Category Archives: Progress

You can tweet questions to me with the hashtag #AskMase or use the submission form to your right (if you're viewing on a standard browser) or at the bottom of the page if you're on the mobile site.

What is your evaluation of the quarterbacks so far? Are both of them progressing and improving? I'm asking you because you give a neutral opinion. There seems to be a narrative that only Paxton Lynch is progressing because that seems to be all that is written about except from your reports. You talk about both QBs.

-- Taryn O'Neil

In reflecting on the four weeks of OTAs and minicamp, both were better when they finished than when they began. In particular, Lynch improved in his touch passes and his resiliency; he was much better at shaking off a mistake and resetting his focus for the next play than he was last year. This is as much a result of increased maturity that any second-year quarterback would have as it is of his comfort level in the system. He also showed palpable growth in getting to his second read and making quicker decisions.

As for Trevor Siemian, I liked the patience he showed in the pocket, which gave him the opportunity to identify late-opening receivers downfield. Siemian was able to make some big plays to tight ends and other inside targets down the seam because he gave them a chance to get some separation. It's also clear how quickly he ingests a tip from a coach and implements it into his play.

One example of this came during a minicamp practice. Siemian had one pass that was knocked down at the line of scrimmage that could have been avoided if he had released the football at a higher point. On the next play, the ball came out higher, soared past two outstretched hands from defensive linemen, and a completion and a first down followed.

There was much to like about both quarterbacks, but as is the case with all young passers, much needs to be improved. The phrase "work in progress" will likely apply, no matter who ends up starting Week 1.

I'm finally getting up to Denver from Vegas this year for the preseason game against the Packers. What are some good Broncos-related things to do before the game? Possible autographs, sights, activities, food, etc. Thanks!

-- Wendell Hayes

This page has some information on activities that take place before the game at the stadium. Autographs from current players will be tough to get because it's a game day, but you can greet them as they arrive at the southwest tunnel.

If you want to get there early and take part in the team's official tailgate, head to the Mile High Mountain Village, which is accessible through Gate 4 (the northwest gate) and features an all-you-can-eat menu for $20 (if your ticket is bought in advance).

You should also take time to visit the Mile High Monument, the scaled-down replica of Mile High Stadium that sits in the north parking lot.

Beyond the stadium, I recommend using Visit Denver's website page on "things to do" as a starting point for finding ideas that are tailored to your personal tastes. That said, August is a perfect time of year to visit Rocky Mountain National Park, hit Red Rocks or spend a day on a hiking trail. You can't go wrong with any of those.

As much as we've all heard about the left tackle competition, I don't believe I've heard/read one lick of how Menelik Watson is looking so far?

-- Tyler German

So far, so good. Good health is going to be the key for him, but if he can avoid the injuries that plagued him, he could be an effective power blocker at right tackle, which is where he received all of his work during OTAs and minicamp. If the Broncos keep Ron Leary at right guard, the right side of their line has some road-grading potential that could clear plenty of holes for their running backs.

When does training camp begin?

-- Deb Grenzke

The exact dates and times will be announced soon, but the earliest it can begin is Thursday, July 27. Teams cannot hold their first practice until two weeks before the preseason opener, which for the Broncos comes on August 10 at Chicago.

This QB battle between the Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch is heating up and is as savory as a chicken fried steak and potatoes on a cold Friday evening, That being said, I want to know who are you rooting for and why?

-- Marc Aguirre

That is a tremendous analogy, but I have no rooting interest. It is unwise for someone who must accurately report and analyze the quarterbacks' daily performances to pick a side.

Submit a question for the next Mailbag!

The analysis, opinion and speculation in this story represents that of the author, gathered through research and reporting, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Denver Broncos organization.

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Mason's Mailbag: Areas of progress for Paxton Lynch, Trevor Siemian - DenverBroncos.com (blog)

LONDON British business groups are making progress in persuading the government to grant them a formal role in future trade talks around Brexit, the head of the Confederation of British Industry, an employers group, said on Monday.

Countries such as Australia and Canada have given business groups a say in trade negotiations, something that CBI director general Carolyn Fairbairn said would make a "huge difference" for Britain.

"They have confidential and formal structures and we have been calling for exactly that here. I think that we're seeing real signs of progress actually," Fairbairn told reporters at a news conference.

A year after Britons shocked the continent by voting on June 23 to cut loose from their main export market, debate has broken out again within the government over the best Brexit strategy following Prime Minister Theresa May's electoral failure to win a resounding backing from voters for her approach.

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CBI Sees Progress on Getting Business Groups Formal Brexit Role - New York Times

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Intel's 7th generation of high-end desktop processors (HEDT), known as the Basin Falls platform, is set to compete with AMD's Ryzen CPUs and upcoming Threadripper platform. These new Intel CPUs opt for a new socket and chipset--socket LGA 2066 on motherboards with X299 chipsets. As AMD looks to release several SKUs of Threadripper on top of the abundance of cost-effective Ryzen CPUs, Intel is coming out with a total of nine SKUs for its new platform; five under the Core i9 family, three as Core i7, and one as Core i5, which range from quad-core to 18-core multithreaded CPUs. All these new Intel CPUs are also branded as the X-series.

We were able to get our hands on the Core i9-7900X--the 10-core 20-thread Skylake-X CPU--for evaluation. It's priced at $1000, which is about $700 cheaper than Intel's previous 10-core 20-thread offering in the Core i7-6950X. As you can tell, HEDTs don't come cheap since they're meant to perform high level operations like video encoding and image rendering, even several of these operations at the same time. They're not intended for gaming alone and are frequently targeted at "prosumers" who typically stream, game, and produce video content often simultaneously.

The following chart outlines all the known specifications of Intel's new CPUs:

An additional detail to note is that the i9-7900X, i7-7820X, and i7-7800X CPUs all support quad-channel memory. The i7-7740 and i5-7640X Kaby Lake-X CPUs only support dual-channel memory, however.

Pre-orders are now open for the i9-7900X down to the i5-7640X, which are all set to release on June 26. The rest of the Core-i9 CPUs, which don't have final specifications, are slated to release sometime later this year.

Though i9-7900X's cores have a stock clock speed of 3.3 GHz, it can reach up to 4.3 GHz with Turbo Boost Max 2.0 and 4.5 GHz with Turbo Boost Max 3.0. With these technologies, the two best performing cores will receive the biggest boost while the more taxing workloads can be directed to those cores. Each CPU in the X-series comes unlocked which means you won't be bound by boost clocks and can overclock to your heart's desire, given the right cooling and voltage circumstances.

The 7900X is built with the 14nm FinFET manufacturing process technology, which is currently the most advanced for the desktop processor market. It also sports the new Skylake-X microarchitecture, which handles more instructions per clock than previous geneations. It also trades L3 cache size for a larger, more efficient mid-level cache (MLC) compared to the last-generation Broadwell-E architecture. The 7900X supports 44 PCI-e 3.0 lanes, most of the Skylake-X CPUs so far.

We're in the midst of benchmarking this CPU and we'll be comparing it to Intel's previous 10-core 20-thread offering in the Core i7-6950X Broadwell-E CPU. As for an AMD comparison, the 8-core 16-thread Ryzen 7 1800X is the most powerful from CPU currently on the market to compete against Intel since Threadripper isn't out yet. Take note that the R7 1800X is half the retail price ($500) of the i9-7900X ($1000).

We're equipped with Gigabyte X299 Gaming 9 motherboard, which received a BIOS update on June 16 to help optimize the performance of turbo boost technology. Our X299 system features 16GB of Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR4-2666 RAM in dual-channel, and all systems use the Nvidia GTX 1080 reference graphics card to help keep specs consistent across systems.

Cinebench R15 is a 3D image rendering benchmark that really makes the most of CPU cores, and for now, these results give small taste of the Core i9-7900X's capabilities. It shows to be about 15.9% faster over the 6950X when we ran the multi-core test, and about 12.5% faster using the single-core test. In this regard, Skylake-X proves to be a substantial improvement over the previous Broadwell-E architecture. The 7900X is also faster than the R7 1800X by about 33.2% in the multi-core run and 17.4% faster in the single-core run. It shouldn't be a surprise since the 1800X is an 8-core 16-thread CPU at half the price.

We look forward to analyzing more results as we complete our testing of the Core i9-7900X, which will include the following benchmarks:

There are plenty of benchmarks to perform and results to analyze in order to properly evaluate this new processor. So, we will be bringing out our full review of the Core i9-7900X later this week. Stay tuned.

More:

Intel Core i9-7900X 10-Core CPU Review In Progress - GameSpot

Germany continues to make huge strides in gender equality advancement in soccer. Their womens league has long been one of the best in the world, withthe Womens Bundesliga the most successful league in terms of UEFA Womens Champions League winners. Just last month, the Bundesliga announced that Bibiana Steinhaus will be the leagues first ever female referee.

Now, with the hire of Helena Costa, Eintracht Frankfurt have become the first Bundesliga side to ever hire a female scout.

Costa, 39, brings a wealth of experience in the game as she joins Frankfurts staff. She holds a UEFA A coaching license, and spent 13 yearsas a coach in Benficas youth system. Costa spent time in the backroom staff at Celtic in the Scottish Premier League, and was in charge of both the Qatar and Iran womens teams. This is far from the first time shes made history, taking charge of French Ligue 2 side Clermont Foot in 2014, becoming the first woman to manage a mens team in the top two divisions of a major European league.

Costa will help the club expand their footprint in the Portuguese game, and continue to expand on their already richly diverse team, already boasting 17 different nationalities.

She has real knowledge of football and has already experienced a great deal in her life in the sport. We want scouts who live in and know the countries where were looking for talent, said Frankfurt sporting director Fredi Bobic.

With her experience in Portugal and in France, it seems Costa fits that profile perfectly.

More here:

Bundesliga continues gender equality progress as Eintracht Frankfurt hire first female scout - FOXSports.com

Loudoun Co. Sheriff's Office patrol car (ABC7 file photo)

Three men were interrupted during a robbery in progress and arrested in Sterling over the weekend.

A security officer reported a theft in progress, saying three men had stolen electronics items and had forced their way into a jewelry case, according to a statement from the Loudoun County Sheriffs Office.

When deputies arrived, one of the suspects lifted his shirt and showed a handgun. A deputy took the man to the floor and secured the gun.

Deputies arrested Jalen P. McMahan, 22, of Centreville, Anthony A. Moaf, 20, of Herndon, and Angel L. Gaskins, 24, of Centreville.

According to the statement:

Moaf and McMahan are being held with bond at the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center.

Gaskins was released on a secured bond.

No one was injured in the encounter, according to the statement.

Read more:

Loudoun deputies interrupt robbery in progress in Sterling, arrest 3 Va. men - WJLA

Tomorrow is World Wi-Fi Day! Yet, no parades will be held, no feasts prepared, and families will not gather together in its honor. Perhaps a subdued celebratory moment is appropriate given that Wi-Fi is generally taken for granted, even though it produces enormous benefits for Internet users around the globe. More precisely, using unlicensed spectrum to offer Wi-Fi has completely changed the reach and breadth of Internet offerings, and for that, we should all be thankful. At the same time, this day also provides an opportunity to recognize those people worldwide who still dont have the technology and identify ways this can be fixed.

To say that Wi-Fi is a critical component of Internet access in todays always-connected society doesnt do it justice. Every day, Wi-Fi handles more than half of all Internet traffic and brings wireless Internet availability to billions and billions of devices. It connects individuals to home networks and throughout work settings. Its nearly omnipresent and often offered for free in coffee shops, libraries, airports, universities, hotels and many other places, delivering fast download speeds and once unimaginable bandwidth capacity. And, we cant ignore its contributions to overall economic productivity, which can be likely measured in the hundreds of billions or trillions of dollars produced and man-hours saved.

One of the best ways to realize Wi-Fis impact is to imagine life without it. Here are just a few scenarios to illustrate this point. First, we would still be dragging fiber throughout the inner workings of commercial buildings, residences, and campuses, dramatically raising service costs while reducing availability. Internet users would be required to plug into hardwired ports, saying goodbye to device mobility. Remember how fun it was plugging your Cat-5 Ethernet cord into a wall? Second, consumers would have to rely on more expensive data plans from commercial wireless carriers. Just imagine the cost of binge watching your favorite show or movies over traditional cell phone networks. And third, consumers would pay more for poorer service, because mobile providers would suffer more congestion and be forced to offer slower service speeds as traffic couldnt be offloaded to cheaper, Wi-Fi systems.

Notwithstanding all of the success to date, Wi-Fis future looks even brighter. Given the amazing adoption rate and improvements in performance, its more likely than not that Internet data traffic will continue to shift to Wi-Fi for the foreseeable future and security enhancements will reverse threats of exposed consumer experiences. Moreover, ubiquitous Wi-Fi voice calling and a truly mesh network seem not far away. Additionally, Wi-Fi incorporation into location technologies seems a guarantee, especially for hard to reach areas, such as building interiors. Wi-Fi also is likely to branch out to unlicensed millimeter wave spectrum bands (e.g., 60 GHz), via the 802.11ad standard (WiGig), allowing increased capacity, lower latency and greater speeds.

The Federal Communications Commission, where I have the pleasure of serving, generally has done a good job of providing an environment for Wi-Fi to flourish in the U.S. But more needs to be done to promote future opportunities. This includes making more spectrum bands available for unlicensed use to allow super-wide Wi-Fi channels and making a firm commitment to opening up the 5.9 GHz band for unlicensed use, assuming sharing with automotive safety systems is proven possible. We also need to explore whether, and to what degree, Wi-Fi can play a factor in connecting those in the hardest to reach parts of the U.S. without Internet service. Maybe Wi-Fi is a good technology to stretch existing networks beyond their edges to more rural portions of our nation.

Similarly, Wi-Fi may be the cheapest and fastest way to bring Internet access to the huge populations of the world now without it. By some estimates, three to fourbillionpeople do not have reliable Internet availability. Certainly in poorer urban centers Wi-Fi makes a ton of sense to connect the unconnected. It can be done for a fraction of the cost of licensed networks and is a known, proven technology, unlike drones, balloons and so forth. Admittedly, this will require serious planning and the will to make it happen, but that is exactly the skillset of those involved in delivering Wi-Fi today.

No matter how people choose to celebrate World Wi-Fi Day, it only seems appropriate to acknowledge the wonderful technology advances made possible by its existence.

Mike O'Rielly (@Mikeofcc)is a member of the Federal Communications Commission.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

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This World Wi-Fi Day, let's celebrate the progress we've made - The Hill (blog)

Thousands of supporters showed their support for the LGBT community at Knoxville's Pride Parade and Festival on Saturday.

Grant Robinson, WBIR 10:28 PM. EDT June 17, 2017

KNOXVILLE - Thousands of supporters showed their support for the LGBT community at Knoxville's Pride Parade and Festival on Saturday.

The event comes just before the two year anniversary of the Supreme Court's monumental decision on marriage equality ,and barely one year after the shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando that killed 49 people.

Festival-goers said celebrating and remembering both events made this year's Pride Fest even more meaningful.

"I've never felt so much love and acceptance," Krista Bunch said.

2017 marked Bunch's third Pride Fest and first time participating in the parade.

"I have seen an increase of support among people that, honestly, I would have never thought would show support," Bunch said. "People are becoming more open, more accepting and it honestly makes my heart happy to be able to see so much support, especially in Tennessee."

Yet despite the progress made for LGBT rights in recent years, some say there's still more work to do.

"A lot of people were under the impression that when marriage equality passed that civil rights issues for gays were done, but because we do have the housing discrimination, because there's so much employment discrimination it's important that we have these gatherings and kind of encourage each other," Perry Stevens said.

About half a dozen protestors stood at the end of the parade with signs, speaking through megaphones. Stevens says they just help the LGBT community become even more tightly knit.

"It's not easy to listen to some of the things they say," Stevens said. "They certainly have the right to say them, but we also have a right to drown them out with our cheers, so we've been doing that too."

Mayor Madeline Rogero reaffirmed her support to the LGBT community.

"It just lets everybody relax and have some fun," Mayor Rogero said. "And you know when you're in the midst of a struggle, which we are on this issue, you have to take some time to celebrate."

Several festival-goers wore shirts supporting the victims of last year's Pulse nightclub shooting.

RELATED:Pulse shooting: Remembering the victims one year later

"It made quite an impression," Stevens said. "Last year at this time, it was a very somber mood because of that. This year we're still remembering them and we don't want anybody too forget what happened to them. That's one of the reasons we're out here."

Stevens says events like Saturday's Pride Fest are important because they help move the community forward, even through hard times.

Though Saturday's Pride Parade and Festival is the summer's largest event, Knox Pride will host other events throughout the summer. You can find a list of those HERE.

2017 WBIR.COM

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Pride Fest celebrates progress, remembers Pulse - WBIR-TV

With tens of thousands of children lingering in foster care across the United States, waiting for adoption, Illinois schoolteachers Kevin Neubert and Jim Gorey did their bit. What began with their offer to briefly care for a newborn foster child evolved within a few years into the adoption of that little boy and all four of his older siblings who also were in foster care.

The story of their two-dad, five-kid family exemplifies the potential for same-sex couples to help ease the perennial shortfall of adoptive homes for foster children. Yet, even as more gays and lesbians are adopting, there are efforts by state and federal politicians to protect faith-based adoption agencies that object to placing children in such families.

Sweeping new measures in Texas and South Dakota allow state-funded agencies to refuse to place children with unmarried or gay prospective parents because of religious objections. A bill passed last month in Alabama applies to agencies using private funds. A newly introduced bill in Congress would extend such provisions nationwide.

For those who support gay adoption, the entire phenomenon is very much a good news/bad news story. Gays and lesbians have ever-expanding opportunities to adopt, and a strong likelihood of finding community support if they do so. Yet bias against prospective gay adoptive parents remains pervasive, whether its overt or subtle, and experts in the field believe that many thousands of gays and lesbians are dissuaded from adopting for fear of encountering such bias.

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Some of these agencies are quite clear that they dont work with certain sorts of people, said Currey Cook, who handles adoption and foster care issues for the LGBT-rights group Lambda Legal.

Some would-be gay adopters seek out other agencies, Cook said. But some people think, Im not going to risk being stigmatized and turned away, so Im not going to step up at all.

Theres no official, up-to-date count of gay and lesbian adoptive parents, but the number is on the rise.

Same-sex couples are nearly three times as likely to adopt as heterosexual couples, says Gary Gates, a specialist in LGBT demography. His latest analysis of Census Bureau data indicates that in 2015, the year that same-sex marriage was legalized nationwide, there were 44,000 adopted children being raised by 28,000 same-sex couples. That number of children was double his estimate from 2013.

For some gays and lesbians, particularly those able to afford the $20,000 to $40,000 cost of a typical private adoption, the odds of success are good.

If you have financial means, you can find providers who are welcoming and inclusive and help you through that process, said Ellen Kahn, who oversees youth and family programs for the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT-rights group.

She says problems often arise when gays and lesbians seek the far less costly option of adopting out of foster care, given that many of the placements are handled by faith-based agencies under contract with child-welfare departments.

We wouldnt have kids waiting if we had enough families seeking to adopt, Kahn said. Yet the LGBT community is being pushed aside.

Kim Paglino, program director for the Donaldson Adoption Institute, says gays and lesbians can benefit from networking and careful research as they seek an agency to work with.

It can take a while to find the right place, she said. You have very clear messages from the agencies that are not interested in same-sex couples. Sometimes knowing where you shouldnt go is helpful.

Among the supportive agencies is Vermont-based Friends in Adoption. Its founder and director, Dawn Smith-Pliner, says shes heartened by the overall trends of LGBT adoption in the past decade, but now worries about a resurgence of frantic phone calls if, given recent political developments, more agencies feel emboldened to refuse placements with gays and lesbians.

Do we have to go backward again before we go forward? she asked.

Of the couples currently posting profiles on her agencys web site, expressing their yearning to adopt, about half are same-sex couples. Smith-Pliner says birth mothers are increasingly open to placing babies with such couples, once the agency raises it as an option.

Don Dupont and Brian Hiller, music teachers in New Yorks Westchester County who married in 2011, decided they would try to adopt, and turned to Friends in Adoption at the recommendation of friends. They posted their profile online, stressing their love of music and love for each other, and it struck a chord with a pregnant woman in Californias Napa County who chose them to provide an adoptive home for her child.

Hiller and Dupont were on hand, and welcomed warmly, at a Catholic hospital in Napa County when their son, Brandon, was born in 2015. They have arranged an open adoption thats intended to include annual visits with Brandons mother and her family in California.

As for their home turf in New York, Weve been fully embraced by every person weve met, Dupont said.

In Illinois, Kevin Neubert and Jim Gorey opted to pursue adoption out of foster care after calculating that a private adoption might be too costly.

Following night classes to qualify as foster parents, they agreed in December 2011 to provide a temporary home for a newborn baby. A stay intended to last only for a few days was extended into several months, and Neubert and Gorey learned that the baby had four older siblings who were also in foster care.

Initially, the two men thought about trying to adopt three of the children, and eventually decided to adopt all five, a process finalized in June 2014.

Some people thought we were crazy, but everyone was supportive of keeping the kids together, Neubert said.

The youngest, Derek, is 5; the eldest, Luke, is 12. There are two other brothers, 10 and 7, and a middle sister aged 9.

Neubert and Gorey, who married in 2010 and live in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, said the family has enjoyed strong community support, though shopping trips could be a spectacle. We didnt know if people were looking at us because were two guys with kids, or because we had so many kids in tow, said Gorey.

The dads have coached their children on how to handle potentially awkward situations.

If someone asks, Wheres the mom? Derek knows to say there are all different types of families, and in our family there are two dads, and no mom, Neubert said.

The path to adoption was bumpier for Dr. Christopher Harris, though by some measures he was an ideal candidate when he first pursued that goal 17 years ago in Nashville, Tennessee. He was a pediatrician and faculty member at Vanderbilt University, but he also was single and openly gay.

For more than a year, he worked with a church-affiliated adoption agency, taking parenting classes, submitting to home visits. Yet his application never progressed, and he finally deduced that it was because he was gay. He reached a similar dead end with a second agency, which took fees from him, and only later when he pressed for an update said it would not place children with single men.

It was frustrating for me to get passed over, Harris said. As a pediatrician, I look at the science and see there are no data that children raised by gay and lesbian parents dont do well.

He persisted, finally finding an agency that was able to connect him with a woman open to having her soon-to-be-born child adopted by a gay man. The baby, Maria, was born in November 2002, and adopted soon afterward by Harris.

Father and daughter now live in Los Angeles, where Maria has completed her first year of high school. During several summers, the two of them have attended a weeklong gathering of LGBT families on Cape Cod. Its very good for me and my daughter to be around families like ours, Harris said.

Those annual events on Cape Cod are organized by the Family Equality Council, a national group that supports LGBT families.

The councils chief policy officer, Denise Brogan-Kator, went to Texas to testify against the adoption-related bill there and was distressed by its passage. The bill is designed to allow agencies to turn qualified families away, she said.

There are more than 100,000 children in foster care in the U.S. waiting to be adopted, and child welfare officials constantly struggle to find enough qualified adoptive families. Some jurisdictions such as New York City and Los Angeles have stepped up efforts to recruit gays and lesbians to adopt, but agencies that shun gay clients operate in most states.

Buckner International, a large agency based in Texas, specifies on its web site that applicants seeking to adopt should be heterosexual married couples or single adults who are not cohabiting with a partner.

Catholic Charities, which does child-welfare work across the country, says it seeks to ensure that the children it places in adoptive homes enjoy the advantage of having a mother and a father who are married.

In some jurisdictions, authorities have said Catholic Charities must serve same-sex couples. Rather than comply, Catholic Charities shut down adoption services in Massachusetts, Illinois, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

While many faith-based agencies contend that children fare best in the home of a married father and mother, theres a growing body of research contending that children fare just as well in the homes of same-sex couples.

Initially, such research focused on lesbian couples. However, Charlotte Patterson, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, said recent research suggests children adopted by gay male couples also are faring well. Indeed a 2014 study in Britain , led by University of Cambridge researchers, asserted that gay dads did better at parenting than lesbian and straight couples, likely because they faced more challenges en route to parenthood.

It seems that those who successfully complete the adoption process become particularly committed parents, the researchers concluded.

Bethany Christian Services, which provides adoption and foster-care services in more than 30 states, says its religious principles preclude serving same-sex couples directly, but it has established procedures for referring them to LGBT-supportive agencies.

When we meet with them, were very respectful, said Bethanys president, Bill Blacquiere. We want them to have all the rights any citizen has, including the right to be adoptive or foster parents.

Follow David Crary on Twitter.

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Advocates of gay adoption see both progress, obstacles - New Haven Register

MASSENA Construction continues on land-based facilities that will support in-river work as part of Arconics cleanup of the Grasse River.

Weve started construction of the staging area, which is the first step. Theres a minimal amount of work in the river. So far, so good, Young Chang, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency remedial project manager said during an informational open house Wednesday night in Massena.

Construction on land-based facilities began this spring and is expected to continue through early 2018. The work includes construction of a staging area next to the river, near the intersection of County Route 42 and Route 131. The staging area will be used to unload sediments dredged from the near-shore areas and to load clean capping and backfill materials that will be placed in the river during the in-water portion of the project.

A final design for the in-river portion of the remediation project is still ongoing, Ms. Chang said. She said studies continue and the design has gone through several iterations.

Thomas Sullivan, executive director of the Business Development Corporation for a Greater Massena, asked when in-river work is expected to begin. Ms. Chang said there would likely be some in 2018, but most in 2019.

Donald Lucas, who said he lives within a block of the plants main gate, voiced concerned about the area.

Last week, they were cleaning muck off the road with a high pressure wash. Id like to see that road closed down for the project, he said.

Mr. Lucas said that while the road cleanup last week didnt involve contaminated material, he was concerned that some could find its way onto the road. But Ms. Chang said no contaminated materials would end up on public roads.

What you saw was the clay, said Bruce Cook, Arconic project coordinator, noting the clay was a result of heavy rains in the area and Arconic had since taken steps to ensure it wouldnt occur again.

My concern is whats going to migrate out on their wheels, Mr. Lucas said. But Mr. Cook said, there would be no contaminated material on the wheels. He said cleanup workers are required to meet Department of Transportation regulations whenever they transport material across any regulated road.

Those regulations prevent you from having those kind of situations. The rules are very strict, he said.

Mr. Lucas said he would also like to see an additional air monitor placed on an overpass near the intersection of Center Street and Liberty Avenue in case the winds shifted and brought gaseous material toward Massena .

Prevailing winds dont always go west. If theres any gaseous material, its going to blow right into my window, he said.

Heather VanDewalker from Arcadis, a consulting firm working with Arconic, said four air monitors would surround the landfill, including one on the southwest side, to capture any change in wind direction. She said daily monitoring is for particulates, PCBs and other materials.

Ms. Chang said that, as construction work continues on land-based facilities, she plans to hold monthly meetings monthly in Massena. Once in-river work begins, she said the meetings would become more frequent. Ms. Chang said if in-river work starts in 2019 as scheduled, there is an approximate completion date of 2022.

Mr. Lucas wondered if the work would involve shutting the river down to recreational boaters. But Ms. Chang said that wouldnt be the case.

Well schedule our work so theres always access available, she said.

In 2013, the EPA finalized a cleanup plan for river sediment contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) as a result of past industrial activities at Arconic, formerly Alcoa. Arconic is performing the work on the estimated $243 million project. The EPA, the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe are overseeing and coordinating various components of the cleanup project.

Grasse River cleanup will be through dredging and capping of contaminated sediment in a 7.2-mile stretch. The plan calls for dredging about 109,000 cubic yards of sediment from near-shore areas. In the main channel, about 59 acres of sediment will be covered with an armored cap and about 225 acres of contaminated sediment will be capped with clean sand and topsoil to isolate the contamination.

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Meeting held in Massena to update progress on Grasse River cleanup - WatertownDailyTimes.com

Cuba's government slammed President Donald Trump for his "hostile rhetoric" during a speech Friday that it said took "a backward step in the relationship between the two countries."

Trump's address in Miami announced changes in the United States' policy toward Cuba after the Obama administration decided to normalize relations with the island nation following a decades-long freeze of diplomatic ties.

But the Raul Castro-led government didn't care for Trump touting his desire to partially reverse course from the "last administration's completely one-sided deal."

The Castro government said in a statement that Trump's speech "reminded the times of open confrontation with our country, announced the policy of his government towards Cuba which reverts the progress achieved in the past two years."

The Trump administration says it is changing the policy of the U.S. toward Cuba by limiting the amount of money that might go toward the Cuban military, restricting American tourism there and reaffirming the 56-year-old trade embargo. The policy memorandum directs the Treasury and Commerce departments to create new regulations within 30 days, although they wouldn't be in place for several months.

Related: Freely Wandering in Cuba Gets Harder to Do Under Trump

Trump has stopped short of completely resetting relations with Cuba again: He isn't ending diplomatic ties, or closing the U.S. Embassy in Havana or placing restrictions on cigars, rum and other items that Americans can schlep home.

But the changes would ultimately meet four objectives, according to the White House: Ensure compliance with U.S. law, hold the Cuban government accountable for alleged human rights abuses, further the interests of the U.S. and the Cuban people, and "empower the Cuban people to develop greater economic and political liberty."

The Cuban government argued that it would only be a retread of the past, and that the Trump administration is not in a position to lecture.

Its statement takes a swipe at the United States under Trump by noting issues that negatively affect Americans, including racial discrimination and gun violence, and controversial policies on immigration, a border wall and abandoning the Paris Agreement on climate change.

The Cuban government maintained that the new policies would not work, comparing it to the economic embargo that never ushered the Castro regime out of power as the U.S. had hoped.

"The Government of Cuba denounces the new measures for strengthening the blockade, which are destined to fail as proven repeatedly in the past," the statement said. "They will not achieve their purpose of debilitating the Revolution or submitting the Cuban people, whose resistance to the aggressions of any kind and origin has been proven throughout six decades."

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Cuba Blasts Trump's Policy Speech as 'Hostile Rhetoric' That 'Reverts' Progress - NBCNews.com