Sharpton: Without no-knock warrant, Locke would be alive

By MOHAMED IBRAHIM and AMY FORLITI

February 17, 2022

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Andre Locke, Amir Locke's father, speaks during the funeral for Amir Locke at Shiloh Temple International Ministries, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022, in Minneapolis, Minn. Locke was killed Feb. 2 by Minneapolis police as they executed a no-knock search warrant. (AP Photo/Nicole Neri)


MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Rev. Al Sharpton told the hundreds gathered Thursday for Amir Locke’s funeral that the 22-year-old Black man would still be alive if Minneapolis had banned no-knock warrants.

Sharpton was among several speakers who paid tribute to Locke and other Black people who have died in encounters with police. Along with song and prayer, the service at Shiloh Temple International Ministries included strong condemnations of racism in policing and emphatic demands for change.

“Amir was not guilty of anything but being young and Black in America,” Sharpton said. He said if Minneapolis had banned no-knock warrants “we wouldn’t be at a funeral this morning.”

Sharpton also noted that February is Black History Month and he spoke about the history of slavery, detailing how slaves had their names taken away from them and were forced to take the names of their masters. He said Black people for too long have been seen as “nameless suspects.”

“Enough is enough. We are no longer going to be your nameless suspects,” Sharpton said, as the crowed applauded.

Earlier in the service, funeral-goers were prompted to “Say his name.” They responded: “Amir Locke.”

Locke’s aunt, Linda Tyler, denounced racism in policing and demanded that officers stop talking about the need for more training, and instead start using de-escalation techniques on white and Black people alike.



“If it is something you simply cannot do, we just ask that you resign today instead of resigning another brother or sister to her grave,” she said. She also said she doesn’t want to hear about how policing is a difficult job.

“If you think being a police officer is a difficult profession, try to be a Black man,” she said, as the crowd cheered.

A large portrait of Locke was displayed at the front of the church, with a white casket topped with roses and bouquets of flowers nearby. Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter were among those in attendance.

Locke’s death has prompted an outcry against no-knock warrants, with a push by his family and others to ban them in Minnesota and beyond.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who has come under scrutiny for the city’s use of such warrants, and Minneapolis Interim Police Chief Amelia Huffman did not attend. Shiloh Temple Bishop Richard Howell Jr. told the Star Tribune before the service that Frey would not attend without an invitation from the family.

As the service began, hundreds of people sang the hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing” before Howell led the church in prayer. Members of the Grammy Award-winning group Sounds of Blackness also performed. They later sang their song, “Black Lives Matter.”

The service was held in the same church where Daunte Wright was remembered after he was killed by a suburban Minneapolis police officer in April. Sharpton, while presiding over Wright’s funeral, decried “the stench of police brutality.”

Locke was shot by a SWAT team member shortly before 7 a.m. on Feb. 2 as officers served a no-knock search warrant in a St. Paul homicide case. Body camera video shows at least four officers using a key to quietly enter the downtown apartment where he was staying, then shouting their presence. The video shows Locke, wrapped in a comforter, stirring and holding a handgun right before an officer shot him.

Locke wasn’t named in the warrant and did not live at the apartment. Family members called his killing an “execution,” noting the video shows an officer kicking the sofa, and suggested Locke was startled awake and disoriented. They have also pushed back against police saying Locke was shot after he pointed his gun at officers.

Frey has imposed a moratorium on such warrants while the city reexamines its policy. The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating Locke’s shooting.

While the funeral was happening, the House Public Safety Committee heard legislation that would significantly limit the use of no-knock warrants.

The bill, authored by Rep. Athena Hollins of St. Paul, only allows such warrants in a handful of exigent circumstances, such as kidnapping and human trafficking. It goes further than measures passed last year, which made it more difficult for officers to seek no-knock warrants.

Last year’s legislation requires that applications for no-knock warrants be approved by a chief law enforcement officer and another supervisor. It also requires officers to say whether the warrant can be executed in daytime hours and explain why officers can’t detain a suspect or search a residence by other means.

Several activists who testified in support of the new bill urged lawmakers to pass it, calling last year’s legislation a “watered down” version of what the state needs. When asked if they have spoken with Senate Republicans, they shook their heads “no.”

“They patted themselves on the back and claimed that they had passed some police accountability bills,” civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong said. “It’s really laughable, it’s an insult to our intelligence and now another Black family has lost their son, their nephew, their cousin, our community member through the nonsensical use of a no-knock warrant.”

Find AP’s full coverage of the death of Amir Locke at: https://apnews.com/hub/amir-locke

AMIR LOCKE

Barely in job, new chief feels heat from Amir Locke shooting

Cop safety cited in no-knock warrant ahead of Locke's death

White House considers expanding limits on 'no-knock' warrant

Sources: 19 Austin police officers indicted over protests

By ACACIA CORONADO, PAUL J. WEBER and JAKE BLEIBERG

yesterday

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FILE - In this May 30, 2020 file photo, people help a protester after he was shot with a rubber bullet under Interstate 35 freeway in Austin Texas while protesting the death of George Floyd. The Austin City Council on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022 approved paying a combined $10 million to two people injured when officers fired beanbag rounds into crowds during the 2020 social justice protests, including a college student who suffered brain damage. 

(Ricardo B. Brazziell/Austin American-Statesman via AP, File)

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas grand jury indicted 19 Austin police officers on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for their actions during 2020 protests over racial injustice that spread nationwide following the killing of George Floyd, according to people familiar with the matter.

Multiple people spoke to The Associated Press Thursday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly. Austin Police Association President Ken Casaday confirmed 19 officers are facing charges but did not have details.

It ranks among the most indictments on a single police department in the U.S. over tactics used by officers during the widespread protests — methods that led to the resignation or ouster of several police chiefs across the country.

Word of the indictments came hours after Austin city leaders approved paying $10 million to two people injured by members of the 1,640-officer department in the protests, including a college student who suffered brain damage after an officer shot him with a beanbag round.

Combined, the charges and settlements amounted to conservative Texas’ liberal capital of 960,000 people taking some of its biggest actions as criticism still simmers over its handling of the protests, which intensified pressure on then-Police Chief Brian Manley to eventually step down.

Jose Garza, the district attorney for Travis County, which includes Austin, spoke to journalists Thursday afternoon about the grand jury investigation but gave no specifics about it, including how many officers are facing charges, and for what crimes.

“Our community is safer when our community trusts enforcement. When it believes law enforcement follows that law and protects the people who live here,” Garza said. “There cannot be trust if there is no accountability when law enforcement breaks the law.”

A spokesperson for the Travis County District Attorney’s office, Ismael Martinez, declined to comment on the number of officers charged and referred reporters to Garza’s comments.

Prosecutors have not identified any of the officers facing charges. Texas law requires that an indictment remain secret until an officer has been arrested. Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, when committed by a public servant, could carry a sentence of up to life prison.

Casaday, the president of the Austin Police Association, called the move “devastating” for law enforcement in the city, but also said he’s confident that no officer will be convicted. He criticized Garza, calling the investigation politically motivated.

“DA Garza ran on a platform to indict police officers and has not missed the opportunity to ruin lives and careers simply to fulfill a campaign promise,” Casaday said.

Garza said his office prosecutes anybody who causes harm “regardless of who causes it.”

Austin Chief of Police Joseph Chacon, who took the job after Manley left, said he respects the grand jury process but was “extremely disappointed” to hear the district attorney announce anticipated indictments of his officers.

Chacon stressed that his command staff had prepared officers to face hundreds of people when thousands actually showed up to protests that he said were at times “riotous and violent.”

“I am not aware of any conduct, that given the circumstances that the officers were working under, would rise to the level of a criminal violation by these officers,” Chacon said.

But beanbag rounds fired by officers did not always perform “in the manner anticipated,” Chacon said, and his agency now prohibits the use of “less lethal munitions in crowd-control situations.”

The settlements approved Thursday are among the largest paid to people who were injured by police across the U.S. during massive protests that followed Floyd’s death.

The largest of the Austin settlements gives $8 million to Justin Howell, who was 20 years old when police shot him with a beanbag round. Family members told the AP following the incident that Howell suffered a cracked skull and brain damage, leaving him in critical condition for multiple days.

The city will also pay $2 million to Anthony Evans, who was 26 when an Austin police officer shot him with a beanbag round in a separate incident, which resulted in extensive medical treatment in his jaw.

Austin Mayor Steve Adler said the settlements “remind us of a real difficult and painful moment in our city.” A representative for the Howell family did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It is the latest reflection of how, two years after the protests that swept across the country, cities are still addressing the injuries and tactics used by police. Earlier this month, prosecutors announced charges against two Dallas police officers accused of injuring demonstrators after firing less lethal munitions.

After the protests in Austin, then-police Chief Manley later said Howell was not the intended target after an altercation in a crowd, which he said involved people who threw objects at a line of officers. Authorities have said that led to the officers firing at the mass of protestors from above.

David Frost, who captured on video the moments after Howell was shot, told the AP that he saw protesters throwing fist-sized rocks and water bottles at the line of police on an overpass. Then he saw Howell fall. He was bleeding heavily and went into a seizure, Frost said at the time.

The settlements are the second and third payments awarded among a dozen lawsuits filed in Austin that have claimed injuries from the protests. Earlier this month, The Austin American-Statesman reported that a $150,000 settlement was approved for a woman named Ariana Chavez, who was shot in the head with less lethal munition resulting in a concussion.

At least 19 people were hospitalized in Austin following the protests.

Eleven officers were disciplined for their actions in the early summer protests, with seven additional officers placed on administrative duty.

___

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of the Austin Police Association president’s name to Ken Casaday. It also corrects Austin Police Chief Joseph Chacon calling the protests at time “riotous.”′

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Bleiberg reported from Dallas. Associated Press writer Terry Wallace contributed to this report from Dallas.

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Coronado is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

From Turkish jail, French woman accuses Greece of ‘pushback’
By RENATA BRITO

February 18, 2022

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The sister, who refused to show and identify, of a woman imprisoned in Turkey is silhouetted during an interview with The Associated Press in Paris, Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022. Shatz and a team of European lawyers filed a case against Greece at the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of a 32-year-old French woman who accuses the Hellenic country of forcibly pushing her back across the border from Greece to Turkey, where she claims she is a victim of political persecution. The woman, who is also a Turkish national, was subsequently arrested and jailed. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)


BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — A French woman accused Greek authorities Friday of forcing her and other migrants back across the border into Turkey, violating her rights both as a person fleeing persecution and as a European citizen.

In court documents seen by The Associated Press, the 32-year-old woman, who has Turkish as well as French citizenship, claims she and her husband were trying to flee Turkey to escape prison sentences that were politically motivated.

They crossed the Evros River by boat into Greece on the way to France, where the woman was born and raised. But she says Greek officials mistreated her and turned her back; she is now in prison in Turkey. From her cell, the woman, who asked to remain anonymous for her safety, filed a lawsuit against Greece on Friday at the European Court of Human Rights.

While so-called “pushbacks” of migrants have become increasingly common despite violating European and international law, experts say the French woman’s story appears to be the first such case brought to court involving a European citizen.

“We have moved from allegations to it being a public secret that pushbacks are engaged in by the Greek authorities on a regular basis,” said Hanne Beirens, director of Migration Policy Institute Europe. “This would be quite a unique case…Because it would show how indiscriminately the Greek authorities are acting and how it affects people from all backgrounds.”

For years, journalists, lawyers and human rights organizations have documented pushbacks by Greece of migrants and refugees across sea or land borders, denying them the right to asylum procedures. Under the principle of non-refoulement in European and international human rights law, people cannot be returned to a country where they would face torture, punishment or harm.

Greek authorities did not respond to multiple requests for comment sent by the AP to the Ministry of Migration and Asylum, the Ministry of Citizen Protection and the Greek Embassy in Paris. However, Greece released a statement Thursday evening after a joint media investigation alleged a separate pushback involving two asylum-seekers later found dead on the Aegean coast.

“Greece protects the external borders of the European Union, in full compliance with international law and in full respect of the charter of fundamental rights,” Greek Migration and Asylum Minister Notis Mitarachi said,

At least 21 migrants have died on the land border between Turkey and Greece so far this year according to the International Organization for Migration’s Missing Migrants Project.

The United Nations agency issued a statement Friday saying it was “alarmed by mounting migrant deaths and continuous reports of pushbacks at the European Union (EU) border between Greece and Turkey.”

“Such actions are not in line with and oppose States’ commitments and obligations under international and regional law, such as the violation of the principle of non-refoulement,” the IOM statement said.

The French woman’s story is laid out in court statements from her, her husband and her sister, including illustrations she did from prison. The AP also drew on interviews in Paris with the sister and one of the woman’s lawyers; documents including her French passport, French national ID and French marriage papers; emails, call logs, and screen shots of texts and GPS data the woman shared in real time with a lawyer.

Born in France to Turkish parents, the woman left France in 2013 to pursue undergraduate studies in Turkey. In April 2018, she and her now-husband were among dozens of students rounded up and accused of belonging to the “Fethullahist Terror Organization” or FETO. The couple deny all accusations.

At the time, Turkey had launched a massive crackdown against followers of U.S.-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, after a failed military coup in 2016. The government designated the network as a terrorist organization and sentenced close to 5,000 people to prison, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency.

The French woman was detained for 11 days but released on parole. A few months later, she was sentenced to more than six years in prison, which she appealed. In June last year, her prison sentence and her husband’s were confirmed by the Supreme Court. They ultimately decided to flee, selling the family jewelry to pay smugglers to get to Greece.

The woman’s family trusted that once she stepped foot in Greece, a European Union country and part of the Schengen area, Europe’s visa-free travel zone, she would be safe. As the couple crossed Greece’s eastern border on the morning of Oct. 19, 2021, her family anxiously awaited news from their home 90 km outside Paris. They followed the woman’s movements on a real-time location tracking app.

At 9:38 a.m., the woman sent a text message on What’sApp: “We have passed.”

Her family proceeded to contact both French and Greek authorities, saying the couple needed help.

“They are victims of persecution by the current Turkish government,” read their email, which they followed up with phone calls. “We are VERY VERY worried for them!”

Shortly after, Greek officials stopped the couple, the lawsuit alleges. After they presented her French ID, a copy of her French passport and the French family booklet that proved their marriage, the officers asked them to kneel. They then took the couple’s telephones, power bank, clothes and food and cut their shoelaces, according to the statement.

The woman says they were taken in the back of a truck to a “closed box” inside a gated area and kept there for hours with other migrants, some from Afghanistan who were barefoot. She says officers slapped one of them.

Meanwhile, in France, her family had lost contact with her and was getting increasingly worried. Her sisters scrambled to call and email both Greek and French authorities.

After they shared their concern that their sister would be returned to Turkey, an official at the Greek embassy in Paris sent a text message in French: “Since she has a French passport, there is no problem(...)Calm down. There is no danger in Greece.”

The man confirmed to the AP that he had been in contact with the woman’s family but said he was not authorized to speak to the press. Requests for comment to the Greek embassy in Paris were not answered. The woman’s family say they also exchanged several phone calls with the French consulate in Thessaloniki, and sent an email with the woman’s last known location and a copy of her passport.

After being detained for several hours, the migrants were rounded up onto a truck and taken to the Evros river, the woman says. They were made to board an inflatable boat without life vests.

“We continued to beg them not to send us back, explaining to them I was French and that we were persecuted in Turkey,” she says in her statement.

She spoke to officials in French and English, to no avail. They were caught by Turkish soldiers on the other side and taken to a police station, she says. The next day, they were in prison.

“We are totally disappointed with Greek authorities,” her sister told the AP in Paris, asking to remain anonymous to protect her safety. “We didn’t think they would return a persecuted person back to the persecutor.”

“We are equally disappointed with French authorities because we were abandoned,” she said.

Since then, she said, her family has written countless letters to French and European Union lawmakers and officials, and even to French President Emmanuel Macron, asking for help. The French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs told the AP in a written statement that officials in Paris, Greece and Turkey “had maintained a close relationship with (the woman’s) family from the moment they were alerted to her situation.”

They said they are also seeking a consular visit to the woman in prison in Turkey. There, she told her sister, she has been stripped naked for searches three times. In the first prison she was taken to, she said, she shared a cell with mice.

Catherine Briddick, a lecturer in International Human Rights and Refugee Law at Oxford University, said the woman’s case “shows the absurdity of Fortress Europe.”

“(It) should give pause to European citizens everywhere to think about what these policies are doing to us, as well as to the people we’re trying to keep out,” she said.

Omer Shatz, a lawyer representing the French woman along with Violeta Moreno-Lax and Francesco Gatta, argues their client was a victim of increasing racial discrimination at the borders of Europe.

“She was really begging to them, showing them her (French) IDs and travel documents but was ignored,” said Shatz, legal director of Front-Lex, which challenges EU migration policies. “Why? Because the way she looks. Probably Muslim, probably looking like a refugee, probably not white.”

Migration has been brought to the center stage of the French presidential campaign, with both Macron and his opponents on the right and far-right taking ever stronger stances against irregular crossings. European countries have spent billions on surveillance technology at their borders, despite growing accusations of human rights violations.

A European Commission spokesperson said it doesn’t comment on ongoing legal proceedings but is “concerned about any reports of pushbacks and mistreatment....Efficient border management must be firmly rooted in the respect of human dignity and the principle of non-refoulement.” The French woman’s family says they received a similar response to a letter they sent the commission.

“The EU, unfortunately, has declared that Greece was the shield of Europe…it frees the Greek authorities from many constraints,” said Francois Crepeau, a professor at McGill University in Canada and a former UN special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants. While in public many European officials will condemn pushbacks as illegal, he said, “in fact, they’re quite happy that Greece is doing the dirty job for everyone else.”

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AP journalists Theodora Tongas in Athens, Greece and Elaine Ganley in Paris, contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s global migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration

Met Police announce probe into Prince Charles foundation's cash-for-honor scandal 

Prince Charles speaks during a reception on June 11, 2021, in Cornwall, Britain. His foundation is being investigated in a cash-for-honors scandal, the Metropolitan Police said Wednesday. File Photo by Karwai Tang/G7 Cornwall 2021/UPI | License Photo

Feb. 16 (UPI) -- London's Metropolitan Police announced Wednesday they are investigating a "cash-for-honors" scheme linking a billionaire Saudi national with Prince Charles's foundation.

Scotland Yard did not name the Saudi involved, but a published report last year said Mahfouz Marei Mubarak Bin Mahfouz was given a CBE, or award of the British Empire, in 2016 during a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

The report said Mahfouz paid "thousands" to a fixer who had connections with Prince Charles, according to The Guardian.

Prince Harry, Prince Charles' son, said he had cut ties with Mahfouz over "concerns over his motives" and had "expressed his concerns" with his father, according to the Sunday Times.

"The Metropolitan Police Service has launched an investigation into allegations of offenses under the Honors (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925," Scotland Yard said in a statement. "The decision follows an assessment of a September 2021 letter. This related to media reporting alleging offers of help were made to secure honors and citizenship for a Saudi national.

The police said a special inquiry team had conducted an assessment with those they believe have information into the scheme.

"The Foundation provided a number of relevant documents," Scotland Yard said. "These documents were reviewed alongside existing information. The assessment determined an investigation will commence. There have been no arrests or interviews under caution."

When the allegations first surfaced, Michael Fawcett, a close aide to Prince Charles, stepped down as the foundation's chief executive after an internal investigation.

Waymo partners with C.H. Robinson to test autonomous trucks in Texas

A Waymo Via autonomous truck. Waymo Wednesday announced a Texas autonomous truck test in partnership with C.H. Robinson. Photo courtesy of Waymo

Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Waymo said Wednesday that its autonomous trucks will be tested in Texas in a new partnership with C.H. Robinson.

Waymo and C.H. Robinson will test autonomous truck deliveries along a 240-mile route between Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth.

"As we continue commercializing our Waymo Via solution for Class 8 trucking, we're partnering with C.H. Robinson, one of the world's largest logistics platforms and a leader in the transportation industry, to integrate the Waymo Driver into supply chains and make autonomous freight movement a reality for their customers," Waymo said in a press statement.

Waymo said this is a strategic, long-term partnership that will initially include multiple pilot tests in Texas.

Waymo said it's also partnering with truck manufacturers like Daimler Truck to build trucks that will be designed for and equipped with the Waymo driver. Fleets of these trucks will be bought by carriers.

"We look forward to this collaboration with C.H. Robinson, both for their deep roots and experience in logistics and transportation, but also as a company that shares our vision of how technology and autonomous trucking can change our industry for the better," Charlie Jatt, head of commercialization for trucking at Waymo Via, said in a statement.

C.H. Robinson is a Minnesota-based brokerage company.

"We are excited to partner with Waymo Via to explore how autonomous driving technology can help bring increased capacity and sustainability into our logistics strategies," Chris O'Brien, C.H. Robinson's chief commercial officer, said in Waymo's press statement.

Waymo is owned by Google parent company Alphabet.

POSTMODERN CURLING; BIG DATA

Moneyrock: Olympic curlers crunch data to get edge on ice

KELVIN CHAN and JIMMY GOLEN

February 17, 2022

Members of the British curling team watch the men's curling semifinal match between Britain and the United States at the Beijing Winter Olympics Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022, in Beijing. During play at Beijing's Ice Cube Olympic venue, the British coaches punch game stats into their tablets and other devices that have been preloaded with match data for their curlers and the opponents. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)


BEIJING (AP) — Rocks and ice, meet mobile devices and big data.

The 500-year-old sport of curling is sliding into the digital age at the Winter Olympics, with modern technology helping teams sift through game stats and performance data to maximize their chances at a medal.

Major pro sports like baseball and football are increasingly crunching numbers to identify undervalued players and better inform coaching decisions. Now the trend toward analytics is coming to curling, a sport more often thought of as a pastoral pastime played by amateurs with dad bods and day jobs.

“Data is king,” said Nigel Holl, executive performance director of the British curling team, an early adopter of curling tech.

“The only advantage we can possibly have is: Can we learn quicker and move faster than the opposition and get an advantage in?” Holl said. “And data is a key part of how you can move faster and be ahead of the game.”

In curling, teams take turns sliding 42-pound rocks down a sheet of ice toward a scoring area. Players furiously sweep the ice along the way to help speed up the stone or curl it around an opponent’s on its way to the target.

The intricate strategy — successful teams must plan several throws in advance — has earned the sport the nickname “chess on ice.” And that strategy is now driven by data and technology that gives the players real-time insights into the best shot to take.

During play at Beijing’s Ice Cube Olympic venue, the British coaches punched game stats into their tablets and other devices that have been preloaded with match data for their curlers and the opponents.

The British and U.S. teams also employ performance analysts who sit at the end of the ice sheet filming the action for match intelligence. The goal: to get a better picture of each side’s strengths and weaknesses — information that can be relayed to players during breaks.

“It’s the future,” said U.S.A. curling’s director of coaching, Phill Drobnick. “It’s doing everything you can do to give ourselves that little bit of an edge.”

The U.S. curling team has been filming matches for years, but Drobnick said now it’s wringing more information out of video to help with tactics for each play and to scout out the opposition.

“You’ve got to use the information that’s out there to try to give yourself the best chance to win it,” said American John Shuster, a five-time Olympian and the reigning gold medalist. “I feel like it’s put us in a position where we’ve got some wins.”

Curling powerhouse Canada also uses video and data analytics, team spokesman Kyle Jahns said.

“It’s common for teams (not just Canada) to collect this kind of data not only at the Olympics, but other events in order to create game plans that will be most efficient at international events,” he said by email.

An Olympic curling match has 10 ends, like innings in baseball. Teams throw eight rocks apiece in each round. Much of the in-end strategy involves protecting one’s own rocks from an opponent’s takeout, but the end-game management often centers around the significant advantage of throwing last.

For example, even in a tie game entering the ninth end, it has long been smart strategy to intentionally miss — and score zero points — to hang onto the last-rock advantage, known as the hammer, in the 10th.

Now players have the numbers to back that up, along with more complex decisions.

In Thursday night’s medal round game against Britain, with a fairly easy chance to score one point and tie the game, the United States deliberately threw the ninth-end hammer into the side of the sheet — and gave up a point to fall behind by two — in order to have the last rock in the 10th.

“I know it looks funny and you don’t realize, like, ‘Why did they do it?’” American Matt Hamilton said. “But the sports are analytic now. We know all the numbers, where your armchair curler — who doesn’t watch it year-in and year-out, and all the championships — might not necessarily realize it.”

NFL coaches have become more aggressive about going for it on fourth down, or going for two points after a touchdown, based on similar statistical analysis.

The British team, one of just two to reach the medal round in all three Olympic curling disciplines in Beijing, uses data analytics platform Tableau to present the information in a more easily digested visual form.

It’s got to be “obvious and intuitive” so the coach can relay it to the athletes in as little as one syllable, Holl said.

“They’ve got 20 seconds to get information across to an athlete to influence the game,” Holl said.

Some purists scoff.

“I think there’s a place for it, but I think analytics in a lot of situations, it seems to be trending towards overuse,” said Canadian Brad Gushue, a 2006 Olympic gold medalist.

“We try and use a little bit of it,” Gushue said, “but still go a little old school and use that instinct.” ___

AP Sports Writer Jimmy Golen is in Beijing covering Olympic curling for the third time. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/jgolen. AP Business Writer Kelvin Chan writes about technology from London and is covering a range of Olympic stories in Beijing. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/chanman.

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More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

US Education Department approves $415M loan forgiveness for defrauded students


Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona Wednesday announced the department would repay $415 million in student loans to borrowers who were defrauded by for-profit colleges including DeVry University. 

File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI| License Photo

Feb. 16 (UPI) -- The Biden administration on Wednesday granted $415 million in student loan forgiveness to nearly 16,000 borrowers who were misled by for-profit colleges.

Among the borrowers to receive loan forgiveness Wednesday were 1,800 former DeVry University students as the Department of Education said in a statement that it found the institution made "widespread substantial misrepresentations about its job placement rates."

The Education Department said the claims were the first under a legal statute known as borrower defense, which promises loan forgiveness to borrowers who have been defrauded by an institution that is presently operating.

"The Department will seek to recoup the cost of the discharges from DeVry," it said in a statement. "The Department anticipates that the number of approved claims related to DeVry will increase as it continues reviewing pending applications."

According to the department's findings, DeVry claimed from 2008 to 2015 that 90% of its graduates who actively seek employment obtained jobs in their field of study within six months of graduation, when in reality its job placement rate was about 58%.

"The Department found that more than half of the jobs included in the claimed 90% placement rate were held by students who obtained them well before graduating from DeVry and often before they even enrolled," the department said.

DeVry in 2016 agreed to pay $100 million to settle federal charges that said it recruited prospective students with deceptive advertisements that cited false employment success rates and income levels for students who graduated.

In addition to the DeVry cases, the Education Department provided $53.1 million in borrower defense payments to 1,600 borrowers who attended Westwood College, $3.1 million to approximately 130 students at ITT Technical Institute's nursing program and $3 million to 270 borrowers who attended Minnesota School of Business/Globe University after finding all three now-defunct institutions similarly misled borrowers.

Another $284.5 million in discharges was also issued to more than 11,900 students who attended institutions such as Corinthian Colleges, about which the Education Department previously released findings.

To date, the Education Department has issued $2 billion in borrower defense repayment to more than 107,000 borrowers, it said Wednesday.

"The Department remains committed to giving borrowers discharges when the evidence shows their college violated the law and standards," U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said.

"Students count on their colleges to be truthful, Unfortunately, today's findings show too many instances in which students were misled into loans at institutions or programs that could not deliver what they'd promised," Cardona said.

US Bill intended to protect children online prompts outcry from privacy advocates

By Emily Anderson Stern, Medill News Service

The EARN IT Act, first introduced in 2020, would cut back on decades-long protections for websites in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, allowing victims and their families to file lawsuits against companies that host child sexual abuse material. Photo by Eric Fischer/Wikimedia Commons

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- A bill intended to hold social media platforms accountable for posts that exploit children, but has been criticized for its potential to harm online privacy, has passed its first hurdle to getting a future vote in the Senate.

The EARN IT Act, first introduced in 2020, would cut back on decades-long protections for websites in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, allowing victims and their families to file lawsuits against companies that host child sexual abuse material.

"Our goal is to tell the social media companies [to] get involved and stop this crap, and if you don't take responsibility for what's on your platform, then Section 230 will not be there for you," said Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, sponsor of the bill, in a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting last week.

Under the bill, social media companies would not be able to cite the use of encryption technology as a defense against liability.

Critics of the measure say this provision would disincentivize platforms from using encryption to protect users and would lead to unnecessarily censoring content in many cases.

Opponents include civil rights groups and industry organizations. Digital rights advocacy group Fight for the Future has launched a petition against it that nearly 600,000 people have signed.

The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved the EARN IT Act, despite some members expressing reservations. Lawmakers from both parties, including Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Democratic Sens. Chris Coons of Delaware, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Jon Ossoff of Georgia and Alex Padilla of California, voiced concerns about how the bill would impact online privacy.

"I'm a little concerned that the current language inadvertently mandates interactive computer services to do for the government what the government itself is prohibited from doing, which is engaging in ... the open-ended policing [and] the accessing and reporting of private and protected data," Lee said.

Numerous organizations that fight sexual violence and child exploitation support the bill. A press conference organized by Graham and co-sponsor Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Thursday morning featured representatives from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and anti-sexual assault organization RAINN.

Reading from a letter written by "Amy," a victim going by a pseudonym, who said images of her being sexually abused as a child still can be found on the Internet, RAINN federal affairs director Samantha Cadet said Internet service providers aren't doing anything to remove that material.

"We shouldn't have to force companies to do the right thing, but they pretend to care, then use CDA 230 to shut the courtroom doors on us," she read.

According the the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's website, its CyberTipline has received more than 82 million reports of child sexual abuse material on the Internet since its 1998 inception.

RAINN Vice President Camille Cooper said that half of the 27,000 people who access its online hotline each month are children.

Stanford Internet Observatory research scholar Riana Pfefferkorn said amending Section 230 most likely will not improve child safety.

In an essay published Feb. 4, Pfefferkorn wrote that the bill would make child sexual abuse investigations more difficult by pushing predators to offshore websites, where the law wouldn't apply, as well as the dark web, where the material is more difficult to find.

A better solution, she said in an email, would be to provide "more resources for investigating reports of child sex abuse online, because as things stand, those charged with doing this important work are completely overwhelmed."

She also noted that time would be better spent addressing factors like poverty and housing instability that make children more vulnerable to abuse.

Dutch PM apologizes for brutality during 1945-1949 Indonesian war
By UPI Staff

Women train for the Indonesian war for independence in 1945. 

File Photo by Wikimedia Commons.

Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologized for the systematic and widespread violence exercised by the Netherlands during the 1945-49 Indonesian war of independence.

An inquiry revealed that the Netherlands' military and intelligence services were sanctioned by the highest levels of government to carry out executions and torture in Indonesia.

Since 1969, the Netherlands has held that there were only isolated cases of excess violence and that the armed forces behaved correctly.

The report -- the result of a four-and-a-half-year research project funded by the government -- proved otherwise.

"I make a deep apology to the people of Indonesia today for the systematic and widespread extreme violence by the Dutch side in those years and the consistent looking away by previous cabinets," Rutte said, according to The Guardian. "The prevailing culture was one of looking away, shirking and a misplaced colonial sense of superiority. That is a painful realization, even after so many years."

The Indonesian war of independence was spurred just two days after Japan surrendered in World War II on Aug. 16, 1945. Revolutionaries Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta declared independence from the Dutch's 350-year rule over Indonesia -- a move contested by The Hague.

Between then and Dec. 27, 1949, approximately 100,000 Indonesians were killed compared to 5,300 Dutch militia.

The report shows that the army was frequently guilty of torture, detention under inhumane circumstances, arson of houses and villages, and arbitrary mass arrests and internments.

The research was conducted by the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, the Netherlands Institute of Military History and the Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies, and will be published in 14 books.

Last known speaker of Chilean Yaghan language dies at 93

By Calley Hair

Cristina Calderón, the last known native speaker of the Indigenous language Yaghan, speaks at the University of Magallanes in southern Chile on Oct. 23, 2014. Calderón died this week at the age of 93. Photo courtesy of the University of Magallanes.

Feb. 19 (UPI) -- The last known native speaker of the Indigenous Chilean language Yaghan died this week at 93, her family announced via social media.

Cristina Calderón was the only remaining person to speak Yaghan, a melodic language with no written form once spoken by people living on the southernmost tip of Chile.

Calderón -- known locally as "Abuela Cristina" or "Grandma Cristina," the Buenos Aires Times reported -- was recognized by the Chilean government as a "living human treasure" for her cultural preservation work.

The Yaghan people lived on the tip of South America for approximately 6,000 years. Until about 150 years ago, there were around 3,000 people in the community. Their population was decimated by infectious diseases introduced by European settlers.

The presence of foreigners also altered their culture, which prized fishing and basket weaving. Today, the region's primary industry is tourism.

Calderón's daughter, Lidia González Calderón, wrote in a tweet that her mother's death represented "sad news for the Yaghan."

"Everything I do in my work will be in your name," she wrote in Spanish." And in it will also be reflected your people."