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Mar 11, 2017

Construction workers pictured this week as the Chautauqua Institution Amphitheater project continues at a quick pace. The amphitheater is expected to be ready for events this season. P-J photos by Katrina Fuller

CHAUTAUQUA The new Amphitheater is shaping up according to plan thanks to the temperate weather.

According to a recent update from Chautauqua Institution, the steel work for the structure is nearly complete; the back-of-house area is completely enclosed; and the concrete is curing.

The Amp is well on track to being ready for the 2017 season, said Jordan Steves, director of communications. As the forecast calls for cooperative weather in the coming weeks, the construction team continues to evaluate and improve the project sequencing and schedule. A major upcoming milestone is the completion of the steelwork. As the large steel-swinging cranes exit, they will open several routes on the site for other trades.

The team is also anticipating other project elements like bench manufacturing and making sure the work is properly progressing. The construction crews generally begin work at 6 a.m. and work as late as 10 p.m. six days a week. Some crews even work seven days a week, Steves wrote.

For those who live on the grounds or plan to visit during this time, the South Lot is currently being used as a staging area for materials and parking for workers, however, parking is available for visitors and residents at the Hall of Christ just down the road. The main gate is temporarily a two-way road, and the bus gate is also open during construction hours.

A worker looks on as the amphitheater takes shape.

The next update on the project will be released in early April, however, progress of construction can be seen at ciweb.org/amp-cam. Still photography can be viewed on the website and on Chautauquas Facebook page. The photos accommodate for what is blocked from view on the video by the roof.

For more information, visit http://www.ciweb.org.

FREWSBURG Frewsburg Central School District could be facing a budget gap of over $300,000. At Thursdays ...

MAYVILLE With the defense resting in the second-degree murder trial of Barbara J. Redeye, all that stands now ...

County residents are still without power after Wednesday's fierce winds brought down trees, large limbs and power ...

Excerpt from:

Chautauqua Amphitheater Project Making Swift Progress - Jamestown Post Journal

One of the most emotional stories of this hockey season was that ofCraig Cunningham, who collapsed on the ice before an AHL game late last year.

Cunningham, who spent time in the NHL with the Bruins and Coyotes, went into cardiac arrest just prior toa Tucson Roadrunnersgame in November. His hearted stopped beating for two days before doctors were able to save his life through a complicated procedure that involved a ventricular assist device and an oxygenator that served as an artificial lung.

That procedure affectedhis circulation, resultinginCunningham losingpart of his left leg, ending his playingcareer.

Despite the amputation, many people close to Cunningham have relayed that the 26-year-oldhasremained in good spirits and is just thankful to be alive. On Wednesday, it was also revealed that hes making outstanding progress in his rehabilitation.

TSN reporter Ray Ferraro shared thisvideo of Cunningham walking on his prosthetic leg with the help of a walker.

It obviously cant be easy for a pro athlete to have their lifetime passion and livelihood taken from them in such swift fashion, especially the wayit was taken from Cunningham. But its pretty inspiring to and uplifting to see how he seems to be making the most of the tough hand that was dealt to him.

Heres hopingCunningham will make his way back to full healthand find a way backinto the hockey world.

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports | Brad Penner

Excerpt from:

Ex-NHLer Craig Cunningham makes amazing progress after leg ... - FOXSports.com

Scientists Make Progress Toward Engineering Synthetic Yeast Wall Street Journal (subscription) Designer biologists are nearing completion of the first completely synthetic Baker's yeastthe single-celled workhorse of commercial biotechnology used in products from beer and biofuels to medicine. Reporting in Science on Thursday, researchers in ...

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Scientists Make Progress Toward Engineering Synthetic Yeast - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

A holding cell in the booking room at the Wagoner County Jail, in this picture taken March 9, 2017./KTUL

WAGONER, Okla. (KTUL) - Tax dollars are hard at to work to repair a long list of maintenance issues at the Wagoner County Jail. Sheriff Chris Elliot said the biggest problem is plumbing, also mentioning not one cell is 100 percent operational.

You might have a jail cell that has hot water but no cold water. you might have a jail cell where the toilets not flushing properly. As were repairing things were also finding other issues, said the sheriff.

Elliott said theyve had to move inmates to different pods and cells while pipes for sinks and toilets get fixed, though most days are tough considering the jail is at its capacity of 120 inmates.

We were actually having to put jugs of cold water in the jail cells for them, insulated jugs of cold water, so if the inmate needed to drink some water in the middle of the night, they would have access to water, said Elliott.

The sheriff pointed out these were problems he inherited when he took office in July 2016 after a special election. Elliott said progress is moving along, as theyve already made several plumbing repairs and upgraded everything in the kitchen.

Were not at 100 percent operational, not yet because were waiting on parts. But every inmate now has access to good, clean drinking water without having to go to a jug and theyve got access to good, clean functioning toilet facilities, said the sheriff.

There still is, however, speculation around townraising the question why tax dollars werent being used to maintain the jail before.

It was the top thing on my priority list that weve got to get this deal fixed. how it got therethats just a conjecture. You would have to talk to the people in the previous administration, said Elliott.

The sheriff mentioned the maintenance problems sheds some light on an issue theyll have to deal with in the futurespace. Elliott said the jail is at capacity most nights and theyre often squeezing in an extra 15 to 20 inmates. Elliott said Wagoner is the second fastest growing county in Oklahoma, and with more people comes more crime. He said the current jail wont be sufficient to hold more people in the near future and the area may have to look into options to build a new jail that can last 25 years.

Focusing on the task at hand now, Elliott hes working closely with the Wagoner County Commission to turn things around, realizing the repairs are going to take time. However, the sheriff said he still wants to assure the public their commitment to the project.

I want everyone to know the jail is safe, secure, the inmates are safe, theyre secure. Were just starting to fix all the smaller, nagging problems, said Elliott.

Repairs have cost about $20,000 so far. Elliott said they dont have a certain timeframe when the upgrades will be done because each repair requires specialized parts made for correctional facilities. These parts take about two to three weeks to deliver.

Read more from the original source:

Wagoner County Jail sees progress in long list of necessary repairs - KTUL

Amy Williamson

The Iowa Department of Education released a policy paper today which shows the statewide effort by Iowa schools to catch and correct reading problems in students early on is showing progress.

The paper says nearly 9,000 students in kindergarten through third grade who had fallen short of benchmarks in reading in the fall of 2015 met or surpassed benchmarks by the spring of 2016, an increase of 4.2 percentage points.

The Ed Departments Amy Williamson oversees the Bureau of School Improvement. She says the early warning system implemented in 2014 is a key part of helping kids improve their reading.

What we are doing is measuring something that teachers can use on a three-times-a-year basis,or even progress monitor on a weekly basis with universal screening assessments, Williamson says. That has to be something that can be done quickly and detect very fine increments of progress. Williamson says it gives a much better picture of whats happening with students than the annual assessments.

She says the annual assessments are like a weight loss plan where you dont weigh yourself every day and see changes by the ounce. But she says they have to see fine increments on a weekly basis to change the reading instruction.

The 398 public and non-public schools using the early warning system saw a nearly 61 percent increase in the percentage of students in kindergarten through third grade that were at or above the state benchmark for reading.

Jane Lindaman

Waterloo saw the biggest increase among urban districts at 14.6 percent from the fall of 2015 to the spring of 2016. Jane Lindaman, the districts superintendent, says it has been a group effort. There is not doubt that the district, the implementation, the buy-in from the teachers, the leadership matters. And so when people believe in the system, when they believe in kids and they are tracking it all along the way I think it is truly about the work ongoing, Lindaman says.

She says getting kids to become better readers goes beyond trying to meet some state requirement. For us it is not just something that we do for compliance, Lindaman says,we dont just do it and then turn in the scores and have then have the state look at them. For us in Waterloo it doesnt have much to do with the state at all. It has everything to do with our Waterloo kids.

Lindaman says parents are also coming along. I would say that right now our parents probably have more questions that answers, but they are asking the questions, which is part of the process, Lindaman says. So they are starting to say how does this work? And so we are along the journey, we are down the road a little bit on our working with parents and letting them know. They fit in because they can support the work at home, but right now we need them to understand where they students are and what the school is doing to help them improve.

Tynne Sulser

Centerville third-grade teacher, Tynne Sulser, says the last 3 years of implementing the program have been a learning experience for her as a teacher.

I thought that I was doing the best that I could. And it turns out I needed to look at what I needed to do in the classroom and I did need to make changes in my core instruction, Sulser says. And by doing that I cannot tell you, it brings tears to my eyes the first time my kids they were so excited, they were self-confident. These are kids who struggle in reading every single day.

She says shes seen improvement in the kids who struggle the most. They may be a lot lower than proficiency and so when they are gaining 40 correct words per minute in 2 months, 3 months, and they are still not proficient you cant ask any more for that child, Sulser says.

Sulser says the kids gain confidence in the progress they have made and it will continue. You just keep on going and you keep on going and that confidence is going to get them there, Sulser says. It might not be in third grade, but its going to be in fourth grade.

Increases in the highest-growth school districts ranged from 19 to 32 percentage points. Iowas early literacy law passed by the Legislature in 2012, focuses on making sure all students are proficient readers by the end of third grade.

The rest is here:

Education Department reports progress in improving reading for K ... - Radio Iowa

Fifteen hundred acres along the Cahaba River will soon have canoe access points, hiking and biking trails.

Shelby County is making progress on Cahaba River Park. It just finished River Road, connecting County Road 13 to the Cahaba River.

Now that people have better access to the river, the next step is to add recreation opportunities.

You can just relax, you know, without having all the troubles, Larry Norris told ABC 33/40.

The river is a usual rest spot for Norris.

I just love getting outdoors you know because of my health and everything like that, said Norris. I want a place to come to that's beautiful.

Norris lives nearby Cahaba River Park. He smiles at the idea of the county building new amenities.

Everything they're going to do is going to be pretty cool, Norris said.

Shelby county and Forever Wild own the land.

The plan is to add several canoe access points along seven miles of the Cahaba. A parking lot will be added at the end of River Road, along with restrooms and a pavilion.

The county also applied for grants for hiking and biking trails.

The county's owned its part of the land for about ten years but during tough economic times, didn't put a lot of resources into developing it. Now, it will use about $1 million for the new amenities aimed at increasing quality of life for the residents.

There's a demand for nice, enjoyable spaces out in the environment where people can go out and feel and touch wild life, said Chad Scroogins, Chief Development Officer for the county.

Scroogins expects all amenities to be complete this fall, including a caretaker house aimed at increasing safety.

The caretaker is usually someone in law enforcement that allows us to have some security there but they also have general responsibilities with upkeep and maintenance with various aspects of the park, explained Scroogins.

There are also plans to resurface county road 13, which leads to River Road.

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Shelby County making progress on Cahaba River Park - Alabama's News Leader

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RICHMOND, Va. If youve driven down Broad Street, you have most likely come across the construction for the GRTC Pulse project.

The construction has been a bit of a headache, said Josephine Flemotomos.

Flemotomos owns Gus Bar and Grill on Broad Street and said though shes excited for the project, shes had some issues with parking.

Along with parking concerns, others have asked why it appears that only some parts of Broad Street are being worked on, when the whole street is blocked off.

GRTC Pulse construction is underway all along Broad Street.

Flemotomos said she has noticed thatbut isnt bothered by it.

It would be nice if it was blocked off where they were working, but I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that theyre trying to keep people contained, she said.

We took questions some had about the construction to GRTC Spokeswoman Carrie Rose Pace.

The express bus route is expected to begin operating this year.

Our goal was to make sure we minimize impacts, and some of that means were performing in such a way that might not be obvious to people that are passing by, she said.

Rose Pace said they have already worked from Hamilton to 1st Street, including saw cutting, which many may not notice.

You can see that saw cut line meaning we have literally cut into the road and youll see it along that yellow line, said Rose Pace.

Ten new 40-foot buses will serve the Pulse Rapid Transit Route, a 7.6-mile stretch between Rocketts Landing and Willow Lawn. Among its features is that it is considered eco-friendly and runs on compressed natural gas.

"This has 38 seats as well as rooms for 15 standees -- meaning people standing up holding as they ride. We have better bike capacities, so we can hold up to three bikes on the front of the bus as opposed to two, which is great," Rose Pace said.

The express routes will be madepossiblethrough Transit Signal Priority. The buses will be communicating with the traffic lights.

"The traffic signals know where the buses are at all times. If they can hear a ping, and tell the bus they're coming and wait for me, then it'll hold the light green long enough to get that bus through," Pace said.

GRTC Pulse hopes to test the new route as early as August 2017. GRTC Pulse plansto start operating in October 2017.

The $49 million dollar project will transform Broad Street into a 7-mile stretch of frequently running buses, stretching from Willow Lawn to Rockets Landing.

Read more from the original source:

GRTC Pulse construction progress questioned - wtvr.com

FiveThirtyEight

How Much Progress Have We Made Since Women Went On Strike ... FiveThirtyEight In 1970, women's rights activist Betty Friedan helped organize a disruptive feminist protest to mark the 50th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendm and more »

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How Much Progress Have We Made Since Women Went On Strike ... - FiveThirtyEight

CBS New York

Lichtenstein: Hapless Nets Have Shown Progress Since Lin's Return CBS New York For the last four months, it has looked like a complete waste, but it is now showing glimpses of progress. Atkinson's pace-and-space schemes have been boosted by having a professional starting point guard. While Brooklyn is still jacking up 3s from all ... and more »

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Lichtenstein: Hapless Nets Have Shown Progress Since Lin's Return - CBS New York

Donald Trump sits with Jeff Sessions at Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York. (photo credit:REUTERS)

Executives from 141 Jewish community centers signed a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions expressing frustration with efforts combating a rash of bomb threats.

The letter, sent Wednesday by the JCC Association of North America, the national organization of Jewish community centers, requested a meeting with Sessions and urged the Justice Department to do more to stop the threats.

It also praised local law enforcements response to the incidents and recognized President Donald Trumps condemnation of them.

Still, we are frustrated with the progress in resolving this situation, the letter said. We insist that all relevant federal agencies, including your own, apply all the resources available to identify and bring the perpetrator or perpetrators, who are trying to instill anxiety and fear in communities across the country, to justice.

More than 100 bomb threats have hit JCCs and other Jewish sites across the country since the beginning of the year. The latest wave, on Tuesday and Wednesday, targeted 20 JCCs, day schools and offices of the Anti-Defamation League.

The Department of Homeland Security has made its regional experts available to JCCs, and leaders of major Jewish groups met with FBI Director James Comey on March 3. Local JCC directors have repeatedly praised the response of area law enforcement.

Local law enforcement have represented a beacon of responsiveness and professionalism as our communities have endured dozens of anti-Semitic threats in past weeks, the letter said. We respectfully ask that federal agencies, including your own, do the same.

Authorities have yet to identify the person or people behind most of the threats. Juan Thompson, a St. Louis resident charged with making eight of the threats to avenge a former romantic partner, appears to have been a copycat.

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Construction continues on the Topgolf facility on West Arrowood Road in southwest more

The wait for swinging clubs at Topgolf's new facility in Charlotte will end in the next few months.

The 65,000-square-foot golf-entertainment venue under construction in southwest Charlotte is expected to be open in early June, Topgolf spokeswoman Morgan Wallace told CBJ.

Construction continues on the Topgolf facility on West Arrowood Road in southwest more

Outdoor netting recently went up on the 14-acre property near the intersection of West Arrowood Road and Interstate 485, and the building has taken shape. Next up: turf work will begin next week, followed by installation of Topgolf's gaming infrastructure shortly after, Wallace said.

"The construction process has gone very well," she said. "The team is very happy with how smoothly it has gone. Sometimes there are weather delays in certain markets, so this one has been a blessing for sure."

Wallace said the Charlotte facility will look nearly identical to Topgolf's current venues, which can be found here. She pointed specifically to Jacksonville, Fla., as the location Charlotte will most closely resemble. That facility opened last October.

The building in Charlotte won't be ready for a tour until late May, Wallace said.

The project has been moving forward since receiving rezoning approval from Charlotte City Council in October 2015. EPR Properties, an entertainment-center developer based in Kansas City, Mo., then spent $4.4 million last April in purchasing property from American Asset Corp. to develop the Topgolf facility. Construction geared up a month later.

The three-level venue will include about 3,000 square feet of private event space as well as 102 climate-controlled hitting bays, which can hold as many as six players at one time. The facility is expected to attract about 450,000 visitors in its first year of operation. It's also projected to create 450 jobs and result in an economic output of more than $264 million over a 10-year period.

In addition to a high-tech driving range, Dallas-based Topgolf offers customers a full-service restaurant and bar, music, lounges and a plethora of high-definition TVs.

"The biggest misconception is that you have to be a golfer to come to Topgolf, which is not the case," Wallace said. "We are open year-round for all ages and skill levels."

Excerpt from:

Topgolf makes progress on Charlotte facility, gives opening update - Charlotte Business Journal

Although women are publishing more studies, being cited more often, and securing more coveted first-author positions than they were in the mid 1990s, overall progress towards gender parity in science varies widely by country and field. This is according to a massive report released on 8 March that is the first to examine such a broad swath of disciplines and regions of the world over time.

The report1 by the publisher Elsevier found that despite their moderate advances, women still published fewer articles than men, and were much less likely to be listed as first or last authors on a paper. Citation rates, however, were roughly equal: although female authors were cited slightly less than male authors, work authored by women was downloaded at slightly higher rates.

Elsevier used data from Scopus, an abstract and citation database of more than 62 million documents. The reports authors broke the data down into 27 subject areas, and compared them across 12 countries and regions and two 5-year blocks of time: 19962000 and 201115. The report included only researchers who were listed as an author on at least one publication within either of the two five-year periods.

Although women might be publishing less research, the citation rates indicate that their work is equally scientifically important, says Holly Falk-Krzesinski, vice-president of global academic and research relations at Elsevier who is based in San Diego, California.

However, Cassidy Sugimoto, an information scientist who studies gender disparities at Indiana University Bloomington, notes that she would expect to see men and women cited at similar ratios because many papers have multiple authors representing more than one gender. The small number of female first authors, she says, reflects the inequalities that still exist in science today.

I think this report does a tremendous job of demonstrating and reinforcing that the leaky pipeline is still in effect, says Sugimoto, referring to the decline seen in the proportion of women at succesive stages in research. We see an increase in the number of women researchers and an increase in the number of women first authors, but those rates are not progressing equally. We have a pipeline problem, and time is not erasing it.

But patching that pipeline has proved extremely difficult. Women must overcome a number of barriers in science, says Sugimoto, ranging from conscious and unconscious sexism to expectations of womens roles in child care and care for the elderly.

In response to its own findings, Elsevier has been addressing issues of gender imbalance on its journal boards by setting benchmarks for the number of men and women included on them. But Sugimoto cautions that simply putting women in positions to review papers may not solve the problem: in some studies, she says, women in science were just as likely to discriminate against other women when hiring as men were2, although other studies have failed to find such hiring bias3.

This report confirms the results of many past studies on gender disparities in research, says Shulamit Kahn, an economist at Boston University in Massachusetts who studies gender differences in science. But the multinational, multidisciplinary scope of this study allows for more in-depth analysis, she says.

Although the overall proportion of women in science has grown, the rates have hardly been equal across countries or disciplines. In Japan, the proportion of female researchers rose by only 5% between the two study periods, whereas in Brazil, it rose by 11%. Women were also represented unequally in different scientific fields. Although they were strongly represented in life and biomedical sciences, few women specialized in the physical sciences. And when the report analysed patent data from the World Intellectual Property Organization, they found that only 14% of people filing patent applications in 201115 were women.

What our report demonstrates is that gender disparities arent the same all over. What works to fix them in one place and one field might not work in another, says Falk-Krzesinski.

Here is the original post:

Patchy progress on fixing global gender disparities in science - Nature.com

Ndoeljindoel/DreamstimeProphets of the impending automation apocalypse predict that robots will soon take 7 percent to almost 50 percent of all American jobs. Recently, billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates suggested that the job-stealing robots should be taxed just like the workers they replace. In an interview last month with Quartz, Gates suggested,"Certainly there will be taxes that relate to automation. Right now, the human worker who does, say, $50,000 worth of work in a factory, that income is taxed and you get income tax, social security tax, all those things. If a robot comes in to do the same thing, you'd think that we'd tax the robot at a similar level."

Of course, taxing anything means that it raises the price and less of it is produced. For example, if you want to have people use less electricity produced by fossil fuels because you are worried that the carbon dioxide emitted contributes to possibly dangerous climate change, you impose taxes on that. In a sense then, Gates' proposal is treating automation as a negative externality. In fact, automation (and the productivity it enhances) is the key to economic growth. Doing more with less is how people achieve prosperity.

In an insightful op/ed over at The Washington Post, Harvard University economist Lawrence Summers asks ...

...why tax in ways that reduce the size of the pie rather than ways that assure that the larger pie is well-distributed? Imagine that 50 people can produce robots who will do the work of 100. A sufficiently high tax on robots would prevent them from being produced. Surely it would be better for society to instead enjoy the extra output and establish suitable taxes and transfers to protect displaced workers. It is hard to see why shrinking the pie, rather than enlarging it as much as possible and then redistributing, is the right way forward.

This last point has long been standard in international trade theory. Indeed, it is common to point out that opening a country to international trade is like giving it access to a technology for transforming one good into another. The argument, then, is that since one surely would not regard such a technical change as bad, neither is trade, and so protectionism is bad. Gates's robot tax risks essentially being protectionism against progress.

Taxing robots will slow down progress and ultimately make most of us poorer than we would otherwise be.

Nevertheless, with regard to the future of automation, Summers seems to buy into the notion that this time it is different. However, there are voices cautioning against dire forecasts of automation making humans economically redundant. MIT economist David Autor makes a persuasive case in which he identifies ...

...the reasons that automation has not wiped out a majority of jobs over the decades and centuries. Automation does indeed substitute for laboras it is typically intended to do. However, automation also complements labor, raises output in ways that lead to higher demand for labor, and interacts with adjustments in labor supply. Indeed, a key observation of the paper is that journalists and even expert commentators tend to overstate the extent of machine substitution for human labor and ignore the strong complementarities between automation and labor that increase productivity, raise earnings, an augment demand for labor. ...

Changes in technology do alter the types of jobs available and what those jobs pay. In the last few decades, one noticeable change has been "polarization" of the labor market, in which wage gains went disproportionately to those at the top and at the bottom of the income and skill distribution, not to those in the middle. I will offer some evidence on this phenomenon. However, I will also argue that this polarization is unlikely to continue very far into the foreseeable future.

When considering whether Summers or Autor is right, I come down on the side of Autor. More on why the automation apocalypse is overstated at another time. In the meantime, a tax on robot "labor" is a dumb idea.

Continue reading here:

Robot Tax = Protectionism Against Progress - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Reason (blog)

Hyperloop One is building its first full-scale test track, which is meant to demonstrate every aspect of its eventual first shipping Hyperloop transportation system, in the Nevada desert and its making good progress. The so-called DevLoop site is under construction currently, and the company released the first images and video of its progress on Tuesday morning.

As you can see from the photos, thats a big stretch of tubing, and it looks like theyre actually quite far along. The goal is to get a test run in sometime in the first half of thisyear, using the 500 meter long DevLoop as a proof of concept to prepare for the construction of its first commercial installation, which is set to link up Dubai and Abu Dhabi across a roughly 100 mile stretch.

Hyperloop One tested itspropulsion system in the Nevada desert, which showed how its pods would be propelled in an open-air demonstration at a fraction of the speed of the final version. Since that test in May of last year, the company has undergone considerable changes and corporate drama, but CEO Rob Lloyd told me in January at CES that its now at the point where the technology is a reality, and all that remains is successful execution of the concept.

The use of Hyperloop tech would enable shipping of cargo between Abu Dhabi and Dubai in as little as 12 minutes, which is a tiny chunk of the current two hour trip time. Hyperloop One will first focus on ferrying goods, and eventually hopes to transport passengers at high speeds, too, cutting commute times and potentially broadening the definition of a suburb for major urban centres.

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Hyperloop One shows off progress on its full-scale test site in Nevada - TechCrunch

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price downplayed some of the divisions among Republicans about the Obamacare repeal bill released on Monday, and said the bill itself is just a "work in progress" that is likely to undergo various changes before it becomes law.

"This has been a work in progress," Price told reporters in the White House. "As you know, this has been going on for over a year."

Conservative lawmakers complained as soon as the bill was released that it keeps in place the Obamacare infrastructure, and doesn't eliminate some key pieces of the law for several years. But Price further downplayed the bill as a "step" in the process, indicating changes are likely to be made.

"The president and the administration support this step in... what we believe is in the right direction," Price said.

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Price dodged questions about whether he or the administration support everything in the bill, and again indicated he sees the bill as something that could change as it moves along.

"This is a work in progress, and we'll work with the House and the Senate in this process," he said. "As you know, it's a legislative process that occurs."

"You start at a starting point, people engage and they get involved in the process, sometimes to a greater degree," Price added. "Nothing focuses the mind like a bill that's currently on the table as a work in progress, or in process."

"We'll work through it. This is an important process to be had," he said.

Also from the Washington Examiner

"This is a big issue. This is not like the latest spending bill we're going to live with healthcare reform forever."

03/08/17 8:13 AM

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HHS Secretary Tom Price: House Obamacare bill a 'work in progress' - Washington Examiner

On March 8, International Womens Day, women worldwide are planning to strike in the name of equal rights. Dubbed A Day Without A Woman, the strike encourages women to take a day off from both paid and unpaid labor. Women comprise almost half of the U.S. workforce and thus could make a large economic impact by taking off work.

How exactly would a day without women affect the economy? According to the Center for American Progress calculations based on the labor share of the gross domestic product, or GDP, and womens relative pay and hours of work, womens labor contributes $7.6 trillion to the nations GDP each year. In one year, women working for pay in the United States earn more than Japans entire GDP of $5.2 trillion. If all paid working women in the United States took a day off, it would cost the country almost $21 billion in terms of GDP. Moreover, women contribute many millions of dollars to their states GDP each day, making their work crucial to the health of their local economies as well. (see Methodology for more detail)

However, this number does not fully represent the hit the economy would take if all women took a day off. Womens paid labor contributions are undervalued because women are overrepresented in sectors of the economy that are low-profit. Many of these sectors are inherently less likely to have significant productivity gains since they are face-to-face service occupations, but they still matter a great deal to the overall functioning of the economy. Women make up 94 percent of employees at child day care services, 88 percent of home health service workers, 97 percent of preschool and kindergarten teachers, 90 percent of registered nurses, 94 percent of secretaries and administrative assistants, and 89 percent of maids and housekeeping cleaners. These supportive and caregiving services contribute to the productivity of the individuals and families who are the recipients of this work. For example, children who receive a high-quality education earn higher lifetime earnings, and high-paid managers productivity often relies on skilled assistance. If the earnings of female-dominated service and caregiving sectors accurately reflected the long-term value created by these jobs, womens labor share contribution to the GDP would be even higher.

Even if womens paid work was valued more accurately, this still would not include the other ways in which women contribute to the economy. This is because economic measures such as GDP do not include unpaid labor, which is mostly taken on by women. Women in the United States spend 150 percent more time on housework than men and more than twice the time men spend on caregiving. This unpaid labor includes child care, caretaking, and cooking along with a variety of other tasks that are vital to the economy.

Although many women who care for their families do not receive a paycheck for doing this work, their labor is valuable and should be included in GDP. Economist Nancy Folbre notes the irony that the measure we call gross domestic product excludes the value of most domestic work. If a woman did not do that unpaid work, the family would have to hire someone and pay them a wage, contributing to GDP. Since unpaid work is not included in GDP measures, it could be said that the nation is consistently and significantly underestimating GDP. Using a conservative assumption, a 2015 report by McKinsey Global Institute estimates that womens unpaid work amounts to about $10 trillion per year, or about 13 percent of global GDP. Additionally, a paper from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis found that incorporating unpaid domestic work into U.S. GDP would have raised it 26 percent in 2010.

Women have always been a valuable and integral part of the economy, and womens paid work is becoming increasingly important to family well-being. In 2015, 42 percent of mothers in the United States were breadwinners, and an additional 22.4 percent were co-breadwinners, making between 25 percent and 49 percent of household earnings. The womens strike offers an opportunity to reflect on how important womens labor is to the country and remind Americans of what remains to be done to accurately value the work that women do to sustain the nations families and economy.

Using data on average hours worked per week and employment from the 2014 Current Population Survey, the authors calculate the proportion of hours women work out of total hours worked by all workers. They found that women provide 43.8 percent of all labor hours in the U.S. economy. If all their labor were withdrawn, it would lead to a roughly proportional reduction in GDP.

Data used for national calculations: 2014 Current Population Survey data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (Table 22: Persons at work in nonagricultural industries by age, sex, race, Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, marital status, and usual full- or part-time status) and 2014 data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (Table 1.1.5: Gross Domestic Product)

Data used for state calculations: 2014 Current Population Survey data at state level from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (Table 21: States: Employed people, by class of worker, gender, race, and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, 2014 annual averages and Table 22: States: people at work, by gender, age, race, Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, and hours of work, 2014 annual averages) and 2014 regional data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (Gross domestic product (GDP) by state)

Kate Bahn is an Economist and Annie McGrew is a Special Assistant for the Economic Policy team at the Center for American Progress.

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A Day in the U.S. Economy Without Women - Center for American ... - Center For American Progress

Science Daily

Progress towards a circuit diagram of the brain Science Daily Progress towards a circuit diagram of the brain. Date: March 7, 2017; Source: Heidelberg, Universitt; Summary: Precise knowledge of the connections in the brain the links between all the nerve cells is a prerequisite for better understanding this ...

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Progress towards a circuit diagram of the brain - Science Daily

White House spokesman Sean Spicer, along with Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, addressed the GOPs health care overhaul Tuesday during a news briefing.

WASHINGTON Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price says the new House Republican health care legislation is a work in progress that represents a step in the right direction.

Price says at the daily White House briefing that the administrations goal is to improve health care and coverage while reducing costs and making plans more affordable.

He says the bill is just one of three phases. He says the administration is also planning a regulatory overhaul and additional legislation to accomplish things that cant be done through the reconciliation process.

As for an early wave of opposition from conservative groups like Club for Growth, he says this is the beginning of the process. He says the administration looks forward to working with the groups through this process.

READ MORE: As Trump praises health care legislation, GOP tries to sell it.

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WATCH: Price says GOP health care a 'work in progress' - PBS NewsHour

COMING UP SHORT again on mental health, The Pilots Feb. 26 editorial, is correct in many ways. While we have made progress in recent years, much work remains.

But this is a long game. I disagree that the accomplishments made during the 2017 General Assembly session were insignificant.

The Joint Subcommittee on Mental Health Services in the 21st Century had three broad goals for the session.

First, we wanted to redefine the mandated services provided by our community services boards. Current law only requires CSBs to provide emergency services and case-management services if funds are available. A longer list of services is enumerated in the Code of Virginia that the CSBs may provide. The Joint Subcommittee sought to expand the list of mandated services, beginning with same-day access and coordination with primary health care, by 2019. Our goal for this session was to add those two services and set a schedule for the delayed implementation of the remaining services. We accomplished that goal.

HB1549, sponsored by Del. Peter Farrell, and SB1005 from Sen. Emmett Hanger establish the new service requirements and are accompanied by a $6.2 million appropriation. Beginning on July 1, 2021, CSBs will be required to provide crisis services; outpatient mental health and substance abuse services; psychiatric rehabilitation services; peer and family support services; veterans services for those who are not able to access care at VA hospitals; care coordination; and case management.

Our second goal was to respond to problems made clear by the horrific 2015 death of Jamycheal Mitchell at the Hampton Roads Regional Jail in Portsmouth.

I remain shocked by the circumstances of Mitchells death and cannot fathom how this young man was allowed to die.

Someone must be responsible for investigating suspicious jail deaths. At the last minute, we were able to reach an agreement giving the Board of Corrections funding for an additional investigator and clear responsibility to perform investigations. Del. Rob Bell and Sen. John Cosgrove carried the legislation on behalf of the Joint Subcommittee. I carried a similar bill for the governor. The final budget also included language to mandate prompt assessments for people in our jails shown to have a mental illness during an initial screening. The budget also directs the Compensation Board to report to the money committees the impact of this change and any recommendations for adjusting staffing standards.

Our third goal was to increase funding for permanent supportive housing, which has demonstrable positive effects for people with mental illness. Long-term recovery and success requires a safe place to which someone can go, and those services must be available throughout the commonwealth. We received an additional $5 million for these services. Given the tight fiscal times, getting this infusion of new dollars is significant.

I am very proud of the accomplishments made this year. In the past, such advancements would be viewed as the end of the reform effort. However, the legislature acknowledged the need for a continued focus on mental health and extended the work of the Joint Subcommittee until 2019. The action reflects a level of commitment necessary to expand on our progress.

Some big questions remain unanswered. More than 30 years ago, the late Sen. Elmon Gray pointed out that we dont really have a system of mental health care. We have an array of services that are good in wealthy communities but limited everywhere else. Sadly, to some extent that is still true. Would we be better off reorganizing our public mental health system? What about the state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services and our 10 public psychiatric facilities? Can we improve upon the function of and the relationships between those entities?

Our questions are not limited to the general structure and function of our mental health system. How can we improve our jail diversion efforts so that people like Mitchell get treatment instead of being arrested? How can we streamline and improve the process for getting services for children? What more do we need to do as a commonwealth to reduce the stigma and raise awareness about mental illness?

The volume of work ahead does not diminish what we have accomplished thus far. I am reminded every day of the urgency of this work by the calls from scared or desperate families, but I am confident in the future.

Creigh Deeds, a Democrat,

represents the 25th District in the Virginia Senate and is chairman of the Joint Subcommittee to Study Mental Health Services in the 21st Century.

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Creigh Deeds: Progress on mental health | Guest Columnist ... - Virginian-Pilot

In one of the most poignant scenes from another disappointing Illinois basketball season, teardrops rolled down the cheeks of senior guard Malcolm Hill during a Big Ten Network interview after Wednesday's home victory against Michigan State.

It was real, raw and reflected everything we love about March.

"It means a lot," said Hill, a four-year starter who developed into Mr. Dependable for the Illini. "The last four years have done a lot for me."

Yet the program stands still.

Only three Illinois players have scored more points in their careers than Hill, an example of persistence coach John Groce can point to proudly when critics ask for evidence of progress. But the list after Hill isn't long enough and the bad losses under Groce too easily mounted, the latest Saturday against Rutgers the Big Ten's worst team. Remove emotion from the equation created by Hill's feel-good moment, and the numbers fail to add up to a sixth season for Groce.

The Illini never have finished with a winning Big Ten record or higher than seventh in the conference under Groce, who is 37-53 in the league and 97-74 overall. His overall winning percentage (.562) is lower than the Big Ten winning percentage of predecessor Bruce Weber (.578).

Perhaps the Illini (18-13, 8-10) can change the narrative and save Groce's job by shocking the world with two or three victories in the Big Ten tournament this week in Washington. But it seems hard to fathom an Illinois team that couldn't beat 14th-place Rutgers with a potential NCAA berth at stake can go on that kind of a roll with Purdue looming Friday on the bracket. The Illini open Thursday against Michigan, against which Groce has gone 2-8 during his tenure. As far as bad matchups go, the Wolverines qualify.

If the Illini fail to make the NCAA field as expected neither Jerry Palm of CBS Sports nor Joe Lunardi of ESPN projected them in as of Monday it would mark the first time in nearly four decades the once-proud program has missed four straight tournaments. To reward such futility in today's college sports culture, on a campus where basketball is big enough to approve a $170 million renovation to the State Farm Center, would defy logic.

Groce's players adhered to what a source on the Illinois board of trustees called a preseason edict from the administration to avoid the type of ugly off-the-court incidents that plagued the program last year. But that was a low bar to clear, and on the court, Illinois fell short of finishing among the top five in the Big Ten, as a prominent faction of the board believed Groce needed to do.

Groce supporters cling to a highly rated recruiting class arriving in the fall, but signing a group of blue-chippers to guarantee a couple of more seasons of unfulfilled potential hardly represents a valid reason to keep a coach. This experienced Illinois team, with all but Tracy Abrams signed by Groce, never encountered injuries or disciplinary issues yet enters the Big Ten tournament as the No. 9 seed in a year defined by league parity.

This season marked an opportunity for the Illini but will go down as another one missed. A four-game winning streak at the end of the regular season showed resilience but also made you wonder why it required a crisis for the Illini to reveal the trait.

As Northwestern bathes in the national spotlight under coach Chris Collins and Minnesota enjoys a resurgence under coach Richard Pitino, Illinois confronts an unsettling reality. A fair evaluation says the Illini have fallen further behind in the race to Big Ten supremacy during Groce's five seasons. Bringing Groce back likely would mean extending a contract that expires after 2018-19 no coach can effectively recruit without the cloak of contract security. A contract extension is a reward.

Is Illinois in the business of rewarding mediocrity?

Athletic director Josh Whitman, who has declined all media requests until after the season, surely grapples with this dilemma because Groce remains one of the most genuine coaches in the business, regardless of his record. Anybody who has spent time around the relentlessly optimistic 45-year-old comes away affected positively, the kind of interaction that gave Groce the reputation as an effective recruiter.

Any critical assessment of Groce's job performance at Illinois, like this one, likely comes from professional duty outweighing personal feelings. Groce is as amiable as he is energetic. His personality and perspective make him a terrific dinner guest and interview subject, but those qualities haven't helped Illinois basketball ascend to the next level.

Good guys don't always make great fits for major-college jobs, and five years under Groce has been enough time to suggest Illinois needs to move on. The school can afford Groce's $1.6 million buyout more than it can afford to risk embracing the status quo.

As people go, they don't come any more likable than Groce. As coaches go, Illini basketball can do better.

dhaugh@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @DavidHaugh

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Five years of John Groce long enough to measure progress and it's hard to find - Chicago Tribune