March 24, 2019 Cincinnati Enquirer by mwert

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SUNDAY CE-GCI0132538-01

The Junkie’s Guide to the 2019 Major League Baseball season SUBSCRIBER-ONLY PREMIUM SECTION, 1G

11 SECTIONS FULL OF NEWS, SPORTS AND OPINION

OHIO

The Enquirer spent a year investigating sex-traﬃ cking in a small southern Ohio city SPECIAL REPORT, SECTION H

A sunrise silhouettes the U.S. Grant Bridge, which crosses the Ohio River and connects Portsmouth, Ohio, to northeastern Kentucky. Several women and a federal affidavit describe a local defense attorney running a sex trafficking operation out of Portsmouth. LIZ DUFOUR/THE ENQUIRER

Local

Sunday $3.00 Barr reviewing Mueller report before anything is released to the public. 1B

Politics Extra: He lost race for Congress, still had big impact. 5A

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2A ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

Weather

Find interactive radar, storm warnings, live storm chaser video, school closings and global weather searchable by city or ZIP code at Cincinnati.com/weather.

Good morning! Clouds continue to increase this morning in advance of two weather features that promise rain later today, tonight and into Monday. The first feature, an upper low to the west, will kick off rain this afternoon as it drifts eastward from the central Plains. Despite the scattered showers, expect afternoon high temperatures in the upper 50s. The second feature, a cold front, will move over the area tonight into Monday morning with some more persistent rainfall. Low temperatures Monday morning will only fall into the mid-40s, while afternoon highs will be limited to the upper 40s. High pressure and sunshine return Tuesday through Thursday, with high temperatures climbing into the mid-60s for Opening Day. – Jeff Creighton

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS The Enquirer is committed to accuracy and will correct all errors of substance. To reach us, contact reader representative Robin Buchanan at 513-768-8308 or email her at accuracy@enquirer.com. Please include whether you are responding to content online, in social media or in the newspaper.

LOTTERIES OHIO

THE NATION

U.S. FORECAST

w- weather: s- sunny, pc- partly cloudy, sh- showers, t- thunderstorms, r- rain, sf- snow flurries, sn- snow, i- ice. TODAY HI LO W

MON HI LO W

CITY

TODAY HI LO W

MON HI LO W

Akron Albany, N.Y. Albuquerque Amarillo Anchorage Asheville Atlanta Atlantic City Austin Baltimore Baton Rouge Birmingham Bismarck Boise Boston Buffalo Burlington, Vt. Charleston, S.C. Charleston, W.Va. Charlotte, N.C. Cheyenne Chicago Cleveland Columbia, S.C. Columbus Concord, N.H. Dallas-Ft. Worth Daytona Beach Denver Des Moines Detroit El Paso Evansville Fairbanks Fort Lauderdale Fort Myers Fort Wayne Grand Rapids Great Falls Hartford Honolulu Houston Indianapolis Jackson, Miss. Jacksonville Kansas City Key West Knoxville Las Vegas

56 52 66 68 43 66 74 59 82 63 78 75 35 56 58 45 44 73 68 71 49 48 54 75 56 53 81 78 55 53 52 77 60 48 80 82 50 50 40 58 84 80 51 76 78 58 80 70 73

44 42 68 62 42 63 69 54 76 56 78 69 40 63 46 35 34 77 53 68 53 40 38 74 46 41 70 80 60 47 42 79 52 43 82 84 45 42 53 49 83 80 47 71 82 53 82 63 78

Lexington Little Rock Los Angeles Louisville Madison Memphis Miami Milwaukee Minneapolis Mobile Naples Nashville New Orleans New York City Norfolk, Va. Oklahoma City Omaha Orlando Philadelphia Phoenix Pittsburgh Portland, Maine Portland, Ore. Providence Raleigh Reno Richmond Sacramento St. Louis Salt Lake City San Antonio San Diego San Francisco San Jose Santa Fe St. Ste. Marie Seattle Sioux Falls South Bend Springfield, Ill. Syracuse Tampa Toledo Traverse City Tucson Tulsa Washington, D.C. Wichita Wilmington, N.C.

63 71 70 61 50 68 80 47 48 76 81 68 77 58 66 69 53 81 60 80 57 50 62 56 69 57 67 64 65 53 82 66 62 67 62 34 60 52 49 59 48 81 51 44 78 71 65 65 68

53 64 73 54 43 62 82 38 45 79 80 63 79 51 65 62 49 83 53 85 47 40 56 49 67 60 65 60 51 63 79 68 60 62 64 30 59 48 43 48 35 80 43 36 86 62 57 58 74

22 pc 22 pc 43 s 41 s 30 s 44 t 50 t 27 r 50 sh 29 r 50 t 47 t 30 c 40 c 28 pc 23 pc 13 s 53 pc 28 r 45 t 31 pc 27 s 25 pc 49 c 24 r 17 pc 48 s 58 s 35 s 30 pc 24 s 55 s 29 pc 31 c 68 pc 63 s 25 pc 21 s 32 pc 24 pc 69 pc 56 pc 27 pc 45 t 56 pc 35 pc 72 s 44 sh 55 s

49 pc 50 c 51 s 50 c 21 r 53 c 70 pc 29 r 21 c 54 s 64 s 52 c 59 pc 43 pc 52 pc 44 pc 35 r 60 pc 44 pc 56 s 38 pc 29 pc 44 pc 38 pc 52 pc 39 pc 52 pc 49 pc 41 t 37 r 64 pc 54 s 50 pc 49 pc 31 pc 9 sf 45 pc 29 c 27 sh 35 r 22 pc 64 s 29 sh 20 sf 50 s 45 t 51 pc 44 s 53 s

26 c 42 pc 51 s 30 sh 22 s 43 pc 67 pc 27 s 28 s 52 pc 64 s 37 sh 56 pc 31 c 42 t 42 s 36 pc 61 pc 32 r 58 s 22 r 19 pc 41 r 26 pc 43 t 42 c 36 t 47 r 30 pc 46 pc 57 sh 54 s 48 r 48 r 34 s 11 s 45 r 34 pc 23 s 25 pc 20 pc 65 pc 23 s 21 s 54 s 40 c 35 r 39 pc 48 c

IN THE SKY Today

LAST Mar. 27

NEW Apr. 5

FIRST Apr. 12

FULL Apr. 19

Sunrise Sunset Moonrise Moonset

312 Elm St., Cincinnati, OH 45202 2116 Chamber Center Drive, Fort Mitchell, KY 41017 EDDIE TYNER: President & Publisher, etyner@enquirer.com BERYL LOVE: Editor & Vice President, blove@enquirer.com CUSTOMER SERVICE (800) 876-4500 M-F: 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday: Closed; Sunday: 7:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. cincinnatienquirer@gannett.com Manage your subscription at Cincinnati.com/account. To view important information online related to your subscription, please visit aboutyoursubscription.cincinnati.com.

(Drawings: March 22) Pick 3 (late): 0 3 9 Pick 4 (late): 7 0 0 3 Pick 5 (late): 5 5 0 4 7 Rolling Cash 5: 14 15 18 33 37 Classic Lotto: Saturday’s jackpot was an estimated $12 million.

Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day

CITY

32 pc 32 pc 41 pc 39 s 35 s 47 pc 56 pc 43 pc 61 pc 44 pc 57 pc 55 pc 22 c 36 sn 40 pc 24 pc 18 s 56 s 47 pc 52 pc 31 c 29 r 31 sh 53 pc 37 sh 28 pc 55 pc 58 pc 33 c 32 r 27 sh 48 s 47 t 29 c 70 pc 62 s 32 c 23 c 28 c 39 pc 70 s 64 c 38 c 56 pc 55 pc 42 c 73 s 53 pc 54 s

(Drawings: March 23) Pick 3 (early): 3 6 6 Pick 4 (early): 8 0 5 4 Pick 5 (early): 8 6 4 5 1

Tomorrow

7:36 a.m. 7:34 a.m. 7:53 p.m. 7:54 p.m. none 12:15 a.m. 10:04 a.m. 10:42 a.m.

110s 100s 90s 80s 70s 60s 50s 40s 30s 20s 10s 0s -0s -10s

KENTUCKY

(Drawings: March 23) Pick 3 (early): 2 3 3 Pick 4 (early): 7 5 8 8 (Drawings: March 22) Pick 3 (late): 2 0 7 Pick 4 (late): 1 0 6 7 Cash Ball: 3 4 29 34, 17

INDIANA Cold

Warm

Stationary Showers T-storms

RIVER LEVELS RIVER

Snow

Ice

Levels as of 7 a.m. Saturday. Sunday’s forecast is for 7 a.m. Pool levels reflect the normal river level. Previous level

25.4 12.0 33.5 12.0 12.0

29.40 21.40 34.50 20.10 20.50

Pool Level

Previous level

Flood Stage

5.50 6.40 7.70 4.70

28 17 18 20

Licking (Falmouth) Little Miami (Milford) Great Miami (Hamilton) Whitewater (Brookville)

12.0 12.0 12.0 12.0

ALMANAC

Rising

From Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport through 5 p.m. yest.

TEMPERATURE High/low ........................... 55/27 Normal high/low ............... 56/36 Record high ................. 84 (1907) Record low .................. 11 (1885) HUMIDITY High .................................... 78% Low ..................................... 26% PRECIPITATION Last 24 hours ...................... 0.00” Month to date .................... 2.85” Normal month to date ........ 2.83” Year to date ...................... 14.19” Normal year to date ........... 8.64”

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Flurries

Pool Level

Cincinnati Markland Dam Maysville Meldahl Dam Portsmouth

OTHER RIVERS

Rain

Flood Stage

52.0 51.0 50.0 51.0 55.0

Falling

Forecast

28.60 19.90 34.00 18.60 18.90 Forecast

5.40 6.30 7.10 4.60 Unchanged

AIR QUALITY Pollution..........................36/Good Main pollutant .....................Ozone Mold................................ 241/Low Pollen .......................58/Moderate Main pollen ......cedar, juniper, elm Source: Hamilton County Department of Environmental Services

EXTREMES Saturday for the 48 contiguous states.

ADVERTISE Retail Advertising: 513-768-8404 Classified Advertising: 513-768-8400 Paid Death Notices: 513-768-8400 To learn more about advertising options, go to EnquirerMedia.comTo place classified advertising online, go to Cincinnati.com/classifieds. For The Cincinnati Enquirer: The publisher reserves the right to change subscription rates during the term of the subscription upon ten days notice. The Cincinnati Enquirer (USPS 113-200) 312 Elm St., Cincinnati, OH 45202, is published daily and Sunday. Periodicals postage paid in Cincinnati, Ohio and additional mailing offices. For The Kentucky Enquirer: The publisher reserves the right to change subscription rates during the term of the subscription upon ten days notice. The Kentucky Enquirer (USPS 24511) 2116 Chamber Center Drive, Fort Mitchell, KY 41017, is published daily and Sunday. Periodicals postage paid in Covington, Kentucky and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to The Cincinnati Enquirer, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati OH 45202.

(Drawings: March 23) Daily 3 (early): 5 4 3 (SB: 7) Daily 4 (early): 2 3 5 9 (SB: 7) (Drawings: March 22) Daily 3 (late): 6 9 1 (SB: 8) Daily 4 (late): 9 9 1 1 (SB: 8) Cash 5: 9 17 24 27 35 Hoosier Lotto: Saturday’s jackpot was an estimated $32.3 million.

MEGA MILLIONS

(Drawings: March 22) 7 36 58 60 62 Megaball: 10 Megaplier: 3 Tuesday’s jackpot is an estimated $57 million.

POWERBALL

Saturday’s jackpot was an estimated $625 million.

cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 3A

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cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 5A

COMMENTARY

Aftab Eﬀ ect: Chabot back to in-person meetings Politics Extra Jason Williams Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

For all the self-infl icted mistakes Aftab Pureval made in his congressional race last year, the Democrat did something that’s had a positive impact in the Greater Cincinnati district. His campaign shed light on how out-of-touch Steve Chabot had become with residents in Ohio’s 1st Congressional District, particularly exposing that the Republican had completely stopped doing in-person town hall meetings. It woke up Chabot from his yearslong slumber inside the Washington vacuum. The Westwood Republican has held 10 in-person town hall meetings so far this year – and he’s planning 50 more by the end of 2019. It’s an aggressive schedule that has his staff in a frenzy about budgeting and booking venues across western and northern Hamilton County and Warren County. But Chabot – the rare politician these days who has a thick skin – is hellbent on changing his reputation as being afraid to face tough questions. Call it the Aftab Eff ect. “If your community has a name,

we’re going to be there,” Chabot told The Enquirer last week. “So far, it’s worked very well. I enjoy them.” As The Enquirer’s Scott Wartman reported last month, Chabot has been getting an earful at the meetings about health care and President Donald Trump’s agenda. In 2015, Chabot stopped holding the in-person meetings and switched to telephone town halls. He said he could reach more people for less money that way. Maybe so, but I think it was a cop-out and showed that Chabot had gotten too comfortable after nearly two decades in Congress. Pureval has been laying low since the loss, but Republicans and Democrats should thank him for hammering Chabot about ducking constituents. For his part, Chabot also should be credited for responding and getting back to the basics of his job. And the people are better oﬀ for it. “The ability to sit down with him and directly voice concerns seems like progress for our local democracy,” West Price Hill Democrat Ben Klayer wrote in an Enquirer op-ed.

Microscoops ❚ Bravo to Joe and Judy Zehren and the Cincinnati Parks board for ef-

cording to an email obtained by Politics Extra. Does this signal litigation is on the horizon? This is at least the second city records request that Al Gerhardstein has fi led this year. The prominent civil rights attorney recently told FOX 19 that his fi rm is investigating how Cincinnati police and 911 operators responded to Kyle’s emergency calls. ❚ Things have been mostly quiet regarding who the Democrats might put up to challenge Republican Prosecutor Joe Deters next year. But there are two names circulating in Democratic circles as potential candidates: Ken Parker, an assistant federal prosecutor; and Gabe Davis, senior associate at Frost Brown Todd. Neither have ever run for elected offi ce, but could be strong candidates. Parker is the U.S. attorney’s offi ce criminal division chief in the Southern District of Ohio. He is former president of the Black Lawyers Association of Cincinnati. Davis came to Cincinnati last summer after 31⁄ 2 years as a prosecutor in the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights division. ❚ Politics Extra is taking a week off . Enjoy Opening Day. Listen to Jason’s That’s So Cincinnati podcast on iTunes. Email: jwilliams@enquirer.com.

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6A ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

Butterﬂ y Bandit a year later: ‘I wouldn’t change anything’ Sonia Chopra

Special to Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

Jaime Brynne Revis – better known as “The Butterfl y Bandit” – won’t be going to this year’s Krohn Conservatory butterfl y exhibit. Actually, she can’t. Last year, the visual artist made headlines when she took a blue morpho butterfl y from Krohn’s. After police publicized the theft of the rare butterfl y, the media nicknamed her the “butterfl y bandit.” The Springfi eld Township resident, who prefers to go by her middle name Brynne, said she rescued the butterfl y from being tossed in the garbage. Krohn offi cials asked police to investigate and demanded the immediate and safe return of their blue morpho butterfl y. Police scoured her neighborhood, put up fl yers and fi nally located Revis through her Instagram account. Revis, 37, was arrested and pleaded not guilty. She agreed to six months of probation, a $200 fi ne – and to stay away from Krohn forever. The Finneytown High School graduate said she has spent her life painting, photographing, designing and creating artwork featuring fl owers, butterfl ies and other insects. She said she doesn’t care about being exiled from the exhibit, which starts Saturday. “It doesn’t concern me or make me feel anything. I have no desire to go back,” Revis said. She also said she would not have done a thing diff erently. “If anything, I would have been more outlandish, maybe dressed up and worn butterfl y wings. Other than that, I wouldn’t change anything,” said Revis. “That was the fi rst time I’d collected butterfl ies from Krohn. I usually fi nd them deceased along roadsides.” Revis’ actions will have an impact on Krohn visitors this year: they’ll have to watch a roughly minute-long video on why it’s important not to take butterfl ies, dead or alive. “We take the safety of butterfl ies in our possession very seriously,” Krohn general manager Andrea Schepmann told The Enquirer. The exotic butterfl ies could aff ect local agriculture in unpredictable ways, or if they’re removed they could simply die in the unfamiliar environment. “I know people laughed at the incident,” Schepmann said, “but it wasn’t funny.” Cincinnati Police Department spokesman Lt. Steve Saunders said Krohn hadn’t requested extra police for this year’s exhibit. But he said the video was a good idea. “It’s a logical step to educate people

Detail from art by Jaime Brynne Revis PROVIDED/JAIME BRYNNE REVIS

about not taking out objects or living creatures out of the exhibit. ... A good lesson is that if it doesn’t belong to you, it’s not OK to take out,” he said. “Hopefully,” he added, “she was the one and only butterﬂ y bandit.”

What happened at the conservatory A year ago, Revis went to Krohn on consecutive days. The fi rst day, she said she saw an employee throwing away dead butterfl ies. As she tells it, Revis was distressed and the employee sympathized; she allowed her to take four dead butterfl ies home. On the second day, Revis came back and spotted a dead blue morpho butterfl y about 3 feet from her. She climbed over a stone barrier to pick up the butterfl y when she was spotted by an employee who would not let her take it. Revis tried to leave but the employee tried to physically restrain Revis, who left anyway. Offi cials at Krohn said at the time that they had no knowledge of Revis ever being given butterfl ies prior to

the April 15 incident. Cincinnati Police Detective Robert Wilson, of District 1 investigations, said at the time he was given the impression the butterfl y was alive, and that it was important to recover it as quickly as possible. “I would be very surprised if it was not alive, but I cannot be sure,” he said last year. Revis said the publicity from the incident changed her life. “It’s wild how far-reaching the story was. It seems like everyone heard about it. I’ve never been recognized in public, which I am perfectly content with, but I’ve found myself in situations, where I’m overhearing a conversation and it’s about me,” said Revis. “I was working in Covington as a bartender and I catch the word ‘butterfl y’ ... as I hear a man telling a couple all about how I was an artist and I just wanted to give a butterfl y a second chance and create something with it. I was genuinely impressed with the amount of details he knew.” Revis has always found the “but-

If you go: What: Butterflies of Ecuador Where: Krohn Conservatory, Eden Park When: Through June 16 Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Cost: Adults $10; Youth (5-17) $7; Children (4 and under) free More information: www.cincinnatiparks.com/krohn

terﬂ y bandit” moniker amusing. “It was funny. I wondered if I should wear butterﬂ y wings everywhere,” she said. “Life is all about evolution. What looks like a mistake to others has been a milestone in my life … even if my heart was broken, even if people misunderstood me or judged me, I have learned from these incidents. We are human, we make mistakes, but learning from them is what makes the difference.”

cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 7A

They promised to help save homes; feds call it a scam USA TODAY NETWORK

Two men from Cincinnati and a Hamilton man are among 11 people charged in a nationwide foreclosure relief scam that prosecutors say involved defrauding people who faced losing their homes. A 26-count indictment unsealed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati says the defendants promoted programs that supposedly would reduce or eliminate mortgage debt in exchange for a fee. The programs were fraudulent, U.S. Attorney Benjamin Glassman said in a statement. “The defendants performed virtually no negotiations on behalf of the homeowners and never successfully purchased a mortgage note or provided a new, lowercost mortgage.” Instead, prosecutors say the defen-

Prosecutors say the defendants paid others “in Ponzi-like fashion” and enriched themselves. dants paid others “in Ponzi-like fashion” and enriched themselves. Those charged also include people from Florida, Virginia, New York and New Jersey. More than 50 victims were in the federal district that covers the southern half of Ohio, prosecutors said. The indictment says the defendants claimed they had “proprietary” methods to help homeowners stall or completely avoid foreclosure. In actuality, the indictment says they persuaded homeowners to ﬁ le for Chapter 13 bankruptcy, which amounted to temporary relief until a judge dismissed the case. Prosecutors allege the defendants

were involved in a multilevel marketing scheme that promised commissions to people who recruited homeowners facing foreclosure to one of the companies that would supposedly help them. The companies named in the indictment include: ❚ MVP Home Solutions, also known as Stay In or Walk Away; ❚ Bolden Pinnacle Group Corp., also known as Home Advisory Services Network or Home Advisory Services Group; ❚ Silverstein and Wolf Corp. According to the indictment: The salespeople were encouraged to recruit homeowners to the companies on the promise of easy money. Salespeople used online databases and court records to identify vulnerable, ﬁ nancially distressed homeowners who had recently received foreclosure notices, the indictment says. Some defendants mailed more than 22,000 postcards promising they could “stop foreclosure” or “stop the sheriﬀ sale” for a fee that exceeded the amount advertised, the indictment says. They also reached out to homeowners through Craigslist ads, websites, emails and social media. Initial recruiters would collect payments from homeowners and refer the victims to one of the co-conspirator companies. Among the 11 charged is: Lorin K. Buckner, 62, of Hamilton; Garrett Stevenson, 41, of Cincinnati; and Joel Harvey, 36, of Cincinnati. Stevenson’s attorney, Ty Foster, declined to comment. Buckner’s attorney, Bill Gallagher, could not be reached for comment. Harvey did not yet have an attorney listed in court records. They face charges including conspiracy and multiple counts of mail and wire fraud. Anyone who believes they are a potential victim of this fraud is urged to contact the FBI at CIForeclosure@fbi.gov or 513-421-4310.

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We set out to discover if we’ve actually recovered from the Great Recession Staff Report Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

This all started with one number. Just a few months ago, we learned that Cincinnati’s poverty rate was up almost 28 percent, a number now higher than before the Great Recession of 2007. That percentage meant something else, too: Cincinnati has one of the biggest poverty rate increases among America’s largest cities in that same time period. So even though we, as a country, are 10 years into economic recovery, thousands of Ohioans are being left behind — and still face extreme obstacles in the path toward progress. In January, The Enquirer launched a project to illuminate that path. We chose a road to guide this story, one that stretched 80 miles north to south through the heart of the region, from Middletown to Cincinnati to Falmouth. We have spent the last few months meeting people along this

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Forest Park women accused in Craigslist rental scam Kevin Grasha Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

Two Forest Park women are accused of using Craigslist to lure people into paying rent and/or security deposits for properties the women didn’t own or have authority over. Shaniqua Larkin, 28, and Shemayah Larkin, 25, who court records say live at the same Forest Park apartment complex, face multiple counts of telecommunications fraud and theft in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. Here’s how one victim described what happened: On Christmas Day 2018, the victim met with a woman – who police say was Shaniqua Larkin – to rent an apartment from her for $400

a month. The victim gave the woman $800 for the security deposit and ﬁ rst month’s rent. The woman gave the victim a key for the apartment, which was in Mount Airy. The victim went to the apartment, but the key didn’t work. Earlier this month, court documents in a separate case say Shaniqua Larkin attempted to rent an alreadyoccupied Cheviot home. In the case involving Shemayah Larkin, she is accused of posting a fake rental property on Craigslist in January. The victim responded to the post, an aﬃ davit says, and was told to deposit $600 into Shemayah Larkin’s bank account. Soon after the money was deposited, “all communication stopped.”

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10A ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

A matriarch’s ﬁ ght: Wagner says family innocent in mass murder Her son, his wife and 2 grandsons face charges John Caniglia

(Cleveland) Plain Dealer

PIKETON – Fredericka Wagner spent 40 years teaching Sunday school in the Appalachian foothills, feeding the souls of the region’s children. Her two-story farmhouse on more than 1,600 acres in this tiny, southern Ohio village is a testament to those lessons. The Serenity Prayer hangs from her refrigerator door. A large, well-worn Bible sits on a kitchen countertop. An old blanket in the living room is embroidered with the message: “Our family is fi lled with hope and faith and held together with love and grace.” Today, Wagner’s family is separated. Her son, her daughter-in-law and her two grandsons are in jails in diff erent parts of southern Ohio, awaiting trial for what authorities call one of the most brutal mass murders in Ohio: the execution-style slayings of eight members of the Rhoden family in rural Pike County in April 2016. If convicted, the four face the death penalty. For nearly 50 years, Wagner has been the matriarch of the family, running Flying W Farms, where her family has raised and sold horses, cattle and pigs on a rolling plot that rises over Piketon. Since the arrests, she has struggled to keep the farm solvent. “Nobody wants anything to do with me anymore,” she said, sitting at her kitchen table, where she recently spoke with the Plain Dealer for more than two hours. Her voice rose and fell as she described the fear, anger and bewilderment she has felt since the slayings. She talked about the investigation, her belief in her family’s innocence and the custody issue some authorities suggest is the motive in the murders. “We were terrifi ed; everybody was,” Wagner said. “When I fi rst heard about (the killings) that morning, I thought it was ISIS, or terrorists. I thought it was a terrorist attack.” A grand jury indicted Wagner, 76, in November on charges of obstruction of justice and perjury in connection with the slayings. Authorities accused her of covering up the homicides by lying about a pair of bulletproof vests she bought online. She is free on $100,000 bond, although she wears an electronic ankle bracelet that alerts authorities if she goes more than 350 feet from her home. Rita Newcomb, the mother of Wagner’s daughter-in-law, was charged with perjury, obstruction of justice and forgery. Wagner, Newcomb and Wagner’s

Fredericka Wagner and attorney James Owen go through receipts documenting her purchase of two bulletproof vests online. Authorities accuse her of covering up the homicides by lying about the vests. LYNN ISCHAY/PLAIN DEALER

family have denied the charges in Pike County Common Pleas Court. In initial hearings, attorneys for some of the accused agreed with prosecutors to a gag order, which prevents the attorneys in the case from speaking about it outside of court proceedings. Wagner’s attorneys declined, saying they wanted to present Fredericka’s side, just as then-Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and Pike County Sheriﬀ Charles Reader did when announcing the indictments at a press conference in November. DeWine and Reader said Wagner’s son, George “Billy” Wagner; her daughter-in-law, Angela; and grandsons George and Edward “Jake” carefully planned the attacks for months, studying the Rhodens’ sleeping habits, the layout of their properties and their pets. DeWine called it a massacre, an attack of “heartless, ruthless, coldblooded murder.” The victims were Christopher Rhoden Sr., 40; Dana Rhoden, 37, Christopher Sr.’s former wife; their daughter, Hanna, 19; son Christopher, 16; and son Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 20. Also killed were Christopher Sr.’s brother, Kenneth, 44; their cousin, Gary Rhoden, 38; and Hannah Gilley, 20, who was the ﬁ ancee of Clarence Rhoden. Three children were spared: A days-old girl was found in the arms of her slain mother, Hanna; a 6-monthold boy, the son of Hannah and Clarence, was found sleeping between

their bodies, according to DeWine and published reports. A 3-year-old boy, a second son of Clarence, also was not harmed. Three-year-old Sophia, the daughter of Hanna and Jake Wagner, was not with the Rhodens that night. “They did this quickly, coldly, calmly and carefully, but not carefully enough,” Reader told reporters as he stood with DeWine. Prosecutors have yet to reveal the details of what they believe took place the night of the killings. Fredericka Wagner bristled at the allegations against her family. Wagner speaks with a southern Ohio drawl. She has the empathetic look of a gentle grandmother: She is about 5 feet 4 inches and slender. Her blondish-gray hair is pulled back in a dark hairnet. But her deliberate manner can change in an instant as she ﬁ res oﬀ a steely glare that puts all on notice that she, and she alone, is in charge. Many in this rural community despise her for what her family is accused of doing, she said. A local grocery store refused to take a check with the Wagner name on it, she said.

Search for evidence It’s unclear exactly when the Wagners became suspects or what triggered the authorities’ pursuit of them. The Wagner and Rhoden families had been friends for years. But the investigation eventually led to Fredericka Wagner’s front door.

Thirteen months after the slayings, on May 13, 2017, state agents and sheriff ’s deputies descended on Flying W Farms. Wagner said she heard a helicopter roar overhead. She said offi cers dressed in SWAT uniforms and ski masks burst through the front door of her home and slammed through the gates of her farm, freeing and injuring some of her horses. She estimated 40 vehicles drove the steep slope onto her property and about 100 offi cers rifl ed her home and out-buildings. As offi cers searched her home, Wagner’s daughter, Robin, 54, was on a cellphone in the family’s living room. An offi cer with his gun drawn yelled for Robin to drop the phone and the bottle of water she had in her other hand, Wagner said. Robin didn’t move. “I yelled, ‘Robin, drop it!’ ” Wagner said, recalling the situation and grabbing the sides of her head with her hands and closing her eyes. “That was a horrible, horrible day.” Wagner said offi cers took DNA samples from her and a pillowcase from the bed of her husband, George, who had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and, at the time, was in hospice care in their home. At one point, she said, her husband needed to use the bathroom. An offi cer followed them in. Wagner blanched. “Can he have some dignity?” she Continued on next page

cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 11A

Continued from previous page

recalled asking the offi cers. George Wagner II, an award-winning horseman who built and worked the farm, died three months after the raid. He was 83. During the search, offi cers found a pair of bulletproof vests in a room where Billy had stayed when he worked at his parents’ farm and cared for his father. The vests would become the key pieces of evidence against Fredericka Wagner. On March 15, her attorneys sought to dismiss the charges against her, based on when and from where she bought the vests. Authorities suspected that Wagner’s family members wore the vests the night of the slayings, according to court documents and interviews. Last July, Wagner testifi ed before a Pike County grand jury that had begun hearing evidence in the case. She told the panel that she bought the vests after the shootings, through Amazon. Wagner’s attorneys fi led what prosecutors designated as the key portion of her testimony March 15 in Pike County Common Pleas Court. “You ordered a bulletproof vest through Amazon?” asked Angela Canepa, a prosecutor with the Ohio Attorney General’s offi ce. “Yes, I guess I did. I will give you the records,” Wagner said. “You want it?” “You guess you did or you did it?” Canepa said. “I thought I did,” Wagner said. She later added that she bought both vests for her son, fearing that one would not fi t. She said her daughter wouldn’t wear one. Wagner also said that she herself would not wear one because “I don’t care if they shoot me.” Investigators later searched her Amazon purchases and found no record of the purchases. Because of that, she and her attorney said, she was charged with obstruction and lying to the grand jury. But, said her attorneys, Wagner made a simple mistake. She bought both vests, one for $379.99 and the other for $284.99, through her PayPal account. She bought both from eBay. The PayPal receipts show Wagner made the purchases May 7, 2016, which was 15 days after the slayings. “I made a mistake; I’m nearly 77years-old,” she said of erroneously citing Amazon. Her Columbus attorneys, James Owen and Charles Koenig, said the error should never have led to charges. “It’s like telling people that you paid for your wife’s Christmas present with a MasterCard,” Owen said. “But you made a mistake and really used a Visa. It’s a distinction without a difference.” Canepa told the Plain Dealer that she could not comment on the attorneys’ fi ling. She said that she will fi le a response in the coming days. Pike County Prosecutor Rob Junk could not be reached.

‘Absolutely not’ Wagner said she bought the vests

Fredericka Wagner reacts as she said she did when agents raided her home and farm, pointed a gun at her daughter, Robin. and ordered her to drop the cellphone and bottle of water she was holding. LYNN ISCHAY/PLAIN DEALER

because she feared that her family would be the target of violence, because of Billy’s relationship with Christopher Rhoden Sr. Also, one of Sophia’s parents was a Wagner, the other a Rhoden. “I thought that they were going to kill Billy because he was such good friends with Chris Rhoden,” Wagner said. “I thought they killed Chris because he knew something. “If your son was the best friend (of a victim), and something like this happened to that family, and your grandson was, in my eyes, married to Hanna (Rhoden), you better be scared. They might come after this family, too.” Wagner said she told the grand jury the names of the people she suspected killed the Rhodens. As she spoke with the Plain Dealer, Wagner wouldn’t elaborate. But she repeatedly, and vehemently, stressed the innocence of her family. At one point, she pushed the issue, and said, “Go ahead and ask.” Then she responded to the question of whether her family was involved in the murders by quickly turning and grabbing the Bible and putting her hand on it. “Absolutely not,” Wagner snapped. “None of us was even near that place that night.” As at many points during the interview, Wagner’s attorney, Owen, stopped her from commenting on her family members’ cases. But Wagner said she wonders about the accuracy of the investigation into her family, based on the errors that she said are evident in her case.

viciously executed,” DeWine told reporters in announcing the indictments with the sheriﬀ in November. “The killers knew the territory and meticulously planned these murders.” Seven of the eight victims were shot multiple times. Christopher Rhoden Sr. was shot nine times, authorities said. Reader and DeWine said Wagner’s family – Billy, 47; Angela, 48; and George, 27; Jake, 26 – were responsible for the slayings. DeWine said the four are accused of numerous charges including aggravated murder, conspiracy and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity. “We have absolutely no evidence that anyone else was involved,” DeWine said. “The people who did it are in custody.” As reporters pressed for more details, Reader appeared to become agitated, “We’re a place that doesn’t let cowardly murderers get away with their crimes under the cover of darkness.” Wagner said her family is innocent. She said she believes that cooperating informants provided erroneous information. But if allegations are correct and her family did, in fact, commit the crimes, how would Wagner react? “I wouldn’t stand up for them,” she said resolutely. “I would still love them. But I wouldn’t defend them. I wouldn’t in any way if I thought that. But I don’t believe that. “I believe with all my heart and soul that they didn’t do it.”

‘Killers knew the territory’

When announcing the indictments, DeWine oﬀ ered a motive in the case: The Wagners were ﬁ xated on obtaining the custody of Sophia. DeWine called it “an obsession” for control of the child. Soon after the slayings, Sophia, now about 5, was placed in the custody of her father, Jake. She traveled to Alaska with her father, uncle and grandparents in 2017 when they moved to Kenai, a coastal city southwest of Anchorage. The family told

Wagner said the region became terriﬁ ed after the attacks in the early morning hours of April 22, 2016. The eight members of the Rhoden family were killed at or near their property oﬀ Union Hill Road, which is some 12 miles from Wagner’s Flying W Farms and about 15 miles from her son’s then-home in the small village of Peebles. “(The Rhodens) were brutally and

The custody of a child

The Cincinnati Enquirer they wanted to get away from the speculation and rumors about the murders. They had vacationed in Kenai and enjoyed the hunting and fi shing the area off ered. They returned to southern Ohio months later. Sophia was later placed in the custody of children services. Wagner said that there were no custody battles between her grandson and Hanna. “If they had been fi ghting, I would have known,” she said. “I loved Hanna. She was Sophia’s mother. Everybody was getting along fi ne until this tragedy.” The Rev. Phil Fulton is the pastor of Union Hill Church, a nondenominational congregation a few miles from the Rhodens’ property. Dana Rhoden’s parents attend the church. He said Jake and Hanna were close for years. “He was like one of (the Rhodens’) kids,” Fulton said. The pastor learned after the slayings that the custody issue had surfaced. “(Dana’s) family knew there was tension, but they didn’t think there was a big problem,” Fulton said. “They didn’t think it was that bad.” The attorney who handled the child custody agreement, Bruce Dailey, could not be reached for comment.

‘A mountain mover’ Wagner peppers the conversation with talk about her faith. She said she doesn’t fear her court case, which could go to trial as early as this summer if her attorneys’ attempt to get the charges dismissed fails. “I know a mountain mover,” she said. “God is going to move the mountain.” But she grows quiet when talking about her family. She said she worries about her son, her daughter-in-law and grandsons. “Who wouldn’t be?” she said. It could take more than a year before they go to trial. The four will be tried separately. Each has two, courtappointed attorneys. Because of the publicity surrounding the case, it is likely that defense attorneys will push to move it outside Pike County. Fredericka Wagner could be the ﬁ rst of her family to go to trial. If she is convicted of the obstruction and perjury, she could face as much as four years in prison. She said she is upset that she cannot speak with her family or even write them cards. Pike County Common Pleas Judge Randy Deering, the judge in the cases, ordered that the Wagners are not allowed to communicate with each other while the cases are pending. Wagner said her beliefs will sustain her on the quiet farm that once bustled with activity. The Wagners even have a small chapel on their property that they converted from a barn. It draws about 30 or 40 people each Sunday. As the cases go to trial, her faith, the faith she taught to so many children, might be the only lasting thing she has.

12A ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

Ohio sets heat records twice as often as cold ones, analysis shows Staff Report Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK AND ASSOCIATED PRESS

Over the past 20 years, Ohioans in cities like Bucyrus and Hillsboro and Urbana have been twice as likely to sweat through record-breaking heat than shiver through record-setting cold. The same is true elsewhere in America, a new Associated Press data analysis shows. The AP looked at 424 weather stations throughout the Lower 48 states that had consistent temperature records since 1920 and counted how many times daily hot temperature records were tied or broken and how many daily cold records were set. In a stable climate, the numbers should be roughly equal. Since 1999, the ratio has been two warm records set or broken for every cold one. In 16 of the last 20 years, there have been more daily high temperature records than low. The extremes matter because they “aﬀ ect our lives,” said National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration climate monitoring chief Deke Arndt, adding that they are expensive, with rising energy bills and crop losses. The AP shared the data analysis with several climate and data scientists, who all said the conclusion was correct, consistent with scientiﬁ c peer-reviewed literature and showed a clear sign of human-caused climate change. They pointed out that trends over decades are more robust than over single years. In Ohio from 2010-19, the data showed eight of 13 stations (Bucyrus, Findlay, Greenville, Norwalk, Urbana, Wauseon, Waverly and Wooster) had twice as many record highs compared to record lows. From 2000 to 2009, seven of 13 stations (Findlay, Greenville, Hillsboro, Norwalk, Urbana, Waverly and Wooster) had twice as many records highs as record lows. The AP only used stations with the most complete data for the century, so locations such as Cincinnati and Dayton were not included in the analysis. The closest station to either city is in Hillsboro. Former Weather Channel meteorologist Guy Walton, who has been studying hot and cold extreme records since 2000, said the trend is unmistakable. “You are getting more extremes,” Walton said. “Your chances for getting more dangerous extremes are going up with time.” An example of the trend is Wooster, Ohio. From 1999 on, Wooster saw 106 high temperature records set or broken and 51 cold ones. In the previous eight decades, the ratio was slightly colder than one to one. At MW Robinson Co., people are lining up for air conditioning installation as the climate seems to get have been getting hotter over the years,

Carter Cole, 4, cools off in the heat and humidity last June at Cincinnati’s Smale Riverfront Park. Ohio sets records for heat twice as often as it does for cold, a new Associated Press data analysis shows. ALBERT CESARE/THE ENQUIRER

The Milford Community Fire Department brought out the ﬁ re trucks and hoses to make a spray park for the Milford Community to beat the heat on July 5, 2018. Kids gather under the hose to cool off. PHIL DIDION

said Lori Bowersock, who coordinates the ﬁ rm’s HVAC installations. “It’s more and more every year,” Bowersock said. “Usually we don’t have them lined up like this. National Center for Atmospheric Research climate scientist Gerald Meehl, who has published peer-reviewed papers on the rising hot-tocold ratio, said people pay more attention to climate when records are broken. The AP counted daily records across 424 stations starting in 1920 and ending in 2018. The AP only considered daily – not all-time – high

maximum temperatures and low minimum temperatures and only used stations with minimal missing data. Temperatures that tied previous records were counted in addition to temperatures that broke previous records. The analysis stopped with data through 2018. However, the ﬁ rst two months of 2019 are showing twice as many cold records than hot ones. That’s temporary and trends are over years and decades, not months, said NOAA’s Arndt. “We are in a period of sustained and signiﬁ cant warming and – over

the long run – will continue to explore and break the warm end of the spectrum much more than the cold end,” Arndt said. The AP’s other ﬁ ndings: ❚ Since Jan. 1, 1999, just under half the stations nationally had at least twice as many hot records set than cold ones, including Wooster and the others in Ohio. ❚ In all, 87 percent of the weather stations had more hot records than cold since 1999. There have been 42 weather stations that have at least ﬁ ve hot records for every cold one since 1999, with 11 where the hot-tocold ratio is 10-to-1 or higher. ❚ All nine of NOAA’s climate regions have seen more hot records set than cold ones since 1999, with the West, Southwest and Northeast having a 3-to-1 ratio. ❚ All four seasons have had more hot records broken than cold for the same time period. ❚ Most decades in the 20th century had close to an even ratio of hot to cold. The 1930s, driven by Dust Bowl summers, had about 1.4 hot records for every cold. The 1960s and 1970s had about 1.5 cold records for every hot. The 21st century has a 1.9-to-1 hot-to-cold ratio. “As a measure of climate change, the dailies (temperature records) will tell you more about what’s happening,” said climate scientist Chris Field of Stanford. “The impacts of climate change almost always come packaged in extremes.”

cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 13A

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14A ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

Ohio military projects put in jeopardy by border emergency cleveland.com

WASHINGTON – Funding for more than $100 million in Ohio military projects could be delayed or canceled if money is diverted to build President Donald Trump’s proposed wall on the Mexican border, according to a list the Pentagon released. The House and Senate have passed resolutions to cancel the border emergency that Trump declared so he could draw money from other sources after Congress refused to provide the level of funding he sought for the wall. Trump vetoed the measure, arguing that the border situation is a true emergency and his “highest obligation as president is to protect the nation and its people.” The measure did not pass either legislative body with enough votes to overturn Trump’s veto, so his emergency declaration will stand for now. According to the list of projects released by Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in the Dayton area could be the state’s biggest loser if the cuts go through. On the chopping block is $61 million for a new building at its National Air And Space Intelligence Center, along with $6.8 million for a Fire/ Crash Rescue Station. Millions of dollars are also in jeop-

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ardy at other Air Force facilities in Ohio, including $15 million for new fi ghter aircraft hangars at Toledo Express Airport, $13 million to replace a fi re station at Mansfi eld’s Lahm airport and $8.8 million to relocate the main gate at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station. A $7.4 million automated multipurpose machine gun range at Camp Ravenna in Portage County is also on the list of projects that might be cut. The Defense Department said it hasn’t yet decided which funds will be transferred to the border barrier project, but said the money might not be needed if the Pentagon’s budget request for 2020 is enacted on time. The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Rhode Island’s Jack Reed, called the potential cuts “a slap in the face to our military that makes our border and the country less secure.” Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, released a statement that said he’ll work to ensure that the projects at Ohio military facilities move forward as planned. “I urge the administration to use money other than MILCON funds to fully protect important military construction projects in Ohio and around the country,” said Portman, of Terrace Park, who was among a dozen Senate Republicans who voted to rescind Trump’s emergency declaration.

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16A ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

Schools in Indianapolis, across US get failing grades on teaching slavery era slave trade. “Every other slave history thing I’ve learned is mainly on land,” said Estefany Ponce, a 13-year-old. “This is the ﬁ rst time ﬁ nding out someone’s on a boat, having to go through all these things.”

Arika Herron Indianapolis Star USA TODAY NETWORK

INDIANAPOLIS – Twenty-three little bodies – all clad in navy uniforms – are wriggling in their seats at Avondale Meadows Academy. There are superhero cutouts dangling from the ceiling, a “Wakanda Forever” poster on the wall and Snickers, the class guinea pig, just had a slice of apple. It’s a typical Wednesday morning at the Indianapolis charter school, and Shorron Scott is asking her class about their feelings. Sad. Bad. Mad. Angry. Afraid. “Of whom?” Scott asks one of her students. “Of the slave master,” he says. Avondale Meadows’ third grade is learning about slavery in the United States, and it’s not always easy. Across the hall, in Katie Millikan’s class, her two dozen students are looking at pictures of a slave collar and the scarred back of a slave. Nine-year-old London Moore said sometimes her classmates cry. When that happens, the class takes a break from the heavy material with a vocabulary video. “It helps,” London said. The material can get heavy for 7and 8-year-olds. Teachers work to keep the material age-appropriate but don’t sugarcoat the truth, either. “We learned they treat them like, um, they dehumanize them and don’t treat them like how they are,” said Thaddeus Obirieze, another student in Millikan’s class. “If they get splinters or anything, their owners won’t care. Their owners would probably sometimes put splinters in their food. If it gets on their tongue and stuff , they wouldn’t care.” Thaddeus, who is 8, said he doesn’t get sad, but he tries not to think about it too much. “It’s so unfair,” he said. That’s part of what makes slavery so diffi cult to teach – and so important to get right. And many schools aren’t there. Research conducted by the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2017 found American schools are failing to teach the hard history of slavery. Researchers surveyed U.S. high school seniors and found them woefully uninformed. Only 8 percent of high school seniors surveyed could identify slavery as the central cause of the Civil War. “It’s the equivalent of kids not being able to do division,” said Hasan Jeffries, a history professor at Ohio State University, who led the SPLC report. “There is no other subject we could teach as bad as we do American history and still be employed.” The research found, too, that this isn’t a regional problem. It isn’t a Southern problem. It’s a national problem, and Indiana is no exception,Jeff ries said. “I get students in my history classes – who come from Indiana, from Indianapolis – and I talk about slavery and

Slavery still impacts society

The transatlantic slave trade is most familiar to Americans, but enslaved Africans were also taken to the Middle East and Asia. This 1874 illustration shows an Arab slave ship fleeing a British cruiser in the Red Sea. GETTY IMAGES

the Civil War, and their jaws drop,” he said. “I shouldn’t be blowing their minds with that. That’s Early American History 101.”

What do schools have to teach about slavery? Not much For starters, states fail to set high expectations with their curriculum standards, the SPLC research found. Jeff ries’ team reviewed 15 sets of state standards and most “fail to lay out meaningful requirements for learning about slavery, about the lives of the millions of enslaved people, or about how their labor was essential to the American economy.” Indiana’s standards weren’t included in the review. But they are not unlike many others around in the country: They are broad, vague and leave much up to individual districts, schools and even teachers. Explicit mentions of slavery in Indiana’s academic standards are few and far between – just a handful of times between fourth grade and high school. That doesn’t mean schools skip these important lessons. But how and to what degree teachers discuss slavery can vary widely from one school district to another. It can even vary from one classroom to the next. Finding out what kids are actually learning about diffi cult issues like slavery can be almost impossible. For starters, how schools teach about slavery and racism can be so sensitive, it was hard to fi nd schools willing to participate in this story. Out of 10 schools and school systems IndyStar contacted in the metro area, only two were willing to open their classrooms. Looking at textbooks doesn’t provide much help. Most popular textbooks fail to provide comprehensive coverage of slavery and enslaved people, the SPLC research found. The majority of teachers surveyed found their textbooks inadequate.

That means many teachers supplement whatever resources their school provides with additional materials like digital tools, primary documents from the time and more. This makes it harder to know exactly what students are being taught. The Indiana Department of Education does provide resources online, but it’s unclear how widely they’re used. For example, a video about Mary Bateman Clark, a slave who sued to end indentured servitude in Indiana, was uploaded to Vimeo three years ago and linked to on the state resources website. It has been played just 44 times.

Textbooks often ‘watered down’ At Indianapolis Public Schools, teachers still use textbooks. But because the books try to appeal to the widest audience possible, they’re often designed with the standards and politics of the biggest states in mind. Things can get “watered down,” said Eric Heagy, curriculum and instruction specialist for social studies and world languages. So Nick Sargent had his seventhgraders at Northwest Middle School reading excerpts from the writing of Olaudah Equiano, an African man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery as a child in Nigeria. He endured the middle passage on a slave ship to the Americas and later bought his own freedom. “I’m really big on not sugarcoating history for them,” Sargent said. “There are a lot of examples of people trying to whitewash history and not make it sound so bad, but that doesn’t do it any justice.” Sargent uses Equiano’s story in his seventh-grade social studies classes as a writing prompt. For many of his students, this is the ﬁ rst time they’re hearing about the “shipping” aspect of the transatlantic

Perhaps a larger problem than the resources for teaching slavery are the ways in which it’s taught, said Keith Barton, a professor of curriculum and instruction at Indiana University. Schools tend to teach students that slavery is a moral failing of individuals, Barton said – a past problem that was solved by the Civil War, rather than an institution with impacts that AfricanAmericans continue to feel today. In some cases, the teacher might lack a full understanding of slavery, Barton said. In others, the miseducation might happen because the truth is just so diffi cult to broach. Telling the hard truth about the enduring legacy of slavery and institutional racism would make the lesson more controversial, Barton said. “It would really call attention to the ways in which whites continue to benefi t from the legacy of slavery,” he said. “That is very challenging. That’s going to be challenging for teachers to admit and for wider society to deal with. “It brings up some very uncomfortable issues for people.” As an unnamed teacher said in the SPLC survey: “It’s diffi cult, as a white teacher to majority non-white students, to explain that white people benefi ted signifi cantly at the very real expense of black people.” This discomfort is playing out, too, in a teaching force that is still predominantly white. The most recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics suggests while demographics of America’s students are shifting rapidly – most schoolchildren are non-white now – the same cannot be said of their teachers. More than 80 percent of teachers are still white, according to the most recent data. The SPLC research found that while most teachers want to teach their students about slavery and do it well, they can be paralyzed by a lack of tools and by fear. “There’s this sense of, ‘What if we’re doing it wrong? What if it gets misinterpreted?’ ” Jeff ries said. That’s not a justifi cation, he said, but explains some of the reluctance.

Indianapolis schools’ history of discrimination With a history of racism in its schools and several recent, high-proﬁ le instances of racist actions, the subject could seem even more fraught – and even more urgent. Like many of the country’s large citContinued on next page

cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 17A

Continued from previous page

ies, Indianapolis and its surrounding suburbs have intensely segregated school systems. When the city and county merged all of their municipal services in 1970, school districts were excluded. A year later, the courts would call out that decision as discriminatory and order busing between the Indianapolis Public Schools system in the city center and the surrounding township districts. By the time busing started a decade later, a massive decline in IPS enrollment was well underway. Enrollment in the district plummeted from more than 100,000 students at the start of the 1970s to fewer than 30,000 in 2010. Today, nearly three-quarters of IPS students are black or Hispanic, and most are poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The families that left IPS didn’t just ﬂ ee to the townships. Over decades, wealthy white families ﬂ ed to the suburbs in surrounding counties. So even if the county’s school systems were to consolidate for the sake of integration or renew busing – which ended in 2016 – it wouldn’t do much. As IPS has become less diverse, the township schools have become more so. The wealthy suburbs in the doughnut counties surrounding the city, though, are the inverse of IPS. Hamilton Southeastern Schools – where controversy erupted in September after a photo was posted of a student in blackface – is nearly threequarters white. It sits in the county

just north of Indianapolis, a wealthy suburban enclave where many of the city’s workers in high-paying sectors like tech and health care live. The district hired an equity and inclusion offi cer last year – about eight months before the photo was posted – who is implementing a training program for teachers. Most teachers will fi nish the program this school year, district spokeswoman Emily Abbotts said. The district last spring also started ongoing public conversations, where local residents can discuss race and how to unify the community. Several other suburban districts have faced their own controversies over other instances of racism and intolerance. In November, a racially charged shooting threat was found in a bathroom at Noblesville High School, the district neighboring Hamilton Southeastern. Students at another suburban high school, Zionsville, were seen in a social media post using a Nazi salute last month. And last year, the principal of a private Catholic high school on the city’s south side came under fi re for using the N-word at a school assembly. He later apologized, saying he used the word while giving examples of words and phrases that aren’t tolerated by the school. It’s likely the problems with the ways we teach things like slavery, civil rights and African-American history are contributing to these incidents of racism, Jeff ries said. Improving that education could help put a stop to it.

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18A ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

Cuts to Drug Coverage Put Medicare Patients at Risk. Patients with pre-existing conditions now face cuts to their Medicare drug coverage. Millions of Americans are living with serious diseases like cancer, epilepsy, mental health conditions and HIV. But new Medicare rules would restrict access to the latest, most eﬀective therapies – allowing insurance companies to come between doctors and patients. They can even take away your current medication. And while the proposed cuts will only reduce spending 0.01% over ten years, the human cost for patients and their families will be far higher. It’s hard enough living with an existing condition. Denying patients the individualized treatments their doctor prescribes threatens the health of millions on Medicare.

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cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 1B

Barr reviewing report; summary to come later Trump, lawmakers say little as work continues Bart Jansen, Kevin Johnson and Kristine Phillips USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department will wait at least one more day to deliver the conclusions of special counsel Robert Mueller’s longawaited report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. What the Justice Department provides could supply its answer to questions that have loomed over the fi rst two years of President Donald Trump’s administration: Did his campaign coordinate with a Russian eff ort to sway the 2016 election, and did he seek to obstruct the inquiries that followed? A department offi cial, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said offi cials would not release those conclusions on Saturday. Mueller submitted his confi dential report on Friday. Rather than delivering the full report directly to lawmakers, Attorney General William Barr said he would review the document to determine what could be released to Congress and the public. In his notifi cation, Barr said neither the attorney general nor acting attorney general had blocked Mueller from pursuing any aspect of his investigation. Barr and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, spent Saturday reviewing Mueller’s report, as staff shuttled between their offi ce suites. An offi cial said that “very few” people have access to the report. The delay all but assures another day of waiting for a report that could shape the future of Trump’s presidency. Yet, even the president known for bombastic tweets has been uncharacteristically subdued on Saturday, ensconced in his private Mar-aLago resort. Members of Congress seemed calm. Meanwhile, congressional

Man accused of throwing water as Iowa Rep. King was eating FORT DODGE, Iowa – A Colorado man faces misdemeanor charges after Iowa Rep. Steve King was doused while eating lunch in Fort Dodge. Blake Gibbins was arrested Friday at the Mineral City Mill and Grill. The 26-year-old from Lafayette, Colorado, is charged with simple assault and disorderly conduct. Fort Dodge police said that Gibbins asked King who he was and threw a glass of water when he replied. Others seated at the table also got wet. King has drawn criticism for racist statements, but plans to seek re-election in 2020.

Experts warn Midwest flood risk might continue for months

Attorney General William Barr departs his home Saturday. He is expected to brief Congress on Robert Mueller’s report soon. WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES

Democrats and Republicans, many of whom had left Washington for the weekend, worked to determine how to respond when Mueller’s conclusions arrive, but had little to say publicly. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose chamber is conducting its own investigations of Trump, spent Friday night bowling at her granddaughter’s birthday party. Mueller’s report signaled the end of an investigation launched in secret months before Trump was elected, when the FBI began gathering clues that made them suspicious of aides to Trump’s campaign. The investigation mushroomed to include whether the campaign coordinated with Russian eﬀ orts to interfere in the 2016 elec-

tion, and whether the president himself attempted to obstruct it. And it produced a cascade of other criminal investigations targeting people around Trump, which have not yet concluded. Mueller’s investigation revealed an extensive Russian intelligence operation that used hacking, stolen documents and phony social media campaigns to sew discord in U.S. politics. But the investigation has not resulted in charges that anyone associated with Trump coordinated with the Russians, and a Justice Department oﬃ cial said Mueller’s report did not recommend that anyone else be indicted.

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ST. LOUIS – Flooding concerns are starting to ease in hard-hit places in the Midwest, but experts warn that with plenty of snow still left to melt in northern states, the threat could persist for months. Rainfall and some snowmelt spurred ﬂ ooding blamed in three deaths so far. Thousands were forced from their homes in Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri. As temperatures start to warm, snowmelt in the Dakotas and Minnesota will escalate, sending more water down the Missouri and Mississippi rivers and their tributaries.

Pakistan showcases military as tensions with India ease ISLAMABAD – Pakistan celebrated its national day on Saturday with a military parade showcasing its missiles, tanks and aircraft, even as oﬃ cials exchanged goodwill messages in a sign of easing tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals.Tensions between India and Pakistan ﬂ ared last month after a suicide bombing killed 40 Indian paramilitary soldiers in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir. The Indian air force launched an airstrike inside Pakistan, saying it was targeting militants for the attack.

BEFORE: MISSING TEETH AND GUM DISEASE. AFTER: NEW SMILE PERMANENT TEETH ON IMPLANTS.

2B ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

Nation & World

American-backed Syrian forces claim ISIS beaten Celebration has been 4½ years in the making Kim Hjelmgaard USA TODAY

The Islamic State group lost its fi nal sliver of territory in Syria, the U.S.backed Syrian Democratic Forces said Saturday while declaring victory over the extremists. However, the announcement came with warnings that the group remains a threat. Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the SDF, tweeted that the militant group, also known as ISIS, suff ered “100 percent territorial defeat.” He said that the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz, where jihadists had been mounting a last stand, “is free and the military victory against Daesh has been achieved.” Daesh is ISIS’ Arabic acronym. Bali said that the self-declared caliphate that ISIS established in 2014, and which once sprawled across much of Syria and neighboring Iraq while imposing brutal rule on as many as 8 million people, had been eradicated. He said the SDF pledged to continue the fi ght against remnants of the extremist group until they are completely gone. Saturday’s announcement is signifi cant. It marks the end of a 4½-year military campaign by an array of forces against the extremist group, which at its height in 2014 ruled an area the size of the United Kingdom, including several major cities and towns. It follows remarks by President Donald Trump after landing in Palm Beach, Florida, on Wednesday. “That’s what we have right now,” he said while showing a map comparing

U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces ﬁ ghters gather for a photo after declaring victory over the Islamic State group on Saturday. STR/EPA-EFE

ISIS-held territory in Syria and Iraq in 2014 with today. The map indicated ISIS’ diminished territory. It “will be gone by tonight,” he said. On Saturday, the White House issued a statement from Trump announcing that the ISIS-controlled area had been liberated. “ISIS’s loss of territory is further evidence of its false narrative, which tries to legitimize a record of savagery that includes brutal executions, the exploitation of children as soldiers, and the sexual abuse and murder of women and children,” Trump said in the statement. “To all of the young

people on the internet believing in ISIS’s Propaganda, you will be dead if you join. Think instead about having a great life.” But the jihadist group remains a serious threat despite repeated announcements from Trump that it had been completely defeated and that its demise meant there was no longer any reason to keep U.S. troops deployed in Syria. Although ISIS has yielded all of its physical territory in Syria or Iraq, it is still a potent ﬁ ghting force and continues to carry out insurgent attacks in both countries.

It also maintains aﬃ liates in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, Afghanistan and elsewhere. ISIS is still “a great threat to our region and our world,” said Gen. Mazloum Kobani, the commander of SDF forces. His comments were echoed by William Roebuck, the U.S.’s special envoy for Syria, who said ISIS remains a threat to the U.S. and its allies. According to a study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, ISIS might still have 20,000 to 30,000 active ﬁ ghters in Syria and Iraq.

This year’s ﬂ u season not going away easily Doug Stanglin USA TODAY

This year’s ﬂ u season is not going away quietly. The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention said the percentage of medical visits for ﬂ u-like symptoms for the week ending March 16 was at 4.4 percent, above the baseline of 2.2 percent. That is the highest this late in the

season since the CDC began tracking such data 20 years ago, according to the Wall Street Journal. Although the season – which stretches from October to May – has not been as severe overall as in past years, ﬂ u activity remains at an elevated level. Forty-four states continue to report widespread ﬂ u activity and 26 states are still experiencing high activity of the disease.

“Infl uenza-like-illness levels have been at or above baseline for 17 weeks this season,” according to the CDC summary. “By this measure, the last fi ve seasons have averaged 16 weeks, with a range of 11 to 20 weeks.” “The CDC expects fl u activity to remain elevated for a number of weeks, suggesting this season is likely to be relatively long,” the summary predicted. In a more specifi c forecast, the CDC

said it appears that the fl u season peaked nationally in mid-February, but that “fl u activity is expected to remain elevated nationally through April.” The report also noted another eight fl u-related pediatric deaths, bringing the total for the season to 76. Symptoms of fl u include a stuff y nose, fever, cough, muscle or body aches, headaches and tiredness.

Ohio

cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 3B

STATE NEWS IN BRIEF OHIO Miami University president calls hazing report ‘deplorable’ OXFORD – Miami University suspended a fraternity over what the school’s president said was a “brutal and deplorable” report of hazing. A decision about the future of Delta Tau Delta will be made once a full investigation is ﬁ nished. University President Gregory Crawford isn’t releasing details about the hazing allegations. But he said Friday that the report is serious and credible. Crawford also said the university will make a report for all fraternities and sororities on campus, and that nothing is oﬀ limits in its evaluation. The head of the na-

tional Delta Tau Delta Fraternity said in a statement that Miami chapter members treated new members inappropriately.

Court rejects Ohio officer’s request in wife’s 1997 slaying AKRON – The Ohio Supreme Court said it won’t consider an appeal fi led by a former police offi cer who is seeking a new trial for the 1997 slaying of his ex-wife. The decision this past week is the latest setback for former Akron Offi cer Douglas Prade who is serving life in prison. A state appeals court in September upheld a trial court decision that denied a new trial. That came after The Ohio Supreme

Court last year upheld a court ruling overturning a judge’s decision that exonerated Prade and led to his release from prison. A judge exonerated him in 2013 after experts said male DNA from a bite mark found on Dr. Margo Prade’s lab coat wasn’t his. Prade was sent back to prison after prosecutors successfully appealed the ruling.

KENTUCKY Man, 25, gets 33-year prison sentence in teen’s fatal shooting LEXINGTON – A judge sentenced a man to 33 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to charges including murder in the 2016 Thanksgiving day fatal shooting of a 14-year-old boy. Ac-

cording to the Lexington HeraldLeader, Fayette Circuit Court Judge Lucy VanMeter sentenced Kevin Josue Ipina-Garcia, 25, on Friday in the death of Angel Juarez.

2 killed, including 9-year-old, in Morgan County house fi re WEST LIBERTY – Kentucky State Police said two people have died in a house fi re, including a 9-year-old. State Police said Timothy Gambill, 44, died fi re Saturday in the Morgan County blaze. Police did not name the 9-year-old who died. Both victims were pronounced dead at the scene. Police say no foul play is suspected. Associated Press

HAPPY BELATED

Parkland survivor dies by suicide A recent graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who survived the Parkland school shooting has died by suicide, the student’s mother told CBS Miami. Sydney Aiello was 19 when she died March 17, according to a GoFundMe page set up in her honor. NBC News reported that Aiello died from a gunshot wound to the head, according to the Broward County Medical Examiner’s Oﬃ ce. Aiello was friends with Meadow Pollack, one of the 17 people killed at the Parkland shooting on Feb. 14, 2018, CBS Miami reported. Cara Aiello – Sydney’s mother – told the sta-

tion that her daughter was at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that day, but was not in the building where the massacre occurred. Sydney Aiello recently had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and struggled with a fear of classroom settings, hindering her ability to attend college classes, Cara Aiello told the station. Pollack’s father, Andrew, told the Miami Herald that his “heart goes out to (Aiello’s) poor, poor parents.” The GoFundMe page set up in Aiello’s honor had raised more than $40,000 by Friday afternoon, more than double the fundraising eﬀ ort’s goal. The money “will be given directly to the Aiello family to honor their daughter,” the page said.

In Memoriam Kathy Edmondson Solter 3/17/51 – 8/4/2018

Kathy received her Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing at Eastern KY University, an Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner degree and her Doctorate in Nursing from the University of Kentucky. Kathy practiced as a nurse at St. Elizabeth Edgewood and the Shady Lawn Nursing facility in Cynthiana. As an APRN she practiced at the Caudill Health Clinic at Morehead State University until retirement. She is survived by her husband Jim Solter, her mother Lois Irene Edmondson and the late George Edmondson, two daughters, Kerri Metzger and Jennifer Woods, and four grandchildren. CE-0000708647

We will always remember you!!

James & Maxine Daniel With all our love your children, grandchildren & great-grandchildren.

CE-0000708643

USA TODAY

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4B ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

Raiders bomb Somali government oﬃ ces Deputy minister of labor and social aﬀ airs among dead Abdi Guled

ASSOCIATED PRESS

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Gunmen set off a suicide car bombing and then stormed a government building in Somalia’s capital Saturday, killing at least fi ve people, including the country’s deputy labor minister, police said. It was the latest attack by Islamic extremists in the troubled Horn of Africa nation. After an hourslong gun battle, Somalia’s security forces took back control of the building in Mogadishu on Saturday from at least fi ve attackers who forced their way into the government building that houses the ministries of labor and public works, police Capt. Mohamed Hussein said. Saqar Ibrahim Abdalla, Somalia’s deputy minister of labor and social affairs, was killed in his ground-fl oor offi ce shortly after gunmen entered the building, he said. Hussein said at least 10 other people were wounded in the attack, for which the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group has claimed responsibility. Dozens of people were inside the building at the time since Saturday is a working day in Somalia. The building is not far from the headquarters of the Somali intelligence agency. As the attack unfolded, gunfi re could be heard from inside the building. White smoke billowed from the

Somali soldiers arrest a civilian at the scene of two explosions near government offices in Mogadishu on Saturday. MOHAMED ABDIWAHAB/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

scene, according to witnesses. A similar attack targeting a busy area in Mogadishu at the end of February killed at least 24 people. Al-Shabab, Africa’s most active Islamic extremist group, has been ﬁ ghting for years to take power and create an Islamic state in Somalia. It frequently carries out suicide bombings

targeting public places, hotels and government oﬃ ces despite being pushed out of Mogadishu. It mostly operates from rural areas in the country’s south. African Union peacekeepers stationed in Mogadishu and elsewhere in the country have helped Somali forces to keep al-Shabab ﬁ ghters at bay.

The extremist group has also carried out many deadly attacks in neighboring Kenya in retaliation over the country’s deployment in 2011 of peacekeepers in Somalia. The U.S. military has carried out a number of deadly airstrikes in recent months against al-Shabab.

Nicaragua opposition eyes prisoner release Gabriela Selser ASSOCIATED PRESS

MANAGUA, Nicaragua – Nicaragua’s opposition signed a timetable Friday for reaching agreements to free 802 people considered political prisoners but releases didn’t start. The Civic Alliance group said the lists of prisoners it has still have to be collated with those compiled by the government and the InterAmerican Human Rights Commission. Opposition negotiator Mario Arana said he had hoped the government would release a fi rst group of inmates over the weekend or early next week, but the government of President Daniel Ortega refused to commit to that. About 640 are in prison, and 162 are under a form of house arrest. Azahalea Solis, one of the main leaders of the Alliance and a negotiator in talks with the government aimed at resolving a political standoff , said in an interview that the 162 released from prison and placed under house arrest since February could be granted more defi nitive freedom un-

Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega’s government and opposition leaders have started negotiations on how to carry out prisoner releases. ALFREDO ZUNIGA/AP

der a proposed deal. She said that under such a deal, all 802 people detained since protests

erupted last April would have unrestricted freedom and see their charges and trials annulled.

Security forces and armed, progovernment civilian groups killed hundreds in their crackdown on demonstrators who sought Ortega’s exit from oﬃ ce last year, according to independent monitors. As negotiations that began Feb. 27 were on hold over the issue of jailed government opponents, Ortega’s government agreed to release them all within 90 days, prompting opposition negotiators to return to the table. In the past, authorities have repeatedly characterized anti-government demonstrators as “terrorists” and “coupplotters.” Trump in an apparent allusion to the negotiations that “we do not all think alike, but despite our ideological and diﬀ erences, we must unite around a sacred goal, which is peace.” Solis said the 90-day window for releases is a maximum and could end up being shorter. Still, she cautioned that it will be “a slow and complex” process because it entails documenting a long list of individual cases.

cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 5B

Nuclear dump marks 20th year Supporters say it has served its purpose Susan Montoya Bryan ASSOCIATED PRESS

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – In a remote stretch of New Mexico desert, the U.S. government put into motion an experiment aimed at proving to the world that radioactive waste could be safely disposed of deep underground, rendering it less of a threat to the environment. Twenty years and more than 12,380 shipments later, tons of Cold War-era waste from decades of bomb-making and nuclear research across the U.S. have been stashed in the salt caverns that make up the underground facility. Each week, several shipments of special boxes and barrels packed with lab coats, rubber gloves, tools and debris contaminated with plutonium and other radioactive elements are trucked to the site. But the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant has not been without issues. A 2014 radiation leak forced an expensive, nearly three-year closure, delayed the federal government’s cleanup program and prompted policy changes at national laboratories and defense-related sites across the U.S. More recently, the U.S. Department of Energy said it would investigate reports that workers may have been exposed last year to hazardous chemicals. Still, supporters consider the repository a success, saying it provides a viable option for dealing with a multibillion-dollar mess that stretches from a decommissioned nuclear weapons production site in Washington state to one of the nation’s top nuclear research labs. If not for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, many containers of low-level waste would be sitting outside, exposed to the weather and susceptible to natural disasters, said J.R. Stroble, head of business operations at the Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Oﬃ ce, which oversees the contractor that operates the repository.

Since the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant opened in 1999, it has swallowed tons of Cold War-era waste from across the U.S. SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN/AP

“The whole purpose of WIPP is to isolate this long-lived radioactive, hazardous waste from the accessible environment, from people and the things people need in order to live life on Earth,” Stroble said. Stroble and others in the communities surrounding the repository are steadfast in their conviction that the facility is a success. They point to 22 sites around the nation that have been cleaned up as a result of having somewhere to put the waste. That includes Rocky Flats, a former nuclear weapons plant near Denver that had a history of leaks, spills and other violations. For critics, that success is checkered since the repository is far from fulﬁ lling its mission. “It’s 80 percent through its lifetime, and it has disposed of less than 40 percent of the waste and has cost more than twice as much as it was supposed to,” said Don Hancock with the watchdog group Southwest Research and Information Center. “How great of a success is that?” Oﬃ cials thought the facility would operate for 25 years. Rather than wrapping up in the next few years, managers have bumped the timeline to 2050. The repository was carved out of an ancient salt formation about a halfmile below the surface, with the idea that the shifting salt would eventually

entomb the radioactive waste. It was the National Academy of Sciences in the 1950s that fi rst recommended disposing of atomic waste in deep geologic formations. Scientists began taking a hard look at the New Mexico site about two decades later. The scientists had to convince themselves and then federal regulators that it was safe. One of their tasks was determining that the ancient seawater trapped between the salt crystals and bound up in thin bands of clay within the salt deposit would pose no problems thousands of years later. “It was exciting to be working on what was then going to be the world’s fi rst deep-geologic repository for that class of waste,” said Peter Swift, a senior scientist at Sandia National Laboratories. “Nothing that radioactive had been put that deep underground before. And that’s still true 20 years later.” While the real test will be what happens years from now, Swift is confi dent in the science behind the project. But the wild card in whether the repository is ultimately deemed a success will be the human factor. After all, missteps by management were blamed for the 2014 radiation release. With some areas permanently sealed off due to contamination, more mining will have to be done to expand capacity. The federal government also

is spending more than a half-billion dollars to install a new ventilation system, sink more shafts and make upgrades aimed at returning to “normal business.” Hancock and some former elected leaders involved in early discussions about the facility worry about the subterranean landﬁ ll becoming a dumping ground for high-level waste or commercial nuclear waste. But it would take an act of Congress to expand the repository’s mission, and getting consent from New Mexico’s delegates would be a tall order since the federal government still has no long-term plan for dealing with such waste. Nevada’s proposed Yucca Mountain project is mothballed, and no other permanent disposal proposals are on the table. Toney Anaya, who served as New Mexico governor in the 1980s, remembers the heated debates about bringing more radioactive waste to the state. He said there were concerns about safety, but the promise of jobs was attractive. Some also argued New Mexico had a moral obligation given its legacy of uranium mining and its role in the development of the atomic bomb. Another former governor, Bill Richardson, was on both sides of the tug of war – ﬁ rst as a young Democratic congressman who wanted to impose environmental standards and keep 18wheelers loaded with waste from passing through the heart of Santa Fe. Then, he became U.S. energy secretary during the Clinton administration and pressured the state to clear the way for the repository to open. Robust state regulation will be key in ensuring responsible management going forward, said Hancock. The problem, he said, is that besides the Cold War-era waste that has yet to be dealt with, the federal government and nuclear power plants keep generating more. “We need to decide what our capacities are actually going to be – how much nuclear power waste are we going to create, how much nuclear weapons waste are we going to create – so that we can then put our arms around the problem,” Hancock said.

Anti-Brexit marchers seek new referendum Gregory Katz

ASSOCIATED PRESS

LONDON – Anti-Brexit protesters ﬂ ooded into central London by the hundreds of thousands on Saturday, demanding that Britain’s Conservative-led government hold a new referendum on whether Britain should leave the European Union. The “People’s Vote March” snaked from Park Lane and other locations to converge on the U.K. Parliament, where the fate of Brexit will be decided in the coming weeks. Marchers carried European Union

ﬂ ags and signs praising the longstanding ties between Britain and continental Europe. The protest drew people from across Britain who are determined to force Prime Minister Theresa May’s government to alter its march toward Brexit. Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable, invited to help lead the march, called the crowd impressive and uniﬁ ed. “There is a huge turnout of people here from all walks of life, of all ages and from all over the country,” he tweeted.

“We are a Remain country now with 60 percent wanting to stop the Brexit mess.” More than 4 million people endorsed an electronic petition this week in favor of revoking Article 50, the act that triggered the Brexit process. The march came as May, who opposes a second referendum on Britain’s EU membership, is easing away from plans to hold a third vote on her troubled Brexit withdrawal plan, which has been rejected twice by Parliament. In a letter to lawmakers on Friday night, May said she might not seek

passage of her Brexit withdrawal plan in Parliament next week. The embattled leader said she would only bring her EU divorce plan back to Parliament if there seems to be enough backing for it to pass. “If it appears that there is not suﬃ cient support to bring the deal back next week, or the House rejects it again, we can ask for another extension before (April 12), but that will involve holding European Parliament elections,” she said. May’s changing stance reﬂ ects the plan’s dismal chances in the House of Commons after two defeats.

6B ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

OPENING DAY EVENTS: WHAT’S HAPPENING WHEN AND WHERE Cincinnati’s unofficial holiday swings into action Thursday when the 100th annual Findlay Market Opening Day parade steps off from 1801 Race St. in Over-the-Rhine at noon. The parade travels Race Street all the way to Fifth Street, where it turns east and winds past Fountain Square, ending in front of the Taft Theatre. Along the route and throughout the day, you’ll find plenty of opening day festivities before the Cincinnati Reds take on the Pittsburgh Pirates at 4:10 p.m. at Great American Ball Park. Below is a handy list to help you plan your own Opening Day experience.

Tuesday, March 26 Randy Freking: “Cincinnati’s 150Year Opening Day History: The Hoopla Started with a Parade” 7 p.m., Joseph-Beth Booksellers, 2692 Madison Road, Norwood. Book chronicles the evolution of the spectacle and local, national, and worldwide historical events that occurred on the special date and sometimes directly affected Opening Day. Free. josephbeth.com.

Wednesday, March 27 Opening Day Storytime 10:30 a.m., Joseph-Beth Booksellers (Norwood), 2692 Madison Road, Norwood. Free. Reading baseball-themed stories and singing baseball songs.

Thursday, March 28 Bob and Tom Opening Day Live Broadcast 5:30 a.m., JACK Cincinnati Casino, 1000 Broadway, Downtown. See Tom, Chick, Kristi, Josh and special guests. Must be 21 or older. Pierogi Breakfast 9 a.m.-noon, Findlay Market, 1801 Race St., Over-theRhine. Kick off festivities with Babushka slinging pierogies with optional goetta gravy and fried eggs. Grab 1 for $2 or 4 for $7 and add Goetta gravy or fried egg for $1. Arnold’s Opening Day Extravaganza 9 a.m., Arnold’s Bar & Grill, 210 E. 8th St., Downtown.

Reds fans pack Freedom Way and Joe Nuxall Way during the Reds Community Fund Charity Block Party on Opening Day on April 3, 2017. CARA OWSLEY/THE ENQUIRER Opening Day at Taft’s Ale House 9 a.m., 1429 Race St., Over-the-Rhine. First 100 people to purchase Opening Day beer get free T-shirt. Special breakfast items, family activities including speed pitch, inflatable teeball, coloring station. Opening Day Pregame Party 9 a.m., Rhinegeist Brewery, 1910 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine. DJs spinning until game time, Sartre serving breakfast and lunch, and brewery is serving specialty Beermosas. MadTree Opening Day Supporting Giveback Cincinnati 10 a.m., Fountain Square, 520 Vine St., Downtown. Opening Day Celebration 10 a.m., Washington Park, 1230 Elm St., Overthe-Rhine. Music, family activities, beverages and food. Watch parade pass by. Opening Day Parade w/ 3 Points Urban Brewery 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Findlay Market Biergarten, 1801 Race St.,

Over-the-Rhine. Celebrate one of city’s oldest traditions with one of its newest breweries. Opening Day Party 2019 10 a.m., Revolution Rotisserie, 1106 Race St., Over-the-Rhine. Drink specials all morning plus perfect view of parade. Raffles for best-dressed. Opening Day Pre-Party 10 a.m., Moerlein Lager House, 115 Joe Nuxhall Way, Downtown. Opening Day at The Stretch 10:30 a.m.-2:30 a.m., The Stretch, 191 E. Freedom Way, Downtown. DJs before and after game. $6.50 Tito’s drinks. Giveaways, including chance to win tickets to Reds vs. Cubs game May 15. Opening Day Block Party 11 a.m.-4 p.m., The Banks, Downtown. Live music, entertainment food and beverages available. Benefitting The Reds Community Fund. Opening Day Parade Party 11 a.m.-4 p.m., The Phoenix, 812 Race St.,

Downtown. Located directly on the parade route. Watch parade from inside private event rooms. All-youcan-eat Ballpark Food Stations, drink specials, DJ Toad, family-friendly events and more. Findlay Market Opening Day Parade noon, 1801 Race St., Over-the-Rhine. Celebrate 100 years of parade. Starts at Findlay Market and heads through Over-the-Rhine and Downtown past Fountain Square. findlaymarket.org. Opening Day at Righteous Room noon, 641 Walnut St., Downtown. $1.50 red jello shots to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Reds. Opening Day at Rosedale OTR noon-2 a.m., 208 E. 12th St. $3.50 White Claws noon-4 p.m. Half-price happy hour 4-7 p.m. $5 Queen City brats and metts served with Husman’s chips. Game shown on outdoor projection screen (weather permitting).

for a good cause in a “Thursday Throwdown” latte art competition. Benefits BLOC Women’s Ministry. bloccoffeecompany.com. MadTree Opening Day at the Square supporting Giveback Cincinnati 10 a.m., Fountain Square, 520 Vine St., Downtown.

by ceremony at noon.familynurture.org. Take Back the Night Fundraising Friday 10:30 p.m., Below Zero Lounge, 1120 Walnut St., Over-theRhine. Benefits Take Back the Night. cincynkytbtn.org.

free. lakotawestbands.org.

BENEFITS & BASHES Sunday, March 24 Being There (1979) Directed by Hal Ashby 7 p.m., The Mini Microcinema, 1329 Main St., Over-the-Rhine. $25. Monthly fundraiser celebrates films that reach significant historical milestones in 2019. Support The Mini Microcinema’s mission by attending these super special ticketed events, which include themed drinks and snacks. Lunafest Film Festival 4 p.m., Garfield Theatre, 719 Race St., Downtown. $20, $16 students. Proceeds benefit The Sarah Center in OTR, a program of St. Francis Seraph Ministries. cincyworldcinema.org.

Thursday, March 28 Latte Art Throwdown 7 p.m., BLOC Coffee Company, 801 Mt. Hope Road, East Price Hill. Free. The best baristas from around Cincinnati will compete

Friday, March 29 2019 Clermont County Republican Party Lincoln-Reagan Dinner 5 p.m., Oasis Golf Club & Conference Center, 902 Loveland-Miamiville Road, Loveland. $50. Benefits the Clermont County Republican Party. Cocktails, dinner and keynote speaker Ohio Speaker of the House, Larry Householder. eventbrite.com. Blue Ribbon Ceremony to kick off Child Abuse Prevention Month 11 a.m.-1 p.m., Tom Gill Cheverlet, 7830 Commerce Drive, Florence. Free. Light buffet reception at 11 a.m., followed

Saturday, March 30 Defenders Family Fundraiser 8 p.m., Legends Bar and Grill, 3530 Decoursey Ave., Latonia. Benefits the Kentucky Defenders family of AAU basketball teams. eventbrite.com. Glendale Fire Department Pancake Breakfast 7 a.m.-noon, Glendale Fire Department, 80 E. Sharon Road, Glendale. $5 per person. Free for children 8 years or younger. glendaleohio.org. Lakota West Bands Jazz ‘n Cakes 8 a.m.-noon, Lakota West High Schoo, 8940 Union Centre Blvd., West Chester. $7 at the door, children under 3

Sunday, March 31 April Fools Eve FUNdraiser for Nate 5 p.m., Main Event Entertainment, Oxford Way, West Chester. $50. Benefits Nate Posey and Wings Fighting Cancer. Activities, food, non alcoholic beverages. Cash bar. Raffles, door prizes, and possibly comedy from Nate. eventbrite.com. Lunafest Film Festival 4 p.m., Garfield Theatre, 719 Race St., Downtown. $20, $16 students. Benefits The Sarah Center in OTR, a program of St. Francis Seraph Ministries. cincyworldcinema.org. Suffering in Silence: 8th Anniversary Fundraising Dinner 5:30 p.m., Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati, 8092 Plantation Drive, West Chester. Benefits Syrian American Foundation. eventbrite.com.

Ohio

cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 7B

Poll: Most in US favor stricter gun laws ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON – A majority of Americans favor stricter gun laws, and most believe places of worship and schools have become less safe over the last two decades, according to a new poll conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The survey was conducted before and after this month’s mass shooting at two mosques in New Zealand. It found that 67 percent of Americans support making US gun laws stricter, 22 percent said they should be left as they are and 10 percent think they should be made less strict. The New Zealand shooting on March 15 did not appear to have an impact on Americans’ support for new gun laws. Although a majority of Americans have consistently said they support stronger gun laws, proposals have stalled repeatedly in Congress in recent years, a marked contrast to New Zealand and some other countries, such as Australia, that have acted swiftly after a mass shooting. Less than a week after the mosque shootings, New Zealand moved to ban “military-style” semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity magazines; similarly, after a mass shooting in 1996, Australia enacted sweeping gun bans within two weeks. The new poll suggested many Americans would support similar measures, but there’s a wide gulf between Democrats and Republicans on banning speciﬁ c types of guns. Overall, 6 in 10 Americans support a ban on AR-15 riﬂ es and similar semiautomatic weapons. Roughly 8 in 10 Democrats, but just about 4 in 10 Republicans, support that policy. Republicans are less likely than Democrats to think making it harder to buy a gun would stop mass shootings, 36 percent to 81 percent. Overall,

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that 67 percent of Americans back tougher gun laws. GETTY IMAGES

58 percent of Americans think it would. Still, some gun restrictions get wide support across party lines. Wide shares of Democrats and Republicans support a universal background check requirement, along with allowing courts to prevent some people from buying guns if they are considered dangerous to themselves or others, even if they have not committed crimes. In contrast to New Zealand, the United States has enacted few national restrictions in recent years. In part, that’s a reﬂ ection of gun rights being enshrined in the U.S. Constitution; in a poll by the Pew Research Center in spring of 2017, 74 percent of gun owners said the right to own guns is essential to their sense of freedom. Overall support for stricter gun laws is unchanged since an AP-NORC poll conducted one year ago, a month after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people killed. The post-Parkland poll marked an increase in support for stricter gun laws, from 61 percent in October 2017. But the strength of that support appears to have ebbed. The percentage who said gun laws should be made much stricter, rather than just somewhat stricter, drifted down slightly.

Cyclone lashes north coast of Australia Trevor Marshallsea ASSOCIATED PRESS

SYDNEY – A vast and powerful cyclone made landfall Saturday along a remote stretch of the northern Australian coast, bringing ﬁ erce winds and heavy rain amid safety fears for a small number of residents who stayed in the area. Cyclone Trevor crossed the Gulf of Carpentaria coast at 9:50 a.m. local time in the far east of the Northern Territory, near its border with Queensland state. At the time of landfall it was a category 4 storm, with 5 being the strongest.

Most of the sparsely populated area had been evacuated, with more than 2,000 people put up in temporary accommodation in the Northern Territory capital Darwin, and the nearby town of Katherine. But with the cyclone bringing wind gusts of up to 155 mph as it hit the coast, and with ﬂ ash ﬂ ooding expected as heavy rain met hard-baked lands recently hit by drought. Northern Territory Emergency Services spokesman Jason Collins said anyone remaining in Trevor’s path needed to have supplies to last three days and stay away from waterways.

Rachel Maddow, host of “The Rachel Maddow Show,” and Sean Hannity of Fox News represented different takes on the issuing of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. AP

Mueller news is digested through Hannity, Maddow David Bauder

ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK – For Sean Hannity, the “witch hunt” was fi nally over. Rachel Maddow considered it the start of something. The diametrically opposed opinion hosts, who vie for the distinction of the most popular in cable news, were the windows through which many Americans digested Friday’s news that special counsel Robert Mueller had concluded a nearly twoyear investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 election. Although his report, or even a summary, has not been released, television news still had hours to fi ll talking about it. Fox News Channel’s Hannity, a close Trump ally, focused on reports there will be no additional indictments from Mueller. “The left’s favorite conspiracy theory is now dead,” Hannity said. “It is buried, and there was no collusion, no conspiracy, no obstruction. The witch hunt is over and there will be no further charges.” He lamented that lives were ruined by the investigation and said that people who have been prosecuted or convicted had committed “process crimes.” The accusations against Trump were “what we always said, a hoax, a lie conceived by hate.” Although Tucker Carlson, Hannity’s Fox colleague, suggested it was a night Americans “should be celebrating the great news” that no crime was apparently found regarding collusion, Hannity said citizens should be outraged by the amount of time and money spent on the case. He promised a reckoning in the coming weeks of politicians and media fi gures he claimed were guilty of a rush to judgment, and his fi rst target was U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff , chairman of the

House Intelligence Committee. “Schifty Schiff ” read the words onscreen behind him. “What is Maddow and all the other MSNBC conspiracy theorists, what are they going to ever do now?” he said. As he talked, Maddow was doing the same. Unlike most evenings, when the two fi gures work in studios across Manhattan’s Sixth Avenue from each other, Maddow had rushed to a studio in Tennessee where she had spent the day trout fi shing. “Finally, it happened,” she said. “In terms of what that means and what Mueller has found, we know only the smallest little bits. This is the start of something, not the end of something.” In meticulous fashion, she detailed how the news that Mueller’s investigation had concluded was reported and what a letter by Attorney General William Barr meant about what will be released to the public. Democrats in Congress have already demanded the full report be released and that they see background materials; Maddow read a letter by Schiff about that on the air. “Right now we mostly have just a ton of questions, as to what Mueller’s report says, who gets to see it, who gets to decide who gets to see it and when,” she said. It wasn’t until 16 minutes into her program that she discussed the reports that there will be no new indictments from Mueller. Meanwhile, on CNN, analyst and frequent Trump critic Jeff rey Toobin had an answer to colleagues who warned Trump and his supporters against prematurely celebrating. Although he isn’t necessarily in the clear, the fact that the president’s sons or son-in-law Jared Kushner were not indicted “is unambiguously good news for him,” Toobin said.

8B ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

OHIO

Marlene Averbeck

Robert G. Collins, Jr.

WESTWOOD - Marlene Averbeck (nee Taulbee) beloved wife of the late Thomas L Averbeck, loving mother of Thomas Averbeck, Christine (Dennis) Hock, Carol (Michael) Groh, Mary Thompson, Dave (Lynne) Averbeck, Debbie (Chris) Keller, Bob Averbeck and Diane (Jeff) Makin, devoted grandmother of 14, great grandmother of 8, sister of Sue (late Mike) Tragesser, Rosie Taulbee and Bill (Margo) Taulbee. Sister-in-law of Sr Mary Lou Averbeck, RSM. Marlene is the former Lay Director of Cursillo and the former Chairperson of the Archdiocese Pastoral Council. While a member of Our Lady of Lourdes Church, she served as the RCIA Coordinator and served on the parish office staff, member of St Dominic Parish. Died, Wednesday, March 20, 2019 age 84. Visitation at Rebold, Rosenacker & Sexton Funeral Home, 3700 Glenmore Ave, Cheviot, Tuesday, 5 PM to 8 PM. Please meet us for the funeral Mass, Wednesday, 10 AM, St Dominic Church. Burial to follow in New St Joseph Cemetery . In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to the charity of your choice. Condolence may be shared and donations completed online at www. rebold.com

HAMILTON - Robert G. Collins, Jr., age 75, of Hamilton passed away on March 19, 2019. He was born on October 7, 1943 in Cincinnati, Ohio to the late Robert and Alberta (nee Arrasmith) Collins, Sr. On October 24, 1964; in Delhi, Ohio he married Kimmerlee J. Reynolds, which she survives him. He is also survived by his two daughters, Jennifer Collins (fiancé Patrick McNally and formerly married to Mark Hoeweler) and Emily Huss (Kenneth); his grandchildren, Nathan Hoeweler, Morgan Hoeweler, Austin Hoeweler, Evan Huss and Nolan Huss; sister, Patricia Roth (David) and brother, Edward Collins and many other loving family and close friends. Robert was a member of Trinity Episcopal Church in Hamilton, Ohio where he served as Warden, Vestry member, Mission organizer, and committed Usher. He immensely enjoyed and found peace in the mission to the Navajo Reservation. Robert was also,, a member of The Caledonian Society of Cincinnati where he served as the organizations 81st President; Member of the Losantiville Highlanders. Service will be at Trinity Episcopal Church, 115 N. 6th Street, Hamilton, Ohio 45011 on Saturday March 30, 2019 at 2:00 pm. A celebration of life will follow at 4:00 pm at Basil 1791, 241 High Street, Hamilton, Ohio 45011. ALL are welcome. In lieu of flowers the family would like to suggest donations be made to The Fitton Center for Creative Arts in support of scholarships for kids. Their address is 101 S. Monument Ave., Hamilton, Ohio 45011 Condolences may be offered at www.avancefuneralhome.com

Virginia (Ginni) Hutchison Bazler - - Virginia (Ginni) Hutchison Bazler, age 86, loving sister, aunt, community leader and passionate supporter of The Ohio State University, passed away peacefully at StoryPoint in Troy, Ohio on March 20, 2019. Ginni was born on September 27, 1932 in Columbus, Ohio to Chester S. Hutchison and Virginia (Black) Hutchison. She is preceded in death by her parents and her husband and true love, Frank E. Bazler. Ginni is survived by sister, Nancy Richard, 1 niece and 3 nephews and numerous loving relatives. Family will receive friends on Friday, March 29, 2019 from 12:00pm – 2:00pm at Baird Funeral Home, 555 N. Market Street, Troy, OH 45373, where funeral service will be held at 2:00 pm with burial following at Riverside Cemetery, Troy. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to The Ohio State University, c/o Virginia Hutchison Bazler Scholarship Fund (#600383), College of Education and Human Ecology, 172 Arps Hall, 1945 N. High Street, Columbus, Ohio 43210. A full obituary can be viewed and condolences may be expressed to the family at www.bairdfuneralhome.com.

Edwin Rufus Putman LEBANON - Edwin Rufus Putman, age 90, died Wednesday March 20, 2019 at Otterbein Of Lebanon. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on January 31, 1929 to Edwin and Adaline (Dressel) Putman. Ed served in the Army during the Korean War. He was employed with Anderson Funeral Home for 50 years. He was preceded in death by his parents and daughter, Melissa McClanahan. Ed is survived by his loving wife of 67 years, Janet Howison Putman, a son, Mark (Marge) Putman; son in law Don (Darlene) McClanahan, grandchildren, Sarah Putman, Alison (Liam) Gambill, Abigail Martin, and Andrew (Abbie) McClanahan and Mary Katherine McClanahan; also great grandchildren, Logan, Greyson, Charlotte, Aston and Odin. Memorial Services are 4:00 pm Saturday, March 30th at the Otterbein Chapel with George Phillips officiating. Visitation will begin at 3:00 pm until time of service. Please visit www.anderson-fh.com to send an online condolence.

Aloha Betzing-Heis

Joan Becker CINCINNATI - Joan A. Becker nee Carter – Loving and faithful wife of Walter H. Becker for 58 years. Beloved daughter of the late Beatrice and Robert W. Carter. Devoted and nurturing mother of Michael S. (Mariko) Becker, Douglas P. (Pamela) Becker and Daniel C. (Charleen) Becker. Dear grandmother of Samuel Becker, Anna (Nate) Lyons, Yukari Becker, Edan Bea Becker , Ryne Becker and Dara Becker. . Passed away March 16, 2019 at the age of 79. Joan was a natural educator. She worked energetically and creatively as a teacher and ESL department head at Withrow High School for 24 years, helping many waves of new immigrants from across Hamilton County learn to thrive in their new country and language. She enjoyed reading and was a skilled seamstress. She volunteered as a Sunday School Teacher at College Hill Presbyterian Church and as a Den Mother and Den Master of Pack 592 Cub Scouts in Groesbeck. What she loved most was spending time with her family, investing in the lives of her children and grandchildren Memorial Contributions may be made to The American Cancer Society or the Alzheimer’s Association. A funeral service will be held at 11:00 am Wednesday, March 27, 2019 at Paul R. Young Funeral Home, (Mt. Healthy) 7345 Hamilton Ave. Mt. Healthy OH 45231. Visiting hours will be held at the funeral home from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm Tuesday, March 26, 2019 or from 10:00 am till the time of the service on Wednesday. Online condolences can be made at www.paulyoungfuneralhome.com

Those we love don’t go away, they walk beside us

every day... unseen, unheard,

but always near,

still loved, still missed and very dear.

CINCINNATI - Lov-

ing mother of Aloha (Jesse) Cook, Donna (Dennis) Mangold and Raymond (Diane) Heis. Also survived by 10 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren. Preceded in death by many brothers and sisters. She was a resident of Colerain Twp. for over 60 years and drove a school bus for the Colerain School System. Aloha passed away Wednesday, March 20, 2019, at the age of 91. Visitation at Hodapp Funeral Home, 6041 Hamilton Ave., College Hill, Wednesday, March 27, from 11:30 a.m. until funeral service at 1 p.m. Memorials may be made to American Cancer Society. Condolences at hodappfuneralhome.com

Ohio

cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 9B

Ralph Garrett Brannock

Joyce Brown

CINCINATTI - Ralph Garrett Brannock, 98, of Cincinnati, loving husband of Thelma Derring Brannock for 78 years, passed away Thursday, March 21, 2019 at his home. Born December 6, 1920 in Harrison County, Kentucky to the late John William & Mabel Ballinger Brannock, he was a graduate of Berry High School, a former supervisor with General Electric and the Lodge & Shipley Machine Tool Co. and member of the Mason United Methodist Church. An avid golfer, he and Thelma also loved traveling to the beach. Additional survivors include a nephew, Danny (Alisa) Brannock, and niece, Robin (Jerry) Hill, both of Berry, Kentucky, his devoted niece & care-giver, Lynda Harvey, of Loveland, Ohio; and a large extended family along with many cherished friends. Also preceding him in death were his brother & sister-in-law, Robert B. & Mattie Brannock, and a niece, Linda Prather. Services will be 1:00 P.M. Monday, March 25, 2019 at Drake-Whaley-McCarty Funeral Home in Cynthiana, Kentucky by Bro. Jay Holt with burial following in Paris Cemetery, Paris, Kentucky. Family and friends will serve as Casketbearers. Visitation will be from 12:00 Noon Monday until the service. A Guest Book is available at www.drakefuneralhome.com.

WESTWOOD - Joyce M Brown (nee Tibbetts), beloved wife of the late Everett “Bud” Brown, loving mother of Diane (Karen Stamper) Brown, Gale (Dan) Watson, Dan (Lisa Hall) Brown, Dawn (John) Ambrose, Scott (Jennifer) Brown and Darlene (Jack) Cunningham, grandmother of 10, great grandmother of 15, sister of Marvin Tibbetts and the late George Tibbetts and Mary Hotze. Died, Wednesday, March 20, 2019 age 84. Please join the family for the funeral mass, Tuesday, 10:30 AM, St Catharine of Siena Church. Burial to follow in St Joseph Old Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the Alzheimer’s Assoc., 644 Linn St, Cincinnati (45203). . Arrangements entrusted to Rebold, Rosenacker & Sexton Funeral Home. Condolence may be shared and donations completed online at www.rebold.com

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Mildred Cusson UNION TWP. - Mildred “Millie” Cusson, 71, of Union Twp., passed away on March 20, 2019. Born November 10, 1947 in Cincinnati, OH, to the late Robert and Bertha Stenger. Beloved wife of the late Robert Allen Cusson. Loving mother of Renée Walter (Erick) and Christopher Cusson (Angelina). Meer Meer of Jaime Holden (Brian), Jon, Michèle, and Lily Tetrault. Great-grandmother of Estelle Holden. Sister of Helen Johnson (the late Jim). Aunt of numerous nieces and nephews. Also survived by her sister-in-law, Jenny Stenger. Preceded in death by her brother, William “Bill” Stenger. Visitation will be held at Mt. Moriah United Methodist Church, 681 Mt. Moriah Dr., Cincinnati, OH 45245, on Tuesday, March 26, 2019, from 11:00 AM until time of funeral service at 12:30 PM. Interment Mt. Moriah Cemetery. E.C. Nurre Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Memorial contributions may be made in honor of Millie to St. Jude www.stjude. org/donate

Go to: legacy.com/obituaries/cincinnati/

Dominick (Dom) D’Ambrosio JASPER, INDIANA - Dominick (Dom) D’Ambrosio, age 96, formerly of Cincinnati, passed away on Sunday, February 10, 2019, in Jasper, Indiana. Dominick was born August 16, 1922, in Kayford, West Virginia, the son of Italian immigrants, Rosella Amareno and Gerardo D’Ambrosio, a coal miner and shoemaker. He grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he married the love of his life, Mary Becker, on June 22, 1946, in St. Paul’s Catholic Church. Married 63 years, until Mary passed away in 2009, Dom moved to Jasper in 2015 to live with his daughter, Nancy Habig. In 1942, D’Ambrosio was working at the General Spring, Co. in Cincinnati to put himself through night school. He soon dove into a nascent organizing effort there, becoming president of his Local 820 union at age 19. He worked at the company until 1946, while studying at the University of Cincinnati Evening College, the Radio and Speech Department of the former Cincinnati College of Music, the Berlitz School of Languages and the Ohio College of Applied Science. Upon graduation, he became a radio DJ, specializing in jazz and classical music, in Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia. He returned to Cincinnati in 1949 to devote the rest of his career to the labor movement. D’Ambrosio quickly rose through the ranks of the Allied Industrial Workers (now part of the Steelworkers), serving as Director of Region 4 from 1957-1970 and International Secretary-Treasurer from 1970-1975. He was elected to serve four terms as International President of the Allied Industrial Workers from 19751991 in Milwaukee, WI, one of the youngest presidents of an AFL-CIO union at the time. D’Ambrosio was known for leading the nationwide union to embrace progressive strategies and build coalitions with other unions representing workers in common industries. Among the many accomplishments of his tenure, he co-chaired the Wisconsin Labor-En-

vironmental Network, a coalition of labor and environmental groups that effectively lobbied for the state’s landmark recycling legislation. He also championed the union’s involvement in coalition-building with the religious community to better the lives of all residents. He was a vocal critic of income inequality, advocating for higher wages, stronger pensions, and better conditions for workers throughout his career. Following retirement, Dom and Mary once again returned to their family in Cincinnati. Dom was an avid jazz, classical music, theater, art, and opera lover. He had a passion for singing and reciting poetry, which he did till his dying day. He was also an excellent athlete, despite a childhood accident that left him with a disabled left hand. Besides going to movies, plays, and concerts, and discussing politics and pop culture, Dom and Mary loved to dance. They were jitterbug champions in competitions on The Delta Queen and other venues throughout Cincinnati. In addition to his wife and parents, he was preceded in death by brothers, Phillip, Dominick, and Anthony (Dolores) D’Ambrosio, sister, Philomena (Jefferson) Cram, and brother-in-law, George (Jean) Becker. Dom is survived by his beloved daughter, Nancy (Doug) Habig, Jasper, IN, three grandchildren, Lauren (Ethan) Lowe of State College, Pennsylvania, Josh (Jennifer) Habig of San Diego, California, and Jill (Addisu Demissie) Habig of Oakland, California, four great-grandchildren, Aidan, Graham, and Alexandra Lowe, and Elise Habig, sister-in-law, Dorothy (Erwin) Hofmann, and several nieces and nephews. A Celebration of Dom’s Life will be held from 1:00-4:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 6, 2019, at Neidhard-Minges Funeral Home, 3155 Harrison, Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45211, with a Memorial Service at 2:30 p.m. Memorial contributions may be made to the Sisters of Saint Benedict in Ferdinand, Indiana, the Cincinnati Opera, or the Wisconsin Labor History Society. Online memorials may be made at www.neidhardminges.com.

10B ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

Helen L. Blackburn LIBERTY TWP. - (nee

Short), 88, beloved wife of William R. “Bill” Blackburn, devoted mother of Denise Blackburn, William E. “Bill” (Teresa) Blackburn and the late Sandra Potts, dear sister Lois Ann (John) Lorch, loving grandmother of 4, great-grandmother of 2. Passed away Monday, March 4, 2019. A Remembrance Gathering will take place Saturday, March 30, 2019 3:00-4:30 at Doverwood Village. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to the Cincinnati Dulcimer Society. Make checks payable to Cincinnati Dulcimer Society, c/o “In Memory of Helen” at 5032 Park Ridge Court, West Chester, Ohio 45069. Please visit MuellerfuneralS. com for the extended obituary and to sign online guestbook.

Aloha Heis CINCINNATI - See Betzing-Heis

notice.

Gerald R. Hice PALM HARBOR, FL.

- Gerald R. Hice passed away March 13, 2019 at the age of 78. Beloved husband of 50 years to the late Mary Jean Hice. Cherished father of Mike, Chris (Paul) Szydlowski, Joe (Julie), Russ, and the late Matthew Hice. Loving Grandpa of 11. Also survived by sister Jean Vidourek and brother Jim Hice. Quietly generous with anyone who needed a helping hand, Gerry taught us all to take care of those around us. He remained focused on the positive to the end, showing us the power of gratitude and importance of zest for life. Our rock is now at peace. Memorial Mass at St. Bartholomew, 9375 Winton Rd., Cincinnati, OH 45231 at 11 am April 3, 2019. Lunch reception immediately following service. If you wish, donations can be made to American Cancer Society, www. cancer.org.

OHIO

Ramona Gail Hubbard (nee Crooks) LEXINGTON - Ramona Gail Hubbard (nee Crooks), age 72, passed away on March 20, 2019. Formerly of West Chester, OH. Visitation will be held on Tuesday, March 26th from 11 AM until time of the Funeral Service at 1 PM at Paul R. Young Funeral Home, 7345 Hamilton Ave., Mt. Healthy, OH 45231. Interment at Arlington Memorial Gardens. For full obituary, see www.paulyoungfuneralhome. com .

Robert H. Kyle

Emeric W. Nordmeyer, O.F.M.

CINCINNATI - Robert H. Kyle, 64, of Cincinnati, OH died suddenly on Monday March 18, 2019. Survived by daughters Bobbie (Michael) Sauer and Brandi (Raphael) Hurier; grandchildren Xander, Reese, Dean, and Daphne; sister Jackie Covert, one niece and one nephew. Visitation will be Thursday March 28 from 6-8pm at Hay Funeral Home 7312 Beechmont Ave 45230. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be given to Bobbie or Brandi. More info at www.hayfuneralhome.com

ALBUQUERQUE - Emeric W. Nordmeyer, O.F.M., age 91, died peacefully on Friday, March 15th at San Juan Diego Friary in Albuquerque. Born April 12, 1927 in Batesville, Indiana. He was ordained a priest in Oldenburg, Indiana in 1956. Upon ordination to the priesthood, Emeric began a lifetime of mission work in the Southwest. He was preceded in death by his 2 brothers, John R. Nordmeyer and James W. Nordmeyer, and 1 sister, Virginia Graneto. He is survived by his brother Don Nordmeyer and his wife Tillie of Cincinnati, OH. Funeral services for Father Emeric were conducted at Holy Family Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Thursday morning, March 21, 2019. He was buried in the Franciscan plot at Mt. Calvary Cemetery in Albuquerque.

Melvin S. Hudson GREEN TOWNSHIP - Beloved husband of the late Gloria F.Hudson (Nee Ross). Loving father of Anna Marie (Eric) Kraeutle, Michael (Pamela), Joseph (Suzanne) and John (Christina) Hudson. Devoted grandfather Alex (Megan), Rebecca, Maura (Paul), Nathan (Dana), Chris, Jake, Andrew, Michael and great grandfather of Vivien and Arthur. Dear brother of Virginia (the late Richard) Teneover, the late Elmer Hudson and brother in law Georgia Hudson. Also survived by his nieces, nephews, other family and friends. Passed away peacefully on Tuesday, March 19, 2019 at 88 years of age. Visitation on MONDAY at MEYER FUNERAL HOME, 5864 Bridgetown Rd., from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM. Mass of Christian Burial on TUESDAY at St. Aloysius Gonzaga Church, 4366 Bridgetown Rd., at 10:00 AM. In lieu of flowers memorials may be made to Hospice of Cincinnati, PO Box 633597, Cincinnati, OH 45263. www.bjmeyer.com

Frank Johnson CINCINNATI - Frank

C. Johnson, age 65, passed away on March 19, 2019. Born to the late Frank and Cecelia Johnson. He leaves behind his beloved partner Karen Kelley, sister Denise Johnson and many friends and colleagues. He was a radio announcer on WGUC for the past 20 years. Memorial services will be held at a later date. Memorials in honor of Frank may be directed to: WGUC 1223 Central Parkway Cincinnati, OH 45214 or wguc.org; or VITAS Community Connection, PO Box 645352, Cincinnati, OH 45264 or vitascommunityconnection.org. Spring Grove Funeral Homes is in charge of handling arrangements.

Alfred A. Moore INDIAN HILL - Me-

morial service for Alfred A. Moore will be held Saturday March 30, 2019 at 10 AM at The Indian Hill Church followed by a reception at The Camargo Club. Online condolences at rohdefuneral.com

Alvin H “Al” Mack CHEVIOT - ALVIN H. “AL” MACK, devoted hus-

band of the late Betty Jane Ragan Mack, loving father of Donald (Nancy) Mack, Thomas (Darlene) Mack, Kathleen (Thomas) Griley and Deborah (Birgir) Mishurda, loving grandfather 9 and 15 great grandchildren, son of the late Martin and Hilda Kegle Mack, brother of the late William “Bill” Mack. Died, Saturday March 16, 2019 age 94. WW II Army Veteran. Al and Bill were well known Cheviot, Westwood and Western Hills concrete contractors. The “stamp” can be seen on sidewalks and driveways all around the city. Visitation at Rebold, Rosenacker & Sexton Funeral Home, 3700 Glenmore Ave, Cheviot, Friday, March 29, 10:30 AM until the funeral service at 12 Noon. Burial with Military Honors to follow in Bridgetown Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to Artis Senior Living, 5799 Bridgetown Rd (45248) or Queen City Hospice, 8250 Kenwood Crossing Way #200, (45236). Condolence may be shared and donations completed online at www.rebold.com

Karen Mary O’Donnell LOVELAND - Karen Mary O’Donnell – Beloved daughter of John H. and Marian L. O’Donnell. Loving sister of John H. O’Donnell Jr. Cherished Cousin of Michael (Shelley) Herbig, Craig Herbig, Eric (Candy) Pfau and Sandi (Michael) Johnson. Passed away on March 20, 2019 at the age of 53. Karen was a highly valued employee of Associated Premium Corporation as an artist and designer. She worked every Saturday with UC Pet Therapy where she, alongside her dogs Frankie and Lexi, provided comfort and strength to people during their hardest times. Karen also was an accomplished martial artist having reached the rank of 5th degree black belt over her 30 years of practice. She was a bright light and will be missed by everyone who knew her. A visitation will be held from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm, Wednesday March 27th, 2019 at Paul R. Young Funeral Home (Mt. Healthy) 7345 Hamilton Ave, Mt. Healthy, OH 45231. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held 10:30 am, Thursday March 28, 2019 at Church of the Assumption, 7711 Joseph St, Cincinnati, OH 45231. Interment at Arlington Memorial Gardens. Online condolences can be made at www.paulyoungfuneralhome.com

Ohio

Name Age Aker, Betty Ruth 84 *Averbeck, Marlene 84 *Bazler, Virginia (Ginni) Hutchison 86 *Becker, Joan 79 Bell, Thomas 89 *Betzing-Heis, Aloha 91 *Blackburn, Helen L. 88 Bogan, Ella 91 Boldman, Donna 85 *Brannock, Ralph Garrett 98 *Brown, Joyce 84 *Burkart, Sr., Joseph George 82 Chatman, Cornelius 56 *Collins, Jr., Robert G. 75 *Cusson, Mildred 71 *D’Ambrosio, Dominick (Dom) 96 Dadosky, Alice 88 Finklea, Erik Dion 30 Foster, William E. 79 Greenhut, Tamara M. 64 Hatfield, Gail 55 *Heis, Aloha 91 *Hice, Gerald R. 78 *Hogan, Genevieve 72 Hood, Ina 82 *Hubbard , Ramona Gail 72 *Hudson, Melvin S. 88 *Hughes, Sandy 71 Jackson , Virginia 82

Town, State Morrow Westwood Cincinnati Cincinnati Cincinnati Liberty Twp. Cincinnati Fairfield Cincinatti Westwood Alexandria Cincinnati Hamilton Union Twp. Jasper, Indiana Cincinnati Cincinnati Amelia Hamilton Fairfield Cincinnati Palm Harbor, FL. Florence Cincinnati Lexington Green Township Latonia Cleves

cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 11B

TODAY’S OBITUARIES AND DEATH NOTICES

Death Date Arrangements 19-Mar Tufts Schildmeyer - Loveland 20-Mar Rebold 20-Mar Baird Funeral 16-Mar Paul R. Young Funeral 18-Mar Walker Funeral 20-Mar Hodapp-College Hill 04-Mar Mueller Funeral 15-Mar Fares J. Radel Funeral 18-Mar Webster Funeral 21-Mar Drake-Whaley-McCarty FH 20-Mar Rebold 13-Mar Fares J. Radel Funeral Home 17-Mar Walker Funeral Home 19-Mar AvanceFuneralHomeandCrematory 20-Mar E.C. Nurre - Amelia 10-Feb Neidhard-MingesFuneralHome 18-Mar Fares J. Radel Funeral Home 17-Mar Preston Charles Funeral Home 20-Mar Walker Funeral Home 21-Mar WebsterFuneralHome,Fairfield 20-Mar Webster Funeral Home 20-Mar Hodapp-College Hill 13-Mar 18-Mar Stith Funeral Home, Florence 08-Mar Fares J. Radel Funeral Home 20-Mar PaulR.YoungFuneralHome(Mt.Healthy) 19-Mar MeyerFuneralHomeandCrematory 19-Mar Floral Hills Funeral Home 20-Mar Dennis George Funeral Home

Name Jenkins, James *Johnson, Frank Kittrell, Wiley Alan *Kyle, Robert H. Livingston, Sr., James A. Locke, Alice *Lutes, Hobert *Mack, Alvin H“Al” Meyer, Sandra L. *Moore, Alfred A. Morrow, Annie Lois *Nordmeyer, O.F.M., Emeric W. *O’Donnell, Karen Mary *Parker, Marlyn Elaine Sewell Patrino, James *Pechiney, John“Jack” Porter, Donnetta Lynn *Putman, Edwin Rufus *Revis, Bobby Rogers, Calvin Louis Sams, Evelyn M. Schuermann, Virginia Stowers, Sandra D. Sweeten, David *Toelke, Marlene Westbrook, Marquita *Wooley, Sharon *Young (nee Craig), Frances *Zeis, Joan

* Additional information in display obituaries

Age 62 65 73 64 70 91 88 94 71 93 76 91 53 93 59 90 60 90 56 88 81 99 74 70 77 36 86 75

Town, State Alexandria Cincinnati Cincinnati Cincinnati Forest Park Falmouth Covington Cheviot Monroe Indian Hill Cincinnati Albuquerque Loveland Milford Cincinnati Springdale Cincinnati Lebanon Cincinnati Cincinnati Town Aurora Bridgetown Cincinnati Hamilton Cincinnati Cincinnati Green Township Villa Hills

Death Date Arrangements 22-Mar Peoples Funeral Home-Butler 19-Mar Spring Grove Funeral Homes 08-Mar Fares J. Radel Funeral Home 18-Mar HayFuneralHomeandCremationCenter 20-Mar Preston Charles Funeral Home 21-Mar PeoplesFuneralHome-Falmouth 20-Mar Swindler&Currin FuneralHome-Latonia 16-Mar Rebold 16-Mar Dalbert,Woodruff&Isenogle FuneralHome 27-Dec Geo. H. Rohde & Son 18-Mar Walker Funeral Home 15-Mar 20-Mar Paul R. Young Funeral Home 12-Mar 17-Mar W.E. Lusain Funeral Home 23-Feb Neidhard-MingesFuneralHome 17-Mar Walker Funeral Home 20-Mar Anderson Funeral Home 21-Mar Hodapp (Carthage) 18-Mar Preston Charles Funeral Home 21-Mar Markland Funeral Home 20-Mar Gump-Holt Funeral Home 17-Mar Preston Charles Funeral Home 19-Mar WebsterFuneralHome,Fairfield 21-May Frederick 20-Mar Preston Charles Funeral Home 15-Mar Oswald-HoskinsFuneralHome,Lebanon 14-Mar 22-Mar Middendorf Funeral Home

Obituaries appear in print and online at www.legacy.com/obituaries/Cincinnati

John “Jack” Pechiney SPRINGDA L E

Pechiney, John “Jack” Beloved husband for 66 years of Peg (nee Lange) Pe c h i n e y. Loving father of Robert (Dawn Marie) Pechiney and John B. (Susan) Pechiney. Cherished grandpa of of Jeffrey (Carina), Elizabeth, Catherine (fiance Brian), Gabrielle, Erik, and Jenna. Passed away February 23rd at the age of 90. A Memorial Mass will be held at the convenience of the family. Memorials may be made to the Village Home Health and Hospice c/o Maple Knoll 11100 Springfield Pike, Cincinnati, OH 45246. www.neidhardminges.com

Marlyn Elaine Sewell Parker

Marlene Toelke

Sharon Wooley

MILFORD Marlyn Sewell Parker of Milford, Ohio was born 9/9/25, passed peacefully 3/12/19. Please visit memorial page http://www.forevermissed. com/marlynparker.

CINCINNATI - Marlene Rose Toelke (nee Mohr), beloved wife of the late Donald L. Toelke Sr. Devoted mother of Donald Toelke Jr., Stephen Toelke and Margaret “Peggy” (Robert) Gleason. Loving grandmother of John Gleason and Caroline (Ian) Lyons. Dear sister of Margaret Ann (Michael) Contadino. Marlene passed away Thursday, March 21, 2019, at the age of 77. Visitation at St. Boniface Church, 1750 Chase Avenue on Monday (March 25) from 9:00 A.M. until time of Mass of Christian Burial at 10:00 A.M. In lieu of flowers, memorials my be made to Hospice of Cincinnati - East, 7691 Five Mile Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45230. Special condolences may be expressed at frederickfh.com

- - On March 15, 2019 Sharon Wooley passed away. She was born to Willie and Ida Isaacs and was preceded in death by both parents. She’s survived by her children Kelli (Angela), Denise, Dennis (Tina), Glenda (Gaylene), and her grandchildren Casey, Anastasia, Alexis, Aaron, Austin, Megan, Brandon, Bonnie and Dennis 3rd, and nieces and nephews. Visitation and memorial services will be held at Oswald-Hoskins in Lebanon on March 26, 2019 at 5pm.

Bobby Revis CINCINNATI - REVIS, BOBBY B. Loving son of Anis and the late Jack W. Revis. Dear brother of Michael (Janet) Revis, Jack (Ramona) Revis, and Barry Revis. Uncle of Michael, Katie, Ragan, and Jack III . Bobby passed away suddenly Thursday March 21, 2019 at the age of 56. Visitation will be held at Hodapp Funeral Home, 7401 Vine St., Carthage, Wednesday from 10 until time of funeral service at 12 noon. Condolences to hodappfuneralhome.com

forever in your heart.

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Frances Young (nee Craig) GREEN TOWNSHIP - Frances Young (nee Craig). Preceded in death by husband Tommy Young. Loving mother of Lynn Lee (Don Lee), Lisa Schneider (Ron Schneider) and Tom Young (Kevin Cox). Devoted grandmother of Scott Lee, Kristyn Mulder (Brian Mulder), Lauren Stowe (Jason Stowe), Lindsey Addison (Aaron Addison) and Karlie Bunch (John Bunch). Great-grandmother of 13. Beloved sister of Jack Craig (Nancy Craig) and Connie Owens (David Owens). Preceded in death by brother Leo Craig (Shirley Craig) and sisters Ruth Reynolds (Bill Reynolds) and Tony Morgan (Larry Morgan). Died March 14, 2019. Age 86. A celebration of life will be held at noon Saturday, March 30 at Nathanael Greene Lodge, Veterans Park, 6394 Wesselman Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45248. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Hospice of Cincinnati, P.O. Box 633597 Cincinnati, OH 45263 or The Alzheimer’s Association Greater Cincinnati Chapter, 644 Linn Street, Suite 1026 Cincinnati, OH 45203

12B ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

UC is turning 200 and we want you to be part of the celebration.

COMMUNITY DAY APRIL 6 main campus

8 AM–12:45 PM Morning breakfast panel, educational sessions NOON–2 PM Interactive displays and Open House

MOMENTUM LIGHT SHOW

A spectacular cap on UC’s Community Day, from the creative force behind Blink and Lumenocity

SATURDAY, APRIL 6 7:30 PM 200.uc.edu

The Enquirer

❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019

❚ 1D

Business

Ohio gas guessing game When it comes to the quality of gasoline, Ohioans rely on blind luck. 4D

Is it better to get a tax refund or nothing? Janna Herron USA TODAY

Experts predict homebuyers will continue to face high prices and cutthroat competition during the peak spring and summer selling seasons. GETTY IMAGES

Spring real estate: Is buyer relief in sight? Randy Tucker

See HOMEBUYING, Page 3D

The number of homes for sale typically spikes in spring and summer. LIstings by month for Southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky: 7K 6K 5K 4K 3K 2K 1K 0 Ju l-1 8 Au g18 Se p18 O ct -1 8 N ov -1 8 D ec -1 8 Ja n19

Brutal. That’s how the head of Cincinnati’s largest Realtor group described last year’s spring and summer home sales season in which many buyers were priced out of the market or couldn’t afford to get in. Will buyers see more of the same this year? “It depends,” said Michelle Billings, president of the Cincinnati Area Board of Realtors (CABR). Billings expects the number of homes for sale in Greater Cincinnati to rise during the spring and summer months, as usual, giving buyers more options. But it’ll take a dramatic surge in the volume of homes on the market to lower prices and ease competition, she said.

Homes for sale

Ja n18 Fe b18 M ar -1 8 Ap r18 M ay -1 8 Ju n18

Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

Sources: Cincinnati Area Board of Realtors/ NKY Association of Realtors

The biggest tax code overhaul in decades has made sport of tracking this year’s average tax refund size. Currently, this year’s refund is $22 higher versus last year. The scrutiny is also reviving an even older and highly emotional debate over the fi nancial soundness of getting a refund at all. While fi nancial experts say it’s smarter to receive bigger paychecks during the year rather than a refund, that’s not what most Americans do. About 7 in 10 typically get a refund, which may help sustain the fi nancially fl awed practice. “The ubiquity of it disqualifi es the logical reason to not do it,” says Kit Yarrow, a consumer psychologist and professor emerita at Golden Gate University. “It doesn’t feel like a mistake if everyone is doing it.” But there are other deep-seated – and not necessarily irrational – reasons why people choose refunds over larger paychecks. There’s also just as much passion from the minority of taxpayers who prefer to zero out their taxes. Here are their takes.

The new ‘Christmas Club’ Donna Batton, a retired grandmother and widow, uses her tax refund to replenish the money she took out of her savings to pay for Christmas gifts. Her strategy echoes a long-ago service banks oﬀ ered called Christmas clubs, says Hal Arkes, an emeritus professor of psychology at Ohio State University. Banks would sequester a small sum each month from a customer’s account into a non-interest-bearing one that couldn’t be tapped until November. “Without this, they would spend money throughout the year,” says Arkes. “Because they didn’t have the self-control.” Batton realizes she could get larger pension and Social Security checks and squirrel that money away each month for the holidays. “But I never seem to be able to do that,” says the 76-year-old, who habitually gets refunds. “I live paycheck to paycheck. At the end of the month, it gets hard, and things come See TAXES, Page 3D

2D ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

Business

TV series ‘Billions’ seeks suit dismissal Strictly Legal Jack Greiner Guest columnist

The Showtime Network recently asked a New York City-based federal court to grant a motion to dismiss a lawsuit fi led by the makers of the Showtime series “Billions” in a copyright infringement action brought by the author of a non-fi ction treatise on executive coaching. The case illustrates the perils faced by any creative work. “Billions” details the ongoing battle between a hedge fund trader named Bobby “Axe” Axelrod and a U.S. Attorney named Chuck Rhoades, who is investigating Axelrod for fi nancial crimes. Complicating the action is Rhoades’ wife, Wendy, an executive coach who’d worked extensively with Axelrod. She is also a dominatrix. A real life executive coach named

Denise Shull, who wrote a nonfi ction book called “Market Mind Games,” fi led the suit. The book relies on neuroscience and presents a system of market trading that instructs readers how to use their feelings and emotional assets to outperform the market. As part of the book, Shull uses a fi ctional character to illustrate her theories. The character is a hedge fund trader who attends a lecture by Shull and ultimately fi nds success when he overcomes his resistance to her theories and applies her advice. The book does not appear to contain any depictions of domination. Shull’s suit claims that “Billions” – by incorporating a hedge fund executive coach in the plot – infringed her copyright on ... something. And that is the primary reason Showtime argues her claim should fail. A copyright protects expression, not an idea. So even if the Wendy Rhoades character was inspired by Shull (and that point was not conced-

ed), that alone would not support a copyright claim. As the motion notes, “it has long been recognized that all ﬁ ctional plots, when abstracted to a suﬃ cient level of generalization, can be described as similar to other plots.” It further notes the “essence of infringement lies in taking not a general theme but its particular expression through similarities of treatment, details, scenes, events and characterizations.” In short, if the writers of “Billions” said, “let’s have Chuck’s wife be an executive coach like Denise Shull,” that’s not infringement. But if they said, “and here’s the text of a lecture that Shull gave recently, let’s make that part of the next episode’s dialogue,” that could be a problem. The lecture is actual expression, not just an idea. Showtime also argued that Shull’s case should fail because of the lack of similarity between the two works. Simply put, an infringing work has to

look and/or sound like the original. That is not the case here. As the motion says, “ ‘Market Mind Games’ is primarily an academic work of nonﬁ ction meant as a guide to help traders trade better, while ‘Billions’ is a richly realized ﬁ ctional television series that deals with age-old themes of power, sex and money. This is not a case about the copying of actual sentences or content from a work.” The motion notes that “popular movies and television series are common targets for baseless copyright claims ... in case after case, these claims are dismissed because, inevitably, no similarity exists beyond abstract ideas, facts or random words or phrases – much less the substantial similarity the law requires.” Showtime contends that Shull’s case is indeed one of those cases. Jack Greiner is a lawyer with Graydon in Cincinnati. He represents Enquirer Media in First Amendment and media issues.

How to (and how not to) pick 401(k) funds Simply Money Amy Wagner & Nathan Bachrach Guest columnists

This spring, Simply Money Advisors is becoming Allworth Financial. As we expand our services to better meet your retirement planning needs, we needed a name that encompasses all that we are. Don’t worry. We’ll still deliver our same no-nonsense money advice every week in the Simply Money column, presented by Allworth Financial. Paul in Florence: How do I choose the best investments for my 401(k)? Answer: We’re going to answer this question in a way you might not expect – explaining what you shouldn’t do. It can be very tempting to look at your fund selection, pick a few that have performed the best over the last few years, then call it a day. But we want to reiterate a phrase that’s included in pretty much every single ﬁ nancial disclaimer: past performance is not indicative of future results. Just because a fund has done well over the last year or so doesn’t mean it’s destined to do well again. You also don’t want to look at your 401(k) as a silo. Any decisions need to be made within the greater context of your ﬁ nancial goals. This includes the types of funds you pick as well as your investment mix of stocks and bonds.

Every investment comes with some kind of risk. You want to be able to meet your fi nancial goals while also being able to sleep at night. With all that said, in general, we prefer index funds to individual stocks or actively traded funds. Look for funds that provide broad U.S. exposure. And to stay diversifi ed, some international exposure can be benefi cial as well. And don’t forget about bonds – these can act like “shock absorbers” when the market is down. If you’re completely overwhelmed, see if your 401(k) plan off ers a Target Date Fund. This is a fund that “glides” towards your retirement year. The closer you get to that date, the less risk it will take (in theory). But while a Target Date Fund is a good starting point, we don’t recommend this kind of fund if you’re within fi ve to 10 years of retirement – by this point, you should seek out customized retirement advice for your particular situation. The Simply Money Point: Don’t get overwhelmed with your 401(k) investment options. Keep it simple and view it as just one part of your overall fi nancial plan. Julie in Hebron: I’m thinking of buying a brand-new car. I have enough money to pay for it outright, but not sure if that’s the right thing to do. Should I use that money or fi nance it? Answer: The anticipation and excitement of owning a new car (No scratches or dings! The perfectly clean interior! That “new car” smell!) can make some people blind to the fi nan-

cial considerations, so we’re glad you’re taking the time to fi gure out the best route to take. You say you “have enough money” to pay for the car in cash. But where is this money? Is it liquid, perhaps sitting in a savings account? Or are you counting money that’s in a traditional IRA or 401(k)? Because there’s a big diff erence between withdrawing money penalty-free from a savings account versus withdrawing it from a retirement account – you’ll pay taxes, and depending on your age, a penalty on the latter. However, also keep in mind that depleting an account that serves as an emergency fund for the sole purpose of buying a new car is not recommended. But let’s say you have the money sitting in a savings account and you won’t be jeopardizing your fi nancial situation by making the withdrawal. The upside of using cash is avoiding interest payments. Let’s say you buy a $30,000 car and put 20 percent down ($6,000). A 48-month loan for $24,000 at 4.68 percent interest (the latest average according to Bankrate.com) will ultimately cost you $26,363. This means that car really costs $32,363 thanks to the extra $2,363 in interest payments. So, yes, while fi nancing uses someone else’s money (like a bank’s) to free up your money for other needs, you’re paying for that “luxury.” Paying in cash also better allows you to stick to a budget – it’s way too easy to keep infl ating your monthly payment when fi nancing, thus increasing the total amount

you’re paying for the car. And it’s important to note the two main distinctions between a mortgage and a car loan. Unlike a home (in most cases), a car is a depreciating asset meaning it loses value the second you drive it off the lot. If you fi nance, it’s easy to owe more than the car is worth right from the get-go. Plus, also unlike a mortgage, a car loan doesn’t come with a tax break. Here’s The Simply Money Point: Unless you can fi nd a zero percent fi nancing deal, it might make sense in your particular situation to pay in cash. But you need to run the numbers to be sure. A perk of working with a fi nancial adviser is that he or she can help you make “everyday” money decisions like this one by analyzing the “opportunity cost.” Responses are for informational purposes only and individuals should consider whether any general recommendation in these responses are suitable for their particular circumstances based on investment objectives, fi nancial situation and needs. To the extent that a reader has any questions regarding the applicability of any specific issue discussed above to his/her individual situation, he/she is encouraged to consult with the professional advisor of his/her choosing, including a tax advisor and/or attorney. Nathan Bachrach and his team off er fi nancial planning services through Simply Money Advisors, a SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Call (513) 469-7500 or email simplymoney@simplymoney advisors.com.

cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 3D

Business

Mortgage rates down

Homebuying

Mortgage ratessince down has declined sharply the end of last year.

No relief in sight for buyers Based on the latest fi gures, the number of homes for sale in Southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky continues to slide. That means sellers are under little pressure to seek anything less than top-dollar for hard-to-fi nd properties. In Southwest Ohio, the inventory of homes for sale dropped to 4,044 in January - the lowest level for January in more than a decade and down about 3 percent from the same month a year earlier. Northern Kentucky followed suit as the number of active listings in January fell by 7 percent from 1,253 to 1,167 in year-over-year comparison. Nationally, however, the number of homes on the market has begun to inch higher, which could bode well for Cincinnati-area buyers if the trend catches on here. Across the U.S., for-sale inventory rose 3 percent in February, according to a report Thursday from real estate market-tracker, Zillow. February was the fi fth month out of the past six months in which U.S. inventory was up, after declining for 44 straight months, Zillow found. “Buyers aren’t out of the woods yet, but there is a glimmer of light on the horizon,” said Aaron Terrazas, a Zillow economist. In addition to more choices, home buyers are also likely to benefi t from mortgage rates that have been dropping since late last year. The average 30-year fi xed-rate mortgage has fallen to 4.31 percent, down from 4.41 percent a week ago and 4.44 percent a year ago, Freddie Mac reported Thursday.

Rates by month: The average rate on a 30-year, xed-rate mortgage has declined sharply since the end of last year. Rates 4.9 by month: 4.9 4.7 4.8 4.6

$200,896

Average home price in Northern Kentucky in January

4.7 4.5

Sources: Cincinnati Area Board of Realtors; Northern Kentucky Ass. of Realtors

4.6 4.4 4.5 4.3 4.4 4.3

Source: Bankrate.com

Sellers in charge

up that you’re not prepared for.” She’s not missing out on much, she reasons. Her tax refund this year was $683. If she had deposited $57 a month last year into a savings account – and received 2 percent in a high-yielding online account – she would have made $8 in interest over the year. That’s not worth the peace of mind knowing the money will be there after spending on Christmas. “I just like knowing I have that refund to put back into my savings,” she says.

be put toward a big purchase, vacation or other small luxury. “There is a level of excitement that people feel around their tax refund,” Yarrow says. “That’s intoxicating.” Matt Riley of Forsyth, Illinois, has earmarked this year’s refund for a bathroom remodel in his new home. Other times the cash went toward a trip. “It’s a little fun fund,” says the 24year-old bank trust oﬃ cer. He prefers the smaller paychecks because they force him to live on less each month. “Then that refund is a nice treat,” Riley says. “From a ﬁ nancial standpoint, it doesn’t make too much sense. But from a behavioral perspective, March is a happy month when I get that money.”

An emotional high

Lost opportunity

Tax refunds can also feel like a windfall or lottery winnings that can

The biggest gripe that money-savvy folks have against refunds is that

they are interest-free loans to the federal government. They aren’t wrong. Over the year, you pay too much in tax from your paycheck to Uncle Sam, who then refunds that extra amount after you fi le your taxes – with no interest. At the very least, any extra in each paycheck could go into a savings account and earn interest, these fi nancial gurus say. A better strategy would be to use those extra dollars to pay off high-interest credit card debt, even if you had planned to put the refund toward that same balance. “That won’t be as good because you could have whittled the balance down throughout the year,” Arkes says. Once people understand there’s a better use for that money – called opportunity cost in economics – they’re less likely to want a refund, Arkes says. Take Joe Berry, a math and social

Continued from Page 1D

Home prices have been on the rise for at least two straight years

$191,575

The current rate is the lowest it’s been since February last year. Low Bankrate.com rates have improved aﬀ ordaSource: bility for prospective homebuyers, and there’s little indication they will move up dramatically anytime soon, said Jim Simpson, president of the Northern Kentucky Realtor group. “Interest rates have come back down a little bit, and the Fed (Federal Reserve) says it’s going to be patient on raising interest rates further,” Simpson said. “That always helps the capacity of buyers.”

Taxes

Home prices up

Average home price in Cincinnati in January

4.8

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Continued from Page 1D

The average rate on a 30-year, xed-rate mortgage

While the outlook for buyers may not be as bleak this year, the coming months promise to be another prime season for sellers. Home prices continue to climb in Southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky, putting sellers in position to command premium prices for their homes. The January average home price for the Cincinnati area climbed to $200,896, up about 2.7 percent from

the same month a year earlier, according to the latest ﬁ gures available from CABR. In Northern Kentucky, the average home price rose even faster, reaching $191,575 in January, up about 3 percent from the previous year. As long as inventories stay low, asking prices are likely to continue to move up. That’s good and bad news for sellers who may have to wait a little longer to sell as more buyers sit on the sidelines or simply shun homeownership because it’s too expensive. The pace of home sales locally has already begun to pull back after years of robust gains. Sales have waned, in part, because some potential sellers are simply scared they’ll have no place to go, said Donna Deaton, a Realtor at RE/MAX Victory in Liberty Township. “There are a lot of people out there who want to sell, but they’re afraid they’ll be homeless because they can’t ﬁ nd another house,” Deaton said. “That’s going to continue to be a challenge until more people start listing their homes.”

“March is a happy month when I get that money.” Matt Riley

Forsyth, Illinois, bank trust officer

studies teacher outside Evansville, Indiana. He and his wife used to get the biggest refund possible, he says. But three years ago, after talking with friends who are ﬁ nancial planners, he now tries to zero out his taxes. The extra money goes to his Roth IRA or his son’s 529 college savings plan. “While I could fund (these) with a large refund at the end of the year, I’d be missing out on compounding interest,” he says. Asked if he was familiar with “opportunity cost,” Berry said: “I teach that to my ﬁ fth-graders.”

4D ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

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cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 5D

Opinion Central Parkway top site for police station Your Turn Tim Jeckering and Sue Wilke Guest columnists

Cincinnati City Council and its Neighborhoods Committee must base their upcoming decision about where to place the new District 5 police headquarters on economics and not public pressure, internal politics or promises made. Based on cost alone, the clear choice is the former Permit

Center on Central Parkway. Between fall 2017 and spring 2018, the city conducted an extensive review of sites for the new District 5 station with multiple opportunities for community input. The planning department investigated over 35 sites, narrowing the list of candidates to 11, then four and ﬁ nally two – a spot in a College Hill shopping center and the former Permit Center on Central Parkway. As participants, we found the process to be open to input and thorough in assessment. The Central Parkway location carries a price tag of $9.7 million compared to the estimated $22.5 million

cost of the College Hill site. With the city facing a reported $19 million budget deﬁ cit, an empty rainy day fund and potential cuts, it makes no sense to spend nearly three times as much on the College Hill location. The difference in cost would be more wisely spent on neighborhood support projects, infrastructure repair and basic services to name a few. In addition to cost, there are other issues with the College Hill site. The project could be delayed for years as existing shopping center store leases need to be purchased or left to expire. Several minority-owned small businesses would also be displaced.

Plus, Central Parkway is more geographically favorable. The site has a more centralized location versus being at the far perimeter of District 5, which ranges from College Hill to Clifton Heights and Fairview. The ﬁ nal decision on this project impacts all of us who pay taxes. We hope citizens who are concerned about unnecessary expenditures share their concerns with City Council at CityCouncil@cincinnati-oh.gov. We call on the members of council to do the ﬁ scally right thing. Tim Jeckering lives in Northside. Sue Wilke is a member of Northside Community Council.

Trump should practice what Bible preaches Kevin Aldridge Columnist Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

So many news events happen during the course of a month that it’s impossible to write about them all. In this monthly column, I’ll share some thoughts about the national, state and local happenings that caught my attention. Should anyone be surprised that President Donald Trump – a man who once said that “I alone can fi x” what ails America – would have the audacity to autograph The Holy Bible? Trump signed Bibles for tornado survivors during his visit to Alabama on March 8. If the president is going to autograph The Bible, he could at least read it fi rst. How do I know he hasn’t? (You mean other than the fact he doesn’t like to read and seldom goes to church?) Check out the company he keeps, some of his policies and how he speaks about people. Give the King of Exaggeration another week and he’ll have convinced his base he’s responsible for creating the universe in fi ve days. One day better than God because he “knows how to build things.” Evangelicals, there is an answer in

the Bible to the Book of Donald (and it’s not found in “Two Corinthians.”) Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 13:4-8: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails ...”

Keep the door closed, Hillary Speaking of God, let’s thank him that Hillary Clinton has decided to sit out the 2020 presidential election. Clinton declared this month that she more than likely wouldn’t run, but she didn’t rule it out. Clinton had her shot at the Oval Offi ce – twice. And in 2016, as the Democratic nominee, she lost the most winnable election of all time. Trump had to be licking his chops at the prospect of facing Clinton in a potential rematch of America’s Most Hated. A Clinton candidacy would have surely fi red up the Trump base, struck up the “lock her up” chorus and provided the re-election defi brillation our embattled president could certainly use right now. So thanks, Hillary, for remaining

on the sidelines and sparing us another uninspiring campaign. Let’s see what this fresh crop of progressives has to oﬀ er.

Reparations? Sure, and Mexico really will pay for the wall Welcome to campaign silly season. The period leading to a primary election where candidates are scrambling to diff erentiate themselves from the fi eld by making bold pronouncements and pandering to certain groups with far-out and impractical promises. Take Democratic presidential candidate and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. She has stated her support of a bill that would form a commission to study slavery and develop reparations proposals. Warren knows full well how politically improbable getting reparations for African-Americans is. Sort of like telling Americans we can build a wall on our southern border and Mexico will pay for it. As optimistic as Barack Obama, our nation’s fi rst black president, was, even he believed the odds of winning the Powerball were better than mobilizing the country around a benefi t specifi c to African-Americans as a consequence of slavery and Jim Crow. Americans want to hear bold visions from presidential candidates,

but they also want to know those proposals can actually get done. Candidates need to stop blowing smoke and put forth plans that have a reasonable chance of getting political support. Don’t insult black voters by letting your mouth write a check that you know Congress won’t ever cash. Sorry, senator, I’m not falling for the banana in the tailpipe.

Don’t judge a person by his hat There’s been much debate lately about “Make America Great Again” hats and what they symbolize and say about the wearer. If you were listening closely, President Trump gave us a hint during his 2-hour speech before the Conservative Political Action Conference earlier this month. “Those red hats – and white ones. The key is in the color,” he said. You said it, chief, not me. Believe it or not, I tend to agree with Trump supporters who argue that people shouldn’t judge a person by his or her MAGA hat. Just like we shouldn’t judge someone wearing a “Black Lives Matter” shirt, a hoodie or a hijab. Opinion Editor Kevin S. Aldridge can be reached at kaldridge@enquirer .com. Twitter: @kevaldrid.

READ AND SHARE OPINIONS Reading and commenting online: To view editorials, letters and op-eds online, visit cincinnati.com/news/editorials-letters. Those with Facebook accounts may post comments on individual items. Kevin Aldridge, kaldridge@enquirer.com

WRITING LETTERS OR OP-EDS: Letters of up to 200 words may be submitted by ﬁ lling out the form at static.cincinnati.com/letter/ or emailing letters@enquirer.com. Include name, address, community and daytime phone number. Op-eds are submitted the same way except they should be 500-600 words and also include a one-sentence bio and head shot. Due to our volume of mail, we are only able to publish items received electronically. Submissions may be edited for space and clarity, and may be published or distributed in print, electronic or other forms

6D ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

Forum Ohio gas Continued from Page 4D

three independent tests to sample the quality of Ohio's fuel. The results of these tests indicate unacceptable failure levels. A 1999 Department of Agriculture survey of 135 Ohio gas stations in 23 local jurisdictions found that 21 percent of the samples of regular gas collected didn’t meet minimum quality standards. In 2005, the testing of 240 service stations in Summit County found "dozens of violations." Typically from 20 to 25 percent of regular gas tested doesn’t pass in locales with no consumer protection programs. That was the experience in Missouri in 1999 and in West Virginia prior to beginning a regular testing program. Once fuel quality testing started, the West Virginia fail rate dropped to under 5 percent. That

seems to have happened every time a program of fuel quality testing has begun. The instances of bad gas or octane problems drops once testing begins. This is pretty basic. Once they know it can and will be checked, the bad guys stop their games. And of course, the converse is true. If they know no one is looking, some people will try to take advantage. The best part of instituting fuel testing is the minimal cost to taxpayers. When was the last time you heard that government wanted to provide a new service – without handing taxpayers a huge bill to do it? The major expense of beginning any new service is hiring the staﬀ . In this case, the staﬀ is already there – checking Hamilton County’s over 1,400 commercial gasoline pumps for fuel quantity. Checking quality could be done at the same time. The County Auditors Association of Ohio has been seeking this authority

for over a quarter of a century. So, why is Ohio lagging 47 states in ensuring a basic consumer protection? Counties are agents of the state. We have to get enabling legislation from the State Legislature. The same people who authorized county auditors to do fuel quantity checks would have to authorize checking fuel quality. The reason they haven’t done so is the opposition of the Ohio Petroleum Institute’s lobbyists. They have been successful in stopping this legislation for years. A bill proposed in 2004 by then State Representative Timothy Grendell, (R- Chesterland), with county auditors’ support, never got a vote. In 2007, one day before a bill oﬀ ered by the county auditors’ was to come before the Ohio House of Representatives, a provision was added to the transportation budget authorizing the start of a fuel testing program – by the State Department of Agriculture. According to Adam Ward, the acting deputy director of the Agriculture

Department, the budget bill provision in 2007 was more about heading off the momentum for the county auditors’ proposal. He said the wording essentially said, "You can set up a program, but you really can’t…" because it wasn’t funded. That eff ectively killed fuel quality testing in Ohio, as the lobbyists knew it would. More importantly, why would the motor fuel lobby fi ght so hard against protecting consumers? Pardon my suspicions, but the most compelling reason why someone would not welcome an independent verifi cation of the quality of their product is that they have something to hide. Now that they are considering increasing the gas tax, urge your legislators to stand up to petroleum industry lobbyists. Consumers have a right to know what they are putting in their vehicles – especially if it is going to cost even more. Dusty Rhodes is Hamilton County auditor.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Working families need more support I really could not believe the tone of the letter, “Pay gap result of the choices women make,” in The Enquirer on Tuesday, March 19. Nor could I detect any empathy in the actual letter. The argument this particular writer was making is that there is no pay gap, or at worst the gap is 89 cents for every dollar men earn. The letter was based on a Harvard working paper studying the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority. The pay diff erential comes because women are “half as likely to take last-minute overtime, and they more often avoided undesirable shifts.” His conclusion? “The gap is the result of choices women make, not sex discrimination by employers.” The tone of the letter carries the implication that these women have an attitude problem – or perhaps they are lazy. There is no blame for the transit authority not being more fl exible, or better organized. In reality, the women are almost certainly turning down last-minute overtime and undesirable shifts because they are very likely caring for children or grandchildren, or perhaps their own parents, and cannot at the last minute fi nd the right kind of substitute care. A good plan would be for the transit folks to sit down with their employees and fi gure out how to manage this problem. Perhaps one day a week, each employee could have a potential substitute waiting on a given day, in case overtime is needed. Or the employer could provide a pool of certifi ed caregivers to step into such a situa-

getting into college. How about thousands and thousands of people trying to get into our country illegally? Throughout our country’s history, millions of people have done the right thing and worked hard to enter legally. And to have these people cheating and doing nothing to enter, how do you think they feel about them? We have to protect our borders or we will reap what we sow. What do you say, Mr. McCauley? Write the same article but change the wording from college to border. Edward M. Rusk Sr., Cherry Grove

Congressman Wenstrup should consider his own legacy

Lori Loughlin with her daughter Olivia Jade Giannulli, left, at the 2019 “An Unforgettable Evening” in Beverly Hills, Calif. on Feb. 28. AP

tion. There is a reason the U.S. is slipping down the list of successful western democracies, on a number of different issues. We need to better support our working families in order to keep our economy thriving. Patricia Garry, Walnut Hills

Parallels at Mexico border to college admissions scandal Regarding Byron McCauley’s column, “Admissions scandal: Are our

expectations hurting our kids?” (March 19), about admission cheating to get in a certain college. That was a very good article, and I agree with Mr. McCauley. People that work hard and do things the right way should be insulted when someone doesn’t follow the rules. Instead of cheating and doing other illegal things to get into a certain college, change the word from college to “BORDER.” People are getting upset and calling it a scandal about a few illegal entries

Regarding, “Each of us can choose the legacy we leave,” (March 17): As inspiring as U.S. Rep. Brad Wenstrup’s editorial appears in theory, it’s diffi cult to reconcile his message about God, family and county when you examine his voting record and unabashed support of a president who insults and belittles his opponents, who lies constantly and repeatedly, who denigrates the intelligence agencies who are supposed to protect us, who consistently appoints offi cials who defend him but who are unqualifi ed for their positions, whose administration is mired in apparent corruption the likes of which we’ve never experienced before, and who declares a national emergency to build a wall he vowed Mexico would fund, usurping Congress’ power of the purse. The issue for me has nothing to do with Clermont County Detective Bill Brewer’s legacy: one of heroism and courage, no doubt. My question has to do with the legacy of Mr. Wenstrup. Christina Conover, Covington

cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 7D

Forum DOONESBURY by Garry Trudeau

Too rich to run in 2020 Kathleen Parker Columnist

WASHINGTON – Donald Trump has given success a bad name. That is, the president’s much-boasted-about wealth has soured many Americans’ taste for even the Horatio Alger bootstrapping stories. These days, as income inequality has become a leitmotif of Democratic politics, being rich is a liability. So, who’s too rich for democracy these days? Billionaires, obviously. Millionaires are such dimes-adozen, they hardly count anymore. Even Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who has proposed increasing marginal tax rates on the very rich to as high as 70 percent, set the baseline at $10 million. Decamillionaires, beware. This caveat might even extend to former Vice President Joe Biden, whose 2017 purchase of a $2.7 million beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, is inspiring fresh speculation about his middle-class bona fi des. “Middle-Class Joe rakes in millions,” read a recent Politico headline. Of course, calling Biden’s everyday-Joe-ness into question is ridiculous. Apparently, you can’t have grown up in a middle-class family only to distinguish yourself as an adult and monetize your success. Isn’t that the point of being an American, (she jested)? The fact Biden now earns $100,000 per speech and landed a handsome, multimillion-dollar book deal hardly negates his lifetime in the Senate advocating causes that benefi ted minorities, women and working-class Americans. Besides, this one’s for you “Jeopardy” players, he’s from – Scranton! Yes, he is. Another wealthy possible candidate, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, recently has been the focus of skepticism – and not just because he proposes running as a centrist independent. Schultz, on book tour the past couple of months, has spoken of his childhood growing up in a Brooklyn housing project and his family’s dire circumstances. In his book “From the Ground Up,” he describes a noisy, smokeand-alcohol-infused household often fi lled with po-

ker players who kept him up late and his family afl oat during destitute times. The Washington Post tracked down other contemporaries of Schultz’s who grew up in the same housing project to report that it was actually a very nice, state-of-the-art complex. This may be so, but Schultz’s experience can’t be disproved or discredited. When your parents can’t make the $96 monthly rent, you’re not living in paradise. By the strange political calculus of the income equalizers, Schultz was fi rst too rich and then not poor enough. It would seem that there’s no satisfying the left until everyone is equally miserable. Even Beto O’Rourke ran into a bit of trouble when he-of-the-barrio (but not really) was revealed to be a prep-school alum with a near-billionaire father-inlaw. Can an upper-middle-class guy relate to the poor and lower-class Americans? Of course, he can. As can Schultz and Biden, and other wealthy people. One problem with this wealth-as-liability perspective is that we risk losing the considerable contributions of the uber-successful. What would this crowd say today to Democrats John Kennedy or Franklin Roosevelt, both of whom enjoyed inherited wealth? You don’t have to be poor to want to improve opportunities for the less fortunate. Nor do you always need a government program to create those opportunities. As head of Starbucks, Schultz accomplished through free enterprise what some Democrats want to do through government. He made sure everyone, including part-time staff ers, had health insurance; he paid college tuition for those who wanted to go; and he made it possible for every employee to be a shareholder in the company. The anti-wealth sentiment currently in vogue isn’t, of course, a rational response to challenges. It’s an emotional reaction to politicians’ barnstorming about inequality that, they say, can only be resolved by punishing the wealthy and subsidizing the rest. If you hear enough times that you deserve to have more, you begin to believe it. Inevitably, this means that others must have less. Thusly, my friends, is socialism born. Contact Kathleen Parker at kathleenparker@ washpost.com.

8D ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

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cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 1H

TRAPPED & TRAFFICKED: One town’s dark secret

A young woman walks alongside a train on a rainy afternoon in Portsmouth, Ohio, where a local attorney is accused of running a sex trafficking ring. Portsmouth once was an economic rival to cities such as Cincinnati, but its manufacturing base started collapsing in the 1970s. LIZ DUFOUR/THE ENQUIRER

2H ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

TRAPPED & TRAFFICKED: AN ENQUIRER INVESTIGATION

LIZ DUFOUR/THE ENQUIRER

James Pilcher, Liz Dufour and Kate Murphy Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

PORTSMOUTH, Ohio – On a clear morning, the four-story Scioto County Courthouse casts its shadow over the smaller brick building just across Court Street, where criminal defense attorney Michael Mearan lives and operates his namesake legal practice. Mearan, 73, is a one-time city councilman who since the 1970s has been a fi xture in this small but troubled town along the Ohio River, which separates southern Ohio from northeastern Kentucky. The area was once dubbed “America’s pill mill,” and when Mearan shuffl es over to the courthouse in his rumpled suit, it’s often to represent someone in the relentless grip of opioid addiction. But according to a federal wiretap affi davit, which was fi led under seal with the Southern District of Ohio but was obtained by The Enquirer, Mearan is not just a jowly, silver-haired local attorney. The 80-page affi davit states that Mearan is also a prolifi c sex traffi cker

A prominent Portsmouth attorney, Michael Mearan, 73, walks through the hallways of the Scioto County Courthouse before a hearing for one of his clients. The Ironton native and Ohio State alum has long been rumored to run a sex trafficking operation.

MI PA Cleveland

OHIO IN Columbus Cincinnati KY

Portsmouth The Enquirer

who for decades has supplied his young, female clients with drugs “in exchange for and as an incentive to participate in acts of prostitution.” The affi davit – fi led in August 2015 by a senior special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration – casts Mearan as a central fi gure in a drug and sex traffi cking ring operating throughout the Midwest. The agent linked to Mearan 27 women who worked for him as prostitutes, including one who has been missing since 2013 and another found

dead of “multiple traumas” the same year. The agent added that Mearan has been “known to law enforcement” in Portsmouth since the 1970s and has been indirectly tied to multiple prior FBI investigations into human traffi cking, extortion, violent gangs and “White Slave Traffi cking.” The DEA investigation appears to have concluded in October 2016, when the last of eight defendants pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute heroin and other drugs. Mearan, however, was not among those charged. The allegations concerning him remain investigative fi ndings in a sworn affi davit that have not been proven in court. Rumors about Mearan, sex traffi cking and local corruption have been something of an open secret in Portsmouth for years. And those tales gained credibility in December 2017 after an ex-reporter with the Portsmouth Daily Times posted excerpts of the DEA affi davit on a Facebook page. But the lack of follow-through by any investigative body has fueled suspicions in Portsmouth that complicit local authorities let Mearan trap women in a cycle of drug abuse and

cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 3H

PHOTOS BY LIZ DUFOUR/THE ENQUIRER

sexual servitude, and that outside agencies simply don’t care about the social and economic horrors aﬄ icting forgotten Rust Belt towns like theirs. Enquirer reporters picked up where the DEA aﬃ davit ended by spending a year visiting Portsmouth

to investigate the allegations concerning Mearan. The eﬀ ort included interviews with more than 65 individuals and a review of hundreds of documents, including arrest and court records. Among those interviewed were 10

TOP: An old shoe manufacturing building, which now houses Sole Choice shoe and foot-care products, looms over a low-income neighborhood in Portsmouth. BOTTOM: Graffiti covers the underside of the U.S. Grant Bridge, which empties into the center of town. Much of the writing refer-ences sex, drugs and death.

women who separately shared accounts of working for Mearan as a prostitute at various times over the last two decades. Records show that Mearan had represented six of the women facing drug charges. Those women said Mearan, as their defense attorney, promised lenient sentences from judges he knew and parole oﬃ cers who would ignore probation requirements – as long as the women were willing to have sex for money. Mearan, they said, would give them money to feed their drug habits and arranged sexual liaisons with men in Portsmouth, Cincinnati and Columbus, and out-of-state trips to New York, New Jersey, Louisiana and Florida. The women say they earned anywhere from $200 to $2,000 per encounter, and that either the men involved or Mearan himself handled the payment. In two interviews with The Enquirer, Mearan – who was sometimes joking and dismissive and other times angry and combative – consistently denied any suggestion that he had engaged in prostitution or sex trafﬁ cking. At one point he said he didn’t

4H ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

TRAPPED & TRAFFICKED: AN ENQUIRER INVESTIGATION

PHOTOS BY LIZ DUFOUR/THE ENQUIRER

even know what a sex traffi cker was and asked for a defi nition. Mearan said the accusations about him are due to “jealousy” and are “totally false.” “That affi davit was the product of a couple gals that the FBI tried to set me up,” he said. “This affi davit that you have says that they’ve been investigating me since the ’70s. Now, you think in 50 years they would have maybe come up with something?” A spokeswoman for the DEA, which does not handle sex traffi cking or other off enses unrelated to drugs, said the agency had forwarded “information regarding possible corruption and prostitution” stemming from the heroin investigation to the FBI. “It is unknown what if any investigation was initiated by the FBI as a result of our tip,” DEA spokeswoman Cheryl Davis wrote in an email last year. Todd Wickerham, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Cincinnati offi ce – which includes Portsmouth in its jurisdiction – said he does not know what happened to the DEA investigation after the initial drug convictions. “I don’t have any other information on this, but if we get credible informa-

TOP: Many homes look abandoned and boarded up in low-income neighborhoods throughout Portsmouth. BOTTOM: A woman waits for her hearing in a Scioto County courtroom. Sheriff Marty Donini said 95 percent of inmates in the county jail are drug related.

tion on a human traﬃ cking ring we would absolutely act upon that,” Wickerham said. Sources with ﬁ rsthand knowledge told The Enquirer that there is, in fact, an ongoing investigation into Mearan by multiple law enforcement agen-

cies. The sources requested anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the existence of an active investigation. Besides Mearan, the women who spoke with The Enquirer collectively named several well-known individ-

cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 5H

PHOTOS BY LIZ DUFOUR/THE ENQUIRER

uals from the Portsmouth area who they alleged had paid to have sex with them. The list includes former police oﬃ cers, lawyers, a medical professional, a former high school football star, businessmen and probation oﬃ cers. The Enquirer is not naming the men unless the allegations against them have been otherwise corroborated. Almost all of the women interviewed asked to remain anonymous, citing their fears of Mearan’s connections to a corrupt law enforcement system as well as unsolved deaths or disappearances of more than a dozen women in southern Ohio this decade. During interviews, some of the women cried, visibly trembled or stole furtive glances over their shoulders to make sure they couldn’t be

Sex trafficking cases The number of sex trafficking cases discovered through calls from the National Human Trafficking Hotline has more than doubled this decade. 8K

6,081

7K 6K 5K 4K

2,382

3K 2K 1K 0

TOP: A neighborhood just south of 8th Street is known by Portsmouth police for drug dealing and prostitution. The area became nationally known in the mid-1990s for its pill mills and the sale of OxyContin, a medication for chronic pain.

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Source: National Human Trafﬁcking Hotline/ The Polaris Project The Enquirer

BOTTOM: Heather Hren, 37, was 24 when she says she ﬁ rst started working for Michael Mearan.

overheard. “I’m scared. I’m not gonna lie,” one woman wrote in a message to reporters. “I have to live here. I’m on eggshells right now. U don’t know this town.” “My family is kinda scared for me to talk. Too many missing woman (sic),” another wrote. “I know I want to be a part of putting a stop to it. But I also have family to protect.” Only one of the women, Heather Hren, agreed to have her name used in this story. Hren, 37, said Mearan arranged for her to have sex with a Cincinnati doctor for $200. On another occasion, she said Mearan brought her to the probation offi ce, where an offi cer took naked pictures of her in exchange for letting her avoid community service obligations. She said she also performed oral sex for a diff erent probation offi cer. It was like “walking into your own death or into your own prison,” she said. “Because now you’re stuck.” For close to three years, Mearan “traffi cked me to his friends or pimped me out,” Hren said. Although Mearan hadn’t forced her into prostitution, she said his law enforcement connections and her addiction ultimately left her feeling trapped. “It wasn’t like you could go to the police department,” Hren said. “There is no one that these girls can tell. ... Everybody’s in each other’s pocket.”

The ‘EUBANKS/MEARAN organization’ Portsmouth once was an economic rival to cities such as Cincinnati, and in the 1930s was home to a National Football League team. But like other small, factory towns in certain parts of America, Portsmouth’s manufacturing base started collapsing in the 1970s. With a population of roughly 20,000, nearly half as many people live in Portsmouth today than during its heyday of the 1940s, when it was the country’s shoemaking capital. Scioto County, where Portsmouth is the county seat, is one of the poorest and least employed regions in the state. In downtown Portsmouth, boards are as prevalent as windows, and former department stores and ofﬁ ce buildings now house low-end apartments for the elderly. Prostitutes walk the streets day and night near an abandoned shoe factory east of town. The area has been especially hard hit by drug abuse – mostly prescription painkillers, fentanyl and heroin. The Portsmouth City Health Department recorded nearly 120 deaths from drug overdoses in just the past three years. “The conditions are ripe for human traﬃ cking,” Scioto County Prosecutor Shane Tieman said. “You have drug addiction rampant. You have unem-

6H ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

TRAPPED & TRAFFICKED: AN ENQUIRER INVESTIGATION

PHOTOS BY LIZ DUFOUR/THE ENQUIRER

ployment. You have poverty. You have a built-in group of folks who are desperate, maybe hopeless, that could be preyed upon.” According to DEA Senior Special Agent Keith Leighton, that’s exactly what was happening. Leighton’s August 2015 affi davit sought and received authorization from a U.S. District Court judge to set up a wiretap on phones used by Mark Eubanks, a suspected heroin, Oxycodone and steroids dealer. The affi davit details a sprawling investigation that had been underway for at least 20 months. Agents had installed a GPS tracking device on Eubanks’ gold Hummer H2; surveillance teams followed him and documented with whom he met; a hidden camera behind Eubanks’ residence recorded when he came and went; agents sifted through Eubanks’ garbage in search of evidence; and at least four confi dential sources provided agents with incriminating information. The DEA investigation listed 13 “target subjects,” and while Eubanks is named the primary target, the affi davit depicts Mearan as just as important a fi gure.

TOP: Murals on both sides of the 2,000-foot floodwall in Portsmouth depict the area’s rich history over 2,000 years. The original mural project was started in 1992 by Robert Dafford, a muralist from Louisiana. BOTTOM: In the early morning hours, a young woman acknowledges a man as she walks in an area that is known for prostitution.

Leighton wrote that the investigation “was predicated on the illegal activities” of Mearan and at one point refers to the criminal enterprise as the “EUBANKS/MEARAN organization.” The aﬃ davit reveals a symbiotic

relationship between the duo in which Eubanks supplied drugs and prostitutes to Mearan, and Mearan arranged for the women to have sex for money and represented arrested associates so he could use his con-

cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 7H

What is sex trafficking? Here’s an explanation James Pilcher

Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

LIZ DUFOUR/THE ENQUIRER

nections to secure favorable treatment. Mearan also warned Eubanks about active investigations and once gave him the identity of a confi dential informant sent to make drug buys from Eubanks, the affi davit states. The affi davit notes that there were more than 200 phone calls and text messages over a one-year period between the men and that a surveillance team watched Eubanks arrive at Mearan’s law offi ce one day toting a thermos that agents suspected concealed $1,600 in cash. Federal prosecutors with the Southern District of Ohio indicted Eubanks in October 2015, and he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute heroin. He was sentenced to 150 months in federal prison. Eubanks, 37, declined to comment when reached at the Federal Correctional Institution in Morgantown, West Virginia.

‘I’m a pretty decent lawyer’ Mearan’s law oﬃ ce is on the

Chillicothe Street is the main north-south street in Portsmouth. The U.S. Grant Bridge spans the Ohio River to South Shore, Ky.

What is sex traffi cking? Sex traffi cking diff ers from prostitution in this key way: According to laws at the state and federal level, some sort of “coercion” must exist to make victims perform sex acts for money, as opposed to the legal defi nition of prostitution, which is considered voluntary by all parties involved. In Ohio, Kentucky and federally, the law says such coercion can come in many forms, including physical, mental, fi nancial, legal and even through the threat of withholding drugs from someone who is addicted. Experts say such operations are increasingly common, even as they are hard to shut down and prosecute. Numbers on the scope of the problem remain elusive. One expert says that previous sex traffi cking studies feature “some of the worst research you will ever fi nd in science literature. “It is really hard to determine what is hyperbole and wild estimates and what is more reasonable and accurate,” says Rachael Lovell, a senior research associate at Case Western University’s Begun Center for Violence Prevention. Still, most agree that what law enforcement calls prostitution is indeed sex traffi cking, and that the trend is widening. Ohio ranked fourth nationally when it came to calls into a national sex traffi cking hotline in 2017, according to state offi cials. That might indicate a high level of activity here, but those offi cials also say they have made concerted eff orts to create awareness of the issue and the hotline. During that year, there were 509 victims of sex traffi cking in Ohio, but those offi cials say that is a conservative estimate. “It’s such a hard crime to pinpoint,” says Sophia Papadimos, the anti-traffi cking coordinator for the Ohio Department of Public Safety. “We could say that we have a lot here or we could say we have a better reporting system. No one truly knows.” In Ohio, there have been 349 cases of sex traffi cking reported in 2017. There have been 1,475 cases of human traffi cking total in the state between 2014-17. (Such cases include sex and labor and refugee traffi cking). Ohio ranked fourth nationally when it came to calls into a national sex traffi cking hotline in 2017, according to state offi cials. During that year, there were 509

victims of sex traffi cking in Ohio, but those offi cials say that is a conservative estimate. In Kentucky, there were 213 sex traffi cking reports in 2017 and 198 such reports in 2018. The National Human Traffi cking Hotline reported 5,147 cases in 2018, down from 8,524 in 2017 and 7,565 in 2016. The legal defi nition of sex traffi cking makes it harder to prosecute, says Melissa Farley, executive director of Prostitution Research and Education, a non-profi t research and advocacy group. And the advent of technology makes it much easier for such operations to work in the shadows. “I call it cellphone prostitution – it’s not on street corners anymore,” she says. “And some women might switch back and forth between being traffi cked and being a prostitute.” Scioto County Prosecutor Shane Tieman agrees that it’s diffi cult to pursue such cases in general. “In many cases, the women may switch back and forth from it being voluntary to being coerced and back again,” he says. “And there is a fear factor about cooperating, as well as a lack of trust in law enforcement. “So verifying this behavior becomes really hard.” Farley also says that other national examples show just how notable individuals can get involved. For example, a group of seven men known as the Minnesota “Nice Guys,” who included a former assistant county attorney, were convicted in 2011 for operating a ring that promised high-paying and quality clientele. Also in 2011, the former president of the University of New Mexico was implicated in an online sex ring called Southwest Companions, moderated by another professor from New Jersey. But several courts ruled that such a site was legal and charges were dropped. Just last year, a former airline pilot operated several brothels in Houston and was convicted and sentenced to probation and a $2,000 fi ne. And in Covington, Kentucky, former Judge Tim Nolan was convicted and sentenced to 20 years for human traffi cking in 2018 after being caught coercing drug-addicted women to stay on his property in exchange for sex. “They may think it is voluntary, but when they have been in that life since they were 15 years old, how can you say they wanted to do it then?” Farley says. “And the sex industry now has more arms than Amazon with the diff erent ways guys can get women.”

8H ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

TRAPPED & TRAFFICKED: AN ENQUIRER INVESTIGATION

PHOTOS BY LIZ DUFOUR/THE ENQUIRER

ground fl oor, adjacent to a bedroom separated only by a sliding door. His bedroom used to be on the second fl oor, but the stairs now make the trek too arduous. During two separate interviews, his phone seemingly never stopped ringing. His secretary shuttled in and out to deliver paperwork for him to address. At least three potential clients knocked on his door in search of help. A pack of mixed-breed rescue dogs roamed about in search of attention. And his adult daughter yelled at reporters to leave her father alone. Mearan, who has no known criminal history, said the details in the DEA affi davit shouldn’t be taken seriously because agents relied on confi dential informants looking to cut deals to reduce their own sentences. “I make my living as a lawyer, and I think I’m a pretty decent lawyer,” Mearan said. “I’m not going to stoop to defending myself against these people.” The affi davit acknowledges that some of the informants are cooperating in exchange for consideration on drug charges. But it also notes that the sources have “provided reliable intelligence information to law en-

TOP: Michael Mearan’s home and office sit conveniently next to the Scioto County Courthouse. BOTTOM: Mearan was named in a federal affidavit outlining a sex trafficking operation back in 2015, but no charges were ever brought.

forcement authorities in the past.” Three of the four confi dential sources in the investigation are associated with Mearan, not Eubanks, according to the affi davit. Most of the sex traffi cking allegations concerning Mearan appear to come from either

those sources or more than two dozen unnamed women who are not specifi ed as confi dential sources. The affi davit notes that information about Mearan was obtained during prior federal investigations and from “numerous complaints” the FBI

cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 9H

PHOTOS BY LIZ DUFOUR/THE ENQUIRER

has compiled about him. One unnamed source – identifi ed as a former prostitute of Mearan’s – reported that he would give her $100 every time she introduced him to a new woman. Another confi dential source said Mearan arranged a 2014 trip for her and a second woman to fl y to Palm Beach, Florida, to have sex with two subjects from New Jersey. Airline records, photos and telephone records corroborated the Florida rendezvous, according to the affi davit. Some of the damning information about Mearan is presented in the affi davit as not coming from a source but as a fact, with no qualifi cations about its veracity. For example, it fl atly states that Daren Biggs, one of the 13 targets of the investigation, “has been supplied with prostitutes in the past” by Mearan. Biggs, who was not charged in the case, could not be reached for comment. Lindsey Porter, another target who was ultimately not charged, “used to work for Mearan as a prostitute,” according to the affi davit. Porter declined to comment when reached in prison, where she is serv-

TOP: The Scioto County Courthouse sits in downtown Portsmouth. It was designed by architect John Scudder Adkins of Cincinnati and built in 1927.

ing a sentence on charges unrelated to the DEA investigation.

‘There used to be a code in this county’ The affi davit cites two Portsmouth individuals who are not named as targets of the DEA investigation, but who are implicated as Mearan’s associates. Frederick Brisker, 68, a former high school football star who became a well-known fi nancial adviser in Portsmouth, is alleged to have helped Mearan coordinate the sex traffi cking operation. “The prostitutes are provided

BOTTOM: Judge William Marshall, now 62, retired from the Scioto County Common Pleas bench in March 2018.

drugs and paid cash for their services by Mearan and their dates with clients are scheduled by Mearan and Brisker,” the affi davit states. Brisker has no known criminal record. His fi nancial fi rm fi red Brisker in March 2018 for allegedly forging the signature of another insurance agent. Brisker also has state and federal tax liens that, as of January, total more than $566,000. Brisker declined to comment. In an email, he referred questions to Mearan, whom he called his personal attorney. “I guess Fred Brisker’s biggest vice is that he’s a friend of mine,” Mearan said. “Fred would give you the shirt off his back.” The other individual is not named in the affi davit, but is referred to several times as a Portsmouth judge “in collusion” with Mearan. It alleges that Mearan provided the judge women, according to information “obtained through numerous interviews, including interviews with former prostitutes.” Some of the women interviewed by The Enquirer said the judge in question is former Common Pleas Court Judge William Marshall.

10H ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

TRAPPED & TRAFFICKED: AN ENQUIRER INVESTIGATION

PHOTOS BY LIZ DUFOUR/THE ENQUIRER

Marshall, 62, denied any involvement with drugs or prostitutes. “Are you serious? I would never do anything like that,” he said. He declined to comment further. Marshall retired last year amid controversy after spending 16 years on the state bench. State oﬃ cials found he improperly confronted Ohio State Highway Patrol oﬃ cers who had written his daughter a speeding ticket. The state Supreme Court last month suspended Marshall from practicing law for six months due to the incident. Marshall explained his behavior to a county prosecutor by saying: “I didn’t like the trooper. He didn’t listen to me. There used to be a code in this county – I’m a judge and he shouldn’t have written my daughter” a ticket.

The ‘number one girl’ The manufacturer of Oxycontin – the brand name of a powerful opioid painkiller – recommends an introductory dose of 10 mg every 12 hours. Hren said that in 2006, at the peak of her addiction, she was taking 160 mg a day.

TOP: Market Square in downtown Portsmouth is one of the bright spots in this community, with its popular restaurants and small businesses. BOTTOM: Mearan stands with his client in the courtroom during a sentencing hearing.

She said she was desperate for cash when a friend suggested she could make some money if she was willing to “do a little dance for” Mearan. Hren said she was hesitant at ﬁ rst but gave in.

“When you’re needing extra money for drugs, you get to a point where deﬁ nitely you want to do whatever it takes,” she said. Hren said she quickly became Mearan’s “number one girl” as he arranged for her to have sex with nu-

cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 11H

If you or someone you know needs help National Human Trafficking Hotline: 1-888-373-7888 Drug Helpline: 1-888-633-3239 If you know more about these allegations, please reach out to The Enquirer at Portsmouth@ enquirer.com.

PHOTOS BY LIZ DUFOUR/THE ENQUIRER

merous men, including Brisker. “I was made to feel like I had to do those things and that there wasn’t really any getting out,” she said. If she left, she said, she was worried Mearan might use his connections to have her sent to prison – or worse. Hren said she was scared that she “would disappear,” or that “they would kill me and get rid of me and that would be the end of it.” After nearly three years, Hren said she was able to escape when she secured a few thousand dollars in a workers’ compensation settlement related to an injury in a medical oﬃ ce job. She used the money to relocate to another city in Ohio and said she is working to stay sober. She has a job in

the medical ﬁ eld and is raising two children. “I’m one of the few who got away,” she said. “I’ll make sure that I have a roof over our head and we don’t have to depend on a nasty sugar daddy to pay for it.”

‘Men who give money’ Like Hren, many of the women who spoke with The Enquirer pointed to the case of Megan Lancaster, a prostitute who disappeared from Portsmouth in April 2013. Police found her white Ford Mustang outside the Rally’s fast food restaurant with her wallet left on the front seat. Lancaster’s disappearance is referenced in the DEA aﬃ davit. Lancaster’s sister-in-law, Kadie

TOP: Megan Lancaster was 24 when she went missing in Portsmouth in 2013 and she’s never been found. She battled addiction and was an admitted prostitute. Signs like this one remind the community of the missing woman. BOTTOM: After Lancaster's disappearance, her family found papers with over 300 names and numbers, primarily men.

Lancaster, said she understands why women in Portsmouth are afraid to talk. “You could be the next Megan Lancaster if they think that you know something that you could tell,” she said. Kadie Lancaster has continued to dig into what happened to Megan. She keeps one of Megan’s bras in the freezer, just in case it has DNA evidence, and compiled a 5-inch thick binder fi lled with documents that she considers potential clues. The binder contains 246 diff erent names and phone numbers that Megan kept in color-coded notebooks. The entries include notations like “dance for” and “men who give money.” Mearan’s name and number are there, along with both notations. Kadie Lancaster said she has called nearly every phone number in the notebooks. One man who answered was a retired police captain, she said. “He said he didn’t know what I was talking about,” Kadie Lancaster said. “Then why did she have his number, and it was the right number, and he answered?” Portsmouth Police Chief Robert Ware declined to comment on “the existence or status of any possible investigation.” If any previous Portsmouth police were involved, Ware said, it would be “disappointing, because all that does is bring a scar to law enforcement.” “I am confi dent that the law enforcement that is in offi ce right now is doing everything in their power to keep the community safe,” Ware said. Scioto County Sheriff Marty Donini said it’s the scope of the activity described in the affi davit, and not the clout of the people who may be involved, that would hamper an investigation by local authorities. “If it’s that big a deal, and it’s that far-reaching – out of state, out of country or whatever – I just don’t think we have the ability, the manpower or resources to do it,” Donini said. One of the women who still lives in Portsmouth said now is the time for those involved to speak out. The women are “used up and thrown away and discarded like they’re trash, and you know they’re not trash. They’re in an emotional wreck. They are chaos. They need help and they’re not getting the help they need.”

12H ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

TRAPPED & TRAFFICKED: AN ENQUIRER INVESTIGATION

MICHAEL MCCARTER AND SAM GREENE/THE ENQUIRER

Why we investigated allegations of sex traﬃ cking in Portsmouth The Enquirer

In the early months of 2018, a social media post by a former Portsmouth journalist came to the attention of an Enquirer editor. The post appeared to show a portion of a federal document asking a judge for a phone tap of a prominent defense attorney who also was a former Portsmouth councilman. The allegations were serious, but not new to The Enquirer editor who spotted them. Bob Strickley is a former managing editor of the Portsmouth Daily Times and lived in nearby Wheelersburg for three years. Rumors of a sex traffi cking ring including local elected offi cials, local businessmen and others have existed in the city for years. But now the allegations were included in a federal document that had been shared publicly. From that point, newsroom leadership assigned a small team of journalists to begin placing phone calls and make the two-hour drive to Portsmouth – a city of just over 20,000 tucked next to the confl uence of the Ohio and Scioto rivers at the southern tip of the state. That began with the acquisition of

A view of Portsmouth, Ohio, via The Enquirer’s drone. Portsmouth sits on the Ohio River.

the federal document by investigative reporter James Pilcher, who has nearly 30 years experience in journalism and has conducted several high-profi le investigations in the Tristate. One aspect of the investigation included extensive fact-checking, verifying the authenticity of the affi davit and meeting with local offi cials. The other half focused on another diffi cult task: How do we tell the story of these women with sensitivity and respect for their safety, but also be fair to the men accused of taking part in the alleged scheme? To strike that balance, Enquirer editors teamed Pilcher with Enquirer photojournalist Liz Dufour, who has over the course of her career shown the ability to approach extremely sensitive story subjects with sincerity, respect and empathy. She took up this task with higher education reporter Kate Murphy, who has demonstrated careful and deferential reporting on sex crimes on the campuses of our local universities. The team was also guided by USA TODAY NETWORK investigative editor Matt Doig and Enquirer Executive Editor Beryl Love. Over the course of more than a year,

The Enquirer's team made dozens of trips to Portsmouth seeking out answers by fi ling public record requests, interviewing elected offi cials, speaking to residents and tracking down those named in the federal document and many, many more found through the course of the reporting. In total, the four journalists investigating in Portsmouth spoke to more than 100 people, placed hundreds of calls – at one point phoning more than 300 numbers listed in a contact book of a missing prostitute. The eff ort also included Enquirer legal counsel Jack Greiner threatening action against the Scioto County Common Pleas Court to get access to public courtroom hearings and sessions. Why did The Enquirer choose to investigate allegations of sex traffi cking 105 miles away from its own newsroom? Because we understand not every community in the state is served by a news organization with our investigative resources, and we aren't afraid to use them for the betterment of all Ohioans – or the nation as a whole. The work in Portsmouth is not fi nished. If you know more about these allegations, please reach out to The Enquirer at Portsmouth@enquirer.com.

The Enquirer

❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019

❚ 1C

Sports

Bengals Xtra The team had a good free-agency period by being patient, 12C

Paul Daugherty Columnist Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

Senzel move is good business Reds using rule to their advantage

contract with the Reds in February. He will make $2.5 million when he’s added to the big-league roster. Iglesias, known for his impressive defense, hasn’t played a position other than shortstop since 2013. The Reds targeted Iglesias during the off season because he added defensive depth in the middle infi eld. Peraza will still play some shortstop, but second base will be his primary position until Gennett returns. Kyle Farmer is expected to make the Opening Day roster as a utility bench player. Farmer has caught several games and played every infi eld position during spring training.

Joel Wolfe, the agent for Nick Senzel, was outraged, which is fi ne. Being outraged is part of his job. The Reds cut Wolfe’s client Friday. They sent their star-in-waiting off stage left, despite a fairly fi ne spring training. The Reds did that because they wanted to control Senzel for what amounts to seven years, rather than the standard six. When the club says anything different, the club is prevaricating. And we say that in the most diplomatic of ways. It was “a simply egregious case of service-time manipulation,” Wolfe tweeted. Yeah, probably. It was. So? Wolfe also called it “a short-sighted move that may be frugal now but could cost them dearly later.’’ No, it wasn’t. Let’s not kid ourselves. As cool as it would be for the Reds to contend this year, odds are big they won’t. So this notion of them sacrifi cing a playoff s dash for 16 days of service time doesn’t wash. Wolfe tweets that Senzel is “a major league-ready, impact-type player.’’ Seems to be. Problem is, the Reds already have players who fi t that description playing Senzel’s position, which at the moment is center fi eld. I don’t know who the center

See GENNETT, Page 3C

See DAUGHERTY, Page 4C

Scooter Gennett injured his right groin Friday and is expected to miss two to three months. His bat will be tough to replace — he hit .310 last season with 23 homers and 92 RBI and led the team with 86 runs scored. AP

Season’s ﬁ rst loss Gennett’s injury forces changes in the middle inﬁ eld

Bobby Nightengale Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

GOODYEAR, Ariz. — Six days before Opening Day, the Reds learned they will be without one of their top hitters for at least the fi rst two months of the season. All-Star second baseman Scooter Gennett will be sidelined for 8-12 weeks with a right groin strain, which he suff ered in a spring training game Friday. Gennett left the game in the second inning when he fell while fi elding a sharply-hit ground ball in shallow right fi eld. Gennett needed help from trainer

Steve Baumann and manager David Bell to walk off the fi eld, and a cart was used to take him away from the dugout. He had an MRI on Friday evening, which confi rmed the injury. “He was in a lot of pain,” said Bell, who was with Gennett when the MRI results were read. “He’s a tough guy, so seeing him in that much pain defi nitely made us concerned. Now it’s just thinking positive and trying to shift for that eight weeks. He has a great attitude already about it.” To replace Gennett in the infi eld, the Reds are planning to move José Peraza to second base and José Iglesias will play shortstop. Iglesias, who played the last fi ve seasons with the Detroit Tigers, signed a minor league

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2C ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

Battle for ﬁ nal bullpen spots is heated Fletcher Page

Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

GOODYEAR, Ariz. — With the Reds’ roster coming into focus, there are fi ve pitchers still in the running for the fi nal two open spots in the bullpen. Only Sunday’s Cactus League fi nale and two exhibitions in Atlanta remain before manager David Bell must choose between Robert Stephenson, Wandy Peralta, Matt Wisler, Matt Bowman and Anthony Bass. “We’re at the wire, basically,” Bell said. “We’re near the wire.” The Reds are expected to carry 13 pitchers, with eight in the bullpen, on the Opening Day roster. Relievers Raisel Iglesias, Jared Hughes, David Hernandez, Michael Lorenzen, Zach Duke and Amir Garrett are expected to be on the team. That leaves two openings. One good aspect about the remaining options is part of what makes the call diffi cult: each pitcher has performed well during spring training. “Shoot, everyone has been throwing the ball well,” Bass said. “It’s going to be tough. I’m glad I don’t have to make that decision.” Stephenson, the former top 10 Reds’ prospect, and Wisler, acquired from the Braves last year in the Adam Duvall trade, are out of options and would be subjected to waivers if they

Robert Stephenson, like Matt Wisler, is out of options and must make the 25-man roster or be exposed to waivers. “I wanted to make it as tough a decision as possible on the team, and I feel like I did that,” he said. AP

don’t make the 25-man roster. Bell has expressed approval for each this week. Wisler, the 26-year-old right-hander has struck out 16 in 11 innings of work. After shoulder inﬂ ammation delayed his start, Stephenson, the 24year-old right-hander, pitched ﬁ ve scoreless innings and allowed just one hit. “With the injury I wanted to make sure I took it slow and made sure I gave myself the best opportunity to make this team,” Stephenson said. “I’m happy about the progression I

made. I felt comfortable when I came in from where I was at. I think this spring went really well for me compared to previous springs. I wanted to make it as tough a decision as possible on the team, and I feel like I did that.” Peralta hasn’t allowed a run in eight innings this spring after appearing in 59 games with a 5.36 ERA for the Reds last season. Peralta, Bass, Wisler and Bowman are scheduled to pitch Sunday against the Rockies before the team breaks camp and heads east. According to Bass, who has 11 strikeouts and a 3.38 ERA this spring

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in 10 2⁄ 3 innings, this spring has gone according to plan since signing as a free agent in December. “Staying healthy all spring, throwing the ball when they ask me to and trying to do what I do well,” said Bass, who appeared in 16 games last season for the Cubs. “Nothing crazy. Really just focusing on the command of my fastball and moving around the zone, top and bottom.” Good health wasn’t initially the case for Bowman. The former St. Louis Cardinals right-hander started spring with a strained lat, but has since thrown fi ve scoreless innings. “The outings have been pretty good and I’ve modifi ed my repertoire based on talking with the staff a little bit,” Bowman said. “I’ve tried to demonstrate that I can contribute to the big league team, so I’m happy with that.” He led St. Louis with 75 appearances in 2017 before re-occurring blister issues derailed his season last year. Bowman said familiarity with Bell, who was in the Cardinals organization from 2014-17, kept him from panicking early in spring training when the injury kept him sidelined. “He’s done it, he’s shown he can do it at the Major League level,” Bell said. “... in this division and against a lot of good hitters in this division. He was a guy we counted on in big situations in St. Louis, so he’s in a good place to show what he’s capable of.”

cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 3C

Reds

Senzel understands demotion Stays away from the issue of service time Bobby Nightengale Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

GOODYEAR, Ariz. — Nick Senzel did everything he could to try to make the Reds’ Opening Day roster. He proved he can play center fi eld. He hit well during the spring. It just wasn’t enough to avoid starting the season at Triple-A Louisville for the second straight year. He was reassigned to minor league camp Friday. The Reds chose Scott Schebler as their starting center fi elder. After dealing with multiple injuries last year, Schebler recorded a .548 onbase percentage with two homers, three doubles and four stolen bases in 14 spring training games. Reds manager David Bell said he wanted Senzel to gain more experience at his new position in the minor leagues. Senzel will continue to play center fi eld at Louisville despite Scooter Gennett’s groin injury, which will sideline Gennett for at least two months. Senzel mostly played second base last season. “What I think gets lost in this is I had a chance to win the job and I didn’t win the job,” Senzel said. “That’s how I take it. Scotty did what he needed to do to win the job. That’s how I kind of see it. He played well this spring and he’s got experience up

Gennett Continued from Page 1C

Reds coaches sat down with Peraza on Saturday morning to discuss the immediate position change. “I don’t care,” Peraza said. “I just want to play.” Bell added: “We still see (Peraza) as a shortstop, but in this particular point in time, it could help us as a team, his willingness to move over to play more second base and have José Iglesias play more shortstop.” Dick Williams, the Reds’ president of baseball operations, said top prospect Nick Senzel will remain in center fi eld at Triple-A Louisville. Senzel primarily played second base last season but transitioned to center fi eld in September. Senzel was reassigned to minor league camp Friday morning. “He’s going to continue on the great trajectory that he’s on,” Williams said of Senzel. “This just aff ects our infi eld. I

in the big leagues. He’s played center before. He had a great spring. I didn’t win it.” Naturally, there was some disappointment for Senzel, the No. 10ranked prospect by Baseball America. Making the big-league roster out of camp was Senzel’s goal during the off season. He did as much work as he could in center fi eld, taking live reads during batting practice and extra work with coaches, hoping to make a seamless transition from the infi eld. Dick Williams, the Reds’ president of baseball operations, said Senzel wasn’t cut because of service-time reasons. The Reds can push back Senzel’s eligibility for free agency by one year if he spends 16 days in the minor leagues. Senzel’s agent, Joel Wolfe, told ESPN that it was an “egregious case of service-time manipulation” and it was a “shortsighted move.” “It’s hard for me to comment on that because the business side and all that is their job,” Senzel said. “I just know (Wolfe is) trying to back me and support me. That’s really all I got on that.” In 12 Cactus League games, Senzel had a .300 on-base percentage with 12 hits in 39 at-bats. He hit six doubles and stole four bases. He was informed of the cut Friday morning and Senzel said he felt more disappointment over the cut than hard feelings toward the organization. “I didn’t do too much talking,” Senzel said. “I mean, I was pretty upset. I

was just disappointed. The past few years, I feel like I’ve learned so many diff erent positions. I’ve done what they’ve asked. I’ve been there and I’ve worked hard. “I’m just trying to crack the lineup, no matter where that is. You just don’t know. Wherever they need me to be, I’ll be. I’ll just go down to Triple-A and continue to get better.” Williams said Senzel is on a “great trajectory” in center fi eld and they believe he will only improve with more seasoning in the minor leagues. Senzel credited special instructor Eric Davis and outfi eld coach Jeff Pickler for helping him learn his fourth position in the last three years. Senzel said he would be comfortable playing second base, third base and center fi eld at the Major League level. He feels like he could play shortstop “in a pinch.” “As a competitor, you know there’s an opportunity in front of you and it’s a win or lose type of scenario, at least for me,” Senzel said. “I didn’t win it. Not really hard feelings. Just disappointing because I knew I put in a lot of work and eff ort into learning the position. Really, that’s it.” At Louisville last season, Senzel had a .378 on-base percentage with six homers and 25 RBI in 44 games. Before he suff ered a season-ending fi nger injury at the end of June, he had a hit in 11 consecutive games, including nine multi-hit games. “What’s next,” he said, “is you just move on and continue to get better.”

think we’ve talked to Farmer about the fl exibility that he can give us off the bench. Really what we’re talking about is an infi eld utility bench spot. He gives us a lot of fl exibility there. I anticipate he’ll be a guy that picks up that bench spot.” It will be diffi cult for the Reds to replace Gennett’s bat in the lineup. He hit .310 last season with 23 homers and 92 RBI. He led the team with 86 runs. Iglesias batted .269 last season with fi ve homers, 48 RBI and 15 stolen bases. Derek Dietrich, who played the last six seasons with the Miami Marlins, will fi ll another spot on the bench. Dietrich had 16 homers and 45 RBI in 149 games last season, adding a .330 on-base percentage. “Iglesias has been an everyday shortstop before in the big leagues,” Williams said. “Dietrich has been an everyday second baseman and played around. Peraza has started at second for us in the past and there are a lot of scouts that say that’s been his best position in the past. I think they

might have to revisit that with the way he’s been playing short this year. “We have three guys that we feel really good about playing middle inﬁ eld positions.” Bell admitted there was some concern moving Peraza away from shortstop because he’s shown improved defense this spring. When the Reds signed Iglesias in February, Bell made it clear that Peraza was still the starter. Peraza said he wants to play shortstop, but he understands he has more experience at second base than Iglesias. “He’s making improvements every day at shortstop,” Bell said of Peraza. “He’s just maturing in a lot of ways. Deﬁ nitely, it was a consideration and we kind of went into the room approaching it as a conversation. His willingness and the fact that he’s such a team player made it really an easy conversation. “He was just willing to do what it takes to help us win. You can’t say enough about how great it is to have a room full of guys like that.”

Game report Indians 8, Reds 5 GOODYEAR, Ariz. — The Reds blasted four home runs but fell to the Cleveland Indians 8-5 on Saturday in the penultimate Cactus League game. Jesse Winker and José Iglesias each hit two home runs off Indians’ starter Trevor Bauer. Winker led off the game with a shot to right center and Iglesias followed two batters later. Iglesias added another in the fifth, Winker in the sixth. The Indians plated three runs against Reds’ starter Tyler Mahle and then tagged relievers Michael Lorenzen and Matt Bowman for a combined five more. The Reds have an 8-16-5 record. Three observations 1. How’s this for an introduction to the starting lineup: Iglesias blasted his first two home runs of the spring just hours after manager David Bell announced he would likely be the starter at shortstop to cover for Scooter Gennett’s long-term absence. Iglesias, who signed a minor league contract with the Reds in February after playing the last five seasons with the Detroit Tigers, is primarily known for his defensive abilities. “Pretty good power,” Bell said. “Good day. Great day for him and really, Wink too. He’s been getting closer ...” 2. Tyler Mahle started his final Cactus League appearance with a 2-0 lead, but he gave up three hits and a run in a long bottom of the first. Then, the right-hander recently named the Reds’ fifth starting pitcher, retired five straight batters before giving up two hits and another run in the third. 3. Lorenzen and Winker followed starter Scott Schebler by manning center field late in the game. Lorenzen spent the sixth in center after giving up three runs and getting two outs on the mound in the fifth. Winker took over center in the seventh after starting in left. Quote of the day “What I think gets lost in this is I had a chance to win the job and I didn’t win the job. That’s how I take it. Scotty did what he needed to do to win the job.” – Nick Senzel. Up next Sunday – Sonny Gray (0-0, 0.00) will take the mound to face German Márquez (1-2, 3.80) and the Colorado Rockies in the Reds’ Cactus League finale at 3:05 p.m. in Goodyear. (TV: WLW; Radio: Reds.com). ❚ Box score, 16C –Fletcher Page

4C ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

Daugherty Continued from Page 1C

ﬁ elder is going to be, but it’s hard to say right now that Senzel’s impact across 16 days in March and April would be appreciably greater than Scott Schebler’s. Or Jesse Winker’s or Yasiel Puig’s. Nick’s not yet Joe DiMaggio. Now he knows what Kris Bryant felt like in 2015, when Bryant hit nine homers in the Cactus League before they sent him to Triple-A. Everyone born since Abner Doubleday knew Bryant was a big-leaguer. When the Cubs promoted him eight games into that season, Bryant bashed his way to rookie of the year honors. Last year, it was Ronald Acuna. This year, it was Eloy Jimenez of the Chicago White Sox, until the team locked him up with a six-year, $43 million deal Friday. The Blue Jays got lucky. Their major-league ready, highimpact player, Vlad Guerrero Jr., is on the shelf with a strained oblique muscle. Is this a shameless way to manipulate a player’s future or a practical way for a club to do business? Yes. The most egregious thing about what the Reds are doing with Senzel isn’t making him spend 16 extra days on a bus. It’s insulting our collective intelligence in non-explaining why. I put a call into Dick Williams. He’s the Reds head of baseball operations. I wanted to ask him, “What exactly

The Reds will to play Nick Senzel in center ﬁ eld at Triple-A despite the injury to Scooter Gennett. The team will play natural shortstop Jose Iglesias at the position and move Jose Peraza to second. ENQUIRER FILE

does Senzel need to work on in those 16 days?’’ Williams said Friday that Senzel will play center in Louisville. This was even after Scooter Gennett went down with the right groin strain that will idle him eight to 12 weeks. Second base is Senzel’s preferred position. That certainly complicates the club’s position re Senzel. They’ve decided to

start Jose Iglesias at short and move Jose Peraza to second. Regardless, if you’re going to demote Senzel, might you at least have him playing second? This is a no-brainer business decision that the Reds have to pretend is about development. That doesn’t make it wrong. In fact, for a non-contending, modest spending franchise,

it’s the only decision. Other than in size and scope, how diff erent is demoting Senzel for 16 service-time days from tanking entire seasons? The Reds have done that. Lots of teams have. Ball-o-nomics made them do it. Teams do the same thing with so-called Super 2 players seeking to hasten arbitration eligibility. They don’t call up those guys until later in the year. Does this mean the Reds don’t want to win? Nope, it means they know they’re not quite ready. That’s OK. Smart, even. It’s also OK that Joel Wolfe is outraged. His client should be in Cincinnati on Thursday, especially now that Gennett is out. Doc, just play the best players, not the ones who fi t the most neatly into a long-term service time plan. OK, but the best players have to be the ones fi tting neatly long-term, if you’re interested in having the best team. Besides, this issue was bargained collectively and agree upon in December 2016. The players association approved it. If Wolfe has an issue, it should be with the association, not the teams. The current deal expires in December 2021. Take it up then. Meanwhile, fans aren’t exactly grieving for baseball players getting raw salary deals. That doesn’t change the opinion that Nick Senzel is currently the best healthy second baseman in the organization. Think about his situation when you begrudge any player the money he makes. And ball teams, cool it with the prevaricating.

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cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 5C

Boston gives Sale $145 million extension ASSOCIATED PRESS

FORT MYERS, Fla. — After winning a World Series with the Red Sox, Chris Sale preferred to stay in Boston rather than fi nd out what he would be worth as a free agent after this season. “When half the league isn’t trying to win anything, and we have a team that’s trying to win every year? That says a lot. As players, you can’t not respect it,” Sale said Saturday after Boston announced a deal that guarantees an additional $145 million from 2020 to 2024. Sale, who turns 30 on March 30, is guaranteed $15 million this year under the second option year of the contract he signed with the Chicago White Sox before the 2013 season. The deal wound up being worth $59 million over seven years plus award bonuses. The new contract raises his guarantee to $160 million over the next six seasons. He gets $30 million salaries annually from 2020-22 and $27.5 million a year in 2023 and 2024. His salary can escalate by up to $2 million per season from 2021-24 based on fi nish in Cy Young Award voting. His new deal also includes a $20 million option for 2025 that could become guaranteed based on a top 10 fi nish in the 2024 Cy Young vote, and the price could escalate up to $25 million based on Cy Young fi nish in 2023

and ’24. Sale is 103-62 with a 2.89 ERA and 1,789 strikeouts in 1,4821⁄ 3 innings in nine years. He has been an All-Star for seven straight seasons and started the last two All-Star Games. “To be able to keep Chris in the organization for years to come is exciting for us,” Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said. Since Sale was acquired from Chicago in December 2016, he is 29-12 with a 2.56 ERA, holding opponents to a .196 batting average and averaging 13.17 strikeouts per nine innings. He was 1-0 in four starts and four relief appearances in last year’s postseason, striking out the side against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 5 of the World Series to complete Boston’s fourth title in 15 seasons. “We have a track record of winning,” Sale said. “And even when we don’t, we’re still lined up to win. Since the turn of the century, we have the most World Series wins.” Red Sox outﬁ elder Mookie Betts, the reigning AL MVP, said Sale’s deal would not aﬀ ect his decision whether to seek a long-term contract with Boston or remain on track to become a free agent after the 2020 season. Betts has a $20 million salary this year and is eligible for arbitration again next winter. “I know they got to do what they

can to help the team win, and I’m going to do what I can to help the team win,” he said. “I don’t even think about that a whole lot right now. I’m just focused kind of on what’s going on and getting through spring training and getting ready.” CARDINALS: Paul Goldschmidt wanted to stay in St. Louis, just like Mark McGwire, Jim Edmonds and Matt Holliday. Acquired in December from Arizona, the six-time All-Star fi rst baseman gave up a chance to become a free agent after this season when he fi nalized a new contract with the Cardinals on Saturday that guarantees an additional $130 million from 2020-24. With a big fan base that usually fi lls Busch Stadium, the Cardinals are an attractive team for many players. “Everything I heard about St. Louis and the organization is more than great.” Goldschmidt said Goldschmidt has a $14.5 million salary this season in the option year of a contract he signed with Arizona ahead of the 2013 season. That deal originally guaranteed $32.5 million for six years and will wind up paying $46 million for seven seasons, including a $1 million assignment bonus for the trade. He has yet to spend an extended period in St. Louis. Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak was sure at the time of the trade

that the city would sell itself. “I thought maybe it would be benefi cial for him to see St. Louis, be a part of St. Louis and then ultimately visit it then or at the end of the year,” Mozeliak said. ASTROS: Justin Verlander and the Houston Astros have agreed to a contract adding an additional $66 million in guaranteed money for 2020 and ‘21, a person with direct knowledge of the situation told the Associated Press. The person spoke Saturday on the condition of anonymity because the deal had not been announced. The agreement was fi rst reported by KRIV-FOX 26. A 36-year-old right-hander, Verlander is due $28 million in 2019, the fi nal guaranteed season of a $180 million, seven-year deal he signed with Detroit before the 2013 season. That contract included a $22 million for 2020 that would have become guaranteed if Verlander fi nished among the top fi ve in Cy Young Award voting this year. Verlander was traded from Detroit to Houston on Aug. 31, 2017, and helped the Astros win their fi rst World Series that season. The 2011 AL MVP and Cy Young Award winner, he fi nished second in Cy Young voting last season after going 16-9 with a 2.52 ERA in 34 starts. He pitched 214 innings and led the AL with 290 strikeouts.

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6C ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

FC Cincy facing changes for Revolution Pat Brennan

Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

Brad Freidel thinks he’s got FC Cincinnati’s on-ﬁ eld identity pegged and he’s quite sure of himself. “A Cincinnati team that will sit back and look to counter. Every now and again they’ll look to press,” Freidel, the New England Revolution head coach, told RevolutionSoccer.net on Tuesday. “I think you see the identity of the team. I don’t think that’s going to change. Personnel will change, of course, but ... whether they play a 45-1 or a 4-4-2, we’ll have to wait and see.” OK, so that’s actually a pretty good assessment of FC Cincinnati ahead of the Orange & Blue’s trip to play the Revolution on Sunday (4 p.m.) at Gillette Stadium. In discussing the matchup, Freidel correctly accounted for the personnel rotation Cincinnati will be forced into with four players away on international duty. He also weighed the fact that Fanendo Adi will be unavailable for Cincinnati due to injury, along with some of the players that could step into the vacancies. But is Freidel being hasty in his evaluation of FC Cincinnati? It’s a team that, by its own admission, has lacked consistent identity. So, might

Freidel be underestimating the team Cincinnati will fi eld at Gillette Stadium? The storyline of the week in the FC Cincinnati news cycle, and perhaps the defi ning characteristic of Sunday’s match, will be how Cincinnati copes with the absence of six total players and fi ve they feature regularly. Combined, the players slated to miss the match – Adi, captain Kendall Waston, Allan Cruz, Darren Mattocks and Alvas Powell – have logged 14 appearances, 11 starts and two of the fi ve goals Cincinnati’s scored this season. That’s a lot to replace. In fact, few if any MLS teams have enough in reserve to replace all of that productivity, although FC Cincinnati does have some ammunition stored away on its bench. Waiting for an opportunity to showcase their talents for FC Cincinnati are a slew of veteran players. Bundesliga veteran Caleb Stanko could fi ll in defensively or in the midfi eld. Bruising center back Forrest Lasso is likely itching for a start after not dressing in FC Cincinnati’s three prior matches. Emmanuel Ledesma, the 2018 United Soccer League MVP, could also be an impact player for Cincinnati after making his 2019 debut on Sunday against Portland. The list of players that could impact the game in unexpected ways –

The match FC Cincinnati (1-1-1, 4 points) versus New England Revolution (0-2-1, 1 point). Kickoff: 4 p.m. Sunday, March 24, Gillette Stadium; Foxborough, Massachusetts. TV/radio/stream: WSTR; WDJO (99.5FM, 107.9FM and 1480AM), FloSports (in-market), ESPN+ (out of market). Center back Forrest Lasso did not dress in the ﬁ rst three matches but could be pressed into action against New England today. Six players have been ruled out of the match for national teams or injury. ENQUIRER FILE

Greg Garza, Kenny Saief, Kekuta Manneh – is long. Very little was set for Cincinnati head coach Alan Koch at the time Freidel laid out his visions for how Cincinnati would play. It’s hard to imagine Freidel accounted for every eventuality. “Some of the guys, they want to go represent their countries but they don’t want to leave us at this time,” Koch said during a Tuesday interview. “The byproduct of it is it’s a great opportunity for the other guys in the group to show what they can do, so in

FC Cincinnati injuries: Jimmy McLaughlin (out, right ACL), Przemyslaw Tyton (questionable, hamstring tendinitis), Fanendo Adi (questionable, ankle). New England injuries: Isaac Angking (left knee). Last result for FC Cincinnati: 3-0 win vs. Portland Timbers. Last result for New England: 2-3 loss to Toronto FC.

some respects, it makes my job a little bit easier as a manager managing players because the guys have played well the last two games. I probably would not have made any more changes but now the players get an opportunity. I have to make some changes and now they’re ﬁ ghting for opportunities.”

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cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 7C

UK basketball

Kentucky had plan, and defense did job aul Newberry

ASSOCIATED PRESS

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Everywhere Fletcher Magee turned, there was a hand in his face, a body in his way, a relentless wave of blue that was intent on making sure he never found any alone time. Kentucky totally and completely shut down the most prolifi c 3-point scorer in Division I history. Thanks to that stifl ing defensive eff ort, the Wildcats are moving on in the NCAA Tournament. Magee missed all 12 attempts from long range in his fi nal college game Saturday, and Kentucky held off Wofford 62-56 in the second round of the Midwest Region. “We wanted to make him put the ball on the fl oor and make a basketball play,” said freshman guard Ashton Hagans, one of the players tasked with shutting down the Woff ord gunner. Mission accomplished. Reid Travis scored 14 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and made two huge free throws with 17.8 seconds left to help seal the victory for secondseeded Kentucky (29-6). But coach John Calipari knew the key to this game was at the defensive end. “If they hit a normal amount of 3s, they probably beat us,” the coach said, savoring his eighth trip to the Sweet 16 in a decade as the Wildcats’ coach. Woff ord (30-5) certainly had its chances, limiting the Wildcats to 40 percent shooting (21 of 52) and holding its own on the boards. But Magee simply couldn’t make a shot, which was even more stunning

Kentucky Wildcats guard Immanuel Quickley (5), forward Nick Richards (4) and forward EJ Montgomery (23) celebrate their win over the Wofford Terriers in the second round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament Saturday at Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena. The Kentucky Wildcats won, 62-56. JOHN DAVID MERCER/USA TODAY SPORTS

since he had hit seven less than 48 hours earlier in a victory over Seton Hall, the night he eclipsed the Division I record for career 3-pointers. After his 12th and fi nal attempt ricocheted wildly off the rim, skipping out of bounds in front of a stunned Woff ord section, Magee rubbed his head in seeming disbelief. A dirty dozen, indeed. “I’m still kind of in shock,” Magee said. He insisted that his looks weren’t that much harder than what he normally gets in the Southern Conference. But something was a little off , and Kentucky’s defensive pressure appeared to wear him down by the fi nal horn. It was only the second time all

season that Magee failed to make at least one shot from long range, following an 0-for-9 performance at Kansas in early December. “It just doesn’t seem right to end on a game going 0 for 12 from 3,” Magee said. “If I go 3 for 12, we win the game. I’m not sure how that happens. I’m sure I won’t get over it for a while.” The rest of the Woff ord roster went 8 of 15 from 3-point range. Nathan Hoover made four of them to fi nish with 19 points and Cameron Jackson chipped in with 11 points. Magee fi nished with 8 points on 4-of-17 shooting overall. Kentucky’s length, athleticism and eff ort certainly had something to do with Magee’s dismal showing. Tyler Herro had a tough shooting game

himself, but he did a yeoman’s job on the Woff ord gunner. Hagans and Jemari Baker Jr. also stepped up at times to keep an eye on Magee. “It was the eff ort and energy, and my hope is they got a little worn down because these guys did not stop,” Calipari said, looking over at his players. “They just chased, and they knew they couldn’t let up in this game or they were going to score baskets.” Hagans added 12 points for the Wildcats, who fell behind by as many as 6 points in the fi rst half before going on a late spurt that sent them to the locker room with a 28-26 lead. The Terriers briefl y recaptured the lead early in the second half, but Kentucky went ahead for good with 141⁄ 2 minutes remaining and doggedly protected their advantage the rest of the way. The Wildcats managed to win twice in Jacksonville without their leading scorer and rebounder, sophomore PJ Washington, who watched the games from the bench wearing a hard cast on his sprained left foot. Kentucky faces the winner of the game between No. 3 seed Houston and 11th-seeded Ohio State next Friday in the regional semifi nal at Kansas City, Missouri. The Cougars play the Buckeyes on Sunday. KENTUCKY (26-9) – Walton 5-13 0-0 11, McDonald 2-13 1-2 5, Sharpe 8-13 3-3 23, Faulkner 0-0 0-0 0, Tate 2-12 2-3 6, Nelson 3-3 0-0 6, Vogt 0-1 0-0 0, Djoko 1-2 0-0 2, Robinson 2-5 0-0 4. Totals 23-62 6-8 57. TEXAS TECH (27-6) – Owens 6-7 0-0 12, Odiase 2-3 0-2 4, Culver 10-17 6-10 29, Moretti 4-10 2-3 10, Mooney 3-8 2-2 9, Corprew 1-3 0-0 2, Francis 2-3 0-0 6, Edwards 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 28-53 10-17 72. Halftime—Texas Tech 30-26. 3-Point Goals—N. Kentucky 522 (Sharpe 4-7, Walton 1-6, Robinson 0-1, Tate 0-2, McDonald 0-6), Texas Tech 6-17 (Culver 3-5, Francis 2-3, Mooney 1-2, Corprew 0-1, Edwards 0-1, Owens 0-1, Moretti 0-4). Fouled Out—Faulkner. Rebounds—N. Kentucky 32 (Nelson 8), Texas Tech 29 (Culver 8). Assists—N. Kentucky 11 (Tate 6), Texas Tech 18 (Mooney 8). Total Fouls—N. Kentucky 17, Texas Tech 9.

Buckeyes have new life after pulling NCAA upset ASSOCIATED PRESS

TULSA, Okla. — Ohio State went from barely making the NCAA Tournament to a spot in the second round. Kaleb Wesson had 21 points and 12 rebounds to lead the 11th-seeded Buckeyes to a 62-59 upset of sixthseeded Iowa State in the Midwest Region on Friday night. “You could say it validates the committee’s decision, but we really felt like we had put forth together a really strong body of work and our guys earned it,” Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann said. “You’re always concerned when you’re in a situation like you’re on that cut line, but we really did feel like our guys earned it.” Keyshawn Woods added 19 points for Ohio State (20-14), which will play No. 3 seed Houston on Sunday for a spot in the round of 16. Musa Jallow

added 11 points for Ohio State. Iowa State (23-12) led just once in the second half but had a chance to send the game into overtime when Nick Weiler-Babb had an open attempt at a game-tying 3. His shot missed and ended the season for the Cyclones, who won the Big 12 Tournament to earn a spot in the NCAAs. “We just weren’t good enough tonight,” Iowa State coach Steve Prohm said. “We still had opportunities down the stretch. We couldn’t get it done. I hate it for these guys because the ﬁ nale came a lot quicker than I was thinking. I really thought we had a chance to do something.” The Buckeyes will have to focus on Houston’s Corey Davis Jr., Armoni Brooks and Galen Robinson Jr. The three seniors have combined to account for 50 percent of the team’s scoring this season, including 53

percent of all Cougars points over the last fi ve games. LSU 69, Maryland 67: It’s probably the same play suspended LSU coach Will Wade would have called. After all, it worked several times during the regular season. And now it has sent the Tigers to the Sweet 16 for the fi rst time since 2006. Tremont Waters drove by three defenders and scooped in a banking layup with 1.6 seconds remaining to give third-seeded LSU the victory over sixth-seeded Maryland in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday. “Great players make great plays, and he made a great play,” interim coach Tony Benford said. After Maryland’s Eric Ayala failed to get off a shot from midcourt before the fi nal buzzer, LSU players mobbed

Waters under the basket. They could have done the same to Skylar Mays, who scored 16 points and hit a huge 3pointer with 40 seconds remaining that put the Tigers (28-6) up 67-64. Jalen Smith answered on the other end, sending the packed crowd into a frenzy and prompting LSU to call timeout. Benford dialed up the fi nal play for Waters, a dynamic sophomore who has been terrifi c all season. “The players knew exactly what was coming,” Maryland coach Mark Turgeon said. “We all knew what was coming. It was whether we were going to be able to stop it or not.” The 5-foot-11 Waters got a pick from big man Naz Reid, drove into the lane and somehow got off the winner. “I was in the bottom of the dog pile, and just the feeling, it feels amazing,” Waters said.

8C ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

UC basketball

Bearcats down, but talent is returning Scott Springer

Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY SPORTS

COLUMBUS — Eighty-nine wins over three seasons is impressive for the University of Cincinnati men’s basketball team, but for a second straight year they’re haunted by the loss of a double-digit lead and an early exit home. This year it came in round one at Nationwide Arena. Full of plenty of red and black, the house was loud when UC went up 18-5 early in the fi rst half. Josh Bohannon whittled that to fi ve at half on his fi rst basket of the game at the buzzer, eff ectively switching the momentum. Iowa would take their fi rst lead with 11:12 left behind Luka Garza who pounded the Bearcats inside. UC would creep back, but the fi nal seven minutes saw the Hawkeyes continually hit big shots and convert when they needed to, while UC was left to frantically scrap for their lives in the fi nal minutes, eventually falling 7972. A win would have put UC at 90 over the last three seasons joining Gonzaga and Villanova in that category. Instead, they joined Ole Miss, Kansas State, Colgate, Gardner-Webb, NKU’s Norse and others who packed the gear up for the fi nal time Friday. Power 5 prevailed: Iowa was ranked 16 consecutive weeks in the Top 25 and played 10 Top 25 games during the season as opposed to UC’s fi ve. Iowa also featured Power 5 power forwards. While UC held Tyler Cook to fi ve points, Garza was “pretty in the paint” shooting 8-for-11 overall. To boot, he added a pair of threes. “Iowa played better than us, we couldn’t stop them, let’s keep it simple,” head coach Mick Cronin said. Brooks gone in 11 seconds: The best UC had to battle Iowa’s beef was 6-11, 240-pound Nysier Brooks. For the 20 minutes he played, he was 5for-8 for 11 points and fi ve rebounds. “In the plus-minus, we’re plus 12 in the 20 minutes Nysier Brooks played,” Cronin said. “We didn’t have the depth on the frontline to deal with their guys on the interior. I thought that was probably the biggest diff erence in the game.” Trevon Scott again played hard with 10 points and seven boards but UC eventually lost the rebounding edge with Brooks out. When he returned with 4:20 to play, it took one Garza drive to foul out Brooks in 11 seconds. The zone and the zone: When a team makes 11 of 22 three-point shots, it’s likely going to win. Joe Wieskamp was particularly eff ective making 4 of 6 and Nicholas Baer hit a pair of big shots. Defensively, Iowa’s zone and pressure kept UC shooting deep into the clock. The Bearcats were a painful

Mick Cronin’s Bearcats have won 89 games over the past three seasons. They’ll have the talent for more victories next season as they will lose only two seniors in guards Justin Jenifer and Cane Broome. KAREEM ELGAZZAR/THE ENQUIRER

6-for-27 on threes with Justin Jenifer on target early and Jarron Cumberland knocking in a pair late with the Bearcats in desperation mode. Tough goodbyes for UC’s Broome and Jenifer: UC’s post-game locker room featured a lot of towels on heads with tears and emotional hugs. “It’s literally a brotherhood,” Broome said. “Nobody thought we’d be good. Nobody thought we’d get 20 wins.” Cronin stopped Broome and Jenifer as they came off the court, told them he loved them and hugged them according to the seniors. “He believed in us, he never gave up on us,” Jenifer said. “It’s just sad to see myself never wear a Cincinnati jersey again.” Scott, expected to be a senior leader next season, was also sad the Bearcats couldn’t deliver for the departing seniors. “I came in with Justin, Cane came later,” Scott said. “Losing those guys is like losing a brother. I know we’re going to be there, but not going to war with them every day, I’m sorry to Justin and Cane that we came up short.” Payback in Chicago? UC and Iowa will meet again at the United Center in Chicago Dec. 21 in the Chicago Legends event. Early exit: The fi rst-round bounce was UC’s fi rst since losing in 2016 to St. Joseph’s 78-76 in Jenifer’s fi rst season. They also went out in the fi rst

round in 2013 and 2014 against Creighton and Harvard, respectively. It was the ninth time in UC history the Bearcats lost in round one, the fourth in seven years. “These are the guys that have been the most connected since I’ve been here,” Brooks said. “It just hurts going out like this in the fi rst round.” Roster make-up: Next year’s roster will be minus Broome and Jenifer but adds 6-8 LaQuill Hardnett and 6-7 Prince Gillam Toyambi. It’s believed that Toyambi has the better chance to contribute but that’s months away and both will still be redshirt freshmen. Also coming in is Xenia’s Samari Curtis, Ohio’s Mr. Basketball and the state Division I Player of the Year. Curtis averaged 34.4 points per game as a 6-4 point guard. Those you know (maybe): Keith Williams will be a junior. He was the second-leading scorer behind Jarron Cumberland and the only other double-digit average on the team. Scott, Brooks, Rashawn Fredericks and Cumberland will be seniors next season, assuming Cumberland returns. The AAC Player of the Year turned some heads with his 33 points in the AAC tournament championship against No. 11 Houston but didn’t have one of his better days against Iowa. He still fi nished with 18 points, but six came in the fi nal minute when UC was heaving up threes to stay in the game.

In his defense, Cumberland played 38:40, longer than anyone on the ﬂ oor Friday. Thus far, he hasn’t appeared in NBA mock drafts. Juniors will be Trevor Moore and Eliel Nsoseme and Logan Johnson and Mamoudou Diarra will be sophomores. Walk-ons John Koz and Sam Martin will be a senior and junior, respectively. Upon further review: Truth be told, after losing to Ohio State 64-56 in the opening of Fifth Third Arena, not many would have guessed UC would win 28 games. Especially after losing Jacob Evans III, Gary Clark and Kyle Washington to pro basketball. It is Cronin’s third-best win total after 2018 (31) and 2017 (30). Prior to Cronin, it’s the best since 2002’s Sweet 16 team that won 31. “I don’t think they could have accomplished much more than they did this year,” Cronin said. “They stayed together, they overcame, they never doubted and they kept scrapping and ﬁ ghting without a lot of experience. What they accomplished was unbelievable.” Just a year ago, starters Brooks and Williams didn’t even play in UC’s second-round loss to Nevada. That said, UC’s buses were home before Friday’s second opening session of 2019 at Nationwide Arena began. That will take time to recover from.

cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 9C

XU basketball

Musketeers eye 20th victory

The Game ❚ Tipoff: Sunday, 4 p.m. at the Erwin Center ❚ TV/Radio: ESPN/WKRC-AM (550)

Adam Baum

Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

AUSTIN — Despite not meeting its goal of the NCAA Tournament, there’s still a lot for No. 3 Xavier to play for Sunday afternoon (4 p.m., ESPN) at No. 2 Texas in the second round of the National Invitation Tournament. When the Musketeers (19-15) take the fl oor at the Longhorns’ Erwin Center, they’ll be playing for the program’s sixth straight 20-win season and the right to host a quarterfi nal NIT game back at Cintas Center next week. It would also be the 13th time in the last 14 seasons – and 21 out of the last 23 – that Xavier has reached the 20-win mark. Xavier head coach Travis Steele would join Pete Gillen, Skip Prosser, Thad Matta and Chris Mack as the only head coaches in program history to win at least 20 games in their fi rst season at the helm. The Musketeers, with eight wins in their last 10 games, were a team that almost played their way into the NCAA Tournament and the Longhorns nearly did the same. Even with a 17-16 record, Texas racked up some of the more impressive wins in all of college basketball against North Carolina on a neutral court, at home against Purdue, Kansas, Iowa State and at Kansas State. Although he won’t be playing because of a knee injury, one of Texas’ top players is 6-foot-11 freshman forward Jaxson Hayes, a graduate of Moeller High School, who helped the Crusaders win a state championship last season. Texas updated Hayes’ status Friday with a statement that read: “After consulting with multiple specialists, it has been determined that there is no structural damage in the left knee of University of Texas freshman forward Jaxson Hayes. He has a bone bruise in his left knee, and we are expecting him to make a full recovery in a matter of weeks.” Without Hayes, the Longhorns lose a lot of athleticism and a presence inside. Texas is an effi cient team at both ends of the fl oor. KenPom ranks the Longhorns as the 25th-most effi cient off ense and the 44th-most effi cient defense in the country. The Longhorns are much more apt to settle for 3-pointers off ensively, so Xavier’s perimeter defense needs to be in form again. This season, Texas has attempted 100 more 3-pointers than Xavier and the Longhorns have converted nearly 40 more threes than the Musketeers. In Texas’ win over South Dakota State in its NIT opener last week, the Longhorns hit 15 threes and average

SCOUTING REPORT

XAVIER Record: 19-15 Offense: 72.1 ppg Defense: 70.4 ppg

Projected lineup Player Paul Scruggs Quentin Goodin Naji Marshall Tyrique Jones Zach Hankins

Pos Ht G 6-3 G 6-4 F 6-7 F 6-9 F 6-10

Key stat 12.5 ppg 10.9 ppg 14.5 ppg 11.0 ppg 10.6 ppg

TEXAS Record: 17-16 Offense: 71.0 ppg Defense: 67.2 ppg

Projected lineup Player Jericho Sims Dylan Osetkowski Matt Coleman III Jase Febres Courtney Ramey

Pos Ht Key stat F 6-9 3.1 rpg F 6-9 10.9 ppg G 6-2 11.7 ppg G 6-5 8.6 ppg G 6-3 8.1 ppg

Forward Naji Marshall leads ﬁ ve Musketeers who are averaging in double ﬁ gures with an average of 14.5 points per game. He’s coming off a huge, 20-point, 21-rebound game in the NIT opening round victory over Toledo. ALBERT CESARE/THE ENQUIRER

AMY KONTRAS/USA TODAY SPORTS

Moeller product and freshman forward Jaxson Hayes won’t be available for the Longhorns today. He’s out for the season with a bone bruise in his knee. ROB FERGUSON/USA TODAY SPORTS

only 8.7 per game. The formula that Xavier’s had success with recently is: ❚ Take care of the basketball – Xavier averages 13.3 turnovers per game, but the Musketeers have only turned it over 40 times in the last four games. ❚ Controlling the paint – Xavier likes to work out of the low post, attack the basket and clean up on the glass. Texas is a team that gets outrebounded on average.

❚ Defense travels – In Xavier’s last 10 games, the Musketeers have only allowed more than 70 points twice. ❚ Share the wealth – Xavier has fi ve guys averaging in double fi gures, led by sophomore Naji Marshall, who’s coming off a 20-point, 21-rebound game against Toledo. The Musketeers’ best performances this season have come when Paul Scruggs, Quentin Goodin, Zach Hankins and Tyrique Jones are all involved with Marshall.

Player to watch Dylan Osetkowski The senior doesn’t seem to be ready to stop playing yet. In the Longhorns’ last two games, Osetkowski is averaging 22.0 points and he’s coming off a career-high 26 points in the NITopening win over South Dakota St. Texas likes to bring leading scorer Kerwin Roach II and his 14.6 points per game off the bench.

Noteworthy NCAA NET Ranking: Xavier (67); Texas (38) KenPom.com: Xavier (64); Texas (28)

cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 11C

10C ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

2019 NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament First Round, March 21-22

1 Duke (30-5) 85 Columbia, S.C. March 22

Second Round, March 23-24

Elite Eight March 30-31

Sweet 16, March 28-29

Final Four April 6, 8

Elite Eight March 30-31

Sweet 16, March 28-29

First Round, March 21-22

Second Round, March 23-24

Duke

Virginia (30-3) 71 1

Virginia

Columbia, S.C. March 22

All times Eastern

16 N.D. State (19-16) 62

Columbia, S.C. Sunday, 5:15 p.m., CBS

Gardner-Webb (23-12) 56 16

Columbia, S.C. Sunday, 7:45 p.m., truTV

8 VCU (25-8) 58 Columbia, S.C. March 22

9 Central Florida (24-8) 73 5 Mississippi St. (23-11) 76 San Jose, Calif. March 22

Mississippi (20-13) 72 8 Central Florida Washington, D.C. Friday

Oklahoma (20-13) 95 9

Louisville Thursday

Liberty

12 Liberty (29-6) 80

Columbia, S.C. March 22

Oklahoma

Wisconsin (23-11) 54 5

Oregon San Jose, Calif. Sunday, 7:10 p.m., TBS

San Jose, Calif. March 22

Oregon (24-12) 72 12

San Jose, Calif. Sunday, 9:40 p.m., TBS

4 Virginia Tech (25-8) 66

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San Jose, Calif. March 22

UC Irvine

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UC Irvine (31-5) 70 13

Louisville March 30

Washington, D.C. March 31

Villanova (26-9) 61 6

Villanova

Maryland 67

11 Belmont (27-6) 77

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14 Yale (22-8) 74 7 Louisville (20-14) 76 Des Moines, Iowa March 21

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15 Bradley (20-15) 65 1 Gonzaga (31-3) 87 Salt Lake City March 21

LSU 69

Hartford, Conn. March 21

Purdue

Washington, D.C. Friday

Old Dominion (26-9) 48 14

Louisville Thursday

Cincinnati (28-7) 72 7

Iowa

Minnesota Des Moines, Iowa Saturday, 7:45 p.m., CBS

Columbus, Ohio March 22

Iowa (23-11) 79 10

Columbus, Ohio Sunday, 12:10 p.m., CBS

Final Four

Michigan St

Minneapolis, Minn., April 6

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Tennessee (30-5) 77 2

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Columbus, Ohio March 22

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9 Baylor (20-13) 78

Iona (17-16) 73 16

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Washington (27-8) 78 9

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Salt Lake City March 21

New Mexico St. (30-5) 77 12

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Kansas

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14 No. Kentucky (26-9) 57

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Texas Tech

First Four

Anaheim, Calif. Thursday

Belmont 81 Florida

Final

Temple 70

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2 Michigan (29-6) 74 15 Montana (26-9) 55

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Houston (32-3) 84 3

10 Florida (20-15) 70 Des Moines, Iowa March 21

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Ohio St (20-14) 62 11

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3 Texas Tech (27-6) 72 Tulsa, Okla. March 22

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Kansas (26-9) 87 4

Northeastern (23-11) 53 13

Kansas City, Mo. March 31

Buffalo

11 Ariz. State (23-11) 74

7 Nevada (29-5) 61

N.C. Cent. 74 Final

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Auburn (27-9) 78 5

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4 Florida St. (28-7) 76 13 Vermont (27-7) 69

Columbus, Ohio March 22

Washington

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12 Murray St. (28-4) 83

Hartford, Conn. March 21

Utah St. (28-7) 61 8

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8 Syracuse (20-14) 69 The Low Price

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N. Carolina (28-6) 88 1

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2 Michigan St (29-6) 76 Des Moines, Iowa March 21

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Purdue (24-9) 61 3

10 Minnesota (22-13) 86

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3 LSU (28-6) 79 Jacksonville, Fla. March 21

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N.D. State 78

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F. Dickinson 82

Georgia St (24-10) 55 14 Wofford (30-4) 84 7

Wofford

Final

P.V. A&M 76

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Houston

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12C ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

BENGALS XTRA

Looks like free-agency patience paid oﬀ Paul Dehner Jr.

Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

Find me a team that takes a conservative approach in free agency and I’ll show you a fan base ready to burn the stadium down every March. This stuck out to me last week as fans of the Patriots, Cowboys, Colts and Rams took to their social media feeds to complain. Yes, even fans of both teams who were in the Super Bowl, one of which has been to the AFC title game an impossible eight years in a row were yelling about how their franchises were missing out the fi rst week of free agency. This past week, however, those that sat out the marked up inventory the fi rst week, hit the standard pricing or bargain bins this past week. The Colts added Justin Houston on the cheap, the Rams Blake Bortles as a backup quarterback and Cowboys only needed $5 million to secure a season of Randall Cobb. As for the Bengals, they were able to dip back into the water and fi nd Darqueze Dennard still available at a much more reasonable price than originally anticipated. Suddenly, the free agent checklist has more boxes checked than undone. Waiting to see the totality instead of racing to scream in frustration paints a diff erent picture. ❚ Addition by subtraction with Vontaze Burfi ct. Check. ❚ Retain your top free agents Dennard, C.J. Uzomah and Tyler Eifert. Check. ❚ Assure depth on the right side of the line: Bobby Hart and John Miller. Check. ❚ Fix linebacker. Well, three out of four ain’t bad. All eyes turn to the draft on that last one. I’m looking at you Devin White and Devin Bush. The question remaining as a few relevant pieces are still available on the market is if the Bengals are done in free agency. The answer isn’t as simple. Let’s just say, yes, for the most part. Sources indicate with the Dennard deal in the pocket and to become offi cial early next week that was likely the last notable move of the season. The rest will be chances taken on players with familiarity to these new coaches. Maybe a developmental linebacker or edge rusher who has a history with Mark Duff ner or Lou Anarumo. Or a wide receiver or lineman familiar to Zac Taylor or Brian Callahan. The Bengals decided to kick the compensatory pick formula to the curb for this year knowing they wouldn’t have much to get back from their available crop. Their only players that would have registered for potential picks were Tyler Kroft with Buff alo (5th rounder) and Cedric Ogbuehi with Jacksonville (7th). They were canceled out by OL John Miller (6th) and CB B.W. Webb (6th). So, there is

The Bengals would not budget on their offer to cornerback Darqueeze Dennard and it paid off when he agreed to return on a deal that is expected to be made official this week. ENQUIRER FILE

nothing to lose by continuing to add a few smaller unrestricted free agent pieces. Barring trades, the 2020 draft would mark only the second time in the last 15 years they only had seven selections (2016). Let’s just say it was about time considering if they make all 11 selections this draft that will have made for 33(!) picks in the previous three seasons. As for where the Bengals stand fi nancially at this moment, they ended up spending close the max of where they wanted to go during these two weeks. When looking at specifi c cap hits, the Bengals took on $28 million in new 2018 cap money plus the Dennard contract. Which, by the way, their refusal to budge from their value on him paid off by still getting the player but at a rate much below what would have been expected had they caved in the early going. It certainly didn’t appear it would end up that way, but to their credit, they ended up with the best of both worlds. Here’s the complete list of cap hits the Bengals acquired for 2018 (doesn’t include restricted and exclusiverights free agents): ❚ TE C.J. Uzomah: 6.1 ❚ OL Bobby Hart: 5.9 ❚ OL John Miller: 5.3 ❚ LB Preston Brown: 4.7 ❚ TE Tyler Eifert: 4.0 ❚ CB B.W. Webb: 3.0

Tight end Tyler Eifert is among the Bengals’ free agents they chose to bring back, with the likes of Dennard and C.J. Uzomah. The Bengals got the veteran for a $4 million deal. All told, the Bengals spent $28 million, not counting Dennard’s deal. ENQUIRER FILE

❚ CB Darqueze Dennard: TBD ❚ LB Vontaze Burﬁ ct: -5.5 ❚ Replaced players: -2.0 ❚ TOTAL: 20.5 The Bengals made a run at two edge rushers, Shaquille Barrett and Vinny Curry. Both visited as they weighed options in the second wave of free agency. Barrett ended up signing with

Tampa Bay stating he wanted to go to a team dedicated to the 3-4, since he’s been a fi t for that style during his time coming up in Denver. Curry reportedly left more money on the table elsewhere, but chose to return to Philadelphia, a place he called home for his fi rst seven NFL seasons before one failed season with the Buccaneers. The Bengals interests in these two suggest they are still seeking that the complementary edge rusher is the one position they still are looking to fi ll. Currently on the roster they have Carlos Dunlap, Sam Hubbard, Carl Lawson and Jordan Willis. Veteran Michael Johnson soaked up 41 percent of the snaps last year, but the team is expected to move on from the 32-year-old. Elsewhere, LB Vinny Rey, OL Andre Smith, OL Jake Fisher, DL Kasim Edebali and Tom Savage all are still out there but haven’t been a focus of the Bengals’ interests. The Bengals should be estimated 12th in total cap space left once the Dennard deal goes through. Essentially, the middle of the pack with room for future moves. The next step after a potential smaller round of strategic signings, exercising the fi fthyear option on William Jackson III for 2020 and inking draft picks will be working on extensions for those entering contract years. The top of that list will be notable and expensive: Wide receivers A.J. Green and Tyler Boyd.

cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 13C

Will it be a contact sport on short track? Bob Pockrass

Special to USA TODAY

NASCAR likes to promote itself as a contact sport. As it heads to the racetrack that has seen memorable contact between competitors the last few years, the debate will continue on how much contact is acceptable when going for the win. With what occurred last fall at Martinsville Speedway, it might have truly changed the way drivers race the fi nal laps on the shortest track (0.526 miles) on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series circuit. Martin Truex Jr. had worked for several laps in October to cleanly drive by Joey Logano, who then executed a bump-and-run in the fi nal turn to recapture the lead and earn the win. Truex fumed, feeling he had raced Logano with much more respect only to be treated with a dirty move in return. Logano celebrated as he not only went home with the traditional Martinsville Speedway grandfather clock prize but also with a bid to the championship race as one of the four title contenders. Three weeks later, Logano won the Cup title thanks in no small part to not having to worry about his performance in the previous two races in order to earn a spot among the fi nal four. Whether the results of October

infl uence the race at Martinsville Sunday probably won’t be known until lap 500. “I don’t know,” Truex said. “I would say that it’s probably not going to be (the same) – there’s less of a chance that it will be like that just because it’s not a race to get into the fi nal four. “I would think it would be tame and normal like we’ve seen there in the past. That’s the best answer I can give you.” The spring race still has more than a trophy on the line. NASCAR’s 16driver playoff fi eld consists of its regular-season champion and 15 drivers based on wins, with ties broken by points. “The spring race doesn’t usually turn out quite as crazy as the fall, but I would imagine that guys would be pretty aggressive,” said Denny Hamlin, who fi nished second in October as Truex was virtually sideways coming to the checkered fl ag. “I don’t know that they would be that aggressive, but maybe. “It depends on the players that are in it. If there is somebody that doesn’t think they are going to get another win in the course of the season and that is going to be their ticket to punch to the playoff s, then certainly you will see a move like that.” Truex has said he will race Logano diff erently than other drivers in the typical “how you race me is how I will

Martin Truex Jr. lost the race at Martinsville last October when Joey Logano did a bump-and-run on him and passed for the win. USA TODAY

race you” part of the driver code. But it seems that every driver has a diff erent code, a diff erent set of standards of what they consider ethically right or wrong. “The code has defi nitely changed,” seven-time Cup champ Jimmie Johnson said. “People reference the code a lot. But I think ultimately whatever code exists is between the two drivers. And that same code might not exist between Driver C and Driver D or Driver A and Driver D. It just changes all the time.” Drivers generally fall in two camps. Some say they would wreck their

mother to win a race. Others say they would race with a little more courtesy. “I felt like Martin raced probably how I would have,” said Kyle Larson, who has taken criticism for not using his bumper enough. “So I would have been bitter also. But then, with Joey making that move, led him to winning the championship. “I think it’s a little diff erent maybe earlier in the year than playoff time, but it’s short-track racing and everybody is raised a little diff erently.” Drivers also tend to diff erentiate between a nudge when trying to make the pass versus rougher contact that completely moves their opponent from the preferred racing groove. “It was certainly one of those kind of moments that if he didn’t do what he did, would he have made it to Homestead? We won’t ever know,” 2015 Cup champion Kyle Busch said. “Obviously, it can take those situations sometimes where you can move a guy out of the way or pile-drive a guy out of the way in order to make your way into the fi nal four.” So what about the guy who initiated it all? Logano appeared surprised at a question on whether he would see his risk versus reward diff erently this weekend when compared to October. “I see a trophy on the line,” Logano said. “A big clock that is really cool. That is what I see. I don’t see it any diff erent from the spring to the fall.”

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14C ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

Moeller keeps building on a historic run Shelby Dermer

Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

COLUMBUS — Fine-tuned, welloiled – whichever adjective one could ponder to describe the effi ciency of the Moeller boys basketball team would suffi ce as the defending statechampion Crusaders continue to live up to their hype. The latest example came Friday, when Moeller, the No. 1 boys basketball team in the state since January, cruised past Lakewood St. Edward, 72-52, in the Division I state semifi nals at Ohio State’s University’s Jerome Schottenstein Center. Moeller (28-0) has now won 48 consecutive games, dating back to a three-point loss to Imhotep Charter (Pa.) in a Holiday Tournament in December 2017. The Crusaders have won 48 consecutive contests against Ohio opponents with their last loss coming in the 2017 D-I state championship game. Lakewood St. Edward (19-9) was making its 11th all-time state tournament appearance and fi fth in the last eight seasons. The Eagles were state semifi nalists in 2017 and a state runner-up in 2014. “We’re very excited for this win, probably because we know the strength of the program that we played,” Moeller head coach Carl Kremer said. “I knew they would be prepared and knew it would be a tough game. We’re thrilled with how we played and even think we can play better. Just really happy with our guys.” Friday was a little more run and gun for the undefeated Crusaders after only scoring 60-plus points once this postseason (67-51 win over Colerain) heading into the Final Four. The Crusaders spread the scoring out with four players in double fi gures. Alec Pfriem led the way with a game-high 20, West Virginia University signee Miles McBride had 13 and sophomore Alex Williams had a dozen off the bench.

Moeller forward Will McCracken drives to the hoop during the Crusaders’ convincing 72-52 victory over Lakewood St. Edward in the state semiﬁ nals Friday night. E.L. HUBBARD FOR THE ENQUIRER

Williams, who played just shy of 19 minutes, scored six points in the second quarter as Moeller shot an astounding 78.9 percent from the fi eld in the fi rst half and took a 38-25 lead into the intermission. “I’m not sure we’ve been that hot,” Kremer said. “We have been pretty good that way. Our guys understand where our shots are and they are patient enough to get the right shots. We felt pretty good in that area but that half was particularly good for us.” Moeller fi nished 26-for-39 from the fi eld (66.7 percent), 5-for-11 from the 3-point range and 15-for-19 from

the charity stripe. “That’s a very good basketball team that shot the heck out of it,” St. Edward coach Eric Flannery said. “Every time we wanted them to take a 3 or take a mid-range shot that we would live with, they made it. Every time we cut it close, they just extended it. They did a good job of handling our traps early in the game. You play well and you lose by 20 - that shows you how good they are.” McBride, who only played in the state tournament last year, made all fi ve of his fi eld-goal attempts and scored nine of his 13 points in the fi rst quarter. He hit a 3-pointer from the right wing to give Moeller an 18-15 lead with 1:12 left in the opening stanza and the Crusaders never trailed again. “I’ve thought about that– last year it came down to the guys being around me,” McBride said. “I’m a leader and had to really step up throughout this whole year. It’s very special. Coming up here for three years; it’s an amazing feeling.” Pfriem, who has signed to play for Bellarmine University, is no stranger to Columbus. He was a part of two Roger Bacon teams that went to the state Final Four in 2016 and 2017, but Friday was his best performance as he notched his fi rst career double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Pfriem calmly said the pressure of being defending state champions has not impacted the Crusaders all year. “We just wanna keep taking it one day at a time. We don’t think any moment is too big or too small, whether it’s playing Wilmington on a Saturday night with two people here or with 12 thousand people at this game,” Pfriem said. “We just wanna keep living in the moment and embrace what we have.” St. Edward had four players in double fi gures who combined for all of its points. Senior Demetrius Terry fi nished with 12, including a pair of emphatic dunks, and the Eagles got 15 points each from junior guards Grant Huff man and Devontae Blanton.

Get the title game For coverage of Moeller’s Division I state championship game against Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary’s Saturday night, go to Cincinnati.com.

Blanton hit a corner triple with 2:24 left in the fi rst quarter to give St. Edward a 15-12 lead, but Moeller installed a full-court press that generated three turnovers on the Eagles’ next four possessions. The key turnovers ultimately led to an 8-0 run to fi nish the fi rst quarter and a 17-6 burst that extended into the second quarter that ballooned Moeller’s lead to double digits before the half. Moeller’s bench outscored St. Edward’s 21-0 and the Crusaders scored nearly half of their points (34) in the paint. Moeller forced 13 turnovers and held the Eagles to their lowest point total of the season. Moeller Saturday night was aiming for history when they went for state championship No. 5 against Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary in Saturday night’s state fi nal. Moeller defeated visiting St. Vincent-St. Mary 99-62 Dec. 8. No Cincinnati-area team has ever won back-to-back Division I state championships. Elder is the last big school to repeat, winning Class AAA in 1973 and ’74. “We can’t wait for another opportunity to play tomorrow night,” Kremer said. “This game is tough; you have to have fun playing it and these guys have been such great leaders in that area. We got one more really important one to play.” Moeller (28-0): Shipp 1 0 3, Pfriem 8 3 20, McBride 5 2 13, Land 3 5 11, Duncomb 2 0 4, McCracken 1 1 3, Williams 4 4 12, Currin 1 0 3, Colbert 1 0 3. Totals: 26 15 72. St. Edward (19-9): Terry 4 3 12, Foster 3 4 10, Huffman 6 2 15, Blanton 6 0 15. Totals: 19 9 52. Halftime: M 38-25. 3-pointers: M 5 (Shipp, McBride, Pfriem, Currin, Colbert), SE 5 (Blanton 3, Terry, Huffman).

Top athletes stepped up as the seasons change Melanie Laughman Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

In a vote that ended March 22, Cincinnati.com readers voted for the Cincinnati Enquirer athlete of the week winners for March 11-17, sponsored by TriHealth. You do not have to be a subscriber to vote, a period that lasts Monday afternoon to Friday at 3 p.m. each week. Please submit any nominees by Monday for the previous week’s performances to mlaughman@enquirer.com. The new ballot will be posted Monday. You can vote once an hour

from any device. You can nominate the remaining winter and beginning spring sports athletes using the following Twitter hashtags or emailing mlaughman@enquirer.com. #cincybaseball #cincysoftball #cincytennis #cincyvb #cincytrack #cincylax #cincyhoops This week’s winners are: Boys basketball: Javonta Lyons, Purcell Marian – The senior attacked the Versailles zone relentlessly in the regional semiﬁ nal, leading the Cavaliers with 16 points. He added 14 in the win over Anna in the regional ﬁ nal Girls basketball: Juliet McGregor, Ryle – The senior consistently

made plays throughout the postseason that put Ryle in the position to win its state title March 17. She had several big plays in the second half of the Owensboro Catholic game to add to her 15 points, 7 rebounds and 7-of-9 at the free-throw line. Her strong rebounding made an impact in the Clark

County and Murray games. Boys lacrosse: Tanner Wessels, Turpin – He had 3 goals in the season opener against Bishop Fenwick, in which the Spartans won 11-3 March 15. Girls lacrosse: Payton Megowen, Mariemont – She had 5 goals, 3 draw controls and one caused turnover in a 12-3 win over Kings March 16. Join the Enquirer high school sports Facebook group, Enquirer Preps Plus, to keep current on the high school sports scene during the summer. There’s also a new group called Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Sports Parents for those interested.

cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 15C

Preps+ scoreboard LOCAL HIGH SCHOOLS RESULTS FRIDAY, MARCH 22 BOYS’ BASKETBALL Moeller 72, Lakewood St. Edward 52 Moeller (28-0) - Shipp 1 0 3, Pfriem 8 3 20, McBride 5 2 13, Land 3 5 11, Duncomb 2 0 4, McCracken 1 1 3, Williams 4 4 12, Currin 1 0 3, Colbert 1 0 3. Totals: 26 15 72. St. Edward (19-9) - Terry 4 3 12, Foster 3 4 10, Huffman 6 2 15, Blanton 6 0 15. Totals: 19 9 52. Halftime: M 38-25. 3-pointers: M 5 (Shipp, McBride, Pfriem, Currin, Colbert), SE 5 (Blanton 3, Terry, Huffman). BASEBALL Conner 23, Gallatin County 10 W-Borman (1-0). L-Epperson. Leaders: C-Chirico 3-5, 2 2B; Stidham 2 RBI; Coghlan 2 EBI; Holtzclaw 2B, 2 RBI; Atwood 2-3, 2B; Osterbur 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Cobble 2-2, 2 2B, 4 RBI. GC-Roole 2B, 2 RBI; Cobey 2B; Jackson 2 RBI. Record: C 2-2. Walton-Verona 10, Owen County 0 W-Derenthal. L-Cobb. Leaders: Brauer 2-4, 2 RBI; Hunley 2-3, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Wagner 2-3, RBI; Alford RBI; Smith RBI; Derenthal 2-2, RBI; Dryden RBI. OTHER SCORES Lexington Catholic 15, Bishop Brossart 3 Male 8, Campbell County 5 St. Henry 5, Newport Central Catholic 2 BOYS’ LACROSSE Turpin 13, La Salle 0 Goals : T - Hooper 2, Maddy 2, Messerly 2, Donovan, Evans, Middendorf, Phillips, Verdin, Wessels, Hacker. OTHER SCORES: Anderson 14, Oak Hills 8 Lebanon 17, Kings 16 (OT) SOFTBALL Simon Kenton 18, South Oldham 17 W-Glover (1-0). L-Poppleton (2-1). Leaders: SK-Glover 5-5, 3 HR, 7 RBI; Perry 3-4, HR, 6 RBI. SO-Kennedy 2-4, HR; Roberts 2-3. Records: SK 2-1, SO 2-1. OTHER SCORES: Boone County 9, Scott 3 Carroll County 8, Newport Central Catholic 0 Pendleton County 12, Dayton 3 Villa Madonna 15, St. Patrick 0 Walton-Verona 14, Ryle 4 BOYS’ TENNIS Beechwood 5, Boone County 0 McElwee (B) d. Griffin 7-6(5), 7-5; Smith d. Hicks7-6(2), 7-6(5); Hatfield d. Jones 6-0, 6-0; Hetzel-Frahm d. Floyd-Harr 6-3, 6-2; Grence-Bischoff d. McQueary-Raleigh 6-1, 6-2. Middletown 3, Northridge 2 Brown (N) d. Misirlioglu 7-5, 6-4; Toscano (M) d. Royalty 7-5, 2-3 FF; Geisel (N) d. Brown 6-4, 6-0. Langendorf-Vinson (M) d. McCormick-Hamilton 6-3, 6-3; Chairez-Rivera (M) d. King-Warman 6-1, 6-3. Records: M 1-0, N 0-1. Villa Madonna 5, St. Patrick 0 Ahmad-Schulte d. L. Kalb-E. Kalb 6-0, 6-0. Case-Marlette d. Schumacher-Stahl. Singles won by walkover. OTHER SCORES: Bethel-Tate 4, New Richmond 1 Turpin 5, Wilmington 0 BOYS’ VOLLEYBALL Louisville St. Xavier d. Fenwick Taylor d. Hamilton THURSDAY, MARCH 21 BOYS’ BASKETBALL Division III state semifinal Canal Winchester Harvest Prep 48, Purcell Marian 41 Harvest Prep (27-2) - Anthony 6 4 17, Hines 2 0 5, Tate 2 0 4, Beavers 1 4 7, Glenn 2 0 4, Robertson 3 1 8, Duncan 1 0 3. Totals: 17 9 48. Purcell Marian (24-5) - Garrett 1 0 2, Dotson 1 1 3, Lyons 6 2 15, Baldock 2 0 5, Little 1 0 2, Jefferson 1 0 2, Warah 4 1 9, Hoover 1 0 3. Totals: 17 4 41. Halftime: 20-20. 3-pointers: HP 5 (Anthony, Hines, Beavers, Robertson, Duncan). PM 3 (Lyons, Baldock, Hoover). BASEBALL Bishop Brossart 10, Calvary Christian 0 Boone County 2, Holy Cross 0 GIRLS’ LACROSSE Kings 14, Beavercreek 4 Mariemont 9, Mount Notre Dame 6 Summit Country Day 10, Loveland 9 (OT) Ursuline Academy 14, Lakota West 6 Wyoming 9, Mercy McAuley 5 SOFTBALL Dayton 18, Beechwood 5 Oldham County 12, Simon Kenton 3 BOYS’ TENNIS Highlands 5, Conner 0 P. Laskey d. Shah 6-0, 6-0; Hopper d. Ernst 6-2, 6-4; Schuh d. Frye 6-0, 7-6(3). Erickson-Hornsby d. Weber-Roth 6-0, 6-0; J. Laskey-Back d. Kellinghaus-Finley 6-0, 6-0. Simon Kenton 4, Beechwood 1 Meade (SK) d. McElwee 6-2, 1-6, 10-8; Hampton (SK) d. Hetzel 6-2, 7-5; Greenwood (SK) d. Hatfield 6-1, 6-4; Smith-Frahm (B) d. Cassidy-Snyder 6-2, 4-6, 10-7. Mairose-Puckett (SK) d. Grence-Bischoff 6-1, 6-1. Records: SK 3-2, B 0-1. TUESDAY, MARCH 19 BASEBALL Beechwood 7, Scott 2 W-Noah (1-0). L-Ronnenbaum (0-1). Leaders: B-Castleman HR, 3 RBI; Doverspike 2B, RBI; Johnson 2B, RBI; Hutton 2B, RBI. Records: B 1-0, S 0-1. OTHER SCORES Campbell County 8, Bellevue 3 Grant County 10, Conner 7 Holy Cross 9, Lloyd 7 Pendleton County 13, Calvary Christian 1

SOFTBALL Bishop Brossart 20, Ludlow 2 Campbell County 2, Boone County 1 Newport Central Catholic 20, Newport 2 Notre Dame Academy 8, Walton-Verona 4 St. Patrick 25, Covington Latin 5 BOYS’ LACROSSE Mariemont 17, Fenwick 2 Goals: M-Birtz 4, Brothers 4, Stutenroth 3, Gall 2, McClorey 2, Holiday 1, Tepe. F-Bradshaw, Maxwell. OTHER SCORES: St. Francis DeSales 14, CHCA 5 GIRLS’ LACROSSE Anderson 13, Fenwick 4 Kings 15, Oak Hills 2 Mariemont d. Ursuline Academy Loveland 12, Indian Hill 9 Wyoming 18, St. Ursula Academy 10 BOYS’ TENNIS Campbell County 5, Pendleton County 0 McDowell d. Wagner 6-0, 6-0; Williams d. Pierson 6-0, 6-0; Enzweiler d. Hurst 8-2. Whittrock-Bertch d. Bayless-Askren 7-6 (3), 6-2; Neiser-Hoskins d. Thomas-Nitsche 6-0, 6-0. Records: CC 1-0, PC 2-3. Covington Catholic 4, Ryle 1 Poulos (C) d. Smith 6-1, 6-1; Bosch (C) d. Sato 6-0, 6-0; Warner (R) d. Sullivan 6-3, 6-2. Kennedy-McHale (C) d. Januski-Snyder 6-4, 6-4. Kappinga-Lohre (C) d. Aaron-Putthoff 6-3, 7-6 (5). Highlands 5, Holy Cross 0 P. Laskey d. Vicars 6-0, 6-1; Hopper d. Ross 6-0, 6-0; Third singles won by forfeit. J. Laskey-Schuh d. Arlinghaus-Stock 6-0, 6-1; Second doubles won by forfeit. GIRLS’ TENNIS Cooper 4, Boone County 1 Zureick (C) d. Tinnell 6-0, 6-0; Warning (BC) d. Willman 6-2, 6-2; Thompson (C) d. Fannin 6-4, 6-0. Phillips-Heister (C) d. Schwartz-Gilbert 7-5, 6-1; Shores-Standley (C) d. Austin-Aidino 6-2, 6-3. Record: C 1-1. Notre Dame 5, St. Henry 0 Fley (NDA) d. Johnson 6-0, 6-0; I. Bailey d. Noll 6-0, 6-0; Janzaruk d. Gilman 6-0, 6-0. S. Bailey-Ernst d. A. Berling-J. Berling 6-0, 6-1; Kleier-Stansel d. Gartner-Hegge 6-1, 6-2. FRIDAY, MARCH 15 GIRLS’ BASKETBALL Mount Notre Dame 55, Canton GlenOak 37 Mount Notre Dame (26-2) - Hoefling 3 2 11, Bransford 3 7 13, Cook 3 2 8, Phelia 3 1 7, Marshall 3 4 11, Kemper 0 1 1, Wiehe 1 0 3, Davenport 0 1 1. Totals: 16 18 55. Canton GlenOak (24-3) - Hall 2 0 4, Warren 4 0 8, Smith 4 2 10, Mucci 1 2 4, Abdulla 1 0 2, Lemire 1 0 3, Williams 2 0 6. Totals 15 4 37. Halftime: MND 33-14. 3-pointers: MND 5 (Hoefling 3, Marshall, Wiehe). GO 3 (Williams 2, Lemire). Ryle 64, George Rogers Clark 51 Ryle (31-5) - Crittendon 2 0 5, McGregor 2 0 4, Schwartz 4 4 13, Scherr 6 13 26, Douthit 1 2 5, Johnson 1 9 11. Totals: 16 28 64. GRC (25-11) - Bell 3 1 7, T. Flowers 1 3 5, J. Flowers 6 2 17, Igo 1 3 5, Harrison 5 0 12, Wilson 1 0 3, Byars 1 0 2. Totals: 18 9 51. Halftime: R 30-26. 3-pointers: R 4 (Crittendon, Schwartz, Scherr, Douthit), G 6 (J. Flowers 3, Harrison 2, Wilson). GIRLS’ LACROSSE Seven Hills 12, Madeira 5 BOYS’ LACROSSE Turpin 11, Fenwick 3 Goals: T-Wessels 3, Middendorf 2, Maddy 2, Hooper 2, Messerly, Verdin. OTHER SCORES Kings 9, Elder 7 Moeller 15, Milford 4 Walnut Hills 16, Madeira 1 BOYS’ TENNIS Pendleton County 3, Holy Cross 2 C. Vicars (HC) d. J. Wagner 8-1; A. Stock (HC) d. Pearson 8-5; E. Hurst (PC) d. Arlinghaus 8-4. Thomas-Nitschki (PC) d. Smith-Ross 8-2; Duff-D. Hurst (PC) d. Bunten-Arlinghaus 8-3. Record: HC 0-2. GIRLS’ TENNIS Holy Cross 3, Pendleton County 2 Campbell (HC) d. Hart 8-0; Sendelbach (HC) d. Duff 8-1; Reynolds (HC) d. Dunn 8-2. Wright-Tackett (PC) d. Vicars-Stock 8-2; Browning-Lawson (PC) d. Wilson-Ackley 8-1. Record: HC 2-0. SATURDAY, MARCH. 9 BOYS’ BASKETBALL Division I District Finals Moeller 57, Winton Woods 15 Winton Woods (19-7) - Walker 1 0 3, Brown 4 0 8, Ward 2 0 4. Totals: 7 0 15. Moeller (25-0) - Shipp 2 3 7, Pfriem 4 2 11, McBride 4 1 12, Land 1 2 4, Duncomb 1 0 2, Williams 2 1 6, McCracken 5 1 12, Currin 1 0 2, Valentine 0 1 1. Totals: 20 11 57. Halftime: M 44-11. 3-pointers: WW 1 (Walker), M 6 (McBride 3, Pfriem, Williams, McCracken). Centerville 49, Mason 43 Mason (18-5) - Franke 0 3 3, Long 4 1 12, Howard 1 0 3, Cooper 3 0 6, Minick 4 2 11, Smith 2 2 6, Greer 1 0 2. Totals: 15 8 43. Centerville (21-5) - Marchal 5 8 22, Pearce 1 2 4, Nije 2 0 4, Archimalo 2 0 4, Mumaw 1 0 3, Ballard 1 0 2, Mitchell 1 0 2, Sneed 2 3 8. Totals: 16 13 49. Halftime: C 27-23. 3-pointers: M 5 (Long 3, Howard, Minick), C 4 (Marchal 2, Mumaw, Sneed). Lakota East 50, Fairmont 36 Fairmont (17-9) - Hall 3 4 10, Bochenek 5 4 15, O’Daniel 1 0 2, Reliford 2 0 4, Hall 2 0 5. Totals: 13 8 36.

Lakota East (20-5) - Fuhrmann 3 2 8, Wieland 6 4 18, Johnston 2 0 4, Spicer 5 1 11, Johnson 2 3 7, Holtman 1 0 2. Totals: 19 10 50. Halftime: LE 21-18. 3-pointers: F 2 (Bochenek, Hall), LE 2 (Wieland 2). Springfield 55, Elder 35 Springfield (17-9) - Stephens 2 0 6, Tolliver 1 0 2, Sanford 3 4 10, Moss 5 11 22, Cole 2 0 4, Brown 1 0 2, Miller 0 1 1, Minney 1 2 4, Elliot 1 2 4. Totals: 16 20 55. Elder (14-11) - Byrne 0 2 2, Cluxton 1 0 2, Bittner 1 0 3, Merz 5 1 12, Luebbe 1 0 2, Kandra 1 0 2, Royer 2 1 5, Wall 1 0 2, Domenicone 2 0 5. Totals: 14 4 35. Halftime: S 29-12. 3-pointers: S 3 (Stephens 2, Moss), E 3 (Bittner, Merz, Domenicone). GIRLS’ BASKETBALL Division I Regional Final Mount Notre Dame 70, Centerville 63 Division III Regional Final Waynesville 39, Purcell Marian 35 KHSAA Boys Sweet Sixteen Basketball Tournament State Semifinal Trinity (Louisville) 42, Campbell County 40 BOWLING OHSAA State Tournament Girls Division I Team Results: 1. Centerville, 2. Beavercreek, 3. Stow-Munroe Falls, 4. North Canton Hoover, 5. Wayne, 6. Seton, 7. Troy, 8. Massillon Perry. Boys Division I Team Results: 1. Vandalia Butler, 2. Ashland, 3. Mentor, 4. Elder, 5. Beavercreek, 6. Westerville Central, 7. Olmsted Falls, 8. Berea-Midpark Girls Division I Individual Results (local bowlers only): 5. Ali Breig (Seton) 601; 12. Sophia Fischer (Northwest) 575; 25. Paige Weitz (Sycamore) 539; 32. Ashley Bushman (Mercy McAuley) 532; 36. Madison Littlemann (Seton) 526; 41. Olivia Hensley (Seton) 515; 44. Lexi Stewart (West Clermont) 512; 80. Abby Baker (Seton) 333; 81. Jessica Brumfield (Seton) 326; 96. Avery Nowlin (Seton) 152. Boys Division I Individual Results (local bowlers only): 5. Nolan Blessing (La Salle) 679; 7. Ryan Kaffenberger (Elder) 666; 11. Ethan Rowe (Middletown) 650; 17. Chase Francisco (Oak Hills) 632; 24. Jacob Hickey (Elder) 605; 63. Evan Williams (West Clermont) 538; 81. Ethan Boyers (Elder) 415; 89. Cameron Brocker (Elder) 196; 92. Tylar Jansing (Elder) 175; 95. Jacob Holmes (Elder) 159. FRIDAY, MARCH 8 BOYS’ BASKETBALL Division IV district finals Fort Loramie 49, Cincinnati Christian 41 Fort Loramie (19-7) - Brandewie 1 2 4, Rosengarten 4 4 12, Ratermann 6 9 25, Kemper 1 0 2, Mescher 2 0 4, Meyer 1 0 2. Totals: 15 15 49. Cincinnati Christian (20-6) - Reutener 1 0 2, Ringer 3 0 6, Woods 5 0 12, McKinnon 2 0 4, Rogers 6 2 15, Percy 1 0 2. Totals: 18 2 41. Halftime: FL 23-21. 3-pointers: FL 4 (Ratermann 4). CC 3 (Woods 2, Rogers). Springfield Catholic Central 67, New Miami 53 GIRLS’ BOWLING OHSAA Division I State Championships Team results: 1. Centerville, 2. Beavercreek, 3. Stow-Munroe Falls, 4. North Canton Hoover, 5. Huber Heights Wayne, 6. Seton, 7. Troy, 8. Massillon Perry. Individual results (top 5 and locals): 1. Martin (Stow-Munroe Falls) 668, 2. Bonniwell (Massillon Jackson) 664, 3. Schooler (Wayne) 613, 4. Fink (Columbus Briggs) 605, 5. Breig (Seton) 601, 12. Fischer (Northwest) 575, 25. Weitz (Sycamore) 539, T32. Bushman (Mercy McAuley) 532, 36. Littelmann (Seton) 526, T41. Hensley (Seton) 515, 44. Stewart (West Clermont) 512, 80. Baker (Seton) 333, 81. Brumfield (Seton) 326, 95. Nowlin (Seton) 152.

WRESTLING Day 2 of OHSAA State Tournament Division I Team scores (top 10 and locals only): 1. Lakewood St. Edward 176, 2. La Salle 151.5, 3. Elyria 105, 4. Brecksville-Broadview Heights 65, 5. Powell Olentangy Liberty 50, 6. Wadsworth 48, 7. Mason 46.5, 8. Dublin Coffman 34, T9. Avon 32, Lancaster 32, T17. Moeller 20, 22. Harrison 17.5, 27. Fairfield 11.5, T39. Anderson 7, 51. Talawanda 4.5, T52. Elder 4, West Clermont 4, T57. Princeton 3, T66. Sycamore 1, Lebanon 1, Western Brown 1. Championship quarterfinals (locals only): 106-Skinner (La Salle) pin Saxton (Avon), 5:03, Seefeldt (Lakewood St. Edward) d. Najdusak (Mason) 7-3; 113-Norris (La Salle) maj. d. Baumann (Dublin Coffman) 9-1; 120-Byrd (La Salle) via DQ Howard (Maple Heights), Hacker (Wadsworth) d. Dawson (Princeton) 6-4, Canitano (Solon) d. Bal (Fairfield) 6-4; 126-Heil (Brunswick) maj. d. Allen (La Salle) 14-4; 132-Wiles (La Salle) pin Euton (Westerville North), 5:52, Ward (Moeller) d. Richter (Lakewood St. Edward) 7-0, Saito (Perrysburg) d. Glassco (Mason) 8-1; 138-Niffenegger (La Salle) d. Smith (Findlay) 8-5; 145-North (Wadsworth) d. Heard (La Salle) 7-0, Donathan (Mason) pin Patten (Stow-Munroe Falls), 5:15; 152-Heard (La Salle) pin Holloway (Maple Heights), 5:59; 160-McIntosh (Harrison) d. Morton (Westerville South) 3-2; 182-Sizemore (La Salle) pin May (Delaware Hayes), 5:01, Potterf (Westerville North) pin Belcher (Elder), 0:32; 195-Baker (La Salle) d. Pulliam (Dublin Scioto) 5-3, Hatcher (Brecksville-Broadview Heights) tech. fall Gibson (West Clermont) 19-4; 220-O’Malley (Lakewood St. Edward) pin Wahl (West Clermont), 1:15; 285-Stone (Anderson) d. Burns (Wooster) 3-2.

Championship semifinals (locals only): 106-Fenton (Elyria) d. Skinner (La Salle) 3-2; 113-Norris (La Salle) d. Moon (Oregon Clay) 1-0; 120-Byrd (La Salle) maj. d. Hacker (Wadsworth) 10-2; 132-Burnett (Elyria) d. Wiles (La Salle) 6-3, Ward (Moeller) d. Saito (Perrysburg) 2-0; 138-Niffenegger (La Salle) d. Baughman (Wadsworth) 5-4; 145-Donathan (Mason) pin Segura (Dublin Scioto), 3:00; 152-Dover (Lakewood St. Edward) d. Heard (La Salle) 4-0; 160-Gallagher (Lakewood St. Edward) tech. fall McIntosh (Harrison) 30-4; 182-Sizemore (La Salle) d. Wokojance (Barberton) 5-1; 195-Baker (La Salle) maj. d. Greer (Avon) 11-1; 285-Roesch (Avon) d. Stone (Anderson) 5-3. Consolation round two (locals only): 106-Novak (Cleveland St. Ignatius) d. Najdusak (Mason) 4-3, Le (Dublin Scioto) d. Vayo-Smith (Sycamore) 2-0; 113-DiTullio (Mason) d. Howard (Maple Heights) 3-2; 120-Bal (Fairfield) pin Sherman (Lewis Center Olentangy), 4:55, Herren (Upper Arlington) pin Dawson (Princeton), 2:37; 126-Allen (La Salle) d. Hoskins (Vandalia Butler) 4-3, Thomas (Fairfield) tech. fall Whipkey (Cleveland St. Ignatius) 20-5; 132-Glassco (Mason) maj. d. Bronstrup (Brecksville-Broadview Heights) 11-0, Richter (Lakewood St. Edward) d. Baird (Harrison) 9-2; 138-DeBoe (Mentor) d. Barge (Harrison) 7-2, Zuckerman (Elyria) d. Marsh (Lebanon) 4-0; 145-Heard (La Salle) maj. d. Bernhardt (Harrison) 11-2; 152-Twarog (North Royalton) d. Spears (Western Brown) 2-1, Heard (Marysville) d. Thomas (Fairfield) 3-2; 160-Mondello (Talawanda) d. Kruger (Westlake) 16-13; 170-O’Horo (Youngstown Boardman) d. Adewumi (Mason) 3-1SV; 182-Belcher (Elder) d. Garee (Perrysburg) 5-4, Wolak (Dublin Coffman) d. Amburgy (Mason) 9-3; 195-Boyle (Harrison) d. Gibson (West Clermont) 6-5; 220-Crowe (Kettering Fairmont) maj. d. Wahl (West Clermont) 9-1; 285-Brown (La Salle) d. Mather (Uniontown Lake) 6-5. Consolation quarterfinals (locals only): 113-DiTullio (Mason) d. Acuna (Centerville) 6-1TB; 120-Agin (Lancaster) d. Bal (Fairfield) 2-1TB; 126-Allen (La Salle) d. Thomas (Fairfield) 3-2; 132-Richter (Lakewood St. Edward) d. Glassco (Mason) 5-0; 145-Knick (Clayton Northmont) d. Heard (La Salle) 2-1TB; 160-Newton (Perrysburg) d. Mondello (Talawanda) 3-2; 182-Hightower (Lakewood St. Edward) d. Belcher (Elder) 5-4; 195-Boyle (Harrison) d. Wood (Fremont Ross) 8-2; Division II Team scores (top 10 and locals only): 1. St. Paris Graham Local 93.5, 2. Aurora 77.5, 3. Canfield 67.5, 4. Louisville 64, 5. Cuyahoga Falls CVCA 51, 6. Norwalk 49, 7. Steubenville 48.5, 8. Wauseon 42, T9. Akrson SVSM 39, Lisbon Beaver 39, 16. Ross 28, 27. Goshen 16, T43. Indian Hill 7, T63. Batavia 3, T74. McNicholas 1. Championship quarterfinals (locals only): 120-Dunn (Goshen) d. Mayes (Jefferson Area) 5-1; 160-Pasiuk (Carrollton) pin Dunn (Goshen), 1:00; 170-Torres (Wauseon) d. Williams (Indian Hill) 9-5; 182-Van Meter (Granville) d. Iams (Ross) 5-2; 285-Coleman (Ross) pin Leroux (Norwalk), 2:23. Championship semifinals (locals only): 120-Ritter (Wauseon) d. Dunn (Goshen) 2-0; 285-Coleman (Ross) pin Potts (St. Francis DeSales), 0:25. Consolation round two (locals only): 106-Sauter (Batavia) d. Alda (Bellevue) 6-2; 160-Dunn (Goshen) d. Reinhart (Canfield) 8-4; 170-Williams (Indian Hill) pin Johnson (Franklin), 4:27; 182-Iams (Ross) d. Gear (McNicholas) 6-5. Consolation quarterfinals (locals only): 106-Ream (Springfield Shawnee) maj. d. Sauter (Batavia) 12-0; 160-Dunn (Goshen) d. McGhee (Aurora) 3-2; 170-Daniels (Carrollton) d. Williams (Indian Hill) 5-3; 182-Tuttle (Steubenville) d. Iams (Ross) 4-2. Division III Team scores (top 10 and locals only): 1. Genoa Area 139, 2. Ashtabula St. John 68.5, 3. Troy Christian 64, 4. Milan Edison 61, 5. Delta 56.5, 6. Rootstown 51, 7. Nelsonville-York 40, T8. Galion Northmor 33.5, Legacy Christian Academy 33.5, 10. Pemberville Eastwood 31.5, T41. Middletown Madison 9, T53. Reading 7, T56. Blanchester 6, T75. MVCA 2. Championship quarterfinals (locals only): 132-Mattin (Delta) d. Robins (Reading) 9-3; 152-Lefever (Ashland Mapleton) d. Schirmer (Blanchester) 5-4; 160-Lemon (Apple Creek Waynedale) pin Henderson (MVCA), 2:31; 170-Wright (Bleemdale Elmwood) d. Oligee (Middletown Madison) 8-1; 220-Morrow (Hamler Patrick Henry) d. Peters (Blanchester) 4-1. Consolation round two (locals only): 132-Robins (Reading) d. Caprella (Lima Central Catholic) 7-4; 152-Schirmer (Blanchester) d. Knaup (Zanesville West Muskingum) 6-2; 160-Franks (Kansas Lakota) d. Henderson (MVCA) 9-7SV; 170-Oligee (Middletown Madison) pin Hershberger (Apple Creek Waynedale), 2:04; 220-Braithwaite (West Jefferson) pin Peters (Blanchester), 2:30. Consolation quarterfinals (locals only): 132-Robins (Reading) d. Reeves (Johnstown Northridge) 4-3; 152-Marvin (Swanton) d. Schirmer (Blanchester) 3-2; 170-Oligee (Middletown Madison) d. Brown (Ayersville) 7-5. THURSDAY, MARCH 7 BOYS’ BASKETBALL Aiken 66, Alter 56 Alter (16-10) - Ruffolo 2 0 4, Harker 0 1 1, Smith 3 0 6, Stolly 2 1 5, Uhl 6 0 16, Kolb 2 0 6, Bazelak 1 5 7, Willits 3 1 7, Meyer 1 0 2, Morris 1 0 2. Totals: 21 8 56. Aiken (20-6) - Dean 8 11 32, Cass 3 3 10, Stone 5 8 19, Smith 0 1 1, Bouldin 0 1 1, Berry 1 0 3. Totals: 17 24 66.

Halftime: Alt 34-16. 3-pointers: Aik 8 (Dean 5, Cass, Stone, Berry). Alt 6 (Uhl 4, Kolb 2). Northridge 60, Taft 58 Taft (22-4) - Farmer 1 4 6, Stringer 3 10 16, Bradley 2 2 8, Housley 0 4 4, Smith 7 0 14, Mosley 1 0 2, Carleon 1 2 4, Elam 2 0 4. Totals: 17 22 58. North- Hines 10 12 32, Drewery 3 2 10, Story Jr. 3 2 9, Curington 1 1 3, Moses 2 2 6. Totals: 19 21 60. Halftime: T 34-25. 3-pointers: N 1 (Story Jr.). T 2 (Bradley 2) WRESTLING Day 1 of OHSAA State Tournament Division I Team scores (top 10 and locals): 1. Lakewood St. Edward 36, 2. La Salle 30.5, 3. Elyria 26.5, 4. Brecksville-Broadview Heights 19.5, T5. Mason 18.5, Wadsworth 18.5, T7. Lancaster 11, Perrysburg 11, T9. Dublin Coffman 10, Oregon Clay 10, 15. Harrison 7.5, T26. Moeller 4, West Clermont 4, Fairfield 4, T42. Princeton 3, T52. Talawanda 2.5, T54. Anderson 2, Elder 2, T67. 1. Sycamore 1, Western Brown 1. Championship prelims (locals only): 106 -Skinner (La Salle) maj. d. Thomas (Upper Arlington) 15-3, Le (Dublin Scioto) maj. d. Hurt (Western Brown) 10-2, Hutsler (Lancaster) pin Vayo-Smith (Sycamore), 4:31, Najdusak (Mason) pin Wisecarver (Tri-Valley), 2:43; 113-Allison (Elyria) d. DiTullio (Mason) 3-2, Norris (La Salle) maj. d. Scott (Cleveland John Adams) 15-3; 120-Byrd (La Salle) pin Cooper (Dublin Coffman), 2:37, Dawson (Princeton) maj. d. Sherman (Lewis Center Olentangy) 15-6, Bal (Fairfield) d. Herren (Upper Arlington)11-8; 126-Shawver (Elyria) maj. d. Collins (Elder) 20-7, Allen (La Salle) d. Dunstan (North Ridgeville) 10-7, Haskin (Toledo Whitmer) d. Thomas (Fairfield) 7-5SV; 132-Wiles (La Salle) d. Bronstrup (Brecksville-Broadview Heights) 6-1, Graber (Green) d. Baird (Harrison) 10-5, Ward (Moeller) pin Richards (Austintown-Fitch), 0:54, Glassco (Mason) d. Jones (Macedonia Nordonia) 5-4; 138-Baughman (Wadsworth) d. Barge (Harrison) 7-1, Niffenegger (La Salle) d. Collica (Macedonia Nordonia) 6-4, Regalbuto (Brecksville-Broadview Heights) d. Marsh (Lebanon) 10-4; 145-Heard (La Salle) maj. d. Fitzpatrick (Powell Olentangy Liberty) 10-2, Segura (Dublin Scioto) pin Bernhardt (Harrison), 3:57, Donathan (Mason) tech. fall McHugh (Upper Arlington) 20-4; 152-Munguia (Elyria) pin Spears (Western Brown), 4:59, Heard (La Salle) d. Liber (Sylvania Northview) 13-2, Dover (Lakewood St. Edward) pin Thomas (Fairfield), 4:56; 160-Gallagher (Lakewood St. Edward) tech. fall Mondello (Talawanda) 24-9, McIntosh (Harrison) d. Murphy (Oregon Clay) 6-1; 170-VanFossen (Mount Vernon) pin Shirley (Harrison), 3:34, Foor (Pataskala Watkins) pin Shirley (Harrison), 3:34, Kharchla (Powell Olentangy Liberty) tech. fall Lewis (West Clermont) 18-3; 182-Sizemore (La Salle) pin DiCola (Medina), 1:32, Vnadia (Brecksville-Broadview Heights) d. Amburgy (Mason) 12-7, Belcher (Elder) d. Prusinowski (North Canton Hoover) 5-4; 195-Greer (Avon) d. Boyle (Harrison) 7-3, Baker (La Salle) tech. fall Cobb (Oregon Clay) 17-0, Gibson (West Clermont) d. Jaeckin (Olmsted Falls) 9-2; 220-Wahl (West Clermont) d. Thompson (Worthington Kilbourne) 9-5; 285-Bucknavich (Grafton Midview) pin Brown (La Salle), 3:29, Stone (Anderson) d. Bever (Ashland) 2-1. Consolation round one (locals only): 106-Van Voorhis (Copley) d. Hurt (Western Brown) 7-3, Vayo-Smith (Sycamore) d. Pendergraff (Oregon Clay) 7-4; 113-DiTullio (Mason) pin Beam (Upper Arlington), 0:45; 126-Reed (Lancaster) d. Collins (Elder) 3-2, Thomas (Fairfield) d. Sawchuk (Hilliard Bradley) 9-2; 132-Baird (Harrison) d. Bowers (Upper Arlington) 7-4; 138-Barge (Harrison) tech. fall Williams (Ashville Teays Valley) 15-0, Marsh (Lebanon) d. Sparks (Marion Harding) 7-2; 145-Bernhardt (Harrison) d. Sparkman (Massillon Perry) 8-4; 152-Spears (Western Brown) d. Linder (Medina Highland) 8-7, Thomas (Fairfield) d. Fenice (Columbus Franklin Heights) 8-2; 160-Mondello (Talawanda) tech. fall Soghomonyan (Upper Arlington) 15-0; 170-Diaz (North Olmsted) maj. d. Shirley (Harrison) 12-3, Adewumi (Mason) pin Caniglia (Hudson), 4:58, Meek (Oregon Clay) d. Lewis (West Clermont) 5-2; 182-Amburgy (Mason) pin Wilson (Pataskala Licking Heights), 1:45; 195-Boyle (Harrison) d. Painter (Marysville) 5-3; 285-Brown (La Salle) d. Hardin (Dublin Scioto) 12-7.

Division II Team scores (top 10 and locals): 1. St. Paris Graham 24.5, 2. Aurora 20.5, 3. Louisville 19, 4. Steubenville 18.5, 5. Mentor Lake Catholic 15, 6. Canfield 14.5, 7. Norwalk 14, 8. Sandusky Perkins 12.5, 9. Lisbon Beaver 21, 10. Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary 11, T20. Goshen 6, Ross 6, T46. Indian HIll 3, T70. Batavia 1, McNicholas 1. Championship prelims (locals only): 106-Rowan (Perry) tech. fall Thomas (Monroe) 20-5, Crosby (Akron SVSM) d. Sauter (Batavia) 7-3; 113-Petrella (Columbus Bishop Hartley) via default Huff (Goshen), Woods (Millersburg) pin Bryan (Wyoming), 5:24; 120-Dunn (Goshen) d. Holt (Sandusky Perkins) 12-1; 126-Blasko (Steubenville) d. Taylor (McNicholas) 5-2; 152-Colvin (London) d. Price (Monroe) 4-2SV; 160-Dunn (Goshen) pin Hatlay (Tiffin Columbian), 5:35; 170-Williams (Indian Hill) maj. d. Anderson (Aurora) 13-2; 182-Phillips (Norwalk) maj. d. Gear (McNicholas) 19-7, Iams (Ross) d. Carter (Sandusky Perkins) 8-7; 195-Bodnar (Steubenville) maj. d. Doyle (Clinton-Massie) 15-5; 285-Coleman (Ross) pin Kempf (Warsaw River View), 3:46.

16C ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

Scoreboard PREGAME.COM LINE

WESTERN CONFERENCE Southwest Division

NBA Sunday

Favorite

LA Clippers MILWAUKEE Denver TORONTO NEW ORLEANS BOSTON GOLDEN STATE LA LAKERS

Line

O/U

10 (221 1⁄ 2) OFF OFF 1 1⁄ 2 (211) OFF OFF OFF OFF 2 1⁄ 2 (220 1⁄ 2) OFF OFF OFF OFF

Underdog

NEW;YORK Cleveland INDIANA Charlotte Houston San Antonio Detroit Sacramento

COLLEGE BASKETBALL Sunday

Favorite

Line

Virginia Duke Tennessee North Carolina Texas Tech Houston Oregon Virginia Tech CLEMSON NC STATE TEXAS TCU

11 13 8 11 3 5 1⁄ 2 4 1⁄ 2 8 7 1⁄ 2 11 6 3

Underdog

Oklahoma UCF Iowa Washington Buffalo Ohio State UC Irvine Liberty Wichita St Harvard Xavier Nebraska

Monday

Favorite

Line

COLORADO WEST VIRGINIA SOUTH FLORIDA DEPAUL LOYOLA MARYMOUNT

Underdog

14 1⁄ 2 Norfolk State 9 Coastal Carolina 2 Utah Valley 15 Longwood 4 Brown

National Hockey League Sunday

Favorite

WASHINGTON NY ISLANDERS CAROLINA CHICAGO VANCOUVER

Line

-180 OFF OFF OFF OFF

Underdog

Philadelphia Arizona Montreal Colorado Columbus

Line

+165 OFF OFF OFF OFF

HORSE RACING Turfway Park Results, Saturday 1st—$10,000, 3YO up F&M, 6f. 3 Fshnablyawsme (Franklin) 7.40 3.20 2.60 6 Yes I's a Miller (Ouzts) 3.00 2.40 5 Fth in Cathy (PrenticeJr) 2.80 Exacta (3-6) paid $23.20. $0.1 Superfecta (3-6-5-2) paid $6.67. $0.5 Trifecta (3-6-5) paid $18.45. NOTE: NOT COMPLETE AT TIME OF PRINT

AUTO RACING NASCAR-Monster Energy STP 500 Lineup Saturday Lap length: 0.526 miles (Car number in parentheses) 1. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 97.830 mph. 2. (10) Aric Almirola, Ford, 97.643. 3. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 97.458. 4. (4) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 97.382. 5. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 97.362. 6. (24) William Byron, Chevrolet, 97.202. 7. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 97.098. 8. (9) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 97.053. 9. (19) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 97.018. 10. (41) Daniel Suarez, Ford, 96.830. 11. (14) Clint Bowyer, Ford, 96.706. 12. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 96.573. 13. (37) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 96.755. 14. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 96.716. 15. (21) Paul Menard, Ford, 96.696. 16. (47) Ryan Preece, Chevrolet, 96.671. 17. (88) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 96.647. 18. (12) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 96.602. 19. (20) Erik Jones, Toyota, 96.602. 20. (1) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 96.499. 21. (6) Ryan Newman, Ford, 96.484. 22. (95) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, 96.465. 23. (13) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 96.357. 24. (34) Michael McDowell, Ford, 96.146. 25. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 96.298. 26. (38) David Ragan, Ford, 96.107. 27. (43) Bubba Wallace, Chevrolet, 95.917. 28. (00) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 95.709. 29. (8) Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, 95.603. 30. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 95.569. 31. (15) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 95.415. 32. (36) Matt Tifft, Ford, 95.415. 33. (52) Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, 94.689. 34. (77) DJ Kennington, Chevrolet, 94.618. 35. (32) Corey LaJoie, Ford, 0.000. 36. (51) Cody Ware, Chevrolet, 0.000.

PRO BASKETBALL NBA STANDINGS PRIOR TO SATURDAY’S GAMES EASTERN CONFERENCE Atlantic Division x-Toronto x-Philadelphia Boston Brooklyn New York Miami Orlando Charlotte Washington Atlanta y-Milwaukee x-Indiana Detroit Chicago Cleveland

Pct

51 22 47 25 43 29 38 36 14 59 Southeast Division

.699 — .653 3 1⁄ 2 .597 7 1⁄ 2 .514 13 1⁄ 2 .192 37

35 37 35 38 32 39 30 43 25 48 Central Division

.486 — 1 .479 ⁄ 2 .451 2 1⁄ 2 1 .411 5 ⁄ 2 .342 10 1⁄ 2

54 44 37 21 19

19 29 34 52 54

Pct

.740 .603 .521 .288 .260

— 10 16 33 35

Houston San Antonio New Orleans Memphis Dallas

46 27 42 31 31 43 29 43 28 44 Northwest Division

x-Denver Portland Oklahoma City Utah Minnesota

Pct

.630 — .575 4 .419 15 1⁄ 2 1 .403 16 ⁄ 2 .389 17 1⁄ 2 Pct

Pct

49 22 44 27 43 30 42 30 32 40 Pacific Division

.690 — .620 5 .589 7 1 .583 7 ⁄ 2 .444 17 1⁄ 2

x-Golden State 49 22 L.A. Clippers 43 30 Sacramento 35 36 L.A. Lakers 31 41 Phoenix 17 56 x-clinched playoff spot y-clinched division Friday's games Orlando 123, Memphis 119, OT Denver 111, New York 93 L.A. Clippers 110, Cleveland 108 Oklahoma City 116, Toronto 109 Houston 111, San Antonio 105 Milwaukee 116, Miami 87 Brooklyn 111, L.A. Lakers 106

.690 — .589 7 .493 14 1 .431 18 ⁄ 2 .233 33

COLLEGE BASKETBALL NCAA Tournament schedule EAST REGIONAL Second Round Saturday, March 23 Jacksonville, Fla. LSU 69, Maryland 67 Des Moines, Iowa Michigan State (29-6) vs. Minnesota (22-13), late Sunday, March 24 Columbia, S.C. Duke (30-5) vs. UCF (24-8), 5:15 p.m. At SAP Center San Jose, Calif. Virginia Tech (25-8) vs. Liberty (29-6), 7:10 p.m. At Capital One Arena Washington Regional Semifinals Friday, March 29 Duke-UCF winner vs. Virginia Tech-Liberty winner, TBA Michigan State-Minnesota winner vs. LSU (28-6), TBA Regional Championship Sunday, March 31 Semifinal winners SOUTH REGIONAL Second Round Saturday, March 23 At The XL Center Hartford, Conn. Purdue (24-9) vs. Villanova (26-9), late Sunday, March 24 At Colonial Life Arena Columbia, S.C. Virginia (30-3) vs. Oklahoma (20-13), 7:45 p.m. At Nationwide Arena Columbus, Ohio Tennessee (30-5) vs. Iowa (23-11), 12:10 p.m. At SAP Center San Jose, Calif. UC Irvine (31-5) vs. Oregon (24-12), 9:40 p.m. At KFC Yum! Center Louisville, Ky. Regional Semifinals Thursday, March 28 Virginia-Oklahoma winner vs. UC Irvine-Oregon winner, TBA Tennessee-Iowa winner vs. Purdue-Villanova winner, TBA Regional Championship Saturday, March 30 Semifinal winners MIDWEST REGIONAL Second Round Saturday, March 23 At Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena Jacksonville, Fla. Kentucky 62, Wofford 56 At Vivint Smart Home Arena Salt Lake City Kansas (26-9) vs. Auburn (27-9), late Sunday, March 24 At Nationwide Arena Columbus, Ohio North Carolina (28-6) vs. Washington (27-8), 2:40 p.m. At BOK Center Tulsa, Okla. Houston (32-3) vs. Ohio State (20-14), 8:40 p.m. At The Sprint Center Kansas City, Mo. Regional Semifinals Friday, March 29 North Carolina-Washington winner vs. Kansas-Auburn winner, TBA Kentucky (29-6) vs. Houston-Ohio State winner, TBA

Regional Championship Sunday, March 31 Semifinal winners WEST REGIONAL Second Round Saturday, March 23 At The XL Center Hartford, Conn. Florida State (28-7) vs. Murray State (28-4), late At Wells Fargo Arena Des Moines, Iowa Michigan (29-6) vs. Florida (20-15), late At Vivint Smart Home Arena Salt Lake City Gonzaga (31-3) vs. Baylor (20-13), late Sunday, March 24 At BOK Center Tulsa, Okla. Texas Tech (27-6) vs. Buffalo (32-3), 6:10 p.m. At Honda Center Anaheim, Calif. Regional Semifinals Thursday, March 28 Gonzaga-Baylor winner vs. Florida State-Murray State winner, TBA Michigan-Florida winner vs. Texas Tech-Buffalo winner, TBA Regional Championship Saturday, March 30 Semifinal winners FRIDAY OHIO ST. 62, IOWA ST. 59 OHIO ST. (20-14) K.Wesson 8-15 5-6 21, A.Wesson 1-7 3-4 5, Woods 7-16 2-2 19, Jackson 1-8 0-0 2, Jallow 5-5 0-0 11, K.Young 0-2 0-0 0, Muhammad 0-0 0-0 0, Washington 1-5 1-2 4. Totals 23-58 11-14 62. IOWA ST. (23-12) Jacobson 0-3 0-0 0, Shayok 9-17 2-3 23, Horton-Tucker 1-6 0-0 2, Weiler-Babb 1-8 2-2 4, Haliburton 2-4 0-0 4, Conditt 0-0 0-0 0, Lard 6-7 0-0 12, Wigginton 4-8 3-5 14. Totals 23-53 7-10 59. Halftime—Ohio St. 26-24. 3-Point Goals—Ohio St. 5-20 (Woods 3-6, Jallow 1-1, Washington 1-3, K.Wesson 0-2, A.Wesson 0-3, Jackson 0-5), Iowa St. 6-22 (Wigginton 3-5, Shayok 3-9, Haliburton 0-2, Horton-Tucker 0-3, Weiler-Babb 0-3). Fouled Out—None. Rebounds—Ohio St. 36 (K.Wesson 12), Iowa St. 29 (Weiler-Babb, Lard 6). Assists—Ohio St. 12 (A.Wesson, Jackson 3), Iowa St. 9 (Weiler-Babb 4). Total Fouls—Ohio St. 12, Iowa St. 15. A—12,443 (17,839). National Invitation Tournament schedule Second Round Friday, March 22 Creighton 79, Memphis 67 Saturday, March 23 Indiana 63, Arkansas 60 Lipscomb 86, UNC-Greensboro 69 Sunday, March 24 Wichita State (20-14) at Clemson (20-13), 2 p.m. Xavier (19-15) vs. Texas (17-16), 4 p.m. Harvard (19-11) at N.C. State (23-11), 7:30 p.m. TCU (21-13) vs. Nebraska (19-16), 9:30 p.m. Monday, March 25 Norfolk State (22-13) at Colorado (22-12), 9 p.m. SATURDAY INDIANA 63, ARKANSAS 60 ARKANSAS (18-16) Osabuohien 1-6 1-4 3, Bailey 3-8 2-2 8, Harris 3-6 2-4 8, Joe 3-12 3-4 12, Sills 6-11 2-2 18, Chaney 1-3 0-0 2, Henderson 0-1 0-0 0, Embery-Simpson 0-0 0-0 0, Jones 2-8 4-4 9. Totals 19-55 14-20 60. INDIANA (19-15) Morgan 5-9 5-6 15, Smith 0-3 0-0 0, Green 6-12 2-2 18, Durham 2-12 1-2 6, Phinisee 2-5 3-4 7, Fitzner 2-4 0-0 5, Davis 3-5 4-10 10, McRoberts 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 21-51 15-24 63. Arkansas 28 32 — 60 Indiana 30 33 — 63

PRO HOCKEY NHL STANDINGS PRIOR TO SATURDAY’S GAMES EASTERN CONFERENCE Atlantic Division GP W L OT Pts GF z-Tampa Bay 75 58 13 4 120 298 Boston 74 45 20 9 99 226 Toronto 74 44 25 5 93 263 Montreal 74 39 28 7 85 219 Florida 74 33 29 12 78 240 Buffalo 73 31 33 9 71 202 Detroit 74 26 38 10 62 200 Ottawa 74 25 43 6 56 218 Metropolitan Division GP W L OT Pts GF Washington 75 43 24 8 94 257 N.Y. Islndrs 74 42 25 7 91 206 Pittsburgh 75 40 24 11 91 253 Carolina 73 40 26 7 87 218 Columbus 74 40 30 4 84 223 Philadelphia 74 36 30 8 80 226 N.Y. Rangers 73 28 32 13 69 204 New Jersey 75 27 39 9 63 206 WESTERN CONFERENCE Central Division GP W L OT Pts GF Winnipeg 74 44 26 4 92 249 Nashville 75 42 27 6 90 223 St. Louis 74 39 27 8 86 219 Dallas 74 38 30 6 82 186 Minnesota 75 35 31 9 79 202 Colorado 74 33 29 12 78 235 Chicago 73 32 31 10 74 244

Pacific Division GP W L OT Pts GF GA x-Calgary 74 46 21 7 99 265 209 x-San Jose 75 43 23 9 95 266 237 Vegas 74 42 27 5 89 232 203 Arizona 74 36 32 6 78 198 208 Vancouver 74 32 32 10 74 206 229 Edmonton 74 33 34 7 73 210 245 Anaheim 76 31 36 9 71 177 233 Los Angeles 73 26 39 8 60 174 232 x-clinched playoff spot z-clinched conference Thursday's games Tampa Bay 6, Carolina 3 Boston 5, New Jersey 1 Florida 4, Arizona 2 Montreal 4, N.Y. Islanders 0 St. Louis 5, Detroit 2 Pittsburgh 2, Nashville 1, SO Colorado 3, Dallas 1 Philadelphia 3, Chicago 1 Edmonton 4, Columbus 1 Calgary 5, Ottawa 1 Vegas 5, Winnipeg 0 Los Angeles 4, San Jose 2 Friday's games Minnesota 2, Washington 1 Anaheim 4, San Jose 3, OT ECHL STANDINGS PRIOR TO SATURDAY’S GAMES Eastern Conference North Division GP W L OL SOL Pts Newfndlnd 66 40 20 4 2 86 Adirondack 64 34 22 5 3 76 Maine 64 35 26 2 1 73 Manchester 64 33 27 2 2 70 Worcester 64 30 24 6 4 70 Brampton 63 31 26 5 1 68 Reading 65 28 28 4 5 65 South Division GP W L OL SOL Pts y-Florida 66 45 16 5 0 95 Orlando 63 35 23 4 1 75 Jacksonville 65 33 28 2 2 70 S. Carolina 67 31 30 5 1 68 Atlanta 63 27 26 7 3 64 Norfolk 65 26 31 5 3 60 Greenville 64 22 36 3 3 50 Western Conference Central Division GP W L OL SOL Pts y-CYCLONES 65 47 11 4 3 101 Toledo 64 36 20 5 3 80 Fort Wayne 63 31 23 3 6 71 Kalamazoo 64 33 27 2 2 70 Wheeling 65 29 28 6 2 66 Indy 64 30 30 2 2 64 Mountain Division GP W L OL SOL Pts x-Idaho 65 38 22 3 2 81 x-Tulsa 63 36 21 4 2 78 Utah 64 34 22 4 4 76 Kansas City 64 32 27 3 2 69 Rapid City 66 27 31 5 3 62 Wichita 63 24 29 7 3 58 Allen 67 23 38 4 2 52 x-Clinched Playoff Spot y-Clinched Division NOTE: Two points are awarded for a win, one point for an overtime or shootout loss. Thursday's games Greenville 5, Kansas City 3 Orlando 5, Atlanta 1 Toledo 4, Cincinnati 3 Friday's games Reading 5, Newfoundland 2 Norfolk 5, Jacksonville 3 South Carolina 5, Kansas City 3 Wheeling 5, Indy 2 Maine 2, Worcester 1, OT Brampton 2, Toledo 0 Cincinnati 3, Fort Wayne 2 Utah 5, Allen 2 Idaho 3, Rapid City 1

PRO SOCCER MLS STANDINGS PRIOR TO SATURDAY’S GAME EASTERN CONFERENCE W

GA 198 186 221 213 248 237 254 275 GA 233 182 224 204 218 245 244 258 GA 218 197 202 183 218 225 266

Pts

D.C. United 2 0 1 7 Columbus 2 0 1 7 Toronto FC 2 0 0 6 Montreal 2 1 0 6 New York 1 0 1 4 Cincinnati 1 1 1 4 NYC FC 0 0 3 3 Orlando City 0 1 2 2 Atlanta 0 1 2 2 Chicago 0 2 1 1 New England 0 2 1 1 Philadelphia 0 2 1 1 WESTERN CONFERENCE W

Pts

7 4 6 6 5 5 4 4 2 4 3 2

Seattle 3 0 0 9 10 Los Angeles FC 2 0 1 7 8 Houston 2 0 1 7 6 Minn. United 2 1 0 6 8 LA Galaxy 2 1 0 6 5 Sporting KC 1 1 1 4 4 FC Dallas 1 1 1 4 3 Real Salt Lake 1 1 1 4 2 Colorado 0 1 2 2 4 Portland 0 2 1 1 4 Vancouver 0 3 0 0 4 San Jose 0 3 0 0 2 Saturday, March 23 Colorado at FC Dallas, late Columbus at Philadelphia, late Orlando City at New York, late Real Salt Lake at Los Angeles FC, late Sunday, March 24 Cincinnati at New England, 4 p.m.

0 1 3 4 2 5 4 6 4 7 6 6

3 4 4 5 5 3 2 6 6 10 7 9

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL Cincinnati J.Wnker lf Schbler cf Iglsias ss Detrich 2b K.Frmer 1b C.Colon 3b A.Aqino rf Bri.Rey ph Sugilio ph Stphnsn c T.Mahle sp Lrenzen rp Br.Bell ph Totals

SATURDAY Indians 8, Reds 5 Cleveland

ab r h bi

3 4 4 4 4 3 2 1 1 4 1 1 1

2 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0

2 1 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0

3 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

L.Mrtin cf Ka'.Tom cf Ramirez 3b E.Perez 3b J.Buers 1b Rdrguez 1b Santana dh B.Nylor pr T.Nquin rf H.Nlson pr Plwecki c G.Allen lf Mathias 2b Clement ss

33 5 8 5 Totals

ab r h bi

3 2 3 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 4 4 4 4

1 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 1 3 0 0 0

1 0 0 0 2 0 3 0 1 0 3 1 0 0

0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 4 1 1 0

37 8 11 8

Cincinnati 200 001 200 — 5 Cleveland 101 130 20x — 8 E—Dietrich 2 (2). LOB—Cincinnati 5, Cleveland 5. 2B—Plawecki (6), Allen (4). 3B—Bauers (1), Plawecki (1). HR—Winker 2 (4), Iglesias 2 (2), Plawecki (1). SB—Allen (6). Cincinnati IP H R ER BB SO Mahle L, 1-2 4 1⁄ 3 6 3 3 0 2 2 Lorenzen ⁄ 3 4 3 3 0 0 Peralta 1 0 0 0 0 0 Bowman 1 1 2 0 0 2 Boyles 1 0 0 0 0 0 Cleveland IP H R ER BB SO Bauer W, 2-2 6 2⁄ 3 7 5 5 2 7 1 Ramirez H, 3 ⁄ 3 0 0 0 0 0 Bernardino H, 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 Speer S, 1-1 1 1 0 0 0 1 HBP—by—Bauer (Winker). Umpires—Home, Stu Scheurwater; First, Alan Porter; Second, Ryan Blakney; Third, John Tumpane.

GOLF Valspar Championship Scores Saturday Purse: $6.7 million Yardage: 7,340; Par 71 Third Round Paul Casey 70-66-68-204 Dustin Johnson 69-69-67-205 Jason Kokrak 69-71-66-206 Luke Donald 67-70-70-207 Scott Stallings 69-68-70-207 Louis Oosthuizen 70-72-66-208 Nick Taylor 71-70-67-208 Jim Furyk 69-71-68-208 Curtis Luck 70-68-70-208 Sungjae Im 70-67-71-208 Austin Cook 69-67-72-208 Matt Jones 73-68-68-209 Brian Stuard 68-72-69-209 Sam Burns 69-74-67-210 Russell Knox 67-76-67-210 Dylan Frittelli 72-71-67-210 Harris English 75-68-67-210 Ryan Armour 70-72-68-210 Mackenzie Hughes 70-72-68-210 Bubba Watson 69-71-70-210 Sepp Straka 66-76-69-211 Denny McCarthy 68-74-69-211 Bill Haas 72-70-69-211 Brian Gay 73-69-69-211 Jon Rahm 71-68-72-211 Lucas Glover 72-67-72-211 Nick Watney 71-72-69-212 Charley Hoffman 69-74-69-212 Henrik Stenson 70-73-69-212 Roger Sloan 70-72-70-212 Joaquin Niemann 69-73-70-212 C.T. Pan 71-70-71-212 Russell Henley 69-72-71-212 Rory Sabbatini 70-69-73-212 Shawn Stefani 68-71-73-212 Kramer Hickok 71-68-73-212 Roberto Castro 68-71-73-212 Zach Johnson 71-72-70-213 Graeme McDowell 71-72-70-213 Chesson Hadley 74-69-70-213 Julian Etulain 69-73-71-213 Rafa Cabrera Bello 71-71-71-213 Satoshi Kodaira 70-71-72-213 Wyndham Clark 71-70-72-213 Sam Saunders 71-69-73-213 Brandt Snedeker 70-70-73-213 Vaughn Taylor 74-69-71-214 Billy Hurley III 74-69-71-214 Sung Kang 71-71-72-214 Kevin Kisner 67-75-72-214 Danny Willett 69-71-74-214 Joel Dahmen 66-72-76-214

TRANSACTIONS BASEBALL American League BOSTON RED SOX — Agreed to terms with LHP Chris Sale on a five-year contract for 2020-24. Reassigned C Juan Centeno and OF Gorkys Hernandez to their minor league camp. Optioned INF Tzu-Wei Lin, LHP Bobby Poyner and RHP Marcus Walden to Pawtucket (IL) and LHP Darwinzon Hernandez to Portland (EL). NEW YORK YANKEES — Acquired OF Mike Tauchman from Colorado for LHP Phillip Diehl. TEXAS RANGERS — Announced the retirement of RHP Jason Hammel. National League ST. LOUIS CARDINALS — Agreed to terms with 1B Paul Goldschmidt on a five-year contract for 2020-24. SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS — Acquired OF Michael Reed from Minnesota for OF John Andreoli and cash considerations. Designated LHP Steven Okert for assignment.

cincinnati.com ❚ SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019 ❚ 17C

The Backstop UPCOMING

Casey holds one-stroke lead over Johnson in Valspar

SPRING TRAINING Sun. vs. Colorado, 3:05 p.m. Mon. at Atlanta, 7:20 p.m.

Mon. WBB vs. NC State, TBA Fri. MBB vs. winner of Ohio State/Houston, TBA

Sun. MBB vs. Houston, 8:40 p.m.

Sun. at Indy, 3:05 p.m. Wed. vs. Kansas City, 7:30 p.m. Mar. 30 at Indy, 7:35 p.m.

Sun. at New England, 4 p.m. Mar. 30 vs. Phldelphia, 7:30 p.m.

Sun. MBB vs. Texas, 4 p.m.

ON THE AIR AAF FOOTBALL

San Diego at Arizona Birmingham at Memphis

4 p.m. 8 p.m.

CBSSN NFL

1:30 p.m. 2 p.m.

NBCSN FS1

6 p.m. 8 p.m.

FS1 FS1

12 p.m. 3 p.m.

SEC SEC

NCAA Tournament: Iowa vs. Tennessee NIT Tournament: Wichita St. vs. Clemson NCAA Tournament: North Carolina vs. Washington NIT Tournament: Xavier vs. Texas

12 p.m. 2 p.m. 2:30 p.m. 4 p.m.

NCAA Tournament: Duke vs. UCF NCAA Tournament: Buffalo vs. Texas Tech NCAA Tournament: Liberty vs. Virgina Tech NCAA Tournament: Virginia vs. Oklahoma NIT Tournament: Harvard vs. NC State NCAA Tournament: Ohio St. vs. Houston

5 p.m. 6 p.m. 7 p.m. 7:30 p.m. 7:30 p.m. 8:30 p.m.

NIT Tournament: Nebraska vs. TCU NCAA Tournament: Oregon vs. UC Irvine

9:30 p.m. 9:30 p.m.

CBS ESPN CBS ESPN; 550-AM CBS TNT TBS TRU ESPNU TNT; 1480-AM, 99.5 FM, 107.9 FM ESPNU TBS

12 p.m. 2 p.m. 7 p.m. 7 p.m. 9 p.m. 9 p.m.

ESPN2 ESPN2 ESPN ESPN2 ESPN ESPN2

7 p.m.

ESPNU

2:30 p.m.

BTN

2 p.m.

ESPNU

12 p.m. 12 p.m. 4 p.m. 4 p.m. 6 p.m.

ESPN ESPNU ESPN2 ESPNU SEC

6 a.m. 1 p.m. 3 p.m. 6 p.m.

GOLF GOLF NBC GOLF

12 p.m. 3 p.m. 8 p.m.

MLB 700-AM MLB

4:30 p.m. 7:30 p.m.

FSO NBA

12 p.m. 8 p.m.

NBC NBCSN

2 p.m.

CBSSN

12:50 p.m. 4 p.m.

ESPNEWS STAR 64; 99.5 FM, 107.9 FM, 1480-AM

AUTO RACING

INDYCAR Classic MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP: The STP 500 BOXING

PBC Fight Night: prelims PBC Fight Night: Peterson-Lipinets COLLEGE BASEBALL

LSU at Georgia Ole Miss at Missouri COLLEGE BASKETBALL (MEN)

COLLEGE BASKETBALL (WOMEN)

NCAA Tournament: Louisville vs. Michigan NCAA Tournament: Teams TBD NCAA Tournament: Buffalo vs. U Conn NCAA Tournament: Arizona St. vs. Miami NCAA Tournament: Mississippi St. vs. Clemson NCAA Tournament: Indiana vs. Oregon COLLEGE HOCKEY (MEN)

NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Selection Special COLLEGE HOCKEY (WOMEN)

NCAA Tournament: Wisconsin vs. Minnesota COLLEGE LACROSSE (MEN)

Duke at Syracuse COLLEGE SOFTBALL

LSU at Georgia Arkansas at Tennessee Oklahoma St. at Baylor South Carolina-Upstate at Longwood Ole Miss at South Carolina GOLF

European Tour: Maybank Championship PGA Tour Golf: Valspar Championship PGA Tour Golf: Valspar Championship LPGA Tour Golf: Bank of Hope Founders Cup MLB BASEBALL

Spring Training, Washington (SS) at N.Y. Mets Spring Training, Colorado at Reds Spring Training, LA Dodgers at LA Angels NBA BASKETBALL

Cleveland at Milwaukee San Antonio at Boston NHL HOCKEY

Philadelphia at Washington Colorado at Chicago RUGBY

Major League Rugby: Glendale vs. United New York SOCCER (MEN)

UEFA: Euro 2020 Qualifier, Hungary vs Croatia MLS, FC Cincinnati at New England

PALM HARBOR, Fla. — Paul Casey was on the verge of building a comfortable lead Saturday until a bogey on the ﬁ nal hole for a 3-under 68 that cut his lead to one shot over Dustin Johnson in the Valspar Championship. Johnson, the world’s No. 1 player, had some say in the margin going into the ﬁ nal round at Innisbrook. From a narrow bunker right of the 18th fairway to an elevated green with a front pin, Johnson blasted 9-iron to 10-foot birdie and a 67. Casey was at 8-under 205. Jason Kokrak had a hole-in-one on the 15th hole and shot 30 on the back nine for a 66 that left him three shots behind.

Logan captures the pole at Martinsville; Almirola second MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Joey Logano has won the pole at Martinsville Speedway in a strong session for the Ford camp. Logano turned a lap at 97.830 mph in Saturday qualifying to earn the top starting spot. Aric Almirola qualifi ed second for Stewart-Haas Racing, Penske driver Brad Keselowski was third and Kevin Harvick was fourth as Ford drivers took the top four qualifying positions. Five-time Martinsville winner Denny Hamlin qualifi ed fi fth in a Toyota for Sunday’s race on the short track. William Byron was sixth and the highest-qualifying Chevrolet driver.

Serena forced to withdraw from Miami Open with bad knee MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Serena Williams has withdrawn from the Miami Open, blaming a previously undisclosed left knee injury. Williams showed no signs of injury while winning her opening match against Rebecca Peterson, 6-3, 1-6, 6-1. Williams didn’t mention any problems with the knee during a news conference afterward, and the WTA had no information Saturday regarding when she was hurt. The match Friday was Williams’ ﬁ rst in Hard Rock Stadium, the Dolphins’ home and the tournament’s new center court. The Miami Open moved this year from Key Biscayne, where Williams won eight titles. She was next scheduled to play No. 18-seeded Qiang Wang, who advances to the fourth round.

Power wins second straight pole at the IndyCar Classic AUSTIN, Texas — Will Power topped qualifying at the inaugural IndyCar Classic on Saturday, edging Alexander Rossi at the Circuit of the Americas. The Team Penske driver earned his second pole position in two races this season and 56th of his career with a

lap of 1 minute, 46.0177 seconds. Power started fi rst at St. Petersburg, Florida, and fi nished third to teammate Josef Newgarden. Power can earn a $100,000 bonus if he can back it up with a race victory on Sunday. IndyCar is racing for the fi rst time at the track built for Formula One that opened in 2012. The 3.41-mile course is one of the longest of the IndyCar season. Rookie Colton Herta of Hardin Steinbrenner Racing made a late push for pole position but slipped to fourth.

Patriots owner apologizes in Florida prostitution case MIAMI — New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft is apologizing after being charged in a Florida massage parlor prostitution investigation. In a statement Saturday, Kraft acknowledged disappointing family, friends, co-workers, fans “and many others who rightfully hold me to a higher standard.” Kraft said he has “extraordinary respect for women,” adding that his morals were shaped by his late wife. He said he expected to be judged by his actions, not just his apology. Kraft pleaded not guilty last month to two counts of misdemeanor solicitation of prostitution.

Timberwolves’ Rose has surgery to remove elbow bone chips MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota Timberwolves guard Derrick Rose has undergone arthroscopic surgery to remove bone chips from his right elbow. The Timberwolves announced Saturday that Rose had the procedure done at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The Wolves previously said Rose was unlikely to play again this season. They’re already eliminated from playoff contention. Rose signed a one-year contract after joining the Wolves for the fi nal few weeks of last season and their playoff series. When healthy, Rose has largely fl ourished, often playing off the ball instead of his natural point guard position. He averaged 18.0 points and 27.3 minutes in 51 games, his secondhighest scoring mark since he tore his left ACL in 2012.

Chen produces spectacular free skate to win gold at worlds SAITAMA, Japan — Defending champion Nathan Chen produced a spectacular free skate on Saturday to win the gold medal at the fi gure skating world championships. First after the short program, the 19-year-old Chen made no mistakes and landed four quadruple jumps to set a record score in the free skate with 216.02 points for a total of 323.42. Two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu also had a strong free skate with four quads but couldn’t erase a 12.53-point defi cit and fi nished second with 300.97. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

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