Emergency Dredging of San Jacinto River on the Table
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District, is requesting input from industry and others parties for an upcoming emergency dredging of the San Jacinto River.According to the Corps, the Government has a requirement to dredge and remove shoal material within the West Fork of the San Jacinto River from Interstate 69 to the confluence of Lake Houston.“Dredging limits, production rates, completion time and liquidated damages will be determined by the H&H modeling,” USACE said. “Excessive debris from Hurricane Harvey is exacerbating and impeding the free flow of water down this portion of the West Fork of the San Jacinto River.”The Galveston District will be holding an Industry Day on the proposed work on 26 April 2018 at 10:00 a.m. Central Standard Time (CST) and the meeting will be broadcast via Web.
Of the four teams put together at Bradenton, Savacool was assigned to Team Jeter, named for Yankees legend Derek Jeter, and got to pitch three times as Team Jeter had eight games over a span of two weeks.In his first appearance on June 21 against Team Jones, Savacool pitched three shutout innings, only allowing one hit and one walk while striking out five, all of which helped Team Jeter prevail 7-5.A week later, on June 28, Savacool was credited with the win as Team Jeter topped Team Howard 10-2. This time, Savacool’s stint was two innings, where he was a bit wild, allowing three walks, but struck out four, limiting Team Howard to one hit and one run. Tags: BaldwinsvilleBaseballjason savacool One more stint followed in last Wednesday’s game against Team Larkin. Savacool only threw one scoreless inning, with two strikeouts and a walk, part of yet another Team Jeter victory, this one by an 8-3 margin.Having helped Team Jeter to three wins in his three outings, Savacool was chosen by MLB and USA Baseball as one of the 40 players to go to Cleveland’s Progressive Field for Saturday’s High School All-Star Game, named to the National League side in a random draw.Just one other player from New York State was chosen – Alex Santos, from the Bronx and Mount St. Michael Academy. Ironically, Santos is committed to attend the University of Maryland, just like Savacool is in the fall of 2020.In his appearance in Cleveland, Savacool tossed a scoreless sixth inning for the National League team, overcoming a walk with a flyout and starting a 1-6-3 double play.Though the American League team won 4-2, Savacool had made his impression, and will continue to work this summer in numerous prospect camps that include, from Aug. 13-17, the USA Baseball 18-Under National Team tryouts in Los Angeles, with a chance to compete in early September in the World Baseball-Softball Confederation World Cup in South Korea.Share this:FacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditComment on this Story 
Jason Savacool got his ultimate wish of competing this weekend on the same field as the Major League Baseball All-Stars in Cleveland, in no small part due to the work he did against many of the country’s top diamond prospects in the last couple of weeks.After his junior season for B’ville’s baseball team, Savacool was one of 80 high school standouts invited to participate in the Prospect Development Pipeline League at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.Co-run by MLB and USA Baseball, the PDPL was a showcase top high school baseball players across the country, with everything from games to clinics conducted by a host of former Major League greats.
After a pair of wins over the weekend, the University of Wisconsin volleyball team (6-4, 2-0 Big Ten) faces perhaps their toughest stretch of the season with matchups against No. 5 Penn State and No. 2 Nebraska.Both the Penn State Nittany Lions (9-2, 2-0 Big Ten) and the Nebraska Cornhuskers (10-1, 2-0 Big Ten) pose major threats to the Badgers’ impressive start to Big Ten play. Their combined three losses have all come from ranked opponents.The Badgers will not face another test this grueling until late November when they face the two teams consecutively once again.Women’s Volleyball: Kelly Sheffield shines light on team depth for upcoming seasonThe University of Wisconsin women’s volleyball team recently began their regular season schedule. Hopefully, this season will be one of Read…A successful week will require a few key factors — sustained defensive effort, service aces and the Molly Haggerty who showed up against Indiana on Sunday afternoon.After allowing a .457 hitting percentage against Washington, the Badgers buckled down on defense this weekend holding Purdue and Indiana to a combined .133 hitting percentage.Head Coach Kelly Sheffield pointed to the improved defense in his press conference Monday.“I think we were reading the game a little bit better. I thought our effort in the backcourt was really much better than what it has been,” Sheffield said. “We weren’t getting a ton of stuff blocked at times, but I thought our touches were positives.”Penn State and Nebraska both pose major threats to this goal with their potent offenses hitting .285 and .243, respectively, despite schedules loaded with ranked opponents.Women’s Volleyball: Wisconsin looks to take a step forward after Elite Eight exit last seasonThe University of Wisconsin women’s volleyball team just got their season underway following the Big Ten/ACC Challenge against Florida State Read…The Badgers have overcome poor defensive performances this year with their dominance at the service line. To beat teams of this caliber, they will need to balance both.Wisconsin is third in the Big Ten in aces per set with 1.69 thanks in large part to freshman Izzy Ashburn. But middle blocker Dana Rettke and libero Tiffany Clark have combined for 23 sets on their own.Penn State has only allowed four or more aces in two matches this season — those two matches were their only losses on the season.The Cornhuskers have allowed the second-fewest aces per set in the Big Ten trailing only the Nittany Lions.Volleyball: All-American Rettke remains hungry following summer with Team USAJunior Dana Rettke has been one of the most intimidating forces in college volleyball for over two years now. A Read…Lastly, the Badgers need outside hitter Molly Haggerty to complement Rettke with special performances.Haggerty has struggled to return to her freshman season from where she received the Big Ten Freshman of the Year honor. After a back injury forced her to redshirt in 2017, she struggled to regain footing in 2018, but the Molly of old has been seen in flashes recently.The matchup with Penn State is at the UW Fieldhouse starting at 8 p.m. and the Nebraska contest is at 7 p.m. in Lincoln, Nebraska. Both matches can be seen on Big Ten Network or listened to on 100.9 FM.
DES MOINES — After ten days, the revived 2020 Iowa Legislative Session has ended and the partisan debates waged in the closing hours are likely to continue through the fall campaign. Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver of Ankeny said “unprecedented” is the best word to describe the session.“The state of Iowa has never seen a legislative session that takes a two month pause and comes back and still has a productive session,” Whitver told Radio Iowa.The Republican-led legislature’s big policy pieces, Whitver said, were dictated by the times.“The pandemic that hit Iowa caused a lot of concern for a lot of people. It caused concern for our state budget and so finalizing a solid budget that keeps us in a strong fiscal position will be one of the great accomplishments,” Whitver said, “and then the liability protections for all the churches and schools and cities and businesses that want to open up I think is really important.”This weekend, Republicans in the legislature voted to cut the state budget for conducting elections by a quarter of a million dollars and to force the state’s top election official to get permission from legislative leaders if he intends to send absentee ballot request forms to voters. GOP lawmakers have also voted to create new voter verification steps for casting an absentee ballot. Senator Roby Smith, a Republican from Davenport, said if a ballot request form has the wrong voter I-D number on it, a county auditor cannot use voter registration data to correct it and send a ballot out, but must contact the voter by phone, email or letter to verify the person is a qualified voter.“This is about security,” Smith said early Sunday morning. “This is about making sure the people that voter are the right ones.”House Democratic Leader Todd Prichard and all the Democrats in the legislature opposed these election-related moves.“I can’t believe that I’ve had to do more in this House in defense of voter rights,” Prichard said midday Sunday. “…What’s more fundamental to democracy than elections?”On Saturday, Senate Democratic Leader Janet Petersen of Des Moines railed against another bill GOP lawmakers sent the governor to establish a 24-hour waiting period for abortions.“In the middle of a global pandemic when we have Iowans in the hospital fighting for their lives, Iowans scared to go to work because they’re not sure if their employers would tell them the truth if they’ve had a COVID outbreak — and this is what we see,” Petersen said. “This is wrong.”Republicans hope the bill sparks a reversal of a 2018 Iowa Supreme Court opinion on abortion. Read more here.Republican Representative Gary Mohr of Bettendorf — chairman of the House Appropriations Committee — said many new ideas “had to be put on the shelf” because of the pandemic, but while other states are dealing with massive deficits, Iowa lawmakers shaved about $360 million from next year’s state budget plan without using any of the state’s emergency and cash reserves.“We expect to take in enough revenue to maintain the status quo,” Mohr said, “and maintain our commitments to our schools and our health care system.”Democrats like Representative Chris Hall of Sioux City say Republican legislators are giving Republican Governor Kim Reynolds too much leeway to spend federal money and adjust the state budget plan in the midst of the pandemic.“We hope to goodness that nothing bad happens, that we don’t see another second wave of outbreak,” Hall said, “but this was our opportunity to prepare for it and this legislature’s punting.”A move to automatically restore voting rights to released felons stalled in the final hours of the 2020 legislative session. In 2019, Governor Kim Reynolds began lobbying legislators to advance a proposed constitutional amendment on the topic. The Iowa House took bipartisan action last year, but there were never enough Senate Republican votes for it. Republican Senator Brad Zaun of Urbandale said there has always been concern about the message it would send to victims.“It’s a very emotional issue and secondly all indications are the governor is going to sign an executive order,” Zaun told Radio Iowa.On Friday, Governor Reynolds and a group of Black Lives Matter protesters discussed using her executive authority to automatically give released felons the right to vote now, rather than waiting until the constitution might be amended in 2022. Representative Ras Smith, a Democrat from Waterloo, said a permanent solution of a constitutional amendment is always the best.“If it’s a bargaining chip every year that we can count on them pulling back from the table when it comes time to ante up, that’s disappointing,” Smith said.The Senate completed action on bills at six o’clock Sunday morning. House suspended debate at about 10 p.m. Saturday, then resumed debate mid-day Sunday. The House and Senate adjourned shorty after 1:30 p.m.
‘Dictator’ Louis van Gaal has turned the public against Manchester United and will not see out the year at Old Trafford.That is the damning view of Paul Miller, with the former star telling talkSPORT that the Dutchman is not the man to restore United’s fortunes.Speaking on the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast, the Tottenham great said: “To people who know his history and past, he has not surprised any of us. We know he is very arrogant, very flash and I think his body language with Ryan Giggs is terrible.“Everyone dislikes Manchester United at the moment and it is because of him. He is not helping their cause and I don’t think he is going to be there by the end of the year.“I think Man United are struggling to finish in the top four. Liverpool are coming strong, Arsenal are there, and we [Tottenham] are having a little go.“We all know he is a dictator. He has a glass partition at the training ground where the kids can’t mix with the first team. He has not helped their cause.”