Archives for August 2021

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh toured an underground coal mine for the first time, joining Sen. Joe Manchin at a northern West Virginia facility on Wednesday.

Walsh did his best to signal that Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration won’t be an enemy of the coal industry as he and Manchin visited American Consolidated Natural Resources’ Golden Ridge Portal Mine near Wheeling.

“It was quite the experience, I’ll tell you that,” Walsh said in a telephone interview on his way back to Washington, D.C.

Walsh described donning the proper safety equipment, taking an elevator ride down to the mine and then a mantrip ride by rail to the longwall to watch a machine grind and extract coal from the seam.

Walsh’s agency oversees the Mine Safety and Health Administration as well as the administration of benefits for coal miners disabled by black lung disease.

“I felt it was really important for me to go down and get a feel for what mine workers do,” Walsh said. “I have a different understanding and appreciation of the work.”

The mine was operated for years by Murray Energy Holdings, which emerged from federal bankruptcy protection under a new name and ownership group. St. Clairsville, Ohio-based American Consolidated is the largest privately owned U.S. coal operator.

West Virginia has lost thousands of jobs in the past decade as companies and utilities explore using other energy sources such as natural gas, solar and wind.

Democratic candidates for president have struggled in recent years to connect with voters in West Virginia, in part due to a push toward clean energy under the Obama administration. Still, despite his promises, coal did not come roaring back under President Donald Trump, though he again won the state of West Virginia in 2020 by an overwhelming margin in his unsuccessful bid for re-election.

Earlier this year, the United Mine Workers Union, the nation’s largest coal union, said it would accept Biden’s plan to move further away from coal and other fossil fuels in exchange for a “true energy transition” that includes thousands of jobs in renewable energy and spending on technology to make coal cleaner.

In June, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm joined Manchin, the only Democrat currently holding statewide elected office in West Virginia, on a tour to promote the Biden administration’s plans to involve the once-booming coal state in the development of clean energy.

Manchin said in a news release that he discussed with Walsh the impact that the $1 trillion infrastructure bill passed by Congress would have. Manchin has vowed that as new energy opportunities emerge, West Virginia coal communities won’t be left behind, and he said he looks forward to working with Walsh to support and reinvest in them.

“I have always said the transition to a cleaner energy future must come from innovation, not elimination and the bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed the Senate will do just that,” Manchin said.

Walsh said Manchin got that point across to him in their discussion about coal’s future.

“The president has goals of carbon neutrality and alternative energy sources,” Walsh said. “Certainly these conversations need to happen. We do have an industry where people are working in. They’re concerned about the future of their industry as well.”

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The nation’s largest public utility plans to switch out 1,200 of its vehicles for electric ones by 2030, furthering its role in that market for a power supplier that also plans to help add charging stations across the region, the utility’s top official said Wednesday.

Tennessee Valley Authority CEO Jeff Lyash announced the changeout plans within its current fleet of about 3,800 vehicles during a board meeting.

The plan includes downsizing the fleet’s 600 light-duty vehicles to 400 electric versions, which are typically sedans and SUVs; and initially changing out 800 medium-duty vehicles, or about half of the fleet’s pickup trucks, TVA spokesperson Jim Hopson said.

The utility is also evaluating reductions in the medium-duty vehicles through efficiency and retirements, Hopson said. Possible switch-out of heavy duty ones depends on technology and price improvements, Lyash said.

The changes will occur as current vehicles reach the end of their usable lives, he said.

The plan coincides with the rollout of efforts to install fast-charging stations every 50 miles (80 kilometers) along major thoroughfares in Tennessee, with the goal of starting to deploy those chargers by the end of the year and having them largely in place by the end of 2022, Lyash said. TVA is also joining with other utilities in a coalition to connect a variety of regions with electric chargers, “from New England to West Texas, and from Detroit to Disney World,” Lyash said.

The plan is to have 80 charging locations with at least two fast chargers each across the region by the end of 2026, Hopson said.

On Wednesday, TVA’s board also voted for a $220 million plan to extend a pandemic-times credit of 2.5% to its customers, which include local power companies and large industrial entities, through the 2022 budget year with the possibility of continuing it through 2023.

Lyash said the pandemic credit for 2021 totaled $200 million, and local power companies used their share to avoid some planned rate increases; cover losses through unpaid customer power bills; and invest in infrastructure.

Of the 153 local power companies served by TVA, 144 are part of a long-term power initiative that results in another 3.1% credit.

Also Wednesday, the board replaced its chairman, John Ryder, with a new chairman, Bill Kilbride. The board seats of Ryder and Kenneth Allen expired in May, and two other seats are vacant. President Joe Biden has nominated four people for those slots but they have not been confirmed by the Senate yet.

Ryder and Allen remain on the board until their successors are confirmed and take office or until the end of the current congressional session, typically in December, whichever comes first.

The Tennessee Valley Authority was created in 1933 under the New Deal to provide electricity, flood control and economic development in Tennessee and parts of six surrounding states.

Its customers include some businesses and local power distributors serving 10 million people. The utility is funded largely by ratepayers and does not use tax dollars.

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ALISTRATI, Greece (AP) — Persephone is a tour guide in Greece, but perhaps not the type people are used to.

Billed as the world’s first robot tour guide inside a cave, Persephone has been welcoming visitors since mid-July to the Alistrati Cave in northern Greece, 135 kilometers (84 miles) northeast of the city of Thessaloniki.

The multilingual robot covers the first 150 meters (roughly 500 feet) of the part of the cave that is open to the public. In the remaining 750 meters (2,400 feet), a human guide takes over.

The robot was named Persephone because, according to one version of the ancient Greek myth, it was in a nearby plain that Pluto — the god of the underworld who was also known as Hades — abducted Persephone, with the consent of her father Zeus, to take her as his wife.

The robot can give its part of the tour in 33 languages and interact at a basic level with visitors in three languages. It can also answer 33 questions, but only in Greek.

Nikos Kartalis, the scientific director for the Alistrati site, had the idea of creating the robot when he saw one on TV guiding visitors at an art gallery. Seventeen years later, “we got our funds and the robot guide became a reality,” Kartalis told The Associated Press.

The robot was built by the National Technology and Research Foundation and cost 118,000 euros ($139,000).

“We already have a 70% increase in visitors compared to last year since we started using” the robot, says Kartalis. “People are enthusiastic, especially the children, and people who had visited in the past are coming back to see the robot guide.”

“It is something unprecedented for them, to have the ability to interact with their robot by asking it questions and the robot answering them,” he said. “Many foreign visitors couldn’t believe Greece had the capacity to build a robot and use it as a guide in the cave.”

The robot moves along a walkway, passing through an ornate landscape of stalactites and stalagmites. These varied formations can reach 15 meters (50 feet) tall and are seen throughout the cave’s nearly 1 kilometer (1.6-mile) walkway, which is accessible to people with limited mobility.

“This cave is one of the most beautiful, not only in Greece but in Europe, as well,” says Kartalis. “It has stalactites and stalagmites in many shapes and colors, even red.”

He said the cave was 3 million years old and was first explored in 1974 by the Hellenic Speleological Society and a team of Austrian speleologists. It opened to visitors in 1998.

Persephone, with a white body, black head and two luminous eyes, moves on wheels, guiding visitors to the first three of eight stops along the walkway. She can do two more stops, but her low speed slows down the tour, which is conducted in three languages simultaneously. Persephone’s creators are considering ways to speed her up.

The robot’s begins by saying: “My name is Persephone, I am the daughter of the goddess Demeter and the wife of Pluto, the god of the underworld. I welcome you to my under Earth kingdom, the Alistrati Cave.”

Many visitors are intrigued by the robot guide.

“It was surprising for me. I’ve never experienced such a thing. Actually, honestly, I prefer a live guide, but it’s interesting doing it this way. And I like the pace of the robot. It goes slower, so I can look around,” said Patrick Markes, a Czech visitor.

Markes listened to the first three stops from the robοt in his native language and the rest in English from a human tour guide.

“I should thank Persephone, our robot, she said very fine things,” said Christos Tenis, a Greek visitor. “I’m impressed by the cave. Of course, we had a flawless (human) guide, she explained many things. I’m very impressed.”

Persephone is not the only technology used inside the cave. There’s a cellphone app in which a visitor, scanning a QR code, can see the Alistrati Beroni. That’s a microorganism that is only found in this cave, in the huge mounds of bat droppings left behind when the cave was opened and the bats migrated elsewhere.

Evdokia Karafera is one of the tour guides who partners with the robot.

“It is helpful, because it speaks many languages. There’s just a little delay in the touring,” she said. “Most find it fascinating, especially the children, and find it interesting that it speaks many languages.”

Karafera insisted, however, that human tour guides cannot be completely replaced.

“Robots, at some point in the future, will take over many jobs. But I believe they cannot replace humans everywhere,” she said. “(Visitors say) ‘the robot is interesting, original, but can’t substitute for the human contact with the guide and the conversation we can have on the way back.’”

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Follow Kantouris on Twitter at https://twitter.com/CostasKantouris.

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CHICAGO (AP) — Michael Williams’ wife pleaded with him to remember their fishing trips with the grandchildren, how he used to braid her hair, anything to jar him back to his world outside the concrete walls of Cook County Jail.

His three daily calls to her had become a lifeline, but when they dwindled to only a few a week, the 65-year-old felt he couldn’t go on. He made plans to take his life with a stockpiled stash of pills.

Williams was arrested last August, accused of murdering a young man from the neighborhood who asked him for a ride during a night of unrest over police brutality. The key evidence came from video of a car driving through an intersection, and a loud bang picked up by acoustic sensors. Prosecutors said audio technology powered by a secret algorithm indicated Williams shot and killed the man inside his car.

“I kept trying to figure out, how can they get away with using the technology like that against me?” said Williams. “That’s not fair.”

Williams was jailed for nearly a year before prosecutors, citing insufficient evidence, asked a judge to dismiss the case.

Williams’ experience highlights the real-world impacts of society’s growing reliance on algorithms to help make consequential decisions about public life. This is especially apparent in law enforcement, which has turned to technology like acoustic gunshot detection. One such firm, ShotSpotter, says its evidence has increasingly been admitted in courtrooms, now some 200. ShotSpotter’s website says it’s a leader in policing technology solutions that helps stop gun violence by using algorithms to classify 14 million sounds as gunshots or something else.

But an Associated Press investigation, based on thousands of internal documents, emails and confidential contracts, along with dozens of interviews, has identified serious flaws in using ShotSpotter evidence in court.

AP’s investigation found the system can miss live gunfire right under its microphones, or misclassify sounds of fireworks or cars backfiring as gunshots. ShotSpotter’s forensic reports have been used in court to improperly claim that a defendant shot at police, or provide questionable counts of the number of shots fired.

ShotSpotter touts its algorithm-backed technology as virtually foolproof. But its algorithms are a trade secret, largely inscrutable to the public, jurors and police oversight boards.

The company identifies possible gunshots with the acoustic sensors. Then ShotSpotter employees listen to audio recordings of those sounds, and confirms or changes the source of sounds, introducing the possibility of human bias. Employees can and do modify the location or number of shots fired at the request of police, according to court records. And in the past, city dispatchers or police themselves could make some of these changes.

Amid a nationwide debate over racial bias in policing, civil rights advocates say the criminal justice system shouldn’t outsource some of society’s weightiest decisions to computer code.

ShotSpotter CEO Ralph Clark said details about artificial intelligence are “not really relevant.”

“The point is anything that ultimately gets produced as a gunshot has to have eyes and ears on it,” said Clark. “Human eyes and ears, ok?”

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This story, supported by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, is part of an ongoing Associated Press series, “Tracked,” that investigates the power and consequences of decisions driven by algorithms on people’s everyday lives.

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Police chiefs call ShotSpotter a game-changer. The technology has been installed in about 110 American cities, often disproportionately placed in Black and Latino communities. Law enforcement officials say it helps get officers to crime scenes quicker making their neighborhoods safer.

But academic researchers who reviewed 68 large, metropolitan counties from 1999 to 2016 found that the technology didn’t reduce gun violence or increase community safety.

One Sunday evening in May 2020, Williams said Safarian Herring, a 25-year-old he said he had seen around the neighborhood, waved him down for a ride. Williams told police that a vehicle pulled up beside him and someone shot Herring.

“I was hollering to my passenger ‘Are you ok?’” said Williams. “He didn’t respond.”

He sped to the emergency room. Herring died a few days later.

Three months later, police showed up, and after an interrogation they charged Williams with first-degree murder.

“When he told me that, it was just like something in me had just died,” said Williams.

On the night of the shooting, ShotSpotters sensors identified a loud noise the system initially assigned to 5700 S. Lake Shore Dr., according to an alert the company sent police. That material anchored prosecutors’ theory that Williams shot Herring inside his car, even though the supplementary police report didn’t cite a motive, mention eyewitnesses, or a recovered gun.

Prosecutors also leaned on a surveillance video showing that Williams’ car ran a red light, as did another car that appeared to have its windows up, ruling out that the shot came from the other car’s passenger window, they said.

Chicago police did not respond to AP’s request for comment. The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said in a statement that after careful review prosecutors “concluded that the totality of the evidence was insufficient to meet our burden of proof.”

As ShotSpotter’s gunshot detection systems expand around the country, so has its use as courtroom evidence — including 91 cases in the past 4 years.

“Our data compiled with our expert analysis help prosecutors make convictions,” said a recent ShotSpotter press release.

But as cases increase, defense attorneys are growing more skeptical.

During 2016 testimony in a Rochester, New York officer-involved shooting trial, ShotSpotter’s engineer Paul Greene said an employee reclassified sounds from a helicopter to a bullet because Rochester police told them to.

In the Williams case, evidence in pre-trial hearings shows ShotSpotter first said the noise the sensor picked up was a firecracker but a ShotSpotter employee relabeled it a gunshot.

Later, a ShotSpotter engineer changed the reported Chicago address of the sound to the street where Williams was driving, about 1 mile away, court documents show. ShotSpotter said the report was corrected to match the actual location that the sensors had identified.

Last month a judge dismissed the case against Williams.

ShotSpotter insists it warned prosecutors not to rely on its technology to detect gunshots inside vehicles or buildings, citing language in its $33 million Chicago police department contract.

Williams’ attorney Brendan Max said prosecutors never shared this critical information.

Williams remains shaken. When he walks through the neighborhood, he scans for the acoustic sensors that almost sent him to prison for life.

“The only places these devices are installed are in poor Black communities, nowhere else,” he said. “How many of us will end up in this same situation?”

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Mendoza reported from Newark, California. Associated Press Writer Roselyn Romero in San Luis Obispo, California contributed to this report.

Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org

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TOKYO (AP) — Toyota is scaling back production in North America and Japan as the surging coronavirus pandemic in Southeast Asia and elsewhere crimps supplies.

Japan’s top automaker said Thursday that it will cut back production at home by 40%, affecting 14 auto assembly plants in the country.

In North America, Toyota said it expects August production to be slashed by 60,000 to 90,000 vehicles. A representative from Toyota said that output fluctuates month to month, but that it would equate to a production cut of between 40% and 60%.

“Due to COVID-19 and unexpected events with our supply chain, Toyota is experiencing additional shortages that will affect production at most of our North American plants,” the company said in a prepared statement Thursday. “While the situation remains fluid and complex, our manufacturing and supply chain teams have worked diligently to develop countermeasures to minimize the impact on production.”

The company said production cuts in North America are not expected to have an impact on staffing levels.

In Japan, production will halt completely next month at some plants and partly at others, affecting a wide range of models, including the Corolla subcompact, Prius hybrid and Land Cruiser sport utility vehicle.

Global production for September will decline by 360,000 vehicles, according to Toyota Motor Corp. But it stuck to its annual forecast to produce 9.3 million vehicles, as coronavirus risks were figured in.

Of the lost production out of Japan, 140,000 vehicles are for Japan and 220,000 for overseas, with 80,000 in the U.S., 40,000 in Europe, 80,000 in China, 8,000 in the rest of Asia and about 10,000 in other regions.

Toyota had already announced smaller production cuts for July and August in Japan.

“We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to our customers and suppliers due to these changes,” Toyota said.

A shortage of the computer chips used widely in vehicles has been problematic for months as the world appeared to emerge from the pandemic and demand surged. Toyota had not been hit as hard as some other major automakers, and now the spread of the delta variant has introduced new complications.

David Leggett, auto analyst at GlobalData, said auto demand is now down in Vietnam, and sales have already been hurt in some markets for all manufacturers.

“The pandemic is clearly far from over and appears, as far as the auto industry’s recovery path is concerned, to have a sting in the tail,” he said.

Toyota has held up relatively well amid the pandemic, racking up a record profit for the April-June quarter at about $8 billion, an increase of more than fivefold from the same period the previous year.

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Auto Writer Tom Krisher and AP Business Writer Michelle Chapman contributed to this report.

Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

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