Daily Archives: April 13, 2021

Video: Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jesse Sharkey joins Chicago Tonight in discussion. (Produced by Quinn Myers)

Chicago high school teachers wont report for in-person work Wednesday unless theres adequate movement toward a reopening agreement between their representatives and Chicago Public Schools leadership.

The Chicago Teachers Unions House of Delegates on Sunday evening voted to keep high school staffers out of schools beginning Wednesday as the union continues negotiating with CPS over how to safely reopen those schools.

Our rank-and-file members told the leadership of the CTU in no uncertain terms that were not simply reopening schools without more progress at the bargaining table and without a return agreement in high school, CTU President Jesse Sharkey said Monday morning. What that means is it that on Wednesday, high school teachers will not be going into the buildings without that agreement.

While elementary school students and some special education students have returned to their classrooms this year, high schoolers have continued learning remotely since last spring when COVID-19 forced a districtwide suspension of in-person learning.

READ:CPS Targeting April 19 as High School Reopening Date

CPS has set April 19 as its target date for high school students to return for in-person learning and district leaders have said its their top priority to get these kids back into their classrooms. High school teachers are set to report Monday. But if a reopening agreement isnt close by Wednesday, those teachers will either work outside of their school buildings or from home on Wednesday.

On Monday afternoon, CPS announced that 3,640 out of approximately 4,300 high school teachers who were expected to resume in-person work Monday had shown up. Thats a little over 84%.

Both union and CPS leaders had expressed hope that this round of negotiations would go more smoothly than the elementary school reopening discussion, which nearly led to a teachers strike earlier this year.

Bargaining continued over the weekend, but according to the CTU, issues remain over accommodations to let teachers work remotely, student schedules, remote work and vaccine availability for students and their families.

Union leaders asked CPS last week to push back that April 19 return date by one week to allow for more time to learn about coronavirus variants and current transmission rates. District leadership rejected that request and pointed to their elementary schools, which they said have shown that safe in-person learning is possible right now.

Sharkey said the vote Sunday was the only authorization needed for Wednesdays potential action. He said the union may schedule another meeting later this week in order to evaluate where were at with bargaining and discuss potential next steps.

If CPS threatens to lock teachers out of their Google education suites effectively preventing them from teaching remotely that could lead to more consequences, Sharkey said.

CPS spokesman Michael Passman said the district had productive discussions over the weekend with the CTU, and the two sides have a general alignment on scheduling and safety protocols to keep students and employees healthy.

Tens of thousands of high school students and their families are counting on us to open high school classrooms in one week, and we are firmly committed to making that happen, Passman said in a statement Monday. We hope to reach an agreement as soon as possible to ensure a smooth transition for our high school students and families.

Contact Matt Masterson:@ByMattMasterson |[emailprotected]| (773) 509-5431

Here is the original post:

CTU Threatens Wednesday Action If There Isn't Progress Toward High School Reopening Deal - WTTW News

Facts, not fear: We're tracking the latest coronavirus numbers and vaccination efforts across the San Antonio area.

BEXAR COUNTY, Texas We're tracking the latest numbers from the coronavirus pandemic as well as the vaccine efforts in San Antonio and across Texas.

Vaccine Progress in Bexar County

Across Bexar County, more than 955,000 vaccine doses have been administered, as of April 12.

DSHS defines "population" as residents who are 16 years of age or older; in Bexar County, this represents more than 1.55 million people. The CDC states that "when a high percentage of the community is immune to a disease (through vaccination and/or prior illness)," that community will have reached herd immunity, "making the spread of this disease from person to person unlikely."

100,298vaccines were administered last week in Bexar County; a total of 955,501vaccine doses have been administered in the county since vaccination efforts began 17 weeks ago.

Across Texas, 5.721 million residents are fully vaccinated. In total, the state has administered 14.497 million vaccine doses, as of April 12. Texas is one of seven states with less than 20% of its population fully vaccinated, as of April 11:

Latest Coronavirus Numbers

Here are the latest numbers reported by Bexar County and state officials:

Bexar County (data as of Monday, April 12):

Metro Health reports new data at 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Texas (data as of Monday, April 12):

More county case information is available through theTexas Department of Health Services COVID-19 dashboard.

Bexar County COVID-19 Trends

This week's update of the Warning Signs and Progress Indicators for Bexar County saw Bexar County holding steady at the low-risk level. The positivity rate rose slightly to 2.4% after holding steady at 2.1% for two straight weeks.

The county's seven-day moving average of daily COVID-19 cases increased from 198 at the end of last week to 232 on Monday.

The number of COVID-19 patients receiving treatments at area hospitals continued its uptick Monday after jumping above 200 in nearly a month Friday. 217 patients are hospitalized, while 28 patients are on ventilators and 79 are in intensive care.

Just seven days ago, 176 patients were hospitalized.

Latest Coronavirus Headlines

Coronavirus symptoms

The symptoms of coronavirus can be similar to the flu or a bad cold. Symptoms include fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, new loss of taste or smell sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, and diarrhea, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Most healthy people will have mild symptoms. A study of more than 72,000 patients by the Centers for Disease Control in China showed 80 percent of the cases there were mild.

But infections can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure, and even death, according to the World Health Organization. Older people with underlying health conditions are most at risk.

Experts determined there was consistent evidence these conditions increase a person's risk, regardless of age:

Human coronaviruses are usually spread...

Help stop the spread of coronavirus

Find a Testing Location

City officials recommend getting a COVID-19 test if you experience fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, or diarrhea.

Here's a Testing Sites Locatorto help you find the testing location closest to you in San Antonio.

Read more here:

Vaccine Progress: Nearly one quarter of Bexar County residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 - KENS5.com

Natalie Dean Hawkins has been tapped to lead Moore County Partners in Progress, the countys economic development arm. She will succeed outgoing executive director Pat Corso who is stepping down in May.

Hawkins has served as the assistant village manager of Pinehurst since 2005. In that role she oversaw development of the villages 2019 comprehensive long range plan, oversaw preparation of the annual strategic operating plan which includes a five-year financial forecast and capital improvement plan, coordinated the villages 2020 library needs assessment, and served as the downtown manager, and directed external communications and marketing.

If you look at Natalie and what she has accomplished. She also stood out for her versatility and enthusiasm in her interview and her recommendations on things going forward, said John May, chairman of the Partners in Progress board.

He noted Hawkins was the unanimous selection of both Partners executive committee and its executive search committee from an applicant pool of four very well-qualified candidates.

All four of whom are here in Moore County and all would have made a very good executive director. They were a good group of people and that it speaks well to the talent we have here in the area, said May.

Pat Corso and his predecessor Ray Ogden were also both longtime residents of Moore County prior to assuming the top leadership post at Partners in Progress.

They were familiar with the area. We believe that is an invaluable attribute when you talk about economic development. We felt it was important to have that talent and we believe Natalie will be as good as shes proven to be, May said. Pat did an excellent job as did Ray before him. She has big shoes to fill but we are confident that she will be able to do so.

Hawkins grew up in Charleston, SC, and later lived near Asheville. She attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, earning a degree in business and a masters in accounting.

A resident of Moore County for 26 years, she initially began her relationship with the village as an auditor working with Dixon Hughes Goodman. She was recruited by former Village Manager Andy Wilkison to step into the finance director position.

Three years later she was promoted to assistant village manager. During her tenure, the village has achieved substantial improvements in resident satisfaction ratings and received several of the nations highest awards for performance management, financial reporting and budgeting, and use of technology.

Hawkins said she sees the leadership role at Partners in Progress as an opportunity to have a broader impact on improving the quality of life across the entire area.

This role is about creating economic prosperity. I can see some great things on the horizon and I want to help facilitate that, said Hawkins. It is about creating communities. That is what I see this job as, having an impact that will help define the future of Moore County.

In particular, she noted her recent experience developing the village of Pinehursts comprehensive long range plan included a lot of forethought into land use and infrastructure and looking at where development -- both commercial and residential interests -- should go in the future. Similar development pressure and planning needs are being seen across much of southern Moore County.

Hawkins said she is also very aware of Partners in Progress boards priorities which include development of the proposed business incubator hub in Carthage, and ongoing work to further development the golf cluster and medical cluster opportunities identified in the organizations strategic plan. Hawkins credits Corsos leadership for providing a solid vision that shell be able to build upon.

He laid the foundation for where economic development fits in and what we need to focus on in the near term horizon she said. He is leaving big shoes to fill.

Hawkins said she enjoys working with elected officials and industry leaders, finding common interest, building consensus and solving issues.

They all have different perspectives and we can learn so much from those different perspectives, she added. For instance you have northern Moore County which is very different from southern Moore County, but there are common interests and we need to make sure we are all aligned. I see that as a great opportunity to move the county forward.

Outgoing Executive Director Pat Corso described Hawkins as someone who is immensely well-qualified for her new position.

When you look at her skill set, her education and her practical and functional experience. Economic development is community development. And when you look at the community, she is the best candidate to deal with what is coming at us down the road.

She is so good at what she does...she exudes confidence and that is backed up by competence, Corso said.

He noted Partners executive board had not sought to recruit from outside of the community because they believed it was crucial to hire someone who knows us intimately and understands what makes Moore County unique.

I think we are lucky and we are fortunate that she accepted this job. I could not be more proud to have somebody like Natalie as a successor.

Hawkins lives in Pinehurst with her husband, Scott, who is a mortgage broker with Wells Fargo. Her daughter is a senior at the N.C. School of Science and Math and plans to attend UNC-Chapel Hill; her son recently graduated from Appalachian State University and is starting his career in the GIS field in Colorado; and Hawkins has helped raise two stepdaughters.

Her last day with the village of Pinehurst is Friday, May 7. Hawkins will assume her role at Partners in Progress the following week, which allows for a short transitional time before Corsos pending departure.

More:

Hawkins Named Executive Director for Partners in Progress - Southern Pines Pilot

U.S. President Joe Bidens diverse slate of judicial nominees reflects progress in the legal industry in embracing women, minorities, and people with nontraditional backgrounds in leadership roles.

Read on for a quick primer on who the nominees are, and what you need to know.

Bidens first 11 nominees for federal district and appeals courts signify a stark departure from former U.S. President Donald Trumps 221 judicial appointees, who were mostly white, relatively young, and male.1

In contrast, Biden has nominated nine women, including three Black women, and two men to fill court vacancies. If confirmed, some of his nominees would mark historical firsts: the first Muslim to serve as a federal district judge, the first Asian-American woman to join the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Circuit, and the first woman of color to sit on the federal bench in Maryland, according to the White House. The nominees also bring a variety of legal experience, including public defense.2

Nominated for: U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

Current role: U.S. District Court judge for the District of Columbia

Notable professional experience: Former criminal and civil appellate attorney; former assistant federal public defender; former assistant counsel at the Sentencing Commission

Nominated for: U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

Current role: Partner at Perkins Coie LLP in Chicago

Expertise: Trial and appellate counsel in complex patent and trade secret disputes

Nominated for: Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals

Current role: Partner at Zuckerman Spaeder LLP in Washington, D.C.

Expertise: Complex civil litigation, white-collar criminal defense and investigations

Notable professional experience: Former staff attorney at the Federal Defender Program in the Northern District of Illinois

Nominated for: U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

Current role: U.S. magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

Notable professional experience: Federal public defender

Nominated for:U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

Current role: Judge on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims

Notable professional experience: Chief counsel for privacy and information policy and privacy counsel for Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont

Nominated for: U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey

Current role: County counsel for the acting county administrator for Bergen County, New Jersey

Notable professional experience: Former U.S. attorney prosecuting homicides, other violent crimes, organized crime, and narcotics trafficking and former deputy chief of the Appellate

Nominated for: U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

Current role: Associate judge on the Superior Court for the District of Columbia

Notable professional experience: Former U.S. attorney prosecuting homicides, other violent crimes, organized crime, and narcotics trafficking and former deputy chief of the Appellate

Nominated for: U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey

Current role: U.S. magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey

Notable professional experience: Assistant U.S. attorney and an Army judge advocate general for the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey

Nominated for: U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado

Current role: Partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP in Denver

Expertise: Complex litigation and government investigations

Nominated for: U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico

Current role: Partner at McGraw & Strickland LLC in Las Cruces, New Mexico

Expertise:Civil rights and criminal defense cases in state and federal courts in New Mexico

Notable professional experience:President of the New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association from 2017-2019

Nominated for: Superior Court of the District of Columbia

Current role: Administrative judge for the D.C. Rental Housing Commission

Notable professional experience: Indigent criminal defense

The 11 nominations are just the first of a series to fill 68 court openings and another 26 expected to become vacant later this year, according to The New York Times.3

If this first round of nominees sets the tone for the others, Bidens appointments could help energize efforts toward more diversity, equity, and inclusion in the legal profession.

Learn more about the importance of diversity in the legal profession.

Legility is a legal services company providing data hosting and management, technology-enabled services, consulting, flexible legal talent, and managed review services to in-house law departments and law firms. Legility is not, and none of its affiliates are, a law firm and does not provide legal advice as part of its services and nothing contained herein should be construed as such.

Continued here:

Diversity Progress on the Bench: US President Biden's Judicial Nominees - JD Supra

The Dusty Biscuit is on a bit of a hiatus right now as it puts finishing touches on its upcoming brick-and-mortar a big move for the formerpop-up that once served out ofan Airstream and isnow moving into the former Alchemy Pops space at411 S. Main St.

But the beignet concept which wowed Near Southsiders with creative spinslike maple bacon and theEverything Beignet-gal has more up its sleeve. The Dusty Biscuit is simultaneously opening a second location that is, another food truck inRendon, about 20 30 minutes from Fort Worth.

Dusty Biscuit will take over an extra trailer from ShaneBoys Craft Hawaiian Grindz, parking at 5731 Rendon Bloodworth Road near ShaneBoys and Hesters Fireworks. Dusty Biscuit owner Trey Smith says his food trailer will offer both beignetsand rotating Cajun options like creole-style gumbo and fried chicken dishes. Its expected to open in May.

As for the Fort Worth brick-and-mortar, Smith says he doesn't have a firm opening date yet, but"it can be as quickly as the next month." The approximately 500-square-foot spacespace is currently under construction and will feature a window into the kitchen so customers can watch their beignets as they're being made. Dusty Biscuit will also be utilizing the patio seating at adjacent venue The 4 Eleven,if no events are taking place that day.

The new space will allow Dusty Biscuit to expand its menu, Smith says. Expect an expanded coffee selection(including frozen caf au lait), specials like buttermilk biscuits and chicken and beignets, and, of course, beignets inmore sweet and savory varieties.

What's more Dusty Biscuit will be neighboring theupcoming Emporium Pies and already open Morgan's Ice Cream, something Smith says he's pretty pumped about.

Right at 4 Eleven, youll have Emporium Pies, Dusty Biscuit Beignets, a block down youve got Morgans Ice Cream, and theyre good friends of mine as well youve got, like, Dessert Capital of Fort Worth right there," Smith says."Youve got to get a pair of stretchy pants before you go home.

Samantha Calimbahin is the managing editor at Fort Worth Magazine. When she's not editing or making to-do lists for the magazine's gazillion projects, she's jamming on her guitar and planning her next trip to a Disney theme park.

April 12, 2021

10:43 AM

Original post:

Former Beignet Pop-Up Makes Progress on Brick-and-Mortar and a Second Location - Fort Worth Magazine

Janet Jackson has had a longstanding commitment to fitness, from her iconic ab-bearing Rolling Stone cover in the '90s to her remarkable slimdown after welcoming son Eissa in 2017. Even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the singer/actress has made her workouts a top priorityand it shows.

In a new photo posted to her Instagram account, Jackson reveals her incredible workout progress, doing a full split in front of a mirrorand in high-heeled boots, no less.

" Split ," she captioned the impressive photo.

Jackson's amazing progress has inspired countless other fans to attempt the tricky moves themselves, with numerous fans posting photos of their own split progress to Instagram along with the hashtag #splitchallenge. Boosting her flexibility isn't the only way Jackson's made major changes to her overall fitness, however. Read on to discover what else the star does to achieve her incredible figure. And for more celebrity fitness news, Kristen Bell Does This Exact 30-Minute Workout Every Day.

While Jackson may not share many updates about herself on social media, her trainer, Paulette Sybliss, has been vocal about how much hard work Jackson puts in to achieve her fit frame.

In a 2017 interview with E! Online, Sybliss revealed that Jackson dropped 70 pounds following the birth of her son without doing any cardio.

"We were doing three or four exercises with weights back to back. What that doesyou would look at her and think she'd done like an hour of cardio with mebut when you're working with weights and you're working the muscle that way, it elevates the heart rate, but also it's creating that fat burning affect both during the session and also when she left me, and that was key," explained Sybliss.

RELATED: For the latest celebrity health and fitness news delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter!

Jackson's workouts may be grueling, but she doesn't log long hours in the gym to get results.

"We were training a minimum of four times a week and the sessions were never less than 45 minutes, no more than an hour. Very intense, though," explained Sybliss. And for more celebrity transformations, Real Housewives Star Reveals the Two Foods She Stopped Eating to Lose 20 Pounds.

In order to maintain her progress without being sidelined by overexertion, Sybliss explained that taking time off to rest was essential.

"I need to keep her fit and healthy," said Sybliss. "We make sure that she rests [and] she doesn't get injured."

However, despite Janet's massive weight loss, Sybliss revealed that the star wasn't depriving herself to reach her goal.

"I believe that if you're eating well 90/95% of the time, you can eat in moderation anything that you want," said Sybliss. "If Janet feels that she needs to have a chocolate cake, go ahead and have a chocolate cake. You're not eating it every day. You won't get fat overnightA majority of the time she's really eating well." And for more on your favorite celebs, Heather Graham Celebrates Her Bikini Body In New Video.

Original post:

Janet Jackson Reveals Her Amazing Workout Progress in New Photo - Eat This, Not That

Published: 12 Apr 2021, 06:01

Worker assembling a Zinc8 zinc-air 'fuel cell' module. Image: Zinc8 Energy Solutions.

A zinc-air energy storage system (ZESS) offering 10 hours of storage is being trialled in a New York Power Authority (NYPA) project, while a US Department of Defense-funded investigation into flow batteries has moved into a physical validation and evaluation phase in Colorado.

Zinc8 Energy Solutions won a contract with public power organisation NYPA in January 2020 to demonstrate its patented zinc-air battery technology through the utilitys competitive Innovation Challenge programme, which was hosted in partnership with the Tandon School of Engineering at New York University.

NYPA will contribute to the costs of installing the technology solution in a project which aims to demonstrate the use cases for long-duration storage and how it can help integrate larger shares of renewable energy onto the states electric grid network.

Zinc8, headquartered in Vancouver, Canada and listed on both the Canadian Securities Exchange and Frankfurt Stock Exchange, will deploy a 100kW / 1MWh ZESS at a campus of the University of Buffalo in upstate New York. The primary function it will serve is peak shaving, reducing the Universitys draw of power from the grid at peak times which can enable more renewables, reduce reliance on fossil fuels and reduce the cost of electricity at the site.

It will also be used to help utility staff at the University train up their understanding of energy storage and University of Buffalo VP of facilities, Tonga Pham, said that in addition to peak shaving, the collaborative team behind the project is also interested in exploring alternative uses, which could include enabling emergency back-up power at campus buildings and gaining insight into the life cycle cost for alternative energy sources.

Initiatives such as this will greatly help UB in our quest to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030, Pham added.

Meanwhile Ron MacDonald, CEO of Zinc8 described the project as a major milestone for his company on its intended path to commercialisation of the ZESS solution, which he said it is targeting for early 2023. MacDonald previously blogged for this website in June 2020 about the potential for zinc as an abundant and inexpensive medium for storage, with more than 11.9 million metric tonnes of zinc extracted from mines in more than 50 countries worldwide each year.

Best known for its industrial use in galvanising steel, zinc is abundant and inexpensive, and without any geopolitical complications as we have a significant North American supply. Zinc utilises the only battery chemistry that uses earth-abundant, recyclable materials with chemistry that is robust and safe.

Unlike lithium-ion technology, which requires new stacks in order to scale, zinc batteries are able to decouple the linkage between energy and power. This means that scaling the zinc batterytechnology can be accomplished by simply increasingthesize of the energy storage tank and quantity of the recharged zinc particles, MacDonald wrote.

Zinc-air batteries use oxygen from the atmosphere to extract power from zinc, making zinc-air battery production costs the lowest of all rechargeable batteries. Zinc-air batteries are non-flammable and non-toxic with a longer lifetime as compared to other batteries.

The company is among a handful looking to exploit the properties of zinc for long-duration energy storage, with European utility company EDF also developing a zinc-air battery and another North American player, Eos Energy Storage, marketing an aqueous zinc chemistry battery for the grid. Eos Energy Storage listed on NASDAQ as Eos Energy Enterprises through a merger with a special purpose acquisition corporation (SPAC) in November 2020. Zinc8 is also working with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to deploy a pilot projectin the state, paired with an existing combined heat and power (CHP) system,which NYSERDA would support financially.

New York has an acute need for energy storage, with much of its generation in upstate areas and much of the electricity demand in the more densely-populated urban centres and its climate legislation which calls for full decarbonisation of the electric system by 2045, calls for 3GW of energy storage deployment by 2030.

NYPA, which serves about 25% of the states electric load, recently said in a strategic long-term plan that it wants to be a first-mover in understanding and deploying both short-duration and long-duration technologies. In a recent interview with this site, NYPA chief commercial officer Sarah Salati said that it is likely the majority of that 3GW of targeted deployment will be lithium-ion batteries, which she described as the choice of the industry to date, but that for peaking capacity applications going out to the future, long-duration technologies could offer a better option for transitioning the electric grid away from reliance on natural gas.

CEO Ron MacDonald also wrote in more depth about Zinc8's technology and the advantages of zinc for our technical journal PV Tech Power last quarter, an extract of which will be published on the site this week. You can subscribe to or download individual editions of the journal here.

Elsewhere, a study funded by the US Department of Defense which found vanadium redox flow batteries to be a potential way to reduce reliance on diesel engines for critical resiliency applications is entering a second phase.

The Department of Defense contracted energy solutions company Ameresco to conduct the study, the first phase of which looked at how flow batteries could be used in military microgrids, while the second phase will see flow battery systems deployed at the Department of Energys National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado. Flow battery provider Invinity Energy Systems and engineering company S&C Electric are supporting the research.

Energy-Storage.news reported in May last year that phase one of the project had confirmed that flow batteries could provide critical load coverage for 168 hours with only 1.6% to 3% less reliability than diesel fuel. It also indicated that while the higher cost of flow batteries versus lithium-ion makes lithium a better choice for the moment, the studys authors acknowledged that the flow battery industry is at an earlier stage of its development and that gains could still be made in the coming years.

As with the zinc-air battery, flow battery technology offers the opportunity to decouple energy from power at cell and stack level. This means that larger capacities and longer durations of storage and discharge are made possible through making the tanks of electrolyte that store energy larger. US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm recently spoke on Twitter about her view that flow batteries are good for grid storage, with the Department of Energy supporting funding of other moves to explore the technology and options for manufacturing it domestically.

Ameresco, which has executed a number of resiliency projects including energy efficiency upgrades, renewable energy and battery storage for the US military forces and other federal agencies, said that if the second phase of the research projects goes well, it could deploy a flow battery system at a Department of Defense site in future.

While the current project explores vanadium flow battery technology, Ameresco has also been selected for another project through the same funding mechanism, the Environmental Security Technology Certification Programme (ESTCP), to demonstrate the use of indoor-sited zinc-bromide flow batteries for buildings.

Microgrids offer enormous opportunity to provide resilient powerfrom military installations, to campuses to communities. Flexible energy storage is a key component to incorporating more variable renewable energy into microgrid systems. We are extremely pleased to bring our advanced laboratory capabilities and expert researchers to this ESTCP project to further advance the state of the art of the technology. We look forward to sharing results from this effort, which can inform a wide range of military and nonmilitary applications, NREL Energy Systems Integration Facility lab programme manager Dr Martha Symko-Davies said of the vanadium flow battery study.

Stay up to date with the latest news, analysis and opinions. Sign up here to the Energy-Storage.news Newsletter.

Go here to see the original:

Progress in US initiatives to demonstrate and investigate long-duration energy storage tech - Energy Storage News

It has been 10 years since Arsenal narrowly beat Chelsea on the bumpy Imperial Fields of Tooting & Mitcham United FC to launch the Womens Super League, which replaced the Womens Premier League as Englands top flight.

Fast forward a decade and the WSL has moved from its semi-professional eight-team beginnings to a fully professional top tier of 12 sides, a semi-pro second tier of 12 teams and a Barclays title sponsorship worth about 20m, not to mention a shift from broadcasters covering costs for the rights to televise games to a BBC and Sky Sports package worth 8m per season and record attendances. With more women and girls taking part than ever before, this is all fuelling a shift in attitudes around the very idea of their playing football.

If the lifting of the ban on womens football in 1971 brought the game out of the shadows, then the launch of the WSL in 2011 thrust a spotlight on it.

A decade ago, Kelly Simmons, then the FAs head of the national game (the grassroots) and now the head of the professional womens game, said: We hope womens football can build an audience on television and at matches and, if it can become more successful and gain in profile, it will help grow football further as a sport which girls and women want to play.

It has taken time for that broad vision for the game to be realised but now these goals are very much reality and the womens game is accelerating at breakneck speed.

Who knows where the game will be in 10 years time. Big audiences, says Simmons going into a milestone week for the WSL but also for her personally, having been such a driving force in the development of the womens game. You are already going to see big audiences, I think, next year.

But it is a sustainable league and sustainable clubs that are the goal and if anyone can be trusted to look into a crystal ball and predict the next phase of the game it is Simmons. The big change for me will be that the womens game should be able to generate enough revenue in 10 years to stand on its own two feet, she says. At the moment its growing revenue.

Youve seen a lot of brands come in at club level. Obviously, weve seen the Barclays deal, weve seen the multimillionpound TV rights announcement we made a couple of weeks ago, but its not yet sustainable. It cant survive without money made through mens football. I think over 10 years, well see that change, revenues will grow and ultimately we should be looking at a sustainable professional league in its own right and that will be a big shift.

To get to the point where womens teams are self-financing, Simmons believes it will take a couple of media rights cycles.

The growth to date has not come without casualties. Some clubs couldnt take that step. Thats been the toughest part of the 10 years without doubt, says Simmons. Knowing that the model is built with a part reliance on mens football club money and therefore weve lost clubs along the way, or theyve had to drop down to find a level of affordability, I think that that is really tough.

But I still think that without creating that licence, we wouldnt be setting those standards and we wouldnt be where we are today.

Enforcing the criteria and standards outlined in the licensing has been a demand in recent weeks, after Birmingham players sent a letter to the clubs board criticising their treatment. What I would say about Birmingham City is you cant underestimate how difficult it must be at the moment for all of the clubs who are losing so much money [to the pandemic] and who have major challenges and are adjusting and surviving, says Simmons.

It was really great to see Birmingham announcing theyll be playing at St Andrews next season because that was a big area of concern, so thats a tremendous step forward, and as I understand it from chatting to the people in the womens club, there are really good discussions going on about addressing the issues that they raised, so hopefully theyll get things sorted and be ready for the next season.

Despite the struggles of some clubs at the bottom end of the table, expansion is inevitable, says Simmons. There will be growth. What weve got to do is make sure that it grows without diluting the quality of the product, that weve got enough fully professional teams with the right support and the right amount of revenue. Obviously, the more teams we have the more it dilutes central revenues that are being distributed to support them.

The Fiver: sign up and get our daily football email

Next year that will mean the Championship will aim to accept two clubs via a fresh round of licensing to bring the league from 11 teams to 12 but the FA is taking a more cautious mediumterm approach to expansion beyond that. Meanwhile, early discussions have begun over league sponsorship, with the Barclays deal set to expire at the end of next season.

Read the rest here:

FAs Kelly Simmons eager to build on progress of WSLs first decade - The Guardian

The Natanz uranium enrichment facility south of the Iranian capital Tehran, March 30, 2005. (Raheb Homavandi/Reuters)

Iran vowed to take revenge on Israel following an explosion at the Natanz nuclear facility on Sunday that reportedly crippled its ability to enrich uranium for the next nine months.

The explosion destroyed the independent internal power system that drives underground centrifuges at Natanz, two intelligence officials told the New York Times. American and Israeli intelligence officials told the Times that Israel was in part responsible for the operation, and Israeli officials told Hebrew media that the operation was executed by the Mossad.

The Zionists want to take revenge on the Iranian people for their success in lifting the oppressive [economic] sanctions, Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a statement broadcast by the countrys state television. But we will take our revenge from the Zionists.

Zarif added that the Zionists will get their answer in further nuclear progress.

The blast came amid renewed negotiations between the U.S. and Iran regarding the latters nuclear program. The Biden administration is attempting to reenter the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which was intended to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons capabilities. President Trump exited the deal in 2018, saying at the time that it didnt bring calm, it didnt bring peace, and it never will.

The Biden administration has indicated it is open to lifting some economic sanctions against Iran in order to return to the deal.

Meanwhile, the European Union warned against any actions intended to scupper current talks between the U.S. and Iran.

We reject any attempts to undermine or weaken diplomatic efforts on the nuclear agreement, EU spokesman Peter Sano said on Monday.

Send a tip to the news team at NR.

View post:

Iran Vows Revenge, Further Nuclear Progress after Israeli Attack on Nuclear Facility - National Review

Yellowstone National Park sees progress and setbacks in effort to protect native cutthroat trout

Two summers ago, a gillnetting crew working to catch invasive lake trout on Yellowstone Lake pulled up its nets and found a small, hand-sized fish that sent shock waves through the fisheries biologists working to save threatened cutthroat trout in Yellowstone National Park.

The small fish was a cisco, and it was far from its native waters, the Great Lakes. How the out-of-place fish got there is a guess because there are no natural connections, but the implications of another invasive fish gobbling up the same food sources needed by native Yellowstone cutthroat trout are profound.

(The cisco) was a 3-year-old female, said Todd Koel, a Yellowstone fisheries biologist overseeing the parks lake trout suppression project. We did the otolith microchemistry work, essentially looking at the chemistry of the bone of the fish, and we determined that it was born in the lake, meaning that it has parents and it likely has thousands of siblings.

The discovery comes at a time when Yellowstone is making significant progress in the suppression of invasive lake trout discovered about 25 years ago. As the lake trout population mushroomed and fed on cutthroat, the native fish once numbering in the millions, saw its population crash. The ecology of the park, especially surrounding the lake, was changed. Those animals depending on abundant cutthroat disappeared or changed their diets. Tributary streams once teaming with spawning cutthroat trout from the lake, had few if any migratory fish.

Since the turn of the century, the lake trout population continued to grow, threatening to eliminate the cutthroat. The park, began spending nearly $3 million a year in suppression efforts and by 2012, lake trout numbers stopped increasing and cutthroat health began a slow rebound.

Ive got great optimism that the adult lake trout population has declined dramatically over the last six to seven years, and as a result, the cutthroat are coming back, said Dave Sweet, Trout Unlimiteds Yellowstone Lake special project manager. Were seeing higher numbers of cutthroat plus more importantly were seeing more young cutthroat, the smaller sizes.

Koel said the lake trout suppression project will get its annual review by an independent panel of scientists next week. The group is comprised of experts on lake trout and people who know how best to battle them.

Theyre interested in trying to help us, Koel said. They review our information from the year and our population modeling. They give us feedback, going forth every year. Due to the magnitude of the program and the cost, we want to make sure were not doing things in a vacuum.

Koel said many of the scientists giving feedback are familiar with lake trout and cisco behavior having worked in Midwestern lakes. He said most of his teams focus has been on lake trout, but after the discovery of the cisco, they spent last summer hunting the lake trying to find others.

This is not a good discovery at all, Koel said. Were trying to learn more. Were doing netting specifically for cisco now just to try and find more. Not suppression netting like we do for lake trout, but were doing targeting netting in ways that we could maybe catch another cisco.

Besides netting, the park crew has been opening up gillnetted lake trout stomachs since 2019 and we havent found another cisco yet. Cisco are a preferred forage fish for lake trout. He admits, though, that its like playing the lottery because only a few thousand stomachs are checked compared to more than 300,000 lake trout. The advantage goes to the species when it comes to detection, especially new invasions, he said.

A third method his team plans to use to detect cisco in the lake is environmental DNA sampling. This type of sampling tests lake water looking for DNA of specific fish.

Koel finds it irritating that his staff now has to be concerned about another invasive species after all the publicity made over unwanted lake trout.

The biggest punch in the gut for this one is that these cisco did not swim to Yellowstone Lake on their own, he said. Were in this battle with lake trout all these years that was a 25-year report that I published last year and then we still have stuff like that going on. Its hard. Its a hard one to swallow for sure.

Koel said he speculates that someone carefully transported the fish to the lake thinking it might be a source of food for lake trout.

Biologists have realized that lake trout need to be suppressed on more than one front.

Were in a spot where weve got the lake trout into significant decline, Koel said. Meaning since 2012 weve reduced the adult portion of the lake trout population by over 80%. Its a huge decline in adult reproducing lake trout, which is great, but they also are still able to produce a lot of young despite that decline in adults.

Koel said they have found success in killing lake trout eggs before they hatch.

The park hopes to crash the lake trout population, but Koel said it probably wont happen for another three to five years. The problem is that a few adults who escape gillnets can produce thousands of offspring, replacing those captured each summer through gillnetting efforts. One female lake trout can produce up to 9,000 eggs each year.

Biologists using telemetry technology have identified at least 14 sites where lake trout spawn. At one site, near Carrington Island in the West Thumb area of the lake, Koel and his crew have found success in killing lake trout eggs by showering organic pellets from a helicopter over spawning beds. The pellets decompose and remove dissolved oxygen from the water long enough to kill the eggs. Within a few weeks, the pellets wash away and the water returns to normal.

Weve eliminated all recruitment from that site the last two years, Koel said.

The program plans to complete environmental assessments on some of the other spawning sites in coming years to attack the fish before they become adults.

If we can kill these embryos at these sites in the fall, when the entire lake trout population is depending on the production from those limited sites, we can get to a point where we are treating a majority of those all of a sudden that becomes a lot easier than later trying to net them as adult fish all over the lake and in all depths of the lake, Koel said.

Sweet and Koel point to a trip in the Thorofare region of the park in 2019 as signs that lake trout suppression is paying off. A pack trip into this backcountry follows the main lake tributary, the Yellowstone River.

Its very encouraging, Sweet said. Those cutthroat are back in that headwaters of the Yellowstone River. The ones we were catching are almost certainly migratory fish out of the lake because they were large fish. They were 18 to 20 even 22-inch fish. These were big adult cutthroat that run up into the system out of the lake.

Koel said before the lake trout numbers were held in check, spawners up the Yellowstone River had disappeared along with the outfitters and other anglers intent on fishing for them.

When we were back there (in 2019) the camps were full of people, and there was a lot of traffic on the trails and people were fishing, Koel said. Im glad to see thats back.

The park estimates that it costs from $2.5 million to $3 million per year to conduct the lake trout suppression efforts. Funds have been coming from three main sources: The park budget, the Yellowstone Forever nonprofit partner and Trout Unlimited. The pandemic and recent restructuring at Yellowstone Forever has caused the foundation to pull back on its funding, Koel said. Trout Unlimited has committed to about $1 million each year. The park is picking up the rest of the tab by increasing fishing license fees, boating fees and other fees.

Were in it for the long haul, Sweet said of Trout Unlimiteds support. Its been a long process. We have supported them for well over 10 years, Id say about 13 years now.

Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Cam Sholly recently announced a doubling of fees to help cover the shortfall.

Efforts to restore native fish in Yellowstone Lake remain one of our highest conservation priorities, Sholly said in a statement. Our continued success will be largely dependent on a permanent and reliable revenue stream that will not only help us continue our native fish restoration efforts, but also increase our capacity to detect and prevent new nonnative species from entering Yellowstones waters.

In the past, three-day, seven-day and season-long Yellowstone fishing licenses were $18, $25 and $40, in 2021 fees will jump to $40, $55 and $75.

Boating permit costs also jump to $10 for a weeklong non-motorized decal to $20 and $30 for the season. Motorized seven-day and annual permits increased from $10 and $20 to $40 and $60 respectively.

The rest is here:

Battling invasives: Yellowstone National Park sees progress and setbacks in effort to protect native cutthroat trout - Post Register