Latest news with #Rankin
Scoop
4 days ago
- Business
- Scoop
Council Pushes Ahead With Changes Despite Government's ‘Plan-Stop' Policy
Marlborough's council will charge ahead with changes aimed at airline safety, despite the Government pushing pause on plan amendments. The district council's environment plan changes aim to ensure buildings or objects that could compromise aircraft safety could not be built close to Marlborough's three airports. Resource Management Act (RMA) reform minister Chris Bishop announced on Wednesday the Government wants to stop councils from passing amendments to environment and land use plans. Councils should not be wasting resources on making changes to plans under the RMA, ahead of major reforms expected in 2027, he said. 'Even though councils know the RMA's days are numbered, many are required to continue with time-consuming, expensive plan-making processes under the RMA,' Bishop said. 'The Government's intention is that stopping plan requirements for councils will enable them to focus on critical work to prepare to transition to the new system.' Councils would be required to withdraw any planned changes that had not progressed to hearings within 90 days of the RMA Amendment Bill coming into effect in early August. The Marlborough District Council environment and planning committee unanimously voted to prepare a change to their Proposed Marlborough Environment Plan on Thursday, 24 hours after Bishop's announcement. Council strategic planner Clementine Rankin said the planned change would ensure buildings or objects that could compromise aircraft safety could not be built within the vicinity of Marlborough's three airports. 'For safety purposes, it's critical to provide protection for air corridors used in approaches to, and departures from, our airports,' Rankin said. 'It is a civil aviation safety issue when structures like buildings or frost fans penetrate into [air corridors].' Visual and structural objects that penetrated into an airport's approach air space were already prohibited under Civil Aviation Authority rules. But the council could not legally deny resource consents for people who wanted to build those objects without a change to the Proposed Marlborough Environment Plan. Rankin said there were recently constructed frost fans that had become a safety risk. 'This issue has occurred due to the focus [in rural zoning] on noise only. 'The controlled activity rule does not include an airport protection standard.' Rankin said that the council would move forward with the plan change, despite Bishop's announcement, and would ask the Environment Minister for an exemption if they had to. Only private plan changes, natural hazard changes, and changes directed by the minister were automatically exempt. All other exemptions had to be requested from the minister within three months of the policy becoming law. Councillor David Croad greeted the announcement with a shake of his head, calling it 'disingenuous'. 'I don't often participate in politics, but yesterday's plan-stop thing, [saying] 'we're stopping that because we want to save ratepayers' money', it's a little bit disingenuous in my opinion,' Croad said. 'Ultimately it implies that the staff that we have in our planning departments are going to go home and go off payroll for a period of time. 'We have great people in this building and it takes a while to build good teams. 'We just don't get to turn these things on and off at will.'
Daily Record
6 days ago
- Sport
- Daily Record
Hamilton Accies boss hopes transfer embargo is lifted 'in next week or so'
John Rankin is eager to strengthen his squad ahead of the League One kick-off Hamilton Accies boss John Rankin hopes a transfer embargo is lifted in the next week or so, allowing him to strengthen his squad ahead of their League One kick-off. Part of the sanctions that dropped Accies from the Championship via a 15-point deduction was a ban on signings, but Rankin hopes he can get on with his job. Accies fielded two trialists in the 2-0 Premier Sports Cup win at Stirling Albion on Saturday, and midfielder Charlie Telfer and defender Ricki Lamie were listed as trialists as Hearts won 4-0 in the first competitive game at Broadwood on Tuesday night. Lamie went off with a groin strain, as did Barry Maguire, while ex-Ross County and Airdrie star Telfer tired, but Rankin wants a return of both players who did well last season. He said: 'We can't bring any signings in. You've seen trialists in the last two games, we'll see how the situation develops over the next week to 10 days. 'Hopefully we can get bodies in after that. 'Just now we've seen two trialists on Saturday and two again on Tuesday, you can see what we're trying to do, what we're trying to build, and making sure they come together and give us what we're looking for from then. 'The guys that are here and listed as trialists enjoyed their time at the club last season, enjoyed their football. They're looking to come back, and I would love to have them. 'That's one we're looking to progress, to get minutes into both is important, to where we want to try and get to.' Rankin added: 'One of them was tiring towards the end of the game, but it's important that we can get him 90 minutes just now, without running the risk of getting him injured. 'We had a couple of injuries; Baz came off at half-time, Ricki came off in the second half, he felt a wee nick in his groin, but doesn't think it's anything, and just cramped up. 'He should be fine. Baz has a tight groin as well, so the two of them are feeling a bit vulnerable. 'We don't have a big squad, Hearts made wholesale changes from Saturday, but we went 90 minutes on Saturday in ridiculous heat and were able to play again on Tuesday. 'There's a lot we need to work on to make sure we get to the next stage, and make sure everybody's fit at the same time, but it's a great learning experience for us.'
Medscape
6 days ago
- Health
- Medscape
Psychiatric Issues Worsen Autoimmune Encephalitis Outcomes
TOPLINE: Psychiatric comorbidities were the strongest independent predictors of unfavourable outcomes in autoimmune encephalitis (AE); however, severe infections reflected acute disease severity rather than comorbidity burden. METHODOLOGY: This multicentre, retrospective analysis included 308 adults with definite antibody-positive AE from the GErman NEtwork for REsearch on AuToimmune Encephalitis registry (June 2004 to July 2023). Patients had definite AE with anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (n = 144), anti-leucine-rich glioma-inactivated 1 (n = 98), anti-contactin-associated protein-like 2 (n = 47), and anti-immunoglobulin-like cell adhesion molecule 5 (n = 19) antibodies, with at least 12 months of follow-up. Preexisting conditions (PECs) and secondary diagnoses documented during hospitalisation were categorised on the basis of the organ system; the severity of infectious complications was graded using the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events v5.0. The primary outcome was functional status, assessed using a modified Rankin scale (mRS) at a minimum of 12 months post-admission, with unfavourable outcome defined as a mRS score > 2. TAKEAWAY: The presence of three or more PECs increased the risk for unfavourable long-term functional outcomes (odds ratio [OR], 2.80; 95% CI, 1.57-4.92; P < .001). Psychiatric comorbidities had the strongest association with unfavourable outcomes (OR, 4.55; 95% CI, 1.99-10.60; P < .001). Cardiovascular PECs (OR, 1.93; 95% CI, 1.09-3.30; P = .03) and higher disease severity at peak (mRS score > 2; OR, 3.01; 95% CI, 1.36-7.20; P = .01) were linked to unfavourable outcomes. A total of 13.6% of patients experienced severe infections during hospitalisation, which were not significantly associated with unfavourable outcomes in the univariable analysis (OR, 1.94; 95% CI, 0.97-3.89; P = .10). IN PRACTICE: "As premorbid psychiatric conditions are main factors associated with unfavorable outcomes, these patients would highly benefit from integrated interdisciplinary treatment centers, or at least heightened awareness of these factors," the authors wrote. SOURCE: This study, led by Amelie Bohn, Department of Neurology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, was published online on July 07, 2025, in Neurology: Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation. LIMITATIONS: This study's retrospective, multicentre design introduced potential selection and information biases. The reliance on electronic health records and overlapping definitions of comorbidities may have resulted in underrepresentation or overrepresentation of certain conditions. Additionally, varying follow-up durations and the use of the mRS as an outcome measure may not have fully captured cognitive or emotional dysfunction. DISCLOSURES: This research was supported by the Clinician Scientist Program of the Faculty of Medicine RWTH Aachen University and partially supported by grants from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Few authors reported receiving travel and speaker honoraria from various sources, including Merck and Roche, and one author reported supporting neuroimmunologic studies for several pharmaceutical companies. This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
Scotsman
6 days ago
- Sport
- Scotsman
SPFL boss in major Hearts compliment as he gives Derek McInnes and co highest praise
The head coach has been left with no doubt over what he thinks about Hearts after seeing them up close. Sign up to our Hearts newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Hamilton Accies head coach John Rankin has paid Hearts a major compliment after the Jambos' 4-0 Premier Sports Cup rout. Goals from Stuart Findlay, Elton Kabangu, James Wilson and Claudio Braga made it two wins from two in the group stage of the competition after beating Dunfermline Athletic 4-1 last time out. Rankin moved to Accies after time coaching at the Oriam and featured heavily for Hibs as a player, now at the helm of Accies in League One, who were relegated from the Championship amid off the field issues. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad They were put to the sword by a clinical Hearts side and Rankin was full of praise for the victors at Broadwood. He admits that it's likely that Hearts will be the best team they play all season and facing them is a major lesson for some of his young players. What rival said about Hearts Rankin told Sportsound: 'I don't think we gave ourselves a chance. The early goal we conceded for a set play. Poor, conceding at that time in the game. I don't think the first half we caused them any problems. We made good runs, our execution was poor when we got into the final third. 'Then we conceded a goal right before half time, it was a killer. Conceding the second goal right before the half time break. Getting it in at half time, get ourselves going again and then they make a handful of subs at 60 minutes and when you look at the quality they're bringing off the bench, it's always going to be hard, fresh legs and away they go. It was difficult for us but we've got to make sure that we try and defend. They've got the fresh legs and the quality coming on. At the end of the game we had two 16 year olds on the pitch and you can see the difference in strength and depth in both squads. 'I'm delighted with the application and work rate for the players, that's all I can ask. But you can see the gaps in quality. I don't think we'll play a tougher opposition all season, so you've got to look at where both clubs are. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Hamilton assessment of Hearts defeat 'It's brilliant for our kids coming on to the game and getting that experience, but the bit for me is I want to be able to make sure that we don't concede from set plays, make sure we manage the time in the game better and then that will stand as a good stead for the rest of the season. 'It's great for us to come up, as I said, there's no stronger team in the cup at this stage. For us to play them at home, it's a tough challenge, it's a big ask, but one that we were looking forward to. I don't think we gave ourselves a chance as I said, conceded after four minutes, but for the rest of the season that will stand us in really good stead.'
Canada Standard
13-07-2025
- Sport
- Canada Standard
After delivering first win, Elks now chasing revenge on Lions
(Photo credit: Anne-Marie Sorvin-Imagn Images) The visiting BC Lions and Edmonton Elks will have a rematch of their season-opening clash on Sunday. The Lions (2-3) handed the West Division rival Elks (1-3) a 31-14 loss on June 7 in Vancouver. Both teams snapped three-game losing streaks last weekend, with Edmonton defeating Ottawa 39-33 for its first win of the season and BC winning 21-20 at Montreal for its first victory since Week 1. Justin Rankin rushed 12 times for 105 yards and a touchdown and caught four passes for 69 yards and another score to lead the Elks against the RedBlacks. Fellow running back Javon Leake returned five punts for 163 yards, including a 94-yard touchdown. 'Thunder and lightning,' Rankin told the team website this week of his pairing with Leake. 'You ain't never seen nothing like it.' Rankin said he and Leake have been able to carry over their success from last season because there's no jealousy between them. 'When I started to get hot, he's like, 'You rolling? Go, go, go,' you know?' Rankin said. 'When he's hot, it's vice versa. You got the spark, keep being the spark. I don't think there's any selfishness in the room. And when you have depth at a position like that, it's hard to stop.' The Lions found a way to stop them in the first meeting, limiting Rankin and Leake to a combined 29 yards on 10 carries. The star for BC in the season-opening win was Nathan Rourke, who completed 27 of 36 passes for 324 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. Rourke returned from a two-game absence for an oblique injury and threw for 352 yards with one TD and also ran for a score in last Saturday's win at Montreal. Sean Whyte's walk-off 43-yard field goal provided the winning points. 'I think there are a lot of things we can do better, starting with me,' Rourke said, per the team website. 'Good teams find a way when it's not perfect, and it definitely wasn't perfect today. So, we'll go back to the drawing board and get ready for Edmonton next week.' --Field Level Media
