YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

MAMMOTH HOTSPRINGS, Wyo. The annual removal of non-native lake trout from YellowstoneLake recently concluded and the multiyear effort points to a declining population.Lake trout are removed in an effort to preserve the native cutthroat troutpopulation, the largest remaining concentration of inland cutthroat trout inexistence.

Native cutthroat trout are the parks most ecologically important fish and the most highly regarded by visiting anglers. It is an important food source for grizzly bears, birds of prey and other wildlife. The cutthroat decline resulted in several of these species being displaced from Yellowstone Lake or having to use alternate food sources during certain times of the year.

I want to personally thank the National Park Service team, our partners and the many people who have philanthropically supported this continuing conservation effort, said Superintendent Cam Sholly. There is a considerable amount of work yet to do to build on this progress. This will continue to be one of our conservation priorities.

Yellowstone National Park and contract crews removed 282,960 fish between May and October of this year compared to 297,110 in 2018, and 396,950 in 2017. It is a 29 percent decline over three years.

Yellowstones lake trout suppression program is one of the largest nonnative fish removal programs in the United States. Since lake trout were first discovered in 1994, more than 3.4 million have been removed from Yellowstone Lake through suppression gillnetting. The number of lake trout caught in nets continues to steadily decline, from 4.4 per net in 2017 and 3.1 per net in 2018, to just 2.9 per net in 2019.

In order to predict the success of the removal effort and set benchmarks for gillnetting in the future, Yellowstone National Park and Michigan State University collaborated to generate statistical models of the lake trout population. The models suggest there are 73 percent less lake trout ages six and older in Yellowstone Lake now than were present at the populations peak in 2011. This is critical because older, larger lake trout have the highest reproductive potential and consume the most cutthroat trout. The models also indicate that the invasive species has been in decline since 2012.

Concurrent with the lake trout decline, long-term monitoring indicates a substantial increase in the number of cutthroat trout in the Yellowstone Lake ecosystem. Cutthroat that inhabit the lake migrate more than 30 miles up into the Upper Yellowstone and Thorofare streams where they spawn and then return to the lake. This July, fisheries staff found large numbers and sizes of cutthroat in these backcountry streams. Ten years ago, few cutthroat were present. This long-distance migration highlights the spatial extent to which the recovery of the cutthroat impacts Yellowstone.

While models and monitoring point to positive trends, a panel of expert fishery scientists in May 2019, estimated that a minimum of five more years of effort is needed to reach the lake trout population goal of below 100,000. They also emphasized that lake trout cannot be completely eradicated with current techniques and will continue to require annual removal and monitoring into the future.

Yellowstone fishery biologists continue to explore alternatives to gillnetting that will augment lake trout suppression, increase efficacy and reduce costs. For example, over the last few years, biologists tested a method to suppress the population by killing lake trout eggs on spawning sites. One technique involved placing plant-based organic pellets on spawning sites to facilitate decomposition and loss of dissolved oxygen. This method killed eggs within two days. Since the results are promising, the park intends to expand the technique in the future. Yellowstone has invested more than $20 million over the past two decades on this recovery effort. Much of that funding has come from the generosity of donations through Yellowstone Forever.

The park will never completely eradicate lake trout but the return on investment is the ecological restoration of Yellowstone cutthroat trout, sustainable angling and a chance to glimpse a river otter, osprey or bear catching a cutthroat, said Todd Koel, leader of Yellowstones Native Fish Conservation Program.

Visit nps.gov/yell/learn/management/native-fish-conservation-program.htm to learn more.

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Yellowstone makes progress to reduce non-native lake trout - Explore Big Sky

More than simply a big dig, notable progress is being made on the Halifax County Courthouse renovationproject, with structural steel in place and work beginning on the roof of the 1834 courthouse at the center of the project.

County Building Official Otis Vaughan continues to provide monthly updates to supervisors on progress at the site.

A 30-day look ahead has progress being made on plumbing and HVAC at the project, including overhead HVAC rough-in at the second floor and overhead plumbing rough-in at the second and third floors, overhead electrical rough-in at the first floor, all at the new building, according to Blair Construction.

Steel installation at the 1834 foyer will start, with steel erection at the connector already in progress.

Formwork at the second floor connector floor and steel installation at the 1834 foyer will start in the next 30 days, and foundation waterproofing and foundation drain work and backfill will continue in the next 30 days.

In the next month, masonry will continue at the sally port, and the new building and masonry will restart at the detention elevator shaft.

Installation of the new 1834 metal roofing, gutters and downspouts will continue, and formwork for the new concrete walls at the south attorneys offices will start and be completed.

A look back at the last 30 days of construction revealed steel decking at level two and level three is complete, and steel erection at the connector is progressing.

Waterproofing at selected areas of the foundation began, and installation of foundation drainage pipe and backfill at selected areas of the foundation is progressing.

Portico concrete walls have been poured, and stripping the portico concrete wall formwork has been completed. Steel inspection of the second and third floors has been completed as well as prep of the second floor slab on deck.

The Halifax County Courthouse was designed and built in 1838-1839 by Dabney Cosby.

It is a two-story, T-shaped brick building in the Federal style. The front facade features a two-story, tetrastyle portico in the Greek Ionic order.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

A concrete truck waits to deposit its load of concrete at the rear of the Halifax County Courthouse construction project recently.

A front-end loader unloads a pallet of cinderblocks on the second floor of the Halifax County Courthouse construction project.

Concrete flooring and foundation work continue at the site of the Halifax County Courthouse renovation and construction project.

Concrete flooring has been poured and the outline of the building is taking shape at the Halifax County Courthouse renovation project.

The front of the historic Halifax County Courthouse shows progress being made recently as work continues on renovation and construction.

Construction workers labor on the second floor of the addition to the Halifax County Courthouse building this week.

A front-end loader unloads a pallet of cinderblocks on the second floor of the Halifax County Courthouse construction project.

A welder works on structural steel at the site of the courthouse renovation and construction project recently.

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Above ground progress seen at courthouse project in Halifax - YourGV.com

Activists sitting and blocking the apple store in Bordeaux, France, on 29 November 2019. Block ... [+] friday against black friday makes actions in Bordeaux in France, starting by a march with the march for the climate, some activist sit and block the stores galeries lafayette and the apple store tin the center of Bordeaux, by the associations of youth for the climate, extinction rebellion, and AnvCop21, some activist sit in the apple store before the police get them out.,cops, police,aressted (Photo by Jerome Gilles/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

I occasionally go through my spam folder since I have had to create a few dozen filters due to Gmails inability to catch the phenomenal amount of spam I receive daily. I am not sure if having a typically male name is what attracts all the lascivious offers with photos I receive daily or if the fact that I write on tech and cultural politics is what stuffs my spam folder full of advertising for all things tech and trendy. But I do know that this part of new technologythe marketing component to new techmakes me think that it has not advanced our society whatsoever. It has merely added a new tech branch to marketing and consumerism.

Still, I am acutely aware of the many benefits that new technology has afforded me personally from being able to skip bank lines and have all my bills paid automatically, to have communications sent across the planet within a second, and even to find out, amid a dinnertime discussion, where and whenJoe Frazier and Muhammad Alifought and why it is called the Fight of a Century. Indeed, from the practical to the informative, information technology has more positive attributes than negative, but still the onslaught of consumerism seems to be what has propelled this technological machinery to the core. And new technology has, in turn, affected our culture radically such that we can no more pretend that AI (artificial intelligence) is purely a result of scientific innovation any more than it is a by-product of human communications andcomplex systemsof organizing, engaging and communicating within the world.

From our current era, the struggles we face as a planet are now at their most critical with global warming effecting the sea levels in places likeVeniceand theSolomon Islands, democracy in retreat around the world and with political struggles to push against ecological andrenewable energy technologiesthat might truly move our humanity forward. Between the security and energy sectors, we are living in a cultural climate of fear where we are sold a bill of health on new technology which tells us that new tech will reduce the carbon footprintof businesses, for example, even ifrecent dataregarding AI tells quite another story. A recent study from the University of Massachusetts Amherst assesses the energy consumption required to train several common AI models. This study concludes that the training process alone has the potential to emit over 626,000 pounds of carbon dioxide which is the equivalent of 300 round-trip flights between New York and San Francisco or nearly five times the lifetime emissions of an average car.

Still despite all the data that new tech has helped to uncover regarding our ecological health, we know that resource extraction (eg. mining and farming) is responsible forhalf of the planets carbon emissionsand methane emissions from coal mines could stoke a climate crisis. Indeed, theenergy industryis divided in how it approaches the mining of toxic and radioactive minerals and the human repercussions to this extraction. More companies are starting to rethink how to do energy be they more traditional mining companies likePheasant Energyor the recent UK governments315m initiativelaunched last month whose mission is to find new technologies that can shrink the carbon footprint of the most polluting factories to help meet the UKs climate targets. While the earlier predictions of Bitcoins disastrouscarbon footprintnow seem to have been slightly exaggerated, we know that new technology can make our planet and our societies healthier, better functioning and even more democratic. That is if we use these technologies properly.

When look back to howTaylorismtook the ills of the Industrial Revolution (ca. 1760 to 1840) create a form of scientific management that produced certain kinds of changes within the factory environment, society and within what would come to be called management, we can see that old technologies of human organization have nothing new tech. Where Taylorism automatized human actions, fragmenting the assembly line into minimal skill requirements, new technology capitalizes on workers abilities to learn, adapt and expand. Where Taylorism separated direct labor from indirect labor, new technology brings the two together adding management systems that can be accessed on the cloud and from a mobile telephone.

One contemporary example of this isKrishna C. Mukherjee, an industry leader who worked to increase Microsofts AI technologies by commercializing AI in the 1990s and creating the Intelligent Filling Manager, also known as intelliFM, an AI-based technology which automates workflow systems. Today intelliFM, is employed in many industries to include insurance, legal, finance and health care and has greatly improved the efficiency of business processes. And although AI has grown substantially since the 1990s, we can see how AI is moving from the specific purpose of marketing andrisk-assessmenttowards other uses such inmental health care, thejob marketandemotion recognition technologysuch that the management of companies and factories is now moving towards the management of human life.

And we see the increasing use of new technology to bring together the management of all things from businesses to life. Take a look at one companys website,Dooply, which claims to help clients to achieve their personal, business and social goals and whose mission is to utilize knowledge, creativity, networks, and lobbying expertise to help clients bring their visions into life. So much of what new tech promises us today merges the private with the public, taking on the mission of maintaining the personal and social as much as the technological and business-oriented. Its almost as if new technology and management culture have joined forces to create products of us all. And we have been duped into this form of progress and self-corporatization by being told that we are better humans for it and that we are actually empowered by becoming at one with our mobile devices and social media presence.

Its not enough that we use new technology to effectonline paymentsto pay our rent each month or that we can go to the latestdating siteto find the love of our lifewho also happens to be environmentally conscious, we need to extend the use of new tech into our everyday practices. We must also encourage our local and national industries and governments to embrace the benefits of new tech to compliment democratic exercises and ecological activities. We must not allow new technology make hostages of us and instead demand that new technology be used for the betterment of our political and ecological exercises.

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How New Tech Has Made Us The Necessary Victims Of Progress - Forbes

ALBANY Gov. Andrew Cuomo started off the week dropping pieces of his agenda for the 2020 State of the State and unveiled his theme for the year: Making Progress Happen.

Two of Cuomos proposals were released Tuesday, first one of which would tighten penal law against sexual offenders by deeming voluntary intoxication a form of incapability to consent.

Under current penal law, a person is considered incapable of consent if theyre mentally incapacitated from forced ingestion of drugs or alcohol, not voluntary. Cuomo plans to release a legislation that would close what he calls this legal loophole.

While New York has some of the most aggressive laws in the nation when it comes to combatting this insidious disease, a loophole in current law allows rapists to walk free and vacate their heinous crimes based on a legal technicality, Cuomo said in a press release. Our laws must protect the people of this state not condone rape as a punishment for consuming alcohol. With this proposal we are saying enough is enough and taking action to close this nonsensical loophole and help end the culture of abuse once and for all.

There were nearly 300 reported rapes total in Columbia, Greene, Genesee, Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties in 2018, according to data from the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. The data also showed most New York counties have seen a gradual uptick in reported rapes from 2014 on.

Cuomo also revealed Tuesday that he would be pursuing legislation to ban single-use styrofoam containers.

With the top Republican Assembly voting record on the environment, I agree we need to make progress in removing more Styrofoam from circulation, Assemblyman Mark Walczyk, R-116, said in a statement. I look forward to reviewing the Governors plans and getting input from the businesses and people impacted.

Monday brought another two proposals from Cuomos office, the first of which would create legislation to ban fentanyl analogs, a highly potent synthetic opioid. With this new legislation, the posession and sale of fentanyl analogs would be subject to the same penalties as other controlled substances.

Drug dealers have turned to lacing opioids and other illicit drugs with fentanyl analogs a deadly synthetic opioid that current law does not ban, Cuomo said in a statement. This two-pronged proposal will tackle that problem by banning these dangerous fentanyl copycats and providing treatment to people suffering from opioid addiction before its too late.

Fentanyl, which is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, is not currently illegal to use or sell in New York because, unlike on the federal level, it is not listed in the states controlled substances schedule. Cuomos proposal would not only make fentanyl illegal, but would also authorize the DOH commissioner to add more analogs to the list of controlled substances as they are discovered.

Recently, data from the state Department of Health revealed that New York saw its first decline in opioid overdose deaths in a decade, dropping nearly 16 percent between 2017 and 2018. But while the state saw an overall decrease in overdose deaths, it also saw a major jump in overdose deaths caused by fentanyl a 124 percent increase outside of New York City in 2016.

On the treatment side, Cuomo is proposing an aggressive expansion of access to medication-assisted treatment, or MAT. This includes growing a program that provides MAT to patients in emergency rooms, allowing them to be imimediately transitioned into long-term treatment; providing MAT through teleheath, which would be particularly useful for spread-out rural communities with limited access to health care; adding 10 mobile clinics across the state; and making MAT available to incarcerated individuals.

But to state Sen. George Amedore, R-46, Cuomos office could have taken similar actions a long time ago to combat the opioid crisis.

If theyre really truly serious about helping the disenfranchised and those who are bound with addiction, they would pick up the handbook that I helped lead as a majority member in... the Senate Task Force on Heroin and Opioid Addiction, Amedore said Monday. We laid out a multi-pronged approach with a plan that took money, policy, changes of insurance coverages, more treatment, more recovery services, more education, inspiring more case workers, counselors, jail based services all the efforts that were needed to help those who are bound by addiciton.

Also on Monday, Cuomo announced his plan to create legislation that would require an automatic manual recount of votes in close elections, where the margin of victory for a candidate or ballot proposition is 0.2 percent in statewide elections or 0.5 percent in all other elections.

Right now decisions about whether to proceed with recounts in closely contested races almost always get bogged down in costly and unnecessary litigation because theres a hodgepodge of standards around the state, Cuomo said in a statement. By establishing clear rules mandating when a recount should be triggered and a process for local governments to follow, well boost confidence in the democratic process and take another step toward transforming our electoral system into a model for the rest of the nation to follow.

Lastly, Cuomo on Sunday proposed a gun safety restriction that would prohibit an individual from getting a gun license in New York if they have committed certain misdemeanors in other states.

Under the current SAFE Act, people are barred from receiving New York gun licenses if they have committed misdemeanors deemed serious offenses, such as domestic violence, forcible touching and unlicensed possession of a firearm, in the state but the law does not apply to those who committed the same offenses across state lines.

Until the federal government acts, states with weak gun laws will continue to endanger New Yorkers at home, and I will not tolerate it, Cuomo said. This new law will keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people and save lives. Im proud that New York continues to show the country that we dont have to live like this - that we can and will end gun violence.

To Republican legislators, this move from Cuomo is yet another impediment on Second Amendment rights.

It sounds like the same old partisan issues, wedge issues, fear issues of the Democratic mantra, Amedore said. More gun control, more of the same old thing they think is going to solve the problems of New York when we already have the strictest gun laws in the nation.

Assemblyman Will Barclay, R-120, said he doesnt support gun control, but would have to read the detailed legislation Cuomo is proposing to take a stance.

Its not so much that Im worried about people committing felonies in other states and equivalent felonies in New York that would bar them from getting a gun license that seems reasonable, Barclay said. But Im not sure what the governor is trying to accomplish on this. Im not sure where this has been a problem. This stuff isnt going to solve any gun violence issues we have.

State Sen. Daphne Jordan, R-43, Assemblymember Didi Barrett, D-106, and Assemblyman Jake Ashby, R-107, did not respond to requests for comment.

Massarah Mikati covers the New York State Legislature and immigration for Johnson Newspaper Corp. Email her at mmikati@columbiagreenemedia.com, or find her on Twitter @massarahmikati.

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Cuomo unveils 2020 theme and proposals: Making Progress Happen - Hudson Valley 360

Abby McEnany plays a version of herself in Work in Progress, a dark comedy series based on her own life. Showtime hide caption

Abby McEnany plays a version of herself in Work in Progress, a dark comedy series based on her own life.

In the new Showtime comedy series Work in Progress, Abby McEnany joins a long tradition of comedians playing a version of themselves on TV.

She's playing a "45-year-old self-identified fat, queer dyke" who is depressed, anxious and self-conscious.

McEnany has spent decades in Chicago's improv comedy scene. She says she dealt with a long string of rejections and failed auditions. Then her pilot got picked up and greenlit for a full series.

She still can't quite believe it.

"We got the note from Showtime, like, 'Hey, they want to do something with you!'" McEnany says in an interview. "I'm like, 'Meh, I'll believe it when I see it.' And then they're like, 'You're straight to series.' I'm like, "We don't have a signed contract yet." And then once they sent out the trailer that was probably four weeks ago I'm like, 'Well, that looks like a TV show.' ... Still doubting."

On coping with feeling unsafe in public women's bathrooms (because other women don't think she belongs there)

One is: I often walk in and I go [cheery, higher-pitched voice] "Hi!" I think people are like: Why is this person talking to me in the bathroom? And I'm just it is a safety thing, you know. I do hate conflict, and I get yelled at, and looked at, and it's very stressful. I get nervous using a bathroom. I'm 51, and that takes a lot of energy, when you're like: I just want to go get a coffee and then am I going to be OK and not get screamed at; I've been screamed at before. But I do have these mechanisms. One is, I'm like, "Hi! Hi! Hi!"

And then, if I'm in the stall, and there's nobody else, and somebody comes in, I kind of clear my throat femininely [demonstrates] ... What was funny is that: I was in Boston with my sister, and we were at a movie theater. I was like, "OK, I'm going to run into the bathroom before we go home." And I heard somebody come in, and I'm going [polite clearing-throat]. She's like, "Abby, it's me!" because she knew I did that. But it is this constant, I'm kind of boxing out under the ooh, this sounds like a real butch reference but in basketball, I'm boxing out under the net, you know? ... It's constantly putting defenses out for myself to avoid conflict. ...

I found it kind of cool that we got to show my real experience [in the show]. And then, also I have to say: Wow, compared to trans folks, I have it really easy, you know? I just think things are hard, and I think there's a lot of society that has no idea. And we just wanted to show that there's a struggle for safe space. And other times I get really angry about it, and other times I just want to cry about it.

On depicting uncomfortable conversations about gender and identity like when her character misidentifies a transgender man as a woman

Work in Progress also stars Theo Germaine as Chris, a young trans man. Adrian S. Burrows/Showtime hide caption

Work in Progress also stars Theo Germaine as Chris, a young trans man.

McEnany: If people are learning, or saying things, and there's no hatred or judgment behind it, and there's no vitriol, and you're setting up a conversation or a relationship where people can share how they feel about things: There's beauty in that.

And I think that actually was based on my real-life relationship with my ex-boyfriend, Alex. And I was doing a gig in D.C. in 2009 for a month, and I met, I thought, the hottest baby dyke on the face of the planet who was waiting on our table. ... So I emailed Alex, and I was like, "So, I assume you're a dyke. Can you tell me if there are any dyke bars out here?" And he wrote me back, he goes, "Haha, well actually I'm a trans man." And I was like, "OK, do you know of any lesbian bars?"

And then we ended up going out. And it was just sort of like, "Oh, OK." It didn't change my attraction to him. And I have to say, they now use they/them pronouns ... We wanted to show the real thing. It's just like, "Huh, trans man."

Shapiro: And in the show, a friend says, "Wait, does the fact that you're dating a trans man mean you're not lesbian anymore?" Which, you know, doesn't seem like that far out a question, but I think people might be afraid to ask it, because it seems rude or offensive.

McEnany: Well, the thing is in the show, it kind of turns into this joke. But I have to say, a friendly acquaintance asked me that back in 2009 when I told them I was dating this young trans man, and it was sort of accusatory: "So I guess you're not a lesbian anymore." And in my mind, I was like, "Do you have a whiteboard at home with all the lesbians? Are you gonna take me off?" Like, who cares! So that made me laugh. So we definitely softened it in the show, but I was just sort of like: all right, I don't know.

On her first experience working in TV

I have to say: Every day was a steep learning curve. But our crew I have to say, our crew was so amazing. I was so well taken-care-of. And I'd be like, "You guys, it's my first time!" And any time they would say something, I'd be like, "Is that an industry term?" And they'd be like, "No, I'm asking to get a sandwich." I was like, "OK, OK." ... Everybody was just so great.

On being interviewed by NPR

Seriously, this is giving me so much cred with my father. You have no idea.

Dave Blanchard and Jolie Myers produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Patrick Jarenwattananon adapted it for the Web.

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Abby McEnany On 'Work In Progress,' Her Showtime Black Comedy - NPR

House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold NadlerJerrold (Jerry) Lewis NadlerDemocrats question fairness of Senate trial after Graham, McConnell statements Sunday shows - Republicans, Democrats maneuver ahead of House impeachment vote Durbin: Witnesses to exonerate Trump may not exist MORE (D-N.Y.) said reports of President TrumpDonald John TrumpDemocrats secure fast-track to the floor for Canada-Mexico trade deal Mexican official says he's 'very satisfied' with USMCA after recent concern More than 700 historians sign letter calling for House to impeach Trump MOREs personal attorney Rudy GiulianiRudy GiulianiPolitiFact's 'Lie of the Year' goes to Trump's Ukraine whistleblower claims Trump defends Giuliani's trip to Ukraine: 'He does it out of love' Former FBI and CIA director 'deeply disturbed' by Trump comments on Wray MOREs recent trip to Ukraine show a crime in progress is happening and reiterate the need for lawmakers to follow through with the impeachment process.

This is a crime in progress against the constitution and against the American democracy, Nadler said on ABCs This Week.

We cannot take the risk that the next election will be corrupted through foreign interference solicited by the president, which he is clearly trying to do. It goes to the heart of our democracy.

ABCs George StephanopoulosGeorge Robert StephanopoulosSchiff: I 'hope to hell' I would have voted to impeach Obama if he had committed same actions as Trump Nadler: Giuliani trip to Ukraine shows 'crime in progress' is being committed against American democracy Schiff: Trump acquittal in Senate trial would not signal a 'failure' MORE asked Nadler to respond to reports that Giuliani had been reporting back to the president during a recent trip to Ukraine and that he wastrying to gather more information about former Vice President Joe BidenJoe BidenTrump tops Democratic rivals in national poll Biden, Sanders lead Democratic field in early primary states Conway says White House sees 'no reason' to bow to Democratic witness demands MORE and the company Bidens son, Hunter, sat on the board of.

Nadler said the reported actions of Trump and Giuliani are the heart of what the Constitution meant by high crimes and misdemeanors.

For the president to engage in self-dealing for his own benefit to put himself above the country and to threaten the integrity of our elections, upon which everything else depends. It is a total threat. And we must meet that threat, Nadler said.

House Intelligence Chairman Adam SchiffAdam Bennett SchiffHouse Democrats want McGahn testimony even as impeachment moves to Senate This week: House Dems gear up to vote to impeach Trump Schiff: I 'hope to hell' I would have voted to impeach Obama if he had committed same actions as Trump MORE (D-Calif.), who appeared alongside Nadler in the Sunday morning interview, said the reports show the misconduct hasnt stopped.

So this misconduct goes on, the threat to our election integrity coming up goes on, Schiff said. It's a clear and present danger and not something that we can turn away from simply because the Republicans in the House refuse to do their duty, and [are] continuing to put the person of the president above their personal obligation.

Giuliani recently traveled to Ukraine and met with former and current officials. Giuliani told The Washington Post that Trump has asked him to brief GOP senators and the Justice Department on his findings. A source told The Wall Street Journal that Giuliani told the president that his Ukraine trip produced more than you can imagine.

Giuliani is a central figure in the impeachment probe. Democrats allege Trump withheld foreign aid to Ukraine while placing pressure on the foreign nation to announce an investigation into Biden, a top-tier presidential candidate.

The House is expected to vote on articles of impeachment after the House Judiciary Committee approved them in a party-line vote.

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Nadler: Giuliani trip to Ukraine shows 'crime in progress' is being committed against American democracy | TheHill - The Hill

The Qatari official in charge of organising the most controversial edition of the football World Cup since the tournaments inception in 1930 has claimed that criticism of his countrys treatment of migrant workers will have a ripple effect that will improve regional labour standards.

The 2022 World Cup has been dogged by criticism of its hosts kafala system, which ties migrant workers to so-called sponsorship by their employer, meaning they cannot move jobs or leave the country without the employers approval.

In an interview in the Qatari capital, Doha, Hassan al-Thawadi, the secretary general of the supreme committee organising the event, said a definitive end to the kafala system would be set out next month and he wanted reforms to apply not just to workers employed on World Cup projects but across Qatar and more widely.

There are already signs of reforms being picked up in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, he said.

The abolition of kafala, he said, would mean every person living in the country has the freedom to move from one job to another and can live their lives, change jobs whenever they want and leave the country as they want.

Qatar says it is also planning labour market reforms, including introducing elected workers welfare forums to raise complaints with employers, and a more than 50% rise in the minimum wage.

It says it will be the first Gulf state to apply a uniform minimum wage that disregards nationality and is applicable not just to construction workers.The rise in the minimum wage is something I am very excited about, Thawadi said.

All Gulf states make heavy use of low-paid migrant labour, often from India. In the case of Qatar, the indigenous population now makes up only 10% of the countrys total of 2.8 million people. The Indian population of 700,000 alone dwarfs the number of locals.

A report by Amnesty International in September said thousands of migrant workers were still being exploited in Qatar despite repeated promises to improve workers rights.

Dismantling Qatars exploitative labour market with its echoes of slavery, which was only abolished there in the 1950s could have huge repercussions not just for Qatars rapidly evolving society but for Gulf economies as a whole.

Thawadi claimed that some of the criticism levelled at Qatar since it won the right to stage the World Cup a decade ago had been ill-informed, cynical or even vicious.

This week Qatar is hosting Liverpool FC among other clubs in the Club World Cup, a tournament seen as a chance to test newly built infrastructure including a 37-station metro system, match scheduling and the overall fan experience.

Octobers World Athletics Championships in Doha were marked by rows and rows of empty seats and complaints from athletes about a lack of atmosphere. Thawadi said lessons have been learned and with 1.5 million fans due to visit for the World Cup, lack of enthusiasm would not be an issue.

Football and the World Cup can break down stereotypes. The passion for this game like no other creates a bond and bridges gaps, he said.

World Cup organisers have repeatedly warned fans that they will have to be respectful of Qatars local laws and customs, including a ban on homosexuality.

Thawadi, a football fan who admires Liverpool and what he called its leftwing fanbase, said meetings with community groups such as Spirit of Shankly and Kop Outs, an LGBT supporters club, had averted an embarrassing boycott of this weeks event. Nevertheless, he said LGBT fans would be welcome only if they refrained from public displays of affection.

He said alcohol would be on sale in specified fan zones and in hotels but not on street corners. Alcohol is not part of our culture but hospitality is.

A sin tax has raised the price of beer to 10 a pint, an issue Thawadi said needed addressing. But he regarded such matters as a two-way street. Let us try to understand each other as human beings, he said. We are a conservative culture, not a closed culture.

Houtan Homayounpour, the Do ha chief for ILO, a UN employment rights agency that has been working on reforms with the Qatar government since 2017, said progress was being made but there were many more milestones to pass.

Homayounpour cited the heat-related death toll among migrant workers, a lack of autopsies and delays in payment of wages as areas of concern.

The flow of information to the families of dead and injured workers has been mixed. For instance, the family of Zac Cox, a British worker who died when he fell from a gantry, struggled for many months to extract information on the circumstances of his death. Only after relentless pressure did Thawadis committee set up a British judge-led inquiry.

Thawadi said he was committed to implementing the inquirys findings. We dont want Zacs death to go without us learning or contributing to the welfare of other people, he said.

Thawadi, 41, a former law student at Sheffield University, said the labour reforms were intended not just to help Qatar survive the current glare of publicity. None of the work we have done is to satisfy the spotlight or the critics, he said.

Our nations commitment is that these will be sustainable changes. Yes, some people have criticised the pace, but you need to build the foundations before you live in a house.

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Qatar World Cup chief insists progress being made on migrant rights - The Guardian

Its somewhat of a bright spot that Facebook Watch ranked higher than Sling TV or PlayStation Vue, which have been on the market longer (PlayStation Vue is shutting down in January, however), and only slightly lower than HBO's two streaming products.

But considering that Facebook Watch is freeas is IGTVthe lackluster uptake is still concerning heading into 2020.

Grade: D

As 2018 ended, we were curious how Facebook would tackle the growth of private sharing in social media. We expected it would focus more attention on its smaller, messaging-oriented properties such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, and that it would shift its attention away from the News Feed and toward Stories. We also questioned whether the introduction of ads on WhatsApp would change the way users perceived the messaging app.

Here, the jury is still out on Facebooks progress. While Facebook is still heavily focused on Stories, there are no signs that its moving away from the News Feed. And WhatsApp didnt end up introducing ads this year; Status Ads are slated to appear in 2020.

The biggest news on this front was that in March 2019, the company announced a pledge to shift all of Facebooks apps toward private communications. The plan, as described by Zuckerberg, will be built around principles such as encryption, interoperability and secure data storage. But progress has been slow, and there are questions about whether encrypted messaging (which is what WhatsApp uses) is the right direction to go for Facebooks other apps, and about whether any of these moves will give users more privacy from Facebooks data gathering machine (not likely).

We suspect that the pivot toward private communication will take some time.

Grade: Since its too early to give a letter grade, well just give it a P for passing.

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Facebook's Year in Review: Grading Its Progress on Three Big Questions - eMarketer

HAVANA For 60 years, Cubas communist government has monopolized virtually every aspect of life on the island, including dozens of state-controlled organizations that serve as official advocates for groups ranging from LGBT people to animal lovers.

This year, one aspect of that state monopoly has begun to loosen, with the growth of tiny but active independent civil society groups pressuring the government for better protections.

As 2019 comes to a close, one of the most important of those new civil society causes is womens rights. Women loosely organizing over Cubas year-old mobile internet have pushed the government for new protections against domestic abuse, and are publishing statistics on gender-motivated killings for the first time.

An online campaign brought international attention to the cases of Cuban women claiming assault and harassment by partners and co-workers. For example, a singer known as the Goddess of Cuba said she suffered long-term abuse at the hands of a partner and fellow performer.

They are small advances compared to the high-profile womens rights movements in other Latin American countries. But Cuban women say any independent action is important in a country that has long claimed that its socialist revolution eliminated most institutionalized prejudice and other social problems.

After the victory of Fidel Castros rebel army in 1959, Cuba made abortion free and legal, granted a year of paid maternity leave, created free universal childcare and mandated equal pay for all.

Independent womens activists say women remain underrepresented in high-ranking jobs and suffer street harassment and domestic abuse without sufficient public resources dedicated to the problem.

In the first years of the revolution, Cuba passed laws that favored women, but left untouched many things that persist as part of the patriarchal culture, said activist Marta Maria Ramirez. Theyre achievements that we have to update.

Ramirez and hundreds of other women sent a petition demanding a law against gender violence to the National Assembly last month. It bore the signatures of 700 people, including singer/songwriter Haydee Milanes.

The signature-gathering took place without the participation of the Federation of Cuban Women, the government-endorsed group representing womens interests on the island.

Theres a lot to do. Theres a great need to make people conscious of the issues, Milanes told The Associated Press. Cuba has a very macho society.

Ramirez said petition-signers were told by government officials that state agencies have begun to prepare legislation in response.

Mariela Castro, daughter of Communist Party leader and former president Raul Castro, and the head of the government-run center for gay rights, publicly denied several years ago that Cuba had any killings, or femicides, resulting from gender-motivated crimes like sexual assault or domestic violence.

After months of campaigning by womens rights activists, including online campaigns denouncing the murders of at least four women, Cuba this year recognized for the first time that the country had gender-motivated killings. Activists say the governments figures for gender killings are too low because they only include domestic-violence related crimes, and exclude sex crimes.

Cuban authorities also released figures on domestic violence for the first time, saying 26.6% of women had been victimized over the previous 12 months and fewer than 4% of those had sought help.

In late 2018, Cuba created special legal offices for victims of domestic violence, a move that activists called a small but insufficient step toward better helping victims.

The authorities think that things have to keep coming down from on high, said Sandra AbdAllah-Alvarez, a 46-year-old psychologist, blogger and womens rights activist. No society keeps going just because of institutions. There has to be volunteerism and activism in order for things to move forward.

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Independent women's groups say 2019 year of progress in Cuba - The Columbian

The simplest way to invest in stocks is to buy exchange traded funds. But in our experience, buying the right stocks can give your wealth a significant boost. For example, the Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ:PRGS) share price is up 50% in the last five years, slightly above the market return. Also positive is the 17% share price rise over the last year.

View our latest analysis for Progress Software

While the efficient markets hypothesis continues to be taught by some, it has been proven that markets are over-reactive dynamic systems, and investors are not always rational. By comparing earnings per share (EPS) and share price changes over time, we can get a feel for how investor attitudes to a company have morphed over time.

During five years of share price growth, Progress Software achieved compound earnings per share (EPS) growth of 4.3% per year. This EPS growth is slower than the share price growth of 8.5% per year, over the same period. This suggests that market participants hold the company in higher regard, these days. And that's hardly shocking given the track record of growth.

You can see how EPS has changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

NasdaqGS:PRGS Past and Future Earnings, December 16th 2019

We know that Progress Software has improved its bottom line over the last three years, but what does the future have in store? It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on how its financial position has changed over time.

It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. Whereas the share price return only reflects the change in the share price, the TSR includes the value of dividends (assuming they were reinvested) and the benefit of any discounted capital raising or spin-off. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. As it happens, Progress Software's TSR for the last 5 years was 58%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.

Progress Software provided a TSR of 19% over the last twelve months. But that was short of the market average. On the bright side, that's still a gain, and it's actually better than the average return of 9.6% over half a decade This could indicate that the company is winning over new investors, as it pursues its strategy. If you would like to research Progress Software in more detail then you might want to take a look at whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in the company.

Of course Progress Software may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of growth stocks.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on US exchanges.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.

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Does Progress Software's (NASDAQ:PRGS) Share Price Gain of 50% Match Its Business Performance? - Yahoo Finance

Parents sounded off tonight about a new special education program designed to help their children, instead of suspending them.

The school board approved bringing Chancelight Education into schools for three years with a $17 million contract. From there, Chancelight team members say they went straight to work by hiring and training teachers.

On the first day of school they opened 29 classes at 13 different behavior support sites. Throughout the semester, they continued to train teachers and also held meetings with parents to learn more about their childs educational program.

Parents at the school board meeting thanked the board for the program that they say fits all of their childs needs.

They give him special attention so he can do the work, and if he has a bad day or if hes having some challenges that day they can help walk him through that. He can work that issue out and return to the classroom which is what we want rather than having him suspended, Sharon Bevely said.

Because of the wrap around services that Chancelight provides, theres just so many people that are there that are therapeutically trained and they understand how to de-escalate a child. It gives my son specifically an opportunity to learn more and that gives him a better chance to actually graduate, James Crocker said.

ChanceLight officials say they were able to move 22.3 percent of Muscogee County School District students to a less restrictive environment.

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Parents thank the school district for their childrens progress in the Chancelight Education program - WRBL

J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told employees that he's "disgusted by racism and hate in any form" after a New York Times report detailed instances of discrimination at the bank's branches.

"We must make sure that the culture we aspire to reaches every corner of our company," Dimon said in a memo sent late Friday to employees and obtained by CNBC. "We have done some great work on diversity and inclusion, but it's not enough. We must be absolutely relentless on doing more."

Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that a black J.P. Morgan employee and customer experienced racial discrimination by managers at branches in the Phoenix, Arizona area, and had made audio recordings as evidence. In one case, the customer had difficulty attaining private client status despite moving a hundred thousand dollars to the bank.

Dimon said that he's instructed his managers to look deeper into the bank's policies and culture to reach higher standards of fairness.

"Racism has existed for too long in our country, in our communities and unfortunately, at times, even at our company," Dimon said. "But this is not who we are. We want all of you to be active in making needed progress."

Read the entire memo:

Message from Jamie Dimon

Dear colleagues,

I am disgusted by racism and hate in any form. Any such behavior explicit or veiled, deliberate or unconscious is unacceptable and does not reflect who we are as a company and how we serve our clients and communities every day.

We must make sure that the culture we aspire to reaches every corner of our company. We have done some great work on diversity and inclusion, but it's not enough. We must be absolutely relentless on doing more. I've instructed my management team to continually look into our policies, procedures, management practices and culture to set and achieve the highest possible standards. There is always more we can do.

Racism has existed for too long in our country, in our communities and unfortunately, at times, even at our company. But this is not who we are. We want all of you to be active in making needed progress.

We will use this moment as an opportunity to do better as leaders, as employees and as human beings.

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Jamie Dimon says he's 'disgusted by racism' and progress is needed at JP Morgan after report - CNBC

If your only source of information about Capitol Hill last week was cable news, I forgive you for believing that all non-impeachment work in Congress had screeched to a halt, that Republicans and Democrats were at each others throats, and that Congress itself had reached an ugly new low.

But if you had looked away from your screen and walked the halls of the House and Senate instead, you would have seen the rest of the story playing out away from television cameras and media scrums member meetings, committee hearings and real, bipartisan agreements on long-stalled issues being struck at the very moment that impeachment seemed to be swallowing Washington whole.

Its not what most people expected to happen when the House began the work of removing the president from office. And its certainly not what Donald Trump had in mind in his State of the Union speech in January when he warned the House chamber not to come for him if they wanted to get anything done this year.

If there is going to peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation, he said. It just doesnt work that way!

But it turns out, it does work that way. In fact, staffers I spoke with last week said the entire impeachment spectacle has had the strange side effect of allowing, and even incentivizing, the kinds of compromises that members might otherwise never have been able to strike.

One look at last weeks calendar tells the story. Just hours before the House Judiciary Committee began to mark up its articles of impeachment, Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, the second-ranking Democrat on the committee, was on the House floor watching her Farm Workforce Modernization Act pass with all Democrats and 34 Republicans voting yes.

Among the ayes for the bill, which would give legal status and a path to citizenship for much-needed farmworkers, were Reps. Devin Nunes of California and Elise Stefanik of New York, two of the Republican superstars from the House Intelligence Committee hearings defending the president.

Also on Wednesday, the House passed the conference report for the National Defense Authorization Act, with a 12-week paid family leave benefit for federal workers that is the first expansion of federal leave policies since the Family and Medical Leave Act passed in 1993.

Earlier in the week, Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a deal with the White House on the USMCA, a major update of the North America Free Trade Agreement that the president wanted, with changes Pelosi had been pushing all year. And on Tuesday, the House passed the Tribal Coastal Resiliency Act to help Native American tribes deal with climate change. It had the support of 34 Republicans, including such Trump allies as Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Lee Zeldin of New York .

But what about the government shutdown that always seems to be an end-of-year lump of coal for both chambers? For the first time in nearly a decade, its completely off the table. While the Judiciary Committee was still in its marathon markup, House Appropriations Chairwoman Nita Lowey of New York and Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby of Alabama were huddling with Steve Mnuchin, Trumps Treasury secretary. They reached an agreement in principle to pass all 12 outstanding appropriations bills next week, a package that could get a House vote as early as Tuesday.

Theres no doubt that a combination of the end-of-the year schedule and jet fumes is greasing the wheels on some of these deals. But its also impossible to miss a palpable fight fatigue blanketing the Capitol. CQ Roll Calls Niels Lesniewski had a terrific piece last week quoting Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander, who predicted the appetite for bipartisanship will only grow after the likely Senate impeachment trial in January.

I think that members of Congress, like the American people, are maybe coming to the conclusion that theres more to life than judges and impeachment, Alexander said.

Not only do members want to get more done than impeachment, they have to. Theres an imperative for anyone up for reelection to have something, anything, to bring home to voters before the election year that starts in January. Many of them will.

The final factor that seems to be at play, thanks to impeachment, is the sheer crush of news that the historic moment has created. Although members arent getting much credit for passing major legislation, they have helpfully been able to work without the hype of media coverage that nearly always engulfs controversial bills.

There is only so much outrage that Sean Hannity can pack into 48 minutes of airtime on Fox News and, frankly, only so many issues even members themselves can follow closely enough to act on.

During the Judiciary markup on Thursday, Republican Colorado Rep. Ken Buck took some of his time to talk about the NDAA and the fact that, Somehow, someone slipped in a provision that every federal employee will be given three months of paid family leave. Buck lamented that Americans outside the federal workforce have no such benefits.

Congress is an embarrassment! he said. Who wants to tell Mr. Buck it was Ivanka Trump, the presidents daughter, who persuaded Democrats, Republicans and Trump himself to put paid family leave in the bill?

Wow! Trump tweeted Wednesday after the House passed the NDAA. All of our priorities have made it into the final NDAA: Pay Raise for our Troops, Rebuilding our Military, Paid Parental Leave, Border Security, and Space Force! Congress dont delay this anymore! I will sign this historic defense legislation immediately!

The full House is expected to impeach President Donald John Trump this week. On the day before, theyll likely pass the full-years appropriations package. On the day after, a bipartisan majority will approve the presidents USMCA and members will race to the exits for cars waiting to whisk them home and away from the Capitol. Incredibly, both sides will have gotten what they want.

Patricia Murphy covers national politics for The Daily Beast. Previously, she was the Capitol Hill bureau chief for Politics Daily and founder and editor of Citizen Jane Politics. Follow her on Twitter @1PatriciaMurphy.

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Patricia Murphy: What's the shocking secret sauce to progress on the Hill? Impeachment - The Spokesman-Review

Texans head coach Bill O'Brien said J.J. Watt has "certainly made progress" in his attempt to return to the field in 2019, according to the NFL Network's Ian Rapoport.

Watt tore his pectoral muscle against the Raiders on Oct. 27. He tweeted that he was out for the year following the injury, but Watt continues to make strides in his rehab as the Texans eye a playoff run in January.

"He's certainly made progress based on his work ethic and who he's working with in the training room," O'Brien said on Monday, per Rapoport. "We will see."

Watt tallied four sacks in the first eight games of 2019. He has 96 career sacks in 112 games, adding 23 forced fumbles. The five-time All-Pro has logged eight or fewer games in four of the last five seasons.

The Texans advanced to 95 on Sunday with a win over the Titans. They will face the Buccaneers on Saturday. Kickoff from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., is slated for 1 p.m. ET.

Originally posted here:

Report: J.J. Watt Making 'Progress' Toward Return in 2019 - Sports Illustrated

Everything has changed for the Warriors from last June to now. This season might just be a pause in the run of championship-level play or it might be the end of the dynasty. In this series of stories over the next few weeks, Dynasty Interrupted,The Athletic Bay Area is taking a detailed look at how the key remaining members of the Warriors are dealing with this turn of events and what the team is doing to remake and restore itself for the future. This is thefourth story of the series.

In Kawhi Leonards early San Antonio days, back when he was a mid first rounder with a raw skill set and an unknown NBA future, Gregg Popovich used to dial up occasional play designs that deliberately forced Leonard to catch the ball up top, take a dribble or two and swing it to the opposite wing.

Leonard was just an ancillary part of those specific plays, but Popovichs strategy was grander, the picture bigger. Leonard, even as a rookie, could defend and score well...

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The development of Eric Paschall, already in progress, is essential to the Warriors' future - The Athletic

17/12/2019 - Gregoris Rentis' film wins the TitraFilm prize, while the Eurimages Lab Project Award goes to Ekaterina Selenkina. Luna Bajrami, Mareike Engelhard, Dana Lerer and Thessa Meijer are also awarded

Director Gregoris Rentis, winner with To Sail Close to the Wind of the TitraFilm Award in the Work in Progress section, with the film's producer Clment Duboin ( Romuald Maginot / Les Arcs Film Festival)

On Monday evening, as part of the Industry Village of the 11th Les Arcs Film Festival, the jury in charge of weighing up the 16 features duking it out in the Work in Progress section handed out two awards. Three other prizes were given (another one in the Work in Progress section, and two for the best projects in the Coproduction Village and the Talent Village, with an extra special mention).

In the Work in Progress section, the TitraFilm prize (worth 10,000 in image and sound post-production services) went to To Sail Close to the Wind, from Greek director Gregoris Rentis. Produced by Greek companies Asterisk* and Byrd with French company Good Fortune Films, this feature debut seduced the members of the jury (Mark Adams, Mathilde Henrot and Azize Tan) who were "amused by its very slapstick comedy elements inserted into a documentary context, its original and tragi-comic approach to situations. The film is a reflection on the human condition and on the current state of the world." Its topic? Since the multiplication of piracy incidents off Somalias coasts, an industry of maritime security has taken root in the region. The film explores a narrative of good and evil, following characters who live in the grey zone between the two, spending the better part of their lives waiting for a threat that may never come.

Still in the Work In Progress section, the Lab Project Award prize (courtesy of Eurimages and worth 50,000 in cash) singled out Figures in the Urban Landscape by Ekaterina Selenkina. Produced by Vladimir Nadein (Russia) and Dutch Mountain Film (Netherlands), this feature debut already supported at the development stage by the Hubert Bals Fund sees Denis hides small packages of drugs in the outskirts of a city in Russia, taking pictures of these spots and sending out this information to customers while intimate moments of day-to-day life unfold.

Handed out for the first time, the Alphapanda Audience Engagement prize (worth 5,000 and meant to go towards developing an online marketing strategy and putting in place a social media campaign for the films festival premiere) went to The Hill Where Lionesses Roar from France/Kosovo director Luna Bajrami, produced by OrZan Films (Kosovo) and Vents Contraires (France). The script centres on Qe, Li and Jeta, three friends who cannot see any future for themselves and who, in order to escape this daily lives, decide to create a gang and to bypass local traders. But the excitement of independence will prove dangerous

As for the projects in the Coproduction Village, another feature debut was the winner, with the ArteKino International prize (worth 6,000) going to Rabia from German director Mareike Engelhard, produced by French company Films Grand Huit.

Finally, the Best Project Award (which comes with 1,000 courtesy of T-Port) of the Talent Village (established to help young filmmakers make the leap to their feature debut) went to Double Happiness from Israeli director Dana Lerer, with a special mention for Volcano Girl from Dutch director Thessa Meijer.

Here is the full list of winners:

Work In Progress

TitraFilm AwardTo Sail Close to the Wind - Gregoris Rentis (Greece/France)Production: Asterisk*, Byrd, Good Fortune Films

Eurimages Lab Project AwardFigures in the Urban Landscape - Ekaterina Selenkina (Russia/Netherlands)Production: Vladimir Nadein, Dutch Mountain Film

Alphapanda Audience Engagement AwardThe Hill Where Lionesses Roar - Luna Bajrami (Kosovo/France)Production: OrZan Films, Vents Contraires

Coproduction Village

ArteKino International AwardRabia - Mareike Engelhard (Germany/France)Production: Films Grand Huit

Talent Village

T-Port AwardDouble Happiness - Dana Lerer (Israel/Canada)Production: Firma Films, Serendipity Pint FilmsSpecial mentionVolcano Girl - Thessa Meijer (Netherlands)Production: Halal Pictures

(Translated from French)

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Les Arcs' Work in Progress crowns To Sail Close to the Wind and Figures in the Urban Landscape - Cineuropa

(WXYZ) As we approach the end of the year, crucial roads funding for Michigan still hangs in the balance in Lansing. It's money Gov. Whitmer promised, but it never came to fruition during a contentious budget impasse this fall.

This week lawmakers made some progress, agreeing to undo nearly $600 million nixed earlier this year.

Gov. Whitmer blocked nearly $1 billion in spending via line item vetoes amid a stand-still over the proposed roads funding.

They took the votes this week and those were the negotiated terms that we struck and so I am eager for the bills to hit my desk," Gov. Whitmer said Friday in Detroit.

Fixing state roads was a central campaign promise, and something she said is still a top priority despite Republican backlash to her initial funding plans.

Im going to continue to move forward and were going to fix the damn roads," she said.

We all have to travel the roads. I dont see what the hold up is and what the problem could possibly be that we cant get it done," said Chantal Whitman, who's driven on Michigan roads for most of her life. Actually seeing them fixed she said, feels like a pipe dream.

Earlier this year Gov. Whitmer tried to get a gas tax approved in order to bring in money to fix the roads.

"I know that the 45 cent gas tax was not something that they embraced warmly, but it was an honest solution and that's what I ran on," she said.

All this, as drivers enter into one of the worst times to drive in Michigan.

Ive had to like replace a tire rod here and there just because in inadvertently falling into a pothole thats turned into almost a monolith," said Royal Oak driver Anthony Weaver.

Gov. Whitmer will give her state of the state at the end of January.

We asked her about a new long term roads funding plan.

"As we are working on what our next steps are, Ill let you know when were ready to announce something," she told 7 Action News.

See the rest here:

Getting Around Metro Detroit After progress in Lansing, drivers ask where promised road funding stands? - WXYZ

The latest edition of Pig Progress is now available online. Between the covers of this edition we look at ways to curb tail biting, a feed additive for happier pigs, and amino acids for gut health.

With the rapid development of pig herd performance over recent decades, it is not uncommon that upwards of 30 piglets are weaned per sow per year. Dr Klausing looks at feeding strategies and feed composition in light of this level of production on pages 6-8.

Only sows that have been specifically fed for their condition are able to produce enough nutritious milk from the very beginning. Photo: Ronald Hissink

Ideally, conventional pig producers must identify a tail-biting problem as early on as possible. In this article on pages 14-16 we understand what to look out for, and what to do about it.

Providing a distraction to a group of pigs is key. It is important to change the type of distraction regularly to keep the pigs interest. Photo: J-Y. Chou

Continuing the subject of tail biting on pages 20-22, in Finland, where tail cutting was banned in 2003, pig producers have shown excellent results of reduced tail biting through optimal feeding conditions.

Straw is given as an additional safeguard against tail biting. Photo: Henk Riswick

According to Russian scientists, the incidence of depression amongst pigs has seen an increase over recent decades. We look at a new feed additive on pages 12-13 that aims to help pigs to combat stress.

Russian scientists have tested a feed additive designed to make pigs happier. Photo: Vladislav Vorotnikov

Piglet gut health takes the limelight as producers are required to reduce the use of antibiotics and zinc oxide whilst maintaining performance. Reducing dietary protein content is an important factor in reducing gut disorders, but we also need to reconsider the way that amino acid nutrition in diet formulation is addressed. Pages 10-11.

A lower supply of dietary protein reduces protein microbial fermentation thereby preventing the development of pathogenic bacteria. Photo: Ajinomoto

Feed intake is dramatically affected by the space given to pigs. It is essential that pigs eat immediately after weaning, and so the need to ensure that pigs have the space to mimic the feeding and drinking behaviour of pen-mates should not be underestimated. Pages 24-25.

Researcher Dr Lindvall has shown that moderate overstocking depresses growth rate and feed intake in the learning phase immediately post weaning. Photo: Henk Riswick.

When an order of pig feed arrives at the farm, producers can access key ingredient data and make calculations quickly and easily with NutriOpt. This goes a long way in helping producers to maximise profits. Pages 26-27.

A smart feed simulation programme eliminates guesswork. Photo: Bart Nijs

A 3-pronged approach in the fight against post-weaning diarrhoea includes the use of undigestible fibre and inflammation biomarkers, as well as adhering to a total health plan. Pages 28-29.

Nutrition should be integrated into an overall health strategy. Photo: Gwenael Saliou

It is becoming clear that zinc cannot be replaced by a single product and that a combination of strategies is needed. Page 31-32.

Not only is zinc involved in protein synthesis and carbohydrate metabolism, but it is also important for skin and wound healing. Photo: Framelco

In the first of a 2-part series, columnist John Gadd discusses mastitis, metritis and agalactia as well as farrowing stress in pigs on page 17.

To view these articles and other editions of Pig Progress online, simply click on the digital magazine section and then on Pig Progress 2019-10 to view this edition. Registration is free.

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Curly tails, happy pigs and gut health in Pig Progress 10 - Pig Progress

Another line of inquiry into Trumps business deals unearthed a flow of Russian money into his projects, what Fritsch once called a tour de sleaze. Needing a clearer sense of what was happening inside Russia itself, where public records were hard to come by, Fusion reached out to Steele.

The authors chronicle how Steele became so alarmed by what his sources were telling him that he asked Fusions permission to share his raw intelligence notes with the F.B.I. and, later, an adviser to Sen. John McCain.

Steele, Simpson and Fritsch started talking on deep background to journalists, too, though the authors say they took care not to share the dossier with the media before the election, and were furious when BuzzFeed posted the document in January 2017, 10 days before President Trumps inauguration. (They show little love for The Times and its 2016 election coverage, either.) This timeline, they repeatedly argue, is key: Republicans have tried to portray the dossier as a hoax or a dirty trick designed to prejudice the electorate, but how could it have swayed voters if it was kept hidden before the vote?

Simpson and Fritsch are able guides to a byzantine world; their presentation is methodical, almost lawyerly, which isnt as bad as it sounds. When reading a story full of weird financial transactions, narratives and counternarratives, its helpful to have everything laid out as plainly as possible even if the layers of chicanery are sometimes so densely packed that their syntax gets squeezed into ugly shapes. The story described how a former senator from Putins political party who had gone on to run the Central Bank of the Russian Federation was the subject of an investigation in Spain into money laundering by a Russian organized crime syndicate called the Taganskaya Gang, they write, describing a news article; its a sentence only the most grimly determined reader could love.

Simpson and Fritsch try to address conservative conspiracy theorists head on, devoting an entire chapter to their work with a Russian real-estate company named Prevezon and its lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya who, unbeknownst to Fusion at the time, arranged a notorious meeting with the Trump campaign. For a couple of guys who spent their careers investigating how money can shape incentives, or at least appear to, they seemed for a while either defensive or nave when it came to the murkier aspects of their own business model.

Fusions conservative critics doubtless wont be placated by this book, even though the authors say that those critics were ultimately what made the book possible. Only when Republican members of Congress forced Fusion to provide documents and testimony in an attempt to ferret out a vast left-wing conspiracy were Simpson and Fritsch freed to write about interactions they would have otherwise been contractually obligated to keep confidential.

Its a nice bit of irony in a book that reads like a morality tale about unintended consequences. As Simpson told congressional investigators back in 2017: We threw a line in the water and Moby Dick came back.

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Crime in Progress Tells the Story Behind the Steele Dossier - The New York Times

Theres obvious excitement at the start of any new sports season, but where theres an influx of exuberance there often times can also be a lack of discipline.

That can spell disaster in hockey, where discipline can be the difference between winning and losing.

Just in the first week of the season, that difference was felt by a few teams, and one team even experienced both sides.

St. Dominic Academy has been burned by opposing power plays twice in its first two games, but only one of those was a loss. The Saints survived three power-play goals in their opener against South Portland/Freeport/Waynflete, butcouldnt do the same while giving up three more to Falmouth.

Its a tough lesson weve had (in) both our games, first-year Saints head coach DanDAuteuilsaid after the loss to Falmouth on Wednesday.

I think its not enough discipline, he added. I think theyve been a little selfish, taking the slashing penalty or macho trying to run somebody, and just not realizing that it puts us down. We skated earlier this week because of it and were probably going to skate some more tomorrow. At some point they got to figure it out.

Mt. Ararat/Lisbon/Morse coach A.J. Kavanaugh called his teams play undisciplined in a 1-0 season-opening loss to Poland/Leavitt/Oak Hill/Gray-New Gloucester on Saturday. The Eagles went on the penalty kill five times, and while they didnt allow a goal down a man, they also couldnt find any offense themselves.

We just spent too much time in our own end because of the man-advantages, Kavanaugh said.

Capital Region was one team that did survive giving up a plethora of power plays, holding the PLOG Kings scoreless despite five man-advantages on Wednesday. Hawks coach Jack Rioux admitted hed rather his team not be shorthanded for as long as they were, but called the penalty kill flawless.

PRIOR POUNDINGS HELP HAWKS

Heading into Wednesdays opener forCapital Region (Maranacook/Winthrop/Madison/Spruce Mountain/Lawrence), the program was used to seeing a high number of shots.

The season opener against the Kings was no different as Thomas Thornton saw 30 shots. There was no panic in the Hawks, as they appeared to know what they were doing in the 1-0 win.

Our (defense) is really solid, Rioux said. This year we have the maturity that we didnt have previously because we have been (a team that sees a lot of shots against) for so long, we know how to play defense now. Now we need to put more offense on the board.

Wednesdays win was led by Thornton, who made 30 saves, and the past three years he had been sitting behind goalie Will Hays, who was outstanding in goal for the Hawks. Thornton didnt look like he was just making his second career varsity start.

He had one last year and following Will Hays, he has some big skates to fill, but he did an excellent job tonight, Rioux said. I couldnt ask more from him, his vision was great, he was tracking (the puck), theres not much there to fix.

Rioux said after Thorntons starting debut last year also against the Kings that it wasmy job is to get him ready for that fornextyear. Thornton certainly looked ready Wednesday.

A NEW SAINTS STAR?

After graduating last years Becky Schaffer Award winner, AveryLutrzykowski, the St. Domsgirlshockey team had a large void to fill in the scoring department.

Its only been three games, but Madi Pelletier has shown a flash of star potential.

The Gray-New Gloucester junior, who spent her first two seasons as part of a co-op with Greely, already has five goals and two assists. Her and the Saints were shut out in their season opener, but Pelletier scored a pair in a win over Yarmouth/Freeport, then tallied a hat trick and assisted on two other goals in a victory over Falmouth.

Saints coach Paul Gosselin called Pelletier a good, strong player.

Just getting her to play to her strengths and its working well, he added.

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H.S. hockey notebook: Discipline a work in progress early in the season - Lewiston Sun Journal