Archives for March 2021

49ers sign 6-time Pro Bowl C Alex Mack to 3-year deal

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Six-time Pro Bowl center Alex Mack is reuniting with coach Kyle Shanahan after signing a contract with the San Francisco 49ers.

The 49ers announced the three-year deal with Mack on Thursday, one day after agreeing to give left tackle Trent Williams a $138.1 million, six-year deal to remain in San Francisco.

“We are excited to add another Pro Bowl player to our offensive line,” general manager John Lynch said. “Throughout his career, Alex has been a model of consistency. His leadership and high character will be felt throughout our team and community.”

The deals with Williams and Mack go a long way to solidifying an offensive line that struggled in pass protection last season. The 49ers still could look to upgrade at right guard if they don’t want to leave that role to Daniel Brunskill or Colton McKivitz.

The 35-year-old Mack returns to the Bay Area after starring in college at Cal and having a successful run in Cleveland and Atlanta. He made the Pro Bowl six times, including four straight from 2015-18. He was also a second-team All-Pro in 2013, ’16 and ‘17.

Mack has a history with Shanahan, having played for him in 2014 when Shanahan was offensive coordinator in Cleveland and again in 2016 in Atlanta. Mack’s addition was a key part for the Falcons’ offensive improvement that season when they went to the Super Bowl to help Shanahan get the head coaching job in San Francisco.

Mack replaces the void created by injuries to Weston Richburg, who has struggled to get on the field after signing a five-year $47.5 million deal with San Francisco in 2018. Richburg had a season-ending knee injury late in 2019 and missed all of last season when he didn’t recover.

He reportedly had hip surgery recently and his chances of returning are in doubt.

That set the stage for the Niners to turn to the durable Mack, who has played all 16 games in 10 of his 12 seasons in the NFL. He missed 11 games in 2014 with a broken leg and the final two games last season with a concussion and then a week on the COVID-19 list.

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Lawsuit claims electric truck startup defrauded investors

CLEVELAND (AP) — A shareholder lawsuit was filed Thursday against an electric truck startup company claiming it has defrauded investors by making spurious claims about the number of preordered trucks and the progress it has made in starting production at a former General Motors plant in Ohio.

The lawsuit filed by shareholder Chris Rico against Lordstown Motors Corp. in federal court in Youngstown seeks certification as a class-action complaint.

Lordstown Motors CEO Steve Burns acknowledged that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting an inquiry based on a lengthy and critical report issued late last week by the investment firm Hindenburg Research, which holds a short position on Lordstown Motors stock.

Burns, speaking during the company’s first-ever earnings call on Wednesday, said the company’s board of directors has formed a special committee “to review matters” surrounding the SEC inquiry.

A company spokesperson did not respond to an emailed request for comment about the lawsuit on Thursday.

The complaint is largely based on the Hindenburg Research report that said Lordstown Motors has “no revenue and no sellable product” and has “misled investors on both its demand and production capabilities.”

The report and lawsuit said that according to a former employee, estimated production is three to four years away. Burns has said production would begin this September.

The company has touted that it has presold 100,000 trucks to various fleets in the U.S. But those orders, according to the lawsuit, are non-binding.

The lawsuit said that according to documents, investors, business partners and former employees, “the company’s orders are largely fictitious and used as a prop to raise capital and confer legitimacy.”

The Hindenburg report said a recently announced $735 million deal for 14,000 trucks was to a purported buyer who doesn’t operate a vehicle fleet and is based out of a small apartment building in Texas.

The company received unwelcome publicity in January when a prototype vehicle caught fire 10 minutes into its initial test drive.

Atlanta police on shooting probe: ‘Nothing is off the table’

ATLANTA (AP) — Police said Thursday that “nothing is off the table” in the investigation of the deadly shootings at two Atlanta massage parlors, including whether the slayings were a hate crime.

Those attacks and a third one near the suburban town of Woodstock killed eight people and prompted President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to change their plans for a previously scheduled trip to Atlanta. The pair postponed a political event in favor of meeting Friday with Asian American community leaders.

A 21-year-old white man, Robert Aaron Long, is charged with murder in the killings, which took place Tuesday. Six of those killed were women of Asian descent.

“Our investigation is looking at everything, so nothing is off the table,” Deputy Atlanta Police Chief Charles Hampton Jr. said at a news conference.

The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office said it was also investigating whether the killings were hate crimes.

Georgia lawmakers last year passed a hate crimes law that allows additional penalties to be imposed for certain offenses when motivated by a victim’s race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender or disability. A hate crime is not a standalone crime under the law, but it can be used to add time to a sentence once someone is convicted of another crime.

Investigators believe Long had previously visited two of the Atlanta massage parlors where four of the women were killed, Hampton said.

Long told police that the attacks were not racially motivated. He claimed to have a sex addiction, and authorities said he apparently lashed out at what he saw as sources of temptation.

Long’s statements spurred outrage and widespread skepticism in the Asian American community, which has increasingly been targeted for violence during the coronavirus pandemic. Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Capt. Jay Baker also drew criticism for saying Long had “a really bad day” and “this is what he did.”

Sheriff Frank Reynolds released a statement Thursday acknowledging that some of Baker’s comments stirred “much debate and anger” and said the agency regrets any “heartache” caused by his words.

“In as much as his words were taken or construed as insensitive or inappropriate, they were not intended to disrespect any of the victims, the gravity of this tragedy or express empathy or sympathy for the suspect,” Reynolds said, adding that Baker “had a difficult task before him, and this was one of the hardest in his 28 years in law enforcement.”

The sheriff’s statement did not address a 2020 Facebook post that appeared to have been written by Baker promoting a T-shirt with racist language about China and the coronavirus. Baker has not commented on the post, which was taken down Wednesday.

Lawyer J. Daran Burns issued a statement saying he had been appointed to represent Long. He offered condolences to victims’ families and said he was working on Long’s behalf “to investigate the facts and circumstances” surrounding the slayings.

Long waived his right to an initial hearing in Cherokee County Magistrate Court on his lawyer’s advice, the statement said.

The president and vice president were already scheduled to travel to Atlanta to tout the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, but the trip took on new meaning after the shootings. The visit also comes amid an intense debate over voter rights in Georgia. Harris is the first vice president of Asian descent.

During the trip, Biden and Harris will instead meet with Asian American leaders to discuss the ongoing threats against the community, meet with other local leaders and visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for an update on the pandemic.

Also Thursday, Biden directed that flags be flown at half-staff through sunset Monday in honor of the dead.

At a congressional hearing on violence against Asian Americans that was scheduled before the shootings, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler called Thursday for the government to “investigate and swiftly address” growing tensions but did not call for a specific course of action.

Lawmakers in the House and Senate have introduced legislation that would assign a person at the Justice Department to expedite the review of hate crimes related to COVID-19 and provide additional support to state and local authorities to respond to those crimes. But it is unclear if the bill by Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., and Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, will get a vote.

Testifying at the hearing, Meng urged Democratic leaders to move the legislation and said lawmakers “cannot turn a blind eye” to people who are living in fear.

“Our community is bleeding,” Meng said. “We are in pain. And for the last year, we’ve been screaming out for help.”

There was some tension as a Republican on the panel, Texas Rep. Chip Roy, charged that Democrats were trying to control speech.

“When we start policing free speech, we’re doing the very thing that we’re condemning when we condemn what the Chinese Communist Party does to their country,” Roy said. “And that’s exactly where this wants to go.”

Meng responded angrily to Roy’s comments, saying that Republicans “can talk about issues with any other country you want, but you don’t have to do it by putting a bull’s-eye on the back of Asian Americans across this country, on our grandparents, on our kids.”

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Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Zeke Miller, Jonathan Lemire and Nancy Benac in Washington contributed to this report.

EXPLAINER: Will you need a ‘vaccine passport’ to travel?

Airlines and others in the travel industry are throwing their support behind so-called vaccine passports to boost pandemic-depressed travel, and authorities in Europe could embrace the idea quickly enough for the peak summer vacation season.

Technology companies and travel-related trade groups are developing and testing various versions of the vaccine passports, also called health certificates or travel passes.

It is not clear, however, whether any of the passports under development will be accepted broadly around the world, and the result could be confusion among travelers and disappointment for the travel industry.

Here are some key questions about the health credentials.

WHAT IS A VACCINE PASSPORT?

It is documentation that shows a traveler has been vaccinated against COVID-19 or recently tested negative for the virus that causes it.

The information is stored on a phone or other mobile device that the user shows to airline employees and border officers. The Biden administration and others want a paper version available too.

WHO IS DESIGNING THEM?

The trade group for global airlines, the International Air Transport Association, is testing a version it calls Travel Pass. IBM is developing another, called a Digital Health Pass. There are several other private-sector initiatives.

Some countries are getting involved and using the passports beyond air travel. Israel is using a new “green passport” to ensure that only people who have been vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19 can attend public events such as concerts. Denmark expects to launch a pass that will let vaccinated people travel with fewer restrictions.

WHY DO TRAVEL COMPANIES WANT THEM?

International air travel has collapsed during the pandemic, as countries impose restrictions such as quarantines or outright bans to curb the spread of the virus. Airlines are counting on vaccine passports to convince governments to drop some of those restrictions that discourage visitors.

“The significance of this to re-starting international aviation cannot be overstated,” said Alexandre de Juniac, the CEO of the airline trade group.

Operators of hotels that depend on international visitors are also eager to see the passes adopted.

The airline trade group tested its app Wednesday on a Singapore Airlines flight to London. A passenger put a digital version of his passport, coronavirus test results, and travel restrictions at his destination on a mobile device.

WHERE WOULD THESE PASSES BE REQUIRED?

Vaccine passports will be most common on international flights. Some countries already require proof of vaccination for diseases such as yellow fever, and the United States now requires a negative test for COVID-19 to enter the country, so a digital health passport isn’t much of a leap.

WHAT ARE THE RISKS?

The available vaccines are most effective at preventing serious illness, but that doesn’t rule out the possibility that vaccinated travelers could still spread the virus.

“I think we have enough evidence right now to say that these vaccines cut transmission, that vaccinated people are much less likely to transmit the disease,” says Ashish Jha, dean of the public health school at Brown University. “How much? We don’t know.” He guesses it’s around 80%.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still recommends against travel even as the agency has relaxed other guidelines for people who have been vaccinated.

WHAT ABOUT FAIRNESS?

Other critics say the certificates will primarily benefit people in wealthier countries and relatively affluent people within each country — those who are mostly likely to be vaccinated quickly, and most likely to have smartphones.

“It’s going to be the wealthy, the privileged, who are going to get to fly around, and other people won’t have access to that,” says Lisa Eckenwiler, who teaches health ethics at George Mason University. She sees a particular potential for unfairness if health passes expand to work places and schools.

WHAT ABOUT PRIVACY?

Consumers will be nervous about sharing health information that might get hacked or exposed in a breach, says Stephen Beck of management consultancy cg42.

“When it comes down to it, people are going to ask themselves, is sharing sensitive information worth the trade-off for a leisure trip?” he says, “and for many, the answer will be no.”

IATA and IBM say their passes use blockchain technology and the information won’t be stored in a central place.

WHAT ROLE WILL THE U.S. GOVERNMENT PLAY?

Airline and business groups are lobbying the White House to take the lead in setting standards for health passes. They believe that would avoid a hodge-podge of regional credentials that could cause confusion among travelers and prevent any single health certificate from being widely accepted.

But the Biden administration says it is up to the private sector and nonprofits to figure out how Americans can demonstrate that they have been vaccinated or tested.

“It’s not the role of the government to hold that data and to do that,” Andy Slavitt, a White House virus-response adviser, said this week. “It needs to be private, the data should be secure, the access to it should be free, it should be available both digitally and in paper and in multiple languages.”

Other governments, like those in Israel and Denmark, are taking a more active role.

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David Koenig can be reached at www.twitter.com/airlinewriter

‘Our big prize’: Vikes laud Tomlinson’s size, skill, smarts

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — When Dalvin Tomlinson was a high school recruit, this bulwark of a defensive tackle had the size and skill to attract a scholarship offer from Alabama.

Two national championship teams later, the 6-foot-3, 320-pound Tomlinson was on his way to the NFL as a second-round draft pick by the New York Giants. Now he’s on his second contract, joining the Minnesota Vikings to help them try to repair a deteriorated defense.

Tomlinson could’ve attended Harvard instead. Sure, the football competition would’ve been a step down, but the native of Georgia had the grades to get into what has long been considered the nation’s most prestigious institution of higher learning.

“My mom was always big on academics. I used to always joke around that I was going to Harvard, as a kid. I was a big academic kid growing up, and when they gave me an offer to go to Harvard, it was a tough one not to go,” Tomlinson said. “But football is my first love, and with Alabama having a good business program as well as football program, it just felt like a home away from home.”

Tomlinson departed Tuscaloosa with a degree in finance and took his well-honed study habits to a league where such behind-the-scenes details can make a major difference in on-field performance.

“Football, pretty much in the NFL, is like taking another class because you have to continue to learn,” Tomlinson said on a video conference call Thursday. “A lot of mental work goes into the aspect of playing in the NFL.”

Tomlinson signed what will essentially be a two-year, $21 million contract that the Vikings tweaked to spread out the salary cap charge of the $12.5 million signing bonus for more flexibility. His hit to the cap for this season will be $6 million.

General manager Rick Spielman, who introduced Tomlinson on the Zoom call but did not take questions from reporters, called him “our big prize” while lauding his durability, attitude and ability to make an impact against both the run and the pass.

Spielman also confirmed the agreement with eight-time Pro Bowl cornerback Patrick Peterson, who’s coming on a one-year contract worth up to $10 million as another piece to the reconstruction puzzle on defense.

Tomlinson will be paired next to Michael Pierce, another addition to the lineup after signing as a free agent last year but opting out due to health concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Between Pierce and Tomlinson, the Vikings will have a roughly 660-pound tandem in the middle of their line to build around.

Last season, Tomlinson had 3 1/2 sacks, four pass deflections and 10 quarterback hits, all career highs. He was also a captain and the team’s nominee for the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year community service award. He started all 16 games for the Giants in each of his four seasons.

“He plays with great leverage, has great strength at the point, excellent with his hands, does a great job getting off blocks and firing at the ball, making plays all over the field in the run game,” Spielman said. “I think the thing that he doesn’t get enough credit for is, when you sit down there and actually break down the tape, how he still affects the quarterback even though he may not have the gaudy sack numbers. How he collapses the centers, how he collapses the guards, it gets the quarterback off his spot in the pocket which can create a lot of pressure different ways.”

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More AP NFL coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL

Archives for March 2021

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