Daily Archives: February 9, 2017

Britney Spears has shared an update on her 8-year-old niece Maddies recovery following an ATV accident that left her unconscious for nearly two days.

We are so grateful to share that Maddie is making progress, Spears, 35, wrote in a note posted to Twitter on Wednesday afternoon. Thank you all for sending thoughts and prayers our way. Lets all keep praying.

The pop icon had previously made an appeal to fanson Monday afternoon. Need all the wishes and prayers for my niece, she captioned a photo of Maddie the daughter of her younger sister Jamie Lynn Spears.

On Sunday,Maddie was drivingan ATV within view of Jamie Lynn, 25, and her husbandJamie Watsonwhen she took a hard rightto avoid running overa nearbydrainage ditch, causing the vehicle to enter the pond on her parents property, reads a police report obtained by PEOPLE Monday.

The ATV and child were instantly submerged in the water right before their eyes. Within seconds the childs mother, stepfather and other family members reached the pond, dove in and attempted to rescue the child to no avail, the report said. The child was trapped and secured by the seatbelt and the ATVs safety netting. Within two minutes,Acadian Ambulance Services arrived and assisted in freeing the child from the cold waters.

Despite the harrowing ordeal, Maddie awoke Tuesday, surrounded by family.

With her father, mother and stepfather by her side, Maddie regained consciousness mid-day Tuesday, Feb. 7, her hospitaltells PEOPLE in a statement provided bya Spears family rep. The 8-year-old daughter of entertainer Jamie Lynn Spears wasinvolved in an ATV accident at a family home Sunday in Kentwood, Louisiana. Paramedics resuscitated her and she was airlifted to a local hospital. She is aware of her surroundings and recognizes those family members who have kept a round-the-clock vigil since the accident.

The statement continues: Doctors were able to remove the ventilator today and she is awake and talking. Maddie continues to receive oxygen and is being monitored closely but it appears that she has not suffered any neurological consequences from the accident.

Watsontook to social mediaTuesday afternoonto show his appreciation to fans for their support throughout his stepdaughters ordeal.

Thank you everyone for the prayers. Maddie is doing better and better. Thank yall so much, Watson captioned a photo on Instagram of a shirt bearing the words believe in miracles.

Link:

Britney Spears Says Niece Maddie Is 'Making Progress' After ATV Accident: 'Let's All Keep Praying' - PEOPLE.com

We know that when a large corporation has more women on its board of directors, the company is likely to be more innovative. We know that companies who transition from all-male boards to those that are 30 percent female see their net revenue margins increase by 30 percent, on average. We even know that, if there is even one woman on a company's board of directors, attendance is better at board meetings.

Yet somehow, in the U.S., large public companies can't seem to seem to make any progress at all in getting more women onto their boards of directors. A new report by executive search firm Egon Zehnder finds that among large publicly-traded companies in the U.S., just 20 percent of board seats are held by women. That compares to 21 percent two years ago.

Egon Zehnder studied the board composition of public companies in 44 countries. Globally, they found women now hold 18.5 percent of board seats, compared to 13.6 in 2013. In Western Europe, progress has been more impressive, with women holding 26.2 percent of board seats, up from 15.6 percent.

A recent survey by theBoardlist, a group that seeks out women qualified for board seats and helps connect them to search committees, asked why the representation of women on boards was so low. The respondents, who were all women that are looking for board seats, overwhelmingly said the problem was that search committees didn't look outside their networks, and that those networks do not generally include women. Gender bias, often cited as a cause for women's lack of participation on boards, was a distant second.

Egon Zehnder attributes the U.S. lack of progress to somewhat different factors. "While U.S. businesses prioritized engaging a female workforce, contributing factors such as maternity benefits and childcare were largely overlooked," the report says. "This lack of benefits has hindered women from looking beyond the childbearing years to reach the executive positions that enable them to enter the pipeline for board-level positions. "

Many of the European countries with the highest level of gender parity on their boards, such as France (38 percent of French board seats are held by women), Germany, and Italy, have managed to do so at least partly because they've recently been subject to quotas. Other countries, such as the U.K., have gender diversity champions who have made excellent use of the bully pulpit, notably Lord Mervyn Davies, who is calling for 33 percent board participation by women by 2020. (The U.K. currently stands at 26 percent)

But one need look no farther than Canada, which does not have quotas for women on boards, to see that progress is possible. Between 2014 and 2016, the percentage of women on the boards of the largest publicly-traded Canadian companies increased from 18 to 25 percent. In the same time period, in the U.S., the percentage of women on boards actually fell, from 21 to 20 percent.

In Canada, the report notes, unlike in the U.S., there have been strong efforts to emphasize diversity at the highest levels of government and society, most notably that of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who appointed 15 men and 15 women to cabinet positions. The report quotes Trudeau, speaking before the U.N. General Assembly in September: "In Canada, we see diversity as a source of strength, not a weakness; our country is strong not despite our differences, but because of them."

See the original post:

Women's Progress in the Boardroom Took a Hit in 2016 | Inc.com - Inc.com

Rutland City Police Chief Brian Kilcullen delivers his departments annual crime report Wednesday night at the Franklin Conference Center. ROBERT LAYMAN / STAFF PHOTO

Leaders of the city Police Department said Wednesday night crime statistics indicate Rutland is making progress against drug abuse.

Police Chief Brian Kilcullen said the drop in cashready crimes such as shoplifting offered an indication that addiction is waning in the city.

As treatment increases, these types of crimes have gone down, he said. Were hoping to formalize that research.

Shoplifting was down from 134 incidents to 88 a 34 percent drop. Thefts from motor vehicles went from 90 to 64 (down 29 percent) and thefts from buildings went from 78 to 63 (19 percent).

Not everything went down. Burglaries were up slightly, from 82 to 88, but still well down from the 123 in 2014. Thefts of bicycles remained steady at 19.

Theres not much we can do about that, Kilcullen said. Someone doesnt want to walk, theyre going to take a bike.

The statistics made drug arrests seem exceedingly rare they only showed two arrests for selling drugs in 2016 and none in 2015 but Kilcullen said this was misleading.

Those numbers arent huge because a lot of the drug enforcement is being done on a task force basis, he said. The numbers youre seeing here are attributed to Rutland City police officers. We have nobody at the task force right now, and thats where a lot of the work is being done.

While no statistics were offered Wednesday on overdoses, Cmdr. David LaChance said they were up in the city, mirroring statewide and national trends. He said plans to better address that issue are under development.

Cmdr. Matthew Prouty discussed how the overall mission of the police department has shifted in a direction he expects will begin to reduce overdoses and otherwise alleviate drug issues, with officers focused on getting people help.

The nature of the department has to be that addicts, homeless, folks with mental health issues, the down-and-outers, are members of our community that deserve our help, he said.

Cmdr. Scott Tucker, who serves as executive director of Project VISION as well, described an addict telling police that when she got sober, she realized a police officer and her probation officer were the only people who cared about her.

The presentation went beyond straight crime statistics, and included a recent survey that found people in the city are feeling safer as well.

Conducted by Neighbor- Works of Western Vermont in the area of the northwest neighborhood targeted for revitalization, the survey found that from 2013 to 2016, the people who said they felt very safe in their homes during the day shot up from about 15 percent to about 80 percent, with those feeling somewhat or very unsafe going from 30 percent to about 5 percent.

The improved comfort level at night was not quite as dramatic, with those feeling very safe at home going from slightly more than 20 percent to slightly more than 60 percent, and those feeling unsafe going from about 20 percent to about 10 percent.

Satisfaction with police response shifted upward as well, with those rating it good or very good climbing from almost 60 percent to almost 70 percent.

Wed like that to be a little higher, but were encouraged that people are saying something positive, Tucker said.

gordon.dritschilo @rutlandherald.com

See the original post here:

City police cite progress vs. drugs - Rutland Herald

DANVILLE Progress this season for the Danville Area Community College women's basketball program cannot be measured in total wins and losses.

First-year coach Miranda Payne took over a program in July that not only lost its coach, as Matt Vavro took the job at Lincoln, but all of the incoming recruits also decided to attend different schools.

The Lady Jaguars basically had only three returning players in the fold for this season.

"I was just trying to get a team together,'' said Payne. "We brought in seven new players before the year started and we've added two more during the Christmas break. Right now, we have 11 healthy and eligible players.''

That alone shows a great deal of progress.

On Wednesday night, the Jaguars also showed a great deal of improvement on the floor against the 11th-rated Parkland Cobras.

While DACC suffered a 77-49 loss in the Mid-West Athletic Conference contest at the Mary Miller Gymnasium, it was the play in the first and fourth quarters that showed Payne things are moving in the right direction.

"This was the best start of the game that we've had all season,'' said Payne, as Parkland's Ryan Dooley had to hit a running one-hander in the final seconds of the first quarter to tie the game at 17-all.

"I thought we played really well in those first 10 minutes,'' Payne added. "To do it against Parkland shows that we can play with these teams. It's something that we can gain momentum from and build off of for the rest of our season.''

The Cobras (17-4 overall, 4-0 in the Mid-West Athletic Conference) basically put the game out of reach from the Jaguars in the middle two quarters.

Parkland finished the first half on a 13-1 run to take a 40-24 halftime lead and the Cobras had extended that advantage to 26 points (59-33) at the end of the third quarter.

"Right now, when things start to run back for us, we sit back and we don't push through it,'' Payne said. "But, I thought we finished it on a good note. So, when you consider the good start in the first quarter, all we need to do is get those middle two quarters figured out.''

Sophomore BreLanair Cox, one of the three returners for DACC, scored 10 of her team-high 18 points in the first quarter for the Jaguars. The 5-foot-10 forward from East St. Louis also pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds.

DACC (2-14 overall, 0-4 in the M-WAC) didn't have another player in double figures. Shawnacee Bowman was next with eight points, followed by Allison Gill and Kansas Williams with seven each.

"As a community college team, you are getting new players every two years,'' Payne said. "So, it's like you are rebuilding every year. But, this beginning was tough and I think it's gotten a lot better.''

Payne said she had very simple goals for this year.

"The main thing I wanted from these girls was for them to work hard, work as a team and improve each day,'' she said. "I'm seeing that progress.''

Kerstyan Lowery was the leading scorer for Parkland with 18 points, while Laynne Buzan finished with 11 to go along with four assists and seven rebounds.

Up next for DACC is a trip to East Peoria to play the Illinois Central Cougars at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

Read the original:

DACC women making progress - Danville Commercial News