The dreaded “gales of November” on the Great Lakes pose a threat to commercial shipping from Duluth, Minnesota, to Kingston, Ontario — and everywhere in between. One place that gets special attention during storm season is the narrow passage through the Straits of Mackinac between Mackinaw City and St. Ignace, a 30-mile stretch that connects Lakes Michigan and Huron. Federal, state and county officials are now working together with ship owners and private industry to help minimize the chance of collisions, anchor strikes or other serious accidents at the scenic location. A major player in that effort is the Enbridge Straits Maritime Operations Center, just west of St. Ignace. Known as ESMOC, the center integrates advanced technology and human expertise into a “layered defense system” that both monitors and alerts shipping traffic in the Straits. The center also shares information and resources with the Coast Guard, first responders and area law enforcement agencies. Local officials call it their “eyes on the water.” To provide updates on ESMOC, Enbridge representatives and local law officials hosted an information session about the $50 million ops center at the Michigan Association of Counties conference in Traverse City this fall. ESMOC became fully operational at its current facility in 2022. Its primary mission is to protect the Line 5 pipeline from anchor strikes and other ship-related hazards. Mike Davanzo, who leads the ESMOC team, called it a temporary measure during tunnel construction. The former U.S. Coast Guard captain with 44 years of maritime experience, including 12 years in the Great Lakes region, said his team monitors almost every type of vessel that crosses through the Straits. Hundreds of ships pass over Line 5 and under the Mackinac Bridge every year. Some are enormous ore boats called “lakers,” while others are international cargo ships called “salties.” Add to that list pleasure craft, tugboats, passenger ferries and various patrol boats. “We know 12 hours in advance the name, size and type of ship that’s coming towards the Straits, thanks in part to AIS,” Davanzo said, referring to the Automated Identification System now in use. “We’re never surprised when a ship enters the area.” After an anchor strike in 2018, the Coast Guard established a “regulated navigation area” in the area of the Straits that includes Line 5. Ships passing through that zone are forbidden to anchor or loiter there. In addition to AIS, the ops center uses a wide variety of electronic monitoring and communications equipment throughout the day and night. These include: Other provisions add to this “layered-defense” strategy. For example, ships entering the Straits are required to have a licensed maritime pilot on the bridge. Captains of U.S. and Canadian cargo ships operating on the Great Lakes (the lakers) already meet that requirement. However, international ships (the so-called salties) may be required to add a local pilot to their crew during the Straits passage. ESMOC doesn’t operate in a vacuum, but rather serves as a force multiplier for law enforcement, Coast Guard and emergency management officials in seven counties on both sides of the bridge. One such partner is Bryce Tracy, the 911 coordinator for Mackinac County in the Upper Peninsula. “Living in the Straits area is like being in the middle part of an hourglass,” Tracy said. “We’ve got traffic coming through by almost every mode of transport: big ships, pleasure boats, cars, trucks and aircraft.” “In summer, the transient population is 10 times larger,” he added. “We have to maintain partnerships at all levels to handle the load — not just collaboration, but also technical interoperability and personal relationships with those directly responsible. “It’s like concentric layers of an onion.” More than 4 million vehicles cross the Mackinac Bridge each year, according to state records. The busiest months are July and August, when the bridge sees an average of 20,000 vehicles per day. John Malnar is a county commissioner in Delta County, which borders the northern shore of Lake Michigan in the U.P. Malnar noted that ESMOC cameras can have more than one useful function: “We’ve had to rescue people out on the lake more than once and the Enbridge high-resolution cameras have helped us locate those people so we can send a boat to the right location. “That same technology would be a great help if there’s ever a need for a pollution response.” In an event of a leak, Line 5 could be shut down in about 15 minutes, according to Paul Meneghini, community engagement manager for Enbridge, who works out of Escanaba. Automatic shut-off valves are installed on both sides of the Straits, according to Enbridge spokesman Ryan Duffy. At any given time, about 5,000 barrels of “product” — petroleum and natural gas liquids — are in the Straits section of the dual-pipe line, he added. Completed in 1953, Line 5 carries about 540,000 barrels of petroleum and natural gas liquids per day from Superior, Wisconsin, through the Upper Peninsula and then on to the Lower Peninsula. Much of that material continues on to Ontario via a pipeline between Port Huron and Sarnia. The section of Line 5 under the Straits consists of two parallel, 20-inch-diameter pipes that run for about 4.5 miles from Point LaBarbe in the U.P. to McGulpin Point just west Mackinaw City in the south — the shortest path between the two peninsulas. Not far away, American Transmission Company operates two underwater power circuits with solid dielectric insulation. In April 2018, ATC’s previous two cables leaked about 600 gallons of dielectric insulating fluid into the Great Lakes when a tugboat with barge apparently dragged its anchor through the prohibited area. After analyzing data from the 2018 incident, Consumers Energy decided to remove its own decommissioned cables from the Straits, a project completed in September 2020. AT&T still operates a fiber-optic cable under the Straits. If a new Great Lakes Tunnel is built to house the Straits portion of Line 5, Enbridge officials say ESMOC could find a new use as an emergency response and/or water safety monitoring system.
Residential Shredding Service Market Overview and Leading Players: PROSHRED, Shred-it, GFL Environmental Inc, Time Shred Services, Chesapeake Paper Systems, All Points Mobile Shredding, Simply Shredding Tonbridge, ShredQuickSTATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — Jaylen Reed’s hands were still dirty and his face smeared with eye black as he took a seat in the Beaver Stadium media room. The hard-nosed veteran of nearly 50 college football games looked weary after Penn State pounded Maryland on Saturday, but lit up as he watched media members gather around teammate Audavion Collins next to him. The sophomore was excitedly describing his first career interception. Reed grinned, his pride was evident. One of Penn State’s captains, Reed loves when underclassmen earn playing time. He knows, especially on defense, the No. 3 Nittany Lions (11-1, 8-1 Big Ten, No. 4 CFP) will likely rely on them to make a run at their first national championship since 1986. “Having that type of depth, having that type of guy that can step up and play the game every week, that’s something that’s going to help us down the stretch,” Reed said. “Having depth at all positions, I feel like that’s the main thing and I feel like we have huge depth.” Reed knows Collins is far from the only reserve player who has been effective for Tom Allen’s defense this season. Heading into Saturday’s Big Ten championship game against No. 1 Oregon in Indianapolis, Penn State has used 39 players on a defense that ranks seventh nationally against the run and pass. Meanwhile, the Nittany Lions are fourth overall in total defense (266.8 yards) and sixth in scoring defense (14 points) entering the showdown with the Ducks' 15th-ranked offense with a College Football Playoff first-round bye at stake. It’s not just the starting 11 getting it done. Since mid-October, Penn State has regularly rotated at least nine defensive linemen, six linebackers and nine defensive backs early and midway through games. As a result, seven players have snagged their first interceptions this season, while five others have recorded their first sacks. “We believe in everybody coming in behind us,” linebacker Tony Rojas said. “Our defense, we know what we’re capable of and I feel like our defense is top tier, if not the best.” It technically hasn’t been at full strength since Week 2 of the season. Then, star safety KJ Winston was lost to an unspecified long-term injury. He tried to play at Wisconsin on Oct. 26, but hasn’t seen action since. In the meantime, Winston’s absence has allowed Allen and head coach James Franklin to get a good look at Collins and other young backend players like Eliot Washington, Zion Tracy and Dejuan Lane. Tracy and Lane have seen their snap counts go up since November, and both have interceptions since. The Nittany Lions haven’t been immune to injuries up front, either. Star end Dani Dennis-Sutton was limited midway through the season by an unspecified ailment. Before last weekend’s game against Maryland, Penn State listed defensive tackles Alonzo Ford and Kaleb Artis and defensive end Zuriah Fisher out with injuries. While not near 100% healthy, Dennis-Sutton continued to suit up, but yielded reps to Amin Vanover and Smith Vilbert. Vanover and Vilbert are seniors who were slowed over the years by injuries but have stuck around, and are now shoring up the team’s depth. “I think getting Dani back healthy, that’s been important,” Franklin said. “I think this was his first game back where he was really healthy, Abdul (Carter) the second half of the season, has gotten very comfortable playing defensive end. We’ve been able to rotate and get production out of guys like Amin as well, so I think all those things have been really important.” So is the fact that Penn State’s defense has continued to close out games. The Nittany Lions have allowed just 445 yards on 125 third-quarter plays this season. Meanwhile, they’ve outscored opponents 192-55 in the second half and overtime and held 19 of their last 22 Big Ten opponents to fewer that 100 rushing yards. Like Reed, senior Dvon J-Thomas spent much of the second half against Maryland cheering on his freshman teammates. Notably, tackle Ty Blanding who had his first career tackle for loss in his first defensive series. “I’ve seen a tremendous leap in their attention to detail,” J-Thomas said. “There’s not a lot of moments or times in your career where you’ll have an opportunity like this and I think they realize that." Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
Cam Carter put LSU ahead for good with a jumper 1:08 into the third overtime and the Tigers came away with a wild 109-102 win over UCF on Sunday in the third-place game of the Greenbrier Tip-Off in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. Carter's make sparked a 5-0 spurt for LSU (5-1), which mounted a ferocious second-half rally that began after Darius Johnson drilled a 3-pointer to put the Knights up 52-34 with 12:57 to play in regulation. UCF (4-2) got back within two in the third overtime, but it never found a way to draw even. Vyctorius Miller and Jordan Sears sealed the victory, combining for three buckets down low that gave the Tigers a 106-99 cushion with 17 seconds remaining. Carter was the late-game hero for LSU, scoring the final four points of regulation to forge a 70-70 tie. He also knocked down a go-ahead 3-pointer with 3:19 left in the first extra session to give the Tigers a 76-75 advantage. Sears gave LSU a four-point edge with a triple of his own with 2:10 to go, but the Tigers failed to stay in front, and UCF's Keyshawn Hall kept the game going by sinking two free throws with six seconds remaining to make it 82-82. Neither team led by more than three in the second overtime, with Hall again coming to the Knights' rescue. He made two layups in the final 52 seconds of the frame to knot things at 93 and send the teams to a third OT. Few could have predicted 15 minutes of extra basketball after UCF put together a 25-3 first-half run that lifted it to a 38-18 advantage with 2:12 left until the break. LSU responded with seven unanswered points, but the Knights still led comfortably, 40-25, at intermission. Sears finished with a game-high-tying 25 points to go along with nine boards, while Jalen Reed recorded a 21-point, 13-rebound double-double for the Tigers. Carter netted 20 points, Miller had 16 and Dji Bailey chipped in 14. Johnson collected 25 points, six rebounds, eight assists and five steals for UCF. Hall totaled 21 points and 10 boards, and Jordan Ivy-Curry supplied 20 points. LSU outshot UCF 43.2 percent to 40.7 percent and had narrow advantages from behind the arc (12 made shots to 10) and the free-throw line (21-18). --Field Level MediaA woman's unconventional icebreaker question has left the internet in stitches. Evie (@eviefsb) shared her new go-to question : "I f you were Jesus what would be your body, what would be your blood?" The post garnered 23,300 likes and 177,100 views on TikTok . "You can tell a lot about a person from this question," she explained and revealed her favorite response: "This one guy said my body would be a Clif bar and my blood would be electrolytes, and I guess he'd have a climbing gym in his church." shout out to whoever first asked me this I forget who it was I think I was intoxicated The question humorously references the Christian tradition of the Eucharist, which in essence reenacts Jesus Christ's Last Supper, where he ate bread and wine and told his disciples to do the same in his memory, referring to the former as his body and the latter as his blood. In many churches, including the Church of England, bread and wine are central elements of the Eucharist, representing Jesus' body and blood in remembrance of his death and resurrection. As an icebreaker, the question combines humor with creativity, fitting the mold of engaging prompts that spark fun conversations. According to resources like those from Michigan Technological University , good icebreaker questions are often lighthearted, imaginative, and invite unique responses. Some popular examples include: Evie's question works so well because it encourages people to think creatively and share something personal, while also leaving room for humor. TikTok users were obsessed with the amusing question and eagerly shared their answers. "Obviously body is tea," said Nora. "A solid cheese (Swiss) and a liquid cheese (Queso)," said Nathan. "Garlic bread and apple juice," said Siggi. "Cold leftover pizza and a crisp cold diet coke from the can over ice," shared another viewer. "Garlic bread and Dr Pepper," said another viewer. "I'm Italian so bread and wine is good," said one woman, in agreement with the original ritual. "Babybel and spicy marg," added another user. Newsweek reached out to @eviesfsb for comment via TikTok. Do you have funny videos or pictures you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some extra details, and they could appear on our website.