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By ANTHONY KITIMO

The Kenyan government on Thursday appointed a diplomat to head the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) on an acting capacity as the process of appointing the new Managing Director stalls for more than 13 months.

KPA board of directors announced the appointment of Amb John Mwangemi as the new acting MD to replace Eng. Rashid Salim who has been acting for more than a year and is now proceeding on leave ahead of his retirement in September.

The KPA board wishes to announce the appointment of the new MD takes effect from 1stJuly 2021 as Eng Rashid Salim proceeds on retirement. The new acting MD will hold the position until a substantive managing director is appointed, a statement from the KPA board states.

Amb Mwangemi is Kenyas immediate former ambassador of the Republic of Djibouti and Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad). He exited the office last month.

He previously served as Kenyas High Commissioner to Rwanda and he has also held executive leadership positions in the corporate world locally and internationally.

The position of the KPA managing director fell vacant in March last year after then MD Daniel Manduku, who had held the post for less than two years, resigned after battling graft allegations for months. Mr Salim was appointed on an interim basis.

Amb Mwangemi will be key in the managementas the term of KPA chairman, General (Rtd) Joseph Kibwana, and three other board members alsolapsed on June 5 andMr Salim proceeds on three-month terminal leave ahead of his retirement in three months.

Since then, the government has conducted three interview to get a replacement but they have been unsuccessful with the failure of the first two attempts blamed on political interference. Ukur Yatani, Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury and Planning, said the third attempt was delayed due to the ongoing restructuring of port management.

In May, Mr Yatani said the ongoing restructuring will ensure that the three main ports in the country are each headed by a managing director to make them autonomous.

The CS said the restructuring has affected the appointment of the MD after hiring deadline expired about a month ago but the government was at the final stage in making a decision.

We are at the final stage and soon we shall announce how each port will have independent management, he said then.

If the new structure is adopted, Mombasa, Lamu and Kisumu ports will each have its own MD.

According to sources, the push by senior government officials to have their own appointed to head the authority has delayed the exercise whereas CS Yatanihad earlier ordered the hiring process to end within 45 days.

On March 2, CS Yatanirejected three names the board had forwarded to him, saying the candidates did not attain the mandatory 70 marks and above in the interviews.

Late April, Mr Yatani reneged on his earlier statement, saying he did not set any fixed timeliness for the hiring process and on Thursday he raised the new issue of restructuring as the reason for the delay.

According to sources privy to the hiring process, already three names have been submitted to the CS but there has been political interference which is delaying the whole process.

The names we submitted on by April 13, the last day which was set by the CS when he revoked the whole process forcing the board to do it for the third time. We understand there is push and pull from senior government officials who want their own to head KPA, said the source.

The board was expected to forward three names to the CS to appoint the MD.

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Kenya appoints Amb Mwangemi as acting head of the ports authority - The East African

The Diet may be out of session but a new battle is already underway at Liberal Democratic Party headquarters.

The power struggle has Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Finance Minister Taro Aso and former trade minister Akira Amari standing in one corner and LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai in the other. Each side has eyes on the partys leadership contest before a Lower House election in the fall.

The fight is manifesting itself in a number of recently formed parliamentary groups, with the two sides vying to install as many of their faction members as possible to LDP executive posts, and the position of secretary-general is the top prize.

At least on the surface, the party is united in backing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga ahead of the partys leadership election in September. Approval ratings for his Cabinet and the LDP still hover around the mid-30% range, whereas support for opposition parties is in the single digits. No rival candidates are exploring runs to replace Suga in the leadership contest. But the intraparty fight could leave Suga, who lacks a solid support base despite being the partys president, in a shaky position and that could destabilize the LDP and affect the general election.

The LDP is starting to think its leadership contest is more important than the general election, said Jun Iio, a professor of Japanese politics at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.

The trio of Abe, Aso and Amari, along with Suga, then-chief Cabinet secretary, were a key platoon during the early stages of the second Abe administration. When Abe resigned last September, Nikai keen to stay on as secretary-general filled the void and became the first major faction leader to endorse Suga as Abes successor.

Nikais swift, calculated move made Suga a front-runner and demonstrated his appetite to further expand his factions authority and influence within the party.

That has left Nikais 47-member group with an outsized influence in the party and has the two largest factions Hiroyuki Hosodas 96-member faction, of which Abe is a de facto leader, and Asos 53-member faction irritated.

LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai speaks at a parliamentary group on advancing the Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy, next to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters on June 15. | KYODO

The influence held by factions was suppressed when Abe was in charge, with LDP lawmakers almost universally backing him and satisfied that party unity was Abes top priority. After his departure, they have been revived to play their role in deciding key party posts and even Cabinet ministers.

Nikais camp emerged as the fourth largest within the party, as it actively accepted newcomers to the LDP from opposition parties.

He is also flexible in throwing support behind a wide variety of lawmakers, even those considered dark horses. At one point, he praised former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba, a vocal critic of Abe, as being well-versed in policies and expressed his support for Seiko Noda, who does not belong to a faction, running for the LDP leadership. Nikai appointed her to be a party executive.

The opening bell of the LDP fight was struck on May 21 at a meeting of a parliamentary group focused on semiconductors. The group was set up to advise the Suga administration as it looked to beef up its strategy on economic security.

But the caucuss lineup Abe and Aso as senior advisers and Amari as president promptly raised speculation that they were reuniting in a potential bid to seize leadership of the party. Aso and Amari were close Abe allies during his administration, along with Suga. The tight-knit group was given a nickname stemming from the initials of their family names: 3A + S.

Roughly 60 LDP lawmakers from the factions of Hosoda, Aso, Wataru Takeshita and Fumio Kishida participated in the meeting, but notably absent was a significant contingent from the Nikai faction.

Legislators often form a coalition on specific issues as part of policymaking and submit a proposal to the Prime Ministers Office. But a caucus is also an important ingredient in party politics that helps members build a relationship with lawmakers in other factions. It can also test their loyalty to specific executives.

Aso rattled off a joke about the lineup.

The three of us gathering here signals something is up in terms of a power struggle, so there are lots of newspaper reporters here who seem to have no connection with semiconductors at all, Aso noted, eliciting laughter from lawmakers in the room. You will be disappointed.

Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Finance Minister Taro Aso attend a meeting of a parliamentary group on semiconductors at the Diet on May 28. | KYODO

This was not the only time the three heavyweights have gathered in the same place in recent months. They all became advisers to the Japan-Australia Parliamentary Association to facilitate cooperation between the two nations on national security and economic issues amid Chinas rise.

Since the Diet session ended, LDP members interests have turned to a potential shake-up in the partys executive lineup, which is expected sometime after the LDP leadership contest or the general election, depending on whichever comes first.

For many, their greatest concern is whether the 82-year-old Nikai who has been secretary-general since August 2016, the longest run in the post in the partys history will keep his title beyond the fall. The secretary-generals term is one year, but there are no limits on reappointment. The person in the powerful role can decide which candidate to officially endorse in an election and has discretion on party finances and personnel, including the partys division heads and deputy heads.

When Abe decided to step down for health reasons in September last year, Suga, who was considering a run to be the partys next leader, first turned to Nikai for support.

Suga and Nikai, who both started as local assembly members, developed a close bond during the Abe administration. In return for his support, Suga kept Nikai on as secretary-general.

Under the Suga administration, Nikais faction members secured the crucial posts of internal affairs minister as well as another Cabinet position, a satisfactory result for Nikai.

Former trade minister Akira Amari (left) attends a meeting of a parliamentary group on semiconductors, with Motoo Hayashi, an executive acting secretary-general, at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters on June 15. | KYODO

Aso, who delayed throwing his support behind Suga last September, is seeking to rally his troops. The finance minister is rumored to be seeking to push Amari, a member of his faction, as Nikais replacement in the next reshuffle.

Wary of being driven into a corner, Nikai has attempted to drive a wedge into the 3A alliance. The secretary-general asked Abe to be a senior adviser of a parliamentary group that he had established aimed at advancing the countrys Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy. Because the strategy was originally pushed by Abe, the former prime minister had no choice but to accept the offer.

In response, Amari openly criticized Nikai for founding the parliamentary group, especially because the secretary-general is known for his close ties to China.

I wonder whether itd be OK for Mr. Nikai to preside over the group on the strategy that touches the sorest spot for China, Amari said during a TBS program aired on June 11.

Nikai and Amari had clashed openly before over a vote-buying scandal involving former Justice Minister Katsuyuki Kawai and his wife, former Upper House lawmaker Anri Kawai. While Nikai denied knowledge of or participation in the distribution of 150 million in party funds to Anri Kawai in 2019, Motoo Hayashi, an executive acting secretary-general and Nikais top aide, implied during a news conference on May 17 that Amari was in charge.

Amari, who was an election strategy committee chairman, shot back by saying, I was not involved even a micrometer.

In response, Nikai modified his response and said the partys president and the secretary-general at that time were responsible for party decisions, dragging Abe into the controversy once again.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga during a news conference in May in Tokyo | POOL / VIA REUTERS

What is concerning for the LDP is that powerful skirmishes could damage the party as a whole. When Abe was prime minister, he was particularly mindful of party unity, wrote Koji Nakakita, a Japanese politics professor at Hitotsubashi University, in his book on the LDP.

Abe was not hesitant to pick rivals such as Ishiba and former Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki to fill the secretary-general role and tap leading figures of individual factions to Cabinet posts, thereby maintaining solidarity and high intraparty support. Election victories and high approval ratings also spurred him on.

The rationale for boosting rivals, Nakakita explained in the book, was rooted in a conviction that disarray within the party in 2009, in which LDP lawmakers had pressed Aso to step down as prime minister, caused the party to lose power.

Learning from that mistake, the LDP is united in backing Suga ahead of the general election. However, unlike Abe, Suga has neither a track record of winning national elections the LDP has lost three by-elections so far this year nor a strong faction that serves as a reliable support base, a crucial component to surviving an uphill battle in party politics.

Ishiba, who ran against Suga last year, cast doubt on whether the power struggle was worth it for anyone but the contestants.

I dont reject the power struggle itself, Ishiba said during a TV Asahi program appearance on Wednesday. What matters is for what purpose does one seek to acquire power? If people are competing for job posts while that objective is not clear, I wonder whether that serves the countrys best interest.

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PHOTO GALLERY (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

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LDP's infighting tests Suga and party unity ahead of election season - The Japan Times

It "may well be approaching the time" to scrap the problematic Isle of Wight floating bridge and replace it with a new one, the councillor responsible for the vessel has told Isle of Wight Radio.

Cllr Phil Jordan says"there comes a time when the mend and make do approachcomes to an end", and has hinted that the council may be nearing that.

Having been elected to the role of Cabinet member for Infrastructure and Transport around eight weeks ago, Cllr Jordansaysit is too early to say for definite how the local authority will fixthe chain ferry.

However, speaking to Isle of Wight Radio, he said it's clear there are only two viable options. He said:

"I'm looking forward. Every time we look back, this is what preventsus from looking forward.

"What we've got is what we've got. We have to either make that work and I would have to be convinced that we can make that work bymodifications or whatever ittakes or we would have to replaceit. One of the other.

"If we are being confronted with sums of money that are extensive we have to weigh that up against the possibility of putting that expenditure into a new replacement vessel."

WhenFloating Bridge 6 was commissioned, the council paid out around 3.2 million for its design and construction.

It came into service in May 2017, but has beenplagued with problems ever since. Just last year,Isle of Wight Radio reportedhow the chain ferry recorded a loss of more than 400,000.

Asked how the council would fund another multi-million pound vessel, if the current one is scrapped, Cllr Jordan said:

"There are operational revenues from it, if it works efficiently. Secondly, there may be income from an agreement with the designers and builders of the bridge, that may be an income for us.

"And then we would borrow the money over 25 years or maybe even longer over 25, 30 yearsand we would pay for that loan out of the income and revenue that we don't appear to be getting at the moment."

County Hall's previous Conservative administration had started legal action against the manufacturers of the vessel, but Cllr Jordan would not confirm whether that has reached a conclusion.

Going forward, he says the current vessel has a number of issues that need to be addressed, including the prow and rams.

He said:

"The issues that we see of the chain depth is problematic. The shape of the prow is problematicand I think because of the shape of the prow we have failing rams, because of the angle they have to push up and down.

"So I think essentially, operationally, as far as I'm aware that's where the issues are."

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Isle Of Wight Floating Bridge: "If We Have To Scrap It, We Will" Says Councillor - Isle of Wight Radio

Farmworker housing advocates are facing some hard lessons from a pilot project that fell drastically short of its goal. Starting in 2012, a collaborative between the Marin Community Foundation and Marin County used a combination of public and private funds to build and renovate agricultural worker housing on ranches in West Marin. The group initially planned to fund 200 units within five years, but later sharply reduced the goal to 20 units.

In the end, only a dozen units were built, while the need for more affordable housing never went away.

There were a number of lessons learned, including that using public funding on private land is really challenging, said Leelee Thomas, the planning manager with the Marin County Community Development Agency who led the project.

Agricultural jobs are sometimes more desirable than other jobs in West Marin because they usually come with housing. On dairy farms in particular, its essential that workers live onsite or very nearby.

They need to work two shifts, said Socorro Romo, executive director of West Marin Community Services. What they do is basically eat, sleep and work. A commute simply does not fit into the schedule.

But having ones housing tied to ones work also presents a challenge. When they lose their job, they lose their house, Ms. Romo said.

By 2012, a number of ranches in West Marin had shuttered, including Drakes Bay Oyster Farm, which displaced 32 workers. At the same time, the Marin Community Foundation had been preparing to spur a project to remedy the ongoing need for farmworker housing.

A collaborative led by M.C.F. and the county involved a host of organizations, including West Marin Community Services, the Community Land Trust Association of West Marin, the Marin County Farm Bureau, the West Marin Fund and the Marin Agricultural Land Trust.

Through the pilot project, the group tried to secure long-term, low-interest loans from the United States Department of Agriculture for ranchers to build housing. M.C.F. contributed $1 million, and property owners had to match the funding for each unit with either cash, land or utilities costs. Current workers would be prioritized, and no worker would pay more than 30 percent of their income for rent.

But in most cases, restrictions on the federal funds proved prohibitive. With that model, it wasnt feasible, Ms. Thomas said.

Johnathan Logan, the vice president of community engagement at M.C.F., said a 2015 post-mortem report on the project found that a lack of funds available for private land was the biggest obstacle. Public financing was simply too restrictive.

The project did result in the construction or renovation of some units. One unit was replaced on the historic J Ranch, two were rehabilitated at Toluma Farms in Tomales, three were built at the Giacomini dairy, two at Bivalve Dairy, one at Stubbs Vineyard, and two at the Straus dairy. Theyre nearly all still occupied, and all but two are rent-free for the workers who live there.

Tim Kehoe, whose family has been ranching at the J Ranch for 100 years, said the project allowed him to replace an aging trailer with a new manufactured home built by Little House on the Trailer, a Petaluma-based business. He secured funding from the county and M.C.F., and provided $10,000 to $15,000 in kind. Although he leases public land, he wasnt eligible for a U.S.D.A. loan since his five-year lease was much shorter than the 30-year term of the loan.

Mr. Kehoe doesnt charge rent for the unit, and he pays all the utilities himself.

At Toluma Farms, dairy farmers Tamara Hicks and David Jablons didnt qualify for a U.S.D.A. loan because of their income, which is boosted by Mr. Jablonss job as chief of thoracic surgery at U.C.S.F. They began rehabilitating two housing units on their farm but, Ms. Hicks said, it has been too expensive to finish. In the meantime, theyve housed some workers rent-free in units they own in Tomales and Dillon Beach.

John Taylor, who runs Bivalve Dairy with his wife, Karen, replaced two older manufactured homes with a duplex manufactured by Karsten in 2015. The county put up the funding for the permit cycle, and initially told Mr. Taylor that the units would be funded by a U.S.D.A. loan. The Taylors paid for the unit themselves, but the restrictions of the loan turned out to be too burdensome, requiring them to work with the lands other owners, Ms. Taylors family, to put a lien on the property.

We were left holding the bag, going, Okay, we just built this house, he said.

Mr. Taylor charges rent on the two units, docking it from workers wages.

Straus Family Creamery founder Albert Straus was part of the farmworker housing collaborative and had two three-bedroom manufactured houses built on his dairy in Marshall as a result. A turnover in the projects management interrupted the process of getting a U.S.D.A. loan, and although the county waived certain fees and expedited the process, he had to take out a loan from his own bank. Mr. Straus doesnt charge rent.

He said the project was not a long-term solution for the needs of workers and farmers. It went through three managers while he was involved, and faced various obstacles to funding in the form of federal, county and state requirements.

The management wasnt ideal, and the execution wasnt ideal either, Mr. Straus said.

This spring, Mr. Straus moved the creamery operation to Petaluma, closer to where he said many employees already live. His attention is still trained on affordable housing projects in West Marin, and he is working with the county on a potential development in Tomales. Its not only ag worker housing, its affordable housing, he said of the problem. The whole communitys housing needs have become extreme.

One dairy did meet the conditions for a low-interest U.S.D.A. loan: Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company. Co-owner Lynn Giacomini Stray was able to replace three modular homes for workers on the property. We were happy that we qualified, and we really would like to see more of that, she said.

The dairy doesnt charge rent or utilities, and Ms. Stray said shed like to see more affordable housing options close to or on ranches and farms in West Marin. Our employees have to be close to work, because animals are a 24-hour operation, she said.

Ms. Thomas said there were some things we could learn from that project that would still be feasible, but the county and M.C.F. are now primarily focused on off-ranch affordable housing in West Marin. Of the units that CLAM will develop on the former Coast Guard property in Point Reyes Station, a certain number may be set aside specifically for agricultural workers.

Mr. Logan, who arrived at M.C.F. in 2016, said the foundations report acknowledged that the 2012 project had not come close to meeting the need for farmworker housing.

Before the pandemic hit, the collaborative had reopened the conversation and was planning a needs assessment study. Mr. Logan said the group will likely meet again within the next month. They plan to survey the number of farmworkers and housing units in Marin and to identify more opportunities for housing on private land. Funding is still an obstacle, however, with regulations on public monies often onerous for private farmers.

Ms. Thomas said she doesnt know of a source of public housing funding meant for private landowners.

One group may be able to exert particular influence on farmworker housing through financial incentives: the Marin Agricultural Land Trust, which has control over the development rights for 54,000 acres of Marin farmland.

MALT needs to play a role in this, Mr. Logan said.

Jennifer Carlin, MALTs director of advancement, wrote in an email that the trust believes that everyone engaged in the agricultural value chain deserves a dignified living, including a safe and healthy place to live. MALTs easements allow any agricultural infrastructure thats necessary to support the farming operation, including housing for workers.

Ms. Carlin said MALT is continuing to meet with M.C.F. and other groups as part of the collaborative, but the trust doesnt have its own committee to address housing needs.

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Farmworker housing initiative fell short of ambitious goal - Point Reyes Light

At least 63 people throughout Oregon died from health issues related to the hot weather over the past few days, with 45 of those deaths in Multnomah County, authorities say.

Portland broke heat records on three consecutive days, hitting a high temperature of 116 on Monday. Other parts of the state got even hotter, with many recording all-time high temperatures.

Salem hit 117 on Monday, for example, and The Dalles reached 118. Pendleton was 118 degrees on Tuesday. Other Oregon cities, including Redmond and Bend, hit 108 over the weekend.

Capt. Tim Fox, an Oregon State Police spokesperson, said the death toll as of Wednesday was based on reports from each countys medical examiner office, but that number could go up as agencies conduct more investigations and determine causes of death.

The 63 fatalities were reported by six counties. Marion County, home to the state capital, reported nine deaths. Washington County reported five.

The state medical examiner said Clackamas County had two heat-related deaths. Clackamas County, however, has only reported one death. Spokeswoman Kimberly Dinwiddie said an elderly woman died from probable heat-related causes and was found in a manufactured home without air-conditioning.

The state examiner in an email said their offices count reflects what is currently documented in our system and classified as such. As these are active death investigations, the number likely will change over the next few days as more information is being gathered in each case.

Columbia and Umatilla counties reported one fatality apiece.

The death in Columbia County, which happened Tuesday, was of an 83-year-old woman living by herself in the unincorporated part of Scappoose, said county Sheriff Brian Pixley.

MULTNOMAH COUNTY

The Multnomah County Medical Examiner said those who died in Oregons most populous county ranged in age from 44 to 97. Many of them had underlying health conditions.

The Multnomah County victims include 17 women and 27 men. Many of those who died were found alone with no air conditioning or fans, officials said.

The county medical examiner said the preliminary cause of death for the countys victims was hyperthermia, or an abnormally high body temperature caused by a failure of the body to deal with heat coming from the environment.

Julie Sullivan-Springhetti, a county spokesperson, said the number of urgent care and emergency department visits in the county over the weekend surpassed the usual number for an entire summer.

Sullivan-Springhetti said the county on Monday had an all-time high of 491 calls for emergency medical assistance a 63% increase from the normal rate.

She said the county health department is still analyzing data, but early estimates show hospitals were reporting between two and five times more cardiac arrests than usual.

Death information was shared as soon as the information was gathered, Sullivan-Springhetti said.

We were sounding the alarm every day and warning the community that this heat wave was deadly, she said.

County staff and officials worked as quickly as possible to tally numbers, Sullivan-Springhetti said. Very few calls came in to the Multnomah County Medical Examiners office until late Monday night when county investigators took 55 calls in 24 hours.

This is four times the level of calls ever experienced, Sullivan-Springhetti said.

More than half the calls required an in-person investigation.

There were three Multnomah County death investigators and there were so many calls, Sullivan-Springhetti said. The chief medical examiner herself was going out on calls until midnight (on Tuesday) and again (Wednesday) morning.

As the clock struck 10 a.m. Wednesday, Multnomah County Chief Medical Examiner Kimberly Dileo started the arduous process of reading through 100 reports of natural and other deaths to determine which deaths were from excessive heat, Sullivan-Springhetti said. Dileo finished the full investigation by 1:30 p.m.

While most individuals died in their homes, it is not yet known how many individuals were experiencing homelessness at their time of death, Sullivan-Springhetti said. Determining that statistic will take additional investigation.

ACROSS OREGON AND ELSEWHERE

A farmworker, who has not been identified, died in St. Paul on Saturday, when temperatures reached 104 degrees. He was found unresponsive in the field at the end of his shift at Ernst Nursery and Farms, according to the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health division. He had been working on a crew moving irrigation lines, the agency said.

Two people, who also have not been identified, died at a homeless camp in Bend over the weekend, and homeless outreach workers are attributing the deaths to heat-related causes, as reported by The Bulletin. Temperatures reached 104 degrees in Bend on Sunday, the day the deaths were reported.

The figures provided by the state listed no deaths in Deschutes County. It wasnt immediately clear whether the farmworker was included in the Marion County tally.

Meanwhile in Washington, the King County medical examiners office, which covers an area including Seattle, said a total of 13 people had died from heat-related causes. In neighboring Snohomish County, three men ages 51, 75 and 77 died after experiencing heatstroke in their homes, the medical examiners office told the Daily Herald in Everett on Tuesday. Four deaths have also been linked to heat in Kitsap County, west of Seattle.

Elsewhere in Washington, the Spokane Fire Department found two people who had been suffering symptoms of heat-related stress dead in an apartment building Wednesday, TV station KREM reported.

British Columbias chief coroner, Lisa Lapointe, said her office received reports of at least 486 sudden and unexpected deaths between Friday and Wednesday. Normally, she said about 165 people would die in the Canadian province over a five-day period.

While it is too early to say with certainty how many of these deaths are heat related, it is believed likely that the significant increase in deaths reported is attributable to the extreme weather, LaPointe said in a statement.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND EXTREME HEAT

Extreme heat has been on the rise in Oregon over the last 80 years. In Portland and Pendleton, the number of days that reach 90 or higher per year has increased by eight since 1940, according to a statewide climate assessment released earlier this year. Medford has seen that number increase by 21 days, an extra three weeks per year.

No single type of weather event kills more Americans than extreme heat. It kills more than hurricanes and floods combined. Heat has twice the death toll of tornadoes and four times the death toll of extreme cold, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Climate scientists have long said that events like the one that hit the Pacific Northwest this weekend are likely to be more intense, last for longer and happen more frequently as the climate continues to warm because of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.

Noelle Crombie, Jayati Ramakrishnan, Nicole Hayden, Maxine Bernstein, Savannah Eadens, Kale Williams and Rob Davis of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report. The Associated Press also contributed.

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At least 63 people have died in Oregon heatwave - PennLive

Elon Musk is the second richest person in the world, with an estimated fortune of 151 thousand million dollars Forbes.

But unlike other emperors, Musk does not live in a large palace located in a very exclusive neighborhood. In fact, the founder of electric car company Tesla and space company SpaceX appears to reside, it has been revealed, in a tiny 20-by-20-foot (about 35-square-meter) home in a secluded location in the far south. Just a few steps from the border with Mexico.

Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpacerX and the second richest person in the world, according to Forbes magazine. (Reuters)

Newspaper Houston Chronicle He states that Musk lives in a manufactured home that costs only $50,000 and pays rent of $250 a month to his company, SpaceX.

This tiny house is located in Boca Chica, Texas, where the SpaceX rocket launch and test base is located.

Musk, who has listed at least seven mansions he owns in California, are valued at $100 million according to him. interested in tradeHe kept only one mansion in the San Francisco area, which he uses exclusively for juveniles.

Musk himself confirmed in a tweet on Twitter, My main residence is literally a house under $50,000 in Boca Chica/Starbus, which I rent from SpaceX. Its awesome. The only home I own is one for juveniles. In the Bay Area [de San Francisco].

the gate Teslarati He revealed that this house is the ready-made model approved by the companys Casita name boxableSpecializing in Design and installation of high-tech prefab homes. Made of steel plates and concrete, this tiny house is easy to transport and assemble and costs less than many Tesla models.

It looks comfortable for one person, or even a couple, and would obviously work well with Musk as a studio located next to his companys rocket launch and test center. In addition, it serves to accentuate the image of detachment towards matter and commitment to its ideal of colonizing Mars, which is the ultimate goal of SpaceX.

Keep reading the story

The Casita by Boxabl style includes a full kitchen with double sink, oven, microwave, refrigerator, dishwasher, and cabinets; Full bathroom spaces for living room, bedroom, washing machine, air conditioning, heating and LED lighting, among other details.

Boxabl certainly did not miss the opportunity to do marketing and play on the idea of simultaneously helping solve the problems of affordable housing on Earth and providing SpaceX with homes to colonize Mars.

However, singer Grimes, Musks girlfriend and mother of their son, is said to apparently not live in this house but in Austin, Texas, so, for now, the unit that Boxabl has installed for SpaceX and Musk will serve as the poles workspace remain. Boca Chica, even if his family resides elsewhere.

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Elon Musk lives in a prefab "house" next to the SpaceX base for which he pays $250 a month. - Amico Hoops

From a rough start as a child struggling with asthma and pneumonia to a career that included a blind-side layoff after securing a multi-billion-dollar contract for his employer, Canyon Lake resident Mike Duffy has emerged as a major player in the local commercial real estate market. Mike was honored at an industry luncheon last week as the City of Menifees Commercial Broker of the Year for 2021.

Mikes commercial real estate success at Coldwell Banker Associated Brokers is the culmination of 13 other careers. The 57-year-old successful businessperson fashioned a dynamic, growing business from those steps to success.

Mike Duffy speaks after accepting the City of Menifees Commercial Broker of the Year for 2021. Mike lives in Canyon Lake and works for Coldwell Banker Associated Brokers.

The recent award from Menifee is particularly noteworthy because Menifee is the fourth fastest-growing city in Riverside County and sixth fastest-growing city in all of Southern California. Menifee is growing at twice the rate as its neighboring Southwest Riverside County cities.

The events that led up to Mikes noteworthy contribution to the burgeoning citys vibrant economic development demonstrate that adversity and challenges are great steppingstones to a successful future for some people. Mikes life started with challenges.

As a child, I had asthma and pneumonia and wasnt doing well, he said. Our family doctor suggested swimming to build my body up. That changed my life from declining to thriving. In my first year as a 7-year-old swimmer, I qualified for Junior Olympics in Orange County and won a silver medal. That was my first life lesson if you put hard work in, have good coaches, and you listen to them and follow their guidance, you can achieve what you and others can be proud of.

Mike became Orange Countys second-best butterfly swimmer in his age class.

Swimming success wasnt his last life lesson at a young age. Mike wanted to go to a YMCA camp, but his parents told him they couldnt afford to send him. Faced with this obstacle, the 9-year-old entrepreneur talked his teacher into giving him two cases of toffee-covered peanuts and sold them door-to-door. He earned enough from those sales for YMCA camp two years in a row.

Selling door-to-door was a great lesson in determination and persistence, Mike said. With each door he knocked on, he dreamed of going to camp, and that exuberance spilled over into an enthusiastic, happy face that melted the resistance of those he encountered with his peanuts. It was a worthy cause, and he gained confidence with each transaction.

Mikes education continued into his teenage years. His business stints in lawn mowing and jobs at pizza parlors gave him invaluable experience. He learned to work with customers and develop a pleasing personality. He found that his integrity brought customers back.

From junior high through college, Mike played on football teams, generally as a defensive back. During high school, he lettered in not only football, but in three other sports his senior year. As a competitor, he thrived on learning and achieving.

Football also brought challenges hed endure the rest of his life. His first concussion happened during the homecoming game in his senior year of high school. It wasnt his last. Long before rules and protocols kept players out of the game when knocked out, he suffered 10 more concussions in college as a defensive back and punt returner.

As a result of all of the head injuries, Mike now wears a hearing aid to drown out the sound of tinnitus, a debilitating ringing in the ear condition. Despite otherwise normal hearing, to compensate for the ringing in his ears and the resultant drowning out of conversations, Mike developed the ability to read lips.

Mikes parents owned a mechanical parts business in Orange County during his high school and young adult years. He worked there while in high school and for six years after getting a bachelors degree in Business Administration from Cal Lutheran University.

Observing his self-employed parents was an up-close experience in the rewards and sacrifices of working for oneself. He learned that the ups and downs of the industry required a steady attitude as finances waxed and waned. During slow times, it was essential to work hard and look beyond the present to a more prosperous future. During good years he saw how vital it was to prepare for the inevitable lean times.

After working in the family business, Mike said he discovered his work ethic and integrity determined his income. A steady paycheck was undoubtedly valuable, but he said he dreamed of not having a limit to his income and of driving hard toward the future despite not knowing how much money he would make each year.

His dream in college was to eventually work in the stock market or the bond market. Mike ultimately pursued neither career path as he continued to work in the family business.

Yet another step toward his recent honor as Menifees Commercial Broker of the Year came during a brief stint in the mortgage business as a home loan officer. In 1992, mortgage interest rates continued their decline from the previous decades almost 20% rates and dropped below 10%.

Mike was surprised to see other loan officers with tears in their eyes after believing theyd never see mortgage rates under double digits again. The mortgage business gave Mike an understanding of the needs and perspectives of actuaries and underwriters.

In 1994, returning to his entrepreneurial instincts, Mike and a friend started a business helping owners of manufactured homes secure and use FEMA grants for necessary seismic upgrades after the devastating Northridge earthquake. While the company only lasted for a couple of years, Mikes lessons about financing and helping others were another stepping stone for his future.

In 1995, Mike went to work for insurance industry giant Aetna, becoming one of the top sales managers in the country before taking a break after five years to help once again in the family business.

In 2006, Mike got a brokers license while briefly self-employed and became the broker of record for three independent loan officers. This was his second stint into real estate finance, adding to his cumulative education.

He returned to Aetna in 2007, worked up to National Sales Manager for the Individual Health Insurance Line while dabbling in real estate on the side. In 2016, he had just secured a multi-billion-dollar contract for Aetna when the corporation decided to shut down that part of their business, and Mike and his entire division were out of work. The decision had blindsided them. It was a moment of reckoning and reflection for Mike, and he said it had him recounting the life lessons he had learned and looking for how they could help his future.

Mike transitioned from a corporate job to being self-employed in residential real estate. He and his wife, Kim, had just moved to Canyon Lake. Mike called his uncle, a wholesale lender, to get the name of the largest real estate company in their new community. His uncle mentioned Coldwell Banker Associated Brokers. Mike called and, in 2017, signed on with the firm.

Mike credits Chuck Whitehead and Margaret McCoy of Coldwell Banker Associated Brokers for his success.

I loved their teaching and I faithfully went to their mentor class, Mike said. I attended every training event and conference call. Their generosity and patient mentoring grounded us and gave us excellent role models to follow.

It wasnt easy, he said. Mike contacted everyone he knew and worked on social media. He quickly gained 20 prospects.

Man, I thought this was going to be easy, Mike said. I wrote 33 different offers. They were all turndowns except for the last one. After six months with no income, that 34th offer resulted in a $1200 commission.

His wife Kim got her license that same month, and over the next six months, the couple closed over $3 million in sales. In 2018, after their first full year in the business, Mike and Kim were honored as Rookies of the Year from the large Realty firm. Later that year, they were named to the Best of the Best Realtors by the readers of Inland Empire Magazine.

Mike said he ventured into commercial real estate through his work on the residential side. One of the buyers showed him a Canyon Lake property of a large ranch that he wanted to sell. That listing for the $6 million property was the beginning of his commercial work and led him to co-found the Unique Properties Division of Coldwell Banker Associated Brokers Realty.

His first commercial transaction was selling an industrial property to the City of Lake Elsinore. Mike soon worked on churches, shopping centers, and other commercial leases and sales from that launchpad.

The commercial real estate information, analytics, and marketing services industry giant CoStar Group honored Mike as the PowerBroker Quarterly Award Winner for Q4 2020.

In February 2021, after almost two years of work, Mike was part of the listing team that sold the iconic Cherry Hills Shopping Center in the heart of the citys northern shopping district for over $13 million. Later, Menifee asked CoStar to identify the top Menifee commercial agent, which turned out to be Mike, leading to him being honored as the City of Menifees Commercial Broker of the Year for 2021.

Mike expressed great satisfaction in fulfilling his dream, which came about through his unique series of career choices.

I have the embedded belief that God loves me and that God loves a comeback story, Mike said. Come what may, I could fail, but I know one thing for certain, no matter what, God, my parents, my wife, my children, and my grandchildren will always love me. Thats the bedrock foundation that my life and career are built on.

His advice to people who are searching for their way in life is straightforward.

Find someone who believes you can do it, then find a way to get in front of them and let them mentor you, he said. Without the support and leadership of Chuck Whitehead and Margaret McCoy at Coldwell Banker Associated Brokers Realty, none of this would have been possible.

Whats next for this grandfather of seven?

Im so happy that I can now be a mentor for another agent, Mike said. Were working hard to develop a formidable, powerhouse commercial division that handles all kinds of commercial business. My goal in 10 years is to help build the most influential commercial real estate group in Southwest Riverside County, making an even greater contribution to the success of Coldwell Banker Associated Brokers Realty.

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CL broker points to his history in winning award - The Friday Flyer

The knocking grew louder before she heard a "smash," as if a wall had collapsed in the unit above hers. She thought it was construction, she said. It didn't make sense, not at 1:10 in the morning.

Thinking the commotion was an earthquake, Nir told her children, "Run as fast as you can," and they took off, leaving the property and crossing Collins Avenue, the one-way thoroughfare hosting hotel and condo towers on the eastern edge of the barrier island that is home to Surfside.

"God was waiting for us to leave the building -- and then another big boom," Nir told CNN. "Then we didn't see anything. It was suddenly white after the big boom and with white clouds all over."

Did the pool area present signs of danger?

She was frantic and told him the building was shaking, Michael Stratton told the Herald. She reported that a sinkhole had opened up where the pool used to be, he said. Then, the line went dead.

Stratton's wife is among the 145 people still unaccounted for as rescuers comb through the rubble that once composed dozens of apartments. The death toll from Thursday's disaster stands at 18.

The contractor has not been named, but Herald reporter Sarah Blaskey spoke to him.

His initial thought was, "Wow, why haven't they maintained this building better?" and took a photo to send to his boss, Blaskey recounted. He was on-site for what he thought was "cosmetic stuff" to spruce up the pool area, but once he went below he felt, "This is going to be a bigger job," the reporter told CNN.

Forensic engineer Stephanie Walkup, a professor at Villanova University, said the deterioration seen in the photo "does look significant," but she emphasized the contractor's photo came from the pool maintenance area, which is not where the building appears to have begun caving in -- an observation echoed by the Herald reporter.

"But it is clear that water has been infiltrating the concrete deck in that area for some time to the point of extensive corrosion," Walkup said.

She would not have sounded any alarms based on the contractor's photo alone, she told CNN, but "if that distress was observed throughout the entire structure, that's the point where it becomes extensive. That's the point where it becomes concerning."

A 2018 photo,shared with CNN by Tom Henz, shows the earlier stages of the crack engineers and experts consulted by CNN say appears to be the same crack visible in 2021, although the more recent photo appears to show it has worsened. The cause of the apparent deterioration is not clear.

After inspecting the building in 2018, engineer Frank Morabito wrote in a report that "failed waterproofing" below the pool deck was "causing major structural damage to the concrete structural slab below these areas," and warned that failure to replace it in the near future would cause "concrete deterioration to expand exponentially."

A 2021 letter to the building residents from the condominium association's president confirmed that the exponential deterioration had indeed taken place in the interim years.

"The concrete deterioration is accelerating," wrote Jean Wodnicki, the association president. "The observable damage such as in the garage has gotten significantly worse since the initial (2018) inspection."

The experts CNN spoke to said that the progression seen in the crack between the two images could be an indication of the deterioration caused by the waterproofing problem described by Morabito. Or, some said, the concrete around the crack could have simply fallen off during the three-year gap to reveal the deeper fissure seen in the 2021 photograph.

A representative of the Champlain Towers South condo association declined to comment.

Report noted deteriorating concrete, rebar

Mehrdad Sasani, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northeastern University, and Joel Figueroa-Vallines, president of SEP Engineers, have said the available information about the building, along with video of the collapse, suggest something may have failed near the foundation of the building. They've also said that, rather than a single smoking gun, a combination of factors likely compromised the building's integrity.

Those factors could include vibrations from nearby construction work, heavy equipment placed on the concrete roof for repairs, water damage and exposure to corrosive salt in the seawater and air.

On Wednesday, Sasani shared another hypothesis. The building's floor system was made of 8-inch-thick concrete plates atop columns, he said.

"Given the sudden nature of collapse, one potential mode of failure is so-called 'punching' failure," in which the column punches through the slab and "potentially progress(es) from there," the professor said.

Investigators should be looking for any instability in the foundation, possibly including weak points within the 200 or so precast piles that help support the building, or perhaps corrosion in the steel rebar used to reinforce the concrete.

Morabito Consultants in 2018 conducted a survey of the building for its 40-year certification, a stringent process for updates and improvements enacted after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The firm found spalling, or deterioration, of the concrete, though engineers have differed on what that ultimately means.

"Abundant cracking and spalling of various degrees was observed in the concrete columns, beams and walls," the survey found. "Several sizeable spalls were noted in both the topside of the entrance drive ramp and underside of the pool/entrance drive/planter slabs, which included instances with exposed, deteriorating rebar. Though some of this damage is minor, most of the concrete deterioration needs to be repaired in a timely fashion."

The waterproofing below the pool deck and entrance drive was failing and causing "major structural damage," said the report, which did not indicate the structure was at risk of collapse.

The rest is here:
Condo residents saw pool deck and garage collapse before tower crumbled to the ground - CNN

Margrethe Fighter (DMAIB)

PublishedJun 30, 2021 6:37 PM by The Maritime Executive

The Danish Maritime Accident Investigation Board (DMAIB) has completed its inquiry into the capsizing of the bucket dredger Margrethe Fighter, concluding that the vessel was vulnerable to flooding and loss of stability because she was sailing heavily laden with full ballast tanks. The crew was in the habit of loading and trimming the ship in such a manner that parts of the foredeck were under water at times, and the investigators found that they had become accustomed to this practice as a matter of routine, to the point that they were aware of a need to maneuver gently and carefully.

In August 2020, Margrethe Fighter started work on a long-term dredging project in the Port of Trelleborg, Sweden. On February 17, 2021 - the day of the casualty - she started work at about 0630. Her three-man crew's division of responsibilities had the excavator operator take command of loading the vessel, and the deckhand would unload at the dump site. The captain was responsible for navigating between work sites and maneuvering the vessel during operations.

By 1330, the ship had made two trips to the dump site, and the excavator master was filling the hold with wet mud for the third time of the day. The depth on the site was about 29 feet, nearly the maximum reach of the excavator but just shy of the target depth for the job. To keep working, the Margrethe Fighter's forward ballast tanks were filled in order to lower the bow and extend the depth that the excavator arm could access.

As the cargo hold filled up to the halfway point, the excavator operator let the captain know that it was time to drain the ballast tanks. He kept loading, and when the hold was laden so heavily that water could be seen on the foredeck, the excavator operator determined that the vessel was ready to transit and unload at the dump site. Based on a reconstruction, the DMAIB estimated that at this point the vessel was trimmed by the head by about 2.5 feet.

He placed the excavator bucket to port of the centerline because the ship had a slight starboard list, after which he went back to the deckhouse. The skipper raised the vessel's spuds and began the 15-minute voyage towards the dump site. At some point prior, he had gone to the engine room to open the discharge valves for the forward ballast tanks and started the fire pump (not the larger ballast pump) to deballast.

During the relocation voyage, the deckhand went out on deck to get ready to unload. He noticed that the ship was deeper in the water than usual, and he used an under-deck passage to get to the bow, as there was water on deck.

The excavator operator stayed in the deckhouse. Suddenly he noticed that the ship began to list to starboard in an unusual way, so he went up to the wheelhouse, where he saw that the skipper was in the process of turning to port. They had a brief conversation about what was wrong, since the ship did not usually move in this way.

From the wheelhouse, the excavator operator could see that water was coming onto the foredeck and that the bow was sinking farther and farther down. Recognizing the danger, the skipper tried to save the situation by turning the ship to starboard.

Out on deck, the deckhand noticed that the ship was listing heavily towards the starboard side. He heard the excavator operator shout to him to move the shovel of the excavator over to port side to counterbalance the list. The helmsman feared that the ship was about to capsize, so instead of entering the excavator cab, he crawled up on top of the machine in order to get away from the ship quickly when she went over.

The excavator operator also realized what was about to happen, and he hurried out of the door on the starboard side of the wheelhouse. He shouted to the master to get out too, but at that moment, the vessel capsized. She rolled through 180 degrees and stayed afloat, hull pointing up.

The deckhand and excavator operator managed to get away from the vessel after the capsizing and were rescued. The Margrethe Fighter was salvaged seven days later, and the master's body was recovered from the wheelhouse.

During the course of the accident investigation, the surviving crewmembers told DMAIB that they did not recall seeing any draft measurements or stability calculations performed on board. A logbook from a previous voyage did not contain exact information about the vessel's stability condition.

On previous voyages, the crew had debated the wisdom of navigating with the foredeck partially under water, but this operating method had been used before on other projects and there was no shoreside oversight to prohibitthe practice. According to DMAIB, there was no daily coordination between the project management team and the company's marine technical staff, and operational decisions were left up to the crew.

"The ship capsized in a normal operating situation for the crew, where parts of the deck were under water because the cargo box was full and at the same time there was water in the front ballast tanks to trim the ship forward during the dredging work. This resulted in the ship havingsignificantly impaired stability," concluded DMAIB. "It was the application of the ballast tanks as part of the ship's dredging practice that became crucial to the accident. . . . The investigation has shown that the crew did not find time to empty the ballast tanks before the relocation voyage."

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Report: Capsized Dredger Routinely Operated With Decks Awash - The Maritime Executive

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Sandy Yawns Captaining Style vs. Capt. Glenn Shephard

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Captain Sandy Yawn from Below Deck Mediterranean tells Andy Cohen how she would have handled the sticky situations that Captain Glenn Shephard faced on Below Deck Sailing Yacht.

In her five seasons on Below Deck Mediterranean, captain Sandy Yawn has witnessed meals and chefs of every kind. From an ill-fated taco night to some questionable nachos, and from an onion debacle to a meltdown over cucumbers, the yacht boss has seen it all. So, which chef would Sandy choose to work with again, and in a more intimate capacity?

When the captain appeared on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen on June 28, Andy asked her which galley guru from the past she'd hire as her own private chef. Even though Sandy admitted that she'd least trust Season 2 and 3'sAdam Glick to adhere to a guest's preference sheet, she also said that she wouldselect Adam as her own private chef.

"I actually really like Adam, because he's an awesome guy," she said. "So I think [my] personal chef would be Adam."

See more from Sandy in the videos above!

Want more Below Deck Mediterranean? Season 6 airs Mondays at 9/8c on Bravo with early access to new episodes on Peacock.

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Captain Sandy Reveals Who from Below Deck Med She Would Hire as Her Personal Chef - Bravo