Category Archives: Progress

The government will proceed with its roundly criticised model for a federal anti-corruption commission but has signalled the bill will only come to parliament if Labor backs it.

With Australias parliament entering what could be the last sitting week before the election, the government is under pressure to deliver the federal integrity commission it has telegraphed, but not delivered, for three years.

One of its backbenchers crossed the floor last week to bring on parliamentary debate on a stronger proposal, advanced by the independent Helen Haines. Bridget Archer was the only government MP to back the Haines proposal but a number of other Liberals want the government to toughen up its proposal.

Metropolitan Liberals are facing electoral pressure because independents are targeting incumbent moderates in the governments blue-ribbon heartland. Independents backed by the activist Climate 200 organisation, which has raised $4m in less than four months, are campaigning locally for climate action and a strong national integrity commission.

But efforts by the attorney general, Michaelia Cash, to secure internal agreement to beef up the governments proposal have met fierce resistance in cabinet. Scott Morrison told reporters on Sunday the government would stick with its original model because it was well-designed and well-considered.

Cash was more equivocal when asked if the proposal might be overhauled to include public hearings during political investigations, which would be a significant strengthening of the model. At this point in time, the bill is as it stands, she said.

Haines is unlikely to move again this week to try to suspend the standing orders to bring on her own proposal for an integrity commission but she is critical of the Coalition blaming Labor for any delay. She said on Sunday if Morrison truly believed in his suboptimal integrity commission he should bring it forward and give parliament an opportunity to amend it.

After she crossed the floor last week, Archer was hauled into a meeting with Morrison, the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, and the minister for women, Marise Payne. The Tasmanian Liberal backbencher expressed her displeasure at that treatment. I would have preferred not to have the meeting at that time while I was feeling emotional, she said last week.

But the minister for families and social services, and for womens safety, Anne Ruston, defended the prime minister on Sunday. I think its an entirely reasonable proposition when somebody expresses an opinion different to government policy and then acts on it, that the prime minister would seek to find out what their concerns were in an effort to try to resolve them, Ruston told the ABC.

The minister said Morrison had met last week with the two Liberal senators refusing to pass government legislation until the prime minister moved against vaccination mandates as he would have met, Im sure, with every other Liberal party senator who crossed the floor in the time he has been prime minister.

Morrison last week sought to buffer the government against its obvious lack of action on an integrity commission by criticising the New South Wales anti-corruption commission.

After he faced the internal revolt on his own model, the prime minister accused critics of him and the governments integrity commission of wanting a kangaroo court to oversee the federal parliament. Morrison attacked the NSW Icacs inquiry into the former premier Gladys Berejiklian.

Liberals want Berejiklian to run in the seat of Warringah against the incumbent independent, Zali Steggall. Morrison declared anti-corruption commissions should be looking at criminal conduct, not who your boyfriend is.

On Sunday Morrison tried to shift blame to Labor for the lack of progress. He said the government would like to proceed with its proposal but theres no support for our proposal from Labor, or others.

Our proposal has been consulted on, weve had it out there for a long time, we are interested in a fair dinkum commission that looks at criminal conduct, not at who peoples boyfriends are, the prime minister said.

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Labor and others want to have a system, frankly, that is open to all sorts of abuse and game playing and politicking and weve seen that from Labor over the course of this term time and time matters referred off to the Australian federal police, wasting their time.

Cash told reporters the Coalitions proposed integrity commission was a fair and balanced model: It will deal with instances of the most serious criminal corruption at a federal level.

That is what this bill is all about. Its not, as the prime minister said, a political witch-hunt, which the Labor party seem to want it to be.

We have a bill, if Labor indicated they would support the bill, our situation would be very very different, but at this point in time, we have a bill, they dont, all they have is a statement of opposition. Thats their situation.

It is routine for the government to bring forward legislation to the House of Representatives, whether it is likely to pass or not. But Ruston told the ABC: The last thing we want to do is bring a bill into this place and then find out it wont get through.

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Scott Morrison digs in over federal Icac and tries to shift blame to Labor for slow progress - The Guardian

For most Americans, these feel like bleak times. More than 750,000 Americans and 5 million people worldwide have died from Covid-19. A mob tried to violently stop the winner of our most recent presidential election from taking office through an attack on the Capitol. Climate change is exacerbating wildfires and other natural disasters, and we are not on track to avoid large-scale warming by 2100.

This is all real, and truly alarming. But it would be a mistake to view that as the sum total of the world in 2021. Under the radar, some aspects of life on Earth in areas like public health, the economy, science and technology, and animal welfare, among others are getting better, sometimes dramatically so.

Many of us arent aware of the ways the world is getting better because the press and humans in general have a strong negativity bias. To be sure, some objective conditions arent mere spin: This pandemic has been a horror. But it also happens to be the case that negative experiences affect people more, and for longer, than positive ones. Survey evidence consistently indicates that few people in rich countries have any clue that the world has taken a happier turn in recent decades one poll in 2016 found that only 8 percent of US residents knew that global poverty had fallen since 1996.

Its worth paying some attention to this huge progress. The people benefiting arent missing it 50 percent of Chinese respondents in the 2016 poll said they knew poverty had fallen and you shouldnt either.

Nothings permanent, and big challenges like climate change and the fraying of liberal democracy remain. But as dismal as many things are right now, the world has gotten much better on a variety of important, underappreciated dimensions. The progress we have made on these fronts makes me optimistic that we can overcome the setbacks and tragedies of the last couple of years.

In 2020 and 2021, the federal government responded to the economic shock of the pandemic by doing something unprecedented: It shoveled money to most Americans to help them weather the storm.

Unlike stimulus checks passed during the 2001 and 2008 downturns, the 2020-2021 checks were universal at the bottom of the income scale. They had no work requirement, nor were recipients required to have paid federal taxes in the past to get the checks. That means that the stimulus checks should have had a profound effect on poverty this past year or so and thats exactly what researchers are finding.

In March, researchers at Columbia led by Zachary Parolin estimated that as a result of President Joe Bidens American Rescue Plan, the US poverty rate would fall to 8.5 percent in 2021, the lowest figure on record and well below 2018s figure of 12.8 percent. The Columbia authors find that if you compare 2021 to every year for which the US census has data, from 1967 to 2019, and use a consistent poverty line, 2021 is projected to have the lowest poverty rate on record.

That was hardly the expected outcome given the depth of the Covid-induced recession, but its a huge silver lining amid the chaos of the past year.

One of the most important developments of the past few decades of human history is the dramatic decline of extreme poverty, defined by the World Bank as living on less than $1.90 per day. Thats a very, very low bar, and in 1981, 42.7 percent of humans fell below it, living in absolutely dire poverty.

But by 2017, the rate had fallen by more than three-quarters, to 9.3 percent.

Some development experts argue we should be using a global poverty line of $10-$15 a day instead (you can read more in detail about those debates here). But even a higher poverty line shows a big reduction in hardship in 1981, 75.1 percent of humanity lived on less than $10 a day ($3,650 per year); by 2018, that figure was at 62.4 percent.

The Covid-19 pandemic, of course, blunted progress on global poverty; an estimated 97 million people fell into poverty in 2020 compared to the year before, per the latest estimates from the World Bank. The pandemic also increased global inequality, as incomes fell in poor countries like India but rose among the poor and middle class in rich countries due to government support.

But those projections also suggest the world is already reversing this setback. The Banks researchers estimate that the number of people in extreme poverty shot up from 655 million in 2019 to 732 million in 2020 but will fall in 2021, to 711 million. To put those numbers in further context, the 2021 poverty estimate is lower than the number of people in poverty in 2016, and even the elevated 2020 figure was lower than the number of people in poverty in 2015, despite population growth.

Covid-19 certainly interrupted progress on global poverty, and uninterrupted progress would obviously be preferable. But while theres still a lot of work to be done, the world is already showing signs of recovering, and the medium- to long-run trends are positive.

The US is a fairly rich country where maladies that tend to hit later in life like cancer have come to dominate the list of top causes of death. The good news is that in recent decades we have made considerable progress in developing and deploying better treatments for cancer.

A recent study from researchers at the American Cancer Society estimates how many more people would have died between 1991 and 2018 had cancer death rates stayed at their 1991 level. That was the year cancer deaths peaked, in part because thats when lung cancer deaths (mostly from smoking) were peaking for men.

Reductions in cancer death rates since then have averted nearly 2.2 million deaths in men and 1 million in women. Thats a huge number of people who got to enjoy longer lives due to progress in preventing and treating cancer.

That said, experts believe the pandemic hampered diagnosis and treatment of the disease these past couple of years and expect an uptick in advanced disease and mortality from cancer to show up in data in coming years. It doesnt wipe away the progress of the last couple of decades, but its fair to temper our enthusiasm.

Even with decades of progress against smoking, lung cancer still represents over 20 percent of all cancer deaths.

But as of 2018, deaths from lung cancer had fallen from their peak by 54 percent among men and by 30 percent among women. That progress is largely attributable to progress against smoking. Weve come a long way from 1955, when 45 percent of Americans reported smoking in a given week to Gallup, to 2021, when a mere 16 percent do (which is itself a big drop from 21 percent in 2014).

To be sure, some data suggested an uptick in smoking as the pandemic set in but theres evidence that was temporary.

With the FDA working (slowly) on rules that would ban cigarettes with addictive levels of nicotine, traditional cigarettes could soon be a thing of the past in the US. The next frontier in the battle against smoking is in the developing world, where progress has been harder. We also arent fully sure of the risks posed by e-cigarettes, but they remain safer than the cigarettes they have replaced.

One of the big unqualified wins for the world in the last few decades has been the decline in child mortality.

Worldwide, under-5 deaths fell by more than half between 1990 and 2019, with some of the fastest progress in the worlds poorest regions, like sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Childhood mortality tends to be driven by preventable causes like malaria, diarrhea, and pneumonia, and the world has made progress on preventing them through interventions like bednets and better water sanitation.

These estimates stop in 2019 global public health statistics take a while to compile and weve obviously had a pandemic in the interim. But as weve now learned, Covid-19 is not very lethal among young children. Yes, there have been deaths, and theyve been tragic, but the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation finds that 11,700 children under 20 have died of the illness worldwide only 0.4 percent of total Covid-19 deaths in their estimate.

The bigger concern is that Covid-related economic slowdowns and lockdowns have disrupted other health and nutrition programs and thus indirectly increased child mortality by increasing deaths from other diseases, like malaria. For malaria-driven mortality, at least, the evidence for such an effect is mixed, with high-malaria countries reporting lower malaria levels in 2020 despite Covid-19, and countries with low levels seeing them rise somewhat.

But we will have to wait for more definitive data to see how child mortality has evolved in 2020-21 and beyond. Whatever the answer, the trends from 1990 to 2019 are worth celebrating, even as early estimates of the pandemics effects should give us pause.

By far the most significant negative trend in the world over the past few decades has been climate change, which may have already cost thousands of lives and may well cost millions more in the future.

To avoid that outcome, the world needs to cut emissions and fast. While rich countries are not making as much progress as they should, one exciting trend to highlight here is that several countries (including the US) have managed to cut per capita emissions relative to 1990 levels while achieving substantial economic growth. In other words, theyve been able to show that fighting climate change need not be at odds with improving economic well-being.

This cuts against the warnings of both conservative opponents of climate action and people on the left in the degrowth movement that action to prevent climate change will necessitate a halt to economic growth (which, realistically, would translate into declining living standards and slowed progress against global poverty). It suggests that a more robust emissions-reduction regime, like the one outlined in the Build Back Better plan, can avert the worst consequences of climate change without making Americans or (more importantly) the global poor worse off.

In some important ways, life has been improving for the billions of sentient farm animals, capable of feeling emotions and pain, living in factory farms in the US and abroad.

By far the most numerous species of farm animal is the chicken, and chickens, both for meat and eggs, have historically been treated very poorly. In 2010, per the United Egg Producers trade group (hardly an organization with an interest in making egg farms look bad), 97 percent of egg-laying hens were confined to what are known as battery cages.

These cages typically hold five to 10 birds each, and United Egg Producers minimum standards state that each bird be given 67 square inches a smaller space than a standard 8.5-by-11-inch piece of paper. And thats for farms that comply with the voluntary standards; many didnt, and offered even less space.

But as the above chart shows, more and more egg producers are transitioning away from battery cages. As my colleague Kenny Torrella explains, this progress was spurred in large part by bans on the cages in states like California, Michigan, and Oregon, and sped along by pledges from egg companies secured by advocates in response to bad publicity. Life on egg farms outside a cage is hardly a picnic, but its a vast improvement, one that represents some 70 million fewer hens living in cages in 2021 compared to 2015.

Considerable media attention on Covid-19 has focused, fairly, on the communities of anti-vaxxers whove held out against getting protection against the illness. Some attention has also, correctly, been paid to the inadequate amount the US and other rich countries have pledged to fund Covid-19 vaccination in the developing world.

But its still worth taking a moment to appreciate the largest and fastest vaccination campaign the world has ever seen. Less than a year after US regulators gave emergency approval to the first Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine candidate, over half the world has gotten at least one shot, and two out of five people on Earth have been fully inoculated.

As the chart above shows, there are deep inequities in the allocation of those doses. Africa, in particular, has been neglected in vaccine provision, and rich countries need to do much better in providing doses there.

But South America, hardly the richest region on Earth, has the highest vaccination rates of any continent, and Asia is near European and North American levels (albeit in part because many Asian countries have relied on less effective Chinese vaccines).

Thats an enormous public health success that we shouldnt take for granted, even as we recognize that theres still plenty of work to be done.

Also notable is just how fast Covid-19 vaccines were developed. There are illnesses whose biological origins have been known for over a century like tuberculosis for which a reliable vaccine still does not exist. Malarias underlying parasite was identified in 1880 and the World Health Organization first recommended a vaccine against it this year.

Covid-19, by contrast, was first detected in China in December 2019, and a year later, the FDA had approved Pfizers mRNA vaccine against it.

In some ways, that timeline understates how fast the progress toward a vaccine has been. Moderna designed its Covid-19 vaccine over a weekend in January 2020, two months before the pandemic hit full force in the US. A virologist named Eddie Holmes had tweeted out the genome of the virus on January 10; on January 13, Moderna used that genome to develop a vaccine candidate. It took another 11 months of rigorous testing for the FDA to allow the vaccine to be used. Adenovirus-based vaccine candidates werent developed quite as fast, but the process wasnt too shabby AstraZenecas trials started in April 2020.

Best of all, the speedy development process has shown that mRNA and adenovirus-based vaccine platforms can work at scale, which raises the prospect of more effective vaccines against malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV, especially through mRNA technology. If even a fraction of those efforts succeed, the benefits to global health will be enormous.

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9 charts to be thankful for this Thanksgiving: Progress on poverty, cancer, vaccines, and more - Vox

Fintech company Ripple is making great strides in its legal feud with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, CEO Brad Garlinghouse told CNBC on Monday.

Garlinghouse said he expects the case, which centers on XRP, the world's seventh-biggest cryptocurrency, will likely reach a conclusion next year.

"We're seeing pretty good progress despite a slow-moving judicial process," he told CNBC's Dan Murphy.

"Clearly we're seeing good questions asked by the judge. And I think the judge realizes this is not just about Ripple, this will have broader implications."

Garlinghouse said he was hopeful there would be closure next year.

Ripple, which is based in San Francisco, generated a lot of buzz during the crypto frenzy of late 2017 and 2018, which saw the prices of bitcoin, ether and other cryptocurrencies skyrocket to record highs.

XRP, a token Ripple is closely associated with, benefited from that rally, hitting an all-time high above $3. It's since declined dramatically from that price but is riding the latest crypto wave with a more than 370% gain year-to-date

Ripple's technology is designed to let banks and other financial services firms send money across borders faster and at a lower cost. The company also markets another product that utilizes XRP for cross-border payments called On-Demand Liquidity.

The SEC is concerned about Ripple's ties to XRP, alleging the company and its executives sold $1.3 billion worth of the tokens in an unregistered securities offering. But Ripple contends that XRP should not be considered a security, a classification that would bring it under much more regulatory scrutiny.

It comes as regulators around the world are taking a closer look at crypto, a market that is still largely unregulated but has boomed in the last year.

Garlinghouse said the United Arab Emirates, Japan, Singapore and Switzerland are examples of countries showing "leadership" when it comes to regulating crypto, while China and India have cracked down on the industry.

"In general, the direction of travel is very positive," Garlinghouse said.

Brady Dougan, the former CEO of Credit Suisse, said regulation is a key area in crypto that's likely to develop over time.

"It's a market that's early in its development," Dougan, who now runs fintech firm Exos, told CNBC. "I think it's a healthy market and it's one that will continue to develop in a positive way."

Ripple, a privately-held company, was last valued at $10 billion and counts the likes of Alphabet's venture capital arm GV, Andreessen Horowitz and Japan's SBI Holdings as investors.

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Ripple seeing 'good progress' in SEC case over XRP, outcome expected next year - CNBC

In the aftermath of two consecutive defeats, Rams coach Sean McVay spent last week looking inward and then ahead.

McVay said Monday that he evaluated his team, got some rest, spent time with his fianc and watched a full slate of NFL games.

All the while, he began focusing on Sundays game against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field.

You dont want to let overthinking get in the way of overcoming some of these obstacles that we have in front of us to play better football, McVay said during a videoconference with reporters, adding, The natural inclination is to fight the urge to feel like you need to make overarching changes, while not being nave to the fact that we need to play better.

An embarrassing 31-10 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Nov. 15 dropped the Rams record to 7-3. But a victory over the Packers would keep them in the hunt for a favorable NFC playoff seed.

The Packers are 8-3 after Sundays 34-31 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.

Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, the reigning NFL most valuable player, leads a team attempting to earn the No. 1 seed for the second consecutive season. Rodgers has passed for 21 touchdowns, with four interceptions.

The Packers also feature receiver Davante Adams and running backs Aaron Jones and A.J. Dillon. Jones suffered a knee injury on Nov. 14 against the Seattle Seahawks and did not play against the Vikings. His status for Sundays game is to be determined.

Theyve got the guys at the key spots that really carry the torch, McVay said, adding that given the Packers success in 2019 and 2020 under coach Matt LaFleur, you can argue that theyve been the standard in the NFC.

The Rams will return on Sunday to the site of last seasons divisional-round playoff defeat by the Packers.

They will attempt to recapture the form that helped them win four games in a row albeit against weaker opponents before losing to the Tennessee Titans and the 49ers.

McVay said that outside linebacker Leonard Floyd suffered a concussion against the 49ers but that he was asymptomatic and was expected to play against the Packers. Cornerback Donte Deayon could return from a hamstring injury, McVay said.

But for the second game in a row, most of the focus will be on how McVay melds receiver Odell Beckham Jr. into the offense.

Beckham signed with the Rams as a free agent and then practiced only once before playing against the 49ers. He caught a short pass on the first play of the game but only one other.

Afterward, Beckham said that the time afforded by the open date would enable him to really try to learn every single thing possible, in the Rams offense.

I get to get back in the lab, and get to work and get through the playbook, he said.

McVay said Beckham last week was doing some stuff behind the scenes, but he cautioned that fully implementing the three-time Pro Bowl player into the offense will remain a work in progress, this week and beyond.

I think it was important for everybody to be able to get away, he said. And Odell was doing a great job of kind working on his own, getting himself physically ready to go. Because there was still some stuff that he was working through, just physically and getting his body feeling, you know, overall the way that he wants to, to play at the level we all know hes capable of.

And theres some moving parts to that. What I didnt want to do is immerse him in some information and then you end up adjusting and changing.

The rest is here:

Rams and Odell Beckham Jr. remain 'a work in progress' - Los Angeles Times

We are learning from Covid in a more obvious way as well: through the lens of science. After the Great Influenza, it took 13 years thanks to a young virologist named Richard Edwin Shope, who noticed veterinary reports about an unusual outbreak of swine flu among pigs in fall 1918 to prove that the pandemic had been caused by a virus at all. The contrast with Covid could not be more extreme: We isolated the SARS-CoV-2 virus about 20 days after the outbreak was first reported. Just over a week later, its genome had been sequenced and shared around the world, and the blueprint for what would become the mRNA vaccines (the ones manufactured, ultimately, by Pfizer and Moderna) was essentially complete.

Its important to remember that mRNA vaccines were a promising, if unproven, line of inquiry for years before the pandemic hit; no one could say for sure that they even worked. But now BioNTech has announced that its ramping up development of a malaria vaccine using messenger RNA as the delivery mechanism, and Moderna and partners announced that theyre beginning trials of two mRNA candidate vaccines against H.I.V. Malaria kills roughly 400,000 people a year, H.I.V. nearly a million, and both diseases disproportionately affect the young. If the successful mass rollout of the Covid vaccines winds up accelerating the timeline for these other vaccines, the impact on human life will be enormous.

And just as the Great Influenza slowly nudged scientists toward the development of flu shots, which finally became commonplace in the 1940s, the Covid crisis will redirect vast sums of research dollars toward the development of universal vaccines to protect against all variants of both influenza and coronavirus. Given the relentless, year-in-and-year-out disease burden of flu around the world, a vaccine that reduced its virulence by an order of magnitude would be a life saver of historic proportions.

What about the more subtle psychological legacy of Covid? How will it change the way we perceive the world and its risks when the pandemic finally subsides? I have a memory from May of this year, taking my 17-year-old son to the Javits Center in Manhattan for his first vaccine, followed by a shopping trip to pick out a tie for his (masked, outdoor) senior prom. At some point waiting in line, I made a halfhearted joke about how we were embarking on the classic father-son ritual of heading out to the mass vaccination site to protect him from the plague. I meant it ironically, but the truth is that for my sons generation, proms and plagues will be part of the rituals of growing up.

There is a loss of innocence in that, but also a hard-earned realism: the knowledge that rare high-risk events like pandemics are not just theoretically possible but likely, in an increasingly urban and interconnected world of nearly eight billion people. As a parent, you want to protect your children from unnecessary anxieties, but not when the threat in question is a real one. My sons generation will forever take pandemics as a basic fact of life, and that assumption, painful as it is, will protect him when the next threat emerges. But maybe, if the science unleashed by this pandemic lives up to its promise, his children or perhaps his grandchildren could inherit a world where plagues are a thing of the past.

Steven Johnson is the author, most recently, of Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer. He also writes the newsletter Adjacent Possible.

Excerpt from:

Could Covid Lead to Progress? - The New York Times

TAMPA, Fla. The City of Tampa is now just weeks away from opening a new fire station in North Tampa, where the high volume of 911 calls spurred city leaders to invest millions in improving public safety in the area.

Tuesday morning, Tampa Fire Rescue Chief Barbara Tripp will join Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera and others for a tour of the building that will soon house the new fire station. The building on East Fairbanks Street was the home of a former fire station and is currently being renovated to serve in that capacity again.

WFTS

You cant put Band-Aids on something that is a mortal wound. You have to do something bigger, and the surgery required in this situation is a new station an additional station," said Viera. Public safety should be number one in our city and this is a wise investment in our tax dollars.

Currently, the vast, growing area is served by Tampa Fire Rescue's Station 13. As ABC Action News has reported in the past, the station near USF and Busch Gardens covers a large area and has an even bigger call volume. In fact, its call volume is the biggest in the City of Tampa and one of the biggest in the entire nation.

In September, the city passed budget measures aimed at alleviating the problem.

The city budget allotted roughly $5 million to improve fire protection in New and North Tampa. A roughly $3.4 million portion of that funding will help create and staff the new Station 25, which is located just a few miles from the busy Station 13.

We are excited to see the progress happening in Station 25,Chief Barbara Tripp said, in part, in a statement.This new stationwill allow us to continue to shorten our response timesin a fast-growing area ofTampa.

Council also funded building upgrades to Station 21 in New Tampa and a heavy-duty rescue vehicle for that station. It also set aside $880,000 to begin on Fire Station 24, which will service New Tampa.

"Its a day to be thankful of the additional assistance that the City of Tampas giving us," said Viera.

Right now, the city still must complete a lengthy list of renovations before the new Station 25 building on E. Fairbanks St. can be operational. However, according to the city, it should be up and running in Jan. 2022.

Once it's complete, the new station will operate solely as a rescue station, which means firefighter-paramedics assigned to the station will only use ambulances to respond to medical emergencies. The city says this is a critical addition since 85% of the 911 calls in the area are medical in nature.

Originally posted here:

Hoping for shorter response times, city making progress on new North Tampa fire station - ABC Action News

Since starting the season 2-5, the Boston Celtics have picked up the pace. Despite a two-week injury to Jaylen Brown, they let their amazing defense lead the way. In the month of November (where the Celtics are 7-4), their defense ranks fourth in the NBA (102.4 DRTG) and their offense ranks 18th (108.2 ORTG). Bostons offense looked rough at the start of the season, as they were relying on a lot of isolation, and their ball movement was lackluster. However, the Cs are slowly starting to turn things around on that front.

In their last three games (which is obviously a very small sample size), the Celtics offensive rating is 116.3. Scoring 130 points against the Los Angeles Lakers inflated that number, but putting up that many points against any team is an impressive feat in and of itself. Their offensive success in the last three games is something they should strive to mimic for the rest of the season.

Against the Oklahoma City Thunder, they found much success utilizing a simple basketball mechanic - the drive-and-kick - and let it be the baseline for their offense. Head coach Ime Udoka found ways to spice it up, create pressure with off-ball movement, and cause havoc for opposing defenses. While the Thunder may not be an elite defensive team in the NBA, they still rank in the top half of the league on that end of the floor (106.8 DRTG, 15th in NBA).

First and foremost, their passing was nothing short of magnificent against the Thunder. This play is the perfect example of how to run the offense:

As simple as it may seem, this is exactly the type of offense Udoka has been preaching all year. Evidently, it just took the Cs a little while to perfect it.

The Celtics recent offensive improvements have also allowed Tatum to find a rhythm. Instead of settling for step-back threes and isolation looks (on which he shoots 31.5 percent), the offense is finding him easy shots. The play above is an excellent illustration. Up to that point in the game, Tatum was 2-of-5 from the field, including 0-for-3 from deep. From then on, after the Celtics got him an easy look from behind the arc, Tatum finished the game shooting 9-of-17 from the field and 6-of-9 from range.

Bostons win over the Houston Rockets marked Tatums fourth straight 30-point night, and after a struggling to start the year, this is a very welcomed change. Not only is he reaping the rewards of the drive-and-kick offense, but hes using that success to find other looks on the floor as well. Udoka touched on the superstars improvements after the game:

NBC Sports Bostons Abby Chin: Four straight games for Jayson, 30-plus, whats the biggest difference youre seeing in him?

Udoka: Shotmaking, I mean, the shots that he was getting, hes knocking them down now. Being extra aggressive, I think, attacking the basket a little bit more, getting more free throws. Thats happened over the last few games. But, still doing what he did early, getting the same shots that he was missing that we knew would flip eventually. But hes also finding guys, passing the ball extremely well. So, very well-rounded games in general. The scoring is there because of the made shots, but we never overreacted to that in the first place.

While getting Tatum hot is essential, hes not the only player benefitting from the drive-and-kick offense. Grant Williams has been hot from behind the three-point arc, and his consistent shooting has been crucial. After the Thunder game, Udoka said that other players are looking for him knowing the crowd that they draw, and hes ready to let it go. As of now, Williams is shooting 55.6 percent on corner threes. The last time the Celtics had a player shoot above 50 percent from the corner on at least one attempt per game was during the 2010-11 season. His name was Ray Allen.

Drive-and-kicks arent effective unless the drive is established properly, though. If the Celtics pose no threat of finishing at the rim, then opponents would have no reason to help on the drive. In turn, no one is left open on the perimeter, and so on. Dennis Schroder has been key in helping Boston create a presence at the rim. Plays like this one have set the tone:

Schroder drives hard off of a hand-off from Horford at the elbow. By the time he gets into the paint, its far too late for Thunder rookie Josh Giddey to give help from the corner. The German point guard finishes through contact with a nifty floater over Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Its these sorts of plays that force defenders to help on the drive. The night prior, after the Celtics win over the Lakers, he talked about being aggressive and attacking the paint:

Yeah, I mean, Ive been doing that my whole career. Trying to be aggressive, trying to put pressure on the rim. I think, our group, you know, we just got to, cant let people off the hook. We just got to be aggressive, put pressure on the rim, and I think thats when were at our best.

And as much as analytics people may hate it, Bostons mid-range game has looked great as well. Two players in particular have put the mid-range back on the map for the Cs - Josh Richardson and Schroder.

Schroder was living in the mid-range against the Thunder. While most fans would prefer he get to the basket, if the shots are falling, the shots are falling. Some of the jumpers he took dont qualify as mid-range shots since he was inside the paint, but the point is he was making use of his jump shot from inside the three-point line. He took 11 shots from 5-19 feet from the hoop, converting seven of them (63.6 percent).

Meanwhile, Richardson showed off his mid-range prowess against the Lakers. During a first quarter where the Celtics were getting killed, he helped keep them alive with shots like this one:

Hes been great from mid-range all year long, keeping defenses honest and shooting 54.2 percent on 1.7 attempts per game. That mark ranks top-15 in the league among players who attempt at least one per game. If the Celtics are just taking layups and threes, then the defense has no reason to leave the paint. Having players who excel in that in-between area has been vital.

Theres still plenty of work to do for the Celtics though. They still rank 19th in the league in assists (22.7), but there have been notable improvements in the passing game. Marcus Smart deserves a ton of credit for that, as hes averaged 7.5 assists over the past four games. Horford even commented on the need to keep the ball moving after Mondays win over the Rockets:

Just continue to build on the things that coach keeps harping on. You know, playing with more pace on offense, making sure that were moving the ball better, we did a much better job in the second half tonight [vs. Rockets].

Integrating Brown and Robert Williams back into the offense will be a challenge, too. The Cs struggled to get things going in the first quarter, but by the time the second half came around, so did their offense. Williams found his niche on the offensive glass and Brown caught fire from range.

Overnight success is only real in movies and television. The Celtics offense is not going to be top-10 in the league in the next week, and it may never reach that mark all season. The important thing is, they have found ways to improve on that end. Their defense has been too good to be wasted by a lack of pressure on the other end of the floor.

Read more here:

Breaking down the Celtics offensive progress - CelticsBlog

English Football Association chief executive Mark Bullingham has said Qatar has made "strong progress" in addressing human rights issues and added that next year's World Cup could be the catalyst for lasting positive change in the Middle East.

FIFA's decision to award the 2022 finals to Qatar has been mired in controversy ever since the 2010 vote as a result of allegations of corruption, the welfare of migrant workers and the country's anti-LGBTQ laws.

In June, UEFA established a working group to examine the specific issue of human rights in Qatar and first visited the country in August, involving a series of meetings with representatives of various bodies including the International Labour Organisation, the National Human Rights Committee, the Qatar Football Association and a trip to the Ras Abu Aboud Stadium where seven matches are scheduled.

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Bullingham was part of the travelling party and the English FA chief hailed the positive moves taken -- specifically the ending of the kafala system in September 2020, which previously prevented workers changing jobs without their employer's permission -- while adding there was still work to do ahead of the finals which begin on Nov. 21 next year.

"The first point we always make is we are not perfect ourselves as a country and I think we have to establish that early on when we talk about any other country," he said on Monday.

"I am on the UEFA working group on human rights and therefore have been out to Qatar. We met with the migrant workers, we met with some of the charities out there as well and I think that has helped us get a bit of a picture which is we believe that the legislation the Qataris have brought in over the last few years has been strong progress from a fairly low base -- the removal of the kafala system, the insulation of a minimum wage, bringing through a standardised contract for workers a maximum temperature [for working] and lots of other steps forward in the legislation.

"What is very clear though is the legislation isn't being applied universally and that has to be the next step and that's where we see the real progress will come through.

"From our side, having met the workers, one thing they absolutely were clear on was that the World Cup had driven real change and their plea to us really was: 'Please keep coming, please keep understanding more, please keep seeing what's going on here and about the progress being made' and by constantly visiting the region, you can see that.

"We made a commitment as the UEFA working group not only to keep visiting before the World Cup but to continue after that as well.

"In terms of the charities, I think they all have that opinion. Legislation has been positive but needs implementation to follow through. The charities' request of us is quite clear.

"What they want us to do, both from an English FA point of view but also all of the UEFA countries, is ensure that companies we are working with on the ground in Qatar are implementing their legislation, are giving support for workers, workers committees and so on. So, making sure we are working with the best possible partners there which we will endeavour to do.

"The only other thing I'd reflect on -- and we've reflected on it as the UEFA working group -- is there is a lot of focus on Qatar but we really see the opportunity for the World Cup to drive change for the broader region where there are still challenges in other countries neighbouring Qatar as well.

"Wouldn't it be a fantastic legacy for the World Cup if, for example, the kafala system was changed in the region as a totality rather than just focusing on Qatar? That's our perspective."

England manager Gareth Southgate cited the experiences of discrimination his players suffered during matches in Montenegro and Bulgaria in recent years but admitted the political situation was something the 51-year-old and his players needed to understand further.

"I'm trying to take the opportunity to educate myself far better into what's going on in that part of the world because I've got to make sure that factually I am correct and we understand both sides of the stories," Southgate said.

"We would look to try to help the players so they are as prepared as they can be for those discussions and when they speak publicly. Of course, some of the issues that we are dealing with, we have confronted because they've been thrown onto us really.

"We went to Montenegro, we went to Bulgaria as a team and suffered from the racism in the stadiums. It was very clear that it was affecting our team, the lives of our players and it meant we became much more aware of dealing with those issues as a collective and individually.

"This is slightly different in that this is another part of the world we are going into and there are clearly things that when we read, we have concerns about. But it is also not 100% clear, all of the information and exactly the truth, where we are now, what's historic and what's current."

Read the rest here:

England FA chief Mark Bullingham: Qatar making 'strong progress' on human rights issues ahead of World Cup - ESPN

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10)- Its been a full two weeks since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine for use in kids ages 5-11. Since the state started reporting the number of kids who have received their first dose last week, there hasnt been a significant change in the number of kids vaccinated.

On November 17, 9% of the 1.6 million kids in New York between ages 5-11 had the first shot in their COVID vaccination series. On November 22, 13% (205,464) were reportedly vaccinated, according to the New York State Department of Health (DOH).

Locally, Saratoga (23.3%) and Albany (20.2%) Counties are still at the top for most kids vaccinated. Warren County had been in third place last week but Columbia County moved into third place doubling the percentage of kids vaccinated from 8.5% on November 17 to 17.2% on November 22.

We are proud of our parents in Saratoga County who have taken the first step in getting their children vaccinated, as vaccination remains a safe and effective tool in the fight against COVID-19. We will continue to provide pediatric vaccines at county-run clinics and continue our partnerships with schools, pediatricians, and other vaccination providers across the county so that any parent who wants their child vaccinated has an opportunity to do so, a Saratoga County spokesperson said Monday.

Albany County has been working hard with our partners to make the vaccine easily accessible so we can get shots into arms as quickly as possible, said Albany County Director of Communications, Mary Rozak. Our County Health Department has been available to answer questions and been educating the community about the importance of vaccination.

Check out the difference in percentage and number of kids vaccinated on November 17 compared to November 22 by county below:

Getting vaccinated for COVID can prevent kids and adults from getting seriously ill from the virus but it doesnt prevent them from having to quarantine. Vaccinated or not, if someone gets sick from or tests positive for COVID they are supposed to quarantine, according to the DOH.

It means although vaccinations are good for public health, they wont keep COVID from impacting education. After communicating with the Washington County Department of Health, the Fort Ann School District decided to move its students to remote learning from Friday, November 19 to Tuesday, November 23 because of rising cases and because 25% of its population was absent.

While we do wish we could control the number of students who need to quarantine per exposure, we have to follow state guidelines to keep our schools open and to keep our building safe from COVID-19 exposure, said Fort Ann Superintendent, Kevin Froats on the district website. Quarantining a student is something that is out of the control of the district, and is a mandated procedure that we must follow.

Froats said the COVID cases and quarantines among its population leave the district without enough staff and without bus drivers. He said the district is hoping to prevent the spread of the virus in advance of the Thanksgiving holiday. School buildings will be deep cleaned in advance of a return to in-person learning on Monday, November 29.

As its rate of cases has increased, Washington County has been encouraging its residents to get vaccinated and to get tested for COVID ahead of the holidays. The county said its seven-day positive test average was 13.3% as of Sunday, November 21. Its the highest seven-day average of any county in the state, according to the DOH COVID dashboard on Monday.

OurWashingtonCounty, NY Public Health Department continues to coordinate with local healthcare providers (Pediatricians) for the administration of the Pfizer vaccine for youth ages 5-11. At this time, our Public Health team is encouraging parents to check with pediatricians when seeking the COVID-19 vaccine for youth in these age groups initially, the county said Monday.

South Glens Falls School District also moved to remote learning Monday and Tuesday this week because of staff shortages caused by quarantines and a lack of substitute teachers in its middle and high schools, the district said. Elementary school students in the district remain in-person. The district said they held a vaccination clinic for over 280 students ages 5-11 on November 12 and are working with pharmacies to schedule another.

Until we can get another setup, we have asked our families via our weekly message to check with the Saratoga County Health Department because they are hosting several clinics for 5- to 11-year-olds, the district said. On November 15, Superintendent Kristine Orr told district families, Getting our students vaccinated is one of the best mitigating strategies we can do to get our students and schools back to normal routines.

Continued here:

COVID and kids: Vaccine progress update - NEWS10 ABC

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy spoke for more than eight hours on Thursday night and Friday morning, which had the effect of delaying a floor vote on the Build Back Better Act by about 12 hours. As a practical matter, the California Republican's remarks were irrelevant: Democrats passed the transformational legislation a few hours after McCarthy stopped talking.

But as a rhetorical matter, the GOP leader's strange monologue is still drawing scrutiny. Some of McCarthy's rhetoric was bonkers. Many of his key claims were false. Many of his core arguments were incoherent.

But there was one specific claim in his weird diatribe that still seems relevant:

"This isn't an image of a thriving nation. It's the image of a country that is clearly on the wrong track. Are we better off today than we were 10 months ago? No."

The rhetorical framing is familiar for a reason. In the final week of the 1980 presidential election, Ronald Reagan asked during a debate, "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" For much of the electorate, the answer was, "No," and then-President Jimmy Carter lost badly.

A political test was born: Presidents seeking re-election should be judged on whether conditions improved or deteriorated during their tenures.

President Joe Biden's next election is still on the horizon, but McCarthy seemed eager late last week to lay the groundwork for a political indictment of sorts: The United States, according to the House minority leader, was better off in January than it is now.

But is that true?

Ten months ago, the unemployment rate was 6.3 percent. Now, it's 4.6 percent. Ten months ago, the public saw a report that the economy had just lost over 300,000 jobs the previous month. Now, job growth is soaring and is on pace to create nearly 7 millions this year.

What's more, the U.S. economic recovery is strong, we're the only advanced economy on the planet to have a higher GDP now than before the pandemic began.

Ten months ago, Covid-19 infections were vastly worse, as were hospitalizations and fatalities. Ten months ago, a tiny percentage of the population had been vaccinated.

Ten months ago, the United States fell short of a peaceful transition of power for the first time in its history. Ten months ago, the United States still had thousands of troops in harm's way in Afghanistan. Ten months ago, the United States' international standing and credibility was in desperate need of improvement.

The point, of course, is not that the progress has created some kind of state of perfection, but McCarthy would have the public believe that the progress isn't real as if Americans were better off in January, when practically everything was worse.

Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MSNBC political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "The Impostors: How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics."

The rest is here:

Despite progress, McCarthy argues we were better off 10 months ago - MSNBC