Category Archives: Progress

Chancellor Ronnie Green is launching a semester-long conversation series focused on the University of NebraskaLincolns N2025 strategicplan.

The plan was initially launched and put into motion in February 2019. The university is entering its third year in the N2025 plans five-yearscope.

The series, which begins Feb. 15, will feature regular videos that provide details on the progress toward each of the six N2025 plan aims. Other elements of the discussion include updates with the chancellor and other campus leaders, and the release of an expanded N2025 website. Later in the semester, two listening sessions (both open to the campus community) will be held to discuss the N2025aims.

More details about the series will be announced. The first video, which features a conversation between Green; Kathy Ankerson, executive vice chancellor; and the N2025 faculty co-chairs, releases on Feb. 15, the universitys charterday.

This semester-long focus on the N2025 strategic plan replace the chancellors annual State of Our University Address which in recent years had been held around Feb. 15 as part of the universitys charter day celebration. In 2022, the State of Our University Address will be held in September, the start of the new academic year and a time when campus leaders hope the nation will be past the direct impacts of thepandemic.

Learn more about the universitys N2025 strategic plan, which is organized around the theme, Where every person and every interactionmatters.

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Series to focus on N2025 progress, successes | Nebraska Today | University of NebraskaLincoln - Nebraska Today

Kadary Richmond is being asked to play a much bigger role for Seton Hall than he or coach Kevin Willard ever expected coming into the season.

With Bryce Aiken sidelined for the past five games while in concussion protocol, the Syracuse transfer has made steady progress while playing more minutes than anyone had planned.

I think youre starting to see the evolution of a really, really good player, Willard said after Seton Halls 74-55 rout of Creighton Friday night at Prudential Center.

Its hard going from playing 24 minutes a game sharing time with a guy to all of sudden playing 38 minutes in a game and playing three games in five days. I think hes handled the responsibility phenomenally, hes playing with a lot of confidence and hes just starting to evolve into that really, really good point guard.

In the five games Aiken has missed, the 6-foot-6 Richmond is averaging 10.0 points, 6.0 assists, 4.0 rebounds and 4.4 turnovers while playing an average of 35 minutes per game. The Pirates (14-7, 5-6) are 3-2 in those contests and have won two straight entering Wednesdays tilt with No. 21 Xavier (16-6, 6-5) at Prudential Center.

A year ago, Richmond was playing just 21 minutes a game at Syracuse while averaging 6.3 points, 3.1 assists and 2.6 rebounds. This year hes averaging 8.7 points, 4.0 assists and 3.8 rebounds in 26 minutes per game. His breakout game came in a 90-87 overtime win against UConn on Jan. 8, when he poured in 27 points on 10-of-13 shooting in 27 minutes. Aiken scored 22 points in that game.

After putting up 12 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and three steals in Tuesdays win at Georgetown, Richmond followed with 14 points, seven assists, three rebounds, a steal and a block against Creighton while posting a plus-23 on the box score.

Just balancing everything out, creating for myself, creating for other guys on the court and just trying to lead more, offensively and defensively, Richmond said.

When Seton Hall was manhandled at Walsh Gym by St. Johns on Jan. 25, Richmond managed just three points on 0-for-8 shooting with three rebounds, four assists and four turnovers. Willard said Richmond was tired after handling point guard duties for the second time in three days without much support.

Now he seems to be growing accustomed to playing more minutes while the games have been more spread out. His play will be critical in the next week as the Pirates will face three Top 25 teams in an eight-day span. After hosting Xavier, the Pirates travel to No. 12 Villanova on Saturday before visiting No. 17 UConn on Feb. 16.

I think its getting better as time goes, game in and game out, Richmond said.

There is no timetable on a return for Aiken -- who is averaging 14.5 points, 2.7 assists and 2.1 rebounds and brings a much-needed change of pace to Seton Halls offense. So in the meantime, Richmond will have to keep on shouldering the point guard duties.

Its just the same thing going into every game, Richmond said, doing what I can to win, just the same routine and just trying to pull out a win every night.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription.

Adam Zagoria is a freelance reporter who covers Seton Hall and NJ college basketball for NJ Advance Media.

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With Bryce Aiken sidelined, Kadary Richmond is making steady progress as Seton Halls point guard - NJ.com

Feb 5 (Reuters) - The NFL will reevaluate its policies relating to diversity, equity and inclusion, commissioner Roger Goodell told the clubs on Saturday, days after former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against the league.

Flores, who is Black, was fired by the Dolphins last month after back-to-back seasons with winning records, saying it was emblematic of the treatment of Black coaches, who comprise a fraction of team staff positions while 70% of NFL players are Black.

Goodell said he understood Flores' concerns and added they would not wait for the legal process to "reassess and modify our strategies" so they are consistent with the league's commitment to diversity.

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"We have made significant efforts to promote diversity and adopted numerous policies and programs which have produced positive change in many areas," Goodell wrote in a memo seen by Reuters and sent to all league employees and clubs.

"However we must acknowledge that particularly with respect to head coaches the results have been unacceptable.

"We will reevaluate and examine all policies, guidelines and initiatives relating to diversity, equity and inclusion, including as they relate to gender."

There is currently just one Black head coach among the NFL's 32 teams.

Goodell added they were retaining "outside experts" to assist in their review while also asking current and former players and coaches for their input.

"Our goal is simple: make our efforts and those of the clubs more effective so that real and tangible results will be achieved," he added.

"We recognize the need to understand the lived experiences of diverse members of the NFL family to ensure that everyone has access to opportunity and is treated with respect and dignity."

Flores had also said his refusal to throw games as a way to improve the football club's chances of landing a top draft pick ultimately cost him his job. read more

"We also take seriously any issue relating to the integrity of NFL games. These matters will be reviewed thoroughly and independently," Goodell said.

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Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Daniel Wallis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Progress on head-coach diversity 'unacceptable', NFL commissioner tells teams - Reuters

Less than 20 months in, Dallas has laid the groundwork for its long-term climate action plan, which directs the city to better manage carbon emissions by 2050.

In its first year, city staff said they achieved 93% of their assigned annual goals and began work on half the actions from the 30-year climate plan approved by the City Council in May 2020. Among the completed tasks: a new urban forestry website, the launch of its sustainable procurement program, the installation of air quality monitors and hundreds of new trees planted.

With nearly 100 actions items, the plan addresses eight issues: energy-efficient and climate-resilient buildings, renewable and affordable energy, transportation, waste, water resources, green spaces, food and clean air.

While proud of its initial success, the city is striving to accomplish more of its goals this year.

As we build for our citys future, it is imperative that we take intentional steps to become better stewards of our environment, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said in a written statement. This issue is important to me as mayor, and through our Comprehensive Environmental and Climate Action Plan, we are committed to becoming a global leader in addressing environmental concerns.

One of the most notable actions slated for 2022 is the drafting of a new facility bond program, which could potentially be on ballots in May 2023, to support the citys goal of having all net-zero city facilities by 2030, meaning they would utilize no energy.

City staff will also continue some work from last year, including the installation of solar panel roofs at nearby affordable housing projects, placing non-regulatory air quality monitors across Dallas and several public awareness campaigns. City offices will observe the monitors data daily to gain a closer perspective of air-pollution trends in each neighborhood.

To me, already doing this much is a really, really good thing, said Susan Alvarez, assistant director of the citys office of environmental quality and sustainability. It shows that the city departments and staff are intrinsically motivated to make things happen in this plan.

Communities of color and those with high poverty are disproportionately more vulnerable to extreme temperatures and other climate disasters, according to research from the Environmental Protection Agency.

City leaders hope to reverse some of the existing damage.

For decades, Dallas has contended with air pollution, water pollution, and toxic hazards throughout our city, but particularly in underserved areas, the mayor said. This issue is personal for me as someone who grew up partially in the shadow of a lead smelter plant in West Dallas. Thats a life that none of us want for our children today. By working together, we can ensure that all our families can live in a safe and healthy environment.

A few environmental justice projects are already in the works, said Paula Blackmon, chair of the City Councils environment and sustainability committee.

The city is increasing its focus on food management to minimize its food desert and become a zero-waste community. In addition to increased public awareness campaigns and education, city staff will also increase residents accessibility to food waste alternatives, such as composting and recycling, and will offer more locally sourced foods through its urban agriculture plan.

It is also developing procedures to guide the locations for concrete batch plants, which are known for their potential hazardous toxins.

Were looking at each community each neighborhood and observing their specific needs, Blackmon said. Were aware of how past practices, policies and procedures have harmed some in our community, and were saying now that were not doing it again.

Additionally, in participation with the 1 Trillion Trees project an initiative to plant 1 trillion trees around the globe by 2030 the city has planted thousands of new trees in Dallas underserved communities. These areas frequently have little to no tree canopy, and consequently, place residents more at-risk of extreme heat and higher air pollution.

Alvarez said this initiative can also relieve the citys heat island effect when urban areas experience higher temperatures than others. The citys goal is to increase its canopy to 33 percent by 2030 and 40 percent by 2050 or by about 250,000 trees.

Most people dont know that Dallas is second, only to Phoenix, relative to heat island temperatures, Alvarez said. Phoenix has an excuse. Its in the desert. Dallas isnt.

Although the plan draws support from several statewide environmental organizations including the Texas Trees Foundation and the Nature Conservancy in Texas some local organizations say its too weak.

One of its biggest critics, Downwinders at Risk, specifically condemns the citys attention to air quality and environmental justice issues.

When the city released the plan nearly two years ago, director Jim Schermbeck wrote online that the city was silent on more challenging issues such as inequitable pollution burdens and (its) own reliance on natural gas.

The local clean-air advocacy group wants an increased focus on air pollution and toxins. Hed also like the city to abandon natural gas and utilize more sustainable energy alternatives.

Although Schermbeck is aware of some new changes, he doubts the seriousness behind them such as the non-regulatory air monitors.

Alvarez said city staff gathers data from the monitors early each morning.

For us, its a very passive and very unambitious plan, Schermbeck told The Dallas Morning News. Most of the plan focuses on conservation. What is lacking is that same aggressiveness toward environmental health and environmental justice issues.

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Dallas making progress on climate action plan - The Dallas Morning News

In the past 2 years, key data from clinical trials in advanced lung cancer have demonstrated that immunotherapy has expanded the bounds of the armamentarium for the treatment of several lung cancers.

In the past 2 years, key data from clinical trials in advanced lung cancer have demonstrated that immunotherapy has expanded the bounds of the armamentarium for the treatment of several lung cancers. Clinical outcomes for patients without actionable mutations have shown that antiPD-L1 agents provide results comparable or better than standard of care chemotherapy regimens.

In a presentation at the 19th Annual Winter Lung Cancer Conference by Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, chief of medical oncology and director of the Thoracic Oncology Research Program at Yale Cancer Center in New Haven, Connecticut, reviewed the trend toward chemotherapy-free options in the first line and the focus on exploring chemoimmunotherapy treatment pathways.1

[Lung cancer] is not Hodgkins Disease, its not a disease where the chemotherapy works so well where the cells apoptose and die, Herbst said. But I think we are seeing [progress with chemotherapy-free options] in metastatic disease and certainly in early disease.

In a review of data from several studies, Herbst called attention to the baseline patient characteristics focusing on the role of PD-L1 expression on outcomes. For chemotherapy-nave patients with advanced stage disease without targetable mutations, PD-L1 expression plays a role in determining treatment pathways.

Immunotherapy is many things; [and it has] a very specific type of effect, Herbst said. Back 20 or 25 years ago, we knew about the T cell, we knew about MHC [major histocompatibility complex], we knew that the tumor cell presented a neoantigen and that interacted with the T cell. Whats new now is the whole idea of checkpoints.

Starting with data from the phase 3 KEYNOTE-024 trial (NCT0214738), Herbst pointed to the efficacy of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) vs platinum-doublet chemotherapy in patients withmetastatic nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and a PD-L1 tumor proportion score (TPS) of at least 50%. Pembrolizumab was administered at a dose of 200 mg intravenously every 3 weeks for 2 years and chemotherapy was given for 4 to 6 cycles. Patients who progressed after chemotherapy were allowed to crossover to the pembrolizumab arm.2

The primary end point of the trial was progression-free survival (PFS). Secondary end points included overall survival (OS), overall response rate (ORR), and safety. Duration of response (DOR) was an exploratory end point. To be eligible for the trial, patients with untreated, stage IV NSCLC needed to have an ECOG performance status of 1 or less. Activating EGFR mutations or ALK translocations were not permitted. Patients with untreated brain metastases and/or active autoimmune disease requiring systemic therapy were not included.

Eligible patients (N = 305) were randomized 1:1 into the pembrolizumab or chemotherapy arms. Patients in the pembrolizumab group (n = 154) achieved a median OS of 26.3 months (95% CI, 18.3-40.4) compared with 13.4 months (95% CI, 9.4-18.3) in the chemotherapy group (HR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.48-0.81). The 5-year OS rates were 31.9% vs 16.3%, respectively. The median PFS was 7.7 months (95% CI, 6.1-10.2) vs 5.5 months (95% CI, 4.2-6.2), respectively (HR, 0.50; 95% CI, 0.39-0.65). Three-year PFS rates were 22.8% vs 4.1%, respectively. The ORR in the pembrolizumab arm was 46.1% with a complete response (CR) rate of 4.5%, compared with 31.1% and no CRs in the chemotherapy group.

To further distill the efficacy of pembrolizumab in this patient population, investigators initiated the phase 3 KEYNOTE-042 study (NCT02220894) to asses pembrolizumab 200 mg every 3 weeks for up to 35 cycles (n = 637) vs standard-of-care (SOC) platinum-based chemotherapy for up to 6 cycles (n = 637). Patients needed to have a PD-L1 TPS of 1% or greater and an ECOG performance status of 0 or 1 to be eligible for the trial. The primary end point was OS in patients with a PD-L1 TPS at least 50%, at least 20%, and at least 1%.3

Patients who received pembrolizumab with a PD-L1 TPS of at least 50% (n = 73) had a median OS of 20.0 months (95% CI, 15.9-24.2) compared with 12.2 months (95% CI, 10.4-14.6) in the 85-patient chemotherapy group (HR, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.57-0.82). The median OS for patients with a PD-L1 TPS of at least 20% was 18.0 months (95% CI, 15.5-21.5) and 13.0 months (95% CI, 11.6-15.3) in the pembrolizumab (n = 75) and chemotherapy (n = 84) subgroups, respectively (HR ,0.75; 95% CI, 0.64-0.88). For patients with a PD-L1 TPS of at least 1%, the median OS was 16.4 months (95% CI, 14.0-19.6) in the 79-patient pembrolizumab cohort vs 12.1 months (95% CI, 11.3-13.3) in the 87-patient chemotherapy cohort (HR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.71-0.90).

Beyond pembrolizumab, Herbst moved to data from other key trials that included agents in combination with targeted therapies.

MYSTIC (NCT02453282) was a phase 3 trial evaluating durvalumab with or without tremelimumab, a CTLA-4 antibody, compared with SOC platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with stage IV NSCLC irrespective of PD-L1 status. Patients were randomized 1:1:1 to receive durvalumab (Imfinzi) 20 mg every 4 weeks until disease progression (n = 374), tremelimumab 1 mg/kg every 4 weeks for up to 4 doses (n = 372) plus durvalumab until disease progression, or platinum-based chemotherapy (n = 372).4

Although statistical significance was not statistically significant, trends in OS among patients with PD-L1-positive tumor cells of at least 25%,favored durvalumab monotherapy over chemotherapy. Patients in this group who received durvalumab (n = 163) had a median OS of 16.3 months (95% CI, 12.2-20.8) vs 12.9 months (95% CI, 10.5-15.0) for the 162 patients treated with chemotherapy (HR, 0.76; 97.54% CI, 0.564-1.019; P = .036).

The phase 3 EMPOWER-Lung 1 study (NCT03088540) evaluated cemiplimab-rwl (Lybtayo) 350 mg monotherapy given intravenously every 3 weeks against 4 to 6 cycles of investigators choice chemotherapy in patients with untreated NSCLC with a PD-L1 expression of at least 50% on tumor cells and an ECOG performance status of 1 or lower. The trial randomized 710 patients 1:1 into the treatment arms. The primary end points of the trial were OS and PFS; secondary end points included ORR and DOR.5

In the intention-to-treat (ITT) population, the median OS was 22.1 months (95% CI, 17.7-not evaluable [NE]) in the cemiplimab arm (n = 356) vs 14.3 months (95% CI, 11.7-19.2) in the 354-patient chemotherapy group (HR, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.53-0.87; P = .0022). Among patients in the PD-L1 of at least 50% ITT population, the median OS was not reached (95% CI, 17.9-NE) compared with 14.2 months (95% CI, 11.2-17.5) in the cemiplimab and chemotherapy cohorts (HR, 0.57; 95% CI, 11.2-17.5).

Finally, Herbst called attention to data from the IMpower110 (NCT02409342) trial. The phase 3 clinical trial evaluated atezolizumab at a dose of 1200 mg every 3 weeks vs platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with chemotherapy-nave, stage IV NSCLC displaying PD-L1 expression. Patients in the experimental arm continued treatment until disease progression or loss of clinical benefit and those in the control arm continued until disease progression. The primary end point was OS in the wild-type (WT) population.6

Among patients expressing TC3 or IC3 WT, the median OS was 20.2 months (95% CI, 17.2-27.9) and 14.7 months (95% CI, 7.4-17.7) in the atezolizumab (n = 107) and chemotherapy (n = 98) arms, respectively (HR, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.54-1.09). The 12-month OS rate among the atezolizumab group was 66.1% (95% CI, 57.1%-75.1%) compared with 52.3% (95% CI, 42.2%-62.4%).

Without the adverse effect profile of chemotherapy, immunotherapy treatment options provide more manageable therapeutic options for patients with advanced disease.

With the success as monotherapy treatment options, Herbst noted that the rationale for combining immunotherapy with chemotherapy has the potential to be a pillar of care for patients. Herbst cited the separate mechanisms of action of chemotherapy and immunotherapy can synergize to reduce T-cell inhibitory substances produced by tumor and alters tumor barriers to allow for T-cell penetration.

Combination therapy reduces tumor bulk and leads to a separate mechanism of kill, Herbst said. Chemotherapy and immunotherapy are perhaps at least additive. It reduces T-cell inhibitory substances, alters tumor barriers, it kills tumor cells in a manner that might increase their immunogenicity, and it alters T-cell signaling. Its like a reset, youre resetting the tumorits a shotgun approach. Someday, well be a little more [precise] and will know exactly what we want to inhibit in the microenvironment.

KEYNOTE-189 (NCT02578680) is a phase 3 trial of first line pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy compared with placebo plus chemotherapy in patients with stage IV non-squamous NSCLC. Patients must have an ECOG performance status of 1 or less and no actionable EGFR or ALK mutations to be eligible. The primary end points of the trial are OS and PFS; secondary end points consist of ORR, DOR, and safety.7,8

Patients in the experimental arm (n = 406) are treated with pembrolizumab 200 mg and chemotherapy every 3 weeks. The control arm (n = 206) follows the same dosing schedule, replacing pembrolizumab with placebo. Patients remain on study until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity, with crossover from placebo allowed.

Median OS was not reached (95% CI, NE-NE) in the combination group vs 11.3 months (95% CI, 8.7-15.1) in the placebo arm (HR, 0.49; 95% CI, 0.38-0.64; P < .00001). Median PFS was 8.8 months (95% CI, 7.6-9.2) and 4.9 months (95% CI, 4.7-5.), respectively (HR, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.43-0.64; P < .00001). The ORRs were 47.6% and 18.9%, respectively.

The phase 3 IMpower 150 study (NCT02366143) examined atezolizumab and bevacizumab alone and together in combination with chemotherapy in patients with stage IV or recurrent metastatic non-squamous NSCLC. Atezolizumab was given at a dose of 1200 mg intravenously every 3 weeks in combination with chemotherapy (n = 402) and in combination with bevacizumab and chemotherapy (n = 400). There was also a bevacizumab plus chemotherapy arm (n = 400).9

Concerning the coprimary end point of PFS, the atezolizumab and bevacizumab plus chemotherapy group had a median of 8.3 months (95% CI, 7.7-9.8) compared with 6.8 months (95% CI, 6.0-7.1) in the and bevacizumab plus chemotherapy group (HR, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.50-0.70; P < .0001). The follow-up was approximately 20 months and the 12-month PFS rates were 38% and 20%, respectively.

Atezolizumab and bevacizumab plus chemotherapy also outperformed bevacizumab plus chemotherapy in the other coprimary end point of OS. Median OS was 19.2 months (95% CI, 17.0-23.8) and 14.7 months (95% CI, 13.3-16.9), respectively (HR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.64-96; P = 0.164). The 18-month OS rates were 53% and 41%, respectively.

Additionally, atezolizumab and bevacizumab plus chemotherapy was shown to increase OS regardless of PD-L1 expression status. Patients who were PD-L1 high (TC3 or IC3) achieved a median OS of 25.2 months when treated with atezolizumab and bevacizumab plus chemotherapy (n = 71) vs 15.0 months in the 65-patient bevacizumab plus chemotherapy subgroup (HR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.43-1.13). Among the PD-L1 low patients (TC1/2 or IC1/2), median OS was 20.3 months (n = 121) and 16.4 months (n = 105), respectively (HR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.55-1.15). PD-L1 negative patients experienced a median OS of 17.1 months (n = 167) and 14.1 months (n = 177), respectively (HR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.62-1.08).

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Immunotherapy Advances Drive Progress in Lung Cancer Treatment - OncLive

This is an occasional column about writing fiction, from the genesis of an idea to the development of a creative process, the joys and challenges of writing, and, finally, self-publishing. It is written in real time: the novel is still in development.

To recap parts 1 and 2: yours truly has an idea for a new novel about a world resembling our world in which men no longer exist. He feels he cant write it because of his gender. With the help of a group of female collaborators, a project takes shape, but the subject matter is so personally challenging that one member of the team drops out. The team must decide whether and how to continue.

After losing a member of our writing group to personal challenges raised by the subject matter, we each must decide whether to continue. We were five, and now we are four. We regroup and decide to see where the process takes us, but I can feel we are more thoughtful in our discussions.

We have done some basic worldbuilding and are moving on to defining the characters who will people our postmale world. We havent decided on a central protagonist yet; perhaps one will emerge or perhaps it will be a story with many voices. Each member of the team is asked to create a character and flesh her out with the help of several prompts:

Her history: where and how did she grow up? What kind of family, town, social structure did she come from? Where did she go to school? Where has she worked?

What are her strengths, flaws, gifts, weaknesses?

What does she want to achieve, now and later in life?

What is most precious to her? What would hurt her to lose?

Assume the events in this novel could move her from A to B personally, emotionally, physically. What is A and what is B, and what would it take to do it?

The thinking takes longer than I expect, but each team member comes back with characters that blow me away and make my own look one-dimensional. Theyve thought about them from the inside out and done a great job of imagining them in a future postmale world. Some partial examples:

My character is 55 years old. She identifies as a woman but is not in a relationship. She has had a few lovers and tried different arrangementsthere are groups that preserve the old ways... constructs of relationships a bit like the binary categorizations of the old world. There are also people who live outside of these constructs. My character is one of those. She has never birthed children and never wanted to. She has assisted at lots of births and raised many kids as part of the collective. But she never really felt the maternal urge herself.

My character is Italian. Her passion was directed toward the Community Cucina where the whole neighborhood grew, harvested, prepared, cooked, shared, learned, and ate together. She was skilled at gathering what was available and making something fabulous from it. She is now a manager and juggles the daily activities and schedules and recipes and rosters, as well as the research and teaching side. She still loves trying new things and practicing new ways of growing, new recipes, and new ways of teaching others.

My character loved the community she grew up in and knew that people adored her family too. She was originally an only child. [Her mother] became good friends with another woman, who supported her because she already had a child. They were already familiar with each others kids and a part of each others lives when they became a couple (platonic or romantic... not sure yet). Another parent in the community was struggling with the birth of her child and [the second woman] served as a midwife. This was this voluntary mothers fourth child and she was physically exhausted and mentally drained. She is diagnosed with postpartum depression.... [My characters mothers] adopt this child, so now she has two siblings and is the middle child.

The character sketches that emerge have a texture and a depth I could not have created alone.

We have our world. We have ideas about the people we will build the story around. Now we need the plot. This is where I come in, and suddenly I realize Ive been so consumed by the character- and worldbuilding that I havent gotten anywhere near building that simple, compelling premise that unites all these amazing protagonists, let alone story arcs, subplots, and their resolutions!

Gulp.

The project team is aiming to have Post Male ready for publication in 2022. Tim Slees Taking Tom Murray Home will be released in the U.S. in July 2022 by HarperCollins.

A version of this article appeared in the 02/07/2022 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: A Work in Progress, Part 3

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A Work in Progress, Part 3 - Publishers Weekly

New presidential administrations inherit the White House as isthat is, they take on the issues and messes from the past person in office. The Biden administration faced an especially troubling mess concerning federal science policies. The Trump administration took a hammer to science during its term through attacks on the federal science workforce and its denial of climate change and the severity of the COVID 19 pandemic.

One year later, how has the Biden administration managed to restore federal science? Pretty well, it turns out, with a lot of room for growth. In a new report released by the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Biden administration has shown some improvements in increasing the number of scientists in the federal workforce and made a commitment to focusing on justice in environmental issues. However, they still have much work to do.

The Biden administration must ensure that federal science doesnt become an absolute mess again when a new president takes office. Sciences place in democracy should not be left to the whims of political leaders, and it needs to be protected through rules and safeguards. UCS Investigative researcher Taryn MacKinney discusses whats on the line, and how the Biden administration can continue and improve its support for science.

Colleen: Taryn, welcome to the podcast.

Taryn: Thank you so much for having me, Colleen.

Colleen: I know you've been keeping a close eye on President Biden and his administration since he took office looking at a number of science-related issues. What are the biggest challenges that the Biden administration has faced in the first year?

Taryn: Well, to answer any questions about the challenges of 2021, I think we have to sort of start with 2020. The pandemic killed hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S., the country was plagued by natural disasters including, wildfires made worse by climate change. And the president at the time was spouting misinformation about COVID-19, for example, and even the 2020 election. And all the while, federal science was under attack. So, the Trump administration, muzzled scientists, stalled research, hired partisan hacks instead of qualified experts. The list goes on and on. And actually, we tracked probably 200-some attacks on science that happened under the Trump administration. So when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were sworn in, in January 2021, their administration inherited all of these crises and then some.

Colleen: President Biden stated at the very beginning that he would listen to the science. Has he done that?

Taryn: I think that the previous president set an exceedingly low bar for what listening to the science looked like. But even given that low bar, I think that so far Biden has gone above and beyond on prioritizing science, listening to experts, both in and outside of government, and also doing their best to bring scientists back to government after enormous losses that we saw under the Trump administration.

Colleen: So, I was astounded by the sheer number of federal scientists that left. So, let's look at the numbers for a minute. I mean, I know you did an analysis last year of staffing data from federal agencies, so can you tell us how many scientists left?

Taryn: Yes. So, we did some analysis last fall, where we looked at years of staff...actually, in some cases, decades of staffing data from federal agencies. And we found that five federal agencies alone lost more than a thousand scientists collectively between 2016 and 2020. And these are scientists of all stripes, biologists, economists, engineers, doctors, everything in between. So those are really horrifying statistics, but agencies also were impacted equally. So, for example, the environmental protection agency lost a ton of scientific staff about 6%, which doesn't sound too big until you learn that that is about or almost 700 people. And those losses happened across fields.

So, for example, the EPA lost 1 in 10 chemists and one in five ecologists. And the Fish and Wildlife Service lost about 4% of its scientific staff, which is about 230 people, which is astonishing. And the research branch of the Department of Education, which is pretty small lost about 33 scientific staff, which doesn't sound like too much, but that's actually a 19% decline in scientific staff in that branch. And these aren't nameless, faceless, automatons, these are human beings who've dedicated their careers to the public good. I mean, these are the scientists and the experts who work for the government on behalf of the public of us, right? You know, you, me, your grandma, all of us need these experts.

Colleen: And what are some examples of the type of research that these scientists do?

Taryn: These are the scientists who mapped the human genome and created the World Wide Web. And these are also the scientists who work every day to protect our food supply, study climate change, keep our water and air clean and so much more.

Colleen: The numbers of scientists who left is dramatic. How devastating is this loss of institutional scientific knowledge?

Taryn: One of the most glaring, I wanna say scandals because it was so controversial was the Trump administration just abruptly announcing that the research branches of the Department of Agriculture were gonna be moved to Kansas City, Missouri from DC. And that had astonishing impacts on those agencies' scientific output. I mean, tremendous drop in staffing. And that was in 2019 was when the Trump administration abruptly for no clear reason, decided to move the research arm of the Department of Agriculture from Washington DC to Missouri. And essentially gave all of those scientists many of whom had deep institutional knowledge and had worked at the USDA for decades. They were essentially told, "Okay you have 60 or 90 days to decide whether you and your family are gonna up and move to the Midwest." And that's an incredible ask of the staff.

And three and four of them, 75% of them, were forced to resign or retire taking with them truly decades of institutional knowledge, probably collectively many centuries. And the results of that were profound. I mean, economic reports just slowed to a trickle. There were studies that had been ongoing for many years that crumbled. And millions of dollars in funding for research on these vital areas like climate change, food security, antibiotic resistance, that funding just sort of sat unreleased.You know, gathering dust. that erosion of staffing has real impacts not only on the agencies and the staff who work there but on anyone in the U.S. who are affected by the policies that they help create and the science that they conduct, which is everybody.

Colleen: Yeah, I wonder what happens to studies if you're collecting data and you're collecting data, and then all of a sudden you can no longer that data when it's interrupted like that . Is that the death knell for the project that you're working on?

Taryn: For many research projects, it can be, partly because there are so many moving parts to each research project that happens both at federal agencies and anywhere. For example, in academia, you have funding for these projects. You have the process of gathering data. You have the process of maintaining data and cleaning data. And if one of those foundations falls apart, because of political retaliation, because of political attack or stalled research, that can have huge implications for the project as a whole, which I think a lot of scientists found during the Trump administration, including several that went on to define work here at UCS. For example, my colleague, Jacob Carter, who's on my team with the Center for Science and Democracy, previously worked for the EPA on incredibly crucial research about how climate change was going to impact flooding risks in coastal communities, which are more likely to have, especially impoverished communities that are more likely to have high numbers of these extremely toxic Superfund sites. And flooded Superfund sites are terrible news for people who live there. But that research didn't go anywhere. Once the Trump administration came to office, his research stopped.

Colleen: So, has the Biden administration been able to rectify the situation? Have more scientists been hired? What's the status now?

Taryn: the answer's a little complicated. So far in 2021, hiring progress has generally been mixed. It depends a lot on the agencies. So of the agencies, we've looked at, the public health agencies have fared best. for example, the CDC has grown by 18% since December 2020. And the FDA has grown by 7% that's about 1,000 new scientists at the FDA. Now that's great news, particularly, because we're in a pandemic. But other agencies are struggling more to replace the expertise that was lost under the previous administration. So, for example, as of September 2021, that's as far as our data goes, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the EPA had actually lost a few more scientists. Not many, but that's significant. And it's very clear that a lot more needs to be done to beef up those numbers and bring the scientists back.

Despite the uneven hiring across agencies, President Biden does deserve credit for asking scientists to lead. So, we've also been tracking the administration's progress, filling about 100 high-level science positions that are selected by the president. And so far, President Biden has announced nominations for 85 of them. And 72 of them have been finalized. Now, that's lightning-fast compared to President Trump, who in his first year had announced only 43 nominations, and only 28 of which were finalized in a year.

Colleen: And in addition to needing more scientists, federal science needs a healthy democracy in which to operate. So, what have you been focusing on with regard to the risk to our democracy?

Taryn: well, as you know, Colleen, I work for a branch of UCS called the Center for Science and Democracy. And inherent in the name of that department is a pretty simple truth, which is that science and democracy need each other. So without a functioning democracy, none of our other hopes for health, safety, education, a stable climate, none of those are possible. Now, so far, the Biden administration has made clear that it values science in a way that its predecessor didn't, but science alone isn't enough. We need a healthy democracy too. And right now that's under attack. So, in the coming months, the Biden administration has to prioritize voting rights, which have stalled in Congress because of antiquated procedures that has to change. And that's something that UCS is gonna be watching very closely.

Colleen: So environmental justice took a big hit in the previous administration and President Biden has made some strong commitments to address the injustices faced by communities across the nation. What specifically has he done and are we seeing progress?

Taryn: Yes. So, the short answer is we have seen progress. Although I wanna take a moment to explain what environmental justice is. So, centuries of discrimination in law, government, education, you name it, have led to enormous inequities that hurt some people more than others. So, theyve saddled Indigenous, Black and other people of color as well as low-income communities with higher exposure to pollution, less access to healthcare, less representation in government. So the goal of the environmental justice movement is to identify and address those inequities and more broadly fight for communities rights to safety and self-determination. But as you mentioned, that movement took a huge hit under the Trump administration which worked to dismantle policies that protect marginalized communities. Now, fortunately, the Biden administration has acted quickly on that front. So, in its first week alone the Biden administration, well President Biden signed two new executive orders focused on racial equity and the environment. And, the administration has also pledged to dedicate at least 40 percent of energy and infrastructure spending to disadvantaged communities, thats the Justice40 initiative. So, those are really exciting things to see.

Colleen: So, are we actually seeing these practices implemented across agencies? And are we seeing action based on the executive orders?

Taryn: So agencies are starting to implement those changes and work to combat racial inequity. So, for example the CDC declared racism a public health threat, and the National Institutes of Health, the NIH, started a new initiative to strengthen racial equity in the research workforce. So those are all good things, but elsewhere things are not unfolding as planned. So, for example, in early- to mid- January, two high profile environmental justice officials left the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Thats been really alarming, not only for EJ advocates in the administration but activists and grassroots organizers who are justifiably worried about what those departures mean for Bidens work on environmental justice. So, in short, the Biden administration is trying to lay the foundation for sustained efforts towards environmental justice, which is great news, but we are also seeing setbacks.

Colleen: So how binding are the changes that have been made so far. Will the next president be able to undo them?

Taryn: I think the short answer is ideally, no. I mean, if these things were solidified legislatively, in other words, if Congress said, it really matters that scientists are protected in government and that's why we're going to reinforce these protections in binding laws, that would be great. Now, things are stalled in Congress so that may not be where we see progress. But at a minimum, what the Biden administration is doing is trying its best to codify those protections in agencies in regulation. So not via Congress, not via laws, but via policies, and procedures, and regulations, and agencies, which, of course, sound terribly boring, but those policies and regulations can be so important for making sure that this never...these attacks on science that we saw under the Trump administration do not happen again.

It's also really important that the Biden administration makes sure that it's clear about that priority because picture this, you're a recently minted scientist, you're fresh out of grad school, and for years you watched the previous administration undermine scientists. And now the Biden administration is beckoning to you saying, "Oh, join us. It'll be different this time." Now, even though the Biden administration is working to make sure that it is different this time, you know, that scientists are protected, I also don't blame early-career scientists for being wary. And that reputation is something that the Biden administration well, and beyond the Biden administration has to wrestle with and has to fix.

Colleen: That sounds like the perfect segue to scientific integrity, which should offer protections for scientists if the right policies are in place. Talk to me about the state of scientific integrity.

Taryn:Right. So I guess a little bit of context, I mentioned that the Biden administration needs to hire more scientists. That's very clear. But hiring is only one side of the coin, you also have to keep employees. And what the White House is trying to do to create a culture that supports employees and uplifts scientists, what it's trying to do is build a set of rules and regulations that keep them safe. Now, we call those scientific integrity policies. Those are the rules and regulations that protect scientists from political interference and make sure that science is being used properly by decision-makers. And the Biden administration has made tremendous progress on this front. So, for example, President Biden signed a memo requiring every science agency to have a scientific integrity official. That's an enormous step in the right direction. He also elevated his science advisor to the cabinet-level,

And in June, President Biden also directed agencies to promote diversity and equity, and inclusion in their workforces. All of these things, all of these steps are trying very hard to make federal science, a safe place that not only attracts scientists including early-career scientists, which are very important for combating an aging federal workforce, but also makes them want to stay. Now, that's, that's gotta be the most important thing. These are such important steps in part, because as we saw under the previous administration, weak protections for federal science make it so easy for bad actors to take advantage.

Colleen: So, what are you gonna be watching closely in the coming months?

Taryn: One of the big things that we'll be watching for is progress on hiring scientists. The mixed progress that we've seen so far is both surprising and unsurprising. You know, it's surprising because the Biden administration is trying to hire. It wants a stronger civil service. There are thousands of job postings open for positions across the federal government, but it's also unsurprising that the progress has been mixed and may be slower than we wanted because the hiring process for federal jobs kind of stinks. It's slow, and it's tedious, and it's often difficult to navigate, and that's something that the Biden administration needs to improve. So, that's something that we're gonna be watching pretty closely in the coming months.

Colleen: Where does the administration need to do better?

Taryn: So, on most of the issue areas, we have seen great steps in the right direction even though more must be done. But the big exception to that is President Biden and the Biden administration's work on nuclear weapons, which is of grave concern . Now, back in 2017, President Biden criticized the expansion of the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal, but the White House's first budget request did absolutely nothing to scale down the previous administration's record-breaking nuclear spending. And now our nation is on track to spend more than a trillion dollars on its nuclear arsenal over the next 30 years. That's an obscene investment in a type of weapon that could end humanity. And that's something that the Biden administration has to do better on.

Colleen: So Taryn, give me your top five list of the things that you really wanna see this administration do.

Taryn: Well, first of all, limiting this list to five goals is pretty hard. I'll give it a shot, but I should say that before we can even start talking about goals, all of these goals are contingent on a functioning democracy, which is at risk right now. I'd consider that an umbrella priority. And once we've got that umbrella priority solved, once we have voting rights protected, and this critical legislation passed, then we can worry about these priorities. But I probably start with number one, expand the federal scientific workforce and solidify policies that will keep that workforce safe from political interference.I would say number two, set even bolder goals on combating climate change and work with the world to solve the climate crisis. I would say number three, follow through on your promises to prioritize environmental justice and the wellbeing of marginalized people in the U.S. I'd say number four, do everything you can to make our transportation, energy, and food systems more equitable and more sustainable for the long run. And I think above all, please listen to the experts, lead with science, speak the truth because that is something all of us are counting on.

Colleen: Taryn, thanks so much for joining me on the podcast. This has been a great conversation.

Taryn: Thank you so much, Colleen.Return to top

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President Biden's First Year: Progress and Shortfalls - Union of Concerned Scientists

A few weeks ago, I provided an outline of Gov. Brad Littles budget and policy proposals for the 2022 legislative session.

We are now one month into the session and making great progress. In the last two weeks, significant tax relief and a major investment in our public school system have passed through both bodies of the Idaho Legislature.

In the coming weeks, we will focus on infrastructure improvements. The transportation proposal includes $200 million in new road maintenance funding split 60/40 between the Idaho Transportation Department and local government entities. In addition, we anticipate funding another $200 million for local bridges across the state. Rural water and sewer districts will have a great opportunity to take on otherwise unaffordable capital projects with $450 million in grant funding that will be authorized this year for use through 2026. These are just some examples of the long-term investments we are making in Idaho, all of which will have an effect in our rural communities.

The tax relief package now signed into law has two components. First, a portion of the $1.9 billion of tax revenue that was above last years budget forecast is being returned to the taxpayers of Idaho as a one-time refund. Last year, people received checks that were 9% of their 2019 tax payment.

This year, Idaho taxpayers will receive a refund that is 12% of their 2020 tax payment. If an Idahoan paid $1,000 in 2020 taxes, they will receive a refund check for $120. To determine your refund amount, look at Line 20 of your 2020 Idaho Form 40. You will receive 12% of that amount or a minimum of $75.

The eternal challenge in taxation is fairness. The program returns the money to those who provided it. The refund is less than one-fifth of the $1.9 billion. The Idaho approach says that we invest in our future, as described above, save for a rainy day, and, in this case, return some of the money to its source.

The second part of the tax relief package is an ongoing income tax rate reduction. Idaho income tax is currently at 6.5% for income over $5,000. For tax year 2022 and forward, the income tax rate will be 6% for income over $5,000. The rates are lower for income less than $5,000.

We all want to minimize our taxes, but I am wary of any further reductions in the income tax rate. We have moved, in three steps, from a rate of 7.4% to 6% in the last five years. High population growth and prosperous economic times provide strong tax revenues, but we shouldnt fall behind in adequate funding of state government functions. No one likes to sit in traffic wasting their time, and no one wants to hear their child is in an overcrowded school classroom not being provided the education they need.

This week we passed public school employee healthcare legislation. The legislation is the first step in adding $105 million annually to the school budget to bring teacher healthcare funding on par with state employees. A benefit of fully funding teacher healthcare with state funds is the opportunity to reduce the use of supplemental property tax levies. I was proud to sponsor the legislation in the Senate and look forward to finishing the job in a few weeks with the funding bills.

I normally stick with policy discussions in these updates. If you are a political observer, you may have noticed Ive been in the headlines a few times recently. I attribute that coverage to stances Ive taken in preserving the Idaho we all know and appreciate. I am not trying to change Idaho. I work daily to keep in place the Idaho I grew up in and the Idaho I intend to remain in.

Sen. Jim Woodward represents District 1, Bonner and Boundary counties, in the Idaho Senate. He can be reached at jwoodward@senate.idaho.gov.

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Making progress on the plan - Bonner County Daily Bee

Good news is hard to come by on the housing front. The eviction moratorium has expired. Experts now predict skyrocketing home prices may rise indefinitely. According to a Pew study, more American adults today consider affordable housing a major worry in their communities than crime, drugs or Covid-19.

And no wonder. The lack of affordable housing is inseparable from racial and other disparities in health, education, public safety and economic opportunity. New York, by one estimate, is now the nations most segregated state. Not coincidentally, its deficit of nearly 650,000 affordable housing units is surpassed only by Californias.

Then, of course, there was the unfathomable week in January when a fire killed 12 people in an overcrowded Philadelphia rowhouse owned by the beleaguered public housing authority there. Another 17 died a few days later when a space heater ignited at Twin Parks North West, a privately owned, 1970s-era, Section 8 high-rise in the South Bronx.

Progress can seem impossible.

But slowly, despite NIMBY resistance, more states are undoing single family zoning rules and legalizing so-called accessory dwelling units or ADUs, meaning basement apartments, backyard cottages and converted garages. Last month, New Yorks new governor, Kathy Hochul, floated ADU legislation in her State of the State address.

And New York Citys former mayor, Bill de Blasio, who for years focused his neighborhood rezoning efforts to incentivize the construction of more subsidized housing only on low-income, majority-minority neighborhoods, during his last days in office finally pushed through rezonings in a couple of largely white, wealthier districts. That has opened the door for his successor, Eric Adams, to do more of the same. As Casey Berkovitz of the Century Foundation recently wrote, the groundwork is emerging for a more equitable future.

In the wake of the fires, I toured a couple of affordable housing projects that opened a year or two ago in the South Bronx not far from Twin Parks. I had waited to see them. Writing about architecture before buildings are up and running is a guessing game. A couple of years isnt long in the life of a housing development, but tenants can at least have moved in and be asked how things are going.

Early last year residents started settling in at 1490 Southern Boulevard in the neighborhood of Crotona Park East. A 10-story, $60 million, 85,000-square-foot building, it contains 114 permanently affordable studios and one-bedrooms for seniors, many of them formerly homeless. Type A Real Estate Advisors, a female-owned business, led the development team. The nonprofit Jewish Association Serving the Aging now operates the property and provides in-house mental health, legal and other services. Andrew Bernheimer was the architect.

Back in the 1960s this site, surrounded by social service providers and parking lots, was occupied by a four-unit apartment building. At some point the owner defaulted on the mortgage and in the 70s the city took over the property. Its a pity that New York, hard up for cash and watching land values decline along with the rest of the city, sold off so many abandoned and foreclosed sites at that time. The byzantine economics of deeply affordable housing involves the contribution of public land.

Today, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which has been seeding some excellent affordable housing projects on city-donated property, has precious few large parcels left in its inventory. What remains are mostly tiny and tricky lots like 1490, which faces onto a subway viaduct and is partly taken up by a rock escarpment.

Fortunately, Bernheimer is a gifted, resourceful architect, familiar with the obstacle course of affordable development, including challenging sites.

From the street and from passing subway cars on the elevated tracks the building he and his colleagues at the Brooklyn-based Bernheimer Architecture have designed is striking. Shallow, recessed panels of pale-yellowish bricks create a basket weave pattern across a facade of dark enameled and matte gray bricks. The recesses do the work of costlier ornaments and cast animating shadows. Double-glazed windows shut out the bedlam from the trains.

A second-story garden at the rear floats on top of the rock. A terrace and gym near the roof offer views of the Manhattan skyline. Inside, custom lighting and swaths of bright, differently colored paint in the lobby and hallways improve wayfinding for senior residents and elevate the nicely proportioned public spaces.

Its a building that delivers an architectural premium in small, cost-efficient, dignifying doses. Design-wise, we wanted 1490 to be an inspirational building not just to other architects but to people in the neighborhood and above all to residents, whom we hope feel at home and a sense of pride in the building, said Annie Tirschwell, one of Type As founders.

I checked in on James Hill, a resident who told me he moved to 1490 from what he suggested was precarious housing in Far Rockaway, Queens. A caretaker was boiling water in his kitchen and volunteered that the building was the nicest place she worked. Winter sunlight poured through a big living room window.

Couldnt be happier, Hill told me.

Lambert Houses, opposite the Bronx Zoo, is something else a five-block campus of six-story apartment buildings completed, like the scatter-site Twin Parks, during the early 70s. Phipps Houses, the venerable nonprofit affordable housing provider, built Lambert and still manages it.

It was hailed by architecture writers and progressive politicians at its opening as a pioneering model for affordable housing and urban renewal. Designed by the firm Davis, Brody & Associates, the complex, with its jagged facades, jazzy fenestration and its site plan of perimeter blocks around shared yards, looked modern while nodding toward traditional mid-rise Bronx apartment buildings and a genteel legacy of New York City courtyard buildings. At a time when the urbanist Jane Jacobs was talking about foot traffic in and out of houses and shops choreographing a crucial ballet of city streets, Lambert boasted 42 entrances and exits, leading to interconnecting fire stairs and hallways.

But what at first looked like a solution to neighborhood disinvestment and racist slum clearance policies became a problem. Lambert (Twin Parks followed a similar arc) found itself on the verge of default only a few years after it opened. White middle-class residents whom planners had expected to move in never materialized. Neither did their anticipated rents.

Davis, Brodys load-bearing masonry walls spalled; wood joist floors sagged. All those entrances, exits and epic hallways made Lambert a security nightmare. Adam Weinstein, Phippss president, remembers that by the 1990s, officials at the neighboring Bronx Zoo installed signs at the subway station just up the block encouraging visitors to take a circuitous route that avoided Lambert.

That Lambert endured was due this is also the archetypal South Bronx story to a determined group of residents, an infusion of federal funds and in this case investments by Phipps. Now the development is in the midst of what Weinstein estimates could add up to a $1 billion reconstruction over the coming decade, with Davis, Brodys buildings gradually being replaced by new highrises that promise nearly 1,000 additional permanently subsidized units, for a total of 1,665 deeply affordable apartments.

The first of the new towers opened in 2019 designed by Dattner Architects, the New York firm that collaborated with Phipps, the developer Jonathan Rose and Grimshaw Architects a decade ago on a novel development called Via Verde in the South Bronx. The new tower was paid for with money from the citys Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the Housing Development Corporation, Bank of America and Phipps.

Its an 18-story building with 163 permanently affordable units and a doorman. The boxy, drab exterior, set a few steps up and back from the street wall, looks almost belligerently banal. But inside the building is comfortable, luxurious even, compared with the deteriorating apartments and hallways I saw in the old buildings. Crucial to the conversion, no tenants are being displaced by the new construction.

Lamberts makeover, as Weinstein points out, is a potential template for redoing New York City Housing Authority campuses. When the proposed renovation started to come together a few years ago, Susanne Schindler lamented in Urban Omnibus that from an architectural standpoint, losing a visionary example of low- and moderate-income housing from the 1960s and 70s like Davis, Brodys Lambert, is unfortunate. Thats true. From the street, the angular old buildings are still eye-catching. As Lamberts new campus evolves, Phipps and Dattner clearly need to up their architectural game, aesthetically speaking.

But theres no arguing with the practical upgrade or added apartments.

I love it, Bonita Dent, 57, one of the tenants in the high-rise, told me. A 20-year veteran of Lambert, she moved into the new building two years ago with her three school-age grandchildren. The doorman and a single, secure front door were big inducements.

I like the security we have downstairs its different from the old place where youd see strangers in the hall. Im not scared to come in and out of my apartment.

Nessie Panton, whos 84, was one of Lamberts first tenants in the 70s. One day, she said, she took her children to the zoo and saw the project when it was still under construction. She applied for an apartment and moved into a duplex, where she ended up raising her family.

The new apartment is smaller, but my children are grown, and here the doorman knows if you live in the building and takes your picture if you dont, she said. She had heard about the fire at Twin Parks. Here we have sprinklers and intercoms with fire alarms in the apartments. I feel much safer, she said.

Writing about Twin Parks in 1973, The Timess former architecture critic, Paul Goldberger, speculated that the project might turn out to be important in the history of housing design.

That said, he cautioned, design, however compassionate, can mean only so much against the obstacles that make up the housing problem today.

The calculus is the same half a century later. But the South Bronx isnt. Gradually, it has been remade. Progress isnt impossible, its a process.

Invariably we will get things wrong, is how Weinstein put it. The question is, can we use failure as an opportunity to learn and move ahead?

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Despite the Dire Housing Picture, the South Bronx Sees a Way Forward. - The New York Times

More than 90 years of journalism went into the production of The Eastern Progress before my byline first appeared in the newspaper in October 2012. But working at the Progress was a cornerstone of my EKU experience.

I started writing for the independent student newspaper during my sophomore year with the encouragement of my professor, Deborah Givens. After completing an interview assignment for Writing and Reporting News 1, she wrote in the remarks that I needed to look at joining the newspaper. The newspaper gave me the opportunity to apply the skills I was learning in the classroom, from learning the ins-and-outs of AP Style to the inverted pyramid, leading with the most important news and writing until the story is finished.

As they say, the rest is history. I rose through the ranks from general assignment reporter to a regular beat covering what was then Residence Life Council, followed by news section editorial roles before landing the title of editor-in-chief in 2014-15.

While I was editor, one point that I worked to emphasize was transparency and holding the public agency of EKU accountable to its stakeholders and the student body. We challenged ,and ultimately lost, an open meetings appeal with then Attorney General Jack Conways office when the Board of Regents traveled to Hazard for its quarterly meeting. We argued that, given the universitys primary location is Richmond, traveling that far for a meeting, when theres only four scheduled throughout the year, essentially limited public access. (In 2014, while videoconferencing was permissible for public agency members to participate in the meeting, it did not change the definition of a public meeting place for the order of participating. Recently, a lot of city and county governments shifted access for meetings from meeting rooms to Facebook Live and Zoom at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, permissible with guidance from the current AG Daniel Camerons office.)

When we did the AG appeal back in 2014, we also wrote an editorial advocating for our point. A cartoon that appeared with it led to a contingent of students from Hazard sending a response the following week opposing our stance and the depiction of a regional campus.

There were other times that we were on the opposite side of what appeared to be popular, such as our opposition to the campus improvement fee, part of which went toward the ultimate renovation of the Powell Building. We took issue with the student senate at the time, how they conducted a secret ballot vote and simply announced it passed. We argued to the university counsel that a secret ballot was not permitted and as a result the student senate read off how each member voted in the following meeting. Was ratifying a secret ballot technically the legal fix? Probably not, but it ultimately satisfied the purpose of ensuring that how those students voted would be made public. We still advocated for more time to communicate how the fee would work and allow student senate to gather opinions, all the way up to emailing members of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, because we felt like the issue had been rammed through by the time it got to them to sign off on it.

Another obstacle came when the universitys communications office wanted to become a gatekeeper in nature and required that we go through them for interviews with faculty, staff and the presidents council. As a student newspaper, it was a burden and limited access to the bulk of our sources for university programs. Unlike other media in Richmond or even Lexington, events, programming and/or decisions that impact the student body are our bread and butter.

We simply couldnt say oh, lets not cover anything EKU-related at all. The office even wanted to redact an interview that was already conducted because the marketing VP at the time had not approved it. After wading through that mess for a while, we were able to converse directly with faculty and staff again, while still going through EKU public relations for interviews and comments from anyone part of the presidents council.

OK, enough about the contentiousness. There were also quite a few ways that we worked with administrators on a regular basis to improve not just our content, but transparency and the reporting process in general.

We worked with the EKU Police Department to create a system for obtaining crime and fire alarm reports electronically on a daily basis, as opposed to us having to go to a dispatcher every week, see if there were reports printed for us and have an editor sign-off on receiving it.

We covered a lot of events at the EKU Center for the Arts and the staff there was able to get us access for a reporter and photographer on a regular basis, unless there was a restriction on photography or videography. One of my favorite photo sets of all time was from a Josh Turner concert in 2014, shot on a Nikon D90 that belonged to the Progress.

And of course, I would be remiss if I didnt point out the working relationship our sports editors and writers had with EKUs sports information directors. Between turning stories around on deadline and getting time to talk with athletes for profile stories, they were some of the newspapers best content.

As I reflect on my time at the Progress, it wasnt a solo effort. The credit for the newspapers success is shared by all of the student editors and writers that appeared on bylines or photo credits. Im absolutely blessed to have been surrounded by great colleagues and journalists while we were completing our degrees at EKU, because its borderline impossible to do meaningful journalism by yourself.

The editors and writers I knew were dedicated to the craft and used it to launch themselves into professional careers in journalism, communications, video production, graphic design, education, non-profit organizations, the judiciary, the military and healthcare, just to name an assortment of occupational fields.

To the former staffers and writers of The Eastern Progress, thanks for providing an excellent foundation to do quality journalism. To the current students of the Progress, thanks for sharing our journalistic commitment as media continues to evolve from legacy platforms into emergent ones. I hope that your work today continues to inspire future cohorts of students into not just preserving, but improving upon the state of journalism and news media at the collegiate level and beyond.

Jacob Blair is a previous editor-in-chief of The Eastern Progress and has more than a half-decade of experience in community journalism. He has a bachelors degree in journalism from Eastern Kentucky University and a masters degree in strategic communication from Washington State University.

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Op-ed: The Progress highlights college experience | Opinion | easternprogress.com - The Eastern Progress Online