowl, head coach Chris Petersen’s reputation for getting teams to peak after a long layoff has reached almost mythical proportions. Besides the Oklahoma win, Boise State under Petersen beat TCU in the 2010 Fiesta Bowl as 71⁄2-point underdogs and scored season-opening victories against three ranked teams in Oregon, Virginia Tech and Georgia. Though Boise State’s success against those teams wasn’t much of a surprise after a while, it was a program that relished playing the name-brand programs and beating them regularly when Petersen had multiple weeks to prepare. “He’s just really good — three days, two days, one day, six months — I think he’s just really good,” said Washington receivers coach Bush Hamdan, who was a backup quarterback at Boise SEATTLE

JENNIFER BUCHANAN, USA TODAY SPORTS

Washington coach Chris Petersen and quarterback Jake Browning went 12-1 this season. State for the Oklahoma upset. “We felt we belonged in the big game, and we were just ecstatic to get an opportunity to showcase who we were on a national stage.” Spend a few days around the Huskies, and that rallying cry sounds familiar, particularly in this situation against college football’s gold-standard program. Washington players and coaches readily admit they have never faced anything like what they will see in Atlanta. But they also believe they belong in this game and will do what is necessary to give themselves a chance. “It’s not so much about Alabama,” receiver John Ross said. “It’s about who we are and how well we prepare and the things we’ve been doing because we’ve created something special this whole season.” Much of that focus goes back to Petersen, whose reputation for being taciturn and evasive in public comments around big games plays into the narrative that

“Coach Pete is a very disciplined, detailed coach. So now when you have more time to be detailed and prepared, that’s probably right in his wheelhouse.” Huskies co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach Jimmy Lake

there’s something mysterious behind the curtain. More than likely, that’s just what Petersen wants his opponents to think. Maybe the special sauce is simply an ampliﬁcation of what his staff does anyway: grinding through tape, ﬁne-tuning game plans, working on fundamentals. “It comes back to our preparation, and everybody knows Coach Pete is a very disciplined, detailed coach,” co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach Jimmy Lake said. “So now when you

have more time to be detailed and prepared, that’s probably right in his wheelhouse.” But the idea that Washington will come out against Alabama with a totally different offense and a bag full of gadget plays? That seems unlikely; in fact, Petersen’s reputation for trickery is somewhat overwrought. There’s no doubt the Oklahoma game is largely remembered for three creative plays that helped Boise State win: a hookand-lateral that tied the score on fourth-and-18 with 18 seconds

left, a halfback pass for a touchdown in overtime and a Statue of Liberty for the winning two-point conversion. Thus, Petersen’s renown for always having something up his sleeve was born and became part of every subsequent opponent’s scouting report. “I don’t think we’ve run that many this year compared to some other years, but they get all the attention,” offensive coordinator Jonathan Smith said. “When they work, they’re great; when they don’t, people feel like we’re wasting time. It’s part of our package, but we run regular plays way more than trick plays.” And Washington is adamant that its success against Alabama largely will be based on the same sort of balanced approach that worked so well the entire season. “We’ll probably have some tweaks here and there like we do every other week,” quarterback Jake Browning said. “But you can’t let a good team get you out of your rhythm that got you there.” For Petersen, there are undeniable advantages to having nearly a month to prepare. “You don’t have to rush to make decisions like you would normally on a game week where you have a day and a half to say, ‘OK, this is what we’re doing and we’re going with it,’ ” Lake said. “Now you can sit back and go, ‘You know what, let’s really think about this.’ ” For Washington’s staff, which has largely been together since Boise State, the approach has stood the test of time. Petersen is 6-3 in bowls and 9-3 in season openers. Washington might not have the same amount of elite talent or physical size as Alabama, but its preparation will be second to none, which is enough to engender hope around here that the Peach Bowl can indeed be won in the face of signiﬁcant odds, the kind of odds this staff has faced — and beaten — before. “I think Coach Pete always has a good plan,” Smith said. “We do have a little more time to prepare, but so do they. I don’t know the exact science on why we’ve had some success (off long layoffs), but it’s been working.”

Boise State fans still cheering for Petersen Washington coach’s legacy lives on in Idaho Dan Wolken @danwolken USA TODAY Sports BOISE A few minutes before noon on a quiet December day, a group of schoolchildren walked through the Allen Noble Hall of Fame, bypassing trophy cases and grainy pictures to see what most of them really came to see. The day before, it was someone from Thailand who had come to visit Boise State football’s famous blue turf, which was notable because it was the 37th country represented since retirees Don Moe and Dave Croft persuaded the school in May to allow them to give tours Monday through Friday. “A lot of people have it on their bucket list,” Moe said. It’s absurd, in a sense, that people would make a point to visit Idaho or go out of their way just to see a football field; not Alabama’s or Notre Dame’s, mind you, but the field belonging to a program that has never won or even played for a national championship and became part of the national conversation only a decade ago. It underscores, however, what a dramatic impact Chris Petersen had during his 13 years at Boise State, the last eight of which he was head coach and led the program to 92 wins and four top-10 finishes before going to Washington, finally saying yes to a Power Five job after years of saying no. The consequences of that deci-

sion have been profound on both programs. Petersen took his philosophy, much of his Boise State staff and a few recruits and transformed the Huskies, getting them into the College Football Playoff in his third season. They will play Alabama on Dec. 31 in the Peach Bowl as heavy underdogs in a scenario reminiscent of the Jan. 1, 2007, Fiesta Bowl, where Petersen’s team stunned Oklahoma and became college football’s perpetual Cinderella. Boise State, meanwhile, has settled back into the kind of program it was before Petersen: consistently good but without realistic aspirations of achieving much more than a Mountain West Conference title (which, for the record, it failed to do the last two years). “I’m accustomed to Coach Pete and his style, so it’s harder for me to adapt, I guess,” said Torry McAlvain, the president of a construction company and Boise State booster who remains part of Petersen’s small circle of personal friends. “It’s different. That’s all I can say. It’s different.” But even while the fortunes of the two programs have gone in opposite directions since Petersen’s move, there is no lingering bitterness here three years later. While Boise State football remains almost the sole focus of the local sports community, there has been at least a passing interest in Washington’s rise. And when the Huskies play Alabama, there’s no doubt who the majority of Boise State fans will be rooting for. “People would love for Coach Pete to win a national championship,” said Travis Hawkes, a local businessman who fortuitously opened a Boise State merchandise store a few months before the 2006 season. “It’s good for

Boise State that he’s been so successful. I think it indicates how good Boise State really was. This shows it wasn’t just getting up for one game or a ﬂuke or because of the schedule. This indicates Boise State was the real deal. The talent was the real deal. The system was the real deal, and he can replicate that with success at Washington.” While that logic makes perfect sense in a vacuum, it’s rare in the ecosystem of college sports, where fan behavior is largely tied into the facade that their school is a utopia that no player or coach would aspire to leave behind. And often it’s hard to blame them. Though some Boise State fans were initially upset that Petersen didn’t coach the Hawaii Bowl after taking the Washington job and that a handful of Boise State recruits switched to the Huskies, it has largely become a non-issue. In fact, when Washington played at Boise State to open the 2015 season in a game scheduled years before Petersen’s departure, fans cheered him during pregame introductions. “I suppose there could be somebody still mad, but I don’t know them and I don’t want to know them,” said Milford Terrell, a former Idaho State Board of Education member and Boise State booster, who claims to have been the ﬁrst to give Petersen the Coach Pete moniker the day he was elevated from offensive coordinator to head coach. From the moment he won the Fiesta Bowl to complete a 13-0 debut season, Petersen had suitors across the country. He rebuffed each of them to stay at Boise. From Southern California to Mississippi State to Stanford, there was constant speculation that he would follow Houston Nutt (Arkansas), Dirk Koetter

KIRBY LEE, USA TODAY SPORTS

Chris Petersen’s 92-12 record at Boise State has left him with favored status among school supporters, even three years after leaving for Washington. (Arizona State) and Dan Hawkins (Colorado) to power conference jobs. But each time he said no. As Boise State became more successful, Petersen erected walls — literally and ﬁguratively — to put distance between himself and the public. The indoor practice facility built in 2006 had locks on its doors, ending the days of longtime ticketholders such as Moe dropping by to bring coffee and shoot the breeze with assistants. Many schools contractually have their coach do a weekly radio show from a local restaurant as part of a marketing deal; Petersen did his from a private studio on campus. He also ended the weekly tradition of a Monday luncheon at which groups of Boise State supporters could hear him and ask questions. Instead, Petersen formed a group called the Coaches Club; he would appear at a handful of events and grant access to some practices for a $5,000 donation a year. “He looked at things like, ‘How does that make us better?’ ” Hawkes said. “Having a coach’s

show at a sports bar doesn’t, but showing up to the Coaches Club six times a year got him $500,000 he could give to his assistants.” Hawkes, a life-long Boise resident and graduate of the university, understands that the run Petersen guided will probably never be matched. Like everyone else, he felt the immediate depression that hovered over the community for a time after he was gone and wishes the magic carpet ride had continued forever. But he also understands how much Petersen gave the program and raised the entire school’s proﬁle, all the while turning down so many lucrative offers to coach elsewhere rather than jumping at the ﬁrst opportunity to leave. “He was nothing but an outstanding coach, gentleman and citizen,” McAlvain said. “There’s no hard feelings because he left. They feel like they’re a part of him because he was here so long, and they’re excited for him now. In the coaching industry there’s always something better. I knew eventually, one day, there was no way we could keep him in Boise, Idaho. He had too much talent.”

USA TODAY MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2016

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WEATHER

WEATHER ONLINE USATODAY.COM Below 10

MONDAY’S FORECAST

10s

20s

30s

40s

50s

60s

70s

80s

90s

100s

110+

TUESDAY’S FORECAST RUSSIA FINLAND SWEDEN

NORWAY Reykjavik 41/37sn ICELAND

Oslo 38/33pc

Bergen 44/36r Aberdeen 43/39sh SCOTLAND

Gothenburg 41/36sn

KAZAKHSTAN

Helsinki 42/28sn Stockholm 44/31w

St. Petersburg 42/31sn

ESTONIA

RUSSIA

LATVIA Riga Edinburgh 46/34sn 44/39pc NORTHERN Newcastle IRELAND DENMARK Copenhagen LITHUANIA Belfast 44/36sh Galway 47/39w Minsk 45/34pc 48/39c 40/32sn Manchester IRELAND 45/33s Dublin Hamburg Shannon 50/41sh 47/36c 45/35pc Birmingham Amsterdam BELARUS Warsaw 47/31s GERMANY Berlin 49/42w 48/34sh WALES ENGLAND 50/38sh NETH. POLAND Brussels Bonn London 52/35sh 53/38sh 49/31s Krakow Prague 45/33c BELGIUM 47/34c UKRAINE

Santiago de Compostela 56/38pc

PORTUGAL

Madrid 58/36pc

Lisbon 59/42pc Seville 63/43pc

Faro 63/50pc

LUX.

CZECH REP. Bratislava SLOVAKIA Paris 49/35pc 53/31c Vienna HUNGARY 44/28c 50/36pc EUROPE Salzburg Budapest 50/32c AUSTRIA SWITZERLAND ROMANIA 48/34s Venice SLOVENIA Bordeaux 50/36pc 57/43pc CROATIA Lyon Milan SERBIA 47/34pc 51/35pc FRANCE Florence Belgrade Marseille BOSNIA 44/35pc 56/37s Sofia 60/39s 41/33pc ITALY MONT. Ajaccio KOSOVO BULGARIA Dubrovnik Rome Skopje 64/47s 62/50s 60/40s 44/32s Tirana MACEDONIA SPAIN Barcelona 61/35s 60/44s Naples ALBANIA 63/43s Cagliari Valencia GREECE Palma 62/44s 65/45s 66/51s Le Havre 51/36c

Algiers 66/44s

UZBEK.

KYRGYZ.

TAJIK. TURKMEN. Kabul 66/33s

Vladivostok 9/-1s N. KOREA Pyongyang 25/4pc S. KOREA JAPAN Seoul 33/17pc Tokyo Osaka 62/41r 60/36r Shanghai 44/35c

MONGOLIA Urumqi 21/12s

ASIA

Beijing 34/12s

CHINA

Xian 41/19s

AFGHANISTAN IRAN

Islamabad Lhasa 73/42pc Kathmandu 46/18pc 66/39s PAKISTAN New Delhi NEPAL Dhaka 72/47h 81/57h Karachi Kolkata 85/57s BURMA 79/59h Mumbai 91/71h

INDIA

Frankfurt 53/36sh Munich Zurich 47/30c

Changsha 51/35s

Taipei Guangzhou 66/58sh Hanoi 66/49s TAIWAN 65/54pc Hong Kong LAOS 68/55w Rangoon Da Nang Manila 93/70s THAILAND 76/67r 90/77pc VIETNAM Bangkok CAMBODIA 93/69s Phnom Penh Ho Chi Minh City 89/71pc 89/72pc PHILIPPINES

SRI LANKA MALDIVES

Hagatna 88/79pc

GUAM

MALAYSIA Singapore Balikpapan 84/75t 90/77pc PAPUA NEW GUINEA

INDONESIA

Jakarta 88/77t

Port Moresby 88/77t Cairns 88/75pc

Broome 88/82t

MAURITIUS

Alice Springs 86/73t Brisbane 81/70pc

AUSTRALIA Perth 72/54pc

Sydney 83/71s

Athens 56/43s

Palermo 63/51s

Rabat

Almaty 39/24sn

Ulan Bator 3/-24c

Tunis 64/51pc

Melbourne 85/75c

Canberra 88/64pc

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