Latest news with #Kidd
USA Today
4 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Newest golf course in Washington offers fascinating and scenic take on playability
What does playability mean for golf architects? For David McLay Kidd, the concept largely focuses on having room to miss a shot, then possibly recover, or at the very least keep swinging. What it does not mean is that a course is too easy for good players to make too many birdies. The theory will be on full display starting August 1 when the new Scarecrow course opens at Gamble Sands in Brewster, Washington. The first course at the resort – the eponymous Gamble Sands 18-hole layout that opened in 2014 with long views of the Columbia River – helped redefine playability in modern architecture and marked Kidd's new focus on playability for all levels of golfers. That course is ranked by Golfweek's Best as the No. 2 layout in the state of Washington and No. 24 among all public-access courses in the U.S., and it ties for No. 53 among all modern courses in the U.S. Scarecrow, with the Scottish Kidd overseeing development but designed largely by Kidd's longtime partner Nick Schaan, will be a new look at the team's focus on playability. While the original 18 offers extremely wide fairways and plenty of favorable bounces that might kick a ball down and closer to the hole, Scarecrow has a bit more teeth. The greens are set closer to the edges of canyons, and there are a few more pinched points that force players to make decisions. There is still plenty of room to miss, but not always on all sides of the fairways and greens, as seen at the original course. In short, Scarecrow offers a new take by Kidd and Schaan on the boundaries of playability, as defined by Kidd. 'What does playable mean? It means a place to miss,' Kidd told Golfweek while the course was still growing in. 'It means the ability to have some chance of recovery. It means a wide-enough fairway that you can get the ball in play, even if it's not on the aggressive scoring line. I can give it plenty of additional width for misses around the green so that you can make bogey with relative ease. But you can't make birdie with impunity. It takes real effort to make a birdie.' It all should make for a fascinating opportunity to compare and contrast two takes on playability. Which will be the favorite layout on property? Only time will tell, and the best guess is that there will be plenty of discussions about which course is best. That's a great thing for Kidd, Schaan, the resort operators and the players eager to see the new Scarecrow.
Straits Times
5 days ago
- Politics
- Straits Times
At Texas flooding hearing, state officials look elsewhere for blame
Texas' emergency management chief on July 23 defended his agency's actions in the July 4 floods that ravaged the Texas Hill Country. AUSTIN, Texas – Texas' emergency management chief on July 23 defended his agency's actions in the July 4 floods that ravaged the Texas Hill Country , suggesting at the first legislative hearing on the disaster that local emergency officials were not adequately trained to respond. At several points during the hearing on the state's handling of the catastrophic floods that killed at least 136 people statewide, Mr W. Nim Kidd, the chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, directed attention to the role of local emergency managers in disaster response in Texas. 'The responsibility of being in charge rests with local officials,' Mr Kidd testified at the hearing of state Senate and House committees for disaster preparedness. He also pointed to the lack of specificity and urgency in National Weather Service forecasts until shortly before floodwaters began surging early on July 4. While Mr Kidd did not describe any particular failures by local officials, he stressed the need for 'a deliberate conversation about the credentialing of emergency managers at the local level.' At the moment, there are no requirements for credentials. 'We can do better than that,' he said. The testimony opened a daylong hearing at the state Capitol in Austin, part of a special session called by Governor Greg Abbott to address the flooding, as well as to redraw congressional maps to benefit Republicans in response to pressure from President Donald Trump. The state is still reeling from the flooding. At the hearing on July 23, the director of the state police Freeman Martin told lawmakers that another person missing in the flood, a woman whom he did not identify, had been found dead. Two people, including a child from Camp Mystic, remain missing in Kerr County, he said. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. 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'Our select committee will not armchair-quarterback or attempt to assign blame,' said Senator Charles Perry, the chair of the Senate's special committee on disaster preparedness. But local officials in Kerr County have faced questions about their failure to secure funding for a flood warning system in recent years, and the apparent lack of local government action amid increasingly dire weather alerts in the early hours of July 4. No one from the Kerr County government or the city of Kerrville, the county seat, was invited to testify in Austin on July 23. Residents of the areas hit by the floods were also not permitted to speak. But they will have a chance to testify before lawmakers next week at a legislative hearing in Kerrville. On July 23, lawmakers directed pointed questions at one local official who did appear late in the day: the general manager of the Upper Guadalupe Water Authority, which covers the river in Kerr County. 'We've had a number of funerals for eight-year-old girls from the families that trusted and sent their children to your county,' said Representative Ann Johnson, a Houston Democrat. 'You know that river can kill, because it killed children in the '80s.' The water authority's general manager Tara Bushnoe testified that over the years, the authority had accumulated US$3.4 million in reserves for a water supply project. But when the project fell through, in 2022, the board did not use that money for an improved flood warning system, despite a 2016 study finding that it was needed and several unsuccessful attempts to get grants from the state. 'You had the money, but not the will,' said Representative Drew Darby, a West Texas Republican. Senator Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican, said the decision was 'pathetic.' Ms Bushnoe said the authority had taken steps to spend down the surplus and lower its tax rate, after a review and direction from a state commission in 2023. The review did not recommend spending the money on flood warning systems. The surplus was first reported by The Houston Chronicle. Representative Joe Moody, an El Paso Democrat, said the response to the floods could have been better 'before, during and after.' 'That's not a blame game,' he said. 'That's accountability.' The hearing began with lawmakers watching a 10-minute video clip from a Houston television news meteorologist who called the confluence of weather factors that led to the severe river flooding a 'freak event.' The idea, Mr Perry said, was to underscore just how unusual the event was. 'I'm hearing from the old-timers, this is a 500-year event,' Mr Perry said. Mr Kidd said the forecasts leading up to July 4 predicted significant storms, but were not specific about the areas that might be most affected and required state officials to spread out resources over a large region. He said that the 'area of concern' the day before the flooding stretched across 44 counties and that his agency convened a weather call with local governments in which well over 400 people participated. The lawmakers mostly thanked the state officials who testified for their agencies' work in responding to the flooding. Several appeared interested in taking action to improve systems of communication between emergency responders, and, after Mr Kidd's comments, of improving the training and credentialing of local emergency officials. But there were a few moments of tension. Senator José Menéndez, a San Antonio Democrat, asked whether more could be done by the state to make sure local officials received important weather warnings. 'We know we can share the information,' Mr Kidd said. 'But we really have no way of knowing whether they have received the message.' 'You do see the problem with that?' Mr Menéndez asked. 'I do,' Mr Kidd replied. He added that part of the issue was that local emergency officials, who supply their contact information to the state, sometimes provided only office numbers or generic emails. NYTIMES
The Hill
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Texas flooding unpredictable, unmanageable, state emergency management chief says
The flood disaster that struck Texas over Independence Day weekend was beyond the state's ability to predict or fully manage, the state emergency management chief told the legislature on Wednesday. 'People are going to ask, 'Well, what did you know that nobody else knew?'' Nim Kidd, head of the Texas Department of Emergency Management (TDEM), told the state's Select Committees on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding during a special session, after weeks of state and national criticism of the disaster response. His agency, Kidd said, 'didn't know anything that nobody else knew. The science is just not there yet.' The committee hearing was held in the wake of the disaster that killed 135 Texans across more than two dozen counties, and in his opening remarks, chair and state Sen. Charles Perry (R) set the parameters of the state's investigation. The committee, he said, 'will not armchair quarterback or attempt to assign blame. To do so and undermine the very goal in the committee's creation.' Instead, he said, 'the goal of our committee is to find constructive policy solutions' to head off future loss of life. That disclaimer came amid a storm of criticism of the local, state and federal response to the disaster, which ultimately killed 135 Texans across more than two dozen counties. Despite early allegations from TDEM that federal forecasts were inaccurate, current and former NWS forecasters have repeatedly argued that the state had enough information to know a disastrous storm was emerging over Central Texas. And while Texas state officials such as Kidd and Gov. Greg Abbott (R) have repeatedly praised the response of the federal government, the Trump administration is under fire too after a series of articles in national media indicated that deep cuts to staff at the Federal Department of Emergency Management and a new process requiring approval for every expenditure over $100,000 — in an agency that routinely deals in the billions — had slowed down both rescues and aid. Those cuts also led to the departure of regional NWS officials — such as the Austin-based 'warning coordinator' who took early retirement in April — specifically charged with making sure local officials are kept abreast of developing threats. Texas Democrats including Rep. Joaquin Castro have argued these cuts could play a role in the confused situation on the ground in Kerr County, where officials took until more than an hour and a half after floods reached 'emergency' levels to send out cell-phone notifications. Climate change is prompting a significant rise in deadly natural disasters, but the panel opened with the assumption that the flooding was more like a one-off. Perry, describing a 9-mile high rain cloud pouring off a million gallons per minute onto the spiderweb of creeks and ravines across Central Texas, called it a '500 year-plus event.' The 'freak' nature of the disaster — a fast-emerging 'rain bomb' condensing over the Hill Country out of the churning remnants of Tropical Storm Barry — made it 'an absolute perfect storm,' KHOU meteorologist Pat Hammond said in a video Perry played for the committee. 'We need to we also should have a deliberate conversation about the credentialing of emergency managers at the local level.' The problem with such a storm, Hammond said, is that it 'really pushes the science of meteorology to the limit. We are not at a point yet where we can pinpoint exactly where these other storms are going to pop up and where that flooding is going to happen.' That ambiguity, he added, meant there was no way to identify where individual flash flooding can happen 'pretty much until it's starting to happen.' That's an area the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association has been working on through the Severe Storms Laboratory (SSL) — and that President Trump's budget request would cut, former SSL head of research Alan Gerard told The Hill. On the chopping block, Gerard said, are programs to develop tolls that 'would let us tell a community three to six hours in advance that there's a high probability of the type of intense rainfall that will cause a significant flash flood.' As things were, Kidd told the committee, his department knew enough to pre-position resources but it was caught stretched over an area the size of Indiana, waiting for a disaster that ended up being far more localized. As of the day before the disaster, Kidd said, 'We had no idea where rain would fall, but we knew that there was moisture in the atmosphere throughout Thursday.' In a beat-by-beat recounting of National Weather Service (NWS) updates, Kidd said that the warnings his team received did not coalesce into a flash flood warning until 1:15 the morning of the floods, or a flash flood emergency — the highest level — until 4:45 a.m. 'At 5:56, I personally got the first report of people trapped on roofs,' Kidd told the committee. 'We all know what happened after that.' Three hours of lead time is unusually good for a flash flood — twice what many jurisdictions get, former NWS forecaster Brian LaMarre told The Hill, though he emphasized that the fact that the warnings came overnight played a big role in the ultimate disaster. Once the scale of the disaster became clear, Kidd said, the department was swamped by the response. At the height, he told the committee, the state had 2,700 employees on the ground — and more than six times as many volunteers, a number that swamped the ability of the state to manage them. During the response, he said that he found clear areas of literal communication breakdown: the San Antonio Fire Department's radios didn't work, 'so they had some really cheap Chinese radios they were talking to each other on. Ultimate authority in the crisis, he added, had rested with local officials. 'I always say we are responsible — we are not in charge. The responsibility of being in charge rests with local officials.' With that in mind, Kidd said, the state 'also should have a deliberate conversation about the credentialing of emergency managers at the local level.' Under statute, he said, those officials can be 'whoever the county judge, whoever the mayor appoints,' regardless of their experience. 'We're better than that,' he said.
Irish Daily Mirror
18-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Daily Mirror
How Ireland's controversial Eircode system proved critics wrong 10 years on
Over 97% of people in Ireland say they have a validated Eircode for their home address, 10 years after the initiative was launched. Since its launch in 2015, there have been 197.3million look-ups on the online finder, with two million average searches per month last year. However, a decade ago the initiative was not widely welcomed. At the time, experts said the €38m project was 'not fit for purpose'. It was initially supposed to cost €18m, but it went more than double over budget. The biggest criticism of Eircode at the time was that it's not strictly geographical, like the UK's system, which can be confusing. While the first three characters of an Eircode, the routing key, is linked to a broad area, it doesn't precisely map smaller units such as a street or even a town. The four characters after this routing key are completely unique to an individual address and are not geographically sequential. The random nature of the codes were slammed at the time, with the Irish Fire and Emergency Services Association chairperson John Kidd saying it could be 'catastrophic' in emergency situations. He said the random nature of codes could be detrimental in an emergency, potentially leading to incorrect locations and significant delays. Mr Kidd added that it would be of little benefit to rural areas, and because Eircodes aren't predictable and can't be learned easily, it's not as useful as Northern Ireland's postcode system. In 2015, multiple companies such as FedEx, DHL and BOC Ireland said it would not be using the postcode system for deliveries. However, shortly after its launch, the National Ambulance Service integrated Eircodes into its computerised dispatch system. It also encourages people seeking an emergency ambulance to have their Eircode at hand. A key driver for the introduction of Eircodes was to deal with challenges faced by non-unique addresses in the country. It found that 35% of all properties in Ireland shared an address with another property, which was a difficulty for emergency services. In 2024, 41,624 addresses were assigned an Eircode, with 38,851 the previous year. So far, 2.5million addresses have been assigned an Eircode. The initiative was launched by Capita Business Support Services, which was awarded the contract to develop Ireland's postcode system in December 2013. Speaking as Eircode celebrated its 10th anniversary, the company's managing director Gillian Chamberlain said the service 'has become an essential part of everyday life in Ireland.' She added: 'Eircode has proven its value across the public and private sectors and this milestone is a testament to the dedication of our team and the strength of our partnership with the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport. We look forward to ensuring the continued success of this vital national infrastructure." Minister of State for Postal Policy, Charlie McConalogue, said Eircode's usage 'continues to grow'. He said: 'It is used widely among the public, businesses and public sector with independent research showing that 97% of respondents were able to supply a validated Eircode for their address. 'The continued use of the free-to-use Eircode Finder website, which has received 197 million look-ups since launch, further proves that Eircodes are utilised on a daily basis. I want to congratulate Capita Business Support Services Ireland Limited for the outstanding work they have done in operating Eircodes on behalf of the State, and I look forward to our continued partnership.' Since its inception, the public have been widely encouraged to learn their home Eircode or have it to hand in case of an emergency. There have been various advertisement campaigns over the years aiming to show the importance of the system. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here.
National Observer
15-07-2025
- Health
- National Observer
Poor air quality can worsen pre-existing mental health challenges
The poor air quality that has blanketed swaths of central and Western Canada is not only infiltrating the lungs, but also distressing the mind. The federal government says people with mental illness are in a high-risk group prone to health problems when exposed to air pollution. Others who are most impacted when air quality plummets include seniors, pregnant people and those with lung or heart conditions. Environment Canada said Tuesday the air in parts of Saskatchewan and Inuvik is 'very high risk,' while Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and Yellowknife are high- and moderate-risk areas due to wildfire smoke. Dr. Sean Kidd, a senior scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, said polluted air can make people feel trapped, particularly those who are homeless and can't avoid the outdoors, as well as people who don't have air conditioning and have to open their windows during heat waves. That can exacerbate stressors and intensify distress for anyone who experiences mental-health challenges. "Being out in an environment like this, it's distressing, right? Especially if you can't escape it." High heat, humidity and air pollution are adding to the stresses weathered by all Canadians, but those already experiencing mental health challenges are particularly troubled by them. The combination of heat, humidity and air pollution can also cloud cognition, making people more irritable and reactive, which can lead to substance abuse, Kidd said. Kidd said evidence suggests there's also an increase in domestic violence and interpersonal conflict during extreme weather events. The United Nations (UN) reported in April that climate change could be linked to one in every ten cases of intimate partner violence by the end of the century if action is not taken to interrupt that trajectory. A 2018 study cited in the UN report found intimate partner femicide rose 28 per cent during heat waves in Madrid. Among the solutions is creating better, more stable housing that reduces exposure to high-risk air, and in doing so, improves health and well-being across the board, Kidd said. 'It's not just about breathing bad air," Kidd said. "(It's) ultimately about having fewer people breathing air like this." Still, those who have access to cool indoor spaces can feel stuck inside and socially isolated, which can result in doom scrolling and worsen feelings of loneliness. Jiaying Zhao, a professor of psychology and sustainability at the University of British Columbia, said when wildfires pollute the air in Vancouver and the sky turns an orange hue, she tends to stay home. "I just don't interact with people. I'm isolated as a result of air pollution and that's not good. That can really exacerbate depressive symptoms and any kind of mental-health issues associated with depression," Zhao said. Some young people struggle with the crushing reality of climate change, said Zhao. When air quality plummets, those feelings can swing from abstract to material. 'That further exacerbates eco-anxiety, climate anxiety, that makes me, as well as others, think this is the end of the world. It does seem like an apocalypse,' said Zhao. Dr. Zarina Giannone, a registered psychologist in Vancouver, said it helps to think about what makes you feel safe and more in control of the exposure, which can include connecting with other people who are also exposed and isolated. "When they're not breathing in clean air or there's been a forest fire, which is common out here in B.C. — for the, for the air to really change suddenly and quite significantly like that — that can impact how people feel, how safe they feel; can kind of provoke more situational change in their mental status and wellness." This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 15, 2025.
