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Heat come up short 119-116 in Toronto as Butler sits late, with greater challenges now ahead
TORONTO — What you want when the next four are against the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns and Cleveland Cavaliers is some sort of cushion.
The Miami Heat squandered the opportunity Sunday night with a 119-116 loss at Scotiabank Arena to the lowly Toronto Raptors, a loss that dropped them to 9-9.
On this night, even mediocrity proved to be a struggle, which is all that might have been required against an opponent that improved to 6-15.
Instead, the Heat proved unable to double up on Friday night’s 121-111 victory over the Raptors at Kaseya Center, dominated in the paint by the Raptors and dominated on the scoreboard by Toronto forward R.J. Barrett, who closed with 37 points.
“We were not worthy to win tonight,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after the game.
About the only enduring pushback from the Heat came from guard Tyler Herro, who closed with 31 points. Jimmy Butler somewhat came around in the second half to finish with 17, although he was forced to sit at the end with an apparent knee issue.
Otherwise, it was another night when Heat center Bam Adebayo was able to get everything going but his offense, closing with a season-high 20 rebounds along with seven assists but just 13 points.
“We didn’t give enough effort,” said Adebayo, who became the first Heat player with 20 rebounds and seven assists in the same game.
And, with that, the Heat immediately had to move on to Monday night’s game against the Celtics at TD Garden, the site of where last season ended in the first round of the playoffs.
“You can’t hide,” Adebayo said of what now immediately follows.
As for Butler, questions remain, likely to be answered by Monday’s NBA injury report.
“I’m cool. Banged up. Ain’t nothing new,” he said of his right knee, which was problematic last season.
Asked about Monday in Boston, he said, “I don’t know. We’ll see how it feels when I get up in the morning.”
Five Degrees of Heat from Sunday night’s game:
1. Closing time: The Raptors led 34-24 after the first period and 65-60 at halftime.
The Heat went up three early in the third quarter, before the Raptors stormed back for a 98-87 lead going into the fourth.
Butler then returned with 7:10 to play and the Heat down 105-91.
From there, the Heat rallied within 113-107 with 2:14 to play on a Haywood Highsmith 3-pointer, with a Butler 3-point play drawing the Heat within 113-110 with 1:27 remaining.
The Raptors’ Scottie Barnes and Herro then traded 3-pointers, leaving the Heat down 116-113 with 64 seconds to play.
“It actually was more of a surprise it was close at the end,” Spoelstra said. “We didn’t put ourselves in a position to win.”
But they did.
After Raptors 24-second violation, Herro was off on a potential tying 3-pointer, with a Barnes free throw making it 117-113 with 12.2 seconds to play.
“A great look,” Herro said of his shot.
2. Herro from the start: Herro scored 13 in the first quarter, at 5 of 6 from the field and 3 of 4 on 3-pointers.
He basically kept the Heat afloat early, with Adebayo 0 for 4 from the field and Butler taking only one shot in the opening period, each scoreless in the first quarter.
Herro by the midpoint of the opening period had extended his personal best streak to 52 consecutive games with a 3-pointer, 17 games off Duncan Robinson’s franchise record, and had extended his career-best streak to 48 consecutive games scoring in double figures.
Later, with his fourth 3-pointer, Herro tied Tim Hardaway for second on the Heat all-time 3-pointers list, with 806, behind only Robinson.
“I’ll be chasing him for a while,” Herro said of Robinson.
Herro was up to 18 points by halftime.
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3. Filling it up (sort of): Adebayo, even in the lack of early offense, again otherwise filled the box score.
Two games after achieving a double-double in assists and rebounds against the Hornets and one game after securing his eighth career triple-double on the final rebound of Friday night’s victory over the Raptors, Adebayo this time was up to 11 rebounds and six assists at halftime, but also just 2 of 8 at that stage for four points.
The rebounding continued. The assists tapered. But the points never arrived in a needed quantity.
But it was the lack of energy by his team that was Adebayo’s postgame focus.
“We didn’t give enough energy trying to impose our will,” he said.
4. Limited lift: While Butler had filled out his scoring totals in recent games through working his way to the foul line, a lack of lift has become increasingly apparent.
During one second-quarter sequence Sunday, Butler, 35, was unable to rise for an alley-oop feed from Jaime Jaquez Jr. and then was credited for two of his five first-half points on a Raptors goaltend, when he attempted a reverse layup in transition that appeared to be off the mark.
By the third quarter, Butler reset his game with more of a bump-and-grind game, working his way to the line, until a jolt to the knee on his 3-point play took him out late.
Butler appreciated his teammates rallying.
“We always compete to get back in it,” he said.
5. Length limited: With first-round pick Kel’el Ware a late scratch due to foot tendinitis and with Nikola Jovic back in South Florida with an ankle sprain, the already undersized Heat were further undersized Sunday.
That had the Raptors attacking almost with impunity, closing with a 68-46 scoring edge in the paint.
“That’s what they do,” Spoelstra said of the Raptors pounding the paint. “But we definitely did not offer any resistance.
“We just were not able to contain the ball in transition or in any kind of one-on-one situation.”
For all of Adebayo’s defensive versatility off the ball, he proved no match for the 7-foot, 253-pound bulk of Raptors starting center Jacob Poeltl, who outscored him for the second time in as many games, this time with 17 points.
Spoelstra added: “Often in this game, you get what you deserve.”
Biden pardons his son Hunter despite previous pledges not to
By ZEKE MILLER, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and COLLEEN LONG
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden pardoned his son, Hunter, on Sunday night, sparing the younger Biden a possible prison sentence for federal felony gun and tax convictions and reversing his past promises not to use the extraordinary powers of the presidency for the benefit of his family.
The Democratic president had previously said he would not pardon his son or commute his sentence after convictions in the two cases in Delaware and California. The move comes weeks before Hunter Biden was set to receive his punishment after his trial conviction in the gun case and guilty plea on tax charges, and less than two months before President-elect Donald Trump is set to return to the White House.
It caps a long-running legal saga for the younger Biden, who publicly disclosed he was under federal investigation in December 2020 — a month after his father’s 2020 victory — and casts a pall over the elder Biden’s legacy.
Biden, who time and again pledged to Americans that he would restore norms and respect for the rule of law after Trump’s first term in office, ultimately used his position to help his son, breaking his public pledge to Americans that he would do no such thing.
In a statement released Sunday evening, Biden said, “I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.”
The president’s sweeping pardon covers not just the gun and tax offenses against the younger Biden, but also any other “offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024.”
In June, Biden categorically ruled out a pardon or commutation for his son, telling reporters as his son faced trial in the Delaware gun case, “I abide by the jury decision. I will do that and I will not pardon him.”
As recently as Nov. 8, days after Trump’s victory, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre ruled out a pardon or clemency for the younger Biden, saying, “We’ve been asked that question multiple times. Our answer stands, which is no.”
The elder Biden has publicly stood by his only living son as Hunter descended into serious drug addiction and threw his family life into turmoil before getting back on track in recent years. The president’s political rivals have long used Hunter Biden’s myriad mistakes as a political cudgel against his father: In one hearing, lawmakers displayed photos of the drug-addled president’s son half-naked in a seedy hotel.
House Republicans also sought to use the younger Biden’s years of questionable overseas business ventures in a since-abandoned attempt to impeach his father, who has long denied involvement in his son’s dealings or benefiting from them in any way.
“The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election,” Biden said in his statement. “No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son.”
“I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision,” Biden added, claiming he made the decision this weekend.
The president had spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Nantucket, Massachusetts, with Hunter and his family, and was set to depart for Angola later Sunday on what may be his last foreign trip as president before leaving office on Jan. 20, 2025.
Hunter Biden was convicted in June in Delaware federal court of three felonies for purchasing a gun in 2018 when, prosecutors said, he lied on a federal form by claiming he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs.
He had been set to stand trial in September in the California case accusing him of failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes. But he agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor and felony charges in a surprise move hours after jury selection was set to begin.
David Weiss, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in Delaware who negotiated the plea deal, was subsequently named a special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland to have more autonomy over the prosecution of the president’s son.
Hunter Biden said he was pleading guilty in that case to spare his family more pain and embarrassment after the gun trial aired salacious details about his struggles with a crack cocaine addiction.
The tax charges carry up to 17 years behind bars and the gun charges are punishable by up to 25 years in prison, though federal sentencing guidelines were expected to call for far less time and it was possible he would have avoided prison time entirely.
Hunter Biden was supposed to be sentenced this month in the two federal cases, which the special counsel brought after a plea deal with prosecutors that likely would have spared him prison time fell apart under scrutiny by a judge. Under the original deal, Hunter was supposed to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses and and would have avoided prosecution in the gun case as long as he stayed out of trouble for two years.
But the plea hearing quickly unraveled last year when the judge raised concerns about unusual aspects of the deal. The younger Biden was subsequently indicted in the two cases.
Hunter Biden’s legal team this weekend released a 52-page white paper titled “The political prosecutions of Hunter Biden,” describing the president’s son as a “surrogate to attack and injure his father, both as a candidate in 2020 and later as president.”
The younger Biden’s lawyers have long argued that prosecutors bowed to political pressure to indict the president’s son amid heavy criticism by Trump and other Republicans of what they called the “sweetheart” plea deal.
Rep. James Comer, one of the Republican chairmen leading congressional investigations into Biden’s family, blasted the president’s pardon, saying that the evidence against Hunter was “just the tip of the iceberg.”
“It’s unfortunate that, rather than come clean about their decades of wrongdoing, President Biden and his family continue to do everything they can to avoid accountability,” Comer said on X, the website formerly known as Twitter.
Biden is hardly the first president to deploy his pardon powers to benefit those close to him.
In his final weeks in office, Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in law, Jared Kushner, as well as multiple allies convicted in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Trump over the weekend announced plans to nominate the elder Kushner to be the U.S. envoy to France in his next administration.
Trump, who has pledged to dramatically overhaul and install loyalists across the Justice Department after he was prosecuted for his role in trying to subvert the 2020 presidential election, said in a social media post on Sunday that Hunter Biden’s pardon was “such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice.”
“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?” Trump asked, referring to those convicted in the violent Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.
Hunter Biden said in an emailed statement that he will never take for granted the relief granted to him and vowed to devote the life he has rebuilt “to helping those who are still sick and suffering.”
“I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction – mistakes that have been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport,” the younger Biden said.
Hunter Biden’s legal team filed Sunday night in both Los Angeles and Delaware asking the judges handling his gun and tax cases to immediately dismiss them, citing the pardon.
A spokesperson for Weiss did not respond to messages seeking comment Sunday night.
NBC News was first to report Biden was expected to pardon his son Sunday.
___
Associated Press writer Josh Boak in Nantucket, Massachusetts, contributed to this report.
Today in History: December 1, Rosa Parks refuses to give up bus seat
Today is Sunday, Dec. 1, the 336th day of 2024. There are 30 days left in the year.
Today in history:On Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a Black seamstress, was arrested after refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus; the incident sparked a yearlong boycott of the buses and helped fuel the U.S. civil rights movement.
Also on this date:In 1824, the presidential election was turned over to the U.S. House of Representatives after none of the candidates (John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford and Henry Clay) won more than 50% of the electoral vote. Despite Jackson winning the most electoral votes, Adams would ultimately win the presidency.
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In 1969, the U.S. government held its first draft lottery for military service since World War II.
In 1991, Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly for independence from the Soviet Union.
In 2009, President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 more U.S. troops into the war in Afghanistan but promised during a speech to cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to begin withdrawals in 18 months.
In 2017, retired general Michael Flynn, who served as President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about reaching out to the Russians on Trump’s behalf. (Trump would later pardon Flynn.)
Today’s Birthdays:- World Golf Hall of Famer Lee Trevino is 85.
- Rock musician John Densmore (The Doors) is 80.
- Actor-singer Bette Midler is 79.
- Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., is 72.
- Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., is 66.
- Model-actor Carol Alt is 64.
- Actor Jeremy Northam is 63.
- Baseball Hall of Famer Larry Walker is 58.
- Actor Néstor Carbonell is 57.
- Actor-comedian Sarah Silverman is 54.
- Actor Riz Ahmed is 42.
- Singer-actor Janelle Monáe is 39.
- Actor Sarah Snook is 37.
- Actor Zoe Kravitz is 36.
Trump Demands ‘Commitment’ From BRICS on Using US Dollar
Stephanie Lai
(Bloomberg) — US President-elect Donald Trump warned the so-called BRICS nations that he would require commitments that they would not move to create a new currency as an alternative to using the US dollar and repeated threats to levy a 100% tariff.
“The idea that the BRICS Countries are trying to move away from the dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER,” Trump said in a post to his Truth Social network on Saturday.
“We require a commitment from these Countries that they will neither create a new BRICS Currency, nor back any other Currency to replace the mighty U.S. Dollar or, they will face 100% Tariffs, and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful U.S. Economy,” he added.
Trump on his campaign trail pledged that he would make it costly for countries to move away from the US dollar. And he’s threatened to use tariffs to ensure they complied. Saturday’s threat took on new relevance as the president-elect prepares to retake power in January.
Trump and his economic advisers have been discussing ways to punish allies and adversaries alike who seek to engage in bilateral trade in currencies other than the dollar. Those measures include considering options such as export controls, currency manipulation charges and levies on trade, according to people familiar with the matter.
Trump has long stressed that he wants the US dollar to remain the world’s reserve currency, saying in a March interview with CNBC that he “would not allow countries to go off the dollar” because it would be “a hit to our country.”
The president-elect’s warning against the BRICS nations suggests “how confused the incoming administration is about the global trade and capital system,” according to Michael Pettis, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“The US cannot both reduce its trade deficit and increase the global dominance of USD because these impose diametrically opposed conditions,” Pettis said on his X account.
The BRICS nations discussed the issue of de-dollarization at a summit in 2023. Backlash against the dollar’s dominance gained traction in 2022 when the US led efforts to impose economic sanctions on Russia.
While some potential dollar rivals such as the Chinese yuan have already made inroads, that has often happened at the expense of currencies other than the dollar.
Despite the group’s rhetoric, the infrastructure that backs the dollar, such as the cross-border payment system, will likely give the US currency a decisive edge for decades to come.
Evidence of this emerged during the bloc’s October meeting in Kazan hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin, a champion of reducing the international role of the dollar. Organizers for the meeting encouraged attendees to bring US dollars or euros with them as non-Russian Mastercard or Visa cards don’t work in the country.
Economic advisers to Trump and his campaign have spoken in particular about targeting the BRICS effort.
Earlier: Trump Aides Discuss Penalties for Nations That De-Dollarize
“There is no chance that the BRICS will replace the U.S. Dollar in International Trade, and any Country that tries should wave goodbye to America,” Trump said Saturday.
The president-elect has already rattled world markets ahead of his second term with threats to levy an additional 10% tariffs on goods from China and 25% tariffs on all products from Mexico and Canada if those countries do not do more to stem the flow of illegal drugs and undocumented migrants across US borders.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Trump on Friday to discuss trade and border issues in a bid to tamp down tensions between the two allied nations after the tariff threat.
But other nations may consider ways to mitigate the Trump tariffs on their economies. China could allow its yuan to depreciate by as much as 10-15% in response to any trade war unleashed by Trump, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. The bank sees a 5% average depreciation in emerging-market currencies over the first half of 2025.
Read: The New Ways China Can Fire Back If Trump Starts Trade War Again
–With assistance from Harry Suhartono and Trista Xinyi Luo.
(Updated with comments in seventh and eight paragraph)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
Border Patrol trains more chaplains as the job and polarizing immigration debate rattle agents
DANIA BEACH (AP) — As immigration remains a hotly contested priority for the Trump administration after playing a decisive role in the deeply polarized election, the Border Patrol agents tasked with enforcing many of its laws are wrestling with growing challenges on and off the job.
More are training to become chaplains to help their peers as they tackle security threats, including the powerful cartels that control much of the border dynamic, and witness growing suffering among migrants — all while policies in Washington keep shifting and public outrage targets them from all sides.
“The hardest thing is, people … don’t know what we do, and we’ve been called terrible names,” said Brandon Fredrick, a Buffalo, New York-based agent some of whose family members have resorted to name-calling.
Earlier this month, he served as a training academy instructor for Border Patrol chaplains, whose numbers have almost doubled in the last four years. It’s an effort to help agents motivated by the desire to keep the U.S. borders safe cope with mounting distress before it leads to family dysfunction, addiction, even suicide.
Border Patrol specialist Mitchell Holmes, right, and Fish and Wildlife Regional Law Enforcement agent Kevin Shinn, use skills they learned in the Border Patrol Chaplaincy academy during a training session in Dania Beach. (Marta Lavandier/AP) Chaplains academy trains agents to tackle emotional distressDuring the latest academy, held at a Border Patrol station near Miami, Fredrick evaluated pairs of chaplains-in-training as they role-played checking on a fellow agent who hadn’t reported for work.
They discovered he’d been drowning in alcohol his angst at being deployed away from his family for the holidays at one of the border’s hotspots. The training scenario was achingly real for the South Florida-based agent role-playing the distressed one — he had struggled when relocated for 18 months to Del Rio, Texas, away from his two children — and also for Fredrick, who overcame alcoholism before becoming a chaplain.
Interacting with chaplains can reduce the agents’ reluctance to express their emotional trials, Fredrick said.
“My mission every day is that there’s not a young agent Fredrick suffering alone,” he added. Fredrick, a Catholic, has been an agent for more than 15 years and worked tragic cases like a smuggling attempt where an Indian family froze to death at the Canada-U.S. border.
Border Patrol instructor and Chaplain Christopher Day directs a session at the Border Patrol Chaplain Academy on Nov. 20, 2024, in Dania Beach. (Marta Lavandier/AP) Confidential support, with a side of faithUnlike the police or military, which recruits faith leaders for help with everything from suicide prevention to dealing with the unrest after George Floyd’s murder, the Border Patrol trains mostly lay agents endorsed by their faith denominations to become chaplains.
After graduating, they join about 240 other chaplains and resume their regular jobs — but they’re constantly on call to provide largely confidential care for their 20,000 fellow agents’ well-being.
While most chaplains are Christian, Muslim and Jewish agents also have been trained recently. The chaplains don’t offer faith-specific worship and only bring up religion if the person they’re helping does first.
“I’m not there to convert or proselytize,” said academy instructor Jason Wilhite, an agent in Casa Grande, Arizona, and a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A chaplain since 2015, he was previously involved in the agency’s nonreligious, mental health-focused peer support program after a fellow agent died in a car accident.
Agent Jesus Vasavilbaso decided to join the Border Patrol’s peer support program after witnessing the trauma of repeatedly responding to calls from lost and dying migrants in the unforgiving desert southwest of Tucson, Arizona.
“Sometimes you go home and keep thinking you didn’t find them,” he said. “That’s why it’s so important we check on each other all the time.”
Training to deal with deaths at the border Border Patrol chaplain and instructor Jason Wilhite holds two Silent Partner cards he carries with him at all times showing two of his colleagues that died in the line of duty. (Marta Lavandier/AP)At the most recent chaplain academy, which lasted 2.5 weeks, the 15 chaplains-in-training — mostly from the Border Patrol, plus a few Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management officers — practiced real-life scenarios, including responding to a deadly wreck involving agents and notifying a spouse their loved one died on the job.
Chris Day, a chaplain since 2017, evaluated trainees trying to comfort an agent who kept screaming that it was all his fault his partner was killed. In the training scenario, their car crashed as they chased someone crossing the border illegally.
Day praised the trainees’ efforts to get the agent to talk, but advised them not to say, “’I understand.’ Because you don’t.”
Later, Day told the class he had helped an agent who watched the smugglers he was chasing smash their car into a family, gravely injuring a toddler. He said the agent had “ugly cried” at the scene and kept repeating that his child was the same age, so Day took him aside briefly and followed up after.
“We hugged it out,” said Day, a Baptist with a Psalm verse tattooed on his right arm.
He also has helped the wife of an agent who killed himself, and prayed for migrants who request it. More than 100 migrants have died so far this year in New Mexico’s desert, where Day is stationed.
“The smells and visuals stay with you forever,” Day said. “We have empathy for people coming across.”
Border Patrol specialist Mitchell Holmes, left, listens to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Regional Law Enforcement agent Kevin Shinn, during a Chaplain Academy training session on Nov. 20, 2024, in Dania Beach. (Marta Lavandier/AP) Combining vigilance with empathy on and off dutyTrying to comfort migrant children in their custody, including the thousands who cross the border alone, is also a wrenching task for agents.
At the academy, Trinidad Balderas, a father and medic in McAllen, Texas, and Yaira Santiago, a former schoolteacher who runs a Border Patrol migrant processing center at the other end of the southern border in San Diego, California, said they both seek to provide some calm in the chaos of the children’s situation.
“One tries to give them support within the limits of what your work allows. I always have the biggest smile,” Santiago said.
Border Patrol Agent Trinidad Balderas looks at his new chaplain pin after graduating from the program. (Marta Lavandier/AP)Border Patrol assistant chief and chaplaincy program manager Spencer Hatch highlighted the need to maintain both the “hypervigilance” of law enforcement and the humanitarian instinct to empathize with migrants and fellow agents.
He also taught strategies to protect the agents’ families from “spillover trauma.” Divorces increase when agents are redeployed during migrant surges — some up to 9 times over 18 months during the record border crossings early in the Biden Administration.
Many agents’ children are scared to reveal their parent’s job — especially in border communities. They might be going to school with children of cartel members, or of undocumented migrants, or those who see the Border Patrol as “keeping people from living the American dream,” in Hatch’s words.
“That’s a really hard thing to deal with, as things tend to flip from one side to the other, and we’re still in the crossfire,” he added.
Hatch uses as a case study of moral injury, a 2021 incident in Del Rio where agents on horseback appeared in some viral photos to be whipping immigrants with their reins — which a federal investigation later determined hadn’t happened.
“For one picture to be taken out of context and to have the highest levels of government shaming those people, that was very disheartening. That hurt all of us,” Hatch said.
The USBP chaplaincy program class members listen to remarks during their graduation on Nov. 21, 2024, in Dania Beach (Marta Lavandier/AP) Wrestling with moral standards and a higher callingDealing with that “dissonance” of enforcing immigration laws, including rescuing migrants, and hearing their jobs demonized by the public, is a major challenge, said Tucson-area chaplain Jimmy Stout. He was one of first four chaplains when the program was started through a grassroots effort at the southern border in the late 1990s.
“We go over this on day one,” Stout said. “Is what they’re doing meeting their personal standards?”
For the agents who got their chaplain pins last week, those standards now involve a higher calling, too.
Class speaker Matt Kiniery, a father of three who joined the Army after 9/11 and the Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas, in 2009, decided to become a chaplain after an on-duty car wreck so bad the doctor called his survival miraculous.
“‘The guy upstairs has got something for you.’ I took that to heart,” Kiniery said. Chaplains helped his wife Jeanna then, and the couple is now eager to support his new role.
“Even in moments of uncertainty, your presence is often enough,” the 6-foot-5 agent told the graduating class, before his voice broke. Several instructors in the audience wiped away tears.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Who are the Border Patrol chaplains? And why does the agency need more of them now?
DANIA BEACH (AP) — Border Patrol agents are tasked with enforcing hotly contested immigration policies as many Americans at both ends of the political spectrum look askance at the border — and the agents.
That’s taking a mounting toll, so the agency is training more among its ranks to become chaplains and provide spiritual care for their fellow agents on and off the job.
“That’s a really hard thing to deal with, as things tend to flip from one side to the other, and we’re still in the crossfire,” said Border Patrol assistant chief and chaplaincy program manager Spencer Hatch.
Who’s a Border Patrol chaplain?Unlike the police or military, which recruit faith leaders to serve as chaplains, the Border Patrol trains mostly lay agents endorsed by their faith denominations to become chaplains through a 2.5 week academy.
Their numbers have grown to about 240 from 130 four years ago. Three times a year, an academy is held at a different Border Patrol station. About a dozen Border Patrol personnel, plus a few Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management officers, graduated from the most recent academy, held near Miami earlier this month.
The program, and a nonreligious, mental-health focused peer support program, were started by grassroots efforts in the 1990s. Chaplains stay in their regular jobs, but are on call to assist.
What do agents wrestle with?Border Patrol agents say they’re motivated by the desire to protect U.S. borders from security threats, including the powerful cartels that control much of the border dynamics. They also often rescue migrants lost and dying in the harsh deserts that line the southern U.S. border.
But many agents feel the American public sees them as obstacles to migrants seeking a better life in the United States. They often tell their children to say their parent does “government work” for fear of reprisals, especially in the border communities where they live.
That dissonance between upholding a duty they feel proud of, and getting called “terrible names” for it, adds an emotional toll to the already dangerous, often isolating work the agents do.
That’s where the chaplains come in — to help their fellow 20,000 agents cope and prevent the trauma from degenerating into family crises, addiction or even suicide.
What do Border Patrol chaplains do?While most chaplains are Christian, with a smattering of Muslim and Jewish agents, they don’t offer faith-specific worship and only bring up religion if the person they’re helping does first.
Rather, they are a comforting presence during critical moments like assisting a suicidal colleague, notifying a family their loved one was killed on the job, and counseling those dealing with addiction, survivor guilt and other traumas.
Those are the scenarios that chaplains-in-training practice role-playing at the academy. They also learn about communication and family dynamics, because constant redeployments — some up to 9 times over 18 months during the record border crossings early in the Biden administration — affect their families too.
Hatch teaches about the need to maintain both the “hypervigilance” of law enforcement and the humanitarian instinct to empathize with fellow agents as well as migrants.
Many agents say they are especially affected by the plight of migrant children at the hands of smugglers.
“One tries to give them support within the limits of what your work allows. I always have the biggest smile,” said a newly minted chaplain, Yaira Santiago, a former schoolteacher who runs a Border Patrol migrant processing center in Southern California.
By relying on their faith, their commitment to help their colleagues, and their training, chaplains can make a difference.
“Even in moments of uncertainty, your presence is often enough,” said Matt Kiniery, an agent in El Paso, Texas, for 15 years and a graduate of the latest chaplain academy.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
ASK IRA: What next for Heat’s Jovic after a whirlwind three weeks?
Q: Ira, three weeks ago Nikola Jovic scored the winning basket in Minnesota and was mobbed by teammates. I would think that was the high point of his career. And now he doesn’t get on the court. – Evan.
A: This is similar to the answer I offer to the question below. The search for the right players in the right roles is about more than finding something that is merely acceptable. The search is for a definitive answer. It is why Erik Spoelstra has cycled through so many options at power forward, and yet could cycle back to Nikola Jovic. It also is why Duncan Robinson is now a starter and why Terry Rozier is a reserve. The Heat are 4-1 with the current lineup and current rotation mix, so I would expect copacetic for the moment. As it is, Nikola is now sidelined with an ankle sprain. And as for that winning 3-point play against the Timberwolves, I’m not sure that rates as the high point of Nikola’s career over his bronze medal with Serbia at this summer’s Paris Olympics.
Related ArticlesQ: What is your theory as to why the Heat tend to deemphasize length and point guard play? – Brian.
A: I think it’s more about emphasizing versatility. So when Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler and Tyler Herro are moving the ball, the need for a true point guard is minimized. Similarly, a versatile power forward also can open the rest of the team’s game. Of course, it also has to be the right players, something the Heat haven’t necessarily found to this point.
Q: So that’s why there was a gap in the schedule there? – Quentin.
A: Yes, it is not as if the Heat will be off from the Dec. 8 home game against the Cavaliers to the Dec. 20 home game against the Magic. The NBA will add in two games in the middle there to compensate for the Heat not advancing to the quarterfinals of the NBA Cup, with one game added at home and one on the road. We should know that schedule after the completion of NBA Cup play on Tuesday night.
America can’t afford Trump’s war on remote work | Opinion
The Trump administration’s plan to force federal employees back into the office full-time has ignited intense debate, with concerns mounting about inefficiency and waste. Vivek Ramaswamy, co-head of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), outlined the strategy during an interview with Tucker Carlson. He described it as a way to shrink the federal workforce by rescinding remote-work privileges, expecting approximately 25% of employees to resign voluntarily. However, this approach risks undermining the federal government’s ability to serve the public while wasting taxpayer dollars.
Dr. Gleb Tsipursky is the CEO of the hybrid work consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts.Ramaswamy argued that by eliminating telework and mandating strict in-office attendance, the administration could naturally reduce headcount without directly firing employees. This, he claimed, would save money and address what he called a “bloated bureaucracy” that undermines Congressional authority. Carlson, however, expressed doubts about this plan, citing the strong job protections enjoyed by federal employees. Ramaswamy dismissed such concerns, asserting that revoking remote work alone would prompt resignations.
The plan hinges on the assumption that reducing payroll will streamline government operations, given that federal salaries amount to $110 billion. Yet in reality, this proposal is economically and operationally short-sighted. The federal workforce of 2.2 million employees is responsible for managing a $6.1 trillion budget, meaning 1.8% of the budget goes for salary, a very low number for overhead.
Moreover, this proposal overlooks the critical role federal employees play in managing vital functions across agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Education and the Federal Reserve. Forcing mass resignations would create skill shortages in areas requiring specialized expertise, jeopardizing essential programs. Recruiting and training replacements would likely offset any initial savings and delay operational recovery. Experienced personnel, integral to ongoing projects, would leave a gap difficult to fill, disrupting government services and reducing efficiency.
The federal workforce has already demonstrated the success of remote work. During the COVID-19 pandemic, telework enabled federal agencies to maintain productivity while cutting costs on office-related expenses like utilities and maintenance. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reported that flexible work arrangements often enhanced operational efficiency. Reversing this progress would require significant reinvestments in office infrastructure, adding expenses that would erode any savings from payroll reductions.
Ramaswamy also tied the proposal to broader regulatory reforms, arguing that reducing the workforce would enable a rollback of federal regulations. He claimed up to 50% of existing rules could be deemed invalid if written by unelected officials. While this argument may resonate with critics of bureaucracy, it ignores the complexities of governance and the importance of institutional expertise. Federal employees are not simply rule-makers; they implement the policies Congress passes, ensuring the smooth operation of programs relied upon by millions of Americans, from Social Security benefits to disaster response.
The ripple effects of this plan extend beyond the federal workforce itself. Morale among remaining employees would likely plummet as workloads increase and institutional knowledge dissipates. This could trigger further resignations, creating a cycle of inefficiency. Industries dependent on federal oversight would face delays, while businesses and state governments could experience disruptions in critical services. These consequences would compound the challenges of managing a $6.1 trillion budget, diminishing the effectiveness of federal spending and exacerbating waste instead of reducing it.
A more effective approach to workforce reform would involve targeted solutions rather than sweeping mandates. Modernizing outdated systems, leveraging technology and embracing remote work where it has proven effective could reduce costs without undermining service quality. Forcing federal employees back into offices indiscriminately ignores the nuances of their roles and the risks associated with dismantling critical programs. Taxpayers would ultimately bear the burden of these costs, negating the fiscal prudence the plan purports to achieve. The federal government must prioritize reforms that protect taxpayer dollars while ensuring its ability to serve the public effectively.
Gleb Tsipursky serves as the CEO of the hybrid work consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts and author of “Returning to the Office and Leading Hybrid and Remote Team.”
Trump’s nominees are totally unqualified | Letters to the editor
It is becoming increasingly apparent that Donald Trump is going to do irreparable damage to our government institutions.
By selecting nominees who are completely unqualified for their positions, he underscores his intent to destroy our democracy.
Pete Hegseth, the nominee for defense secretary, has zero experience running any kind of institution, let alone one as massive as the DOD — not to mention his opposition to women serving in combat.
Next is Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence. She sided with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who dropped nerve gas bombs on his own people. She spread Russian propaganda about biological labs in Ukraine.
It keeps going: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine denier, has spread conspiracy theories and has no medical experience or training to be head of HHS. His nomination is an insult to the many dedicated scientists and professionals who work tirelessly to keep all of us safe.
But this comes as no surprise to me. Trump made his intentions clear, but too many people choose to ignore it — or worse, maybe they think that the destruction of our democracy is a good thing.
I pray we can survive this coming storm. I fear we may not.
Steven Hoover, Margate
Florida and fluorideThe Florida surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, is being taken seriously about removing fluoride from our drinking water. I have to say something.
I went to college in Lubbock, Tex., in 1961. I’ll never forget the sight of the most beautiful girl who smiled. When you saw her teeth, they were green and black, and only half there. It was said that you could tell what part of Texas kids came from by their local water systems.
What on earth is Ladapo doing to our kids?
He claims to worry that because of fluoride, they are not as smart. Today’s kids are far ahead of the game in intelligence. Does Ladapo hold stock in the bottled water industry?
Dentists must be excited. No fluoride means loss of protective enamel and thus more cavities and more tooth decay.
Sandra Hill, Tamarac
In praise of Pam Bondi Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi at a Trump rally at First Horizon Coliseum on Nov. 2, 2024, in Greensboro, N.C. (AP)Who says you never see Donald Trump around strong, intelligent women?
Mark Cuban better not say that to Pam Bondi. She would put Cuban in his place.
Bondi has incredible experience as a prosecutor and served as Florida attorney general from 2011 to 2019. She’s not only strong, but brilliant, and will soon be our nation’s next attorney general.
Someone, serve Cuban a plate of crow to eat in the presence of Trump’s female nominees.
JoAnn Lee Frank, Clearwater
Coming MAGA attractions“The Apprentice, Part II,” begins streaming on Jan. 20.
The cast includes Trump and other entertainers known for their familiarity with the star of the
show. The producers and directors are the Heritage Foundation, Republican Party, and the 1 percenters. The script is the Project 2025 report.
Coming soon, a series for the uneducated masses who will buy “Apprentice” merchandise and the BS being thrown at them. And they will feel great again.
Sheila Jaffe, Boca Raton
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[contact-form]No Washington mandates for Florida small businesses | Opinion
As the president of the South Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, I know how much Florida’s small businesses contribute to our local economies. They are the coffee shops, souvenir shops, restaurants, boutiques and service providers that make our communities unique and vibrant. They are innovators, job creators and drivers of economic growth. One big reason that Florida’s small businesses can thrive is that the credit card and digital payments process provides everyone with significant benefits.
More importantly, today’s digital payments process provides consumers and small business owners with the security they need. The ability to accept credit cards eliminates the costs and risks associated with accepting cash, including cash storage and transportation, and counting errors, which cost billions of dollars annually. Swiping or tapping a credit card also guarantees that payments are processed safely, empowering small business owners to build trust and loyalty with their customers.
Liliam Lopez is president and CEO of the South Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. (courtesy, Liliam Lopez)Small businesses also benefit from the convenience of digital payments. When customers pay with a credit card, transactions are quick and easy on both sides of the register. Data shows that transaction size increases by up to 15% when a small business starts accepting credit cards. Accepting credit cards also allows small businesses to expand their businesses online, giving their customers more flexibility to shop conveniently, quickly and securely while empowering them to grow and to continue powering their communities. Plus, studies show that accepting credit cards can save a small business 10% in overhead costs. That is revenue that can be reinvested back into the business and into one of its most valuable assets: employees.
Speaking of growing a small business, credit card rewards are a key component of the revenue stream for many small businesses and can be invested directly back into the company. We know that one in 10 rewards points goes to small businesses, which makes a significant difference in lowering costs for Main Street shops.
Unfortunately, some in Congress are pushing a bill misleadingly titled the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA). This bill threatens our small businesses and the security and convenience provided by the electronic payments process. It would also put rewards programs at risk and force banks to open credit cards to untested, less secure payment networks.
The CCCA, also known as the Durbin-Marshall credit card bill, was introduced under the guise of enhancing competition and reducing costs. The reality is that the legislation would circumvent the free market with a government “routing mandate” that would dictate the processing networks that businesses use, without regard to security or quality. Corporate megastores with enormous volumes of transactions would benefit by leveraging their size to negotiate their own special rates, but small businesses would be forced to struggle with new compliance mandates. This drastic shift in the digital payments ecosystem would decimate rewards programs while increasing the risk of fraud for small businesses and consumers who are pushed into unproven networks.
Small business owners in Florida understand the consequences of this bill and oppose government mandates that would threaten the security and rewards programs they rely on. That’s why we recently traveled to Washington with a simple message for Congress: Don’t try to fix a process that isn’t broken.
This bill stands to hurt, not help, Florida’s small businesses. We urged our elected representatives to prioritize legislation that uplifts Florida’s entrepreneurs instead of proposals that will stifle their growth, and we urge South Florida’s retail customers to do the same. For the future of Florida’s small businesses, we hope Congress will listen.
Liliam Lopez is president and CEO of the South Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. She resides in Miami.
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