Jeremy T. Ringfield's Blog, page 87

SF Giants’ Doval blows save in ninth, secures win in 10th to snap losing streak

PHOENIX — It will not go down as a save for Camilo Doval. It likely won’t even be a night he’ll want to remember. Not after he blew the Giants’ two-run lead in the bottom of the ninth.

But for manager Bob Melvin, Doval’s ability to respond from allowing a game-tying homer in the ninth to closing out a win in the 10th — snapping a four-game losing streak in the process — was commendable in its own right.

“I’ll tell you what: I probably was (as) impressed with him as I’ve been all year,” Melvin said after the Giants’ 6-5 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday night at Chase Field. “Going back out there and leaving the runner out there. I know he gives up the hit and the homer and that didn’t feel too terribly good, but to be able to respond from that and go out there and keep your wits about you. His stuff was even better in the last inning. So, it was impressive.”

Doval took the mound in the bottom of the ninth with San Francisco leading 5-3, positioned to finish what had, up to that point, been an excellent night for the bullpen.

Erik Miller entered in the bottom of the fifth with no outs and the bases loaded after Landen Roupp suddenly lost his command. The Diamondbacks were positioned to erase the Giants’ 3-1 lead, but Miller limited the damage to a sacrifice fly. From there, San Francisco’s parade of arms protected the advantage.

Spencer Bivens threw a scoreless sixth with two strikeouts. Randy Rodríguez worked around a walk and a single to put up a zero in the seventh. Tyler Rogers allowed an unearned run in the eighth due to an error by Tyler Fitzgerald but otherwise protected the lead.

That set the stage for Doval in the ninth.

Doval began his night by allowing a leadoff single to Geraldo Perdomo on a middle-middle cutter, immediately bringing the tying run to the plate. Stepping in: Ketel Marte.

Marte was named a starter for the National League All-Stars prior to the game, and against Doval, he proved why. Doval left a slide over the middle of the plate; Marte sent it into the right-field seats.

Game tied at five.

Doval retired the next three batters and sent the game to extras but the damage was done. Upon returning to the dugout, Doval asked for the 10th. Left-hander Joey Lucchesi began getting loose, but if the Giants took the lead in the top of the 10th, the bottom of the frame belonged to Doval.

“When he was told that if we score a run he goes back out there,” Melvin said, “he perked up.”

“My thought was whatever happened, happened,” Doval said through team interpreter Erwin Higueros. “It’s a brand new inning and just get the done now.”

Doval, who only threw 13 pitches in the ninth, got his chance. The Giants scored the go-ahead run in the top of the 10th as Patrick Bailey drove in Jung Hoo Lee, the automatic runner, with a sacrifice fly. True to the plan, Doval went back out for another chance to shut the door.

It wasn’t a save opportunity. It was a shot at redemption.

Blaze Alexander, the Diamondbacks’ automatic runner, advanced from second to third on Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s fly out to center field, putting the tying runner on third with one out. That’s as far as Alexander would advance. Doval struck out Jake McCarthy swinging with a down-and-inside slider, then iced the game by striking out Alek Thomas swinging with another low slider.

For Doval, it will go down as a blown save, a win and his first two-inning outing since July 14, 2022.

“Duvie battled tonight but came back in the 10th and finished it off for us,” said Roupp, who allowed two runs over four-plus innings with four strikeouts to four walks.

Not to be lost in the late-game dramatics was Lee’s best offensive game in recent memory. Lee fell just shy of the cycle but collected a single, double and triple as he enjoyed his first multi-hit game since June 4 and his first three-hit game since May 6.

The last two months have seen Lee extensively struggle at the plate. In May and June, Lee posted a slash line of .193/.273/.313 with three homers over 52 games. In June, specifically, Lee had a .551 OPS over 25 games. Lee’s cold spell contrasted his hot start, ending April with a .901 OPS with three homers over 30 games.

“June wasn’t great. Coming into July, I wanted to start it with a different feeling,” Lee said through team interpreter Justin Han. “In June … the coaches, the players, they’ve always been supportive so much and I just wanted to really give it back to them. I’m hoping that starting from today’s game, July, August and September will be great months for me.”

Lee said the struggles haven’t been easy mentally but he’s tried to maintain the idea that there’s always another game tomorrow. He believes he was a bit unlucky in June, and that’s most evidenced by his .127 BABIP — well below his career mark of .260. That lack of results then fed into mental struggles.

“This is probably the first time in his career he’s really struggled. It’s how you respond to that. He made a little bit of adjustments in what he was doing at the plate. It paid off for him. We all know he’s a really good hitter. Just went through a tough stretch, and hopefully he’s past that.”

Lee stepped to the plate in the top of the ninth needing a home run to complete the cycle but flew out to right field. While he had a big swing and miss on a 1-1 sweeper, he said he wasn’t swinging for a home run because the situation did not call for one. Lee, who accomplished the feat in the KBO, added that he wasn’t aware he needed a home run for a cycle.

Flores? Devers? Wisely? How SF Giants can buy time until Chapman, Schmitt return

PHOENIX — Bob Melvin found himself using the backup plan to the backup plan’s backup plan.

Wilmer Flores hasn’t regularly played third base in years. The Giants have limited Flores to designated hitter and first base after he dealt with a right knee issue last year, an ailment that required a season-ending Tenex procedure. But on Tuesday night, there was Flores playing third for the first time in over a year.

With a practice glove.

Amidst a flurry of injuries to Matt Chapman, Casey Schmitt and Christian Koss, starting Flores at third was suddenly one of the Giants’ only viable options. Over the next couple days, they’ll have to skate by with their healthy personnel.

“Sometimes, you gotta be comfortable with being uncomfortable,” Flores said prior to Tuesday’s game.

San Francisco’s current options at third base are Flores and Brett Wisely. That situation is far from ideal, but the team only needs to to buy a couple days. Koss, the team’s third-string third baseman, won’t return until the second half but Chapman and Schmitt are on track to return to return by next week, if all goes well.

Chapman, who hasn’t played since June 8, continues to progress from his right hand injury. The five-time Gold Glover will hit on the field on Thursday against velocity and could return during the Giants’ six-game homestand to conclude the first half.

“So far, so good with him,” Melvin said.

Schmitt, who was placed on the 10-day injured list on Monday with left hand inflammation, received a cortisone shot and is feeling “significantly better” according to Melvin. Schmitt was healthy enough to be in the lineup on Saturday and Sunday before being scratched, so he may only miss the minimum amount of time and could return on July 7.

“He was in good spirits today and we’ll see where we are when we get home,” Melvin said.

In the meantime, Melvin will have to use who he has available.

On Tuesday, it was Flores. He’s played nearly 2,000 innings at third over his 13-year major-league career but is long past his days of regularly playing the position. Melvin made it clear that Flores will not play there every day.

On Wednesday, it was Wisely who got the starting nod at third base. Wisely has only played 22 innings at third in the minors but also has 381 innings at the position in the minors.

“I feel pretty comfortable,” Wisely said. “The way I look at it, it’s a place where I’m going to get ground balls. A ground ball isn’t anything new to me. The only thing that’s going to be different are the guys who are better bunters. You have to really protect against that with a lot of speed on (the Diamondbacks).

“With the pitch com in your ear, it’s a lot easier to be ready if there’s a sinker in or if there’s a slider and you think they’re going to pull a ball to third base. Having the pitch com and having a little bit of experience, it’s not going to be anything different.”

As far as Rafael Devers? President of baseball operations Buster Posey said it’s “on the table.” Melvin said last month the team did not plan to play Devers at third base upon acquiring him from the Boston Red Sox, but that calculus changed with Chapman, Schmitt and Koss all unavailable.

Before the Giants entertain that possibility, they’ll need Devers to fully recover from the ailments that have nagged him in recent days.

Devers has been dealing with a groin injury since arriving from Boston, and Melvin revealed Tuesday that Devers has also been dealing with a back issue dating back to his time with the Red Sox.

The injuries are clearly impacting Devers’ mobility, but Melvin believes he’s improving. With Chapman and Schmitt on the cusp of returning, the Giants may not have to use Devers at third base at all.

“He’s not yet physically ready to play first, so third would be the same thing.” Melvin said. “Once he’s able to play in the field, he told me he’s open for anything.”

Ramos out of lineup

Left fielder Heliot Ramos wasn’t in the lineup on Wednesday due to an illness.

Melvin said Ramos was feeling “really sick” Tuesday but was feeling “a little bit better today.” Ramos will be available off the bench and Luis Matos will start in left field in his place.

New CIA report criticizes investigation into Russia’s support for Trump in 2016

By DAVID KLEPPER and ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A declassified CIA memo released Wednesday challenges the work intelligence agencies did to conclude that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election because it wanted Republican Donald Trump to win.

The memo was written on the orders of CIA Director John Ratcliffe, a Trump loyalist who spoke out against the Russia investigation as a member of Congress. It finds fault with a 2017 intelligence assessment that concluded the Russian government, at the direction of President Vladimir Putin, waged a covert influence campaign to help Trump win.

It does not address that multiple investigations since then, including a report from the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee in 2020, reached the same conclusion about Russia’s influence and motives.

The eight-page document is part of an ongoing effort by Trump and close allies who now lead key government agencies to revisit the history of the long-concluded Russia investigation, which resulted in criminal indictments and shadowed most of his first term but also produced unresolved grievances and contributed to the Republican president’s deep-rooted suspicions of the intelligence community.

The report is also the latest effort by Ratcliffe to challenge the decision-making and actions of intelligence agencies during the course of the Russia investigation.

A vocal Trump supporter in Congress who aggressively questioned former special counsel Robert Mueller during his 2019 testimony on Russian election interference, Ratcliffe later used his position as director of national intelligence to declassify Russian intelligence alleging damaging information about Democrats during the 2016 election even as he acknowledged that it might not be true.

The new, “lessons-learned” review ordered by Ratcliffe in May was meant to examine the tradecraft that went into the intelligence community’s 2017 assessment on Russian interference and to scrutinize in particular the conclusion that Putin “aspired” to help Trump win.

The report cited several “anomalies” that the authors wrote could have affected that conclusion, including a rushed timeline and a reliance on unconfirmed information, such as Democratic-funded opposition research about Trump’s ties to Russia compiled by a former British spy, Christopher Steele.

The report takes particular aim at the inclusion of a two-page summary of the Steele dossier, which included salacious and uncorroborated rumors about Trump’s ties to Russia, in an annex of the intelligence community assessment. It said that decision, championed by the FBI, “implicitly elevated unsubstantiated claims to the status of credible supporting evidence, compromising the analytical integrity of the judgment.”

But even as Ratcliffe faulted top intelligence officials for a “politically charged environment that triggered an atypical analytic process,” his agency’s report does not directly contradict any previous intelligence.

Russia’s support for Trump has been outlined in a number of intelligence reports and the August 2020 conclusions of the Senate Intelligence Committee, then chaired by Sen. Marco Rubio, who now serves as Trump’s secretary of state. It also was backed by Mueller, who in his 2019 report said that Russia interfered on Trump’s behalf and that the campaign welcomed the aid even if there was insufficient evidence to establish a criminal conspiracy.

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“This report doesn’t change any of the underlying evidence — in fact it doesn’t even address any of that evidence,” said Brian Taylor, a Russia expert who directs the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs at Syracuse University.

Taylor suggested the report may have been intended to reinforce Trump’s claims that investigations into his ties to Russia are part of a Democratic hoax.

“Good intelligence analysts will tell you their job is to speak truth to power,” Taylor said. “If they tell the leader what he wants to hear, you often get flawed intelligence.”

Intelligence agencies regularly perform after-action reports to learn from past operations and investigations, but it’s uncommon for the evaluations to be declassified and released to the public.

Ratcliffe has said he wants to release material on a number of topics of public debate and has already declassified records relating to the assassinations of President John Kennedy and his brother, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, as well as the origins of COVID-19.

Trump to meet at White House with American hostage freed from Gaza

By MICHELLE L. PRICE, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will meet at the White House on Thursday with Edan Alexander, the last living American hostage in Gaza, who was released in May.

“The President and First Lady have met with many released hostages from Gaza, and they greatly look forward to meeting Edan Alexander and his family in the Oval Office tomorrow,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

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Alexander, now 21, is an American-Israeli from New Jersey. The soldier was 19 when combatants stormed his base in Israel and dragged him into the Gaza Strip. Alexander moved to Israel in 2022 after finishing high school and enlisted in the military.

He was released on May 12 by Hamas, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union, after 584 days in captivity. Alexander had been in Israel since he was freed until he traveled last month home to New Jersey, where his family still lives.

He was among 251 people taken hostage by Hamas in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack that led to the Israel-Hamas war.

Trump in early March met at the White House with a group of eight former hostages who had been released by Hamas: Iair Horn, Omer Shem Tov, Eli Sharabi, Keith Siegel, Aviva Siegel, Naama Levy, Doron Steinbrecher and Noa Argamani.

Thursday’s meeting comes ahead of a planned visit on Monday to the White House by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as Trump pushes the Israeli government and Hamas to negotiate a ceasefire and hostage agreement and end the war in Gaza.

Bay Area native Chance McMillian ruled out for Warriors summer league

SAN FRANCISCO – will not play for the Warriors in the summer league season after getting surgery two weeks ago.

Vallejo’s Chance McMillian was picked up by the team after being undrafted in the 2025 NBA Draft.

The team knew that he had undergone left ankle surgery to repair a stress fracture two weeks prior and would miss summer league, and there is no timetable for his return to the court.  

“I meet with the team doctor tomorrow, so we’ll have a more definite answer (about a timetable) for me then,” McMillian said after Wednesday’s practice. 

According to Cleveland Clinic’s website, a stress fracture takes between six to eight weeks to heal.

McMillian, who used a scooter to get around and whose ankle is in a brace, told reporters that he had been dealing with the ankle injury for six months and played through the pain.

The Warriors play at Chase Center on Saturday, and even though he will not suit up, McMillian will still be at the game and around the team throughout Summer League. 

“I still want to keep myself involved, and pick up things as fast as possible, even though I’m not playing,” he said. 

McMillian played his first three high school seasons at St. Patrick-St. Vincent in Vallejo, and then transferred to Bethel High for his senior year.

At Bethel, he averaged 28.2 points per game and won his third straight Tri-County Athletic League Stone Division MVP. 

The guard then played three seasons at Grand Canyon University before transferring to Texas Tech. McMillian helped lead the Raiders to the 2025 Elite Eight, where the team lost to eventual national champion Florida at Chase Center. 

He averaged 14.2 points per game as a senior and shot a blistering 43.3% from 3-point range. 

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FDA vaccine official restricted COVID vaccine approvals against the advice of agency staff

By MATTHEW PERRONE, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government’s top vaccine official working under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently restricted the approval of two COVID-19 vaccines, disregarding recommendations from government scientists, according to federal documents released Wednesday.

The new memos from the Food and Drug Administration show how the agency’s vaccine chief, Dr. Vinay Prasad, personally intervened to place restrictions on COVID shots from vaccine makers Novavax and Moderna.

Both vaccines were approved by the FDA in May after months of analysis by rank-and-file FDA reviewers.

But internal correspondence show Prasad disagreed with staffers who planned to approve the shots for everyone 12 and older, similar to previous COVID vaccines. The scientists had concluded the benefit from the vaccines and the risk of COVID-19 outweighed the risk of possible side effects, which are rare.

Instead Prasad decided the shots should be limited to those who face special risks from the virus— seniors or children and adults with underlying medical issues.

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Prasad explained that the COVID vaccine benefits must be reconsidered in light of falling rates of death and hospitalization and the possibility for vaccine side effects. It’s the latest in a series of vaccine restrictions imposed by officials working under Kennedy, who has long questioned the benefits of vaccines.

“Even rare vaccination related harms both known and unknown now have higher chance of outweighing potential benefits” Prasad wrote in a five-page memo explaining his decision.

COVID-19 remains a public health threat, resulting in 32,000 to 51,000 U.S. deaths and more than 250,000 hospitalizations since last fall, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most at risk for hospitalization are seniors and children under 2 — especially infants under 6 months.

Top FDA leaders are typically not involved in the review of individual products. Officials like Prasad can overrule staffers, but such cases are rare and often controversial.

News of the FDA documents was first reported by the New York Times.

Prasad was hired to lead the FDA’s vaccine center in May, after the previous director, Dr. Peter Marks, was forced to resign over disagreements with Kennedy. An academic researcher specializing in cancer therapies, Prasad came to prominence during the pandemic for criticizing public health measures, including the FDA’s approval of COVID boosters for healthy adults and children.

Since arriving at the agency he has worked with FDA Commissioner Mark Makary on new guidelines that will limit approvals of future COVID boosters to higher-risk Americans, mainly seniors and those with medical conditions like asthma and obesity.

Those limits match the terms FDA recently approved for Novavax’s shot, Nuvaxovid and Moderna’s mNexspike. Novavax’s vaccine is the only protein-based coronavirus vaccine available in the U.S. Moderna’s vaccine is an updated, lower-dose version of its existing mRNA-based vaccine.

The review team for the Novavax vaccine pointed to data from a study in 30,000 adults, concluding that “the risk-benefit assessment for this vaccine technology remains favorable.”

FDA staff reached a similar conclusion for the Moderna vaccine, deeming it similar in safety and effectiveness to the company’s original shot.

Last week, the FDA finalized new warning labeling about the risk of myocarditis, a rare form of heart inflammation, on shots from Moderna and Pfizer, the other maker of an mRNA-based shot for COVID.

In his “override memo,” reversing FDA staff’s decision on the Moderna shot, Prasad pointed to the ongoing risk of myocarditis and questions about its frequency. The agency ordered Moderna to conduct further studies of the risk as a condition for the approving its updated shot.

A spokesman for the administration said Prasad “has raised serious concerns” about the issue.

“We will not ignore these risks and will ensure that the gold standard of science is used for any decisions,” said Andrew Nixon, in an emailed statement.

Outside researchers have noted that cases of the heart condition tend to resolve quickly and are less severe than those associated with COVID infection itself, which can also cause myocarditis.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Columbia University student data stolen by politically motivated hacker, university says

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A politically motivated hacker breached Columbia University’s data systems last week, stealing troves of student documents while briefly shutting down the school’s computer systems, a university official said Wednesday.

The June 24 cyberattack prompted widespread network outages on campus, locking students and staff out of their email accounts, coursework and video conference software for several hours. On the same day, images of President Donald Trump’s smiling face appeared on several public monitors across the Manhattan campus.

A spokesperson for Columbia declined to elaborate on the political motivations behind the attack. But officials described a highly sophisticated “hacktivist” who had gained access to private student records in an attempt to further a political agenda.

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The spokesperson said it was unclear if the Trump photo display was connected to the data breach.

“We are investigating the scope of the apparent theft and will share our findings with the University community as well as anyone whose personal information was compromised,” the school said.

The cyberattack comes as Columbia remains in the crosshairs of the Trump administration, which has threatened to pull $400 million in federal funds over what it claims is the school’s failure to protect Jewish students.

Negotiations over a possible settlement are ongoing. The university has already agreed to a host of changes demanded by Trump, including placing its Middle East studies department under new supervision and overhauling its rules for protests and student discipline.

In March, a cyberattack against New York University resulted in student admission records briefly appearing on the school’s website. An online hacker who took credit for that action on social media said the intent was to prove the university was not in compliance with the Supreme Court decision banning affirmative action in college admissions.

An NYU spokesperson said at the time that the data displayed on its webpage was “inaccurate and misleading,” adding that the university “scrupulously complies with the law.”

County crews reinforce Carmel River Lagoon sandbar

CARMEL — Monterey County Public Works staff added sand and reinforced the sandbar on the westerly end of the Carmel River Lagoon last week.

The reinforced sand was a recommendation from NOAA National Marine Fisheries Services and is meant to protect the presence of Steelhead Salmon and other endangered species from being prematurely washed into the ocean. Members of the public have previously been observed attempting to breach the lagoon sandbar, which is already narrow, further endangering juvenile species.

“As Carmel River State Beach is a popular destination for the 4th of July holiday, County workers and State Parks Rangers are urging beach goers to enjoy the ocean and the beach but please leave the sandbar alone,” said a news release.

Sandbars, collections of sand in shallow water, help shape habitats for marine life, providing safe and sheltered areas for feeding and spawning.

Breaching the sandbar is harmful to the Lagoon environment and illegal without permits. There are strict penalties for these activities, according to the release. The sandbar has been closed with occasional openings over the last week, which is thought to be caused by members of the public stepping in.

Groups sue to stop Trump administration from using what they call unconstitutional tactics in raids

By JAIMIE DING and CHRISTOPHER WEBER, Associated Press 

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal lawsuit filed Wednesday accuses President Donald Trump’s administration of systematically targeting brown-skinned people in Southern California during an ongoing immigration crackdown that has put the region “under siege.”

The court filing by Los Angeles immigrant advocacy groups in U.S. District Court seeks a temporary restraining order to block the administration from using what they call “unconstitutional” tactics they say include detaining someone based on their race, warrantless arrests, and denying people access to attorneys.

Federal agents have violently and indiscriminately arrested people without probable cause while carrying out “immigration raids flooding street corners, bus stops, parking lots, agricultural sites, day laborer corners,” the complaint said.

The complaint centers around three detained immigrants, several immigrant rights groups and two U.S. citizens, one who was held despite showing agents his identification.

A video taken by a friend June 13 shows Los Angeles resident Brian Gavidia being pushed up against a fence by federal agents as he yells, “I was born here in the states, East LA bro!”

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“Armed, masked goons in unmarked cars have descended in our community and have stopped and rounded people up from all walks of life, often at gunpoint and without any justification,” said Mohammad Tajsar, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

In addition, the complaint claims that those arrested are held in “dungeon-like” conditions without access to lawyers, pressuring them to sign voluntary departures papers without informing them of their rights.

Families of detainees have relayed reports of horrific conditions inside a detention facility in downtown LA, including inmates who are so thirsty that they have been drinking from the toilets, people sleeping on the ground, and meals consisting of only bags of chips and cookies.

The lawsuit comes days after the Trump administration sued Los Angeles to overturn what it called an illegal sanctuary city law.

Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said in an email that “any claims that individuals have been ‘targeted’ by law enforcement because of their skin color are disgusting and categorically FALSE.”

McLaughlin said “enforcement operations are highly targeted, and officers do their due diligence” before making arrests.

“All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with lawyers and their family members,” she said.

Attorneys say they hope to argue the issue in front of a judge within the next few days and obtain a restraining order that would apply to seven counties across Southern California.

Emmanuel Karim, the manager of a car wash in southern Los Angeles County, said at a news conference announcing the lawsuit that he thought they were being robbed when masked federal agents in unmarked vehicles first surrounded his business June 22.

“We have these signs that say, ‘This is a private area, employees only,’ especially in the tunnel, because there is dangerous machinery in there,” Karim said. “They started running through the tunnel, and my employees got scared.”

At no point did they identify themselves or answer Karim when he asked what they were doing, he said. They detained two of his workers, Karim said.

Tens of thousands of people participated in recent rallies over immigration raids and the subsequent deployment of the National Guard and Marines. Los Angeles prosecutors have charged more than 40 people in connection with protest-related violence and vandalism. Among the latest people charged were a man and woman accused of assaulting police horses and a 17-year-old boy who faces felony counts, including attempted murder and assault against an officer.

At least 14 people are facing separate federal charges on allegations of assaulting police officers with cinder blocks and Molotov cocktails, and conspiracy to impede arrests.

Horoscopes July 2, 2025: Margot Robbie, attitude is everything

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Margot Robbie, 35; Alex Morgan, 36; Ashley Tisdale, 40; Larry David, 78.

Happy Birthday: Emotions will run wild, requiring astute attention this year. Turn the negatives you encounter into positives by searching for the best route. Attitude is everything; it only takes a smile, a suggestion and a kind gesture to get others on your side. Paint their way forward with broad strokes; be the instigator and the one offering hope and enthusiasm, and you’ll find your circle and the path that leads to victory and a better future. Your numbers are 5, 17, 21, 32, 34, 36, 45.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Proceed with caution. Someone will be easily offended if you ask too many questions or make demands. Do your own thing, participate in something intellectually stimulating and let your success and happiness shine through. The outcome will enhance your chances of spending more time with people who contribute to your success. 3 stars

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Participate in learning, expanding your interests and fine-tuning your skills. You have plenty to gain if you engage in a group activity that offers physical health benefits that add to your appearance, strength and ability to reach personal and professional goals. Attend networking or social events that promote love and romance. 3 stars

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Make changes at home that improve your life. Discuss issues you have with anyone who is causing you concern or grief. Face situations head-on instead of letting your stress consume you. Take control of your emotions, and do whatever’s necessary to eliminate strife and gain your desired happiness. Choose peace over discord. 5 stars

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Finish what you start before complaining. You must build momentum and maintain a solid grip on your goals before you face opposition. Timing is everything; leverage comes from preparing sufficiently and knowing when you can win. Keep doors open, know what others want and deliver your promises promptly. Actions speak louder than words. 2 stars

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Rethink what you want and how to make it happen. Put pressure on any person or situation that stands between you and your goal. Reach out, share your opinions along with your suggestions, and be willing to offer incentives or compromises to get what you want. A partnership will turn out better than anticipated. 4 stars

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Slow down, give yourself a chance to think and formulate the best path forward. You will uncover facts that influence how you feel about someone. Refuse to let anger set in when dignity and grace are necessary. Life is too short to let upset people consume your mind and time. 3 stars

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Overreacting is the enemy. When you feel pressured or confused, put your energy into laborious activities that result in home and self-improvement. Talking with someone you trust to give you an honest opinion will help you figure out how to handle stressful emotional scenarios. Walk away from a toxic situation. 3 stars

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Experience is the learning curve that will push you in the right direction. Participate in events that shed light on trends and help you decide if you want to be involved. Displaying an open mind will be necessary, but don’t feel obligated to donate cash. Offer your input and skills if what you learn inspires you. 3 stars

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Only spend what you can afford. Concentrate on bringing in more cash and investing in your future. Maintaining a secure lifestyle will require funds to support your needs. Distance yourself from excessive or indulgent people, curb impulsive actions and keep the promises you made to yourself. 4 stars

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Avoid making the same mistake twice. Whether you are dealing with money, love or health, choose the route that has the best track record. Be a leader, not a follower, and you’ll gain respect and the recognition you deserve. A change within will encourage those you love to follow suit. 2 stars

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): It’s up to you to bring about change and to go after what you want. Be the one to start a conversation or take a step. Share your interests and find out where you stand. You have more going for you than you realize. Be direct and follow through. Romance is in the stars. 5 stars

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Let your heart lead the way, and opportunities will unfold. An energetic attitude will help you pursue happiness and manifest the life you want to live. Participate in activities that bring you closer to someone you love or, if single, help you find your soulmate. Physical improvements will exceed your expectations. 3 stars

Birthday Baby: You are charming, entertaining and opportunistic. You are pioneering and speedy.

1 star: Avoid conflicts; work behind the scenes. 2 stars: You can accomplish, but don’t rely on others. 3 stars: Focus and you’ll reach your goals. 4 stars: Aim high; start new projects. 5 stars: Nothing can stop you; go for gold.

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