Biggest news you missed this weekend

Trump, Jeb Bush continue war of words over 9/11

Donald Trump and Jeb Bush took their verbal scrap over Trump's 9/11 comments - in which he seemingly blamed Jeb's brother George W. Bush for the attacks — to the Sunday talk shows. "Look, look, Jeb said we were safe with my brother — we were safe," the Republican front-runner Trump told Fox. "Well, the World Trade Center just fell down! Now, am I trying to blame him? I'm not blaming anybody. But the World Trade Center came down." Bush, who has called Trump's comments "pathetic," told CNN's State of the Union: "Look, my brother responded to a crisis, and he did it as you hope a president would do." Bush also said Trump's response reveals a weakness on foreign policy.

1 killed, 4 wounded at ZombiCon shooting in Florida

A manhunt was underway Sunday after a shooting rampage at a zombie-themed festival left one person dead and four wounded in downtown Fort Myers, Fla. The sound of When gunshots at 11:45 p.m. ET brought chaos at ZombiCon, an annual event that draws around 20,000. "We didn't know if it was real or fake," Haley Delmonte of Naples told WBBH-TV. "Heard gunshots right in front of me. Saw people running and my mind was everywhere. It was so scary."

Michigan State pulls off miracle win over rival Michigan

Fans who watched Saturday's Michigan-Michigan State contest won't ever forget it. Michigan State's Jalen Watts-Jackson grabbed a flubbed punt and ran it in for a touchdown on the game's final play to give the Spartans a 27-23 victory. The Wolverines were just seconds away from entering the national championship conversation. Instead, the Spartans remained unbeaten at 7-0, 3-0 in the Big Ten. "It's crazy," Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio said. "It's crazy."

Shark attacks wreak havoc in Hawaii

Could shark attacks close beach fun in Hawaii? Emergency officials were deciding Sunday whether to close beaches in Oahu, Hawaii, after a pair of weekend shark attacks sent two victims to the hospital with severe injuries. The attacks occurred within hours of one another and brought to seven the number of shark attacks off Hawaii's shores this year.

Amy Schumer goes for raunchy laughs on HBO

Comedian Amy Schumer (Trainwreck) headlined her first HBO stand-up special, Amy Schumer: Live at the Apollo, directed by Chris Rock. During the one-hour performance, taped in May at Harlem's legendary Apollo Theater, Schumer runs through a variety of topics, including body image, body parts, ignorance of the news, alcohol and casting differences between New York and Hollywood.

Palestinians pitch in to help wherever they can during upheaval

BETHLEHEM, West Bank — Red-faced men and women tumble into Mohammed Najar's home, choking on the tear gas that whitens the air outside.

Najar stands back while medics rush to treat them. He doesn't know any of the people involved in the chaos that erupted in his living room, but he cares for each one like family.

As clashes between young Palestinians and Israeli forces have become a daily occurrence, community members in the West Bank have banded together, with everyone playing a different part, from the women who brings fresh sandwiches to the woodworker crafting new slingshots.

"Our door is open to anyone that needs help," Najar, 52, who is retired, told USA TODAY. "Palestine needs all of us to do something to help keep each other safe."

Over the past month, nine Israelis were killed in Palestinian attacks, most of them stabbings, while 41 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, including 20 labeled by Israel as attackers, and the rest in clashes with Israeli troops.

The outbreak was fueled by rumors that Israel was planning to take over Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site to both Jews and Muslims. Jews call it the Temple Mount, and the site is also home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third-holiest shrine and a key national symbol for the Palestinians.

Israel adamantly denies the allegations, saying it has no plans to change the status quo at the site, where Jews are allowed to visit but not pray. Israel accuses the Palestinians, including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, of inciting violence through the false claims.

Donald Trump, Jeb Bush again dispute George W. Bush and 9/11

Donald Trump and Jeb Bush took their latest dust-up — this one over President George W. Bush and the 9/11 terrorist attacks — to the Sunday morning talk show circuit, saying it reflects fundamental differences over foreign policy.

Trump told Fox News Sunday  he doesn’t blame George W. Bush for the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but does question Jeb Bush’s claim that his presidential brother kept the nation “safe” — using 9/11 as the prime example.

“Look, look, Jeb said we were safe with my brother — we were safe,” the Republican front-runner told Fox. “Well, the World Trade Center just fell down! Now, am I trying to blame him? I’m not blaming anybody. But the World Trade Center came down.”

Bush, who has called Trump’s comments “pathetic,” told CNN’s State of the Union: “Look, my brother responded to a crisis, and he did it as you hope a president would do.”

The former Florida governor — who has fallen far behind Trump in GOP presidential polls — said his brother united the country after 9/11, organized a response to the attack, and “he kept us safe,”

Bush told CNN that Trump’s response shows a fundamental lack of seriousness about foreign policy, whether it’s terrorism or the current conflict in Syria.

“Across the spectrum of foreign policy, Mr. Trump talks about things as though he’s still on ‘The Apprentice,'” Bush said, referring to the businessman’s television series.

Trump, who first made his 9/11 comments in an interview with Bloomberg Television, toldFox News Sunday that his immigration policy could have blocked the 2001 attacks because “I doubt that those people would have been in the country” in the first place.

“With that being said, I’m not blaming George Bush,” Trump said. “But I don’t want Jeb Bush to say my brother kept us safe because September 11 was one of the worst days in the history of this country.”

Violence unabated, Kerry to meet with Netanyahu, Abbas

Secretary of State John Kerry said he will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas this week as a wave of deadly violence intensified Sunday across Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Kerry, speaking in Paris, said he will meet with Netanyahu in Germany and then with Abbas and Jordan's King Abdullah in Jordan. Hours later, three people died and several were wounded in an attack at the central bus station in the southern Israeli town of Beersheba.

The attacker killed an Israeli soldier and took his semiautomatic assault rifle, firing it into a group of police officers and others, the Israeli news website Arutz Sheva said, citing police. The shooter was killed; another man also was shot and killed by officers, although police later said he may not have been involved in the attack, the website said.

The slain soldier was identified as 19-year-old Omri Levy, a corporal in the Israeli Defense Forces.

About 40 Palestinians and nine Israelis have died in the month-long surge in violence. Many Israelis have been victims of knife attacks.

The latest attack came as 300 soldiers were deployed Sunday to help police patrol public transportation stations, buses and major traffic arteries in Jerusalem. Other recent security measures include concrete barriers separating Jewish and Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem and random checkpoints near some Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem.

The leader of Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah group, Hassan Nasrallah, on Sunday called the unrest a “renewed intifada," or uprising, carried out by a new generation of Palestinians who believe in resistance.

Thomas Jefferson's lost chemistry lab found

(NEWSER) – A worker renovating the Rotunda at the University of Virginia made an unexpected discovery when he crawled through a hole in the wall: part of a chemistry lab partly designed by Thomas Jefferson nearly 200 years ago, the Charlottesville Newsplex reports.

The brick chemical hearth — one of the only remaining in the world — had been accidentally preserved since being walled off in the 1840s.

"Just because of luck and geometry of the building, because it was bricked up, it survived the major fire in 1895," project manager Matt Schiedt says. "It survived the major renovation in the 1970s, mostly because people didn't know it was there."

According to the Christian Science Monitor, the hearth could give new insight into how chemistry was taught when it was built in the 1820s.

One University of Virginia official thinks Jefferson, who founded the school, built the lab for John Emmet, its first professor of natural history, the Dispatch Tribunal reports. According to the Monitor, Jefferson specified the size and location of the lab and worked with Emmet to equip it.

The main chemical hearth had two fireboxes, one for wood and one for coal, where the professor would do his demonstrations. Students would work at five stations cut into stone countertops, the Dispatch Tribunal reports.

"For the professor of chemistry, such experiments as require the use of furnaces, cannot be exhibited in his ordinary lecturing room," Jefferson wrote in an 1823 letter. "We therefore prepare the rooms ... for furnaces, stoves, etc."

The hearth will be preserved in the university's visitor center.

U.S., Japanese naval forces stage show of strength

SAGAMI BAY, Japan — Japan and the United States staged a naval show of strength off Tokyo Bay on Sunday as they flashed a pair of powerful, flat-deck warships perhaps just days before the U.S. Navyplans to challenge disputed Chinese claims to territory in the nearby South China Sea.

The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and the JS Izumo, the largest warship Japan has built since World War II, highlighted a seagoing review by Japan’s Maritime Self Defense Force that included 36 warships and dozens of military aircraft.

Shortly after the ceremony, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe became the first serving Japanese leader to board a U.S. aircraft carrier when he flew to the Ronald Reagan by helicopter.

Although the Japanese fleet review is held every three years, it held added significance this year because of mounting tensions over artificial islands China has built in the South China Sea, as well as new defense legislation in Japan that eases decades-long restrictions on Japan’s military.

The Ronald Reagan arrived this month at its new homeport in Yokosuka, Japan. The ship recently completed a year-long modernization program and is considered one of the most powerful ships in the U.S. Navy. Its recent transfer to Japan is part of the U.S. “rebalance” to focus more on Asia.

The Izumo was commissioned this year. Although designed primarily to host helicopters for anti-submarine warfare and other duties, the Izumo’s long flat deck and overall design have led many to believe that Japan eventually could use the ship to carry fixed-wing aircraft.

Japanese officials have emphatically denied that.

Nonetheless, Abe last month succeeded in a long-sought goal to allow Japan’s military — including its maritime self-defense force — to aid U.S. or friendly forces when they come under attack.  That previously was  forbidden under Japan’s pacifist Constitution.

Japan currently is embroiled in a tense dispute with China over ownership of a tiny group of islands in the East China Sea. And Abe has supported U.S. demands that China halt its island-building program in the South China Sea.

U.S. officials have said in recent weeks that they plan to send U.S. warships within the presumed 12-mile territorial limit around the new islands. The patrols would be intended to demonstrate U.S. commitment to “freedom of navigation” in the region.

Bedlam, death rock Florida ZombiCon fest

FORT MYERS, Fla. — A manhunt was underway Sunday after a shooting rampage at a zombie-themed festival left one person dead, five wounded and pandemonium on downtown streets.

The wounded victims at ZombiCon on Saturday night were hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries,according to police Lt. Victor Medico.

The shooting was the second instance of gunfire downtown within a week.

ZombiCon, an annual event in its ninth year, was expected to draw more than 20,000 people.

There were "a lot of witnesses down here, there were a lot of people taking pictures, videos with their cellphone," Medico said. "Anything that could help with this investigation would be greatly appreciated."

The shots began at 11:45 p.m., he said. Chaos reigned as crowds from ZombiCon raced through De Leon Plaza.

Jill Stancel, who works at a downtown barbershop, was selling water to Zombicon attendees when she heard the shots and saw people running.

"I was right here," she said. "A mass of people ran screaming and trying to get in the shop."

Stancel said she and others pulled her husband and another relative into the store, ran to the back of the shop and locked the door. They let eight to 10 people in. "They were standing in the back shaking and crying."

"We didn't know if it was real or fake," Haley Delmonte of Naples told WBBH-TV. "Heard gunshots right in front of me. Saw people running and my mind was everywhere. It was so scary. We ran, then we were like wait ... was that real?"

Killed was Expavious Tyrell Taylor, 20, of Okeechobee.

Pushing DaiZies, Inc., organizers of the event, published a statement on Facebook expressing sadness for "what happened within the footprint" of their festival.

"We take the safety of our patrons very seriously and take precautions in hiring security and police officers," the statement said. "Our prayers go out to the family members and individuals involved in the incident."

Skye Tobias commented on the post, saying she was near the gunfire.

"Heard gunshots right in front of me," Tobias said. "Saw people running and my mind was everywhere. It was so scary."

Some patrons of the event questioned the security measures.

"They patted me down and weren't going to let me bring fake handcuffs in but they let some guy walk in with a gun?! Just stupid," commented Joelle Faith Filippone-Greaves.

Minutes after the shooting, police strung crime scene tape across the entrance to the plaza and started clearing bars and downtown streets. Officers with rifles patrolled the streets around the crime scene and ordered people milling around to clear the area.

The Lee County Sheriff's Office set up a command center nearby and deputies assisted Fort Myers police officers in dispersing the ZombiCon crowd.

Fort Myers Mayor Randall Henderson said Saturday's shooting would speed up plans to install video surveillance cameras downtown. "Sadly, we're moving in that direction. We need to be way more vigilant to keep citizens safe," he said.

Plans were already underway, Henderson said. "This will speed up the progress."

Benghazi investigator tells GOP lawmakers to 'shut up' on probe

WASHINGTON — The Republican chairman of the congressional panel probing the Benghazi tragedy is telling his GOP colleagues to "shut up" about the committee's work because most of them know very little about what the panel is doing.

Speaking Sunday on CBS' Face The Nation, South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy dismissed recent statements by two Republican lawmakers — including Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California — implying that at least part of the panel's mission was to embarrass Democrat Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of State during the Benghazi attacks and is now running for president.

"I get that there is a presidential campaign going on," Gowdy said on the show. "I have told my own Republican colleagues and friends to shut up talking about things you don't know anything about and unless you're on the committee, you have no idea what we've done, why we've done it, and what new facts we have found."

Clinton is scheduled to testify before the committee Thursday.

Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, said he wants to find out more about what role she may have played in deciding whether to draw down security at the U.S. embassy compound in Benghazi shortly before an attack on the Libyan facility killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.

But his work has been complicated by statements from McCarthy, who told Sean Hannity on Fox News Sept. 29 that "we put together a Benghazi special committee (and) what are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping."

Last Wednesday, Rep. Richard Hanna, R-N.Y., told a local radio program that "a big part" of the Benghazi panel was designed to go after Clinton.

"After what Kevin McCarthy said, it's difficult to accept at least a part of it was not," Hanna told a Utica radio station. "I think that's the way Washington works," Hanna said. "But you'd like to expect more from a committee that's spent millions of dollars and tons of time.''

Photo, Note About Titanic Iceberg Emerge

(NEWSER) – A photo of what could be history's deadliest iceberg is up for auction after spending nearly a century on a wall in the offices of the law firm that represented the Titanic's owners. There are other photos in existence of the iceberg believed to have sunk the huge liner, but this one comes with some telltale testimony, the Telegraph reports. It was taken by the chief steward on a German liner the day after the Titanic sank, and he wrote that he saw red paint on the side of the iceberg at the time—paint believed to have been scraped off the ship, CNN reports.

"On the day after the sinking of the Titanic, the steamer Prinz Adalbert passes the iceberg shown in this photograph. The Titanic disaster was not yet known by us," the steward writes. "On one side red paint was plainly visible, which has the appearance of having been made by the scraping of a vessel on the iceberg." The BBC reports that this is the first time the steward's testimony has surfaced. The note and photo will be sold as one lot by British auctioneers Henry Aldridge and Son on Oct. 24, and they are expected to fetch upward of $20,000.

Mets bullpen not to be outdone by starting rotation in NLCS

NEW YORK -- To fully appreciate what the Mets bullpen is doing right now, raw stats are not enough.

Sure, four Mets relievers combined for 3 1/3 scoreless innings Sunday night to preserve a 4-1 win and put the Mets up in the NLCS, 2-0.

But it is the consistency manager Terry Collins has coaxed from this unit—an amagalmation of starters-turned-relievers, starters getting between-starts work in, and relievers forced to embrace new roles—that is truly astounding.

Everyone is in unfamiliar territory. Tyler Clippard was in Oakland until July. Addison Reed was in Arizona until August. Jeurys Familia, the closer, began the year as a setup man. Lefty specialist Jon Niese had been starter for his entire career until the final week of the regular season. Bartolo Colon made a total of six relief appearances in his 18-year career before this season. Noah Syndergaard, Sunday night's starter, was Thursday night's seventh inning guy.

Only one thing is certain from game to game: it's all been working.

“I wasn't a pitcher, so I was never one that thought to have a particular role outside of the guy pitching the 9th inning was that big,” Collins said Sunday night at his postgame presser. “But at this level, it is big. Guys want to know when they're going to be used. Our guys have done a great job. But they're all caught up in it right now. They're all caught up in the success of what's going on.”

The pathway from starter to 27th out was a bit more conventional Sunday night, with Reed pitching the seventh, Clippard the eighth and Familia the ninth inning. Even that was fraught with some level of concern, since the bullpen appearances from guys like Syndergaard and Colon throughout the NLDS meant that Clippard and Reed simply hadn't worked that much.

“You make it work because it's October,” Clippard said, standing in front of his locker following the game. “I think that's what it comes down to. You realize that all hands on deck every single day. And each situation that each guy is given, they want to be out there, you're excited, you want to contribute.”

Steelers rally around Jones; Cardinals sloppy in loss

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Le'Veon Bell wondered.Martavis Bryant wondered. Heck, even Landry Joneskind of wondered how he'd do after spending the entirety of his two-plus seasons in the NFL either holding a clipboard or dressed in sweats on gameday.

Then all that time spent in meetings trying to absorb everything he could from Ben Roethlisberger started to pay off. Replacing injured Michael Vick in the third quarter against Arizona on Sunday, Jones did his best to mimic his mentor. He relaxed. He called out the signals. And he played.

The first touchdown pass of Jones' NFL career gave the Steelers confidence. The second provided the clincher in a 25-13 victory.

"He was like Ben's little brother out there," Bell said. "He was out there making checks and everything and it brought us back like 'Dang, Landry really got this."

Did he ever.

Jones completed 8 of 12 passes for 168 yards and the two scores — both to Martavis Bryant — as Pittsburgh (4-2) scored rallied from a seven-point halftime deficit. The Steelers improved to 2-1 without Roethlisberger, who missed his third straight game with a sprained left knee. Roethlisberger will practice this week before Pittsburgh heads to Kansas City, though Jones' surprisingly steady play showed the Steelers can be dynamic even with their captain on the sideline.

"I just still can't believe I got in the game and to play," Jones said. "I'm still reeling from it."

Hard to blame he. He was a star in college at Oklahoma, where he didn't miss a game in four years. The Steelers took him in the fourth round of the 2013 draft but he did little with the opportunity, scuffling during training camp and the preseason and unable to supplant Bruce Gradkowski or Vick as the primary backup to Roethlisberger.

Kaepernick, 49ers snap four-game skid with win vs. Ravens

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Torrey Smith and Anquan Boldin took it to the team they helped win the Super Bowl nearly three years ago. Shareece Wright’s embarrassing outing sure helped out his former San Francisco 49ers on a day Baltimore missed chances in every phase.

Colin Kaepernick completed a 76-yard touchdown pass to Smith, Joe Flacco threw two interceptions and the Niners beat Baltimore 25-20 on Sunday to snap a four-game losing streak.

Phil Dawson kicked four field goals, including a 53-yarder, in the first win since Week 1 for San Francisco (2-4). Boldin — a Super Bowl star for the Ravens against San Francisco — had a late 51-yard catch that set up Quinton Patton’s 21-yard reception for the first touchdown of his career.

Flacco’s desperation pass to the end zone on the final play went incomplete to Steve Smith, and the quarterback wound up 33 of 53 for 343 yards. Smith dropped two balls in the end zone before catching one.

Kaepernick went 16 of 27 for 340 yards, and Boldin made five catches for 102 yards.

The rematch of the Super Bowl three seasons ago featured a pair of last-place teams trying to turn around their seasons, and it showed in some sloppy play.

Steve Smith caught a 34-yard TD pass from Flacco in the third, but the Ravens (1-5) are reeling through the worst start in franchise history. Tough weekend for the Harbaugh brothers after Baltimore coach John Harbaugh’s little brother Jim’s Michigan team lost Saturday to Michigan State on a botched punt.

The 49ers won for the first time since Sept. 14 against Minnesota.

Now San Francisco must prepare in a hurry for a short week with rival Seattle coming to town Thursday night. The Seahawks have won five of the last six meetings, including the playoffs.

Baltimore’s previous four losses featured second-half collapses. This time, the collapse all but began from the opening kickoff.

Mets' Daniel Murphy continues postseason HR barrage

NEW YORK — The remarkable postseason journey of Daniel Murphy continued before many Mets fans could even get settled under their blankets Sunday night at Citi Field, yanking another home run into the right field stands to give the Mets an early 3-0 lead.

Murphy's set team records—his five postseason home runs are the most my any Met—while repeatedly blasting middle-in pitches into the seats. That the pitches have come from some of baseball's best—Clayton Kershaw, Zach Greinke, Jon Lester Saturday night and now, Jake Arrieta—doesn't seem to matter.

“Well, I think Dan Murphy is an All-Star,” his manager, Terry Collins, said after Game 1. “So I don't think it's something that's strange. I think Dan gets in the batter's box. We all know when he gets hot, he can hit anybody and he can do a lot of damage, and he's hot.”

The same could not be said of Citi Field, 45 degrees at gametime with swirling winds. But when Murphy, after narrowly missing a home run on a long fould ball two pitches earlier, connected on Arrieta's 80-mile-per-hour curveball, no Mets fan had any complaint about the cold.

Bell Tolls: Johnny Football not fooling anybody following latest incident

“It was embarrassing but not serious.”

Johnny Manziel went on Twitter Friday night in an attempt at damage control, as news spread that the high-profile Cleveland Browns quarterback has another off-the-field incident on his record.

Chalk up that effort as another incomplete pass for Johnny Football.

Not serious?

Who is Manziel trying to fool? Maybe he’s fooled himself into believing that his episode in Avon, Ohio, on Monday — stemming from an argument with his girlfriend — wasn’t a big deal.

But we know better.

Fortunately, no one was hurt after Manziel, according to a witness, dangerously passed on the shoulder at high speed on a stretch of I-80. And his girlfriend, Colleen Crowley, is seemingly willing to forgive and protect after engaging in some form of a physical contact with Manziel, according to the police report.

They weren’t arrested, either, after police, according to their report, determined that Manizel — who spent 10 weeks in rehab during the offseason — had consumed alcohol earlier on Monday but wasn’t intoxicated while driving erratically and arguing with his girlfriend in public.

Shoot, the police made that determination without even administering a breathalyzer, which makes me wonder whether Manziel caught a break from the cops because he was a celebrity or had stumbled upon a real-life version of Barney Fife.

No breath test? Some people would be met with excessive force by merely encountering police.

And just think, police were called twice, by two witnesses from different vantage —  one from the highway and another from a neighborhood.

Yet the former Heisman Trophy winner tweets that it was not serious.

It’s very serious.

And it’s a case to test the legitimacy of the NFL’s new personal conduct policy, with the components including investigations that are run independent of the course that, say, bumbling or biased police may or may not pursue. Add the possibility of domestic violence to this case — which lacks a Ray Rice video, and may seem less of a threat without a woman wearing bruises — and the credibility of the experts the NFL enlisted since last year to deal with this hot-button issue may swing in the balance.

If Manziel, given his history, doesn’t view it as a serious matter, then it’s further proof that he needs a reality check in addition to whatever clinical support may be in order to help him deal with his issues.

Another passage from Manziel’s Twitter feed: “I know I would stop and check if I saw a couple arguing on the road.”

Gennady Golovkin stops David Lemieux in 8th round to unify middleweight titles

NEW YORK — It was supposed to be Gennady Golovkin’s toughest opponent to date, the experts said, a French-Canadian power puncher who had knocked out most of his opponents and insisted he was going to leave with Golovkin’s title belts in tow.

But with the sold-out Madison Square Garden crowd of 20,548, that included Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, shouting “Tri-ple G! Tri-ple G!” to spur him on,  Golovkin became the complete fighter, jabbing, boxing and punching his way to an easy victory in the HBO pay-per-view show, Golovkin’s first PPV.

He took IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux apart patiently — though less so than usual — and methodically from the opening bell.

Golovkin, with Lemieux an unwilling dance partner early, brought him to his knees in the fifth round and continued his onslaught until referee Steve Willis finally and mercifully stopped at 1:32 of the 8th round. By then Lemieux was bloodied and beaten soundly.

The three ringside judges all had Golovkin sweeping every round, including the 10-8 fifth when Lemieux took a knee to stop the punishment, if only temporarily.

Golovkin connected on an amazing 58% of his power punches, 110 to Lemieux’s 54.

With his victory, the baby-faced assassin from Kazakhstan with the killer smile and the vicious mean streak inside the ring had his 21st knockout in a row and an even brighter future ahead.

“I told you this was a very important fight,” said Golovkin who was guaranteed $2 million for his night’s work. “I give my fans and friends a big show. Thank you my fans. Thank you my people.

“Dave is a very good fighter. A strong fighter. I can box him, too. I’m a boxer, too.”

He certainly proved that. The 26-year-old Lemieux had seven years on his opponent, but Golovkin was the aggressor from the start, throwing several hard rights to the body that connected time and time again. Golovkin’s constant pressure would not allow Lemieux an opening, using his stiff left jab to set up his notoriously powerful right hand.

“I see his jab in sparring all the time,” trainer Abel Sanchez said after the fight. “But this is the best I’ve seen it in a real fight.”

USC players, at 3-3, say they are playing for interim coach Clay Helton

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The only two constants during the past half-decade of Southern California football are chaos and Clay Helton, with the whims of the former again responsible for thrusting the latter into duties far above his pay grade.

Helton was brought to USC by one ex-coach, Lane Kiffin, and then retained by another, Steve Sarkisian; he has been the interim coach — this fall marking his second turn in the temporary position after leading the Trojans through a bowl win in 2013 — and himself served under another interim coach, Ed Orgeron.

He is Zelig in cardinal and gold: Helton was there when the NCAA levied sanctions, when the Trojans opened atop the Associated Press poll but finished unranked, when Kiffin was fired in a parking lot, when Orgeron was carried off the field in victory, whenJosh Shaw jumped two stories, when Sarkisian was placed on leave and when Sarkisian was fired — amid turmoil and made-for-TV drama, Helton has been a source of relative stability.

And he’s been there for the Trojans, who are now returning the favor.

“We definitely want to keep him here,” senior running back Tre Madden said. “We’ve talked to the young guys, and they love him. We all love him. We want to keep him here. That’s what we’re playing for, the future.”

Said senior defensive tackle Antwuan Woods, “I’ve been with him for five years and he really cares about us as a team. He’s a great man. We’re just motivated to play for him.”

It wasn’t too long ago that USC played for national championships. Now the Trojans play for interim coaches.

For the second time in three years, the Trojans will dedicate themselves — and dedicate the remainder of this season — to making a favored assistant coach the full-time caretaker for one of college football’s elite programs. Such is recent existence at USC, where confidence remains in surplus despite a clear lack of results.

“We’re an excellent team,” junior safety Su’a Cravens said. “We can beat anybody in the country, hands down.”