Hi. Welcome back. I'm Lisa Savage. I'm here with Counselors Victoria Pelletier, Roberto Rodriguez, for another episode of Pathways to Progress, where we talk about local government issues here in Portland, Maine. I'm excited that many of the people I mentioned our show tonight said, isn't it usually on Fridays, which tells me they're watching it, right? Watching it live. Hi, Juno. But I'm very excited to say that we now have a regular slot. After this, starting the month of June, we will be on the second Friday of every month at 7 p.m. live here from the Portland Media Center. So that's an exciting development. Hey, welcome. How are you doing, Victoria? Let's check in. How are you? I'm good.  If it's not, it's Wednesday. So that was a little rough for me. But no, I'm good. I think it's been a couple months, maybe since we've been back, and a lot has happened at City Hall. We've had a lot of really big things happen in the past two months. So yeah, I'm happy to be here. And we've made it to May and almost June. So yeah, great. Yeah, we missed a couple months of the show, but I'm really happy that we have a set time now for going forward. And I think it's also, I was going to say that we're at the halfway point of our term. And I also feel like we're talking about this that we're kind of hitting stride. There's more of a rhythm now and a pattern. So it kind of makes sense to have our show also on a set schedule. Cool. So there's some good news to share in city government that we were discussing right before the show started. Do you want to tell us, you know, we now have an actual city manager in Portland, not an interim city manager, right? Yeah, we passed that on Monday, two days ago. So now, Daniel West is the official city manager. No longer interim. She was interim for like 18 months, I think. It was a pretty significant time. And as of Monday, she is now officially the new city manager of Portland. She was sworn in. And there were a lot of former counselors that came in. There were a lot of staff members that came in. It was actually really packed in City Hall and a lot of people spoke and shared. And now it is official after the hiring process, which I also think lasted like a year and a half. It was a really extensive process. And it is now official as of Monday. That's great. And I know one of the things that you appreciated about her performance as an interim city manager was budgeting for and creating the structure for a DEI manager or director, I don't know what the right title is, who's now in place too, right? We have that person on the ground working. Yeah, that's been that's really exciting to Umaru, who has now been with the city. I don't maybe a month, two months, he just started. But I'm really excited because it's the city's first ever DEI director. First time we've ever had a DEI department at the city of Portland. So that's really exciting. And he's been coming to meetings, which I think has been really important because we've had a lot of significant meetings since February on that are right in his wheelhouse of talking about diversity, equity, inclusion, how people feel safe in Portland, whether they do or don't. So I'm really excited to be able to support his work. Hopefully by this time next year we'll actually have a DEI committee that can support his efforts as well that will meet monthly. The same way all of our other committees do. But yeah, that's been a really exciting point of the spring is finally having him on board and being able to move in the direction of the goals that the racial equity steering committee from 2020 actually pushed for. So yeah, it's great. And more good news is the school budget went to the voters with a very smooth process. Yeah, we same thing on Monday night. We the council approved the school budget and you know, put it officially put it on the ballot for the June referendum. Yeah, it was smooth right in comparison to previous years. I think you know, certainly during the pandemic, there was a lot of kind of action around the the school budget. It kind of in acknowledgement of the hardships that our students and our teachers and the entire kind of system of education was facing. So the budgets were were obviously big ask attached to them. So I think the the thought was like looking back at those processes. It had been a bit more contentious, perhaps. And so this one, I guess in comparison felt smooth. At least that's the way that a lot of folks talked about it. Maybe the old school board chair was just really hard to get an agreement with. I think you know, I've been part of eight, seven or eight school budgets processes. They're all unique. You know, I'm sure that if you ask the school department or the school board, they felt this was a really stressful budget. I mean, when they when they first started with the when they looked at the state subsidy, I believe they were looking at like a 15% tax increase, which they knew was, you know, a non starter. And to be able to identify the amount of cost savings or reductions to get it down to something that was within the range that we gave us guidance. That was probably really stressful for them. So to say that it was smooth from our part, probably doesn't necessarily reflect on what the work that they did. I do think, however, that there there's, you know, like I've said before, right, the school department, the school department. If Emily Factor were here, she is a school board. Board of Education. So the school board and the school, the board of education, they, you know, they they are they're in transition, right? They're also hiring a superintendent. They have now a brand new chair. And so they, you know, they're experiencing this on the first try as well. So I think next year, when there's a new superintendent, then you get more of the long term vision of a budget, perhaps we'll have a different experience through that process, but we'll see. Well, we hope everyone will get out and vote on June 13th, I think it is for the school budget, because we need to educate our youngsters. Well, we have to talk about, there's been some really challenging things happening, some really sad things, really tragic. Obviously the Bayside sweep happened yesterday, I think. Yeah, yesterday, Tuesday. And I know that I saw your insta post of the part where you were speaking about how can I vote for this? Where will these people go?  It's a humanitarian crisis in every city in this country. But you are Portland City Councilor. So you want to talk a little bit about what you think, why that had to happen or did it have to happen? Yeah, I think that was, that was and still is a really hard day. It was a hard couple of conversations, because we talked about it the week before, we had an emergency meeting about it. And then last last Tuesday was the official HHS meeting about it. And it wasn't, it's not something that the council can vote on. So we don't have the authority to vote on that. It's the city manager's decision at the end of the day. But there was like a guidance conversation about, you know, how do you feel about this? And my stance has remained the same where I wasn't in support of the sweeping of the encampment, specifically because we had no other plan. I mean, I think in the previous meeting, we had talked a little bit about the task force that was being created, where we would put the best minds together to really talk about how we're going to place everyone in the encampment. And my take was that should have started with Bayside Trail, because that was the most significant encampment that we had. And so I think that was, you know, conversations around putting public restrooms and putting trash cans and really trying to make sure that the task force is speaking with the individuals in the encampment and seeing what options are available to move them into housing. And then between Tuesday, the previous Tuesday and last Tuesday, the encampment grew. I think we got a lot more phone calls into emails from local businesses and people in the surrounding area. And so unfortunately, it was moved forward to sweep that encampment and then start the task force afterwards.  And we had no plan. We were just essentially sweeping something with no plan. And again, I think it was also putting a band-aid on a really huge systemic problem. And I go back to this all the time, but our goal at the beginning of the year was racial equity. And I think of racial equity as an umbrella that covers a lot of different things. And being unhoused is certainly in that umbrella as well in terms of barriers that exist that are keeping a certain demographic of people from achieving housing. So if we're going to really be true to our goals, sweeping an encampment to me was not a, you know, a plausible next step because we would have hundreds of people wandering around the city now with no option and would most likely make camp elsewhere. And so I just didn't really think that we're getting to the root of the problem when we just sweep it encampment. And I was really upset at that meeting because, you know, we, this is the hard part, I guess, about being on the council. Like we took it from our homes, we took it from our laptops. There was talk about how we got so much feedback from businesses and they were really upset. And I was like, you know, the people who are unhoused are probably really upset as well. I don't think that they want to be in that scenario, but they are. And yeah, I was just, I was an M really disappointed in that decision. And I don't think by doing that we resolved anything and we have further traumatized and displaced and already very vulnerable community. So you're going to make racial equity your number one goal that to me is a terrible place for us to start. So that's, that's where I still remain on that. Yeah, I think, you know, though, I think that there was initially, by the way, like, I think what Tori just said is like 100% on point. And it's, you know, it's, it's reflective of like the big picture, right? Like what this action, the sweeping is, is certainly a temporary fix. I think a band-aid is a good analogy. So I think that's what Tori said is really important to say. I, you know, I think that initially there was a initial plan to do a sweep. And then there was some feedback from the council reflecting on the research, by the way, like the research and like the, we know that, you know, sweeping encampments is not helpful. We know that it does create a traumatic experience for the folks that we're trying to help. And, and it just perpetuates the problem, which is literally just moving it down the road. So, but then the feedback from the council was that we did not want that to happen. And so then they held back on it. And I think in the meantime is then when that proposal came from the Health and Human Services to create a task force that would work with the community partners when there's an encampment that presents a health and safety concern, to then try to, you know, help those folks mitigate the health and safety concerns. Now, the, I agree that this is not fixing the problem. I think that the reason that the, the decision to sweep the encampment was made was because they were looking at it not from the housing perspective, but from the health and safety concerns that were arising from the encampment.  And instead of going the route of, you know, fixing it in place, then the decision was made to do the sweep. I, I, you know, the sad part is that even when the task force is in place, which I strongly support that, that proposal. And I think it is going to be helpful. You know, the goal, we had a conversation in our committee about this, the goal of the task force, you know, unfortunately will not be to house those people because there's just isn't houses or housing units for them. So I think what the task force ultimately is going to have to do is focus on mitigating the health and safety concerns that happen when you have an encampment, because encampments, again, they're inevitable, like the conditions of, of housing and, and what's going on right now make it so that encampments are just going to be part of the reality of something major happen. It's, it's the same all over coast to coast. And it really, it often does come down to sanitation, which makes it, it isn't just the problem of the people that are unhoused. They don't have the resources to meet their own sanitation needs. They can't take a shower. There aren't bathrooms available.  And then that becomes a public health issue for the city and the neighborhood and so forth. So it really does seem like we need a very systemic approach to, Hey, this is everyone's problem. We're going to have to bring everyone's resources to bear. I have a good friend that's worked at Preble Street for a long time and I know from speaking with her that, you know, some of the individuals that are unhoused really probably are not going to go to a shelter and really would not even be able to succeed in housing without wraparound services. Just getting them an apartment or a hotel room would not result in a successful placement. So it's a complicated problem and, you know, it's very heartbreaking to hear about people being evicted from what little home they have. Right. Yeah, definitely. I will say, I mean, and just to give credit to the council and the committee, acknowledging that the sweep was going to happen, you know, I think all the counselors wanted to make sure that it was done if this is even feasible in a humane way as possible. So the community partners were out there, you know, talking to the folks. I think the notices were given several days in advance, letting people know what was going to happen. So they did, you know, the process in which they they went about it, I believe was reflective of what the council wanted to make sure it happened. So I had the effort, I guess, of listening to the council was there. I mean, the Riverton shelter, many people didn't like where it was located, but it's much bigger than the previous shelter. It was full immediately, right? And then the influx of refugees that Portland has been experiencing, being housed in the expo, that was full within a week, right? If I am immediately full, you're in a pretty extreme situation. Yeah, definitely. Well, I want to also move to another terrible topic, thorny topic before we, you know, when we have enough time to discuss it. And that is the police response to literal Nazis marching through the city streets and assaulting people right on the steps of city hall. I think that shocked many of us. And many people came to the public hearing to express. It was a little bit nostalgic for me as a former high school teacher up in northern Maine, where many of the people that testified are LGBTQ and they said, I'm from namesome town north of Portland. I came here as soon as I graduated high school or whatever. And this is where I feel safe. I have been able to feel safe in Portland.  Like basically the police let them walk away. That scares me. And I don't know how much control the city council has over policing. I heard some pretty strong words from both of you and the council meetings, but what's been happening since then? That was about a, what, month ago? Did I happen? Yeah. Yeah, it was about a month ago because it was in, the Nazis came here on April 1st, I think. That's right.  So yeah, I think it has been almost exactly a month. Yeah, I mean, my statements are, you know, for everyone to hear.  It was really hard to sit through two hours of public comment where every single person said they don't feel safe. And we heard really, really emotionally challenging takes from a lot of people who were out that day. And that is not, like, that was just unacceptable to me to get to afterwards get the police report and show that, you know, what they did was correct. And here's why. And I, yeah, I was really upset and I still am. And nothing has happened since then. We were supposed to have a workshop. I think maybe two weeks ago or what was before the council meeting. Maybe, yeah, I think it was about two weeks ago, we were supposed to have a workshop that has since been postponed to June 12, I think, because we're waiting for the police to finish a summary or some kind of report on next steps or whatever. So to answer your question, nothing has happened and is increasingly every single day really frustrating and just like a huge slap. In the face to me and a lot of other people in Portland who are waiting for a response from the city and have gotten nothing. One of the things I was kind of shocked by was the police testimony that, well, we knew an assault occurred and we even witnessed an assault occurring in Frazee Hall, but we didn't know who started it. Okay, again, I'm a retired teacher. If somebody sock somebody on the playground, it doesn't matter who started it. The person that I see socking that other person has violated the rules and there will be consequences. Now, should I do an investigation and find out what happened prior to that I didn't witness? Of course, but to say we don't know who started it, that seemed ridiculous to me. Yeah, I mean, when you get into the legality of when they're assessing first amendment rights and how the assault and whether someone's reporting, the process is intended to process as a tool to oppress people and it could be used any which way the oppressor wants it. And police department, that's the way that they're going. I'll be very honest with you. I'm always very concerned with a community that doesn't feel safe. I'm always very concerned. It's shocking to see literally Nazis writing around town. I don't know what the answer is. I literally do not know what the answer is. I don't know that anyone expects me or anyone else to know the answer. I don't even know what leverage is to pull. It's this weird thing. It became this thing of yes, I acknowledge this horrible thing and I'm not entirely sure what to do. I mean, something bad's happened. Call the police. We did. Well, April 1st was a missed opportunity because the people that were assaulted said, you know, okay, I've been assaulted, but the people that they said assaulted them were allowed to remain masked, never asked to show ID or identify or question at all. I mean, that's a deliberately missed opportunity. And once it's over, then you can do all kinds of things and have, you know, workshops and this and that. But at the time that a crime, a physical violence is occurring, you kind of have to act then and it's hard to go back later if you don't even know who the perpetrators were. How are you going to follow up? Yeah. And I think too, it sends a really strong signal that the police aren't going to do anything. So this can happen again. And I would be very surprised if this doesn't happen again. And these individuals don't come back. There were 30 something, you know, people walking around and specifically went to the Immigrant Welcome Center, specifically went to City Hall and with the sign that said defend white communities or whatever it said and the police drew their weapon, ordered everyone onto the ground and then let them all go. So that's a huge, to me, that's like a signal that like, well, the cops aren't going to do anything in Portland. So like, let's organize and go back because we didn't take any type of stand. And to me, that was, that was, like you said, a huge missed opportunity. And also it was really scary showing that Portland police, you know, police department is not going to take your name. They're not going to ID you.   It seems to me that when law enforcement fails to act, that it's an invitation also to individual citizens saying, well, if the police aren't going to do something, we're going to do something, you know, that kind of vigilanteism. I understand where it's coming from, but I don't think that that will increase the public safety either. You know, there's a reason that we have structures like city government and law enforcement. It's a big problem. Yeah. I mean, we have pride coming up in next month. And like, we talked about this, I think this time last year, because there was like a threat right around pride. And I remember I mentioned that on this show, because we were, we saw some stuff and, you know, nothing, of course, thank God happened, but, you know, we just, we, we have a lot of work to do, I think, and to restore the trust that has been lost by so many residents of Portland who want to be able to walk around here and not be attacked for their identity. And I think that was a huge misstep. And just as, just personally, really disappointing and really sad for those of us who are Black and people of color are queer LGBTQ individuals, like being under attack by people for our identity. I thought an interesting point that more than one of the public testimonies covered was, you know, the reason that Portland is a vibrant community where people come from all over the nation, really, certainly the Eastern seaboard to vacation here, eat here, enjoy the performing arts here is because, you know, we are here, we are the ones, we are the ones that are the artists that, you know, are the servers that are the, have created this culture that everyone's benefiting from economically. And what will happen to that if you allow the city of Portland to go in this direction? I thought that was an interesting point. It wouldn't have occurred to me that economic lens to look at it. Yeah. You know, didn't Portland just get voted on to U.S. News, World Reports, Top, whatever? You know, how long can you stay on the, oh, that's where I want to move to or even that's where I want to go on vacation. If you're having these kind of incidences with regularity, that's bound to affect that. Would I be wrong in thinking that the police chief of Portland right now is an interim police chief? What's happening with that process you can share? Yeah, I think the position was posted. I believe it was either reposted or was put back out. So, we're still, I guess, looking for a long-term or replacement chief. You know, that's another part, I'm sorry, before my thoughts went together, but that's another piece to me. I've been saying we have an interim chief, you know, a lot of the talk that we've, that I'm waiting to have about our department, I think, require us to have a permanent chief and to look at the department altogether. I think we'll have, as part of the budget discussion, we're talking about wage increases as part of a recruitment and retention strategy.  So I, you know, I'm very much, you know, I think that once we get a chief, I'm very much, especially now with the manager in place, looking forward to having an opportunity to look at, you know, what does the police department have to do to both respond to a constituency that is saying that they don't feel safe in their own community and also, you know, their own claims of not being able to recruit and retain officers. So it's your, your, you have, I said, and this perhaps is not the right framing, but, you know, they have a PR problem.  So I think, again, a strategic plan around our department to assess what the culture is in this police department. Is it a healthy relationship that they have with their communities? You know, I bet different, you knock on 10 doors, you're going to get 10 different answers to that. People see the police very differently in the role that they play in our communities. And it isn't just the police department that has so many vacancies or so much trouble recruiting and hiring. Aren't, didn't you tell me before we started tonight that there were 200 vacancies in city, of city roles? Well, there were when we did the state of the city, but I still think we're right around there when, when the state of the city was given in, what was that, November? And there were like 220 something vacancies and it's May now. I don't think a lot of those have been filled. So I wouldn't be surprised if we're right around that number still. Yeah, pretty significant. It's hard to execute on the strategic plan when you have so many roles vacant for a long time. Yeah, we're having an interesting council year for council term for sure. But I have a sense, I don't know, the palace shouldn't say this. I feel like not just in, in our world, but like in the totality of like, you know, labor market, I feel like there's some pieces that are starting to get more stability and maybe hiring becomes easier. I think, yeah, I hope that that's the case because we're looking at the next year, hopefully fill a lot of these vacancies, especially the department has like the key pieces. And hopefully now that we have an actual full time city manager, people are more likely to take on those full time department head positions and then that trickles down to staff being filled in. I mean, I'd be hesitant to take a key role if I have an interim department and an interim boss. I don't even know what the plan is going to be a year from now. So I think hopefully this or who's going to be evaluating you or even if you will be evaluating. We know that some roles have gone a long, went a long time without being evaluated. Absolutely. It's always a tricky, tricky thing. Well, I had a conversation with a public school teacher in Portland this week where I mentioned that my granddaughter would be starting kindergarten and this person said, have ever got a kind of panicky look and said, have her parents registered her yet? And I said, yes. But that told me that the influx of new mainers, new public school students, new portlanders is significant and that city departments and the school want to meet the needs of the people that they serve. But sometimes logistically, it's very, very challenging, at least in the short term. Yeah, no, logistically, it's challenging. And I think what's really, really important is to always remember that the schools do so much more than just teach core instruction. They provide meals. They provide counseling. A lot of these students, those hours that are in the school building are the safest that they'll be. It's where they're guaranteed to be safe. And so schools do so much more than just providing core instruction. And so, yeah, it takes a lot of capacity. It takes a lot of partnering with obviously community organizations that are interacting with the asylum seekers that are coming in. And it takes a huge heart. I mean, because these are people, right? You're literally building your community with these folks that are entering our schools and settling into our communities and neighborhoods. So you're not just dealing with a number, right? We talk about numbers in beds and shelters, but these are like human beings with families and small children. And we talk about early childhood education being the most important thing and setting you up for a path of success in life, right? How do you take advantage of all the great things that we just talked about, this top-ranked city has, where if you don't have a core foundational start to your life, you can do that. And so early childhood education is key. And again, go out there in June and support your school budget and make sure your schools have everything they need. Well, I'm sorry to say we're out of time. Thanks so much for being here this evening. Thank you, audience at home, for being with us. Thank you so much to the Portland Media Center and the great tech crew here that make it possible. You can catch our podcast of our past shows on now Apple as well as Spotify. You can catch the archive of our video shows on YouTube or on the Portland Media Center website. And we will see you on Friday, June 7th, 6th, 6th at 7 p.m. We use that as the second Friday in June. And we will see you each second Friday thereafter. So thanks so much for being with us. It's a real honor and a privilege to be able to do this show. And I'm so happy to do it with the two of you. See you, baby. It's a brilliant project.


If someone ghosts you, respect the dead and never disturb them again. If someone is giving you the silent treatment, enjoy your quiet time. It's all good.


My name is Veena and I am from Rachi. I got admitted in Paz Hospital for a long time in November for my treatment. I am so blessed with my baby girl. She was actually being matured and under the guidance of Dr. Srikha Chakracharya, we got very good assistance for her. She was immediately accepted to in Ayurveda. And within one day she recovered so well like she is totally stable due to only the guidance and proper, skillful guidance of the doctors here. So obviously this is the best part I can say. Namaskar! I am Dr. Srikha Chakracharya, consultant at Halkorisk Pulse Super Speciality Hospital in Rachi.  Our patient came to us after 7 months pregnancy and her check-up was going on somewhere else. But she started getting worried at one o'clock in the night. She broke her water and started having severe pain in her stomach. She went to the labour room and our hospital is near her house so she came to us. At one o'clock in the night when our expert team examined her, we found that she broke her water and she went to pre-mature labour room. The baby's weight was very low. We explained to the patient and their attendant that there are some risk factors. The baby is pre-mature and she has already broken her water so there will be some chances of infection. After that we took her to the labour room. She gradually progressed and went to labour room. She was around 7.30 pm. At 7.30 pm our staff was present there. And since the baby was pre-mature, she had some pain in her breathing so she immediately transferred to NICU. The baby was taken good care of in NICU. The baby was very fast. She was around 24-48 hours old. The baby improved a lot. In three days, the mother and the baby went to their home in a safe and safe condition. Today she is very thankful for us and we would like to thank her because she made us feel that we could take good care of her. Thank you. I really appreciate the overall facility of this hospital and I would like to appreciate the vigilance of Dr. Sneetha Chatterjee under her guidance and her polite behaviour. She was very dedicated with all her proper guidance throughout this journey. I would like to appreciate and be very thankful to all the nursing staff, housekeeping staff for taking the best care of mine throughout the day. Also I was admitted in a very emergency situation at midnight itself. And I can see the activeness of all these members in the midnight was really helpful for me for handling my overall situation. Today I am getting discharged from here and I can say the overall feedback for the team, all the working team, IT, hospitality, everything is very proper and well organised. So I would recommend you also or people who are suffering or for better hospitality and skilful dedicated doctors. You can visit us. Thank you so much.


Join by the head coach of the Mustangs coach Paul can't to being coach this was a game where you guys Pulled away a couple or started to pull away right it would build the lead up to three or four They would get back every time but every time you managed to have an answer Well, I thought you know I mean I think we got played better defensively You know think her wing plays gotta get a lot better. I think her face off guys gotta get a lot tougher But they've been doing a good job Justin Bernadies a young guy Nate and other will get it And then we won our share when we needed to win and did some things We figured it out in the second part of the third quarter in the fourth quarter But you know we're you know, I thought we did a good job making plays when you needed to make plays to win the game You know, we weren't great defensively, but at times we needed to make the play. We made that play We got the ground ball. We got it up and you know, we did some great that we did some good things You know, this is a type of game. They're a gritty team. They had their back against the wall They played a lot of really tough teams so they were tested and and you know, I thought we responded You know, we're able to you know, it's always a good sign of a good team Your defense doesn't play well that can you rely on your offense to help you and I think today we did that You know, we took 54 shots scored 16 goals We probably could have had 20 goals if he had made some of the some of their goal He didn't play so well I mean I really give him I thought he played really really well and but our goal he played well So, um, you know, it's a good game and we'll learn from it. And now, you know, we get ready for Tuesday Coach you talked about Tuesday Salisbury number one team in the country going down there Obviously the rivalry you got some great contributions from some unsung players Ethan Christensen four points tonight Brandon Watson four points tonight. How big is that for you guys as you head into that game?  So about you know by the game nine or ten for us He's gonna be outstanding. We think so he's just getting better And I think you know everybody JT, you know I hasn't played in a year in his first year starting three goals tonight I thought he he got a much better feel for the whole game and and stuff And so, you know, we'll get ready for Salisbury and see what they have we watched them play today And you know, we watched them play against Ohio Wesley and we have a really good idea what they're all about And I'm sure they have a great idea what we're all about and you know We'll go down there and give it our best and we'll see what happens and you know with those games Anything's possible Coach you mentioned the play of your goalie Rothstein and 14 saves and some of them were very spectacular But yet maybe not even the most spectacular saves that were made tonight Yeah, we had a company and our guys are willing to jump on the net You know Donna for you'll save as one for the books, you know You know too bad we couldn't convert at the other end or we'd be watching that for a while But you know our guys are willing to do that and jump in front and I think that came from a year ago with Taylor Morgan One of our captains being able to do that and showing guys what effort really means and and Ross is the leader You need to see him out there how well he's playing and guys when he he makes a mistake or something happens You know guys are willing to jump in there and help him out And it's great to see Ross and his long journey He had to become a starting goalie and he's played well and done some great things and so we're really happy for him But you know guys jumping in there making saves and getting hit with the balls part of the game And you know it's a we appreciate him doing it as for sure Coach you know we talked about the schedule coming up Sal's very on Tuesday, but top 20 teams 10 days five games I think it is you know that's tough you put that pressure on your team How do you prepare them for that long stretch? Well, I think that you know this is the way we always go about everything You know for us, you know, it's about playing the best teams in the country week in week out And that's what we do, you know playing, you know We've already played our IT who I think is very good and then you know We played you know Gettysburg and their number six in the country and you know now we played the number 20 team And now we get ready to play the number one team and then we gotta get played ready to play Lynchburg Who probably be fit top 15 that another outstanding win today and and then we'll play York You know who had another great win today and then we'll go play toss He's playing great beat Middlebury on Friday and did a great stuff So but that's what it's about, you know playing great teams week in and week out to pair ourselves for a conference schedule And also hopefully if you can win some of these put ourselves in tremendous spot for the NSA term And that's what Stevenson across is all about and I think our guys understand that and want to be a part of that And as I as I tell people all the time you can beat anybody 20 to 1 we can schedule that up and get you know 8 or 9 week teams and you can be 8 known everybody's like how great you are But we won't be very good, you know so but we have to play great teams in order to accomplish what we want And that's what we do and I think our guys appreciate that and my assistants hate it They help me all the time about you know, how can you set this up? Why do you play these teams like there's no scrimmages and everything? Well, that's just that's just the deal You know, that's what we like to do and and you know I think it's a lot of fun for the guys to play these type of teams weekend and week out It's a lot of I think it's a lot of fun for the coaches and I think the players really enjoyed as well Well, it'll be a big week not only Salisbury, but obviously the Mustang classic next weekend coach like for that Yeah, really appreciate it. Congratulations on a big win.  Thanks a lot. I will appreciate it Is coach Paul can't to be joining us here on the all-access postgame show


Hola community, welcome to a special episode today of not Blender today, but GIMP today or something like that We are well this week was a special week in the the Blender studio and the headquarters because it was just it wasn't just Blender people but actually people from another very popular open source project open source graphics Project the GIMP so welcome and what's your name and what do you do at GIMP? So my name is Jean I'm one of the two maintenance of GIMP and I've been contributing to GIMP since 2012 And that's most mostly it I know actually I work with Film director, so we do 2d animation. It's a realm. We do the summer mod project So that's how I that's how I got involved with development of GIMP because they were bugs so we need to then fixed then we needed features and That's how I make more and more patches and yeah How about you? My name is Simon. I'm involved a little bit longer with GIMP I'm involved with the GIMP project since about 1998 or something like that and Yeah, I was basically interested in graphics and at that time I was basically discovering Linux and graphics on Linux basically meant GIMP. So Yeah, at some point I got involved into the development and I'm still sticking around Nice. All right So I have to move this microphone all over the place because I'm usually by myself here This is where I do the blender today live streams so in Blender today, I usually talk about what Blender is and the community around it whenever I notice there is a new GIMP release Especially I mentioned or other open source software too. I personally use Mainly GIMP and in scale on my on my workflow every day like the all the the images and social media that you use And it's all made that with GIMP. So I'm pretty happy to have the team over here So this week was Wilbur week, right?  Is it for users only for developers or? Mainly I think it compares to hackathon. That's a pretty good description. I think we've been those doing these for quite a while now Mostly connected to other events So as first we had a GIMP conference the t-shirt I'm actually wearing is the first GIMP hacking conference. We did in Berlin 2000 yeah This is where basically we tried to connect all the GIMP developers because mostly they are distributed across the world and Yeah, that was actually the first time I met all those faces to the isenix basically How many people contribute to GIMP nowadays? How many would you say developers are? It changes a lot You have to make the distinction between How many people have contributed the GIMP which is a huge list Across the last 25 years and how many people are currently contributing to GIMP which is a way smaller list So GIMP is probably a smaller project than you would Assume from its reach basically so it's like I don't know 10 to 20 people. Yeah, it really depends how you can't they're like I will say I will say like Yeah, 10 at a single point in time 10 People contributing regularly but regularly could mean like one patch every two or three weeks and like usually People will like contribute daily Well, it's simple Since since I came here the most we had was like three people basically Okay, like doing like really like all the time patches. Yeah All right, so let's see a bit. What do you work on this week? There is a small presentation that the team here did so I think I don't ask you to to give some sort of Like a recap right now of the of what you did we hear the studio every Friday we we do this basically what with the studio and It's nice to see that you also manage to do a similar concept. So Wilbur week I know you having this enough. It's where we're in Amsterdam So I see that you've been here in the north or somewhere having having fun, but also Cooking right there was a special kind of With this you can actually go and kind of put it in front of people to protect their privacy. That's good privacy Exactly don't don't use game for this just make a pizza and then you can protect privacy who needs stickers, right? Also that you were saying at a boat. So it's a proper Pirate hackathon right in a way and you this is this this is amazing This like so what came out of out of this basically like a 2 a.m. Hacking. Yeah Yeah, actually a lot. We had a lot of a lot of patches This week and it's how also you see how we put on this kind of commit even so because there are some contributors who would don't have a lot of time anymore and we've been here for a long time and But when they come here and for one week they just focus on game and then suddenly you have like a huge flow of commits and everything on the bug fixing or Yeah, I'll call the new code new when you saw new implementations and Yeah, so a lot of lot of it come came from it. Yeah, a lot of it in the presentation you gave you also mentioned that Game used to have a lot more action like commits in its in the shape of commits in the past As compared as right now, especially after after cobit, but it's picking up speed as yeah, you are Showing this week alone 117 commits, which they are Mainly bug fixes I heard. Yeah, it's a lot of bug fixes way. Yeah, there were a lot of Issues that were discovered after like a glib change. Yeah, it's also the bug when gimp but the bug were hidden by The implementation of the library we were using and we suddenly discover them and so we had to to fix Yeah, many many issues In the studio here, you also had meetings with people from other places, right? You mentioned is a developer working on the Wayland support Yeah, yeah, so yeah, yeah in well and color management is still like very much walk-in progress Yeah, so actually this this session specific session came up with a lot with There was one in scape developer on on master don't who who sent a message and say, oh We'll be nice to speak about color management with game and say, oh, we are organizing the will by week like in one month And maybe if you want you can come and we can discuss in real So this specific developer didn't come because he is in the u.s. He prefer not to to do the travel but towards a windscape contributor came and then we thought okay, let's discuss about color management and then Since we had blender, so let's include a blender developer. So there is one who came and discussed with us And since we have some contributors, which also work with red art and well on and GTK and everything they They got in touch with one of the main Well on developer, yeah So and that's how we we we just it's kind of happen like kind of Organically, it was not So this is what everything you've been doing this week backfixes google summit of code meetings backfixes feature Feature features decision discussions. So the roadmap also backfixes work on in on the theme It's always important backfixes preparing for the next year's will bear week. Do you know already? Where in which country is it going to be? Where this? Yeah, probably. Yeah, I guess the thing we are currently looking at is a place near Barcelona Oh nice And we have been there already, but this time The last time it was quite cold there and heating was a little bit problematic So this year we plan to do it in august. So heating will be problematic the other way around Cooling will be paramount. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, but uh, but yeah, well, Barcelona is it's extremely nice.  Meeting is this do you plan as acid to the friend events like liver graphics and wilver week? Do you think Originally, um, if you look at the history, basically the the livery graphics meeting is something that evolved from the gimp developer conferences At some point we had our conference and thought it would be nice to to Contact other projects basically to to make sure at that time there was quite some discussions about how cut and paste could work with inkscape and how this would How how we could agree on common standards basically so that stuff basically works and so, um, Dave neary at that time was was a gimp contributor and he Got involved very much into the organizing the first livery graphics meeting in lyon.  What were the inter inter interesting problems for you and also a specific focus on Um contacting or Creating Meeting meeting artists were actually using our programs because there are not that many opportunities where these two groups Really have an opportunity to meet. Uh, so, um, there were also presentations or there are also presentations about art projects And uh, yeah, so so basically making a meeting place for Yeah developers differ between different projects basically exchanging ideas exchanging Approaches to certain problems maybe but also, um, how do artists actually use our stuff and uh, yeah So basically eye-opening for everybody So and yeah, the the problem currently is that in the last three years or four years Last last library graphics meeting was 2019 then due to kovat mostly everything basically Stopped so and we now need to to kickstart it again basically Yeah Yeah, I really like the concept of a of a library graphics meeting You know to get all the open source projects, uh together blender should be there more often too as well They Come on Mitch is coming. All right. We have more people This also meant no game the other yeah, that's the camera. I need to be here. All right. This is very, uh Unexpected. So who are you and what do you do? I'm Mitch. I'm the other maintainer of gimp and I'm just coming back to the project after two years of hibernation under a stone Basically, and what do you mean by a maintainer? What do you do back fixing or you focus on a specific? Currently, I'm just fixing bucks. Yeah, okay. I'm back for two days and fix them back. So It's going well. You're literally two days. Yes, since since the beginning of the beginning of the of the of the meeting friday Oh, wow That's good to hear Nice, so I guess that and I you're here to stay you're gonna continue on the project Yeah, sure for the okay. Yes. So part of the the gimp 3.0 project Exactly. Nice because you also talked about that in the well besides back fixes in the In the in the in the map for this for this week So well also logo updates, which are always like a big number change always good to To do I we personally at blender. I think the community are trying to Make us change the logo, but we're all pretty happy with it Which also happens But yeah, wilber foundation that is something that was that I think it's it's it can potentially change Like for the better the how people see the The project we we've seen it well blender foundation This is how it's how blender started but crita foundation also exists godot foundation recently So it only makes sense to have one for For gimp and projects related to gimp, right? Exactly. Yeah, so Can you talk about the river foundation? So right now it's still a plan And we have been discussing With a host foundation To help us because basically on all the administrative part and everything and Well, we we are basically geeks. So we don't read so And that's something. Yeah, we want to try to get our own entity basically to be able to do our own choices and And Founding development too. So like some some yeah Some of the contributors are like doing this other side or as they own the business And some like like me or peeping with a giggle maintenance giggle is our graphics engine Actually trying to make a living with free software and it's hard actually Uh, so that's why we thought like maybe what if like if we had like a single entity people donate and then Then can helps And and and something we are really trying to do also is like to keep the spirit of Like the community like this something For me, which is very important that like gimp is not just a free software. It's a community free software And uh, and that's something which I really like about this project and this team Is that we like like it's it's uh Yeah, it's it's not it's not like a business It's we do stuff that we care about and everything and that's uh So that's what we are trying. We don't know yet if we I hope we will succeed but to make this foundation But uh, yeah, that's that's planned Nice, it's always good to hear to make things, uh more. Yeah more clear where where where Where things go and what is the transparency behind a project because you wanted to see it success, right? the next uh topic you mentioned also was Gimp 3.0 Which is kind of a big deal, right? You've been and for how long in in the the 2.x Years Well, I mean we started the the branch for the the goat invasion that was like Pippin was hanging at my place and we just did it that was like 2014 or 12 2012 just after after 28. Yeah. Yeah, but uh, but then they were not that many For like many years not that many commits on it's really the big work started on on 210, which is 2018 after 210 Yeah, so So it's kind of a big deal in Is this like you are you familiar with the blender 2.8 project where in 2018 we flew everyone here for many months just to Uh to to get over with it because it we also been stuck with the with the 2.x series forever And the 2.8 was like a step towards 3.0 and since then Yeah, you basically have to remove a bunch of things clean up clean up clean up and then you can make a clean slate for What's in the yeah in the coming future? Is this 3.0 also a similar project? If do you think with all the all the work that it's being done would it um, like uh, Make more people want to contribute like in development or in like be involved with the roadmap I think because just if at all because gtk will be a newer version So maybe a lot of people will be willing to contribute and Yeah, um And also it will of course every big release get gives visibility to the project So we always have new people But uh, yeah, I can't but you want it maybe to say something Yeah, I don't yeah, basically what you said basically a big release is is a big big thing basically, which also in some some To a certain degree indicates that well this pro a project is still alive at kicking basically So which is not always that visible So And the the port of gtk 3 is important The the main reason is that unfortunately the version of gtk is part of our Internal api. So if you want to develop a third party plugin for the game You would have to depend on the same version of gtk where gimp is depending on because the Lipgimp provides certain widgets which are make product development way easier and stuff like this So this is basically also what kind of kept us back with uh, we we could just not port gimp 2 To gtk 3 because this would break the api compatibility So that is a major issue and so this is what we will Kind of resolve with a port gtk 3 because when we change the major version we are free to uh, break api compatibility basically Have you properly broke it just like Everything is different now like much better. Everything is better now. So So I guess the next question is like, okay, so what about gtk 4 at some point? We try not to think about that just We have other problems now. Yeah Yeah, but also I guess A cleaning up from gtk 2 to 3 would probably make it like whatever next update Maybe it's here in a way Like the same way we we I oh, sorry They always try to connect it with with blender because of our blender audience But we had we had that too like we are stuck with open gl 1 one at the beginning 1.5 and then when we made the jump to the next open gl 2 and then like 3.3 It may things easier and vulcan hopefully is gonna be one other level So I guess it's a similar concept, right? The step from gtk 3 to 4 is certainly much smaller than the step from gtk 2 to 3 But the migration guide is still very Yes, I read it and it's still a lot of work But we have much less shit in the code than we did with gtk 2 Yeah, yeah, yeah that that for sure. I don't know how all this gtk 2 But just you just by looking at it you can tell that That it's uh, yeah, that it's a bit behind So just if I can add something because I know that's On the internet you read all kind of stuff and like some people seem to think of them. We are like against Moving to gtk 4 something It's just that I think like current developers we don't We it will We won't spend a lot of time now because we already spend too much on gtk 3 and we are tired But if like if tomorrow some developer comes with a patch and it's all all working and it's uh, Gim3 becomes Get on gtk 4 with you say, oh, yeah, well, why not, you know, that's that's it And I are certainly wise to prepare the code for gtk 4 migration without actually moving to gtk 4. Yeah, that's um And rest assured if anybody comes with a ready-made patch for gtk 4 you are inverted to the next few wilbur weeks as well Nice So okay, so drinks on you for whoever comes with a new patch. Yeah um, so uh besides that you also have some plans for it With wayland multi-layer selection this I'm so happy to see this already in the 2.99 that version some of it, right? 2.99 that is extensively gtk 3 Oh, really that is that that is what is becoming gtk a gim3. I mean, okay. Yeah, so that's a developed That is the current version. Yeah, so okay Interesting. Yeah, I always thought of uh, 2.99. That's okay. There is no more At nothing else after 99. So it must be the development version. Yes If 2.99 is finished then it will be renamed gtk gim3 Game 3. Yeah, it's just a rename. Exactly. Yeah, it's just a rename And then which one would be the development version of 3.1? 3.1 So it was 3.1 actually it's like 3.1 because I'm even miners releases odd miners are development versions. So We start on after right after we Release gtk 3 we will branch off gtk 3 the branch gtk 3.0 And a development continues on on gimp. Sorry gimp 3.0 and development continues on gimp 3.1 That's always the development branch. Nice. So kind of changing also to a more semantic ish We already have standard for 20 years or so. That's always been the case. Okay. Nice We followed the gtk naming version naming gim in that and that works pretty neat Yeah, okay. Cool. Yeah, okay. So it's only blender that was laid to the party and From 2.93 to 3.0 Other than that everything looks looks looks pretty sweet. Where can people get this down? By the way, do you have like a like a build bot? Or like a like a place where people can the No for like if people want to want to test these things and now there is the Blender like the blender. So you go to download. Yeah And then this just scroll down a bit and then here development download page. Nice 2.99 for team Already and that's that's what's On the walk to become gimp 3.0 It's also really easy to build from it like I built him for the first time last week And it was really only matter of check out configure build and done But for people who don't want to build you just click and you download and you click install Yes, yeah, I can tell for experience that even though blender is very easy to to build as well We even have scripts for it that will get everything and compile it for you people still Like we get as almost as many downloads from the from the development builds that we get from the actual It's crazy. It's crazy. People are really Thirsty thirsty for for development. That's that's awesome. I didn't know so current development release. So you actually do Release a development version. It's not like an ongoing release Yeah, we release it and basically we Then people just have to be aware that it's a development version. So things things will be broken And like dailies. Yeah, it's it's yeah, but More like Six months ago so But then people can can report bugs and so so Yeah, you can use it in production, but just Uh, yeah, just know know that it's it's a development. Yeah, but it's probably less broken than 2.10 On some ways, but on other ways it's more broken, but on some ways. Yeah. Yeah, but you can use it It does not it will not explode in your face. Sure most of the time We do use it already. Okay us. Yeah, all right I think I might switch to the development version because I basically for for what for what I do I think I could benefit from the from the from the What are you sure here in the now in the annual report in the actually on the home page of of uh game play so that you have also a roadmap somewhere here Plans for 23 game 3 and you talk about here about a bit about Yes, about the roma for three So Yeah, yeah, but basically I was explaining how uh How we are trying to get uh fast. Yeah, like faster development cycles With which actually started with 2.10 already basically having Having new features even in in in micro versions because a lot of people used to think that Gimp was game development was dead because they they will not get new features because In between 2.8 basically and 2.10 they were six years Yeah, six years. Yeah, we were actually releasing every few months, but like People kind of don't see when it's just a bug fix somehow. Yeah, and uh, you know, we changed it with 2.10 So that's why we say in 2.10. We have new features in 2.10. We allow new features Except of course big ports ports and stuff, but a new plug-in or a new gaggle operation. Yeah, reverse them. How really? Yeah So So let's look forward to uh, when do you like well now is that question? I think I don't know. I think we Oh, yeah, yes Yes, last night. There was a a movie night here. We were watching star wars vision and uh game sponsor the pizza Which you thank you very much for that. It's a pizza night at the at the studio and to we continue it on the next next Wilbur week So you gave up this presentation to date and also invited you to have as To to even prepare another wilbur week if you want And uh, you also where are you most of you based in germany or Germany, Germany, no way But we have people from canada from everywhere But mostly europe Well, not necessarily Yes, ish. Yeah, uh one person from brazil was supposed to come but unfortunately couldn't make it Again, we have one person from canada here. So this one from us Right a recent contributor, but we would we did a lot of things recently And it was supposed also to come and didn't at the end other things Came up. Yeah, so yeah a lot from everywhere actually. Yeah, all right. So well Then I will see you then in the in the next wilbur week when uh, so speaking of 3.0 just to close up When can people expect in the in the coming year in this year in this century in this We'll try to manage this century basically so But uh, well, we don't like making promises, but uh game three is kind of done. Yeah, I mean it's uh, I think we can If if mich stays this time, I think we can we can uh, we can finish it this year. I mean it's it's uh, it's us Actually in the Report you just showed before I was saying already. I think we can have a Uh release candidate this year But at the time I was like kind of alone doing most of My coding and reviewing other people's coding and everything so Now if uh, if we are two Uh, it should be possible. Uh, we should be able to release not just release candidates even release, you know So All right Well, I mean you can actually release as soon as the external api is finished and the remaining bugs will be fixed in micro versions I mean there are always remaining bugs. Yeah, and crashes. That's you can't avoid that It's and the the sooner you put it out there, but also maybe it should update the development version to be like like More recent, right? Yeah Yeah We need to make a splash from the photo from the Okay, I'm gonna be looking forward to that because if you manage to release this year and blender manages to release this year, which is Wait, we're still in the plans will be blender four game three Uh, we we saw godot four also. So all this open source software reaching major releases. It's always a good So it's a good thing. All right. So thanks again for coming and thank you. Thank you. Thank you See you in the next, uh, Willer week Bye


The project is about 3D printing concrete structures. In particular, this project is related to printing anchors, suction anchors for floating turbines for offshore applications. Our research focuses on 3D printing of cementitious materials. We have been working on 3D printing at different size scales. So we started from small scale, medium scale, and now we are starting to work large scale. And the idea is to start producing large scale elements for applications such as marine environment structures. What we were doing today is developing our system at large scale, being able to calibrate the different parameters and what better way to do it than with an element that represents Purdue University, the Motion P. So we use this as the first attempt to be able to have a reliable system that we can continue using in the future. This project is about printing scale down version of the components of the wind turbines that will be deployed in marine environment for offshore wind harvesting processes. My responsibility is developing all the mix and testing the durability of the printed components. My role is the printing process itself, making sure the print quality is good and what not. With success we really hope this can revolutionize offshore wind power because 3D printing has the potential of lowering the costs quite significantly. This is a project in collaboration with Arkham Technology and funded by the National Science Foundation to 3D print concrete structures. As part of the collaboration Arkham is providing the robotic arm and we are providing the 3D printing, the know-how and the testing. The future step for this project in collaboration with Arkham is to continue working on true winds, especially focusing on applications for offshore applications. For us in Purdue we want to focus on other structures, still 3D printing concrete and probably combining with other materials.