Tecklenburg to lay out goals for Charleston in State of City address

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CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg is set to deliver his annual State of the City address Tuesday night at City Hall.

City spokesman Jack O’Toole said because of the surge in COVID-19 cases, residents are encouraged to watch the address on the city’s YouTube channel and participate virtually.

2021 address laid out 4 priorities

Tecklenburg’s State of the City address in 2021 began with the city’s response to COVID-19, praise for healthcare workers and excitement about the vaccines against the disease that had become available.

But the mayor then moved on to four critical questions he said Charleston would face last year, the first being the question of how Charleston can continue to protect itself from COVID-19.

He encouraged people to get vaccinated, a message state and federal health leaders continue to push on large numbers of people who have not yet taken their first dose. He reminded everyone of the need to follow guidance in dealing with the pandemic, including handwashing and the use of face coverings. He also urged people to continue to support local and small businesses.

He also spoke about racial oppression and injustice.

“Do we believe what we say about liberty and justice for all, and what are we willing to do to achieve it?” he said.

He touted the city’s apology for its role in slavery, the removal of the John C. Calhoun Memorial from Marion Square and the independent racial audit of the Charleston Police Department as “dividends” in the campaign for racial justice. Those dividends, he said, set the stage for “real and meaningful progress toward equity and inclusion” for all of Charleston’s citizens in 2021.

He said the city’s Commission on Equity, Diversity and Racial Conciliation would prepare “far-reaching proposals” for City Council while the International African American Museum moved forward with its plan to present the stories of Charleston’s Black citizens.

His third focus in the 2021 speech was the Holy City’s future as climate change brings an increased threat of flooding.

He said the city has a “sound strategic plan in place” with millions of dollars in flood-protection work underway. He presented three major decisions the city would face: a new citywide comprehensive plan to deal with flooding concerns, an Army Corps of Engineers’ plan to build a sea wall, and the city’s Climate Action Plan.

His final push in the 2021 speech focused on addressing “a crisis in housing affordability.”

Tecklenburg set to speak at 6 p.m. Tuesday

Tecklenburg will likely address his take on the city’s progress in these areas and advance his strategy for the new year in Tuesday’s speech.

Those who choose to attend the meeting in person will be required to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test result confirmed within the past 72 hours, along with a valid ID, O’Toole said.

Masks are required to be worn at all times, he said.

The address begins at 6 p.m.

Setups too easy? PGA Tour pros lay out what a proper challenge should look like

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SAN DIEGO – Is the PGA Tour challenging enough?

That’s the question Billy Horschel pondered on the range here ahead of the Farmers Insurance Open. It took him 10 seconds to answer. That silence was telling.

“Yes, it’s a challenge out here. Yes, it’s tough enough,” he said. “Are there things we can do to make it a more consistent challenge? Yes. That’s what I’d say. On a consistent basis, it’s not as tough.”

The question was worth exploring in the wake of Jon Rahm’s viral moment over the weekend at The American Express. Falling off the pace during another week of torrid scoring, Rahm stormed off a green huffing, “Piece of s–t setup. Putting contest week.”

After a few days of reflection, Rahm didn’t cede his position. “We’re the PGA Tour. We’re the best players on the planet, and we’re playing a golf course where missing the fairway means absolutely nothing,” he said. “I just think it was a bit too easy for the best players in the world. That’s just my opinion.”

Rahm knew what he was signing up for, of course. A past winner of the AmEx (at 22 under!), he knew the conditions would be dome-like. He knew the setup couldn’t be too taxing with the pro-am component. He knew there’d be little to no rough. But that doesn’t (and shouldn’t) preclude him from challenging the status quo.

“I would like a setup that would challenge us in every aspect of the game,” he said.

And so I asked him (and several others) this week: If you were the PGA Tour setup czar, what would you do? In what ways would you provide a proper challenge for the best golfers on the planet?

Here’s what they said it should look like:

Rahm confident headed to old favorite Torrey Pines

OFF THE TEE

Pros were unanimous in their response: the answer isn’t 8,000-yard courses. Most settled in the 7,400- to 7,500-yard range as the ideal. Enough beef to require mid- and long irons into the greens, but not so long that it eliminates a portion of the field that simply can’t keep up.

“If it’s designed and set up properly, then that’s challenging enough,” Horschel said, citing shorter tracks like Colonial and Sedgefield.

Course design is an important, if often overlooked, part, too. Said Kevin Streelman: “The only thing I would say is that I don’t like when a hole like this” – here he pointed at the first hole of Torrey Pines’ South Course – “if you carry it 310 [yards], your fairway is twice the size as the vast majority of us who carry it 290. That’s when I have an issue.”

Which brings us to …

ROUGH LENGTH

There was virtually no penalty for missing fairways last week in the California desert, as is often the case there. Rahm specifically mentioned the 14th hole on the Stadium Course, a 390-yard, dogleg right protected by a massive pond. “It’s a hole that, usually, hitting it in the fairway is very, very important, because if you miss and you’re in the rough, it’s a tough green to hit and make a birdie on,” he said. “But this time, we were hitting driver 20 yards from the green, because there was no rough.”

Horschel said Tour veterans have told him there’s been a conscious effort to scale back the rough, that it used to be “substantial.” They told him a tipping point came in the late-2000s, after the U.S. Open at Oakmont. “Guys were tired of the hack-out rough,” Horschel said, “and I guess they’ve dialed it back too far, where you’re not getting it penalized anymore for hitting it in the rough, and you’re not getting rewarded anymore for hitting it in the fairway.”

“I’ve got no problem with how far someone hits it,” he continued. “If he hits it 350 down the middle, reward that (player). But if he hits it 350 and it’s 20 yards off-line, he should get penalized. He shouldn’t have a lie that’s conducive for him to control it and spin it as if he was in the fairway.”

It’s little surprise Rahm prefers the thicker stuff, too. “I like fairways to be narrow. I like the rough to be up so you can’t just miss the fairway and go for the green with whatever you want.”

And that coincides with …

Full-field tee times from Farmers Insurance Open

GREEN FIRMNESS

Of course, the setup staff is mostly at the mercy of the weather, both in the lead-up to the event and during tournament week. If it dumps for a few days before the opening round, well, yeah, sorry – it’s going to be a flag-hunting contest. There’s little they can do to stop the assault.

“It’s literally all about the firmness of the greens,” Adam Long said. “If you can land a 5-iron next to the hole and it stays on the green, that’s always going to be simple and you don’t have to think. But now, instead of landing a 5-iron at the hole, if you have to land a 6-iron on this little spot in the front, that changes everything.”

You don’t have to think.

A couple players mentioned that, repeatedly. That they want to think. That they don’t just want to grab driver, hit wedge at the flag and try to make birdie. That makes the game one-dimensional, unimaginative, monotonous.

Firm greens mean “it’s more of a challenge of attitude to ball-striking to putting,” Brooks Koepka said. “Missing on the correct side, all these different things, it puts more of an emphasis on that when it’s tougher. When it’s easier, everyone is firing at flags and there’s no penalty for missing the green. Then you see the guy chip in and you’re like, At the U.S. Open that’d never happen. You never chip in from off the green while short-siding yourself.”

So, Koepka typically doesn’t bother with the track meets. He recognized those don’t fit his style of play, and he avoids those venues, if he can. Tiger Woods adopted a similar strategy in his heyday. Look at the Tour courses on which he’s had the most success: Torrey Pines, Bay Hill, Firestone, Augusta National, Muirfield Village. Not a cupcake among ’em. Course difficulty (and his superhuman physical gifts) helped separate him from his peers.

“I’m not gonna win, man, if it’s 30 under par, 25 under par. That’s just not me,” Koepka said. “Monday qualifiers, if I had to do that every day, I’d be lucky to qualify for two of them. I like it when it’s tougher. You gotta grind. It’s more of a mental challenge than just teeing up driver, wedging it on and it’s a putting contest.”

The issue goes deeper, more foundational, with Horschel saying the Tour could be more selective with its venues. “Let’s go to courses that, on their own, are a tough challenge,” said Horschel, citing the addition last year of Caves Valley, site of the BMW Championship, where 27 under par played off. “Not a course that we have to come in and really do a whole bunch to: get the greens firm, get the greens fast, grow the rough up, hope for ideal conditions. Because if not, the course is gonna get eaten up.

“If you’re always betting on ideal conditions to get the winning score where you want, you’re gambling. So, let’s not make it where we have to have everything perfectly lined up to make it challenging. Let’s choose some venues that are challenging on their own before we come in and spice it up.”

As with most hot topics, a dose of perspective is needed. Golf is an outdoor sport that follows the sun (and thus the heat and humidity). Equipment advances keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. Tournament fields are deeper than ever before. And amid all the handwringing about scoring, it’s worth remembering that – save for Cameron Smith’s record week on a wide-open resort course without the typical winds – the winning scores have fallen in line with the recent averages at those tournaments (all 20 under or lower). Players who sign up for the Tour’s soft launching know what to expect; on the eve of last week’s AmEx, in fact, Rahm said: “You know you’re going to have to surpass the 20-under barrier.”

Still, Rahm’s frustration underscored how each week the Tour must strike a delicate balance between serving up an entertaining product for a global audience and properly testing the world’s best.

“There’s no one way to do it, and that’s what’s great about the Tour,” Streelman said. “Maui was a putting contest, and that’s a skill – to be comfortable in that degree of excellence. Last year’s U.S. Open out here, you’re testing accuracy and distance control and green-reading – it’s a full test of all your skill sets. You’re challenging the best players in the world week to week, just differently.”

There won’t be any kvetching that the setup this week is toothless. (The average winning score of the last eight editions: 12 under.) Pebble Beach can turn nasty with the proper weather. Riviera is never a pushover. The brutish Florida swing awaits.

And so that brings us back to the original question: Are Tour players being consistently challenged enough?

“Absolutely,” Long said. “It’s the hardest game in the world. Nobody out here is complacent. Nobody out here is winning every week; nobody top-5s every week, either. It’s all hard.

“We’re all out here Monday-Wednesday preparing for a reason. We don’t show up Wednesday night because we know it’s easy. It’s the hardest game in the world, it’s never perfected, and there are way too many variables to always be good at it. Let’s just dial all the hysteria back a little bit. It’s all a little overblown.”

Home health care company to close Tampa Bay offices, lay off 680+ workers

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Bayada Home Health Care will shut down its office operations in Tampa Bay, laying off a total of 682 local employees.

The New Jersey-based company notified the state through the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act that it plans to close four of its local Assistive CareState Program offices April 1.

“Due to several external forces, we have made the difficult decision to close our locations that provide Medicaid personal care and support services in the state of Florida,” the company said in a statement to media.

The filed WARN letters were published on Jan. 24.

Bayada provides hospice and personal care services. The news of the closures follows the New Jersey Economic Development Authority cutting incentives for Bayada. The firm has also publicly talked about the staffing shortages that it was facing.

The four Tampa Bay area offices and the number of employees affected are:

Additionally, the company will lay off three remote workers.

The majority of the affected positions are those who work as home health aides. The other impacted employees include managers and directors for recruiting and client services.

The affected employees do not have bumping rights and do not have union representation, according to the letters.

“We are working closely with our key referral partners to help ensure our clients have continued care. We’re also working closely with impacted employees as they seek new opportunities, including roles at other Bayada locations throughout the state,” the statement read.

Bayada has 26,000 employees and has 350 offices. It has 14 offices in Florida, including the four that are to be closed, according to the company’s website.

SmileDirect to quit some countries, lay off workers in bid to become profitable

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SmileDirectClub Inc. late Monday unveiled layoffs and sweeping operational changes, including halting operations in several countries, as it seeks to turn a profit more than two years after it became a public company.

SmileDirect SDC, +24.62% stock rose as much as 7% in the extended session as the maker of clear aligners and other dental equipment said the changes are aimed at trimming costs and investing in countries and ventures “with the greatest potential for near-term profitability.”

SmileDirect has turned quarterly losses since it went public in 2019. The company has faced criticism that its “teledentistry” methods allegedly are detrimental to patients, which it has refuted, pointing to thousands of satisfied customers. The stock has lost 82% in the past 12 months, contrasting with a 15% advance for the S&P 500 index SPX, -1.22% .

The company said Monday that it will focus on expanding its partner network and oral-care business, and on growing its market share in aligners geared to teens and higher-income households.

SmileDirect will halt operations in Mexico and in several other countries such as Germany, Spain and New Zealand. It said it will continues to operate “and grow” in the U.S. and Canada as well as in Australia, France, Ireland and the U.K. Expansions to other countries are halted for now, it said.

The changes will lead to layoffs, which the company did not detail on Monday.

The decisions were “difficult and will impact many of our team members,” Chief Executive David Katzman said in the statement. They are, however, “the right thing to do at this time for our business so that we may continue to innovate and lead the industry to a better oral-care solution for all.”

SmileDirect estimated it will save about $120 million in costs and capital this year with the changes. It calculated one-time costs of about $25 million, with about $3 million booked in the fourth quarter and $22 million though the year, to cover lease buyouts, severance and other costs.

SmileDirectClub affirmed its previously issued sales guidance for the full-year 2021 revenue in a range between $630 million and $650 million. Analysts polled by FactSet expect 2021 sales to fall to $641 million, from 2020 sales of $657 million. SmileDirect is expected to report fourth-quarter earnings in early March.

The changes are “the right strategy for the future of SmileDirectClub by stabilizing the balance sheet and having sufficient cash to operate and invest in the business,” Katzman said.

Guterres calls on Burkina Faso coup leaders to ‘lay down their arms’

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In a statement released by his Spokesperson, António Guterres says he is particularly worried about the whereabouts and safety of President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, who hasn’t been seen since the crisis began early on Sunday, as well as the worsening security situation that has rocked the capital Ouagadougou.

“The Secretary-General strongly condemns any attempt to take over a government by the force of arms”, the statement reads.

From today’s Noon Briefing: Secretary-General @antonioguterres is following developments in Burkina Faso with deep concern, calling on coup leaders to lay down their arms. https://t.co/R7N41ZfQwt pic.twitter.com/o7nqqHmm8W — UN Spokesperson (@UN_Spokesperson) January 24, 2022

According to news agencies, the military announced on Monday it had seized power and overthrown the President.

The announcement was made on state television by an army officer, who cited the deteriorating security situation for the military takeover.

According to news reports, civilians and military elements have voiced growing criticism for months over the Government’s inability to tackle a growing Islamist insurgency that has destabilized much of the country.

Restraint and dialogue

Calling on all actors to exercise restraint and opt for dialogue, Mr. Guterres asked the coup leaders to lay down their arms and to ensure the protection of the President “and of the institutions of Burkina Faso”.

Reiterating the UN’s full commitment to the preservation of the constitutional order, the Secretary-General reaffirmed the Organization’s support to the people of Burkina Faso in their efforts to find solutions to the multifaceted challenges facing the country.

Just last year, in May, a military coup was staged in Mali, and a wave of other coup attempts, and takeovers have occurred across West Africa and the Sahel, including the seizure of power in Chad, Sudan and Guinea.

Earlier in the month, the UN Special Representative for West Africa and the Sahel told the Security Council this resurgence “is often the consequence of political practices that are completely out of step with the aspirations of the populations.”