Category Archives: Progress

Firefighters are making progress on keeping the East Fork wildfire, burning near Sterling, from moving toward people or the Sterling Highway.

Alaska Division of Forestry Public Information Officer Celeste Prescott said firefighters saturated the west line of the fire to keep it from moving toward residents and were focusing Saturday on the south line to keep it from reaching the Sterling Highway. The fire is burning in a limited suppression area of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge about 5 to 6 miles north of the highway, around mile 76.

The blaze was discovered just before 6:30 p.m. Thursday and was estimated Friday night to be 850 acres. However, its growing in the right direction, Prescott said.

It was pretty active yesterday afternoon and early evening, but it did lay down in the late evening, she said.

The wildfire sent lots of smoke up toward Anchorage on Friday, Prescott said, so much that many residents called authorities worried.

Two water scooping aircraft and a tanker have been dumping water on the blaze. Prescott said firefighters will soon be up to three helicopters in addition to those aircraft. An additional four crews are either en route or already dispatched to bring the total number of firefighters close to 80, she said. These will be ground forces used to reinforce the work thats been done from the air, she said.

Prescott said the Alaska Division of Forestry and refuge personnel feel good about the progress being made on the blaze and its direction into the refuge. The two entities are coordinating a response to the fire, which was caused by dry lightning.

Its Mother Nature cleaning up some black spruce out there, Prescott said.

Refuge Ranger Leah Eskelin of the refuge said that residents should report any other smoke they may see in the area due to the recent prevalence of lightning. Suspected fire or smoke can be reported to 907-260-4100.

Eskelin said Friday the section being consumed by the fire hasnt burned in a very long time.

We recognize that human safety (comes) first, and after that, fire has a natural place in the landscape, Eskelin said.

There is also a temporary flight restriction in place in the area over the wildfire.

The East Fork fire has cost roughly $50,000 to date, according to the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center.

Firefighters also helped with another small fire off East End Road in Homer this week. The Wilderness fire was only 1 acre, according to the coordination center, and was also discovered on Thursday.

Members of the Division of Forestry and Kachemak Emergency Services brought that fire under control that same day, according to a Facebook post by the Division of Forestry.

Reach Megan Pacer at megan.pacer@peninsulaclarion.com.

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Progress made on East Fork fire | Peninsula Clarion - Kenai Peninsula Online

BOISE - Hundreds of people from all over the state were in the City of Trees Saturday to stand together in support of equal rights for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer community.

Boise's Pride Parade keeps getting bigger every year. The LGBTQ community converge, along with their friends and family, and feel a sense of unity. They just wish every day could be like this.

"When you say you're getting gay married, or something. It's just marriage, it's just love like everybody else," say Jasper Schultz, who advocates for equality for all. "We don't want anything different, we just want to be respected."

Some of the festival attendees Six On Your Side talked to says the event represents their history and that it's also a way to create awareness that coming out is not an easy path to take.

"When you hate yourself enough," says Rukia Bliss, a Nampa resident. "You don't need everyone else hating you too."

Idaho's only openly gay legislator currently in office had a booth set up at the Capitol Park festival. He thinks having other lawmakers get to know him is helping the LGBTQ community's cause.

"As they [Idaho legislators] get to know that we are here and that we're just like everybody else.. we love the same, we hurt the same, we bleed the same," says Rep. John McCrostie, representing District 16 Seat A (D). "We all work together to try to make our communities better places."

Rep. McCrostie is already preparing for the next legislative session. He will keep working to get a statute passed to ban gay conversion therapy in the Gem state. He says it increases rates of suicide among teens.

In addition, he also wants to amend Idaho's HIV criminalization law created in the late 1980s when not as much was known about the virus and its transmission. Like others, McCrostie is not giving up hope either that the Idaho Human Rights Act will one day include the words sexual orientation and gender identity.

"As someone who is transgender, it [the Add the Words Movement] speaks to me on a really personal level," says Cade Kendall, who just wants to feel more safe in general. "So, I would really enjoy it if it got passed."

The two-day festival ends Saturday night with a Pride Street Party that starts at 10 p.m. along 8th and Idaho Streets.

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Boise Pride Fest draws crowd and hope for further progress - KIVITV ... - 6 On Your Side

Since the 1960s, black leaders have placed a heavy emphasis on gaining political power, and Barack Obamas presidency represented the apex of those efforts. The assumption rarely challenged is that black political clout must come before black social and economic advancement. But as JASON L. RILEY argues in this excerpt from his new book, False Black Power (Templeton Press), political success has not been a major factor in the rise of racial and ethnic groups from poverty to prosperity.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was followed by large increases in black elected officials. In the Deep South, black officeholders grew from 100 in 1964 to 4,300 in 1978. By the early 1980s, major US cities with large black populations, such as Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Washington and Philadelphia, had elected black mayors. Between 1970 and 2010, the number of black elected officials nationwide increased from fewer than 1,500 to more than 10,000.

Yet the socioeconomic progress that was supposed to follow in the wake of these political gains never materialized. During an era of growing black political influence, blacks as a group progressed at a slower rate than whites, and the black poor actually lost ground.

In a 1991 book, social scientist Gary Orfield and his co-author, journalist Carole Ashkinaze, assessed the progress of blacks in the 1970s and 80s following the sharp increase in black officeholders. The thinking, then and now, was that the problems of the cities were basically the result of the racism of white officials and that many could be solved by black mayors, school superintendents, policemen and teachers who were displacing white ones. The expectation, they added, was that black political and education leaders would be able to make large moves toward racial equity simply by devising policies and practices reflecting their understanding of the background and needs of black people.

But the integration of these institutions proved to be insufficient. Many blacks have reached positions of local power, such as mayor, county commission chairman or superintendent of schools, positions undreamed of 30 years ago, they wrote. Their findings, however, showed that these achievements do not necessarily produce success for blacks as a whole. The empirical evidence, they said, indicates that there may be little relationship between the success of local black leaders and the opportunities of typical black families.

When Michael Brown was shot dead after assaulting a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014, a large fuss was made over the racial composition of the police department and city leaders, which supposedly explained the subsequent civil unrest.

A Justice Department report responding to the incident noted that although the citys population was 67 percent black, just four of its 54 police officers fit that description.

While a diverse police department does not guarantee a constitutional one, it is nonetheless critically important for law-enforcement agencies, and the Ferguson Police Department in particular, to strive for broad diversity among officers and civilian staff, said Justice.

But if racial diversity among law enforcement and city officials is so critically important, what explains the rioting in Baltimore the following year after a black suspect there died in police custody?

At the time, 63 percent of Baltimores residents and 40 percent of its police officers were black. The Baltimore police commissioner also was black, along with the mayor and a majority of the city council.

Contentious relations between the police and ghetto communities are driven mainly by high crime rates in those areas, something that the political left doesnt like to acknowledge. The sharp rise in violent crime in our inner cities coincides with the increase of black leaders in many of those very same cities, which makes it hard to argue that racist or indifferent authorities are to blame.

What can be said of Baltimore is also true of Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta, New Orleans and Washington, where black mayors and police chiefs and city councilmen and school superintendents have held sway for decades.

In her 1995 book, Facing Up to the American Dream, political scientist Jennifer Hochschild examined data from the late-1950s to the early-1990s an era that covers not only growing black political clout but also the implementation of the War on Poverty and two full decades of affirmative-action policies in hiring and college admissions.

Hochschild reported that between 1959 and 1992, poverty fell from 55 percent to 33 percent for blacks and from 18 percent to 12 percent for whites, which means that the ratio of black to white poverty has remained at 3 hardly a victory in the war on racially disproportionate poverty.

The absolute numbers, she added, tell the same story: there are now about 4 million fewer poor whites than 30 years ago, but 686,000 more poor blacks.

Germans, Jews, Italians and Asians saw economic gains precede political gains in America.

Moreover, low-income blacks lost ground to low-income whites over the same period. Between 1967 and 1992, incomes for the poorest fifth of blacks declined at more than double the rate of comparable whites.

This history should have served to temper expectations for the first black president. Without taking away anything from Barack Obamas historic accomplishment, or the countrys widespread sense of pride in the racial progress that his election symbolized, the reality is that there was little reason to believe that a black president was the answer to racial inequities or the problems of the black poor.

The proliferation of black politicians in recent decades which now includes a twice-elected black president has done little to narrow racial gaps in employment, income, homeownership, academic achievement and other areas.

Most groups in America and elsewhere who have risen economically have done so with little or no political influence, and groups that have enjoyed early political success have tended to rise more slowly.

Group cohesion, expressed in political pressure and bloc voting, is often regarded as axiomatically the most effective method of promoting group progress, explains the economist Thomas Sowell.

But historically, the relationship between political success and economic success has been more nearly inverse than direct. Germans, Jews, Italians and Asians are among those who saw economic gains precede political gains in America.

Similarly, the ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia, the English in Argentina and Jews in Britain, among many other examples, all prospered economically while mostly shunning politics.

A counterexample is the Irish, whose rise from poverty was especially slow even though Irish-run political organizations in places like Boston and Philadelphia dominated local government. The Irish had more political success than any other ethnic group historically, according to Sowell. Yet the Irish were the slowest rising of all European immigrants to America. The wealth and power of a relatively few Irish political bosses had little impact on the progress of masses of Irish Americans.

Even if a group has the ability to wield political influence, they dont always choose to do so.

German immigrants to the US in colonial times were not lacking in numbers. In Pennsylvania they were one-third of the population, a situation that was not lost on non-Germans. Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a colony of aliens, who will shorty become so numerous as to Germanize us instead of us Anglifying them? wrote Benjamin Franklin in 1751.

Nevertheless, Germans, many of whom arrived as indentured servants and focused initially on paying off the cost of their voyage, had other priorities and were well known for avoiding politics. Germans began entering politics only after they had already risen economically.

Viewed against this history, many blacks were expecting Obamas presidency to deliver more prosperity than political clout tends to deliver for a group in the US or anywhere else.

The black experience in America is of course different from the Irish experience, which in turn is different from the Chinese or German or Jewish experience. Indeed, we cant even generalize about all blacks in the US, since the experience of black natives is different from the experience of black immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa. But that doesnt mean group cultural traits that show patterns of success or failure should be ignored.

Even if we cant make perfect apples-to-apples comparisons, it doesnt mean we cant make any comparisons or draw any conclusions. Many different racial and ethnic minority groups have experienced various degrees of hardship in the US and in other countries all over the world. How those groups have dealt with those circumstances is something to study closely and draw lessons from going forward even if the only lesson is to manage expectations.

One of the clear lessons from this history is that human capital has proven to be far more important than political capital in getting ahead. And that reality helps to explain why blacks fared the way they did not only in the Obama era but also in the preceding decades.

Obamas election was the end product of a civil-rights strategy that prioritized political power to advance blacks, and eight years later we once again learned the limitations of that strategy.

Reprinted with permission from False Black Power by Jason L. Riley (Templeton Press), 2017.

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Why Obama's presidency didn't lead to black progress - New York Post

Odubel Herrera led off the inning each of the first three times he came to the plate for the Phillies on Friday. The first time he struck out swinging at a breaking ball in the dirt.

But the next two times, he provided a blueprint of how he can become the leadoff hitter the Phillies need. The center fielder finished 2 for 4 with a triple, a single and two of the teams four runs.

After each of his teammates had gone down in order through the first three innings, Herrera led off again in the fourth. The bat stayed on his shoulder as Arizona Diamondbacks lefthander Patrick Corbin pulled ahead 0-2.

This time, Herrera watched the fastball high and away and the slider in the dirt. He fouled off another breaking ball and then pushed the count full.

Finally, he stroked a 3-2 slider to the opposite field for a leadoff triple and later scored on a groundout to second base.

Thats always what I look for. I try to get something going, Herrera said through interpreter Diego Ettedgui. If its an extra-base hit, thats even better. But what I really want to do is get on base.

He did so again in the sixth. By then, the Phillies had tied the game, and Herrera was facing Corbin for a third time. He saw mostly fastballs until another 3-2 slider down in the zone. This time, he smacked a grounder off Corbins mitt and beat out an infield single.

On the bases, Herrera slid into second on a fly ball to the warning track and moved to third, where nobody was covering, on a ground ball there. He scored on Maikel Francos double.

Im actually working on the little things because I know I have to get better on running the bases and stuff like that, Herrera said, crediting help from first-base coach Mickey Morandini and third-base coach Juan Samuel. Thats the idea, to go the extra mile to make something happen.

By the end of that inning, Herrera had seen 17 of Corbins 84 pitches, and the Phillies chased the Diamondbacks starter. Herrera has struggled in the leadoff role, hitting .212 with a .501 OPS in that spot. He said it does not matter to him where he hits. But asked if being trusted with that position gives him confidence, he said, Claro of course.

Herrera came up one more time Friday. With two men on in the seventh, he struck out on three pitches a slider, a fastball and that pesky slider in the dirt again and the Phillies lost, 5-4. Herrera, like the team, is inconsistent. But he showed some progress on Friday.

He needs to keep that discipline, and hes going to have the kind of season that he had when we were in Atlanta, where he was really hitting the ball well, manager Pete Mackanin said. Hell get back there.

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Published: June 16, 2017 3:01 AM EDT | Updated: June 16, 2017 11:55 PM EDT

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Herrera is a work in progress as Phillies leadoff hitter - Philly.com

With tens of thousands of children lingering in foster care across the United States, awaiting 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 adopt, some politicians seek 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 newly introduced bill in Congress would extend such provisions nationwide.

For those who support gay adoption, its 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 say many thousands of gays and lesbians are dissuaded from adopting for fear of encountering such bias.

Some of these agencies are quite clear that they dont work with certain sorts of people, said Currey Cook of 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 same-sex marriage was legalized nationwide, 44,000 adopted children were being raised by 28,000 same-sex couples. That number of children was double his estimate from 2013.

For gays and lesbians able to afford the $20,000 to $40,000 cost of a typical private adoption, the odds 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 less costly option of adopting out of foster care, given that many placements are handled by faith-based agencies under contract with child-welfare departments.

Kevin Neubert and Jim Gorey avoided such problems when they pursued 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 a few days was extended into several months, and Neubert and Gorey learned that the baby had four older siblings in foster care.

Initially, the two men considered adopting three of the children, and eventually decided to adopt all five, a process finalized in June 2014. 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 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 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 it was because he was gay. He reached a similar dead end with a second agency, which took fees from him and only later said it wouldnt 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 connected 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 soon adopted by Harris. Father and daughter now live in Los Angeles; Maria recently completed her first year of high school.

More than 100,000 U.S. foster children are waiting to be adopted, and child welfare officials struggle to find enough qualified adoptive families. Some jurisdictions recruit gays and lesbians to adopt, but agencies that shun gay clients operate in most states.

Catholic Charities, which does child-welfare work nationwide, 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.

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 routinely refers 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 at http://twitter.com/CraryAP

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For advocates of gay adoption, progress but also obstacles - Seattle Times

Conservative author and commentator Ann Coulter criticized President Trump in a series of tweets Friday over what she said is the lack of progress on the border wall.

Coulter used Trumps Friday speech in Miami rolling back Obama rules opening up the U.S. economic relationship with Cuba to criticize the president for not being focused on the United States.

I thought with Trump wed finally have a president helping OUR country. So far: Syria, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Italy, China, N Kor. Today: Cuba, she tweeted.

At least Cubas in our hemisphere, she Tweeted. How long can it be before he gets to America?

At least Cuba's in our hemisphere. How long can it be before Trump gets to America? https://t.co/vTf5osrr15

An early supporter of Trump in the 2016 presidential race, Coulter compared her loyalty to Trump to the way the people of North Korea worship their Dear Leader blind loyalty.

In another Tweet on Friday, Coulter said Anyone in a Southwestern state who strolls to the border & drops a brick will have done more to build the wall than [Trump].

Anyone in a Southwestern state who strolls to the border & drops a brick will have done more to build the wall than @realDonaldTrump.

Today's BORDER WALL CONSTRUCTION UPDATE: Miles completed yesterday--Zero; Miles completed since Inauguration--Zero. NEXT UPDATE TOMORROW.

Coulter cited Trumps calls for the construction of a border wall and immigration restrictions as a major bastion of her support for then Republican nominee Trump.

Despite her early and ardent support for Trump in the 2016 campaign, Coulter has at times signaled her frustrations with his presidency.

In May, Coulter told the Daily Caller that Im not very happy with what has happened so far.

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Coulter bashes Trump on border wall progress - The Hill

Employees with Kokosing pour a layer of asphalt onto South Ewing Street Monday, June 12, 2017, in Lancaster.(Photo: Matthew Berry/Eagle-Gazette)Buy Photo

LANCASTER - When you ask a candidate running for council or a resident what problems needto be addressed inthe city, street repairs are usually the second item listed behind the drug epidemic.

While it's still touted as an issue, the problem was addressed when voters narrowly passed a 3-mill, 10-year levy in May 2013. The levy, which generates about $2.1 million each year in property taxes to fix city streets and alleys that have fallen into disrepair, some languishing for decades with no previous funding source to repair them.

The levy passed by only 88 votes, resulting in more than 12 miles of local roads and about 30 miles of alleys being paved since 2014, which is the year the first paving projects kicked off. Despite the road work, city offices still field calls from upset residents that go something like "Why wasn't my street done," or "What are my tax dollars paying for anyway?"

The Eagle-Gazette interviewed city officials, including City Engineer Mitch Noland and Assistant Engineer Curtis Shonk about how streets are chosen, what's been accomplished, where the paving program is headed and the hangups that come with planning improvements for the city's 200 miles of road.

Selecting roads for repaving is a complicated process.

The goal is to pave highly trafficked local streets in the worst condition first. When those areasare highlighted, the engineer's office determines if the roads are eligible for federal or state funding. If they are, the city will hold off until grant dollars are obtained.

"A lot of people truly don't understand why we're waiting on Pierce or East Fair," said Interim Service-Safety Director Paul Martin. "We divert almost all of our funding to do streets that we can't get ODOT funding from." (Pierce Avenue will be resurfaced next year.)

A truck drives past patches to the road surface Friday on Edgewood Avenue in Lancaster. Edgewood which underwent extensive utility work last year is one of the streets slated to be paved this year using funds from the city's paving program.(Photo: Matthew Berry/Eagle-Gazette)

Once viable streets are identified, the engineer's office coordinates with other city departments, such as gas and water, to determine what their projects are that could tear up a freshly paved street if they proceeded with the project. Often coordinating with other departments is the most challenging piece of the puzzle.

"(Other city departments) have got their own maps and you put them on top of each other, and the roads don't line up," Shonk said.

A survey was completed to determine pavement condition ratings for all streets in 2014. The city is in the process of updating the map now that some work has been completed and other roads havedeteriorated further. The results will help determine what projects will be identified in the future.

Funding is also a major hurdle when it comes to selecting projects. A street that may be the same size as another with the same outward wear and tear may be harder to fix.

"Streets aren't created equal," Noland said, explaining the cost to repair depends on the material that is below the asphalt and the process used when it was first built.

Noland used Kanawha Drive as an example. The road is a few inches of pavement on top of dirt. There is no base, which significantly adds to the cost and the type of equipment required to repair it.

Lancaster Engineer Mitch Noland holds part of a core sample taken from Harrison Avenue between Sixth Avenue and Main Street. The Lancaster Department of Transportation takes core samples of streets for the engineer's office to help determine how streets are repaved.(Photo: Matthew Berry/Eagle-Gazette)

Even sections of streets aren't created equal. One part may have a good base, requiring the simple mill and fill process and the next section may have a brick base or none at all. Edgewood Avenue is an example of this. The city takes core samples of the street every 200 to 300 feet to discover any issues that may lie beneath, but surprises are expected. Surprises are almost always expensive, and all of it impacts the street levy budget.

In addition to streets, the Lancaster Department of Transportation is paving 11 alleys in the citythis summer from Mulberry Street to the area just north of Fair Avenue, and Columbus Street to Sheridan Drive. Similar to street repairs, alleys sat for years with no maintenance.

The last time there was a program to repave alleys was the sometime in the 1990s, but it was discontinued. Potholes were fixed when people complained, but there was no equipment or funding to do anything more until the levy was passed.

For comparison, it costs between $16 and $20 a square yard to mill and fill a street and about $4.95 per square yard to fix analley.

This is the third year the alleys have been paved, and LDOT Superintendent Greg Hintz said it's possible they will complete all city alleys by the end of next year, which is a year earlier than their goal.

A driver heads down an alley Friday between Park Street and Edgewood Avenue in Lancaster. The city is working on a paving program that will include repairs in some alleys.(Photo: Jess Grimm/Eagle-Gazette )

By the end of 2016, the city collected $6.53 million in tax dollars through the levy. Similar to the complicated nature of how streets are selected, the breakdown of budget funds cannot be easily summed up to say it all pays for asphalt.

Here's the breakdown, showing how each dollarwas spent from 2014 to 2016:

There is a remaining $200,000 set aside for emergencies and about $95,000 that was not spent at the end of 2016.

As promised during the levy campaign, the funds do not pay for personnel. At first, city officials thought additional personnel would need to be hired to administer the program, but no additional employees were hired, and the levy does not fund any salaries.

The simple answer is no.

"We won't be getting to all of the streets in 10 years," Martin said.

He foresees the city requesting a renewal levy not only to continue resurfacing streets but to maintain ones that were done when the paving program first started.

Still, Martin said the program is successful and a far cry from the previous paving program or lack thereof because the work is top quality and planned in a way that's "getting the most bang for our buck."

"It's only year four (of the levy)," he said. "I have a lot more streets in mind, and we need to keep plugging away. We're not done, and we're on a path to keep it up."

sremoquill@lancastereaglegazette.com

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Examining Lancaster's street levy process, progress - Lancaster Eagle Gazette

Phillies outfielder Aaron Altherr is approaching the number of at-bats he totaled all of last season, and the difference has been significant.

Altherr began last season on the 60-day disabled list after suffering a torn tendon in his left wrist while diving for a ball in spring training. He underwent surgery on March 9 and didnt make his regular season debut until July 28.

Altherr, 26, hit .197 in 198 at-bats last season. Entering Fridays game against the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks, he was hitting .281 with team highs in both home runs (11) and RBIs (36) in 192 at-bats. He was eighth among National League outfielders with an .897 OPS.

I have been more relaxed at the plate, Altherr said before Fridays game.

He said working with first-year hitting coach Matt Stairs has been a major benefit.

I have a new approach to my swing, said Altherr, who made his Major League debut three years ago Friday, on June 16, 2014, by going 0 for 1 in a pinch-hitting situation against Atlanta.

Its a swing that he has cut down.

It is shorter now, which produces better results, Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said. If he continues staying short to the ball, going right to the ball like he has been doing, he is going to be fine, and I think he will have a heck of a year.

The fact that he has been healthy is the biggest key. The other was that Altherr, with his new swing, saw immediate success in spring training, when he hit .303 with four home runs and 11 RBIs and a .986 OPS in 66 at-bats.

Doing well in spring training helped with my confidence going into the regular season, Altherr said. I am glad I have been able to get such great help from Stairs.

Velasquez update

Righthander Vince Velasquez, who was placed on the disabled list on May 31 with a right flexor strain, is progressing at a moderate pace.

We are not going to rush him, Mackanin said. We want to make sure he is 100 percent.

According to Mackanin, Velasquez threw from 90 feet on Friday and is scheduled for 120 feet on Sunday and a bullpen session on Thursday.

Pitching tidbits

The Phillies wont be dismayed when they miss seeing Arizona righthander Zack Greinke, who is 7-1 with a 2.89 ERA over his last 10 starts. ,.. Against the Phillies, Greinke has a career record of 7-1 with a 2.54 ERA in 10 games, including nine starts. Jerad Eickhoff (0-7, 5.09 ERA) will pitch for the Phillies on Saturday, with Ben Lively (1-1, 3.00) going on Sunday. Arizona will pitch righthander Zack Godley (2-1, 2.44) on Saturday and all-star candidate lefthander Robbie Ray (7-3 2.62) on Sunday. Eickhoffs last win came on Sept. 21, an 8-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

Published: June 16, 2017 3:01 AM EDT | Updated: June 16, 2017 7:44 PM EDT

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Phillies' Aaron Altherr showing progress from last year - Philly.com - Philly.com

June 15, 2017 | :

We dont have any of those students.

Shane Windmeyer

The privilege and ignorance that accompanies this statement is dumbfounding. The notion that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth do not exist on a college campus demonstrates real prejudice. And the fact that these words, as well as the biased belief behind it, are still present in the action (or inaction) of faculty, staff and administrators on college campuses across the country is even more disturbing.

As the executive director and founder of Campus Pride, the nations leading nonprofit advocating for LGBT students on college and university campuses, I have witnessed firsthand both the progress made by and challenges facing people striving for LGBT inclusion in higher education for the last 20 years. I have also seen how progress has been limited by factors such as political climate, financial resources, bigoted religious teachings, region of the country, institutional commitment and ultimately campus officials who lack understanding and are unwilling to recognize LGBT youth as part of the community.

During the early 90s, when I went to college in Kansas, I knew all about being invisible and how isolating it was to come out as a gay man. It felt like my whole world was going to end, and yet I found a sense of liberation in the fear. I was lucky in that I had friends and fraternity brothers to stand beside me, as I grappled with my sexuality in those early days.

There were also a few key staff and faculty members who recognized that their job should be to support gay students, similar to how they might support other student populations. As a result of LGBT students coming out in the 90s, my alma mater was among the first in the state of Kansas to have a nondiscrimination statement that included sexual orientation as a protected class. We were also among the early Safe Zone programs to create safe spaces for LGBT students. Indeed, I was fortunate.

Related: Advocates Cautiously Optimistic About Potential Executive Order on HBCUs

Today the bulk of the work is being carried out by out LGBT students, faculty and staff, who are responsible for their own safety. These individuals often lack resources and are doing the work in addition to their jobs and/or as volunteers.

Some institutions are beginning to pay for LGBT support staff. However, there are currently only 229 campuses that have a dedicated office or resource center for LGBT students, with full-time or part-time paid staff members. And, when it comes to LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination clauses, only 26 percent of campuses nationally prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and less than 16 percent include gender identity and expression.

Last year, Campus Pride published The Shame List, which consists of 104 campuses that applied to the U.S. Department of Education and received Title IX exemptions to openly discriminate against LGBT youth based on anti-LGBT religious beliefs.

To be clear, the bag is mixed for LGBT issues in higher education.

Progress is relative and the challenges depend on the eye of the beholder. When an LGBT student arrives at college, there is no guarantee of a safe, welcoming environment to learn, live and grow. The Campus Pride 2010 State of Higher Education for LGBTQ People study shows that half of all students, faculty and staff hide being LGBT to avoid intimidation on campus.

The region of the country and the type of campus also plays a large role in LGBT progress and the challenges faced by LGBT students, faculty and staff. When you look at LGBT inclusive work that is most visible, it is often successful in more LGBT progressive areas or where there have been significant financial resources to assist with LGBT work. Southern campuses, rural campuses and two-year colleges have uphill battles and often lack the support for necessary LGBT changes.

Related: Colleges Could Start Using Adversity Index

I do believe campus officials and the majority of colleges want to be seen as LGBT-friendly. It is not only good for business, but I also believe most youth and their families want to support campuses that celebrate difference and human diversity. This is evident in the 300-plus campuses that openly recruit LGBT students and participate annually in the Campus Pride LGBT-friendly National College Fair program. This number has grown two-fold in the last three years.

In the end, whether or not a campus is successful in improving campus climate for LGBT students really depends on institutional commitment. Remember, it doesnt just get better. We have to do better.

Shane Windmeyer is the executive director and founder of Campus Pride.

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LGBT Inclusion: A Work in Progress - Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

Andrew Wulfeck, WTLV 12:35 AM. EDT June 16, 2017

Jacksonville Landing (Photo: Roger Weeder)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Hours after the owner of the Jacksonville Landing released a letter that warned the retail landmark was at a crossroads for redevelopment, the mayors office responded with a blistering statement identifying Sleiman Enterprises as an obstacle and claimed the Landing suffered from mismanagement.

The Jacksonville Landing has been a landmark in Jacksonville since opening in 1987 and has tried to take part in the conversation concerning the Northbanks redevelopment.

During the spring of 2015, First Coast News reported about the most recent plan by a Georgia-based company to attract more people to The Landing. The plan included apartments to aide in foot traffic at the riverfront property but so far no visible changes have resulted from workshops with the firm.

A complication with any type of redevelopment is that city would need to agree on the terms, sinceSleimanEnterprises owns the buildings at the Landing andthe city owns the land the buildings sit on.

Sleiman Enterprises has argued that a full redevelopment of the Landing is crucial for the retail centers success but says none of the previous plans regarding revitalization have taken place because of lip service by city leaders.

First Coast News reached out to the mayors office statement and received the following response: Since taking office, Mayor Lenny Curry has continued to demonstrate his commitment to the development and improvement of downtown Jacksonville. As a notable and recognized landmark, the Landing should be flourishing and contributing to the areas economic growth and success. The mayor and his administration have met with Mr. Sleiman on several occasions to discuss opportunities and options for improvement. Sleiman Enterprises has demonstrated no interest in our offer and solution. Sleiman Enterprises is the obstacle. It is clear that the Landing is being mismanaged. The Mayor will not ask taxpayers to bail out a mismanaged development. Because there is pending litigation, there is no additional information to provide at this time.- Marsha Oliver, Director, Public Affairs

Full letter by Sleiman Enterprises: Nearly 15 years ago when Sleiman Enterprises bought the Jacksonville Landing, there was all kinds of excitement. While were still excited about Jacksonvilles iconic venues potential, our hands are tied by politics and external forces that dont want progress.

We are now at a critical point in the Landings life cycle. We must either undertake a complete redevelopment of the property or enter into new long-term leases of the current facilities to maintain the Landings economic viability. The two options are incompatible with one another.

We agree with most civic leaders that a complete redevelopment of the Jacksonville Landing is best for our city and for the Landing. However, without the support of the city of Jacksonville, no redevelopment can take place. Since the city owns the land and we lease the building, we must collaborate.

For 15 years, weve worked with the city to try to make the Jacksonville Landing great. While downtown is always an administrative priority, the Landing seems to get more lip service than actual support.That lack of political support is the reason that the original developer, Rouse, sold us the Landing for pennies on the dollar.

Our company, Sleiman Enterprises, has invested more than $1.5 million in past redevelopment efforts. We even supported the city's most recent 2015 redevelopment plans.

In our companys 60 years of history, weve made significant contributions to our local retail industry and economic development. We want to do the same thing at the Landing.

If the public agrees that a full redevelopment of the Jacksonville Landing is best for the city, we ask that people communicate that to their city council representatives. If the city does not get behind redevelopment right away, the opportunity will be lost for another 1015 years because signing new long-term leases will prevent redevelopment.

Sincerely, Toney, Eli and Joe Sleiman, Partners Sleiman Enterprises, Jacksonville

2017 WTLV-TV

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City labels Landing owner as obstacle for progress | Firstcoastnews ... - First Coast News