SYRACUSE, N.Y. Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon promised today at his formal swearing-in ceremony to double down on efforts to work collaboratively with other local officials. The approach has already yielded positive results, he said.

McMahon, who was appointed county executive 14 months ago before winning election in November, said he has focused on strengthening relationships between his office and county legislators, the Syracuse mayor, and town and village officials.

As a result, he said, the community has shown more unity of purpose than it did in the past. Businesses and state and federal officials have noticed and are showing more interest in investing in Syracuse, he said.

McMahon said the recent decisions by two businesses JMA Wireless and Bankers Healthcare Group to expand in Syracuse were influenced by government collaboration. The same is true of Microsofts decision to locate a smart cities hub here, he said.

He promised that collaboration will continue to yield progress.

We have a moment in time as leaders of this community right now to double down on what we know has worked in 2019, he said. And if we can do that, if we can accomplish this, this community will look different.

McMahon said he plans to announce new initiatives at his State of the County Address, which will be Feb. 10 at Onondaga Community College.

Todays formal ceremony in the county legislature chamber followed a private swearing-in Dec. 30. McMahon received prolonged applause today from the audience, which he acknowledged was mainly composed of county workers.

Most of you are my employees, he said. I was looking to see who was clapping the loudest.

Read more here:

At formal swearing-in, McMahon promises collaboration will bring progress - syracuse.com

BRUNSWICK, Ohio -- I dont know how we lucked out with the weather this winter so far, but I couldnt believe that the Brunswick Area Historical Societys new old school building at Heritage Farm is up and has siding. I thought they couldnt get much done because they only started at Thanksgiving, but lo and behold, there it is.

Of course, its just a shell, but Im so excited that its this far along and soon well be starting on the interior. Before you know it, the summer will be here and theyll be moving in!

And when the kids get out of school in May, it means first that Visintainer and then Edwards middle schools will be coming down and theyll be trying to duplicate the front faade of the latter. So, fundraising continues. Next big one is a soup supper from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. March 5 at the Eagles Club in Brunswick, so keep watching for details or go to brunswickhistory.com/ for updates.

They are outstanding: Congratulations to the Brunswick City Schools teachers and support staff of the year. Those who have been selected from each school include: Applewood -- Mallory Nixon; Crestview -- Randy Kuzilla; Hickory Ridge -- Rhonda Collis; Huntington -- Jill Vickerts; Kidder -- Doreen Kebberly; Memorial -- Amber Shivak; Towslee -- Sarah Cooper; Edwards -- Dina Wenmoth; Visintainer -- Dana Delnay; Willetts -- Maryann Destro; and High School -- Matt Sofranko.

Support Staff Jaime Bark (Crestview), Shelly Mongalier (Central Office), Cheryn Caso (Brunswick High School) and Bryan Abend (Hickory Ridge) also have been honored.

The Brunswick Education Foundation honors outstanding teachers each year and, through its fundraising (Spring Fling), raises scholarships for students and grants for teachers.

Grants this year go to elementary, middle and high school teachers Trista Smith, Cassandra Shepard, Alex Sword and Stacy Hoy for Mndfulness Club; Applewood teachers Amy Ginn, Kristen Graley, Sally Mellinger and Nicole Toth for Academic Athletes; Crestviews Lisa Werner and Valorie Strauss for Comfortable Cafeteria; also from Crestview, Kolbie Haines, Lora Thomason, Sheri Hudak and Kelly Rutkowski for Problem-Solving Across the Curriculum; Hickory Ridge teacher Monica Tilbert for Reading, Singing and Moving Oh My!; and Memorial teachers Ashley Hojczyk and Libby Jackson for Choices for Choosy Readers.

They will be honored by the BEF in March. (And mark your calendars for the annual Spring Fling on April 4. Its one of my favorite things to cover every year).

Sending a big thank you: The managers and volunteers at Lifes Treasures, the Thrift Store connected with Hospice of Medina County, would like to thank the donors and shoppers who supported the Christmas Treasures store in 2019.

After 11 years of moving the store around town to a variety of available locations, this past year the Christmas store shared the same building with Lifes Treasures at 317 South Court St. in Medina.

The Christmas store sacrificed space to cut overhead and to add efficiency. The store was gorgeously arranged, with a huge variety of holiday dcor. Profits from the sale of the items will stay in Medina County to support hospice patients and family services.

The store will continue in the same location in 2020, accepting donations of Christmas items beginning in July. A newly organized Lifes Treasures Store will be open all year, taking donations of clothing, books and household items every day until 3 p.m.

Christmas Treasures will open in October.

Join Mickey and Minnie: The Brunswick Optimist Club holds its 28th annual Pancake Breakfast & Kids Fair from 9 a.m. to noon Feb. 15 at the Brunswick Community Recreation Center, 3637 Center Road. Enjoy a pancake breakfast while the children are entertained with family-oriented activities like magic and balloon art with Nate the Great, face painting, crafts, games and, of course, Mickey and Minnie. Bring your camera for photos with the characters.

There will be a bake sale, as well. This is the biggest fundraiser of the year for the Optimists, who are committed to helping young people in our community. Cost is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors over 60, $4 for children age 6-12 and free for kids 5 and younger.

Check out the Optimist webpage at https://optimistclubofbrunswick.weebly.com/ or look for them on Facebook.

Leadership to hold a Preview Party: Do you know someone interested in investing in their career or their employees leadership skills? This year, decide to do something for yourself, personally and professionally!

Consider attending Leadership Medina Countys Program Preview Party from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Feb. 19 at Williams on the Lake, 787 Lafayette Road, Medina. Light refreshments will be served. Admission is $25 and you can register online at leadershipmedinacounty.org/.

Leadership Medina County staff, board and alumni will be there to connect with future participants about their experience. Come learn about their Signature, Emerging Leaders and Junior Leadership programs.

Leadership Medina County offers established and emerging business and community leaders a unique opportunity to be part of a group that has come together to explore complex community issues, deepen the essential leadership skills that are needed to address those issues and build meaningful relationships with other leaders who will challenge each others views of the world while finding shared values and working toward the common good.

New Sunrise Rotary members (Photo Courtesy of David Lariviere)

Two new members inducted: The Medina Sunrise Rotary held its induction ceremony welcoming Leon Skowronski of American Greetings and Kerry Gregoire of Siebert-Keck Insurance Agency into Rotarys diverse family of 1.2 million men and women of action.

People like you make our community stronger by adding your skills, experience and enthusiasm to advance communities at home and on a global scale, said Rotary president Shail Jain. Working together, we can eradicate polio, train more skilled peacemakers, protect and empower children, and provide lasting solutions for communities fighting disease, hunger, illiteracy and poverty.

The club is about to celebrate its 21st annual Wine & Roses Benefit Dinner, featuring a romantic dinner, fine wines, music and dancing. Its all taking place from 6 p.m. to midnight Feb. 8 at Weymouth Country Club. Tickets are $99 per person and include a complimentary cocktail. Money raised has done great things for the community.

Be sure to check out the clubs official website: medinasunriserotary.com/.

Medina County Board of Developmental Disabilities Superintendent Stacey Maleckar, center, welcomes reappointed board member Lisa Morrison, left, and newly appointed board member Anne Salek during the December Board meeting. (Photo Courtesy of MCBDD)

Board members appointed: The Medina County Board of Developmental Disabilities has announced the appointment of board member Anne Salek by Medina County Probate Court Judge Kevin Dunn and the reappointment of Lisa Morrison by Medina County Commissioner Colleen Swedy. Each will serve a four-year term.

The Medina County Board of Developmental Disabilities is comprised of seven volunteer members who are appointed by either the Medina County commissioners or the Medina County probate judge. Board members have various professional backgrounds and include community leaders and family members of individuals who have disabilities.

We are pleased that the county commissioners have continued to appoint board members who embody the spirit of public service, and we know that Ms. Salek and Ms. Morrison will continue that tradition with their talents, expertise and energy, said MCBDD Board President Wayne Carroll.

We are very fortunate to have these board members as we continue to expand and strengthen our commitment to making sure people with developmental disabilities have opportunities to succeed in our community.

Salek is certified as a specialist in estate planning, trust and probate law by the Ohio State Bar Association and is one of only 30 attorneys in Ohio to have attained certification as an elder law attorney through the National Elder Law Foundation and the Ohio State Bar Association. She earned her bachelors degree from Allegheny College and her law degree from the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.

While elder law attorneys typically cater specifically to the aged and elderly community, a significant portion of Saleks practice includes similar planning for adults who have disabilities and special needs.

While in my law practice Ive been able to assist a number of individuals with developmental disabilities and their families in planning for long-term financial security, Im gratified that Ill now have the opportunity to work with other members of the MCBDD, the staff and our partners in Medina County to positively impact those same individuals in other ways," she said.

"I am looking forward to joining my new colleagues to advocate for and address the needs of the people with developmental disabilities in our community.

Since her first appointment to the MCBDD board in 2016, Morrison has been involved with making sure the MCBDD is providing quality services to individuals who have disabilities in our community.

She has been an adjunct faculty member in the psychology departments at Cuyahoga Community College, the University of Akron and Lorain County Community College.

I am proud to be reappointed as a board member for the MCBDD, Morrison said. I look forward to continuing to work with the dedicated management and staff to make sure families continue to receive important, life-changing services and support.

Contact Boyer at samboyersunnews@yahoo.com

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Weather played crucial role in building progress: Whit & Whimsey - cleveland.com

Scientific progress is not usually straightforward. Researchers pursue and abandon lines of inquiry. Results languish. Theories take decades to cohere.

But sometimes the accumulation of scientific knowledge proceeds more directly, with one discovery triggering the next like a cascade of dominoes.

Thats been the case recently with the mathematical study of fluid mechanics. A startling experimental discovery in 2013 set in motion a series of mathematical proofs that have unsettled centuries of thinking.

Its been a very dynamic and exciting story, said Alexander Kiselev, a mathematician at Duke University and a coauthor of one of the proofs.

The discoveries center on the Euler equations, posed by Leonhard Euler in 1757. Mathematicians and physicists have used them to model how fluids evolve over time. If you toss a rock into a still pond, how will the water be moving five seconds later? The Euler equations can tell you.

Though, not literally. The Euler equations describe an idealized world in which fluids have a number of properties not found in reality. The equations assume, for example, that fluids have no viscosity (internal currents dont create friction as they move past one another) and that theyre incompressible (you cant squeeze a fluid into a smaller space than it already occupies).

Within this idealized world, the equations use Newtons laws of motion to predict the future states of a fluid. Ultimately, mathematicians who study the Euler equations want to know whether the equations always work. Are there scenarios that effectively cause the equations to crash and prevent them from describing a fluid any further into the future?

In 2013, a pair of mathematicians seemed to find such a scenario. Thomas Hou of the California Institute of Technology and Guo Luo, now of the City University of Hong Kong, were running numerical simulations on a computer. They provided a numerical description of the initial state of a fluid and let the computer apply the Euler equations to determine the fluids motion in the future.

Hou and Luo focused on a particular scenario that you could nearly simulate at home. But first, to help think about the surprisingly complicated ways in which fluids can flow, lets consider a scenario you really can try at home.

Imagine a flat-bottomed, cylindrical cup full of tea, with some tea leaves that have settled at the bottom. Now stir the tea clockwise. At first the whole fluid rotates almost as a single body, sweeping the leaves along for the ride.

As the stirring proceeds, though, the centrifugal force of the rotating liquid interacts with the side of the cup to create what physicists call a secondary flow a more complicated motion that arises in response to the initial motion of the stirring. These secondary flows, which go down at the sides of the cylinder and up at the center, are evident in the motion of the tea leaves: They collect in the center at the bottom of the cup and then remain practically stationary even as the tea around them continues to swirl.

The phenomenon, observed for centuries, is called the tea leaf paradox. In 1926 Albert Einstein provided the first mathematical explanation for this behavior.

The scenario that Hou and Luo considered is slightly more complicated. Again, imagine a fluid in a cylinder. This time, the fluid in the top half of the cylinder is rotating clockwise, as in the tea cup, but in the bottom half its rotating counterclockwise. The motions produce several secondary flows. Eddies develop, in the form of swirls running up and down the sides of the cylinder.

From the top the fluid is spiraling down, and from the bottom it is swirling up in the opposite direction, Hou said.

As Hou and Luo ran their numerical simulation, they observed something surprising happening halfway down the cup, right where the conflicting flows came together. The Euler equations reported that the vorticity (or spin) of the fluid at that point was amplifying dramatically. In fact, their simulation showed that according to the Euler equations, the vorticity at that point was growing so fast that it was on track to become infinite in a finite amount of time.

Such infinite values are known as singularities. If the Euler equations were to produce a singularity, theyd break down mathematicians call it blowing up and would no longer be able to describe the future motion of a fluid. This is because the equations cant compute with infinite quantities.

Hou and Luos discovery caused a sensation. For more than 200 years, mathematicians had hunted for scenarios in which the Euler equations faltered. Many had performed numerical simulations that they thought were on track to produce singularities, but none held up under repeated experimentation with faster computers. Hou and Luo finally seemed to have found one that would stick.

Many researchers believe that this is the most convincing singularity scenario we have, said Vladimir Sverak of the University of Minnesota.

But a computer simulation is merely evidence. Its not a proof.

Computers are limited in the sense that they cannot go to the infinitesimal scale, Kiselev said. The result could look very convincing, but you dont know. Maybe if you get a better supercomputer you see things start to disintegrate.

So mathematicians rushed to see if they could prove that what Hou and Luo had observed was really occurring mathematically.

Kiselev and Sverak learned about the simulation in 2013, during a presentation by Hou at a summer workshop at Stanford University. It prompted them to begin working on an important open problem about the rate at which vorticity grows in two-dimensional fluids. They managed to prove a long-conjectured property of the growth rate by considering a version of the scenario Hou and Luo had used in their simulation.

Mathematicians had spent a long time searching for such a useful scenario Hou and Luos simulation suggested to Kiselev and Sverak where they might find one.

It was sort of like having a target to aim for, Kiselev said. Its one thing if youre hunting and you dont even see your target. Its another thing when you know where it is.

Subsequent proofs over the years have extended the mathematical understanding of singularity formation in the Euler equations. In 2019, Tarek Elgindi of the University of California, San Diego, (along with his collaborators Tej-eddine Ghoul and Nader Masmoudi) published two proofs detailing circumstances in which the Euler equations produced singularities. The earlier paper by Kiselev and Sverak was one of the starting points for his work.

Elgindis proofs involve slightly specialized conditions and fall short of the complete understanding of singularity formation within the Euler equations that mathematicians seek. Still, they are among the strongest results ever achieved in the discipline. Quanta described the work in our recent feature Famous Fluid Equations Spring a Leak.

In the same way that eddies in a stream alter downstream currents, Elgindis work itself prompted a new round of mathematical discovery. In October 2019, Hou and Jiajie Chen adapted some of Elgindis methods to create a rigorous mathematical proof of a scenario closely related to the one in the 2013 experiment. They proved that in this slightly modified scenario, the singularity theyd observed forming in the Euler equations really does occur.

They took [Elgindis] ideas and applied them to the scenario from 2013, Sverak said. The circle was complete.

Theres still more work to be done, of course. Hous new proof has some technical qualifications that prevent it from establishing the existence of the singularity in the exact situation he modeled in 2013. But after a remarkable six-year run and with renewed momentum, Hou believes hell soon surmount those challenges, too.

I think were very close, he said.

See original here:

For Fluid Equations, a Steady Flow of Progress - Quanta Magazine

PROGRESS Wrestling make their return to the US as part of WrestleMania week festivities. PROGRESS has announced their first five talents for the PROGRESS Tampa show. Its likely that most of these talents will also be involved in the WRESTLExpo (EVOLVE/wXw/PROGRESS crossover) events too.

The King Eddie Kingston will join PROGRESS for Mania week and PROGRESS Tampa. The EVOLVE and NWA talent is sure to be a fixture of the WRESTLExpo. Kingston made multiple appearances for PROGRESS in 2019 including challengingWALTERfor the PROGRESS Championship and having a high profile feud withChris Brookes.

The duo ofChief Deputy Dunne andLos Federales Santos Jr.are making their way to the US. The journeymen tag team have wrestled all over the UK as one of the most consistently entertaining acts on the scene. Whether as heels or faces their act remains entertaining and once the bell rings they can hold up their end of a match. Santos especially is an excellent performer.

The Black Swan of British Wrestling is coming to the US. Cara Noir has a captivating entrance that must be seen live to be believed. Noir had a breakout year in 2019 where he finally managed to become a big name in the UK scene and looks to carry that momentum into 2020.

O.J.M.O is another rising star in the UK scene. Whether its as the OJMO or as Michael Oku he spent 2019 making the top promotions in the scene take notice and has become a big part of RevPro and PROGRESS shows. OJMO is a star in the making, its just a matter of waiting for companies to pull the trigger on this young man.

Stay tuned to theLast Word on Pro Wrestlingfor more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. And subscribe toPowerslam to see PROGRESS and thousands of hours of independent wrestling content to get up tp speed with the talents before PROGRESS Tampa

Read the rest here:

First Five Names Announced For PROGRESS Tampa - Last Word on Pro Wrestling

SPRINGFIELD - Progress has slowed in the high-profile case of retired Westfield Police Detective Brian Fanion, accused of killing his wife in 2018 and staging her death to look like a suicide.

During a brief pretrial hearing before Superior Court Judge Michael Callan on Thursday, lawyers on both sides said transcriptions of grand jury testimony has slowed to a snails pace and stymied the usual pretrial progress of the case.

Fanion was arrested on Nov. 7 and charged with murder after being indicted in Hampden Superior Court. He has been held without the right to bail ever since.

Amy Fanion, 51, died on May 8, 2018, at the couples home in Westfield. Fanion told his colleagues at the time his wife shot herself in the head while he was home on his lunch hour, after they had argued. However, prosecutors contend Brian Fanion pulled the trigger because he was having an affair and wanted to divorce his wife without giving up half of his pension.

Fanions defense attorney and his family -- including Amy Fanions brother and the couples two children -- have vehemently denied Brian Fanion had anything to do with her death and remain supportive.

Prosecutors, on the other hand, say they have a solid pyramid of forensic evidence and expert testimony that prove Amy Fanion could not have pulled the trigger on the gun that day.

Defense lawyer Jeffrey Brown told Callan hes been hampered by the fact that he hasnt received transcriptions of grand jury testimony -- particularly by out-of-state expert witnesses in forensics.

The case against Mr. Fanion is primarily reliant on certain expert testimony, Brown said.

Assistant District Attorney Mary Sandstrom told Callan that Philbin and Associates, a local transcription firm, has a backlog dating back months.

The commonwealth isnt looking to delay this in any way, shape or form, Sandstrom said.

Callan pushed back, encouraging Sandstrom to put the firms feet to the fire.

They can be ordered to put it at the top of the pile ... and they will because they work for you, Callan said.

He set the next pretrial hearing for Feb. 5.

Fanion was not present in court and requested not to be at the subsequent hearing, Brown said.

Link:

Administrative woes slowing pretrial progress for Brian Fanion, former Westfield police officer accused of ki - MassLive.com

Major projects that are years in the making are bringing visions to life. (Graphics by Ellen Jackson/Community Impact Newspaper)

Transformation will come to SH 26, also known as Colleyville Boulevard, following the completion of the SH 26 widening project, slated for spring 2020, as well as the summer opening of Grapevine Main, a destination offering a community plaza, a boutique hotel and a food hall.

In July, Texas Department of Transportation officials announced construction of the SH 26 widening project was delayed from its slated 2019 completion date to 2020.

SH 26, also called Colleyville Boulevard, serves as the citys main shopping corridor. TxDOT has been working since 2016 to widen 3 miles of the road at a cost of $38.2 million. The road widening is expected to be completed in the spring.

2020 is going to be an important year for SH 26, Colleyville Mayor Richard Newton said in an email.

Once TxDOT has finished widening the road, the city will begin installing new decorative streetlights and then adding landscaping, Newton said. Drivers will experience minimal impact during median work, he said.

The city will add stones, colorful plantings and mature trees to the center medians of SH 26, he said. The first phase of this work is set to begin in late spring or early summer.

Following this, the city will add vertical gateway structures, masonry accent walls, pavers and decorative sidewalk posts to further enhance the corridor, Newton said.

The metamorphosis to beautify this commercial corridor in 2020 will be exceptional, he said in an email. This transformation will benefit our communitys greatest assetsour residents and our businesses.

Construction work on SH 26 is still on track for the modified timeline, TxDOT Public Information Officer Val Lopez said. Crews are on the west side of SH 26 finishing remaining sidewalk, driveway and retaining wall installation, he said. Additional work includes final striping and permanent traffic signal installation.

We appreciate the patience of our residents and business owners as the construction phase of this project comes to an end, Newton said in his email.

Prompted by the TEXRail train station in the same location, which began operations in early 2019, the city decided to develop a traditional train station that serves the modern travelers needs. This includes an open courtyard, the Hotel Vin and the Harvest Hall food hall.

Much of the groundwork was laid last year for the train stations development, said Tom Santora, chief commercial officer of Coury Hospitality and the managing director of the upcoming Hotel Vin. In addition to major construction work and the opening of the new parking garage, Coury Hospitality collected surveys from more than 600 people about the types of cuisines or entertainment they wanted to see in the food hall. With those responses in mind, Santora said three of the seven food hall vendors have been selected and will be announced in the near future.

He said he has already noticed the project resonating with the community.

It feels like were sort of going back in time a little bit, and the architecture of the building fits into the city already, Santora said. It doesnt feel like this modern building was plopped there, or some generic, standard hotel, if you will. ... Theyve really done a nice job.

Near the train station is a plaza that will also serve as a key part of the development, Grapevine City Manager Bruno Rumbelow said. The plaza will feature a public art piece called the Peace Circle, capturing the moment an 1843 peace treaty was signed, as well as a fountain and seating, Rumbelow said. Community events could also be held there.

We are truly excited about the Hotel Vin and Grapevine Main fully opening and being activated in the summer of 2020, Rumbelow said.

The project site is located at the corner of North White Chapel Boulevard and SH 114.

The $290 million Carillon Parc plan from Hunter Chase Capital Partners was approved in July 2018, but was updated in September to add more parkland and to better use the lands natural elevation changes, said John Terrell, a developer of the project and a former Southlake mayor.

He said the changes add at least $50 million to the project.

The plan comes with eight distinct districts that will include chef-driven restaurants, artisan shopping, and more than 10 acres of park space.

The city of Southlake also plans to partner with the developers to relocate the city library to Carillon Parc.

Were very excited about the economic impact that Carillon is going to have for our community, Southlake Mayor Laura Hill said.

Developers closed on the land for Carillon Parc in November and expect to have a more finalized site plan for the project by mid-January, Terrell said. Following this will be six to eight months of engineering.

Once engineering is completed, major construction can take place, Terrell said.

Carillon Parc will take about four years to complete, but some of the first buildings will probably open two-and-a-half years into construction, he said. These will likely be the new city library and the performing arts center, with the hotel also taking shape around that time, too.

The entire community has been waiting a long time, long before we ever got involved in this particular parcel of land, Terrell said. I think all of us are looking forward to the groundbreaking.

Read the original post:

Grapevine, Colleyville and Southlake make progress on major projects that are years in the making - Community Impact Newspaper

MILL HALL Prior to Thursday nights Keystone Central school board meeting, representatives from the Keystone Central School District and Sugar Valley Rural Charter School reported a positive initial dialogue regarding a charter extension for SVRCS.

In an email sent to media outlets early Thursday morning, a news release stated that there was a Wednesday meeting between the two parties. Although the email was sent from a KCSD address, it stated that it was sent on behalf of KCSD superintendent Jacquelyn Martin and SVRCS CEO Tracie Kennedy.

The news release read: Last evening representatives from SVRCS and KCSD met to discuss revisions to the 20-year-old charter. The conversation between the two has been positive and productive thus far. Further meetings have been scheduled to meet the common goal of charter revisions that could be approved by both the KCSD Board of Directors and SVRCS Board of Trustees.

At last weeks KCSD school board meeting, there was a special voting session that took place following the work session. During the voting session, the board unanimously approved an agreement with SVRCS for talks to proceed in an effort to resolve differences so a new five-year agreement between the schools can be negotiated.

The settlement negotation agreement is broken down into several segments:

Scope The Parties agree that in efforts to potentially avoid litigation in connection with the proceedings, the parties will attempt to negotiate a resolution. To accomplish this, the Parties agree to the several terms and conditions related to attempting to negotiate a resolution.

Settlement discussion process The Parties recognize that they are both public entities that may officially act only through their governing boards, and within the context of an opening meeting. Prior to considering or agreeing to any settlement, each Party has the right to hear from its administration and/or attorneys as to the relevant factual and legal background pertaining to settlement of the Proceedings, for purposes of both legal and expert advice on the advertisement of the potential settlement. Each Party has the right to hold any such discussions confidentially and within executive session(s), and at the exclusion of the other party.

Duration Any Party may give written notice through its Solicitor by mail or email to the other Partys Solicitor that the Agreement is terminated. In the event this Agreement is terminated, the Proceedings shall continue as if no settlement discussions had occurred. Other than the obligation to negotiate through settlement discussions, the Parties obligations under the Agreement shall survive any termination, to include, without limitation, the provisions of paragraphs 2, above.

No waiver or obligation The Parties expressly recognize and agree that entering into this Agreement (a) does not constitute an admission of liability of any wrongdoing by any party or that the Charter Schools renewal application, or the School Districts proposed causes for non-renewal, lack merit (b) is not a waiver of any arguments, claims, positions, or defenses in connection with the Proceeding, except the express waivers and releases otherwise provided for within the Agreement, and (c) does not obligate the Parties to reach a settlement relative to the Proceedings.

Rule of Construction Each party, through its legal counsel, has reviewed and participated in the drafting of the Agreement; and any rule of construction to the effect that ambiguities are construed against the drafting Party shall not apply in the interpretation or construction of the Agreement.

Martin said that she would like see the charter which has not been revised in more than two decades amended to meet present-day budget requirements.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) Gov. Tom Wolf said Friday that he will follow through on his plan to close another state ...

By PHILIP HOLMESFor The ExpressJERSEY SHORE A 21-year-old father surrendered to face assault-related ...

LOCK HAVEN AARP Foundation is providing in-person tax assistance and preparation through its Tax-Aide program ...

MILL HALL The Keystone Central School District superintendent is intent on not raising school property taxes in ...

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'Positive' progress in talks on charter renewal | News, Sports, Jobs - Lock Haven Express

Could the Pittsburgh Steelers be a legitimate Super Bowl contender in 2020? If your answer to that question is yes, it should immediately be followed by, as long as Ben Roethlisberger comes back healthy.

The Steelers franchise quarterback is coming off a season-ending elbow injury which ended his 2019 campaign after just 6 quarters. Since Roethlisbergers surgery, news on his progress, or lack thereof, has been minimal.

At his end of the season press conference, Mike Tomlin spoke about the timeline for Roethlisbergers next step in his rehab process in February, and what it was like playing almost a full season without the only franchise quarterback he has known since taking over the head coaching position in 2007.

We live by the clich that the standard is the standard. Incidents like the loss of Ben gives us the opportunity to live that out. I dont know that our mentality changed in terms of what our intentions were. It was an opportunity for us to roll our sleeves up and make that a reality. Tomlin said to media. Our focus was there. Our focus was individually doing what was required to get in and out of stadiums with wins. I didnt spend a lot of time crying about it. I still havent. Maybe I will gain a better perspective as I gain some distance. In the process, there is a certain urgency to respond to the next challenge that doesnt give you a time to wallow in it.

On Wednesday, Steelers Team President Art Rooney II met with local media and discussed Roethlisbergers progress to date, and what he had to say was positive.

This via Mark Kaboly of The Athletic:

While things have been positive in Roethlisbergers physical rehabilitation, and his mental status after having to watch nearly the entire 2019 season, there is a lot left for Roethlisberger to do before fans should get excited for the 2020 season with the same No. 7 under center they have enjoyed watching since 2004.

In fact, there is a reason why Rooney II used the word anxious to describe the way the team is viewing Roethlisbergers return to the field. The hope is Roethlisberger is healed, and moves smoothly through the process of getting himself back into shape as a quarterback in the NFL. But there is always the chance that after all the years of hits, throws and wear and tear on his body that Roethlisberger doesnt return to the same quarterback he was prior to the injury. If that is the case, the Steelers would find themselves in quite a bind heading into the offseason, the new league year and the 2020 NFL Draft.

There are still a lot of hoops which need to be jumped through before the team even knows the status of Roethlisberger, and you better believe the fans echo Rooneys anxiety level when it comes to the future of the team being wrapped around No. 7s overall availability this upcoming season.

Be sure to stay tuned to BTSC for the latest news and notes surrounding the black-and-gold as they embark on yet another lengthy offseason.

View post:

Art Rooney II anxious to see Ben Roethlisbergers progress - Behind the Steel Curtain

Progress-Index Staff

FridayJan17,2020at4:17PM

Suspect is charged with second-degree murder in a Jan. 12 shooting death in the City Point area

HOPEWELL Police have made an arrest in connection with the citys second homicide of the year.

Nathaniel Romeo Arrington, 20, of Hopewell, has been charged with second-degree murder and murder and use of a firearm in the commisssion of a felony. Police Lt. Michael Langford said Arrington was arrested without incident Friday by the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force.

Police allege Arrington shot and killed Christopher Shawn Barron, 49, Jan. 12 at a residence on Ramsey Avenue in Hopewells City Point area. Officers found Barron while answering a call for a disturbance in the neighborhood.

He died at the scene.

Arrington is being held without bond at the Riverside Regional Jail in Prince George County.

In a statement announcing the arrest, Police Chief Kamran Afzal said the task force, of which Hopewell is a member, has proven again to be a valuable asset in locating and apprehending fugitives.

Go here to see the original:

Arrest made in Hopewells second homicide of 2020 - Progress Index

To the Editor:

Re The Secrets of Jewish Genius, by Bret Stephens (column, Dec. 28):

As the daughter of one of the Jewish Nobel Prize winners of the 20th century, I take issue with much of Mr. Stephenss column. I am certain my father, Lawrence R. Klein, would agree with me that no ethnic group has a lock on thinking different or the achievements that issue from that.

What drove my father to excel was not his Jewishness, but rather his experience growing up during the Depression, his natural aptitude and a passion for economics. I dont remember a time when he wasnt working till late at night. His devoted students at the University of Pennsylvania came from all over the world.

My father received an excellent public education, which laid the foundation for his future Nobel Prize-winning research.

In the future, perhaps someone will be writing columns about the preponderance of African and Middle Eastern Nobel Prize winners, from marginalized immigrant groups that were welcomed into new countries and given the opportunity to be educated and to show their genius.

Rachel KleinBrooklyn

To the Editor:

Bret Stephens is being unjustly accused of racism despite preaching a message of unity and enlightenment. He draws attention to traditions of critical thinking and moral reasoning that are hardly exclusive to Jews. His point is that Jewish genius is representative of types of thinking shared by other groups that have also accomplished great intellectual feats.

Mr. Stephens seeks to draw broader lessons from this to overcome the current assault on free speech and freedom of association that devalue important habits of thought. By offering the example of Jewish genius, which contributed so greatly to the world despite persecution over the millenniums, Mr. Stephens reveals the intellectual and moral void lying at the heart of the exploitation of ethnic and cultural differences used to divide people.

There are Jewish geniuses, Christian geniuses, Muslim geniuses, Hindu geniuses and geniuses from every country, religion and culture in the world (apologies to anybody I left out). The fact that a disproportionate number of Jews made enormous intellectual contributions to the world in no way denigrates the accomplishments of any other group.

Mr. Stephenss attempt to use their example to identify common traits shared by other groups that can be developed by an enlightened educational system and praised by a society that values freedom of thought deserves praise rather than condemnation.

Michael E. LewittDelray Beach, Fla.

To the Editor:

As an Ashkenazi Jew, I disagree with Bret Stephens that there is a phenomenon of Jewish genius. Mr. Stephens cites the fact that American Jews have won a hugely disproportionate number of Nobel Prizes in science in the 20th century as an indication of Jewish brilliance. Where is the high number of prominent Jewish scientists and thinkers before that era?

Where are the Jewish equivalent of Euclid, Shakespeare and Newton? The signers of the Declaration of Independence and American statesmen in the 18th and 19th centuries were not Jews.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews, the fastest-growing segment of world Jewry because of their high birthrate, look down on secular knowledge and most reject a university education. Where, then, is the future of Jewish genius?

Jacob MendlovicToronto

To the Editor:

Bret Stephens writes of Ashkenazi Jews being smart and associates this with questioning, thoughtful attitudes. Jews tend to value education and reading highly; we are the People of the Book. This led to New York Citys best high schools, with admission by competitive examination, being mostly Jewish for much of the 20th century. Now students of Asian heritage are often the ones with the fierce drive for education, so they fill many of those seats.

It seems unlikely that any ethnic group is genetically more intelligent than any other. Smartness, to a large extent, comes from reading, thinking, discussing, arguing, exercising the brain.

Gerald M. LevitisNew York

See the original post here:

The Jews and American Progress - The New York Times

In my house there sits a picture of my dad and me at three weeks old watching the 1997 NCAA National Semifinal game between North Carolina and Arizona. My dad was a huge Carolina fan and indoctrinated me into the tradition early. Playing in the game was, among other future NBA stars, Vince Carter then a sophomore at UNC and just over a year away from making his NBA debut. Given my eventual career path and how often I now watch Carter play 23 years later, the fact that he participated in the first basketball game I ever watched feels at least faintly significant.

Thats pretty cool, Carter said when I relayed this information to him after the Hawks practiced on Tuesday. And Im still playing.

Career longevity is perhaps the most elusive thing for an NBA player to find. Most lack the sheer talent to last a decade in the league let alone two and those that reach star peaks often lose the ability or ambition to endure the grind of an 82-game season once they age out of their primes. Carters career has spanned 22 years, eight teams, 1509 games, and 25,577 points. When the Hawks visit the Celtics on Friday, hell have played in four different decades and moved within 12 games of tying Dirk Nowitzki for the third-most appearances in NBA history.

Sports Illustrated caught up with the future Hall-of-Famer on Tuesday to discuss the Hawks recent win in Orlando, the progress of Atlantas rookies, his career, and much more.

Sports Illustrated: How did it feel to break out of the funk you guys were in [with the win in Orlando]? Was there a different spirit in the locker room afterward?

Vince Carter: Of course. Its just a long time coming. A 10-game losing streak, which I didnt realize, after a while you stop looking at the streak. It wasnt about the streak, its about figuring out a way to get wins. For us, Trae [Young] goes down, so its important for everybody to do their job but not feel like they have to do more than whats asked of them. Defense, I felt, was the key. Everybody had to do their part defensively. Offensively we let the ball move and find the open guy, and everybody probably expected John [Collins] to be our go-to guy. We just felt like the ball needed to move and wed feature him when he needed to be featured. He didnt score a lot of points, but his presence offensively and defensively was outstanding because some of his pick-and-rolls to the basket allowed Brandon Goodwin to have a special night. So thats what its all about, just making sure the ball finds the open guy in the right situation.

SI: Obviously you guys won without Trae. Did that help you figure anything out about how to play when hes on the bench once he returns?

VC: I mean, I think the second units had some success all year. For us its our starts. We wanted to start better because weve put ourselves in a hole whether Trae was there or not. It didnt matter, we put ourselves in a hole. And I think that was the most important thing, as well as having leads and fighting back something we havent been good at as well. So its a lot of areas that we hadnt had a lot of success in and we needed to overcome. Holding a lead, which we did, fighting back and giving ourselves a chance to win. And once we got a lead we were able to sustain it late in the game. But for us its just making sure the ball moves. It cant stick. Trae has the ability to score one-on-one. We have guys that can do it, but not at his special level. So for us its just sacrificing that for the good of ball movement and open shots, and it worked.

SI: You and DeAndre Bembry in particular are good at that coming off the bench, not necessarily racking up a ton of assists, but just moving the ball and keeping the offense going.

VC: Its funny, thats something we talk about a little bit. We have a lot of guys that can score, but on every team you need ball-movers guys that can use their voices and kind of sacrifice offense for the good of the team. And regardless of our losing streak, we wanted to continue to do so and not force it, because if everybodys forcing it were in trouble. So weve done that, and well continue to do that. Its just great to kind of see everybody fall into that role and helping the team win. Like, we didnt want John to feel like he had to do it himself to make up for [Youngs absence], and he was able to just play within himself and he still had a good night. But by him kind of sacrificing taking a lot of shots, we have a lot of guys that can have a very good night, which we needed.

SI: This team has dealt with a lot of injuries and a 25-game suspension, which has caused your role to fluctuate throughout the year. Has that been difficult to manage, or are you pretty much ready for anything at this point?

VC: Its whatever. For me its just getting on the floor and just doing what I have to do. Winning is everything for me more than anything else. I dont look at stat sheets, I dont look at plus-minus. I play off of feel, and when I step in the game I just want to impact the game. If were down, help close the gap. If were up, hopefully extend leads. Thats kind of how I play and I play off of feel. So that means ball-moving, communicating, whatever it has to be. Hopefully I knock down a few shots when I can, but thats kind of been my thing. My role changes from game to game, sometimes week to week, but for me I just want to be on the floor and I can figure it out from there.

SI: It seems like youve been an important voice for the rookies on this team, particularly Cam [Reddish]. What kind of strides have you seen him take since the start of the season?

VC: For me, I just think the game is slowing down for him. More so than anything else. Playing under control, ball-handling, rhythm shooting, footwork all of that stuff comes, but I think all of that stuff he can work on every day tends to make sense when the game slows down, because you can think more things instead of just having to react all the time and youre just going off of impulse whatever just comes to mind you do. And thats kind of what was happening at the beginning, and I think the game is slowing down. So now he can read and react instead of just react. So all of the things that hes worked on or the coaching staff has worked on with him, he can now utilize or think through the game as opposed to the first month, where theres just so many thing happening. The work and the skills that hes been working on are there, you just cant really use it because everything happens so fast and he didnt know how to react to it. Now hes reading and reacting. And its going to take time. He still has a long way to go, but the strides are what you want to see month to month, and hes definitely doing that.

SI: Is it tough having to help a Duke guy out so much?

VC: Not anymore, because I played with Grant [Hill], so I got over it a while ago. Now that were in this funk and you see a guy kind of go through it, you put that aside. But I try to give him hell a lot, and thats a good thing, because Ive seen teams where the veterans dont talk to the rookies at all. That means they dont care about you. And we care about [Reddish]. He has a lot of talent, its just been up and down for him, and hes finding his way and hes trying to figure out how to utilize the talent that he has and translate it on the court to be the player we all feel like he can be.

SI: This is obviously your last season. Have you gotten tired of being asked about your age and playing in your final year?

VC: Yes. More so the last season, my age is all good. And the reason I say that is just because I try to forget it. I just gotta go out here and play. This will be an emotional roller-coaster year because of that. Just because its the last time in the Garden, last time in Indiana, last time in Chicago or whatnot. Some of them are very, very fond memories, and some of them are just kinda cool memories. And still theyre all special, because once the game is over and you sit on the bus and youre riding away, and you walk out of that arena and the bus takes off and you look back at that arena, its like, Well, I wont see this again as a player. So thats kind of where its like, Yeah, dont remind me. But Im well aware of it and Im okay with it at the same time.

Read more:

Q&A: Vince Carter Discusses Win Over Magic, Team's Progress, and More - Sports Illustrated

Contrary to what you hear from many of our elected leaders and those wishing to unseat them progress often takes small steps. Members of the Star Tribune Editorial Board are realistic about what can be accomplished in Washington, D.C., and Minnesota in the year ahead, but we are not without hope.

Here are some of the boards modest wishes for 2020:

Peak polarization: Its beyond wishful, perhaps, but still it must be said. Americans must hope that their bitter political divisions at least grow no worse in the bruising political year that doubtless lies ahead and that, perhaps, a more constructive debate can begin to emerge. A little less indulgence with cable news and incendiary social media, a bit more of an effort to understand how issues look from the other side, a deeper skepticism that professional provocateurs, right or left, really speak for anyone but themselves one such step at a time, from one American at a time, could only help. No one should expect spontaneous reconciliation, or anything less than a bare-fisted campaign season but the first step in achieving better communication across the political divide is to communicate ones desire for it.

Respect for expertise: Fact-based, data-driven decisions rely on experts. But in many cases, these experts are excoriated by those who find their findings politically inconvenient. In the Ukraine case, for instance, the professional, patriotic envoys and officers who upheld their oaths and told the truth were scorned, or worse, by the presidents defenders and President Donald Trump himself. Climate scientists often face the same treatment. And lawmakers from both parties dont seem to listen to, let alone heed, fiscal experts who warn of a coming debt and deficit-spending reckoning. The country would benefit if those in power more often sought, and acted upon, the advice of experts.

Health care: Dont let perfect be the enemy of the good. There are decent intentions behind the push to blow up the current health care system and start over with Medicare for All. But serious questions remain about what it would take to make this a reality. Namely, what kind of tax increases would be needed to pay for it, what would happen to those employed by insurers, and how would medical providers handle likely reductions in what theyre paid? The answers are complicated and controversial, making it unlikely this sweeping reform will become a reality anytime soon. There are other, more doable, ways to work toward universal coverage. One example is a public option, which would allow Americans to buy into a government-run, benefit-rich program like Medicare.

Affordable housing: Though the economy is growing, and unemployment is at record lows, too many are being left behind. Homelessness continues to be a problem, with untreated mental health issues a root cause in many cases. Others have housing but struggle with affordability. There are reasons to be optimistic. St. Paul and Minneapolis have affordable housing funds that theyre using to leverage other resources. Hennepin County and Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis will soon begin work on Exodus 2.0, a project that will double the number of deeply affordable supportive units for homeless people who may also have health problems. And state officials recently announced that Minnesota will receive $259 million in state and federal funding to boost housing options for vulnerable populations.

Gun violence: This should finally be the year that Americans find a compromise between respect for the Second Amendments right to bear arms and restraint for the awesome responsibility that should accompany such a freedom. There was a time in this nations not too distant past when gun ownership was simply seen as a way to protect life and property if law enforcement was not immediately available or a means to hunt, either for sport or food. Few felt compelled to stock arsenals out of fear of their own government, and combat-style weapons better suited to a theater of war were nearly unknown to the average citizen. Gun violence has become an epidemic in this country, and the resulting toll has already reached previously unimaginable heights. Absolutists on both sides have driven Americans to separate corners. Let 2020 be the year that the vast majority of Americans in the middle on this vital issue prevail on common-sense reforms.

Respect for the environment: Climate change is an existential challenge that will take an international approach (the Paris Climate Agreement was a start), yet theres much that individual states can do to protect their natural resources. Consider the debate over mining in Minnesota. The Editorial Board has stated its case that the proposed Twin Metals Minnesota project poses too great a threat to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The projects owners have also had their say, and urged the public to respect the permitting process. Our hope is that Minnesotans will consider all of the arguments and make their voices heard in Minnesota and Washington.

Fewer robocalls: Basic quality of life is important, too. The Star Tribune reported this fall, via the state Department of Commerce, that the average Minnesotan with a phone had received 58 spam calls in 2019. In a Nov. 11 commentary, state Rep. Zack Stephenson, DFL-Coon Rapids, described his intent to pursue a toughest in the nation bill to stifle those unwanted calls. Meanwhile, the Traced Act a bipartisan bill passed by Congress in December and signed Tuesday by President Trump seeks to thwart the ability of scammers to call from a spoofed phone number. Both the federal and prospective state action would require providers to implement new solutions at no extra cost to consumers.

A Super Bowl victory: We know what youre thinking. Hoping the Minnesota Vikings will finally win a Super Bowl isnt a modest goal not after decades of disappointment. But to quote the poet Arthur OShaunessy in a line you might remember best from the film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory We are the music-makers and we are the dreamers of dreams.

What are your wishes for Minnesota and the nation in 2020? Add them to the comments or, better yet, submit a letter to the editor at startribune.com/opinion.

See original here:

EDITORIAL | A few modest hopes for progress in the year ahead - Minneapolis Star Tribune

U.S. policies that restrained and shrank atomic arsenals have been abandoned. Yet there are hopeful trends as well.

Never take progress for granted. That is the big lesson from the past ten years of dealing with nuclear threats. The decade began with great hope for a transformational U.S. nuclear policy and increased global cooperation. It ended with nuclear risks resurgent across theboard.

At the beginning of 2010, one of us was writing another book on nuclear policy, the other was finishing senior year in college. But we end this nuclear decade in the same place: deeply worried about multiple nuclear dangers and the failure of U.S. nuclearpolicy.

There is some good news. We end the decade better off than we began by several measures. In 2010, there were 22,400 nuclear weapons on the planet. Today, there are fewer than 14,000, a 40-percent reduction. For the first time in the Atomic Age, a decade passed without a new nation joining the nuclear club. (North Korea became the ninth nuclear-armed state in 2006.) Moreover, there was no nuclear terrorist attack, not even a dirty bombthough that was the top threat cited in the U.S. National Security Strategy of2010.

These gains were fostered by the policies that guided U.S. strategy for most of the decade. We simultaneously reduced nuclear arsenals, prevented new nuclear states from emerging, and secured nuclear materials as we fought the terrorist networks that sought them. This effective combination of reduce, prevent, secure created the conditions for states to shrink existing stockpiles, convinced others not to take the nuclear road, and allowed all to cooperate to block terrorists and outlier states from getting their hands on materials for the cores ofbombs.

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The bad news is that the decades progress has stalled. The policies that made it possible have been discarded over the last three years. President Donald Trump inherited substantial nuclear threats. But his administration has made themworse.

Globally, we have an escalating nuclear arms race. Each of the nine nuclear weapons states are building new weapons. Relatedly, we have a near-collapse of arms control structures. Built over years by Republicans and Democrats, they restrained this race and prevented the worst fromhappening.

Regional threats have intensified, also. The deal that reversed, froze, and secured the Iranian nuclear program is being destroyednot by Iran, but by the United States. With North Korea, despite promising diplomatic openings, the Trump administration has yet to develop a workable diplomatic process to structure real, serious and sustainable negotiations, as a group of senators led by Chuck Schumer recently wrote. The arms race in South Asia now combines with increased instability, andin the case of Indiaa dangerous Hindu nationalism that threatens a regional nuclear war with global, catastrophicconsequences.

Finally, as one of us recently noted, Donald Trump presents a unique nuclear danger: an unstable individual with the ability to launch a nuclear war whenever he wants, for whatever reason hewants.

It would be easy to blame the current administration for all of these problems. But that would overlook the failures of the previous administration. Obama officials thought they had more time than they did. They believed that half steps would lead to full solutions. They thought that they needed to protect their right flank by continuing status quo policies and appointing supporters of the existing nuclear arsenal to key policypositions.

President Barack Obama had the best of intentions but, as the character played by Louis Gossett Jr. says about Dr. Manhattan at the conclusion of HBOs brilliant Watchmen series, He was a good man, but considering what he could do, he couldve donemore.

There is still reason for hope. Nuclear weapons may seem like an unchangeable reality in the world, but the world itself is changing aroundthem.

For one thing, the nuclear have-nots are demanding a say in their destiny. Fifty years ago, these nations pledged to never acquire nuclear weapons in a bargain enshrined in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In return, the nuclear haves pledged to end the nuclear arms race and move towards complete disarmament. For five decades, the former deferred to the whims of thelatter.

No longer. With the help of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and other groups, the have-nots organized a series of conferences on the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons in 2013 and 2014, then passed a legally binding treaty through the United Nations that comprehensively prohibits nuclear weapons. The treaty will likely come into force by 2021, creating a new global norm that puts pressure on even those states who remain outside thepact.

Governments are not alone in shaking up the traditional hierarchies. Compared to 10 years ago, the nuclear policy community looks starkly different. The field is younger, more female, more racially diverse, though not nearly enough. This trend is typified by the likes of ICAN abroad and Beyond the Bombdomestically.

In all these cases, people are insisting that nuclear decisions, which affect us all, be made by usall.

These trends are positive, but can they overcome the destruction of the arms control regime, the expansion of nuclear stockpiles, and the growing regionalthreats?

The last ten years show that when policy falters, disasters loom. The history of the next nuclear decade begins now. It will be a race, as former Sen. Sam Nunn says, between cooperation and catastrophe. We hope to see you at the finishline.

The rest is here:

Progress, Peril, Hope: The Nuclear Decade in Review - Defense One

2019 was full of new milestones for DHA in its health records modernization, medical treatment facility oversight and more.

The Defense Health Agency has progressed over the past yeartoward consolidation of its health IT assets and operationalizing a number of technology initiatives.These successes came with much planning and effort across DHA and its partners. With modernization, centralization, interoperability, cybersecurityand several over topics taking center stage in DHAs activities and goals this year, the agency had a lot of its plate, but also hit new milestones along the way.

MSH Genesis DHAs new electronic health record (EHR) system has been one of the agencys biggest IT projects this year.

MHS Genesis runs on Cerner Millennium, a commercial platform that will enable DHA to keep its EHRs agile and up-to-speed with emerging technologies, DHA CIO Pat Flanders said in an interview with GovernmentCIO Media & Research.

Adoption of a commercial EHR one of the best things thats going to do for us is allow us to adopt new technologies as the commercial world adopts them, as they get integrated into Cerner Millennium as a product, so were going to get best practices across the board for that, Flanders said.

Newtechnologies that the EHR can adopt include artificial intelligence in cybersecurity or other cloud computing applications, Flanders said.

By the start of 2019, MHS Genesis had been tested at four different military treatment facilities in the Pacific Northwest, according to Stacy Cummings,DefenseHealthcare Management Systems' program executive officer at the time.

In these pilot stages of deployment, MHS Genesis enabled for the first time in the military health system an integrated inpatient, outpatient electronic health record that brings together medical and dental [records], Cummings said in February.

Before its full roll out later in the year, MHS Genesis had proved to improve users activities on the ground at medical treatment facilitiesto enable providers to spend more time providing for patients rather than navigating the EHR system. At the first few facilities that tested MHS Genesis, Cummings said nurse time in the EHR decreased by 25%, for instance.

Were seeing that as our users are being able to adopt and really learn how to use the system, theyre able to increase the amount of care they can give, Cummings said.

By the summer at the Defense Health IT Symposium, DHA officialssaidMHS Genesis would be ready for its first of 23 waves ofofficial deployment with the Travis Wave named after Travis Air Force Base, one of the first bases in the wave by Sept. 7. Not only will MHS Genesis create a common record across the military health system, but with VAs records as well, Maj. Gen. Lee Payne said at the event.

Upon the Travis Wave deployment, currentDHMS PEO Bill Tinston said the MHS Genesis pilot helped prepare for certain challenges, such as making sure that medical treatment facilitieshad the IT infrastructure to support the EHR. Tinston looked forward to the next wave in 2020, Wave Nellis, whichwould be the last single wave before moving toward stacked waves to meet the 2023 goal of completing all 23 waves.

With Tinston's positive report ofMHS Genesis deployment with Wave Travis and the upcoming Wave Nellis, the EHR interoperability cooperation between the Defense Department and Department of Veterans Affairs has also shown growth this past year.

At DHA Industry Day in November, Tinston said in an interview with GovernmentCIO Media & Research that it has been increasingly important to regularly meet and work with VA leadership counterparts as they build out and deploy their EHRs to ensure that they are in sync in their practices, infrastructure and security.

Without collaborating, we cant be effective neither organization can be effective, Tinston said. [John] Windom and I have regular discussion on down the organization because its single enclave, its single cyber boundary and cyber process that we use to protect the data.

This year also marked a milestone for DHA'sacquisition of the Army, Navyand Air Force medical treatment facilitiesOct. 1.

The 2017 National Defense Authorization Act mandated DHA become responsible for all those facilities in terms of their budget, IT, administration, management, policiesand procedures. In total, DHA was to adopt DOD's 51 hospitals, 381 occupational health and ambulatory care clinics, and 248 dental facilities.

Starting in October, DHA began a four-part process to a two-yeartransition. As of Oct. 1, the first part of this process was incentralizing the administration and management of the service branches medical treatment facilities.

Now that DHA has met the first of its four objectives, it is working on the final three of the four objectives, which are to establish health care markets, a small market and stand-alone medical treatment facilityorganization, and defense health regions overseas.

At this years DHA Industry Day in November, DHA Assistant Director of Management and Component Acquisition ExecutiveBarclay Butler updated the progress on the MTF marketplace standup.

Butler reported that as of November, DHA was 71% done in building the initial capabilities and capacities for a headquarters to support the medical treatment facilitymarkets.By the end of 2019, DHA aims to achieve those conditions, he added.

The health care markets, Butler explained, will comprisegroups of medical treatment facilitiesin geographic areas and will have a large medical center or hospital at each markets core. The markets will provide centralized, day-to-day management and support to all medical treatment facilities within each market, Butler said in a DHA press release.

While DHA continues to stand up its markets and small stand-aloneorganizations, the final objectiveto establish defense health regions overseas will begin in 2020. When this last stage is complete in October 2021, all medical facilities overseas will report to their respective DHA regional offices. DHA said it oversees 43 in the Indo-Pacific region and 31 in Europe.

All of the efforts DHA is working toward aim to meet four priorities Lt. Gen. Ronald Place who became the third director of DHA in September has established for the agency. These are to:

As DHA continues to consolidate health care IT, administration, managementand delivery of care, Place said that the service branches and their warfighters can focus more on mission and national security.

DHA will continue working toward these priorities through its consolidation efforts in the new year from its EHR efforts in MHS Genesis and interoperability work with the VA to the medical treatment facilitiestransition.

Read the original:

DHA Sees Year of Progress with MHS Genesis, Interoperability - GovernmentCIO Media

Monitor correspondents spent 2019 with their fingers on the pulse of progress. Reflecting on a years worth of news, they mark promising trends that include poverty alleviation to emboldened democracy.

Beijing bureau chief Ann Scott Tyson notes how China is closing in on its goal of wiping out extreme poverty by the end of 2020. By the end of 2019, about 95% of the countrys poor population will have been lifted from poverty, according to the State Council Poverty Alleviation Office. The government has allocated $16 billion for 2020 to support the countrys poorest areas.

In the European Union, the bloc is boosting protection for whistleblowers who flag breaches of EU law, reports correspondent Dominique Soguel. Approved in October, the directive covers data protection, public health, nuclear safety, and other sectors.

And when Tunisia held presidential debates ahead of its September election, it was the first time any Arab country had leading candidates debate policy and defend their records, Middle East correspondent Taylor Luck reports. This is a moment of pride for us Tunisians, says Walid Ben Mohammed, a Tunis taxi driver. A chance to remember why our revolution and struggle was all worth it.

Stay tuned for more global good news in 2020.

For this end-of-the year installment of Points of Progress, we asked six Monitor correspondents to survey their regions and tell us what they saw as the significant steps of progress made there in the past year. What follows is the result.

We began this weekly feature in response to the fact that the news media tend to report on new initiatives intentions to make progress, program announcements, and the like but rarely revisit them to celebrate concrete accomplishments. Weve found that reports of measurable progress require some digging to unearth. We hope youve been enjoying this feature. Let us know at editor@csmonitor.com. Owen Thomas / Editor, Monitor Weekly

When Canadas Parliament was elected this fall, attention focused on minority underrepresentation. But in an analysis by Andrew Griffith, a senior fellow of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute and the Environics Institute, Canada is doing a much better job of getting visible minorities elected. While the minority population of Canada is 23%, he calculates that the proportion of minorities who are Canadian citizens is 17.2%. Parliament, which reconvened in December, is 15% visible minority. Thats higher than in other Western democracies, including the United States and United Kingdom, and suggests a greater resilience here to the type of anti-immigrant populist sentiment that has proliferated elsewhere, according to Mr. Griffith. Sara Miller Llana/ Staff writer

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff/File

An elementary school student in Tamaula, Mexico, studies the lesson on the blackboard. More Latin Americans are staying in school longer.

More Latin Americans are studying beyond elementary school, something that helps decrease wage inequality in the region and underscores the high rate of return on investment in education here. In 2004, about 66% of Latin Americans studied beyond elementary school, a number that grew to nearly 80% by 2014, according to a United Nations report. Education plays a much larger role in determining earnings among workers in Latin America and the Caribbean compared with members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of 34 mostly developed economies. Scores on the PISA the OECD test given in 79 participating countries every three years are improving at a faster pace here than in OECD nations. Despite the progress, there is still work to be done to improve the quality of education in the region. Whitney Eulich / Correspondent

Sub-Saharan Africa has a higher percentage of women on corporate boards than any other region in the world, according to a new report by the McKinsey Global Institute. Thats good news, since appointing more women to boards tends to lead to a more gender-equal workplace overall, and even higher companywide productivity. At 25%, Africa far outpaces the global average of 17% women on corporate boards, but the McKinsey report also cautioned against reading too much into the statistic. It was a success story for women at the top of the pyramid, but not for millions of ordinary African women working at lower rungs of the economy. Ryan Lenora Brown / Staff writer

Courtesy of Munathara Initiative

Candidates for president of Tunisia participate in the second of three debates in Tunis on Sept. 6, 2019. This was the first election in Tunisia to feature candidate debates.

Tunisia held presidential debates ahead of its Sept. 15 presidential election, the first time any Arab country had leading candidates debate policy and defend their records. The debates were the result of five years of campaigning by the Munathara Initiative, a Tunisia-based organization, and the format was based on Colombian and Mexican models in which candidates have 90 seconds to respond to moderators questions. This is a moment of pride for us Tunisians a chance to remember why our revolution and struggle was all worth it, says Walid Ben Mohammed, a Tunis taxi driver. Rather than our next head of our state acting like they are the boss of us, he or she has to plead with us as if they are applying for a job. Taylor Luck / Correspondent

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The European Union is boosting protection for whistleblowers who flag breaches of EU law. Approved in October, the EU whistleblowers directive covers money laundering, tax fraud, data protection, public health, nuclear safety, and environmental protection. Companies with more than 50 employees or with annual sales exceeding 10 million ($11 million) will be required to establish confidential whistleblower channels and clear reporting mechanisms. The directive also covers the public sector with reporting requirements for state and regional administrators and municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants. If the authorities fail to act within three to six months, whistleblowers may go public. EU member states have two years to adapt their national laws. Dominique Soguel / Correspondent

A man transports quilts to be recycled as his son sleeps atop them in Xiangyang, central China. Poverty is being aggressively cut in China.

China is closing in on its goal of wiping out extreme poverty by the end of 2020. By the end of 2019, about 95% of the countrys poor population will have been lifted from poverty, according to State Council Poverty Alleviation Office Director Liu Youngfu. At the same time, more than 90% of poor counties will have their hats off, or no longer be designated as impoverished, Mr. Liu said. The poverty problem that has plagued the Chinese nation for thousands of years will be solved, he said. Chinas poor population decreased from 98.99 million in 2012 to 16.60 million in 2018. The government has allocated $16 billion for 2020 to support the poorest areas, mainly in western and southwestern China. Ann Scott Tyson / Staff writer

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Points of Progress: Where good news happened in 2019 - The Christian Science Monitor

An article in the Hindu Business Line highlights the impressive progress India has made in deploying the infrastructure of electronic payments. By measures such as POS terminals (rising from 12.1 million in 2015 to 45.9 million in 2019) and debit cards (604 million in 2015 to 835 million in 2019), great progress is being made.

Additionally, moving beyond just setting up full-fledgedbank branches, banks have started expanding the base of alternate electronicdelivery channels at a much faster pace, after mobile connectivity and network,and Internet services were made accessible and affordable to people at thebottom of the pyramid.

Despite impressive technical progress, the challenge ofgrowing the base of end-users is ultimately one of financial awareness andeducation:

In order to make FI work to ensure that the benefits of inclusion reaches the intended target group of the society, seminal changes need to be introduced in the spread of financial and digital literacy and credit counselling. While many stakeholders have been doing sporadic work, they are not coordinated enough to optimise its effectiveness.

Inadequate institutional efforts to disseminate financial awareness at the grassroots level are keeping even financially connected masses (those having bank accounts and debit cards) away from the formal financial system. Adequately equipping and empowering institutions engaged in disseminating comprehensive literacy programmes will be essential to unleash the potentiality of the huge financial and digital infrastructure built and designed to sub serve FI.

In rapidly emerging markets such as India, we often focus onthe last mile challenge of infrastructure deployment as a limiting growthfactor. However, as the article implies, the pace of deployment mayexceed the ability of target populations to become actual service consumerswithout concurrent, intensive user campaigns to build new generations ofelectronic payments users.

Overview byKen Paterson, VP, Special Projects andDirector, Customer Interaction at Mercator Advisory Group

Summary

Article Name

India Has Made Impressive Progress in Electronic Payments, But Growing the End-User Base Remains a Challenge

Description

An article in the Hindu BusinessLine highlights the impressive progress India has made in deploying the infrastructure of electronic payments. Despite impressive technical progress, the challenge of growing the base of end-users is ultimately one of financial awareness and education.

Author

Ken Paterson

Publisher Name

PaymentsJournal

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India Has Made Impressive Progress in ePayments, but Growing the End-User Base Remains a Challenge - PaymentsJournal

Delia Sellers is sworn in as the new District Clerk. She is using the Bible of former District Clerk Joy Kay McManus who passed away on Mar. 7, 2018. Joy Kays daughter is holding her mothers Bible for Summers.

Delia Sellers is sworn in as the new District Clerk. She is using the Bible of former District Clerk Joy Kay McManus who passed away on Mar. 7, 2018. Joy Kays daughter is holding her mothers Bible for

Photo: David Taylor / Staff Photo

Delia Sellers is sworn in as the new District Clerk. She is using the Bible of former District Clerk Joy Kay McManus who passed away on Mar. 7, 2018. Joy Kays daughter is holding her mothers Bible for Summers.

Delia Sellers is sworn in as the new District Clerk. She is using the Bible of former District Clerk Joy Kay McManus who passed away on Mar. 7, 2018. Joy Kays daughter is holding her mothers Bible for

A Year in Review: 2019 brought promised progress

Writers at The News Advocate take a look at some of the top stories in Liberty County

Liberty County

At the beginning of 2019, city and county leaders promised progress for 2019 as they eyed the coming growth for the county. What began as a trickle quickly became a tidal wave of changes and many of those projects are already underway.

The year began with a banner day in January for Liberty County Republicans as they installed newly elected officials to the top spots in the county. The Grand Old Party (GOP) swept the county-wide elections with only a lone Democrat being elected to office in the county.

County Judge Jay Knight was re-elected, and newly elected District Clerk Delia Sellers used the family Bible of former District Clerk Joy Kay McManus for her affirmation of office.

Sellers brought tears to the eyes of many when she invited McManuss daughter Brenda to come and hold the Bible for the ceremony.

Lee Haidusek-Chambers invited her mom to hold the family Bible that dated back to the late 1800s for her oath of office.

For decades in this county, she has sat on city councils in Kenefick and Devers, shes worked election after election, and shes one of those silent people that help keep our county moving, her daughter Lee said.

Shes my inspiration and the reason Im here before you today. I hope that I can live up to her standards.

County-wide elections werent the only ones drawing attention.

City of Dayton

The city of Dayton made history when they elected the first woman in office choosing Caroline Wadzeck to lead.

After the filing deadline passed at 5 p.m. on Feb. 15, Wadzeck was relieved to know she wouldnt have a competitor.

It means a lot, Wadzeck said after she heard the news. I dodged the bullet, and Im thankful, she said expecting a challenge.

The civic leader spent three years of her retirement researching and publishing a book entitled The Streets of Dayton, Texas: History by the Block. Now she will become an integral part of the history of the city with her election.

Wadzeck has faced some historic decisions that will change the face of the city particularly with the growth already showing signs in the area.

Being the first female mayor for Dayton wasnt a feminist ideal, Wadzeck said.

No, not at all. The fact that Im a woman has absolutely nothing to do with it, she said. She only ran because she wanted to be the mayor and work for the city. She will have a large part in changing the trajectory of the city.

Former mayor Jeff Lambright could have run again, but it would have meant giving up his job at the Liberty County Central Appraisal District. The CAD board adopted a policy on Dec. 14, 2017 that addressed any conflicts of interest in outside employment or activities, including political activity and holding office while employed by the district. Lambright and one other employee were grandfathered in to allow them to finish their current term.

For at least a decade, courthouse security was an issue. With more than a dozen entrances to the grand historic building, providing security was a difficult proposition. A plan to secure the building and close off all but one entrance was passed by commissioners in late 2018.

By March of 2019, Pct. 1 Commissioner Bruce Karbowski began the implementation of the new security measures including a single entry that had guards and metal detectors. The public has adapted to the changes and the building is more secure than ever.

Weve already caught several people with weapons coming into the courthouse, not that they meant anything, but they were still trying to bring them in, Karbowski said.

The identification badges for employees are done and the new, more secure locks is the final piece of the puzzle that has been completed. Karbowski was happy it was done, but is on to other projects.

The first of March brought a historic vote by the Houston-Galveston Area Council in Houston after the culmination of more than three years of hard work to help fund the relocation of the United Pacific (UP) railroad tracks at Highway 90. The move could well change the trajectory of the city of Dayton and Liberty County.

The project to move the railroad tracks on US 90 further south closer to SH 99 with four grade separations, two eastbound and two westbound, is not completely funded but will receive an initial $45,016,157 from H-GAC towards the project.

This is just the first of many more progressive steps, but its a big one and were moving in the right direction, said a beaming Liberty County Judge Jay Knight who was on hand for the vote in March.

Knight estimated that with the first $45 million-plus that comes from the federal funds, they would still need about another $150 million to get it done.

Knight said no matching funds were required for this particular grant.

I think this can be done with the federal, state funding, and the Rural Rail District who could offer bonds to pay for some of the work as well, he said.

Alan Clark, aptly nicknamed the highway guru for his years of knowledge with working on developing transportation in the region for H-GAC, said it would not only cure the bottleneck of traffic, but provide the impetus for economic growth for Dayton and the county.

US 90 has been recognized as a critical route. When theres an issue on Interstate 10, US 90 is the only east/west corridor, he said.

Later the same month, more history was made when neighboring Crosby hosted the leader of the free world to their small farming town. Along the thousands of people lining FM 2100 were plenty of Liberty County residents greeting President Donald J. Trump.

The president was present to sign executive orders at the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) International Training and Education Center in Crosby.

The union-run facility is spread over 265 acres of previous farmland on Foley Road that was sharecropped by two families many years ago.

Memorial Day weekend in Dayton was special as veterans and residents celebrated the completion of significant repairs to the Dayton Wall of Honor monument area.

During Hurricane Harvey, like many structures around the city and county, raging flood waters did considerable damage.

The area retained a lot of water around the wall and seeped in behind the bronze plaques that bear the names of our heroes, said Dayton city manager Theo Melancon.

The damage not only applied to the plaques, but the mural and marble was coming off the structure including some cracks.

Entergy Texas donated $7,700 to cover the costs of refurbishing the wall.

The celebration was combined with a solemn ceremony to remember those who had given their lives for this nation.

Let no storm, no wind, no rain, diminish what this wall and its beauty represents to this community, state and nation, said Frank Shannon, director of customer service, East region for Entergy Texas.

City of Cleveland

Cleveland ISD hired a new superintendent Chris Trotter in April to replace Darrell Myers after he announced his retirement.

It wasnt an easy start for Trotter. When tropical storm Imelda hit, Trotter and his staff stayed at school with students until the next morning due to high waters.

Trotters biggest accomplishment this year was to convince voters to approve a $198 school bond. A previous offering was rejected.

Trotter hit the city of Cleveland and attended many meetings to let the community know to vote on the future for the district.

The bond was necessary to allow the fastest growing school district in the state to support its students with new facilities, Trotter said. Bond projects include a renovation of Northside Elementary, two new elementary schools, one new middle school, softball and baseball renovations, new staff development and administrative offices. School board President Chris Wood said the bond will provide support for the Cleveland areas growing population.

The bond can be funded without a tax increase because of increased property valuations in Liberty County thousands of single-family homes will soon be added to the tax rolls in new developments, such as 1000-home community Grand Oaks and the conversion of timber and cattle land exemption areas to homestead property areas.

A May 29 shooting spree in Cleveland left the county in shock.

Three died in the shooting at B Dependable Plumbing along FM 321 in Cleveland.

The accused gunman Pavol Vido, 65, reportedly took his own life as police closed in on him after identifying his vehicle a few miles down the road from the crime scene.

Another employee at the business, 61-year-old Toni Kelly of Hockley, also died in the incident at the company and David Grubbs died three days later at a hospital in Conroe.

Liberty County Sheriffs Deputy Robert Whitten was also shot and was in critical condition for several days. He continues the long road to recovery.

Vido was reportedly served with eviction papers 48 hours prior to the shooting and officials believe it might have been the motive that sparked the shooting.

With Clevelands growth came new business opening up. La Costa, a seafood restaurant, arrived to Cleveland in Feb. The new emergency hospital opened up in the HCA Houston ER 24/7. Also, the Health Center of Southeast Texas opened in Cleveland as well.

The Cleveland Emergency hospital also is providing the community with Lubys, Fuddruckers, and Starbucks.

The Grand Oaks reserve subdivision is now open and people can start purchasing hoses on the land that plans to continue to grow in the next several years.

Liberty & Dayton

In June, Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 717 authorizing a new County Court of Law, No. 2 for Liberty County. The move accelerated plans to move the county tax office out of the courthouse into their own free-standing facility to make room for the new court.

The news wasnt unexpected for county officials who have been lobbying for a new court to help relieve the stress on the dockets that already exist.

The move meant an exit for the County Tax office and sent County Tax Assessor-Collector Rick Brown seeking a new location.

The move was completed in early October and the new facility on US 90 is much more accessible to the public with ample parking.

The facility also has more room for employees inside to grow into and provide better service for customers.

I applaud the county for making the move and it will allow the courthouse to be a true judicial facility, he said.

Now that the tax office has moved out, the demo work on the area has just been completed this week and now buildout of the new courtroom can begin.

Karbowski said the furniture has already been ordered and construction will begin on Jan. 4, 2020.

In September, the growth for Dayton was no longer at the doorstep but had officially arrived with the groundbreaking of the River Ranch community. At one of the largest ground-breaking ceremonies in the countys history, more than 200 people crowded under a large tent set up off SH 146 to hear Developer Eddie Gray and his partners proclaim the beginning of the project.

It really thrills me to hear these bulldozers behind me knowing that weve really started, said owner and development manager Eddie Gray.

The 7,000-acre project, one of the largest in east Harris County, will rival Cinco Ranch on the westside near Katy and is expected to have between 14,000 and 20,000 lots at buildout.

Gray said it would take them approximately 12 months to build the infrastructure, that would include a one-acre water plant, five acres for a wastewater treatment plant, and develop a 12-acre site for an elementary school, and another 135 acres for commercial real estate. The plans also include a trail system throughout the development.

Well also build the large boulevard coming off SH 146. We already have those plans approved by the city of Dayton, he said.

Once the infrastructure is completed, the first community to be built will be River Ranch Meadows. The lots will be standard home 60-foot by 120-foot and there will be 141 lots in the first section.

On the northside of the boulevard, the River Ranch Estates will be built with lots at 90-foot by 300-feet with 56 lots. He estimated that it would take approximately a year or more to build those out and then work on Sections 2, 3, and 4 in both subdivisions would follow and once completed would finish Phase I. There are an estimated 1,026 lots in Phase I and Gray anticipated it would take four to five years to complete.

About a week later on Sept. 17, Tropical Storm Imelda dumped nearly 40 inches of rain in some parts of Liberty County. Unlike Hurricane Harvey which spread its watery damage over a four-day rain, most of Imeldas fury was done and gone within 48 hours. The damage, nonetheless, was still extensive.

One city of Liberty neighborhood, Oak Forest, had all 44 homes receive flooding except for one lucky home. Fortunately, there was a federal disaster declared clearing the way for residents to get help.

For some, they were still finishing up repairing the damage done by Hurricane Harvey. The heartbreak was real for residents who were displacedagain.

For one Liberty volunteer firefighter, it was a call to service.

Ruben Olvera jumped into action when he saw his neighbors homes being flooded.

I got the pontoon boat out of my backyard and thats when I just started helping people (in our neighborhood) out of their homes, he said.

Residents can now add 2019 to the list of floods from 1994, 2000, 2005, 2015, and 2017 that have brought despair and heartache to homeowners.

In November and December, Dayton residents were surprised to see signs closing CR 1413 as SH-99 contractors Grnad Parkway Infrastructure, LLC (GPI) announced plans to pour concrete bridge beams and ramps for the new highway. While the construction began last year and most of it is visible in the Cleveland and I-10 East area, there is progress already being made with the construction of 90 some odd bridges in the remaining segments of the project.

GPI officials say they remain on target for an opening in the spring of 2022.

Additional reporting by Marcus Gutierrez

dtaylor@hcnonline.com

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A Year in Review: 2019 brought promised progress - Chron

Ten years ago today, on December 30, 2009, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services published the proposed rule outlining how hospitals and physician practices could qualify for Medicare and Medicaid payments from the EHR incentive program.

Meaningful use, as the program became known in the months and years ahead, was a transformative event for the health IT sector for better and for worse.

The introduction of $27 billion worth of federal subsidies (the number would soon rise to more than $35 billion) as part of the HITECH Act was not something to be taken lightly, of course.

Over the past decade, that kind of money couldn't help but have a fundamentally transformative effect on how healthcare is delivered in the U.S.

The incentive dollars were part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which infused some $800 billion into an economy still reeling from the great recession.

By most accounts, the financial impact of the larger ARRA package was a net positive, giving a badly damaged economy a much-needed jolt of capital.

But as this year and decade wind down, it's a fair question to ask what HITECH and meaningful used have accomplished for healthcare in particular.

There have been many complaints about the legislation and subsequent policy-making over the past decade. Some said the rulesweren't tight enough, and allowed too many providers to saddle themselves with expensive but inadequate software.

Even more complain that the regs were too stringent, and hamstrung what could have been a decade of healthcare innovation by demanding health systems adopt a select range of certified EHRs and spend countless hours documenting and attesting to voluminous and exacting meaningful use criteria.

But it's worth remembering where healthcare was with regard to technology at the end of 2009.

Yes, the challenges that exist today are many: relentless and complex cybersecurity worries; biased AI algorithms; an epidemic of clinician burnout, exacerbated by the daily demands of less-than-ideal electronic health records.

But the strides U.S. health systems have been able to make, generally, toward better patient outcomes, healthier populations and more efficient care delivery are just as real and they wouldn't have occurred using the sagging shelves of manilla folders that were the norm for many hospitals just a decade ago.

Let's not forget, after all, that it was barely 15 years ago that then President George W. Bush put forth the novel idea, in his 2004 State of the Union Address, that, by computerizing health records, we can avoid dangerous medical mistakes, reduce costs and improve care."

Five years later, in his own 2009 speech before Congress, President Barack Obama pledged the U.S. would "make the immediate investments necessary" for health record digitization, with the goal to "cut waste, eliminate red tape and reduce the need to repeat expensive medical tests."

It may be edifying to remind ourselves that, at the time of that speech,barely 15% of hospitals had either a basic or comprehensive EHR in use. Today, inpatient systemsareubiquitous, even if there remains a "digital divide" between larger hospital and their small and rural counterparts.

By 2012, just two years after the start of meaningful use, more than 77%of U.S. hospitals had reached at least Stage 3 on the HIMSS EMR Adoption Model.

Meaningful use has been controversial from the start, of course. In July 2010, when the 800-page final rule for Stage 1 was released, the American Hospital Association, among others, was airing concerns that it posed "unnecessary administrative burdens."

But, on the whole, the response from hospitals and practices to the EHR incentive program was immediate and enthusiastic. In January 2011, we reported how then-National Coordinator for Health IT Dr. David Blumenthal ushered in the "age of meaningful use."

Just two weeks after registration opened for providers to attest, some 13,000 had signed up to qualify for incentives, and ONC was receiving "hundreds of calls a day from providers asking questions."

The allure was obvious. For all the attestation box-checking and complaints about same that would ensue, the appeal of large incentive checks, as much as $64,000, was hard to argue with.

As Michael Grunwald, author of"The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era" which chronicles ARRA and makes the case that President Obama's 2009 stimulus bill may be more transformative in the long run than Roosevelt's New Deal told us in 2012, "$27 billion really did focus the mind."

But did it pave the way for lasting and transformative change for the better?

Not everyone is convinced.

Kaiser Health News reported this month that the EHR incentive program enabled A "New EraOf Health Care Fraud." And certainly, False Claims Act settlements paid out by eClinicalWorks and Greenway in recent years show that the system was ripe for gaming.

And then there's the issue of usability. Famed health technology pioneer Dr. Eric Topol didn't mince words this year when he offered Healthcare IT News his dim assessment of EHRs laying much of the blame squarely with what he said was a misbegotten meaningful use program.

"I think electronic health records have been the singular biggest disaster in the last two decades of healthcare," said Topol.

"The idea was right, but the execution has been pitiful," he said. "They're set up for billing purposes. They couldn't care less about the patient-centric vision. They're pathetic. They're the worst software in existence that I know of. They've really taken us astray, and have given the whole digital era in healthcare a bad name. They're uniformly hated by patients and doctors, because they involve such poorly-performing user interfaces, and are the single worst part of the deteriorating doctor-patient relationship."

Today, meaningful use is history, having been superseded by CMS' Promoting Interoperability Program in 2018.

But its legacy this past decade depends upon who you ask.

Some say the stimulus payments artificially boosted the market, or cheer-led products that weren't well-suited for the demands of quality improvement and value-based care, or held back more free-flowing and transformative innovation in favor of government-mandated best practices. They argue that technology would have come to healthcare a laggard compared to other industries, by any measure eventually, and more effectively.

But others say that's not so. That too many healthcare organizations would have been fine with paper files and CD-ROMs until they were forced to think differently. That the $35 billion shot in the arm was exactly what the doctor ordered to drag this sprawling and complex corner of the American economy into the 21st Century.

Yes, the fax machine is still used far too often (that is to say, at all). Yes, interoperability is still a problem yet to be truly solved. Yes, EHRs are still often aggravating and suboptimally designed, with too many clicks and alerts.

But healthcare data is now digitized and near-ubiquitous, and able to be harnessed and put to work for population health and QI projects that wouldn't have been possible just a few years ago. That digitization, for all its ongoing challenges, has been mostly good not just for clinical and operational improvements but for patient engagement and experience, ushering in this new age of healthcare consumer empowerment.

As Michael Grunwald told us in 2012, "it really is a no-brainer, right? We've got online banking. We've got online dating. It's preposterous that you have to fill out the same 20 forms every time you go to the doctor's office. And that two doctors who aren't in the same room can't look at the same file. And that if you show up at a hospital on the weekend they have no way of seeing the test that you took on Wednesday and you have to retake it. And that your doctor could kill you with his chicken-scratch handwriting."

Including health IT investments as a big part of ARRA "appealed to Obama, who really is this sort of rationalist, pragmatist, sort of policy guy," he said. The billions doled out as part of the stimulus bill represented a chance to force the issue and finally make some progress on a topic where people had been "squabbling over the details for several years," he said. "Here was this opportunity to spend all this money, well, why don't we just do it?"

(For those who think the EHR incentive program was too prescriptive, by the way, it may worth remembering, as Grunwald reminds us, that at least one Democratic pol, former California Rep. Pete Stark, "basically wanted to force everybody to adopt the VistA system." Nowadays even the VA is transitioning away from VistA.)

Back in 2012, after I spoke with Grunwald about his thoughts on ARRA and HITECH, I dialed HIMSS' then senior director of congressional affairs, Richard Hodge, to get his.

"Clearly, the nation would not have made the significant progress toward electronic health records adoption and health information exchange that it has without the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Program authorized by the HITECH Act," said Hodge. "The public dialogue, open consensus-building process, standards-based approach, and phased implementation provided by the meaningful use process have been critical to bringing the country to achieve the current level of accomplishment and rapidly increasing adoption rates."

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10 years on from meaningful use, major progress despite the challenges - Healthcare IT News

HAYSVILLE, Kan. After one year of growing industrial hemp in test plots, Kansas State University researchers say theyve moved closer to providing guidance to producers interested in growing the alternative crop in Kansas.

In April 2018, Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer signed a bill enacting the Alternative Crop Research Act, leading to the legal production of industrial hemp in the state. Kansas is one of 42 states approved to grow the crop; the Kansas Department of Agriculture reported that there were 207 Kansas growers in 2019.

None of those growers, however, had information available to show best practices for growing industrial hemp in Kansas soils.

Its a brand new crop that nobody in Kansas should have legal experience growing, said Jason Griffin, director of the John C. Pair Horticultural Center, one of three sites where K-States research trials have taken place this year (research was also conducted at K-State facilities in Colby and Olathe). Since it was new, we needed baseline information on how to grow the crop successfully.

Griffin noted that 99% of the people growing industrial hemp in Kansas this year were growing for cannabidiol, better known as CBD. Cannabinoids have high interest among consumers because of their purported medical and therapeutic benefits in humans and companion animals.

CBD and other varieties are legal to grow if they produce less than .3% tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. If the plants THC level is greater than .3%, it is considered marijuana and not legal to grow or possess in Kansas.

We knew that Kansas farmers wanted to get into this industry, Griffin said, and our job is to conduct research to help farmers be successful with the crop.

Griffin and the research team at the John C. Pair center planted seven CBD varieties, including five in high tunnels, which are plastic-covered structures that provide some protection from the environment compared to open field conditions.

Its well-known that high tunnels in the specialty crops arena have certain advantages over crops grown outside, Griffin said. For our purposes, it reduced solar radiance, reduced wind and reduced pest presence. But, specifically for hemp, we had our high tunnel completely enclosed in insect screens, which is a really fine netting. We wanted to see if the insect screen would reduce the amount of pollination inside the tunnel. And it appeared it did.

Griffin said that in the hemp industry, pollination is a big deal. CBD is produced in the female flower buds, and if those female flower buds get pollinated, your concentration of CBD just tanks into the basement. You get almost none. So you have to keep pollen away from those female flower buds.

That caused problems for the hemp varieties that K-State grew outside, Griffin said, noting that pollen can travel as far as three miles. I think it would be very difficult to have a large-scale, outdoor CBD production system successfully without somehow protecting those plants from pollen.

Because they were protected from insects and other pollinators, the plants inside the high tunnel were just superior, Griffin said. In that protected environment, they were larger and had more flower buds. Because they had more buds, they had a higher CBD content.

K-States work also looked at various production systems, including growing the plants with organic and conventional fertilizer. Researchers also looked at the potential of growing industrial hemp for fiber and grain.

The universitys work will continue in 2020, Griffin said. This was our first year, he said. We probably made some mistakes and well probably improve as any grower might as they get more experience with a crop.

Griffin said updated information on K-States research with industrial hemp isavailable on Facebook.More information about theJohn C. Pair Horticulture Center also is available online.

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K-State researchers make progress on hemp - KTIC

News File PhotoIn this photo from June 2016, Alpena resident Jim Park, right, receives the Michigan Association of School Administrators Champions for Choice Award from then-Alpena Public Schools Superintendent Brent Holcomb.

ALPENA The Besser tradition was started by Jesse and Anna Besser and the drive of Phil Park, Jim Park says.

Jim Park and the Park family have for decades donated to the Northeast Michigan community to help improve the areas health, education, and recreational opportunities, and that initiative started in the early 20th century.

The traditions provided by Jesse and Anna Besser, the foresight and drive of Phil Park, as well as some good experience overseas and in Washington, D.C. and Tampa were all instrumental in building the quality of leadership that a person with a great staff could accomplish, Jim Park said.

Phil Park, who is a former president of Besser Co., is Jim Parks father and nephew of Jesse Besser. Jim Park is himself a former Besser president.

Jesse and Anna Besser started the Besser Foundation 75 years ago. Following that lead, Jim Park and his family created the Park Family Foundation.

The Besser Foundation was created in 1944 to receive and administer funds for scientific, educational, religious, and charitable purposes, according to the Besser Co. website.

The Park Family Foundation was created to help meet athletic and educational needs of the communities.

The Park Foundation has three active trustees: Jim Park, his daughter, Kim, and son, Scott.

The Park family has provided funding for the Alpena Community College gymnasium, which was named Park Arena in the 1990s, the Besser Museum, and scholarships for Northeast Michigan high school students.

This year, funding was provided for the new surface for the field at Alpena High School, ACC renovation, and several scholarships for local students through the Community Foundation of Northeast Michigan, Jim Park said.

Jim Park said its hard to put an approximate number on how much the Park Family Foundation and Besser Foundation have each provided to the area over the years.

He said the Besser Foundation provides over $1 million a year. This year, that amount was doubled to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the fund.

About $2.4 million in grants were allocated in September by the Besser Foundation to the Boys and Girls Club of Alpena, Alpena Public Schools, the Friends of Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, and others.

It is rewarding to see the great facilities used and busy, Jim Park said. Our community is generous.

Jim Park received both a bachelors and masters in business administration from the University of Michigan after graduating from Alpena High School.

He returned to Alpena in 1970 and took a position with Besser. He was then named president of the organization in 1977. He was president until 1999.

He was inducted into the Alpena Sports Hall of Fame in 1995, named the Alpena Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year in 1999, the president of the Alpena Rotary Club for a year, and inducted into the Alpena High School Alumni Hall of Fame in 2003.

While Jim Park was Besser president, the company expanded to different areas in the country and world. The company has locations in Alpena, Iowa, California, Canada, Russia, and others.

Several significant additions were made to the manufacturing area, as well as the World Headquarters in Alpena, Jim Park said. Major additions were also made to the World Center for Concrete Technology and the number of graduates blossomed.

Jim Park, who spends part of the year in Alpena and the other half in Fort Myers, Florida, is currently working on two books, The Besser/Park Era and Management Principles for Medium Sized Business.

Julie Goldberg can be reached at 989-358-5688 or jgoldberg@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jkgoldberg12.

To provide you with a snapshot of where our economy stands today, it is important to look back at where we were not ...

A handgun found in a lunch bag in the woods has led to an inquiry by the Michigan State Police-Alpena Post, ...

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PROGRESS 2019: A tradition of giving | News, Sports, Jobs - Alpena News