A Banner Year! – The Progress – mvprogress

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By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

A huge crowd came out to the Clark County Fair on Saturday afternoon. It was a banner return for the Fair after two years of restrictions shuttered the communitys biggest annual event. PHOTO BY VERNON ROBISON/The Progress

After two years of going dark due to the COVID pandemic, the Clark County Fair roared back to life last week with an event for the record books.

The attendance number came in at 109,000 over the five-day event, according to Fair Executive Director Todd Robison. That destroys the previous attendance record of around 88,000 set in 2008.We were very pleased with how things went this year, said Robison in an interview on Monday morning. It was a great reset button for us to push and get going again. We couldnt be more grateful.

The weather was nearly perfect over the five days of the event. There was some wind on Wednesday. But after that, the winds largely went away and mild sunshine prevailed.Robison said that the weather can play a vital part of what the attendance is at the Fair.

Of course, you always plan for a bad day here and there, Robison said. You just hope that you dont have multiple bad days, or even worse, lose a big day like Saturday. But this year we were pretty fortunate.

Ivan Wollenzien, working at the Great Basin Cooking Company vendor booth hands a BBQ Turkey leg to a customer during the Fair. Vendors did a brisk business last week as crowds swelled at the event. PHOTO BY VERNON ROBISON/The Progress

But this year, the reaction to nearly two years of restrictions and quarantines played a part in attendance as well, Robison said.When you look at what people have gone through over the past couple of years, Robison said. They want to get out and live their lives. There is no doubt that there is a strong market for these kinds of events.

Robison said that he was particularly impressed by the demeanor of the crowd. In years past, when the attendance was high at the fair, the emergency personnel have been kept busy with managing altercations between people, or emergency medical situations. This year, despite the numbers, there was none of that, Robison said.I was impressed with the patience people showed and the general good attitude among attendees, Robison said. It was not confrontational at all and everyone was very respectful.

A young man makes friends with an emu in the Agricultural Barn at the Clark County Fair last week.

The PRCA Rodeo event was well attended. We sold out the rodeo three nights in a row: Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Robison said. It was a phenomenal rodeo crowd this year!

Robison said that the huge crowds, especially on the weekend, stretched the contracted service providers to the limits.Because we had been off for two years, we saw a high turnover this year on the service people that we do business with, Robison said. Some of them got pretty overwhelmed on Saturday.

Robison specifically mentioned the janitorial services provider which by Saturday evening had become buried in the crowds.It wasnt that they were inexperienced, Robison said. They do events like this in California all the time. But they werent prepared for this magnitude of crowd.

Young audience members are amazed at what they see at the Ultimate Dog Show on the grounds at the Clark County Fair last week. PHOTO BY VERNON ROBISON/The Progress

Robison said that the owner of the janitorial contractor came to him apologetically early on Sunday feeling like they had let him down because volunteers had had to step in and help get things cleaned up the night before.I told them that we could have never known that it was going to be like this, Robison said. How could we expect them to understand how overwhelmed it would get?

Robison said that most of the vendors did a brisk business at the fair. Much of the feedback he received from vendors was good. They hammered it pretty good, Robison said. And they expected to do well. If the weather holds good, the people come. And they definitely came.

Robison expressed sincere gratitude for the community support that this years fair received.I am just truly grateful to live in this community, he said. It just says a lot of the character of the people to give the most precious asset that they have, which is time, and support this community event. It is humbling.

Local dancing groups were featured in performances on the Showcase Stage at the Clark County Fair. PHOTO BY VERNON ROBISON/The Progress

Robison said that it was a successful event this year. But he stopped short of saying that it was an overwhelming financial triumph for the overall budget.Some people say that the Fair just rakes in the bucks, but you have to look at it on the average, Robison said. It all averages in. We have had years where we have lost some hard dollars.

The year 2020, when the fair had to be cancelled within a month before the event was one of those. I dont hide the fact that COVID really hurt us, Robison said. We lost something around $167,000 that month that we could never get back. So you really have to look at it year to year and see it as an average. Some years are good and other are not so good.

But this years success has definitely put the fair back on its feet, Robison said. We had good weather, great volunteers, the largest attendance ever, he said. There is no doubt that we will have another fair next year.

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A Banner Year! - The Progress - mvprogress

Survey: Help Us Understand PR Industry’s Creative Progress – PRovoke Media

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PRovoke Media and NowGoCreate, in conjunction with FleishmanHillard, are launching the eighth edition of their landmark survey into creativity in the PR industry.

This year's study comes two years since theoutbreak of Covid-19, which formed the focus of last year's Creativity in PR study.

With the PR profession more important than ever in helping governments, brands and individuals communicate, the 2022 studywill renew the focuson how creativity has changed during the past two years. Specifically, it aims to examine whether the industry is consolidating the creative gains it made during the first 12 months of the Covid-19 crisis, and how the trends driving earned first creative are changing.

The survey will also continue to analyze the PR industry's efforts to win the war for ideas, in a world where traditional boundaries between brand-building disciplines are breaking down fast. And it will investigate creative talent and hiring trends in detail.

The10-minute survey can be accessed here all respondents are welcome.Final deadline is 2 May.

The study is co-authored by PRovoke Media and creative training consultancy Now Go Create.

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Survey: Help Us Understand PR Industry's Creative Progress - PRovoke Media

The Lexington Progress and Lexington Broadcasting WZLT 99.3 Hosts Meet the Candidates Forum Lexington Progress – lexingtonprogress.com

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A Meet the Candidates public forum was held in the auditorium of Lexington High School on Monday, April 11, 2022.Photo by: Blake Franklin / The Lexington Progress

Article by W. Clay Crook-

The Meet the Candidates public forum, sponsored by Lexington Broadcasting WZLT-99.3 and The Lexington Progress, was held at the Lexington High School auditorium at 6:00 p.m., Monday evening, March 11, 2022. The master of ceremonies for the event was Lexington attorney Sam Hinson. On behalf of Z-99 and The Lexington Progress Id like to thank everyone for attending, Hinson said. The format follows a three minute opening statement, and then a question and answer session. Position to speak was determined by lot beforehand, and rotated.

Brad Atkinson began the opening three minute address. He said that he wanted to start off by clearing up some rumors that he was replacing the entire crew with one of his own. He does not plan to fire anyone doing their job, and has no plans to replace everyone with his own crew. Atkinson said that he started out law enforcement with the Lexington Police Department, and was there for four years. In 2004, he went to the THP where he currently now serves. He has specialized in narcotics seizures, which he learned under Todd Bowman while with the LPD. Fentanyl, he said, is deadly, and can kill thousands even in small doses, and is a severe concern in our area. His track record over the last year has cleared this and many other drugs off the streets. His plans are to create a special team to work narcotics, and he will personally be the leader of this team.

Sheriff Brian Duke said that he has served in the office for the last sixteen years, and is a graduate of UT- Martin, and has served in many law enforcement in many capacities over the last thirty years. He wants to continue to work with the commission so that each of the county schools can have their own resource officer. He also wants to have the re-entry program become a permanent part of the Sheriffs Department, which will reduce the recidivism rate, and provide gainful employment.

There were two sheriff candidate questions, what are your plans for safer schools and more resource officers, and the second question was about their plans to reduce

For the complete story, see the April 13th edition of The Lexington Progress.

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The Lexington Progress and Lexington Broadcasting WZLT 99.3 Hosts Meet the Candidates Forum Lexington Progress - lexingtonprogress.com

Penelope Review: Adrift Between Ithaca and Progress – The New York Times

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Hope to see you soon, she has him sign off, affectionately. Your Odysseus.

Directed by Emily Maltby for the York Theater Company, with music direction and orchestrations by David Hancock Turner, Penelope paints its title character as the author of The Odyssey. Its a promising twist, and it builds on an established idea that The Odyssey, a work abundant with substantial female characters Penelope, Athena, Calypso, Circe, even the sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis is not a male creation.

The novelist and critic Samuel Butler, in the 1890s, theorized that a woman must have written it. The classicist Robert Graves whose Butler-inspired 1955 novel, Homers Daughter, imagines a Sicilian princess as the author of The Odyssey called it a poem about and for women, its hero notwithstanding.

Penelope, at the Theater at St. Jeans on Manhattans Upper East Side, feels like a musical about and for men. In its cast of 10, there are just three women, including Britney Nicole Simpson, who makes a lovely Off Broadway debut in the title role. It is not through any shortcoming of hers that this ostensibly female-centric show, as a program note puts it, is so enamored of its male characters: the five tiresome suitors; Penelope and Odysseuss son, Telemachus; and especially Odysseus. Penelope snaps into focus only in Act 2, when the wandering king returns and takes over a plot that had always been about his absence anyway.

If you are looking for a vividly written Penelope, you would do better with Madeline Millers 2018 novel Circe, in which Penelope is indelible, and surprising, in a small supporting role. Here, though, the story that Kellogg (book and lyrics) and Weiner (music) tell suffers from a failure of imagination, as if making her a weaver of tales rather than of cloth gives her definition enough. (In The Odyssey, she promises to wed as soon as she finishes a weaving project, then unravels her work each night.) She does have Odysseuss nurse, Eurycleia (an expert Leah Hocking), to conspire with, but wheres the rest of her orbit?

If, on the other hand, you are looking for an old-fashioned, comfort-food kind of musical with goofball humor, unpretentious songs and a heroine who is just fine with the world never knowing that she wrote one of its classics (I, for one, had trouble swallowing that concession), Penelope may be a good fit.

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Penelope Review: Adrift Between Ithaca and Progress - The New York Times

Genuine intersectoral collaboration is needed to achieve better progress in vector control – World Health Organization

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The world needs to work better and collaborate with sectors beyond health to implement the Global Vector Control Response 20172030 (GVCR), which aims to prevent and control diseases that are transmitted by vectors, particularly mosquitoes.

It is time that vector control programmes work jointly with city planners, environmentalists, engineers and sectors that manage water and sanitation, said a leading expert during a WHO-hosted webinar on Reducing the burden and threat of vector-borne diseases to achieve the NTD road map targets, as we face the prospect of 7 out of 10 people living in cities and urban areas globally by 2050.

One of the things which is critical as we build out future cities we really need to do better in the area of prevention reducing the habitats of all mosquito species, said Steve Lindsay, panellist and former Professor at Durham University, United Kingdom.

This implies reducing the breeding sites for Aedes mosquitoes that transmit vector-borne diseases such as dengue, chikungunya and malaria by enhancing access to piped water, constructing houses with built-in screens to block mosquito entry, clearing waste, improving drainage and keeping the environment clean.

These measures, as advocated by GVCR, can be implemented in present-day towns and smaller cities that will eventually expand in two to three decades into sprawling cities. So, working locally with city mayors and communities can make a big difference and build resilience in preventing mosquito-borne diseases.

During the webinar, panellists highlighted progress and challenges in implementing GVCR since its launch in 2017. A joint action group is coordinating implementation globally, and many WHO regions have developed vector control policies and strategies.

While the GVCR is on track for some activities, amounting to an almost 10% reduction in global mortality over the past 5 years, for many other activities targets have not been reached, with only 27% of countries completing a vector control needs assessment, well below the 2020 goal of 50%.

Other challenges include lack of entomological capacity, COVID-19 disruptions to programmes and lack of funding to implement GVCR. A progress report outlining achievements and challenges will be submitted to the Seventy-fifth World Health Assembly in May 2022.

Other panelists spoke of vector control in several parts of the world, including in Africa where integrated vector management (IVM) has been pioneered, and in other countries where GVCR has boosted implementation of IVM and increased levels of preparedness against arboviral diseases.

Challenges facing vector control in WHOs Eastern Mediterranean Region were also highlighted. Invasive Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that primarily transmit dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever have spread, and Aedes albopictus is now prevalent in many countries. Much is being done to strengthen surveillance, monitoring and control response with stronger community engagement.

Panellists also spoke of the need to build more entomological capacity. In India, for example, considerable progress has been made with the launch of major government initiatives to eliminate malaria and lymphatic filariasis. The country is poised to defeat visceral leishmaniasis through a reinvigorated vector control and surveillance programme. Furthermore, the Vector Control Research Centre in Puducherry trains several local entomologists through a competitive process but also offers seats to foreign students.

The webinar also heard of progress and challenges in WHOs European and Americas, which are facing increased emergence and re-emergence of vector-borne diseases.

More than half the worlds population is at risk of infection from vector-borne diseases, especially dengue, leishmaniasis and malaria.

Vector-borne diseases affect more than 1 billion people and cause the death of an estimated 1 million people globally.

Vectors are responsible for transmitting many neglected tropical diseases, mostly among the poorest populations where there is a lack of access to adequate housing, safe drinking-water and sanitation.

Malnourished people and those with weakened immunity are especially susceptible to vector-borne diseases.

During the past two decades, many vector-borne diseases have emerged or re-emerged, spreading to new parts of the world.

Other factors, such as environmental changes, increased international travel and trade, changes in agricultural practices and rapid, unplanned urbanization have facilitated the spread of many vectors worldwide.

Addressing the burden of diseases transmitted by these vectors is critical.

You can access a recording of the full webinar at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OKXvHu_e4U

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Two Friends Have Bucket List Experience – The Progress – mvprogress

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By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

Overton resident Barbara Erwin with her tandem skydiver Giulianno Scotti parachuted far above the Moapa Valley in an experience of a lifetime last month.

It was finally time to check off an important bucket list item for one Overton woman last month. And it might never have been done if not for the support of a good neighbor and dear friend.

For a long time now, 75-year-old Linda Erwin of Overton has wanted to do something unusual for her age: go sky-diving. And on Saturday, March 26, she got her chance.

We had seen the jumpers all the time from our house coming down over the airport, Linda said in an interview with The Progress last week. It always looked like it would be so much fun. So I was like, Oh my gosh, I would really like to do that!.

But the idea proved much more difficult than expected. The local touring company Skydive Fyrosity, which offers tandem skydives out of Perkins Field Airport in Overton, usually takes people up two at a time. And Linda felt like she would prefer the support of a friend going along. But it was difficul finding anyone to go with her.Most people think you are crazy when you invite them to do something like that, she said.

Barbara Erwin (right) and her friend Nathalie Gottschalk (left) pose for a photo in the Skydive Fyrosity hangar before their skydive experience out of Perkins Field Airport.

A little over two years ago, Linda finally found a neighbor friend who agreed to jump with her. The two made an appointment with Skydive Fyrosity to make the jump together on the same day. But the bells of fate struck an unexpected blow that week.

We were due to jump on a Saturday afternoon, Linda said. And about 24 hours prior to our jump, on a Friday at 1 pm, the Governor announced a shut down of all non-essential businesses due to COVID. We were so disappointed!

Lindas bucket list item was put on hold. In the meantime, the neighbor moved away. So Linda was left to search for another jumping partner.

That is where Overton resident Nathalie Gottschalk came into the story. Nathalie was a former neighbor, and a friend to Linda. They ran into each other at Christmas time last year.I was just going by her house to deliver some Christmas cookies, Nathalie said of Linda. And somehow all of this started in motion!

During the visit, Linda told Nathalie about her dilemma: that she wanted to fulfill this long-held wish, but couldnt find a partner.She expressed concern that she was getting older and there was a very limited window for her to do it, Nathalie said. And she couldnt do it by herself. She needed someone to support her.

Now, Nathalie was clear that skydiving was never something that she had ever yearned to do. It was not on my bucket list at all, she said. I always said that there was no way I would do that. These people are crazy!

But something in the way that Linda asked her, made Nathalie soften a bit about it. I told her to call me when it started getting warmer and, if she still couldnt find anyone, we could think about it.

Nathalies husband Jean was very supportive of her having this experience. He kept encouraging me and telling me not to worry about it; that I should do it, Nathalie said. He said that this could be my birthday present. But I said, Yeah, but I want something else for my birthday present, not this!

Even so, when Linda contacted her earlier this year, Nathalie made up her mind to support her friend in realizing her long-held dream.

The two met at the airport on the day of the jump. Lindas husband and a large number of her friends and neighbors came to see her make the jump. Nathalies family came as well.

The two women were met by Skydive Fyrosity owner Sammy Vassilev who gave them instruction and got them equipped to go. Then they set off in the small airplane that would take them to jumping altitude.It took maybe 15-20 minutes to get high enough to make the jump, Linda explained. That was probably the longest part of the experience.

Nathalie admitted that she was pretty nervous. It was very hard for me, she said. But I just tried to focus on being supportive to Linda.

Finally it was time to take the jump. Nathalie and Sammy were the first to go, followed shortly by Linda and her instructor, a Brazilian skydiver named Giulianno Scotti.

Linda said that the experience was like nothing she had ever experienced before. You drop for maybe a minute or so and then they open the parachute, she said. Then you just float down from all that way up there for maybe 6-7 minutes. The views are just incredible from up there!

Linda said that she would definitely do it again if she had the chance. I dont know why anyone would not want to do it, she said. I would recommend it to anyone.

Nathalie was a little less eager to repeat the performance. But she added that skydiving was an unexpected pleasure for her.I wasnt expecting it to be so peaceful out there, she said. I mean you can breathe normally, and I could just feel the air around me. I cant describe it. But it was a beautiful experience!

Both women praised the Skydive Fyrosity operation and how well they were treated throughout the experience. They are so competent and you can tell that they are very safety conscious, Linda said. Sammy was wonderful! I would really recommend this experience for people because it is just really cool!

Linda was overjoyed to find that Nathalie had a good experience with the jump. She expressed gratitude to have such a good friend who would join her in the adventure.It was like a dream come true for me, Linda said. And I was so pleased that Nathalie was willing to do it with me.

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Secretary Haaland Announces Progress Toward Conservation and Restoration of Wildlife Corridors and Habitat Connectivity – US Department of the…

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Date: Thursday, April 7, 2022Contact: Interior_Press@ios.doi.gov

WASHINGTON Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland today announced several actions the Department is taking to advance its work on wildlife corridors. The Departments efforts will focus on conservation and restoration of wildlife corridors and habitat connectivity in a way that supports conservation outcomes, honors private landowner rights, and encourages collaboration with other federal agencies, state and local governments, Tribes and other stakeholders.

To maintain healthy species populations and ecosystems, fish and wildlife must have the freedom to move and migrate. But as habitats and migration routes continue to be impacted by climate change and become fragmented by roads, fences, energy development and other man-made barriers, wildlife are struggling to reach the necessary areas to feed, breed, and find shelter, said Secretary Haaland. Enhancing wildlife migration corridors and habitat connectivity is a top conservation priority, and were committed to cultivating strong partnerships and providing the resources and tools necessary to support healthy wildlife populations across the country.

Secretary Haaland made todays announcements during a virtual event today with representatives from the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies, Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust, Native American Fish and Wildlife Society, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

Secretary Haaland announced $2.5 million in grants, which have been matched by another $7 million in contributions, that will be distributed to seven states and three Tribes for a total of 13 projects through the Improving Habitat Quality in Western Big Game Migration Corridors and Habitat Connectivity program. The grant program, initially established after Secretarys Order 3362, is administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and receives funding from the Interior Department, the Department of Agriculture, and private partners.

The Secretary also announced a first-of-its-kind agreement between the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society to coordinate support, involvement and utilization of the National Conservation Training Center to meet conservation needs, such as improving wildlife corridors and connectivity. The Service has pledged to fund this work with an initial commitment of $450,000.

The U.S. Geological Survey, working in collaboration with state and Tribal wildlife agencies, also published the second volume of its Ungulate Migrations of the Western United States report. The report provides detailed maps of corridors, stopovers, routes and winter ranges so that migration can be taken into account by state and federal transportation officials, land and wildlife managers, planners, and other conservationists working to maintain big-game migrations in the western states.

During her remarks, Secretary Haaland also outlined how the Interior Department will advance its work on wildlife corridors through a number of steps, including:

On May 6, 2021, the Biden-Harris administration outlined the America the Beautiful initiative, an ambitious vision for how the United States can work collaboratively to achieve a locally led, nationwide goal of conserving 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030. Enhancing wildlife corridors and habitat connectivity is an early focus of this effort and serves as an opportunity to embrace the voluntary conservation efforts of farmers, ranchers, and forest owners; the leadership of sovereign Tribal Nations; the contributions and stewardship traditions of Americas hunters, anglers, and fishing communities; and the collaboration between states, local communities, and federal agency partners.

Additionally, President Bidens Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Great American Outdoors Act, and the Land and Water Conservation Fund provide important opportunities for investments in collaborative conservation. These restoration and conservation investments will expand the capacity of the Department to enhance wildlife corridors and catalyze effective and meaningful conservation outcomes including for migration corridors.

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Secretary Haaland Announces Progress Toward Conservation and Restoration of Wildlife Corridors and Habitat Connectivity - US Department of the...

Texas Gov. Abbott Vows to Fight for SpaceX to Launch From Boca Chica Parabolic Arc – Parabolic Arc

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by Douglas MessierManaging Editor

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has vowed to fight for SpaceX to receive federal approval to launch its Super Heavy/Starlink system from the companys Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas. Rio Grande Guardian reports:

Asked by veteran broadcaster Ron Whitlock ofRon Whitlock Reportswhether he is concerned about losing SpaceX, Abbott said:

What I am going to do if Biden interferes with the ability of SpaceX to launch from Boca Chica; I am going to be working every step of the way to make sure that they are going to be able to launch from Boca Chica. We heard the vision from Mr. Patel himself about what they are working on and our job is to make sure they are able to achieve their vision. And I have worked with Elon Musk very closely with regard to Tesla and the Giga factory in Austin, Texas. And we will be working with him very closely, every step of the way in Boca Chica for the future of SpaceX. We want that future and that vision to come from Boca Chica, from Brownsville, Texas.

Whitlock followed up with: And not to Florida? Abbott responded: Correct.

Whitlock interviewed Abbott at an economic development event held recently at the Port of Brownsville. Since this event, SpaceX has learned that its application to expand its Boca Chica rocket launching site has hit a new hurdle.

The new hurdle is that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers suspended consideration of SpaceXs proposal to expand Starbase on the grounds the company had failed to adequately respond to a series of questions about the plan the Corps had raised last May. The matter can be reopened if SpaceX responds with the requested information.

The Corps sent aletterto SpaceX dated March 7 that lists a number of deficiencies in the application. The overriding concern is that SpaceX eliminated alternative locations Cape Canaveral in Florida and Vandenberg Space Force Base in California without providing a thorough analysis of why those sites were not viable.

SpaceX had originally said Boca Chica was the only viable launch site. Earlier this year, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said that if approval of the Texas site was delayed, the company would move operations to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. SpaceX subsequently ramped up Super Heavy/Starship construction in the Sunshine State.

Musks company wants to build a launch complex near Pads 39A and 39B, which are being used for launches of SpaceXs Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters and NASAs Space Launch System, respectively. SpaceX also wants to develop a site situated north of that location which would be known as Pad 49. Environmental groups in Florida have raised objections to the Pad 49 plan.

The Corps is evaluating how the expansion of SpaceXs permit would affect 17.16 acres of land adjacent to SpaceXs current footprint at Boca Chica. The expansion would involve the addition of test, orbital, and landing pads, integration towers, associated infrastructure, stormwater management features and vehicle parking. The proposed expansion will impact 10.94 acres of mud flats, 5.94 acres of estuarine wetlands, and 0.28 acres of non-tidal wetlands, according to the Corps project description.

The review is being done in conjunction with the Federal Aviation Administrations (FAA) programmatic environmental assessment (PEA) of SpaceXs plan to expand the spaceport and launch Super Heavy/Starship vehicles from the location just north of the Mexican border. FAA originally planned to complete the PEA by the end of last December; however, the estimated completion date is now April 28.

Some people are arguing on various Internet sites that the Corps application only covers expansion for a second Boca Chica launch pad and is separate from the PEA document being prepared by the FAA. So, the FAA could approve launches from a pad SpaceX has already built. However, an expert in the subject who writes under the name ESG Hound said that is not so.

The land covered in the Corps application covers all the stuff in the PEA, including support buildings and other site infrastructure. The two actions are intimately intertwined but go ahead in thinking this is some Elon Musk 4D Chess, he tweeted.

You can read his full analysis of the Corps decision and its likely impact on the review processhere.

What SpaceX is looking for in the FAAs PEA is a finding that launching the worlds most powerful rocket from Boca Chica would have no significant impact (FONSI) on the surrounding area. FAA could issue a FONSI subject to a number of conditions designed to limit the impact of launches and launch failures from the site.

However, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and National Park Service have raised serious questions about whether a FONSI can be issued even with conditions. A number of environmental groups have opposed SpaceXs plans, saying launching the rocket is not compatible with the sensitive nature of the surrounding area.

There are several possible outcomes:

An EIS was originally conducted before the FAA granted approval for SpaceX to launch Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets from Boca Chica. The company abandoned those plans and began testing Starship prototypes at the site, which it named Starbase.

FAA decided that a less rigorous EA was required to approve launches of the even larger Super Heavy/Starship from the location. That in itself has proven controversial; opponents have argued that a full EIS should have been started when SpaceX changed its plans several years ago.

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Texas Gov. Abbott Vows to Fight for SpaceX to Launch From Boca Chica Parabolic Arc - Parabolic Arc

Elon Musks Starbase in Texas sits on land once pitched to Chicago Polish retirees by Polish radios John C – Chicago Sun-Times

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Billionaire Elon Musks ambitious plans for space travel are taking shape on a sandy patch of Texas not far from the U.S.-Mexico border town of Brownsville and South Padre Island, the spring break haven.

Its an area that might not seem to have much in common with Chicago, with its warm, salty waters, occasional shark sightings and the up-righted rockets that protrude from the landscape.

But Chicagoans are central to the history of Musks Texas Starbase property where spaceships are assembled and SpaceX workers, including Musk, stay in an adjacent neighborhood of ranch-style homes or campers along streets lined with palm trees and, reflecting another of Musks business interests, electric-powered Tesla cars in some of the driveways.

Elon Musks Starbase complex includes what initially was called Kennedy Shores when it was created as a retirement village in the 1960s by a Chicago developer.

Robert Herguth / Sun-Times

Campers dot the landscape of Elon Musks rocket facility in south Texas adjacent to what was once a retirement community that drew Polish Americans from Chicago.

Robert Herguth / Sun-Times

Over the past decade, Musk has bought or obtained options to buy land there just down Texas State Highway 4 from a launch site where his spacecraft might one day take off for Mars or beyond.

The area previously was home to a retirement community that Chicago radio personality John A. Caputa helped create, pitching the site on Polish-language radio programs in the 1960s and 1970s as the next Fort Lauderdale.

Caputa who was from Austria but spoke Polish also promoted the development in a Polish language newspaper in Chicago.

Elon Musk speaks at SpaceXs Starbase facility near Boca Chica Village in South Texas.

Only a smattering of homes ended up being built for the retirement community. And no more than a few dozen people at any given time ever lived in the community initially named Kennedy Shores after President John F. Kennedy, then called Kopernik Shores in homage of Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus and now known as Boca Chica Village, a nod in Spanish to the small mouth of the nearby Rio Grande River.

The entrance to Boca Chica Village, with the rocket launch site visible in the distance.

Robert Herguth / Sun-Times

What seemed like an honest venture at the start turned into a nightmare for some by the time Caputa died at 65 in 1977 after a heart attack while driving on what was then called the Northwest Tollway. At the time of his death, hed been staying, penniless or nearly so, at the Leaning Tower YMCA in Niles, noteworthy for its half-scale replica of the Pisa landmark.

In a story headlined, Hes Dead, Their Savings Gone, the Chicago Sun-Times reported: Caputa was building a retirement village for Polish immigrants in south Texas ... and with the help of the Lord and the people of Chicagos Polish community, the dream would come true. He asked his listeners to lend him money and promised a 12% return after a year.

But, according to the story, Caputa had been falling behind on payments to his creditors, including his radio listeners, since the early 1970s.

According to the Texas Almanac, after Caputas death, it was discovered that many of the Kopernik Shore residents did not hold clear title to their land.

Caputa had gotten into real estate in the 1960s, joining a venture with several others who bought a huge parcel along the Texas Gulf Coast. Their plan? To build a Fort Lauderdale of the West, using Caputas salesmanship and ties with the Chicago ethnic community to market lots.

Caputa brought train and bus loads of people from Chicago to see the property, but a series of tropical storms battered the area, and sales slowed, the Sun-Times reported.

Caputa broke with his partners, and legal and financial problems followed.

Two months after Caputas death, the old Dallas Times Herald chronicled the politics of the place, whose mayor at the time was 82-year-old Stanley Piotrowicz, whod been a home builder in Evanston and run unsuccessfully for Illinois secretary of state in 1936 as a third-party candidate.

Piotrowicz got the community incorporated, but that was overturned by a judge as a political rival fumed over the inability to get fresh water piped to the area. The bitterness spilled into the April 2, 1977, election that a judge called the most irregular in the history of Texas, rife with accusations of election fraud.

Piotrowicz, who was born in Poland, believed so strongly in the idea of a Polish megalopolis of senior citizens in southern Texas that he was one of the first to invest, according to the Dallas newspaper.

I was president of the Polish American Senior Citizens Council of Chicago, and we had 2,600 members sign up for land with Caputa, he told the paper. Its the best climate in the U.S. for asthma and rheumatism. Here, you get cured without a doctor just God and the sun.

A grotto of the Virgin Mary, one of the few remaining signs that Boca Chica Village was once a retirement community of Polish Americans.

Robert Herguth / Sun-Times

One of the few unused structures in Boca Chica Village.

Robert Herguth / Sun-Times

Decades later, Musk is using that land in his effort to some day travel to the heavens.

And Caputa and Piotrowiczs dream for whats now Boca Chica Village, which still includes a few retirees who hadnt sold to Musk?

In the words of Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino Jr., It is definitely not a sleepy retirement village any longer.

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Elon Musks Starbase in Texas sits on land once pitched to Chicago Polish retirees by Polish radios John C - Chicago Sun-Times

Why YouTube wants to get into the NFT business – Protocol

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Every big platform is bracing itself for Web3. NFTs will arrive on Instagram soon. Spotify is hiring for Web3 experts. Twitter already lets users show off their virtual art as profile pictures. YouTube isn't far behind on its own NFT plans, which are vague at the moment, but CEO Susan Wojcicki said they'll help relatively small creators jumpstart their platforms.

"We are seeing that creators are selling their videos and memes as NFTs," Wojcicki told livestreamer Ludwig Ahgren on a recent podcast episode of The Yard. "If creators are selling their videos as NFTs, then that's an important form of monetization. I don't think it would be good if that all happened on another platform."

Wojcicki said allowing creators to sell NFTs on the platform can help smaller influencers who are just beginning to build up their accounts, pointing to musicians who have begun using NFTs as a way to fundraise.

At the end of the day what YouTube does is, were a platform that distributes content and monetization, she said. If NFTs are an important part of that equation, then we think we should be there.

Wojcicki, who owns "a few" NFTs herself, didn't provide too many details on YouTube's Web3 plans. But she said YouTube is in the best position to verify virtual assets that belong to creators through its Content ID tool, which lets creators track and manage their content. It would be a problem for you if some other third-party site were selling your videos without knowing that it belonged to you, Wojcicki added.

Ahgren pushed back on NFTs, saying they're a "blight" in the gaming world and will only help already big influencers in the long run. Gaming companies that have introduced these tools have gotten their fair share of backlash, both for environmental reasons and because some see crypto in gaming as unnecessary. Wojcicki acknowledged that YouTube's decision to work on NFTs was "polarizing" but that the platform's goal behind NFTs is to protect creators. Were going to be really careful. I think you are going to be OK with what we do with NFTs," she said.

YouTube's $100 million Shorts Fund has also been polarizing for creators. Wojcicki told Ahgren that the money from the program is only a temporary form of revenue. I dont think [Shorts funds are] permanent, Wojcicki said. She added that YouTube is working to make the Shorts program more scalable in the future and that the platform is working on a new program for creators to make money. But I cant say anything else, she said.

Ahgren pointed to a video posted by YouTuber Hank Green, who said creator funds arent sustainable because the pool of dedicated cash is static even though the number of creators eligible for the fund grows. But Wojcicki said the Shorts Fund was only an initial form of monetization for short-form creators, and the platform is looking to run more ads on short-form content so people can earn money like they would on longer YouTube videos. YouTube has a great monetization program for long-form creators, and we want to extend that for Shorts, Wojcicki said.

YouTube's decision to stop displaying the dislike count may not have been a popular one, but Wojcicki said even though the move got its fair share of backlash, it was made in the best interest of creators.

"I understand there were many people and yes, we heard loud and clear why people were unhappy with that decision," she told Ahgren. "But then we also saw the impact that it was having on a lot of new creators, and thats bad. We need to have, and continue to support, smaller creators and how theyre growing. Thats really important for the long-term health of our ecosystem."

Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Ludwig Ahgren's name. This story was updated on April 11, 2022.

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Big tech conferences arent coming back – Protocol

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Good morning! Do you miss roaming a convention center with a tech conference badge? Or the summer camp vibe of reuniting with industry peers you havent seen in years? Well, the virtual events necessitated by the pandemic appear to be sticking around. So is the in-person tech event a thing of the past? I'm Allison Levitsky, and I once worked as a Frida Kahlo impersonator at SFMOMA.

The pandemics darkest days have passed and in-person gatherings are back, but the virtual events that emerged during the pandemic have staying power. Some of techs biggest conferences are hanging on to a hybrid element if not remaining entirely online.

Were fully into year three of the pandemic, and Big Techs conferences are still mostly virtual. The events once packed thousands of attendees into large convention centers in exotic locales like San Jose and Las Vegas, but this week, Apple announced that its annual developers conference would once again be an online event, and Facebook parent company Meta is also putting its annual developers event on pause.

Other companies are going all-in on hybrid conferences. This combines the benefits of in-person gatherings networking, more immersive experiences, a captive audience with the wider audience and deeper focus of online sessions.

In-person networking is a big part of the appeal of conferences. But apparently, thats not deterring tech companies from making their developer conferences virtual.

Well have to see whether Apple takes the wraps off its latest iPhone with a splashy IRL event this September. Either way, the more technical tech conferences are likely to stay at least partially, if not mostly, online or maybe in, IDK, the metaverse?

How is tech setting and measuring climate goals?

Net zero. Carbon offsets. Scope 3 emissions. These are just some of the terms youll find in Big Techs climate plans. Understanding what they actually mean is vital to ensuring the industry is meeting its goals. Join us at 10 a.m. PT April 19, where Protocol's Brian Kahn will talk with some of the people responsible for setting those goals and experts who are monitoring them to find out what tech companies are really doing. RSVP here.

DuckDuckGo has an all-in-one privacy solution aimed at simplifying online privacy protection. DuckDuckGos app can be used as an everyday browser with private search, tracker blocking, encryption, and now email protection built-in. Its the free, easy button for online privacy.

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Tesla shareholder Ron Baron doesnt think Elon Musks Twitter buy is a big deal:

Microsofts Satya Nadella told workers to stop sending those late-night emails:

Janet Yellen said crypto regulation should be tech neutral:

Daversa Partners Frank Cumella said companies should create strong ties with their executive search firm:

Bolt Financial bought Wyre Payments, a blockchain-based payments provider, for about $1.5 billion, sources told The Wall Street Journal.

Coinbase is on a hiring spree in India. The company plans to triple its employee count in the country to 1,000, and half of the new hires will be engineers.

Discoverys new post-WarnerMedia merger leaders are in place. Jean-Briac Perrette will lead its streaming businesses; Bruce Campbell will serve as chief revenue and strategy officer; and Kathleen Finch is the new chair and chief content officer.

Skand Gupta is the new head of Engineering at Cadre. Gupta has worked in senior engineering roles at companies like Better.com and Dropbox.

Elon Musk finally visited the White House. He met with Biden officials alongside other auto industry leaders to discuss topics like charging networks and EVs.

Amazon will appeal its unionization defeat, which last week saw workers in New York vote to establish the companys first U.S. union. Hardly surprising.

Riot Games is the latest to drop its vaccine requirement and ask workers to come back to the office. Sources told Vice the change has upset employees, some of whom have left.

Twitter Employees aren't happy with Elon Musk being on the company's board, so much so that the company plans to host a town hall on the matter, according to The Washington Post.

Activision Blizzards quality assurance testers are now full-time workers after months of activism from some employees. The workers now have full-time contracts and a raise.

Twitter is testing a tool that would let users unmention themselves from conversations on the web.

Epic and Lego want to make the metaverse better for kids. Their plans to work together are vague, but theyre aiming to prioritize kids well-being and protect their privacy.

SpaceX cant expand in Boca Chica, Texas, for now because it never provided documentation on how its growth would affect surrounding ecology and wildlife.

Famous women including Gwyneth Paltrow and Reese Witherspoon are getting in on the crypto craze. Given that men have invested more in crypto than women, that leadership push from women celebrities should be seen as a good thing. But its not really?

Women celebrities interest in NFTs sounds a lot like the girlboss philosophy, which refers to a 2010s trend in which women leaders broke into male-dominated fields, but in a self-serving way. The charge looks like women are successfully breaking the glass ceiling, but at the expense of marginalized women. The ongoing hype around NFTs could play out in the same way, the Washington Post reports, but time will tell.

Tracking is a comprehensive problem over 80% of websites, apps and emails contain third-party trackers. Because of that, people need a multi-pronged privacy solution. DuckDuckGos all-in-one privacy app can be used as an everyday browser with multiple features built-in, including private search, tracker blocking, encryption, and email protection.

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Thoughts, questions, tips? Send them to sourcecode@protocol.com, or our tips line, tips@protocol.com. Enjoy your day, see you Sunday.

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Will Elon Musk Build a Tunnel Loop in San Antonio? – Government Technology

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(TNS) The Alamo Regional Mobility Authority doesn't exactly know where Elon Musk's Boring Co. wants to build its proposed underground transportation loop in San Antonio.

The RMA's board voted 5-0 last month to enter negotiations with the tunnel maker to construct a loop system at an estimated cost of between $247 million and $289 million connecting San Antonio International Airport and downtown.

The system could include a leg linking the Convention Center to the Pearl area on Broadway.

The Alamo RMA also has a lot of questions. Its chairman, Michael Lynd Jr., said the project remains largely conceptual.

"The tunnel is not designed," he said during an Express-News editorial board meeting Thursday. "We have no idea even what the route is today. All of that will have to be determined."

The drive from the airport and downtown is less than 10 miles, mainly on U.S. 281, and takes about 15 minutes in moderate traffic. Drive times are slower, of course, if there's an accident or it's rush hour.

Lynd said the loop would address current traffic problems and could help ease increased congestion resulting from San Antonio's future population growth.

The Boring Co. estimates it could transport 4,400 business travelers, tourists and locals per hour in Teslas from the airport to downtown and back, generating annual revenue of $25 million for the RMA. The tunnels would be about 12 feet wide.

If the loop gets built and is successful, Lynd foresees the possibility of expanding the system, with Teslas delivering passengers to Brooks on the Southeast Side, the University of Texas at San Antonio's downtown campus, Port San Antonio, Texas A&M University-San Antonio, the Shops at La Cantera and the AT&T Center, among other destinations.

But the RMA doesn't know yet whether the tunnel would be financially feasible.

"They need the ability to be self-financed, so they have to be economically viable," said Lynd, CEO of the development firm Kairoi Residential.

He said the authority will bring in consultants to conduct feasibility and ridership studies to determine whether there's enough demand to generate the revenue to pay for the loop's construction and operation.

The RMA hasn't yet hired firms to conduct the studies.

If the results show a loop makes financial sense, he said, the RMA and Boring Co. would begin working out its path. The tunnels could be dug mostly under U.S. 281 in part to avoid having to negotiate with numerous private property owners for rights of way, as well as complications with city utilities.

"It's a lot easier to generate right-of-way access for us," Lynd said. "We would need the ability to secure a right of way even if we're underneath somebody's property. We want to eliminate as many moving pieces as possible between the airport and downtown."

With the loop project, the authority's main goal is to bring in more revenue so the agency can pay for roadway projects that will result in less congestion.

Other RMAs in Texas take in revenue from toll roads. But San Antonio has none of those because of fierce opposition to such projects. As a result, the Bexar County-created Alamo RMA's biggest source of funding comes from vehicle registration fees.

In 2020, the fees accounted for $15.7 million, or more than half of the RMA's total revenue of $29 million.

The company told the RMA it could pay between $27 million and $47 million for the loop's first phase, and it could maintain and operate the system through a long-term lease agreement.

If the RMA moves forward with the project, it could sell revenue bonds to pay for construction of the tunnels. It would use money generated from passenger fares and possibly other sources to repay the debt.

"The key reason for selecting The Boring Co. is that their proposal did not reduce by $1 any available funds to construct any road," Lynd said. "It also did not require a revenue guarantee from the county or taxpayers. And it also did not require any new county taxes in order to pay for its improvement."

"In essence, the project, as proposed, is fully self-financed," he said. " The Boring Co. has indicated a willingness to construct the project under a fixed price with no cost overrun risk to the RMA."

The loop system would include several stations along the route, potentially both underground and at street-level.

Lynd said it could be more than an underground loop system that delivers passengers from Point A to Point B. Boring Co. drivers could drop off riders at locations outside the loop like rideshare drivers.

"What [drivers] can do is exit the tunnel, drive on the streets, drop you at your final destination, loop back around and then be at the entrance of the tunnel so the car can loop back into the system," he said.

Its track record is mixed.

Founded in 2016 by Musk who's also CEO of Tesla and founder and chief executive of SpaceX the company has completed one project: a $52 million, 1.7-mile tunnel under the Las Vegas Convention Center. In October, it received approval from Las Vegas officials to begin building a 29-mile tunnel to include 51 stations across the city.

It's also currently looking to build projects in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

The Boring Co. reportedly connected with Cameron County officials last summer to pitch a tunnel system connecting southern South Padre Island to the northern portion of Boca Chica Beach, near SpaceX's launch site in South Texas.

The tunnel company, headquartered in the Austin area, also met with Austin officials last summer to discuss the possibility of connecting Tesla's "gigafactory" to downtown by tunnels.

Just as many of its proposals have fallen by the wayside, however.

The Boring Co. has halted work on projects in Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City and Washington, D.C., among others. Several of them died in the environmental review process.

"From San Antonio to Austin, this corridor is the fastest-growing in the nation in terms of population growth," he said. "There's no doubt that our roads will continue to meet expanded demand. That's the problem that we're trying to solve."

Bexar County's population alone is projected to hit 2.8 million people by 2040, up from its current 1.9 million.

The proposed San Antonio loop eventually could be expanded to New Braunfels and Austin.

2022 the San Antonio Express-News, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Drake: Model-Based Design and Verification for Robotics

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Drake (dragon in Middle English) is a C++ toolbox started by theRobot Locomotion Group at the MITComputer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL). Thedevelopment team has now grown significantly, with coredevelopment led by the Toyota Research Institute. Itis a collection of tools for analyzing the dynamics of our robots and buildingcontrol systems for them, with a heavy emphasis on optimization-baseddesign/analysis.

While there are an increasing number of simulation tools available forrobotics, most of them function like a black box: commands go in, sensors comeout. Drake aims to simulate even very complex dynamics of robots (e.g.including friction, contact, aerodynamics, ), but always with an emphasis onexposing the structure in the governing equations (sparsity, analyticalgradients, polynomial structure, uncertainty quantification, ) and making thisinformation available for advanced planning, control, and analysis algorithms.Drake provides an interface to Python to enable rapid-prototyping of newalgorithms, and also aims to provide solid open-source implementations for manystate-of-the-art algorithms. Finally, we hope Drake provides many compellingexamples that can help people get started and provide much needed benchmarks.We are excited to accept user contributions to improve the coverage.

You can read more about the vision for Drake in this blogpost.

We hope you find this tool useful. Please seeGetting Help if you wish to share your comments,questions, success stories, or frustrations. And please contribute your bestbug fixes, features, and examples!

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Drake: Model-Based Design and Verification for Robotics

Robotics industry will convene in Pittsburgh to explore how the city became a leader in autonomous vehicles – NEXTpittsburgh

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Pittsburghers seem reluctant to boast about something thats pretty significant the citys role as the birthplace of autonomous vehicles, says Joel Reed, executive director of the Pittsburgh Robotics Network. Or, maybe they just dont know about it.

When I was at IAM Robotics, more often than not, people associated with smart machines saw Pittsburgh as one of the top two regions for it in the world. In the U.S., theres Boston, Pittsburgh and San Francisco (including Silicon Valley), says Reed.

But that is not as well known in Pittsburgh.

The citys dominance in the field will certainly be a topic at a special event titled The State of Our Autonomous Vehicle Industry, on April 21 at the New Hazlett Theater on the North Side. The event will feature a keynote panel discussion, awards for contributions to the robotics industry and a VIP reception.

The gathering will also include the announcement of the Pittsburgh Robotics Cluster Profile, a document that focuses on the regions unique growth and opportunities in the robotics industry. The profile expands upon a report commissioned last year by the Regional Industrial Development Corporation called Forefront: Securing Pittsburghs Break-out Position in Autonomous Mobile Systems, which shows Pittsburghs powerful role in the autonomous vehicle sphere.

Aurora self-driving vehicles. Photo courtesy of Aurora.

That study estimates the direct employment of about 6,300 jobs in the autonomy sector in Western Pennsylvania, which generates an estimated $651 million in income, $34.7 million in state and local tax revenues, and $126.7 million in federal tax revenues. The industry also helped to create 8,604 full- or part-time indirect jobs, for a total of 14,923.

Thats not anywhere close to, say, banking or medicine in Pittsburghs economy. But its pretty good for a sector that barely existed 20 years ago.

Its growing, too. Last year, Waymo the self-driving vehicle operation affiliated with Google announced an expansion in Pittsburgh. Giants in the field such as Aurora and Argo AI have made Pittsburgh their headquarters, which anchors a lot of non-engineering jobs (that are crucial to growing the field) in the region.

That report shows that it has the potential to be a $10 billion market locally, says Reed.

William Red Whittaker of Carnegie Mellon University will receive the Pittsburgh Robotics Impact Award at the event.

Dr. Whittakers commitment to robotics spans decades and his work pioneered autonomous vehicles, space robotics, sensing and perception, robotic manipulation and industrial robotics, and has even given rise to the entire discipline of field robotics, says Jennifer Apicella, program director at the Pittsburgh Robotics Network.

The event, hosted by the Pittsburgh Robotics Network, kicks off a bimonthly Industry Insights Speaker Series with local robotics industry experts. Tickets for the April 21 event are $20 and are available to the public.

Keynote panel speakers include:

autonomous vehiclesPittsburgh roboticsPittsburgh robotsRIDCrobotics

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Robotics industry will convene in Pittsburgh to explore how the city became a leader in autonomous vehicles - NEXTpittsburgh

Watch: Robotics in the Warehouse: Will It Scale? – SupplyChainBrain

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Customers are turning to robotics in the warehouse because of the technology's modularity and scalability, says Romain Moulin, chief executive officer and co-founder of Exotec Inc.

When Moulin speaks of automation in the warehouse, he thinks of huge and quite complex machinery; he thinks of hardware. Conversely, when it comes to robotics, he tends to think of software and more intelligence.

Theres an army of robots running everywhere in the warehouse, bringing totes to your operators so that you can speed up their processes, he says.

With robots, one has the ability to get to work as soon as theyre out of the box. This system can be deployed much faster, say, in six months, instead of usually one to one-and-a-half years, Moulin says. That's really the speed of deployment. And then theres the ability to add modules, to add robots, to scale up the system, which makes a difference between robotics and automation. Things are more flexible when you use robotics. Looking at the robotics industry as a whole, Moulin sees tremendous growth possibilities in the coming years, given the fact that current warehouse operations are still around 90% manual.

The 10% with automation has less flexibility than they would have with robotics, he says. These are systems that are difficult to modify. And once you put in the system, you don't touch it for 10 years. So we are bringing flexibility to these customers, the ability to have a high performance machine, but at the same time a machine that can be modified. I'm pretty sure that of this 90% with a manual warehouse, a big part of it will be converted to robotics. So it's a tremendous market.

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Albany High robotics team gets grand send-off for championships – Times Union

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ALBANY The Albany High School robotics team and their bot got a festive send-off at the National Grid headquarters in downtown Albany on Wednesday ahead of their trip to Houston.

The Falcons team and their creation, "Rein," are headed to the three-day FIRST Robotics World Championship at the end of May.

National Grid directors congratulated the students and presented the team with a $35,000 check and a cake at Wednesday's event.

After winning the regional competition, the club had less than a month to figure out travel and hotel costs not to mention how to transport a 120-pound robot across the country. Shipping it was too risky given the unpredictability of postal delivery.

Between National Grid, community donations and funds from the school district, the team raised nearly $100,000, more than double their $46,500 fundraising goal, in a week.

High school senior Alison Powell's parents volunteered to drive the team's creation on a pickup truck from Albany to Houston.

"Having it driven down is the best way to ensure that it makes it there in one piece and it's functional for the competition," Powell said.

Jacob Ennis, a National Grid gas field operations supervisor, has mentored the robotics team for the last eight years.

"I thought they would make it," Ennis said. "Albany High is always kind of scrappy when it comes to funding for the team and we always find a way to pull it out."

Rein pulled off some fancy maneuvers for the National Grid staff Wednesday. Its 360-degree swerve drive technology enables Rein to move faster and smoother in any direction in comparison to the tank-style robots the team has built in previous years. LED lights flash red, blue, and green to let the operator know how many balls it is holding.

Rein tossed balls into a trash can. At the upcoming competition, the robot will shoot balls into a net that is 8 feet tall.

During the regionals last month, the students identified some weaknesses in the robot. Then the brakes malfunctioned and the tire treads wore out. But the new-and-improved Rein is ready to compete, they said.

"I have taken it apart and remade it more times than I can count," senior Dorothy Sperry said.

According to Robotics Club president Thor Hammer, coming up with the concept was a team effort.

"We all have a brainstorming day and collectively the entire team comes up with ideas for the robot and then we narrowed down the options," he said.

Albany Superintendent Kaweeda Adams thanked National Grid for the generous contribution and for its ongoing support for the Falcons team.

"Truly the inspiration for everything that we do, you are looking at it right here," Adams said Wednesday. "This is what motivates me every single day. These are the people who motivate me to get up at 4:30 every single morning and last well until midnight ... this is the group that will be our engineers, our mathematicians, our doctors. All of these things that they are learning here within this STEM program is what will help us in the future as a community."

It is the second time the award-wining robotics team has made it to the nationals.The Falcons won the regional contest in 2018 and participated in the national championships in Detroit a destination less cost-prohibitive because it did not require airfare.

Sophia Lucarelli, the club's treasurer, said arranging hotel and airfare and meals for 17 students was an ordeal, but thanks to the community's support, they pulled it off.

"Especially during senior year, you want to go out with a bang ... I'm just really looking forward to going to Houston and I'm so happy," Lucarelli said.

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Diligent Robotics Lands $30 Million In Series B Funding to Empower Healthcare with Robotics – Grit Daily

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One thing that became abundantly clear during the pandemic is that staffing issues can become a big deal when there is an influx of patients. But Diligent Robotics is providing a solution for that problem. The companys robots are focused on supporting and empowering healthcare teams, allowing them to focus on the patients instead of other, less valuable, tasks. Read more about the company and this recent funding round below.

Led by Tiger Global, funding will accelerate product development to meet demand for healthcare service robot and enhance interoperability, integrations and efficiency in healthcare institutions

AUSTIN, Texas, April 11, 2022 /PRNewswire/ Austin-based robotic automation company, Diligent Robotics, today announced that it has closed over $30 million in Series B funding, bringing the total investment raised to date to nearly $50 million. Diligent Robotics develops socially-intelligent service robots and artificial intelligence solutions that enable robots to collaborate within and adapt to human environments.

The flagship product, Moxi, is a robot that performs delivery tasks for frontline healthcare teams. Stress and burnout have been a persistent problem in healthcare for years, creating a shortage of nurses and clinical staff. But over the past two years COVID-19 has accelerated this into a crisis moment, with projections of more than 1 million new nurses needed in the U.S. alone. More and more health systems are looking for automation to provide workforce augmentation at a critical time for this market.

Tiger Global, an investment firm focused on private and public companies in the internet, software, consumer, and financial technology sectors, led the Series B funding round. Diligent also maintains the support of existing investors, including True Ventures, DNX Venture, Ubiquity Ventures, E14 Fund, Next Coast Ventures, Boom Capital, Gaingels as well as additional commitments from new investors including Cedars-Sinai Health Ventures.

We are proud to have the full support of our past investors and welcome our new partners who joined during our Series B raise, said Dr. Andrea Thomaz, co-founder of Diligent Robotics. This new round of funding will help us scale the company to meet the incredible demand for our healthcare service robot. Thanks to the support of our investors and the Diligent team, we are focused on expanding automated support for clinical teams so nurses and clinicians can focus on tasks that matter most, patient care.

Founded in 2017, Diligent Robotics is the leading company in the social robotics space and the first to build a unique robot with social intelligence and mobile manipulation capabilities to help people in their work environments. In 2018, the company debuted Moxi, a collaborative robot assistant that assists clinical staff with routine, not-patient-facing tasks including fetching and delivering supplies, medications, or lab samples. Since launching and integrating into several healthcare systems, Moxi demonstrated improvement in overall clinical flows and gave care team members back valuable time to spend with their patients.

We started implementing Moxi into our clinical workflows in December and planned on going through a trial phase to determine if the technology would be helpful to our staff, said Cody Blankenship, Vice President Performance Improvement at Mary Washington Healthcare. Right away, we could see the impact Moxi made on the efficiency of our staff and how morale immediately increased. We were so impressed with what Moxi took off our teams hands, we chose to add even more robots to our fleet.

In the two years since its Series A funding, Diligent Robotics has achieved several milestones including:

According to a report from Research and Markets, the global smart hospital market is estimated to be at $27.6 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $82.89 billion by 2026, compounding at 24.6% annually.

Robotic automation technology will be the key to optimizing efficiency and productivity in health care operations, said Connie Lee, Partner, Tiger Global. As a leader in robotic technology, Diligent Robotics has been able to scale to meet demand while developing an impressive product that delivers tremendous value for its customers. We are excited to partner with Diligent Robotics as their positive impact on the healthcare system grows.

The funds raised during this round will help Diligent optimize supply chain and design teams for faster robot deployment. They will continue to enhance interoperability and drive purposeful integrations with existing hospital infrastructure, electronic health records and clinical communications, which will allow them to continue to meet the demands during the persistent nursing shortage. The team at Diligent is excited about the next chapter and how the Series B funding will be able to accelerate their plans.

Diligent Robotics participation in the Cedars-Sinai Accelerator program led to the exploration of our team testing this solution with our clinical teams, said Dr. David Marshall, Chief Nursing Executive at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles. Using the robot to relieve front-line health care workers from point-to-point delivery and retrieval tasks has been successful in our original launch. Staff members have told me that gives them more time for direct patient care.

The original article can be found at PR Newswire.

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Plus One Robotics expands to the Pittsburgh Innovation District with plans to grow here long term – Technical.ly

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Another robotics firm is coming to Pittsburgh.

San Antonio-based Plus One Robotics announced that it would expand into the Avenu: Meyran space in the Pittsburgh Innovation District in May. The news comes after another growing robotics company, Neuraville, also announced an expansion to the innovation district and after Avenu announced the opening of the new Meyran location last month.

Nearly a year ago, Plus One Robotics announced a $33 million Series B round to fund international expansion. The goal was to meet increased demand for computer vision software for robotics in industries relying on warehouses and logistics. Founded in 2016, the company also raised $8.3 million in a Series A round in 2018, putting its total funding so far over $40 million.

Pittsburgh Innovation District is home to not one but two of the top-100 colleges in the United States. Being close to other startups in the District, plus Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, was very important for us so we can situate ourselves in that high-energy, relevant, forward-looking and optimistic environment, said Bener Suay, senior developer for Plus One Robotics, in a statement. Our company is future-focused, industry-leading, and deeply knowledgeable in our field. We feel that these pillars are very much aligned with our neighbors in the Pittsburgh Innovation District.

Plus Ones software uses 3D and AI-powered perception tools to give robots increased coordination capabilities, including hand-eye coordination relevant to placement and sorting tasks required by warehouse and distribution center settings. Most recently, a press release noted, the company has branched into leveraging its software for depalletization capabilities, specifically looking to improve the computer vision for that feature using its Pittsburgh-based talent.

As someone with experience in material handling robots, I have a great deal of respect for Plus One Robotics. Having them come to Pittsburgh is a big deal and we welcome them to the community, Pittsburgh Robotics Network (PRN) Executive Director Joel Reed said. Pittsburgh is a world leader in research, innovation and commercial development for the robotics industry and is increasingly becoming the place to be if youre developing AI-driven autonomous and robotics solutions.

Plus Ones choice to expand to Pittsburgh next in its company journey also strengthens the conviction of Reed and PRNs claim last summer that the region is the robotics capital of the world. Its a sign that local business within that sector continues to grow beyond the realm of autonomous vehicles and leverage Pittsburghs robotics and AI expertise toward more commercial opportunities.

Suay and one of his colleagues, Senior Engineer Nick DePalma, said that the Pittsburgh Innovation District in particular will enable them to take advantage of all the benefits the city has to offer in robotics. With a growing number of businesses and access to CMU and Pitt, DePalm said he hopes Plus Ones new location will foster a sense of community with other innovators in Pittsburgh.

And it sounds like Plus One is here to stay. While it will continue development of its computer vision software for new applications, Suay said one of the first goals after the move is expanding the team.

Within the next 1-3 years, we hope to see our company grow its customer, application, and employee footprint, he said. We are working tirelessly on solving critical problems in warehouses and distribution centers. We hope to see our efforts scale, hire more talent, and augment our customers capacity to achieve more picks per day.

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Plus One Robotics expands to the Pittsburgh Innovation District with plans to grow here long term - Technical.ly

Warrior Robotics finish second, third in national tournament – Ashland Daily Press

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Warrior Robotics finish second, third in national tournament - Ashland Daily Press

Thundercomm Join Hands with Pudu Robotics to Accelerate the Development of Intelligent Delivery – Business Wire

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BEIJING--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Pudu Robotics, the global benchmark in commercial service robots, recently unveiled two intelligent robots that are empowered by Thundercomms advanced SOM (system on module) products and technologies. The two robots: SwiftBot and PUPU D1 are designed to meet different demands from food delivery in restaurants and goods delivery in various scenarios, separately.

Nowadays, the interaction and travelling abilities are increasing important for food delivery robot to provide better dining experience for customers, especially during the dining rush time. SwiftBot, the flagship food delivery robot can perfectly meet these demands by redefining the interaction between robots and customers during food deliveries. Supported by the strong computing power of Thundercomm TurboX C8250 SOM, SwiftBot excels in visualizing delivery routes, accurate backward perception, and flexible multi-directional avoidance, all of which bring food delivery efficiency and customer experience to a new level.

Besides, Pudu Robotics also launched PUPU D1, its first quadruped delivery robot, to fully cover all delivery scenarios both indoor and outdoor. PUPU D1 is equipped with two intelligent SOMs, TurboX C8250 and C5165, which feature small volume, excellent HMI and motion control capabilities. Based on these advantages, PUPU D1 can adapt to more complex terrains in different delivery scenarios

Hiro Cai, CEO of Thundercomm, says: "We are very pleased to work with Pudu Robotics to build leading delivery robot products and solutions. Thundercomm is committed to empower our clients to develop competitive and innovative products in the intelligent sector. We expect that both Pudu Robotics and Thundercomm will further promote technological innovation and launch more excellent products to meet the diversified delivery demands from different markets."

For more robotic solutions from Thundercomm please follow our latest news at Embedded World 2022.

About Thundercomm

Thundercomm, headquartered in San Diego, is a joint venture between ThunderSoft and Qualcomm. Thundercomm was established to accelerate innovation in the Internet of Things and automotive industry, providing one-stop solutions powered by Qualcomm Technologies. Through its capabilities in operating systems including Android, Linux, and others, abroad software and on-device AI technology portfolio acquired from ThunderSoft, and a global sales and support network, Thundercomm is a valuable and trusted partner to global customers aiming to build high-quality, next-generation products and shorten time-to-commercialization. Learn more at http://www.thundercomm.com

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Thundercomm Join Hands with Pudu Robotics to Accelerate the Development of Intelligent Delivery - Business Wire