Month: January 2021

Categories
Health

Do not like your Medicare Benefit Plan? Now’s the time to swap or drop it

Don't like your Medicare Advantage Plan? Now's the time to swap or drop it

Female doctor works with elderly patient in a modern office clinic / hospital

momcilog | E + | Getty Images

When it comes to Medicare benefit plans, they don’t have to be as permanent a choice as you might think.

Your 2021 plan, which you have either selected or re-enrolled, can be changed or canceled between January 1st and March 31st. That said, you can swap your benefit plan for another or drop it and return to basic Medicare Hospital (Part A coverage and Part B Outpatient coverage).

The most common reasons beneficiaries make changes are because their doctors aren’t on the plan’s network or drugs aren’t included in their insurance coverage, said Danielle Roberts, co-founder of insurance company Boomer Benefits.

Also from January 1st to March 31st, if you missed your first Medicare registration period and do not qualify for an exemption, you can register during that time. If this is your situation, coverage won’t start until July 1, said Elizabeth Gavino, founder of Lewin & Gavino and independent broker and general agent for Medicare plans.

Of the 63 million or so Medicare beneficiaries, around 25 million are enrolled in a benefit plan that includes Parts A and B, and usually Part D for prescription drugs, as well as extras such as teeth and eyesight.

The current opportunity to change or drop your benefit plan is only a few weeks after Medicare’s annual fall enrollment ended, when a variety of options became available to those looking to change their coverage.

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In contrast, the upcoming window related to the benefit plan has limitations.

For starters, you can only do one switch. This means that the change will generally be locked in 2021 as soon as you switch to another benefit plan or delete it for basic Medicare (unless you meet an exclusion that qualifies you for a specific registration period).

Additionally, you cannot switch from one standalone Part-D prescription medication plan to another in that three month window.

In the fall, if you selected a Part-D plan based on inaccurate or misleading information, anytime during the year you can call 1-800-Medicare to see if your situation allows you to make changes.

In the meantime, deleting a benefit plan in favor of Basic Medicare often means losing drug supplies – which means you have to sign up for a standalone Part-D plan. This is important because if you remain uncovered for 63 days, you face a life penalty for late enrollment that will affect your monthly premiums.

If you switch back to Original Medicare and want to get supplementary insurance (also known as “Medigap”), be aware that you may not be eligible for guaranteed coverage. These guidelines cover all or part of the cost sharing of some aspects of Parts A and B, including deductibles, co-payments and co-insurance. However, they have their own rules for signing up.

“If someone plans to go back to Original Medicare and get a Medigap plan, be aware that they will likely have to answer health questions and go through the underwriting,” said Roberts.

She recommends starting the process by applying for the Medigap plan and getting approval before leaving the benefit plan or signing up for a standalone Part-D plan.

“If you sign up for the Part-D plan, you will be removed from the Medicare Benefits Plan, so it’s important to wait for that part as well,” said Roberts. “We encourage people who need to make changes to do so at the beginning of the legislature.”

Categories
Business

Apple and Google Reduce Off Parler, an App That Drew Trump Supporters

Apple and Google Cut Off Parler, an App That Drew Trump Supporters

According to a group of Amazon employees, Amazon assists Parler in operation by hosting its web traffic on its servers. These employees and at least one member of Congress have asked Amazon to ban Parler from this service, which could jeopardize its viability. Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.

Apple’s action is more of an issue for Parler than Google, as Apple requires all iPhone apps to go through the App Store. Google cut Parler out of its flagship Android app store, but it also allows apps to be downloaded from elsewhere, so Android users can still find the Parler app, just with a little more work. Parler will continue to be available through web browsers on phones and computers.

Before Apple blocked Parler on Saturday, Apple had given the company 24 hours to improve moderation and avoid being removed from the App Store. During this time, Parler appeared to have tried to remove some areas that appeared to call for violence.

For example, L. Lin Wood, an attorney who sued to overturn Mr. Trump’s election loss, wrote on Parler Thursday morning: “Prepare the firing squad. Pence goes first. “According to a screenshot in the Internet archive, the post was viewed at least 788,000 times. The post was removed on Saturday morning.

In a text message, Mr. Matze said the item had been removed “in accordance with Parler’s Terms of Use and Anti-Incitement to Violence Rules”. He said he wasn’t sure Apple knew Parler removed the post.

In a statement to Parler on Saturday, Apple said it had “continued to find direct threats of violence and incitement to illegal activity” in the app. Apple informed the company that its app cannot be approved in the App Store until “you have demonstrated your ability to effectively moderate and filter the dangerous and harmful content of your service”.

In an interview, Jeffrey Wernick, Parler’s chief operating officer, blamed “a culture of abandonment at Apple” for the company’s poor prospects. He said he would advise other platforms not to try and compete on Apple’s App Store. “Because if you raise money and attract investors and end up like Parler, what is it about?” he said.

Categories
Business

FAA chief points stern warning to vacationers after politically motived flight disruptions

Flight attendant unions raise alarms about disruptive travelers after pro-Trump riots at Capitol

A flight attendant collects trash on a flight aboard a Boeing 737 Max from Dallas Fort Worth Airport to Tulsa, Oklahoma, December 2, 2020.

Carlo Allegri | Reuters

The head of the Federal Aviation Administration said Saturday that travelers will face grave consequences for unruly behavior on airplanes. This is a stern warning following multiple incidents on board last week with pro-Trump chanting and passengers refusing to wear masks requesting to fly on U.S. airlines.

“The FAA will take tough enforcement action against anyone who threatens the safety of a flight. Penalties range from fines to imprisonment,” FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said in a statement.

Unruly passengers can face fines of up to $ 35,000.

Alaska Airlines said Friday it banned 14 passengers on a flight from Washington DC to Seattle. The travelers “were not mask-conforming, vocal, argumentative and harassed our crew members. Their behavior was unacceptable,” said Ray Lane, spokesman for Alaska Airlines. “We apologize to our other guests who felt uncomfortable on the flight.

Videos of multiple incidents were shared on social media. An American Airlines pilot on a Washington-to-Phoenix flight warned travelers that he would “park this plane and drop people off in the middle of Kansas” in order to convince passengers to “behave” on board.

“At American, we take our customers’ safety seriously and value the trust they place in our team to look after them throughout their journey,” American said in a statement. The pilot made an announcement emphasizing the importance of following the instructions of the crew members and complying with the mandatory guidelines on face covering. “

Earlier this week, some passengers sang “traitors” on a Delta Air Lines flight with Republican Senator Mitt Romney of Utah. Delta said his “crew got involved quickly and solved the problem”.

On another flight this week, American Airlines flight attendants turned on the lights and ordered passengers to take their seats after passengers yelled at and cursed each other. This comes from a video shared by Twitter user @MaranieRae who said she was on the flight.

“I expect all passengers to follow the instructions of the crew members for their safety and the safety of the flight,” said Dickson. “The FAA monitors and tracks all commercial passenger flights in real time, and there are reporting mechanisms in place for crew members to identify any number of safety concerns that may arise in flight.”

Dickson said unruly behavior could distract crews and compromise crew members’ ability to perform safety-related duties.

Dickson’s testimony comes after flight attendant unions this week raised safety concerns over politically motivated flight disruptions after a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol and demanded that the presidential election results be overturned.

“The mob mentality behavior that occurred on multiple flights to the DC area yesterday was unacceptable and threatened the safety of every single person on board,” said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents approximately 50,000 flight attendants United, Alaska and more than a dozen other airlines said Wednesday.

The airlines had taken precautions and moved crews to airport hotels after the politically motivated uprising in the Capitol. American Airlines has stopped serving alcohol on flights to Washington DC.

“We should work harder to keep problems on the ground,” the AFA told flight attendants after the FAA warned on Saturday. “Make sure you strictly adhere to the masks before pushing back. Work as a crew, communicate, and bring your concerns to the flight deck and supervisors.”

Categories
Health

Stress Grows for States to Open Vaccines to Extra Teams of Individuals

Pressure Grows for States to Open Vaccines to More Groups of People

Just weeks into the country’s coronavirus vaccination effort, states have begun broadening access to the shots faster than planned, amid tremendous public demand and intense criticism about the pace of the rollout.

Some public health officials worry that doing so could bring even more chaos to the complex operation and increase the likelihood that some of the highest-risk Americans will be skipped over. But the debate over how soon to expand eligibility is intensifying as deaths from the virus continue to surge, hospitals are overwhelmed with critically ill patients and millions of vaccine doses delivered last month remain in freezers.

Governors are under enormous pressure from their constituents — especially older people, who vote in great numbers and face the highest risk of dying from the virus — to get the doses they receive into arms swiftly. President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s decision, announced Friday, to release nearly all available doses to the states when he takes office on Jan. 20, rather than holding half to guarantee each recipient gets a booster shot a few weeks after the first, is likely to add to that pressure.

Some states, including Florida, Louisiana and Texas, have already expanded who is eligible to get a vaccine now, even though many people in the first priority group recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — the nation’s 21 million health care workers and three million residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities — have not yet received a shot.

On Friday afternoon, New York became the latest state to do so, announcing that it would allow people 75 and over and certain essential workers to start receiving a vaccine on Monday.

But reaching a wider swath of the population requires much more money than states have received for the task, many health officials say, and more time to fine-tune systems for moving surplus vaccine around quickly, to increase the number of vaccination sites and people who give the shots, and to establish reliable appointment systems to prevent endless lines and waits.

Some states’ expansions have led to frantic and often futile efforts by older people to get vaccinated. After Florida opened up vaccinations to anyone 65 and older late last month, the demand was so great that new online registration portals quickly overloaded and crashed, people spent hours on the phone trying to secure appointments and others waited overnight at scattered pop-up sites offering shots on a first-come first-served basis.

Similar scenes have played out in parts of Texas, Tennessee and a handful of other states.

Still, with C.D.C. data suggesting that only about a third of the doses distributed so far have been used, Alex M. Azar II, the health and human services secretary, told reporters this past week: “It would be much better to move quickly and end up vaccinating some lower-priority people than to let vaccines sit around while states try to micromanage this process. Faster administration would save lives right now, which means we cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”

The C.D.C. guidelines were drawn up by an independent committee of medical and public health experts that advises the agency on immunization practices; it deliberated for months about who should get vaccinated initially, while supplies were still very limited. The committee weighed scientific evidence about who is most at risk of getting very sick or dying from Covid-19, as well as ethical questions, such as how best to ensure equal access among different races and socioeconomic groups.

Although the committee’s recommendations are nonbinding, states usually follow them; in this case, the committee suggests that states might consider expanding to additional priority groups “when demand in the current phase appears to have been met,” “when supply of authorized vaccine increases substantially” or “when vaccine supply within a certain location is in danger of going unused.”

Dr. Kevin Ault, an obstetrician at the University of Kansas Medical Center who serves on the advisory committee that came up with the C.D.C. guidelines, said that it was reasonable for states to start vaccinating new groups before finishing others, but that they should be careful about exacerbating inequities and biting off more than they can chew.

“Obviously if you’re going to vaccinate that group you need to have a well-thought-out plan in hand,” he said, referring to the over-65 population. “Having people camping out for vaccine is less than ideal, I would say.”

He added, “We put a lot of thought and effort into our guidelines, and I think they are good.”

After the first vaccines were given in mid-December, a dichotomy emerged between governors who were adhering precisely to the guidelines and others who moved quickly to populations beyond health care workers and nursing home residents.

Until Friday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, a Democrat, had threatened to penalize hospitals that provided shots to people who are not health care workers. By contrast, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a Republican, traveled to retirement communities around his state to emphasize the importance of getting people 65 and older, who number more than five million there, immunized fast.

“In Florida we’ve got to put our parents and grandparents first,” Mr. DeSantis said at The Villages, the nation’s largest retirement community, just before Christmas.

Decisions on how soon to expand eligibility for the shots have not fallen neatly along partisan lines.

Covid-19 Vaccines ›

Answers to Your Vaccine Questions

If I live in the U.S., when can I get the vaccine?

While the exact order of vaccine recipients may vary by state, most will likely put medical workers and residents of long-term care facilities first. If you want to understand how this decision is getting made, this article will help.

When can I return to normal life after being vaccinated?

Life will return to normal only when society as a whole gains enough protection against the coronavirus. Once countries authorize a vaccine, they’ll only be able to vaccinate a few percent of their citizens at most in the first couple months. The unvaccinated majority will still remain vulnerable to getting infected. A growing number of coronavirus vaccines are showing robust protection against becoming sick. But it’s also possible for people to spread the virus without even knowing they’re infected because they experience only mild symptoms or none at all. Scientists don’t yet know if the vaccines also block the transmission of the coronavirus. So for the time being, even vaccinated people will need to wear masks, avoid indoor crowds, and so on. Once enough people get vaccinated, it will become very difficult for the coronavirus to find vulnerable people to infect. Depending on how quickly we as a society achieve that goal, life might start approaching something like normal by the fall 2021.

If I’ve been vaccinated, do I still need to wear a mask?

Yes, but not forever. The two vaccines that will potentially get authorized this month clearly protect people from getting sick with Covid-19. But the clinical trials that delivered these results were not designed to determine whether vaccinated people could still spread the coronavirus without developing symptoms. That remains a possibility. We know that people who are naturally infected by the coronavirus can spread it while they’re not experiencing any cough or other symptoms. Researchers will be intensely studying this question as the vaccines roll out. In the meantime, even vaccinated people will need to think of themselves as possible spreaders.

Will it hurt? What are the side effects?

The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine is delivered as a shot in the arm, like other typical vaccines. The injection won’t be any different from ones you’ve gotten before. Tens of thousands of people have already received the vaccines, and none of them have reported any serious health problems. But some of them have felt short-lived discomfort, including aches and flu-like symptoms that typically last a day. It’s possible that people may need to plan to take a day off work or school after the second shot. While these experiences aren’t pleasant, they are a good sign: they are the result of your own immune system encountering the vaccine and mounting a potent response that will provide long-lasting immunity.

Will mRNA vaccines change my genes?

No. The vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer use a genetic molecule to prime the immune system. That molecule, known as mRNA, is eventually destroyed by the body. The mRNA is packaged in an oily bubble that can fuse to a cell, allowing the molecule to slip in. The cell uses the mRNA to make proteins from the coronavirus, which can stimulate the immune system. At any moment, each of our cells may contain hundreds of thousands of mRNA molecules, which they produce in order to make proteins of their own. Once those proteins are made, our cells then shred the mRNA with special enzymes. The mRNA molecules our cells make can only survive a matter of minutes. The mRNA in vaccines is engineered to withstand the cell’s enzymes a bit longer, so that the cells can make extra virus proteins and prompt a stronger immune response. But the mRNA can only last for a few days at most before they are destroyed.

Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, a Republican, announced Tuesday that he would immediately switch to what he called the “Southwest Airlines model” for vaccine allocation, referring to the airline’s open seating policy. “We’re no longer going to be waiting for all the members of a particular priority group to be completed,” he said, “before we move on to begin the next group in line.”

Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio, a Republican, urged patience in a news briefing Tuesday as he declined to estimate when the state would start vaccinating people beyond the first priority group, known as “1a.”

“We’re asking every health department, ‘Don’t go outside 1a, stay within your lane,’” he said, adding about the vaccines, “This is a scarce commodity.”

By Thursday Mr. DeWine had set a date for people 80 and older to start getting the vaccine — Jan. 19 — and said he would phase in everyone 65 and older, as well as teachers, by Feb. 8.

The reasons so many doses received by states have not yet been administered to the first priority group are manifold. The fact that vaccination began around Christmas, when many hospital employees were taking vacation, slowed things. More health care workers are refusing to get the vaccine than many of their employers expected, and some hospitals and clinics received more doses than they needed but felt constrained by state rules from giving them to people outside the first priority groups. Some initially worried they could not even offer leftover doses in open vials to people in lower priority groups and let them go to waste.

And federal funding for vaccination efforts has been slow to reach states and localities: They got only $350 million through the end of last year, a little more than $1 per resident of the country. The economic rescue package that Congress passed in December included $8 billion for vaccine distribution that state health officials had long sought, but the first tranche of it, about $3 billion, is only now starting to be sent out.

“There was great funding in the development of these products, great funding in the infrastructure to ship them and get them out,” said Dr. Steven Stack, commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Public Health. “But then there was no funding provided of meaning for administering the vaccine, which is the last mile of this journey.”

The C.D.C. has recommended that a “1b” group consisting of people 75 and older and certain essential workers, including teachers, corrections officers and grocery store employees, be vaccinated next. The second group is much larger, about 50 million people. And the third recommended priority group — people 65 to 74, anyone 16 and older with high-risk medical conditions, and essential workers not already reached — numbers almost 130 million.

Pfizer and Moderna have pledged to deliver enough vaccine doses for 100 million people to each get the two necessary shots by the end of March, and many more in the second quarter. Several other vaccine candidates are far along in the pipeline, and if approved for emergency use here could help ramp up distribution more quickly.

The C.D.C. committee initially considered recommending that a wide range of essential workers get vaccinated before older Americans. Its rationale was that many essential workers are low-wage people of color, who have been hit disproportionately hard by the virus and had limited access to good health care. That sparked a backlash, and several governors, including Mr. DeSantis, quickly made clear they would cater to older people first.

Dr. Mark McClellan, who formerly headed the F.D.A. and now runs Duke University’s health policy center, said that while pushing ahead to vaccinate older people and other particularly vulnerable groups would accelerate the overall effort, “we’re going to be missing a lot of higher-risk individuals along the way.”

“I do worry about that becoming uneven in terms of access,” he said during a press briefing, “with lower-income groups, minority groups maybe in a tougher position if we don’t make it very easy for people in these high-risk groups to get vaccinated.”

Dr. Marcus Plescia, the chief medical officer for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, said he was surprised to hear federal officials like Mr. Azar and Dr. Jerome Adams, the surgeon general, advocate expanding vaccine access so broadly so soon.

“We didn’t come up with priority populations to slow things down, but because we knew there would be limited numbers of doses,” Dr. Plescia said. “If we try to do this in an equitable, fair way, it’s not going to be as fast as if our only goal is to get vaccine into as many arms as possible.”

Whether or not they are widening access now, governors are ramping up pressure on hospitals to use their allocated doses more quickly. Mr. Cuomo threatened to fine those that did not use their initial allocations by the end of this past week and not send them any more.

Mr. Hogan warned hospitals this past week, “Either use the doses that have been allocated to you or they will be directed to another facility or provider.”

Categories
Politics

Biden Plans Coronavirus Vaccination Blitz After Inauguration

Biden Plans Coronavirus Vaccination Blitz After Inauguration

The biggest problem so far has not been the shortage of vaccines, but the difficulty state and local governments face in distributing their doses. Capacity and logistics, not bottlenecks, prevent vaccine delivery.

Dr. Leana S. Wen, an emergency physician and public health expert at the George Washington University School of Public Health, said she was surprised and concerned about Mr. Biden’s new strategy.

“This is not the problem we are trying to solve right now,” said Dr. Whom.

At a press conference on Friday, Dr. Stephen M. Hahn, the FDA commissioner, states that have used only a small portion of their offerings to vaccinate lower priority groups while continuing to adhere to government guidelines. Most states still prioritize frontline health workers and older Americans in group housing settings.

Expanding audiences “will go a long way towards using these vaccines appropriately and getting them into the arms of individuals,” said Dr. Rooster.

Biden’s advisors did not discuss the rest of their plan to revise vaccine distribution. More details will be released next week. Mr Biden has always promised a far more muscular federal response than Mr Trump’s approach of leaving it to states, and he outlined his vision in public appearances and interviews with local radio stations as he fought for Georgia candidates for the Democratic Senate earlier this week .

“Our plan will focus on getting shots in the arms through, among other things, introducing a radically new approach, creating thousands of government-run or state-sponsored community vaccination centers of various sizes in places like high schools and NFL stadiums “said Biden during an interview with WFXE-FM in Columbus, Ga.

“And,” he continued, “they can be directed by federal workers, contractors and volunteers, including FEMA, the Emergency Management Group, Centers for Disease Control, the US military and the National Guard.”

Categories
Entertainment

Claude Bolling, Jazzman With Crossover Enchantment, Dies at 90

Claude Bolling, Jazzman With Crossover Appeal, Dies at 90

Claude Bolling, a jazz pianist and composer with remarkable crossover appeal, whose 1975 album “Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano” had been on the Billboard Classic Album list for more than 10 years, died on December 29 in Garches, a suburb of Paris. He was 90 years old.

His death was announced on his website, which did not provide any further details.

Mr. Bolling played and composed in various styles – the Claude Bolling Big Band played regularly for years at the Hotel Méridien Etoile in Paris – and wrote the scores for dozens of films and TV shows in France and Hollywood. But “Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano”, written for and recorded with the famous classical flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal, made him a new name.

Although the record was criticized by both classics and jazz purists as “watered down jazz with a thin classical veneer”, the listening audience was enthusiastic. News reports from the mid-1980s that found it was still in the charts after a decade said that only Pink Floyd’s 1973 album “The Dark Side of the Moon” had achieved such longevity at that point. (“Dark Side” stayed in the Top 200 album list until 1988 and has returned regularly.)

Mr. Bolling was inspired to pursue other crossover projects, including the 1980 album Picnic Suite, recorded with Mr. Rampal and guitarist Alexandre Lagoya. A picture on Mr. Bolling’s website shows the classic Billboard album table from September 4, 1982. “Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano” is in the 343rd week of the table at number 5, “Picnic Suite” 5th place 22, his “Toot Suite for Trumpet and Jazzpiano” on place 27, his “Concert for Classical Guitar and Jazzpiano” on place 30 and his “Original Boogie Woogie” on place 39th.

“Claude’s music was so engaging,” said flautist Pamela Sklar, who toured with Mr. Bolling for eleven seasons, via email, “because it distilled attributes of sophisticated classical and esoteric jazz styles into accessible palettes of happiness, excitement, innocence.” Pathos, playfulness and sincerity. “

Ms. Sklar interviewed Mr. Bolling in 2010 for an article in The Flutist Quarterly. He remembered how the success of the 1975 album had changed his fate.

“At the time, when I was thinking about a concert in the US, all I could think of was a little jazz club in the small American town,” he said. “Thanks to Jean-Pierre Rampal and this ‘suite’ it was my first concert in Carnegie Hall!”

Mr Bolling was born on April 10, 1930 in Cannes, France, in a hotel of which his father was the manager. His mother played the piano and he turned out to be a child prodigy. He spent most of his life in Paris, but during World War II, during the occupation, his mother took him to Nice with her.

“During World War II when I was a kid, the Nazis all but banned jazz in my country,” he told The Hartford Courant in 1991. “So I got most of my jazz from recording at 78 rpm.”

At the age of 14 he won an amateur jazz piano competition. At the age of 15 he returned to Paris at the end of the war and became the youngest member of the French Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers.

He played with various jazz stars who came through Paris and also had his own septet. He particularly admired Duke Ellington and formed a big band in 1956 to play Ellington’s music. In the 1960s, the two met and became friends.

“One of the lessons I learned from Ellington,” Bolling said in 1991, “was that you write specifically for the personality of the instrumental soloist.”

It was a philosophy he followed when Mr Rampal, impressed by a piece for which Mr Bolling had written and performed with the classical pianist Jean-Bernard Pommier on French television, asked if Mr Bolling would write something for him .

“I wrote ‘Suite for Flute’ for Jean-Pierre,” said Mr. Bolling. “If I had written it for someone else, it would be completely different. Every musician has his own voice, and that’s why I write. “

Mr. Rampal died in 2000.

Frau Sklar described the appeal of playing the famous suite.

“The seven-movement flute part of the ‘Suite’ was expertly written and great for playing with the piano, especially with bass and drums,” she said. “That is one of the reasons many classical flautists want to play it. It’s very jazzy and improvisation is optional. I thought it was great that there was also a bass flute and alto flute. “

The 1982 New York Times reviewer Allan Kozinn described the formula Mr. Bolling created that had worked so well in the suite and in his later work.

“In his crossover pieces,” he wrote, “Mr. Bolling’s compositional strategy is to give his classical soloist a through-composed part, written in a style that uses baroque and classical gestures and allusions to the repertoire and idioms of the featured instrument is filled while his own piano, bass and percussion trio interacts with a light jazz counterpoint. “

Mr. Bolling has made numerous recordings and has performed extensively in France, the United States and elsewhere.

“One of the most adorable things about him was his love of music and his dedicated, magnetic personality on stage,” said Ms. Sklar. “He loved talking to his audience and thanking them with encores that they enjoyed. Sometimes the encores lasted a long time. If we were to watch backstage we’d wonder if they would ever stop! “

The Associated Press said that Mr Bolling’s 48-year-old wife, Irène Dervize-Sadyker, died in 2017 and that the couple had two sons, David and Alexandre.

Mr. Bolling’s compositions have sometimes been described as a “combination” of jazz and classical music, but his view was different.

“I don’t like the word ‘combination’,” he said in a 1982 interview for The Syracuse New Times. “This is just a dialogue between two types of music. I didn’t do anything new. It’s been like that for a long time. “

Mr. Bolling liked to have fun on the street. In restaurants he would often demonstrate a certain trick: place one piece of cutlery on top of another and then hit one so that the other flipped into his empty wine or water glass.

“It was funnier when he missed it,” wrote Ms. Sklar in The Flutist Quarterly, “and he didn’t just give up.”

Categories
Business

11 Journalists on Overlaying the Capitol Siege: ‘This May Get Ugly’

11 Journalists on Covering the Capitol Siege: ‘This Could Get Ugly’

Reporters knew before they arrived at the Capitol on Wednesday that there would be large protests in support of President Trump. But most expected the day’s main event to be the drama and ceremony of the nation’s leaders debating the ratification of the Electoral College vote for Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the next president.

The journalists ended up chronicling a siege that underscored the fragility of American democracy. Many did their jobs a few feet from drawn weapons. Others faced the wrath of pro-Trump agitators with a grudge against the news media.

We interviewed 11 journalists from a variety of outlets — including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the British channel ITV and the Beltway news site Axios — who covered the events. The interviews have been edited and condensed.

Credit…Roy Cox

April Ryan, 53, White House correspondent, TheGrio: I woke up around 6 at home in the Baltimore area. My kids, 13 and 18, were in their room, doing Zoom. I was in the den and the office, working the phones, not really expecting anything big, thinking it was just going to be a lot of posturing.

Tia Mitchell, 41, Washington correspondent, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: I had to get up early because we did our political newsletter, and then I had a podcast. I dropped off a gift for a friend’s birthday and headed into the capital.

Marcus DiPaola, 29, freelance journalist with 2.2 million TikTok followers: I knew it was going to be a complete mess ahead of time. I woke up at my friend’s apartment north of the White House, had some light cereal and checked the news.

Credit…Fox News Channel

Chad Pergram, 51, congressional correspondent, Fox News: My wife dropped me off on Independence Avenue, and right as I got out of the car, you could feel the tension, because there were protesters everywhere.

Kadia Goba, 46, congressional reporter, Axios: When I walked up the usual entranceway, Capitol Police told me I had to walk with the protesters. I was super pissed off about that. I walked through the crowd — and I’m a woman of color, so it was intimidating, to be honest with you.

Megan Pratz, 31, political director, Cheddar: It was very cold outside. After my noon live shot, my cameraman and I went inside the Capitol building.

Tia Mitchell, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: I had planned to spend my day in the House chamber because six of our eight House Republicans were planning to contest the electoral votes being tallied for Georgia. Walking from the Senate to the House, along the third floor, I peeked outside and could see the bigger protest.

Credit…Monica Weeks

Kadia Goba, Axios: My seat in the gallery was directly over Speaker Nancy Pelosi. I saw a picture online of the protesters in front of the building. At this point, all of the members are in debate mode, seemingly oblivious to what was going on.

J. Scott Applewhite, 69, senior photojournalist, The Associated Press: I was facing Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence, and they brought in those beautiful antique mahogany wooden boxes carrying the ballots.

Credit…CNN

Donie O’Sullivan, 29, reporter, CNN: We got to the barrier at the base of the Capitol as they broke through. It was a dramatic moment, but also surprisingly undramatic in that, you know, there were obviously not sufficient numbers of police or barricades.

Robert Moore, 57, Washington correspondent, ITV News: We were standing to one side of the inauguration platform that Joe Biden will use on Jan. 20, and there was a small corridor that was unguarded by police. So they charged up there and, rather improbably, discovered there was a tiny side entrance, also apparently unguarded. They broke the window, forced open the door. And there they were, in the corridors of power, astonished themselves that they got that far.

Megan Pratz, Cheddar: We went down to the first floor, where the entrance and exit is. We tried to exit, but guards told us that the first floor was locked down.

Marcus DiPaola, freelance journalist: I get an alert that protesters had breached the Capitol, and I’m like, “OK, so that’s the kind of day it’s going to be.” I take my first video — like six cops against 600 protesters. One protester pulled his fist back, and the cop just puts his hands up and walks back. There just weren’t enough people. The protesters ran right through.

Tia Mitchell, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: House staff was saying to us one at a time in the press gallery that they were going to lock down the chamber because the protest was starting to get out of hand. But there wasn’t panic. The House was still debating Arizona.

Kadia Goba, Axios: Capitol Police came on the speaker to say there had been a breach. You go in this marble building, it seems sacred to the people that work there. You just don’t think of intruders gaining access to that portion of the building.

Credit…Reuters

Mike Theiler, 70, freelance photographer, Reuters: Police were up against the door, and people were trying to get in. I never imagined that the doors would be breached. Police said, “You’re going to have to leave.”

Tia Mitchell, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: I guess the adrenaline of being a news reporter started to kick in. My roots are in covering the night cop shift in Jacksonville, Fla. So I go into breaking-news mode. When they stopped proceedings on the floor, that’s when we knew it was escalating.

Marcus DiPaola, freelance journalist: This guy grabs me by the shoulder and he’s like, “Who do you work for?” I’m like, “I’m a freelance photographer.” He’s like, “Have you ever worked for CNN?” And then he pulled me out of the way and he charges in. Obviously, I’m not going in there. I’m not going to fight my way past a bunch of cops. At 2:21 a Confederate battle flag makes it to the top of the stairs. At 2:23 I first noticed that windows were smashed on the door.

Mike Theiler, Reuters: All my professionalism from 50 years of photography kind of takes over. I started shooting, knowing deep down that you can’t make a bad picture in a situation like that. There were maybe 20 of the rioters in the hallway and only a handful of police trying to restrain them. That’s when I saw that the guy with a Confederate flag had kind of moved off by himself. I’m thinking in the context of — we’re in this hallowed hallway, with the gilded framed paintings on the wall, the bust, the kind of thing that speaks to anyone who has ever been to the Capitol, and I kind of isolated him with that in the background.

The Presidential Transition

Updated 

Jan. 8, 2021, 10:32 p.m. ET

Tia Mitchell, Atlanta-Journal Constitution: Capitol Police told us the protesters were in the rotunda. And then they said to put on the gas masks. We’re trying to figure out how to open the darn things, and maybe that was a sign that we were nervous.

Kadia Goba, Axios: There was an announcement that tear gas had been dispensed. I turned around and gallery staff were handing out gas masks. The protesters were knocking on the door — boom, boom — echoing throughout the chamber. The bangs were getting louder and louder, and then you hear glass.

April Ryan, TheGrio: I said to myself: “Go back to Reporting 101. Call your sources. Reach out to people who are inside.” And they talked. I never thought about driving in. Who’s to say that someone wouldn’t recognize me and try to follow me? Donald Trump does not like April Ryan. It’s a dangerous mix. Donald Trump has called us the enemy of the people, which is not true. I’ve understood that I can’t go cover a campaign rally for Donald Trump — it’s not safe. So I’ve learned how to maneuver around those things and still do my job and break stories.

Tia Mitchell, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: At 2:45, we heard a very loud bang coming from the direction of the speaker’s lobby. At that point I called my mom. I didn’t know if we were going to be sheltered indefinitely. I wasn’t thinking the worst, but my mom is not on social media, and I was worried my phone might die.

Kadia Goba, Axios: I’m behind a chair and my editor calls. I start giving her details. They get us out of the gallery.

Credit…Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press

J. Scott Applewhite, A.P.: Next thing you hear, someone is starting to break the glass of the door. I have a telephoto lens, and I’m focused on that door. It’s maybe 50 feet away. So at 2:39 p.m., there were several plainclothes police gathered around the inside of the door of the chamber. It just has a lock on it. A couple of the officers bring a heavy piece of furniture and set it on top of another piece of furniture, and now the windows of the door are barricaded up about halfway.

At 2:40 p.m., they started to break the glass. At 2:40 p.m., plainclothes officers about 10 feet from the door have now started to take out their guns. The officers are telling them to get back. The standoff continues, and I can start to see a man’s face. The officers are talking to him through the broken glass. They kept telling him, “You can walk away from this, you don’t want to do this.” By 2:54 p.m. the mob has retreated. At this point I started taking pictures of all the empty seats in the chamber with the scattering of debris.

Kadia Goba, Axios: There’s a trail of us going downstairs. They’re directing members to a secure location. Sadly, photographers and reporters were not allowed, and we end up going to Representative Ruben Gallego’s office. I was trying to get my blood pressure and my heart rate down.

Robert Moore, ITV: Once we were in Congress itself with the group that we followed in, we simply filmed and spoke to them as they, I think it’s fair to say, rampaged. There were people who asked which organization we were with. We explained calmly that we were a British TV network and we were there to record a moment in history.

There were a few flashes of anger. But I’ve covered wars and disasters around the world for nearly 30 years, and I never felt in danger personally. I actually watched them, with my own eyes, tear down Nancy Pelosi’s nameplate off the wall above the door that enters her office. That was a moment that I thought, “Gosh, this could get ugly and violent.”

Zoeann Murphy, 39, video journalist, The Washington Post: We arrived on the north of the Capitol around 4. I had been assessing what gear to bring with me. I have body armor and a helmet and a gas mask and a first aid kit — and it became clear that all of those things should be coming with me.

Megan Pratz, Cheddar: We stood in the designated press area on the east side of the Capitol, in the area we call the House Elm. Throughout all of this, people were stopping to criticize the media, calling us fake news and liars, the stuff I’m kind of used to. But after people started leaving the Capitol, it really ramped up. They were calling us communist; they told me that they were coming for me. Then there were 20 to 30 people who started coming into the area, surrounding each journalist and screaming at us, these hateful, hateful things. You couldn’t see a Capitol Police officer anywhere. That was when we decided we were no longer safe. We grabbed pretty much everything, and we just walked out. We were shaking, like physically shaking, because it’s an adrenaline rush, and not a great one.

Zoeann Murphy, Washington Post: One of the Trump supporters who’s been participating in the screaming at police pulls out her cellphone and says: “Oh, my God, guys, listen up. The president tweeted. He says we’re a country of law and order, and, um, I think we should go.” She read the tweet out loud maybe 15 times. It was so clear that, even if the president wasn’t intentionally giving direction, people were receiving it as direction. And then that area dispersed quite a bit.

Credit…iTV News

Robert Moore, ITV: I left the building with a group, and they were happy to have achieved their objective. The mood was a little bit euphoric.

Donie O’Sullivan, CNN: I asked folks were they proud of what they had done. And they said they were very proud and viewed themselves as the patriots, and that the people who accepted the legitimate results of the election were the traitors, which was quite surreal.

Kadia Goba, Axios: They let us go back to the Capitol, and we went back to our seats in the House gallery. Coming back was a little surreal. The House gallery had snacks. We had cup-size macaroni and cheese. Pringles. I remember a big bag of Cheetos.

Credit…Samantha Tadelman for Cheddar

Megan Pratz, Cheddar: I got home around 7:30. I gave my two little kids — they’re 5 and 3 — hugs and tried not to freak them out. I ate dinner but wasn’t really hungry. I didn’t want to do anything, just sit.

Zoeann Murphy, Washington Post: Law enforcement started kettling, creating circles of police officers around people. I’ve been in those many times, and usually I say I’m a journalist and they let me out. They didn’t in this situation, and I was taken aback. I went to three different officers and said we were journalists. When they didn’t engage at all, I thought we might be in a dangerous situation. One officer says very loudly to the crowd, “You are under arrest.” I’m getting my boss on the phone, reaching to get my credentials out, and one officer grabs me by the shoulder and the arm, and grabs my colleague by the shoulder and the arm, and starts to walk us toward these buses. By that point, I knew we were not in danger, though I was concerned we might have to be on these buses with a bunch of people who were not wearing masks. When it was our turn to be searched, this female officer came running up with a look of panic and asked if we were journalists. Her superior came and looked at our credentials and released us.

Marcus DiPaola, freelance journalist: Around 8, the police start kettling the media, and I was like, “Time to go.” I got back to the apartment and had pretzels and a lot of cookies and a pint of mango sorbet and a pint of NatureSweet Cherubs grape tomatoes. I turned on the TV and realized the historical implications of what I had just witnessed. My first thought was: “How in the world do we fix this? These people have been duped — people just aren’t taught to process information and assess its credibility.” And I remember feeling a complete hopelessness.

Tia Mitchell, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: They let us back into the gallery, and at 8:10 the Senate got back to work. Right off the bat, Kelly Loeffler made a speech where she said she would no longer object to Georgia’s electoral vote being counted for Biden. So I had to write that up.

Megan Pratz, Cheddar: I probably went to bed around 10. I woke up several times throughout the night. The only thing I kept saying to my husband was “It’s hard to be hated this much.”

Credit…Sarah Voisin/The Washington Post

Zoeann Murphy, Washington Post: At around 10, I went back to my hotel, walking through these mobs of Trump supporters drunk in the lobby. I get back to my room, and that’s when I started to process the enormity of what had happened.

Tia Mitchell, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: I left the Capitol at 12:46 and was waiting for the Senate subway and ran into Senator Loeffler, but she didn’t want to be interviewed. Sarah Wire from The Los Angeles Times agreed to share her ride-share, which was touching. I got home around 2 a.m. I made myself a drink and a little bit of food and watched “House Hunters” — HGTV is soothing for me. I went to bed around 3 a.m. I don’t feel like I’ve reflected on what happened. I think I’m scared of that. I might get too emotional.

Robert Moore, ITV: I went to sleep around 3 or 4 a.m. and was up a couple of hours later. What has surprised me is the level of interest in Europe, and in Britain in particular, with the events here. This is seen as a seminal story, one that shatters the myth about the stability of American democracy.

Kadia Goba, Axios: I was there till nearly 4 a.m., when Pence gaveled out. I went straight home. My friend was up and happy to hear from me, so we talked for 49 minutes. I still had adrenaline pumping.

J. Scott Applewhite, A.P.: I returned with my gear to my office in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. I had some soup, and I had an avocado and some nice tomatoes. I keep a little foldout chair, so I spread that out and slept between 5 a.m. and 7:30 a.m.

Megan Pratz, Cheddar: As I got out of bed, my body felt like it had whiplash. I had a sore throat — the air had been very smoky. I had a splitting migraine. I went downstairs, and the first thing I said to my husband was: “I’ve got to go to work, but I’m not OK today. And when I come home, all I want is for you to hold me really tight.” I feel both very fortunate and devastated that I’ve had to witness this part of history.

Categories
World News

Indonesia Boeing Aircraft Crashes Into Sea: The Newest Updates

Indonesia Boeing Plane Crashes Into Sea: The Latest Updates

BANGKOK – A passenger plane carrying more than 60 people crashed into the Java Sea a few minutes after taking off from the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Saturday, Indonesian officials said, again drawing attention to a nation long cursed by air disasters.

The fate of the plane, a Boeing 737-500, also had the potential to drag the troubled American aviation giant into a worse public spot, although the cause of the crash was not yet clear.

The Indonesian Ministry of Transportation announced that the last contact with the plane, Sriwijaya Air Flight 182, was at 2:40 p.m. local time. The plane flew to the city of Pontianak on the island of Borneo. According to the Ministry of Transport, there were 62 people on board. Four minutes after taking off in heavy rain in the monsoon season, the 26-year-old aircraft lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than 60 seconds after a delay in bad weather, according to Flightradar24, the flight tracking service.

The Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency said it found debris in waters northwest of Jakarta that it believed could have come from the wreckage of the aircraft, but that darkness and bad weather hampered the search. The area where the debris was found is known as the Thousand Islands.

“Tomorrow we will investigate the place,” said Soerjanto Tjahjono, the head of the National Road Safety Committee in Indonesia, on Saturday evening, clouding hopes that survivors could be found.

Boeing confirmed the crash on Saturday and said on Twitter: “Our thoughts are with the crew, passengers and their families. We are in contact with our airline customers and are ready to support them in these difficult times. “

The aviation sector in Indonesia, a developing country with thousands of inhabited islands, has been plagued by crashes and security vulnerabilities for years. As Indonesian airlines, especially low-cost airlines, have grown rapidly to cover a vast archipelago, the domestic aviation industry has been undermined by poor aircraft maintenance and careless adherence to safety standards.

For years, the leading Indonesian air carriers were banned from flying to the US and Europe by the regulators of these countries. Low cost airlines would go into business only to file for bankruptcy after fatal crashes.

However, Sriwijaya Air, Indonesia’s third largest airline, which opened in 2003, has never suffered a fatal crash.

And the Sriwijaya Air plane, which disappeared from radar screens on Saturday, was part of Boeing’s 737 500 series, which is considered a workhorse model with years of safe flying.

Whatever the cause, the crash comes at a terrible time for Boeing, whose reputation and profits were shattered two years ago by two crashes aboard its 737 Max aircraft.

In 2018, Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea with 189 people on board after the anti-stall system of the 737 Max jetliner malfunctioned. Another 737 Max crashed in Ethiopia in March 2019 after a similar faulty activation of the antistall system.

A total of 346 people died in these crashes that led to the creation of the Max fleet worldwide, sparked criminal investigations, scrutinized governments around the world and resulted in the overthrow of the Boeing CEO. In November, the Federal Aviation Administration became the first major aviation authority to lift its flight ban after requiring software updates, rewiring and retraining of pilots. At the end of December, American Airlines became the first US airline to resume scheduled flights on board the 737 Max.

Boeing estimated last year that grounding would cost more than $ 18 billion. But that was before the coronavirus pandemic brought travel to a standstill and messed up the aviation industry. In 2020, Boeing lost more than 1,000 aircraft orders, mostly for the Max, although there are still more than 4,000 left. The share price has fallen by about a third compared to two years ago.

On Thursday, the company announced it would pay more than $ 2.5 billion in an agreement with the Justice Department related to the antistall software used in the 737 Max. This includes $ 500 million for the families of those killed in the accidents and $ 1.77 billion in compensation for customers. In a statement announcing the deal, a senior Justice Department official accused Boeing staff of “choosing the path of gain over openness by hiding essential information from the FAA”.

Whistleblowers have accused Indonesian transportation officials of ignoring danger signs as domestic airlines, including Lion Air, expanded rapidly to cater to a growing middle class in a nation of 270 million people.

The Lion Air Group, which belongs to Indonesia’s largest airline, signed the two largest air transport agreements in history at the time, one with Boeing and one with Airbus. Boeing had targeted airlines in developing countries like Lion Air with its 737 Max model. eager to pack their fleets with new jets designed for short money-making.

However, aviation experts warned that selling aircraft to airlines, which are growing rapidly in unregulated environments, could be a recipe for disaster.

Jefferson Irwin Jauwena, the executive director of Sriwijaya Air, said Saturday night that they are “very concerned about this incident”.

“We hope your prayers will help the search process go well and smoothly,” he added. “We will also offer the families the best possible help.”

Rapin Akbar, the uncle of Rizki Wahyudi, one of the passengers on Flight 182, said his nephew called him on Saturday to tell him the flight from Jakarta to Pontianak was delayed. Mr Rapin reminded his nephew, a national park employee, to keep his face mask at the airport to avoid contracting the coronavirus. Mr. Rizki’s wife, child, mother and cousin were also on the plane.

While waiting for search and rescue boats to report, Mr Rapin said he was hoping for his family members. “There will be a miracle from Allah,” he said.

Indonesian aviation analysts said this crash could jeopardize the viability of Sriwijaya Air, especially as the coronavirus has emptied the Indonesian skies of many planes.

“Sriwijaya is trying hard to survive and the pandemic is making it harder,” said Gerry Soejatman, an Indonesian aviation expert. “This crash could mean the end.”

Indonesian pilots have also complained that the coronavirus has reduced their opportunities to practice their skills and brush up on their training. At one point during the pandemic, Sriwijaya only operated five planes, Soejatman said, which lowered crew morale.

At the Indonesian National Road Safety Committee, investigators were preparing for the very familiar task of finding out what went wrong in the country’s skies.

“Whenever we hear this kind of news, we get ready,” said Ony Suryo Wibowo, a committee investigator, on Saturday. “We collect all the information we can get.”

Niraj Chokshi contributed to the coverage from New York.

Categories
Health

Nationwide Guard is being mobilized

National Guard is being mobilized

Washington State National Guards Attending Training To Aid Contact Tracing Efforts And Slow The Spread Of Covid, Tumwater, Washington, May 20, 2020.

Jason Redmond | Reuters

In order to accelerate the introduction of the vaccine, the states are using their national guards.

More than 20,000 members of the National Guard are involved in the vaccination mission, with at least nine states using the guard to put needles in residents’ arms. At least 22 other states have activated units to help with logistical and administrative tasks related to vaccinations.

As the crisis deepens, more states are likely to turn to the military.

Serious challenges

However, those who hope the security guard can help with a greater acceleration may be disappointed.

The National Guard operates independently in all 50 states, three territories, and the District of Columbia. In most cases, it is activated by the governor. A total of 450,000 service members are available to the 54 guard units in the country. In the early days of Covid in the US, nearly 50,000 were deployed to help with testing, but most of those deployments have ended.

Despite the skills and expertise in a wide variety of areas, the security guard is generally not assigned a leadership role. Instead, guard units are usually ready to supplement existing resources in state and regional health departments.

“The power of the military is in logistics,” said Emma Moore, a military analyst who conducted an in-depth investigation by the National Guard for the Center for a New American Security. “The guard will be able to expand state and local health facilities and relieve the civilian medical infrastructure.”

Milan Torres reconstitutes a dose of Covid-19 vaccine at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, USA on December 14, 2020.

Manuel Balce Ceneta | Reuters

The obstacles

In Maryland, Governor Larry Hogan saw frustration with the slow start of vaccination efforts.

“While neither of us is thrilled with the speed of this rollout in the first few weeks, I can assure you that it is improving every day,” he said on Tuesday.

The Maryland National Guard was activated last week to help. Despite the frightening surge in the pandemic and the desperate need for gunfire, only 150 guard members received draft orders. For the most part, the people trained and ready for this type of work also have civilian jobs in the medical field, so state officials are careful about firing them from their civilian jobs where they are also battling the one-time workers for a century Health crisis.

These 150 Maryland Guard members were divided into 14 teams. Some are responsible for getting the shots off to civilians, while others help local and state health departments in other functions, such as setting up and maintaining sites and establishing social distancing protocols in shooting centers and making sure lines are not crowded with people waiting for an injection.

“Many of these National Guard units will find it difficult to move faster because of many complicated factors, including civil careers, family responsibilities, and obtaining orders from the civilian chain of command, which also requires financial resources,” said Moore.

In Michigan, 59 guard teams are working on site vaccinations with a total of 369 members.

Michigan was one of the first to use the guard on the vaccination mission. To date, the Michigan National Guard has fired more than 8,000 shots, but has limited capacity to expedite the deployment. Despite this early help, only 1.4% of the state was vaccinated.

Another factor slowing the drafting of the National Guard in some states is the politicization of the pandemic, which has led some governors to hold back fears of a military backlash into a crisis some people have not fully bought their way into.

Members of the National Guard stand guard near Kenosha, Wisconsin District Court on January 5, 2021 after the prosecutor said they would not be charged with the wounding of Jacob Blake, a black man who was paralyzed in a police shot in August 2020.

Daniel Acker | Reuters

Provision after provision

It’s been a terribly busy year for the National Guard. Members were brought to Washington on Wednesday to secure the Capitol during the deadly riot of supporters of President Donald Trump.

“We have had storms, riots and Covid-related missions for months,” said Wayne Hall, spokesman for the National Guard Bureau, which serves as a liaison between the federal government and the 54 National Guard Units.

“It really is up to each governor how to use the National Guard, governors set the priorities, there is no federal mandate, each state has its own priorities,” he said.

Categories
Business

Government for GM’s Cruise expects consolidation of lidar-SPAC corporations

Executive for GM's Cruise expects consolidation of lidar-SPAC firms

Dan Kan (from left to right), COO of Cruise Automation, Kyle Vogt, CEO of Cruise Automation, and Dan Ammann, President of General Motors, Tuesday, November 20, 2018, in the Cruise Automation offices in San Francisco, California.

Source: Noah Berger | General Motors

The co-founder and president of Cruise, General Motors’ majority-owned autonomous vehicle subsidiary, predicts a consolidation / collapse of the lidar industry, particularly with regard to companies that have gone public or are planning to do so through contracts with blank check companies.

In a series of tweets earlier this week, Kyle Vogt, who also serves as Cruise’s chief technology officer, said recent reviews of companies that have gone public with such companies are also known as Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACS) , are overrated.

“Something interesting is happening in the LIDAR industry. Over 5 companies will soon have or will have SPAC,” he said on Wednesday afternoon. “Their value is based on * projected * revenue coming from * completely overlapping * prospects, with very little discount on future projections. Is that bad?”

Vogt went on to discuss the SPAC model, saying that one of the companies – AEVA, Innoviz, Ouster, Velodyne Lidar, and Luminar Technologies in particular – may be able to meet such high ratings, but not all. The first three companies have announced SPAC deals, but have not yet gone public.

“Of course it is not uncommon for startups to be evaluated on the basis of future sales forecasts, even in a highly competitive environment,” tweeted Vogt. “But I usually see private markets giving these future projections a much bigger discount than what we’re seeing with these SPACs.”

Cameras help autonomous vehicles to read street signs and the color of traffic lights. But lidars, or light detection and distance systems, do the important job of detecting cars and helping them avoid obstacles, whether it’s a fallen tree, a drunk driver, or a kid running into the street. Lidar also has applications in defense, robotics, aerospace and, more recently, in personal electronic devices like Apple’s iPhone.

Luminar went public last month through a SPAC deal with an enterprise value of $ 2.9 billion. The current market capitalization is $ 10.7 billion. It’s similar with Velodyne, which went public in September with a value of $ 1.8 billion, despite a net loss of $ 67.2 million on sales of $ 101.4 million in 2019 was recorded. The market capitalization is $ 4 billion.

“Robotaxis will have a huge positive impact on society, so it’s important to see progress here,” tweeted Vogt, saying he respected all companies. “But we’ve seen a consolidation / collapse of the Robotaxi space (save for a handful of players) in the past 24 months, and LIDAR is next. That probably means lower market caps for most of these Co’s, which is a shame for everyone involved but may the best product win! “

Outside of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has criticized lidar, many believe the technology is essential for self-driving vehicles. Lidar uses laser beams to create a 3D environment of its environment for on-board computer systems.

Cruise acquired a lidar start-up called Strobe in 2017. The company continues to build its own self-driving sensor technology in-house and “watch what’s coming off the market,” said a Cruise spokesman.

“When we start commercializing, our decision will be based solely on ensuring that our customers and communities are safe and that we are bringing the price of technology down to the point where it is available to all,” he said in an email Mail sent statement.