Monthly Archives: May 2022

Los Angeles firefighters responded to a wind-driven fire burning near Porter Ranch and Chatsworth Sunday afternoon.

The Porter Fire was first reported around 3:30 p.m. south of the 118 Freeway in the San Fernando Valley.

The fire was burning in grass, fire officials said, but was being pushed by 10-15 mph wind towards heavy vegetation.

Video shared to the Citizen app showed large plumes of black smoke billowing from the fire.

The fire was considered a major emergency, but no homes were threatened and no evacuation orders were issued.

One civilian vehicle, a pickup truck at the Porter Ranch park-and-ride, was destroyed by the fire.

About 140 firefighters were assigned to fight the fire from both the ground and air, ultimately halting the blazes forward progress at about 7 acres in size, LAFD said.

By 5:30 p.m., the fire was 75% contained, according to the LAFD.

At 4 p.m., the California Highway Patrol issued a SigAlert for the 118 Freeways off-ramp to Porter Ranch Drive. It was expected to remain in place for one hour, the CHP tweeted, though at 5:30, that SigAlert was extended for another hour.

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Firefighters stop forward progress of wind-driven fire near Porter Ranch - KTLA Los Angeles

Its about getting ready, prepping to peak when it matters most.

Till then its all about getting ready.

Over the course of the last five seasons the Alma baseball team has done a phenomenal job of peaking at the right time as evidenced by its four-straight Division 2 district titles.

Moreover, in nearly every instance, the Panthers werent exactly favorites to make a postseason run, rather they were upset-minded underdogs who did exactly that.

James Traynor

Sun Photos by JAMES TRAYNOR

One year ago the Panthers entered the postseason with a record of 11-14 and promptly disposed of 30-win Fremont to claim a district title. From there they fell in regionals.

So whats the story this season? Are the Panthers primed to make another run or are they rebuilding or are they somewhere in between?

Were a work in progress, said long-time Alma baseball coach Denny Kreiner following Tuesdays split with Saginaw Swan Valley. Were learning the game, teaching baseball and trying to find our footing.

Historically speaking the Panthers have consistently produced some of the best pitching prospects in mid-Michigan for decades now as Kreiner is a brilliant pitching coach. As the son of legendary CMU head baseball coach Dean Kreiner one Denny Kreiner learned the art of pitching from a young age and the Panthers have benefitted ever since.

That includes 2022 too.

With Western Michigan University recruit DJ Thompson settling in as the staff ace and numerous other arms contributing significantly the Panthers have a rock-solid staff in 2022, per usual.

Yet, if theres an area of concern, it would come on the offensive end as Alma has struggled to score runs consistently which has led to an 8-8 record thus far.

Our pitching has been pretty good, theyve been nails, Kreiner added. Our offense has struggled to put up runs and put the ball in play. Im trying to find two line-ups that will get us through districts.

Kreiners concern played out front-and-center Tuesday during Almas home twinbill versus Saginaw Swan Valley.

Tied at 1-1 through seven innings the Panthers had legitimate chances to win the game in the eighth and ninth frames. In the eighth they had runners on second and third with no out and didnt score as a squeeze bunt went awry. The runner was tagged out and after a strike out the rally was over.

The same thing happened in the bottom of the ninth. Had it not been for a three-run rally in the 10th the Panthers would have lost a game they should have won.

Thus, with the pitching in order, Kreiners main concern going forward is getting his offense in order.

Were working on the fundamentals and teaching more this season, said Kreiner.

Within the confines of the conference Alma will be hard-pressed to make a run at the title as it sports a 5-5 record. Yet, once the postseason rolls around, its a safe bet that Kreiner and company will be ready because they always are.

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Work in Progress: Alma baseball off to 8-8 start - The Morning Sun

The latest attempt to create the first broad national data privacy law in the United States is causing the typical nonsense in Washington. But from the mess in Congress and elsewhere in the U.S., were finally seeing progress in defending Americans from the unrestrained information-harvesting economy.

Whats emerging is a growing consensus and a body of (imperfect) laws that give people real control and companies more responsibility to tame the nearly limitless harvesting of our data. Given all the bickering, tacky lobbying tactics and gridlock, it might not look like winning from up close. But it is.

Let me zoom out to the big picture in the U.S. Tech companies like Facebook and Google, mostly unknown data middlemen and even the local supermarket harvest any morsel of data on us that might help their businesses.

We benefit from this system in some ways, including when businesses find customers more efficiently through targeted ads. But the existence of so much information on virtually everyone, with few restrictions on its use, creates conditions for abuse. It also contributes to public mistrust of technology and tech companies. Even some companies that have benefited from unrestricted data collection now say the system needs reform.

Smarter policy and enforcement are part of the answer, but there are no quick fixes and there will be downsides. Some consumer privacy advocates have said for years that Americans need a federal data privacy law that protects them no matter where they live. Members of Congress have discussed, but failed to pass, such a law over the past few years.

The weird thing now is that big companies, policymakers in both parties and privacy die-hards seem to agree that a national privacy law is welcome. Their motivations and visions for such a law, though, are different. This is where it gets frustrating.

A consortium that includes corporate and technology trade groups kicked off a marketing campaign recently that calls for a federal privacy law but only under very specific conditions, to minimize the disruption to their businesses.

They want to make sure that any federal law would overrule stronger state privacy laws, so businesses can follow one guideline rather than dozens of potentially conflicting ones. Businesses may also hope that a law passed by Congress is less disruptive to them than anything the Federal Trade Commission, which now has a Democratic majority, implements.

This is one of those legislative tugs of war that is unseemly to watch from the outside and enraging to longtime consumer privacy advocates. Evan Greer, director of the digital rights group Fight for the Future, told me she sees what corporate lobbyists are supporting as watered down, industry-friendly laws that offer privacy in name only.

Behind the muck, though, there is emerging agreement on many essential elements of a federal privacy law. Even the biggest sticking points whether a federal law should override stronger state laws, and whether individuals can sue over privacy violations now seem to have workable middle grounds. One possibility is that the federal law would overrule any future state laws but not existing ones. And people might be given the right to sue for privacy breaches under limited circumstances, including for repeat violations.

Laws are not a cure-all for our digital privacy mess. Even smart public policies produce unwanted trade-offs, and sometimes poorly designed or inadequately enforced laws make things worse. Sometimes new laws can feel pointless.

Most peoples experience with Europes sweeping 2018 digital privacy regulation, the General Data Protection Regulation or G.D.P.R., is annoying pop-up notices about data tracking cookies. The first of two of Californias digital privacy provisions in theory gives people control over how their data is used, but in practice often involves filling out onerous forms. And recent data privacy laws in Virginia and Utah mostly gave industry groups what they wanted.

Is any of that progress on protecting our data? Kinda, yes!

Some privacy advocates may disagree with this, but even imperfect laws and a shifting mind-set among the public and policymakers are profound changes. They show that the defaults of Americas data-harvesting system are unraveling and more responsibility is shifting to data-collecting companies, not individuals, to preserve our rights.

Progress looks like not completely perfect laws; there is no such thing. It looks like fits and starts, Gennie Gebhart, the activism director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy advocacy group, told me.

I dont know if there will ever be a federal privacy law. Gridlock rules, and such regulation is tricky. But behind the lobbying and the indecision, the terms of the debate over data privacy have changed.

Yikes in cryptocurrencies: The prices of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been falling steadily, which my colleague David Yaffe-Bellany said shows that cryptocurrencies are increasingly resembling risky tech stocks.

Also, the virtual currency TerraUSD is supposed to be worth $1 each, and it has collapsed far below that level. Heres why thats a big deal, from my colleagues at DealBook.

The local florist now delivers for Amazon: To speed up deliveries in rural parts of the U.S., Amazon has been experimenting with paying small businesses a few dollars per package to deliver orders to nearby homes, Recode reported.

Instagram believed that a new dad was interested in disability and fear. A Washington Post columnist explores why disturbing images interrupted his newborns Instagram feed and advocates for a way to reset social media algorithms when they dont work for us. (A subscription may be required.)

Puppppppy coming straight for your face!

We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think of this newsletter and what else youd like us to explore. You can reach us at ontech@nytimes.com.

If you dont already get this newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here. You can also read past On Tech columns.

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The Messy Progress on Data Privacy - The New York Times

INDIANAPOLIS Storms have covered much of the Hoosier State today as our warm & humid weather pattern begins to break down. Showers and storms will remain in the forecast as we head through the remainder of the weekend too.

Thunderstorms began to pop up across the state early this afternoon as the atmospheric cap broke due to all the daytime heating. As the afternoon progressed, further heating allowed storms to become numerous and a few quite strong. A pair of severe storms were reported to have dropped between quarter and half dollar sized hail. Storms will weaken as we progress through the rest of the afternoon and eventually dissipate by the early evening.

Sunday will begin quite comfortable will an abundance of sun and temps in the 60s. Temperatures will increase quickly even with a little bit of humidity and overall light southerly flow. By the mid afternoon, temps should be reaching the mid 80s across much of Central Indiana. Our warming will be disrupted as storms begin to develop late in the day however.

By around 4pm it will become important to stay weather aware and keep an eye to the sky. Isolated storm activity will begin ahead of an approaching cold front. This activity will become more widespread as we head into the early evening hours and the front begins to sweep through. The chance for a few damaging wind gusts and large hail will be possible. Even a brief tornado cant be completely ruled out. Things will improve quickly after dark however and the storm threat should subside after midnight.

The upcoming work week will be cooler and more comfortable with temperatures returning to the 70s. Humidity will be out of the region for at least the first several days as well. All things considered, these will be great days to enjoy some time outdoors!

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Storm chances remain high as we progress through the weekend - FOX 59 Indianapolis

In the run-up to Cop26, the UK government used the mantra Cash, coal, cars and trees to keep the world to 1.5C to highlight four key areas on which the conference would focus.

At Cop26, rich countries were supposed to fulfil a longstanding promise, made in 2009, to provide $100bn a year in climate finance to the developing world from 2020.

The actual amounts provided are still falling short, but developed countries did produce evidence that they would meet the promise this year or next, with the five-year average from 2020 to 2025 at around $100bn. Developing countries have also been promised a new financial settlement that would see greater flows from 2025, with details yet to be decided.

In the months since, however, there has been little advance on the Cop26 promises of cash. Rachel Kyte and Lord Stern, both former top World Bank officials, told the Guardian of several concerns over the World Banks programmes on climate. Stern said the banks resources would be stretched by the additional strains of high energy and food prices around the world, and the effects of the war in Ukraine.

Kyte cast doubt on whether the World Bank was truly committed to the climate fight: [The World Banks] weak showing at Glasgow and continued questions about their appetite for urgent action has meant that coalitions form without them at the helm. Broader questions of whether the Bretton Woods institutions are fit for purpose for the climate crisis grow.

The private sector has also come under closer scrutiny. The GFANZ network the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero was announced with fanfare by Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of England and UN climate envoy. It is unclear, however, how much of that is flowing to the poorest countries that need it most.

There are also questions, raised by the Guardians carbon bubble investigation, over whether investors are pouring more money into fossil fuels, now enjoying a bonanza, rather than clean tech. There is little in the GFANZ rules to stop them. Carney said it was the job of governments to regulate and provide incentives that would encourage capital into the right directions: Finance will not drive the net-zero transition on its own. Finance is an enabler, a catalyst that will speed what governments and companies initiate. If there is commitment to move to a sustainable, resilient and fair energy system, and the right policies are made, finance will be there.

Coal was a clear focus of Cop26, though some of the successes the UK initially trumpeted for commitments to phase out coal turned out to be less solid than claimed. In the closing moments of the talks, coal also became a flashpoint as China and India refused to sign up to a phase-out of coal, and insisted on changing the term to phase-down.

Since then, new evidence has emerged of coal expansion as recovery from Covid has quickened, and the war in Ukraine has spurred some countries to consider a return to coal, or a delay to its phasing out.

Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said coal must be at the forefront of Cop27: The biggest risk is the growing appetite for infrastructure investments in coal. If we are not able to slow that down or stop it, we may lock in our future If I had to pick one issue [for Cop27], that would be the one.

Electric vehicle sales doubled in key markets last year, as manufacturers ramped up production and consumers embraced new models. But the future of the market this year is looking more uncertain; the war in Ukraine has disrupted key supply chains, and Volkswagen in Germany said earlier this month that it had sold out of electric vehicles for this year for its EU and US markets. Other manufacturers are also struggling with rising costs and looking for alternative sources for components.

Many green campaigners are also concerned that talking about cars is the wrong focus they say we should be talking about transport. Investment in public transport, making it cheaper or even free, is one of the quickest ways to bring down demand for oil, according to the IEA.

The UK made action on forests a key focus at Cop26, with a gathering of world leaders to discuss forests and land use and a separate two-day programme of events. A deal to halt global deforestation, signed by China, the US and Brazil among other nations, was the first big win of the Glasgow fortnight.

But in the past months, Brazils deforestation rate in the Amazon has soared to devastating record levels, and a report on the Congo one of the worlds most important remaining rainforests has cast doubt on the governments willingness to take the action needed to halt logging and destruction.

Meanwhile, another key forestry meeting this year the Convention on Biological Diversity (meant to be held in Kunming, China, in 2020, but delayed) is now in limbo due to the Chinese governments response to the resurgence of Covid-19. Whether or when the conference will take place at all is now unknown.

Lord Goldsmith, the UK minister in charge of the Cop26 forestry efforts, has been on a frantic round of diplomacy this year to shore up the forest deal. He said the UK wanted world leaders to meet every year to discuss progress. The contribution of forestry to the overall global emissions reductions needed is potentially huge. It could contribute about 10%-15% to the global emissions target.

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Cash, coal, cars and trees: what progress has been made since Cop26? - The Guardian

BURLINGTON, Mass., May 13, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Progress (Nasdaq: PRGS), the trusted provider ofinfrastructure software, today announced that Anthony Folger, Chief Financial Officer, and Michael Micciche, Vice President of Investor Relations, will participate in the 17th Annual Needham Technology & Media Conference. This years event will be held both in-person and virtually, and Progress will be available for virtual one-on-one meetings with qualified investors on Wednesday, May 18.

For more information about the conference or to schedule a meeting, please contact a Needham Representative or the conference coordinator at conferences@needhamco.com.

About ProgressDedicated to propelling business forward in a technology-driven world, Progress (Nasdaq: PRGS) helps businesses drive faster cycles of innovation, fuel momentum and accelerate their path to success. As the trusted provider of the best products to develop, deploy and manage high-impact applications, Progress enables customers to develop the applications and experiences they need, deploy where and how they want and manage it all safely and securely. Hundreds of thousands of enterprises, including 1,700 software companies and 3.5 million developers, depend on Progress to achieve their goalswith confidence. Learn more at http://www.progress.com, and follow us on LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Progress is a trademark or registered trademark of Progress Software Corporation and/or its subsidiaries or affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Any other names contained herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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Progress to Participate in the 17th Annual Needham Technology & Media Conference - GlobeNewswire

A new edition of WHOs NCD Progress Monitor, documenting the actions that WHO Member States are taking to set targets and develop policies and plans to prevent and control major noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and their risk factors, finds that simple and effective interventions are not being adopted widely enough around the world.

Of 194 countries, the 2022 NCD Progress Monitor indicates that 126 countries have set time-bound national targets for NCDs based on WHO guidance. Encouragingly, 77 countries have fully achieved more indicators in 2022, compared to the previous NCD Progress Monitor published in 2020.

An area of progress was in efforts to reduce tobacco use, with more than half of all countries now fully achieving the implementation of plain/standardized packaging and/or large graphic health warnings on tobacco packaging, one of the best-buy interventions (to effectively reduce tobacco use under the NCD Global Action Plan).

There was also improvement in the development of clinical guidelines for NCD management, with the majority of countries fully achieving this indicator for the first time. Progress is also made in efforts to improve nutrition and food environments.

Well over half of countries 120 in total currently have an operational multisectoral national strategy or action plan for NCDs that integrates the major diseases and their shared risk factors. While this is slightly lower than the same figure from the 2020 NCD Progress Monitor (n=129), due to national strategies and action plans expiring during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is still considerably higher than the 87 countries who had an operational, multisectoral integrated NCD strategy or action plan in 2015, when this indicator was first reported in the first NCD Progress Monitor.

In total, fifty-four countries have lost ground, achieving fewer indicators than in 2020. There have also been major declines in physical activity awareness campaigns, and NCD surveillance. This is against a backdrop of premature NCD mortality increasing in more than 20 countries, mostly low- and middle-income countries. Globally, rates of diabetes and obesity are on the rise.

Similarly, variations by geography and income status persist. As two examples, no Member State in the WHO African Region has fully achieved the NCD surveillance indicator to deliver a STEPS survey or a comprehensive health examination survey every five years, while only one no low-income countries (of 27) has achieved a functioning system for generating reliable cause-specific NCD mortality data on a routine basis.

Effectively tackling NCDs and their key risk factors requires a detailed understanding of what progress is being made at the country level. By tracking the implementation of a key set of NCD actions at national level, the NCD Progress Monitor can measure progress over time, provide an indication of how widely several best buy NCD policies are being adopted globally.

As well as tracking key actions taken by each WHO Member States, the NCD Progress Monitor 2022 also includes the latest data on a countrys population, the percentage and number of deaths from NCDs, and the risk of premature death from the four main NCDs (cardiovascular diseases, cancer,diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases) the indicator used to monitor the SustainableDevelopment Goal target 3.4 on NCDs.

In his foreword to the Monitor, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, highlighted why uncertainties from COVID-19 tell us that action on NCDs is critical for strong health systems:

In a world filled with uncertainty, a silver lining for NCDs is that we know both how to prevent them and how to manage them. This report presents evidence-based policies that represent the most effective and cost-effective actions for countries to protect their citizens from the death and disability wrought by NCDs.

Dr Bente Mikkelsen, Director for Noncommunicable Diseases at WHO, described the findings as a startling reminder of the need for accelerated action on NCDs.

WHOs work is made more effective when responses to NCDs are contextualized to a countrys population, health system and policy response. By shining a light on what steps Member States are taking to prevent and control NCDs, the NCD Progress Monitor is critical to informing data-driven actions that accelerate new pathways and solutions.

NCDs are the worlds biggest killers, and these findings reaffirm the urgent need for countries to adopt our simple, effective and cost-effective, best-buy interventions.

Editor's note:

In May 2015 WHO published a Technical Note on how WHO would report in 2017 to the UnitedNations General Assembly on the progress achieved in the implementation of national commitmentsincluded in the 2011 UN Political Declaration and the 2014 UN Outcome Document on NCDs.

The Technical Note was updated in September 2017 to ensure consistency with the revised set ofWHO best-buys and other recommended interventions for the prevention and control ofnoncommunicable diseases which were endorsed by the World Health Assembly in May 2017. TheTechnical Note outlines a set of ten progress monitoring indicators intended to show the progressachieved in countries in the implementation of selected national commitments included in the 2014Outcome Document.

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New report shows progress and missed opportunities in the control of NCDs at the national level - World Health Organization