AMERICAN SOCIALISM

Federal checks salvage otherwise dreadful 2020 for US farms

By DAVID PITT

 In this Aug. 26, 2020 file photo, a farmer discs over a corn field on at a farm north of Woodward, Iowa. The corn was damaged beyond salvage by the recent derecho. Thanks to the government paying nearly 40% of their income, U.S. farmers are expected to end 2020 with higher profit than 2019 and the best net income in seven years, the Department of Agriculture said in its latest farm income forecast. Farmers faced challenges throughout 2020 that included the impact of trade disputes; low prices that drove down cash receipts and weather difficulties. (Bryon Houlgrave/The Des Moines Register via AP File)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Thanks to the government paying nearly 40% of their income, U.S. farmers are expected to end 2020 with higher profit than 2019 and the best net income in seven years, the Department of Agriculture said in its latest farm income forecast.

Farmers faced challenges throughout 2020 that included the impact of trade dispute s; low prices that drove down cash receipts for corn, cotton, wheat, chicken, cattle and hogs; and weather difficulties such as drought in some areas and an unusual August wind storm stretching from South Dakota to Ohio that centered on Iowa.

Farm cash receipts are forecast to decrease nearly 1% to $366.5 billion, the lowest in more than a decade, measured in real dollars. Direct federal government payments saved farmers’ bottom line: Farmers overall saw a 107% increase in direct payments from 2019, when a third of net income came directly from the government.

The impact of the money varies from one farm to another, depending on whether a farmer owns the land, has significant capital to draw from, has manageable debt and aggressively manages wide commodity price swings.

“The payment to one farm could be a matter of life and death of that farm and for another farm maybe just makes it not quite as bad of a year as it was going to be and everywhere in between,” said Mike Paustian, a farmer who raises hogs and grows soybeans and corn near Walcott in eastern Iowa. “I’ve described it as: If you’re drowning and somebody throws you a life preserver, you’re not going to argue too much about grabbing ahold of it.”

Excluding USDA loans and insurance indemnity payments made by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation, farmers are expected to receive $46.5 billion from the government, the largest direct-to-farm payment ever. That includes $32.4 billion in assistance through coronavirus pandemic relief food assistance and Paycheck Protection Program payments to farmers. Additional support comes from more traditional revenue loss programs due to low commodity prices, compensation for trade disruptions resulting from tariff battles and conservation programs assistance.

Federal court bankruptcy data indicates 433 U.S. farms filed for reorganization as of Sept. 30, down from 454 during the same period the previous year.

Overall, net farm income in the United States is expected to increase 43% from 2019 to $119.6 billion, the USDA estimated. Farmers will see the highest level of net farm income, a broad measure of profitability, since 2013, the agency said.

One northeast Iowa farmer said without the federal money it would have been difficult to make ends meet this year but it began to feel like the government checks were motivated by politics from a president seeking support for reelection.

“At first it did help, but then we kept getting payments and I don’t know that those were warranted,” said Rick Juchems, 65, who grows corn and soybeans and custom raises hogs. “The markets had already recovered quite a bit and they’re recovering yet more, so it helps some but it’s one of those things that the second one was more than we needed.”

In a late October campaign appearance in Omaha, Nebraska, President Donald Trump said he believed farmers were better off getting government payments than relying solely on their farming receipts.

“In fact, some people say our farmers do better now than when they actually had a farm,” he said.

Many top farm states voted again for Trump in November, including Iowa, Nebraska, Texas and Kansas. Several, however, left Trump to vote for Democrat Joe Biden, including Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia.

Bill Gordon, who with his father raises soybeans and corn in southwestern Minnesota, hopes for improved free trade agreements and a less confrontational approach under Biden in 2021.

“Volatility definitely causes volatility,” he said. “And so if we can get these free trade agreements set up, that are better, and not as confrontational but still benefit both sides, that just benefits agriculture and rural America.”

Glenda Jackson returns to screen with

 ‘Elizabeth Is Missing’

By MARK KENNEDY

This photo provided by PBS show Glenda Jackson in a scene from "Elizabeth Is Missing." Only one project lured the two-time Academy Award winner back to the screen after an absence of 25 years: “Elizabeth Is Missing.” The BBC film is a mystery but so much more — a powerful and moving look at dementia. Jackson plays a woman lost in the fog between the past and present. (Marsaili Mainz/STV Productions/PBS via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — Only one project lured two-time Academy Award winner Glenda Jackson back to the screen after an absence of 25 years: “Elizabeth Is Missing.”

The film is a mystery but so much more — a powerful and moving look at dementia, a pressing emotional and financial issue for many nations with aging populations. Jackson plays a woman lost in the fog between the past and present.

“This is something that as a society, we have to look at seriously,” the actor told The Associated Press by phone from England. “It’s a big black hole.”

The 90-minute film aired in the UK in 2019 to great acclaim and American viewers get a chance to see it starting Sunday via Masterpiece on PBS.

Jackson, 84, plays the role of Maud, who is in the throes of Alzheimer’s disease. Her home is covered with taped-up reminders and instructions — “Don’t forget to lock up” and “No more bread” — and her pockets are stuffed with scrawled notes she wrote to remind herself of events and appointments.

“The unique thing about it that isn’t often done in pieces about dementia is that it takes the viewer inside the experience of living with dementia — the fear, the panic, the frustration,” said Sarah Brown, an executive producer.

Viewers meet Maude just as she is insisting she find out what has happened to her friend, Elizabeth, who seems to have vanished. This disappearance becomes linked in her increasingly chaotic mind with a much older one — of her sister in 1949.

The film has interwoven timelines and Maud seamlessly switches between her 1949 past and present, revealing a sympathetic and unsentimental portrait of dementia.

“Nobody listens to me. Am I invisible or something?” says Maude. Later she melts down at a restaurant: “I want to scream but it won’t come out!”

(Marsaili Mainz/STV Productions/PBS via AP)

Jackson, who picked up Academy Awards for 1971’s “Women In Love” and 1974’s “A Touch of Class,” swapped film and TV for politics in 1992 when she became a Labour Member of Parliament.

She used to visit senior centers — they’re called care homes in Britain — as part of the job and saw first-hand the effects of the disease.

“The issue is one that I’ve been banging on about for a very long time, certainly when I was still a member of parliament,” she said. “We are looking at a situation where if we continue to live longer than we have in the past, care homes are going to be central to how we actually look after ourselves.”

To get into the role, Jackson consulted with the group Dementia UK and its head of research and publications, Dr. Karen Harrison Dening.

“I asked her one of the things I found most difficult to get around with was actually what motivated this woman,” said Jackson. The response was one word: frustration — that no one took her seriously or that she couldn’t remember.

Jackson performance even rattled Jackson herself. “There were a couple of days where I was convinced that I’d contracted the disease, but that’s par for the course, really,” she said.

Other recent films that have tackled Alzheimer’s disease and dementia include “Away From Her,” “Still Alice,” “The Notebook” and “The Savages.”

Jackson in May 2019. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

SHE SUFFERS FROM ENGLISH TEETH

Brown credits writer Emma Healey, whose book of the same name was the source of the film’s adaptation, for finding a compelling way to show mental decline.

“In a way, Emma Healey used a mystery to draw the viewers in but really that was the Trojan horse to which we understood the disease,” she said.

It is Jackson’s searing portrayal that resonates. She plays Maude as angry and horrified, embarrassed and ferocious. It is a role not unlike her recent Broadway work in “King Lear,” who descends into madness.

“It is a fierce performance. It is actually ‘Lear’-like in many ways,” said Brown. “She brings the fierceness as well as the tenderness as well as the humor — and sometimes all in one scene.”

Jackson says strangers have come up to her to share the toll the disease has taken on their families, both physically and emotionally. She’s lately seen British politicians embrace the seriousness of dementia, especially in light of how COVID-19 has ravaged nursing homes.

“Let’s hope it has a similar reaction to those people who are suffering from the reality of these diseases that it seems to have done in this country,” Jackson said. “The need for care is going to increase in future.”

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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

Serial squirrel: Neighbors keep eye out for fierce rodent

NEW YORK (AP) — Residents of a Queens neighborhood are dealing with a squirrely threat.

Denizens of the New York City borough’s Rego Park neighborhood say an aggressive squirrel has jumped on them and bitten them in the past several weeks, WCBS-TV reported Wednesday.

Micheline Frederick pointed to a bruise on her wrist where she said the squirrel landed on her and then sank its teeth into her fingers and hand.

“We’re wrestling in the snow and there’s blood everywhere and my fingers getting chewed and it won’t let go,” Frederick said. “Eventually, it just stopped and there I was a big bloody mess.”

A photo Frederick says she took after the attack shows a snowy pathway covered in blood.

“This was an MMA cage match! And I lost!” she added.

Two other neighbors told WCBS the squirrel had jumped on them, seemingly unprovoked.

“These squirrels are aggressively going after people,” Vinati Singh said.

The city’s Department of Health advised the neighbors to hire a licensed trapper, but the large metal traps have not yet captured any squirrels, the broadcaster reported.

The reason for the squirrel — or squirrels’ — aggressive behavior is not clear. Small rodents like squirrels rarely test positive for rabies and are not known to have transmitted it to humans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

HOCKEY A NATIONAL FETISH

Canada approves NHL camps,

but provinces must rule on games

FILE - Edmonton Oilers players take part in drills during NHL hockey training camp in Edmonton, Alberta, in this Monday, July 13, 2020, file photo. The Canadian government has given its OK to start NHL training camps, citing “national interest grounds.” It has issued an exemption to the mandatory 14-day quarantine period for NHL players and team staff to return to the country. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP)

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — The Canadian government, citing “national interest grounds,” gave its approval Thursday for the start of NHL training camps. It issued an exemption to the mandatory 14-day quarantine period for NHL players and team staff to return to the country.

The five provinces with NHL franchises, however, must give their approval for games between Canadian teams during the regular season, which is scheduled to start Jan. 13. The seven Canadian teams will play in a new North Division.

Alberta became the first province to say the NHL can play games in its arenas. The provincial government told The Canadian Press on Thursday it approved Edmonton and Calgary for competition following a review of protocols outlined in the league’s return-to-play plan, along with additional enhancements.

The Public Health Agency of Canada said the league’s plan for the preseason offers “robust measures to mitigate the risk of importation and spread of COVID-19 in Canada.” All provinces with NHL clubs have provided written support for the plan.

The statement added that all teams must operate within provincial rules for regular-season play.

A week ago, NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said the league believes it can play in all seven Canadian markets -- Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver

The Canadian teams will play each other only during the regular season and the first two rounds of the playoffs. They also won’t cross the U.S.-Canada border, which remains closed to nonessential travel.

The Ottawa Senators were one of seven clubs across the 31-team league to start training camp Thursday after not qualifying for the playoffs as part of the restart to the pandemic-halted 2019-20 season. The other six Canadian teams are to open training camp Sunday or Monday.

This past summer, the federal government cleared the Toronto Blue Jays to train at Rogers Centre, also under “national interest grounds.” But it rejected a proposal for home games against teams from the U.S. The Blue Jays eventually settled on Buffalo, New York, as their 2020 base.

The only Canadian professional sports teams to play on home soil during the pandemic have been the six NHL clubs to qualify for the 2019-20 post-season in Toronto and Edmonton, along with Toronto FC, the Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps of MLS.

The soccer teams were cleared to take part a series of games against each other in August and September before relocating to the U.S. to face American opponents.

USA
In a year of pain, one silver lining: fewer mass shootings

By LISA MARIE PANE December 29, 2020

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FILE - In this Feb. 27, 2020, file photo, the Molson Coors facility is seen in Milwaukee. An employee at the historic Molson Coors facility shot and killed five co-workers Wednesday afternoon and then turned the gun on himself. Six people, including the shooter, were killed on Feb. 26, 2020 at the facility. 

If there's one silver lining in a year marred by a deadly pandemic, civil unrest, and economic and political turmoil, it's this: The number of mass shootings that happened in public was the lowest in more than a decade. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)

  If there’s one silver lining in a year marred by a deadly pandemic, civil unrest, and economic and political turmoil, it’s this: The number of mass shootings that happened in public was the lowest in more than a decade.

Experts who research mass killings say there are two key reasons for the sharp drop-off. For one, most people avoided going out in public during coronavirus lockdowns, which meant fewer opportunities for slayings in workplaces or schools. For another, Americans were so focused on other tragedies that would-be gunmen were less likely to consider carrying out attacks.

A database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University that tracks mass killings — defined as four or more dead, not including the shooter — back to 2006 showed just two public mass shootings this year. Both happened before the lockdowns took hold.

The first mass shooting of the year was on Feb. 26, when an employee at a brewery in Milwaukee killed five co-workers before killing himself. The other occurred on March 15, when a man killed four people in Springfield, Missouri, before killing himself.

Since then? Not one.

James Alan Fox, a criminologist and professor at Northeastern University, said he hopes the lull will help break the cycle of the past few years and help tamp down on mass shootings. The so-called “contagion effect” suggests that the more we hear about and talk about mass slayings, the more gunmen fixate on carrying out attacks.

At the same time, in the midst of a pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, people who might otherwise feel compelled to wreak such carnage may not feel quite as persecuted or alone in experiencing hardships, he said.

“The thing about mass shooters is they tend to be people who feel that they are the victims of injustice. Well, lots of people now are suffering, not just them,” Fox said. “It’s hard to say right now that your own plight is unique or unfair. It may not feel good, but there’s certainly reason for it. And it’s not because of something someone’s doing to you. It’s really the pandemic, which is a thing not a person.”

Besides the two public mass shootings this year, the AP/USA Today/Northeastern database tracked 10 family mass slayings, eight of which were shootings. Three mass killings were carried out in the course of other crimes, and six attacks that happened for unknown reasons. Of those six, one may end up being classified as a public mass shooting — a Juneteenth block party in Charlotte, North Carolina, that was rocked by gunfire that killed four people.

The change in the number of public mass shootings is the most stark. In 2019 and 2018, there were nine and 10 such shootings, respectively.

In many ways, it’s surprising to experts given that, over the past year, people spent more time online, sometimes in the dark corners of the internet, and possibly feeling depressed or hopeless. Firearm purchases also reached levels never before seen.

“All of these risk factors are going up, but yet we’re not seeing the mass shootings,” said Jillian Peterson, an associate professor of criminology and criminal justice at Hamline University and a forensic psychologist who previously worked in New York crafting psychological profiles of convicted murderers facing the death penalty.

While the drop-off in high-profile shootings is heartening, experts who track gun violence note that other shootings appear to have risen this year: gang violence, drive-by shootings and other random firearm deaths. Suicides involving a gun appear in line with previous years, according to data compiled by the Gun Violence Archive.

The GVA, which monitors media and police reports to track gun violence, defines mass shootings as those involving four or more people who were shot, regardless of whether they died. Under that definition, the group’s research shows a spike in shootings, with about 600 so far this year. That’s more than any of the previous six years since the GVA began tracking gun violence.

However, the overall decline in mass killings is “almost a natural experiment for the test of the role of the contagion factor,” said James Densley, a criminologist and professor at Metropolitan State University in Minnesota who studies mass shootings. “At the moment, we’ve got this pause, this break that we’re in, and that has the potential to really stop this cycle.”

If another mass shooting occurs when the nation reopens, “and it becomes a big thing again, there’s a risk that sort of restarts the cycle all over again,” he said.

Changes, challenges: The not-so-secret life of pandemic pets

By DAN SEWELL

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In this photo provided by Kate Hilts, Ross Hettervig, left, and Kate Hilts pose for a photo with their cat, Potato, on Nov. 14, 2020, in Washington. Veterinarians and owners report some pets are being medicated for anxiety, and others are being put on diets because of too many treats and not enough exercise in parks that humans may be avoiding because of virus concerns. Hilts says her cat, a rescue who joined their household in March 2019, always seemed to enjoy attention from strangers but now hides from visitors. (Kate Hilts via AP)

CINCINNATI (AP) — Olivia Hinerfeld’s dog Lincoln and Kate Hilts’ cat Potato have something in common: They both like to interrupt Zoom calls as their owners work from home.

“Sometimes it’s better to preemptively put him on your lap so he can fall asleep,” says Hilts, a digital consultant in the Washington D.C. area.

Jealous of the attention that Hinerfeld is paying to her video conference call, Lincoln, a golden retriever, will fetch “the most disgusting” tennis ball he can find from his toy crate to drop into the lap of the Georgetown University Law School student.

For many dogs, this is life as it was meant to be: humans around 24/7, walks and treats on demand, sneaking onto beds at night without resistance. Cats — many of whom, let’s be honest, were already social distancing before humans knew what that was — are more affectionate than ever, some now even acting hungry for attention.

Ten months into quarantines and working from home because of the pandemic, household pets’ lives and relationships with humans have in many cases changed, and not always for the better. With this month’s U.S. rollout of vaccinations offering hope for normalcy in 2021, long-term impacts aren’t known.

“If we think how much time most of our pets prior to the pandemic typically would spend without people around to 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it’s quite a lot,” says Candace Croney, a Purdue University professor who teaches about animal behavior.

While estimates vary on how many pets there are in the United States, there’s general agreement that the majority of U.S. households have at least one pet, with dogs, then cats, far out-numbering other pets such as birds and fish. There also was a surge in pet adoptions this year as stay-at-home restrictions took effect.

For all those tens of millions of dogs and cats, it’s been an opportunity to teach humans a thing or two about themselves.

Croney has enjoyed watching how her long-hair cat Bernie and Havanese-mix dog Des play together. She finds herself getting “bookended” by the pair in bed at night.

“I’ve been learning things that I probably had been missing about how these two interact with each other and have found out that I need to take my cues from them,” Croney says. “Which is funny, because I do this for a living and this is the kind of thing we tell other people to do and clearly, I was missing some of it myself.”

In the Washington D.C. area, Emily Benavides, a U.S. Senate staffer, is learning her cat’s language. Humito (Spanish for Smokey), the 3-year-old rescue cat she’s had most of his life, has different-sounding “Meows” to communicate that he wants to eat, wants to nap or has knocked his toy under the refrigerator.

“I think the more time you spend with them, the more you can see them eye-to-eye,” she says. “The pandemic has brought us closer together.”

Devika Ranjan, a theater director in Chicago, wanted pandemic company and got a rescue cat she named Aloo during the summer. The formerly feral cat is believed to be around 3, and seems to be very comfortable with a slow-paced, high-attention pandemic life.

“My working from home, I think he loves it,” she says. “I think he is just ready to settle down in life. If he were human, he’d probably sit on the couch with a PBR (beer) and watch TV all day.”

The pandemic hasn’t been positive for all pets, though, such as those with owners who are struggling financially.

Veterinarians and owners report some pets are being medicated for anxiety, and others are being put on diets because of too many treats and not enough exercise in parks that humans may be avoiding because of virus concerns.

Hilts says her cat, a rescue who joined their household in March 2019, always seemed to enjoy attention from strangers but now hides from visitors. Kursten Hedgis, a herbalist in Decatur, Georgia, says her dog Bitsy, also a rescue, misses the attention from other humans on their walks.

“He got really bummed out because no one would talk to him or pet him,” she says. “People would walk six feet around us. I think he took it personally.”

Bitsy, a yorkie, is 14 and has been with her six years after a life as a breeder in a puppy mill. He is blind in one eye and suffers periodic infections and incontinence. Trips to the veterinarian have been “really scary” because of the masks and reduced contacts.

However, Hedgis and other pet owners say they have become more than companions in recent months, that they provide valuable emotional support to their humans.

Humito seems to sense when she is feeling stressed and will take the initiative to cuddle into her lap, says Benavides, communications director for Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio. “It’s a relationship built on mutual care and comfort,” Benavides says.

As humans begin to return to work and the vaccine rolls out, the next year likely will bring a test of those relationships and new habits. Says Ranjan of Aloo: “I hope he will take it in stride.”

Croney, the animal behavior professor with some two decades of experience, says she’s concerned about what will happen when she returns to work, and not only to her pets.

“I’m starting to worry a little bit for me,” she admits. “I’m becoming a little co-dependent of my animals.”

___

Dan Sewell is Cincinnati correspondent for The Associated Press. At some point during the pandemic, his household’s Bichon dog, Mimi, went from jumping into bed in the morning to having her own pillow in bed at night. Follow Sewell on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/dansewell

SOUND OF GLASS BREAKING
Hammon first woman to coach NBA team; Lakers beat Spurs

RAUL DOMINGUEZ

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San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon breaks from a huddle during a timeout in the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Lakers in San Antonio, Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2020. Hammon became the first woman to direct an NBA team, taking over the Spurs after coach Gregg Popovich was ejected in a 121-107 loss to the Lakers. 

(AP Photo/Eric Gay)

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Becky Hammon would have preferred a victory over history after becoming the first woman to coach an NBA team.

The assistant coach took over the San Antonio Spurs in the second quarter after coach Gregg Popovich was ejected in a 121-107 loss to LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night.

“I try not to think of the huge picture and huge aspect of it because it can be overwhelming,” Hammon said. “I really have had no time to reflect. I have not had time to look at my phone. So, I don’t know what’s going on outside the AT&T Center.”

Hammon and the Spurs already had a lot to contend with against the defending league champion Lakers.

James celebrated his 36th birthday with 26 points, eight assists and five rebounds in the Lakers’ third double-digit victory. The teams will complete the two-game set Friday night.

“(I was) trying to get the guys in the right spots,” Hammon said. “Trying to get them motivated. Obviously, it’s a learning situation for all of us, but I would have loved to have walked out there with a win with the guys.”

Popovich was ejected by official Tony Brown with 3:56 remaining in the second quarter. Popovich screamed at Brown and entered the court following a non-call on DeMar DeRozan’s attempted layup and a subsequent attempted rebound by Drew Eubanks.

As he exited the court to applause from several of the team’s family members in attendance, Popovich pointed a finger at Hammon and had a succinct message.

“You got ’em,” Hammon said. “See? He doesn’t treat us any differently than he does you guys.”

Said LeBron James: “Obviously she’s been paying her dues over the last few years and Coach Pop has given her the opportunity. ... It’s a beautiful thing just to hear her barking out calls, barking out sets. She’s very passionate about the game. Congrats to her and congrats for our league.”

Hammon took over the team’s huddles during timeouts and walked the sideline following Popovich’s ejection. Hammon was the first full-time female assistant coach in league history.

“Well deserved,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said. “I’ve talked to her before and she really knows her stuff and obviously she’s here for a reason. She’s equipped, intelligent (and the) guys have great respect for her. She’s going to be a great coach one day.”

A three-time All-American at Colorado State, Hammon played for the New York Liberty and San Antonio Stars in the WNBA as well as overseas before retiring to join Popovich’s staff in 2014.

“Even in timeouts with Pop as head coach, she is quick on her feet,” DeRozan said. “She tells us about defensive assignments, offensive sets we should run. Seeing her in the forefront, it would have definitely been cool to have won for her.”

The Lakers contributed to Popovich’s frustration and the Spurs’ fortunes didn’t get much better after the veteran coach exited.

Dennis Schroder had 21 points, Anthony Davis had 20 points and eight rebounds for the Lakers. Wesley Matthews was 6 for 6 on 3-pointers in scoring 18 points off the bench.

The Spurs opened with a 9-2 run, including an uncontested drive through the lane by Keldon Johnson for a two-handed slam. The Lakers responded with an 11-0 run that promoted a timeout by Popovich.

The Lakers took their first double-digit lead at 35-25 on Kyle Kuzma’s 3-pointer with 1:14 remaining in the first quarter.

Dejounte Murray had a career-high 29 points, seven assists and seven rebounds.

“At the end of the day, it don’t mean nothing, we lost,” Murray said.

DeRozan added 23 for the Spurs, who lost their second straight after opening the season with two consecutive wins.

TIP-INS

Lakers: PG Alex Caruso missed the game for “health and safety protocols” as mandated by the league. Lakers coach Frank Vogel did not elaborate on Caruso’s status. … James was listed as questionable after spraining his left ankle sprain in the Lakers’ 115-107 loss to Portland on Monday. James played 35 minutes against the Spurs after scoring 29 points in 36 minutes against the Trail Blazers.

Spurs: Popovich said the Spurs will monitor Aldridge’s knee soreness on a day-to-day basis. … Tim Duncan took over last season when Popovich was ejected against Portland on Nov. 16, 2019. The Hall of Famer opted not to return as assistant this season.

Breakthroughs come on, off field in 2020 for women’s sports

By ERIC OLSON

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 San Francisco 49ers assistant Katie Sowers talks with free safety D.J. Reed (32) and wide receiver Richie James (13) before an NFL football game against the Carolina Panthers in Santa Clara, Calif., in this Sunday, Oct. 27, 2019, file photo. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar, File)

It was a milestone year for women in sports, starting with Katie Sowers becoming the first woman to coach in the Super Bowl and ending with Becky Hammon serving as an NBA head coach.

In between was a series of breakthroughs for women who just wanted a chance — and got it.

Sarah Fuller became the first woman to score in a major college football game and Kim Ng became the first to be hired as a general manager for a major league team.

WNBA players achieved a higher level of financial security and professional women’s hockey got a boost in exposure. International soccer saw an unprecedented transfer fee paid for a woman to move from one team to another, and the U.S. women’s national soccer team took a step toward its goal of equitable treatment.

“2020 was certainly a tumultuous and challenging year,” the Women’s Sports Foundation said in a statement to The Associated Press on Thursday. “It was also transformational, with many exciting, history-making firsts for women’s sports, athletes, coaches and leaders. Sports is a connector, a unifier and a microcosm of society. As we reflect on the power of women athletes and teams who spoke up, challenged the norms, shattered glass ceilings and showed girls, boys and everyone the limitless potential one can achieve, it gives us all hope for 2021 and beyond.”

Sowers had been working as a San Francisco 49ers offensive assistant since 2017 but wasn’t widely known until she was featured in a Microsoft television commercial that began running in January.

When the 49ers played the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl, she became the first female assistant and first openly gay coach to take the sideline in pro football’s biggest game.

Hammon became the first female coach to take charge of a team during an NBA game, taking over the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night against the Los Angeles Lakers following Gregg Popovich’s ejection in the second quarter.

“I look forward to the day where none of this is news, just people accomplishing things and everybody having a chance and everybody having a shot at the same thing,” said the Spurs’ Rudy Gay, who is close with Hammon.

Hammon, a star player in the college and pro ranks, already was the first full-time female assistant coach in league history. Hammon acknowledged it was “a substantial moment” but said she was more interested in winning the game.

“Becky Hammon is an enormously talented coach and it was outstanding to see her reach such a truly significant milestone,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said. “She continues to be an inspiration to so many people, especially countless young women and girls.”

Fuller was the goalkeeper on Vanderbilt’s Southeastern Conference championship soccer team before she rose to national prominence in November when she became the first woman to play in a Power Five conference game. She was on the field once that day, driving a low kickoff to open the second half as the Commodores got shut out at Missouri.

Two weeks later, Fuller kicked two extra points in a loss to Tennessee, with the second ball she put through the uprights sent to the College Football Hall of Fame.

In November, the Miami Marlins made Ng the first female GM in baseball, a feat accomplished after she was turned down for a similar job by at least five other teams over the past 15 years.

Ng started her baseball career as a Chicago White Sox intern in 1990 and for the past nine years was a senior vice president for MLB. Her hiring came 10 months after Alyssa Nakken became the first female coach on a major league staff when she was named an assistant for the San Francisco Giants.

On the business side, there were several notable strides made in 2020.

The WNBA and its union announced a eight-year labor deal allowing top players to earn more than $500,000 and raising the average annual salary to $130,000 a year. The agreement also guarantees full salaries for players who are on maternity leave and provides enhanced family benefits.

National Women’s Hockey League games will be televised live in the United States for the first time when NBC Sports Network airs playoff games in early February.

In international soccer, Chelsea signed Denmark captain Pernille Harder from Wolfsburg after paying what the German club said was “a record transfer fee for the women’s game.” The clubs did not disclose the fee — the amount paid when a team sells a player to another team, with a portion typically going to the player — but media reports said it was about 300,000 euros ($355,000).

In the United States, the women’s national team players and the U.S. Soccer Federation settled their long-running lawsuit over inequitable working conditions compared with the men’s team. The deal with the world champion American women calls for charter flights, hotel accommodations, venue selection and professional staff support equitable to that of the men’s team.

The women’s dispute over pay remains unsettled.

___

AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds, AP Sports Writers Dave Skretta, Steven Wine, Teresa M. Walker, Doug Feinberg, Stephen Whyno, Anne M. Peterson and Ronald Blum and AP freelance writer Raul Dominguez contributed.

China clamps down in hidden hunt for coronavirus origins

By DAKE KANG, MARIA CHENG and SAM MCNEIL

yesterday


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Huanan market vendor Jiang Dafa tends to his pigeons at home in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province on Oct. 22, 2020. China's search for the COVID-19 virus started in the Huanan Seafood market in Wuhan, a sprawling, low-slung complex where many of the first human coronavirus cases were detected. Scientists initially suspected the virus came from wild animals sold in the market. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

MOJIANG, China (AP) — Deep in the lush mountain valleys of southern China lies the entrance to a mine shaft that once harbored bats with the closest known relative of the COVID-19 virus.

The area is of intense scientific interest because it may hold clues to the origins of the coronavirus that has killed more than 1.7 million people worldwide. Yet for scientists and journalists, it has become a black hole of no information because of political sensitivity and secrecy.

A bat research team visiting recently managed to take samples but had them confiscated, two people familiar with the matter said. Specialists in coronaviruses have been ordered not to speak to the press. And a team of Associated Press journalists was tailed by plainclothes police in multiple cars who blocked access to roads and sites in late November.

More than a year since the first known person was infected with the coronavirus, an AP investigation shows the Chinese government is strictly controlling all research into its origins, clamping down on some while actively promoting fringe theories that it could have come from outside China.

The government is handing out hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to scientists researching the virus’ origins in southern China and affiliated with the military, the AP has found. But it is monitoring their findings and mandating that the publication of any data or research must be approved by a new task force managed by China’s cabinet, under direct orders from President Xi Jinping, according to internal documents obtained by the AP. A rare leak from within the government, the dozens of pages of unpublished documents confirm what many have long suspected: The clampdown comes from the top.





As a result, very little has been made public. Authorities are severely limiting information and impeding cooperation with international scientists.

“What did they find?” asked Gregory Gray, a Duke University epidemiologist who oversees a lab in China studying the transmission of infectious diseases from animals to people. “Maybe their data were not conclusive, or maybe they suppressed the data for some political reason. I don’t know … I wish I did.”

The AP investigation was based on dozens of interviews with Chinese and foreign scientists and officials, along with public notices, leaked emails, internal data and the documents from China’s cabinet and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. It reveals a pattern of government secrecy and top-down control that has been evident throughout the pandemic.

As the AP previously documented, this culture has delayed warnings about the pandemic, blocked the sharing of information with the World Health Organization and hampered early testing. Scientists familiar with China’s public health system say the same practices apply to sensitive research.

“They only select people they can trust, those that they can control,” said a public health expert who works regularly with the China CDC, declining to be identified out of fear of retribution. “Military teams and others are working hard on this, but whether it gets published all depends on the outcome.”

The pandemic has crippled Beijing’s reputation on the global stage, and China’s leaders are wary of any findings that could suggest they were negligent in its spread. The Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Health Commission, which are managing research into the coronavirus’ origins, did not respond to requests for comment.

“The novel coronavirus has been discovered in many parts of the world,” China’s foreign ministry said in a fax. “Scientists should carry out international scientific research and cooperation on a global scale.”

Notices obtained by The AP link new research restrictions to Xi Jinping, China's most authoritarian leader in decades.

Some Chinese scientists say little has been shared simply because nothing of significance has been discovered.

“We’ve been looking, but we haven’t found it,” said Zhang Yongzhen, a renowned Chinese virologist.

China’s leaders are far from alone in politicizing research into the origins of the virus. In April, President Donald Trump shelved a U.S.-funded project to identify dangerous animal diseases in China and Southeast Asia, effectively severing ties between Chinese and American scientists and complicating the search for virus origins. Trump also has accused China of setting off the pandemic through an accident at a Wuhan lab — a theory that some experts say cannot be ruled out but as yet has no evidence behind it.

Research into COVID-19’s origins is critical to the prevention of future pandemics. Although a World Health Organization international team plans to visit China in early January to investigate what started the pandemic, its members and agenda had to be approved by China.

Some public health experts warn that China’s refusal to grant further access to international scientists has jeopardized the global collaboration that pinpointed the source of the SARS outbreak nearly two decades ago. Jonna Mazet, a founding executive director of the UC Davis One Health Institute, said the lack of collaboration between Chinese and U.S. scientists was “a disappointment” and the inability of American scientists to work in China “devastating.”

“There’s so much speculation around the origins of this virus,” Mazet said. “We need to step back...and let scientists get the real answer without the finger-pointing.”

___

The hidden hunt for the origins of COVID-19 shows how the Chinese government has tried to steer the narrative.

The search started in the Huanan Seafood market in Wuhan, a sprawling, low-slung complex where many of the first human coronavirus cases were detected. Scientists initially suspected the virus came from wild animals sold in the market, such as civet cats implicated in the spread of SARS.

In mid-December last year, Huanan vendor Jiang Dafa started noticing people were falling ill. Among the first was a part-time worker in his 60s who helped clean carcasses at a stall; soon, a friend he played chess with also fell ill. A third, a seafood monger in his 40s, was infected and later died.

Patients began trickling into nearby hospitals, triggering alarms by late December that alerted the China CDC. CDC chief Gao Fu immediately sent a team to investigate.

At first, research appeared to be moving swiftly.

Overnight on Jan. 1, the market suddenly was ordered shut, barring vendors from fetching their belongings, Jiang said. China CDC researchers collected 585 environmental samples from door handles, sewage and the floor of the market, and authorities sprayed the complex down with sanitizer. Later, they would cart out everything inside and incinerate it.

Internal China CDC data obtained by the AP shows that by Jan. 10 and 11, researchers were sequencing dozens of environmental samples from Wuhan. Gary Kobinger, a Canadian microbiologist advising WHO, emailed his colleagues to share his concerns that the virus originated at the market.

“This corona(virus) is very close to SARS,” he wrote on Jan. 13. “If we put aside an accident ... then I would look at the bats in these markets (sold and ‘wild’).”

By late January, Chinese state media announced that 33 of the environmental samples had tested positive. In a report to WHO, officials said 11 specimens were more than 99% similar to the new coronavirus. They also told the U.N. health agency that rats and mice were common in the market, and that most of the positive samples were clustered in an area where vendors traded in wildlife.

In the meantime, Jiang avoided telling people he worked at Huanan because of the stigma. He criticized the political tussle between China and the U.S.

“It’s pointless to blame anyone for this disease,” Jiang said.

As the virus continued spreading rapidly into February, Chinese scientists published a burst of research papers on COVID-19. Then a paper by two Chinese scientists proposed without concrete evidence that the virus could have leaked from a Wuhan laboratory near the market. It was later taken down, but it raised the need for image control.

Internal documents show that the state soon began requiring all coronavirus studies in China to be approved by high-level government officials — a policy that critics say paralyzed research efforts.

A China CDC lab notice on Feb. 24 put in new approval processes for publication under “important instructions” from Chinese President Xi Jinping. Other notices ordered CDC staff not to share any data, specimens or other information related to the coronavirus with outside institutions or individuals.

Then on March 2, Xi emphasized “coordination” on coronavirus research, state media reported.

The next day, China’s cabinet, the State Council, centralized all COVID-19 publication under a special task force. The notice, obtained by the AP and marked “not to be made public,” was far more sweeping in scope than the earlier CDC notices, applying to all universities, companies and medical and research institutions.

The order said communication and publication of research had to be orchestrated like “a game of chess” under instructions from Xi, and propaganda and public opinion teams were to “guide publication.” It went on to warn that those who publish without permission, “causing serious adverse social impact, shall be held accountable.”

“The regulations are very strict, and they don’t make any sense,” said a former China CDC deputy director, who declined to be named because they were told not to speak to the media. “I think it’s political, because people overseas could find things being said there that might contradict what China says, so it’s all being controlled.”

After the secret orders, the tide of research papers slowed to a trickle. Although China CDC researcher Liu Jun returned to the market nearly 20 times to collect some 2,000 samples over the following months, nothing was released about what they revealed.

On May 25, CDC chief Gao finally broke the silence around the market in an interview with China’s Phoenix TV. He said that, unlike the environmental samples, no animal samples from the market had tested positive.

The announcement surprised scientists who didn’t even know Chinese officials had taken samples from animals. It also ruled out the market as the likely source of the virus, along with further research that showed many of the first cases had no ties to it.

___

With the market proving a dead end, scientists turned more attention to hunting for the virus at its likely source: bats.

Nearly a thousand miles away from the wet market in Wuhan, bats inhabit the maze of underground limestone caves in Yunnan province. With its rich, loamy soil, fog banks and dense plant growth, this area in southern China bordering Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar is one of the most biologically diverse on earth.

Scientists worry about contact between bats and humans in caves like this one, in southern China's Yunnan province.

At one Yunnan cave visited by the AP, with thick roots hanging over the entrance, bats fluttered out at dusk and flew over the roofs of a nearby small village. White droppings splattered the ground near an altar in the rear of the cave, and Buddhist prayer strings of red and yellow twine hung from the stalactites. Villagers said the cave had been used as a sacred place presided over by a Buddhist monk from Thailand.

Contact like this between bats and people praying, hunting or mining in caves alarms scientists. The coronavirus’ genetic code is strikingly similar to that of bat coronaviruses, and most scientists suspect COVID-19 jumped into humans either directly from a bat or via an intermediary animal.

Since bats harboring coronaviruses are found in China and throughout Southeast Asia, the wild animal host of COVID-19 could be anywhere in the region, said Linfa Wang at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore.

“There is a bat somewhere with a 99.9% similar virus to the coronavirus,” Wang said. “Bats don’t respect these borders.

COVID-19 research is proceeding in countries such as Thailand, where Dr. Supaporn Wacharapluesadee, a coronavirus expert, is leading teams of scientists deep into the countryside to collect samples from bats. During one expedition in August, Supaporn told the AP the virus could be found “anywhere” there were bats.

Chinese scientists quickly started testing potential animal hosts. Records show that Xia Xueshan, an infectious diseases expert, received a 1.4 million RMB ($214,000) grant to screen animals in Yunnan for COVID-19. State media reported in February that his team collected hundreds of samples from bats, snakes, bamboo rats and other animals, and ran a picture of masked scientists in white lab coats huddled around a large, caged porcupine.

Then the government restrictions kicked in. Data on the samples still has not been made public, and Xia did not respond to requests for an interview. Although Xia has co-authored more than a dozen papers this year, an AP review shows, only two were on COVID-19, and neither focused on its origins.

Today, the caves that scientists once surveyed are under close watch by the authorities. Security agents tailed the AP team in three locations across Yunnan, and stopped journalists from visiting the cave where researchers in 2017 identified the species of bats responsible for SARS. At an entrance to a second location, a massive cave teeming with tourists taking selfies, authorities shut the gate on the AP.

“We just got a call from the county,” said a park official, before an armed policeman showed up.

Vehicles blocking AP journalists from visiting a mine shaft where the closest known relative of the COVID-19 virus was found.

Particularly sensitive is the mine shaft where the closest relative of the COVID-19 virus — called “RaTG13” — was found.

RaTG13 was discovered after an outbreak in 2012, when six men cleaning the bat-filled shaft fell ill with mysterious bouts of pneumonia, killing three. The Wuhan Institute of Virology and the China CDC both studied bat coronaviruses from this shaft. And although most scientists believe the COVID-19 virus had its origins in nature, some say it or a close relative could have been transported to Wuhan and leaked by mistake.

Wuhan Institute of Virology bat expert Shi Zhengli has repeatedly denied this theory, but Chinese authorities haven’t yet allowed foreign scientists in to investigate.

Some state-backed scientists say research is proceeding as usual. Famed virologist Zhang, who received a 1.5 million RMB ($230,000) grant to search for the virus’ origins, said partnering scientists are sending him samples from all over, including from bats in Guizhou in southern China and rats in Henan hundreds of miles north.

“Bats, mice, are there any new coronaviruses in them? Do they have this particular coronavirus?” Zhang said. “We’ve been doing this work for over a decade. It’s not like we just started today.”

Zhang declined to confirm or comment on reports that his lab was briefly closed after publishing the virus’ genetic sequence ahead of authorities. He said he hasn’t heard of any special restrictions on publishing papers, and the only review his papers go through is a routine scientific one by his institution.

But scientists without state backing complain that getting approval to sample animals in southern China is now extremely difficult, and that little is known about the findings of government-sponsored teams.

___

Even as they controlled research within China, Chinese authorities promoted theories that suggested the virus came from elsewhere.

The government gave Bi Yuhai, the Chinese Academy of Sciences scientist tapped to spearhead origins research, a 1.5 million RMB grant ($230,000), records show. A paper co-authored by Bi suggested an outbreak in a Beijing market in June could have been caused by packages of contaminated frozen fish from Europe.

China’s government-controlled media used the theory to suggest the original outbreak in Wuhan could have started with seafood imported from abroad — a notion international scientists reject. WHO has said it is very unlikely that people can be infected with COVID-19 via packaged food, and that it is “highly speculative” to suggest COVID-19 did not start in China. Bi did not respond to requests for an interview, and China has not provided enough virus samples for a definitive analysis.

Posters in southern China's Yunnan province advising people not to eat wild animals.

#BUSHMEAT BY ANY OTHER NAME

The Chinese state press also has widely covered initial studies from Europe suggesting COVID-19 was found in wastewater samples in Italy and Spain last year. But scientists have largely dismissed these studies, and the researchers themselves acknowledged they did not find enough virus fragments to determine conclusively if it was the coronavirus.

And in the last few weeks, Chinese state media has taken out of context research from a German scientist, interpreting it to suggest that the pandemic began in Italy. The scientist, Alexander Kekule, director of the Institute for Biosecurity Research, has said repeatedly that he believes the virus first emerged in China.

Internal documents show that various government bodies also sponsored studies on the possible role of the Southeast Asian pangolin, a scaly anteater once prized in traditional Chinese medicine, as an intermediary animal host. Within the span of three days in February, Chinese scientists put out four separate papers on coronaviruses related to COVID-19 in trafficked Malayan pangolins from Southeast Asia seized by customs officials in Guangdong.

But many experts now say the theory is unlikely. Wang of the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore said the search for the coronavirus in pangolins did not appear to be “scientifically driven.” He said blood samples would be the most conclusive evidence of COVID-19’s presence in the rare mammals, and so far, no incriminating matches have been found.

WHO has said more than 500 species of other animals, including cats, ferrets and hamsters, are being studied as possible intermediary hosts for COVID-19.

The Chinese government is also limiting and controlling the search for patient zero through the re-testing of old flu samples.

Chinese hospitals collect thousands of samples from patients with flu-like symptoms every week and store them in freezers. They could easily be tested again for COVID-19, although politics could then determine whether the results are made public, said Ray Yip, the founding director of the U.S. CDC office in China.

“They’d be crazy not to do it,” Yip said. “The political leadership will wait for that information to see, does this information make China look stupid or not? ... If it makes China look stupid, they won’t.”

In the U.S., CDC officials long ago tested roughly 11,000 early samples collected under the flu surveillance program since Jan. 1. And in Italy, researchers recently found a boy who had fallen ill in November 2019 and later tested positive for the coronavirus.

But in China, scientists have only published retrospective testing data from two Wuhan flu surveillance hospitals — out of at least 18 in Hubei province alone and well over 500 across the country. The data includes just 520 samples out of the 330,000 collected in China last year.

These enormous gaps in the research aren’t due just to a lack of testing but also to a lack of transparency. Internal data obtained by the AP shows that by Feb. 6, the Hubei CDC had tested over 100 samples in Huanggang, a city southeast of Wuhan. But the results have not been made public.

The little information that has dribbled out suggests the virus was circulating well outside Wuhan in 2019 — a finding that could raise awkward questions for Chinese officials about their early handling of the outbreak. Chinese researchers found that a child over a hundred kilometers from Wuhan had fallen ill with the virus by Jan. 2, suggesting it was spreading widely in December. But earlier samples weren’t tested, according to a scientist with direct knowledge of the study.

“There was a very deliberate choice of the time period to study, because going too early could have been too sensitive,” said the scientist, who declined to be named out of fear of retribution.

A WHO report written in July but published in November said Chinese authorities had identified 124 cases in December 2019, including five cases outside Wuhan. Among WHO’s aims for its upcoming visit to China are reviews of hospital records before December.

Coronavirus expert Peter Daszak, a member of the WHO team, said identifying the pandemic’s source should not be used to assign guilt.

“We’re all part of this together,” he said. “And until we realize that, we’re never going to get rid of this problem.”

___

Kang reported from Beijing and Cheng reported from London. Associated Press journalists Han Guan Ng and Emily Wang in Wuhan, China, Haven Daley in Stinson Beach, California, and Tassanee Vejpongsa in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, contributed to this report.

___

Follow Dake Kang, Sam McNeil and Maria Cheng on Twitter at @dakekang, @stmcneil and @mylcheng.

___

Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@

Nashville bombing spotlights vulnerable voice, data networks
By TALI ARBEL

FILE - In this Dec. 29, 2020 file photo, debris remains on the sidewalk in front of buildings damaged in a Christmas Day explosion in Nashville, Tenn. The Christmas Day bombing in downtown Nashville led to communications outages over hundreds of miles in the southern U.S., raising concerns about the vulnerability of U.S. networks. Widespread service outages followed the explosion, which damaged a major AT&T network hub, extended hundreds of miles to at least four neighboring states, disrupting 911 call centers, hospitals and flights out of the Nashville airport. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

IN THE SEVENTIES AT&T AKA MA BELL WAS THE MOST HATED MONOPOLY IN THE USA. ONE OF THE REASONS IT WOULD EVENTUALLY BE BROKEN UP. IN THE SEVENTIES WE HAD MAD BOMBERS TOO (DISGRUNTLED EMPLOYEES OR CUSTOMERS OR PEOPLE WITH TINFOIL HATS)

PHOENIX (AP) — The Christmas Day bombing in downtown Nashville led to phone and data service outages and disruptions over hundreds of miles in the southern U.S., raising new concerns about the vulnerability of U.S. communications.

The blast seriously damaged a key AT&T network facility, an important hub that provides local wireless, internet and video service and connects to regional networks. Backup generators went down, which took service out hours after the blast. A fire broke out and forced an evacuation. The building flooded, with more than three feet of water later pumped out of the basement; AT&T said there was still water on the second floor as of Monday.

The immediate repercussions were surprisingly widespread. AT&T customers lost service — phones, internet or video — across large parts of Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama. There were 911 centers in the region that couldn’t take calls; others didn’t receive crucial data associated with callers, such as their locations. The Nashville police department’s phones and internet failed. Stores went cash-only.

At some hospitals, electronic medical records, internet service or phones stopped working. The Nashville airport halted flights for about three hours on Christmas. Rival carrier T-Mobile also had service issues as far away as Atlanta, 250 miles away, because the company uses AT&T equipment for moving customer data from towers to the T-Mobile network.

“People didn’t even realize their dependencies until it failed,” said Doug Schmidt, a Vanderbilt University computer science professor. “I don’t think anyone recognized the crucial role that particular building played” in the region’s telecom infrastructure, he said.

The explosion, which took place in the heart of the Nashville’s historic downtown, killed the bomber, injured several people and damaged dozens of buildings. Federal officials are investigating the motive and haven’t said whether the AT&T building was specifically targeted.

AT&T said 96% of its wireless network was restored Sunday. As of Monday evening, AT&T said “nearly all services” were back up. On Wednesday, it was “activating the last of the remaining wireline equipment.”

AT&T said it sent temporary cell towers to help in affected areas and rerouted traffic to other facilities as it worked to restore power to the Nashville building . But not all traffic can be rerouted, spokesperson Jim Greer said, and there was physical equipment that had to be fixed in a building that was part of an active crime scene, which complicated AT&T workers’ access.

“We are all too dependent on phone, cell phone, TV and internet to have outages for any reason,” Rep. Jim Cooper, the Democrat who represents Nashville in Congress, said in an emailed statement Wednesday. He said the U.S. “needs to harden our telecom facilities so we have greater redundancy and reliability” and called for congressional hearings on reducing telecom vulnerabilities.

The impact on emergency services may have raised the most serious flags. At one point, roughly a hundred 911 centers had service problems in Tennessee alone, said Brian Fontes, head of the National Emergency Number Association. A 911 call center should still be operational even if there is damage to a phone company’s hub, said David Turetsky, a lecturer at the University at Albany and a former public safety official at the Federal Communications Commission. If multiple call centers were out of service for several days, “that is of concern,” he said.

Cooper and experts like Fontes also gave AT&T credit for their work on reinstating services. “To be able to get some services up and running within 24 to 48 hours of a catastrophic blast in this case is pretty amazing,” Fontes said.

Local authorities turned to social media on Christmas Day, posting on Facebook and Twitter that 911 was down and trying to reassure residents by offering other numbers to call. A Facebook page for Morgan County 911 in northern Alabama said Saturday that Alabama 911 centers were up and running but advised AT&T customers with issues to try calling via internet, and to go to the local police or fire station for help if they couldn’t get through.

The Nashville police department uses the FirstNet system built by AT&T, which the carrier boasts can provide “fast, highly reliable interoperable communications” in emergencies and that is meant to prioritize first responders when networks are stressed. But problems emerged around midday Friday, said spokesperson Kristin Mumford. The department had to turn to a backup provider, CenturyLink, for its landlines and internet at headquarters and precincts and obtained loaner cellphones and mobile hotspots from Verizon.

The transition to backups was “actually rather seamless,” Mumford said, although the public couldn’t make calls to police precincts. She said the AT&T service started coming back Sunday and as of Wednesday morning, overall service with cellphones, internet and landlines was “about 90% up.”

The Parthenon, a museum replica of the Parthenon in Athens located about three miles from the explosion, still didn’t have a working phone four days after the blast. But its credit-card system came back online Tuesday, said John Holmes, an assistant director of Metro Parks, the museum’s owner. During the weekend, the museum was cash-only, although it let in people without cash for free.

It’s not as if the physical vulnerability of communications networks comes as a surprise. Natural disasters like hurricanes frequently wipe out service as the power goes out and wind, water or fire damage infrastructure. Recovery can take days, weeks or even longer. Hurricane Maria left Puerto Rico in a near communications blackout with destroyed telephone poles, cell towers and power lines. Six months later there were still areas without service.

Software bugs and equipment failures have also caused widespread problems. A December 2018 CenturyLink outage lasted for more than a day and disrupted 911 calls in over two dozen states and affected as many as 22 million people. That included blocked calls for Verizon customers and busy signals for Comcast customers, which both used CenturyLink’s network.

“Avoiding single points of failure is vital for any number of reasons, whether it has to do with physical damage, human error, hostile action or any of the above,” Turetsky said. “We need our networks to be resilient regardless of earthquake, tornado, terrorist, cyber attacker or other threat.”

The system of companies was often colloquially called Ma Bell (as in "Mother Bell"), as it held a vertical monopoly over telecommunication products and services in most areas of the United States and Canada. 

Bell System - Wikipedia

Ma Bell is back. Should you be afraid?

slate.com › news-and-politics › 2007/01 › ma-bell-is-ba...

Jan 4, 2007 — Today, that would mean messing with search engines, slowing down your cousin's blog, degrading YouTube or voice-over-IP, and so on

"The President's Analyst" fights back against the phone company and its accomplice, J. Edgar Hoover and his Electric G-Men. It is one of the funniest movies of the year, ranking with " The Graduate " and "Bedazzled" in the sharp edge of its satire. James Coburn stars as an analyst who is called in to give the President someone to talk to.

The President's Analyst movie review (1968) | Roger Ebert

www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-presidents-analyst-1968