Category Archives: Progress

Photo: John Carl D'Annibale

Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan, shown announcing her candidacy for re-election last month, was against an inclusionary zoning requirement before she was for it. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan, shown announcing her candidacy for re-election last month, was against an inclusionary zoning requirement before she was for it. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

Churchill: Asking questions as Albany thwarts progress

Albany

You can almost count on it. As soon as Albany starts to build momentum, city government will find a way to mess things up.

The latest example: The decision to insert an "inclusionary zoning" provision into the city's ongoing update of its development rules.

What, you ask, is inclusionary zoning?

Excellent question! I'm glad you asked.

Inclusionary zoning is a rule that will require apartment developers to set aside five percent of units for affordable housing.

That probably doesn't seem so unreasonable. Indeed, inclusionary zoning is one of those things like "free tuition" or "Knicks basketball" that sounds wonderful until you look closely.

It's perhaps even true that inclusionary zoning has worked OK in wildly expensive and popular cities where rapid gentrification is pricing out long-term residents.

Albany, alas, is not one of those cities.

Instead, it's a place where developers are nervously sticking their toes in the water and looking for encouragement. The city is just beginning to see significant apartment construction in neighborhoods like the warehouse district.

Come on in, friends! The water won't hurt you!

That's what the city should be saying. But in this (admittedly tortured) analogy, inclusionary zoning is like a sign warning about sharks. It tells developers to scurry back to the bathtub safety of towns like Colonie.

You don't have to take my word for it. Consider the wisdom once uttered by Mayor Kathy Sheehan:

"I'm very concerned that if we were to mandate inclusionary housing, we'd see a huge drop-off in development in the city of Albany," Sheehan said last month to the All Over Albany website. "We have to be realistic about this market."

Nicely put!

Unfortunately, that Kathy Sheehan has vanished like your favorite phone booth. At Monday night's Common Council meeting, the mayor was among those speaking in favor of the last-minute insertion of inclusionary zoning into the long-planned and much-discussed ReZone Albany plan.

Sheehan's office subsequently sent me a statement saying it was "excited to be the first municipality in the Capital Region to implement this."

Of course, there's a reason no other municipality around here has done this. In upstate New York, it doesn't make economic sense.

So how, you ask, do we explain Sheehan's change of heart?

Excellent question! I'm glad you asked.

Well, I suspect the mayor's decision is mostly about the upcoming election. Her opponents in the Democratic primary Frank Commisso Jr. and Carolyn McLaughlin support inclusionary zoning, and she probably didn't want to be painted as a big meanie.

Sheehan isn't a real progressive! She's a tool of developers!

Speaking of developers, I called around to ask a few about the requirement, which applies to projects with more than 50 units and mandates that rents for affordable units can't exceed 30 percent of the city's median household income.

None would speak against it publicly, but they privately used words like "tragic" and "maddening."

"They just don't get it," one said. "They refuse to understand."

The developers said building in high-tax Albany still feels financially risky. The city, they said, should be easing the difficulties of construction, rather than throwing up hurdles that will shift urban investment to Schenectady and Troy.

Let me hit you with some numbers that seem to back that up: The census says the number of housing units in the city has fallen by 4.2 percent from 48,411 to 46,362 since 2010, while its population has inched up.

Anyone who passed Economics 101 can predict the inevitable result: Higher rents.

Anyone with basic supply-and-demand knowledge would know that increasing the number of units is one way to address the problem. But instead of encouraging new construction, Albany is choosing an opposite path that could slow development and further decrease supply.

I mentioned these concerns to Kelly Kimbrough, who represents North Albany on the Common Council and has been among the strongest supporters of inclusionary zoning.

"If we don't do anything, the developers aren't going to do the right thing," Kimbrough said. "I'm speaking for the people I represent. My focus is on making sure they have affordable places to live."

I believe Kimbrough's heart is in the right place, but I'll end with a few thoughts on why I think he's misguided on this.

One, the city has nearly 1,000 vacant residential buildings, a staggering number that suggests its housing market isn't robust enough for inclusionary zoning.

Two, since Albany's housing affordability problem is really a poverty problem, you could just as reasonably argue that supermarkets should be required to offer food discounts to poor customers.

But even Albany's misguided city officials wouldn't do that, presumably, because they understand it would discourage grocers from operating in the city.

So why, you ask, should housing be treated any differently?

Excellent question! I'm glad you asked.

cchurchill@timesunion.com 518-454-5442 @chris_churchill

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Churchill: Asking questions as Albany thwarts progress - Albany Times Union

Throughout America's small towns and suburbs, you can see the ominous markers of a coming sea change. Empty storefronts. Gutted strip malls. Vacant shopping complexes.

Indeed, nothing captures America's perverse economic picture better than the transformation happening in the retail sector. Brick-and-mortar retailers are hemorrhaging jobs: 90,000 since last October. That's 15,000 lost jobs per month.

Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos, the founder of online retailer Amazon, has become the nation's second richest manand a virtual lock to be No. 1 within a few years, if not months. Bezos's wealth has tripled in just over two years, a tidy $50 billion increase. That's over $1.5 billion per month.

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The connection between those two trends is indisputable. Every month, the same forces that destroy the jobs and turn upside down the lives of 15,000 Americans drive $1.5 billion into the pocket of the second-wealthiest American.

It's the real-life embodiment of a Tom Tomorrow cartoon I saw years ago:the One Rich Guy Who Owns Everything. "Over the years, income inequality continued to rise," the comic begins, "until finally, one rich guy owned as much as the rest of the planet combined."

The strip was meant to be an extrapolation of wealth inequality to its most absurdly concentrated point. It was satire. But the more absurd thing is that we're actually trending in that direction.

Consider the trend since the inaugural appearance of the Forbes 400 list 35 years ago. In 1982, the wealthiest 400 Americans had a combined net worth of slightly less than 1 percent of the nations aggregate wealth. Today, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the 20 wealthiest Americans enjoy that same slice.

Related: The automation revolution: Or how to stop worrying and learn to love robots

Reflect on that. The size of the group of wealthy Americans accounting for 1 percent of the country's wealth has been trimmed by 95 percent in just 35 years, from 400 to 20. If that group were reduced by the same amount over the next 35 years, what would we have?

In three words: One Rich Guy.

The St. Nicholas Breaker, seen in a state of demolition, was once the world's largest coal breaker but closed in 1972 in Manahoy City, Pennsylvania. Most of the nearby coal mines have also closed, and 17.4 percent of the town's population now exists below the poverty line, with a median household income of $24,347. Robert Lord writes that the transformation were witnessing in the retail sector will repeat itself when online retailers enter the grocery business, electronic tablets replace servers at restaurants, hamburger-making robots replace fast-food workers and driverless vehicles replace everyone who currently drives a vehicle for a living. Those transformations are all underway. Mark Makela/Getty

Obviously, "One Rich Guy"is hyperbole. But the idea that one guy, or even 20 guys, could control a full 1 percent of the wealth in a country of over 300 million should alarm our leaders. Instead, they're concerned that the contenders to be the country's One Rich Guy are being taxed unfairly. ("Why do you want to punish his success?" asks a lawmaker in Tom Tomorrow's dystopian cartoon, in front of a dilapidated Capitol building.)

Could the trend of the past 35 years continue? Actually, it could accelerate.

Consider the transformation we're witnessing in the retail sector repeating itself when online retailers enter the grocery business, electronic tablets replace servers at restaurants, hamburger-making robots replace fast-food workers and driverless vehicles replace everyone who currently drives a vehicle for a living. Those transformations are all underway.

If nothing else changes, each will destroy millions of livelihoods while making a handful of Americans fantastically wealthy.

It's as if the fears of the Luddites weren't wrong, just premature.

The Fruits of Progress

Should technological progress be something we fear? Of course not. But the British science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke had a point when he proclaimed,"The goal of the future is full unemployment, so we can play."

Yet instead of creating more leisurely lives for the masses, today's technical progress instead threatens to impoverish themwhile driving the bulk of the country's wealth into the hands of a group so small it couldn't fill a basketball arena.

Historically, American workers shared proportionallyin our productivity gains, which translated into both increased worker income and reduced hoursin other words, more time for play and more money to play with. But that trend toward the utopia Clarke envisioned came to a grinding halt about 35 years ago.

Despite continued productivity increases, deliberate policy choices have led to worker wages stagnatingeven while corporate profits have soared.

Unfortunately, what's happened over the past 35 years may not be the worst of it. Until now, increases in the demand for goods and services have more or less kept pace with productivity increases, which has allowed the hours available per worker to stay relatively constant.

Workers as a group, therefore, have been able to tread water (even though some groups, such as today's employees and yesterday's factory workers, have struggled).

But what happens if increases in demand can't match the pace of productivity? If workers no longer have the wages to participate in their productive economy? Eventually, you get One Rich Guyand social ruin.

Related: Trump's promise to bring back jobs is ignorant and cruel

What was Clarke's solution for avoiding this neo-Luddite nightmare? Simple: "We haveto destroy the present politico-economic system,"he opined.

Maybe that sounds like a bit much. But we sure as heck need to change it, and not just at the margins. Which means we don't have room for political leaders who believe the road to mass prosperity is trimming the tax burdens of billionaires while questioning benefits for the masses.

Instead, we need policies that let the fruits of tomorrow's technological progress flow to our society as a whole, not just the luckiest amongus.

Otherwise, we can start taking bets on who will be America's One Rich Guy.

Bob Lord, a tax lawyer and former congressional candidate, is an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies.

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Automation Kills Jobs and Brings Mass Poverty. Call That Progress? - Newsweek

Congress has added new reporting requirements for the Defense Departments massive Cerner EHR implementation within the newly brokered budget deal for 2017. Specifically, the Defense Appropriation Act mandates quarterly updates on the new systems schedule, costs, timeline and progress in reaching interoperability with the Department of Veterans Affairs system.

DoD awarded the $4.3 billion contract to Cerner, Accenture and Leidos in July of 2019 and rolled out the first pilot, dubbed MHS Genesis, at Fairchild Air Force Base in February2017. The VA, for its part, is gearing up to decide whether it will modernize its current VistA EHR or instead replace it with a commercial product. The departments have a long history of struggling to fully integrate their medical records, including the multi-billion dollar iEHR project they ultimately abandoned.

[Also:Cerner picking up big business from small hospitals]

Concerns remain with the progress being made by the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs to fully develop, procure and deploy an interoperable electronic health record solution, the legislation stated. The two systems must be completely and meaningfully interoperable.

The act goes on to say that the reports should include changes to timelines, refinements of cost estimates, assurance that DoDs acquisition strategy complies with rules and regulations, and status updates on the effort to achieve interoperability with the VA.

Congress further directed the program executive officer to continue to brief House and Senate Appropriations committees on a quarterly basis and provide written notification to these committees prior to signing any contract for electronic health record systems in excess of $5 million.

Further, the program executive officer must provide to the federal chief information officer monthly updates on progress made by the two departments to reach interoperability and modernize their respective electronic health records.

Twitter:@SiwickiHealthIT Email the writer: bill.siwicki@himssmedia.com

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Congress mandates regular reports on Cerner's DoD EHR progress - Healthcare IT News

The past several years have been favorable to many companies in the U.S. economy, but times have been tough for Jason Industries (NASDAQ:JASN). The maker of seating, finishing, and automotive acoustic products has seen its stock plunge since 2014, and Jason has had to engage in a radical transformation in order to find ways to move forward.

Coming into Thursday's first-quarter financial report, Jason Industries investors were prepared for another decline in revenue and a net loss for the quarter. Jason wasn't able to avoid that fate, but it did manage to cushion the blow with less dramatic deterioration than many had expected, and company executives are hopeful about its restructuring efforts. Let's look more closely at Jason Industries and what its results say about its future.

Image source: Jason Industries.

Jason Industries' first-quarter results weren't strong, but they reflected the company's willingness to fight against tough conditions. Sales dropped 8% to $175.2 million, which was a little less extreme than the consensus forecast among investors for an 11% decline. Net losses narrowed to $1.3 million, and the per-share loss of $0.05 was less than half of what those following the stock had expected to see.

Taking a closer look at the numbers, Jason suffered declines in revenue across the board. The finishing segment fared the best, with sales declining just 2%, and adjusted pre-tax operating income actually rose by roughly a third from year-ago levels. But the components segment took the biggest hit, seeing revenue drop by more than a fifth. Fully 13 percentage points of downward pressure came from the decision to exit certain non-core product lines when Jason decided to close its facility in Buffalo Grove, Illinois. Yet lower rail volumes produced an 8% hit to organic sales, and pre-tax operating profit dropped by about two-fifths.

Elsewhere, Jason's other segments had mixed results. The seating segment suffered a 9% drop in sales, as motorcycle and turf-care related volumes fell. Unfavorable product mixes hit the segment's bottom line, where adjusted pre-tax operating profit fell by a sixth. With acoustics, automotive assembly plant shutdowns contributed to an 8% revenue hit, but pre-tax operating profit inched higher as Jason saw the benefits of productivity gains and cost reductions.

CEO Brian Kobylinski put the results in perspective. "As expected, certain of our end markets remained soft due to inflated levels of channel inventory," Kobylinski said, "and we saw an overall 5% organic sales contraction." However, the CEO also noted that the completion of many cost reduction and margin expansion efforts helped Jason move forward. In particular, the winding down of operations in Brazil was completed, and the company did a sale and leaseback transaction on one of its facilities to generate $5.6 million in cash proceeds. Also, the planned consolidation of components production facilities in Illinois is on track to be done by the end of the year.

Looking forward, Jason seems more optimistic about its future than it has been in previous quarters. In the CEO's words, "We are beginning to see the results of our quality, delivery, portfolio optimization, and cost reduction initiatives reflected in our financial performance and the rate of new business awards received in the quarter." The company plans to push into new markets and come up with new products to drive future demand, and it hopes its sales efforts will find new customers even as Jason continues to make itself leaner and meaner operationally.

Jason reaffirmed its full-year guidance for 2017, reassuring those who might have feared a downward revision. Revenue should still finish the year between $650 million and $670 million, and adjusted pre-tax operating income is expected in the range of $64 million to $67 million.

Jason Industries investors didn't appear to immediately respond to the news, as the stock didn't move in pre-market trading following the announcement. Given how far share prices have already fallen, Jason shareholders can only hope that the company's retrenchment efforts will bring a turnaround that will help bolster its fundamental growth potential in the years to come.

Dan Caplinger has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Jason Industries. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Jason Industries Makes Progress With Its Slim-Down Efforts -- The ... - Motley Fool

In a brief photo opportunity with Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said President Donald Trump's call with Russian President Vladimir Putin was very productive with a lot of exchanges. (May 2) AP

President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.(Photo: DON EMMERT, AFP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON The United States and Russia appeared to be inching toward mediating a cease-fire in the Syrian civil war Tuesday, asPresident Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke for theirfirst known conversation since Trump ordered airstrikes on a Syrian air base last month.

The Syrian civil war dominated the discussion, the White House said, and the two leaders "agreed that the suffering in Syria has gone on for far too long and that all parties must do all they can to end the violence."

U.S. and Russian accounts of the Tuesday phone call between contained no hints of the usual friction points, andboth sides generally agreed on the tone and substance of the exchange. (White House: "The conversation was a very good one." Kremlin:"The conversation was held in a business-like and constructive atmosphere.")

Putin even invited Trump to talk more and to meet face-to-face when both leaders are in Hamburg, Germany for the G-20 summit of major economic powers in July. That meeting was almost certain to happen anyway, but the White House version of the phone call made no mention of a future meeting.

Mysterious rash of Russian deaths casts suspicion on Vladimir Putin

Despite Trump's entreaties to Putin during the presidential campaign, Syria has remained a source of tension. Russia supports the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, and senior U.S. officials have stopped just short of suggesting Russian complicity in a deadly sarin gas attack on civilians in northwestern Syria. Trump ordered airstrikes on a Syrian airfield in retaliation, giving Russian forces just enough notice to get out of the line of fire.

In their account on Tuesday, the Russians also said the leaders "agreed to enliven dialogue" between Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as cease fire talks continue in Kazakhstan this week.

The two leaders also talked about what both sides called a "dangerous situation" as North Korea continues missile tests in defiance of international agreements.

It was at least the thirdconversation between the two leaders since Trump's inauguration.

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Trump's call with Vladimir Putin suggests some progress on Syria - USA TODAY

May 2, 2017 by Steve Cohen

The integration of economic development, modern management and environmental protection created the field of sustainability management. The effort to ensure that humans could continue to benefit from the miracle of this planet, and increase the distribution of those benefits to all of humanity is well underway. In some sense, it is a race against time as we learn how to reduce the impact of economic development on the planet's ecological systems. Some environmental damage is irreversible, and in some cases remediation is extremely expensive. While the damage continues, I also see progress and I believe the momentum behind sustainability will increase. Human ingenuity, changing global culture and the health impacts of environmental destruction are factors that are leading to progress in the transition to a sustainable economy.

Population pressure continues to increase, but we now know that economic development brings declining birth and death rates and that in some developed nations, such as the United States, population would be shrinking without immigration. In developed countries, such as Japan, where immigration is rare, population is shrinking. While our society is aging, people are living longer, more productive and healthier lives. As the world develops, poverty decreases, and population begins to stabilize. While no one can predict the future, it is possible to foresee the end of the era of massive population growth.

We are also learning to apply technology to enable economic growth without increased levels of pollution. As I noted in a piece I wrote in late February:

"According to the EPA, from 1980 to 2015 the US GDP grew by 153 percent, our population grew by 41 percent, vehicle miles traveled grew by 106 percent, but air pollution declined by 65 percent."

A typical response I receive to this fact is that we must have exported all our dirty industry and that is why we could achieve this result. However, most air pollution comes from motor vehicles and power plants, and the outputs of those sources have grown, while technology has reduced their production of pollution.

We are also learning how to live more sustainable lifestyles. We've replaced trips to the mall with trips to the gym. We are using bikes more, walking more, smoking less, and paying more attention to what we eat. Our cities are developing green infrastructure to reduce the impact of flooding on our streets and waterways. We are learning how to share autos, cabs and even homes when we travel. Young people are increasingly interested in experiences and less interested in owning stuff. More and more of our time is devoted to the low impact consumption of music, movies, news, games, social communication and anything else that appears on our smart phones. Young people think about where their food comes from and its impact on their own health and the health of other living beings.

A critically important indicator of progress is the changing attitudes of the public. This is most clearly seen in the views of young people in the developed world, but it is reflected in urban and community governance and in the changing behavior of many corporations. A recent study highlights the progress now underway:

"A new report from WWF, Calvert Investments, CDP and Ceres finds nearly half of Fortune 500 companies48 percenthave at least one climate or clean energy target, up five percent from an earlier 2014 reportNearly 80,000 emission-reducing projects by 190 Fortune 500 companies reporting data showed nearly $3.7 billion in savings in 2016 aloneThe largest companies in the Fortune 500the Fortune 100continue to lead: Sixty-three percent of Fortune 100 companies have set one or more clean energy targets."

Even as the climate deniers and fossil fuel zealots take over the federal government, industry, cities and communities are making the transition to a more efficient renewable energy based economy. This is being driven by a number of simultaneous positive developments:

Cities and companies see sustainability as a method of communicating their modernity and sensitivity to changing market and social conditions. State governments, particularly in California and New York are looking to modernize the electric grid and the business models of power utilities to permit decentralized, distributed generation of energy. They are doing this to improve the resiliency and cost of their energy systems to serve the needs of residents and businesses, but the environmental impact of smart-grids will be profound. Smart-grids will increase the use of renewables and reduce the vulnerability of our power system to natural and human made disasters.

As a management professor, one of the most promising trends I see is the deep interest of college and graduate students in learning how to integrate the physical dimensions of sustainability into routine organizational decision making and operations. Millennials are interested in energy use, healthy workplaces, water and material efficiency, and in reducing the environmental impacts of their organization's production process and of the goods and services they help create. This has not replaced other goals such as profit and market share in the private sector and accomplishment of key missions in the public sector, but it is viewed as means of achieving routine organizational goals. Just as a good accounting system facilitates organizational productivity, well-managed physical resources contribute to an organization's efficiency and effectiveness. This is a generation that is comfortable with technology and expects instantaneous access to information about everything. Cost data promotes reduced use of material resources and waste reduction. The goal of reducing environmental impact is seen as consistent with other goals and not something they need to trade off if they are to succeed.

We are in the early stages of a politics and culture built on perceptions generated via social media. These new forms of communication are used to gather people to demonstrate against injustice, but are also used to spread inaccurate accounts of people and events. The internet enabled Barack Obama to raise the funds needed to win the Presidency in 2008 and the entertainment value of Donald Trump brought TV ratings and web site clicks more typical of reality television than TV news. We live in an observed world where everyone with a smartphone is a videographer, and if people aren't present to record something, cameras, drones and satellites are often available to fill in. This means that fiction can easily go viral, but so too can the images of toxics leaking into a water supply. Global warming is no hoax to people who see images of ice sheets melting; and deforestation can be seen from aerial images that are a click away. Over-fishing in our oceans in part due to China's growing wealth and demand is an emerging crisis that adds to the impression that we are using up the planet's resources.

Young people know the planet is more crowded and that resources and opportunities are both becoming increasingly scarce. I believe that these perceptions underlie the broadly based, non-ideological drive for sustainability. While the long term political impact of the internet and constant communication is not yet clear (it brought us Obama and Trump), the facts of environmental degradation are more difficult to hide. It may be possible to deny climate change models, but orange rivers and particulate-laden skies provide simple and easy-to-understand messages.

Negative factors may motivate some of the drive toward sustainability, but I believe most of the progress is coming because a sustainable, renewable resource based life style is satisfying and positive. Sitting in a traffic jam is less fun than riding a bike. Paying less for electricity is no one's idea of suffering. A positive vision of sustainability underlies much of the progress we have made thus far, and will be of increasing importance as the transition to a renewable resource based economy gains momentum.

Explore further: Why states are pushing ahead with clean energy despite Trump's embrace of coal

Provided by: Earth Institute, Columbia University

This story is republished courtesy of Earth Institute, Columbia University: blogs.ei.columbia.edu .

On Tuesday, March 28, President Trump traveled to the Environmental Protection Agency to sign an executive order rolling back a number of climate-related regulations that have taken effect over the past eight years. The president's ...

In a new thesis from Uppsala University, Simon Davidsson shows that a rapid expansion of renewable energy technology is not necessarily sustainable. To find the best way forward in the coming transition towards renewable ...

In one of his first actions as president, Donald Trump rolled back previous federal policies on climate protection, energy efficiency and sustainability. But don't expect some local governments to slow down their own efforts, ...

Sub-Saharan Africa, where more than a half billion people live without electricity, trails the world in government policies that promote sustainable energy, according to a new World Bank report Wednesday.

While environmental issues are often cited as a major factor in cities and towns in pursuing sustainability, a new study shows that economic concerns can be just as important to local governments in adopting concrete sustainability ...

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine offers a road map and recommendations to help U.S. cities work toward sustainability, measurably improving their residents' economic, social, ...

Glacier flow at the southern Antarctic Peninsula has increased since the 1990s, but a new study has found the change to be only a third of what was recently reported.

Hundreds of thousands of species could soon go extinct due to the effects of deforestation, new research examining global data has found.

New international agreements commit all UN member nations to solving humanity's greatest challenges over the next few decades, from eliminating extreme poverty and unhealthy living conditions to addressing climate change ...

It is a common trope in disaster movies: an earthquake strikes, causing the ground to rip open and swallow people and cars whole. The gaping earth might make for cinematic drama, but earthquake scientists have long held that ...

By examining the cooling rate of rocks that formed more than 10 miles beneath the Earth's surface, scientists led by The University of Texas at Austin Jackson School of Geosciences have found that water probably penetrates ...

Plant a tree, save the world?

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The progress toward sustainability - Phys.Org

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Woody Johnson: I'm patient if there's progress NBCSports.com Progress can be defined many different ways, which allows for a different point of view in January about the job Maccagnan and Bowles are doing than Johnson has right now. However it is defined, going 2-14 or 3-13 often makes it harder to find so ... and more »

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Woody Johnson: I'm patient if there's progress - NBCSports.com

Vice President Mike Pence gives a statement after a meeting at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, February 20, 2017. . (photo credit:REUTERS)

WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration has already reconstituted the Middle East peace process by fostering "goodwill" amongst Israelis and Palestinians, US Vice President Mike Pence said at an Israeli Independence Day reception held at the White House on Tuesday.

Reiterating the president's "personal commitment to resolving the Israeli and Palestinian conflict," Pence said the new administration had found a way to pursue peace whilst simultaneously devoting itself to securing the Jewish state.

"Even now, were making valuable progress toward the noble goal of peace," Pence said. "Thanks to the presidents tireless leadership, momentum is building and goodwill is growing. And that while there will undoubtedly have to be compromises, you can rest assured President Donald Trump will never compromise the safety and security of the Jewish state of Israel not now, not ever."

Pence said that Trump's appointment of Friedman and of US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley were examples of his "unapologetic" commitment to Israel. So, too, is his consideration of a plan to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem a policy initiative he is seriously considering "as we speak," Pence told the crowd.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to visit the White House on Wednesday.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, US ambassador to Israel David Friedman and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) attended the White House reception, which brought together several leaders of the Jewish American community as well as Israel's ambassador to the US, Ron Dermer.

Executive Director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center Nathan Diament, who was at the event called it historic in the literal sense.

No one was able to think of a previous occasion in which the White House hosted a reception specifically in honor of Yom Haatzmaut, he told the Post. That says something special about the United States and about the US- Israel relationship.

Certainly for those of us in the room who are religious Zionists, with the talk on the part of the Vice President and Senator Hatch about [...] their great support for Israel is incredibly encouraging and affirming, he added.

Regarding Vice President Pences remarks about the US embassy move to Jerusalem, Diament said that while the administration is seriously considering it, the subject will also depend on the conversation between Trump and Abbas on Wednesday.

In a room full of Jewish people there isnt really consensus, he said. But if there is any point of consensus, I think it would be that there is an expectation [among Jewish leaders] that President Trump and his administration will try to push ahead with President Abbas some ideas towards negotiations.

Pence said he called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to wish him a "happy Independence Day" before the event. The Israeli embassy hosts a separate party to mark the holiday on Tuesday evening.

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'Valuable progress' already made toward Mideast peace, Pence says - Jerusalem Post Israel News

In a Research Article published in PLOS Medicine, Richard Hayes of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK and colleagues report early findings from PopART -- a clinical trial evaluating an intervention to achieve universal HIV testing and treatment -- in Zambia. The authors estimate that, after 1 y of the intervention, the proportion of people with HIV who knew their infection status had increased from 52% to 78% (men) and from 56% to 87% (women); and that the overall proportion of people with HIV receiving antiretroviral treatment (ART) had increased from 44% to 61%.

Despite progress against the HIV epidemic, some 2.1 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2015, according to the most recent estimates from UNAIDS (the joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS). In that year, more than a million people died from HIV-related illnesses, mostly in low- and middle-income countries. To accelerate progress against this disastrous toll of ill health and mortality, UNAIDS has set ambitious "90-90-90" targets: by 2020, 90% of people infected with HIV should know their status, with 90% of people diagnosed with HIV infection to be receiving ART and 90% of people receiving treatment to have viral suppression. PopART and other large studies are aiming to evaluate programmes for universal testing and treatment towards these goals and to measure their effect on the number of new HIV infections.

PopART (also known as HPTN 071) is being implemented in 21 urban communities in Zambia and South Africa with a total population of around 1 million. The new paper reports findings from the first year of the study in Zambia only. In PopART, community HIV care providers systematically visit people in their homes to offer HIV testing and counselling, with linkage to appropriate facility-based care and follow-up for people with HIV, tuberculosis and other diseases. Hayes and colleagues report that, after 1 y, the estimated population proportion of those with HIV infection knowing their status was close to the UNAIDS target in women (87%); the lower proportion in men (78%) suggests that reaching men through home visits may be challenging. Although the estimated proportion of HIV-positive people on ART increased from 44% to 61%, this falls short of the 81% target (90% of 90%). The data also suggest that ART coverage was lower in younger adults with HIV. The trial is ongoing, and additional findings will be reported in future years.

Collins Iwuji and Marie-Louise Newell discuss the research in an accompanying Perspective, concluding that "Overall, these results would suggest that it is unlikely that the rather optimistic forecasts...of an imminent end to the global HIV epidemic will be fulfilled. Substantial resources are needed to further scale up ART for all HIV-positive adults, and allocation of limited resources will need to be optimised on the basis of evidence of efficacy."

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Controlling the HIV epidemic: A progress report on efforts in sub-Saharan Africa - Science Daily

President Donald Trump waves as he walks across the south lawn of the White House in Washington late Saturday night, April 29, 2017, on this return from a rally in Harrisburg, Pa.

President Donald Trump waves as he walks across the south lawn of the White House in Washington late Saturday night, April 29, 2017, on this return from a rally in Harrisburg, Pa.

The Latest: Trump holds hope for progress on health care

WASHINGTON (AP) The Latest on President Donald Trump (all times local):

4:15 p.m.

President Donald Trump approaches the week with the threat of a government shutdown still looming as he holds hope for progress on health care.

Trump spent his first 100 days without passing any major legislation.

His challenges remain. Last week lawmakers averted a shutdown by sending the president a one-week spending bill. Congress will have to negotiate final details on a $1 trillion package by Friday to finance the government through Sept. 30.

The White House also continues its push for a revised bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Health Care Act.

The latest GOP bill would let states escape a requirement under Barack Obama's 2010 law that insurers charge healthy and seriously ill customers the same rates.

During a CBS interview aired Sunday, Trump insisted the measure has a "clause that guarantees" that people with pre-existing conditions will be covered.

LATEST TRENDING VIDEOS: Story continues below

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11:05 a.m.

President Donald Trump says he's had tougher jobs, but acknowledges the presidency is "always a challenge, like life itself is a challenge."

Trump tells CBS' "Face the Nation," ''I've had things that were tougher, although I'll let you know that better at the end of eight years. Perhaps eight years. Hopefully, eight years."

Trump says being president is "something that I really love, and I think I've done a very good job at it."

This past week, Trump also reflected on his new gig in an interview with Reuters, saying the presidency is "more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier."

The president also lamented his loss of privacy, describing life in the White House as being in "your own little cocoon."

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11 a.m.

President Donald Trump says if he's unable to renegotiate a long-standing free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, then he'll terminate the pact.

That's what he tells CBS' "Face the Nation." And it's in keeping with what the president says he's told the leaders of those two countries. He says he's told them he won't pull the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement now, but could do so if he decides a renegotiated agreement isn't "a fair deal for all."

Trump signed an executive order Saturday directing the Commerce Department and the U.S. trade representative to conduct a study of U.S. trade agreements. The goal is to determine whether America is being treated fairly by its trading partners and the 164-nation World Trade Organization.

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10:50 a.m.

President Donald Trump says people with pre-existing medical conditions will be protected under the proposed Republican health care bill.

Trump says the measure has a "clause that guarantees" that people with pre-existing conditions will be covered.

The latest version of House Republicans' American Health Care Act would allow states to opt out of the requirement for standard premiums, under certain circumstances. Critics have said there is no requirement that a state must provide an affordable coverage option for those consumers.

Trump said the bill has "evolved over a period of three or four weeks." He also said the plan would bring down premiums. He made his comments on CBS' "Face the Nation."

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10:35 a.m.

Vice President Mike Pence is acknowledging the Trump administration's proposal to cut taxes could increase the deficit initially. But he contends it will pay for itself eventually after spurring more economic growth.

When asked about the likelihood of a higher deficit, Pence told NBC's "Meet the Press": "Maybe in the short term."

Pence touted the Trump plan as "one of the largest tax cuts in American history." He says it's needed to get the economy growing at 3 percent and to pay for rising costs of programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

The one-page plan calls for massive tax cuts for businesses and a bigger standard tax deduction for middle-income families. Budget estimates have cast doubt that it would bring enough growth to be self-paying.

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10:10 a.m.

Vice President Mike Pence says he believes a successful House effort to repeal and replace the nation's health care law is "just around the corner."

Touting achievements of the Trump administration's first 100 days, Pence says he believes "we're close" to gaining enough votes in the House to dismantle the Affordable Care Act.

He says the legislative process "is often slow," and so it has taken time to repeal what he called "one of the worst pieces of legislation in modern American history."

Last week, the conservative House Freedom Caucus announced support for a revised GOP health care bill that would let states get federal waivers to some coverage requirements Obama's law imposed on insurers. GOP leaders say they will schedule a vote "as soon as we have the votes."

Pence spoke on NBC's "Meet the Press."

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