Category Archives: Progress

SOUTH BEND It felt more like that middle school algebra class you thought you would never use again in life than a stepping stone for a Notre Dame football team still trying to find a backdoor into the College Football Playoff conversation.

Parsed out on its own and detached from the bigger picture, first-year defensive coordinator Marcus Freemans best week at Notre Dame to date when not counting the recruiting trail was a paragon of blending scheme and execution.

Rover/linebacker Jack Kiser, though, saw Notre Dames squelching of the triple-option in its 34-6 discharge of Navy Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium as at least partially transferable to the rest of the Irish regular-season schedule, beginning with next Saturdays night game at pass-happy Virginia (7:30 p.m. EST; ABC-TV).

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The discipline is the big thing, said Kiser, recast Saturday in his old high school defensive position, as a free safety in NDs modified defensive structure. You have to be disciplined in everything you do. That was a big concern of ours heading into the week.

Then having the grit and toughness to come out here and compete every single snap. We did that this week in practice. This week was a very gritty week in practice, very tough uncomfortable at times. We have to do that heading into next week, and it will only get better.

How that translated Saturday for the AP No. 8/CFP No.10 Irish (8-1) was 184 yards in total offense yielded the fourth-lowest total allowed in the 12-year Brian Kelly Era. For comparisons sake, fullback Alexander Teich gashed the Irish for more than that on his own (210) yards in 2010 the first time Kelly butted up against Navy in a humbling 35-17 loss.

Also Saturday, Notre Dame recorded its first safety in four seasons and allowed the fewest points scored by Navy in the (almost) annual series since a 30-0 Irish shutout in 1998.

And the defense did it for the second week in a row without All-America safety Kyle Hamilton, whose return from an Oct. 23 knee injury hasnt been given a timetable for public consumption.

Gets us another step closer to where we want to be, ND head coach Brian Kelly said of the defensive about face.

Where the Irish are, even with the smattering of Top 10 upsets, is still on a treadmill pointed toward a Peach Bowl date in the New Years Six with the eventual ACC champion.

Should the Irish win out and not make the playoff, the only plausible scenarios to nudge them into the Fiesta Bowl rather than the Peach is if either Cincinnati makes the playoff or Virginia wins the ACC.

Chaos, at least when its happening to other Top 10 teams, is Notre Dames best friend, moving forward.

Scoring summary: No. 8 Notre Dame 34, Navy 6

Stats: What the numbers say: Team and individual statistics from Notre Dame-Navy

Speaking of chaos, grad senior nose guard Kurt Hinish was so good at it Saturday against the Midshipmen (2-7), he was awarded the game ball by Kelly but not a postgame voice to speak about it with the media.

So others spoke for and about the 6-2, 300-pound Pittsburgh product, who doubled his previous high in career tackles, with 10, despite playing in a heavy and deep rotation of defensive linemen. He also had two tackles for loss with a sack.

Hes such a gritty guy, Kiser said. Hes a leader for us, a captain and that energy. He had a great game today. Every play he was a force to be reckoned with. I cant speak highly enough about him.

We have him fortunately. I dont want to play against him, let me tell you that.

The Irish almost didnt have its triple-option ace fromNDs last two games against Navy lopsided wins in 2018 and 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic coaxed a break in the series that hadbeen played every year since 1927.

Linebacker Drew White, Kelly said, tore his posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) in his knee during the week leading up to the game, in practice, and played with the injury Saturday and recorded a pair of tackles..

He's a warrior, Kelly said. Drew just had the mental toughness to play through it.

Fellow linebacker JD Bertrand had nine tackles, and leads the team with 80 for the season.

Converted wide receiver Xavier Watts got his first high-leverage snaps on defense and finished with three tackles while lining up on the edge and at safety. Freshman defensive end Kahanu Kia (four tackles) and freshman linebacker Prince Kollie (three tackles) were impressive late as the Irish pulled away.

Sophomore Jordan Botelho, who lined up at end and at linebacker Saturday, got a sack for the second straight weekagainst a team that officially attempted only three passes and completed one for 18 yards.

Thats the third-lowest passing total an ND defense has given up in a game since at least 1996.

I mean, we needed to make some progress, Kelly said, referring specifically to a plethora of missed tackles and missed assignments in a 44-34 survival of North Carolina on Oct. 30.

We weren't happy with some of the things last week, and so we needed to see the incremental progress. And so this week was much better, but it's a snapshot, right? Next week we got a team that's one of the more prolific passing offenses in the country.

"Job well done. Checkmark on the old option. Let's go see how we handle now (quarterback) Brennan Armstrong and the Cavaliers. So this is work in progress for us. We like the step we took today, because the communication was really good and the tackling was much better.

Weve got to go cover some people next week.

And get the offense operating at maximum efficiency.

Against Navy, it sputtered and surged, with the Irish scoring a couple of touchdowns in the final 2:46 of the second quarter for a 17-3 halftime lead and outscoring the Mids 17-0 in the fourth quarter.

Quarterback Jack Coan recorded his highest completion percentage of the season (.793, 23-of-29 for 269 yards, 1 TD) and had his longest pass play in a Notre Dame uniform, a 70-yard strike to Kevin Austin Jr. with 50 seconds left in the first half.

It also tied the career long of the 297 completions he had during the Wisconsin portion of his career. And it capped a 95-yard, five play drive that took all of 60 seconds.

Coach Kelly was screaming at me, because it was open the play before, Coan said of the pass to Austin. He basically told me to throw it there, so thats what I did.

I followed the plan and got the ball to a guy like Kevin Austin, who can take it the distance every time. Great by coach Kelly. Great by Kevin.

Austin tied a career-high with six catches and exceeded his career high with 139 receiving yards.

Running back Kyren Williams amassed 176 all-purpose yards, including 95 rushing yards on 17 carries and two TDs. The junior has seven scores in the past five games and at least one TD in five consecutive games.

He also had a team high in receptions Saturday with seven.

Kelly admitted, though, he may need to move a player from another position group after slot receiver Avery Davis appeared to suffer a serious left knee injury. Kelly declined to speculate about the specifics until the grad senior has an MRI.

The Irish are down to five healthy scholarship receivers, three of whom are freshmen and one of whom Jayden Thomas hasn't played a down this season.

With the emergence of freshman running back Logan Diggs (8 carries, 59 yards and a TD) as a sidekick to Williams, running back Chris Tyree may be a strong candidate to slip into the slot as he plays his way back into form from a turf toe injury.

In the meantime, Kelly is happy to have his schematic curveball in the rearview mirror, though the two teams this week announced the signing of a 10-year extension that will take them through 2032.

I'll be able to watch that on TV, in the back end of that rivalry, Kelly said with a chuckle. (Athletic director) Jack (Swarbrick) will still be here, I'm sure.

The Irish turn their attention to transitioning out of the Xs and Os part of Navy to face traditional offense, but hoping to retain the defensive lessons learned in digging in for the Mids.

Navy is a difficult opponent to play. Very difficult, Kelly said. Look, we didn't run 7-on-7 this week. Didn't get our two-minute drill in this week. We didn't work on the basic parameters of football that prepare you each week. Things that you do naturally each and every week, we didn't do them.

Now we've got to go switch ... and play Virginia. So those are real. Those are hard things. But it's all worth it when you get a chance to go hand in hand with the Naval Academy as they sing their alma mater.

There is nothing like that. Where else in sport does that happen where you play on the field in intense competition, and then our players are arm in arm with their players as their alma mater is being sung.

Follow ND Insider Eric Hansen on Twitter: @EHansenNDI

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Hansen: Irish look to carry defensive strides beyond their taming of Navy's triple option - Notre Dame Insider

Updated Nov. 4, 2021, at 10:32 a.m. ET with additional information on Chinas nuclear capabilities.

MELBOURNE, Australia, and WASHINGTON China is expanding its nuclear force much faster than U.S. officials predicted a year ago, highlighting a broad and accelerating buildup of military muscle designed to enable Beijing to match or surpass U.S. global power by midcentury, according to a Pentagon report released Wednesday.

The Defense Departments 2021 report, commonly referred to as the China Military Power Report, said that the accelerating pace of Chinas nuclear expansion may enable it to have up to 700 deliverable nuclear warheads by 2027, and that China likely intends to have at least 1,000 warheads by 2030.

The United States, by comparison, has 3,750 nuclear weapons and has no plans to increase that number. As recently as 2003, the U.S. total was about 10,000. The Biden administration is undertaking a comprehensive review of its nuclear policy and has not said how that might be influenced by its China concerns.

The report does not suggest open conflict with China but it fits an emerging U.S. narrative of a Peoples Liberation Army intent on challenging the United States in all domains of warfare air, land, sea, space and cyberspace. Against that backdrop, U.S. defense officials have said they are increasingly wary of Chinas intentions with regard to the status of Taiwan.

The PLAs evolving capabilities and concepts continue to strengthen [Chinas] ability to fight and win wars against a strong enemy a likely euphemism for the United States, the report said, adding that it makes China more capable of coercing Taiwan, the self-ruled island that China claims as its territory.

Wednesdays report is the latest reminder to Congress, already leery of Beijings military ambitions, that the Pentagons frequent promises to focus more intently on countering China have moved only incrementally beyond the talking stage. The Biden administration is expected to take a new step by following through on its announcement in September of plans to increase the U.S. military presence in Australia, in addition to a controversial decision to help Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines.

The report also flagged the possibility of China having already established a nascent nuclear triad with the development of a nuclear capable air-launched ballistic missile and improvements to its land- and sea-based nuclear capabilities.

The Pentagon report was based on information collected through December 2020 and so does not reflect or mention Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milleys expression of concern last month about Chinese hypersonic weapon tests over the summer that he said came as a troublesome surprise. Wednesdays report only referred to the widely known fact that China had fielded the DF-17 medium-range ballistic missile, equipped with a hypersonic glide vehicle designed to evade American missile defenses.

In remarks shortly before the reports release Wednesday, Milley told the Aspen Security Forum that the hypersonic missile test and other Chinese advances are evidence of what is at stake for the world. We are witnessing one of the largest shifts in global and geostrategic power that the world has witnessed, he said.

The airborne launch platform of this Chinese triad is the Xian H-6N bomber, a derivative of the H-6K that is optimized for long-range strikes and features a modified fuselage that allows it to externally carry an air-launched ballistic missile that maybe nuclear-capable.

The H-6N also possesses air-to-air refueling capability, the first variant of the type able to do so and thereby providing it greater range compared to other Chinese bombers. The report assesses that the Peoples Liberation Army Air Force has operationally fielded the H-6N bomber as of 2020 and is very likely to be developing tactics and procedures to conduct the PLAAF nuclear mission.

Chinas main nuclear delivery system is still the growing force of ballistic missiles in its arsenal that are capable of carrying nuclear or conventional warheads. The Pentagon report said China has commenced building at least three solid-fueled [intercontinental ballistic missiles] silo fields, which will cumulatively contain hundreds of new ICBM silos echoing earlier news reports based on open-source satellite imagery

The Pentagon report also said sources indicate a new long-range DF-27 ballistic missile with an officially stated range of 5,000-8,000 kilometers (3,100-5,000 miles) is under development. However, it is unclear if this is referring to the Chinese intercontinental glider system that was previously reported.

The naval leg of Chinas triad is also advancing, with the report noting that development of the Type 096-class ballistic missile submarine is continuing, and that when it is commissioned, the class is expected to serve alongside six older Type 094s.

The ballistic missile submarine fleet is expected to reach eight boats by 2030 with the Type 096 in service. The submarine will be equipped with JL-3 submarine-launched ballistic missiles, which would enable China to target the U.S. mainland with nuclear strikes from within Chinas littoral waters.

These ballistic missiles will receive up-to-date targeting information from Chinas growing fleet of reconnaissance and remote sensing satellites, that is estimated to number around 200, up from more than 80 in last years report.

However, anti-submarine warfare in open waters remains an Achilles heel for the Chinese military. The report acknowledged that China is aware of this shortfall and is improving its anti-sub warfare capabilities and training to better protect its aircraft carriers and ballistic missile submarines even as its naval force is projected to reach 460 ships by 2030.

The basis of the Pentagons prediction that China will vastly increase its nuclear arsenal is not spelled out in Wednesdays report. A senior defense official who briefed reporters in advance of the reports public release, and thus spoke on condition of anonymity, said the forecast reflects several known developments, such as Chinas addition of a nuclear bomber capability, as well as public statements in Chinese official media that have made reference to China needing 1,000 nuclear weapons.

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Pentagon warns of China's progress toward nuclear triad - Military Times

A long-running decline in COVID-19 cases nationally masks some trouble spots emerging in the upper half of the United States. The disease is hitting states in the Mountain West such as Colorado, Utah and Wyoming especially hard, but even parts of the Northeast have dealt with a worrying surge in cases and hospitalizations. Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/Denver Post via Getty Images hide caption

A long-running decline in COVID-19 cases nationally masks some trouble spots emerging in the upper half of the United States. The disease is hitting states in the Mountain West such as Colorado, Utah and Wyoming especially hard, but even parts of the Northeast have dealt with a worrying surge in cases and hospitalizations.

The U.S. has settled into an uneasy, drawn-out exit from the delta surge that took hold over the summer.

For many weeks, declining cases and hospitalizations have offered hope ahead of the holiday season, when Americans travel and spend more time indoors, but progress has stalled recently, with cases rising or plateauing in more than 20 states.

In fact, the country's daily average of cases has hovered around 72,000 infections for the past two weeks as outbreaks smolder, particularly in the northern half of the country. About 40,000 people are in the hospital with COVID-19, under half of the peak in early September.

The Mountain West where vaccination coverage tends to be lower is the worst off, especially Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. Parts of the Southwest and Midwest are also trying to control an uptick. Even some of the heavily vaccinated Northeast has been dealing with increases during the fall.

Modeling suggests that cases will likely stay high through the holiday season but will not accelerate into a new nationwide surge as occurred last year, says Dr. David Rubin, who leads the COVID-19 modeling group at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

"The next few weeks are really going to tell us about the holiday season," he says. "I've got cautious optimism, particularly in highly vaccinated areas right now."

Now that younger kids can start to get vaccinated, that could make a substantial difference in controlling cases as families gather together. That gives Rubin "the greatest hope that our worst days are behind us."

Some experts are less sanguine about what direction the pandemic is heading, though.

"There is more than enough human wood for this coronavirus forest fire to burn," says Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. Researchers there estimate that about 70 million Americans remain vulnerable to the virus due to a combination of waning immunity and lack of vaccination.

"It's not going to look like it was in January because we have a lot of immunity," says Dr. Julie Parsonnet, a professor of epidemiology and population health at Stanford University. "But we're going to see waves the peak of the waves is going to get lower and lower, but we're still going to see them as the population gets more and more immune."

As cases have plummeted in the South, many parts of the West have contended with their worst surges to date.

"In the 12 years I've been with the hospital, it's hands down the busiest, including compared to last fall," says Dr. Andy Dunn, head of primary care at Wyoming Medical Center, the state's largest hospital. "We're seeing more COVID patients, and we're seeing sicker COVID patients."

With only about 44% of its population fully vaccinated, Wyoming ranks below almost every other state. This reality, coupled with the arrival of the delta variant of the coronavirus, had Dunn's hospital prepping months ago: "We knew it was going to hit, so it's been very stressful."

In Utah, health officials were on the brink of activating statewide plans to ration care last fall, and now the situation looks nearly as bad, says Dr. Angela Dunn, executive director at the Salt Lake County Health Department.

"We are definitely in a crisis in terms of people getting the care they need," she says. "When a patient needs an ICU bed, it takes us two to three hours because they're all full. Usually it takes 10 minutes."

To her dismay, many members of the public seem unaware of the distress in their local hospitals. And Dunn's hope that this would propel more people to get vaccinated Utah's vaccination rate is about 53% have not materialized. "We're just seeing a really low, slow uptake," she says.

Meanwhile, Colorado's governor, Jared Polis, has issued orders that allow hospitals to turn away some patients if necessary and that clarify when hospitals can activate the state's crisis standards of care plan, due to the crush of patients filling up intensive care units.

"We have all these COVID-positive patients, but we also have a lot of other patients that during our last major surge we weren't seeing," says Dr. Michelle Barron, medical director of infection control and prevention at UCHealth, Colorado's largest health system.

The backlog of other patients, often people who delayed care, and the staffing shortages have put its hospitals in a precarious position. Colorado has vaccinated more than 60% of its population against COVID-19, putting it ahead of many other neighboring states. But Barron says that this still leaves plenty of people who are potentially susceptible to infection or who can have complications because their immune system is compromised.

"The vast majority of the patients that we're seeing really are those that are still unvaccinated," she says.

Even some states that had set the standard for successful vaccination campaigns have weathered a big wave of infections this fall.

Vermont is one sobering example.

The state has vaccinated more than 70% of its population against COVID-19, including the vast majority of its older adults. Still, it hit new records in daily coronavirus cases last month, although the per capita rate was not as high as in many states at the peak of their surges.

"We had as many or more patients at this point than we've ever had over the course of the last two years," says Dr. Rick Hildebrant, chief of hospital medicine at Rutland Regional Medical Center in Rutland, Vermont. "But we have never seen the type of scenarios in other parts of the country, where the hospital systems have just been overwhelmed by COVID."

In fact, COVID-19 accounts for a small portion of the overall patient volume in Vermont's hospitals, which are also struggling with very busy emergency rooms and the consequences of deferred care. However, the added stress of a coronavirus surge has pushed the hospitals to "operate beyond capacity for weeks," says Tim Lahey, an infectious disease physician at UVM Medical Center.

"It's a clarion call to other states that are catching up to Vermont: Just because you have high adult vaccination percentages doesn't mean that the game is over," he says.

While cases are now trending down in the state, Lahey says the surge there has also revealed that a "vaccine only" strategy one that dispenses with interventions like masks can be risky when a relatively small portion of the population remains unvaccinated.

But Vermont's experience does underscore that well-vaccinated states can stave off the kind of disaster seen in other states such as Idaho and Wyoming, where half, if not more, of the population remains unvaccinated, hospitals were overwhelmed and death rates were much higher.

"The data is unassailable at this point in terms of the protection of broad community vaccination against severe disease," says Rubin, of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Some major cities in the Northeast have also seen increased transmission this fall, he says, but "they're still holding up pretty well," and that could mean they "prove somewhat resilient through the holiday season."

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The COVID surge was on the decline. Now progress has stalled out : Shots - Health News - NPR

The figure of the modeling agent must be up there with the personal injury lawyer and the tobacco lobbyist as far as stock villain professions go. Has an honorable and kindly modeling agent ever been committed to print, film, television or stage? Are those very words doomed to suggest a leering cartoon rubbing his hands together and making ah-ooga noises as an underpaid model toils to funnel money into his cartoon bank account?

Emily Ratajkowskis book of essays will not alter the record. It features multiple modeling agents, none of them savory. One arranges for Ratajkowski to attend the Super Bowl with a random financier for $25,000. (Its left to his client to infer that the words go to contain certain expectations.) Another pauses on a photo of Ratajkowski as a teenager and says, Now this is the look. This is how we know this girl gets [expletive]. A third agent sends Ratajkowski, at 20 years old, to a job in the Catskills without mentioning that its a lingerie shoot, or that the photographer will show Ratajkowski nude photos of another woman, or that he will request that she, too, remove her clothes.

The Catskills voyage turns into a horror story. After being sexually assaulted by the photographer, Ratajkowski, having nowhere else to go, sleeps at his house, only to wake and find him posting a photo of her on Instagram. Adding injury to injury, the photographer later publishes a book of the photos taken the evening of the assault, leaving Ratajkowski livid and frantic as the book sells out, goes through reprints and sells out again.

That essay, called Buying Myself Back, is the strongest of the 11 collected here, which are serious, personal, repetitive and myopic. This is a book about capitalism, Ratajkowski told The New York Times in an interview. Arguably, the sleazy photographer could say the same about his book of ill-gotten pictures. But while he merely demonstrates the unremarkable fact that men daily exploit womens bodies for money (and pleasure, and fame, and Oscars), what Ratajkowski describes in the essay which was received with both applause and backlash is the ambiguity of exploiting her own body.

That ambiguity is present in these essays, often frustratingly so. Part of the problem is that Ratajkowskis conception of herself is at odds with the reality she describes, which is a sincere but exasperating kind of celebrity dysmorphia. Evaluating her career, she concludes: My position brought me in close proximity to wealth and power and brought me some autonomy, but it hasnt resulted in true empowerment. Only Ratajkowski can determine her sense of autonomy. But wealth and power are more easily quantified, and it seems fair to insist that Ratajkowski with a booming womens wear line, 28 million Instagram followers, a partnership with LOreal and a Super Bowl ad under her belt is not merely in close proximity to either.

In an essay titled Bc Hello Halle Berry, Ratajkowski gets paid to go on vacation in the Maldives and grows annoyed when her husband calls her a capitalist. That comment comes when the two of them are lounging on beach chairs, doing a bit of people-watching. I pointed out that we werent like the other guests at this resort, Ratajkowski writes. The other guests, she tells her husband, are real rich people.

Cmon, baby, her husband says. Youre a capitalist, too, admit it.

Im trying to succeed in a capitalist system, Ratajkowski responds. But that doesnt mean I like the game. This is broadly relatable; Im pretty sure most people who arent Jeff Bezos feel displeased by their standing in the American economy of 2021. But merely being aware that you are doing something you consider morally shaky does not constitute resistance or absolution. In this case, the morally shaky part centers on Ratajkowskis instinct that women are harmed by the abyss between themselves and the filtered, Facetuned, genetically or Photoshopically gifted individuals shown to them in ads implying that only X product can help narrow that abyss. Shortly before the beach conversation, Ratajkowski posts a photo of herself on Instagram to promote a bikini from her company. At breakfast she tallies up the likes for her husband: Five hundred thousand in an hour. Not bad. The title of the essay stems from a quote attributed to Halle Berry: My looks havent spared me one hardship. I bet that millions of unattractive people would disagree.

There are moments of courageous self-disclosure in My Body, and passages that made me laugh, like her description of a giant photo of Victorias Secret models arching their backs and holding index fingers up to their mouths as if flirtatiously telling me to shush. (You know the pose.) She performs a public service by excerpting the treatment for Robin Thickes Blurred Lines video, which might be the most embarrassing PDF in the history of entertainment. (A treatment is a pitch outlining the projected tone and content of the finished video.) Scrolling through it, Ratajkowski sees phrases like TRUE PIMP SWAG and NAKED GIRLS XXX and THIS IS FAR FROM MASOGYNIST. [sic] She declines the job, but reconsiders after meeting with the director a woman, to Ratajkowskis surprise and negotiating the rate up.

That video is what launched Ratajkowski to fame in 2013. With its onscreen hashtags and images of Thicke murmuring I know you want it in a models ear, the video now looks so dated it might as well be a Civil War daguerreotype. Ratajkowski is funny and charming, dancing goofily and rolling her eyes at the idiocy unfolding around her. But it is still a video that features three semi-naked females (the models) cavorting among three clothed men (the artists), demonstrating a vision the directors vision? Robin Thickes vision? Both, maybe? that nudity is precisely the skill these women bring to the table.

The essay about Blurred Lines is the one that most clearly captures the perplexing nature of Ratajkowskis position. Shes thoughtful and skeptical, and has been treated wretchedly over the course of her career; she grapples intently with her sense of victimization at the hands of those who would use her body to sell their products. It seems strange, then, that her empowerment should arrive in the form of doing exactly that, albeit on her own terms and with her own products. It is inarguably better that Ratajkowski, rather than some horny bozo, receive the profits from her image but does a more equitable distribution of cash really make a difference to the young women who scroll through Instagram, rapidly absorbing new reasons to despise themselves? That, it seems to me, is the unsolvable moral question at the heart of this book.

In a later essay, Transactions, Ratajkowski reprises the metaphor from the Maldives. Contemplating other models and actresses she has known, Ratajkowski writes: There was no way to avoid the game completely: We all had to make money one way or another. And yet there is no binary that consists of, on one side, Make money in a specific way and feel conflicted about it, and, on the other side, Dont make any money at all and feel virtuous. To frame it in those terms creates the false impression that there is, in the end, no choice an act of self-exoneration and, more to the point, disempowerment.

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In a World That Exploits Women, Emily Ratajkowski Exploits Herself. Is That Progress? - The New York Times

For most of the first half, Matanzasplayed toe to toe with one of the best football teams in Northeast Florida.

The Pirates scored on theirfirst two possessions and ledSt. Augustine 14-7 before the Yellow Jackets closed outthe second quarter with 17 straight points on the way to a 37-21 victory Friday, Oct. 22, at St. Augustine.

"We couldn't have scripted a better opening start," Matanzas coach Matt Forrest said. "There are no moral victories, but I thought we played our best game of the season against the toughest team on our schedule to date."

"We couldn't have scripted a better opening start. There are no moral victories, but I thought we played our best game of the season against the toughest team on our schedule to date."

MATT FORREST, Matanzas football coach

Noah Cundiff ended an eight-play, game-opening drive with a 17-yard touchdown catch from sophomore quarterback Dakwon Evans. After the Yellow Jackets tied it up at 7-7, Matanzas moved methodically downfield againwith Evans closing out an 11-play drive with a 10-yard touchdownrun.

"The first half we gave it everything we could," Forrest said. "We played well offensively, but we made mistakes on defense and special teams, and when you play a good team like that, you can't give them anything.

"St. Augustine has a longstanding tradition," Forrest added. "And the thing about them is they don't get rattled. In the third quarter when they went up by 17we went into a lull."

The Pirates would not score again until Tate Winecoff punched it in with a 2-yard run late in the fourth quarter.

"Our offensive line played a great game," Forrest said. "(Defensive back/receiver) Jordan Mills played well on both sides of the ball. Dakwon Evans played his best game of the season, and Noah, besides his touchdown catch, caught a lot of balls underneath."

St. Augustine improved to 5-2 overall, 3-2 in District 4-6A. Matanzas, which saw its two-game winstreak snapped, fell to 3-6 and 1-3.

After 10 straight weeks of football,including the kickoff classic, the Pirates will finally have a bye week before hosting cross-town rival Flagler Palm Coast on Nov. 5 in the season-ending Potato Bowl.

"We're going to rest and recover," Forrest said. "A lot of guys are banged up. It's been a long season. We're going to focus on ourselves, trying to getbetter, and we'll worry about Week 11 when it comes."

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Plucky Pirates pleased with progress heading into Potato Bowl showdown - Palm Coast Observer

Wall Street likes what its hearing from Washington lately.

The S&P 500 inched to a new high on Thursday, continuing a rally aided by signs of progress in spending talks that could pave the way for an injection of some $3 trillion into the U.S. economy.

The index rose 0.3 percent to 4,549.78, its seventh straight day of gains and a fresh peak after more than a month of volatile trading driven by nervousness over the still-wobbly economic recovery and policy fights in Washington.

But even baby steps by lawmakers have helped end a market swoon that began in September.

Share prices began to rise this month when congressional leaders struck a deal to allow the government to avoid breaching the debt ceiling, ending a standoff that threatened to make it impossible for the country to pay its bills. The rally has gained momentum as investors and analysts grow increasingly confident about a government spending package using a recipe Wall Street can live with: big enough to bolster economic growth, but with smaller corporate tax increases than President Bidens original $3.5 trillion spending blueprint.

It seems like were kind of reaching a middle ground, said Paul Zemsky, chief investment officer, multi-asset strategies at Voya Investment Management. The president himself has acknowledged its not going to be $3.5 trillion, its going to be something less. The tax hikes are not going to be as much as the left really wanted.

Share prices had marched steadily higher for much of the summer, hitting a series of highs and cresting on Sept. 2. But a number of anxieties sapped their momentum as the certainty that markets crave began to evaporate. Gridlock over government spending, continuing supply chain snarls, higher prices for businesses and consumers and the Federal Reserves signals that it would begin dialing back its stimulus efforts all helped sour investor confidence. The S&P 500s 4.8 percent drop in September was its worst month since the start of the pandemic.

It has made up for it in October, rising 5.6 percent this month. But its not just updates out of Washington that have renewed investors optimism.

The country has seen a sharp drop in coronavirus infections in recent weeks, raising, once again, the prospect that economic activity can begin to normalize. And the recent round of corporate earnings results that began in earnest this month has started better than many analysts expected. Large Wall Street banks, in particular, reported blockbuster results fueled by juicy fees paid to the banks deal makers, thanks to a surge of merger activity.

Elsewhere, shares of energy giants have also buoyed the broad stock market. The price of crude oil recently climbed back above $80 a barrel for the first time in roughly seven years, translating into an instant boost to revenues for energy companies.

But the recent rally seemed find its footing two weeks ago. On Oct. 6, word broke that Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, was willing to offer a temporary reprieve allowing Congress to raise the debt ceiling. The market turned on a dime from its morning slump, finishing the day in positive territory. That week turned out to be the markets best since August.

Once done as a matter of course in Washington, raising the debt ceiling has been an increasingly contentious issue in recent years with sometimes serious implications for the market. In August 2011, a rancorous battle over the debt ceiling sent share prices tumbling sharply as investors began to consider the prospect that the United States could actually default on its debts.

But the recent deal on the ceiling even though it only pushed a reckoning into December suggested to investors that theres little appetite in Washington for a replay of a decade ago.

I think that let some pressure out of the system, said Alan McKnight, chief investment officer of Regions Asset Management. What it signaled to the markets was that you can find some area of agreement. It may not be very large. But at least they can come together.

With the impasse broken, the rally gained strength. Last Thursday, the S&P 500 jumped 1.7 percent its best day in roughly seven months as financial giants like Morgan Stanley and Bank of America reported stellar results.

Potential progress on a deal in Washington has only brightened investors outlook.

Democrats are now moving in the same direction, and hard decisions are being made, wrote Dan Clifton, an analyst with Strategas Research, who monitors the impact of policy on financial markets, in a note to clients on Wednesday.

What is the debt ceiling? The debt ceiling, also called the debt limit,is a cap on the total amount of money that the federal government is authorized to borrow via U.S.Treasury bills and savings bonds to fulfill its financial obligations. Because the U.S. runs budget deficits, it must borrow huge sums of money to pay its bills.

When will the debt limit be breached? After Senate leaders agreed to a short-term dealto raise the debt ceiling on Oct. 7, the Treasury estimated that the government can continue borrowing through Dec. 3. The deal sets up yet another consequential deadlinefor the first Friday in December.

Why does the U.S. limit its borrowing? According to the Constitution, Congress must authorize borrowing. The debt limit was instituted in the early 20th century so the Treasury did not need to ask for permission each time it needed to issue bonds to pay bills.

What would happen if the debt limit was hit? Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Congressthat inaction on raising the debt limit could lead to a self-inflicted economic recession and a financial crisis. She also said that failing to raise the debt ceiling could affect programs that help millions of Americans, including delays to Social Security payments.

Do other countries do it this way? Denmark also has a debt limit, but it is set so high that raising it is generally not an issue. Most other countries do not. In Poland, public debt cannot exceed 60 percent of gross domestic product.

What are the alternatives to the debt ceiling? The lack of a replacement is one of the main reasons the debt ceiling has persisted. Ms. Yellen said that she would support legislation to abolish the debt limit, which she described as destructive. It would take an act of Congress to do away with the debt limit.

On Thursday, analysts spotlighted the news that the White House and congressional Democrats were moving toward dropping corporate tax increases they had wanted to include in the bill, as they hoped to forge a deal that could clear the Senate. A spending deal without corporate tax increases would be a potential boon to profits and share prices.

A stay of execution on higher corporate tax rates would seem a potentially noteworthy development, Daragh Maher, a currency analyst with HSBC Securities, wrote in a note to clients on Thursday.

An agreement among Democrats on whats expected to be a roughly $2 trillion spending plan would also open the door to a separate $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan moving through Congress. Progressives in the House are blocking the infrastructure bill until agreement is reached on the larger bill.

But the prospects for an agreement have helped to lift shares of major engineering and construction materials companies. Terex, which makes equipment used for handling construction materials like stone and asphalt, has jumped more than 5 percent this week. The asphalt maker Vulcan Materials has risen more than 4 percent. Dycom, which specializes in construction and engineering of telecommunication networking systems, was up more than 9 percent.

The renewed confidence remains fragile, with good reason. The coronavirus continues to affect business operations around the world, and the Delta variant demonstrated just how disruptive a new iteration of the virus can be.

Another lingering concern involves the higher costs companies face for everything from raw materials to shipping to labor. If they are unable to pass those higher costs on to consumers, it will cut into their profits.

That would be big, Mr. McKnight said. That would be a material impact to the markets.

But going into the final months of the year traditionally a good time for stocks the market also has plenty of reasons to push higher.

The recent weeks of bumpy trading may have chased shareholders with low confidence sometimes known as weak hands on Wall Street out of the market, offering potential bargains to long-term buyers.

Interest rates are relatively stable. Earnings are booming. Covid cases, thankfully, are dropping precipitously in the U.S., Mr. Zemsky said. The weak hands have left the markets and theres plenty of jobs. So why shouldnt we have new highs?

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Stocks Hit a Record as Investors See Progress Toward a Spending Deal - The New York Times

The Progress MS-17 spacecraft approaches the International space Station for docking Friday. Credit: Roscosmos

A Russian Progress supply ship docked with the new Nauka lab module at the International Space Station Friday, completing a 29-hour free flight after detaching from a different port at the complex.

The relocation positions the Progress spacecraft to assist with leak checks of the Nauka modules propulsion system, which will be used to help control the space stations attitude, or orientation, as it loops around Earth in orbit every hour-and-a-half.

The unpiloted Progress MS-17 supply ship undocked from the space stations Poisk module at 7:42 p.m. EDT (2342 GMT) Wednesday and backed away to a distance of 115 miles (185 kilometers) from the orbital outpost.

Once the spacecraft was the proper distance from the station, the Progress initiated a new approach to the complex using space-based navigation and a Kurs rendezvous radar system. The automated approach culminated in a docking with the Nauka module at 12:21 a.m. EDT (0421 GMT) Friday.

The docking was the first link-up of a Progress cargo freighter with the Nauka module, which arrived at the space station July 29, becoming the largest addition to the research complex in more than a decade. A Soyuz crew ship relocated to the Nauka module last month before departing Oct. 16 to head for landing, freeing up the modules docking port for the Progress MS-17 supply ship.

Nauka, which means science, had a troubled flight to the space station after launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on July 21. After encountering propulsion problems during the flight to the station, the Nauka module successfully docked with the Zvezda service module to wrap up the eight-day trip.

But hours after docking, thrusters on Nauka inadvertently started firing due to a software glitch. The thrusters forced the space station off its proper attitude and into a slow tumble. The station made one-and-a-half rotations before its other thrusters regained pointing control.

The Progress MS-17 spacecraft now docked to Nauka will perform leak checks of the modules propellant lines over the next few weeks.

Russias new Prichal node module will take the place of the Progress MS-17 spacecraft at the Nauka docking port next month.

The Prichal module is scheduled for launch Nov. 24 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on a Soyuz rocket, followed by docking to the Nauka module Nov. 26.

Once the Prichal module is in orbit on the way to the space station, the Progress MS-17 spacecraft will depart Nauka on Nov. 25, taking with it a docking adapter that launched with Nauka to temporarily accommodate Soyuz and Progress vehicles.

The Prichal module will become a standard docking location for visiting Soyuz crew ferry ships.

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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

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Progress cargo ship relocated to new module at International Space Station Spaceflight Now - Spaceflight Now

WASHINGTON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Brawling factions of the Democratic Party on Thursday worked feverishly toward agreement on a huge U.S. social spending bill, even as Senator Joe Manchin said there would not be a deal "anytime soon" on broad outlines of legislation that is a pillar of President Joe Biden's agenda.

The warning from the key centrist lawmaker indicated that Democrats were still not close to agreeing on the size and contents of Biden's spending package.

"This is not going to happen anytime soon," Manchin told reporters.

With closed-door talks being held throughout the day, there were conflicting assessments of how rapidly disagreements could be resolved.

Democrats have spent months arguing about the size and scope of what Biden initially proposed as a $3.5 trillion plan to expand the social safety net and fight climate change.

Negotiators might cut it down to about $2 trillion or less. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal told reporters his goal was $2 trillion.

Manchin - who along with fellow moderate Senator Kyrsten Sinema has been pushing for a smaller package - had said earlier he believed Democratic negotiators could settle on a final figure by Friday. That would resolve a key sticking point, although progressives and moderates would still have to sort out the substance of the bill, including what programs to keep, what to cut, and how long to fund them.

Neal said he had talks with Sinema and that the two lawmakers were in "full agreement" on major initiatives, such as extending an expanded child tax credit and family and medical leave.

"I still think there's a long ways to go but the conversation was really good," Neal said.

Raising tax rates for corporations and wealthy individuals has been a hot-button issue for months in negotiations, spurring ideas for other ways to raise revenues.

"Senator Sinema has agreed to provisions in each of President Biden's four proposed revenue categories - international, domestic corporate, high net-worth individuals, and tax enforcement - providing sufficient revenue to fully pay for a budget reconciliation package in the range currently being discussed," a source familiar with the negotiations said.

The source did not provide details.

Sinema has told the White House she will not support Biden's proposed rate increases for corporations and wealthy individuals. The White House told some Democrats this week that the corporate tax hikes may be dead.

Representative Pramila Jayapal, who heads the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said the tax provisions were vital to the success of the legislation.

"I think it says terrible things about us as Democrats if we can't get those in here because of one senator," Jayapal told reporters.

FRAMEWORK DEAL SOON?

Democratic Senator Ben Cardin said he expected Democrats would agree on a total price tag within days, leaving lawmakers to fill in the details.

"I think they've got to stay in over the weekend to try to get this resolved," he said.

Biden told lawmakers on Tuesday he thought he could get Manchin and Sinema to agree to a figure in the range of $1.75 trillion to $1.9 trillion, according to a source familiar with the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Getting to that number could mean giving up or delaying priorities, including a plan to offer all Americans the opportunity to attend two years of free community college, and scaling back others such as a child tax credit and funds for affordable housing.

Disagreements over the scale of the bill have held up Biden's domestic agenda, with progressives in the House of Representatives refusing to vote for a $1 trillion infrastructure bill already passed by the Senate until a deal is reached on social programs and climate change.

If a deal is promptly reached on the outlines of the big social spending bill, it could clear the way for House passage of the infrastructure bill as soon as next week.

Another stumbling block involves how to lower pharmaceutical prices.

A Sinema aide rejected media reports she does not want to give the government authority to negotiate lower drug prices for the Medicare healthcare program for seniors. The issue as been a Democratic priority for decades.

"As part of her direct negotiations over the reconciliation package, she is carefully reviewing various proposals around this issue," said the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the final package could contain no tax rate increases at all.

During a visit to his native Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, Biden said the social spending legislation, plus the infrastructure bill, would create 2 million jobs a year for 20 years and not raise the deficit.

Reporting by David Morgan and Richard Cowan; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu and Timothy Gardner; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone, Jonathan Oatis and Peter Cooney

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Divided Democrats see slow progress on Biden's social spending bill - Reuters

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IrelandUruguay, Eastern Republic ofUzbekistanVanuatuVenezuela, Bolivarian Republic ofViet Nam, Socialist Republic ofWallis and Futuna IslandsWestern SaharaYemenZambia, Republic ofZimbabwe

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Bring on the infrastructure progress | Opinion | swoknews.com - The Lawton Constitution

As Golden State ran its offensive system deeper into the shot clock, the Lakers helplessly chased Stephen Curry and Jordan Poole, running after the Warriors backcourt like a child chasing a puppy always too many steps behind to stop them.

The hope is that months from now the Lakers will be so connected and in tune with their defensive philosophies that theyll make up for not always being quicker by being smarter and more disciplined.

Obviously, we want to contain the ball one-on-one, win our one-on-one matchups. But if a guy gets beat and guys are gonna get beat off the dribble or off a closeout then our team defense has to be there, Anthony Davis said after Lakers practice Thursday. And its not just guarding the first action. If they drive, kick it, swing, pick and roll, swing, drive its multiple actions. And thats where weve got to get better, just playing through the whole 24.

Theyre not their yet. Minus the kind of elite on-ball defense that former Lakers like Alex Caruso and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope provided, the Lakers are going to need to be better as a group. That takes time and patience.

Obviously, thats a concern of mine, coach Frank Vogel said of the Lakers lacking a wing stopper. But we have to get the job done regardless of that. What I like is that we have two-way players. Everybody on our roster is good on both sides. Theres just not this specialist that we had guys that are elite on that side of the ball.

But theres other benefits to the other side, too, you know what I mean? And our thing is we just have to get our guys really executing our scheme at a high level. If they execute our scheme and chase their perimeter guys into our bigs the right way, and then pass them off the way we want to within our scheme, were confident that we should have an elite defense again.

The Lakers have had two top defenses in the top three during Vogels tenure, and hes regarded as one of the NBAs best tacticians in that regard. But the team doesnt have the same pieces, particularly on the perimeter.

With news that backup guard Kendrick Nunn, considered by some scouts to be one of the Lakers best perimeter defenders, will miss the next few weeks because of a bone bruise, the options on the outside are even thinner.

He joins guard Talen Horton-Tucker (thumb), forward Trevor Ariza (ankle) and guard Wayne Ellington (hamstring) as players unavailable for the Lakers game against Phoenix on Friday at Staples Center.

The great thing is we have depth, Vogel said. If everybody is healthy, were gonna have to make some difficult decisions as to which guys to go to, its just brought clarity to those decisions. Its not a situation where we dont believe in the guys that we have. We have the right depth to still get the job done. We dont feel like thats going to limit us.

The Lakers might end up turning more to veteran guard Avery Bradley, who the team claimed off of waivers after Bradley lost a bid for a spot with the Warriors.

Davis said Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka checked with him and LeBron James this summer once the Houston Rockets turned down Bradleys team option, wanting to make sure there were no bad feelings about Bradley opting out of the NBA bubble. He cited concerns for the health of his young son, who struggled to recover from respiratory illnesses, as to why he stayed behind.

It got brought up to us and Rob asked us, obviously, because of the whole bubble situation and all that to make sure we were all good. And we were all good, Davis said. And then this summer, we knew we had an opportunity from the buyout. We talked to him for a little bit. It didnt work out. And then we had another opportunity and we were able to get him the third time around. We definitely wanted him here. What he can bring to us defensively and offensively is something that we need.

After badly struggling in his first game with the Lakers, guard Russell Westbrook impressed his teammates with his attitude and production during Thursdays work.

He was himself. As a person and on the floor, Davis said. He got to some of his moves, the post-ups, where he scores. Dribble back downs where he scores and dribble pull-ups off the glass his go-to when he scores. Talking [expletive] to everybody and all that.

He was his normal self and its good to see that. He had a day off to reflect, get over it, flush it. And then come back to practice and get back to being himself. And hopefully it carries over to tomorrow where he can be Russell Westbrook.

Carmelo Anthony said while he doesnt know what Westbrook is dealing with specifically as he integrates to a new team, hes walked in those shoes before strangely enough when he joined Oklahoma City to play with Westbrook and Paul George.

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Were here to keep him positive, keep him motivated, keep him understanding that theres only one game. Hell figure it out. Youll figure it out. Well help you figure it out, Anthony said. But yeah, I know what its like, I know what its like being from here and wearing the white hat on the team to being one of the guys whos wearing the white hat on the team. So its a different feeling, a different emotion, a different mindset that you have to have.

UP NEXT

VS. PHOENIX

When: 7:30 p.m., Friday

On the air: TV: ESPN, Spectrum SportsNet; Radio: 710, 1330

Update: The Lakers season debut of their overhauled roster ended with a thud Tuesday against the Golden State Warriors, and things should only be tougher Friday when the Phoenix Suns come to Staples Center. The Suns are coming off a trip to the NBA Finals and have retained all their key players while the Lakers are still figuring each other out. Considering Phoenix lost its home opener, youd expect Chris Paul, Devin Booker and the Suns to be extra sharp on Friday.

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Lakers' defense is a work in progress that will take time - Los Angeles Times