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Five Things Learned
5 Things Learned: Colts vs. Jaguars, Week 10
The Colts topped the Jacksonville Jaguars, 23-17, on Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium to improve to 5-5 in 2021. Get inside the Colts' victory with this week's installment of 5 Things Learned.
JJ Stankevitz
Colts.com Writer
1. The Colts proved something important in Week 10.
With Sunday's 23-17 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Colts (5-5) are now back to .500. This win, then, represents an important marker on the Colts' climb – they were both 0-3 and 1-4 at points this season – not just in the result, but how the result happened.
"To be 5-5 is huge when you were sitting at 1-4 at one point," center Ryan Kelly said. "Those have been some growing pains that this team had to go through. I think that we continue to see when the offense is doing real well, carry the defense and vice versa. The defense kind of carried us a little bit today. I think we're starting to play complementary football. We've just got to put it all together for four quarters."
Ideally, the Colts could have a game where all three phases are firing for all four quarters. But the reality of the NFL is games like that are rare. And in 2021, we've witnessed plenty of upsets when teams don't play well in all three phases – Week 10 saw some relatively surprising results in games between teams with disparate records (like the Ravens losing to the Dolphins or Buccaneers losing to Washington).
Against that backdrop, the Colts' win over the Jaguars – in which Rigoberto Sanchez had more punts (seven) than the offense had third down conversions (four) – should be viewed as impressive. Because at this point in the season, there's no such thing as an unimpressive win. They're just wins.
"It's big, especially a divisional opponent," quarterback Carson Wentz said. "Obviously at this point of the season to get back to .500, it's huge for us. It seems like we have been climbing out of this hole for a while now. It wasn't our best game out there, but to come out of it with a win is huge for us."
2. Kwity Paye and Dayo Odeyingbo – the Colts' first two picks in the 2021 NFL Draft – came up big.
Kwity Paye's seven pressures (per Pro Football Focus) were the second-highest total on the Colts' defense behind DeForest Buckner's eight. He notched his first career sack – "it felt good to get home," he said – and delivered three quarterback hits among those pressures.
And Dayo Odeyingbo's forced fumble with just over a minute left was the kind of clutch takeaway the Colts' defense has come up with over and over again this season.
"I've seen how hard (Odeyingbo) worked when he was trying to get back," Paye said. "Even though he was injured, he was on the sideline eager to come back and play with us. It feels great for him to come back on the field and make a huge play like that."
It's certainly notable that the Colts' first two picks in the 2021 NFL Draft both recorded their first sacks of the season in the same game, with Odeyingbo's sealing a victory and Paye's pass rushing work helping put his team in a position to win all afternoon.
"(They're) just getting better and playing with confidence," head coach Frank Reich said. "Just playing with the confidence - working really hard in practice, eager to just get better. Eager, what can I do to get better? Working hard. Great teammates. Great hustle. Everything you want, everything you want. Those guys are going to be good players and we're on the right track."
3. The Colts' defense came up big not only late in the fourth quarter, but in the second quarter, too.
The average starting field position for the Jaguars' five second quarter drive was their own 35-yard line. The first three of those possessions started at Jacksonville's 37, 38 and 43-yard lines as the Colts' offense stalled deep in their own territory after an explosive first quarter.
The Jaguars went three-and-out on four of those five second quarter possessions and managed a field goal on the fifth. The Colts' run defense, pass rush and coverage worked well together on those drives, especially on third down:
First drive, third and 7: Taylor Stallworth quarterback hit forces an incompletion
Second drive, third and 3: Kenny Moore II breaks up a pass intended for Marvin Jones
Third drive, third and 1: Andrew Sendejo and Darius Leonard crash down to tackle Carlos Hyde for a one-yard loss
Fourth drive, third and 2: Trevor Lawrence overthrows Jamal Agnew, who was tightly covered by Moore, with Paye providing good pressure off the edge
Jaguars coach Urban Meyer, by the way, has a field position chart that, in the second quarter, "we were living by it exactly," he said.
"We were punting the ball down in there, holding them, getting the ball back at about the 40-yard line and we didn't do anything with it. That's a problem."
That's also a tremendous credit to the Colts' defense.
4. Michael Pittman Jr. keeps making huge plays late in games.
Michael Pittman Jr.'s 27-yard reception with just under three minutes left in the fourth quarter continued a trend that's emerged this season: He's one of the most productive late-game wide receivers in the NFL. Pittman now ranks 10th in the NFL in fourth quarter receiving yards (213), eighth in first downs (10) and sixth in explosive plays (6). Wentz has a passer rating of 114.1 when targeting Pittman in the fourth quarter, per PFF.
On that 27-yard snag, Pittman lined up in the slot to the field and sprinted toward the line to gain between the hashmarks. He turned his head about 10 yards beyond the line of scrimmage and saw Wentz get flushed out of the pocket to his right. Pittman immediately identified where he needed to go to get between the corner and safety toward the sideline.
"I just went vertical and I saw that Carson got pushed out, and I just kind of was running step for step with him," Pittman said, "and he made a great throw and put it right there that I had to catch it."
Wentz said he was a split-second away from just throwing the ball out of bounds until he saw Pittman flash open. But once again, Wentz's connection and trust in Pittman showed up when the Colts needed it.
"He comes up big play after big play, super reliable, dependable, gets open, especially in moments like that," Wentz said. "Obviously there he was open, but in moments when it's not necessarily open, you can give it to him. He continuously shows up and makes big plays. He earned my trust a long time ago and that's why you're seeing it out there on Sundays."
5. Zaire Franklin paid the Colts' defense back.
Our own Andrew Walker wrote about how Colts special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone predicted Zaire Franklin's punt block six days before it happened – go read his story here on another huge play by the Colts' punt coverage team. But there is one other sub-plot to Franklin's blocked punt to highlight here.
Remember back in Week 3 when Franklin was called for roughing the kicker? The Colts' special teams captain went for a block and instead ran into Titans punter Brett Kern, turning a change of possession into a fresh set of downs for the Titans in a one-point game.
Franklin did not forget about it, and had been waiting for an opportunity to re-pay Rock Ya-Sin – who forced a fumble after that penalty in Week 3 – for picking up for him back in September.
"When I missed the block and I got the penalty, the D came to me and was like, 'Yo, Z, we got your back.' And they had my back," Franklin said. "So I was just glad I was able to get them back today."
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POWER RANKINGS: Who came out on top of the Mugello madness?
The first ever Grand Prix to be held at Mugello won't be forgotten in a hurry, with Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton surviving two red flag periods to claim win number six of this mad, mad season. But how did the action from the Tuscan Grand Prix play out in Power Rankings? Our judges scores are in…
Our five-judge panel assesses each driver after every Grand Prix and scores them out of 10 according to their performance across the weekend – taking machinery out of the equation
Our experts' scores are then averaged out to produce a race score – with those scores then tallied up across the season on our overall Power Rankings Leaderboard (at the bottom of the page)
For the briefest of moments at the start of the Tuscan Grand Prix, Hamilton's crown slipped, as the polesitter was well and truly beaten off the line by Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas, who'd looked up for the fight all weekend. After that blipette, however, it was all Hamilton, the six-time champion (and seemingly seven-time champion in waiting) overcoming a spot of brake conflagration to re-take the lead at the first Safety Car restart, and check out for win #90. Perhaps most impressive of all, though, was how hard Hamilton had had to work to dial himself into the Mugello track after an off-key Friday.
READ MORE: Hamilton says 'heart-racing' Tuscan GP was like 3 races in one day
Daniel Ricciardo is in a purple patch of form right now, and that was very much in evidence at Mugello. Disadvantaged by his team mate Esteban Ocon's spin in qualifying, Ricciardo was then rampant on race day, with his dramatic "let's finish what we started" ahead of the second restart – which briefly saw him climb to second ahead of Bottas – showing that Honey Badger mode was fully engaged. Ultimately Ricciardo had to give way to both Bottas and Alex Albon – but it was a great display nonetheless.
Even Sebastian Vettel, the driver who beat George Russell to his first ever career points, felt that the Williams driver deserved better than his 11th place finish. In fact, had Lance Stroll not crashed and brought out the second red flag while Russell was holding P9, he'd have almost certainly had those points. But he got passed by Kimi Raikkonen, Sebastian Vettel and Romain Grosjean at the restart, dropped to 12th, repassed Grosjean for P11 – and that was that.
READ MORE: 'He really deserved a point today' – Vettel feels for Russell after Williams driver misses out at Mugello
He's finally done it! A podium! Yet while there was much to celebrate in Alex Albon's rostrum run – two scintillating passes on Ricciardo and Sergio Perez the undoubted highlights – you could sense the note of exasperation in Team Principal Christian Horner's voice after the race, as he told his driver: "You did it the hard way." Horner was presumably referring to Albon's two botched restarts, which forced those overtakes, but still, it was an immense recovery for a well-deserved podium.
Third-time lucky: Alex Albon's near misses and podium-sealing Tuscan GP pass
On a 1,000th Grand Prix weekend where not huge amounts of things went right for Ferrari, Charles Leclerc was once again the team's saviour. He got a mite lucky when several of his rivals were unable to nail their second runs in Q3 thanks to Ocon's spin, leaving him P5 on the grid. But Leclerc was then was brilliant off the line to jump to third, before the grinding descent through the order to a classified eighth at the flag – although in truth, Leclerc's race pace was such that he was outgunned by Raikkonen's Alfa Romeo, who finished ahead on the road before his five-second time penalty was added.
'We were just slow' – Leclerc downbeat despite Ferrari's double points finish in their 1000th GP
After an underwhelming start to the season, it appears Kimi Raikkonen's juices are beginning to flow, with the Finn putting in a battling drive to claim his first points of the season. Key to that was his second Safety Car restart, which saw him surge from 11th on the grid to pass Leclerc for eighth, before holding onto that position all the way to the flag – whereupon his penalty dragged him down to P9.
Romain Grosjean was another driver who aced the second restart, as he followed Raikkonen through on Leclerc to briefly hold P9. And although he'd eventually fall to 12th and last place by the chequered flag, considering Haas estimated the Frenchman had lost 70 points of downforce (that's a lot) in the Lap 1 chaos – his car so damaged that Grosjean had briefly switched it off, thinking he was out of the race – it was a truly commendable drive from Grosjean.
It was another strong weekend from Monza podiumist Lance Stroll. Yes, he lost out to team mate Sergio Perez in qualifying despite being armed with a superior aero package – although once again, you could blame his chum Ocon's Q3 spin for that – but Stroll was doing a fine job on the fringes of a second-straight podium when he crashed heavily into the barriers through no fault of his own.
READ MORE: Stroll blames puncture or suspension failure for massive crash at Mugello
You got the feeling at Mugello that, after the disappointments of Monza, Max Verstappen was a caged tiger waiting to get stuck into the Mercedes duo – who, with some sense of inevitability, were the only cars to qualify ahead of him on Saturday. That his race lasted just two corners – with Verstappen already on the back foot by the first of those thanks to an electrical issue – was a disappointment felt by both the Dutchman and F1 fans in general.
After the highs of Monza for the AlphaTauri team, Mugello was more their signature dish, Daniil Kvyat steadily, sensibly grinding out a strong result, as he used the AT01's improving pace to finish just three seconds adrift of Lando Norris in the McLaren. P7 was his best result of the season, with Kvyat now having scored points consecutive races, as his performances appear to be in the ascendant.
MISSING OUT
A key absentee from the top 10 after Mugello was Valtteri Bottas, who after a beautiful initial launch to steal the lead from Hamilton, had to play second-best across the rest of the Grand Prix, despite having looked the stronger Mercedes driver for much of the weekend. The judges scored him with a 7.2, while he was beaten by a pair of 7.4s for Norris and Perez.
READ MORE: 'It has to turn out well for me at some point', says beaten Bottas
THE OVERALL STANDINGS
Daniel Ricciardo is the biggest mover in the leaderboard after Mugello, rising up past Pierre Gasly to P3, having scored an impressive 26.8 out of 30 at the last three races. Meanwhile, Albon's podium was enough to yank him back into the top 10, as he demoted Daniil Kvyat the other way.
Alfa Romeo confirm new title sponsor and team name change ahead of 2023 season

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Consultants: How the 'Project New World' site search ended in Alabama
More stories in Enterprise
In a podcast series, site selection professionals who assisted Mazda and Toyota provide a detailed, behind-the-scenes look at why the automakers' $1.6 billion auto assembly plant project is headed to Huntsville, Alabama.
In three sessions, a team from JLL Chicago discusses the genesis of what became known as "Project New World," shares particulars on a rigorous, fast-paced site search, and reveals the factors that finally separated Huntsville from other suitors.
Claiming one of the most coveted industrial prizes in years, a 2,000-acre site in North Alabama will become home to a sprawling assembly plant with 4,000 workers producing 300,000 vehicles annually.
Site preparation has been under way for some time in Huntsville, and the automakers celebrated the official start of the construction project with a ceremonial groundbreaking on Friday.
Gov. Kay Ivey speaks at the groundbreaking ceremony making the official start of Mazda Toyota Manufacturing USA's construction project on a $1.6 billion assembly plant in Huntsville on Nov. 16, 2018.
An industrial robot turned the first shovel of dirt at a groundbreaking ceremony for the $1.6 billion Mazda Toyota Manufacturing USA assembly plant in Huntsville.
Mazda President Masamichi Kogai, Gov. Kay Ivey, Toyota President Akio Toyoda and Commerce Sec. Greg Canfield arrive at the RSA Activity Center for the plant announcement on Jan. 10, 2018. (Governor's Office, Hal Yeager)
Gov. Kay Ivey shakes hands with Toyota President Akio Toyoda while Mazda President Masamichi Kogai looks on during an announcement ceremony for the companies' Alabama auto plant. (Governor's Office, Hal Yeager)
"Huntsville was ultimately selected because they were ready, willing and able. The site shows years of thoughtful preparation, and the city has ample advanced manufacturing expertise," JLL notes in a project profile.
"It's a place where two savvy automakers will collaborate, fortifying a shared competitive advantage as technology companies continue to focus on the industry as one ripe for disruption."
The massive project, however, didn't actually start out with that scale.
At first, its secret code name was "Project Mitt," and it involved only Toyota. The JLL team began examining sites spanning 500 to 1,000 acres, but the game changed when Mazda joined as a partner.
"That scope became much larger. We covered a lot of ground in terms of states that could qualify, although once Mitt became Project New World, several states were eliminated due to the scope and size of the project itself," Meredith O'Connor, a JLL international director, says in the podcast series.
SIZING UP THE SITES
Throughout much of 2017, O'Connor and her JLL colleagues worked closely with Mazda and Toyota on the search, narrowing down a list of possible sites that originally numbered 300. There were many factors to analyze: workforce, operating environment, site specifics, logistics, incentives, and quality of life, among others.
The team had to move quickly. The Mazda-Toyota partnership wanted its new plant to be up and running by 2021, an ambitious timeline for a project of such magnitude.
"Before our first flight was booked, we made sure we understood what was important to our clients – Toyota and Mazda – from site specifics to the softer requirements of cultural fit and others," says Christian Beaudoin, JLL's director of research.
"Our research team turned those requirements into an algorithm using data analytics to define labor and site requirements, and then we started a cross-country search."
"As a state, they get it. They're ready. "
Beaudoin says the team's "high-level screening model" aggregated more than 100 data points about individual sites and provided a ranking.
Ultimately, the team embarked on site visits that took them to 20 states in just six weeks.
Engineers from the automakers joined them on "operational tours." They viewed sites from helicopters. The team talked to human resources managers in cities to get a true sense of the labor market there. They explored whether there was a Japanese school nearby and sampled dishes at local Japanese restaurants.
The list of potential sites was dropping fast, as economic development agencies struggled to meet requirements that seemed off the charts.
"I think we all got the same types of calls from individuals saying, 'Are there too many zeros in this column? If you just removed one zero, it made sense to them, but in some cases, there were two extra zeros. It was just things they had never seen in their career," O'Connor recalls.
WHY HUNTSVILLE?
As 2017 wound down, only two sites remained – the one in Huntsville and another in North Carolina.
The JLL team recognized that Huntsville offered many advantages. The site was already assembled, and it offered a large buffer zone so the plant could fit in harmoniously with the community, the JLL team says.
Plus, Huntsville's economic development specialists were responsive 24/7.
"There were days where we worked 18, 19 hours when we got down to the end of this. They never wavered. They were with us. They didn't care what time of the day it was," O'Connor says in the podcast.
Alabama's extensive auto industry was a positive.
"There are reasons there are multiple OEM's in their state," O'Connor says. "As a state, they get it. They're ready. I think we're going to continue to see success in Alabama for these types of uses."
On Jan. 10, 2018, Mazda Motor Corp. President and Chief Executive Officer Masamichi Kogai and Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda were together in Montgomery to announce the outcome of the "Project New World" site search.
Ghafari Associates, which is providing comprehensive architectural and engineering services on the construction project, said plans call for the Mazda-Toyota complex in Huntsville to span 6 million square feet.
The campus will include a press shop, welding shop, paint shop, general assembly facility, test track, ancillary support building, and an administration building with offices, locker rooms, and cafeteria.
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Tags: Alabama auto industry, Mazda Toyota Manufacturing USA
Mazda Toyota Manufacturing kicks off construction on $1.6B Alabama plant


Rich graduated in 1986 from Rutgers University as a proud brother of Phi Gamma Delta (Fiji). Professionally, his intellect was instrumental in the development of strategy with his colleagues. Rich was an expert in problem solving, he recognized that his knowledge could help organizations focused on "saving lives" - a truly noble cause, and his way of giving back to the world. Rich was very passionate about solving mobile location accuracy to enable first responders to quickly locate people in emergency situations, and developing solutions to "serve and protect" the lives of all citizens around the globe - one of his greatest and selfless professional contributions that will define his legacy.
Rich was an extraordinary family man who took time to ensure how special Susan, Connor and Kellen were to him and deeply loved and cared for everyday. Rich took the time tossing a baseball/football/basketball or playing a round of golf with Connor and Kellen; he stayed engaged and involved. Rich coached Connor and Kellen's Eden Prairie baseball and basketball teams and taking the role of commissioner for both leagues. He could be seen in the stands at EPHS sporting events watching and supporting the children of our friends and friends of Connor and Kellen. Rich was honest, kind, compassionate, witty, smart, loving, an avid golfer, well regarded financial wizard who loved to cook, play poker, coach, watch, participate in sports and be with his family and friends. Rich was all inclusive of others and those who were fortunate to know Rich were truly blessed.
Rich (Richie Rich) is survived by his wife, Susan (Brushy Sue); sons, Connor and Kellen, his mother Ann (Major), siblings; Barbara Jean, Tara Lynn D'Uva (Bruno), In-laws, Harold and Carlene Mead, Brother-in law; Craig (Jackie), Sister-In law Karen Kassar (Greg), loving cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews. He is preceded in death by his father, James Reynolds and brother, James John.
"I loved you then, I love you now, I love you always and forever."


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text:
Great Kills & Tottenville
Families Torn Apart By Opioid Epidemic
By Nicholas Rizzi |&nbspApril 12, 2017 7:15am
@nickr15
Ann Marie Perrotto lost her son, Christopher Perrotto, after he overdoses on pills in 2011 and died at 22.
DNAinfo/Nicholas Rizzi
STATEN ISLAND — Christopher Perrotto was taking oxycodone with friends in a parked car in the South Shore on April 10, 2011 when he overdosed and died. He was just 22 years old.
His friends bailed and left him alone in the parking lot, but somebody eventually found Perrotto and called the police. His uncle worked nearby and went to identify his body while his mother — who thought Perrotto had gone to a detox center the night before — got an oil change.
When she got back to her Arden Heights home, detectives were already inside. She saw her father sobbing as she walked in and knew her son was dead.
"I just dropped and started screaming," said his mother, Ann Marie Perrotto.
Staten Island — which some have dubbed "Heroin Island" — has been in crisis over opioid addiction for nearly a decade. As elected officials and law enforcement fight to turn the tide, the number of fatal overdoses continue to climb to record highs, tearing families and communities apart.
Currently, more people die in the city from overdoses than homicides.
"We are doing everything seemingly possible, but we're still deep into the throes of this epidemic," said Borough President James Oddo. "There are moments that are extremely disheartening."
At least 107 people died from overdoses in the borough last year, the highest number on record and a 35 percent increase from 2015, according to Oddo and the Department of Health. Officials expect the number to climb as high as 119 when the final data gets released later this year.
An Addiction Begins With a Doctor's Visit
Most people don't start off using opiates recreationally, but get hooked when they're prescribed pain pills after an injury and are never able to stop taking them, said District Attorney Michael McMahon.
"The full medicine cabinets of Staten Island added fuel to this terrible fire," said McMahon. "The drug companies pushing those opioid-based pills out on the market bear a lot of responsibility."
For some users, all it takes is one pill for them to get hooked, according to a recent opioid study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Patients in the study who were prescribed a single day of opioids — such as OxyContin, Percocet or Vicodin — had a 6 percent chance of using a year later, while people prescribed enough pills for eight days or more saw a 13.5 percent chance of continuing to use them a year later. Nearly 30 percent of the patients given a month-long painkiller prescription are still hooked, the study found.
That was the case for Perrotto, a straight-A student in grammar school who was a talented baseball player and loved to watch movies with his mother and sister.
Perrotto got into a small fender-bender when he was 19 and sustained minor injuries to his back. He could've simply taken Tylenol for the pain but his doctor prescribed him Percocet, a mix of oxycodone and acetaminophen, instead.
"I thought it was just something antibiotic or something to help his muscles relax," his mom said. "I didn't know anything about these painkillers that were on the street until I started seeing his changes."
Perrotto started with just one pill a day, but quickly increased to five, then 10, then 15. He topped out at 25.
He stopped taking care of his hygiene, started to skip sleep, fought with his mother and sister and either locked himself in his room for days or never came home.
His mother realized he was addicted to pills and tried to send him to several treatment programs, but he would either keep using or break a small rule and get kicked out.
She had him admitted to psych wards and arrested when he stole her car. She begged the judge to keep him in jail so he could get off drugs.
About two weeks before his death, she kicked him out of her home after he sold his Xbox to buy drugs, hoping he would hit rock bottom and kick the habit for good.
"I kicked him out and he died," she said. "I live with that guilt every day of my life. Why didn't I just stand by his side?"
Kevin Parker was addicted to pills and overdoses. He was in a coma for months but had to have his leg amputated when he regained consciousness. (DNAinfo/Ben Fractenberg)
Four out of five of Staten Island's fatal overdose victims started down the road to addiction when they got prescribed pills after an injury, McMahon said.
Eventually their daily needs exceeded the capacity from just one script, so they started visiting different physicians in a bid to get more — a practice referred to as "doctor shopping."
But after New York's I-Stop law was passed in 2012 to crack down on patients stockpiling drugs from different doctors — as well as keep better records of which doctors prescribed the pills — patients who had become addicted to the medication suddenly found themselves without a ready supply.
Drug dealers seized the opportunity — flooding the streets with a cheaper and more easily accessible opioid: heroin.
Instead of spending $90 for three oxycodone pills needed to get them through the day, users could spend $5 for a bag of heroin, experts said.
"The marketers of heroin knew that, so they made the drug widely available and cheap," said Luke Nasta, executive director of Camelot Counseling and a former heroin addict himself.
Why Staten Island Falls in the Crosshairs
The rate of fatal overdoses on Staten Island has steadily increased since record keeping started in 2000, with some dips, but shot up in 2016, according to the Department of Health.
Kevin Moran, a funeral director for the John Vincent Scalia Home for Funerals, holds a list of death certificates of people who died of overdoses he handled the funeral for in the past four months. (DNAinfo/Ben Fractenberg)
McMahon partly blamed the borough residents' success at landing well-insured jobs — with plenty of access to medical care and medication coverage — as an unexpected source of the problem.
The borough has a large percentage of residents who work for the city and others who get good health insurance from their job. It makes it easier for doctors to prescribe them painkillers and for them to afford the pills, McMahon explained.
The last Census data showed that 22.3 percent of all Staten Islanders were employed by the government, compared to no more than 16 percent in other boroughs, according to the Staten Island Advance.
Compounding the problem, studies have found rates of addiction increase significantly for people who have undergone significant trauma — with some finding 29 percent of Manhattan residents increasing substance use after 9/11, according to Time.
Of the 2,977 people killed in the World Trade Center attacks, 275 lived on Staten Island. The borough was also hit the hardest in the city by Hurricane Sandy — with 24 people dying and hundreds more losing their homes.
McMahon said neighborhoods decimated by Sandy also have the highest number of fatal overdoses in the borough.
From 2012 to 2013, ZIP codes in the borough damaged by Sandy were in the top five for overdose deaths in the city, according to the Health Department.
The Toll on Families
Rosemarie Iacono's oldest brother, Anthony Iacono, was given his first pain pill prescription after he hurt his back.
He had landed a decent paying job as a longshoreman right out of high school but hurt his back while working a few years in. Doctors gave him a choice, either take pills or get surgery.
Since he couldn't afford the time off work he chose pills, and got hooked. He fatally overdosed at the age of 29 in 2012.
A year later, his brother, Raymond Iacono, had his 20th overdose and died at 26, leaving three other brothers fighting addiction and their sister the only sober one in the family.
"In two years I lost the most important people in my life," said Rosemary Iacono, 26. "They never even got to live."
Brian Hunt, who lost his son Adam Hunt, 23, in 2014 to an overdose, speaking at a Scared Straight forum at Wagner College. (DNAinfo/Ben Fractenberg)
Family members are put in an impossible situation — made worse by the fact that an opioid addict often shows no symptoms of drug abuse until they're far along in their addiction.
"A person would look completely OK, it's not until it gets more advanced that you might notice something," said Dr. Stephen Gilman, an addiction psychiatrist in Manhattan and a medical director of an outpatient facility. "It can often be hidden for a longer period of time than other dependence problems."
Ann Marie Perrotto, who started Christopher's Reason recovery center after her son died, said addicts can be high in front of people without them even realizing it.
She was tipped off to her son's addiction only because of his mood changes and he stopped spending time with his family. Before he started on the pills, he would love to watch movies with his mom and sister or go to large family gatherings.
As a result, by the time many family members realize they have an addict in their home, they're often so deep into the addiction that it makes recovery very difficult.
"You have to get treatment as soon as possible," said Gilman. "The physiological dependency of an opiate can escalate rapidly the longer they're on it."
Rosemarie Iacono said she started to notice her brothers' addiction when they stopped going to work and her cash went missing.
"My brothers would steal my money, all of my jewelry," she said. "Anything that was valuable had been taken from me."
This is often the first sign for many families that their loved one is an addict, said Joanne McKernan, who runs a support group for family members of addicts at the YMCA.
"People have to put locks on their bedroom doors," said McKernan. "They're living with their pocketbooks underneath their pillows. It's not an easy way to live."
Others commit small felonies to feed their habit, leading to an increase in crimes like car break-ins around the borough, McMahon said. Some move to selling the drugs themselves so they can continue their use.
"If they don't steal, they deal," said Alicia Reddy, a registered nurse dubbed the "Addiction Angel" who runs support groups and helps addicts get treatment. "Unless they have a job, which how many addicts can be an addict and hold their job? Eventually they lose their job."
Alicia Reddy, a registered nurse dubbed the "Addiction Angel," runs support groups, Scared Straight forums and helps addicts seek treatment. (DNAinfo/Ben Fractenberg)
Perrotto also moved to selling pills when he needed money, something that wracked him with guilt.
"He told me one day that God was punishing him because he sold to other people," his mother said. "No matter what I tried he always told me that it was a demon in the back of his head that would pull me."
While some evidence shows that rehab has a low success rate for addicts, particularly short-term programs, that hasn't stopped a host of short-term, profit-driven facilities around the nation from seizing on the opioid epidemic to take advantage of desperate families searching for a cure for their loved ones, Nasta said.
These 28-day centers are funded by insurance companies and can charge up to $1,000 a day for treatment. They aggressively target Staten Islanders by buying them plane tickets, sending cars to transport them to the airport and a host of other amenities to lure patients to their facility.
"Something should be done to stop them from even existing," said Nasta. "They're not based on any science that says in 28 days you can rehabilitate a heroin addict. It's based on an insurance benefit."
While users can withdraw from the drug in that time, it isn't long enough to address the root cause of the addiction or make permanent changes to their lifestyle, Nasta said.
"You can withdraw from it and stabilize over a six-month period physically, but psychologically your brain has been rewired," said Nasta. "You're a different person and you have this psychological dependency that no matter where you go you bring it with you."
Cravings can be so intense while trying to get sober that many experts advocate utilizing medically assisted treatments, like buprenorphine, that can help manage withdrawals to give users a better chance of staying clean.
While the city has worked to increase access to buprenorphine, there has been pushback from some who don't want to prescribe the drug locally.
"Staten Island physicians do not want to dispense buprenorphine," said Oddo, who co-chaired the mayor's Heroin and Prescription Opioid Public Awareness Task Force. "I believe they have some preconceived notions of who this clientele would be."
Another tool to help decrease the number of fatal overdoses has been outfitting emergency workers across the city with naloxone — a nasal spray that essentially reverses the effect of an OD.
Last month, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a $38 million-a-year program to combat addiction rates. The initiative will increase naloxone access, boost treatment programs, increase the availability of buprenorphine and more in a hope to reduce overdose deaths by 35 percent over the next five years.
Last year, 74 people were saved with the drug by police around the borough and 48 have been saved so far this year, according to McMahon's office.
However, while naloxone saves a person's life in the moment of an overdose, it will not stop them from future use or overdose.
"It's just an emergency antidote for an overdose, it's not an ongoing treatment," said Gilman.
Nasta, who got clean after he was arrested, believes long-term programs like his are the most effective ways to kick the habit.
Patients live at his centers for months, or even years, on end. They meet with therapists, have group sessions, get assigned a job at the site and take classes to get their G.E.D. so they have job prospects when they get out.
"We harness the influence and power of the residents to help and heal each other," said Nasta. "We guide them. We also provide them traditional individual counseling and group counseling, work with their families."
Ann Marie Perrotto also hosts group and individual counseling sessions at Christopher's Reason and tries to give addicts an abundance of love and support while they go through recovery.
Her Charleston site has an open-door policy and she encourages people to spend their time there while not in meetings, playing pool or watching TV, to develop a life that isn't controlled by drugs.
"The easy part is coming off the drugs, the hard part is staying off," she said. "When they're coming off the drugs, they're lost. If you're not there for them and you don't have a good support system, they're going to go back."
Even if they have every intention to stay clean afterward, relapse is common.
"They can have a very strong craving for a substance, even if they're been off of it for a long period of time," said Gilman.
"That will draw them back to using even if at some level they don't want to use."
In addition, people who may have had a temporary break from the drug as part of a rehab program can end up overdosing — sometimes fatally — if they relapse, because they use the same amount of heroin as they did before they got sober despite their tolerance being lower, said Nasta.
The Rise of Fentanyl Turns an Opioid Epidemic Deadly
Fentanyl is 50 more times potent than heroin and entirely synthetic, whereas heroin is partially derived from poppy plants. Dealers started to mix fentanyl into their supply recently to drive down costs and increase potency, officials said.
A comparison of the lethal dose of heroin compared to fentanyl, which is being mixed in with batches of heroin to cut down on costs for dealers. (New Hampshire State Police Forensic Lab>
Officers are warned to not even handle it with their bare hands because one touch could be fatal and there's no way to tell when heroin has been cut with fentanyl by just looking at the drug.
"People don't realize that it's pure fentanyl or fentanyl laced heroin when they buy it," said McMahon. "They're literally poisoning people to death."
While some users end up with fentanyl-laced drugs by accident, others actively seek it out — hunting for dealers after learning that they were behind the batch that caused an overdose, experts say.
"They hear the news, Staten Island isn't small," said Reddy. "It doesn't scare them, which is the most frightening."
The rise of fentanyl also makes relapses far more deadly than before because it takes a much smaller amount to overdose on than straight heroin.
"Now that one bag is so much more potent than it used to be," said NYPD Assistant Chief Edward Delatorre, borough commander for Staten Island. "It's very common for us to see people coming out of rehab and overdosing because their bodies can not handle the higher potency of the drug."
Officials all pointed to the introduction of fentanyl as a major reason for the sharp increase in overdose deaths in 2016 and have started to crack down to get it off the streets.
In February, police arrested five dealers — including a paraprofessional who sold at the middle school she worked at — who sold fentanyl around Rossville, Richmond Town, Tottenville, Great Kills and Rosebank. Last month, more than 30 people were busted for smuggling fentanyl from Asia into Brooklyn.
"In a sea of drug dealers, we're looking to focus on and isolate the ones that are causing overdoses," said Delatorre.
Rep. Dan Donovan, who represents Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn, re-introduced legislation in Congress last month to make the penalties stricter for dealers who sell fentanyl.
Some argue that measures like this could do more harm than good because it would make users so afraid of arrests that they won't call for aid if a friend's overdosing.
"In the majority of drug-induced homicide cases, there was an opportunity to save the overdose victim, but they chose not to act because they were afraid of prosecution," said Melissa Moore, deputy state director for the New York chapter of the Drug Policy Alliance, a nonprofit that pushes for decriminalization of drug use in favor of treatment and harm reduction measures.
"There's no data that shows there's a real deterrence effect. There's a replacement effect within the market instead of dealing with the problem systematically."
Moore argued that increased access to medically assisted treatments, needle exchanges and supervised injection facilities where users are also offered treatment — like Insite in Vancouver — are a better way to help curb addiction rates instead of criminalization.
Those harm reduction plans have not been suggested for Staten Island yet, but Oddo worried they could do significant damage if brought here.
"If you want to have needle exchange, if you want to have clean shooting spaces, I'm not going to judge you," said Oddo.
"To heavy handedly force feed some of these harm reduction to Staten Island will be counterproductive, will take us back and will empower people who I think are ignorant on this issue to assail all of these efforts."
Aside from cracking down on dealers, officials have started several other programs to drive the numbers down and may be seeing some small relief in the borough.
There have been 20 suspected overdose deaths so far in 2017, a 33.3 percent decrease from the same time period last year, according to statistics from McMahon's office, which were current as of Tuesday.
The numbers only reflect overdoses reported to the NYPD, not people who check into hospitals, so McMahon expects the actual number of overdoses could be up to 30 percent higher.
However, there has been a 50 percent jump so far this year citywide compared to the same period a year ago, said Dermot Shea, Deputy Chief of Crime Control Strategies for the NYPD at a recent law enforcement conference about the epidemic.
Since he took office, McMahon has launched a dedicated drug court to handle cases in the borough and an Overdose Response Initiative to treat every OD like a crime scene to try and trace the source. The program has lead to five takedowns so far.
The District Attorney also partnered with several other groups — including the Legal Aid Society — to launch the HOPE program this year that will dismiss charges for low level drug offenders who seek treatment, the first of its kind in the city.
"At the moment of arrest we're trying to divert them to treatment," said McMahon. "The quicker we get them into treatment and recovery, the better chance we have at saving their lives because one more use of the drugs that are out on the streets today could kill them."
Since the program launched in January, 119 people have been offered it and 64 were found to "meaningfully engage" in treatment and got their charges dropped. Only 13 refused the program.
The majority of the people identified for the program have been males between 19 to 30 years old, according to the DA's office.
Addiction rates have also been rising in women around the borough, so Camelot has started to build a new residential facility in Port Richmond for them, which has faced pushback from the local community, said Nasta.
The NYPD has started several initiatives to help stop children from ever picking up pills in the first place and partnered with Oddo to bring a "Too Good for Drugs" program to every fifth-grade classroom in the borough. They started a pilot program this year to expand it to seventh- and eighth-graders as well.
"It's only reaching a fraction of the audience that we need," said Oddo. "You have to get this message to students of all ages."
The curriculum differs from the old D.A.R.E. program because it goes more in-depth and has officers who work in the local precinct teach the class so they can make connections at an early age, Delatorre said.
"This deals in a much deeper way with issues like decision-making, peer pressure and bullying," said Delatorre, who used to be a sergeant in the D.A.R.E. program.
They also quietly started an initiative, Operation Youth First, that made it protocol for officers who find intoxicated children to talk to their parents and put them in touch with service providers.
"Often when we speak to the people who are addicted we find that they started very young," said Delatorre. "Often with softer drugs and often right in front of their parents."
They have had nine children engage in the program so far, he said.
The NYPD has also started to keep real-time data to map overdose deaths, especially ones linked to fentanyl, to identify patterns and respond to trouble locations, an expansion of the city's RxStat program.
"We laid a solid base in New York City to now catapult us forward," said Shea.
But as lawmakers figure out how best to deal with this problem, family members still have to live with the aftermath of it daily.
Concerned parents watch a "Scared Straight" forum at Wagner College. (DNAinfo/Ben Fractenberg)
Ann Marie Perrotto dedicated her life to helping others like her son since his death, but it hasn't made it any easier nearly six years after she buried him.
"I wake up every day and I know that I can never touch him, never kiss him or watch a movie with him," she said. "They say it gets easier, but it gets harder everyday because I miss him more."
Reddy, who hosts "Scared Straight" forums around the borough to keep kids from picking up drugs in the first place, said the experience of being a parent of a drug-addicted child is heart-rending.
"As a mother of two children, if somebody told me my son had to be afflicted with a disease and I had to choose between cancer and addiction, I don't think I would ever pick addiction."
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text:
Q: Resizing logo in floating navigation bar I have a navigation bar that stays at the top of the screen. I must first say that I am aware that nav bars like this can be awkward on mobile devices, I have just removed the media queries from my code as it doesn't affect them.
My issue is that if a user has a screen that is too large for the mobile version, but too small to fit the entire nav bar in, then the company logo recedes underneath the bar and also under the lower elements. I want the logo to resize automatically, but I can't accomplish this yet. I have tried giving the logo link an automatic width and also messed around with other tags, but still no luck. The number of links on the menu bar can vary too, so there are currently 5 elements, but there can be any up to 7. I need this change in size to also affect the logo.
I've been told that the logo needs to be relative to the wrapper, but the NavBar div shrinks in size along with the window.
Live Link: http://rental.joshblease.co.uk/stack.php
Fiddle http://jsfiddle.net/dZVyZ/
Screenshots:
On a screen > 900px wide
On a screen < 900px wide
Required result
The last image has a smaller logo that shrinks when the width is too small
HTML:

Home

View

About Us

Josh Blease

Contact

CSS:
#MainWrapper {
    max-width: 900px;
    width: 100%;
    margin: 0 auto 0 auto;
}
.Clear{
    clear: both;
}
#NavBar{
    overflow: hidden;
    display: block;
    position: fixed;
    width: inherit;
    max-width: 900px;
    z-index: 999;
    height:70px;
    background: url(../Images/NavBg.png);
    padding-left: 10px;
}
#NavBar ul{
    list-style: none;
}
#NavBar li{
    float: left;
    padding: 20px 0 10px;
    margin-right: 10px;
}
#NavBar li a{
    padding: 30px 10px 10px;
    background-color: #CBCBCB;
    color: #000;
    font-size: 17px;
    border-bottom-right-radius: 5px;
    border-bottom-left-radius: 5px;
    -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 5px;
    -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 5px;
    -moz-border-radius-bottom-right: 5px;
    -moz-border-radius-bottom-left: 5px;
    transition: background 300ms ease-in-out;
    -webkit-transition: background 300ms ease-in-out;
    -moz-transition: background 300ms ease-in-out;
    -ms-transition: background 300ms ease-in-out;
    -o-transition: background 300ms ease-in-out;
}
#NavBar .Down, .JavaOff #NavBar li:hover{
    padding-top: 30px;
}
#NavLogo{
    float: right;
    height: 60px;
    padding: 5px 15px;
}

A: It is like you wrote in your question:

I've been told that the logo needs to be relative to the wrapper, but
  the NavBar div shrinks in size along with the window.

you will need to define, how much space you are willing to give to the logo element. Since you want a responsive solution you can define this in percentage.
i'd suggest to limit the size of your navigation to something about 70%. You can also add a min-width:; to prevent the list items from breaking. It looks like the media query is taking effect too late, since some of the list items of the navigation become too short.
To your problem. I've added some CSS that hopefully do what you need:
#NavBar ul
{
    margin:0;
    padding: 0;

    float: left;
    width: 70%;
}

#NavBar ul + a
{
    display: block;
    margin-left: 70%;
    text-align: right;
    width: 30%;
}

#NavLogo
{
    display: inline-block;
    margin-top: 10px;
    max-width: 100%;
    height: auto;
}

Test-Fiddle: http://fiddle.jshell.net/p28HE/
Edit: you can also remove the float.right from #NavLogo
With this solution the Logo will take up a maximum of 30% of the screen width. This can be altered with css and override width media queries for a better mobile view. Place comment if this solution is working for you or what I may have missed.

A: Easiest solution would be css calc function in #Navlogo like following; adjust the height with the same method; so it wouldn't look like stretched or squeezed.
#NavLogo {
float: right;
height: 60px;
padding: 5px;
width: calc(100% - 500px);
}

But if you ask me I rather go with javascript or jQuery for better control. Plus I didn't like the orientation as well; it would be better if you put
 in separate
 and the image in a different
. Hope this helps for now.

A: Check this fiddle out: http://jsfiddle.net/Diesel9Design/dZVyZ/1/
I gave the UL a fixed size and made it float left:
#NavBar ul {
    list-style: none outside none;
    width:500px;
    float: left;
}

Then I wrapped the logo in a div and gave it a margin left of 500px. This allows the div to figure out the remaining size available. Then I made the logo width of 100%, BAM it'll resize itself to the remaining space.

.logoWrap {
    margin-left:500px;
    padding:10px 0 0;
}

#NavLogo {
    width:100%;
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
MLB Power Rankings: Astros surpass 40-win mark to remain No. 1
theScore Staff
6yr ago
Tim Heitman / USA TODAY Sports
The Houston Astros are the first team in the majors to reach the 40-win mark and already own a 12 1/2-game lead in the American League West. That performance has them atop the rankings for a second straight week.
Here's a look at how each team stacks up this time around:
1. Houston Astros
PREVIOUS RANK (CHANGE)
41-16 10-0 1 (-)
The 41-16 Astros can play .500 ball the rest of the way and still win 94 games - but that's not going to happen. Instead, it's time to start looking at the fact that they're on pace to beat the all-time record of 116 wins. Yeah, they're that good.
2. Los Angeles Dodgers
35-23 7-3 4 (+2)
A plus-84 run differential - second only to Houston in all of baseball - has helped lift the Dodgers back into a race for top spot in the NL West with Colorado. That Kershaw guy, who became the third-fastest ever to record 2,000 strikeouts this weekend, has also helped LA's push a great deal.
3. Washington Nationals
35-20 7-3 2 (-1)
The Nats have a very comfortable lead in a weak division and an absolutely scorching offensive unit, so losing Bryce Harper to a three-game suspension this week didn't really affect them all that much - as evidenced by Washington's 2-1 record without the superstar.
4. New York Yankees
While they'll certainly take the 2-2 split in Toronto, a 3-4 week against AL East opponents is not what Joe Girardi's club needed in an increasingly tight division. Now, the first-place Yankees get Boston for three, and a Sox sweep would drop the Baby Bombers out of first.
5. Colorado Rockies
The best baseball news of the week came out of Denver, where Chad Bettis - who completed his chemotherapy treatments last month - announced Friday that he's beginning his rehab this week and plans to return to the majors this season. We can't wait to see him back on the mound at Coors.
6. Arizona Diamondbacks
Maybe it's because the D-Backs just seem to be stuck spinning their wheels in third place, but Paul Goldschmidt's push toward becoming just the second full-time first baseman to record a 30-30 season isn't getting nearly enough attention. Goldy may even take a run at 40-40. You should probably watch him play some time.
31-25 6-4 15 (+8)
Amid all the talk of John Farrell possibly being on the hot seat, and a large number of Red Sox (who aren't named Chris Sale) performing below par to date, the Red Sox are suddenly just two back of first place heading into what should be a fun series at Yankee Stadium.
8. Baltimore Orioles
The O's have a weird week coming up. Thanks to an earlier rainout, they lose an off-day Thursday and must instead travel to Washington for a single game before heading to the Bronx for a key divisional battle beginning Friday. We may find out just who the 2017 Orioles are when it's all said and done.
Was rock bottom for the defending champions getting swept by the lowly Padres to fall below .500? The team's response - a weekend sweep of the rival Cards at home - has to give Cubs fans a sliver of hope that San Diego will end up being the turning point.
10. Cleveland Indians
Corey Kluber's 10-strikeout return from the DL on Thursday was a welcome sight for the Indians, who are somehow still chasing Minnesota in the AL Central. It's starting to feel like order in that division will be restored within a few weeks' time.
11. Milwaukee Brewers
The prevailing sentiment seems to be that the Brewers are simply keeping the first-place seat warm for the floundering Cubs. The pitching remains the fly in the ointment, having registered just 20 quality starts.
12. Tampa Bay Rays
29-30 5-5 14 (-2)
Corey Dickerson continues to surge. While his .342 batting average and 13 home runs are certainly impressive, he's also avoided going hitless in back-to-back games so far. He's the real deal.
13. St. Louis Cardinals
Matt Carpenter's bat still hasn't fully woken up despite leading the team in home runs (nine). He's hitting only .213, and his inconsistency has been emblematic of the team's underwhelming play of late.
14. Toronto Blue Jays
The Blue Jays are somehow only a game below .500 after an almost apocalyptic start to the season. With a healthy Josh Donaldson hitting monster home runs and Troy Tulowitzki playing his customary top-shelf defense, this team is back from the dead in a big way.
15. Minnesota Twins
The AL Central-leading Twins don't get any respect, and maybe that's because of their minus-19 run differential. The team is bound to come back down to earth sooner rather than later, but Miguel Sano's emergence has been fun to watch.
16. Detroit Tigers
28-28 6-4 16 (-)
Fortunately, the AL Central is still winnable despite the Tigers hovering around .500 for most of the season. That said, they'll need to overcome extremely long odds if they want to get mainstays Justin Verlander and Miguel Cabrera back to the World Series.
17. Texas Rangers
26-31 2-8 6 (-11)
After a surprising 10-game winning streak in late May, the Rangers have gone 2-9, dropping even further back in the standings. The slide was punctuated by a three-game sweep at the hands of the division-leading Astros. A fire sale of the team's top assets could be incoming.
18. Seattle Mariners
Getting James Paxton back healthy couldn't have come at a better time. With the majority of Seattle's rotation sidelined for the better part of the season, Paxton's first start in nearly a month - going 5 1/3 while striking out six and not allowing a run - was a sign of the team's potential.
19. Los Angeles Angels
Yes, Albert Pujols hit home run No. 600, but now there's very little to look forward to with Mike Trout potentially out for the next two months. If there was any hope of sneaking into the postseason, it evaporated with his injury.
20. New York Mets
The Mets may be within spitting distance of second place in the NL East, but that's more of a testament to how weak the division is than New York's success. It seems that every other day features a new controversy or baffling loss. #LOLMets indeed.
21. Chicago White Sox
After a surprising start to the season, the rebuilding White Sox have fallen back to earth. The team has combined to an 11-21 record since the end of April corresponding to Jose Quintana's poor performances.
22. Cincinnati Reds
The Reds continue to hover under .500 despite surprisingly efficient and steady contributions from Zack Cozart. One notable stat: the club ranks second in baseball in park-adjusted defensive efficiency (2.60).
23. Miami Marlins
The Marlins have quietly gone 8-2 in their past 10 games, and thanks to a brutal division, that's a much-needed positive development. Edinson Volquez's brilliant no-hitter is a great story, too.
24. Atlanta Braves
It's safe to say that offseason additions Bartolo Colon and R.A. Dickey haven't worked out thus far. The Braves' rotation has combined for the league's third-worst FIP (5.10) and fifth-highest BB/9 (3.57).
25. Pittsburgh Pirates
Many keep waiting for the Pirates to string together some wins, but so far that hasn't happened. On the bright side, Ivan Nova has issued only six walks in 77 innings this year, good for a 0.70 BB/9 - second best in the majors.
26. Oakland Athletics
Athletics hitters continue to mash baseballs, tied with the Yankees in 4th place with 84 home runs. Unfortunately, they can't seem to win games away from the Coliseum, combining to an 8-20 road record.
27. Kansas City Royals
As long as the Royals remain in last place, trade rumors will fly. Lorenzo Cain has performed very well (albeit with limited power), hitting .272/.356/.385 this year. Alex Gordon, however, has not. (.175/.286/.205, -0.3 WAR and 0 HRs to date).
28. San Francisco Giants
23-35 3-7 18 (-10)
The Giants have averaged 86 wins the past three seasons. The current group is projected to finish with 75 victories, 11 games below .500 for the first time since 2013. Times are dire in the Bay Area.
29. Philadelphia Phillies
After fairly productive 2016 campaigns from starters Vince Velasquez, Aaron Nola and Jerad Eickhoff, those three have combined to post a 5.25 ERA (4.60 FIP) in 27 starts. The club also desperately need Maikel Franco to be better.
30. San Diego Padres
The Padres recently saw their five-game win streak snapped, and that's not a typo. Their surprising run included a sweep of the reigning World Series champions, with the other two wins coming against the Nationals and Rockies.
(Photos courtesy: Action Images)
Marlins' Chisholm named MLB The Show cover athlete
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Plan outlined for new Rays ballpark, redevelopment
Braves' Grissom: 'Not trying to fill nobody's shoes' at shor...
Report: Giants agree to deal with Roberto Perez
Elias believes Orioles can make playoffs in 2023
Phillies sign Josh Harrison to reported 1-year, $2M deal
Look: Verlander, Alcantara accept error-filled Cy Young trop...
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Report: Rays, Yandy Diaz closing in on 3-year, $24M extensio...
Ortiz concerned about Red Sox lineup behind Devers: 'I'm pit...
Rangers sign Frazier, Duffy to minor-league contracts
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Report: Mets agree to 4-year, $50M deal with batting champ M...
Rays, Fairbanks agree to 3-year, $12M extension
Braves sign Snitker to extension through 2025


To reduce discrimination against people living with HIV/Aids, Vietnamese social worker Vũ Thị Ngọc Hoàn decides to stay with them herself.
Hoàn (left) visiting Hien at her clothing shop in a tourist area in Ninh Binh province.
How does one try to convince people that living among HIV/Aids sufferers or their families, isn't dangerous?
Vũ Thị Ngọc Hoàn, a programme coordinator with NGO World Concern Vietnam, tried all that, but people living with incurable disease and the widows and orphans left behind were still being shunned by other villagers.
So along with a colleague, Hoàn decided to walk the talk, staying in the homes of families living with HIV/Aids while conducting education programmes in heavily affected villages.
Inspired by her Christian faith, Hoàn's empathy for and determination to help people led her to give up a safe career path as an academic after graduating from university as a mathematician.
She first joined an NGO as an administrator but frequently acted as translator for her American boss when he went to the villages.
"I felt a close connection, very close to them," she says of the many people with disabilities she met.
Encouraged by her boss, she decided to leave administration and work directly with people she wanted to help.
With no formal training in social work, Hoàn got a job with an electronics manufacturer in Penang, Malaysia, acting as interpreter and social worker for her many countrymen in the factory, on top of working in production.
After cutting her teeth helping to tackle what she describes as the many social problems at the factory's living quarters for three years, she returned to Vietnam to join World Concern, helping people with HIV and the hearing impaired in Hanoi.
And even as she learnt on the job, she sought to get more formal training, signing up for SIF's social work programme that has trained 20 social work lecturers and practitioners over three years.
The training included a 10-day stint in Singapore where participants like Hoàn got to see the development of the profession here.
"I'm very happy with the training opportunities provided by SIF. They have helped me in my work," she says.
One of the people Hoàn was able to help is Hien.
Hien and her husband were one of the first people living with HIV/Aids (PLWHA) that she approached in Ninh Binh province a few years ago.
At the time, Hoàn recalls, discrimination against PLWHAs was very high and there were no support groups.
"We came and approached PLWHAs and worked with them to build their capacity as well as set up peer groups of PLWHAs throughout the province.
"This lady has now become a leader of one peer group of women living with HIV/Aids in Ninh Binh. Her group has been very active in doing community events to reduce the stigma and discrimination," she says.
Hien and her husband received a US$150 loan they have since repaid from World Concerns, to raise ducks and chickens as well as to start a small clothing shop at a tourist area near their village.
For Hoàn, it all adds up to deeply rewarding work with people she has a heart for.