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thecollegefootballguy · 4 years

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2020 PAC-12 Coaching Power Rankings

Hello folks, it’s time to bust out the power rankings once again. I’ll be rating coaches against their peers conference by conference. Remember, with power rankings I weigh both recent and overall career success. I’ve adjusted my metrics a bit since last time so there might be more movement here than usual.

Let’s see where each man stands.

Check out last year’s rankings here.

The PAC-12 has spent the last few years in the doldrums, the conference went from being a consistently strong Power conference to being one of the worst. Basically the only thing keeping the PAC-12 from the bottom is the dreadful ACC, who still have a national title contender in Clemson. There’s nothing approaching that out West.

Making matters worse, the league lost some incredible talent in the past few months. The shocking retirement of Chris Petersen at Washington was a huge blow (he was the #2 coach in the rankings last year). Petersen was leading one of the hottest programs in the league and it could spell further disaster for a conference so depleted of talent. Mike Leach’s (#4) exit for the SEC means two of the top five coaches have departed from the PAC-12. Mel Tucker leaving for Colorado after one 5-7 year isn’t quite the same in terms of importance, but it’s not great that Western coaches can get poached by other conferences who can pay much better.

Honestly, I’m pretty pessimistic about what’s going on in coaching circles for the PAC-12. As a whole, I might rate the league dead last among P5s in terms of head coaching talent. There are flashes of brilliance here and there, but a lot of programs are spinning their wheels.

12. Jimmy Lake

First time head coach

Movement: N/A

Washington DC (ha) Jimmy Lake inherited the position upon the retirement of Chris Petersen. Lake has big shoes to fill, but the Huskies are a well oiled machine and should lead to a smooth transition.

11. Karl Dorrell

Overall Record: 35-27

Movement: N/A

Karl Dorrell makes a surprise jump back into the college game. The former UCLA head coach has spent most of the last decade bouncing around the NFL. As head man of the Bruins, he led a mostly mediocre team that had a breakout season in 2005 before reverting back to mediocrity. It feels like a pretty uninspired hire if I’m being honest, but Colorado had to scramble to find a new coach well after the coaching carousel had ended.

10. Jonathan Smith

Record at Oregon State: 7-17

Movement: Up 1 spot

Oregon State improved from 2-10 to 5-7 in Jonathan Smith’s second year. The rebuild in Corvallis is going a bit ahead of schedule if you ask me. I’m curious to see how much more OSU improves next season. I think a bowl is well within reach, especially if UW and WSU take a step or two back.

9. Nick Rolovich

Overall Record: 28-27

Movement: N/A

The third newbie to the PAC-12 is very familiar to West Coast football. Nick Rolovich spent the last four years rebuilding Hawaii football back to respectability. The Rainbow Warriors won the Mountain West’s West Division last season, a huge improvement from their place as a league bottom feeder before Rolovich came home. Now Rolovich is off to face a new challenge, and keep the ball rolling in Pullman after Mike Leach’s departure. Nobody has won in Pullman for an extended period of time, and there basically has never been two successful coaches at Wazzu in a row. Let’s see what happens.

8. Kevin Sumlin

Record at Arizona: 9-15 Overall Record: 95-58

Movement: Down 1 spot

You know, things could be going better for Kevin Sumlin and Arizona. It seemed like a strong hire, but the Wildcats really haven’t played any good football since Sumlin took over. He’d be lower on the list in other conferences, but with so much turnover in the PAC-12 and the strength of his tenures at Houston and A&M he kind of coasts along, only dropping one spot this year.

7. Herm Edwards

Record at Arizona: 15-11

Movement: Up 3 spots

Some things are going well in the state of Arizona. Herm Edwards has shocked more than a few people, myself included, with the job he’s done in Tempe so far. The Sun Devils finished 3rd in the PAC-12 South with wins over ranked Michigan State, Cal, and Oregon teams. The win over the Ducks drove the stake in the heart of Oregon’s Playoff hopes. It’ll be interesting to see if ASU can take the next step and seriously contend for the division.

6. Justin Wilcox

Record at California: 20-18

Movement: Up 2 spots

Something is brewing in Berkeley. The Cal Bears have been steadily improving for the past three seasons since Wilcox came to town. Most importantly, he brought the Axe back across the Bay for the first time in ten years, avenging loss after loss to Stanford. Things are looking up.

5. Chip Kelly

Record at UCLA: 7-17 Overall Record: 53-24

Movement: Up 1 spot

I don’t know man. Chip Kelly going up 1 spot despite two losing seasons speaks to a few things. First of all, his time at Oregon was going so well because it’s doing some heavy lifting here. Secondly, it’s that the PAC-12′s coaching is pretty depleted because going 7-17 over two years should put him much lower no matter what he’s done. Lastly, two coaches in the top four left and he only moved up one spot, so there is a bit of hilarious justice there. God damn he really did well at Oregon, look it up. I really wonder what’ll happen if he can turn things around at UCLA.

4. Clay Helton

Record at USC: 40-22 Division Championships: 2 (2015, 2017) Conference Championships: 1 (2017)

Movement: Up 1 spot

Most USC fans actively hate Helton and want him gone but he moves up a spot because Petersen and Leach left. For Helton’s part, the 8-5 record was tied for the third best in the PAC-12 last year, so hey, that’s something right?

3. Mario Cristobal

Record at Oregon: 21-7 Overall Record: 48-54 Division Championships: 1 (2019) Conference Championships: 1 (2019)

Movement: Up 6 spots

Ok now we’re getting to the seriously good coaches. Mario Cristobal’s Oregon stormed back to the top of the PAC-12 in 2019, winning the conference and the Rose Bowl. With Petersen’s retirement and USC and Stanford spinning their wheels, there is a lot of optimism in Eugene that the Ducks can really stake their claim atop the league for a long time.

2. Kyle Whittingham

Record at Washington: 131-64 Division Championships: 3 (2015, 2018, 2019) Conference Championships: 1 (2008)

Movement: Up 1 spot

Kyle Whittingham stands alone as the old man in the PAC-12. He’s spent 15 mostly successful years as the head man in Salt Lake City and it seems as though the Utes are in the middle of another period of strength. The past few years has seen Utah dominate the South Division, though they still haven’t been able to win the league outright. It doesn’t look like anything is gonna change anytime soon.

1. David Shaw

Record at Stanford: 86-34 Division Championships: 5 (2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017) Conference Championships: 3 (2012, 2013, 2015)

Movement: Same

David Shaw suffered his first losing season ever as a head coach in 2019. Yeah injuries played a part, but Stanford has seen a slight decline in quality for the previous few seasons. Shaw doesn’t fall in the rankings, but he was probably only saved by Petersen’s retirement from losing his spot on top. His considerable lead over the field is starting to shrink. I’m curious to see where things go from here.

#college football #Washington Huskies #Colorado Buffaloes #Oregon State Beavers #Washington State Cougars #Arizona Wildcats #Arizona State Sun Devils #California Golden Bears #UCLA Bruins #USC Trojans #Oregon Ducks #Utah Utes #Stanford Cardinal

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originaldisneydescendants · 6 years

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Get To Know Me Uncomfortably Well

Tagged by:

@askvarian-alchemyisforstuds

Tagging: If you want to do it, consider yourself tagged.

1. What is you middle name? Jeanne

2. How old are you? 22 3. When is your birthday? July 10 4. What is your zodiac sign? Not into Zodiacs 5. What is your favorite color? Pink, blue and purple 6. What’s your lucky number? N/A 7. Do you have any pets? A husky mix named Olivia NJ after the singer and a budgie named Azul 8. Where are you from? Originally: Concord, California 9. How tall are you? 5′2.5” 10. What shoe size are you? 8 11. How many pairs of shoes do you own? Um... six I think? Probably another pair or two hidden somewhere in my closet. 12. What was your last dream about? My mom and I escaping some weird lady who was chasing us. At one point I was riding behind her on a motorcycle and she popped a wheelie. 13. What talents do you have? I've been told that I'm good at singing, art (painting, drawing, sculpting etc.) and writing (prose/poetry) 14. Are you psychic in any way? No, but I have had prophetic dreams of God just making me aware of what's currently going on in my life 15. Favorite song? A million songs is all it's gonna take, a million songs for the playlist I'm gonna make! 16. Favorite movie? Prince of Egypt, Coco 17. Who would be your ideal partner? The video is pretty cheesy but A Man of God like the one described in this one song 18. Do you want children? Yeah, someday 19. Do you want a church wedding? And I was my pastor to officiate it 20. Are you religious? Let me put it this way, Jesus died for me. How could I do anything less than live for Him? 21. Have you ever been to the hospital? On a field trip 22. Have you ever got in trouble with the law? Not to my memory, no 23. Have you ever met any celebrities? Define 'met' then define 'celebrity'. I've MET people who are well-known but not exactly celebrity status and asked a question at a Q&A with someone who I guess could be considered a minor celebrity? 24. Baths or showers? Showers and long ones 25. What color socks are you wearing? N/A 26. Have you ever been famous? Voted 'Most Artistic' freshman year at High School, does that count? 27. Would you like to be a big celebrity? HAHAHAHAHAHA no 28. What type of music do you like? Most kinds as long as it's not screamo or too folky and even then I may have an exception or two 29. Have you ever been skinny dipping? Maybe when I was a little kid? 30. How many pillows do you sleep with? Lots 31. What position do you usually sleep in? On my stomach or curled up 32. How big is your house? My mom called it a 'cracker box' house 33. What do you typically have for breakfast? Muffins, crepes or waffles 34. Have you ever fired a gun? I'm probably the only person in my family and the whole state who hasn't 35. Have you ever tried archery? In High School P.E. yeah 36. Favorite clean word? Shoot! 37. Favorite swear word? I generally don't swear. I could probably count the number of times on my hands. If you ever hear me swear... run 38. What’s the longest you’ve ever gone without sleep? 24-48 hours? I don't remember 39. Do you have any scars? Everywhere 40. Have you ever had a secret admirer? Define 'secret' 41. Are you a good liar? I don't think so, I try to avoid lying as much as I can 42. Are you a good judge of character? I think so? Not if I have a crush on them though unfortunately 43. Can you do any other accents other than your own? A few, I'm not sure how many 44. Do you have a strong accent? I guess? I tend to pronounce my Ts as Ds like people in the area do 45. What is your favorite accent? Scottish and French, maybe British as well 46. What is your personality type? ISFP last I checked 47. What is your most expensive piece of clothing? An outfit that my grandmother bought for my last Easter with a black boat-neck top and a poofy black and white skirt 48. Can you curl your tongue? Yup 49. Are you an innie or an outie? Innie 50. Left or right handed? Right 51. Are you scared of spiders? I used to be very arachnophobic but I think I'm getting a little better. I think it would be a lot easier if they didn't bite or move so fast. I'm gonna have to get used to them because my mom now lives in a rural house and they have orb-weaver spiders EVERYWHERE 52. Favorite food? Honey-walnut shrimp, rotisserie hot dogs and pizza 53. Favorite foreign food? Ethiopian stew and call me weird, I like calamari and kim nori 54. Are you a clean or messy person? It fluctuates 55. Most used phrase? “LORD help me.” 56. Most used word? Cool 57. How long does it take for you to get ready? I am slow so it takes forever 58. Do you have much of an ego? I try not to? 59. Do you suck or bite lollipops? When I'm not just letting it sit in my mouth, I gnaw like an animal chewing on a bone 60. Do you talk to yourself? Of course I do. I have a lot to say and few people willing to hear me ramble 61. Do you sing to yourself? When I'm home alone 62. Are you a good singer? I got a four out of five score in my High School's solo and ensemble competition and I believe I have improved since then 63. Biggest Fear? Very venomous things 64. Are you a gossip? I really try not to but sometimes some nameless gossip slips out of me 65. Best dramatic movie you’ve seen? Besides Prince of Egypt, The Case for Christ actually had me crying through most of it 66. Do you like long or short hair? Both have pros and cons. Short hair doesn't get knotted or tangled but you can't do the braids you want and if you go to sleep with wet hair you will wake up to a monster on your head that you can't get rid of 67. Can you name all 50 states of America? Here we go... California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Alabama, Hawaii, Alaska, Maine, Maryland, Rhode Island, Nebraska, Virginia, West Virginia, Arkansas, Wyoming, Mississippi, Louisiana, Utah, Michigan, and here are the rest that I got from the Animaniac's song: Indiana, New Jersey, Delaware, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Kansas, Iowa, 68. Favorite school subject? Art and Creative Writing 69. Extrovert or Introvert? Usually an introvert but I have extroverted moments 70. Have you ever been scuba diving? Nope 71. What makes you nervous? Public speaking 72. Are you scared of the dark? I was when I was a kid 73. Do you correct people when they make mistakes? ...I have a habit 74. Are you ticklish? Don't touch me 75. Have you ever started a rumor? If I have it was unintentional and I was unaware of it 76. Have you ever been in a position of authority? Does backstage security count? 77. Have you ever drank underage? Depends. Does that include church communion? 78. Have you ever done drugs? I drink a lot of caffeine 79. Who was your first real crush? Hunter from Kindergarten, he had curly hair and dimples and to this day that remains a weakness of mine 80. How many piercings do you have? I don't even have my ears pierced, not that I have anything against it, it just never happened 81. Can you roll your Rs? The ability comes and goes 82. How fast can you type? I took a whole class on typing and I have no clue 83. How fast can you run? I ran a mile in 12 minutes and I think that was me at my fastest 84. What color is your hair? Brown 85. What color are your eyes? Dark brown 86. What are you allergic to? I may have a slight allergy to the adhesive in band-aids depending on where I put them 87. Do you keep a journal? I've tried repeatedly but it always gets neglected 88. What do your parents do? My mom is a caretaker for the elderly and my dad is a retired under sheriff/paramedic who now drives the city bus and teaches driving 89. Do you like your age? I'm in the prime of life yo 90. What makes you angry? My brother taking a whole box of food, eating half of it and throwing the rest away without touching it... 91. Do you like your own name? Yeah 92. Have you already thought of baby names, and if so what are they? Not the most unique but I like Luke and Matthew for boys and maybe Akina for a girl? 93. Do you want a boy a girl for a child? See above 94. What are you strengths? Spirit. 95. What are your weaknesses? *Opens book* *Ahem* chapter one... 96. How did you get your name? My name means hillside/slope and I was named after where my dad proposed to my mom... also a perfume company 97. Were your ancestors royalty? Not that I'm aware of 98. Do you have any scars? Didn't I already answer this one? 99. Color of your bedspread? Cream with gold stars 100. Color of your room? Way too light to be beige and dull? I'm not sure...

#placing this under the cut because it is so long

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covid19updater · 3 years

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COVID19 Updates: 08/10/2021

Israel: ISRAEL RECORDS MORE THAN 6,000 CASES IN 24 HOURS, THE MOST IN 6 MONTHS. THE NUMBER OF CRITICAL APPROACHES 400 LINK

South Korea: (URGENT) S. Korea reports 2,021 new COVID-19 cases as of 9 p.m. Tuesday

Texas: ICYMI: The TEA said that school districts in Texas will not be required to conduct contact tracing this year for students who contract COVID-19, in its newly released guidelines. This, and other protocols, have concerned doctors ahead of the semester. LINK

Arkansas: As the state sees soaring rates of the highly contagious COVID-19 Delta variant, Arkansas school districts will—at least for now—be able to set their own local mask requirements.

World: Moderna may be superior to Pfizer against Delta; breakthrough odds rise with time LINK

Pennsylvania: MASKS NOW REQUIRED: Erie County is requiring masks for everyone in county facilities, regardless of vaccination status, starting today. LINK

World: Andrew Pollard, JCVI chair, says Covid herd immunity is "mythical" "I suspect what the virus will throw up next is a variant which is even better at transmitting in vaccinated populations. "That’s even more of a reason not to be making a vaccine programme around herd immunity"

RUMINT (Texas): 655 patients (63 ICU) in the region are in ERs waiting for general or ICU hospital beds, per SETRAC. For context, Houston could build another Ben Taub Hospital, fill it, and still have patients waiting.

US: Growing number of colleges and universities in US overwhelmed by fake Covid-19 vaccination certificates

World: Research shows how SARS-CoV-2 variants are evolving towards increased furin cleavage efficiency LINK

Arkansas: #BREAKING: Arkansas COVIDComm, the state’s #COVID19 transfer system, reporting as of this morning, it has no where to send COVID positive patients within the state. #ARNews

US: JUST IN: U.S. COVID hospitalizations could quadruple by Labor Day. LINK

Texas: Dozens of Texas hospitals have run out of intensive care unit beds as COVID-19 surges faster than any other time during the pandemic. Meanwhile, Gov. Greg Abbott has blocked local officials and schools from issuing safety measures, like mask mandates.

Israel: New concerning results, Israel 2021 (Prof. Retsef Levi) MDA Emergency calls: 25% increase in Cardiac arrests & Heart attacks (16-29). 83.6% increase in Heart attacks (Women 20-29). According to the study, this increase was correlated with Mass vaccination.

Israel: "The Israel Police will start using drones during its enforcement of COVID-19 restrictions, Channel 12 news reports. The drones will have a loudspeaker through which cops will encourage people to wear face masks, the report says."

Israel: JUST IN - U.S. moved Israel, one of the most vaccinated countries in the world, into its highest travel advisory tier, "Level 4 - Do Not Travel"

Texas: Ambulances wait outside hospitals as COVID infections spread LINK

US: NEW - Dr. Fauci: "I'm sorry I know people must like to have their individual freedom… but I think that we're in such a serious situation now, that under certain circumstances, mandates should be done."

North Carolina: Wake County Identifies COVID-19 Outbreaks at Four Local Facilities LINK

India: All schools shall remain closed except residential schools from August 11 to 22. However, teaching and non-teaching staff shall attend the school. Education department shall frame SOPs for the residential schools to contain COVID19: Himachal Pradesh Government

Canada: Participants needed for study on mixing and matching COVID-19 vaccines LINK (What’s the worst that could happen? Wait...)

Canada: Quebec to implement COVID-19 vaccine passport on Sept. 1 in the face of 'inevitable' 4th wave LINK

Kentucky: An alarming quote from Kentucky @GovAndyBeshear’s COVID-19 presentation today: “The COVID unit is full. Our local hospital CEO told me that his day begins and ends with texts from other CEOs around Kentucky asking if there are beds available to transfer patients.”

Florida: As kids return to school, most Florida counties report COVID-19 cases four times higher than last year LINK

Germany: Unvaccinated people in Germany need to show a negative COVID test to enjoy indoor dining, visit cinemas or go to the gym. If you can get vaccinated and choose not to — you will need to pay for tests yourself, announced Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Germany: Europe’s largest newspaper Bild: “End the restrictions in our rights. No to mandatory vaccinations. Stop the dividing of society. Same rights for All. Chancellor we want unity, justice and freedom"

California: 'This is not sustainable': California hospitals filling again as Delta variant rages LINK

US: U.S. health officials are currently changing their tone around the risks COVID poses to children. "About 45,000 children have been hospitalized. 350 children have died. These are not numbers we can ignore any longer," Bloomberg reporter @rileyraygriffin reports.

US: The simple and inexpensive device allows users to test themselves for multiple variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus at home LINK

World: Progress of the Delta variant and erosion of vaccine effectiveness, a warning from Utah | medRxiv LINK

US: Those in hurricane-prone areas should get vaccinated now, says @POTUS, explaining that "if you wind up having to stay in shelter you don't want to add COVID-19 to the list of dangers."

Australia: Residents of Dubbo in central western NSW and surrounding areas are being urged to get tested for COVID-19 after a case was detected at a local public school. LINK

Hawaii: 76 new cases were reported in Hawaii County, 15 in Kauai County, 33 on Maui, 3 on Molokai, 292 on Oahu, and 17 cases out of state.

Louisiana: Louisiana is reaching twice the amount of cases than the height of their winter wave. This is not a red or blue state issue, no state has reached vaccination rates high enough to protect the healthcare system and I am shattered on how we've allowed this to happen. Stay safe.

Australia: NSW recorded 344 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night. Of these locally acquired cases, 115 are linked to a known case or cluster – 97 household contacts & 18 are close contacts – & the source of infection for 229 cases is under investigation

Florida: Florida doctors are exhausted and angry as the state's COVID-19 surge unleashes pandemonium inside hospitals: 'Humanly, you just break at some point' LINK

Mississippi: Current #COVID19 stats worse than last post. Worse than ever. Mississippi schools reporting 69 new outbreaks in schools just last week. Over 4000 quarantined, 900+ students infected & 300 teachers. Where is the leadership? #LeadershipMatters

Georgia: When #COVID19 overruns hospitals, they can't take folks who've had car wrecks, heart attacks or sports injuries. "As of the afternoon of Aug. 9, Piedmont hospital was on Total Diversion and could not accept EMS patients. St. Mary’s hospital was also listed as overcrowded." #GA

RUMINT (Alabama): Alabama is dead last when it comes to vaccinations. Intubated an 11-mo, 7-mo and 6 mo old last week. Unfortunately none of them made it. Our youngest patient so far is 1-mo. Hospitals on diversion because ICUs are full. We’re losing the battle here.

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junker-town · 3 years

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Western Illinois, Year 28, 2034-2035

The Leathernecks return four starters from last year’s Elite Eight team in our College Hoops 2K8 sim.

Welcome back to our simulated dynasty with the Western Illinois Leathernecks in College Hoops 2K8. You can find a full explanation of this project + spoiler-free links to previous seasons here. Check out the introduction to this series from early April for full context. As a reminder, we simulate every game in this series and only control the recruiting and coaching strategies.

Before we pick up with the Leathernecks at the start of Year 28, here’s a recap of everything that happened last season:

The Leathernecks entered Year 27 coming off back-to-back national championships for the first time in program history. While completing the three-peat was the goal, we knew it wasn’t going to be easy after all five starters were selected in the first round of the NBA draft from last year’s team.

We opened the year with a good-not-great performance in non-conference play highlighted by an upset of No. 25 Villanova. We then entered Summit League play looking to continue our undefeated streak in conference, but lost two games, falling to Southern Utah and IUPUI respectively. We then sweated out a couple conference tournament games but ended up punching our automatic berth with a win in the championship game. We were given a No. 13 seed entering March Madness.

We upset Baylor in round one, beat USC in round two, and defeated Notre Dame in the Sweet 16. Our shocking tournament run ended against George Washington, who beat us and went on to win the national championship.

We recruited for four scholarships and landed four players. The class ranked No. 16 in the country.

Here’s a first look at the roster for Year 28:

Last season’s inspired run to the Elite Eight has me thinking this year’s team deserves to have championship aspirations. We only lost one player, but it was big one: true junior shooting guard Neil Modrovich — one of the great outside shooters in program history — left for the NBA as a projected lottery pick. His co-star last year, Nic Cummings, was projected as a first rounder but decided to return for his senior season.

Let’s meet the starting lineup:

PG Duncan Martinez, 86 overall, redshirt sophomore: The only new starter in our lineup this year, Martinez is a 6’2 guard who is tied for the best three-point shooter on the team with an 87 rating. He’s more of a scoring guard than the PGs we’ve had in the past. We want to see if he’s able to take care of the ball and hold up defensively, but it’s going to be so nice to have another knockdown shooting threat on the perimeter. Former No. 69 overall recruit from Chicago with C+ potential.

SG Goran Kent, 91 overall, redshirt senior: Kent moves from point guard to shooting guard to accomodate Martinez. He has the size for the position at 6’6 and also profiles as a solid perimeter defender. He struggles to shoot the ball from deep, entering the year with a 73 rating from three-point range. Kent earned plenty of criticism from the fanbase last year for finishing with eight turnovers in our Elite Eight loss to GW (worth noting he also had 21 points in the first half), so hopefully he can redeem himself. Projected second round pick from Rochester, MN, former No. 90 overall recruit with C potential.

SF Nic Cummings, 95 overall, redshirt senior: Cummings’ decision to return for his senior year gives a chance to win it all this season. We’ve never had a player finish above 96 overall, so it’s possible Cummings ends this season as the highest-rated player in program history. He’s a massive wing at 6’8, 257 pounds who is known for his high-flying dunking ability. His three-point shot has never been his strength, but he’s improved to respectable (77 rating) entering his final year of college ball. Projected top pick, former No. 110 overall recruit from San Jose.

PF C.J. Cesar, 89 overall, redshirt junior: Cesar is a converted center who helps us fortify the paint on both ends. The 6’11 big man is our best rebounder, tied for our best shot blocker, and is a dependable inside finisher. He doesn’t provide the shooting we’d ideally like at the four, but his size + tenaciousness inside provides an element most of our opponents can’t match. Projected first round pick, former No. 9 center recruit from Cincinnati with B- potential.

C Darron Coulter, 88 overall, redshirt junior: Coulter is the biggest player we’ve ever had standing 7’3. He actually has a surprisingly good face-up jumper with good range, but he’s not a super dynamic athlete. Will that limit him as a rim protector and rebounder? One thing Coulter does have going for him: a team best defensive awareness rating in the low 90s. Projected first round pick, former No. 7 center recruit from Charlotte with C potential.

We’re going to play three guys off the bench all about equal minutes. True sophomore center Elvin King looks like a total stud: a 7’1 big man who scores effortlessly and gives us the athleticism we need on defense. Redshirt sophomore wing Warren Schultz gives us great size (6’9) and is tied with Martinez for the best three-point shooter on the team. We also have 6’4 true sophomore shooting guard Sammy Yan, who is the highest-rated recruit in program history (No. 10 overall) and projects as an elite finisher down the road.

We also welcome four new freshmen to the team, all of whom will redshirt. They are:

PG Rashaun Diggs, 75 overall, C- potential: We threw out Hail Mary offer to Diggs on the last week of the recruiting period and he ends up being tied for our highest rated freshman. He’s super tiny (5’10, 159 pounds), he’s a great three-point shooter, and he’s underdeveloped as a passer and ball handler at the moment. Former No. 120 overall recruit out of XXXXX

PF Mitch Hunter, 75 overall, C+ potential: Hunter was only rated as the No. 201 overall recruit in his class, but we liked his profile. He’s already grown an inch to 6’9 and should be a really solid five-year power forward for us. Native of XXXX.

C Thom Towe, 74 overall, B+ potential. Towe was the No. 5 overall center recruit this year and should eventually continue our tradition of outstanding big men. He’s already grown an inch to 6’10 and projects as an old school big man.

SG Dave French, 70 overall, B potential. French is a five-star international recruit from New Zealand. A natural 6’3 point guard, he went up two points on his overall rating when we switched him to shooting guard. Impressive ball handler and passer with a promising shooting projection. We’re hoping he adds a couple inches of height during his time in school.

Recruiting

We have three scholarships to recruit for this season. We’re thinking Diggs might be best served as a sixth man long-term, so we’re targeting two big wings (as well as a center) on the trail. After scanning the available prospects, we decide to offer the following players:

SG Stephan Ibekwe out of Oak Park, IL, No. 36 overall recruit

SF R. Guerrero out of Milwaukee, No. 93 overall recruit

C Esa Griffin out of Florissant, MO, No. 48 overall recruit and No. 3 center

We also have a recruit to create for the winner of our bracket contest, and it’s a highly anticipated character: 7-foot center Bryant ‘Big Country’ Reeves Jr. As always, we don’t go after created recruits, but will follow their careers.

We enter the season rated as a 97 overall but unranked in the polls.

Regular season

Our schedule this year is all over the map. We scheduled two games vs. in-state teams (Illinois State and Southern Illinois), two early season tournaments (the NIT Tip-Off Classic and Golden Bear Classic), a couple true road games against elite programs (@ Kentucky and @ Villanova), and then put Wichita State, @ Hawaii, Marquette, and Arizona State on there too.

Let’s go!

Win vs. Illinois State: Cummings with 24 points, Coulter with 16 points, Kent with 10 points, nine assists, and six rebounds.

Win vs. *Missouri: Cummings with 15 points to lead the way. Elvin King had 13 points and six rebounds. Meanwhile Kent is turning into the guard version Bracy as a low-scoring jack of all trades, finishing with 10 points, nine rebounds, eight assists.

Win vs. *Rice: 21 points for Cummings, Coulter finishes with 18 points, seven rebounds, five assists and five stocks. Elvin King adds 15 points off the bench.

Win vs. Wichita State: Six of our eight players finished in double figures, led by Duncan Martinez’s 19 points.

Win vs. Hawaii: Front court doing work: Coulter with 21 points, Cesar with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

Win vs. *Ohio State: Win by three! C.J. Cesar led the way with 17 points and six rebounds. Kent: 10 points and seven assists.

Win vs. *West Virginia: Win by four! Cesar led the way with 32 points. Only fellow centers Coulter and King (12 points each) also finished in double figures.

We’re 7-0! Unfortunately it wouldn’t last for long: we dropped our next game against Marquette (a heartbreaking three-point loss). We then rebounded with a win over a tough Southern Illinois team, lost to Arizona State, beat Kentucky, and lost to Villanova.

Now it’s time for Summit League season

We entered last season with about a seven-year winning streak in the Summit League only to lose two conference games for the first time since my opening years at Western.

Can we get back to running the table in the Summit?

Nope. A seven-point loss to South Dakota State. Is the Summit League getting better or are we getting worse? Dropping a conference game was more understandable last year when we were replacing all five starters, but this season we have four starters back from an Elite Eight team. I didn’t expect this. It won’t matter as long as we can take care of business in the Summit League tournament, though.

Before we get there, let’s take a look at the end-of-season stats:

Coutler absolutely did work during Summit League season. I guess that’s what happens when you’re 7’3. I’m also impressed with Cummings’ scoring ability (15.5 points per game), and the boost King gave us off the bench (11.9 points per game). This team doesn’t have quite as much shooting as some of our other squads considering we start two traditional bigs in the front court, but Cummings, Martinez, and Schultz off the bench all proved to be snipers.

I’m already thinking about which lineup combination will be best come tournament time, but we have to get there first. Let’s go punch that automatic bid.

Summit League tournament

First game is against Oakland.

Win, 92-62. 19 points for Cesar, 17 points for Cummings, 14 points for King off the pine. Next up is Fort Wayne.

Win, 85-50. Martinez was incredible, finishing with 20 points and eight assists on 8-of-13 shooting. Coulter added 17 points in the win. Now we face Southern Utah in the title game.

Win, 92-63! Blowout, baby. We’re going to the tournament once again. Our front court absolutely did work in that: 30 points for Coutler, 22 points for Cesar, 20 points for Cummings.

Let’s keep that energy going into March. We enter the NCAA tournament at 31-4 on the season.

2035 NCAA tournament

We’re a No. 7 seed, facing No. 10 Michigan. We’re rated as a 100 overall entering the tournament. Michigan is rated as a 91 overall.

Let’s take one final look at our roster before we head into the tournament.

Nic Cummings is now officially the highest rated player in program history. We have had several players who ended their careers rated as a 96 overall, but we’ve never had a player who reached 97 overall. If we’re going to embark on a deep tournament run, Cummings needs to be our biggest star.

We only have an eight man rotation this year, but all eight guys can play. Everyone is rated as an 86 overall or higher, with four of our starters rated in the 90s. We are lowkey loaded. The goal entering the tournament is hang banner No. 7. Anything less will be a disappointment.

First, we need to knock off Michigan. As always, we’re watching a simulated game between the computers. I’m not controlling Western Illinois. Let’s go!

***

Win, 97-67. Just a total beatdown from start to finish.

Cummings was excellent, finishing with 28 points on 9-of-16 shooting from the field and 5-of-8 shooting from three. Hopefully that’s a harbinger of things to come. King was also great, finishing with 16 points and 10 rebounds. He looks like our best big man right now. I’m also really enjoying the work Cesar is doing in the paint (14 points, 10 rebounds). He’s the tone setter for this team as another physical presence inside.

Next up we face No. 2 seed Xavier.

No. 7 Western Illinois vs. No. 2 Xavier, round of 32, 2035 NCAA tournament

This is going to be a battle. Xavier is a perennial powerhouse in this sim, and they have what looks like one of their best teams ever.

Both teams enter the game rated as a 100 overall, but Xavier is the rare team with perfect ratings in every category but shooting. While we’re merely a 97 in offense and a 98 in defense, the Musketeers have 100 ratings down the board.

Major nerves for this one. It could easily be our toughest game for the rest of the tournament, and it comes in the second round. Losing here would feel like a disaster. Winning would have me dreaming of another national title.

Let’s go!

***

Win. 108-101! Oh my, what a game.

Xavier had us sweating. It was a one-point game with six minutes left when I made some manual subs and found a lineup I think we can rock with the rest of this tournament run: Martinez at point guard, Cummings at the two, Schultz at the three, Cesar at the four, and King at center. That lineup shutdown any hope of a Xavier comeback and pushed us into the Sweet 16.

A couple other things I liked:

GORAN KENT getting hot from deep. Kent has been maligned throughout his ‘Necks career, but he’s one of our highest rated players and needs to come through for us in this tournament run. Kent’s biggest shortcoming is that he’s a below average three-point shooter, but he knocked down four big triples in this one. I’m not sure we win this game if he doesn’t get hot from deep.

Coulter and King were both so good, combining for 32 points and seven blocks. Just huge, considering that Cesar had a rare off-night.

Another superstar performance from Nic Cummings: 25 points, six assists, and three steals on 8-of-11 shooting, including this big dunk:

twitch_clip

That sets up a Sweet 16 matchup with Duke.

Western Illinois vs. Duke, Sweet 16, 2035 NCAA tournament

Duke has fallen off a little bit since Coach K retired, but they’re still a solid program. The Blue Devils enter the Sweet 16 rated as a 95 overall.

After a thrilling win over Xavier, we can’t afford a letdown. Let’s go!

***

Win, 102-80. Second half team!

Duke was giving us the business throughout the first 20 minutes, taking a three-point lead into the halftime break. We came out on fire in the second half and quickly turned the game into a blowout in our favor.

Cummings is going full Wilky Henry/Jitim Dupree at this point as a senior star who’s having a special March. He popped off for a career-high 38 points powered by 7-of-13 shooting from three-point range. King was also fantastic off the bench once again, finishing with 17 points, nine assists, and five blocks. He’s only a true sophomore, but as the former No. 2 recruit at his position, I think it’s fair to start wondering if he’s one of the best pure talents we’ve ever had at center.

We’re back in the Elite Eight, where we’ll face Indiana.

Western Illinois vs. Indiana, Elite Eight, 2035 NCAA tournament

The Hoosiers have reached the Elite Eight as a No. 5 seed. They’re led by sophomore small forward Bud Richards Jr., who was created by a former bracket contest winner as the son of our first ever recruit at WIU. Indiana enters the game rated as a 98 overall.

We lost in the Elite Eight last year, and can’t let it happen again. Let’s go!

***

Win, 117-74! An absolutely dominant performance from start to finish puts us back in the Final Four.

This game was never close. As Bud Jr. battled foul trouble, Cummings got hot on the wing and stockpiled points at all three levels. He finished with 35 points, seven rebounds and five assists in the win, and also had several nasty dunks:

twitch_clip

King also put together another star performance, finishing with 20 points, nine rebounds, four assists, and four blocks on 9-of-13 shooting. He’s absolutely in our closing lineup if we find ourselves in a tight Final Four game.

Our opponent in the national semifinal will be Ole Miss.

Western Illinois vs. Ole Miss, Final Four, 2035 NCA tournament

The Rebels are a No. 1 seed and enter the game rated as a 98 overall. Both teams already know Clemson is waiting in the national championship game.

We’re two wins away from our seventh national title. Let’s go!

***

Win, 103-75.

This game is barely worthy of a recap: we were up by 22 points at halftime, and the game never got any closer. Goran Kent was terrific and might have rewritten his legacy in real time. The 6’6 senior guard finished with 23 points and six assists to help pace the blowout. He did all of his damage in the first half, and he was hitting from everywhere:

twitch_clip

To just blow out a No. 1 seed in the Final Four like that is damn impressive. This team is becoming an all-timer before our eyes.

After we narrowly won a thriller in the round of 32 vs. Xavier, we haven’t really been tested since. Clemons has one last shot to stop this dynasty from rolling forward.

Western Illinois vs. Clemson, national title game, 2035 NCAA tournament

No one expected Clemson to be here. The Tigers enter the national title game as a No. 9 seed, using a small ball attack based on speed and shooting to fuel the run. Clemson doesn’t have a traditional big man on the roster, but this is still a dangerous team. The Tigers are rated as a 99 overall.

Western Illinois has won six national titles through our first 27 seasons. We’re one win away from No. 7. Let’s go!

***

Win, 88-80! Western Illinois are national champions of the 2035 NCAA tournament!

Wow, Clemson played us tough. It was only a two-point game with just over 7 minutes left when he went on a run to secure the win. That started with this pretty up-and-under from C.J. Cesar, who might have been the best player on the floor in this one:

twitch_clip

Cesar and King each scored 17 points to lead us in scoring in this one. I thought King might be the rare MOP to come off the bench, but instead Cummings won the award. He was absolutely deserving.

This team won the title by dominating near the basket. Coulter is the tallest player we’ve ever had at 7’3, Cesar was able to overpower opposing fours at both ends with his strength, and King looks like a future NBA stud. Cummings also absolutely lived up to the billing as the highest rated player in program history at 97 overall. He was the driving force behind so many of our tournament runs, and also gave us more highlight dunks than anyone we’ve ever had before. Our guards did enough not to mess it up, which is actually quite the compliment. Kent was being compared to the worst players in program history, but he proved himself in this run. Martinez should still have a bright future, and the same can be said for Schultz and Yan off the bench.

Number seven! This one is for you, ‘Necks Nation.

Good kids, Good Families, Great Results. 'Necks hang banner #7 in the Coach Charisma Era. #SevenIsHeaven @SBN_Ricky pic.twitter.com/gmUQGOl8OD

— Thomas SkullFarmer (@TomJerkface) December 7, 2020

The goal for this series to win end our career with the most national championships in college basketball history. Only John Wooden, with 10 titles, is standing between us and history. The game forces mandatory retirement after Year 40. There’s more work to be done.

That’s now three national titles in four years. Kent and Cummings are the only players graduating. Cesar and Coulter are both projected first round picks as juniors, so we’ll see what they do. We also have three scholarships still to recruit for. Let’s go to the offseason.

Offseason

Reader Tim wins the bracket contest. He’s creating Deke Van Jr. ahead of next season. Can’t wait.

Cesar and Coulter both decide to come back! Cummings gets drafted (he was a projected top pick), and Kent goes undrafted.

We lose an assistant coach and replace with a coach who is a B+ in teaching. That means our player development could take a small hit.

We turn down every job offer once again. Leathernecks 4 Life.

Recruiting

We enter the spring recruiting period with three available scholarships and a ways to go on the players we’re chasing. We land our first recruit a couple weeks into the period when No. 9 center Vinnie Harmon commits to the ‘Necks.

Two weeks later, we land our next target: 6’5 small forward Spanky Fanning. Yes, that’s his real name. Fanning is rated as the No. 92 overall prospect in the country.

We were recruiting five-star international shooting guard Josh Samuel out of Nigeria with our last scholarship. We got him up to 99 percent interest, but he didn’t commit. That one stings.

Now it’s time to set the schedule for next year. This is what we go with:

vs. Southern Illinois, vs. Illinois, @ DePaul, @ Oregon State, @ Stanford, @ Arizona, @ UCLA, @ Oregon, @ Washington State

Heavy on the Pac-10 with some local matchups to start the season.

Year 29

Here’s a first look at our roster for Year 29:

Fanning and Harmon are each rated as a 74 overall with B- potential. They will both redshirt.

We’re going to stream the regular season + the first two NCAA tournament games in Year 29 on Sunday, Dec. 13 at 8:30 p.m. ET on Twitch. Here’s how you can watch:

How to watch Western Illinois Year 29 play-through on Twitch

What: We’ll simulate through Western Illinois’ regular season and first two tournament games if we get that far in Year 29. We’ll also recruit for three scholarships.

Where: My Twitch channel

When: Sunday, Dec. 13 at 8:00 p.m. ET

See you there. Go ‘Necks.

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techcrunchappcom · 4 years

Photo

New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/coronavirus-world-news-and-live-updates/

Coronavirus World News and Live Updates

Brazil’s coronavirus outbreak passed a grim landmark on Saturday, surpassing Britain to record the second-highest death toll in the world after the United States’, according to a New York Times tally.

As of Saturday morning, Brazil had acknowledged 41,828 virus deaths. The figure for the United States was 114,752, and for Britain 41,481. Brazil’s daily death toll is now the highest in the world, bucking the downward trend that is allowing many other major economies to reopen.

Experts point to President Jair Bolsonaro’s rejection of the emerging scientific consensus on how to fight the pandemic — including his promotion of unproven remedies such as the drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine — as one of the factors that helped tilt the country into its current health crisis.

Mr. Bolsonaro has sabotaged quarantine measures adopted by governors, encouraged mass rallies and repeatedly dismissed the danger of the virus. He has asserted that the virus was a “measly cold” and that people with “athletic backgrounds,” like himself, were impervious to serious complications.

On a brilliantly sunny Saturday morning, the graduating cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point marched out in two lines, socially distanced and masked, to hundreds of chairs set roughly six feet apart on the parade ground.

Then they took off their masks, waiting for President Trump to speak at their commencement on Saturday. No friends or family were permitted to attend, but many are commenting on West Point’s YouTube channel, which is live-streaming the event. Mr. Trump, who has never worn a mask in public, has begun speaking.

The 1,107 cadets have lived in quarantine for the past two weeks, confined to their dorms, wearing masks and watching Zoom conferences on leadership. They were divided into four groups, with strict orders not to mingle outside of their cohort. They ate in shifts in the dining hall, with food placed on long tables by kitchen staff who quickly left.

Sent home in March because of the coronavirus, the cadets were ordered back to campus after Mr. Trump abruptly announced that he wanted to go through with a planned commencement address. The address comes during a breakdown in relations between the president and top military leaders, who have vehemently objected to Mr. Trump’s threats to use active-duty troops to quell largely peaceful protests against police brutality.

The cadets were tested for the virus when they arrived on campus, with 15 initially testing positive but showing no symptoms, according to Lt. Col. Christopher Ophardt, a West Point spokesman. The 15 did not transmit the virus to others and are now virus-free, Colonel Ophardt said, and will graduate with the others in their class.

Two of the United States’ most populous states, Texas and Florida, reported this week their highest daily totals of new coronavirus infections, a concerning sign as all 50 states move to ease social distancing restrictions and allow more businesses to reopen.

The nation’s most populous state, California, hit a new daily high last week, when it recorded 3,593 new cases, and it nearly matched that record this week.

The rise in cases helps explain why the nation continues to record more than 20,000 new cases a day even though some of the original hot spots, including New York, have reported sharp declines.

While some officials in states seeing increases attribute the rise to increased testing, and the number of cases per capita in Texas and Florida remains low, some health experts see worrying signs that the virus is continuing to make inroads.

“Whenever you loosen mitigation, you can expect you’ll see new infections, I think it would be unrealistic to think that you won’t,” Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said in an interview on ABC News’s “Powerhouse Politics” podcast. “The critical issue is how do you prevent those new infections that you see from all of a sudden emerging into something that is a spike, and that’s the thing that we hope we will be able to contain.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released forecasts on Friday suggesting that the United States was likely to reach 124,000 to 140,000 Covid-19 deaths by July 4.

The agency said that its forecasts suggested that more virus-related deaths were likely over the next four weeks in Arizona, Arkansas, Hawaii, North Carolina, Utah and Vermont than those states reported over the past four weeks.

The agency also released new guidance about the risks of holding events, even those attended by only a small number of people.

Dr. Fauci, who has warned about the risks associated with the recent protests in recent days, was also asked during his podcast interview what he thought about Mr. Trump’s plan to begin holding large rallies again.

“I stick by what I say,” he said. “The best way that you can avoid either acquiring or transmitting infection is to avoid crowded places, to wear a mask whenever you’re outside, and if you can do both — avoid the congregation of people and do the mask, that’s great.”

Here is a look at other key developments around the country:

Asbury Park, N.J., halted a move to allow some indoor restaurant dining that was scheduled to start on Monday after the state of New Jersey took the unusual step on Friday of suing to block the proposals.

Global roundup

China’s capital shuts a produce market in a ‘wartime’ effort to control a virus cluster.

The Beijing authorities shut down a major seafood and produce market and locked down several residential complexes on Saturday after 53 people tested positive for the coronavirus in the city, renewing fears that China’s grip on the pandemic is not yet secure.

Nearly everyone who tested positive had worked or shopped at the Xinfadi market, a wholesale market on the city’s south side that sells seafood, fruit and vegetables, according to the Beijing health commission.

More than 10,000 people work at the market, which supplies 90 percent of Beijing’s fruits and vegetables, according to the state news media. The virus was reportedly detected on cutting boards for imported salmon there.

The developments also prompted the authorities to partly or completely close five other Beijing markets, to lock down 11 nearby residential communities and nine schools, and to tighten controls on movement in and out of the city. State media outlets described the effort as a “wartime mechanism.”

China was the site of the first major coronavirus outbreak — with many of the first reported cases tied to a seafood market in the central city of Wuhan. But as the pandemic has ravaged the rest of the world, China’s government has loudly promoted its apparent success in controlling the virus’s spread. Before the new cluster of cases, Beijing had not reported any new locally transmitted cases for eight weeks.

Here are some other developments around the world:

In Britain, the police urged people to stay away from demonstrations in London on Saturday, and imposed restrictions on both a Black Lives Matter protest and a planned right-wing counterdemonstration.

President Hassan Rouhani of Iran said on Saturday that he was prepared to reinstate a strict coronavirus lockdown if looser measures were not observed. Press TV, a state-run broadcaster, quoted him as saying that a recent drop in compliance “could be worrying.”

At least 58 people on the staff of President Alejandro Giammattei of Guatemala have tested positive for the virus, including members of his security detail and domestic workers at the presidential compound. The president said he had tested negative.

Immigration officials in Canada said the government may allow caregivers who are seeking asylum to remain in the country permanently because of their outsized contributions to fighting the pandemic.

Prosecutors questioned Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte of Italy on Friday over his delay in locking down two towns in the Lombardy region, where the virus devastated the health care system. No one has been charged with a crime and the lead prosecutor, Maria Cristina Rota, said Mr. Conte and other officials were interviewed as witnesses, not suspects.

After this spring’s on-the-fly experiment in online classes, teachers and school districts across the country are preparing for what will be anything but a normal fall semester. Some districts stumbled in the transition, with classes zoom-bombed and interrupted; many strained to address serious inequities in access to computers. Recent research finds that most students fell months behind during the last term of the year, with the heaviest impact on low-income students.

Other schools transitioned with less disruption, in part by mobilizing facilitators, coaches and other staff members to support both teachers and students who were in danger of logging off and checking out, according to a report by researchers.

Now, most districts are facing a future in which online courses will likely be part of the curriculum, whether that entails students returning in shifts or classrooms remaining closed because of local outbreaks. And underlying that adjustment is a more fundamental question: How efficiently do students learn using virtual lessons?

“What we’re finding in the research thus far is it’s generally harder to keep students engaged with virtual lessons,” no matter the content, said Jered Borup, an associate professor in learning technologies at George Mason University. “Over all, though, that is not the distinguishing feature here. Rather, it’s what supports the student has when learning virtually. That makes all the difference.”

The two most authoritative reviews of the research to date, examining the results of nearly 300 studies, come to a similar conclusion. Students tend to learn less efficiently than usual in online courses, as a rule, and depending on the course. But if they have a facilitator or mentor on hand, someone to help with the technology and focus their attention — an approach sometimes called blended learning — they perform about as well in many virtual classes, and sometimes better.

How to keep your children safe in a reopening world.

Social distancing is hard — especially for the very young. Here are some ways to get children to care about wearing masks and avoiding germs.

Through a thin wall separating her from her neighbors, Dr. Anzhela Kirilova began to hear the rasping cough associated with Covid-19 sometime in May. That was hardly a surprise. A few weeks earlier, her neighbors had heard the same cough coming from her room.

Dr. Kirilova, who works in a Covid-19 ward at a hospital in St. Petersburg, Russia, said she had tried to warn the single man and the young family she shares a four-room apartment with. She suggested that they wear masks in the kitchen.

“They said, ‘We don’t care, and we’ll do what we want,’” she said with a shrug.

For residents of Russia’s communal apartments, self-isolation to fend off the coronavirus has hardly been an option.

In such arrangements, a half-dozen to more than 20 people live in separate rooms within a single apartment — typically one room per family — while sharing a kitchen and a bathroom in one large, usually unhappy, household.

The apartments, a relic of the Soviet Union, are home to hundreds of thousands of people. Most are in St. Petersburg, where about 10 percent of the city’s population lives in communal apartments.

The health authorities have not released statistics on infections in the communal apartments. But the slow burn of infection has strained relations among residents and shed light on their lingering poverty.

“You feel the tension,” Sonya Minayeva said in an interview in her room. “There’s a silent paranoia.”

Cold beer flowed, soul music played and regulars lined the redwood bar to order tequila shots and tater tots. No one wore masks, many hugged, and the staff passed a joint out front of The Hatch, a cozy locals’ bar in downtown Oakland. On the night before lockdown, the bar opened its doors to bring people together for one last night of drinks — and pay.

“We’re six years running, so hopefully something like this doesn’t wipe us out,” Robin Easterbrook, The Hatch’s tattooed manager, said from behind the bar that night. “It’s frustrating, because I don’t have all the answers to give to our team, other than my word that we’re going to do our best to make sure that you get taken care of.”

Behind a curtain, Santos, a 56-year-old Guatemalan immigrant, pressed burgers to the grill. He and his six children in the Bay Area had all received word that day, March 16, that they no longer had jobs. He planned to return to the three-bedroom house on the outskirts of Oakland that he shared with 11 family members to shelter in place. “I want to respect the law,” he said in Spanish. “But my worry is my rent, food.”

As China’s coronavirus infection rate has slowed to a crawl, universities across the country have been gradually welcoming students back to campus. But they aren’t offering the customary ceremonies or photo opportunities for graduating seniors.

Instead, dozens of them are providing digitally altered pictures of what the pageantry might have looked like in a pre- or post-Covid-19 era. In some of the photos, the effect is jarringly artificial, with students’ smiling faces added to identical cap-and-gown templates, stacked precisely in long rows.

At Beifang University of Nationalities in Yinchuan, for example, administrators distributed a photograph made by student volunteers that shows more than 150 dance and music majors in digitally added caps and gowns outside one of the campus’s landmark buildings. “Graduation memory of the class of 2020,” the caption says.

Chen Xiangping, 22, a dance major who is in the photo, said that she and her roommates had dreamed for years of their graduation photo-op — down to the details of which poses they would strike.

“But because of the pandemic, this will never come true,” she said. “And there may never be a chance for it to come true in my lifetime.”

At Yangtze University in Jingzhou, a Chinese city near Wuhan, where the coronavirus first emerged, the graduation photo shows smiling graduates standing against a background of the university’s main building.

Chen Chen, a student at the university, said the photo was a letdown, describing it in one word: “ugly.”

“I once peeped at my seniors’ graduation ceremony and even tried on the bachelor cap secretly, so I was very much looking forward to the graduation picture,” she said. “My biggest regret is not being able to have a graceful farewell with my teachers and classmates.”

Reporting and research was contributed by Benedict Carey, Michael Cooper, Bella Huang, Mike Isaac, Andrew E. Kramer, Qiqing Lin, Ernesto Londoño, Jack Nicas, Sergey Ponomarev, Peter Robins, Eric Schmitt, Michael D. Shear, Mariana Simões, Vivian Wang and Elaine Yu.

#World

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sustainability-organicproject-aa · 6 years

Text

“An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power,” A Movie That We Should All Watch. A Climate Leader’s Perspective.

January 30, 2018

by Aileen F. Amador Ferrand

One of the most important and powerful documentaries of our times, “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power,” is already available in HD digital version and DVD in Europe. It is the second part of “An Inconvenient Truth,” the famous documentary by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, which won an Oscar in 2006. This new movie, establishes that the climate crisis is urgent, and that we should act fast to save our planet. Fortunately, now more than before, there are viable solutions. The importance that this documentary has in our lives is crucial. Thus, if you did not see this movie in theatres, you must see it now.

In 2006 when an “An Inconvenient Truth” was released, this film captivated me. The world was in serious trouble and I had to act to save it. As part of my job as an environmental advisor for the Government of Puerto Rico, in different occasions I had the opportunity to work and draft various laws, rules and public policies that promoted solar energy, green buildings, and energy conservation, among others. In fact, while working with the then Energy Affairs Administration, I wrote, the first Rule on Solar Photovoltaic Equipment and Installers. An act that significantly triggered solar panel installations in the Island.

Nevertheless, I always wanted to do more so in 2017, I decided to attend the Al Gore Climate Leadership Corps seminar, in Denver, Colorado. It was a wonderful experience. I had the opportunity to engage with other future Climate Leaders that had my same energy and enthusiasm. We all shared an equal respect for Mother Nature and wanted to contribute to safeguarding it.

After several excellent introductory speeches the long awaited moment arrived: Al Gore came on stage to teach us how to do his famous PowerPoint presentation. Immediately, I was impressed by his vast knowledge on the subject. Gore has more than 30,000 slides with crucial information about climate change, but somehow he has condensed his presentation so that it can be done in one hour. Without a doubt, in my opinion, he is one of the most knowledgeable persons on this topic in the planet.

I was highly impressed also by the humility displayed by this human being. All throughout the conference he tried to limit any praise given to his persona even though in several occasions we gave him standing ovations. At all moments he demonstrated great attention and respect to each person he interviewed or engaged in conversation, no matter the country of origin, the race, gender, age, social condition, or level of knowledge about climate change.

Gore has a clear mission and a great compromise with the planet and that is his focus. His purpose with these trainings is to convert us into climate leaders so that we educate people that are not aware of the dangers of climate change and ultimately inspire change.

What are these dangers? While Gore started to explain these, suddenly, I found myself daydreaming, and imagining what the world would be like if Gore had been the President of the U.S…. I thought “what a contrast with what we are living today!”

A not so positive slide moved me out of my reverie, and brought me back to reality. “Sixteen of the hottest years on record, since measurements began in 1880, have occurred since 2001,” Gore expressed. “The world is cooking bit by bit,” I thought. In fact, 2016 was the hottest year on record since measurements began in 1880. In tandem, 2017 was the second hottest year on record, according to NASA and the European Union’s climate monitoring program. On average the planet’s surface temperature has risen 1.1 degrees Celsius (2°F) hotter than preindustrial era years. Scientists have seen this warming trend and are thus significantly alarmed.

In reality we should all be alarmed by this dire fact. In different parts of the world we are already registering extremely high temperatures above what the human body can tolerate. According to Al Gore’s presentation the heat index in Iran (Bandar Mahshar) reached 165°F (74°C). In May 2016, India established a heat record of 123.8°F (51°C). In response the Indian government distributed water to prevent dehydration and deaths, since 2,330 people died during the last heat wave in 2015. Climate change will cause these heat waves to be more frequent. It is estimated that in 2100, 74% of the world’s population will experiment more than 20 days of deadly heat waves.

In June 2017, extremely dangerous temperatures soared in the western U.S. California, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, and Arizona all registered temperatures that broke records. For example, 127°F in Death Valley, CA, 122°F in Palm Springs, CA, 117°F in Las Vegas and 118°F in Phoenix, Arizona. Due to the extreme heat, flights in Phoenix, Arizona had to be cancelled.

Parallel to the increase in temperatures, the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, obtained, in April 2017, a measurement of 410 parts per million (ppm) of CO2 in the atmosphere, setting a new record. According to scientists in an article from Scientific American, we have not reached this concentration of CO2 in millions of years, and thus they predict that we are entering in what is known as climate’s danger zone, where our own survival is at stake.

In 2017 the effects of climate change were indeed evident and dramatic. Every day on the news it was like “taking a nature hike in the Book of Revelation,” as Gore says. A gigantic platform of ice Larsen C broke off in Antartica in July of 2017. The melting of the poles continued reaching historically low levels, contributing to sea level rise worldwide. The Artic ice cap melted to hundreds of thousands of square miles below average in the summer of 2017, which was the eighth lowest year in the 38-year satellite record. The loss of Arctic sea ice is clear from space.

The 2017 California wildfire season was one of the worst and most destructive on record. The Washington Post reported “[n]early 9,000 wildfires tore through the state, burning 1.2 million acres of land (an area the size of Delaware or the Larsen C iceberg), destroying more than 10,800 structures and killing at least 46 people.” Forest fires also scorched parts of Portugal and Spain this past October killing at least 44 people.

It is as if Mother Nature is giving us a message. One that if not heeded can likely worsen. It is estimated that in this century we may or will experience food and water shortages, a proliferation in pandemic diseases and an expansion of inhabitable areas. In turn these can augment the number of climate refugees and more disputes can unfold as a consequence.

How does this affect Puerto Rico?

According to a study published in Nature Climate Change magazine, heat waves will affect tropical areas more, since warmer temperatures combined with humidity require a smaller margin to reach dangerous heat levels. More humans in these areas will be exposed to heat stress.

Al Gore was very emphatic regarding the link between heat temperature rise and health. He spoke about the Puerto Rican Zika epidemic and how climate change has contributed to the propagation of Zika in the Island. This is very revealing since many people ignore this connection. Climate change causes mosquitoes to reproduce faster, bite more and the virus incubates faster inside the mosquito. I always remember how in his first documentary, he had warned us about the spike in diseases of this type.

Tropics will also suffer more frequent and stronger hurricanes. The ocean traps ninety three percent of excess heat generated by greenhouse gas pollution. As Gore says, this is like putting storms “on steroids.” We saw the devastating path of Katrina in 2005 and superstorm Sandy in 2012, later Haiyan in 2013, one of the worst typhoons to hit the Philippines. The 2017 hurricane season, with the passing of Harvey, Irma and Maria, is a testament to what it is like to live in a warmer planet. Hurricane Harvey in Texas brought 82 deaths, surreal flooding in Houston and coastal areas, and the US record for rainfall from a single storm, dumping 51 inches of rain, in parts of Texas.

For the Caribbean and Puerto Rico the latter two were devastating. Irma wreaked havoc in its path. I still remember the images of utter destruction and chaos from St. Martin, St. Barths, Barbuda, the British Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos, Cuba and Florida.

Puerto Rico is still suffering the onslaught of Maria, a category 4 hurricane that left the entire Island without electricity, access to water, food and basic necessities. Today, roughly four months after, there are about half a million people without electricity and thousands without water.

The excess heat also causes more water to evaporate from the oceans and the soils and thus the planet experiences more extreme rain episodes, floods and droughts. In September 2017 Italy suffered such an extreme drought, that it had to turn off its famous fountains. Puerto Rico has experienced in the last few years both droughts and extreme rainfall. We cannot forget the droughts that occurred during 2014-2016. In particular the intensity of the 2015 drought, considered as the worst drought in the last 100 years. It was more severe than the 1994, 1967 and the 1968 droughts.

The International Scene

There are other climate change effects such as declining agricultural yields, intense droughts and the connection with the war in Syria, which are explained in the film, and this is why I exhort you to watch it. Al Gore does an extraordinary job connecting world events related to climate change that people in general are not aware or see them as isolated.

Gore maintains an optimistic attitude in spite of battling for years for this cause and the reversal demonstrated by the new U.S. administration when they announced their exit from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. This international agreement, signed by almost every country on the planet, has a goal to maintain the increase in temperature well below 2°C, and ideally limit it at 1.5°C. After all, in the U.S. more than 1,400 cities, states and businesses have professed their compromise with the Paris Agreement.

Worldwide, he believes we are starting to experience a sustainability revolution. There has been a substantial increment in the use of solar and wind energy. Since 2011, investments in renewable energies have surpassed investments in fossil fuel derived energies. Today, 9.8 million people work directly or indirectly with renewable energy. Carbon is staying behind as a primary source of energy.

There are other less optimistic points of view. “The Uninhabitable Earth,” an article published by the New York Magazine on July 2017, read by around two million people, predicts a very depressing future for the planet.

Gore, notwithstanding, firmly believes that we are going to win this battle. In the truth we have the power. “Can we? Shall we? Will we?” he asks at the end of his presentation and cites the U.S. poet, Wallace Stevens: “After the last no comes a yes, and on that yes, the future world depends.”

End

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hawaiiathletics · 7 years

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By Vicki L. Friedman | Aug 23, 2017 Special to espnW The dream house is finally ready: 4,300 square feet built to specification, right down to the commercial-grade stove, an essential upgrade for the rice, Dominican beans, eggs, bacon and Spam that Robyn Ah Mow-Santos enjoys making her family for breakfast. The home sits in the southern section of suburban Las Vegas. Ah Mow-Santos hopes she never moves in. If her new job goes as planned, she won't be living anywhere near her house, let alone in it, anytime soon. The Honolulu native is the new coach of Hawaii volleyball, where her predecessor reigned for 42 years. "It's a dream job, especially for someone like me, who came from the island and played there," said Ah Mow-Santos, who wasn't even a year old when Dave Shoji accepted the job at Hawaii on July 1, 1975. When the second-winningest coach in Division I history announced in February that he would retire with a legacy that includes 35 NCAA tournament appearances and four national championships (one AIAW and three NCAA), Ah Mow-Santos was the chosen one. Decades ago, Shoji recruited the reluctant 5-foot-7 setter with soft hands from nearby McKinley High School. Back then, college wasn't on her mind -- let alone college volleyball. "I got letters from schools, opened them and never touched them again," she says. "I didn't like school." But Shoji's persistence paid off. Ah Mow-Santos went on to guide the Rainbow Wahine to a 66-4 record over her final two seasons, which included an NCAA runner-up finish in 1996. The two-time first-team All-American went on to become a three-time Olympian and led Team USA to a silver medal in 2008. After playing professionally in Italy, Portugal and Switzerland, Ah Mow-Santos returned to Hawaii as an assistant to Shoji in 2011. By 2015, her husband, Army Sgt. 1st Class Niobel Rafael Santos, received orders that moved the family to Las Vegas. In addition to building a home, the 41-year-old Ah Mow-Santos accepted a gig coaching club volleyball for the Vegas Aces. She even moved her father from Hawaii to Vegas. Just 10 months ago, she gave birth to her third child, son Makanamaikalani, or "Makana" for short. He was born with Down syndrome. "He's been great," she says. "He's so happy." Ah Mow-Santos never envisioned herself taking over for Shoji, whose 1,202 career victories rank behind only those of Penn State's Russ Rose. "I never thought Dave would leave. Why would he? It's the best job ever," she says. She previously dismissed a handful of coaching offers from other programs. "Places with snow," she says, lack appeal when you grew up a five-minute mo-ped ride from the Stan Sheriff Center on campus at the university in Manoa. The rumblings of Shoji's departure became real shortly after he took a leave of absence in December due to prostate cancer. Niobel Santos convinced his wife to apply for the job. "She has so much passion for this program," he says. "I see it in her facial expressions. She's so analytical about the games. She's been wanting to do more for years." When Ah Mow-Santos countered with, "Who's going to watch the baby?" he assured her they'd figure that out. Two hours prior to the deadline, Ah Mow-Santos submitted her completed application. Their home in Kapolei, which had been on the market for six months, sold the week before she was offered the job. "I have no idea how I'm doing it, but I thought to myself, 'If I can have my son [Jordan, born in 2003] and still go back to playing, I can do this,'" she says. The first female coach in the 44-year history of the program arrives, of course, with Shoji's blessing. She has the players' approval as well. Senior Kalei Greeley said she and her teammates were reticent initially about playing for a new coach. "You never know how much someone new is going to care," she says. Then they found out it was their old assistant. "A few of us cried because we were really happy knowing she was going to be our coach," Greeley says. "We always knew her as being the most intense out of our whole staff." Early practices this season speak to that. The Rainbow Wahine roast in Gym I during the peak heat of the day. The practice gym lacks AC. "We're definitely going through a couple of shirts a day," Greeley says. "Dave was more like a grandpa. He wasn't as mean as Robyn, and I mean that in a good way. I think she's more like the coach he was when he got here." The big-picture challenge is for Ah Mow-Santos to lift this program from great to greater. To get there, she has been focusing on conditioning and ball control. Hawaii has been ranked in every preseason poll since 1982, and the two-time defending Big West champions check in at No. 20 in 2017. Only one team, Penn State, has a higher win percentage than Hawaii's .855 in the history of the sport. But their most recent of nine final four appearances was in 2009. Hawaii's most recent NCAA title came in 1987. Recruiting needs to improve, Ah Mow-Santos says. "We're definitely aiming for the physicality and the height that Texas has. But I need players that I can bring here who will actually play together. If they're coming here, it's going to be about the team, not one person." Getting elite talent excited about living in the land of luaus and leis might seem like a cinch, but actually, "it's a grind," she says. No surprise, Hawaii is the destination of choice for teams seeking a nonconference tournament. The Rainbow Wahine don't leave their home gym for the first month of the season, hosting teams that include No. 10 BYU, No. 13 UCLA and No. 23 Utah. But convincing high school kids to live 2,500 miles away from the closest land mass, no matter the beauty of its beaches and sunrises, can be a hard sell. "We're on a rock in the middle of the ocean," says Greeley, who is from Riverside, California. "That's not really appealing to some people." "Girls get homesick," Ah Mow-Santos says. "I totally get it because I didn't want to leave the rock." New assistant Angelica Ljungqvist should help with that. The former Hawaii All-American left Sweden to play in Honolulu, "and if she can do that, we should be able to get girls from the West Coast to come here," Ah Mow-Santos says. "We've got to at least try for the best." While women's volleyball is one of many sports at most other top programs, it is the marquee attraction at Hawaii. Other than Nebraska's, Hawaii's volleyball team is the only program in Division I that is a revenue-booster for its university. It isn't unusual to walk into a restaurant on the island and see a volleyball game on TV instead of football or basketball. Two-thirds of the teams in the country last year drew fewer fans for the entire season than Hawaii draws for an average home game. Ah Mow-Santos wants to build a multidimensional team of scrappers like the ones she played on in the '90s. Last year's offense centered largely on Nikki Taylor, the reigning conference player of the year who has graduated. Ah Mow-Santos would rather see balance. Greeley, an outside hitter, is looking to return to the starting lineup after a pair of shoulder surgeries. Setter Norene Iosia is back alongside middle hitter Emily Maglio, the conference leader in hitting percentage and total blocks. Although she will be more vocal on the bench than Shoji, Ah Mow-Santos said she has relied on him during this transition. When one opponent wanted to talk about scheduling a series for 2019, she dismissed it, thinking why worry about that now? Because you have to, Shoji advised. Something else she'll take from her mentor? "Stay positive," she says. "Even when I was a player, I remember those words being on top of his clipboard before every game." The woman who didn't have an iPhone is now a two-a-day Facetimer with Niobel and Jordan, who remained in Vegas. Both will be behind the bench for Hawaii's season opener against Marquette on Friday. As long as the opponent is within a four-to-six-hour drive from Vegas, the family will be together at road games, too. Two sets of family friends are the go-to sitters for Makana and 7-year-old daughter Jream, who moved with Ah Mow-Santos to Hawaii. Sometimes the baby hangs out with her in her office, too. "I can be exhausted at the end of the day, see him, and all the sudden I'm not tired anymore," she says. "If he wants to stay up all night, I'm like, 'OK. Let's stay up all night.' He's awesome." It's working out, even if she didn't see how it would just a few months ago. "I love volleyball, and this is the best platform in Hawaii to reach young kids," she says. "I feel like I've been given a chance through my life to be blessed by a lot of different people. Just coming back here brings it full circle."

#hawaii #volleyball #wahine volleyball #rainbow wahine #robyn aw mow-santos

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rtscrndr53704 · 7 years

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Property Snatchers: How Eminent Domain Can Leave You Without a Home

Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

For the last three years, Atlanta resident Sean Breslin has kept followers of his personal blog, Breslanta, breathlessly updated on the progress of SunTrust Park, the Atlanta Braves’ splashy new stadium, which opens this month. The former sportswriter was excited about the ballpark’s location near his home in the Cumberland/Galleria neighborhood, where he and his future wife had moved in 2013.

But early last November, Breslin found out that the stadium—and the network of new roads that would be built to provide access to it—was going to cost him his home.

“If it wasn’t all so ironic, I would cry,” Breslin wrote in his blog.

His county had invoked eminent domain, a longstanding process that the government uses to seize privately held land for public use, like a new highway or railroad—or a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Increasingly, experts say, eminent domain is being used to further private development. And it’s happening all over the country.

The feds have been using eminent domain since the 1800s, and the principle was ratified by the Supreme Court in 1876, when the owner of a private house in Cincinnati sued the government, which had seized his land to build a post office. The court ruled that the power of eminent domain was necessary. It’s been a controversial and highly contentious issue ever since.

Now it’s kicking into high gear again. As the economy has bounced back from the housing crash, and real estate markets have heated up, more local governments have been turning to eminent domain to acquire land to build sports complexes, shopping centers, and new condominiums. Sometimes—but not always—these are blighted areas.

And although the ousted owners are provided with what local officials deem “just compensation” for their land, in accordance with the Fifth Amendment, some owners are rising up to challenge the notion that a bona fide public use is behind such seizures.

Sean and Cat Breslin and their home

Sean Breslin; Cat Breslin

Eminent domain has skyrocketed, and here’s why

Eminent domain has been on the rise across the country for a few years now, says Robert McNamara, senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, a public-interest law firm based in Arlington, VA, that defends against such cases.

It dates to the time that developers started to come out of their recessionary hibernation in earnest—ready to put up sports, housing, and entertainment complexes. Backed by local officials in many of these communities, they weren’t letting private homes and businesses stand in their way.

During the recession, “you saw an almost entire absence of eminent domain abuse,” McNamara says. Now, by contrast, he adds, “We’re seeing cities and suburbs eager to redevelop their downtown areas.”

The growing recent use of eminent domain for private projects can be traced to the landmark Kelo v. City of New London case, which went before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005. In a 5-4 decision, the court allowed local governments to use eminent domain when redevelopment promised economic benefits to a community.

Susette Kelo, outside her New London, CT, home, which had been condemned by the state, shortly after the Kelo v. City of New London ruling.

In simple English, that means homes and businesses in most states can be seized, legally, if it is believed that the development might raise property values and could generate higher tax revenues.

“Under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, you’ve got two requirements for a taking: It has to be for public use, and the government has to pay just compensation,” says attorney Emmett Boney Haywood, a partner with the Nicholls & Crampton law firm in Raleigh, N.C. But Kelo changed all that.

The biggest spike in eminent-domain seizures is happening in the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic regions, particularly in states like Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and Maryland, McNamara says.

There is no national system for tracking when eminent domain is used for private developments rather than for public works projects, like schools and roads. But seizures in both categories are up considerably. The feds seize property for things like roads, military bases, federal buildings, and oil pipelines.

In 2012, the federal government filed 123 eminent domain lawsuits. The number rose to 568 in 2016.

Local governments aren’t always the bad guys when they seize someone’s property. Building schools, parks, and entertainment venues can make struggling neighborhoods safer, increase existing property values, and bring in new businesses as well as sorely needed jobs.

In Kansas City, MO, for example, eminent domain helped the city clear several blighted blocks for the development of an entertainment district and arena. Housing, hotel, office, and retail redevelopments have followed.

But all too often, eminent domain is used in cases that are not so clearly beneficial to the general population. The process can leave homeowners feeling powerless and badly adrift.

In many cases, there’s little homeowners can do once their homes are marked for the taking. Sean Breslin blogged about his experience, hoping that it would scare up a whistleblower who could reveal government shenanigans that could delay or derail the project. So far, no signs of foul play have emerged, and Breslin has accepted his fate. He anticipates receiving a first buyout offer from Cobb County as early as June.

“We’re thinking of having kids, so in a couple of years, we were likely going to be looking for a home in the suburbs,” Breslin tells realtor.com®. “But this certainly moves up the timing for us.”

States push back against Supreme Court ruling

Outrage over the Kelo decision prompted 44 states to enact laws to protect home and business owners from losing their property to private development. The exceptions are New York, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Hawaii, New Jersey, and Oklahoma.

Last year, for example, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court declared unconstitutional part of a 2012 law that allowed the taking of property for private natural gas projects. It ruled that an underground storage company could not show a benefit to the state beyond job creation.

But some states have since relaxed those positions, and angry property owners are fighting back.

California is helping lead the revolt. In October, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that allows communities to form “Community Redevelopment and Investment Authorities” and use eminent domain to take blighted property for economic revitalization projects, affordable housing, and infrastructure.

But “blight” doesn’t necessarily mean run-down properties in polluted industrial wastelands. Instead, the broadly defined term could apply to as much 78% of California’s land, according to a study by a Sacramento consulting firm, Andrew Chang & Co. That’s nearly four-fifths of the state.

During California’s budget crisis five years ago, Brown abolished about 400 local redevelopment agencies, which for years had been using eminent domain to declare private property blighted and to divert property taxes to pay for projects such as shopping districts, residential developments, stadiums, and even a green renovation on a luxury golf course. A state analysis concluded that instead of creating lots of new jobs, the projects generally just transferred jobs between communities, at a cost of roughly $5.5 billion a year.

“Now that the economy is better—and as states and cities have become hungrier for tax revenues—lawmakers are creeping back to the old habit of taking private property and turning it over to a private developer, under the guise that it’s somehow a public benefit,” says Larry Salzman, an eminent domain attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation.

How a former NFL player fought the system Bear Lake, Utah

Phil Olsen

Entrepreneur and former National Football League offensive lineman Phil Olsen wasn’t facing off against private developers when he led a recent effort to fight eminent domain in Garden City, UT. Instead, he was trying to block the town’s mayor, who was trying to take over portions of seven private properties in the town’s Bear Lake area. Including Olsen’s.

The lake is heralded as the “Caribbean of the Rockies,” and the mayor wanted to create more public access to it. In December, after years of wrangling with property owners, he announced that Garden City would use eminent domain.

“We knew that if the city went ahead, we couldn’t stop them,” says the 68-year-old Olsen, who visited Bear Lake every summer as a kid and bought his property after signing his first professional football contract. “But the city had never done eminent domain and thought it would be easy and cheap. Our goal was to prove that it was not going to be easy, and it was not going to be cheap.”

Among other actions, Olsen’s homeowners association began educating nearby property owners as to what could happen to them if the city was successful. It also lobbied for support, beginning with the governor’s office in Utah and working its way down through the Legislature and state agencies. Eventually, the eminent domain was quashed—in return for an agreement that all parties would help in funding a new, less intrusive, public access point.

“We care about public access to the lake. We’re not jerks,” Olsen says. “But you don’t use eminent domain flippantly. It should be used when there are no other alternatives, and in this case, there were plenty of alternatives.”

Phil and Connie Olsen, with their neighbor Jerry Phelps, celebrate the reinstallation of their gate at the head of their joint-use driveway, after successfully winning a lawsuit against Garden City.

Phil Olsen

The post Property Snatchers: How Eminent Domain Can Leave You Without a Home appeared first on Real Estate News & Advice | realtor.com®.

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rtawngs20815 · 7 years

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Property Snatchers: How Eminent Domain Can Leave You Without a Home

Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

But early last November, Breslin found out that the stadium—and the network of new roads that would be built to provide access to it—was going to cost him his home.

“If it wasn’t all so ironic, I would cry,” Breslin wrote in his blog.

Sean and Cat Breslin and their home

Sean Breslin; Cat Breslin

Eminent domain has skyrocketed, and here’s why

Susette Kelo, outside her New London, CT, home, which had been condemned by the state, shortly after the Kelo v. City of New London ruling.

In simple English, that means homes and businesses in most states can be seized, legally, if it is believed that the development might raise property values and could generate higher tax revenues.

In 2012, the federal government filed 123 eminent domain lawsuits. The number rose to 568 in 2016.

But all too often, eminent domain is used in cases that are not so clearly beneficial to the general population. The process can leave homeowners feeling powerless and badly adrift.

States push back against Supreme Court ruling

But some states have since relaxed those positions, and angry property owners are fighting back.

How a former NFL player fought the system Bear Lake, Utah

Phil Olsen

Phil and Connie Olsen, with their neighbor Jerry Phelps, celebrate the reinstallation of their gate at the head of their joint-use driveway, after successfully winning a lawsuit against Garden City.

Phil Olsen

The post Property Snatchers: How Eminent Domain Can Leave You Without a Home appeared first on Real Estate News & Advice | realtor.com®.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2oNpdzT

#DIYS

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repwincoml4a0a5 · 7 years

Text

Property Snatchers: How Eminent Domain Can Leave You Without a Home

Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

But early last November, Breslin found out that the stadium—and the network of new roads that would be built to provide access to it—was going to cost him his home.

“If it wasn’t all so ironic, I would cry,” Breslin wrote in his blog.

Sean and Cat Breslin and their home

Sean Breslin; Cat Breslin

Eminent domain has skyrocketed, and here’s why

Susette Kelo, outside her New London, CT, home, which had been condemned by the state, shortly after the Kelo v. City of New London ruling.

In simple English, that means homes and businesses in most states can be seized, legally, if it is believed that the development might raise property values and could generate higher tax revenues.

In 2012, the federal government filed 123 eminent domain lawsuits. The number rose to 568 in 2016.

But all too often, eminent domain is used in cases that are not so clearly beneficial to the general population. The process can leave homeowners feeling powerless and badly adrift.

States push back against Supreme Court ruling

But some states have since relaxed those positions, and angry property owners are fighting back.

How a former NFL player fought the system Bear Lake, Utah

Phil Olsen

Phil and Connie Olsen, with their neighbor Jerry Phelps, celebrate the reinstallation of their gate at the head of their joint-use driveway, after successfully winning a lawsuit against Garden City.

Phil Olsen

The post Property Snatchers: How Eminent Domain Can Leave You Without a Home appeared first on Real Estate News & Advice | realtor.com®.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2oNpdzT

#DIYS

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pat78701 · 7 years

Text

Property Snatchers: How Eminent Domain Can Leave You Without a Home

Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

But early last November, Breslin found out that the stadium—and the network of new roads that would be built to provide access to it—was going to cost him his home.

“If it wasn’t all so ironic, I would cry,” Breslin wrote in his blog.

Sean and Cat Breslin and their home

Sean Breslin; Cat Breslin

Eminent domain has skyrocketed, and here’s why

Susette Kelo, outside her New London, CT, home, which had been condemned by the state, shortly after the Kelo v. City of New London ruling.

In simple English, that means homes and businesses in most states can be seized, legally, if it is believed that the development might raise property values and could generate higher tax revenues.

In 2012, the federal government filed 123 eminent domain lawsuits. The number rose to 568 in 2016.

But all too often, eminent domain is used in cases that are not so clearly beneficial to the general population. The process can leave homeowners feeling powerless and badly adrift.

States push back against Supreme Court ruling

But some states have since relaxed those positions, and angry property owners are fighting back.

How a former NFL player fought the system Bear Lake, Utah

Phil Olsen

Phil and Connie Olsen, with their neighbor Jerry Phelps, celebrate the reinstallation of their gate at the head of their joint-use driveway, after successfully winning a lawsuit against Garden City.

Phil Olsen

The post Property Snatchers: How Eminent Domain Can Leave You Without a Home appeared first on Real Estate News & Advice | realtor.com®.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2oNpdzT

#DIYS

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junker-town · 7 years

Text

New LSU OC Matt Canada is the creative consultant the Tigers needed

The Tigers’ new OC is good at adapting. They need that.

For years, LSU has been the man-ball team in college football. The Tigers have used an offensive strategy geared around a mostly unparalleled ability to line up in the I-formation, shove aside the first wave and second waves of the defense, and then unleash powerful and freakishly athletic backs to run over whatever was left.

This has manifested itself in the numbers. Look at the monstrous numbers LSU runners have put up and the usually small ones its receivers and QBs have put up:

In 2013, Zach Mettenberger eviscerated opponents and helped both Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham Jr. get more than 1,000 yards. Other than that, the Tigers have generally been good at running the ball and somewhere between “barely competent” and “not good” in the passing game.

Of course, this is why there was a regime change, and why new head coach Ed Orgeron brought in Pitt offensive coordinator Matt Canada to reinvigorate the Tigers’ offense. Canada was an interesting choice, and he should bring a different, yet familiar, spin on LSU’s patented offensive approach.

In the past, LSU has misused talent.

The sad theme of LSU’s efforts over the past decade has been the way it’s routinely wasted tremendous offensive talent at non-running back positions. The Tigers have repeatedly signed top recruiting classes and churned out NFL players, but they’ve left a lot of points on the field while those players were in college.

The issue has never been a lack of skill players that could get open or do something with the ball in their hands. Nor has it been an inability to block up front. The issues have been a lack of skill and development at the QB position and a lack of creativity over how to involve the athletes on the roster, other than lining them up behind the QB and having them run behind lead blocks by fullbacks and tight ends.

At Pitt, Canada came up with some creative solutions.

Canada ultimately wants to do what LSU has done so easily over the last several years: run the ball effectively with the lead back. However, he hasn’t routinely been coaching teams loaded with NFL receivers, linemen, and running backs who expect to just line up and beat most everyone on the schedule through straightforward plans of attack.

The Matt Canada offense has basically been the equivalent of the Dave Aranda defense — a scheme meant to make the most of versatile players to create advantages that are needed due to lack of elite talent.

Like the LSU Tigers, the 2016 Pitt Panthers made frequent use of a TE (Scott Orndoff) and a FB (George Aston), but they used them for a lot more than just blocking. Orndoff (6’5, 255 pounds) caught 35 balls for 579 yards and five TDs while Aston (6’0, 245 pounds) had 44 touches for 244 yards and 10 TDs.

If you add up the numbers for LSU TEs Collin Jeter and Foster Moreau and FBs Bry’Kiethon Mouton and J.D. Moore, you end up with 40 touches for 330 yards and three TDs. It was rare that opposing teams needed to worry about anyone on the field for LSU having the ball other than Leonard Fournette or Derrius Guice.

Canada had a wide variety of ways to involve these nominal blockers, as well as skill guys like Quadree Henderson and Jester Weah, and to set up feature back James Conner for success. Pre- and post-snap options were major components in that process.

Canada designed one run-pass option that effectively combined the power running game, the shovel pass, and the sprint-out pass. Canada loves the shovel option, which, mixed with an outside toss-read game, helped the Panthers beat Clemson in Death Valley. He also put a unique spin on the jet sweep. All of these plays involve a lot of motions, which help the QB learn how to attack the defense on any given play.

At the heart of it all are basic schemes like inside zone or power that everyone else uses. The difference has been that Canada tends to do a lot more outside of those basic runs, with his motions and accompanying options, than other offenses that utilize FBs and TEs. But instead of preventing defenses from stopping these runs with speedy skill athletes spread wide to hold defenders, he’s involving FBs and TEs as options in the attack.

Here’s an excellent example from Pitt’s game against Miami:

That’s a jet sweep handoff to a fullback (lined up as an H-back). Granted it’s third-and-1, but I’m still not sure I’ve ever seen another team hand the ball off to a FB on a jet sweep before. The effect of Pitt regularly involving these guys is creating a ton of confusion for the DEs and LBs that have to add “and he may also receive a hand off or catch a pass” when they’re trying to diagnose the intentions of Canada’s players in the precious seconds before the ball crosses the line of scrimmage into space.

Much of what Canada is looking to accomplish would be handled in a spread offense, with run-pass options or QB run options designed to create double teams or leverage for the skill players. The genius of Canada has been accomplishing the same things from under center or with FBs and TEs that stay in the box.

How does this approach help LSU?

When Aranda brought his defensive scheme from Wisconsin to LSU last season, he made major adjustments and tweaks in Year 1. The scheme was developed at Hawaii and Utah State before undergoing further evolutions at Wisconsin. But an underlying component was the use of versatile linebackers and safeties that knew how to play multiple roles and could shift assignments to cause confusion and negative plays.

At LSU, Aranda simplified things to allow guys like pass-rusher Arden Key, middle linebacker Kendall Beckwith, and strong safety Jamal Adams to simply out-execute opponents with their superior athleticism.

If Canada’s most brilliant adaptations to the offense formerly known as pro-style have been solutions for how to run the ball effectively between the tackles without dominant personnel, how does that translate at LSU, where the Tigers do have dominant personnel? No doubt they can still improve, and will have a wider variety of ways to attack Alabama’s stifling defense. But will Canada’s methods solve their struggles to improve the QB play and unleash their NFL-worthy athletes at WR?

Canada’s offensive system has the practical effect of turning the QB into a triple-option style distributor whose qualifications relate primarily to his ability to master the system and deliver the ball on time. Pitt’s Nathan Peterman was pretty tough in the pocket and capable of throwing some accurate balls, but the offense didn’t ask him to regularly make thorough progressions or difficult throws. It was much more often something like this:

Clemson’s favorite way to handle an offense is to attack it with the blitz, but the Tigers had been caught and burned multiple times by the Pitt shovel-option play at this point. That meant that when Pitt went back to the shovel-option well only to run play-action, the Tigers’ wires were crossed and they weren’t matched up properly on the Panther skill players. No one picked up running back James Conner turning what looked like a lead block or perhaps flat route into a wide open run down the sideline. Peterman knew the intention of the play design and beat the blitz by being able to toss the ball out accurately while on the move.

Under Canada, LSU has two options for how to approach the QB position.

The first is to find and develop QBs that can master a system filled with checks and motions to dissect defenses, and then learn to make quick decisions so that athletic skill players can make things happen. Given that their 2017 recruiting class is headlined by pocket-passer Myles Brennan and the rest of the roster is also filled with pocket passers, this is the most likely option.

The other is to try and salvage Brandon Harris and recruit more dual-threat athletes, while adopting Canada’s offense to work more like a spread system. In a system like that, the QB’s legs are a primary constraint on the defense, rather than a pitch to a FB or TE. LSU also has a four-star dual-threat QB commit, Lowell Narcisse, joining the program this season, and could choose this route.

Either way, there’s good news for the Tigers.

They have an OC who’s proven he can utilize traditionally “pro-style” players while attacking defenses mentally (with motions, checks and options) and physically (with bruising, speedy athletes). If the Tigers can do both at once, their talent will carry them a far way.

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