$2.75 DESIGNATED AREAS HIGHER
latimes.com
MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 2020
© 2020
Germs out of mouths of babes
TRUMP TURNS UNREST TO HIS BENEFIT
Preschoolers play in petri dishes, yet data show few catch or spread SARS-CoV-2.
President aims to use protest violence as an attack on Biden and other Democrats, who say he’s escalating it.
By Sonja Sharp The infection starts with a sniffle. Next comes a barking cough. Soon, there’s a fever, maybe vomiting and diarrhea, possibly an ear infection or tonsillitis or pink eye. These are common symptoms in preschool, where viral outbreaks are as ubiquitous as finger paints and apple juice. In a typical year, an otherwise healthy preschooler will bring home 12 to 18 upper respiratory infections — at least six to eight colds, two cases of croup and, more often than not, a bout of the flu, among others. But 2020 is not a typical year, and SARS-CoV-2 — the technical term for the novel coronavirus — is no day-care germ. Now, with hundreds of large centers reopening across California, many families are asking: Is preschool safe? “That’s the big question,” said Dr. Nava Yeganeh, a pediatric infectious-disease specialist at UCLA and a preschool mom. “We can’t mitigate risk down to zero, but it seems like in general preschools have done very well.” Though scientists can still only guess at why, a growing body of evidence suggests preschoolers are uniquely resilient to the novel coronavirus. Recent studies from the U.S., U.K., Singapore and Australia, among others, suggest they are far less likely to contract and spread the illness than older children and dramatically less likely to get sick from it than children even slightly older or younger. “This is the most bizarre virus,” said Dr. Naomi Bar[See Preschool, A9]
By Laura King
Photographs by Kent Nishimura Los Angeles Times
A PENGUIN named Rey observes the Kelp Forest exhibit while stopping next to senior aviculturist Kim
Fukuda, 46, at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sea life doing swimmingly, but the business is tanking Monterey Bay Aquarium’s closure is taking a deep toll By Hailey Branson-Potts MONTEREY, Calif. — A solitary African penguin waddled through an empty foyer at the famed Monterey Bay Aquarium, peeking curiously under an unoccupied bench. As a glittery school of silver sardines glided through the 1-million-gallon Open Sea exhibit, soft atmospheric music played to an empty viewing room. No families were there to watch the sharks get fed. The jellyfish shimmered alone in the dark. Crowds would normally be filling the aquarium corridors in these waning days of summer. But the aquarium on
REY kisses aviculturist Madeline Mc-
Cuen, 25. The Cannery Row landmark missed its entire summer tourism season.
Cannery Row has been closed to the public for five months now because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Inside, it is quiet. As he examined a sedated sea otter pup rescued from the kelp beds off Santa Cruz, Dr. Michael Murray, the aquarium’s director of veterinary services, wondered aloud if the animals notice how much things have changed. “Part of me says, ‘Oh, they don’t really care,’ ” he said. “The other part says, ‘These are not dumb animals. They’re very aware of their surroundings. They can see people through the acrylic. They can react to people. So why wouldn’t they notice?’ ” Life above the water has [See Monterey, A9]
Integrity of police accounts disputed as cases fall apart Dubious evidence fuels mistrust around L.A. law enforcement. By Alene Tchekmedyian Six Los Angeles County sheriff ’s deputies reported hearing a single gunshot during a foot chase outside Golden Bird Chicken in Willowbrook. One said he saw a revolver on the man they were after, then a bright muzzle flash. Lyle Spruill was arrested that December night last year and charged with one of the most incendiary of felonies — attempted murder of a police officer — even though no gun was found. He spent the next six months in jail. Then, just before Spruill’s scheduled preliminary hearing in June, prosecutors dropped the case. The evidence, including surveillance footage of him running away and the absence of gunshot residue, didn’t support the charges, the district attorney’s office said. Spruill claims in a lawsuit filed last week that the deputies from the Century Station fabricated the story and withheld evidence that contradicts their ver-
sion of events. A gunshot residue report was completed 15 days after Spruill’s December arrest but wasn’t turned over to prosecutors for six months, according to records and interviews. (The L.A. County Sheriff ’s Department said that because of personnel changes related to COVID-19, “the handling detective was unaware of the GSR results until just before the pretrial” hearing.) The allegations come at a time when the reliability of police accounts increasingly is being questioned amid a push for criminal justice reform spurred by videotaped killings such as that of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Spruill’s case is among others in Los Angeles that have been tossed out or rejected by prosecutors, or are under review, because the evidence and stories presented by police don’t hold up. “Every day I walk around, and I think about why,” Spruill, 45, said in an interview with The Times. “Why me? What have I done wrong to make not one cop, not two cops, but several cops to make a statement that I tried to hurt them?” A Gallup poll after Floyd’s May 25 death found that confidence in police was [See Mistrust, A12]
WASHINGTON — President Trump and his allies sought to depict protests over racial injustice as a lawand-order campaign issue Sunday, attacking Democratic leaders, refusing to condemn deadly vigilante violence and touting a purportedly tranquil “Donald Trump’s America” as former Vice President Joe Biden accused him of inciting violence for political gain. Against the backdrop of a still-raging coronavirus outbreak, the White House offered the clearest signal yet of a calculated GOP strategy of exploiting voter fears of violence as the campaign against Biden enters the final stretch. The strategy closely resembles the one Trump employed, unsuccessfully, in the 2018 midterm election, when he spent weeks warning of “caravans” of migrants trying to reach the U.S. border with Mexico. That approach failed to stave off large Democratic gains in congressional races, but Trump has returned to it this year as he continues to lag behind Biden in polls of the presidential race. Trump plans a visit Tuesday to Kenosha, Wis., where protests have flared for the last week over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man who was left paralyzed, and where a teenage gunman who reportedly idolized law enforcement has been charged in two deaths. Administration officials provided no indication that Trump wants to meet with Blake’s family, with whom Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), have talked at length. Amid a stream of inflammatory tweets and retweets Sunday, the president castigated the mayor of Portland, Ore., where a caravan of Trump supporters late Saturday confronted pro[See Trump, A7]
Portland mayor urges calm after fatal shooting Armed right-wing activists have descended on Black Lives Matter protests in city. NATION, A6
Marcus Yam Los Angeles Times
CABDRIVERS dine at Ilsin Gisa Sikdang. Lone diners are not an uncom-
mon sight at driver restaurants, where refills of rice and side dishes are free. COLUMN ONE
Seoul cabbies fill it up here The gisa sikdang, or driver restaurant, caters to those looking for quick and cheap comfort food By Victoria Kim reporting from seoul
t’s 4 p.m., that unclaimed time between lunch and dinner when most restaurants in Seoul are on their post-lunch break, happy hour still seems an eternity away and office workers daydream about their impending escape. Shin In-kyun dumped a steaming bowl of white rice into a nest of vegetables and raw tuna, churning the hwedupbap in a bright red sauce until he got an
I
even distribution to his liking. He heaped a spoonful, topped it with a piece of cucumber kimchi and took a bite. Shin has been coming to this humble eatery, Suncheon Gisa Sikdang, as long as he’s been driving a taxi: 35 years. It’s one of a handful of places where the 76-year-old will end up for a late lunch, depending on which quadrant of this sprawling city he ends up in after six or seven hours of driving. The gisa sikdang, literally driver restaurant, is a longtime staple of the lives of those driving Seoul’s some 70,000 taxicabs, serving a city [See Seoul, A4]
Clippers advance in the playoffs Kawhi Leonard carries team past Dallas 111-97 in Game 6, and L.A. will face the winner of Utah-Denver in the next round. SPORTS, B6
Actor’s purpose never faltered Chadwick Boseman moved us for reasons that go beyond the simple matter of his talent. CALENDAR, E1 Weather Partly sunny. L.A. Basin: 80/61. B10 Printed with soy inks on partially recycled paper.
BUSINESS INSIDE: Developers bet on Grand project to help revive downtown L.A. A10
Nxxx,2020-08-31,A,001,Bs-4C,E1
CMYK
Late Edition Today, mostly sunny, low humidity, high 77. Tonight, turning mostly cloudy, periodic rain late, low 67. Tomorrow, cloudy, showers, high 75. Weather map appears on Page A22.
VOL. CLXIX . . . . No. 58,802
$3.00
NEW YORK, MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 2020
© 2020 The New York Times Company
Treasury Chief Feels the Sting From All Sides
PORTLAND DEATH INFLAMES DEBATE ON URBAN STRIFE
Aid Deal Is a Legacy, for Better or Worse
TRUMP BACKERS’ RALLY
By JAMES B. STEWART and ALAN RAPPEPORT
One spring day, not long after President Trump signed the largest economic stimulus package in American history in March, a group of his top aides and cabinet officers gathered in the Oval Office. The $2.2 trillion government rescue — which delivered cash to individuals, small businesses and giant companies — was a crucial victory for Mr. Trump, who was facing withering attacks for his failures to respond to the fastspreading coronavirus. It also was a much-needed win for the program’s chief architect, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. He didn’t have a lot of fans. The president ran hot and cold on him. Conservatives distrusted him as a Republican in Name Only. Liberals demonized him as a plutocrat. Even members of Mr. Mnuchin’s immediate family distanced themselves; his liberal father said he was appalled by his son’s politics. When the pandemic hit, the task of saving the economy was an opportunity for Mr. Mnuchin to transform himself from an unremarkable Treasury secretary into a national hero. Mr. Mnuchin, a former banker and film financier, sought advice from his former Goldman Sachs colleagues, a cable-TV host, a Hollywood superagent, a disgraced Wall Street tycoon and Newt Gingrich. Unburdened by his own ideology and with a detail-disoriented boss, Mr. Mnuchin worked with Democrats to devise and pass the landmark stimulus bill. Afterward, Mr. Trump hailed Mr. Mnuchin as a “great” Treasury secretary and “fantastic guy.” The acclaim didn’t last. Republicans argued that Mr. Mnuchin had been outfoxed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the embodiment of freespending liberals and, in Mr. Trump’s words, “a sick woman” with “mental problems.” The conservative critique began to resonate with the president. Thanks to the stimulus package, the economy had stabilized, Continued on Page A6
President Insults Mayor — Biden Calls His Rival Reckless This article is by Mike Baker, Thomas Kaplan and Shane Goldmacher.
KHADIJA M. FARAH FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Much of the billions of pieces of plastic waste exported from the United States to be recycled ends up in rivers and oceans instead.
Big Oil Pivots to Plastics and Eyes Africa as Its Dumping Ground This article is by Hiroko Tabuchi, Michael Corkery and Carlos Mureithi.
Confronting a climate crisis that threatens the fossil fuel industry, oil companies are racing to make more plastic. But they face two problems: Many markets are already awash with plastic, and few countries are willing to be dumping grounds for the world’s plastic waste. The industry thinks it has found a solution to both problems in Africa. According to documents reviewed by The New York Times, an industry group representing the world’s largest chemical makers and fossil fuel companies is lobbying to influence United States trade negotiations with Kenya, one of Africa’s biggest economies, to reverse its strict limits on plastics — including a tough plastic-bag ban. It is also pressing for Kenya to continue importing foreign plastic garbage, a practice it has pledged to limit. Plastics makers are looking well beyond Kenya’s borders. “We anticipate that Kenya could serve
KHADIJA M. FARAH FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Kenya passed a stringent law against plastic bags in 2017. in the future as a hub for supplying U.S.-made chemicals and plastics to other markets in Africa through this trade agreement,” Ed Brzytwa, the director of international trade for the American Chemistry Council, wrote in an April 28 letter to the Office of the United States Trade Representative. The United States and Kenya
are in the midst of trade negotiations and the Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta, has made clear he is eager to strike a deal. But the behind-the-scenes lobbying by the petroleum companies has spread concern among environmental groups in Kenya and beyond that have been working to reduce both plastic use and waste. Kenya, like many countries, has
Quick Testing, If You Can Pay The Steep Cost
wrestled with the proliferation of plastic. It passed a stringent law against plastic bags in 2017, and last year was one of many nations around the world that signed on to a global agreement to stop importing plastic waste — a pact strongly opposed by the chemical industry. The chemistry council’s plastics proposals would “inevitably mean more plastic and chemicals in the environment,” said Griffins Ochieng, executive director for the Centre for Environmental Justice and Development, a nonprofit group based in Nairobi that works on the problem of plastic waste in Kenya. “It’s shocking.” The plastics proposal reflects an oil industry contemplating its inevitable decline as the world fights climate change. Profits are plunging amid the coronavirus pandemic, and the industry is fearful that climate change will force the world to retreat from burning fossil fuels. Producers are scrambling to find new uses for an oversupply of oil and gas. Wind and solar power are becoming increasingly affordable, and govContinued on Page A11
PORTLAND, Ore. — A fatal shooting in Portland, Ore., over the weekend led President Trump to unleash a torrent of tweets and attacks on Sunday, capping a volatile week of street violence that is becoming a major theme in the final weeks of the 2020 campaign. On Saturday, a man affiliated with a right-wing group was shot and killed as a large caravan of supporters of Mr. Trump drove through downtown Portland, where nightly protests have unfolded for three consecutive months. No suspect has been publicly identified and the victim’s name has not been released. The shooting came in the same week that a 17-year-old armed with a military-style weapon was charged with homicide in connection with shootings during a protest in Kenosha, Wis., that left two people dead and one injured. The pro-Trump rally in Portland drew hundreds of trucks filled with supporters and adorned with Trump flags into the city. At times, Trump supporters and counterprotesters clashed in the streets, with fistfights occurring and Trump supporters shooting paintball guns from the beds of pickup trucks as protesters threw objects at them. Mr. Trump on Sunday morning posted or reposted a barrage of tweets about the clashes in Portland, with many of them assailing the city’s Democratic mayor, Ted Wheeler. The president retweeted a video showing his supporters shooting paintballs and using pepper spray on crowds in Portland before the fatal shooting. Mr. Trump wrote that “the big backlash going on in Portland cannot be unexpected,” a remarkable instance of a president seeming to support confrontation rather than calming a volatile situation. The shooting immediately reContinued on Page A14
It Can’t Get Worse . . . Right? Five Lives Upended by 2020
By J. DAVID GOODMAN
This article is by Peter Baker, John Branch, John Eligon, Reid J. Epstein, Dan Levin and Marc Stein.
As major laboratories struggle to meet surging demand for coronavirus tests, wealthier people and others in privileged professions are avoiding long waits for results — anywhere from four days to more than two weeks in New York City — by skipping the lines. Some are signing up for concierge medical practices that charge several thousand dollars a year for membership and provide quick turnaround testing. Others have turned to smaller laboratories or doctors’ offices that have their own equipment and can give results in a few hours or less. “So far, we have tested 12 billionaires,” said Dr. Andrew Brooks, chief executive of Infinity BiologiX, a New Jersey-based company that developed a saliva test used by professional athletes, universities and financial institutions. “This concern is universal.” Executives at smaller labs in the New York region described a sharp increase in calls from those looking for faster results — not Continued on Page A8
WASHINGTON — And then Chadwick Boseman died. On a Friday night, a way-too-young Hollywood star who had inspired fans around the world suddenly was gone without warning. After everything else, it was just too much for many. “I HATE 2020” began trending on Twitter. Not for the first time and probably not for the last. It has been a year of tragedy, of catastrophe, of upheaval, a year that has inflicted one blow after another, a year that has filled the morgues, emptied the schools, shuttered the workplaces, swelled the unemployment lines and polarized the electorate. It is a year in which one Black American after another fell victim to the police and one city after another erupted in flames. If the worst pandemic in a century and the worst economic collapse in nearly a century and the worst social unrest in a half-century were not enough, nature threw in a few more challenges in recent days in the form of rampaging wildfires out west and a ferocious hurricane down south. At
ANN WANG/REUTERS
Taiwanese military exercises. The People’s Liberation Army of China held live-fire drills last week.
As China Flexes, Taiwan Revamps Its Military By STEVEN LEE MYERS and JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZ
On a cloudy day last month, thousands of soldiers massed on a beach in central Taiwan for the culmination of five days of exercises intended to demonstrate how the island’s military would re-
NATIONAL A13-17
pel an invasion from China. Jets, helicopters and artillery and missile batteries fired live ammunition at targets offshore, sending plumes of sea spray into the air. Then, a few hours later, a military helicopter taking part in the same exercise crashed at an airfield farther up the coast, killing two pilots and casting a
TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-8
BUSINESS B1-7
shadow over the show of force. China’s growing aggression across Asia in recent months has created fears that it may make brash moves in Taiwan, the South China Sea or elsewhere. The ruling Communist Party’s recent crackdown on dissent and activism in Hong Kong, a former Continued on Page A10
How Some Americans Are Trying to Cope in a Year of Pain times, it has felt biblical, as if a torrent of plagues had been unleashed all at once. At least the locusts, for the moment, have not migrated here from East Africa. But while 2020 feels cursed, it is still only two-thirds over. What could the next four months bring before the calendar turns? If nothing else, a bitter, angry, ugly, divisive presidential campaign followed by an Election Day that may not end on Election Day. It could stretch for days, weeks or even months without an undisputed outcome. So on top of another 1918 and another 1929 and another 1968, try adding another 2000, another Florida recount, but this time with, both candidates agree, nothing less than American democracy on the line. As the fall contest gets underway after the nominating conventions, the national mood is sour. Only 13 percent of Americans are Continued on Page A16
SPORTSMONDAY D1-8
Virus-Hunting Effort to Return
Exploiting P.P.P.’s Gray Areas
A Slam Under a Microscope
A federal agency is resurrecting a scientific network that for a decade kept watch around the world for new pathogens dangerous to humans. PAGE A4
Spotting $62 million in Paycheck Protection Program fraud was easy, but what lies below the surface will be harder for investigators to find. PAGE B1
U.S. Open tennis, held without fans, will be a test for sports in the New York region. An event preview. PAGES D3-7
INTERNATIONAL A9-12
Sticking With ‘Abenomics’
The Long Road to Recovery
Dangerous Cargo in Dakar
Residents are returning home to Southwestern Louisiana, a region devastated by Hurricane Laura last week. PAGE A13
The port in Senegal’s capital is racing to move over 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate after the Beirut blast. PAGE A10
Japan is expected to rely on the policies of the departing prime minister, Shinzo Abe, for its economic recovery. PAGE B1 OBITUARIES A18-19
Five Kilometers in the Flesh ARTS C1-6
They’re All Tuned Up A pickup truck helped the New York Philharmonic stage pop-up concerts, its first public shows in months. PAGE C1
Trump-Russia Inquiry Cut Off
U.S. Says Taliban Violated Deal
UConn and N.B.A. Stalwart
In a Very Funny ‘Good Place’
The Justice Department secretly acted to halt an examination of the president’s ties to Russia. PAGE A15
The insurgent group denied firing rockets that landed around Afghan bases used by American forces. PAGE A12
Cliff Robinson helped Connecticut become a basketball power and spent 18 seasons as a pro. He was 53. PAGE A19
Ted Danson and D’Arcy Carden discuss their time with the NBC show, which is up for a best comedy Emmy. PAGE C1
In a running event at a resort in Pennsylvania, clothing was optional, but sun block was recommended. PAGE D8 EDITORIAL, OP-ED A20-21
Roger Cohen
PAGE A21
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MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 2020 ~ VOL. CCLXXVI NO. 52
* * * * *
Last week: DJIA 28653.87 À 723.54 2.6%
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10-YR. TREASURY g 27/32 , yield 0.727%
OIL $42.97 À $0.63
Protests, Clashes Draw Nation’s Tense Focus in Two Cities
What’s News Business & Finance lans to quickly complete a deal between TikTok’s Chinese parent and suitors for the app’s U.S. operations have been thrown off track in the wake of new Chinese restrictions. A1
P
New SEC forms meant to simplify disclosures by investment firms often contradict longer filings on the agency’s website, a Wall Street Journal analysis found. B1 KKR is nearing a deal to sell Epicor Software to a group led by private-equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice for around $4.7 billion. B3 A small-business pandemic emergency loan program that has been criticized for delays and fraud has focused attention on the role of a small firm that earned nearly $800 million in fees and subcontracted the bulk of the work. A4
World-Wide Companies are racing to bolster Covid-19 testing as schools reopen and flu season approaches, saying they aim to avoid a repeat of July when overwhelming demand for testing led to long delays for results. A1 The number of confirmed coronavirus cases crossed 25 million globally. A6 A man was killed Saturday in Portland, Ore., amid unrest that rocked the city after Trump supporters clashed with violent protesters, police said. A3 The U.S. intelligence chief said his office will curb inperson briefings to Congress about security threats to the 2020 election, saying he was concerned lawmakers had leaked classified materials. A4 Beijing’s crushing of Hong Kong pro-democracy forces is injecting new energy into Taiwan’s efforts to build up its military defenses. A7 California’s firefighting resources are already close to the breaking point with months still to go until the end of fire season. A5 A top aide to Shinzo Abe was poised to enter the race to become Japan’s next leader and face the country’s economic challenges. A8 Died: Chadwick Boseman, 43, “Black Panther” star. A12 CONTENTS Arts in Review... A13 Business News... B3,5 Crossword.............. A14 Heard on Street... B10 Markets...................... B9 Opinion.............. A15-17
Outlook....................... A2 Personal Journal A11-12 Sports....................... A14 Technology............... B4 U.S. News............. A2-5 Weather................... A14 World News......... A6-9
>
s 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
YEN 105.37
Chinese Rules Cloud TikTok Deal
MORRY GASH/ASSOCIATED PRESS
BY GEORGIA WELLS AND CARA LOMBARDO
ON THE GROUND: Wisconsin National Guard troops arrived Sunday at the county courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., where thousands have taken to the streets to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake. In Portland, Ore., police said they opened a homicide investigation after a man was killed Saturday amid unrest that has rocked the city. A3
Labs Push to Build Up Tests For Virus Before Flu Season BY SARAH KROUSE AND BRIANNA ABBOTT
produce cannabinoid molecules for medical-marijuana products, scientists are working to develop a Covid-19 testing system that searches for the virus’s genetic code. The company, Ginkgo Bioworks Inc., hopes by the fall to create a system that will use analyzers the size of washing machines to process 100,000 tests a day. Scientists at Sonora Quest
Companies are racing to bolster Covid-19 testing as schools reopen and flu season approaches, saying they aim to avoid a repeat of July when demand for testing led to long delays for results. In a Boston lab where technicians programmed yeast to
INSIDE GARETH CATTERMOLE/GETTY IMAGES FOR DISNEY
United said it is permanently ending flight-change fees for most domestic tickets, the latest effort to boost demand in the pandemicstruck air-travel industry. B1
EURO $1.1907
App’s parent and suitors pull back to weigh new restrictions as deadline approaches
A revamped Dow falls short of matching tech’s influence in the S&P 500, potentially widening a performance gap with the broader index. A1 McDonald’s ex-human resources chief is emerging as a focus of the company’s probe into possible impropriety under former CEO Steve Easterbrook. B1
HHHH $4.00
Laboratories LLC are assembling new equipment that might soon deliver a 10-fold increase in molecular coronavirus-testing capacity at one of Arizona’s largest private labs. Other companies including Abbott Laboratories and publichealth authorities are aiming for broader Covid-19 diagnosis and screening with large-scale production of rapid antigen
tests that don’t need to be shipped to labs for processing. The goal of these efforts is to quickly diversify and grow the U.S.’s Covid-19 testing infrastructure as the flu season approaches. This fall, doctors are concerned about a potential Please turn to page A6 Sub-Saharan Africa masks scope of crisis........................... A6
Plans to quickly complete a deal between TikTok’s Chinese parent company and suitors for the app’s U.S. operations have been thrown off track as the parties huddled over the weekend to weigh new Chinese restrictions that appear designed to affect a potential sale, people familiar with the discussions said. China late on Friday issued restrictions on the export of artificial-intelligence technology that forced ByteDance Ltd., TikTok’s parent, to slow down talks with companies including Microsoft Corp., Walmart Inc. and Oracle Corp. for a portion of the social-media app, people familiar with the matter said. ByteDance, which received the broad outlines of bids on Friday for the TikTok assets, had been expected to enter into exclusive discussions with one group of suitors over the weekend, the people said. The Trump administration in early August set a mid-September deadline for ByteDance to sell its American operation. Microsoft and Walmart Please turn to page A9
Amazon-Like Marketplace For Farmers Faces Hard Row Agricultural suppliers undermine upstart Farmers Business Network BY JACOB BUNGE
OBITUARY Actor Chadwick Boseman’s work shined a light on Black history and culture. A12
PERSONAL JOURNAL Teachers brush up skills to reach students online as schools turn to remote learning. A11
The Scariest Part of the Great Outdoors? A Brand-New Camper i
i
Last summer, Samantha Jones Toal spent her weekends bar hopping with friends in the Boystown neighborhood of Chicago. This summer, absent many opportunities to have fun inside, the 23-yearold and two equally indoorsy friends went a few steps outside their comfort zone: backpacking 18 miles through the Ozarks of Missouri. “We just
Dow’s Gap With S&P to Grow
i
Mishaps abound as city slickers escape to nature; ‘I have never been so cold’ BY RACHEL WOLFE AND JENNIFER CALFAS
OMAHA, Neb.—Inside a packed arena last December, 2,700 farmers sipped coffee from paper cups and listened to remarks on the Midwestern economy: incomes down, costs up and bankruptcies rising. The speaker wasn’t a politician or an academic. He was Charles Baron, co-founder of Farmers Business Network, or FBN, a Silicon Valley startup that is trying to build an Amazon-like online marketplace for agricultural supplies. Mr. Baron, pacing the stage in a black-
and-green flannel shirt, warned the audience that big companies often sell seeds and herbicide sprays at inflated prices, protecting their profits. FBN, he said, allows users to compare prices across products and suppliers, helping farmers negotiate. “It is critical that you have control,” said Mr. Baron. FBN doesn’t have a lot right now. Some of the world’s biggest farm suppliers, including Bayer AG, Corteva Inc. and Syngenta AG have refused to sell their brand-name seeds and crop sprays to the startup. Executives Please turn to page A10
started googling,” Ms. Toal said of how the trio chose their destination. But she left one crucial item behind. “We had made the decision not to bring our sleeping bags because it was supposed to be so hot out and we knew from our research that weight is super important,” she said. They slept in a tent, but didn’t anticipate having to spend their first night in a valley where the temperature dropped precipitously. Please turn to page A10
BY MICHAEL WURSTHORN The Dow Jones Industrial Average has struggled this year to keep up with the gains of its broader counterpart, the S&P 500, which has more representation from surging tech stocks. Changes coming to the Dow on Monday likely won’t help. That’s because the biggest change is Apple Inc.’s stock split, which takes effect Monday and slashes the tech component of the price-weighted Dow more than the addition of new member Salesforce.com Inc. boosts it. The S&P 500’s year-to-date increase in 2020 is outperforming the Dow industrials by roughly 8 percentage points— the widest gap since 1932, according to Dow Jones Market
52-week performance S&P 500 Index
20% 10 0 -10
Dow Jones Industrial Average
-20 -30 2019
'20
Source: FactSet
Data. Short-term rifts between the two benchmarks aren’t uncommon, said Howard Silverblatt, a senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices, and the Dow and the S&P 500 tend to
track each other more closely over longer periods. But this year has been markedly different due to how the pandemic has deepened a split within the Please turn to page A2