A tropical wave that emerged off the coast of Africa last week is likely to become a tropical depression, and possibly a tropical storm, at some point on Monday as it pushes toward the Caribbean, according to the National Hurricane Center.

In its 2 a.m. Monday update, the hurricane center, which has calculated the system’s chances of development in 48 hours at  90% since 2 p.m. Sunday, wrote: “Environmental conditions appear conducive for additional development, and a tropical depression or tropical storm is expected to form later today or tonight.”

The system, located several hundred miles southwest of Africa’s Cape Verde Islands, has a large area of showers and thunderstorms that are continuing to organize, the hurricane center said.

The latest path has it approaching the Leeward Islands, the eastern edge of the Caribbean, by late next week.

It is expected to move west at 15 to 20 mph across the eastern and central Atlantic, the hurricane center said in its Sunday update.

If it develops, it would become Tropical Depression Three. If its sustained winds reach 39 mph, it would become Tropical Storm Bret.

Meanwhile, in the 8 p.m. update, a second wave was shown to be emerging into the eastern Atlantic Ocean off of western Africa. Originally given a 10% chance to develop in the next 48 hours and 20% over the ensuing seven days, at the 2 a.m. Monday update, it was bumped up to a 20% development chance in the next 48 hours and 30% over the next week.

Tropical Storm Arlene, which formed in early June and was short-lived, brought damaging winds and heavy rain to parts of South Florida and the Keys.

Experts predict 14 named storms, seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes to develop this hurricane season, which runs until Nov. 30.

A strong El Niño weather pattern is expected during the peak of this season, which can decrease cyclone activity in the Atlantic because of increased vertical wind shear. But ocean temperatures are the highest on record since 1979 based on recent 30-day averages, according to the forecast from Colorado State University released earlier this month.

The unusually warm temperatures could counteract the typically decreased activity during an El Niño.

Egregious inequities have been imposed on African Americans over the past four centuries in virtually all areas of civic life, resulting in massive damages to those in both the past and the present. These harms range from the most obvious (i.e. slavery and lynching) to the less noticeable (i.e. advertising the most addictive cigarettes — menthol — to Black people). Having to deal with layer upon layer of injustice since the 1600s, African Americans (and to a certain extent other minorities) have been systematically denied the ability to share in many benefits of living in the United States.

In the housing arena, African Americans for years were not able to get mortgages due to a process known as redlining, which led to concentrations of African Americans in less desirable neighborhoods. This concentration of African Americans in discrete areas led to a lack of investments in those areas — from fewer dollars going to schools, to poorly-stocked libraries, to the locating of hazardous waste dumps and highways in Black communities.

The legal system is also terribly unjust. The damage inflicted by the so-called “War on Drugs,” has actually been a war on people of color, where the consequences of this conflict are grossly disproportionately borne by African Americans. Black, white and Hispanic people use drugs at about the same rate. But drug usage is far more heavily criminalized among African Americans, leading to a variety of tactics, such as overpolicing of neighborhoods and causing the “school to prison pipeline” and mass incarceration of African Americans.

Inequities also have taken a significant toll on the health of the African American population. The trauma from years of racism has led to greater rates of chronic disease and higher levels of maternal and infant deaths, adding up to Black Americans living about six years less than white Americans.

The fairest way to address these egregious damages is through reparations, which are some form of compensation — whether through returning lost land, providing free schooling or providing restitution in cash. I had not been in favor of reparations before. However, as I did research for the course I teach on social equity at Johns Hopkins, I came to a different conclusion. African Americans have lost their lives, homes, freedoms, finances, education, enfranchisement and innumerable opportunities due to the damage inflicted upon them, both in the past and continuing to the present, through malign intent, primarily of white people. Indeed, the only way to address these wrongs is through reparations.

Actions for egregious damage done to groups have been successfully implemented before. Japanese Americans incarcerated in internment camps during World War II received a formal apology from President Ronald Reagan and $20,000 for each survivor, via the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. Likewise, Germany, in admitting its complicity in the Holocaust, made restitution payments to Israel, and directly to tens of thousands of Holocaust survivors and their heirs in multiple countries, totaling more than $86 billion as of 2018, according to the U.S. Department of State. And, in May, California’s Reparations Task Force recommended billions of dollars in restitution to some Black residents.

Those who are of privilege — largely white privilege — have benefited the most from the damage imposed on African Americans. Concrete actions took place that resulted in specific harms to African Americans. So concrete actions need to take place to reverse those harms. Logically, the largest share of reparations should come from those of greatest wealth.

The best way to transfer some of these resources is through a tax based on wealth. For each dollar above a certain level of wealth, a certain substantial amount should go to a national Reparations Fund, for disbursement similar in fashion to class action lawsuits. This accomplishes two major things: It reimburses African Americans for a plethora of harms, and it goes a long way toward leveling the playing field upon which we all live — Black people, white people, Hispanic people, Native Americans and Asian people alike. This is also a cause that the young people of America can get behind, as implementing reparations may be the only way we can actually measurably change the system of white privilege and move to a significantly more egalitarian society.

Peter Beilenson is a physician and former Baltimore City health commissioner. He wrote this for The Baltimore Sun

A tropical wave that emerged off the coast of Africa is likely to become a tropical depression in the next day or two as it pushes toward the Caribbean, according to the National Hurricane Center.

In its 2 p.m. Sunday update, the hurricane center increased the system’s chances of formation in the next two days to 90%.

The system, located several hundred miles southwest of Africa’s Cape Verde Islands, is continuing to produce a large area of disorganized showers and thunderstorms, the hurricane center said.

The latest path has it approaching the Leeward Islands, the eastern edge of the Caribbean, by late next week.

It is expected to move west at 15 to 20 mph across the eastern and central Atlantic, the hurricane center said in its Sunday update.

If it develops, it would become Tropical Depression Three. If its sustained winds reach 39 mph, it would become Tropical Storm Bret.

Meanwhile, in the 8 p.m. update, a second wave was shown to be emerging into the eastern Atlantic Ocean off of western Africa, with a 10% development chance in the next 48 hours and 20% over the next seven days.

Tropical Storm Arlene, which formed in early June and was short-lived, brought damaging winds and heavy rain to parts of South Florida and the Keys.

Experts predict 14 named storms, seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes to develop this hurricane season, which runs until Nov. 30.

A strong El Niño weather pattern is expected during the peak of this season, which can decrease cyclone activity in the Atlantic because of increased vertical wind shear. But ocean temperatures are the highest on record since 1979 based on recent 30-day averages, according to the forecast from Colorado State University released earlier this month.

The unusually warm temperatures could counteract the typically decreased activity during an El Niño.

LOS ANGELES — Wyndham Clark always carried the message from his late mother to “play big.” Nothing was bigger than Sunday, when he held off Rory McIlroy with one clutch shot after another to become a U.S. Open champion.

The final act was two putts from 60 feet on the 18th hole at Los Angeles Country Club, and the 29-year-old Clark pumped his fist when the first putt settled a foot away. He tapped that in for an even-par 70 and a victory over McIlroy, by one shot, and so many other stars.

Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world, couldn’t catch him. Neither could British Open champion Cameron Smith or Rickie Fowler, who played in the final group for the third time in a major and watched an exquisite performance by Clark, playing for only the third time on the weekend in a major.

Clark let loose his emotions at the end, looking to the blue sky in tears and covering his face with his cap as he sobbed on the green. He thought about quitting golf a decade ago when he struggled with the loss of his mother, Lise, to breast cancer. She kept him steady in good times and bad.

A win for the whole family. ❤️ #USOpen pic.twitter.com/5XsvUYQh1X

— U.S. Open (USGA) (@usopengolf) June 19, 2023

This was as good as it gets for Clark, who broke through for his first PGA Tour victory only six weeks ago against an elite field at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“I just felt like my mom was watching over me today,” Clark said after hoisting the silver U.S. Open trophy. “I worked so hard and dreamed about this moment for so long. I just felt like it was my time.”

For McIlroy, it was more disappointment in his quest to end nine years without a major.

He opened with a birdie and didn’t make another the rest of the way. McIlroy played a final round that typically wins a U.S. Open — 16 pars, one bogey. Just not this one. Even as Clark showed signs of cracking during the rugged closing stretch, McIlroy missed fairways and didn’t give himself any reasonable birdie chances.

It was similar to St. Andrews last summer at the British Open, when he hit every green and couldn’t buy a putt. Instead, he’ll face more questions about when he’ll win another major.

“When I do finally win this next major, it’s going to be really, really sweet,” McIlroy said. “I would go through 100 Sundays like this to get my hands on another major championship.”

Scheffler missed too many putts early on the back nine and needed help from Clark and McIlroy that never arrived. He also closed with a 70 to finish third, a month after a runner-up finish in the PGA Championship.

Fowler set a U.S. Open record with 23 birdies, but just like so many other majors when he had a chance, he was in reverse before he ever got going — three bogeys in the opening seven holes. He never made up the ground and shot 75.

Calm, cool and collected. #USOpen champion @Wyndham_Clark‘s unflappable final round is the @Lexus Top Performance of the Day. #LexusGolf pic.twitter.com/x5YGcIt0pf

— U.S. Open (USGA) (@usopengolf) June 19, 2023

This day belonged to Clark, who showed remarkable poise and self-belief, not to mention an extraordinary short game and a fairway metal he won’t soon forget.

Already with a two-shot lead, he was a yard away from an easy birdie on the par-5 eighth when his approach hit a steep bank of the barranca (gorge) to the left. Barely able to see his golf ball, Clark took a whack and the ball advanced a few inches deeper into thick grass.

He hammered it again, this time over the green, 70 feet away down a firm and scary putting surface. He chipped that to 3 feet to escape with bogey.

“That up-and-down was the key to the tournament,” he said.

More such shots followed. On the par-3 ninth, he was on the bank of a bunker and chipped away from the flag, using the slope expertly to get it to within 7 feet for another big save. And then he clipped a pitch from a tight lie left of the 11th green to 4 feet for par.

The signature shot was his fairway metal from 282 yards on the par-5 14th to 20 feet that set up a two-putt birdie, giving Clark a three-shot lead with four to play.

But he made his only bogey of the day on the par-3 15th, then found a bunker left of the 16th fairway and whacked his hand on his putter when he missed a 7-foot par putt. With his lead down to one shot, he got up-and-down from left of the 17th green to keep the lead.

The USGA allowed thousands of fans to circle the fairway short of the 18th green with so few grandstands, creating a big theater for Clark’s finish.

Fowler, still chasing his first major, returned to the 18th green to hug Clark.

“I went back in there and just said, ‘Your mom was with you. She’d be very proud,’” Fowler said.

Clark finished at 10-under 270 and, along with $3.6 million — his second such cash prize in the last six weeks — he moves to No. 2 in the Ryder Cup standings.

Smith shot 67 to finish fourth. Tommy Fleetwood became the first player with two rounds of 63 in the U.S. Open and finished in a tie for fifth with Fowler and Min Woo Lee (67). Fleetwood also shot 63 at Shinnecock Hills in the final round of 2018.

FOOTBALL RECRUITING

Atlantic Shores edge rusher commits to W&M

Rising Atlantic Shores senior Nathaniel McDonald revealed his commitment to William & Mary on Twitter on Sunday night.

McDonald is a 6-foot-4, 225-pound edge rusher who had 95 tackles, 47 for losses, and 24 sacks last season for the Seahawks. He was a first-team all-state selection in Division II of the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association.

100% Committed! Thank you God, Family and Coaches who have helped me through the process! #GoTribe @WMTribeFootball @ShoresFootball @CoachWayneLance @DLRunStoppers @CoachMikeLondon @CoachDowl pic.twitter.com/PSfHbaHoVs

— Nathaniel McDonald (@Nathaniel_M55) June 18, 2023

TENNIS

Ex-ODU star earns $60K title

Former Old Dominion star Yuliia Starodubtseva beat five opponents to win the championship of a $60,000 International Tennis Federation hard-court tournament in Sumter, South Carolina.

Coming into the tournament ranked 385th on the Women’s Tennis Association computer and seeded eighth, she defeated 283rd-ranked and second-seeded Karman Kaur Tjhandi 6-7 (5-7), 7-5, 6-4 Sunday in 3 hours, 32 minutes, for the title.

Starodubtseva, who will play for Texas next season as a graduate transfer, is expected to move into the world’s top 300. Karman is expected to rise to 234th.

Congratulations former monarch, Yuliia Starodubtseva, on your first ITF 60k singles title and your second @ITFprocircuit singles title! #ReignOn pic.twitter.com/WD73l8jyiw

— ODU Women’s Tennis (@ODUWomensTennis) June 18, 2023

LOCAL SOCCER

Local foes play to tie

Virginia Beach United and Olé Sporting played to a 1-1 tie Sunday afternoon at Virginia Beach Sportsplex in a clash of Hampton Roads clubs.

Olé took the lead in the 31st minute in the non-league match. VBU’s Matt Fitzer, a former Menchville High star, netted the equalizer into the net’s top right corner in the 39th minute.

Virginia Beach United next will go to Baltimore to face USL League Two opponent Christos FC at 7 p.m. Saturday.

TRACK AND FIELD

Johnson breaks his own UVA record

The Virginia Cavaliers’ Derek Johnson competed in the 3,000-meter steeplechase Saturday at the Elliott Denman New Jersey International meet, breaking his school record.

Johnson, from Leesburg, placed second at the meet in West Long Branch by running a personal-best 8 minutes, 25.23 seconds. He met the qualifying standard for the USATF Outdoor Championships, which will be contested from July 6-9. Johnson placed eighth in that event at the recent NCAA Championships.

This Juneteenth is the 10th anniversary of the unveiling of Frederick Douglass’s bronze statue in the U.S. Capitol. As we reflect on his well-earned place in our history, we have to ask: What makes him one of the great Americans?

It isn’t merely the inspiring story of his rise from slave to statesman. Neither is it the triumph of his character over the racial prejudice common in his day. Nor still is it his exemplary service in the crusade against slavery—although his writings and speeches against it are treasures of our American inheritance. It isn’t even all these things together. It’s something more.

Douglass has earned his place in American history because, at the critical moment, he reminded us of who we are. In our darkest hour, when we were broken by hatred, and when so many succumbed to the always-present temptation to injustice, Douglass took our measure by better things: “the great principles of justice and freedom” and “the principle of absolute equality,” which when enshrined in America’s Founding documents, shook the world.

Douglass urged the American people to live up to those principles during the Civil War and the nation’s painful “new birth of freedom.” It was hard to see how our principles could win when so many people were enslaved, so many others fought to keep them there, and still others were unwilling to make the sacrifices necessary to set them free.

Douglass had once believed that they were lies, and with good reason. No one knew better than he the degree to which people can fall short of those principles. The whip scars on his back reminded him of it every day. Few would have faulted him for responding to that terrible injustice in kind. In fact, that all-too-common error whereby we confuse justice with revenge would cause many of us to praise him, if he had.

He could have argued — as some do today — that because former slaves suffered injustice, they should now have a turn to benefit from it. It was in his self-interest to do so. But he decided against that path. He came to understand that to govern a country along racial lines rather than shared humanity would only set the country ablaze with “agitation and ill-feeling” and bring it, once again, “to the verge of ruin.”

To Douglass, the people’s embrace of prejudice was proof of their humanity. But the presence of great principles in our hearts was proof of our knowledge of God.

To obey the law, the nation had “to learn righteousness.” Or, rather, relearn it. For righteousness could be found in those “great principles” at the heart of the American identity and Constitution. Of that document, Douglass asked: “Do you declare that a thing is bad because it has been misused, abused, and made a bad use of?” He answered: “No!” For in the pages of our Constitution, where these principles are made into law, are the means for all people “to demand their liberty.”

He had no charity for the “compromising spirit” that turned the people away from the principles that made our Constitution a “Glorious Liberty Document.” Instead, he insisted that we use them as a “compass” to guide us away from the vices of our nature, and toward the virtues, which are the nature of God.

Douglass remembered that for the men who wrote that document, “nothing was ‘settled’ that was not right. With them, justice, liberty, and humanity were ‘final;’ not slavery and oppression.” Upon these “great principles,” they laid the “deep cornerstone of the national superstructure” that rises all around us. But the people had cast their eyes down to low and petty things like prejudice and self-interest, and so they could not see it.

Douglass at first struggled just as they did, but then he turned his eyes and theirs back up to better things. He reminded them, as he reminds us still, of the “essential qualities” that will make us great, if we embrace them. And that is why Douglass has earned his statue in the Capitol and his high place in our history.

GianCarlo Canaparo is a Senior Legal Fellow in the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation.

OMAHA, Neb. — After scoring 30 runs in three super regional games to reach their sixth College World Series the past 15 years, the Virginia Cavaliers couldn’t come up with the big hit needed Sunday to extend their stay in Omaha.

This most recent trip to Charles Schwab Field was the shortest stay possible as the Cavaliers suffered a 4-3 loss to TCU before a crowd of 24,479.

The Cavaliers (50-15) were the first team sent packing in the double-elimination CWS. Both of Virginia’s losses were by one run; Florida knocked off UVA 6-5 in Friday’s first round.

“Two one-run losses certainly hurts,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said. “We just couldn’t get that one more big hit that we needed to win here in Omaha. We just didn’t get enough of that this weekend.”

Virginia’s offense produced only five hits Sunday, with one apiece in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings.

The seventh-inning hit was a leadoff home run by Cavaliers first baseman Ethan Anderson of Virginia Beach that cut TCU’s lead to 3-2. The Horned Frogs (43-23) got that run back in the top of the eighth on an RBI double by right fielder Austin Davis that scored shortstop Anthony Silva, who led off the inning with a single to center field.

UVA again cut TCU’s advantage to one in the bottom of the eighth, when freshman left fielder Harrison Didawick from Chesapeake led off with a single and scored on a groundout by Ethan O’Donnell.

Cavaliers starting pitcher Connelly Early labored through the first inning, needing 21 pitches to get the first out as the Horned Frogs opened the game with a double down the left-field line by Elijah Nunez and a single to right-center by Karson Brown.

First baseman Cole Fontenelle hit a one-out sacrifice fly to deep right field that produced the Cavs’ first out and gave TCU its first run.

Virginia followed that TCU formula in the bottom of the first but needed only one-third the number of pitches to score its first run. Shortstop Griff O’Ferrall led off by lacing the first pitch from Sam Stoutenborough into left field; it was his 20th double of the season.

Center fielder Ethan O’Donnell stepped in and dropped a 2-0 single into center field, moving O’Ferrall to third base.

Third baseman Jake Gelof then hit a ground ball to the left of the second-base bag, but there was no chance to get O’Ferrall. That’s because he began racing to home plate on contact. Seven pitches in and Virginia had tied the game 1-1.

TCU regained the lead, 2-1, in the third inning when Bowen scored on an infield groundout after reaching base with a one-out single to center field.

Meanwhile, Stoutenborough had little trouble keeping the Cavaliers’ hitters in check. He retired the next 11 batters in order through the fourth inning.

“This game was defined by too many 1-2-3 innings,” O’Connor said. “We weren’t competitive in those at-bats.”

That streak ended when the first Virginia batter in the fifth, right fielder Casey Saucke, earned a four-pitch walk from Stoutenborough. Two outs later, Stoutenborough walked Didawick on four pitches, hastening the starter’s departure from the game for junior reliever Garrett Wright.

Wright, who earned the victory to improve to 3-2, got O’Ferrall to ground out to shortstop and end Virginia’s threat. After getting through the first four innings throwing only 49 pitches, Stoutenborough still finished with an impressive stat line — just two hits and two walks in 4 2/3 innings and 64 pitches, including 38 strikes.

Brian Edgington took over in the sixth inning for Early, who racked up 101 pitches in his five innings. Bradley Hodges and Jay Woolfolk also worked for UVA in relief and were credited with two outs apiece.

TCU’s third run was charged to Edgington’s tab. Silva singled up the middle and moved to second base when Davis drew a two-out walk. Nunez then singled to right-center, which allowed Silva to sprint home for a 3-1 Horned Frogs lead and move Davis to third.

O’Connor said how the season ended shouldn’t define the Cavaliers’ season.

“It doesn’t diminish what this team accomplished,” O’Connor said. “This season speaks to what they’re made of and the type pf program we have. We’ll get back to Charlottesville and look to rebuild and be back here as soon as we can.”

College World Series

Sunday’s results

TCU 4, Virginia 3

Florida vs. Oral Roberts, late

Today’s games

Tennessee vs. Stanford, 2 p.m. (ESPN)

LSU vs. Wake Forest, 7 p.m. (ESPN)

One man died after a shooting in Virginia Beach.

Police investigated the homicide at the 900 block of Broad Meadows Boulevard and tweeted around 1 a.m. Sunday about a heavy police presence in the area.

The original alert came through ShotSpotter, or gunfire locator technology, at 11:23 p.m. Saturday. A police spokesperson saidofficers detained “quite a few possible suspects that were in the vicinity.”

Cianna Morales, 757-957-1304, [email protected]