Month: April 2019

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An actual speed of Avangard, Russia’s state-of-the-art hypersonic projectile, is probably beyond the general public’s imagination as it can travel at more than 30,000km/h, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister revealed.

Little is verifiably known about the glider that was successfully test-launched by Russian military on Wednesday – essentially completing trials. Yet, Yuri Borisov threw some light on the secretive project, telling the Rossiya 24 TV channel that the latest test proved it can travel a whopping 27 Mach, which equals to over 30,000 km/h or 19,037 mph.

Outstanding mobility makes the Avangard one of the hardest targets, Borisov explained: There’s almost no missile that can shoot it down at such speeds.

It is extremely hard to predict the glider’s trajectory, which essentially leaves any missile defense system off-guard. Any missile defense becomes useless, it is very tough to detect and hit the projectile,” Borisov told.

The military has previously said the Avangard glider was fired from the Dombarovsky site in southern Russia and targeted the test range in Kura in the Kamchatka Peninsula. The weapon performed in-flight maneuvers and accurately hit its intended target at a range, it’s been announced.

READ MORE: ‘Prepared to counter any threat’: Russia’s top 10 military events of 2018

A hypersonic glider is a warhead able to fly through the atmosphere at an exceptionally high speed. China, the US, and Russia are considered the most advanced nations to possess hypersonic technologies, and Moscow claims it is leading in the race with the Avangard.

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It was in 2017 when Hana Nelson, eight months pregnant and covered in fish slime and scales, was reminded her company definitely needed a new filleting machine. Nelson, an entrepreneur with a background in sustainable development, knew starting and operating her Halifax seafood business Afishionado Fishmongers would be an uphill battle. But looking back, she had no idea how badly even a tiny company like hers would depend on automation to survive.

Even now, as she drops her toddler off at daycare and heads to work — sorting through piles of paperwork, lugging dozens of boxes of largely regionally caught seafood out of a refrigeration unit for weekly deliveries, and occasionally helping her oyster-growing husband land his precious harvest — she encounters the same question: why does even a boutique business like hers need to invest in pricey technology to stay in the seafood game?

In global fisheries, automation frequently takes the form of intricately engineered stainless steel machines, costing from thousands to millions of dollars, designed to replace dangerous, time-consuming and repetitive tasks. From the ability to distinguish premium product to processing scraps into dog food, automation has grown far beyond the earliest inventions for canning tuna and cutting fish.

According to some observers, the scale to which automation has spread across the industry has barely scratched the surface: one Brookfield Institute report maintains that 62 per cent of current activities in resource-sector jobs, including in fishing, could be automated. (“Can a robot do your job?” — an online tool by the Financial Times and powered by findings from the McKinsey Global Institute — comes to roughly the same conclusion.)

From small businesses like Nelson’s to multi-million-dollar global behemoths like New Brunswick’s Cooke Aquaculture, most Atlantic seafood companies simply can’t make ends meet without automated technology and robots. Seafood buyers demand cheap fish and shellfish. This requires huge volumes of fish processed and distributed as quickly, and at as low of a cost as possible, while still maintaining shelf life.

The profits can be enormous — exports of Canadian seafood hit $6.6 billion in 2016 — but so are the risks and potential pitfalls. Global competition, increasingly hard-to-find human labour, and the need to increase volume and cut margins are increasingly pinching seafood buyers and processors from every side.

On the other side of the coin are tiny fishing communities where this state-of-the-art technology is being introduced; communities that are rapidly losing schools and hospitals as populations decamp for urban centers. Fear of losing jobs to automation is real, according to the Brookfield report, although there remains the promise that other better-paying, more-skilled jobs could rise to fill the gap.

“It’s so hard to find skilled workers who already know how to fillet fish and get a good yield,” says Nelson, who started her company in 2015 to supply and distribute local and sustainable seafood throughout the Maritimes. “When you have automation it’s a lot easier to find people, because you can train them in a day.”

A scarier threat to fisheries employment than automation, she says, is industry consolidation and the resulting flow of jobs overseas. If a business like hers can’t compete on volume and consistency — something she says automated machinery can help with — it won’t be able to stay afloat.

Because of an early 1990s moratorium on new groundfish processing licenses in Nova Scotia, Afishionado can’t buy or process lucrative wild-caught groundfish like haddock and halibut. Instead, the company relies on the processing and sale of farmed fish like salmon, trout and arctic char to make ends meet. Wholesale customers, like restaurants, and larger buyers are particularly valuable because they place large orders more frequently than home cooks. But, Nelson says, keeping up with the volume can be demanding.

Unfortunately, the automated filleting and pin-boning machines Afishionado took over from the warehouse’s previous tenant, a closed-containment salmon farming operation called Sustainable Blue, are old and constantly breaking down.

Filleting by hand requires smooth, accurate cutting along a fish’s spine; past tough, rubbery skin; close enough to not waste meat; done one side at a time. Pin-boning — the pulling of tiny, sharp ribcage bones, or pin bones, from salmon sides — is notoriously finicky and laborious and particularly so when done one-by-one with tweezers.

Candace Nickerson, Afishionado’s new plant manager, still can’t believe how often their machines are on the fritz: because they’re a small operation, she struggles to even get the mechanic responsible for fixing them to return her calls.

Sitting behind the long desk and paperwork that lines the walls of her office, she groans that their filleting machine just broke yet again. “This week, we filleted, maybe, 120 fish,” says Nickerson. “It took one of my workers all day yesterday and all day the day before, so a straight two days of work just filleting by hand, nonstop.”

All this drove Nelson, her newborn in tow, to Boston last March. She went for networking and meetings, but also to track down a new automated filleting machine. Walking the lightly padded blue carpet of Seafood Expo North America, known as the Boston Seafood Show, she scoured rows of rhinoceros-sized gleaming stainless steel contraptions, searching for the right setup. She settled on a $100,000 machine produced by Michigan-based Pisces Fish Machinery.

“One of the reasons we’re looking at it, is that it can automatically calibrate between species,” she says. “You can set it for rainbow trout, or Arctic char, or even bigger salmon or smaller salmon.”

But even though Nelson and her team desperately need the machine, they can’t afford it: at least, not on their own. Instead, they’re counting on the federal government’s new Atlantic Fisheries Fund to help finance and fund the technology. Worth $400 million and set to be distributed over seven years, the fund was announced last year and aimed at supporting innovation, infrastructure development, and partnerships between academia and industry.

Putting so much emphasis on automation comes with a cost, according to Yale University ethicist Wendell Wallach, author of “A Dangerous Master: How To Keep Technology From Slipping Beyond Our Control.”

“We’re dealing with a double-edged sword,” he says. “Automation can remove us from the drudgery of work, or at least boring, repetitive tasks. But on the other hand you have the challenge that increasing automation can drive down wages and eliminate jobs. Over the breadth of an economy that can be quite destructive.”

‘Always in hiring mode’

On a summer day in the rural New Brunswick community of St. George, Letsie Blackmore, director of value-added processing at Cooke Aquaculture, walked the processing floor of the company’s state-of-the-art farmed salmon processing line. The Canadian-owned firm is one of the world’s largest multinational seafood companies, with global sales around $2 billion.

Wearing a white lab coat and earplugs, Blackmore greeted employees, some by name, gesturing towards the noisy, stainless steel machines. This plant’s two filleting lines — each of which can cut the sides off 22 salmon every minute — cost $4 million combined.

Fish plant work is hard, she says, which is something she knows firsthand. Born in Newfoundland, Blackmore spent her late 20s working at a British Columbia plant gutting, bleeding and washing fish. She gestures at one machine, manned by a single female plant worker who lines up salmon as it cuts off their heads, one at a time, which fall heavily into a bin below. Blood and scales flow in a thick, soupy river towards a grate in the floor.

“Head-cutting by hand is really hard,” she says. “You’re cutting right behind the collarbone, and you’re really having to apply pressure to get that done. If you’re doing that for 12 hours a day, your shoulder is not going to last. We took that job from eight people to one person plus a machine, and took that risk to the employee out.”

Then, she says, there’s the problem of finding labour. The company is “always in hiring mode,” she says, and relies on influxes of temporary foreign workers, which they’ve brought in for a decade, to keep jobs filled. Even her own teen daughter worked at the plant during high school.

“She hated it,” says Blackmore. “Every day, she was like, ‘I know what I’m not doing when I get out of school.'”

That’s a familiar world view for Afishionado’s Nickerson, although she sees it differently. Both her grandfathers were fishermen, and everyone in her family except her and one of her brothers has worked on a boat.

“Mom was like, ‘Wow, I dropped out of school in Grade 8 to work at a fish plant. You went to school for six years to work at a fish plant,'” says Nickerson. “Coming from the fishing industry, my parents wanted me to be able to work somewhere where I could dress nice every day,” she says. “They know how hard their bodies are at their age, so they really don’t want me working here, to be honest.”

Nickerson says she’s trying to help her community hold onto jobs and a historic way of life, both disappearing as large companies like Cooke use economies of scale and cheaper prices to swallow local demand for seafood. If staying afloat means introducing automation so Afishionado can process and sell more fish sourced from and sold near her community, she’s all for it.

These days, Blackmore worries about a lot, but particularly about Cooke’s plant in Hermitage, N.L., where many plant workers are 55 years old and older. With two people currently working to stack and palletize boxes weighing 65 to 70 pounds each, she’s increasingly concerned about risk to those employees. So they’re looking at automating that step as well.

Automation must be a huge part of their growing business, she says, “because you’re just not getting people into the workforce to do this job anymore.”

Now 33 years old, Nelson just ordered a $5,500 handheld pin-boning gadget from the United States; if it works out they’ll order a second. And she’s still waiting to hear back on her fisheries fund application. That pricey American machine is what Afishionado needs to grow, she says, and automation equals survival.

“Fundamentally, if another, [more sustainable fisheries] model is going to emerge, it’s also going to require some scale,” she says. “You need to be able to scale. Maybe some people might have issues with that, but I don’t.”


This story is a part of HuffPost Canada’s The Nature of Work series, which looks at the impact of automation on Canada’s natural resources sector and what it may mean for the Canadian identity.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Florida State’s Sydney Sherrill and Oregon’s Miranda Elish were named Louisville/Slugger NFCA Division I National Player and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for games played April 2-8.

Elish was nearly unhittable in her three outings last week, helping Oregon rise to No. 3 in the latest USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Coaches Poll. The sophomore righty twirled a perfect game against Portland State and followed that with a three-hit gem of then-No. 9 Arizona. Against the Vikings, Elish fanned 16 of 21 batters to become the first Duck in program history to toss a seven-inning perfecto.

In her dominant game-two performance against the Wildcats, Elish held Arizona’s offense scoreless and faced just two batters over the minimum in the six-inning shutout. The Crown Point, Ind. native did not issue a free pass nor allow a runner past second base. In three appearances, Elish was 2-0 with 31 strikeouts and zero runs allowed over 14 innings of work. The Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week added a pinch-hit RBI triple versus Portland State.

Sherrill, a freshman from Moore, Okla., hit .579 (11-for-19) with six doubles, two home runs, nine RBI and three runs scored. She recorded multiple hits in all five contests and slugged 1.211. In a doubleheader sweep of then-No. 19 Louisiana, Sherrill doubled in each game and homered with three RBI in the nightcap.

Sherrill was 7-for-12 with four doubles a home run and six RBI in the three-game series against ACC-foe Pitt. The rookie utility player homered and drove in four in the series-clinching finale. She doubled twice in games one and two, which included a walk-off two-run, two bagger in the 2-1 series-opening victory.

Player & Pitcher of the Week
April 10 – Sydney Sherrill, Florida State | Miranda Elish, Oregon
April 3 – Marisa Stankiewicz, Arizona State | Emily Watson, Tulsa
March 27 – Jocelyn Alo, Oklahoma | G Juarez, Arizona State
March 20 – Madison Gott, Columbia | Jacquelyn Sertic, North Dakota State
March 13 – Lexi Rouse, Belmont | Alexis Osorio, Alabama / Carley Hoover, LSU
March 6 – Faith Canfield, Michigan | Gabbie Plain, Washington
Feb. 27 – Rachel Garcia, UCLA | Kelly Barnhill, Florida
Feb. 20 – Tori Vidales, Texas A&M | Kylee Hanson, Florida State
Feb. 13 – Vanessa Shippy, Oklahoma State | Missy Zoch, DePaul

Selected Top Performances
Lilli Piper, Ohio State – .667, 6 H, 2B, 3 HR, 9 RBI, 1.778 SLG, .750 OBP; Kelsey Horton, New Mexico State – .750, 8 H, 2B, 3 HR, 7 R, 8 RBI, 3 BB, 2.375 SLG, .846 OBP; Allie Walljasper, LSU – 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 9 K, 7 H, .108 opp BA, 19 inn. CG vs. Ole Miss; Megan Hensley, Louisville – .615, 8 H, 3 2B, 2 HR, 13 RBI, 5 R, 1.167 SLG; Kylee Hanson, Florida State – 3-0, 0.00 ERA, 19 K, 2 BB, 5 H, .102 opp BA; Gabbie Plain, Washington – 1-0, 5 K, 0 BB, perfect game vs. Utah; Paige Parker, Oklahoma – 1-0, SV, 0.78 ERA, 14 K, 3 BB, 4 H, .133 opp BA; Aliison Doocy, Iowa- 2-0, 1.50 ERA, 2 CG, 18 K, 14 IP; Kate Gordon, James Madison– 9-for-9, 4 2B, HR, 8 R, 3 RBI, BB, 1.000 OBP, 1.778 SLG; Kendyl Scott, Towson – .650, 13 H, 3 2B, 3B, 2 HR, 9 RBI, 7 R; Nicole Newman, Drake– 1-0, 0.00 ERA, SV, 22 K, 9.1 IP, no-hitter vs. Southern Illinois (17 K); Laura Delgado, St. John’s – .556, 5 H, 2 HR, 7 RBI, 5 R, 1.222 SLG; Celina Matthias, Sacramento State – 2-0, SV, 0.44 ERA, 19 K, 6 H, 1 R, 16 IP, .115 opp BA; Libby Sugg, BYU – .600, 6 H, 2 2B, 2 HR, 11 RBI, 5 R; Erica Piancastelli, McNeese State – .667, 6 H, 2 2B, 3B, HR, 6 RBI, 4 R, 1.444 SLG, .692 OBP; Courtney Scarpato, Hofstra – .571, 4 H, 2 2B, HR, 7 RBI, 4 R, 4 BB, 1.286 SLG, .727 OBP; Jennifer Brann, Penn – 2-0, 0.90 ERA, 5 K, 6 H, .182 opp BA, 10 IP.

A senior Russian cleric has criticized gender reassignment surgeries and called for the criminal prosecution of parents who teach their children that they can choose their gender.

“Such surgeries are, in my opinion and in the opinion of the church, a crime against God,” Metropolitan Hilarion, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church’s external relations department, said in an interview.

He explained that the church doesn’t recognize a person’s “new” gender after sex affirmation surgery.

Hilarion reiterated that the Russian Orthodox Church “will never recognize such lifestyle as normal… when children from the cradle are being taught that there is a biological gender and a gender they can choose.”

The cleric stressed that parents who plant these ideas into their children’s head should be criminally prosecuted.

According to Hilarion, a child should wait until full legal age to decide “if they want to stay as God created them” or change their gender. 

In 2017, the Russian Orthodox church criticized a law introduced in Greece, allowing gender reassignment surgeries for teenagers as young as 15.

In Russia, sex affirmation surgeries are permissible for citizens aged 18 and above, if they are diagnosed as transsexuals.

According to experts, transsexualism is a rare condition that may affect 1 in 30,000 to 1 in 100,000 cases.

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Spreading fake information and insulting the Russian state could result in hefty fines for individuals and organizations, according to a new law, adopted by the lower house of parliament in the final reading.

The new legislation includes two bills, dedicated to different types of misinformation.

One bill prohibits spreading “socially important” false information which “endangers life and well-being of citizens,” incites mass disturbance of social order or breaches public security. Minor infringements will apparently not be punished.

The bill suggests fines up to 400,000 rubles ($6,000) for private individuals, up to 900,000 rubles ($13,645) for public officials and up to 1.5mln rubles ($22,000) for organizations. The law doesn’t criminalize disinformation activities even if they result in death or major disruption.

The other bill deals with “insulting the state or its symbols,” which could result in varying fines up to 300,000 rubles ($4500) and administrative punishment. This legislation became a hot topic in Russia as many feared it would penalize people for speaking out against authorities.

However, the legislation’s sponsors argued that it won’t apply to criticism in “any form,” just that which is “blatantly insulting.”

President Vladimir Putin has previously said that “almost every country has [laws]” protecting state symbols.

The new law, however, doesn’t apply to traditional media – those officially registered as media – or news aggregators, which are regulated by separate legislation.

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Clearwater, Fla. – Day two saw a pair of no-hitters, two bottom of the seventh walk-off wins and an inside-the-park home run, while two teams- Valdosta State and Florida Tech – remained undefeated at the 2019 NFCA Division II Leadoff Classic at the Eddie C. Moore Complex.

 

The Blazers and Panthers head into the final day as the favorites for the 2019 Leadoff title. However, five teams – West Florida, Lee, North Georgia, Harding and Tampa – with 3-1 marks are still in the hunt.

No. 22 Valdosta State takes on Tampa, while Florida Tech faces of against No. 20 Lenoir Rhyne at 11 a.m. Also at that time slot will be Harding versus Lee and West Florida against No. 8 West Chester.

The Argos, one of seven teams to post 2-0 marks, witnessed two of those feats in their game against California (Pa.). Tori Perkins (pictured) twirled the first no-hitter of the weekend, fanning seven and walking two in a six-inning win (8-0) over California (Pa.). It was the first Argo no-hitter since Feb. 5, 2015 (Sarah Malony vs. UMSL). 

Tournament CentralTournament Central

UWF’s Teala Howard capped off the win over the Vulcans in style, rounding the bases in 11.1 second for an inside-the-park home run. Following that, the Argos dug out of an early 5-2 hole with nine unanswered runs in an, 11-5, upset win over No. 18 Palm Beach Atlantic.

Not long after Perkins’ gem, Southern Arkansas’ Sydney Wader struck out two in a five-inning no-hitter against Tampa. Her no-hitter followed a wild walk-off 1-0 win for the second-ranked Muleriders over West Georgia. 

With the game scoreless in the bottom of the seventh, SAU loaded the bases with no outs. After two quick outs, Sarah Evans struck out swinging, but the ball skipped past the catcher, allowing her to reach first safely and pinch runner Taylor Stricklin scooted home with the winning run. 

The 22nd-ranked Blazers’ pitchers continued to shine with two more shutouts against No. 20 Lenoir-Rhyne, 6-0, and Azusa Pacific, 1-0. Caylie Van Auken and Avery Lamb each tossed three-hit shutouts with nine and eight strikeouts, respectively. 

Florida Tech kept marching along with 4-2 and 8-0 wins over Molloy and California (Pa.). Jordan Lawlis blanked the Vulcans in game two, while the Panthers used a five-run first and three-run fourth to seal the win. Against the Lions, they fell behind 2-0, but scored four runs in the fourth to rally for the victory.

North Georgia, Lee and Harding also enjoyed undefeated Saturday’s. The Nighthawks trumped Hillsdale, 6-3 and Azusa Pacific, 1-0, while the Flames toppled No. 8 West Chester, 8-2 and edged Eckerd, 3-2, and the Bisons posted a pair of three-run wins over No. 5 Saint Leo (8-5) and West Georgia, 4-1.

The tournament concludes on Sunday with 10 games.

Tokyo has resumed purchases of Iranian oil for the first time since suspending imports in line with US sanctions against the Islamic Republic, according to reports citing a Japanese refinery and the head of Iranian Central Bank.

Japan, one of Iran’s largest oil importers, stopped buying Iranian crude more than a month before Washington unleashed its latest sanctions against Iran in November, targeting the country’s oil sector. Tokyo was later granted a temporary waiver from the US embargo, but it took the Asian country around three months to finally resume purchases.

On Monday, Japanese refiner Fuji Oil Co said its very large crude carrier (VLCC) ‘Kisogawa’ loaded a cargo of Iranian crude oil, Reuters reported, citing a company spokesman. Around two million barrels of Iranian oil on board the tanker is expected to reach Japan on February 9. Fuji Oil owns around a million barrels of the imported crude, while the rest of the shipment belongs to another major Japanese energy company, Showa Shell Sekiyu.

EU dependency on US stalling alternative payment channel – Iran

“It took a while for us to resume imports of Iranian oil,” the Fuji spokesman was quoted as saying by Reuters. He added that the biggest challenge was to get banks’ agreement to process payments to Iran.

Showa Shell reportedly refused to elaborate on the purchases, saying that the company would consider resuming crude imports from Tehran if all conditions are met.

“After China, South Korea, India and Turkey, Japan also started the process of importing Iranian oil, ” Governor of the Central Bank of Iran Abdolnaser Hemmati was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA.

However, the 180-day waiver Japan was granted alongside seven other countries will expire in early May, meaning that Japanese companies are allowed to buy Iranian oil for another four months. Last year, the president of Petroleum Association of Japan (PAJ) said that the national oil-refining industry would call for an early extension of the waiver after the initial exemption ends.

For more stories on economy & finance visit RT’s business section

Chicago Convention lives up to the hype

April 4, 2019 | News | No Comments

CHICAGO – A rousing keynote, stellar speaking lineup, sold-out Exhibit Show and touching Hall of Fame speeches were just a few of many highlights that made the 2018 NFCA National Convention another success.

A near-record 1,679 attendees (second straight with over 1,600) gathered for four days of learning, sharing, networking and socializing at the Sheraton Grand Chicago. It was the first Convention outside of Las Vegas to surpass the 1,600 mark, breaking New Orleans’ record of 1,594, and was just eight shy of last year’s record-breaking event held at Bally’s Las Vegas.

The Exhibit Show, which sold out in a record 3 1/2 hours, was at full capacity for a third straight year and the Rookie Orientation was well attended, welcoming newcomers and acclimating them to their first Convention. The silent auction, which coincides with the Exhibit Show went digital this year and was an instant success, as it drove attendees to company’s booths to scan QR codes and meet with those company’s representatives.

Additionally, the high school and travel ball coaches, along with softball instructors were treated to a brand new “Meet and Mingle,” which allowed our grassroots coaches to network amongst their peers.

“What an outstanding event!” said NFCA Executive Director Carol Bruggeman. “We like to promote our Convention as the Greatest Softball Show on Earth and I believed it lived up to the hype! The energy and excitement level was at an all-time high.”

In the week’s marquee event, the Association welcomed three new members to its Hall of Fame. Salisbury’s Margie Knight, the late Mike Lambros of North Davidson High School, and Tennessee’s Karen Weekly were inducted as the 28th Hall of Fame Class. Sharon Lambros, wife of Mike Lambros, accepted on his behalf. He is the first high school member and the first posthumous induction into the Hall of Fame.

Keynote speaker Holly Rowe knocked it out of the ballpark on Wednesday evening. Nobody moved a muscle during Rowe’s emotional and passionate speech, which touched on being genuine, having a purpose, her love of sports, her career as woman in the sports broadcasting industry and her fight against cancer.

Preceding Thursday’s member caucuses was the “Pregame Chatter” session designed to help inform each other of the hot topics each membership group is discussing, along with NCAA rules and umpiring inquiries.

Along with this business aspect, the Association spotlights its member coaches through the Victory Club Luncheon which focuses on win milestones and the Champions Brunch, honoring NFCA Coaching Staffs of the Year, Easton/NFCA Assistant Coaches of the Year, Easton/NFCA Top Academic teams and NFCC Four-Star Coaches.

At the Softball Summit, a trio of Mary Nutter Scholarship winners, Diversity Grant recipient Marco Aragon of Feather River College and the Turface/NFCA Fields of the Year were recognized. In addition, Southern Illinois head coach Jen Sewell received the Donna Newberry “Perseverance Award” and the University of San Diego’s Melissa McElvain was honored as the NFCA’s Humanitarian Award recipient.

In a special tribute, longtime Convention volunteer, Illinois State head coach Melinda Fischer, was presented with a customized bat in honor of the Association’s Distinguished Service Award being named after her for Fischer’s years of selfless service to the NFCA. Following her recognition, ESPN’s Meg Aronowitz was honored as this year’s Distinguished Service Award recipient.

The Convention featured numerous ways to get better as coach, no matter what level you coach. Drills, Drills, Drills and the five Chalk Talks on Saturday were hits. This year’s Grassroots Panel for our high school and travel ball coaches featured collegiate head coaches as well as special presentations by Gerry Quinn (Illinois Chill) and Dot Richardson (Liberty University). Convention sponsor USSSA presented a Mental Health Panel moderated by Hall of Famer Sue Enquist.

A technology session presented by NFCA Official Sponsor Diamond Kinetics and featuring North Carolina State’s Jennifer Patrick-Swift saw the University of Illinois Springfield (Shannon Guthrie), Deer Park (Texas) High School (Erica Cantu) and Texas Blaze Travel (Tammie Davis) recognized as the winners of a 2018 Diamond Kinetics Technology Scholarship.

A laid-back setting was also available for coaches to learn with the standing-room and ever-growing Fireside Chats. Those were preceded by the annual mentoring programing, which allowed coaches to gain valuable knowledge from their peers, along with paying it forward by raising money, which goes directly back into the membership.

The Convention clinics were once again sponsored by Sports Attack, and the usual group of breakfast, happy hours and receptions were presented by loyal Association supporters, Diamond Sports, HitTrax, PGF, Legacy Event Management, San Diego Summer Softball League, Schutt Sports, Scrap Yard Sports, USA Softball and USSSA.

A Moscow district court has ordered the detention of the founder and senior partner of Baring Vostok private equity, as part of an ongoing inquiry into fraud allegations. Other employees were also taken into custody.

Michael Calvey, a US citizen, was detained in the Russian capital on Friday along with other Baring Vostok associates, Vagan Abgaryan, Philippe Delpal, and Ivan Zyuzin, the firm said in a statement. It said the arrests have nothing to do with the company’s activities but relate to a dispute around Russia’s Vostochny Bank.

Moscow’s Basmanny court is set to consider the next legal motion soon, according to the spokesperson Yunona Tsaryova. Investigators are reportedly seeking the arrest of all the defendants in the case.

Calvey is suspected of embezzling 2.5 billion rubles ($37.5 million) from Vostochny Bank via a fraudulent scheme, according to an investigating officer, as quoted by TASS.

“The investigators established that Calvey knew about the 2.5 billion debt of the First Collection Bureau, controlled by him,” the officer told the court. “However, the suspect arranged sale of shares of the enterprise to Vostochny Express Bank, that is seen as embezzlement.”

The firm, founded by Calvey in 1994, specializes in private equity investments in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

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Seventeen-team field announced for 2018 NISC

April 4, 2019 | News | No Comments

Fort Collins, Colo. – The selection committee for the National Invitational Softball Championships has announced the 17-team field for the 2018 NISC. This marks the second year of the tournament, which features eight teams that have won 30 games or more during the 2018 season and six teams that finished second or better during the regular season in their respective conferences.

First-round regional action begins Wednesday, May 16 – regional hosts are Northern Colorado, UNLV, Eastern Kentucky and Central Arkansas. Each double-elimination regional concludes play on either Friday, May 18 or Saturday, May 19. The Championship round, also double-elimination, is slated to begin Wednesday, May 23 at a host site to be determined.

NISC qualifiers

Austin Peay (Ohio Valley) – At Large

Central Arkansas (Southland) – At Large

Colorado State (Mountain West) – At Large

Eastern Kentucky (Ohio Valley) – Automatic Qualifier

Loyola Marymount (West Coast Conference) – Automatic Qualifier

Nevada (Mountain West) – Automatic Qualifier

Northern Colorado (Big Sky) – At Large

Stephen F. Austin (Southland) – Automatic Qualifier

South Dakota State (Summit League) – Automatic Qualifier

Texas Tech (Big 12) – Automatic Qualifier

Toledo (Mid-America) – Automatic Qualifier

Towson (Colonial Athletic) – Automatic Qualifier

UC Riverside (Big West) – Automatic Qualifier

UNLV (Mountain West) – At Large

UT Arlington (Sun Belt) – Automatic Qualifier

Utah Valley (WAC) – Automatic Qualifier

Weber State (Big Sky) – Automatic Qualifier

Each of the 12 automatic qualifiers are the teams who finished the best regular-season record in their respective conference and are not playing in the NCAA Tournament. The five at large selections were selected off their body of work. Teams are selected to regions based on travel considerations first and then seeded by NCAA RPI (as of May 13).

“We’re thrilled to be offering this event for a second consecutive year,” said Tournament Director Dave King. “We’ve already seen programs receive a significant boost by playing in the NISC last year. With the depth of talent this year, we’re looking forward to seeing this year’s programs play meaningful postseason games and continue their momentum into next season.”

Here are the matchups for the first round. The Northern Colorado and UNLV regions begin play on Wednesday, May 16, while the Eastern Kentucky and Central Arkansas regions will start on Thursday, May 17 (all times Eastern). Home team listed second; based on RPI.

Region 1: Greeley, CO (Northern Colorado Hosts)

South Dakota State (32-16) at Colorado State (26-21), 5 p.m. ET

Northern Colorado (28-26) at Loyola Marymount (28-23-1), 8 p.m. ET

Region 2: Las Vegas, NV (UNLV Hosts)

Weber State (27-24) at Nevada (25-25), 3 p.m. ET

Utah Valley (21-29) at UC Riverside (33-22), 6 p.m. ET

Weber State/Nevada at UNLV (31-18), 9 p.m. ET

Region 3: Richmond, KY (Eastern Kentucky Hosts)

Towson (40-17) at Austin Peay (39-17), 3 p.m. ET

Toledo (34-21) at Eastern Kentucky (40-18), 6 p.m. ET

Region 4: Conway, AR (Central Arkansas Hosts)

Stephen F. Austin (31-22) at Texas Tech (29-26), 4 p.m. ET

Central Arkansas (27-25) at UT Arlington (27-26), 7 p.m. ET

— Courtesy of NISC