Category Archives: Progress

A recent article in the Economist positioned the debate on social mobility in the United States with two leading economic views as fully representative. One view, grounded in dozens of analyses by Raj Chetty and colleagues of large administrative data, is that neighborhoods and place have an outsized influence in interfering with social mobility. This view points to the value of public investment in neighborhoods and housing with a particular lens on desegregation by race and social class. The other, grounded in analyses of evaluations of early childhood programs by James Heckman, is that childrens early learning environmentswhether at home or in nonparental settingshave an outsized influence in shaping social mobility. This view points to the value of public investment in high-quality early education interventions, including home visiting but also preschool. These viewsand the effort to present them as contradictionsare mostly right and also almost entirely wrong.

What is mostly right? Both Chetty and Heckmans work conclusively point to the importance of early childhood circumstances in influencing subsequent well-beingwhether the neighborhood one is born into or the early education and care received. It turns out that the zip code you are born in really does matter for later life chances, as does access to high-quality early learning experiences that can have impact through high school and beyond.

It is also mostly right that public investment in neighborhoods and safe, quality, stable housing, plus policies to support parenting and the quality of early care and education may show important economic returns in long-term social mobility.

What is entirely wrong? Social mobility is not privy to one solution, irrespective of the path of scientific evidence, policy agendas, or the prevailing views of certain economists. Indeed, as we have argued, moving the needle will require a multi-pronged approach where multiple pathways work in concert to ensure optimal environments for children to thrive.

Children are born into and grow up in complex environments and systems, and interact with multiple caregivers. Investment in early childhood will only go as far as co-investment in neighborhoods. Supporting housing and child care centers will only go as far as parents are employed and can pay for food on the table. Evictions spill over to family life and parenting of young children; unstable family income can jeopardize stable housing for young children, as well as early education providers slotted to provide high-quality care.

What this implies for policymakers is to look more broadly. Safety net and income security are typically not seen as social mobility investments for children, but they are. Important work by Hoynes, Schanzenbach and Almond shows that early access to the U.S. safety net (such as food stamps) can have long-term positive impacts on both health and economic self-sufficiency in adulthood. The earlier the access during childrens development, the more powerful these effects that expand to outcomes including health, economists Almond, Currie, and Duque further argue. As part of a study to assess the impact of poverty reduction, stable, monthly cash for the first 40 months of a childs life is being awarded to low-income mothers.

K-12 education investments also matter. Educational opportunity is unequal in the U.S. Even with the best early education and care and the best neighborhoods and schools, children of color are often left behind. As a recent study by Jackson and Johnson demonstrates, K-12 education investment fills the pipeline to continued early care and education enrichment. Head Starts long-term impacts on educational attainment, adult earnings, and reduced incarceration were enhanced when children were exposed to schools with greater Title I investments.

Access to post-secondary education and college degree completion continues to matter for subsequent earnings. Lack of continued investment risks undoing progress during childrens earlier years. Proposals to address this include those from scholars such as Dynarski and Kreisman on simplifying aid formulas and forgiving debt that especially harms students of color who are at most risk of default from relatively small loans; these students are also disproportionately enrolled in low-quality or for-profit colleges that saddle them with debt and poor credit ratings.

Economists have strong tools at their disposal to tackle thorny policy issues. Simplifying their argument into false dichotomies, however, does not pave the road to increased progress on the enduring challenges of social mobility. Instead, we need to apply broader models that consider smart investments throughout childrens development, including adolescence, and that adapt to the reality of household poverty and food insecurity. When these models are tested, we might learn about positive spillovers, or that certain families can thrive with certain combinations of solutions in certain contexts. Bringing together a diverse group of economists and experts spanning different disciplines will result in a more focused, yet comprehensive, approach to poverty and inequity.

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Progress on social mobility takes more than two viewpoints - Brookings Institution

Taxpayers and courthouse users should finally see work underway this month at the site of a new $152 million Spartanburg County judicial center.

Taxpayers and courthouse users should finally see work underway this month at the site of a new $152 million Spartanburg County judicial center.

Silt fencing has been erected along the north side of Library Street, between Daniel Morgan Avenue and Magnolia Street, for construction of the new 647-space parking garage.

The parking garage is the first part of the project, County Administrator Cole Alverson told county council members last month.

A more detailed project update will be presented at Monday's July 20 meeting, he said, along with timelines for each phase.

The meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. at the county council chambers at the county administrative office building, 366 N. Church St., Spartanburg. Citizens may access the meeting at this web address.

"You haven't seen a lot of very public and elaborate visual updates of what's happening because it's been sort of the nuts and bolts, brass tacks work behind the scenes that has to occur in order for a big complicated project like this to transpire," Alverson said.

"It will be the visual things you'll start to see with more frequency now."

The overall $224 million project includes replacing the existing 62-year-old courthouse along Magnolia Street with a new judicial center along Daniel Morgan Avenue, and a plaza where the existing courthouse now stands.

Also included is a new $65 million city-county municipal building to replace the existing City Hall and Spartanburg County Municipal Building.

The rest of the funds, an estimated $7.5 million, will go toward highest priority road projects in the county.

To pay for the project, taxpayers in 2017 approved a temporary 1-cent sales tax increase.

Last month, Alverson said Turner Construction has moved onto the site of the parking garage project, and fencing around the site was erected.

Most of Library Street will be closed, while work also begins on a temporary parking lot for judges at the St. John/Magnolia Street corner of the site, he said.

Next, a central energy plant will be erected on the southwest corner of Library Street and Daniel Morgan Avenue. The plant will supply power to the new judicial center.

The old courthouse annex behind the current courthouse will be demolished to make room for the new judicial center, with construction starting in early 2021 and taking up to 26 months to complete.

The temporary judges' parking lot will move to Library Street, with a separate entrance built for judges to enter the courthouse, Alverson said.

Once the new courthouse is finished and opens, the old courthouse will be demolished and a new, landscaped plaza will replace that part of the site facing Magnolia Street.

A site has not yet been chosen for a new 180,000-square-foot city-county government complex and parking garage. Design is scheduled to start this fall, last 18 months, and be followed by two years of construction with occupancy by mid-2024.

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Why is a new courthouse needed?

According to the May 2017 report by Justice Planning Associates Inc:

The Spartanburg County Judicial Center, which opened in 1958, is overcrowded and does not meet modern standards with respect to security or technology.

The building is unable to provide separate and secure zones for the public, prisoners, judges, jurors, and court staff. This creates a safety issue, as well as potentially compromises the integrity of the judicial process.

The building opened in 1958 with three courtrooms, and over time, that number has grown to 14 courtrooms. The added courtrooms are located in converted office space, with inadequate room dimensions and low ceiling heights.

The majority of problems cannot be fixed within the existing facility, regardless of the amount of money spent.

Other specific issues:

* Overcrowded public and staff spaces

* Most courtrooms do not meet recommended standards

* Inaccessible spaces for some members of the public, including witness stands, jury boxes, and jury deliberation room toilets

* Lack of conferencing and victim waiting spaces near courtrooms

* Prisoner detention spaces do not meet modern detention standards

* Inadequate heating, ventilation, air conditioning, plumbing, and electrical systems

The buildings around the existing Judicial Center are also inadequate and cannot continue to support justice system functions. These buildings exhibit similarly poor spatial, operational, and physical conditions as the Judicial Center.

The building has experienced water intrusion (and mold) problems in the past which the County has attempted to correct, but which are likely to continue to occur due to the buildings age and construction.

Why is a new city-county government complex needed?

According to Spartanburg Countys website:

The existing City Hall and the County Administration Building, both constructed in the early 1960s, are more than 50 years old. Both facilities were built prior to modern codes and standards.

Both facilities have physical issues that impact operating requirements. Those issues include: inappropriate accessibility for mobility-impaired persons; insufficient power and data supply for modern technology; and inadequate heating, ventilation, and cooling.

The County Administration Building is a former Sears Department store, which was adapted for governmental use. Although the building has served its purpose for approximately 30 years, there are issues with respect to public service, security, and availability of natural light.

The building is experiencing structural problems to include water leaks and adequate ventilation. The most overcrowded spaces are those with the highest volume of public contact, such as the Assessor, Auditor, and Treasurer. The crowded conditions can result in extended wait times and loss of confidentiality.

Nearly all components in the City Hall are suffering from some degree of overcrowding, with the Police Department and Municipal Court are in particularly inadequate space. Due to differences in the nature of operations, functions such as the Police Department, Fire Department, and Municipal Court are not typically co-located with general governmental administrative functions, such as the City Council, Mayor, and Finance.

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Spartanburg Countys courthouse project starting to show progress - Spartanburg Herald Journal

None of them are quite done, but they are getting there. New bus lanes have been striped on 5th and 6th Streets in downtown Los Angeles. The eastern half of these will include new protected bike lanes. Also downtown, the existing Olive Street buffered bike lane is being moved to the left side and made parking-protected. In South L.A., the new 6.3-mile-long Avalon Boulevard bike lanes are nearly complete.

LADOT spokesperson Colin Sweeney estimates that all four of these projects 5th, 6th, Olive and Avalon will be completed in August.

5th Street

Pavement markings appear to have been completed (though no red paint) on the new 5th Street bus lane, which extends 1.2 miles from Central Avenue to Flower Street. Fifth is one-way westbound. The project will include a left-side one-way protected bike lane east of Main Street, through Skid Row.

6th Street

Very similar to its westbound couplet partner 5th Street, the new 6th Street eastbound bus lane has pavement markings extending from 1.2 miles from Grand Avenue to Central Avenue. Like 5th, 6th will also feature a one-way left-side protected bike lane east of Main.

Olive Street

Olive Street was also supposed to have a bus lane soon, though there is no anticipated schedule for it yet. The city recently repaved Olive as part of its ADAPT accelerated repaving program. An existing right-side buffered bike lane is being moved to the left, and will be upgraded to a parking-protected bike lane. Crews were out today striping the street.

The new bike lane striping appears nearly complete, though no bollards have been installed. The one-way northbound protected bikeway extends 0.7-mile from Pico Boulevard to 7th Street.

Avalon Boulevard

LADOT is also installing new bike lanes on Avalon Boulevard through South Los Angeles. They will extend 6.3 miles from 120th Street to the five-way intersection at San Pedro Street and Jefferson Boulevard. These will be among the longest continuous on-street bikeways in the city of Los Angeles. They appear to be the third longest, after Venice Boulevard and Devonshire Street.

Much of the new Avalon bikeway was created mostly by removing a car lane, called a road diet. The new bike lanes are mostly buffered or conventional bike lanes, with about a dozen blocks of parking-protected bike lane.

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Eyes on the Street: New Bus and Bike Lanes in Progress in Downtown and South L.A. - Streetsblog Los Angeles

CINCINNATI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) announced a new commitment to have its global operations be carbon neutral for the decade through a series of interventions that protect, improve and restore nature. Recognizing the next decade represents a critical window for the world to accelerate progress on climate change, P&G will go beyond its existing Science Based Target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by additionally advancing a portfolio of natural climate solutions. These efforts will deliver a carbon benefit that balances any remaining emissions over the next 10 years, allowing P&G operations to be carbon neutral for the decade. Based on current estimates, the Company will need to balance ~30 million metric tons of carbon from 2020 to 2030.

P&Gs priority continues to be reducing emissions. P&G has an existing goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% and purchasing 100% renewable electricity by 2030 and is on track to deliver on its 2030 commitments. In addition, P&G will continue pursuing new wind, solar and geothermal projects to further accelerate the transition to renewables. These eorts are aligned with what climate science says is needed to help ensure the Company does its part to limit global temperature increase and will continue well beyond 2030. However, based on todays technologies, there are some emissions that cannot be eliminated by 2030. By investing in natural climate solutions, the Company will accelerate its impact over the next 10 years.

A Critical Window

Recent reports have highlighted that the world is falling short of the greenhouse gas emission reductions needed and that the next decade represents a critical window to reduce emissions and be on a path to limiting temperature increase to 1.5C. That task will get much harder if society doesn't start curbing emissions before the decade ends. By 2050, carbon emissions must fall to zero, or close to it. Failure to act now will put future generations at greater risk from climate change impacts and make achieving the global targets of the Paris Accord more difficult.

"Climate change is happening, and action is needed now, said David Taylor, P&G Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. By reducing our carbon footprint and investing in natural climate solutions, we will be carbon neutral for the decade across our operations and help protect vulnerable ecosystems and communities around the world.

Natural Climate Solutions: Nature alone can solve up to one-third of climate change

P&G will partner with Conservation International and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to identify and fund a range of projects designed to protect, improve and restore critical ecosystems like forests, wetlands, grasslands and peatlands. In addition to sequestering more carbon, an important aspect of natural climate solutions is the potential to deliver meaningful environmental and socioeconomic co-benefits that serve to protect and enhance nature and improve the livelihoods of local communities. As P&G moves forward, the company will seek to identify, measure and communicate relevant co-benefits from its investment in nature.

P&G is developing a detailed project portfolio and investing in projects across the globe. Projects already identified include:

- Philippines Palawan Protection Project with Conservation International - To protect, improve and restore Palawans mangroves and critical ecosystems. Palawan is the worlds fourth most irreplaceable area for unique and threatened wildlife.

- Atlantic Forest Restoration Planning with WWF - In the Atlantic Forest on Brazils east coast, laying the groundwork for forest landscape restoration with meaningful impacts on biodiversity, water, food security and other co-benefits for local communities.

- Evergreen Alliance with Arbor Day Foundation - Bringing corporations, communities and citizens together to take critical action to preserve the necessities of life affected by climate changeincluding planting trees to restore areas devastated by wildfires in Northern California and enhance forests in Germany.

Nature must be a key part of any strategy to combat the climate crisis, said Dr. M. Sanjayan, CEO of Conservation International. Research shows that we cannot meet our climate goals unless we protect, restore and improve the management of carbon-rich ecosystems. Done right, these efforts can deliver a third of the emissions reductions needed within the next decade, and importantly, support the livelihoods of communities on the front lines of climate change. Were delighted to be working with Procter & Gamble to protect nature an investment that is a win for people and our planet.

Weve worked with P&G to drive climate progress and safeguard forests for over a decade, because the scope of their business means they can deliver results at a scale that matters, said Carter Roberts, U.S. President and CEO of WWF. Importantly, that progress hasnt been limited to their own corporate footprint. P&G was an early partner in the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance, which has helped expand corporate renewable energy procurements across the United States. Todays announcement marks further progress by putting a greater focus on the role that preserving nature can play not just in absorbing carbon emissions, but in providing the services and resources that sustain life on earth. We look forward to working with P&G to achieve these new commitments over the next decade.

P&G Brands take the lead on carbon footprint reduction and climate positive habit changes

Committing to going beyond its Science Based Target for reducing operational emissions is important, but the Company will not stop there. For more than two decades, P&G has been committed to harnessing the scientific rigor of the Life Cycle Assessment of its products to better understand the emissions from its supply chain and consumer use of its products (Scope 3 emissions). Up to 85% of P&Gs Scope 3 emissions are from consumer use of its products. P&G reaches five billion people through its brands, and with this scale comes a responsibility to give consumers the power to reduce their own carbon footprints with products that are designed to help save energy, water and natural resources.

- More than 60% of a laundry detergents footprint is in the consumer use phase, mostly related to the energy used to heat the water. Ariel and Tide have been optimizing detergent formulas for high efficiency in low temperature washing and inspiring positive Turn to 30 and Cold Water Wash laundry behaviors. The goal is to have 70% of machine loads be low-energy cycle loads, and major progress has been achieved by educating consumers in the U.S. over the last ten years on the benefits of low-energy wash cycles. P&G estimates that since 2015, the avoided emissions from consumers increasing their use of low-energy laundry cycles have been roughly 15 million metric tons of CO2, which is equivalent to taking three million cars off the road.

- Busting a popular myth, Cascade is showing consumers how the dishwasher is designed to be more water and energy efficient than washing in the sink. Cascade and Fairy Automatic Dish Washing Tablets allow consumers to skip pre-wash and save water and the energy needed to heat the water. Fairy and Dawn Dish Washing Liquids grease cutting power enables water and energy savings: by reducing the water temperature 20C (36F), consumers can save up to 50% CO2 of the total footprint every wash.

Our role as leaders is to make a lower emission economy and lifestyle possible, affordable and desirable for everyone, said Virginie Helias, P&Gs Chief Sustainability Officer. It is our responsibility to protect critical carbon reserves and invest in solutions that regenerate our planet. Consumers also want to do more to address climate change. As a company, we touch five billion people with our brands; we are striving to make a difference every day by encouraging responsible consumption with products that are effective and intuitive to enable adoption of new lower emission habits.

Today at 8am EST/2pm CET, P&G is convening experts and climate leaders for a roundtable hosted by National Geographic to discuss the power of nature as a climate solution. Participants include P&G CEO David Taylor, P&G Chief Sustainability Officer Virginie Helias, Conservation International CEO Dr. M. Sanjayan, Word Wildlife Fund U.S. CEO Carter Roberts, and climate activists Clover Hogan, Jiaxuan Zhang, Kehkashan Basu and Vanessa Nakate.

To learn more about P&Gs new commitment to advance natural climate solutions and become carbon neutral for the decade, visit our Multi Media Release site.

About Procter & Gamble

P&G serves consumers around the world with one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Always, Ambi Pur, Ariel, Bounty, Charmin, Crest, Dawn, Downy, Fairy, Febreze, Gain, Gillette, Head & Shoulders, Lenor, Olay, Oral-B, Pampers, Pantene, SK-II, Tide, Vicks, and Whisper. The P&G community includes operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide. Please visit https://www.pg.com/ for the latest news and information about P&G and its brands.

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P&G Embraces Natural Climate Solutions to Accelerate Progress on Climate Change and Will Make Operations Carbon Neutral for the Decade - Business Wire

A century after the 19th amendment was passed granting women the right to vote, nearly three in 10 men (28%) say that women's gains toward equality have come at their expense,according to a report released by Pew Research Center.

The report, which surveyed more than 3,000 U.S. men and women from March 18-April, 1, 2020, found that this difference in opinion about gender equality varies across party lines with 38% of Republican men saying that women's equality has come at the expense of men, compared to 19% of Democratic men. A quarter of Republican women also agree with this sentiment, while just 12% of Democratic women agree with this view.

Though a significant portion of men think women's progress is negatively impacting them, the overall report found that the majority of Americans, 57%, think the U.S. has not gone far enough with granting women equal rights. When asked about the major obstacles that are preventing women from achieving full equality today, 77% said sexual harassment, 67% said women not having the same legal rights as men, 66% said different societal expectations for men and women and 64% said not enough women in positions of power. Women overall were more likely than men to see each of these issues as major obstacles.

For the majority of Americans who say it's important for men and women to have equal rights, many point to disparities in the workplace as clear signs of gender inequality. In the U.S., women make upnearly halfof the entry-level workforce, but comprise only a fifth of the C-suite and just 7.4% of Fortune 500 CEO seats. This is despite the fact that women earn nearly60% of bachelor'sand master's degrees, meaning there is no shortage of qualified women in the pipeline.

"It's disappointing," former finance executive and chair of Newmont Mining Corporation Noreen Doyle toldCNBC Make Itin March. When looking at the lack of diversity in leadership, she says it's clear that "there are a lot of subtle ways where men have been advantaged over women."

When asked what a gender equal society would look like, 45% of the Pew survey respondents said that men and women would have equal pay and an additional 19% said that there would be no discrimination in hiring, promoting or providing educational opportunities for women.

Right now, women earn roughly 82 cents for every dollar earned by men, with women of color earning even less. Over the course of a 40-year career, this adds up to $407,760 in lost wages, according to the National Women's Law Center.For Black, Latina and Native women, this wage disparity adds up to a loss of nearly $1 million or more over the course of one's career.

In addition to this ongoing pay gap, a 2019 report fromLean In and McKinsey & Company, found that for every 100 men promoted and hired to a manager position, only 72 women are promoted and hired for the same role, signaling major obstacles around gender bias in the workplace.

"Men are typically hired based on potential and what we believe they can do," says Lean In co-founder and CEO Rachel Thomas. "While women are typically hired and promoted based on what they've already accomplished."

Thomas adds that if companies don't pay attention to this bias, then the leadership pipeline will continue to be filled with a disproportionate number of men.

Aside from sharing their views about gender equality in the workplace, Pew also asked U.S. adults to share their opinions about what groups and institutions have been beneficial in helping to advance women's rights.According to survey results, 59% of Americans believe the Democratic Party has done at least a fair amount to advance gender parity, while 37% say the same about the Republican Party.

In terms of the feminist movement, 64% of adults say it's helped the lives of White women, 61% say it has helped the lives of Black women and 58% say it has helped the lives of Hispanic women at least a little bit. Overall, the respondents say feminism has helped White women a lot more than it has helped women of color and they say feminism has helped wealthy women a lot more than poor women.

Additionally, as lawmakers push to include the Equal Rights Amendment in the U.S. Constitution, the report found that while 78% of Americans are at least somewhat in favor of this move, just44% believe that it would actually make a difference in advancing women's rights.

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Nearly 30% of men say progress toward gender equality has come at their expense, according to new report - CNBC

13Jul2020

The 100km-long "A-68" iceberg, which calved from Antarctica in 2017, is now 1000km away from birthplace and shrinking.

When it calved, A-68 was about twice the size of Luxembourg and one of the largest icebergs on record, changing the outline of the Antarctic Peninsula forever. Despite its size, however, it is remarkably thin, just a couple of hundred metres thick.

Over the last three years, satellite missions such as the European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel-1 have been used to track the berg as it drifted in the Southern Ocean. For the first two years, it remained close to its parent ice sheet, impeded by sea ice.

However, it lost a chunk of ice almost immediately after being calved, resulting in it being renamed A-68A, and its offspring became A-68B. More recently, in April 2020, A-68A lost another chunk: A-68C.

Antarctic icebergs are named from the Antarctic quadrant in which they were originally sighted, then a sequential number, then, if the iceberg breaks, a sequential letter. Although A-68A is a relatively thin iceberg, it has held together reasonably well, but satellites will be key to monitoring how it changes in open waters.

Pace of drift increasing

Captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 radar mission, the image above shows the berg on 5 July 2020, a few days before its third birthday. Satellites carrying radar continue to deliver images regardless of the dark and bad weather, which is indispensable when monitoring the remote polar regions which are shrouded in darkness during the winter months.

Other maps available from ESA show the different positions of A-68A during its three-year journey. The map not only highlights how long it remained close to the Larsen C ice sheet, but how, over the past year or so, its pace of drift has increased considerably. The map also includes historic iceberg tracks, based on data from a number of satellites including ESAs ERS-1 and ERS-2, and shows that A-68A is following this well-trodden path.

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Copernicus Sentinel-1 tracks progress of giant iceberg over three years - Optics.org

Katie Swan, sixth in the country and 254 in the world when the WTA list was frozen in March, is the topranked player in the Progress Tour championship intended to kickstart the disrupted season for British women in south-west London on Tuesday.

The world No 50, Heather Watson, was the No 1 seed but pulled out on Monday afternoon with an ankle injury, joining the third seed and world No 146 Harriet Dart, who has a groin strain, the world No 14 Johanna Konta, who showed no interest in the 30,000 event, the improving veteran Samantha Murray Sharan (WTA 180th) and the promising Naiktha Bains (223) as absentees from a noble venture. Even in a seriously shredded draw the one-time star of British womens tennis, Laura Robson, who had a second hip operation last year, was not tempted to enter.

Instead of matching the efforts of the successful mens Battle of the Brits two weeks ago, the tournament, bedevilled by a flurry of late withdrawals and high-calibre no-shows, takes on the look of a county event with only coaches and the LTA staff watching at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton. Watson had been added as a late wildcard so her withdrawal compounded the absence of Konta, by a distance Britains most successful woman of the past decade.

Watson said: I have a foot injury. It happened last week and has been getting worse. I have pain simply walking, so I wont be playing at all for at least three days. Its such a shame. I was playing really well and was excited to compete again.

Dart was similarly disappointed. I was looking forward to competing again but, after training today, I realised that Im not quite ready, due to a groin issue. Ill definitely be watching on TV.

Swan, mentored by Andy Murray, has spent much of the closed season in her home-away-from-home, Wichita, Kansas, staying fit and delivering food to households doubly disadvantaged by the coronavirus, but returned to the UK recently.

By default, she will be favourite to win an event that will be shown on the LTAs YouTube page, and on the BBCs digital platforms from Tuesday until Saturday.

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Katie Swan favourite for Progress Tour hit by Watson and Dart withdrawals - The Guardian

Its been nearly half a year since the first case of COVID-19 was identified in the United States, in the Puget Sound area, on Jan. 21.

While the state eventually shut down in late March in an effort to slow the diseases spread, Washington began the gradual process of reopening after little more than a month.

But as counties began moving through the stages of the states phased reopening plan, the coronavirus was just beginning its wider spread outside the Seattle area and into other parts of the state, including to Yakima, the Tri-Cities and, eventually, Spokane.

Since April, after a particularly bad first wave in Western Washington, Central and Eastern Washington have been hit with their own first waves of the virus, leading to newly reopened restaurants shutting down all over again, to outbreaks in prison units and food processing plants, and to community spread, even in rural counties.

Case rates statewide are higher now, with half the counties partially reopened, than they were in April, and state public health officials have paused any further reopening for now.

In Spokane, hospitalizations have doubled in a month, and intensive care capacity remains a concern due to questions about staffing levels.

In Yakima, where Gov. Jay Inslees masking orders first went into effect , patients were sent to hospitals outside the area when staff needs hit capacity.

Franklin County has the highest percent-positive rate in the state, with 32% of individuals tested in the last two weeks returning positive results.

Six months into the pandemic, it feels like not a lot has changed.

Test results are backed up again, with people having to wait a week to 10 days in isolation to see if they are positive or negative. Community spread, when the virus is contracted without known connections to other cases, is back on the rise, as it was in March and April.

The rising number of cases has put increased challenges and pressure on contact tracing efforts, which began with reopening and are now incredibly strained and overwhelmed.

Despite the state training hundreds of workers and National Guard members to do contact tracing, counties like Spokane have opted to hire outside companies to conduct contact tracing. With more than 460 cases confirmed this week alone, the work has eclipsed what local epidemiologists can handle.

Washington was on lockdown from late March to early May, giving public health officials and state leaders an opportunity to prepare outbreaks underway and on the way, predominantly in long-term care facilities across the state and more broadly in the Puget Sound area.

By May, residents were antsy, and reopening lurched forward, with Ins-lees phased plan taking effect.

Despite state leaders efforts to ensure counties were ready to move ahead, its apparent now they miscalculated in some cases. Some counties hadnt had their first wave yet.

According to Eric Lofgren, an epidemiologist at Washington State University, some took the absence of cases in some areas as evidence the virus had been safely contained. In reality, he said, the first wave hadnt fully reached parts of Eastern Washington, including Spokane and the Tri-Cities.

If you dont have cases, that means either your epidemic hasnt started yet or youve successfully controlled it, Lofgren said. So I think everyone said we successfully controlled it, and what we discovered was that in several states we discovered that your epidemic was a little slower in coming.

The same story played out across the country in states that reopened this summer after seeing relatively low case counts but are now seeing hospitalizations and case counts surge.

Washington is now seeing higher daily case counts in July than April.

Testing capacity is back to waits of 10 days to two weeks for results , largely due to rising demand and growing backlogs at national laboratories, where the majority of the countrys testing capacity lies.

We are truly back to where we were in March, Spokane County Health Officer Bob Lutz said Friday, noting the challenges felt in Spokane are felt statewide and nationally .

Long wait times make it challenging for public health officials asking people to isolate at home until they get test results.

Delays are harmful because they dont allow us to quickly contain a case, Secretary of Health John Wiesman told reporters Thursday. We know people are most infectious early on and thats why we say to anybody getting a test that if you have any reason to get a test, we want you to stay home until you get your results.

With more testing, came more cases, but that doesnt paint the full picture of the disease burden.

The statewide percent-positive rate has also steadily increased this summer, as has the rate of people testing positive in counties per 100,000 people. Only 16 counties statewide are meeting case rate goals set by the governors Safe Start plan.

Could more have been done during the states lockdown to prevent the COVID-19 resurgence? Lofgren thinks so.

I think at both a national and local level, what happened is we did sort of waste the opportunities we had to get things in place for people to start taking this seriously, to put testing strategies in place, he said.

The states positive rate is back up to nearly 6%, and modelers are now confident the epidemic was growing in both Eastern and Western Washington in mid- to late June.

While the resurgence in cases was originally limited to a few hot spots, upward trends are now prominent in most counties, the most recent state modeling report says.

Summer is nearly half over, and schools are set to open in less than two months. With so much of the response feeling like dj vu, health officials lament the lost time.

We had breathing room, and weve largely used it on politicizing the epidemic, Lofgren said.

In half a year, treatment options for COVID-19 have improved, but doctors and researchers are still far from a treatment that works even half the time on patients who are hospitalized with the virus.

Two standout treatments, remdesivir and dexamethasone, appear to have some positive results, although the studies are ongoing and results are still preliminary in both clinical trials.

A study from a large drug trial led by Oxford University researchers found that dexamethasone, a common steroid, was helpful in treating patients with COVID-19 who were on oxygen or ventilated. While their study has not yet been peer-reviewed or published, their early results look somewhat promising. The steroid kept one person in a group of 20 with severe symptoms from dying .

These results are impressive in the drug trial world, but they have a long way to go before proving entirely useful.

Both MultiCare and Providence hospitals have enrolled in the clinical trials for remdesivir guided by the National Institutes of Health, and Dr. Henry Arguinchona, an infectious disease practitioner at Sacred Heart Medical Center, said initial trials of the drug also look promising.

Patients receiving remdesivir in the trial are faring better than those who get the placebo. The trial will soon move into its third phase; second phase results are forthcoming.

Early in the pandemic, ventilators were an in-demand lifesaving tool . While they are still being used for some patients, physicians are not immediately putting patients on them anymore. The National Institutes of Health now recommends a less invasive intervention a high-flow nasal cannula over a ventilator in some instances.

Some patients are doing well and able to get more oxygen to their lungs when they are simply flipped onto their stomachs, Arguinchona said, another technique doctors, nurses and intensivists are using.

I feel that we know better now how to take care of these patients, but I am hopeful that one or two or three or four months now, we know even more, Arguinchona said.

Recovering from COVID-19 is far from a linear process, and some people have experienced ongoing symptoms or side effects of their bodys fight with the virus for months. As The Atlantics Ed Yong notes, some people with COVID-19 and ongoing illness call themselves long-haulers. Yong writes that they are navigating a landscape of uncertainty and fear with a map whose landmarks dont reflect their surroundings.

Arguinchona said the phenomenon of patients not getting better is being seen more and more in COVID patients, but he noted that lingering health conditions are not necessarily indicative of persisting virus in the person.

There are many infections a person can get, and afterwards they can get a postinfectious syndrome, Arguinchona said. They can be left with lingering symptoms. With regards to post-COVID-19 symptoms, its not known what the causes or etymology of those is.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers a patient who is not admitted to the hospital with the virus as having a mild case, but Lofgren notes that mild doesnt really give weight to potential symptoms and conditions patients experience.

There are a lot of people who had supposedly mild cases of COVID who are still struggling with lung function and struggling with cardiovascular issues, Lofgren said.

The virus has exposed the inequities that already run rampant throughout the American health care system, including here in Washington.

When adjusted for population size, Hispanics and Pacific Islanders have nine times the number of COVID-19 cases than white people in Washington. The disproportionate rates of the virus trickle into hospitalizations and deaths from the virus , and nonwhite communities are hit hard by the virus statewide.

In Spokane County, the Marshallese community has experienced devastating effects of the virus.

The pandemic has exacerbated the underlying and persistent inequities among historically marginalized communities and those disproportionately impacted due to structural racism and other forms of systemic oppression, a July 8 report from the Department of Health says.

The department allotted a half-million dollars to get community organizations funding to bolster virus prevention and response efforts in a large swath of communities statewide. DOH awarded dozens of community organizations contracts that ranged from $5,000 to $20,000 to fund communication and emergency outreach services for communities that are disproportionately impacted by the virus.

Some pregnant women are also not faring well if they contract COVID-19. A CDC report found that pregnant women with COVID-19 are more likely to be hospitalized and are at increased risk for ICU admission than nonpregnant women. Nationwide, 11,312 pregnant women have contracted the virus, and 31 of them have died.

Arguinchona said some pregnant women have become very ill with COVID.

Young people, who were not as impacted at the beginning of the pandemic, are now driving case counts locally, statewide and nationally.

Twenty- and 30-somethings make up 38% of confirmed COVID-19 cases statewide and 45% of cases in Spokane County.

In recent weeks, health officials have pleaded with young people to stop gathering in large groups and to wear masks when around one another. Most young people might experience mild symptoms with the virus, but the fear is that they will bring the virus to their older parents or grandparents, or spread the virus when they are at work.

We have a lot of work to do with younger folks here in Washington limiting their social interactions and make sure theyre wearing masks, State Health Officer Kathy Lofy told reporters on July 8.

With the start of the school year less than two months away, community members and public health officials remain skeptical that kids will be back in their classrooms.

Dr. David Line, the public health program director at Eastern Washington University, says the county will pay for our actions, including July 4 gatherings with case counts and hospitalizations.

At the end of the first wave, if enough of the community has started wearing masks and adhering to small gathering requirements, it should be doing well, he said.

If we arent doing well at the end of (the next) seven weeks, if we dont have a low caseload, we are in really big trouble because thats when school starts, Line said. If we miss that window that occurs right now through the rest of the summer, we will not be able to contain that wildfire at least through all next school year.

Wearing masks and face coverings could determine what school districts do when school begins.

Lofgren has studied how schools can stay open and avoid transmission of infectious disease.

Its possible we can have school, but its not as fun as it used to be, he said. Its possible we cant get a 5-year-old to wear a mask, but we can get an 8-year-old to wear a mask.

Measures such as not allowing group activities such as band and choir, having teachers instead of students move from classroom to classroom, and having students eat in the classroom, could help minimize widespread interaction of students in schools.

Schools might use hybrid models of partial reopening , depending on the district and the countys phase of reopening . The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction wants schools to reopen in-person but officials acknowledge districts in Phase 1 or modified Phase 1 counties might have to implement additional safety measures.

DOH guidance for schools requires universal masking but leaves additional measures at the discretion of school districts.

As for colleges, research indicates congregate living settings like dorms are perfect breeding grounds for virus transmission.

A group of college students from the University of Texas who went to Cabo San Lucas for spring break in March ended up in a perfect COVID environment. Three symptomatic students were tested when they returned, and the contact tracing investigation revealed 64 total people had contracted the virus.

Shared housing both on-campus and during their spring break trip led researchers to believe that patterns of living and interacting in close settings could lead to propagated spread, similar to the continued person-to-person transmission observed in long-term care facilities.

As Washington and other states experience a surge in cases this month, health officials insist widespread mask use is key to bringing down transmission rates in the near future.

For EWUs Line, it comes down to community buy-in on masking and cooperation with contact tracing efforts.

We could do nothing and let the whole thing burn up. We could do this fake open-close thing and suffer the whole way through. Or we can do some pretty simple things and get full support by everybody and not have to suffer and be fine in seven to eight weeks, he said.

The Department of Health and the CDC recommended the use of face coverings in early April, but mandates took longer. Leaders hoped residents would take the advice and wear face coverings, in place of hunkering down at home. That didnt work.

In mid-May, some local jurisdictions, including King and Spokane counties, mandated masks, though the mandates werent always enforced.

Statewide, however, masks were not required for all residents until late June. That requirement is likely to remain in place for a long time.

Wear a mask, social distance, try to take responsibility for your own part of this outbreak, and that means things arent going to be fun for a while and thats hard, but those sacrifices mean maybe kids can go to school, maybe those stressed households are less stressed, Lofgren said.

The notion that we will be done with COVID-19 soon is not realistic, Lofgren said.

We need to start engaging with the idea that this isnt a couple months, he said. Its the better part of the year.

Researchers and health care providers are working overtime around the country and the world to find out just how effective and long-lasting antibodies are, and how effective a vaccine could be as a result.

Were not promised a treatment or a vaccine, Lofgren said.

See original here:

After 6 months and little progress controlling the pandemic, return to normal remains out of sight - The Spokesman-Review

Back during the December 2019 State of Play, Square Enix and PlatinumGames shared a Babylons Fall trailer. At the end of it was a promise. More information next summer. Well, next summer is here, and theres an update that might not be what people expect. While the developer and publisher confirm things are continuing to progress well, the promised information isnt here.

The statement was shared on the games Twitter account.

Thank you to all fans whove been following along for updates on Babylons Fall.

While we hoped to reveal more about the game this summer, we can share that development on Babylons Fall is continuing to progress well, with the team working safely from home.

Square Enix and PlatinumGames are committed to delivering an exhilarating experience and we look forward to showcasing much more on Babylons Fall to you as soon as we can.

This Square Enix and Platinum title was first announced back in June 2018. At the time, it was a part of the Square Enix E3 2018 showcase and had a tentative 2019 assigned to it and PlayStation 4 and PC platforms named. A follow-up promised more information in 2019, which eventually led to that State of Play appearance.

Babylons Fall is currently in development for the PlayStation 4 and PC.

Original post:

Babylons Fall Development Is Continuing to Progress Well - Siliconera

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Penn Hills Progress area real estate transactions for the week of July 12 - TribLIVE