State funeral for former PM Manmohan SinghNo. 2 UConn falls again in Maui, losing 73-72 to Colorado on Jakimovski's off-balance layup LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Andrej Jakimovski converted an off-balance layup with 8 seconds left, and Colorado handed No. 2 UConn its second loss in two days at the Maui Invitational, beating the two-time defending national champion 73-72. A day after a 99-97 overtime loss to Memphis that left Huskies coach Dan Hurley livid about the officiating, UConn couldn’t shake the unranked Buffaloes, who shot 62.5% in the second half. Elijah Malone and Julian Hammond III scored 16 points each for Colorado, and Jakimovski had 12 points and 10 rebounds. Liam McNeeley led UConn with 20 points. Rodgers says he's undecided about playing next season, but Jets are his 'first option' if he returns Aaron Rodgers is still contemplating whether he wants to play football next season. And if he does return, he said during his weekly appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Tuesday that he prefers it to be with the New York Jets. The star quarterback, who turns 41 next Monday, denied a recent report that he wants to keep playing next year but not with the Jets. He said he needs to see how he feels physically and where the Jets stand with a new general manager and coach. He added that the Jets will also have to want him playing for them. That will all factor into his decision. Court rejects request to sideline San Jose State volleyball player on grounds she’s transgender A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that allows a San Jose State women’s volleyball team member to play in the Mountain West Conference tournament after complaints said she should be ineligible on grounds that she’s transgender. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that a U.S. Magistrate in Denver was correct in allowing her to play. The magistrate and the appeals court said the players and others who sued should have filed their complaint earlier, rather than waiting until less than two weeks before the tournament was to begin to seek an emergency injunction. Lewandowski joins Ronaldo and Messi in Champions League 100-goal club. Haaland nets 2 but City draws ROME (AP) — Robert Lewandowski joined Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi as the only players in Champions League history with 100 or more goals. But Erling Haaland is on a faster pace than anyone after boosting his total to 46 goals at age 24. Lewandowski’s early penalty kick started Barcelona off to a 3-0 win over previously unbeaten Brest to move into second place in the new single-league format. Ronaldo leads the all-time scoring list with 140 goals and Messi is next with 129. Haaland scored a brace as City was held 3-3 by Feyenoord. Inter Milan beat Leipzig 1-0 to move atop the standings. Bayern Munich beat Paris Saint-Germain 1-0. Atalanta, Arsenal and Bayer Leverkusen also won. Traffic citations against Dolphins' Tyreek Hill dismissed after officers no-show at hearing MIAMI (AP) — Traffic citations issued to Miami Dolphins star wide receiver Tyreek Hill after a September altercation with police have been dismissed after the charging officers didn’t attend a court hearing. Hill’s tickets for careless driving and failing to wear a seat belt were dismissed after the Miami-Dade Police officers failed to show up for a Monday hearing. The tickets were issued after Hill was stopped outside Hard Rock Stadium for allegedly speeding before the Dolphins' season opener on Sept. 8. The stop escalated and an officer pulled Hill from the car, forced him to the ground and handcuffed him. North Carolina football coach Mack Brown won't return for 2025 season North Carolina coach Mack Brown won’t return for the 2025 season. The school announced the move Tuesday with a statement from athletic director Bubba Cunningham. The school said Cunningham informed the 73-year-old College Football Hall of Fame member that there would be a coaching change. Brown is set to coach the regular-season finale on Saturday against rival N.C. State, though a decision hasn’t been made about whether Brown will coach a bowl game. Brown is in his second stint with the program and won a national championship at Texas. Juan Soto could decide on his next team before or during baseball's winter meetings NEW YORK (AP) — Juan Soto appears on a timetable to decide on where to sign either before or during baseball’s winter meetings in Dallas, which run from Dec. 8-12. Soto met with the Yankees, Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox, a person familiar with the negotiations said last week, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because details were not announced. Soto’s agent, Scott Boras, asked teams to submit initial offers by Thanksgiving, a second person familiar with the talks said, also on condition of anonymity because it was not announced. Dejounte Murray is rejoining the Pelicans vs. Toronto and drawing inspiration from his mother METAIRIE, La. (AP) — Dejounte Murray says he plans to return to the New Orleans Pelicans’ lineup on Wednesday night for the first time since fracturing his left hand in a season-opening victory over Chicago on Oct. 23. And Murray says his mother will be on his mind when he takes the court against the Toronto Raptors. Murray says his mother had a stroke in September and disclosed that her condition was the previously unspecified “personal matter” that took him away from the team during the final days of the preseason. Murray had 14 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds in his lone game with New Orleans. Lionel Messi has his new coach: Javier Mascherano's hiring by Inter Miami is now complete FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Lionel Messi and Javier Mascherano are together again, this time with Inter Miami. The former Barcelona and Argentina teammates have reunited, with Inter Miami announcing Tuesday that Mascherano’s hiring as the club’s new coach is complete. The sides struck a deal late last week for Mascherano to replace Gerardo “Tata” Martino, who stepped aside for personal reasons. Mascherano most recently was Argentina’s under-20 team coach. Mascherano says he was “drawn to the organization’s undeniable ambition." Will Utah State or Boise State forfeit vs. San Jose State in the Mountain West semifinals? LAS VEGAS (AP) — A team that previously boycotted at least one match against the San Jose State women’s volleyball team will be faced with another decision whether to play the school, this time in the Mountain West Conference semifinals with a shot at the NCAA Tournament on the line. Five schools forfeited matches in the regular season against San Jose State, which carried a No. 2 seed into the conference tournament in Las Vegas. Among those schools: No. 3 Utah State and No. 6 Boise State, who will face off Wednesday with the winner scheduled to play the Spartans in the semifinals on Friday.
New AI-powered search tool helps shoppers find the best prices on outdoor gearDAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria's prime minister said Monday that most cabinet ministers were back at work after rebels overthrew President Bashar Assad , but some state workers failed to return to their jobs, and a United Nations official said the country's public sector had come “to a complete and abrupt halt." Meanwhile, streams of refugees crossed back into Syria from neighboring countries, hoping for a more peaceful future and looking for relatives who disappeared during Assad's brutal rule. There were already signs of the difficulties ahead for the rebel alliance now in control of much of the country. The alliance is led by a former senior al-Qaida militant who severed ties with the extremist group years ago and has promised representative government and religious tolerance. The rebel command said Monday they would not tell women how to dress. “It is strictly forbidden to interfere with women’s dress or impose any request related to their clothing or appearance, including requests for modesty,” the command said in a statement on social media. Nearly two days after rebels entered the capital, some key government services had shut down after state workers ignored calls to go back to their jobs, the U.N. official said, causing issues at airports and borders and slowing the flow of humanitarian aid. Rebel leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, who was long known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, also met for the first time with Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi Jalali, who stayed in Syria when Assad fled. “You will see there are skills" among the rebels, al-Sharaa said in a video shared on a rebel messaging channel. Israel said it carried out airstrikes on suspected chemical weapons sites and long-range rockets to keep them from falling into the hands of extremists. Israel also seized a buffer zone inside Syria after Syrian troops withdrew. In northern Syria, Turkey said allied opposition forces seized the town of Manbij from Kurdish-led forces backed by the United States, a reminder that even after Assad's departure, the country remains split among armed groups that have fought in the past. The Kremlin said Russia has granted political asylum to Assad , a decision made by President Vladimir Putin. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on Assad’s specific whereabouts and said Putin did not plan to meet with him. Damascus was quiet Monday, with life slowly returning to normal, though most shops and public institutions were closed. In public squares, some people were still celebrating. Civilian traffic resumed, but there was no public transport. Long lines formed in front of bakeries and other food stores. There was little sign of any security presence though in some areas, small groups of armed men were stationed in the streets. Across swathes of Syria, families are now waiting outside prisons, security offices and courts, hoping for news of loved ones who were imprisoned or who disappeared. Just north of Damascus in the feared Saydnaya military prison, women detainees, some with their children, screamed as rebels broke locks off their cell doors. Amnesty International and other groups say dozens of people were secretly executed every week in Saydnaya, and they estimate that up to 13,000 Syrians were killed between 2011 and 2016. “Don’t be afraid," one rebel said as he ushered women from packed cells. "Bashar Assad has fallen!” In southern Turkey , Mustafa Sultan was among hundreds of Syrian refugees waiting at border crossings to head home. He was searching for his older brother, who was imprisoned under Assad. “I haven’t seen him for 13 years," he said. "I am going to go see whether he’s alive.” Jalali, the prime minister, has sought to project normalcy since Assad fled. “We are working so that the transitional period is quick and smooth,” he told Sky News Arabia TV on Monday, saying the security situation had already improved from the day before. At the court of Justice in Damascus, which was stormed by the rebels to free detainees, Judge Khitam Haddad, an aide to the justice minister in the outgoing government, said Sunday that judges were ready to resume work quickly. “We want to give everyone their rights,” Haddad said outside the courthouse. “We want to build a new Syria and to keep the work, but with new methods.” But a U.N. official said some government services had been paralyzed as worried state employees stayed home. The public sector “has just come to a complete and abrupt halt," said U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria Adam Abdelmoula, noting, for example, that an aid flight carrying urgently needed medical supplies had been put on hold after aviation employees abandoned their jobs. “This is a country that has had one government for 53 years and then suddenly all of those who have been demonized by the public media are now in charge in the nation’s capital,” Abdelmoula told The Associated Press. "I think it will take a couple of days and a lot of assurance on the part of the armed groups for these people to return to work again.” Britain and the U.S. are both considering whether to remove the main anti-Assad rebel group from their lists of designated terrorist organizations. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham began as an offshoot of al-Qaida but cut ties with the group years ago and has worked to present a more moderate image. The group's leader, al-Sharaa, “is saying some of the right things about the protection of minorities, about respecting people’s rights,” British Cabinet minister Pat McFadden said, adding that a change would be considered “quite quickly.” But British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, speaking later during a visit to Saudi Arabia, said it was "far too early” to make that decision. In Washington, a Biden administration official noted that HTS will be an “important component” in Syria's future and that the U.S. needs to “engage with them appropriately.” Another administration official said the U.S. remains in a “wait and see” mode on whether to remove the designation. Both officials requested anonymity to discuss the ongoing internal deliberations. The U.S. also announced it was sending its special envoy for hostage affairs to Beirut to seek information about the whereabouts of Austin Tice, a journalist who vanished in Syria 12 years ago and who President Joe Biden has said is believed to be alive. Israelis welcomed the fall of Assad, who was a key ally of Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, while expressing concern over what comes next. Israel says its forces temporarily seized a buffer zone inside Syria dating back to a 1974 agreement after Syrian troops withdrew in the chaos. “The only interest we have is the security of Israel and its citizens," Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told reporters Monday. Saar did not provide details about the targets, but the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said they included weapons warehouses, research centers, air defense systems and aircraft squadrons. Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria in recent years, targeting what it says are military sites related to Iran and Hezbollah . Israeli officials rarely comment on individual strikes. Syria agreed to give up its chemical weapons stockpile in 2013, after the government was accused of launching an attack near Damascus that killed hundreds of people . But it is widely believed to have kept some of the weapons and was accused of using them again in subsequent years. Officials in Turkey, which is the main supporter of the Syrian opposition to Assad, say its allies have taken full control of the northern Syrian city of Manbij from a U.S.-supported and Kurdish-led force known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF. The SDF said a Turkish drone struck in the village of al-Mistriha in eastern Syria, killing 12 civilians, including six children. Turkey views the SDF, which is primarily composed of a Syrian Kurdish militia, as an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey. The SDF has also been a key ally of the United States in the war against the Islamic State group. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Monday expressed hope for a new era in Syria in which ethnic and religious groups can live peacefully under an inclusive government. But he warned against allowing Islamic State or Kurdish fighters to take advantage of the situation, saying Turkey will prevent Syria from turning into a “haven for terrorism.” Mroue reported from Beirut and Goldenberg from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, Mehmet Guzel at the Oncupinar border crossing in Turkey, Jamey Keaten in Geneva and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report. Follow the AP's Syria coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/syriaAsia Distillates-Window activity upbeat; refiner Jan sales scant
Mumbai: The BMC's ambitious project to concretise roads in Mumbai has faced setbacks due to substandard work at some locations. The complaints regarding poor construction quality have prompted civic authorities to order an inquiry and a detailed report on all the work under the project. Based on the findings, appropriate corrective measures will be taken to ensure that the construction meets the required quality standards. Bhushan Gagrani, the municipal commissioner, stated, "The audit of concrete roads currently underway in the city will be conducted by the Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay (IIT-B) and the internal department." This decision was made following complaints regarding poor construction quality at certain locations. According to sources, the audit will evaluate the quality of materials used, adherence to construction standards, and the overall execution process. The inspection will focus on identifying defects such as cracks, uneven surfaces, or poor finishing, which are often signs of substandard work. A senior civic official said, "The concerned contractor, engineer, and consultant will be held responsible if the road work is found to be of inferior quality." This comes after Mumbai BJP president and MLA Ashish Shelar called for an audit of road work following the discovery of visible cracks on Bhargav Road in Santacruz, which was constructed last year. The civic officials, along with a team from the IIT-B, conducted an inspection of the roads in Dahisar on December 12. The BMC have appointed IIT-B as an independent quality control agency for the ongoing cement concretisation work in Mumbai. IIT-B will be providing recommendations on road maintenance, conducting inspections, reviewing quality standards, performing tests, and preparing audit reports. In Phase 1, the BMC has completed only 46 km of the planned 324 km of concretisation within a year. Currently, work is ongoing on 213 roads, with 298 roads yet to be concretised. In Phase 2, of the 1,420 roads scheduled for concretisation, 433 are currently under construction, with many still pending. These delays have hindered the BMC's ambitious goal of creating a pothole-free Mumbai.
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DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria's prime minister said Monday that most cabinet ministers were back at work after rebels overthrew President Bashar Assad , but some state workers failed to return to their jobs, and a United Nations official said the country's public sector had come “to a complete and abrupt halt." Meanwhile, streams of refugees crossed back into Syria from neighboring countries, hoping for a more peaceful future and looking for relatives who disappeared during Assad's brutal rule. There were already signs of the difficulties ahead for the rebel alliance now in control of much of the country. The alliance is led by a former senior al-Qaida militant who severed ties with the extremist group years ago and has promised representative government and religious tolerance. The rebel command said Monday they would not tell women how to dress. “It is strictly forbidden to interfere with women’s dress or impose any request related to their clothing or appearance, including requests for modesty,” the command said in a statement on social media. Nearly two days after rebels entered the capital, some key government services had shut down after state workers ignored calls to go back to their jobs, the U.N. official said, causing issues at airports and borders and slowing the flow of humanitarian aid. Rebel leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, who was long known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, also met for the first time with Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi Jalali, who stayed in Syria when Assad fled. “You will see there are skills" among the rebels, al-Sharaa said in a video shared on a rebel messaging channel. Israel said it carried out airstrikes on suspected chemical weapons sites and long-range rockets to keep them from falling into the hands of extremists. Israel also seized a buffer zone inside Syria after Syrian troops withdrew. In northern Syria, Turkey said allied opposition forces seized the town of Manbij from Kurdish-led forces backed by the United States, a reminder that even after Assad's departure, the country remains split among armed groups that have fought in the past. The Kremlin said Russia has granted political asylum to Assad , a decision made by President Vladimir Putin . Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on Assad’s specific whereabouts and said Putin did not plan to meet with him. Damascus was quiet Monday, with life slowly returning to normal, though most shops and public institutions were closed. In public squares, some people were still celebrating. Civilian traffic resumed, but there was no public transport. Long lines formed in front of bakeries and other food stores. There was little sign of any security presence though in some areas, small groups of armed men were stationed in the streets. Across swathes of Syria, families are now waiting outside prisons , security offices and courts, hoping for news of loved ones who were imprisoned or who disappeared. Just north of Damascus in the feared Saydnaya military prison, women detainees, some with their children, screamed as rebels broke locks off their cell doors. Amnesty International and other groups say dozens of people were secretly executed every week in Saydnaya, and they estimate that up to 13,000 Syrians were killed between 2011 and 2016. “Don’t be afraid," one rebel said as he ushered women from packed cells. "Bashar Assad has fallen!” In southern Turkey , Mustafa Sultan was among hundreds of Syrian refugees waiting at border crossings to head home. He was searching for his older brother, who was imprisoned under Assad. “I haven’t seen him for 13 years," he said. "I am going to go see whether he’s alive.” Jalali, the prime minister, has sought to project normalcy since Assad fled. “We are working so that the transitional period is quick and smooth,” he told Sky News Arabia TV on Monday, saying the security situation had already improved from the day before. At the court of Justice in Damascus, which was stormed by the rebels to free detainees, Judge Khitam Haddad, an aide to the justice minister in the outgoing government, said Sunday that judges were ready to resume work quickly. “We want to give everyone their rights,” Haddad said outside the courthouse. “We want to build a new Syria and to keep the work, but with new methods.” But a U.N. official said some government services had been paralyzed as worried state employees stayed home. The public sector “has just come to a complete and abrupt halt," said U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria Adam Abdelmoula, noting, for example, that an aid flight carrying urgently needed medical supplies had been put on hold after aviation employees abandoned their jobs. “This is a country that has had one government for 53 years and then suddenly all of those who have been demonized by the public media are now in charge in the nation’s capital,” Abdelmoula told The Associated Press. "I think it will take a couple of days and a lot of assurance on the part of the armed groups for these people to return to work again.” Britain and the U.S. are both considering whether to remove the main anti-Assad rebel group from their lists of designated terrorist organizations. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham began as an offshoot of al-Qaida but cut ties with the group years ago and has worked to present a more moderate image. The group's leader, al-Sharaa, “is saying some of the right things about the protection of minorities, about respecting people’s rights,” British Cabinet minister Pat McFadden said, adding that a change would be considered “quite quickly.” But British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, speaking later during a visit to Saudi Arabia, said it was "far too early” to make that decision. In Washington, a Biden administration official noted that HTS will be an “important component” in Syria's future and that the U.S. needs to “engage with them appropriately.” Another administration official said the U.S. remains in a “wait and see” mode on whether to remove the designation. Both officials requested anonymity to discuss the ongoing internal deliberations. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters that such designations are constantly under review. Even while it is in place, the designation does not bar U.S. officials from speaking with members or leaders of the group, he said. The U.S. also announced it was sending its special envoy for hostage affairs to Beirut to seek information about the whereabouts of Austin Tice, a journalist who vanished in Syria 12 years ago and who President Joe Biden has said is believed to be alive. Israelis welcomed the fall of Assad, who was a key ally of Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, while expressing concern over what comes next. Israel says its forces temporarily seized a buffer zone inside Syria dating back to a 1974 agreement after Syrian troops withdrew in the chaos. “The only interest we have is the security of Israel and its citizens," Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told reporters Monday. Saar did not provide details about the targets, but the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said they included weapons warehouses, research centers, air defense systems and aircraft squadrons. Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria in recent years, targeting what it says are military sites related to Iran and Hezbollah . Israeli officials rarely comment on individual strikes. Syria agreed to give up its chemical weapons stockpile in 2013, after the government was accused of launching an attack near Damascus that killed hundreds of people . But it is widely believed to have kept some of the weapons and was accused of using them again in subsequent years. Officials in Turkey, which is the main supporter of the Syrian opposition to Assad, say its allies have taken full control of the northern Syrian city of Manbij from a U.S.-supported and Kurdish-led force known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF. The SDF said a Turkish drone struck in the village of al-Mistriha in eastern Syria, killing 12 civilians, including six children. Turkey views the SDF, which is primarily composed of a Syrian Kurdish militia, as an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey. The SDF has also been a key ally of the United States in the war against the Islamic State group. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Monday warned against allowing Islamic State or Kurdish fighters to take advantage of the situation, saying Turkey will prevent Syria from turning into a “haven for terrorism.” Mroue reported from Beirut and Goldenberg from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, Mehmet Guzel at the Oncupinar border crossing in Turkey, Jamey Keaten in Geneva, and Aamer Madhani and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report. Follow the AP's Syria coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/syria
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The AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll is back every week throughout the season! Get the poll delivered straight to your inbox with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here . HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — Trey Fort had 27 points in Samford’s 97-90 win against Alabama A&M on Saturday night. Fort added five rebounds for the Bulldogs (10-3). Collin Holloway shot 4 of 5 from the field and 6 of 6 from the free-throw line to add 16 points. Julian Brown shot 4 for 5 (3 for 4 from 3-point range) and 3 of 3 from the free-throw line to finish with 14 points. The Bulldogs (4-8) were led by Anthony Bryant, who recorded 22 points. Alabama A&M also got 21 points and 10 assists from Bilal Abdur-Rahman. Quincy McGriff also had 13 points. ___ The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .
Dutch and British wholesale gas prices were down on Monday morning on a warmer weather outlook and with the market shrugging off the geopolitical developments in Syria. The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub TRNLTTFMc1 was down 0.81 euro at 45.56 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), or $14.38/mmbtu, by 0948 GMT. In Britain, the day-ahead contract TRGBNBPMc1 fell by 1.4 pence to 113.5 p/therm. “Further losses could be recorded today as the weather outlook has been revised warmer over the weekend with the return of above-average temperatures expected next week across Europe,” analysts at Engie’s EnergyScan said in a morning note. Syrian rebels announced on state television on Sunday they had ousted President al-Assad, eliminating a 50-year family dynasty in a lightning offensive that raised fears of a new wave of instability in a region already gripped by war. “Escalations in the Middle East took a surprising turn with the long-standing government overthrown in Syria. Whilst it is not expected to cause direct impact to energy markets, any geopolitical activity can cause concern to global markets and it will be closely monitored,” consultancy Auxilione said in a daily note. Further out temperatures are expected to turn colder towards the end of the year which could lead to strong heating demand, but so far Europe’s gas storage levels remain strong despite faster withdraw than in previous years, Auxilione said. EU gas stocks are 82.38% full, latest data from gas Infrastructure Europe showed. In the European carbon market CFI2Zc1, the benchmark contract was down 0.57 euro at 67.74 euros per metric ton. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Marwa Rashad; Editing by Susanna Twidale)For the past combined 60 years, the two of us have embarked on a project that is still ongoing today. Our premise was simple. Our mission was to improve neighborhoods through various methods, grants and resources. The most prolific measure that changed thousands of lives is housing workcamps for habitable affordable housing. Many people know workcamps by their signature names such as World Changers, Appalachian Service Project, Humanitarian XP, Group Mission Trips and Mission Serve. Workcamp groups have changed communities nationally and internationally. They enlist residents to journey to various areas across the United States and abroad to work on owner-occupied homes for free. What many people don’t understand is that workcamp groups come typically for one week over the summer and bring 250-300 workers. They reside in West Virginia for a week and sleep on classroom floors while working on dilapidated houses when the temperature is 100 degrees or higher. Workcamp workers also pay a fee of $300 or more to work for a week. This helps cover food, insurance, residency, utilities and some building materials. This is an inspiring notion for workers to miss time from their family, pay to work, endure high temperatures and help someone else. In essence, most programs start in June and some programs end the first week of August to ensure students get home in time for school. Many organizations are involved in this process including cities, counties, the West Virginia Affordable Housing Trust Fund, Rebuilding Together, West Virginia National Guard, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Benedum Foundation, churches and non-profits such as the Southern Appalachian Labor School (SALS). Over the years, camps that we have served include Clendenin, St. Albans, Upper Kanawha Valley, Charleston, Huntington, Hurricane, Fayette County and Putnam County. It’s estimated that workcamps have rehabilitated over 4,000 homes over the years. For each camp, approximately $500,000 is invested in the local economy, which includes building materials, food, rentals, labor, equipment and much more. This is a significant investment for local businesses. One of the areas that was mentioned in our last article was the ability to provide tools and training for our children. Developing their ability to build porches, decks, ADA fixtures, gutters/downspouts, siding, roofing and other projects provides them the hands-on experience to tackle projects at their home or someone’s home. Workcamps are not easy to assemble. Sometimes funding is difficult to obtain due to various circumstances. Sometimes schools and other large buildings are not easily accessible due to their scheduling. Access to showers, large meeting rooms and other required space is not available in smaller schools. Churches typically do not have this type of square footage to accommodate sizeable groups. Workcamp groups often do not receive the praise they deserve. Envision a loved one who can no longer work on the family home. Visualize any other program that could assist a family member who may not have many family members or resources to help. Community Action Partnership (CAP) organizations help hundreds of residents each year with weatherization and deserve much credit for their work. As should Habitat for Humanity for its hard work to ensure families have homes. If there’s been a time to refocus on needs in West Virginia, it’s now. Our housing stock is in poor shape. We’re on the bad side of the housing curve with many homes built in the 19th century and not meeting fire, building or ADA codes. Our current motivation is to resell, resell and resell homes without addressing habitable health and safety issues. And there are no initiatives or enforcement measures to remedy deficiencies. Housing workcamps can only do so much. Many structures are slum and blight situations with few legal agencies and resources to address home owners to rectify before someone gets injured. Blighted structures often sit around for years while some families fight over their inheritance. Over the years, we couldn’t have been more appreciative of the work by workcamp groups that may travel from as far away as Alaska, Utah or California to be in West Virginia. They visit West Virginia and tell us they’ve been missing out of such an experience for years. One of the best offsets of workcamps is our ability to bring in thousands from all 50 states and visit Marshall University, West Virginia University, University of Charleston, West Virginia State University, West Virginia University Institute of Technology, BridgeValley, Mountwest, and community and technical colleges, which makes us one of the largest college recruiters in the state. To consider moving forward with this project, more help is needed. And the help that is needed is due to our increasing median age in the state. There’s always more need for local labor, assistance and funding. More local housing hubs are needed to focus and strategize how to serve our communities with weatherization, housing rehab, demolition, credit counseling, first-time home buyer programs, housing maintenance, refinancing and much more. Hubs could be constructed with neighborhood alliances, associations, residents and housing groups to focus on the needs of the community. Now is the time to prioritize funding, labor and/or assistance with all government agencies, churches, non-profits and neighborhood organizations toward housing revitalization. More often than not, limited or no funds are placed in budgets for housing rehabilitation. One day, we’ll all be senior citizens. It’s inevitable. West Virginia has the second oldest population in the country. We should actively support the workcamps programs as part of our effort to provide habitable shelter to all residents. Wouldn’t workcamps be a useful component in the future?