Archives for March 2021

Sweet 16 coaches Staley and Fortner share Olympic bond

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Dawn Staley and Nell Fortner won Olympic gold medals together as player and coach. Now they are standing in each other’s way on the path to the women’s Final Four.

It’s not the first time they’ve faced off from the sidelines, but Sunday’s matchup between Staley’s top-seeded South Carolina and Fortner’s No. 5 Georgia Tech in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament Hemisfair Region will be the biggest stage they’ve shared together since the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

Back then, Fortner was coaching a team led by Staley, a fiery and intense point guard. They had also been together for the 1996 Olympic gold-medal team when Fortner was an assistant.

Fortner still calls Staley one of best team leaders she’s ever coached, and even she was a bit in awe of Staley the player back then.

After their first game in Sydney, Fortner was sitting on the team bus when Staley got on, patted her on the back and said “good job.” That simple moment of validation from star player to coach of an all-star team sent the message that everyone was on the same page for the same goal.

“You don’t get a lot of sincere compliments from people who you really value … Her saying that meant a lot to me. It still does,” Fortner said.

Olympic success forged a connection that will never be broken, Staley said.

“We will forever have a bond,” Staley said.

They have cut different coaching paths to their meeting in San Antonio.

Staley has built a powerhouse at South Carolina since taking over in 2008, winning the national championship in 2017. After the Olympics, Fortner coached in the WNBA, then landed at Auburn where she struggled to build the program beyond modest success. After several years in the broadcast booth, she returned to coaching with Georgia Tech in 2019.

That move has rejuvenated both coach and program. Fortner has the Yellow Jackets in the Sweet 16 for the first time.

“I missed the teaching,” Fortner said. “I missed energizing kids to help them achieve their goals.”

Staley and Fortner have raised similar, strong voices in the chorus of complaints about the NCAA and the disparities between the men’s and women’s tournaments.

“They want to make sure they are growing the game for all women,” said Katie Smith, who played on the 2000 Olympic team with Fortner and Staley. “It’s not just basketball. It’s bigger than that. It’s about equality … To them, this matters.”

This summer, Staley will coach the U.S. Olympic team in Tokyo, a year later than expected as the games were postponed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Fortner’s advice: enjoy the ride and bring home a gold medal.

“In the U.S. we’re supposed to win, ‘Nothing but gold, baby! Don’t come home without it’!’” Fortner said. “I have no doubt she can handle it. She’s handled it her whole life.”

GEORGIA TECH-SOUTH CAROLINA

The Gamecocks felt robbed of a potential title run last season when they could have been the overall No. 1 seed before the coronavirus pandemic struck. Their start to this season’s tournament hasn’t been a pretty as some might like, but it has been effective, especially on defense and under the basket where the Gamecocks are muscular and aggressive.

Senior guard Lele Grissett’s ankle injury has forced some lineup changes, and that just let Staley go even bigger by inserting 6-foot-4 Laeticia Amihere alongside forwards Victaria Saxton, who is 6-2 and Aliyah Boston, who is 6-5.

Fifth-seed Georgia Tech (17-8) won’t rattle easily. The Yellow Jackets rallied from 17 down in the second half against Stephen F. Austin in the first round. It was one of the biggest comebacks in tournament history.

The X-Factor: Georgia Tech needs shooter Lotta-Maj Lahtinen to open up the Gamecocks defense. After struggling in the first round, she found her touch with 17 first-half points against West Virginia.

Players to Watch: Boston is an All-American as a sophomore and was the SEC defensive player of the year while averaging a double-double and 2.9 blocks. Georgia Tech senior Lorela Cubaj of Terni, Italy was the ACC co-defensive player of the year in the ACC. She had 21 points and 12 rebounds in the second round.

Time: 1 p.m. ET

TEXAS-MARYLAND

The No. 2 Terrapins on are a tear.

Maryland (26-2) averaged 99 points in the first two games. And the scoring goes deep. The Terps got an overwhelming 46 points off the bench in scoring 100 against Alabama in the second round.

Sixth-seed Texas (20-9) is surging under first-year coach Vic Schaefer. Guards Celeste Taylor, Kyra Lambert and Joanne Allen-Taylor have taken over when forward Charli Collier, the potential No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft, gets in foul trouble. The Texas bench is limited. The three guards all played 40 minutes in a second-round win over UCLA.

The X-Factor: Maryland’s aggressive, physical defense gets overlooked. The Terps smother opponents with pressure that creates turnovers and transition baskets, quickly covers open shooters and stresses ballhandlers every possession.

Players to Watch: Terps transfer guard Katie Benzan originally committed to Texas before switching to Maryland. She came into the tournament as the top 3-point shooter in the country at 51 percent. Texas forward Lauren Ebo will be key if Collier gets in foul trouble again. Ebo played 30 minutes with seven points and six rebounds against UCLA.

Time: 9 p.m. ET.

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More AP women’s basketball: https://apnews.com/Womenscollegebasketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

Big Tech’s outsized influence draws state-level pushback

New York state Sen. Michael Gianaris was ecstatic when Amazon named Long Island City in 2018 as a front-runner for its new headquarters, a project that would bring 25,000 jobs and $2.5 billion in construction spending to his district in Queens.

But his support faded quickly when he learned that state and city leaders had promised one of the world’s richest companies tax breaks worth $3 billion in secretive negotiations. A public backlash led Amazon to cancel the investment altogether, but to Gianaris the episode still illuminated the massive power of tech companies that dominate their industries, overwhelm traditional businesses and use that leverage to expand their reach even further.

Consumer activists, small business owners and state lawmakers across the U.S. are increasingly calling for measures to rein in companies such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google that wield influence over so much of everyday life.

Normally that task would fall to the federal government. But while the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission have filed major antitrust actions against Google and Facebook — both with widespread state support — Congress remains stalled when it comes to making new laws related to Big Tech.

So scores of so-called “techlash” bills are being debated in dozens of statehouses, where lawmakers of both major parties are proposing new regulations related to antitrust, consumer privacy, app store fees and taxes on digital ad sales. Republican lawmakers also are pushing back against what they claim without evidence is an attempt to stifle conservative voices on social media.

Gianaris, a Democrat, is pushing a landmark antitrust bill in the New York Legislature. It would set a new legal antitrust standard — ‘”abuse of dominance” — and allow class-action lawsuits under state laws.

“Our antitrust laws have atrophied and they’re not equipped to handle the 21st century and anti-competitive practices,” he said. “Traditional antitrust enforcement doesn’t work because Big Tech has become too big and too powerful.”

Tech companies aren’t content to play defense. Their lobbyists are pushing state lawmakers to oppose restrictions they deem onerous. In other cases, the companies are working to write their own, more favorable bills. On many issues, they also would prefer federal legislation over a patchwork of state laws.

Of particular concern to two of the biggest companies is legislation being considered in several statehouses that would limit the ability of Apple and Google to collect large shares of the consumer transactions in their app stores.

Critics say the two leading U.S. smartphone companies use their position as app gatekeepers to fatten their profits with fees and undermine rivals that compete against their own music, video and other services.

Leading the pushback are companies such as Epic, which owns the popular Fortnite video game, Spotify and Match.com. They want to force Apple and Google to let them keep the proceeds from subscriptions and in-app sales without taking a cut.

In an attempt to fend off potential government reforms, Apple last year cut in half its standard 30% commission on app purchases for most developers. Google recently followed suit with cuts set to take effect in July.

State Rep. Regina Cobb, a Republican sponsoring app-store legislation in Arizona, said app makers and their customers are being held hostage.

“That’s a Chicago-style mafia kind of thing: ‘You pay us 30 percent or you don’t get to play. We’ll take you off of our platform; your company’s done,’” Cobb said.

Similar legislation is being considered in Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Wisconsin. App store legislation in North Dakota died in February following intense lobbying by both sides. Apple Chief Privacy Engineer Erik Neuenschwander spoke out against the bill, saying it “threatens to destroy iPhone as you know it” by requiring changes that would undermine privacy and security.

Moves by three states — California, Nevada and Virginia — to enact their own comprehensive data privacy laws have emboldened others to follow suit.

In Oklahoma, a bipartisan bill would require companies to obtain prior consent before collecting and selling the data of state residents. In Florida, legislation would give consumers ownership of the digital information companies collect through their spending, social interactions, news habits and travel.

The Florida bill would require companies to divulge what data they are gathering, force them to delete it upon consumer request, and prohibit them from sharing or selling it when told not to. They could be sued if they don’t comply.

One of its sponsors, Republican state Rep. Fiona McFarland, said it’s a response to the omnipresent collection, sharing and selling of personal information.

“It’s everything from these apps on our phones, to payment exchanges, to calendars,” she said.

Facebook says it supports some online privacy laws and provides as much input as possible while bills are being written. The Internet Association, the tech industry’s major trade group representing Amazon, Facebook, Google and dozens of other tech companies, declined to comment.

In California, a bill dubbed the anti-eavesdropping law seeks to limit how smart speakers can potentially intrude into private lives. Its sponsor, Republican Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham, unplugged a smart device in his bedroom six months ago after it lit up unprompted.

“The only thing stopping all of these recordings from being in the hands of government is one search warrant,” he said. “These things get hacked all the time, so you know, your data can end up in Russia.”

His bill would extend existing limitations on smart televisions and would require companies such as Amazon, which markets Echo smart speakers, to obtain permission before they can record, transcribe or sell information from any conversation.

The companies’ disruption of traditional businesses — and the tax revenue they once provided for governments — also hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Maryland lawmakers this year overrode a veto from Republican Gov. Larry Hogan to create a first-in-the-nation law that taxes digital advertising. The measure, initially approved last year, has prompted a number of other states — including Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, Montana and New York — to consider similar legislation.

Supporters say the law seeks to modernize the state’s tax system and make thriving tech companies pay their fair share. It would assess the tax on revenue tech companies make on digital advertisements within the state, raising an estimated $250 million a year for education.

“Companies like Amazon, Facebook and Google have seen their profits drastically increase during the COVID-19 pandemic while our Main Street businesses are struggling to keep up,” said Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Democrat who sponsored the measure.

Opponents have challenged the law in federal court and say it violates the Internet Tax Freedom Act, which prohibits states from imposing “multiple and discriminatory taxes on electronic commerce.”

The wave of state legislation follows growing public consciousness over the power of Big Tech and the companies’ ever-expanding influence, said Samir Jain, the director of policy at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Democracy & Technology.

“With that has come rising backlash against the tech companies in terms of the power they have and ways in which they exercise it,” he said.

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Calvan reported from Tallahassee, Florida; Gordon reported from Washington, D.C.

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Associated Press writers Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix, Arizona; Michael Liedtke in San Ramon, California; Barbara Ortutay in Oakland, California; and Brian Witte in Annapolis, Maryland, contributed to this report.

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Follow Gordon at https://twitter.com/mgordonap and Calvan at https://Twitter.com/BobbyCalvan.

Plaintiff loses after lawyer refuses to wear mask in court

NEW YORK (AP) — A woman lost her personal injury lawsuit after her lawyer refused to wear a mask in court and the judge threw out her case, which had been set for trial.

The New York Daily News reported Friday that Brooklyn Judge Lawrence Knipel tossed the case after attorney Howard Greenwald said he could not breathe wearing the mask in the newly reopened court.

“I want the record to reflect that I am speaking with great difficulty,” Greenwald, 68, told the judge. “I want to the record to reflect that I am sweating profusely from the effort.”

He said, “I just can’t do this,” according to the transcript.

“I don’t contest the rule,” he said. “I just am not physically able to comply with the rule to do my job as a lawyer.”

Knipel, who was hospitalized with COVID-19 last spring, insisted the lawyer comply with rules requiring masks in all state court buildings.

“Forget about my personal experience with COVID,” the judge told the newspaper. “We have over half a million dead in this country. We have protocols. The most important protocol is wearing a mask.”

The lawsuit focused on a 2017 car crash that fractured the woman’s leg.

Knipel told the newspaper the woman would have legal recourse to continue her litigation even though he dismissed the case.

Balky sign-ups complicate virus vaccinations for blind, deaf

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Unable to see, Carla McQuillan typically uses a program that converts the letters on a screen into audible words when she wants to read something online. The tool wouldn’t work when she tried to schedule an appointment to get a COVID-19 vaccine, however.

“When I clicked, it wouldn’t tell me what the date was. I could have tapped on something, but I wouldn’t have known what it was,” said McQuillan, who operates a Montessori school and serves as president of the National Federation of the Blind of Oregon. Her husband, who can see, eventually helped out.

In Alabama, Donte Little helped 20 blind and deaf people who had trouble signing up for vaccinations and getting to a clinic for shots.

“It’s been a challenge for anybody. Add deafness or blindness on top of it and it’s that much more of one,” said Little, who is visually impaired and directs a regional center for the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind.

The confusing maze of websites, phone numbers, emails and paper documents required to sign up for an immunization in the United States is presenting a challenge for people who are visually impaired or hard of hearing. Providers are using multiple different systems that can vary by state and even cities, they say, often forcing the disabled to rely on others to help them get in line.

Federal laws require communications in an understandable format and accommodations to assist people who might face obstacles, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has laid out instructions that include having local health departments provide staff to address accessibility needs and plans.

But the National Federation of the Blind wrote to every U.S. governor last month complaining about hurdles posed by balky sign-up systems and vaccine distribution methods including drive-up clinics, which it said are largely inaccessible to people who can’t see. The group has yet to receive a “substantive” response from any state, spokesman Chris Danielsen said.

Separately, the National Association of the Deaf said problems including confusing and complex information, phone systems that can’t be used by hard of hearing and a lack of interpreters is making it difficult for people who can’t hear to make appointments for immunizations. Chief Executive Howard A. Rosenblum said the group has asked the Biden administration for help.

“The process continues to be very haphazard and confusing for everyone, but particularly for people with disabilities due to the lack of foresight on accessibility,” he said in an email.

Such problems could affect millions.

The CDC reports that an estimated 12 million Americans over the age of 40 have impaired vision, including 1 million who are blind, and the National Association of the Deaf said a 2011 study found that 48 million Americans are deaf or hard of hearing. The National Consortium on Deaf-Blindness estimated in 2008 that about 40,000 U.S. adults were both deaf and blind.

Tara L. Invidiato, a director with the American Association of the DeafBlind, said members trying to sign up for vaccines have faced multiple problems including glitchy websites, inaccessible notifications and the speed required to fill out forms while reading Braille.

“I had to rely on someone who can see and that is unsettling because we the DeafBlind aim for independent living and we know we can do things by ourselves for the most part,” she said in an email interview.

Robert Weinstock, who is profoundly deaf, said clunky telephone systems are posing problems for some who can’t hear because some appointment hotlines don’t have workers who understand how to use video services that allow for communication by sign language. That leads to frustration and calls that end with hang-ups, he said.

“Also, some sites will accept pre-registration online, but conduct the actual scheduling via telephone, leaving voice messages even when the deaf person has explicitly requested contact via text or email. This can be a significant barrier,” said Weinstock, director of public relations at Gallaudet University, a school for the deaf.

Alicia Wooten, who works with a COVID-19 team at Gallaudet, which is in Washington, D.C., said simply getting the word out to deaf people about vaccination availability is a problem because so much notification is done by platforms including radio.

“This means the Deaf community has a delay in getting information, so that by the time they try to register, vaccines are already reserved. The cycle is then repeated,” she said an an email.

But there are cases where the system is working. Weinstock said both he and his wife went to vaccination locations and got shots with relative ease because there were interpreters and people had been trained.

“Every single person I spoke with, from check-in to ‘recovery,’ whipped out their smartphones and used a notes app to converse with me, or wrote on paper, or otherwise made sure I was fully included,” Weinstock, who lives in Maryland, said in an email exchange.

Robert Jaquiss, who is blind, experienced problems firsthand when he tried to get an appointment for a shot in Missoula, Montana. He was eventually able to snag a time with the help of a friend who can see, but Jaquiss said the sign-up system isn’t built to accommodate people unable to navigate quickly during the process.

“I can’t just zip-zip through,” Jaquiss, 67, said in a phone interview. “When they say a site link opens up at 1 p.m., they mean 1 p.m., and if you’re not Johnny on the spot the appointments are gone.”

As daily deaths near 4,000, worst may lie ahead for Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil currently accounts for one-quarter of the entire world’s daily COVID-19 deaths, far more than any other single nation, and health experts are warning that the nation is on the verge of even greater calamity.

The nation’s seven-day average of 2,400 deaths stands to reach to 3,000 within weeks, six experts told the Associated Press. That’s nearly the worst level seen by the U.S., though Brazil has two-thirds its population. Spikes of daily deaths could soon hit 4,000; on Friday there were 3,650.

Having glimpsed the abyss, there is growing recognition shutdowns are no longer avoidable — not just among experts, but also many mayors and governors. Restrictions on activity they implemented last year were half-hearted and consistently sabotaged by President Jair Bolsonaro, who sought to stave off economic doom. He remains unconvinced of any need for clampdown, which leaves local leaders pursuing a patchwork of measures to prevent the death toll from spiraling further.

It may be too late, with a more contagious variant rampaging across Brazil. For the first time, new daily cases topped 100,000 on March 25, with many more uncounted. Miguel Nicolelis, professor of Neurobiology at Duke University who advised several Brazilian governors and mayors on pandemic control, anticipates the total death toll reaching 500,000 by July and exceeding that of the U.S. by year-end.

“We have surpassed levels never imagined for a country with a public health care system, a history of efficient immunization campaigns and health workers who are second to none in the world,” Nicolelis said. “The next stage is the health system collapse.”

The system is already buckling, with almost all states’ intensive care units near or at capacity. Dr. José Antônio Curiati, a supervisor at Sao Paulo’s Hospital das Clinicas, the biggest hospital complex in Latin America, said its beds are full, but patients keep arriving. The city’s oxygen supply isn’t guaranteed, and stocks of sedatives required for intubation in intensive care units will soon run out.

“Four thousand deaths a day seems to be right around the corner,” Curiati said.

On March 17 in northeastern Piaui state, nurse Polyena Silveira wept beside a COVID-19 patient who died on the floor for lack of beds at her public hospital. A photo capturing the moment went viral and served as a national wake-up call.

“When he was gone, I had two minutes to feel sorry before moving to the next patient,” Silveira, 33, told the AP. “In eight years as a nurse, I’d never felt as much pain as that night. I’m near my limit, physically and mentally.”

Brazil’s state-run science and technology institute, Fiocruz, on Tuesday called for a 14-day lockdown to reduce transmission by 40%. Natalia Pasternak, a microbiologist who presides over the Question of Science Institute, pointed to a local example of success: The mid-size city of Araraquara in Sao Paulo state last month implemented lockdown and has seen its cases and deaths recede.

Pasternak declined to estimate Brazil’s looming daily death toll but said the trend is for continued growth if nothing is done.

“We need coordinated action, and that’s probably not going to happen because the federal government has no real interest in pursuing preventative actions,” Pasternak said. “(Mayors and governors) are trying to implement preventative measures, but separately and in their own ways. This isn’t the best approach, but it’s better than nothing.”

Minas Gerais, Brazil’s second most populous state, has closed nonessential shops. Espirito Santo state will enter lockdown Sunday. Brazil’s two biggest cities, Rio and Sao Paulo, have imposed extensive restrictions on nonessential activities. Their state authorities brought forward holidays to create a 10-day period of repose, which started Friday.

Restrictive measures, however, are only as strong as citizens’ compliance. And Bolsonaro continues to undermine their willingness by painting even partial shutdown as an assault on one’s right to earn an honest day’s wages. He has lashed out at local leaders, particularly governors, who dare defy him.

“We need to open our eyes and understand this is no joke,” Rio’s Mayor Eduardo Paes said in a recorded message on the eve of the 10-day shutdown, stressing that no mayor wants to cause unemployment. “People are dying and, if everything continues as is, nothing is done, God only knows what could happen. No one knows this disease’s limit. No one knows how many variants could emerge.”

Hundreds of protesters marched along Rio’s Copacabana beach the next morning. Most sported green-and-yellow shirts that are a hallmark of pro-Bolsonaro rallies and many declined to wear masks. They chanted “We want to work!” and directed vitriol at Paes.

The World Health Organization’s director, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on Monday called for everyone in Brazil to muster a serious response — “whether it’s the government or the people.”

“It’s a concerted effort of all actors that will really reverse this upward trend. It is actually very fast and accelerating really, really fast,” he said. “Especially we’re worried about the (weekly) death rate, which doubled in just one month from 7,000 to 15,000.”

The virus’s spread has been turbocharged by the more contagious P.1 variant that has become cause for concern beyond Brazil’s borders, not just in South America. It has already been identified in the U.S., this week in New York. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, said Wednesday that his team will be meeting with Brazilian authorities and are “quite concerned” about the situation in Brazil.

The U.S. has seen its death toll plunge since late January amid a massive vaccine rollout, and its seven-day average has dipped below 1,000. By contrast, Brazil’s vaccine rollout has been strained, at best. The government bet big on a single vaccine provider, AstraZeneca, while for months rejecting offers to purchase others. Only after delivery delays from AstraZeneca jeopardized rollout did Brazil’s health ministry begin buying — but too late for most deliveries to arrive in the first half of this year.

The nation has fully vaccinated less than 2% of its citizens, which experts widely consider an embarrassment for a country long regarded as a global model for vaccination programs.

More than 500 of the nation’s most influential economists and executives this week wrote an open letter calling for mass vaccination and decrying the situation. They said that controversy regarding economic impacts of social distancing is a false dilemma and all levels of government should be prepared to implement emergency lockdown.

While Brazil’s economy didn’t contract as much as regional peers last year, the worsening health crisis casts a shadow over the 2021, according to William Jackson, chief emerging markets economist at Capital Economics. GDP will return to pre-crisis levels late this year, at earliest, marking a rather weak recovery relative to other emerging markets.

Monica de Bolle, a Brazilian senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, is more pessimistic, and expects another recession in 2021. Exactly how bad things become in coming months hinges on whether the P.1 variant is already dominant nationwide, and is proven to cause reinfections or be more severe.

Either way, there’s no time left to delay decisive action, she said.

“All in all, it’s a huge disaster,” said de Bolle, who has done postgraduate studies in immunology and genetics. “Could have been avoided; wasn’t. Very difficult to fix now. The only real fix is a very harsh lockdown with the population really abiding by it, which may be a hard sell.”

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Savarese reported from Sao Paulo. AP reporter Marcelo de Sousa and videojournalist Mario Lobão contributed from Rio.

Archives for March 2021

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