Editor's Note: Last night we published a story on local Goodwill locations being boarded up ahead of Election Day. This morning, the president and CEO reversed her decision, and contacted us to let us know she had changed her mind. We have written a new story outlining her thoughts, and those wishing to read the original story will find it at the bottom of this story.

The president and CEO of Goodwill Industries of the Redwood Empire decided to reverse her decision to board up a number of Goodwill locations in Sonoma County.

Brandy Evans said after an interview with about the initial decision, she reflected that it could have an unintended impact on the broader community. So, not specifically a Goodwill employee or a Goodwill shopper, but just the community in general, she said.

And I just decided, you know, there is a possibility that someone might see something negative in that, and Im not going to guess what that negative interpretation on their part could be, but all the sudden, it just didnt feel good, Evans said. So, I just made the decision of, Hey, lets get those boards back down.

A number of Goodwill stores in Sonoma County were somewhere in the process of boarding up windows ahead of the presidential election to minimize the risk of damage from possible civil unrest.

Evans said a Goodwill employee began dismantling the boards at the Healdsburg store Wednesday morning after Evans halted its construction partway through, and that the employee would remove boards from the Sebastopol store and Fourth Street location in Santa Rosa.

The process to protect store windows began the week of Oct. 11 and were to continue this week, originally. She said the process of boarding up the Stony Point Goodwill had not started before she reversed direction.

Evans said Tuesday when the plan was still in motion that there was no concern Goodwill facilities would be looted and that it was a completely financial decision due to the fact insurance premiums were dramatically increasing because of recent wildfires and that sometimes protests could take a wrong turn.

I certainly did not expect that Goodwill will be targeted in any way, but just didnt want to take the chance and so I was putting up the protection in advance, she said.

Customers would have still been able to shop indoors at all open Redwood Empire Goodwill locations, but the Healdsburg, Sebastopol and the Stony Point and Fourth Street locations in Santa Rosa would have boarded their windows, she said Tuesday. She initially decided to fortify stores closest to city centers where she said protests were more likely to occur after hearing the news media say how contentious the election is.

Evans said she did not believe the Santa Rosa area would experience civil unrest as intensely as Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis and other cities across the country, but that some Goodwill locations had large glass windows that would be costly to replace.

Evans said the organization no longer had preventative measures planned around election night. Previously, she said the organization would evaluate how soon they would remove the boards after the Nov. 3 election.

Brenda Adams, assistant manager of the Healdsburg Goodwill store, said Tuesday that a man outside was actively boarding their windows with plywood and metal that morning and that she was trying to tell customers the store was still open its regular hours and accepting donations.

I personally dont foresee riots going through Healdsburg and everybody looting and destroying properties at all. Were a very peaceful town when it comes to demonstrations and things, Adams said Tuesday.

Adams said she found out stores were planning to board up windows a couple weeks ago. As an employee, she said minimizing the risk made sense. As a citizen of Healdsburg, Adams said, it concerned her that businesses were taking precautions because she said the area had seen many protests and demonstrators in the street, holding signs for equality.

But Ive never seen anything get violent. So, its kind of a hard pill to swallow knowing our store is being boarded up, but I understand why, she said Tuesday.

Evans said voting for president is important in the U.S. and that not every country has the luxury.

Just on a personal note, this election is probably the most important election in my lifetime, and if somebody were to see that and think we were somehow trying to make a message that it wasnt important, that would be very frustrating me because thats not the message at all, Evans said. The message is get out and vote.

For those wishing to read the original article detailing the boarding up, please read below.

A number of Goodwill stores in Sonoma County are boarding up windows ahead of the presidential election to minimize the risk of damage from possible civil unrest.

Its a completely financial decision. There is no concern that Goodwills will be looted, said Brandy Evans, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries of the Redwood Empire.

Customers can still shop indoors at all open Redwood Empire Goodwill locations, but the Healdsburg, Sebastopol and the Stony Point and Fourth Street locations in Santa Rosa would board their windows, she said. She decided to fortify stores closest to city centers where she said protests were more likely to occur after hearing the news media say how contentious the election is.

Goodwill stores in other parts of the county, such as Cloverdale and Windsor, arent expected to have boarded up windows.

Evans said she did not believe the Santa Rosa area would experience civil unrest as intensely as Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis and other cities across the country, but that the organizations insurance premiums dramatically increased this year and some Goodwill locations have large glass windows that would be costly to replace.

I would choose not to spend the money on that, so this is, again, a preventative measure, she said.

The process to protect store windows began the week of Oct. 11 and is continuing this week, she said. After the Nov. 3 election, the organization will how soon they would remove the boards. Evans said she did not expect any vandalism or break-ins and hoped to take the boards down as soon as possible.

Brenda Adams, assistant manager of the Healdsburg Goodwill store, said a man outside was actively boarding their windows with plywood and metal Tuesday morning and that she was trying to tell customers the store was still open its regular hours and accepting donations.

I personally dont foresee riots going through Healdsburg and everybody looting and destroying properties at all. Were a very peaceful town when it comes to demonstrations and things, Adams said.

Adams said she found out stores would be boarding windows a couple weeks ago. As an employee, she said minimizing the risk made sense. As a citizen of Healdsburg, Adams said, it concerned her that businesses were taking precautions because the area had seen many protests and demonstrators in the street holding signs for equality.

But Ive never seen anything get violent, she said. So its kind of a hard pill to swallow knowing our store is being boarded up, but I understand why.

Read the original:
UPDATE: Local Goodwill president reverses decision to board up windows ahead of election night - Sonoma West

A new threat

When Phil Foden and Ferran Torres were stripped and ready to come on midway through the second half Manchester City were still level with Porto. By the time they were introduced, they led 2-1.

That was thanks to Ilkay Gundogan (more on that below) but it was no surprise to see two of City's X-Factor players making their entrance in a game where Pep Guardiola's side had struggled to turn possession into clear chances.

It had all been a little too easy for Porto until that point, but within minutes of their arrival, Foden had fed Torres who had scored a wonderful goal. Job done.

Torres has made a good impression so far at City and the way he drove straight at Porto's defence before showing a calm head to cut inside and finish smartly suggests he is going to have plenty more good days in blue.

The Spaniard has replaced Leroy Sane in the City squad and while he is right-footed and maybe not quite as direct as Sane, Torres is still a more aggressive winger when running with the ball than Riyad Mahrez, Bernardo Silva or Foden, and maybe even Raheem Sterling, whose game has changed in recent seasons.

At times last season City looked like they were missing the directness of Sane. Now, in Torres, they have the ideal foil to an already supreme attack.

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Gundogan's moment

It's been a slow start to the season for Gundogan, thanks to the positive COVID-19 test he received on the day of City's first game of the campaign.

Since his period of self-isolation he's been working his way back to full fitness and finally made his first start against Porto. It wasn't one of his best games, although he did the job that Guardiola so often asks of him. City's midfield felt a little stale for most of the 67 minutes that Gundogan spent on the pitch.

Gundogan's job isn't particularly to create the chances for City, just to keep the ball moving, to pick the right moments to release the pass, and the ineffectual performances of those in front of him hampered in that regard.

But he still managed to leave his mark on the game, just in time. City looked like they might need a set-piece to open Porto up and Gundogan's delightful free-kick tilted the game back their way.

Defensive mistakes

City might have spent heavily on central defenders this summer but what hasn't changed is their luck when it comes to keeping them fit.

Nathan Ake was the latest to go down crocked before the visit of Porto, a niggle in his groin keeping him out of the Champions League opener.

That meant a seventh different central defensive partnership in all seven games the Blues have played so far this season, although at times this was a back three as much as a back four, with the superb Kyle Walker in such a rich vein of form he can play centre back and right back at the same time.

Nominally Ruben Dias was partnered by Eric Garcia now but again it was mistakes that cost City and meant it was an eighth successive Champions League game without a clean sheet. Dias' pass forward was sloppy and easily intercepted but the major mistakes came in allowing Luis Diaz to dribble from the left wing into a shooting position deep inside the box in the inside-right channel.

Rodri failed to do enough to halt the run as Diaz skirted across the face of the box and when he pulled the trigger Joao Cancelo managed to make himself smaller, rather than bigger when trying to make the block.

Pep Guardiola will be desperate to find some continuity in his defensive unit, while also accepting rotation is inevitable this season. A settled defence is going to be key, as City found out last season.

Inside knowledge

Guardiola revealed before this game that he'd picked the brains of new boy Dias about the threat Porto would pose to City, given he faced them regularly during his time with Benfica.

It was unlikely to be a coincidence that Guardiola picked all three of his Portuguese players to face the champions of their homeland, with Cancelo and Silva also starting.

But it's Dias who is most familiar with the current incarnation of Porto, a side who won the domestic title by five points from Dias' Benfica last season.

This victory would have been some sort of revenge for the Blues' new central defender. Not only did his beloved Benfica miss out on the title to this Porto side last season, but Porto also won all three games between the two sides. Despite those setbacks Dias clearly learned how to beat Sergio Conceicao's side, despite the defeats last term.

VAR decisions

The video assistant referee has rarely been City's friend in Europe so in a competition where the club will look for any signs that the tide is turning in their favour perhaps the decision that went for them last night is just that.

You can imagine every City fan watching at home expecting the worst when replays showed Gundogan standing on Porto goalkeeper Agustin Marchesin in the build-up to the penalty awarded for a foul on Raheem Sterling.

But the penalty decision stood - correctly - and Sergio Aguero made no mistake. Gundogan had clearly only stood on Marchesin by accident and the contact wasn't enough to warrant a foul.

Go here to see the original:
Ferran Torres showed Man City he can replace what they lost in summer transfer window - Manchester Evening News

Recent Windows 10 updates have been notably lacking in big, splashy new features, perhaps because several previous attempts, such as My Peopleremember that?never saw much usage. And other would-be flagship features, like the multi-app Sets, never even saw the light of day. Indeed, only diehard Windows watchers likely know of the existence of these once-touted initiatives.

That's just fine with many Windows users, who tend to shun glitzy new changes to their OS and actually gripe about any major changes. In fact, I find some of the more-recent features like Clipboard History and the excellent new screenshot tool indispensable. It's also important to realize that new capabilities occasionally roll into Windows 10 in between these major feature updatesusually things like redesigned icons and updated default apps.

In any case, a new Windows update is upon us, such as it is. This time Microsoft is calling it the October 2020 Update. Most Microsoft pundits and Windows Insider beta testers know it as version 20H2, to signify that it's the second update for 2020, and in fact that's how it appears in the System Info page of Settings.

The update has started rolling out to Windows PCs already, but there's a thorough vetting process for PC hardware to pass in order to receive it. These Windows Updates can take months to propagate automatically to every PC, but you can always open Settings > Update & Securityand tap the Check for Updates button to see whether the October 2020 update is available to your machine.

Aside from a few design tweaks, the biggest change is that the new, more compatible Google-powered Chromium version of the Edge web browser is now built into Windows. It replaces Microsoft's own previous homespun Edge to power not only the default browser, but Windows store apps that need access to web content.

By comparison, Apple has been far more aggressive with adding new features to macOS. The latest version, Big Surnow in previewincludes a new Maps app (Windows 10 has a pretty nice built-in Maps app, too, in case you forgot), rounded window corners, new system sounds, widgets, and more iOS-like functionality in general.

There are even more updates specifically for business and education installations, which require deeper management and security options. You can read more about those on the Microsoft Tech Community site. Finally, less sexy but just as importantly, many security updates that are intended to harden the platform against known vulnerabilities are implemented in the 20H2 version of Windows 10.

Yes, I already mentioned this above, but there's more news for the default Windows browser than just far greater site compatibility compared with the old Edge. After resisting Google's total takeover of the web as evidenced by Microsoft's adopting the search giant's browser-engine code at first, I've been won over by Edge. Its start page is truly useful and appealing, its secure password saving feature is spot on, and the syncing with the mobile phone app versions of Edge is well executed. I've even used the Collections feature, which does a slick job when it comes to web research.

The best new actual feature in Edge is support for Alt-Tab. The key combination now works with websites just as it's always worked on applications: hit the combo and it takes you through your open browser tabs. True, it's a minor feature, and you could always tab through tabs with Ctrl-Tab, but our motor memory is so in tune with Alt-Tab for switching that it just makes sense. Of course, you can turn this off in the main Settings app if you prefer.

The other user updates involve pinning sites and shopping. Now, when you pin a site to the Taskbar, hover the mouse cursor over its icon shows all the open tabs for the site. New for the Collections feature is Price Comparison, which automatically lists other shopping options for an item you added.

This is a fairly superficial change, but the redesign lets the quick-access tiles in the Start Menu take on the color mode you've chosen in Personalization. You can see the light mode version in the top image of this article, and here's the dark-mode version. The new design does have a more consistent appearance and adds a bit of transparency to the menu so you have an idea of what lies beneath it.

The Action Center right-side panel provides a great way to access basic computer settings but also shows notifications from apps you've set up for them. Now a redesign makes them clearer, by placing the app from which the notifications comes in the upper-left corner of the notificationalso known as the toast.

If you have a device such as a Surface Pro tablet or Surface Book convertible, you no longer have to deal with the "Do You Want to Switch to Tablet Mode?" prompt every time you yank off the keyboard. The updated behavior is just to switch to the mode that makes sense. Make sense? But that's not all: Tablet mode sees improvements for touch usage by increasing space between taskbar icons, replacing the search box with a search icon, optimizing File Explorer windows for touch.

Microsoft continues to slowly migrate detailed settings from the legacy Control Panel to the newer Settings app. With 20H2, you can change the refresh rate for your displaysomething gamers will appreciate. You can now copy system info from the Settings page, too.

This is huge for anyone who's had to do a clean install on a PC but didn't have the requisite disks. You can simply choose "Cloud download" to save yourself from having to hunt down that installation media for Windows.

You can follow all the latest developments on Microsoft's operating system at our Windows 10 landing page. For a feature-by-feature comparison with Apple's OS, you can read Windows vs. MacOS: Which OS Really Is the Best?

Further Reading

Operating System Reviews

Operating System Best Picks

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What's New With Windows? See 6 Top New Features in the October 2020 Update - PCMag

Due to COVID-19 concerns, Babylon Village officials have canceled the annual Halloween parade this year.

As an alternative to the parade, the village will be hosting a trunk-or-treat and costume contest on Oct. 31 in the municipal parking lot behind Swell Taco.

The event will run from noon to 3 p.m. and the costume contest will be split into one hour sessions.

Mary Adams, a village trustee, said participants are encouraged to decorate their vehicles and there will be judges for the costume contest.

Candy will be handed out to children in individual goodie bags and merchants in the downtown area will have candy outside for the kids as well.

Participants must pre-register for the trunk-or-treat and costume contest by emailing the village at bvrec2020@gmail.com.

So far, the event has around 12 to 15 cars for the trunk-or-treat, and around 40 kids registered to participate.

Face coverings and social distancing will be enforced at the event, and the number of children in each one-hour session will be monitored.

The village has done such a great job in keeping our numbers low and keep everyone healthy, Adams said. I think residents are appreciative of it and I think anything that we could offer the children in a safe environment they will participate in.

In regards to trick-or-treating on Halloween, the village is leaving it up to the discretion of Babylon Village residents.

From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., select businesses in the village will be giving away candy to trick-or-treaters. Participants will have a pumpkin in their windows.

Mayor Ralph Scordino said he feels that the village must continue to be smart during these times, as the COVID-19 outbreak is ongoing.

Its not going away, we cant let our guard down, and we have to prevent any upswings in cases, and thats the priority we have in Babylon Village, Scordino said.

Be Babylon Village smart.

For more information about the trunk-or-treat event, visit the village website or Facebook page.

Top: Scene from last years Halloween parade in Babylon Village

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Trunk-or-treat event to replace Babylon Village's annual Halloween parade - GreaterBabylon

(Adobe Max image courtesy of Adobe)

Adobe ADBE is weaving its artificial intelligence capabilities into even more of its biggest creative applications, including Premiere Pro and Photoshop, it announced today. The company also launched an iPad version of its Illustrator vector-drawing program, and an iPhone version of its Fresco drawing software.

Those were just some of the many product announcements from the software giant, all timed to the start of its three-day Adobe MAX creativity conference this morning.

Thanks to the pandemic, the conference is virtual only, and free. Max features dozens of panels on using Adobe software, as well as appearances by creative notables such as photographer Annie Leibowitz, film directors Ava DuVernay and Taika Waititi, actors Zendaya and David Tennant, talk-show host Conan OBrien, writer Roxane Gaye and electronic musician Marshmello.

The biggest news, though, may be the ways Adobes AI and machine learning tools, which it calls Sensei, are being woven even more deeply into its programs, typically to simplify or speed complex, often repetitive parts of the business of creating images.

The company calls Photoshop, its flagship image-editing program, the worlds most advanced AI application for creatives as it released new versions for desktop computers and Apples iPad.

Our goal is to systematically replace time-intensive steps with smart, automated technology wherever possible, the company said in a blog post. With the addition of these five major new breakthroughs, you can free yourself from the mundane, non-creative tasks and focus on what matters most your creativity.

Photoshop gets five major new AI features, including Sky Replacement, with 25 replacement sky presets, and two Refine Edge Selections, to simplify the painstaking process of selecting hair and complex objects.

Adobe touted another new AI-based function, Neural Filters, as a reimagining of the ways Photoshop uses filters and image-manipulation tools. Neural Filters ships with a large group of new, non-destructive filters to modify images, though Adobe cautioned that many are still in beta stage, and will need further refinement.

The Neural Filters dashboard suggests groups of actions, such as Skin Smoothing or Smart Portrait, to improve an image with a single click or manipulation of a slider. Smart Portrait can tweak details such as where a subject is gazing, or the tilt of their head.

A new Sensei-based Discover panel adds better context-aware search, help and other tools and tips to help creators work faster within the program, which has long been known for both its power and brain-melting complexity.

Elsewhere, the Roto Brush 2 tool uses Sensei to greatly simplify the time-consuming task of rotoscoping. It smartly automates much of the process of closely outlining a moving figure in video, extracting the movement from the rest of the video and dropping it into another one. Roto Brush is in both the film-editing app Premiere Pro and the 3D and visual-effects tool After Effects.

Premiere Pro also gets a Sensei-based automated captioning tool that captures speech in a video scene, converts it to text, then uses machine learning to properly place the text in cadence with the speech on screen. The launch version works with 11 languages and multiple speakers. The company is also taking applications from people who want to beta test the new Captions Track, which allows a creator to modify the look, color, font, placement and other aspects of captions on screen.

Another app, Character Animator, is also adding AI smarts, with speech-aware animation and more accurate lip synching to allow creators to essentially puppeteer and capture a digital image so that its mouth and body parts move in concert with the live humans movements and speech.

The ability to capture arm movements, through what was previously called Arm IK, now extends to other body parts, such as knees, in Limb IK.

Other announcements on the day include:

See original here:
Photoshop, Premiere Pro And Other Adobe Programs Get More AI Smarts - Forbes

At the Oct. 5 Great Bend City Council meeting, Councilman Dana Dawson raised concerns about the boarding of windows and the public eyesores this practice creates. It was determined that the matter would be discussed when the council next met, which was this Monday night.

Dawson requested looking at possible alternatives to address broken windows in buildings being replaced with wood or similar materials. No action was taken, and the matter was tabled indefinitely pending further discussion, possibly at a council study session.

First impressions are everything, Dawson said. Great Bend has a lot to brag about, but what stands out are things that dont look so nice.

There are a lot of factors to be considered, City Administrator Kendal Francis said. These include such things as enforcement, cost, the grandfathering properties not currently meeting the new standards, and others.

I have concerns about the magnitude of the issue, Francis said. It is very widespread throughout the entire city and encompasses both residential and commercial properties.

As a starting point, he prepared a draft ordinance that would require broken windows to be replaced with glass or plexiglass. Failure to do so would result in municipal court fines.

Violations can also be met with abatement by the city at the recommendation of the code enforcement officer. Standard abatement procedures, time lines and hearing guidelines apply.

This would make a lot of difference in how things look, Dawson said. His biggest concern were commercial properties along Main and 10th streets, including the dilapidated former Highland Hotel.

The town ought to look nice, he said. This might cause owners to take action and show some pride in their properties.

But. Im afraid were opening a can of worms, said Mayor Cody Schmidt. He worried about the fairness of singling out businesses, as well as how it would be enforced.

Francis shared similar trepidation. Where do you draw the line?

When a property is abated, city crews can come in and clean it up, and bill the owner. But, in these cases, the city doesnt want to be the one to make the repairs, making taking the cases to municipal court the only option.

I would caution you not to rush into anything, Francis said.

According to the draft ordinance, windows in any permanent building or structure may be temporarily boarded for a period of not-to-exceed 30 days. After that time, windows must be replaced with glass or Plexiglas.

As for the plywood, windows and similar openings shall be temporarily boarded with exterior grade plywood of minimum 7/16 of an inch thickness or its equivalent. All boarded openings shall be painted with a minimum of one coat of exterior paint which is of a color compatible with the exterior color of the building or structure.

Should offender fail to comply with the notices to abate or request a hearing, the code enforcement officer shall file a complaint in the municipal court against them and, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of $500 dollars or a jail sentence of up to 30 days in jail, or both.

Each day during or on whicCh the violation occurs or continues after notice has been served shall constitute an additional or separate offense.

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Council tables action on boarded windows - GREAT BEND TRIBUNE - Great Bend Tribune

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) Its an act of vandalism against the vulnerable. Someone shattered the windows at the Society For The Blind building in downtown Sacramento early Monday morning.

This is the second time the facility has been hit in just months. Its an attack that is personal for Priscilla Yeung.

I think we were really shocked this morning, Yeung said.

Yeung, who is blind, also works at the Society For The Blind. Its a place where she learned to gain her own independence and where she now teaches others.

I want to be able to feel safe when I come to work as well, Yeung said. So when a space like this is shattered, it hurts us.

Photos show the shattered glass in the front and back doors. Someone targeting both sides of the building.

Earlier this year thieves also stole a Society For The Blind van. The organization has now built a steel cage for parked vehicles to prevent further thefts.

Shari Roeseler is the executive director for the organization and says the combined costs of the criminal acts will cost the organization $25,000. Its money that will not be pulled from its important programs.

Non-profits, we dont typically have big slush funds, Roeseler said. How quickly you can get things repaired, we still havent replaced our van, because again you gotta secure those funds.

A series of attacks on a place meant to protect the vision impaired.

You know, why would somebody do this, Yeung said. I feel the hurt of it.

Police are searching for a suspect with no sense of shame.

This organization serves 6,000 clients a year. They are now looking for funds to help them cover the costs of these crimson acts.

More here:
Vandals Shatter Windows Of Society For The Blind Building In Sacramento - CBS Sacramento

Back in 2014, after the Giants won their third straight title and the Astros limped to a 70-92 record, I group-chatted my high school friends (I grew up in the Bay Area), and I told them that they had a great run, but the Giants wouldnt have a better record than the Astros for at least another decade.

On the facts of it, I was wrong (2016 was a backslide year) but the basic idea was correct. The Astros window was open, and the Giants was closing, compounded by a GM who was behind the times and a fanbase that expected a winning team.

What struck me about Luhnow in the early years was a claim he liked to make: he didnt want the Astros to be a lightening in a bottle team like the 2003 Marlins, but instead to compete for championships over multiple years. Thats what weve done, with the exception of 2016, for the past six years: either winning the World Series, or losing to the eventual winner (well see if Tampa can continue the if we get by the Astros we win it all verity).

With 2020 in the books for the Astros, the entire starting OF headed to free-agency, and the Astros best starter and reliever out for 2021, its worth asking whether the Astros window is closed.

After 2016, Luhnow used the deep farm system and the cost-controlled core in order to sign for complementary pieces or trade for front-end guys in order to build a team that would win 100 games three years in a row. We know that story and those pieces.

Well get to that window, but first a brief detour is in order. The biggest failure of Luhnows developmental program was the development of a #1 or #2 starter. Keuchel was drafted by the previous regime, Aiken, Folty, and Appel didnt work out, McCullers has helped the team during this window, but not to the extent theyd hoped for. In addition, promising, top 100 prospects from Frankie Montas and David Paulino to Michael Feliz, Josh James, and Forrest Whitley never yielded that guy. So they traded a raft of prospects for Cole, JV, and Greinke. These werent deadline deals even when they were; they were about building and sustaining a World Series-level team.

Many of us missed it in between the endless flow of relievers and the other drama of 2020, but this past season was a breakthrough in terms of the development of potential starting talent. The biggest breakthrough was Framber Valdez, who looks like he can throw 200 IP and front a rotation of a division-winning team. Equally notable was the bounce back of McCullers from surgery. We never quite know if the stuff is back, but except for a clunker or two, McCullers is back. In addition, Cristian Javier emerged as a potential starter. Urquidy, meanwhile, proved that 2019 was no fluke. Brandon Bielak struggled, but Luis Garcia literally came out of nowhere and flashed four potential plus pitches.

All of those guys, excepting McCullers, have one thing in common: theyre cheap. You know who else is cheap: Yordan Alvarez. Kyle Tucker. Every team has guys making minimum. The MVP of the ALCS is probably making minimum. But the injury and COVID emergency of 2020 forced the Astros hand, and a farm system ranked in the bottom 10 showed itself capable of still producing a yield of cheap, controllable talent.

The classic case of a window closing was the post-2015 Kansas City Royals. They had a group of players that gradually aged out of their peak, or were too expensive to keep, and they either lost them (Cain, Moustakas, Hosmer) or regretted overpaying them (Gordon). Meanwhile, years of drafting at the back end of the rounds, plus trading away talent to make deadline deals, made it harder to reload.

Big market teams can chart another course. For all of the crap Crane took at the beginning of his tenure, which writers like Evan Dreilich accented and highlighted repeatedly, he opened the checkbook big time. If neither Springer nor Correa stay around, it will be a huge loss. But it wont be because Crane refused to make a serious offer to either of them.

The Astros are not the Cubs, Yankees, or Dodgers, all of whom are basically printing money in a normal year. But they can spend, and they have, in extending Altuve, JV, Pressly, and Bregman. They also have a core of players who figure to add a lot of wins at minimum salary cost (Tucker, Alvarez, Urquidy, Valdez, Javier, Paredes). What crushes teams is paying for past performance. The 2020 Astros paid Josh Reddick 13 million to produce negative 0.6 WAR according to Fangraphs. In 2021 theyll pay a 38-year-old 33 million to rehab. But there is no Albert Pujols contract on the books. The biggest commitments post -2021 are to Altuve and Bregman. And Altuves postseason showed that hes still in his prime (1.229 postseason OPS with 11BB and 8Ks).

The 2021 Astros are unlikely to produce a team that wins 108 games. But they can integrate younger talent into a team that, with the right offseason acquisitions, can win 95 games. And if James Click can continue to use the IFA market to find pitchers who can contribute to the MLB club, there is no reason this window cannot remain open.

The biggest misnomer to tanking is that drafting 1-1 ensures you the ability to get the top talent. This not the NBA, where 1-1 can turn a franchise around (Tim Duncan, Shaq ONeil, Zion, etc...). Drafting high helps, but development and evaluation are names of the game.

The 2007-2009 Astros were an aging team locked into a cycle of 74-88-type seasons, with two All-Stars in their primes (Pence, Oswalt) and two aging out of their primes (Lee, Berkman). The 2021 Astros are nothing like that. They have a rotation of Greinke, McCullers, Valdez, and Urquidy. They have a top 6 lineup of Altuve, Bregman, Correa, Tucker, Alvarez, and Gurriel. Thats before either re-signing or replacing Springer and Brantley.

Besides Matt Chapman, the As have no player you can pencil in as an All-Star. They have an impressive array of pre-arb talent (Laureano, Luzardo, Murphy, Puk) but theyre losing Billy Beane and their owner wont spend to keep Hendriks, Semien, and Grossman, especially given how many of their guys are are in line for large raises in arbitration. If you see another team in the AL West you think can win 90 games, let me know.

If you think the Astros should get out ahead of this and sell, my only answer is: to what end? To create another window? If thats the goal, it may take awhile? In which case, youd be wasting the cost-controlled talent you have now. And who wants to trade for minor league players after a year in which none of them played competitively?

2021 will tell us much more than 2020 did. Maybe Urquidy and Valdez disappoint, and Forrest Whitley quits baseball. Maybe Kyle Tucker looks more like an average regular than an All-Star. Maybe the team limps to an 83-79 record. Not even James Click knows the answer, but 2021 can be a banner year for the Astros.

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Windows, Rebuilding, and Reloading - The Crawfish Boxes

I grew up in the heart of the city, in a row house that shared walls with the neighbors to either side. Trees were few and far between, growing up through iron grates that replaced the cement sidewalks beside the stone curbs. Grass simply did not exist anywhere that I can recall, and perhaps this is why I do not remember encountering any outside bugs in my childhood world.

I do remember, however, that cockroaches roamed wild in our basement. We would switch on the light and they would scurry across the flagstone floor, seeking refuge in the dark crevices. Whenever one happened to venture upstairs into our living spaces, my mother would chase it across the floor, stomping like a wild woman. I, however, felt sorry for my mothers victims,and when I found one scurrying about upstairs, I would quietly rescue it. I built a roach house out of a shoebox, that I hid under my bed, and made miniature furniture for them out of toothpicks and cardboard, small beds, tables and chairs.

As I should have expected, though, the roaches did not seem to like my attention and usually ate their way out of their houses to be greeted by my mother. None of our urban windows had screens, yet I cant recall any flying insects ever entering our home, and we always had openwindows, even in the dead of winter.

My mother insisted that fresh air even city air was good for a growing child, and so she always left my bedroom window open, though only slightly cracked in the coldest weather. I remember that the glass of water I always kept by the side of my bed, would often freeze solid in the dead of winter. Imagine reaching for a refreshing sip and finding your lips greeted by smooth ice. It is thismemory of bedside water, and household bugs, that brings me to the creek valley where Greg and I have made our home.

I still fall asleep every night with a glass of water on my bedside table. Thankfully, the fire in our woodstove keeps out house toasty warm, yet I still crack open a loft window to let in the fresh valley air. During this early fall time of year, before we have lit our first fire, I usually keep many of our windows open. Perhaps this is why I see so many stinkbugs walking across the screens, looking for a way into our inside world.

Ahh, the stink bug. I have learned that these creatures have only been in our neck of the woods since 1998, and that they originally hailed from the Orient. The very first stateside stinkbug was found in Allentown, Pa., where it is believed to have been somehow accidentally introduced. They have since spread far and wide. I learned that these bugs have some good characteristics and are known to eat caterpillars, beetles and other crop-eating insects, but come fall they look to overwinter in warm places, such as our creek valley home, and can become rather a nuisance.

I am now noticing more and more of them every day, gathering on our window screens, crossing from one side to the other, looking for a way to get inside. Greg and I do share the creek valley with many rural bugs, and so we have screened windows, but still, I know, that at least a few of these large, brittle, flying bugs will find their way inside.

I learned how stink bugs acquired their name. When they are threatened, or crushed, they are said to release a noxious odor, that some say smells like cilantro. The odor actually shares some biological properties with the culinary herb, but Ive never actually noticed a stink bug scent. One night a few years ago, I reached across my bedside table for a sip of refreshing water, but as I touched the glass to my lips, I realized that I was really quite thirsty, and I took a healthy swig.

The water passed across my lips and was heading down my throat, when I felt a spiky catch. I instantly knew that I was swallowing a stink bug. I gagged and coughed to no avail. The bugwas quite stuck half way down my gullet. I had no recourse but to swallow more water and wash it all the way down. I immediately googled whether stink bugs were poisonous, and to my relief, I learned that they are not, but as I read further, I learned that if I had chewed the bug, the noxious taste could have upset my stomach.

It appears that I have a strong constitution, for I not only ingested, but digested the bug without any complication whatsoever. My psyche, however, was rather wounded.

Just the sight of the bugs now causes me to feel an unpleasant catch at the back of my throat, and I now know not to rely on our rural window screens. I still have a glass water on the nightstand by my side of the bed, but I always make certain to covered it with a protective lid. I carefully remove the lid before taking that refreshing midnight sip of water.

Without a doubt, I will not be building any shoebox houses for our creek valley stink bugs.

Christine Tailer is an attorney and former city dweller who moved several years ago, with her husband, Greg, to an off-grid farm in south-central Ohio.

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Stink bugs return - The Highland County Press

Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has urged the club to sign a first-class replacement for Virgil van Dijk in January after losing their defensive rock for the season with a knee injury.

Van Dijks campaign is reportedly over after just five games after he suffered a serious ACL injury in the weekends Merseyside derby, following a shocking tackle from Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.

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Carragher admits its a huge loss for the Reds and believes it could well hand the Premier League title to rivals Manchester City.

But the Anfield icon insists Jurgen Klopps side can still defend their title as long as they land a world-class centre-back in January.

He believes RB Leipzigs Dayot Upamecano is the perfect fit, and has explained why its key the Reds act early as soon as the window re-opens to get their man.

Liverpools next big signing had to be a centre-back anyway and I am talking next summer, Carragher said onSky Sports Monday Night Football.

Dejan Lovren went and they didnt replace him so they only have three centre-backs and one of those, Joel Matip, is always injured.

There are question marks now about Joe Gomez.

So there is no doubt that Liverpool had to go big in the transfer market next summer. That was the next one. That has now got to be brought forward to January 1st, whoever the target was in the summer. Not the end of January. Not [wasting time that month] negotiating with a club.

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With so many top clubs looking for quality at the back, Upamecanos name has come up a lot in the transfer rumours mill over the last year or so.

The 21-year-old has been linked with moves to Arsenal and Manchester United in the Premier League after his impressive emergence in Germany.

He played a key role in the Bundesliga sides run to the Champions League semi-finals last season, and was even named man-of-the-match for Leipzigs quarter-final win over Atletico Madrid.

And Carragher has urged Liverpool not to waste time and snap up the in-demand star at the soonest opportunity even if it means spending top dollar.

There is a young man everyone was talking about at Leipzig, Dayot Upamecano, there is talk of him. Whether he has the profile of Van Dijk, I think he is only 61 or 62, so he is maybe not that aerial, but if he is the one they wanted then bring it forward.

Pay extra money and do it on January 1st.

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That means getting through 11 league games without Virgil van Dijk.

One thing to say about Virgil van Dijk is that in the last 23 games they have only kept five clean sheets, and Van Dijk played all of them, so it is not like everything was perfect. We saw the seven against Aston Villa and we saw the Leeds game.

But I think they have to go big with a signing.

If a replacement for Van Dijk comes to Anfield this season, Carragher believes it will resurrect the clubs hopes of defending their title.

The Reds have endured a mixed start to the season, with three wins, one defeat an a big one, at that and one draw in their opening five games.

But Carragher believes the unpredictability of the Premier League this season means the Reds will not have to reach the same level of the last two years to reclaim their crown.

The good news for Liverpool is that this season you will not need 99 points to win the league, the legend added.

I think it is going to be in the eighties. Liverpool and City have already dropped five points. For it to be another 99-point season you can only afford to drop another 10 and that is not going to happen.

So Liverpool have dropped from a 98 average for the last two seasons, but if they drop 10 to 12 points, even 15 from there, they will be there or thereabouts for the season.

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Jamie Carragher tells Liverpool they MUST sign Dayot Upamecano in January to replace injured Virgil van Dijk - talkSPORT.com