Category Archives: Progress

MONTMELO, Spain (AP) Its only seventh place in qualifying, and Fernando Alonso will take it.

Take it, and cling to it, in hope that his season has hit bottom and is looking up.

Alonso had his best day behind the wheel of his trouble-prone McLaren on Saturday in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, finally giving his Formula One team some relief and his home Spanish fans a reason to cheer.

Alonso finished 1.9 seconds slower than pole winner Lewis Hamilton, but he defied expectations by beating out all the other teams that cant compete with Hamiltons Mercedes and challengers Ferrari and Red Bull.

Alonso called seventh place a gift, considering his previous best qualification was 12th place in Australia.

We knew we needed to put the perfect lap together, he said. Today was the one of those days when everything went well.

The two-time world champion is having the most frustrating season of his long career. Problems with the McLarens Honda engine kept him from finishing the first three races, and that only got more embarrassing when his car broke down in the formation lap of the last grand prix in Russia.

Things didnt appear close to improving back home.

Despite McLaren and Honda having two weeks to find some desperately needed fixes, Alonsos car spouted smoke and gushed fluid in a breakdown on the very first lap of practice on Friday.

That debacle came a day after Alonso gave McLaren an ultimatum of six months to give him a car with a chance of winning a championship.

So forecasts were high that the Spaniard would endure more torment come qualifying.

Instead, Alonso went from surprise to surprise, making the cut from the first session that eliminated the slowest five drivers, then surviving the second cut to reach the remaining 10 drivers for the first time this season. He topped it off by clocking a better lap than Force India pair Sergio Perez and Esteban Icon and Williams Felipe Massa.

Hamilton took note of Alonsos improvement, saying Its fantastic for McLaren and Honda to get into the top 10. It shows progress.

Alonso marked a cautiously optimistic tone about the race on Sunday, when his car will have a much tougher test of its more than questionable reliability.

Obviously, I dont have 100 percent confidence. But I am pretty sure we keep learning from the things that are happening to the car, Alonso said. I have a good feeling for tomorrow.

He spoke alongside team director Eric Boullier and Honda F1 boss Yusuke Hasegawa, both looking relieved to not have to again explain why their cars have taken a step back. The seasons start is in risk of damaging the reputation of the once proud McLaren, which has 12 driver titles and eight constructor titles to its name.

Alonsos last race win, his 32nd, came here at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in 2013 while driving for Ferrari. With its rougher surface and tricky curves, the track gives slower cars like his McLaren a fighting chance.

If his car holds up, Alonso said he will need to use every bit of his veteran wiles to keep McLaren in the points. He marked the importance of a good start in order to protect his position.

The points is the main target, he said. Seventh place maybe seems too good.

Regardless of the outcome on Sunday, Alonso will then take a break from F1 to try his luck at the Indianapolis 500.

The decision to switch competitions will mean he misses F1s Monaco GP this month, but Alonso said he had zero regrets since Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull are still out of reach.

I will race the Indy 500, one of the biggest races in the world, Alonso said. There will be six cars (in F1) that will be unbeatable for the next few races. To fight for seventh place in Monaco? No thanks.

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Alonso & McLaren's troubled F1 car finally shows progress - FOXSports.com

Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk on Friday revealed what his newest venture has been up to, including a video that he warned could cause motion sickness or seizures.

The Boring Company has begun digging under Los Angeles, and Musk posted pictures and video on Twitter and Instagram to document the companys progress.

The first full-length tunnel will run from the Los Angeles International Airport to the cities of Culver City, Santa Monica, Westwood and Sherman Oaks in Southern California, with future tunnels planned to cover all of greater LA, Musk said.

The tunnels will be earthquake-proof, he said in response to a question on Twitter. Musk also christened the tunnel-boring machine as Godot, presumably after Samuel Becketts play Waiting for Godot.

Unlike the Godot in the play, who never arrives, Musks machine apparently was hard at work: Musk posted a video showing a ride on an electric sled that would transport the cars through the tunnels. The video came with the warning against motion sickness or seizures.

Musk announced The Boring Co. last month at his TEDTalk, an idea he first floated in December after saying Los Angeles traffic was driving me nuts.

Besides leading Tesla TSLA, +0.53% Musk also helms privately held rocket company SpaceX and earlier this year disclosed plans a neuroscience startup called Neuralink, which ultimately aims to help peoples brains keep up with artificial intelligence. Tesla stock has jumped 52% so far this year, while the S&P 500 index has gained 7% in 2017.

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Elon Musk shows off The Boring Company's progress, with a warning - MarketWatch

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A Cal rugby player who was partially paralyzed last weekend during a match in Santa Clara, was making progress and was moved to the rehab trauma center at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.

A GoFundMe page for Robert Paylor posted the news of his transfer Thursday while about a hundred people gathered for a prayer service in Berkeley to show their support.

Paylor was injured early in the national championship match Saturday at Santa Clara University. The injury left him paralyzed from the chest down.

His Cal teammates on Thursday night huddled together outside the private prayer service, wearing their blue cardigans with gold stripes.

Those in attendance at the service talked about the sense of family inside.

"Our sons played rugby; we're a rugby family," team friend Bob Wilson said. "We know how the game goes. Some people get injured, but always have great support."

The GoFundMe page has raised about $400,000 for the Paylor family's medical expenses.

Cal students were still stunned by the news.

"I'm getting emotional," said Steve Burstin. "He's at the best school. He needs all the support he can get."

Even as UC Berkeley students remember the weekend's championship victory and deal with finals this week, their thoughts are with Paylor.

"I think everybody has hope," Wilson said. "With the grace of God, he'll come through."

Published at 10:28 PM PDT on May 11, 2017 | Updated at 11:21 AM PDT on May 12, 2017

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Paralyzed Cal Rugby Player Makes Progress as Family Holds ... - NBC Bay Area

Common Dreams

Reversing Progress, Sessions Order Embraces 'Vicious Cycle of Incarceration' Common Dreams Similarly, Udi Ofer, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Campaign for Smart Justice, said that Sessions "is pushing federal prosecutors to reverse progress and repeat a failed experimentthe War on Drugsthat has devastated the lives and ... Sessions issues sweeping new criminal charging policyWashington Post Memorandum on Department Charging and Sentencing Policy - US Department of JusticeUS Department of Justice all 348 news articles »

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Reversing Progress, Sessions Order Embraces 'Vicious Cycle of Incarceration' - Common Dreams

President Trump on Friday said his administration provides a hopeful economy for new college graduates.

"Our economic progress is especially good news for the millions of young Americans who, at this time of the year, are putting on a cap and gown and receiving a diploma certificate," Trump said in his weekly White House address.

"This weekend, I am delighted to be participating first-hand in the excitement by joining the students and faculty at Liberty University to celebrate the success of their graduates," he added.

Trump will deliver the commencement speech to Liberty University, Americas largest Christian college,on Saturday morning.

"To young Americans at both schools, I will be bringing a message of hope and optimism about our nation's bright future. That is a message that I want to extend to all young Americans today, especially those who are graduating this year and entering the labor force," he said.

Trump further reiterated his promises to stabilize the U.S. job market and end "the sellout of American workers."

"I want you to know that my adminstration is working every single day to create new opportunities and to reverse years of stagnant growth, falling wages, and disappearing jobs. We are ending the sellout of American workers," the president said.

"I want every young citizen regardless of education or geography to be able to live out their American dreams. So, to all of America's graduates, congratulations. And to all of America's youth, we are here to help create the jobs and future you deserve."

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Trump touts 'economic progress' to college grads - The Hill

A reader sends in this latest example of the Law Of Merited Impossibility (Thats never going to happen, and when it does, you bigots will deserve it): a big piece in The New York Times asking if open marriages are happier marriages. From the story:

Elizabeth, baffled by Daniels disappointment, wondered: How great does sex have to be for a person to be happy? Daniel wondered: Dont I have the right to care this much about sex, about intimacy? Occasionally, when he decided the answer was yes, and he felt some vital part of himself dwindling, Daniel would think about a radical possibility: opening up their marriage to other relationships. He would poke around on the internet and read about other couples arrangements. It was both an outlandish idea and, to him, a totally rational one. He eventually even wrote about it in 2009 for a friend who had a blog about sexuality. As our culture becomes more accepting of choices outside the norm, nonmonogamy will expand as an acceptable choice, and the world will have to change as a result, he predicted.

An outlandish idea back then. But you know what happened next to Elizabeth and Daniel, who are now living in an open marriage. The Times story says that polyamory has become much more accepted today, thanks in large part to the efforts of Dan Savage:

In recent years, probably no one has made the idea of open marriage more accessible than Dan Savage, who coined the word monogamish to describe his own relationship status. Savage, an internationally syndicated, podcast-hosting and often-quoted voice on sexual ethics, is gay, married, a father and nonmonogamous. He has used his vast reach to defend consensual nonmonogamy, which Savage says is widely accepted in the male gay community as a choice that can foster a relationships longevity, provided all parties involved behave ethically.

And technology:

Technology also imports nonmonogamy into mainstream heterosexual dating life, making the concept more visible and transparent. On the popular dating site OkCupid, couples seeking other partners can link their profiles; users can filter their searches for people who label themselves nonmonogamous. The site, an intimate tool in the romantic lives of its users, renders no judgment, and therefore normalizes, institutionally, a practice few people had neutral language for in the past. Among 40-to-50-year-olds who identify themselves as nonmonogamous on OkCupid, 16 percent also announce that they are married, according to the site.

The taboo is eroding:

Two-thirds of Americans feel that a growing variety in the types of family arrangements that people live in is a good thing or makes no difference, according to a 2013 survey by the Pew Research Center.

And this is surprising:

Conventional wisdom has it that men are more likely than women to crave, even need, variety in their sex lives. But of the 25 couples I encountered, a majority of the relationships were opened at the initiation of the women; only in six cases had it been the men. Even when the decision was mutual, the woman was usually the more sexually active outside the marriage. A suburban married man on OkCupid told me he had yet to date anyone, in contrast to his wife, whom he called an intimacy vampire. There was a woman in Portland whose husband had lost interest in sex with anyone, not just her. A 36-year-old woman in Seattle said she opened her marriage after she heard about the concept from another young mom at her book club.

Perhaps the women in the couples I encountered were more willing to tell their stories because they did not fit into predictable unflattering stereotypes about the male sex drive. But it was nonetheless striking to hear so many wives risk so much on behalf of their sexual happiness.

risk so much on behalf of their sexual happiness.I guess this is what counts as courageous in this post-Christian culture. If you read the entire story, you will see surprise! that the author pretty much concludes that polyamory can strengthen marriages:

Daniel and Elizabeth had turned their union into an elaborate puzzle, one they could only solve together, had to solve together, for the well-being of their family, even if doing so demanded more from each of them than their marriage ever had. Energy for generosity in a marriage can easily suffocate beneath the accumulation of grievances and disappointments, or even laziness of habit; now both Elizabeth and Daniel felt the weight of those histories somehow shifting, if not entirely lifting. They had experienced enough to know that they could not predict how much their lives might change in another year or two; but they felt more confident that they could weather what was coming their way. The marriage is better than it was when it started, Daniel said in March. It is. It really is.

Look, at this point, why argue? This kind of thing means the dissolution of family and eventually of society. Marriage is damned difficult, as anyone who has been married for any length of time knows. It requires immense sacrifice on both sides. The priest who prepared my wife and me for marriage told us that sometimes, the burden of sacrifice would fall heavily on one of us, and at other times on the other. But neither of us would be able to avoid sacrifice and suffering within the marriage; that is in its nature. When we made our vows at the altar, we entangled our fingers around a crucifix. The priest said at the altar that as long as we hold on to Christ, we can hold on to each other, but if we let go of Christ, we would find it hard to hold on to each other.

Today, after 20 years of marriage, I think of what the priest told us, both in the wedding rite and in our preparation, was profoundly true, and profoundly useful. Its not for nothing that in the Orthodox Christian wedding rite, both bride and groom receive a symbolic crown. It is the crown of martyrdom, for dying to self is key to the mystery of marriage. Father Stephen Freeman, an Orthodox priest, writes:

No issues in the modern world seem to be pressing the Church with as much force as those surrounding sex and marriage. The so-called Sexual Revolution has, for the most part, succeeded in radically changing how our culture understands both matters. Drawing from a highly selective (and sometimes contradictory) set of political, sociological and scientific arguments, opponents of the Christian tradition are pressing the case for radical reform with an abandon that bears all of the hallmarks of a revolution. And they have moved into the ascendancy.

Those manning the barricades describe themselves as defending marriage. That is a deep inaccuracy: marriage, as an institution, was surrendered quite some time ago. Todays battles are not about marriage but simply about dividing the spoils of its destruction. It is too late to defend marriage. Rather than being defended, marriageneeds to be taught and lived.

The Church needs to be willing to become the place where that teaching occurs as well as the place that can sustain couples in the struggle required to live it. Fortunately, the spiritual inheritance of the Church has gifted it with all of the tools necessary for that task. It lacks only people who are willing to take up the struggle.

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The classical Christian marriage belongs to the genre of martyrdom. It is a commitment to death. As Hauerwas notes: faithfulness over the course of a life-time defines what it means to love someone. At the end of a faithful life, we may say of someone, He loved his wife.

Father Stephen continues:

Some have begun to write about the so-called Benedict Option, a notion first introduced by Alasdair MacIntyre in his book, After Virtue. It compares the contemporary situation to that of the collapse of the Roman Christian Imperium in the West (i.e., the Dark Ages). Christian civilization, MacIntyre notes, was not rebuilt through a major conquering or legislating force, but through the patient endurance of small monastic communities and surrounding Christian villages. That pattern marked the spread of Christian civilization for many centuries in many places, both East and West.

It would seem clear that a legislative option has long been a moot point. When 95 percent of the population is engaging in sex outside of marriage (to say the least) no legislation of a traditional sort is likely to make a difference. The greater question is whether such a cultural tidal wave will inundate the Churchs teaching or render it inert a canonical witness to a by-gone time, acknowledged perhaps in confession but irrelevant to daily choices (this is already true in many places).

And:

The Benedict Option can only be judged over the course of centuries, doubtless to the dismay of our impatient age. But, as noted, those things required are already largely in place. The marriage rite (in those Churches who refuse the present errors) remains committed to the life-long union of a man and a woman with clearly stated goals of fidelity. The canon laws supporting such marriages remain intact. Lacking is sufficient teaching and formation in the virtues required to live the martyrdom of marriage.

Modern culture has emphasized suffering as undesirable and an object to be remedied. Our resources are devoted to the ending of suffering and not to its endurance. Of course, the abiding myth of Modernity is that suffering can be eliminated. This is neither true nor desirable.

Virtues of patience, endurance, sacrifice, selflessness, generosity, kindness, steadfastness, loyalty, and other such qualities are impossible without the presence of suffering. The Christian faith does not disparage the relief of suffering, but neither does it make it definitive for the acquisition of virtue. Christ is quite clear that all will suffer. It is pretty much the case that no good thing comes about in human society except through the voluntary suffering of some person or persons. The goodness in our lives is rooted in the grace of heroic actions.

In the absence of stable, life-long, self-sacrificing marriages, all discussion of sex and sexuality is reduced to abstractions. An eloquent case for traditional families is currently being made by the chaos and dysfunction set in motion by their absence. No amount of legislation or social programs will succeed in replacing the most natural of human traditions. The social corrosion represented by our over-populated prisons, births outside of marriage (over 40 percent in the general population and over 70 percent among non-Hispanic African Americans), and similar phenomenon continue to predict a breakdown of civility on the most fundamental level. We passed into the Dark Ages some time ago. The Benedict Option is already in place. It is in your parish and in your marriage. Every day you endure and succeed in a faithful union to your spouse and children is a heroic act of grace-filled living. [Emphasis mine RD]

We are not promised that the Option will be successful as a civilizational cure. Such things are in the hands of God. But we should have no doubt about the Modern Project going on around us. It is not building a Brave New World. It is merely destroying the old one and letting its children roam amid the ruins.

Please, please, please read the whole thing. This is the bold, clear, hard, shining truth. There is no point in trying to argue with this culture anymore. Shake the dust off your feet. The ark is here, within the Church. Turn your back on this culture, and run towards the ark of the Church. There you will not find relief from suffering, but rather the strength to endure it, to sanctify it, and by Gods grace, overcome it.

I have written a book called The Benedict Option, which I hope will inspire Christians to wake up to the reality around us, and to take necessary measures to hold on to what we know to be true in this age of lies. As Father Stephen writes, It is too late to defend marriage. Rather than being defended, marriageneeds to be taught and lived. The fight that many conservative Christians have committed themselves to, to defend traditional marriage is over and we lost. We lost not because we were wrong, but we lost all the same. My friends who are still involved in trying to fight this culture war at the level of policy and politics are battling for a lost cause.

The cause of traditional marriage is not lost, in the sense that it has been proven wrong. But the forces of atomization in the modern world did overcome it;the changing laws reflect the changing cultural consensus. The great fight now is within the Church, to hold on to what we know to be true and to pass it on despite overwhelming pressure from outside. The Church will have to be prepared to take on castaways and refugees, children who have been left to roam amid the ruins. We cannot do that if we do not teach and live out a model of marriage that stands in radical contradiction to the way of the world today.

This is the Benedict Option. Its not anything new, but rather something very old and tested by time. The Times story documents one aspect of the decadence and self-destruction of Western civilization. Let the spiritually dead cuckold the spiritually dead. Life is elsewhere.

Here is the original post:

Perversion As Progress | The American Conservative - The American Conservative

(JTA) Roma and Jewish groups in Hungary celebrated as a Roma singers song about oppressed minorities advanced to the finals of the Eurovision song contest.

Joci Ppai, 35, is the first Roma to represent Hungary in the continental song competition among 42 countries. Hemade the cut in the semi-finals Thursday night in Kiev, along with performers representing Israel and 25 additional countries, including Belarus, Azerbaijan and Austria.

If he wins that contest, and because of this Hungary would be the host of the next contest, then it would be really something, Adam Schonberger, a Hungarian Jew who runs Aurora, an organization that encourages dialogue and cooperation between Roma and Jews, told JTA Friday.

Schonberger noted, however, that deep-seated anti-Roma prejudice among segments of the political right in Hungary would likely make it difficult for many Hungarians to rally around Ppai if he wins inthe finals Saturday.

After Imre Kertesz, a Hungarian Jewish Holocaust survivor, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2002, the right wing reacted by saying that Kertesz was not Hungarian, Schonberger said. Similar comments were heardlast year when the Hungarian film Son of Saul, which deals with the Holocaust, won the Oscar for best foreign language film.

Ppai told reporters in Kiev: I am so proud that, in the history of Eurovision, as a gypsy I managed to get to the final. He sang Origo (Origin) for everyone from a minority who has ever felt oppressed. I left a piece of my heart here in Kiev, he said.

The right-wing government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has faced international criticism for what Amnesty International and other human rights groups claim is a systemic policy of discrimination against Roma.

Representing Israel at the Grand Final Saturday will be 25-year-old Imri Ziv, who qualified in the semi-finals with his song I Feel Alive. Israel, which has competed in the song competition 39 times and has won three times, most recently in 1998, is currently working out a bureaucratic change which may affect its ability to participate in the future.

Israel was able to take part in the European competition because its singers performed under the aegis of theIsrael Broadcasting Authority, itself a member of theEuropean Broadcasting Union. However, starting this week, the IBA was shut down and will be replaced by Kan, abroadcasting corporation, as part of a controversial government reform program.

Kan will sponsor entries and apply for membership in the EBU,Israeli officials told the Jerusalem Post, although its eligibility is not a given.

In 2016, some 204 million people saw at least one of the three showsthat make up the annual contest, according to the European Broacasting Union.

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Roma, Jews in Hungary celebrate gypsy singer's progress in ... - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

As the Washington Legislature marked the halfway point of its first special session this year, most lawmakers were nowhere to be found in Olympia.

Teachers singing about McCleary on the Capitol steps. Children marching with papier-mch dandelions. And an elementary school student howling like a wolf for Gov. Jay Inslee.

As the Washington Legislature marked the halfway point of this years first special session, those were some of the scenes in Olympia this week.

But state lawmakers? You know, the elected officials under Supreme Court order to fix Washingtons broken school-finance system?

Most of the gang of 147 were nowhere in sight at the Capitol. And theres no sign they will reach a compromise on the 2017-19 state budget which must include a way to fully fund K-12 schools without having to enter another overtime session.

Heres a roundup of all the McCleary action over the past week:

No, that wasnt a young girl yawning during one of the governors bill-signing ceremonies late last week.

Inslee on Friday actually coaxed the Hazel Wolf Elementary student to howl like her Seattle schools namesake, a famous environmental activist who had often mimicked wolves at meetings, according to The Spokesman-Review.

While a bit of political theater, the ceremony actually helped break up the monotony of the Legislatures special session: What little legislation that may be going on happens behind closed doors, observed Spokesman-Review reporter Jim Camden.

On Monday, the governor told The Associated Press that a bipartisan group of lawmakers have held useful discussions on the K-12 part of the state budget but have not made substantial progress on how to pay for any of it.

If no agreement is reached by June 30, the state could enter a partial government shutdown.

Meanwhile, superintendents for some school districts west of Seattle alarmed some teachers with a letter they sent to lawmakers asking for limits on collective bargaining with teachers unions.

As The Seattle Times detailed earlier this year, school districts have increasingly relied on an obscure provision in teacher contracts to help cover what the state doesnt pay for teacher salaries.

Its unclear whether the Legislature will try to rein in that practice.

But after union leaders quoted in the Kitsap Sun decried any erosion of local bargaining rights, at least one Kitsap County superintendent attempted to reverse course on the issue.

On Tuesday, The News Tribune noted the empty hallways in Olympia but reporter Melissa Santos did speak to House Majority Leader Pat Sullivan, D-Covington.

Hes one of eight lawmakers meeting regularly to hammer out a McCleary compromise. And he told Santos that theres no reason for other legislators with regular lives and jobs back home to remain at the Capitol until they have a budget agreement to debate and vote on.

Still, thats not stopping teachers from continuing their two-week Occupy Olympia movement to pressure lawmakers to find a compromise.

On some days the number of teachers have outnumbered the number of state lawmakers, reported the public-radio Northwest News Network.

The current special session ends May 23.

Originally posted here:

McCleary roundup: Useful discussions, but no substantial progress, says governor - The Seattle Times

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Donald Trump and Wilbur Ross.(Photo: Carolyn Kaster, AP)

WASHINGTON Declaring the U.S. relationship with China is hitting a new high, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced Thursday an agreement between the two countries on 10 trade issues.

Ross said the dealis the start of new communication and coordination with the Chinese. This is more than has been done in the whole history of U.S.-China relations on trade, he said.

While Ross called it a "herculean" accomplishment to find agreement between the countriesin the initial 10 areas, he promised more deals would be coming. There are probably 500 items that you could potentially discuss, maybe more than 500, he said.

The agreement was striking especially given Trump's previous hard-line stance toward China.During last years presidential campaign, President Trump bashed China as a currency manipulator.

But hes since reversed that position, suggesting it was part of a strategic plan to convince China to work with the U.S. to confront North Koreas missile buildup. Yet Ross told reporters the North Korean situation was not mentioned during the trade negotiations. It was not a quid pro quo, he said.

He estimated the agreements would result in an improvement in the U.S. trade deficit with China by the end of the year.

Here are the initial areas of agreement.

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US announces trade progress with China in 10 key areas - USA TODAY

Oct 6, 2016; Arlington, TX, USA; Texas Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre (29) takes batting practice before the game against theToronto Blue Jays in game one of the 2016 ALDS playoff baseball game at Globe Life Park in Arlington. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

Texas Rangers: Series With Padres Finishes in Teams Favor by Alex Al-Kazzaz

Texas Rangers GM Jon Daniels Takes Trip to Scout Two-Way Star by Andrew Webb

Its been hard for the Texas Rangers without their veteran leader Adrian Beltre. Hopefully they wont have to play without him for much longer. On Thursday, Beltre took batting practice with his teammates.

That is the first time Beltre has been able to do that since he re-aggravated hisstrained right calf muscle three weeks ago. According to T.R. Sullivan, manager Jeff Banister believes Beltre looked good in the box.

Some more good news is that Beltre was able to field ground balls. He is not yet running at full speed, but has been making good progress. Manager Jeff Banister talked about Beltres rehab work and timetable with T.R Sullivan.

Banister has not decided if he wants Beltre to do a rehabilitation assignment in the minors just yet. He did in 2011, but in 15 Beltre did not want to do a rehab assignment. Beltre could get some extra at-bats in extended Spring Training.

The good news is that Beltre is making progress, but sadly hes not ready yet and it doesnt sound like he will be ready to go this month.

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Texas Rangers: Adrian Beltre is Making Major Progress - Nolan Writin'