Next week (1 March) marks the second anniversary of Cyprus Deputy Ministry of Shipping and it has already established itself as a valuable though long awaited support for the islands blue economy.

For many years, the Cypriot shipping community had pushed for a dedicated ministry. The former Department of Merchant Shipping had supported the sector for 41 years as part of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works but the influential international shipping community regularly called for a dedicated ministry. Coupled with the growing Cypriot ship register, the sector contributes about 7% of the countrys GDP and employs about 3% of its workforce, according to the Cyprus Profile website.

In an exclusive interview with ShipInsight, Cyprus shipping deputy minister Natasa Pilides confirmed that the ministry owed its origins to that industry pressure and said that its creation also set a precedent for the islands government structure. Under the countrys constitution, there is a limit on the number of government ministries and creating the concept of deputy ministries got around that. So although her title is deputy minister, that is because she heads a deputy ministry; she is Cyprus shipping minister.

Creating a dedicated ministry for shipping was a popular political decision. It was unanimously approved in parliament, which is probably a first, she said. And where shipping laid the way, other industries are following the same path: tourism got its own deputy ministry in January 2019 and on 1 March a deputy ministry for innovation will be established.

Ms Pilides has achieved a lot in her first two years. All the work done by the Department of Merchant Shipping has transferred to the ministry, giving it a staff of 160, and she was well aware of the industrys hopes. We had to respond to all their expectations regarding a more bespoke and immediate service, she said, and listed some of the changes that have been made.

Its responsibilities are based on a national strategy on shipping which created specific goals and KPIs that underlie its action plan. Its a lot more focussed than it was before, she said. We are able to take and implement decisions fast. The services available to shipping have been reorganised and its been operating quite well since then, she said.

Now, there is a 24/7 assistance service and ships can be registered on any day. Online verification of seafarer certificates is now available and seafarers themselves can now add information to their records if they would like to share information with shipping companies that use the system. New agreements have been signed with the registers recognised organisations (ROs), they can submit electronic certificates and more ROs have been singed-up. Next on the list is an online ship registration portal that will go live before the end of this year.

Our service is much more proactive and is informed by feedback from response forms and from hundreds of meetings with all our clients over the world, Ms Pilides said. Based on those conversations, I think people are happy with what weve done so far but we need to continue to improve further.

The Cypriot tonnage tax scheme which secured EU approval in December for a second 10-year period is helping attract companies to the island, she said, and the registers fee structure is also going through an overhaul. Last year, fees for registering oceangoing vessels and their mortgages were abolished and other fees have been simplified and some have been reduced.

But other fees have not been increased to compensate, she said. The benefit to the economy of having a larger cluster with more companies and more vessels more than makes up for lost fees. And there are more cuts to come: although tax rates will not change, a discount scheme is being developed that will reward environment-friendly vessels. Some details, including defining how ships will qualify and how the discounts will respond to future technological developments, are still to be finalised but it will be presented to parliament for approval soon and will then operate for an initial period to 31 December 2029.

As well as the focus on international shipping, the deputy ministry and the blue economy also serve the local shipping community. After our interview Ms Pilides was due to visit a small shipyard in Limassol, which she said was seeing growing demand, and in March a new marina is due to open in the holiday resort of Ayia Napa.

The deputy ministry also supports initiatives to encourage Cypriots to train for work in the blue economy. One organisation that is especially involved in this work is the Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute (CMMI), which opened in October 2019. Its aim is to be an independent, international, scientific and business centre of excellence that will encourage cooperation between the maritime industry and the international academic community.

Its CEO, Zacharias Siokouros, joined our conversation. He explained that it is co-funded by 30M from the European Unions Horizon 2020 initiative and the Cyprus Government, with an additional 10M from local industry. It is modelled on Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute in the UK, which is one of its international partners.

Mr Siokouros paid tribute to Ms Pilides for her involvement in supporting the funding proposal to the EU in November 2018. It helped a lot that we could say we now have a dedicated ministry of shipping as an indication of how important shipping for Cyprus, he said. Now that CMMI is open for business, he is recruiting staff, including scientists and other specialists.

But CMMI is already working with industry. On 9 January is signed an MOU with Columbia Shipmanagement for a project called Digital Waves, which includes research and innovation into topics such as gathering data on ships, coupled with trends in connectivity and artificial intelligence.

He also described an EU-funded three-year scheme that began in November to engage the younger generation in the blue economy. It is called Sea of Experience and CMMI is one of six organisations involved three from Cyprus and three from Greece. The older generation do not have the luxury of spending a lot of time on ships with the younger generation so we are trying to find how we can use new tools to achieve this kind of mentoring, he explained.

Along with other initiatives, such as career fairs and school visits to enthuse teenagers, he hopes to instil a renewed interest in maritime opportunities. Despite Cyprus long marine history we have turned our backs to the sea, he said. He hopes to change that perception by introducing young people to opportunities both in shipping and beyond shipping.

Another, longer-established, organisation also acknowledged the support available from the deputy ministry. Prevention at Sea was founded in Greece in 2014 and moved to Cyprus in 2015. It is a maritime technology and marine risk prevention specialist that develops tools and risk assessment techniques to prevent human-generated risks escalating.

Its latest product is the Fleet Information SHaring platform (FISH), which is an online ship data repository that has been designed to standardise and automate ship inspection data. Its founder, Petros Achtypis, took part in our interview and said the platform is due to go live in June.

Having been in business since before the deputy ministry was established, he has seen the transition at first hand. We are very happy, he said, because his systems which use blockchain technology are disruptive and the shipping industry can be conservative in adopting such technology, he said. But he praised Ms Pilides and said that having the deputy ministry on our side, we can make big steps forward and can introduce our concept to the industry.

During FISHs initial development, experts in the deputy ministry provided advice on how the system could be developed, in particular about the data and information that should be recorded. Now, as it nears completion, he is now benefiting from some very practical support: the deputy ministrys staff are piloting the platform, along with some local shipping companies, in particular to provide feedback in relation to its use interface.

As well as its responsibilities for the ship register and its support for the local shipping industry, the deputy ministry plays an important role at IMO and Ms Pilides emphasised its success in November when it was re-elected to IMOs Council as one of its 20 Category C members. It has been a member of the Council since 1987 and this time secured 140 votes from the 165 voting countries, putting it in fourth place in the ballot.

She sees Cyprus involvement there as important. Our positive relationship with both IMO and the EU is really important and necessary for the industry, she said. Hopefully, we can continue to have those good relations and contribute in a meaningful way.

And then she was off to visit that shipyard.

Continue reading here:

Reorganisation and recognition: Cyprus minister reflects on two years of progress - ShipInsight

(Photo: Trevor Booth/Sun Devil Source, 247Sports)

TEMPE Tracy Smith flipped his hand into the air and shook his head as if the answer to the question was obvious.

Why did you start Cooper Benson tonight, someone asked.

Hes good, Smith responded quickly. Next question.

Benson, a freshman left-handed pitcher who had one game of collegiate baseball experience under his belt prior to Friday nights start against Boston College, earned the start against the Eagles. The move came one week after Justin Fall successfully started last Friday against Villanova in the team's season opener.

ASUs sixth-year head coach had little to say when asked why Fall did not start on Friday night for a second week in a row.

Hes good, too, Smith said before a long pause. (Junior right-handed pitcher) Boyd (Vander Kooi) is good. (Sophomore right-handed pitcher Tyler) Thornton is good. (Sophomore left-handed pitcher Erik) Tolman is good. I said we have five guys that we can run out there.

Smith listed the names of his starting pitchers to prove a point. The way he sees it, he has enough good starting pitchers to be successful but just no clarity as yet on exactly how they will be deployed. That is what he's trying to figure out early in the season.

Youre just trying to set your rotation, Smith said. Just kind of want to get an idea of where guys are at.

Benson did not help his cause on Friday. Six days after posting a quality start against Michigan, Benson lasted just 2+ innings against Boston College, surrendering six hits, three earned runs, five walks and a hit by pitch.

The Sun Devils won anyway, their offense breaking out of its opening week slump to pull the team to an even 3-3 record with 11 hits in a 10-4 victory at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.

But as Smith has said since the preseason, offense is the Sun Devils calling card. Its the pitching staff promising but also somewhat unproven that is the bigger unknown.

On Friday night, Smith fielded plenty of questions about Bensons bumpy outing.

Benson lacked control against the Eagles. While Smith said it was uncharacteristic of the southpaw, he believes his lack of a concrete pitching rotation allowed ASU to still get the win becauseSmith had the luxury of summoning Vander Kooi from his bullpen. Despite pitching 7.2 innings and allowing just one run versus Villanova in his first start of the year, the 6-foot-5 was needed out of the pen for the Sun Devils second series of their new campaign.

Benson is a competitive kid and hes got three pitches, Smith said. We think hes going to be successful.

The formula played out a little bit. Say a guy struggles in a start, which happened tonight and its going to happen. If you could pull another guy thats of that quality (from the bullpen) we can succeed.

Vander Kooi threw seven innings against Boston College and allowed just one run to lower his season ERA to 1.23. Despite the successful outing, Vander Kooi acknowledged it was an adjustment to pitch in a relief role.

Going from a starter to the bullpen, I didnt as much time to warm up or anything, he said. You have to adapt to that. I felt like every inning I was warming up more and more and I was able to finish strong.

Im a big routine guy. But in baseball, you still have to adapt and, you know, example tonight. You got to do what you got to do. Just get the job done no matter what.

Smith said that the ability to mix up the starters as he and first-year pitching coach Jason Kelly see fit is a luxury.

To have the option we have, to have the five guys who I legitimately feel can be weekend starters and have the ability to mix and match with those guys and the important quality in that is that all of them buy in thats a pretty good thing to have.

Smith knows that improved pitching is essential to the team achieving its goals this year and is confident that ASU's hitting will gain consistency. Friday provided a glimpse of that potential at the plate.

Guys stayed on the ball and stayed within themselves," Smith said. "We know the offense is going to come and there are still some things clearly to work on but that was good to allow our pitchers to have a little bit of breathing room.

After scoring only 12 total runs in their first five games, the Sun Devils almost matched that mark against the Eagles, production Smith credited to a solid pregame hitting session.

Our best pregame [batting practice] was today, Smith said. I just felt like the guys did a really good job of carrying it into the game.

Junior shortstop Alika Williams, junior third baseman Gage Workman and junior left fielder Trevor Hauver all hit home runs against the Eagles. Hauvers big fly led the trio in exit velocity at a scorching 109 mph off the bat.

In addition to homering for the first time this year, Hauver walked three times on Friday night and drove in three runs. He said he just needed to calm down.

Tonight was awesome, Hauver said. Thank god. The first couple of games I was pressing a little bit. I would say I was trying to do too much. Today we worked on just trying to breathe and drive everything up the middle and I stayed with the approach and finally got it. I feel a lot more comfortable.

Workman joked that Hauvers success was due to his facial hair.

It was that mustache that did it, Workman said.

Added Hauver: Oh yeah, this mustache is key. Had to grow this back.

Despite an impressive showing at the plate, Friday night was not all good news for the ASU lineup. Smith said after the game that junior catcher Sam Ferri suffered a knee injury during ASUs opening weekend and is not expected back anytime in the near future.

Without Ferri, ASU has just two catchers left on its roster, senior Nick Cheema and freshman utility player Nate Baez. The team is still considering who it will use in an emergency catching role.

"Baez has been doing a good job and every inning he's out there will build experience," Smith said. "Cheema has done a fantastic job in the last two games that he's been in and they both have to be.

"I know we're going to be good given our circumstances right now because several guys have come forward and say, 'Hey, I'll get back there if you need me.'"

Weather permitting, the Sun Devils are set to play Boston College again on Saturday night at 6:30 p.m. Staying true to his new pitching format, Smith didnt say who would take the bump.

We look at matchups and what gives us the best chance to win every single game each weekend, Smith said. Were not really in the mode yet of, This is the Friday guy. This is the Saturday guy. This is the Sunday guy.

Read more from the original source:

ASU bats break out in win; pitching rotation a work in progress - 247Sports

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Friday marks one year since the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled its latest plan to address the crisis of the toxic fluorinated chemicals known as PFAS, which have likely contaminated a majority of drinking water supplies nationwide. But President Trumps so-called action plan has met few of the milestones parents expect from a one-year-old.

The 72-page plan would certainly help anyone sleep through the night. But Trumps plan has barely crawled, much less walked. After one year, the Trump administration has:

The EPA has approved a new method to detect PFAS in drinking water, but the Food and Drug Administration has taken steps to hide detections of PFAS in food. The administration has also proposed more reporting of industrial PFAS discharges into the air and water but did not identify which of the compounds would have to be reported.

No wonder those and other meager efforts earned Trumps EPA a grade of D minus from Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), the top-ranking Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee. But the agencys poor PFAS report cards date back more than two decades.

Heres a timelineof the agencys shameful record.

In 1998, EPA officials were firstnotifiedby 3M that PFAS chemicals were toxic. In 2001 the agencyreceivedinternal company studies documenting PFAS health risks, and two years laterreceivedmore animal studies. But underpressurefrom industry, in 2006, EPA said the agency was unaware of studies linking PFOA, used to make Teflon, to health harms even though the agency had just fined DuPont for failing to report its health effects, and EPAs own Science Advisory Boardfoundthat PFOA was a likely human carcinogen.

Not until 2009 did the EPAissueits first PFAS action plan andestablisha non-enforceable provisional health advisory for PFOA and PFOS, an ingredient in Scotchgard. The second PFAS action plan, issued a year ago, contains many of the same recommendations and includes no deadlines.

Without irony, EPA recentlyissueda statement touting the agencys aggressive efforts to address PFAS pollution just hours before the White House threatened to vetoHouse legislationthat would set deadlines for EPA action on PFAS.

So it should be no surprise that Congress recently passed H.R. 535, the bipartisan PFAS Action Act. The legislation would immediately designate PFOA and PFOS ashazardous substances, set a two-year deadline for EPA to establish a drinking water standard, and set deadlines for EPA to finallyrestrict PFAS releasesinto the air and water.

Clearly, at one year old, the EPAs PFAS action plan needs more adult supervision.

Continue reading here:

One Year Into Trump's PFAS Action Plan, Few Signs of Progress - Environmental Working Group

Only a few months after saying little progress had been made in repairing more than 700 water leaks around the city, Fort Smith Utilities Director Lance McAvoy told Fort Smith city directors that about 70% of the citys reported leaks have been fixed.

McAvoy reported at the boards study session Tuesday (Feb. 11) that as of Feb. 4, the city only had 212 reported leaks left to repair. There are 135 sites where the leak has been repaired, but there is still work to be done on site restoration.

At a Feb. 5 board meeting, directors approved hiring 10 additional employees for the water and sewer department who would join the 17 department employees to create nine three-person teams working to fix the 700 leaks in the citys water system as well as taking care of new leaks reported to the department. The goal was to be caught up on the leaks in 18 months, then utilities director Jerry Walters told the board.

Nine months later, McAvoy told the board the city still had around 700 leaks needing repair. At that time, the city had not received the $350,700 worth of additional equipment, essential to build the nine teams, the board approved through a resolution Aug. 20. The city also had not filled all 10 of the new positions.

Since November, some of the new equipment has arrived and more employees have been hired, McAvoy said. This, along with crews working seven days a week except during holidays, has helped the city begin to get a leg up on the leaks.

Those numbers indicate less new leaks reported than what we repaired. We actually caught up by 48 leaks in October, 22 in November, 41 in December and 43 in January, McAvoy said, regarding a handout he gave directors. This means we are gaining on the leak issue.

Total leak repairs completed those months were 73 in October, 42 in November, 65 in December and 69 in January. That does not add up to 500 the difference between the amount of leaks on the citys books in November as compared to the number outstanding now. That is because over the past few months utility department workers have gone out and put eyes on every leak on the list. In doing so, they found many leaks had actually been repaired, but the work orders had never been closed, McAvoy said.

About a year ago, we went through our work orders with an internal audit and found several that had never been closed out. Apparently, we didnt fix the problem because that problem still exists. We went from a whole bunch down to just over 200. We are actually looking much better that what we were in November, he said.

After completing the backlog of leaks, the teams will continue to repair new leaks as well as turn toward a proactive system of preventative maintenance on the water system, which will include valve replacements, meter replacement and unidirectional flushing of the 720 miles of water lines, McAvoy said.

We have worked reactionary for too long. For every dollar you spend being proactive, you save $4 spent reactionary, he said.

comments

Excerpt from:

Fort Smith utilities boss says the city is making progress on water leaks - talkbusiness.net

The 26th annual Virginia Festival of the Book will host a program on the importance of journalism in democracy on March 19.

The free program "Who Will Write the Story? The Critical Role of Local Journalism," is scheduled for 4 p.m. in City Council Chambers, 605 E. Main Street.

A panel of Katrice Hardy, executive editor of the Greenville News; Eric Lichtblau, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist; and Lewis Raven Wallace, an independent journalist and author, in a discussion with Marcia Bullard, a retired CEO of USA WEEKEND, will examine the critical role of local journalism as well as the threats facing it.

The program is sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Federation of State Humanities Councils, and is hosted by The Daily Progress, Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism, Virginia Library Association and the Virginia Press Association

This program is part of the Democracy and the Informed Citizen initiative, administered by the Federation of State Humanities Councils. The initiative seeks to deepen the publics knowledge and appreciation of the vital connections between democracy, the humanities, journalism and an informed citizenry.

Go here to read the rest:

The Daily Progress to sponsor Virginia Festival of the Book event - The Daily Progress

Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry is still rehabbing from surgery to repair a broken hand he suffered back in October.

On Wednesday, head coach Steve Kerr gave an update on Currys status, saying that he has been getting more conditioning as of late:

Hes jumped into a few of our non-contact, offensive 5-on-0 stuff, said Kerr, via Anthony Slater of The Athletic. But hes coming around. Well have another update I guess, a more thorough update, on March 1. But right now, everything is going smoothly and hes just trying to build his conditioning base and keep getting better.

Kerr added that there were no plans to get Curry into contract drills before March 1. The Warriors star has said hes aiming for a return in early March.

Curry struggled in the four games he played this season, averaging 20.3 points, 6.5 assists, 5.0 rebounds and 1.3 steals over 28.0 minutes per game while shooting 40.9 percent from the floor, 24.3 percent from 3-point range and 100 percent from the free-throw line.

Of course, that is an incredibly small sample size, and Currys numbers almost surely would have leveled out had he remained healthy.

The 31-year-old is in his 11th NBA season and will miss out on All-Star festivities for the first time since 2013.

Curry won back-to-back league MVP awards in 2015 and 2016, also capturing the NBA scoring title in the latter year after registering 30.1 points per game.

The sharpshooter is also not the only key member of the Warriors backcourt sidelined due to injury, as fellow guard Klay Thompson has been recovering from a torn ACL he suffered during last years NBA Finals.

Read more here:

Warriors news: Stephen Curry's rehab progress updated by Steve Kerr - ClutchPoints

Dennis Prager has been saying for as long as Ive been listening: Movements dont close shop when theyve achieved their original aims; they radicalize.

Its certainly true of feminism, which went from winning the vote for women, to burning bras in the streets, to bitter hatred of men, to the NFL Halftime Porn Show empowering women to . . . pole dance for a national audience including children? I think Ill pass on the new empowerment if it requires pornographic sexual objectification or defines womanhood as being more like men. Like coaching an NFL team? Seriously 49ers?Turn in your man-cards.

The same could be said about the civil rights movement, which started with the abolitionists, went through MLK, and ended up with Black Lives Matter. What the heck?

Or, how about the environmental movement? Conservation was a good thing as was the goal of cleaning up the polluted air and water in our cities (I grew up playing near the infamous burning Cuyahoga River and remember seeing detergent suds floating down the feeder creeks). It worked. We improved air and water quality, so now what? Groups like ELF (Earth Liberation Front) and Earth First grew up and started bombing science labs, and elected representatives proposed commie takeovers of the entire energy sector (energy = life) and theyre taken seriously!

Andrew Klavan has been making similar observations in his podcasts over the past weeks. Progressives take no account of the progression of time. The 1619 Project is all about teaching our kids that America is as racist and oppressive to blacks as it ever was. Trump hatred has people believing nonsense like were living in Germany in 1939, or were going down the path of Venezuela because of Trump(!) and not the socialists in the Democrat party, according to Anne Applebaum (post).

R.R. Reno has a nice synthesis of whats happened in the introduction to his new book, Return of the Strong Gods: Nationalism, Populism, and the Future of the West:

A young friend in Australia sent me an essay that read like a flaming indictment of the status quo. It ended with the arresting sentence, I am twenty-seven years old and hope to live to see the end of the twentieth century.

He explains that the driving forces of a given era dont neatly line up with aughts and were still living in a continuation of the 20th century:

The violence that traumatized the West between 1914 and 1945 evoked a powerful, American-led response that was anti-fascist, anti-totalitarian, anti-colonialist, anti-imperialist, and anti-racist. These anti imperatives define the postwar era. Their aim is to dissolve the strong beliefs and powerful loyalties thought to have fueled the conflicts that convulsed the twentieth century.

But, as my young correspondent recognizes, the fall of the Soviet Union did not bring the postwar era to a close, for it marked not the end of the anti imperatives but rather their intensification [emphasis mine].

He continues:

The death grip of the anti imperatives on the West is plain to see. After Donald Trumps election, a number of mainstream journalists collapsed in hysterics: He was an authoritarian of one sort or another. The same goes for European populism. A specter is haunting Europe, countless journalists and opinion writers warn the specter of fascism. Tract after tract has likened our times to Germany during the 1930s. Indeed, it is a sign of nuance when a member of our chattering class compares Trump to the Spanish strongman Francisco Franco rather than Hitler. Todays intelligentsia compulsively return to the trying decades of the early twentieth century. It is as if they desperately want to keep the last century going, insisting that the fight against fascism remains our fight.

This is absurd. It is not 1939. Our societies are not gathering themselves into masses marching in lockstep. Central planners do not clog our economies. There is no longer an overbearing bourgeois culture bent on exclusion. Bull Connor isnt commissioner of public safety in Birmingham. Instead, our societies are dissolving. Economic globalization shreds the social contract. Identity politics disintegrates civic bonds. A uniquely Western anti-Western multiculturalism deprives people of their cultural inheritance. Mass migration reshapes the social landscape. Courtship, marriage, and family no longer form our moral imaginations. Borders are porous, even the one that separates men from women. Tens of thousands die of heroin overdoses. Hundred of thousands are aborted. Of course my young friend wants the twentieth century to end. So do I.

By denying the progress thats been made, progressives have become what they claim to hate: fascistic, totalitarian, culture colonizing, credentialed authoritarians, and, yes, even racist. Look at how they treat blacks who are not in lockstep with their agenda.

I agree with Reno and his young friend. #Endthe20th already.

See original here:

Quote of the Day: Progressives Deny Progress - Ricochet.com

LONDON and CARLSBAD, Calif., Feb. 12, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GW Pharmaceuticals plc (Nasdaq: GWPH, GW or the Company), a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing novel therapeutics from its proprietary cannabinoid product platform, will announce on February 25th, 2020 its financial results for the fourth quarter and year ending December 31st, 2019. GW will also host a conference call the same day at 4:30 p.m. ET. Conference call information will be provided in the financial results press release. A replay of the call will also be available through the Company's website (www.gwpharm.com) shortly after the call.

About GW Pharmaceuticals plc and Greenwich Biosciences, Inc.Founded in 1998, GW is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing novel therapeutics from its proprietary cannabinoid product platform in a broad range of disease areas. The Companys lead product, EPIDIOLEX (cannabidiol) oral solution, CV, is commercialized in the U.S. by its U.S. subsidiary Greenwich Biosciences for the treatment of seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS) or Dravet syndrome in patients two years of age or older. This product has received approval in the European Union under the tradename EPIDYOLEX. The Company has submitted a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to expand the indication for Epidiolex to include seizures associated with Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC), for which it has reported positive Phase 3 data, and is carrying out a Phase 3 trial in Rett syndrome. The Company has a deep pipeline of additional cannabinoid product candidates, in particular nabiximols, for which the Company is advancing multiple late-stage clinical programs in order to seek FDA approval in the treatment of spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injury, as well as for the treatment of PTSD. The Company has additional cannabinoid product candidates in Phase 2 trials for autism and schizophrenia. For further information, please visit http://www.gwpharm.com.

Read more from the original source:

GW Pharmaceuticals plc to Report Financial Results and Operational Progress for the Fourth Quarter and Year Ending December 31, 2019 and Host...

Actress and historical interpreter encourages audience at film screening to look at their reflection, see their inner hero

PETERSBURG Against the backdrop of a film depicting the life of Harriet Tubman, an actress from that movie challenged her Petersburg Public Library audience to look no farther than their own reflection when searching for a hero.

Often times we want to look for whos the next hero, but in reality we can look in the mirror and say, Find the hero in you. Find that Harriet Tubman in you, Morgan Avery McCoy said. If we do that, not only will we be better people, our world would be a better place.

McCoy, an actress and historical interpreter, had a role in the film Harriet, portions of which were shot in Petersburg. She played a freed domestic worker named Jesse who shared some on-screen time with Cynthia Erivo, who played the title role. The movie explains Tubmans involvement with the abolitionist Underground Railroad, a network that allowed Africans to escape northward into areas where slavery was illegal.

The Petersburg Public Library hosted a free screening of the 2019 film, followed by a workshop from McCoy based on her one-woman show, Evolution of the Black Girl from the Slave House to the White House. One of the 12 characters McCoy portrays in the show is a school teacher leading a lesson on Tubman.

Its been such a gift to be able to be in a film about a woman that I talk about all the time, said McCoy, who was born in Newport News and now lives in Chesterfield County. She said she was especially excited to work in the movie because she got a chance to work in my own back yard.

In the film, portions of Old Towne Petersburg served as mid-1800s Philadelphia.

It was so important to tell this story of an American hero, and thats who Harriet Tubman was and thats what she exemplifies, McCoy said.

There were no empty seats at the screening, and all who attended came away from it inspired, as well as entertained.

I thought it was a great movie, said Kary Haskins of Petersburg. There was a lot in the movie that I didnt know originally how she travelled back and forth alone to get people and save people.

Haskins and a group from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Petersburg brought some youth from the church to see the movie.

I thought the movie was a great depiction to show a woman in a lead role, said AneSia Newton of Petersburg, a teacher at Petersburg High School. To really be strong and confident...not necessarily to show that she had to succumb to all the challenges. She could really fight the system to help her people become free which led to the changes we have today. She paved the way for the Michelle Obamas we have today.

I like how Harriet was brave and freed the slaves, stated seven-year-old Thomasina Gosier of Hopewell.

McCoy said she bases her workshop on 10 principles that Harriet Tubman exemplified that we can apply to our own life in order to be great servant leaders and create a better society, During the workshop, she advises the audience to look in their mirror and say to their reflection, I can be the next hero.

McCoy said she saw her appearance in Petersburg as an extension of her work across the country helping people embrace their inner heroism.

The film was an amazing portrayal of the great work that Harriet achieved, stated McCoy. Im really excited Petersburg brought me here to share this information with a variety of the community.

Kristi K. Higgins can be reached at 804-722-5162 or khiggins@progress-index.com. On Twitter: @KristiHigginsPI

See original here:

Find that Harriet Tubman in you - Progress Index

US-based biomedical research organisation CHDI Foundation and IBM Research have released a joint research paper revealing the development of a new artificial intelligence-based predictive model that helps determine when patients will begin to experience symptoms of Huntington's disease (HD), and how quickly these symptoms will progress.

HD is a neurodegenerative disease that causes the progressive breakdown of brain nerve cells. But unlike other neurodegenerative diseases, HD is caused by a single gene mutation "with a striking correlation to age of motor symptom onset", according to CHDI Foundation chief clinical officer Cristina Sampaio.

"People with HD may be identified and tracked from an early age long before the onset of manifest symptoms. As a result, HD may also be a good entry point for gaining insight into the mechanisms of and the development of treatments for other neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis," she told ZDNet.

The published paper, titledResting-state connectivity stratifies premanifest Huntington's disease by longitudinal cognitive decline rate, was released after three years of joint work between the two organisations and is the second paper to be published by the pair.

IBM Watson researcher Guillermo Cecchi said the paper focused on identifying how existing functional MRI (fMRI) data can be used to train artificial intelligence (AI) models to assess whether there is a change in a patient's motor and cognitive performance.

"Part of what we're trying to do is pinpoint with more accuracy what determines a particular patient with certain genetics will experience symptoms early in life or later in life," he said.

See also:IBM unveils new AI model to predict potentially harmful drug-to-drug interactions(TechRepublic)

He continued to explain how there was also the goal of uncovering people that were at higher risk of developing symptoms earlier, so they could eventually be a target for early intervention and monitoring in order to better understand the effects and outcomes of any new drug.

"Having that in mind, what we did was show that we can take a single brain scan and have accuracy about whether that particular patient belongs in the rapidly declining population or it belongs in the slowly declining population," Cecchi said.

"The way you know whether someone is slowly or rapidly declining is by looking at them over several years, so three, four, five years, and then you measure their motor symptoms and you can see over the course of five years whether the motor symptoms were changing slowly or changing very rapidly.

"But then you would need those five years to determine whether someone is deteriorating fast or slow, so what we're showing here is all you need is a single scan -- a functional MRI -- to have very good accuracy to determine whether that particular patient belongs to the fast declining or slow declining group."

Sampaio agreed that functional MRI can provide a "rich source of information", but noted its "technical complexity, until recently, has limited its broad application".

"In our study, we show that a single cross-sectional fMRI data point can predict future progression of cognitive and motor signs and symptoms of HD. Prognostic biomarkers that predict future events, like the fMRI in our study, are used to enrich for clinical-trial participants with certain pathological features to maximise the likelihood of success," she said.

"Our study results are a first step for HD clinical trials. We now need to further validate to develop fMRI as a robust prognostic biomarker in premanifest HD."

Read:Intel and GE Healthcare's X-ray machine uses embedded AI to prioritize scans (TechRepublic)

For the research, Cecchi said based on a "couple of hundred" scans, the AI model produced around an 80% accuracy output rate.

Moving forward, IBM Research and CHDI plan to replicate the study in other hospitals.

"We show that we can take data from one hospital, learn about it, and apply it to data acquired in another hospital, and still be robust and obtain the same results," Cecchi said.

Cecchi said the goal would be to eventually have the model approved by medical bodies globally and for it to be used as a standard in the field when it comes to not only HD, but other neurodegenerative diseases as well.

Similarly, a joint study by the Epilepsy Centre at Kuopio University Hospital, the University of Eastern Finland, and Neuro Event Labs resulted in the group successfully developing an AI algorithm to help quickly and automatically assess the severity of myoclonus jerks from video footage.

The model can be used to identify and track key points in the human body of myoclonus -- brief, involuntary muscle twitching -- which is the most progressive drug-resistant symptom in patients with myoclonus epilepsy type 1.

As part of the study, 10 clinical video-recorded test panels were used and it showed that the automatic method using the model correlated with the clinical evaluation. It was also able to quantify the smoothness of movement and detect small-amplitude and high-frequency myoclonic jerks by detecting and tracking predefined key points in the human body during movement.

Updated 13 February 2020, 9:37AM (AEDT): Correction it is CHDI Foundation.

Read the original post:

CDHI Foundation and IBM tracking the progress of Huntington's disease using AI - ZDNet

Seagate Technology (STX) released its Q2 FY2020 quarterly report on February 4. The results were mixed, although the outlook was better than expected. However, there were also other issues that will have to be addressed at some point as time goes by. What these issues are will be covered next.

Seagate managed to beat earnings estimates, but fell short on revenue. Net income increased by double digits QoQ, but decreased YoY. Revenue displayed a similar pattern, although the swings were less pronounced. Gross margin also recovered in Q2 from the sizable drop in Q1. However, Q2 gross margin remained lower compared to a year ago. Non-GAAP gross margin of 28.7% was slightly above estimates.

(GAAP)

Q2 FY2019

Q1 FY2020

Q2 FY2020

QoQ

YoY

Revenue

$2,715M

$2,578M

$2,696M

4.57%

(0.7%)

Net income

$384M

$200M

$318M

59.0%

(17.2%)

EPS

$1.34

$0.74

$1.20

-

-

Gross margin

29.3%

26.0%

28.1%

-

-

(non-GAAP)

Revenue

$2,715M

$2,578M

$2,696M

4.57%

(0.7%)

Net income

$432M

$278M

$359M

29.1%

(16.9%)

EPS

$1.51

$1.03

$1.35

-

-

Gross margin

29.9%

26.7%

28.7%

-

-

Source: Seagate Form 8-K

Seagate's forecast was slightly better than expected. The outlook for Q3 calls for non-GAAP EPS of $1.35, plus or minus 7%, and revenue of $2.7B, plus or minus 7%.

One of the things that stood out in the Q1 quarterly report was the sizable drop in margins. However, Seagate managed to turn this around in Q2. Gross margin improved by as much as 200 basis points. The credit goes to a shift in product mix towards mass capacity drives. From the Q2 earnings call:

"Non-GAAP gross margin was 28.7%, up 200 basis points sequentially, reflecting a more favorable product mix with a higher contribution from mass capacity drives."

A transcript of the Q2 FY2020 earnings call can be found here.

Gross margin in Q2 also benefited from higher volumes and cost reduction. Q3 may once again get a lift from some or all of these three factors.

"I'd say in fiscal Q2, the improvement in gross margin is coming partially from the 16-terabyte, but as we said, actually tripled the volume during the quarter but also from an overall cost reduction on several other drives. So, looking at Q3, we will have for sure an higher volume in 16-terabytes that will help our gross margin, but of course depends on the overall mix of the entire volume that we move into the quarter."

Apparently, Seagate shipped one million 16-terabytes HDDs, which is currently the highest-capacity drive in mass production.

"In nearline, we are leading the industry's transition to 16-terabytes, which is the largest capacity drive available in mass volume today, offering the best total cost of ownership opportunity for our customers. In the December quarter, these products represented the highest revenue and highest exabyte shipments of any of our drives."

HDDs with even higher capacities are coming. The first HAMR drive is expected to become available in late 2020.

"We are on track to release the industry's first commercially available HAMR drive in late calendar 2020 at the 20-terabyte capacity point."

Higher volumes of high-capacity drives allowed Seagate to set a new record in the amount of exabytes shipped. Seagate sees room for further growth in exabytes shipped.

"I didn't say that we were in a digestion phase then, but I think we've seen that cyclicality before. It's dangerous to say that will happen exactly again, because there has been a different reason for the cyclicality every time it hits. That said, I do think that the demand is growing. I think that the customers are broadening. And I also think that their ability to use higher and higher capacity points is actually getting bigger. So once upon a time, people couldn't use more than 4-terabytes and while most of the market was on 8s and you're starting to see people get shifting over to bigger capacity points as well. So I do think exabyte growth is still going to continue. I don't think I'm calling the top of the peak at 10% yet."

Demand for more storage is on the rise.

"In general, we're seeing a change in typical seasonality as HDD demand shift away from consumer-oriented legacy markets and towards mass capacity storage driven by data growth in the cloud and at the edge. The demand environment has continued to steadily improve particularly for high capacity nearline drives. With the positive customer momentum we have established for our 16-terabyte byproducts we continue to expect both revenue and profitability to grow in fiscal 2020 with the second half revenue slightly higher than the first half for this fiscal year."

However, while demand for storage may not be a problem, other areas may become one if they continue on the same path.

Seagate is seeing changes in its product mix. In just one year, mass capacity and legacy traded places as can be seen in the table below. Mass capacity increased to 49% of revenue from 39% a year ago. In contrast, legacy declined from 53% to 43%. Note that Q2 revenue decreased by 0.7% compared to a year ago. Revenue growth in mass capacity was barely enough to compensate for the shrinking of the legacy business. Nearline accounted for the bulk of mass capacity with 49 out of 71.3 exabytes.

Q2 FY2019

Q1 FY2020

Q2 FY2020

Revenues by market

Mass capacity

39%

47%

49%

Legacy

53%

46%

43%

Other

8%

7%

8%

HDD exabytes shipped

Mass capacity

47.2

63.9

71.3

Legacy

40.2

34.5

35.6

Total

Read the original:

Seagate: Progress And Regress - Seeking Alpha

.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. As Police Department officials, lawyers and community advocates spent a full day discussing the progress of the police reform effort before a federal judge in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, Paul Killebrew, the special counsel for the Department of Justice, said it might be next fall before they know how the city has fared in implementing the next crucial steps of the Court Approved Settlement Agreement.

What we expect in November is a number of paragraphs (in the settlement agreement) will have come into compliance, Killebrew said. If they come to you and havent brought that into compliance, thats a concerning sign. If they dont live up to that expectation, were going to have to have a serious conversation.

Thats because the Albuquerque Police Department launched its new use-of-force policy suite just last month and it is still in the midst of asking the Department of Justice to suspend outside monitoring of about one-fourth of the requirements laid out in the settlement agreement.

The new use-of-force policies include tasking a dedicated team of internal affairs detectives with investigating most use-of-force cases rather than field supervisors. APD has said the move is a better division of resources because the detectives will have more practice and time to devote specifically to use-of-force investigations and wont have the same reluctance to investigate field officers that area command supervisors have. APD has also said the investigations will become more consistent across the department.

US District Judge James Browning

Tuesdays hearing before Judge James Browning was initially expected to cover the citys motion asking to suspend the independent monitors role in overseeing about a quarter of the settlement agreement, but the city did not file a self-assessment plan laying out how they would do so in time. A hearing has been scheduled to hear that motion later in the month.

................................................................

In response to Judge Brownings questions, DOJ attorneys expressed frustration that they had not received a final plan along with the court filing.

We would have preferred to see it all together, Killebrew said. The fact that it came in piecemeal makes it more difficult.

The first half of the hearing included APD Chief Michael Geier and high-ranking commanders, lieutenants and deputy chiefs giving presentations on the progress they have made in investigating and tracking use-of-force cases, as well as responding to people in the throes of a mental health crises.

Albuquerque Police Chief Mike Geier

However, everyone present stressed that the Police Department still has a long road ahead of it. Independent monitor James Ginger has continued to point to what he calls a counter-CASA (Court Approved Settlement Agreement) effect supervisors, both in the field and in the command staff, who are unwilling to commit to the reforms and hold officers accountable.

Shaun Willoughby, president of the Albuquerque Police Officers Association, who has maintained that officers dislike and are frustrated by the reforms, agreed that it was time to embrace the changes, even if he didnt think reform was necessary in the first place.

We have to complete this mission to see the light at the end of the tunnel, Willoughby said. Its a means to an end to get our Police Department back.

Toward the end of the day, Stephen Torres spoke on behalf of APD Forward, a coalition of advocacy organizations and individuals. Torres, whose son, Christopher Torres, was shot by APD in 2010, pointed to two fatal police shootings in the first six weeks of the year.

We all need to continue to keep a close eye on APD, Torres said.

View original post here:

Hearing stresses that APD reform is making progress, still has a long way to go - Albuquerque Journal

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. The West Virginia Senate voted 21-12 on Tuesday to pass a bill that would allow the state to help facilitate the completion of the longstanding Hill Top House Hotel project proposed in Harpers Ferry.

A committee substitute for Senate Bill 657 to allow for the designation of tourism-development districts was ordered to the House of Delegates for further consideration.

Voting for the measure were the bill's lead sponsor, state Sen. Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson/Berkeley, and fellow Republican Eastern Panhandle Sens. Craig Blair and Charles Trump, who also signed on as bill sponsors.

State Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley/Jefferson, who voted against the legislation, said he supports the hotel project, but voiced concerns in floor debate about the loss of local control and transfer of power to the state.

He also wondered what might happen to four other communities.

"What are we starting right now with this piece of legislation, with these other municipalities, and what's going to happen to them?" Unger asked.

The Senate vote came hours after the Harpers Ferry Town Council on Monday night voted 4-3 to adopt a resolution opposing the bill as originally introduced and a similar House bill, citing local control issues.

Voting for the resolution were Mayor Wayne Bishop and council members Barbara Humes, Hardy Johnson and Charlotte Thompson. Voting against the measure were council members Christian Pechuekonis and Jay Premack, and Town Recorder Kevin Carden.

In response to Unger and other Democratic senators who voiced opposition to the bill, Rucker noted that the bill merely creates a tool for the West Virginia Department of Commerce and the state's smallest communities to use, if needed, and only if certain criteria are met.

The bill, as passed out of the Senate on Tuesday, allows for a total of five tourism-development districts across the state in towns of 2,000 residents or fewer.

Only tourism-development-expansion projects of $25 million or more would be considered, according to the bill.

Leesburg, Va.-based SWaN Hill Top LLC has proposed the creation of a 129-room hotel overlooking the Potomac River at the site of the historic Hill Top House property and the restoration of neighboring armory houses as part of a more than $138 million investment.

"I am a supporter of local control, and I have fought for local control it absolutely caused me to pause and to think very deeply when considering this legislation," Rucker said in response to Unger's remarks.

Rucker also asserted that local control includes individuals' self-control.

She also cited an email she received from a former president of the town's Board of Zoning Appeals who "reluctantly" asked her to support the legislation.

"I no longer believe that the current mayor and town council can effectively represent the town of Harpers Ferry in negotiations with the developer of the Hill Top hotel," said Rucker, who didn't name the individual.

On the House floor Monday, Del. Jason Barrett, D-Berkeley, said that a special meeting of the Harpers Ferry Town Council on Saturday provided "clear evidence that the current mayor and town council are not equipped to handle a project of this magnitude."

"With no structure, no order, it turned into an embarrassing free-for-all and a shouting match, full of false claims," Barrett said in recounting his observation of the meeting.

Barrett specifically noted that a claim that the SWaN project could turn into a casino is "absolutely false" because state and federal laws prevent such a scenario from unfolding in Harpers Ferry.

"If we do not pass Senate Bill 657, the Hill Top House and a piece of West Virginia history will be left to rot," he said.

Built in the 1880s, the now-blighted hotel property's guests included Mark Twain, Alexander Graham Bell and U.S. presidents, Barrett said in his floor speech.

Go here to read the rest:

W.Va. Senate passes bill aimed at spurring progress of Harpers Ferry hotel project - Herald-Mail Media

Former Beck High School students talk about how integration of Greenville County Schools affected them. The Greenville News

This is part of a series on the people who made history and the progress of public education 50 years after the desegregation of Greenville County's schools. Read more through Feb. 17.

He was just a boythen, but he could see something the grown couldn't.

Maybe because when boys are boys, and girls are girls, the eyes are wide enough to see the whole sky. Or they are close enough to the ground to spot the beginnings, the tiny roots of things. Maybe because youth is not an agebut a lens.

The first graduating class of Beck High School is pictured in this photograph displayed in a Beck yearbook. (Photo: JOSH MORGAN/Staff)

When Ernest Hamilton watched the trees topple in the forest, he watched the trees topple for him. When the earth behind his Nicholtown house moved, the earth moved for him. When he watched cement and metal and glass rise from the clearing, the building was built for him.

Greenville desegregation: Academic achievement gap slowly closing, but inequities persist

When the doors opened and the walls became 40 classrooms, a 600-seat auditorium, a gym for 1,500, the school still appeared to be for him and him alone.

Joseph E. Beck High School belonged to Ernest, and Ernestbelonged to Beck. They shared a foundation.

Just as he watched the school's making from his backyard on Glenn Road, the school watched him being made. A boy built up, brick by brick, into a leader in the classroom and on the football field.

When Ernest graduated in 1969, he didn't leave Beck. He scratched his initials in hallway corners. He scrawled his full name on the wall outside the basketball courts.

He was to be there, always.

But Beck's time lasted only a few months more.

Ernest Hamilton wears his Beck High School letterman jacket in his home. Hamilton graduated from Beck in 1969, the last graduating class and part of the first group of students that attended Beck from freshman year to senior year. (Photo: JOSH MORGAN/Staff)

On Feb. 17, 1970, Beckbecame a middle school. It was open as a high school for just five years.

The demotion was part of a court-mandated integration plan finalized and executed in a matter of weeks. Tens of thousands of books and furniture and suppliesshifted over one long weekend in February the middle of the school year.

A judges order meant that Greenville, a city in the state that was the second-to-last in the U.S. to desegregate, could operate only integrated schools. Greenvillewas the last major district in South Carolina to do so, and with 58,000 students, it was one of the largest in the nation.

The district built Beck a decade after U.S. Supreme Court justices ruled unanimously that segregated systems were unconstitutional. It opened eight years after federal troops escorted nine black students into a school in Little Rock, Arkansas, and two years after a judge had approved black student transfers to all-white schools in Charleston, South Carolina.

When the countyfinally moved, it was black Greenville that did the majority of the moving.

It was the black community that performed the heavy lifting of public-school integrationafter decades of bearing the burden of legally enforced segregation.

Thousandswere just boys and girls who couldn't see, not yet, that they also carried future generations across the thresholds of their new schools.

Some 12,000 students received transfer-assignment letters just days before the change. The district moved students and faculty to achieve a 80% white, 20% black makeup, a formula calculated to reflect Greenville's population at the time.

Ernest Hamilton holds his Beck High School varsity letter. Hamilton was part of the last graduating class at Beck before Greenville County Schools integrated in 1970.(Photo: JOSH MORGAN/Staff)

Some 60%of the black student population were reassigned. Only 10% of the white students were.

Black principals became assistant principals. Black coaches became assistant coaches. Black high schools became middle or junior high schools.

Some institutions were suddenly shuttered. The list included the Allen School, founded almost 100 years before by a black teacher in a deserted Main Street hotel room.

That meant black seniors ordered rings for graduating classes that never walked across the stage. Majorettes no longer had a band to lead. It meant championship basketball teams disbanded mid-season.

Integration cut homes and neighborhood streets in half. A son would go to one school, a daughter to another. Students on the left of the street would have to board a bus to a school on one side of town; students on the right side would board a bus that took them the other direction.

Those were the homes and streets Ernest, then a Michigan State freshman football recruit, returned to in 1970.

He found his name was still on the walls at Beck, but the walls were not the same.

On Feb. 17, 1970, the white students sat in the first rows of the English literature classroom. Barbara Franklin, their new classmate reassigned from Beck, slid into a seat directly behind them.

Barbara was just months away from her graduation, and she always sat in the front of the class. She worked as a phone operator on weeknights and weekends to pay her senior fees. Barbara had a cap and gown she would never wear. She had a Beck diploma cover she wouldnever use.

Barbara was among the first students to walk Beck's halls in 1965, and she held her head high. She wanted to do her best because she believed she had the best.

Barbara Franklin poses for a portrait in front of Sterling School, which was built where Beck High School used to stand. Franklin was in her senior year at Beck in 1970 and transferred to J.L. Mann when Greenville County Schools integrated. (Photo: JOSH MORGAN/Staff)

South Carolina built at least 700 schools for black studentsin the 1950s and 1960s, a $214-million investment in the newlyunconstitutional separate-but-equal system. These facilities may have been new, but the facilities were never supported equally by district leadership. Beck was one of them.

Eight days before Beck became an integrated middle school, district workers upgraded the schoolentrance, anunsightly gateway of concrete and rubber. They covered it with a green carpet.

Barbaralived so close to Beck she could watch the Beck Panthers football team from her backyard. Still, Barbara never cut through the grass to get to class in the morning or home in the afternoon. Some of her classmates teased.

She always took the long way around. She took the right route. The respectful one, she thought.

In those early Beck days, Barbara hauled her math book homeeven if she didn't have homework. She was not the best math student, but she had the best teacher. He bounced around his room. His energy electrified.

She wanted to be just like him, and she wasn't going to wait.

After school, Barbara cut brown bags into pieces and taped them on awall in her house. She gathered her younger siblings for a class they didn't enroll in.

Shed open the crisp binding of her math book. She wrote the problems on her board made of paper. Her chalk was Argo starch.

Barbara Franklin looks through a copy Beck High School of the class of 1970 yearbook. An abbreviated version of the yearbook was printed in limited quantities for the senior class at Beck, who moved to different schools during the school year. (Photo: JOSH MORGAN/Staff)

During the first period of the first day at integrated J.L. Mann High School, a woman Barbara didnt know read the roll call for the new class.

The English teacher then turned to the Beck transfers.

"Who is supposed to bethe cream of the crop?" the teacher said.

One of Barbara's Beck classmates spoke.

"We all are," he said.

"We'll see," the teacher said.

She passed out a test only to the Beck transfers.Despite years of hard work at Beck, despite years of doing things the right way, Barbara had to prove her worth to a stranger.

She took the test.The teacher never returned the graded papers.

Donna Byers didn't recognize anyone.Her eyes kept scanning the dozens of faces on each row of the gymnasium bleachers.

She didn't know anyone because she didn't belong there, she thought. Donna was a high school student, and she was now a new student at amiddle school that February morning. Thatis where the districts integration plan sent her.

Donna Byers poses for a portrait at the Nicholtown Community Center. Byers was a majorette in the Beck High School marching band. She was in ninth grade at Beck and was transferred in 1970 to Northwood Middle School. The next school year, she transferred to Wade Hampton and then J.L. Mann.(Photo: JOSH MORGAN/Staff)

Just the last week, Donna knew everyone. Or, at least, it seemed like everyone at her previous school, Beck, knew her.

It was like a parade everywhere she went. Her Nicholtown neighbors sat on their front porches to watch Donna and her fellow Beck high-steppersstrut their way to daily practice or the games.

They strolleddown streets cutting through landthat just a century earlierhad been a plantation.

The younger students chased Donna. "Can I hold your baton," they said. "Can I touch the tassels on your majorette boots?"

Donna was a superstar. She was Tina Turner. She was Diana Ross. She was taller than Paris Mountain.

She was also the hardest to spot when that 120-person band marched onto the football field Friday nights. She was the smallest. The youngest, too. She made the cut in eighth grade. But could she twirl, really twirl.

And when Donna did her thing, she was all the crowd could see.

It was Feb. 17, 1970, and Donna sat still, silent and small. Northwood Middle School's welcome assembly for their new students was about to start.

At the same time, another girl who had been scanning the rows of bleachers from the other side of the gymnasium spotted Donna. She marched in the Beck band behind the majorettes, where Donna twirled.

"It's going to be me and you," she said as she sat down next to Donna.

Their new school didn't have a marching band.

The five boys walked across the gym in a school named for a Confederate soldier. The transfers jersey colors were now gray and red. Their team now answered to the Mighty Generals.

The rest of the basketball players already sat on the bleachers. This was the first time the Wade Hampton High School team, assembled midway through the season, shared a court for practice.

Two of the new students, including Clyde Mayes, played their final game for Beck the week before. The other three came from Washington High School, a black school that no longer existed.

At Becks final bout, winning was not the only goal. Led by Clyde, the team made a promise to that gymnasium, to the 1,500 students, parents, teachers, neighbors cheering on their feet that Friday night.

Clyde Mayes in the Wade Hampton High School gym. Mayes played basketball for Beck High School and then for Wade Hampton after Greenville County Schools integrated in 1970.(Photo: JOSH MORGAN/Staff)

They pledged to all of Nicholtown to score 100 points, about 20 points more than they averaged. This was the last game these boys, defending state champions boasting an 18-1 record, would ever play together.

The teammates received transfer letters to three different Greenville schools that week.

Clyde, the 6-foot-7-inch star junior who averaged 22 points and 26rebounds, was assigned to Wade Hampton. His older sister's letter said J.L. Mann. His mother went before a judge to argue, without success, that her children should go to the same integrated high school.

With minutes to go in the final Beck game, the teams tally stalled at 94.

Mayes could help score six more points. He was sure of it.

He'd scored a thousand on the dirt court in his Glenn Road neighbor's yard. He'd scored a thousand more at the pick-up games he played at Beck before he was even in high school.

And he would score again here, one last time.

When the clock read zero, the scoreboard said 102. But then, the cheers hushed. The crowd fell silent.

The game was done. Tears fell because it was all over.

The Wade Hampton gym was quiet, too, that February day, when Clyde walked onto his new home court. He couldnt hear anything but the sound of shoes meeting a wooden floor.

Clyde made his way to the stands to joinhis team and his coach.

He sat down between two of the white players and waited to begin again.

Beck High School as seen in the class of 1968-69 yearbook is pictured on the left compared to modern-day Sterling School on the right. Sterling School was built where Beck used to stand.(Photo: JOSH MORGAN/Staff)

The Beck High School building no longer exists. Sterling School now stands on the former Beck property near McAlister Road.

Ernest Hamilton graduated from Michigan State University before attending University of South Carolina law school. He is a lawyer in Greenville. Like when they were boys, Ernest and Clyde Mayes are still neighbors and friends.

Barbara Franklin finished high school from home. Franklin now works as a caregiver in Greenville.She is helping plan a 50th anniversary for the 1970 Beck High School seniors.

Donna Byers transferred again after 1970, first to Wade Hampton and then J.L. Mann. She attended Greenville TechnicalCollege. She works as an accountant in Greenville. She is still best friends with the girl she saw in the Northwood gym on Feb. 17, 1970.

Clyde Mayes and the Wade Hampton Mighty Generals basketball team won back-to-back state championships. Mayes played for Furman University and inthe NBA, and he played on professional teams in Italy, Spain and France.

Sources: The story is based on 2020 interviews with Barbara Franklin, Donna Byers, Clyde Mayes, Ernest Hamilton and Jon Hale, a University of South Carolina associate professor. Additional information came from The Greenville News archives, the work of Stephen O'Neill at Furman University, Greenville County Historical Society, University of Kentucky research and "The Mighty Generals" by Mike Chibbaro.

When integration finally arrived in Greenville, SC, it brought progress at a cost. Read the full story here

Academic achievement gap is slowly closing, but inequities persist.Read the full story here

Black teacher recalls trials, triumphs at mostly white school during integration. Read the full story here

1963 lawsuit set stage for school integration in Greenville, SC. Read the full story here

Coming Wednesday: On the night Sterling High School burned to the ground, not everything was destroyed

Coming Thursday: Greenville 'not a town in black and white' after price was paid, civil rights leader says

Coming next Monday: It's not policy anymore, but schools in South Carolina and elsewhere remain segregated

Read or Share this story: https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/2020/02/10/south-carolina-school-integration-greenville-desegregation/4421658002/

More:

When integration finally arrived in Greenville, it brought progress at a cost - Greenville News

Elise Amendola/Associated Press

Though the potential trade to send right fielder Mookie Betts from the Boston Red Sox to the Los Angeles Dodgers hasn't gone through yet, there has been "progress," according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network.

Heyman added the "sides seem hopeful."

The deal was initially expected to include the Minnesota Twins, who were giving up pitcherBrusdar Graterol, but concerns over his medical history stalled talks. Chad Jennings of The Athletic reported Saturday the Twins "are out of the Betts/[David] Price trade talks."

However, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the three teams remain active in discussion, but it's possible there are two separate deals: one between the Twins and Dodgers and another between the Dodgers and Red Sox.

Alex Speier of theBoston Globe reported that the Red Sox are "considered unlikely to end up with Graterol."

Los Angeles was initially expected to receive Betts and pitcher David Price while sending outfielder Alex Verdugo to Boston and pitcher Kenta Maeda to the Twins, but the Graterol reports "spooked" the Red Sox, perJeff Passanof ESPN.

From Passan: "The Red Sox, sources said, were spooked by a medical review of Graterol, the hard-throwing 21-year-old right-hander who has undergone Tommy John surgery and missed time in 2019 because of a shoulder injury."

Heyman reported Sunday that Graterol could now end up with Los Angeles as part of a separate deal for Maeda, noting that other team doctors have "no big issue" with the pitcher's medical reports.

PerCaesars Palace, the Dodgers' World Series odds rose from 7-1 to 4-1 after reportedly acquiring Bettsa four-time All-Star, four-time Gold Glove winner and 2018 AL MVPand Price.

Los Angeles has won104,92 and106 games the past three seasons and reached twoWorld Series but it still looking to win its first title since1988.

Read the rest here:

MLB Rumors: 'Progress' in Mookie Betts Trade; Red Sox and Dodgers 'Hopeful' - Bleacher Report

The governments of Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States are urging South Sudanese leaders to move quickly to conclude their power-sharing peace agreement, ahead of a February 22 deadline.

The troika nations said they stood in solidarity with the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) that mediates the negotiations with South Sudan, and shared the IGAD frustration with a lack of progress.

With few days remaining until a power-sharing government is due to form, time has almost run out, the troika governments said in a joint statement. Specifically, we encourage all sides, including the government, to reach consensus on a way forward on the number of states. Refusing to compromise and move forward undermines the agreement, risks the ceasefire, and erodes the trust of the public and the confidence of partners.

Extensions on a deadline for implementing the first phase of a hard-won deal between President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar have already been granted twice, but negotiations remain stalled over the states and how their boundaries will be drawn.

Further extension is neither desirable nor feasible at this stage of the peace process, warned IGAD on Sunday, when the organization issued a statement on its negotiations in Addis Ababa. The IGAD meeting included Kiir and other Horn of Africa heads of state, as well as lead IGAD negotiator Ismail Wais, but Machar remains committed to fewer states than the nation currently has.

A national referendum on the states issue may be a solution, but also has the potential to further delay progress. In some areas the fighting continues, while the years of war since 2013 had claimed nearly 400,000 lives, according to2018 researchfrom the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Image: IGAD

Related

View post:

Norway, US and UK press for progress on South Sudan deal - Africa Times

Phase 2 CMV vaccine dose-confirmation study more than sixty percent enrolled

mRNA-1189 to prevent infectious mononucleosis and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection

mRNA-1345 to prevent respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) disease in young children, with the intent to combine with mRNA-1653 to create a pediatric respiratory vaccine against RSV, hMPV and PIV3

mRNA-1273 to prevent novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) disease, in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health; physical manufacturing of first batch complete, awaiting analytical testing

Moderna, Inc. (Nasdaq: MRNA), a clinical stage biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines to create a new generation of transformative medicines for patients, today announced that the Phase 2 dose-confirmation study of its mRNA vaccine against cytomegalovirus (CMV) is enrolling ahead of plan with data now expected in the third quarter of 2020. The Company also announced three new vaccine development candidates, which support the Companys strategy, announced January 12, to accelerate new development candidates in its core modalities, prophylactic vaccines and systemic secreted & cell surface therapeutics. The three new infectious disease vaccine candidates complement the January announcement of two autoimmune development candidates, PD-L1 (mRNA-6231) and IL-2 (mRNA-6981), in the Companys other core modality, systemic secreted & cell surface therapeutics.

Modernas CMV vaccine (mRNA-1647), the first mRNA vaccine for an infectious disease to enter a Phase 2 study, is enrolling ahead of plan with the second cohort nearly completed. This Phase 2 study will investigate the safety and immunogenicity of mRNA-1647 in approximately 252 healthy adults in the U.S. at three dose levels (50, 100 and 150 g) in both CMV-seronegative and CMV-seropositive participants administered in a three-dose vaccination schedule (0, 2 and 6 months). The first interim analysis, expected in the third quarter of 2020, will evaluate safety and immunogenicity at three months (one month after the second vaccination) and is intended to inform Phase 3 dose selection. The Company is actively preparing for a Phase 3 pivotal study, which will evaluate prevention of primary CMV infection in a population that includes women of childbearing age.

The development candidates announced today are mRNA vaccine candidates against Epstein-Barr virus (mRNA-1189), respiratory syncytial virus (mRNA-1345) in young children, and the novel coronavirus (mRNA-1273). mRNA-1345 will be evaluated in early clinical trials with the intention of combining the vaccine with mRNA-1653, Modernas hMPV/PIV3 vaccine, to address RSV, hMPV and PIV3, viruses that cause significant respiratory diseases in young children, in one vaccine. Each of these new development candidates utilizes the Companys proprietary lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology.

Todays announcement reflects the Companys belief that positive Phase 1 safety and immunogenicity data across nine studies with more than 1,000 participants have validated the Companys prophylactic vaccine modality. Clinical data demonstrate that Modernas proprietary vaccine technology has been generally well-tolerated1 and can elicit durable immune responses to viral antigens. The Company also believes that it has demonstrated the ability to leverage shared technology, digital systems and its flexible manufacturing infrastructure to advance a large portfolio quickly and efficiently.

"Our investments in science and manufacturing have resulted in six positive Phase 1 infectious disease vaccine readouts. These data validate the technology used in our prophylactic vaccines modality, which has allowed us to accelerate research and development timelines, and advance our mRNA vaccines into new areas of high unmet need. I am pleased with the continued progress of our late-stage CMV vaccine program as we prepare for a pivotal Phase 3 study and commercial readiness. The three new development candidates reflect the continued productivity of our platform and the potential of our mRNA technology. Moderna now owns global rights to three vaccines, which we believe have blockbuster potential CMV, EBV and the potential combination RSV/hMPV/PIV3 vaccine for young children," said Stphane Bancel, Modernas Chief Executive Officer. "I am proud of the teams ability to rapidly respond to the ongoing public health crisis posed by the novel coronavirus and to be working with the National Institutes of Health and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations."

Story continues

Moderna currently has 24 mRNA development candidates in its portfolio with 12 in clinical studies. Across Modernas pipeline, more than 1,500 participants have been enrolled in clinical studies.

About Modernas New Development Candidates

About Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV)

EBV is a common herpesvirus that is spread through bodily fluids, most commonly saliva, and contracted primarily by young children and adolescents (approximately 50% and approximately 89% seropositivity, respectively). It is a major cause of infectious mononucleosis (IM) in the U.S., accounting for over 90% of the approximately 1-2 million cases annually. IM can debilitate patients for weeks to months and, in some cases, can lead to hospitalization and splenic rupture. EBV infection is associated with the development and progression of certain lymphoproliferative disorders, cancers, and an increased risk of autoimmune diseases including multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. There is no approved vaccine for EBV.

About Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)

RSV is the leading cause of unaddressed severe lower respiratory tract disease and hospitalization in infants and young children worldwide, with most children infected at least once by two years of age. The virus is transmitted primarily via contamination of environmental surfaces with infectious secretions, and symptoms typically begin within several days of exposure. The illness may manifest as wheezing, bronchiolitis, pneumonia, hospitalization or even death.

In the United States, it is estimated that over two million children younger than five years of age receive medical attention and more than 86,000 are hospitalized due to RSV infection annually. Globally, RSV is estimated to be responsible for over approximately 33 million episodes of acute lower-respiratory tract infection, 3.2 million hospitalizations and as many as 118,000 deaths per year in children younger than five years of age. Infections with RSV follow a seasonal pattern, occurring primarily in the Northern hemisphere between the months of November and April, and in the Southern hemisphere primarily between March and October. There is no approved vaccine for RSV.

About Coronavirus (2019-nCoV)

Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that can lead to respiratory illness, including Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Coronaviruses are transmitted between animals and people and can evolve into strains not previously identified in humans. On January 7, 2020, a novel coronavirus was identified as the cause of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, Hubei Province of China. Estimates from the World Health Organization as of February 9, 2020 indicate that there are approximately 37,000 confirmed cases and over 800 deaths worldwide. The suspected number of infections is likely to be substantially higher. It is important to note that there is not yet a good understanding of the rate of asymptomatic infection. Currently, there are no approved vaccines specific to 2019-nCoV.

About Modernas Prophylactic Vaccines Modality

Moderna scientists designed the Companys prophylactic vaccines modality to prevent infectious diseases. More than 1,000 participants have been enrolled in Modernas infectious disease vaccine clinical studies under health authorities in the U.S., Europe and Australia. Based on clinical experience across six Phase 1 studies, the Company deems prophylactic vaccines a core modality and intends to accelerate development of its infectious disease vaccine candidates.

The potential advantages of an mRNA approach to prophylactic vaccines include the ability to mimic natural infection to stimulate a more potent immune response, combining multiple mRNAs into a single vaccine, rapid discovery to respond to emerging pandemic threats and manufacturing agility derived from the platform nature of mRNA vaccine design and production.

Moderna currently has nine development candidates in its prophylactic vaccines modality, including:

Vaccines against serious respiratory infections

Vaccines against serious infections transmitted from mother to baby

Vaccines against common viral infections with high unmet need

To date, Moderna has demonstrated positive Phase 1 data readouts for six prophylactic vaccines (H10N8, H7N9, RSV, chikungunya virus, hMPV/PIV3 and CMV). Modernas CMV vaccine is currently in a Phase 2 dose-confirmation study. Modernas investigational Zika vaccine (mRNA-1893), currently in a Phase 1 study, was granted FDA Fast Track designation.

Moderna has built a fully integrated manufacturing plant in Norwood, MA which enables the promise of the technology platform.

About Moderna

Moderna is advancing messenger RNA (mRNA) science to create a new class of transformative medicines for patients. mRNA medicines are designed to direct the bodys cells to produce intracellular, membrane or secreted proteins that can have a therapeutic or preventive benefit and have the potential to address a broad spectrum of diseases. Modernas platform builds on continuous advances in basic and applied mRNA science, delivery technology and manufacturing, providing the Company the capability to pursue in parallel a robust pipeline of new development candidates. Moderna is developing therapeutics and vaccines for infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, independently and with strategic collaborators. Moderna has 24 mRNA development candidates in its portfolio across all modalities, with 12 in clinical studies. Four of these programs are in or preparing for Phase 2 studies and the Company is preparing for its first Phase 3 study.

Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., Moderna currently has strategic alliances for development programs with AstraZeneca, Plc. (Nasdaq: AZN) and Merck, Inc. (Nasdaq: MRK), as well as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense; the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), a division of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Moderna has been named a top biopharmaceutical employer by Science for the past five years.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended, including, without limitation, statements regarding plans for Modernas development candidates, plans to create a pediatric respiratory vaccine against RSV, hMPV and PIV3, plans regarding regulatory submission and clinical testing for mRNA-1273, expected timing of data from the Phase 2 study of mRNA-1647, and Modernas strategy, business plans and focus. The words "may," "will," "could," "would," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "intend," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "project," "potential," "continue," "target" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Any forward-looking statements in this press release are based on managements current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and important factors that may cause actual events or results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements contained in this press release, including, without limitation, uncertainties related to market conditions and the completion of the public offering on the anticipated terms or at all. These and other risks and uncertainties are described in greater detail in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in Modernas most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other filings that Moderna has made or may make with the SEC in the future. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release represent Modernas views only as of the date hereof and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of any subsequent date. Moderna explicitly disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

Moderna has filed a registration statement (including a prospectus) with the SEC for the offering to which this communication relates. Before you invest, you should read the prospectus in that registration statement and other documents the issuer has filed with the SEC for more complete information about the issuer and this offering. You may get these documents for free by visiting EDGAR on the SEC Web site at http://www.sec.gov. Alternatively, the issuer, any underwriter or any dealer participating in the offering will arrange to send you the prospectus if you request it by calling toll-free 1-866-471-2526.

1 The most common adverse reactions in Modernas Phase 1 clinical trials in prophylactic vaccines include injection site pain, headache, myalgia, and fatigue.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200210005823/en/

Contacts

Moderna Contacts: Media: Colleen HusseySenior Manager, Corporate Communications203-470-5620Colleen.Hussey@modernatx.com

Investors: Lavina TalukdarHead of Investor Relations617-209-5834Lavina.Talukdar@modernatx.com

Original post:

Moderna Announces Progress in Prophylactic Vaccines Modality with CMV Vaccine Phase 2 Study Data Now Expected in Third Quarter 2020 and Expands...

New Zealand has made significant progress on key social issues in the last 12 months, including improved treatment of those on welfare, boosting employment and household incomes and reducing teen pregnancy, according to a new report.

However, the Salvation Army report urged New Zealands centre-left government, led by Jacinda Ardern who has made reducing child poverty her personal mission while in office, and exhorted a politics of kindness and compassion to do more to address what they called normalised, entrenched poverty in the country.

Housing affordability, spiking youth suicide rates, the destruction wrought by methamphetamine, and the number of children in deepest poverty were not improving, said the Salvation Army, the organisation publishing its 13th annual State of the Nation report. But the picture was not entirely gloomy.

What we do notice on the frontline is that theres been a huge effort to make Work and Income much more user friendly, said Ian Hutson, the Armys social policy director, referring to the countrys social welfare agency.

There had been a kind of punitive approach to poverty in the country in the past, he said. But it seems like theyve put the emphasis on really trying to help people rather than penalise people, for all different possible reasons, by taking them off all or part of the benefit.

There had been a small dip in the number of people requesting food parcels in 2019, the Salvation Army report said. But Hutson added that while beneficiaries were being treated more kindly in their dealings with the social welfare agency, they werent receiving enough money from the government to live on.

We think the benefits too low and thats one of the key causes of child poverty in this country, he said. Many of the people we work with at the frontline have been able to access welfare and hardship support for beneficiaries, but the core benefit level is still too low.

Arderns government had taken notice of the issue, commissioning a working group on social welfare that had in 2019 recommended a boost to social welfare payments, he said, but had failed to act on it. The prime minister had also not proceeded with a capital gains tax urged by another working group.

Sometimes when government have bold ideas, if they feel like the people of the nation wont back them, they wont do it, Hutson said.

Before Arderns government came to power following the 2017 election she had pledged to tackle New Zealands housing crisis if she became prime minister, after outrage generated across the country by news reports of families sleeping in cars. But the waiting list for social housing had hit new highs, Hutson said, and low-income families could not afford rents including in smaller cities that had previously been feasible alternatives to the escalating prices of Auckland and Wellington.

Rotorua, Palmerston North, Dunedin and Invercargill were among the cities which had seen house price increases of at least 10%, the report said.

The social housing waiting list is not going down, Hutson said. More emergency and social housing has been built, which is encouraging, but it doesnt feel like weve turned the tide at all.

He added that the government needs to significantly invest in housing at the bottom end.

The governments so-called wellbeing budget, introduced in 2019 which requires all new spending to be measured against wellbeing measures rather than GDP had made him hopeful lawmakers could move the needle on social problems, Hutson said.

But you cant expect that in one year theyll be able to show that a whole lot of things have gotten better.

Go here to read the rest:

Poverty 'entrenched' in New Zealand despite progress on social issues - report - The Guardian

The Washington Redskins liked where Dwayne Haskins finished the season; they also know there's a lot of work ahead for their young quarterback, which is why new coach Ron Rivera said at his first news conference he'll take his time before he names a starter.

"Dwayne has a long way to go," Doug Williams, the Redskins' senior vice president of player development, told reporters at a community event Friday. "But like I told him, he was doing what we expected him to do. He was ascending. Hopefully the way he goes now, he keeps going up. All eyes are going to be on him. At the same time you've got a new coaching staff and they're not married to him. ... He's got the ability to do what any coach wants him to do."

And, Williams said, having a new staff should help. The Redskins also hired a new offensive coordinator in Scott Turner and quarterbacks coach in Ken Zampese.

"Dwayne didn't have the opportunity last year where the coaches put their arms around him," said Williams, who had been the senior vice president of player personnel the past two years. "He's got to know we want you to be good. With the new staff coming in, and what he did towards the end of the year, he's going to give this new staff an opportunity to say, 'Hey, we need to work with this kid to get the best out of him.'"

1 Related

Haskins' first season was anything but smooth as it became evident around the draft that there was a divide in the building about taking him with the 15th overall pick. As one source said, it was clear that owner Dan Snyder wanted to draft him. There were questions about how much extra work he was putting in as numerous sources said he struggled to retain the plays.

But Haskins also was playing for a staff that was in a must-win situation, making it difficult for the coaches to adequately groom a young quarterback. He struggled mightily in his first two relief outings, going a combined 12-for-22 for 140 yards and four interceptions vs. the New York Giants and Minnesota.

But Haskins showed progress once he became a starter and, sources say, invested more time in work outside of the facility. Then-offensive coordinator Kevin O'Connell also took on a bigger role with Haskins down the stretch. In his last two games, Haskins completed a combined 31 of 43 passes for 394 yards and four touchdowns in games vs. the Giants and Philadelphia Eagles. He also directed two late field goal drives in a comeback win over Detroit, a game Rivera has referenced several times.

At season's end, numerous people in the organization said they loved how Haskins finished, but still wanted to see how he progressed.

A big part of Rivera's interview with Snyder involved his plan for developing Haskins. Rivera has said he wants to go through the spring before settling on any quarterback decision. He said he wants Haskins to become more of a leader. Haskins told reporters at the event that he has reached out to some of Rivera's former players in Carolina. And he's fine with having to prove himself to a new staff.

"That's cool," Haskins told reporters. "I'm going to have to work hard and eventually take it over. Just do your best to be accountable for what you have to do and be ready to go.

"[Rivera's] a guy who's going to hold you accountable and make sure you put the work in. I'm all for that. I'm excited."

Williams has become a mentor of sorts for Haskins as the two spoke often during the season. In Williams' new role he'll serve as a liaison between the players and the coaches, which means his tutoring of Haskins will continue. He has talked with Haskins in the past about what NFL quarterbacks must do and how they're always watched.

"The new staff knows that Dwayne Haskins is the starting quarterback here," Williams said. "The only thing that can happen is for Dwayne to give it back to them. It's up to him to learn the playbook, wear the coaches out. He's got to stay at the facility until they run him out of the building."

Late in the season, teammates noticed a difference in Haskins in the work he did and the way he carried himself. Williams said there's one way to keep winning them over.

"Keep doing it over and over," Williams said. "Dwayne has to let them know 'I'm here, I'm the leader, this is my team. I'm going to be the starter and I'll show you why I should be starting.'"

Read the rest here:

Redskins VP says 'all eyes' will be on work-in-progress Dwayne Haskins - ESPN

The shooting deaths of Nichol Leila Olsen, 37, and her two daughters are still being investigated by the Bexar County Sheriffs Office and the FBI. All three were found dead at the home of Olsens boyfriend in the gated Anaqua Springs Ranch subdivision near Leon Springs on Jan. 10, 2019.

The shooting deaths of Nichol Leila Olsen, 37, and her two daughters are still being investigated by the Bexar County Sheriffs Office and the FBI. All three were found dead at the home of Olsens boyfriend

Photo: Courtesy Photo /Josh Huskin, Huskin Photo

The shooting deaths of Nichol Leila Olsen, 37, and her two daughters are still being investigated by the Bexar County Sheriffs Office and the FBI. All three were found dead at the home of Olsens boyfriend in the gated Anaqua Springs Ranch subdivision near Leon Springs on Jan. 10, 2019.

The shooting deaths of Nichol Leila Olsen, 37, and her two daughters are still being investigated by the Bexar County Sheriffs Office and the FBI. All three were found dead at the home of Olsens boyfriend

Sheriff shares update on progress of Anaqua Springs killings investigation

More than a year after a hairstylist and her two daughters were found shot to death in a luxury home near Leon Springs, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said investigators still havent determined who was responsible and that he isnt prepared to clear anyone.

Salazar described the hairstylists boyfriend, Charles Edward Wheeler, 32, as a person of interest in the case but said thats not the same as calling him a suspect.

Theres a lot of folks that wish I had just closed this investigation a long time ago, the sheriff said in an interview Monday with the San Antonio Express-News. But theres a lot of folks that dont have the power over me to make me do that.

READ MORE:Thirteen months later, sheriff still looking for answers in Anaqua Springs killings

And so Im going to keep this investigation open. And as long as the FBI keeps asking me for evidence so that they can keep digging, Im going to keep giving it to them.

Wheeler has not been charged in the case, and his attorneys say he had nothing to do with the deaths.

Click here for Sheriff Salazar's response to the youngest victims father, Hector Bribiescas, recent complaint about the investigation.

Here is the original post:

Sheriff shares update on progress of Anaqua Springs killings investigation - mySA