FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Navy quarterback Blake Horvath read the play perfectly and turned it into the longest in school history, a 95-yard touchdown run in the Armed Forces Bowl. “By somebody that’s not really that fast,” Horvath said after the 21-20 win over Oklahoma on Friday. The Midshipmen (10-3) fell behind by two touchdowns less than 10 minutes into the game, but Horvath's record run late in the third quarter tied the game at 14-all. He put them ahead on a 6-yard TD with 4:34 left before Navy’s defense stopped an Oklahoma 2-point conversion with six seconds left in the game. “Probably over-pursued by them,” Horvath said of the 95-yarder. “Some tendencies they showed earlier, just thought I could get a pull.” After faking a handoff on the read-option play, Horvath ran straight up the middle into the open field. Brandon Chatman cut off a pursing defender around the Sooners 20. By time another defender, cornerback Woodi Washington, was able to catch up and started to bring him down, Horvath stretched the ball over the goal line — though he was initially ruled short before a replay review resulted in the touchdown. “Brandon Chatman actually busted his tail to get his butt down the field,” Horvath said. “I can see him out of the corner of my eye busting his butt. And honestly, it’s almost not even my touchdown without him and the offensive line blocking.” The previous longest play for the Midshipmen came during the Roger Staubach era, when Johnny Sai had a 93-yard run against Duke in 1963. Horvath also had a 90-yard TD run against Memphis, making him only the second Navy player with two 90-yard runs in the same season. The other was quarterback Malcolm Perry in 2017, when he had runs of 92 and 91 yards. “That’s a play we know can hit big and it did, and definitely exciting to see,” fullback Alex Tecza said. “I was getting tired just chasing him. ... It's great. He's being doing that all year.” Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-footballConsistent with Strategy to Optimize Business Portfolio and Enhance Free Cash Flow PITTSBURGH , Dec. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Koppers Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Koppers Holdings Inc. KOP , today announced that the company will discontinue phthalic anhydride production at its facility in Stickney, Illinois , in 2025. The decision, affecting approximately 25 employees, was driven by significant near-term capital spending requirements that could not be economically justified by end-market projections. An ancillary benefit is an improvement in the site's environmental footprint as annual emissions of certain regulated air contaminants are expected to be reduced by 50 to 70 percent. Koppers has targeted mid-2025 for the shutdown and expects to ramp down production of phthalic anhydride over the next six months as the company builds inventory to supply existing contracts through 2025, as necessary. The closure of the phthalic anhydride plant will not impact Stickney's coal tar distillation operations, which manufacture products including creosote, carbon pitch and pavement sealer base. The phthalic anhydride plant at Stickney was constructed to consume naphthalene, a byproduct of the coal tar distillation process, as a feedstock to produce the chemical intermediate used to manufacture plasticizers, polyester resins, and alkyd paints. As availability of coal tar has declined, phthalic anhydride has become less profitable as lower naphthalene production resulted in a need to supplement production with a greater proportion of higher-cost third-party feedstock. This action is expected to result in pre-tax charges to earnings of $51 million to $55 million through the end of 2026. Approximately $28 million constitutes non-cash charges anticipated to be recorded in 2024 and 2025 with approximately $23 million to $27 million over the next two years going toward cash expenditures, primarily for plant cleaning, waste disposal, and demolition costs. Ongoing operational and capital expenditure savings have been incorporated into the company's current 2025 goals of $300 million of adjusted EBITDA and $65 million to $75 million of capital expenditures. Koppers CEO Leroy Ball said , "The decision to close the phthalic anhydride plant demonstrates our ongoing willingness to critically assess our portfolio and pivot from underperforming businesses when it is clear that improvement is not on the horizon. By focusing on our core strengths, we can continue to enhance our competitive position in healthier markets to drive better long-term returns. Ceasing operations at any plant is never easy, however, this will improve the performance, efficiency, and emissions profile at Stickney . I want to thank our dedicated employees who have worked hard over the years to serve our customers with quality products. I am mindful of the impact this decision has on them and am committed to ensuring that they are supported through this transition." About Koppers Koppers KOP is an integrated global provider of essential treated wood products, wood preservation technologies and carbon compounds. Our team of 2,200 employees create, protect and preserve key elements of our global infrastructure – including railroad crossties, utility poles, outdoor wooden structures, and production feedstocks for steel, aluminum and construction materials, among others – applying decades of industry-leading expertise while constantly innovating to anticipate the needs of tomorrow. Together we are providing safe and sustainable solutions to enable rail transportation, keep power flowing, and create spaces of enjoyment for people everywhere. Protecting What Matters, Preserving The Future. Learn more at Koppers.com . Inquiries from the media should be directed to Ms. Jessica Franklin Black at BlackJF@koppers.com or 412-227-2025. Inquiries from the investment community should be directed to Ms. Quynh McGuire at McGuireQT@koppers.com or 412-227-2049. Safe Harbor Statement Certain statements in this press release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and may include, but are not limited to, statements about sales levels, acquisitions, restructuring, declines in the value of Koppers assets and the effect of any resulting impairment charges, profitability and anticipated expenses and cash outflows. All forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. All statements contained herein that are not clearly historical in nature are forward-looking, and words such as "outlook," "guidance," "forecast," "believe," "anticipate," "expect," "estimate," "may," "will," "should," "continue," "plan," "potential," "intend," "likely," or other similar words or phrases are generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement contained herein, in other press releases, written statements or other documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or in Koppers communications and discussions with investors and analysts in the normal course of business through meetings, phone calls and conference calls, regarding future dividends, expectations with respect to sales, earnings, cash flows, operating efficiencies, restructurings, cost reduction efforts, the amount and timing of the charge to earnings Koppers expects to record, including the estimates of the total costs expected for each major type of cost and the expected cash outlays, the benefits of acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures or other matters as well as financings and debt reduction, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and contingencies. Many of these risks, uncertainties and contingencies are beyond our control, and may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from anticipated results, performance or achievements. Factors that might affect such forward-looking statements include, among other things, the impact of changes in commodity prices, such as oil and copper, on product margins; general economic and business conditions; potential difficulties in protecting our intellectual property; the ratings on our debt and our ability to repay or refinance our outstanding indebtedness as it matures; our ability to operate within the limitations of our debt covenants; unexpected business disruptions; potential delays in timing or changes to expected benefits from cost reduction efforts; finalization of employee retention and severance arrangements; finalization of the accounting impact of the closure; higher than expected demolition, site clearing, environmental remediation or asset retirement costs; potential impairment of our goodwill and/or long-lived assets; demand for Koppers goods and services; competitive conditions; capital market conditions, including interest rates, borrowing costs and foreign currency rate fluctuations; availability and fluctuations in the prices of key raw materials; disruptions and inefficiencies in the supply chain; economic, political and environmental conditions in international markets; changes in laws; the impact of environmental laws and regulations; unfavorable resolution of claims against us, as well as those discussed more fully elsewhere in this release and in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Koppers, particularly our latest annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent filings by Koppers with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statements in this release speak only as of the date of this release, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after that date or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. For Information: Quynh McGuire, Vice President, Investor Relations 412 227 2049 McGuireQT@koppers.com View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/koppers-ceasing-phthalic-anhydride-operations-at-stickney-facility-302324251.html SOURCE KOPPERS HOLDINGS INC. © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.Trump threatens to try to take back the Panama Canal. Panama's president balks at the suggestionThrivent Financial for Lutherans Has $1.54 Million Stock Holdings in Extreme Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXTR)
Broncos hope to continue playoff push when they meet the banged-up RaidersKosovo arrested several suspects Saturday after an explosion at a key canal feeding two of its main power plants, while neighbouring Serbia rejected accusations of staging the blast. The explosion Friday near the town of Zubin Potok, which sits in an ethnic Serb-dominated area in Kosovo's troubled north, damaged a canal that supplies water to hundreds of thousands of people and cooling systems at two coal-fired power plants that generate most of Kosovo's electricity. As security forces swarmed the area around the canal, whose concrete walls were left with a gaping hole gushing water, Prime Minister Albin Kurti visited the site and announced authorities had arrested several people. Law enforcement "carried out searches" and "collected testimony and evidence, and the criminals and terrorists will have to face justice and the law," he said. The arrests follow a security meeting late Friday, when Kurti pointed the finger at Serbia. "The attack was carried out by professionals. We believe it comes from gangs directed by Serbia," he told a press conference, without providing evidence. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic hit back Saturday, denying the "irresponsible" and "baseless accusations". "Such unfounded claims are aimed to tarnish Serbia's reputation, as well as to undermine efforts to promote peace and stability in the region," he said in a statement to AFP. Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Djuric had earlier suggested on X that the Kosovar "regime" could itself be behind the blast, calling for an international investigation. The main political party representing Serbs in Kosovo, Serb List, also condemned the attack "in the strongest possible terms". AFP journalists at the scene saw water leaking heavily from one side of the reinforced canal, which runs from the Serb-majority north of Kosovo to the capital, Pristina. However, electricity supplies to consumers were running smoothly on Saturday morning, with authorities having found an alternative method to cool the plants, said Kosovo's Economy Minister Artane Rizvanolli. Repair work was ongoing, authorities said, while Kurti confirmed workers had managed to restore water flows to 25 percent capacity. The United States strongly condemned the "attack on critical infrastructure in Kosovo", the US embassy in Pristina said in a statement on Facebook. "We are monitoring the situation closely... and have offered our full support to the government of Kosovo to ensure that those responsible for this criminal attack are identified and held accountable." Turkey's foreign ministry also condemned the attack, adding: "We call on all parties to exercise restraint to avoid escalation in the region." The NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping mission for Kosovo joined the calls for restraint. "It is important that facts are established and that those responsible are held accountable and brought to justice," it said in a statement. The force is providing security in the surrounding area and has offered logistical, explosives removal and engineering support to the Kosovo authorities, it added. The European Union's ambassador to Kosovo, Aivo Orav, joined the international condemnation, saying on X: "The incident needs to be investigated and those responsible brought to justice." Animosity between ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo and Serbia has persisted since the end of the war between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian insurgents in the late 1990s. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, a move that Serbia has refused to acknowledge. Kurti's government has for months sought to dismantle a parallel system of social services and political offices backed by Belgrade to serve Kosovo's Serbs. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama on Saturday denounced "the act of sabotage on the critical water supply infrastructure in the Iber-Lepenc Canal" in comments on X, calling it "a serious crime that endangers the lives of Kosovo's citizens and undermines the process of normalizing relations in our region." Friday's attack came after a series of violent incidents in northern Kosovo, including the hurling of hand grenades at a municipal building and a police station earlier this week. ih/ach/giv/jhb/sbkJewellery, buttons and a conceptual bra: how the Royal Mint boss found a new source of money
Mike Slater: These 3 Rhetorical Expressions Are Causing Our Cultural MalaisePanchabati Baske, 50, does not mind snakes in paddy fields. “These are non-poisonous and there are many of them around,” she dismisses them, as she walks through her fields, as a snake slithers through. “See this crop of Kerala Sundari? Some of it has fallen in the recent cyclone Dana but look at the yield,” Baske says. “Will someone believe that no [lab-made] fertilisers have been used while cultivating this?” She is standing amid a dense lush yellow crop of paddy, in Damodarpur village, Nayagram block of West Bengal’s Jhargram district located almost 200 kilometres from Kolkata. Baske is convinced that organic varieties yield more grains of paddy per stalk. “I have counted. Kerala Sundari has about 350 to 400 grains in every stalk, whereas Swana, (a regular variety of rice cultivated using fertilisers) has about 250 grains,” she says. For the past several years, Baske has been cultivating indigenous varieties of rice without using any store-bought pesticides. She is a cultivator associated with Aamon, a farmer producer company, which was registered in October 2020. Aamon in Bengali, is a reference to the June-July period of rice sowing. Aamon is an all-woman initiative that has about 8,000 farmers across 106 villages in Nayagram block. The company, formed in October 2020, started with 350 women. In the financial year 2023-24, they produced about 800 tonnes of six indigenous varieties of paddy that got them a turnover of about ₹2.2 crore. Each woman is a shareholder in the company that retails under the brand name Ecomust locally and under Aamon online. Baske and other women associated with Aamon feel their aspirations have taken wing. The farmer producer company has not only given economic freedom to the women farmers associated with it, but has also added to their confidence and social standing. Coming out of home A few hundred metres away from the field, Baske has cultivated black rice. “This crop is taller than you. Those who have not seen black rice ask how this crop looks. It is not black; it is just like any other variety of paddy,” she says. Not far from the paddy fields is Baske’s thatched home. Here, she has set up an elaborate vermicompost arrangement which she uses in the organic farming processes, to improve soil health and crop yields. “I had bought 500 earthworms for ₹1 a piece to start,” she says. Under the Central government’s Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY), farmers get assistance to construct pits to produce organic manure through vermicomposting. “ This traditional method of cultivation is what we followed for generations. It is only in the past few decades that we have been using chemicals which are entering the food chain,” she says. The idea of Aamon came through self-help groups (SHG) of women who were promoting organic farming in the region. Once a hotbed of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) that led to the area being violence-ridden, coming out of home for community work was a challenge. In the financial year of 2023-24, the women farmers of Aamon produced about 800 tonnes of six indigenous varieties of paddy that got them a turnover of about ₹3 crore. | Photo Credit: Aamon “ I was the first to come out of my village and be associated with Jaiba Dal (an SHG promoting organic crops) and later Aamon,” Baske says. She speaks about how difficult it was for women to go out. “Often people would ask my family members, including my husband, why I was out for such long hours, what kind of work I did, and why I was out so late. This would result in fights at home,” she says. Building connections About 50 km from Baske’s house is Kharikamathani, a town in the heart of Nayagram block. On a Sunday afternoon, she and about 10 other women arrive at the office of PRADAN (Professional Assistance for Development Action), a non-government organisation that helps organise collectives. The office of the NGO is located above a motor garage and has meeting rooms. On one of the walls there are photographs of women farmers, honoured for best practices by the NGO. One such photograph is of Swarnaphabha Mahato, a farmer in her 20s, planting paddy seedlings in a muddy field. “This is me a few years ago,” Mahato says, smiling at the photograph. She says cultivating indigenous varieties of rice is not enough. Along with other women in cultivation, she has been attending several village fairs and festivals familiarising people with indigenous varieties of rice. “We used to cook rice and make payesh (rice pudding) and urge people to taste it just to promote these varieties,” says Mahato. Though most of the organic rice they cultivate is exported and sold in cities, the women feel it is important to find a local market for their produce. Aamon has women farmers from about 100 villages of Nayagram block located in remote south-western West Bengal. | Photo Credit: Aamon All the farmers at the PRADAN office dress in similar-looking sarees: green with red borders. The women usually wear these at governing body and executive body meetings. They sit in a circle on the floor of one of the rooms where they hold the meeting to take stock of the yearly and seasonal production of paddy. Some farmers have a dual role of purchase officers, and keep a record of how much paddy is produced. Prabhati Das, 47, one of the women at the meeting, says that the challenge has not been so much about farming, but about convincing the men that women could cultivate on their own using the seeds and the method they wanted. “They (the men) used to crack jokes and discourage us. ‘What do the women know; they will not be able to do anything.’ We were repeatedly told this,” Das says. Das talks about how her husband gave her only three cottahs of land (about 720 square feet). “It was in 2016 when I first cultivated on this land. My husband told me that if it did not work, I would have to go back to my parents’ house,” she says. It worked. In the last financial year 2023-2024, her village, Nagripada, cultivated organic paddy on 77 acres of land. “There are 118 women farmers here who are growing organic paddy,” she says. Freedom from control Rekha Sinh, 42, a farmer who has been instrumental in getting 102 women farmers at her village Biriberia to join Aamon , says organic farming has been about breaking barriers. “Our husbands did not believe that we could achieve something. When we rode bicycles to hold meetings in and around villages, neighbours would pass comments,” she says. Now, many women hold driving licenses for cars. Sinh tells a story which the farmers often repeat to convince other women to join them and take up organic farming. In a village, a person has three sons: one sells seeds, another lab-made fertilisers and pesticides, the third is a doctor. The people go to the same family for everything, because after eating the harmful chemicals they visit a doctor. The women explain that by cultivating organic varieties they have been able to come out of the clutches of traders who sell both seeds and fertilisers. “Once you start buying from these local traders, often the same shops give you seeds on credit and then fertilisers on credit, but when the crops are harvested the farmers have to sell it to the trader,” Sinh says. For farmers of Aamon, 80% of their produce is bought by the company. There are various varieties of paddy which the women cultivate, such as Kerala Sundari, Shatia, Mallifullo, black and brown rice. They preserve seeds of these indigenous varieties from their annual harvest and use them every year, controlling seed quality. “ If a farmer has to spend ₹7,000 to cultivate one bigha of commercial paddy, we can do it for only ₹700, because we do not have to buy anything,” Das says. This, despite the fact that the soil is not free of the fertilizers and pesticides used for many years before, and the neighbouring fields may be using these that then seep into their produce, besides contaminating the ground water. Breaking boundaries The movement around organic farming has given the women more than economic freedom. “ We have been able to break the barriers of patriarchy and are recognised and respected for our work. It is not that we are doing something new, but our labour was never appreciated until we started our own enterprise,” Sinh says. Studies have shown that the female participation of women in agriculture in West Bengal is higher than men. In West Bengal, 57.12% of women are involved in agriculture, compared to 50.02% of men, says an essay in the INSEE Journal of the Indian Society for Ecological Economics. One of the reasons is men’s migration to other States. Women farmers in Nayagram cultivate several varieties of paddy and preserve their seeds from their annual harvest, thereby controlling seed quality. | Photo Credit: Aamon However, despite a high female workforce in agriculture, women do not own much land in West Bengal. Among the dozen women at the PRADAN office, none of them have ownership of the land they cultivate. That is usually in the name of fathers, husbands, and sons. Despite that, the women of Aamon speak eagerly about the joy of riding a bicycle, participating in rural fairs, and travelling to Kolkata and Delhi to speak about their successes. Some like Krishna Bhunia, from Chandrasekharpur village, are happy they could get their daughters married after they turned adult, and not as children, for want of resources. They also operate a rice mill at Murakati village in Nayagram block, with a large nameplate and the words, Aamon Mahila Samiti in bold Bengali letters. Sacks of rice husk are stacked outside the mill. Inside, there is some husked black rice, which Baske eagerly picks up to show. The farmers sing a song while opening the rice mill or attending the general body meetings of Aamon. The lyrics go: “ Keetnasake desh bhasalo; Ebar jaiba saare kore chaasi dhan go; Akaler bachao poran (The country is laced with pesticides; O farmer, now cultivate paddy using organic fertiliser; Let us save lives).” A home of her own Sourangshu Banerjee, the team coordinator of PRADAN, says there are many farmer producer companies, but Aamon is unique because it is run by women and it promotes organic farming. PRADAN, which is aimed at eliminating rural poverty, was working with the conventional practices of agriculture until experts like Banerjee realised that fertilisers were not giving the desired results. They convinced the women farmers to shift to organic farming. “Aamon is now diversifying into cash crops like mustard and turmeric,” he says. Nayagram is located in the south-western part of West Bengal that is arid. The West Bengal government had initiated Usharmukti, a water management programme to rejuvenate severn major rivers, across 54 blocks in the State’s deprived Jangalmahal region. Though the initiative has suffered because the 100-day Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme has come to a halt in West Bengal since December 2021, efforts are on to implement Usharmukti through other government programmes. Another challenge for farmers in Nayagram is the herds of wild elephants that often destroy their crops. The fragmented forests of Jangalmahal have, over the past few years, become home to 180 to 200 elephants. It has emerged as one of the hotspots of human-elephant conflict. Das says her village Nagripada is located close to the West Bengal-Odisha border. “If you want to witness more varieties of organic paddy and wild elephants you can come to our village,” she says, adding that the way to find her house is not to ask for her husband’s or son’s name. “Ask for Prabhati Das’s house.” Published - December 22, 2024 06:49 pm IST Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit agriculture / Agriculture / agricultural research and technology / organic foods / Spotlight