Pest Thresholds
With fall comes a number of seasonally emerging insects across the state. Some are beneficial, some are beautiful and some of these insects may come in numbers large enough to become pests. Before reaching for pesticides, consider whether the insect is actually causing damage. Fungi, bacteria and viruses that cause plant injury are also pests. In agricultural production, weeds cause more crop and economic loss than any other pest. A “pest” is defined by the amount of damage and economic loss caused by said critter. A deer browsing in the woods isn’t a pest. A deer munching on $30 hostas in a home landscape, night after night, is. A yellowstriped oakworm chewing leaves on an oak tree is bird food, but thousands of them defoliating trees make them pests. Not every pest needs to be controlled. For instance, sooty blotch and flyspeck reduce the visual appeal of apples, but they don’t reduce the quality of the fruit. Gall mites make leaves look odd, but they rarely affect plant health. Unwanted insects in the garden may actually draw birds and beneficial insects that will be delighted to control pests for you. So what’s the tipping point between insect presence and pest pressure? Although some people would like to eliminate the entire pest population, that’s not a likely outcome of pest control. With the exception of invasive species, eradication generally isn’t a desirable outcome, either. Each organism has its place in a balanced ecosystem, and history shows that human interference can cause lasting damage to animal, bird and insect populations. A more realistic approach is to decide on a tolerable level of damage or imperfection and then to take measures to keep pest damage below that threshold. Achieving that goal requires a variety of actions including prevention, monitoring and various methods of pest control. This approach is known as integrated pest management (IPM). IPM is an ongoing pest control strategy that begins with preventive measures — actions taken before a problem appears that should reduce the chance of a problem developing. Examples include sealing cracks around doors and windows to keep insects out and installing screens to keep squirrels, bats and birds from entering attics. In the garden and landscape, selecting disease-resistant varieties of plants, testing and amending soil to meet plant needs, and locating plants where they receive the correct amount of light and water are all preventive measures. Monitoring is another important aspect of IPM. Scout your plants and note what doesn’t look right. Identify and address problems when they begin to prevent irreversible damage and plant loss. To control pests, you must first identify the pest. Control measures include changing cultural or environmental conditions that favor disease development, such as overhead watering, plant crowding and excess fertilizer. Encourage pest predators for natural, biological controls. Remove diseased plant material and keep the area free of weeds and debris, so pests don’t have a place to hide. With IPM, chemical control is the last resort. Pests won’t stay away if the conditions that attracted them still exist. For more information about IPM or home garden and lawn pests, view University of Georgia Extension publications at extension.uga.edu/publications.
By TOM PELHAM. Vermonters need to see beyond Washington’s double talk and understand the budget fight is not about compromise, but about holding partisan ground gained over the last decade. The Republicans don’t favor taxes and with President Bush taking the lead, income taxes dropped from 9.7% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2000 to 6.2% in 2010. Total federal revenues dropped from 20.6% of GDP to 14.9%. In the other direction, Democrats favor expanded government and as a percent of GDP, federal spending grew from 18.5% of GDP in 2000 to 23.8% in 2010. Spending has increased across the board with discretionary spending up from 6.3% of GDP in 2000 to 9.3% in 2010 and ‘mandatory’ spending up from 10.5% to 14.4%. The result is a federal budget that went from surplus to deficit. In 2000, the surplus was $86.4 billion. In 2011, the year ended with a $1.55 trillion deficit and the federal debt grew to a very worrisome $14.3 trillion. The International Monetary Fund profiles the United States debt now at 99.5% of GDP. During the Carter years it was less than 40% and Bill Clinton left office with it at 57%. For comparison, Germany’s is now at 80.1%, the United Kingdom at 83%, Italy at 120.3% and Greece at 152.3%. This marriage of convenience between Republicans and Democrats survived until now, with both sides able to satisfy their political base with tax cuts and higher spending. Going forward though, if these fiscally irreconcilable positions are not abandoned, the national welfare will be the collateral damage. Both sides hold shaded self-serving positions. Democrats look back at the surpluses in the Clinton years and blame the ‘Bush Tax Cuts’, code words for tax breaks given the wealthy. But the facts are the ‘Bush Tax Cuts’ were for everybody, not just the wealthy. The U.S. Treasury values the ‘Bush Tax Cuts’ at $3.6 trillion over the next decade with only $700 billion, or 19%, going to ‘the wealthy’ and $2.9 trillion going to the rest of us. In 2000, the effective federal income tax rate on the bottom 50% of filers was 4.6%. In 2008, the last year for which numbers are available, their effective rate was down to 2.59%. With these lower rates, 46.9% of all federal income tax filers in 2009 paid no federal income tax. Comparatively, for the top 5% of filers, the effective rate dropped from 24.4% to 20.7% by 2008. Democrats argue only to reverse the tax cuts given the wealthy but are silent about the cuts given the rest of us and are silent as well about how to balance the budget if the ‘Bush Tax Cuts’ for the less than ‘wealthy’ remain in place. It’s misleading for Democrats to hang their hat on the surpluses of the Clinton years when Clinton’s budget surpluses rested on significantly higher tax revenues from low and middle income filers. Further, Democrats want to close corporate tax breaks with oil companies and jet owners as their whipping posts. Yet, an analysis by the joint congressional staff for the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee ( found here http://www.jct.gov/publications.html?func=startdown&id=3718(link is external) ) reveals the estimate of all corporate tax breaks in 2012 amounts to slightly over $94 billion, with energy related tax breaks amounting to $5.4 billion. While I won’t argue that profitable oil companies deserve tax breaks, it’s impossible to argue their elimination will make a meaningful dent in the $1.4 trillion annual deficit. If the entirety of corporate tax breaks cited in the analysis including affordable housing, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, ethanol, tax free bonds, corporate charitable contributions, etc. were eliminated for 2012, the federal deficit would be reduced by less than $100 billion, remaining at $1.3 trillion. Republicans take equally ridiculous positions. Unless Republicans are willing to reduce federal spending to match revenues at the current $14.9% of GDP, their rock solid opposition to tax increases, whether through raising tax rates or eliminating tax breaks, is both fatuous and dangerous. For this national crisis to be resolved, the partisan shouting and slight-of-hand economics must stop. Our elected leaders need to embrace humility, as the current crisis is a product of their neglect. The fiscal gulf we now face is extreme, with federal revenues at just under 15% and federal spending at almost 24% of GDP. The national debt can only be lowered with federal budget surpluses. The hard work of cutting budgets and raising taxes on all of us over the coming months and years is necessary to reclaim the fiscal balance existing in the Clinton years, when revenues were at 20% of GDP and spending at just over 18%. Tom Pelham was the Vermont’s Finance Commissioner in the Dean Administration and Tax Commissioner in the Douglas Administration
3) Vouchers – measures to encourage Croatian tourist spending, for the next season, vouchers, for example, as Slovenia has done. Eg. voucher for free toll for the trip to Dalmatia and back if you have paid accommodation, 50% discount on the ferry and the like. Long-term measures: 2) Funds for recovery and resilience – we suggest that part of the funds go as a grant, and part should certainly be allocated for investments 5) Abolition of 3% consumption tax for caterers and recognition of the cost of representation in 100%, with non-taxable so-called. tip for employees, with a maximum account increase of up to 10%. 4) Abolition of mandatory membership fees in the CNTB – financing primarily from sojourn taxes and reduction of the number of tourist unions and abolition of those that have no purpose. 1) Legal solution or regulation related to the moratorium on loans and leasing to all activities related to tourism – mandatory approval of the moratorium for 12 months (with an additional 6 months for the most vulnerable companies) to all clients who on 31.12.2019. were regular clients, with an interest collection model for the moratorium period that will be adequately divided into three parts – clients, leasing companies and the state. Photo: Pixabay.com Current measures: 2) Extension of measures for “preservation of jobs” – participation in the net salary, with the write-off of payroll taxes, for all whose business can not be opened for objective reasons or has a decline of more than 60%, caused by the COVID 19 crisis. It is necessary to keep in mind activities that according to the NCEA do not belong to the tourism sector, and depend almost exclusively on tourism, such as the event industry, destination retail, rent a car industry and the like. Following the meetings of the UGP at the Ministry of Tourism and Sports with Minister Nikolina Brnjac with other tourism workers, it was agreed that each of the Associations submit initial proposals (short-term and long-term, feasible and concise) and the Voice of Entrepreneurs Association submitted current and long-term measures to the Ministry of Tourism. . 3) Enable online payment by CROcard – this is not possible at the moment, and thus an entire sector of online travel agencies is thrown out of the market system, as well as micro-entrepreneurs, ie small renters. 1) Reduction of VAT on all branches of tourism – hotels, restaurants, travel agencies, charters, rent-a-car, carriers, seasonal craftsmen, event industry, etc. at a single rate of 10% 4) Division of Croatia into Covid – 19 regions – not all regions are equally affected by the corona virus and we believe that it is necessary to divide Croatia into zones. It is necessary to separate heavily infected areas from parts that can live normally, of course with all the prescribed precautions.
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The museum is packed with items from the 1954 Indiana State Basketball Championship and is home to the “Hoosiers Collection” which is the largest known collection of movie props and uniforms from the movie “Hoosiers.”Milan ’54 Inc. has been awarded a $12,000 grant from the Efroymson Family Fund for the historic film project at the Milan ’54 Hoosiers Museum.The film project will include individual interviews from all 11 surviving players from the 1954 Milan High School Boys Basketball State Championship Team. The new audio and film presentations will play in front of each player’s locker on demand in three separate 30-second presentations providing each player’s unique experiences about growing up in Milan, and of course basketball.In addition, a 15-20 minute film presentation will be produced that will play in the museum’s media room. Visitors will be able to view the new film sitting in school desks from the old Milan High School as the film “sets the table” for each person’s visit to the museum.“This is a project that we have wanted to do for a long time,” said Marianne Wiggers, president of Milan 54, Inc. “We want to get all this history recorded while all of these players are still with us. We would like to thank the Efroymson Family Fund for making these historically significant film projects possible. Future generations of historians and basketball enthusiasts will now always be able to hear first- hand from the players who did what was considered impossible.”The Efroymson Fund is a donor-advised fund of the Central Indiana Community Foundation and continues a long legacy of charitable commitments by the Efroymson family. The fund was established in 1998 by Dan and Lori Efroymson to improve the quality of life for individuals and promote the vitality of communities. Since its inception, the fund has awarded more than $74 million in grants to non-profit organizations in central Indiana and beyond.
DECATUR COUNTY, Ind. — A Westport man was arrested after an altercation late last week.William Sessions, 27, was arrested after a report of a domestic altercation in Greensburg.According to police, when officers arrived, they were met by a female that police say had red marks on both sides of her neck.Police say the woman told that them she and Sessions, her live-in boyfriend, were having an argument when he grabbed her by the throat and pushed her against the wall.Police say she also told them that he did that while she was holding their 10-month old son.Sessions was arrested on a charge of Domestic Battery.
Promoted ContentCouples Who Celebrated Their Union In A Unique, Unforgettable WayThis Guy Photoshopped Himself Into Celeb Pics And It’s HystericalA Hurricane Can Be As Powerful As 10 Atomic Bombs6 Of The Best 90s Shows That Need To Come Back ASAP5 Of The World’s Most Unique Theme ParksDeepika Padukone’s Most Iconic LooksWorld’s Most Delicious FoodsThe Highest Paid Football Players In The WorldWho Earns More Than Ronaldo?7 Worst Things To Do To Your PhoneTop 10 Most Romantic Nations In The WorldThe Most Exciting Cities In The World To Visit And talkSPORT pundit Cascarino has now hit back at the Derby star, saying: “If that was the case, when Rooney was going for his new contract, why didn’t he ask for the same money as Park Ji-sung and Darren Fletcher? “Rooney and Ronaldo are very hard to get and that’s why they make the most money. They make the difference. “You can go and get players who have done a job for you; just look at John O’Shea, Park and Fletcher – there are a number of them who could do a really good job. “And I’m not undermining them, but that was their job in that team. Man United had the icing on the cake with certain players that you cannot get anywhere. “If you play for Man United you’re a very, very good footballer, that’s for sure; but there’s a difference between them and Ronaldo. You can’t go and find a Ronaldo unless you play a king’s ransom. read also:Borussia Dortmund winger idolised Man Utd legend Rooney “If you’re speaking to owners about signing new contracts, you’ll be on a certain rate because of what you are – a player that can be let go easily because another player can do that.” FacebookTwitterWhatsAppEmail分享 Loading… 
Manchester United hero, Wayne Rooney, has been slammed for claiming Ji-Sung Park was as vital to the club as Cristiano Ronaldo during their playing days. Wayne Rooney is unhappy with the treatment of players over the coronavirus The trio were all team-mates at Old Trafford earlier in their respective careers. And talkSPORT pundit Tony Cascarino has spoken out on Derby County star Rooney for making the claim. Rooney wrote in his column for The Sunday Times: “It’s crazy but if you mentioned Cristiano Ronaldo to a 12-year-old, they would immediately say, ‘Yeah, he was a brilliant player for Manchester United’, but if you said ‘Park Ji-sung’ they may not know who he was. “Yet all of us who played with Park know he was almost as important to our success. “That’s because of what Park gave to the collective and I want to talk about teams. They — not stars — are the most important thing in sport.” Park won five Premier League titles at United, while Ronaldo won three.Advertisement
The Black Cats have failed to find the back of the net in three of their last four Barclays Premier League games and while they have lost only once in six outings to date, have yet to win this season. Perhaps more worryingly, of their five league goals to date, four have been scored by midfielders and the other was an own goal, meaning frontmen Connor Wickham, Steven Fletcher and Jozy Altidore are yet to register yet. Sunderland head coach Gus Poyet is convinced his strikers will rediscover their touch in front of goal as he attempts to find a way out of their drought. He said: “That’s perfection, but any team starts from the back – expect the teams who have got [Cristiano] Ronaldo, [Karim] Benzema, James Rodriguez, [Gareth] Bale and company, then you start from the front. “But we need to be organised, difficult to beat, fight, have the commitment and then slowly play our game and create chances. “We did that on Saturday; we didn’t score, so the idea is to maintain that and put the ball in the net. That’s football. “Stoke are a difficult team to play against as well, the make it very difficult, and we need to make sure we score first.” Poyet will have central defender Wes Brown at his disposal once again after his recovery from a calf problem, although Sebastian Coates will miss out with a thigh injury and midfielder Emanuele Giaccherini is still struggling to shake off an ankle knock. However, Poyet, who saw team draw 0-0 with Swansea at the Stadium of Light last weekend, believes there is the firepower within the club to prosper, if they can create chances for its strikers. He said: “I am still calm that the strikers will score. Now, I could be wrong and time will tell, but I think they deserve to have the chance. “They need to prove themselves, they need to accept the responsibility and then time will tell if was right or wrong. But from here to January, it’s us and that’s where we need to look for solutions, inside the camp. “We are okay. It is not that moment when we are panicking. Of course, another 0-0 would not be great and would put us in a situation where we starting asking how we are going to get a goal. “But the idea is not to panic and go thinking we are going to score a few.” If goals have been in short supply at one end, they have been mercifully so at the other end too with Sunderland having become difficult to beat under the Uruguayan. Only promoted QPR have emerged from an encounter with the Black Cats with all three points, although Saturday’s visitors Stoke got the better of them on Wearside last week in the Capital One Cup third round. Poyet has made no bones about building his team from the back – indeed, he insists that is the starting point for all but the likes of Real Madrid – and would happily settle for a series of 1-0 victories. Press Association
For all the Latest Sports News News, Cricket News News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: India’s star batter Mithali Raj announced retirement from T20 Internationals on Tuesday. Mithali still continues to captain Indian women cricket team in the ODI internationals. Mithali Raj, who started her international career in 1999 is one of the most successful woman cricketers. She has captained India in 32 T20I games which also includes three world cup tournaments.“Former India T20I captain, Ms Mithali Raj has announced her retirement from T20 Internationals. Mithali led India in 32 T20Is including the three Women’s WT20 World Cups in 2012 (Sri Lanka), 2014 (Bangladesh) and 2016 (India)”, reads BCCI press release confirming Mithali’s retirement from T20 internationals. She has played 89 T20Is for India in which she scored 2,364 runs with an average of 37.52. She has hit 17 test fifties. She played her last T20 international against England in Guwahati. She scored an unbeaten 32 off 30 balls in that match. As she bids adieu to the shortest format of the game, she finishes as the sixth highest run getter, behind the likes of Suzie Bates, Charlotte Edwards and others. Mithali Raj announced retirement from T20 InternationalsShe is one of the most successful woman cricketersShe has played 89 T20Is for India in which she scored 2,364 runs
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They are focusing now on more experienced figures, such as Barcelona outcast Arturo Vidal and Tottenham Hotspur man Tanguy Ndombele.Above all, Conte has requested Kante, who he brought to Chelsea from Leicester City for €36m in 2016 when he was the manager.Now 29, the France international has fallen down the pecking order at Stamford Bridge and could well be allowed to leave for the right price.That is believed to be circa €50m, so Inter are hoping to get him on loan with obligation or even an option to buy, therefore spreading out the cost, according to Tuttomercatoweb.They also need to sell in order to raise funds, with exits for the likes of Roberto Gagliardini, Matias Vecino, Marcelo Brozovic and even Christian Eriksen.Watch Serie A live in the UK on Premier Sports for just £9.99 per month including live LaLiga, Eredivisie, Scottish Cup Football and more.Share this:FacebookRedditTwitterPrintPinterestEmailWhatsAppSkypeLinkedInTumblrPocketTelegram Antonio Conte has requested N’Golo Kante from Chelsea, as Inter hope to do a loan deal with obligation to buy for €50m.The coach has taken full control of transfer strategy, which was one of the main reasons behind the crisis talks with President Steven Zhang just days after the Europa League Final.Because of his suggestions, the Nerazzurri pulled out of their deal for Sandro Tonali, leaving the Brescia midfielder to Milan instead.
Facebook Twitter Google+ Published on April 19, 2014 at 11:25 pm Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse Hobart head coach Greg Raymond said when he was watching film of Chris Daddio during the week, he thought the Syracuse faceoff specialist was underrated.Then on Saturday, with Raymond’s squad clinging to an upset bid heading into the fourth quarter, Daddio’s up-and-down season continued its upswing and Raymond’s view of him was confirmed.“I’m not sure if he switched anything up,” Raymond said. “He had a great fourth quarter. I thought, in addition to some turnovers and the clears that we talked about, he ended up allowing them to pull away.”Through three quarters at Boswell Field, Daddio and Hobart specialist Jake Shapiro had each won 10 of the 20 total faceoffs. But then Daddio got into a rhythm, winning 5-of-6 draws in the fourth to help No. 4 Syracuse (9-3, 2-3 Atlantic Coast) run by Hobart (4-8, 2-3 Northeast) 15-9 and reclaim the Kraus-Simmons Trophy after losing it last season.“He’s been working this tail off all year,” said senior midfielder Billy Ward. “I know we’re all real proud of him and it’s good to see him starting to play well.AdvertisementThis is placeholder text“He was always so close.”In Syracuse first seven games of the season, Daddio won 42.6 percent of his faceoffs and SU head coach John Desko shuffled a host of players through the circle each game.But in the four games since that led up Syracuse’s 100th meeting with Hobart, Daddio increased his percentage by 15.6 points. Now, no other player has taken a faceoff in the last five games and the Orange, fittingly, hasn’t lost.“He’s been key to this run we’re on right now,” Ward said. “With Chris, we go with him, and he’s been doing a great job.”Just before the fourth quarter, Dylan Donahue netted a goal that gave SU its first lead since there was 7:33 left in the first quarter. That was when Daddio ripped off five of the final six faceoffs, even as Shapiro tried to change things up on him each try.It allowed Syracuse to sprinkle on five more goals and also take methodical possessions that sucked the life out of Hobart and its raucous crowd.“He allowed us to settle down offensively and put a lot of pressure on Hobart’s defense,” Desko said.Syracuse will face Duke in the semifinals of the ACC tournament Friday, and that will pit Daddio against a player he has great trouble with in the past.Brendan Fowler has become a familiar face atop the national leaderboard for faceoff percentage, and had his way with Daddio the last two times the Orange and Blue Devils met.Yet Daddio’s riding the most success he’s had all season, and couldn’t be matching up with Fowler at a better time. Comments
On July 24, 2014, 24-year-old Xinran Ji, a second-year graduate student studying electrical engineering, was found dead at his home in City Park Apartments, less than half a mile from USC’s campus. Ji had been walking home alone at 12:45 a.m. after a night of studying when police believe he was attacked with a baseball bat during an attempted robbery. Ji managed to stagger back to his apartment, where his roommate discovered him later that morning. This attack marked the third major violent incident to occur on or near USC’s campus in less than three years.Following Ji’s death, the university enacted a round of security reforms, with the expansion of Campus Cruiser’s services included among the measures. In addition to bringing wait times for the service to 15 minutes or less, administrators also expanded the area of the neighborhood that Campus Cruiser services.Prior to the change, wait times for Campus Cruiser had been known to last as long as 45 minutes, not including time spent on hold, which could reportedly last for 20 minutes or more.In the first week of the fall 2014 semester, Campus Cruiser hired 29 new drivers, bringing the total number of drivers to 154. The program also acquired 13 more vehicles, and Dept. of Public Safety officers and students enrolled in the ROTC program at USC served as temporary Cruiser drivers.During this influx of new hires, the training time for drivers was shortened from two weeks to two days, and then again to a single night.According to Associate Director of Transit Michelle Garcia, the change hasn’t had any adverse effects.“The boundary area is relatively small,” Garcia said. “If anything, even if you have a longer training period, on the job is where you learn … what the tricks of the trade are.”Prior to this fall, trainee drivers would ride along with a more experienced driver for several shifts over a two-week period. Despite the abridged training, Garcia said there have been no unexpected increases in traffic accidents.Nonetheless, Garcia said Campus Cruiser has followed up with new drivers hired this semester to iron out any remaining issues.“I think at this point we’ve gone back through to all the people we hired in that express training and are working with them now to see, ‘Is this a training issue or are they not the right fit for the program?’ and trying to determine those things and deciding where to go from there,” she said. “For the most part, our management team has shared with me that people going through the one-day training have picked things up quickly.”A former junior Cruiser driver, who wished to remain anonymous since Campus Cruiser sent a memo to employees not to speak with the press, was hired this fall and said he felt the shortened training period was a sufficient introduction to the program.“I feel like even if I had been trained longer, the things that I would question, they were easily answered,” he said. “I don’t see why it would take two weeks to train actually.”The driver said the training consisted of about two and a half hours of observing another driver, followed by three hours of supervised driving.Because of the increase in drivers and vehicles and subsequent shorter wait times, demand for Campus Cruiser has skyrocketed, according to Mazza. In the first month of classes of fall 2014, Cruiser received almost 19,000 calls, 4,000 more calls than the same period last year.A new phone system was implemented in mid-September to deal with increased call volume with the addition of a function that allows callers to use a call-back option, in which a caller can hang up and a dispatcher will call them back shen they have reached the front of the queue. Also, the area where dispatchers work is being reorganized in order to accommodate more dispatchers during a shift, according to Garcia.She said call wait times now average about two minutes, and the longest call wait time she has heard of during the fall was 14 minutes.All of these changes, however, occurred in the middle of USC’s fiscal year. According to Mazza, the Cruiser program was granted a budget amendment of an additional $500,000 in order to fund the new resources acquired during the fall semester, including new hires and new vehicles.The road aheadMazza said even more changes are ahead for the program.“Our challenge going forward, as it always has been, is that as our wait times decrease, demand increases,” Mazza said.The activity of Campus Cruiser is closely monitored every day, according to Mazza, and a summary of the program’s activities is presented to senior administrators on a weekly basis.Campus Cruiser receives about 1,000 calls per night, and officials estimate the number will rise to about 1,200 calls per night by February. According to Garcia, the spring is usually busier for Campus Cruiser than the fall, since the service operates an hour longer, beginning at 5 p.m. instead of 6 p.m. because it gets dark earlier, the weather is slightly rainier and freshmen who might not have known about Campus Cruiser in the fall begin to utilize it.To accommodate this increased demand, Mazza also said the dispatch used to track and organize calls will likely be replaced next summer.“The technology platform that Campus Cruiser operates on today has been in place since 2002, so about 12 years,” Mazza said. “It’s getting to the end of its life cycle.”This new system will ideally be fully automated, meaning that calls will automatically be assigned to drivers, and dispatchers will no longer be necessary, according to Mazza. In the current system, one dispatcher might be managing the phone line, while another monitors radio traffic and assigns calls to cars.“There’s definitely been some struggles due to call volume,” he said. “We want to work on efficiencies for dispatching. [Dispatching is] hard to do when it’s one or two people looking at a screen.”Mazza said that there has also been talk of creating an app students can use to request a Campus Cruiser similar to the one used by app-based ridesharing services, such as Uber and Lyft, and incorporating a Campus Cruiser tracker into DPS’s recently released Trojan mobile safety app, LiveSafe. These mobile technologies would hopefully be released once the current dispatch system is replaced.According to Mazza, as they’ve investigated options for new technology for the Campus Cruiser program, USC Transportation reached out to other universities with safe-ride programs. Their research found that Campus Cruiser is the largest, most comprehensive university program in the country.University ride programs that come closest to the size of Campus Cruiser, including the programs at University of California, Berkeley and the University of Georgia, operate using large passenger vans to shuttle students around campus, and none give students an expected wait time.“We have not been able to find any university that does the number of calls that we do … We’re really proud of what we do and what we’ve been able to accomplish this semester,” Mazza said.In the meantime, Campus Cruiser hired additional drivers at the end of the fall semester to bring the total number to 200 to account for the loss of senior drivers who graduated in the fall and drivers who might be able unable to work in the spring because of schedule conflicts.“People don’t want to wait,” he said. “No one wants to wait. We are committed to that 15 minute wait time and driving it down whenever we have the resources.” Safe travels Since Jan. 16, when USC Transportation announced a new pilot program with Uber to supplement the Campus Cruiser program and reduce wait times during peak periods, the ridesharing app completed more than 1,600 calls in the first weekend of the partnership.This new program with Uber, however, is only the latest in a series of changes since the beginning of the fall 2014 semester.Though Campus Cruiser is not a new program at USC, the ride service has undergone many changes over the course of the fall semester, from an influx of new hires and vehicles, to an extension of the boundaries in which they operate. The transition came after an announcement by President C.L. Max Nikias early in the fall 2014 semester, declaring that wait times for a Cruiser exceed no more than 15 minutes.“We were notified fairly late in the summer that we needed to maintain those wait times,” said USC Transportation Director Tony Mazza. “We had to very quickly get the staffing up to speed and get the cars on board. In retrospect it’s probably one of our biggest challenges.”The department scrambled to adjust procedures and personnel in order to carry out Nikias’ promise as demand for the new, faster service increased. Now, Cruiser is experiencing record demand. By the time fall classes ended in December, Campus Cruiser had completed 94,044 calls in the fall 2014 semester, 27,809 calls more than fall 2013, with call volume up 42 percent from last year.In the first weeks of the spring semester, Campus Cruiser has already seen similar increases in demand. As of Tuesday, Jan. 20, 9,350 total calls have been completed this spring — up 27 percent from last spring. Combined with the rides serviced by Uber, demand has increased 49 percent compared with the same dates last spring.Now, Campus Cruiser, which employs more than 150 student drivers and maintains a fleet of about 40 vehicles, answers up to 1,400 calls on each of its busiest nights: Thursday, Friday and Saturday.A semester after these major changes, Campus Cruiser seems to be maintaining their quickened pace, and the program will continue to evolve.
Published on December 12, 2017 at 10:48 am Comments Facebook Twitter Google+
Our basketball beat writers join the podcast once again to talk Syracuse vs. Georgetown. Sam Fortier and Tomer Langer guess what a Hoya is and give their top moment between Syracuse and Georgetown. The two also take a look ahead at the rest of the nonconference schedule and also what storylines to follow as the Orange approaches conference play.Listen to episode 12 here:
Share Share FSB selects Glenn Elliott as new COO August 12, 2020 Submit Related Articles GVC absorbs retail shocks as business recalibrates for critical H2 trading August 13, 2020 StumbleUpon Bookies Corner: Trump Presidency sinks as US 2020 enters its 100 day countdown July 29, 2020 Updating the market, Ladbrokes has informed that it will continue to work with the Rugby Football League as title sponsor of its Challenge Cup, English Rugby League’s legacy knockout competition.Ladbrokes marketing has signed a one-year extension, which will see the competition continue to be branded as the ‘Ladbrokes Challenge Cup’. The sponsorship extension is signed on the week of the Challenge Cup final which sees Hull FC take on the Wigan Warriors at Wembley Stadium.Rugby Football League Chief Commercial Officer, Roger Draper, commented on the Ladbrokes partnership: “I am delighted that Ladbrokes have decided to extend their current partnership and that they recognise the value in being involved with such a prestigious and well-regarded competition.“The Ladbrokes Challenge Cup is rich in heritage and tradition and is known across the world, so to have a brand as successful and recognisable as Ladbrokes commit to extending their support is great news for the sport. Ladbrokes has been a fantastic supporter of Rugby League and we are delighted that they are continuing their association with our great sport.”Ladbrokes and the Rugby Football League had first entered partnership in 2015, with the bookmaker agreeing to a three-year title Challenge Cup title sponsorship.The bookmaker details that it has capitalised on the competition’s vast and growing fan base which is led through the competition’s broadcast on BBC and Sky Sports channels which have seen a record number of live games broadcast this year.Ladbrokes Coral Chief Executive, Jim Mullen, commented on the extension: “Our decision to sponsor the Challenge Cup was an easy one. We want our name to be associated with prestigious, passionate sporting events and this ticks those boxes, so it was a no brainer when it came to extending our association with the game. We play hard to win and that’s what the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup is all about.”
A well-researched article on Medium looked at quarterbacks only and determined there was a minor benefit at this position: “There seems to be a sort of smartness threshold, where the best NFL quarterbacks need to be at least this smart to see success. But once a QB passes that threshold (around a score of 25), their additional smartness has little to no effect on success on the field.”Former NFL scout John Middlekauff has said in the past regarding the Wonderlic, “everything matters when it comes to quarterbacks.”This article has been updated with new reporting on quarterback scores. Sporting News’ Austin Anderson contributed. First, an update to this post: Later reports contradicted McGinn’s list of test scores for top quarterback prospects. According to former Notre Dame receiver (and fellow 2020 draft prospect) Chase Claypool, Oregon’s Justin Herbert scored a 39 (out of 50) instead of the 25 that McGinn reported. Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer backed Claypool’s statement.A 39 would give Herbert the second-highest score for quarterbacks, just behind the 40 by Iowa’s Nate Stanley. Herbert won the Campbell Trophy, known as the “academic Heisman,” with a 4.01 GPA in biology. Breer also reported that Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa scored a 19 instead of a 13 and Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts scored a 21 instead of an 18. Jake Luton and Brian Lewerke also had higher scores than originally reported, according to Breer.If you’re unfamiliar with what the Wonderlic test is, read this explanation from Wikipedia:The Wonderlic Personnel Test is a popular group intelligence test used to assess the aptitude of prospective employees for learning and problem-solving in a range of occupations. The Wonderlic is available in 12 different languages and is often used in college, entry level jobs, and team-making efforts. It consists of 50 multiple choice questions to be answered in 12 minutes.MORE: 2020 NFL Mock Draft, but ‘Madden’ makes the picksWonderlic scores for 2020 NFL Draft quarterbacksNate Stanley: 40Justin Herbert 39* (previously 25)Jake Fromm: 35Joe Burrow: 34Jake Luton: 33* (29)Brian Lewerke 30* (25)Jordan Love: 27Anthony Gordon: 25Jacob Eason: 23James Morgan: 23Jalen Hurts: 21* (18)Tua Tagovailoa: 19* (13)* Updated scores are according to SI’s Albert Breer.Tagovailoa still had the lowest reported Wonderlic score among the 2020 draft-eligible quarterbacks with 19, if you replace McGinn’s original reports with Breer’s updates. That is just below the historical average of 20 based on data gathered from wonderlictestsample.com.While Stanley’s 40 is well above average, it pales in comparison to Ryan Fitzpatrick’s score of 48, which is believed to be the highest Wonderlic test score ever recorded for an NFL quarterback.SN’s Vinnie Iyer has Stanley going to the Bears in the seventh round in his latest mock draft.Projected No. 1 overall draft pick Joe Burrow (35) and Georgia’s Jake Fromm (34) also had above-average Wonderlic scores.MORE: The highest, lowest Wonderlic test scores in NFL historyDoes the Wonderlic test matter?Now that you know the scores, it’s worth knowing if they even matter. In short, it depends on who you ask, but most people respond with “not really.” In a column for Sports Illustrated, Edward Krupat, PhD, wrote the Wonderlic is “an outdated way of thinking about intelligence when it comes to predicting performance on the football field.” During the NFL Combine, every prospect participates in a Wonderlic test. The results of those tests are supposed to be kept private, but every year the numbers make their way to the public.In his series of NFL Draft previews, The Athletic’s Bob McGinn has released Wonderlic scores on nearly every prospect so far. In this post, we’ll just be focused on the numbers from quarterbacks. We’ll also focus on whether the results of this test have any effect on the quarterback’s prospects as an NFL player. 
Just when the so-called experts are ready to stick a fork in the Nelson Leafs the Heritage City franchise pulls out a big win.Michael Crawford scored the winning goal with 43 seconds remaining in the game to lift Nelson to a thrilling 4-3 Kootenay International Junior Hockey League victory over the front-running Kamloops Storm Saturday in Spoolmak Country.Crawford’s marker was unassisted.A goal by Michael Rand midway through the third period had the teams thinking overtime was looming before Crawford stole the game away for Nelson.Tyler Fyfe and Leaf captain Aaron Dunlap, on the power play, also scored for Nelson, which led 1-0 after one period.Ian Chrystal, Mitch Friesen, both on the power play, and Ryan Keis scored for Kamloops. The host Storm outshot the Leafs 47-36 including a 21-10 margin in the third period when Leaf netminder Adam Maida played solid between the pipes to keep Nelson in the game.The win evened Nelson’s road trip through the Okanagan Shuswap Conference.Friday, Chase Heat scored a 4-1 win over Nelson.The Heat scored three times in the third period to break open a close 1-1 game.Matt MacDonald, on the power play, scored the lone goal for Nelson.Kaleb Boyle, Kolten Moore, with two goals, and Logan Mostat scored for Chase.Nelson now travels to Grand Forks Friday before concluding the regular season Sunday against Castlegar Rebels at 2:30 p.m. in the NDCC Arena.The fourth-place Leafs are tentatively is scheduled to meet defending KIJHL, Cyclone Taylor and Keystone Cup champion Beaver Valley in the first round of the Murdoch Division playoffs.Nelson trails Spokane Braves by two points in Murdoch standings. However, the Braves have played one less game than Nelson.Spokane travels to Grand Forks Tuesday before concluding the season with road games in Sicamous and Kamloops.