Daily Archives: March 16, 2024

HANCOCK COUNTY With the legislative session for 2024 coming to an end the night of March 8, State Senator of District 28 Michael Crider and State Representative of District 53 Bob Cherry reflected on their bills and which ones made their way to the governors desk.

Out of all the bills introduced during the session, 172 were passed to the next step of a signature, according to the 2024 Bill Watch website. Gov. Eric Holcomb has seven days from the time a bill reaches his desk to sign it or veto it. If he doesnt do either after seven days, it automatically becomes the law, effective July 1.

Rep. Cherry said the last week of the session went quick and they finished everything by 9:30 p.m. Friday night. Rep. Cherry said when he has been there as long as he has, surprises dont happen anymore.

It seemed like everything came together. We didnt have that many hot issues out there, Rep. Cherry said. A few bills died, but again I think the session went pretty good.

Rep. Cherrys bill addressing the 13th check, House Enrolled Act (HEA) 1004, was signed into law on Wednesday, which will provide a one-time, post-retirement payment to help cover cost-of-living gaps for retired public employees.

Its wonderful, said Rep. Cherry when asked about how he felt that HEA 1004 passed this session. Ive had a lot of phone calls, and a lot of people said it affects them and I really appreciate the support.

Rep. Cherry also wanted to mention that Sen. Crider co-sponsored the bill, and that he always appreciates Sen. Criders help.

HEA 1120, which Rep. Cherry co-authored, was also signed into law on Wednesday and will increase the assessed value limit for the disabled veteran property tax deduction from $200,000 to $240,000.

Despite the session just finishing and this being his last year as representative, Rep. Cherry still has work to do. He said that hell have a budget meeting in the beginning of April and will still hold his responsibilities as he is a part of the Whitewater State Park Commission and the Indiana State Fair Advisory Committee.

Sen. Crider said that in the 12 years hes been at the Statehouse, this last session was one of the most unusual but still went well overall, mentioning that tight timelines and some legislation didnt move through because there just wasnt time for committee hearings.

We said we were going to try and get in and out and move a few priority issues, which we got most of our priority things done, Sen. Crider said.

Two of Sen. Criders bills that were signed into law already were SEA 109 and SEA 172.

SEA 109 will allow the Division of Aging to contract with qualified individuals to provide adult protective services and SEA 172 will work on compensation for victims of violent crimes.

When you can work on things like adult protective services and helping victims of violent crime, thats a rewarding thing to be a part of, Sen. Crider said.

Sen. Crider said he also was an author of SEA 23, which will deal with damage to correctional facilities.

Sen. Crider said that there have been problems within certain jails where inmates will cause damage that is significant in the way it interrupts, such as a damaged sprinkler system causing a jail to have to be evacuated.

SEA 182 that Sen. Crider co-authored was also signed, which deals with the regulation of drones near correctional facilities since there has been an issue in the past of contraband being dropped over prison walls.

Trying to help on the public safety side and corrections side, so its one of those I often get asked, just based on my law enforcement background, to be involved in some of those things, Sen. Crider said.

Sen. Crider said Senate Bill 10 was amended into another bill, looking at ways to improve the mobile crisis response effort.

Senate Bill 10 really begins to look at ways to use public safety to be more proactive, and maybe try to interact with some of these folks who are known to have significant mental health challenges before they get all the way into crisis, Sen. Crider said.

Sen. Crider said one of the most significant challenges is when individuals will need a short-term inpatient psychiatric intervention, but there isnt enough capacity in the mental healthcare system.

With the legislative session ending, Sen. Crider said there is still plenty of work to do on enhancements to the mental health system continuing to build off of SEA 1 from the 2023 session.

Sen. Crider said Hancock County is doing a great job with initiatives, such as the mobile crisis team, Healthy 365 and mental health navigators working.

Im really proud of what Hancock County has done and what were trying to do here locally, Sen. Crider said.

To view the complete list of bills and status of signature, visit https://www.in.gov/gov/newsroom/2024-bill-watch/.

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END OF SESSION: Sen. Crider and Rep. Cherry reflect on progress made during the legislative session - Greenfield Daily Reporter

Williams team principal James Vowles says driver Logan Sargeant will have to show progress through the season if he is to remain with the team.

Although the former Williams junior driver scored his maiden points at the United States Grand Prix, he finished the season with 26 fewer points than more experienced team mate Alexander Albon. The 23-year-old also made some significant errors throughout last year, resulting in several crashes, and was never able to out-qualify Albon once throughout 2023.

Despite this, Williams retained him for a second season in 2024. Vowles says that Sargeant will not be expected to achieve major results in the early phase of the season.

Its important to him to get good results, Vowles said. The only thing I would say is its not the early on bit.

What we have to see from him is progress as we continue on. Early on implies that theres a risk if hes not performing after three races that something will happen, and thats simply not the case.

Sargeant suffered a car problem in the season-opening race in Bahrain, leaving him last, before finishing 14th last weekend in Saudi Arabia, three places behind his team mate.

With 24 grands prix under Sargeants belt already, Vowles says he expects his driver to show continued improvement over his second season.

In the case of Logan, he knows that he finished last year starting to build on what he had as an experience base, and hes coming back here not as a rookie now, but someone that has years of experience behind him, Vowles said.

Hes got to build on that without mistakes, without error, and continually move forward.

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Vowles being patient with Sargeant but expects to see "progress" - RaceFans

(COLUMBUS, Ohio) Ohio Governor Mike DeWine today released a report that outlines Intel Corporations progress toward its two new semiconductor manufacturing facilities in Licking County, which continue to move forward with far-reaching impacts across the state.

The report, prepared by Intel and submitted to the Ohio Department of Development, shows that the company has spent approximately $1.5 billion through Dec. 31, 2023. With an additional $3 billion contractually committed, this brings the total committed investment by Intel in Ohio to $4.5 billion to date.

The states agreement with Intel includes the requirement for an annual report outlining its progress and the resulting impact on Ohios economy and workforce, said Governor DeWine. Transparency is always important, and we believe the public should be kept well-informed on the statewide impact of this transformative project.

Since the announcement of the largest economic development project in Ohio history, we have worked to provide the most up-to-date information on progress at the Intel site, said Lt. Governor Jon Husted. Construction logistics are quite amazing. Barges of equipment are coming up the Ohio river, getting offloaded in Adams County and then the organization of enormoustruckloads of equipment making their way to Licking County adds to the billions invested already by the company and the growing number of Ohio-based suppliers.

As of Dec. 31, 2023, Intel had 69 employees from 14 Ohio counties working at the project site, and construction workers from 75 of Ohios 88 counties have contributed to the project to date.

Intels Ohio supplier footprint has grown from approximately 150 Ohio suppliers when the project investment was announced to more than 350 current Ohio suppliers across 47 Ohio counties. Among the top suppliers are Bechtel Construction, Gilbane Building Company, and Linde.

In addition to the semiconductor manufacturing facilities, Intel has been moving forward with design and engineering plans for its office building, water treatment and reclamation facility, and an air separation unit on site. Intel projects both chip factories to be completed between 2026 and 2027 and operational between 2027 and 2028.

Announced in January 2022, the project is the largest single private sector company investment in Ohios history and is expected to create 3,000 direct Intel jobs, $405 million in annual payroll, and more than $20 billion in fixed asset investment by Dec. 31, 2028. Its also estimated that Intels investment will generate more than 20,000 jobs across the state and add $2.8 billion to Ohios annual gross state product.In September 2023, Ohio disbursed a $600 million onshoring grant to Intel in support of the project.

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Statewide Impact of Ohio Intel ProjectEvident in Initial Progress Report - Scioto Post

A District 31-5A softball preview

District 31-5A is made up of 10 teams, two of which are Big 7 Softball teams; the Sharyland Lady Rattlers and the Pioneer Lady Diamondbacks. The Rattlers are looking to carve up some history for themselves this season. After missing the playoffs last season, the Rattlers plan to make some noise this time around. Progress Times spoke to Rattlers junior pitcher Zoe Salinas about the changes necessary to make this happen, Last season was a bit iffy. We lacked chemistry. We lost a lot of girls with injuries and we experienced a lot of setbacks. We couldve done more with what we had, but thats the past. We are moving on from that. We have a good freshman class and though we are really young this year, weve bonded well as a team. Were very different now, we work really hard, weve had amazing practices, and when we play we play as one. We do great together and well be great this year as long as we keep working together as one.

Salinas has been able to do a lot for the Diamondbacks offensively as a batter and defensively as a pitcher. Shes accompanied by players such as juniors Regina Perez and Zulema Cordero, and freshman Sofia Garza who have played tremendously on both ends of the ball. At this point of the season, the Rattlers have gotten off to a 2-1 start in district. They beat the Vela Sabercats 19-11 and the Valley View Tigers 17-1 to open up district play. They then went on to lose to the reigning co-district champions PSJA North Raiders 12-0. Though suffering a tough loss, this Rattlers team looks determined to be a top seed in the district.

The Pioneer Diamondbacks are no strangers to the top. Theyve won seven of the last nine district championships, including the last four in a row. Every year theyre able to put out a team that is ready to compete against the best and come out on top. Progress Times spoke to Diamondbacks junior Lexie Lopez about the outlook of the Diamondbacks from last season to this season, Last year we were pretty good. We were stacked with talent. Nothing has changed this year, were still stacked, but weve worked together more as a team. We have a lot of chemistry with each other. At the end of the day thats the most important thing, something that separates ourselves from the others. We have high expectations, we want to make the playoffs as the district champs and I know we can do it as long as we continue to play together as a team.

Expectations need to be set high when youve accumulated the amount of gold balls they have in the last nine years. So what cant this team do? The answer lies further than their district title wins. The Diamondbacks have found consistent success in the first and second round of the playoffs. The next step for this team would be to get consecutive wins in the third round. With the likes of Lopez, senior right fielder Valerie Vela, Kayla Guerrero, Faith Nunez, and Daniela Zapata that is certainly a possibity. The Diamondbacks got off to a 2-2 start to the district season. They started off with a 18-3 win over the Rowe Warriors but followed that up with two losses. One was a 7-8 loss to the McAllen Bulldogs and the other was a 12-1 loss to the PSJA North Raiders; who shared the district championship with the Diamondbacks last season.

These two teams will have to go up against the likes of the PSJA North Raiders, McAllen Bulldogs, and the Rowe Warriors. All of these teams have kept it competitive for the Rattlers and the Diamondbacks as theyve secured themselves a playoff seed last season. Theyve already started to give the Rattlers and the Diamondbacks something to worry about when it comes time to play the second round of district play. This district is still up for grabs at this point of the season. Tthe hope is that one of these Big 7 teams takes it.

The best of luck to the Diamondbacks and the Rattlers as they begin their journey through the 2024 regular season.

Excerpt from:

Lady Rattlers and Diamondbacks ready to roll - Progresstimes

Enlarge / SpaceX's Starship soars through the sky over South Texas, powered by 33 methane-burning Raptor engines.

Stephen Clark/Ars Technica

SpaceX's new-generation Starship rocket, the most powerful and largest launcher ever built, flew halfway around the world following liftoff from South Texas on Thursday, accomplishing a key demonstration of its ability to carry heavyweight payloads into low-Earth orbit.

SpaceX's third towering Starship rocket, standing some 397 feet (121 meters) tall and wider than the fuselage of a 747 jumbo jet, lifted off at 8:25 am CDT (13:25 UTC) Thursday from SpaceX's Starbase launch facility on the Texas Gulf Coast east of Brownsville. SpaceX delayed the liftoff time by nearly an hour and a half to wait for boats to clear out of restricted waters near the launch base.

The successful launch builds on two Starship test flights last year that achieved some, but not all, of their objectives and appears to put the privately funded rocket program on course to begin launching satellites, allowing SpaceX to ramp up the already-blistering pace of Starlink deployments.

"Starship reached orbital velocity!" wrote Elon Musk, SpaceX's founder and CEO, on his social media platform X. "Congratulations SpaceXteam!!"

SpaceX scored several other milestones with Thursday's test flight, including a test of Starship's payload bay door, which would open and shut on future flights to release satellites into orbit. A preliminary report from SpaceX also indicated Starship transferred super-cold liquid oxygen propellant between two tanks inside the rocket, a precursor test ahead of more ambitious in-orbit refueling tests planned in the coming years.

Future Starship flights into deep space, such as missions to land astronauts on the Moon for NASA, will require SpaceX to transfer hundreds of tons of cryogenic propellant between ships in orbit.

Starship left a few other boxes unchecked Thursday. While it made it closer to splashdown than before, the Super Heavy booster plummeted into the Gulf of Mexico in an uncontrolled manner. Some of its engines appeared to fire just before impact into the Gulf, but the booster started corkscrewing seconds before reaching the sea. If everything went perfectly, the booster would have softly settled into the ocean after reigniting 13 of its engines for a final braking burn.

A restart of one of Starship's Raptor engines in spaceone of the three new test objectives on this flightdid not happen for reasons SpaceX officials did not immediately explain.

Part rocket and part spacecraft, Starship is designed to launch up to 150 metric tons (330,000 pounds) of cargo into low-Earth orbit when SpaceX sets aside enough propellant to recover the booster and the ship. Flown in expendable mode, Starship could launch almost double that amount of payload mass to orbit, according to Musk.

Starship is the vehicle Musk says is needed to make real his ambition to make human life multi-planetary. It is central to Musk's goal of building a settlement on Mars. In the near-term, Starship will be useful for SpaceX to launch satellites. NASA also has multibillion-dollar contracts with SpaceX to develop a version of Starship to land humans on the Moon through the space agency's Artemis program.

For the first time, SpaceX's Starship hit all of its marks on the climb into space Thursday. All 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines on the rocket's massive Super Heavy booster appeared to function as expected, generating a deep rumble heard for miles around as it climbed through several cloud layers. Burning 20 tons of propellant per second, the engines produced more than 16 million pounds of thrust to power the stainless-steel rocket on an initial vertical climb off its launch pad, then steered it east on a trajectory arcing over the Gulf of Mexico.

SpaceX

About 2 minutes and 42 seconds into the flight, the Super Heavy booster began shutting down most of its engines. Hot-staging occurred about two seconds later, with the nearly simultaneous ignition of six Raptor engines on the upper stage, or ship, and the separation of the Super Heavy booster.

This hot-staging technique, previously used on Russian launchers, is designed to allow the rocket to more efficiently haul payloads into orbit, without the brief interruption in thrust most rockets experience during stage separation.SpaceX first tested Starship's hot-staging technique on the previous test flight in November.

The ship's six Raptor engines burned for about six minutes andaccelerated the vehicle to nearly 16,500 mph (about 26,500 kilometers per hour). As planned, this speed was just shy of the velocity required to enter a stable orbit around the Earth. While Starship coasted to a maximum altitude of 145 miles (234 kilometers), the low point, or perigee, of the ship's orbit was inside the atmosphere, ensuring aerodynamic drag would bring it back to the ground before completing a full circuit of the planet.

SpaceX's first three Starship orbital test flights have followed a steady curve of progress. The first test launch last April suffered several Raptor engine failures and damaged the launch pad in Texas; then, on its second flight in November, none of the engines failed, and the rocket nearly reached its targeted velocity before a propellant leak caused it to self-destruct over the Gulf of Mexico.

The Raptors now have a perfect record on two consecutive flights, proving the design of SpaceX's complex new engine, similar in performance to the space shuttle's main engine, is maturing after earlier concerns about its reliability.

Cameras aboard the Super Heavy booster and Starship captured dazzling video of each event on Thursday's test flight. One camera view showed the rocket's fiery hot-staging from a perspective unseen on the last Starship test flight. In space, Starship could be seen slowly spinning as it cruised halfway around the planet, first over the Gulf, then the Atlantic Ocean, and Africa.

One camera shot inside the ship showed light reflected off the spacecraft's stainless-steel structure, apparently from sunlight shining through the open payload bay door.

Read more:

SpaceX celebrates major progress on the third flight of Starship - Ars Technica

The driving force behind the live service nature of Helldivers 2 is its Galactic War, a massive overarching metagame in which players wrestle with enemy Terminid and Automaton factions for control of various planets and sectors. As Major Orders come down from Super Earth's top brass (AKA, developer Arrowhead Game Studios), Liberty's finest space marines are encouraged to deploy to crucial fronts and either liberate hostile-controlled worlds or defend them from incoming invasions.

Squads contribute to these efforts represented by a percentage bar above each world and sector by finishing groups of missions called planetary operations, and while individual completions only have a very minor impact, the community can win conflicts in a matter of days or even hours if they fight on a planet en masse. Victory often leads to rewards like Warbond Medals, temporary free uses of certain stratagems on other battlefields, and even special unlocks like Helldivers 2's new Exosuit mechs; conversely, defeat can result in serious consequences (luckily, players have only lost one minor fight so far).

Due to the importance of Major Orders, it's valuable to understand where most players are fighting so you can head there too, and also to keep an eye on how the war effort is progressing on a macro scale. You can view these details with the map on your ship in the game, but thanks to this Super Earth-approved Helldivers 2 Galactic War map website, you can also monitor them outside of it.

First shared on Reddit by its particularly patriotic architect, the "Helldivers: Galactic War Status and Progression" web app or Helldivers.io functions as a live tracker of the Galactic War and how it's unfolding around the clock. It automatically updates once every minute, and includes a simplified version of the in-game map that displays every active planet along with stats like their player counts, liberation percentages, progression rates, and the current rates at which the Terminid bugs and Automaton bots are pushing back against the community's efforts.

Notably, the table above the map also features a "Predicted Time" column that estimates when a world will be successfully freed or held based on calculations with the latest recorded progression rates (or if a planet is losing ground and needs reinforcements). Right now, for example, it suggests we'll liberate Fenrir III later today as part of an ongoing Major Order to free four planets in a week (EDIT: We did, baby, and Turing is next). It shows which enemy faction you'll encounter on each one, too, as well as if a planet is part of the current Major Order. The latter is also displayed on the map itself with golden borders.

The only thing that's missing from the web app are indicators for each world's Environmental Effects and Planetary Hazards like extreme cold/heat, meteor showers or earthquakes, but the creator mentioned they plan to add these in future updates. They also noted they're open to suggestions for other additions, so make sure to drop a comment in the Reddit thread I linked above if you've got an idea.

There's even a full in-depth explanation of how the Galactic War mechanics work at the bottom of the page, which is quite helpful since Helldivers 2's in-game menus don't go into much detail about them. All in all, this is an amazing tool, and one I highly recommend using as you fight to spread managed democracy.

Helldivers 2 is available now for $39.99 on both PS5 and PC, and so far, it's one of thebest PC gamesof the year. Notably, the game also supports cross-platform play between PS5 and PC.

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Helldivers 2 Galactic War live map: Track status and progress with this Liberty-approved web app - Windows Central

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A year of achievement, rebuilding and progress for utilities - Yoursun.com

Trkiye and Russia held a round of political consultations that discussed Syria and a number of other topics related to bilateral relations and regional issues, including the war in Ukraine and the situation in the Caucasus region.

In a statement on X, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the consultations were led by Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Burak Akabar, and his Russian counterpart, Mikhail Galuzin.

Diplomatic sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the consultations revolved around Syria and the Russian-sponsored normalization process between Ankara and Damascus, which was halted as both sides acknowledged the presence of many obstacles that need to be addressed.

In this context, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Oncu Keceli said that the normalization process has not witnessed any progress so far, adding that his country was not engaging in any direct dialogue with Damascus.

Turkish media quoted Keceli as saying on Friday that the Syrian government was setting preconditions for the normalization.

The Russian Presidents envoy to Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev, confirmed in January that the process of normalization of relations between Trkiye and Syria had been completely halted since past autumn, noting the Syrian side wanted assurances from Ankara that Turkish forces currently present illegally on Syrian territory would be withdrawn in the future.

The Turkish military presence in northern Syria constitutes the main obstacle to the progress of the normalization process between Ankara and Damascus. The latter had announced that there would be no talk of any steps for normalization before the troops withdrawal.

Ankara, for its part, says that the presence of its forces was necessary until the completion of the political process, the adoption of the constitution, the holding of elections, and the formation of a Syrian government through elections that provide guarantees for the safe return of refugees.

Also, Trkiye says that it does not trust the current ability of the Syrian army to guarantee the security of the common border, in light of the presence of Kurdish militants in the south.

Read more:

Trkiye: No Direct Dialogue with Damascus, No Progress in Normalization - Asharq Al-awsat - English