Latest news with #Kamp
Indianapolis Star
12-06-2025
- Sport
- Indianapolis Star
New Pal catcher, valedictorian balances baseball with engineering future: 'Just trying to juggle everything'
New Palestine catcher Jackson Kamp watched the pain his grandmother, Debby Fisher, dealt with on a daily basis after undergoing multiple joint replacement surgeries. As a kid, Kamp wanted to study aerospace engineering and design airplanes, but finding a solution to his grandmother's pain sparked his interest in biomedical engineering. Kamp wants to design joint replacements, prosthetics and surgery robots, things that can really make a difference in people's lives. The senior is a dedicated student, valedictorian of his class with a 4.11 GPA. Before he solves the world's problems as an engineer, the Dragons (24-3) backstop will be tasked with slowing down the Guerin Catholic (18-12) offense during Saturday's Class 3A semistate semifinals. "Behind the plate, it definitely helps a lot," Kamp said of his intelligence. "It allows me to see things and study them. It can get me into trouble at the plate sometimes, though, starting to overthink things a little bit, but behind the plate, there's never enough time for that. It lets me make decisions quickly based on what I see. It makes it easy to see patterns. So, when I see the patterns, I know, oh, I need to do this." Balancing academics and athletics was not an easy task for Kamp. There were nights where the senior stayed up until 1 or 2 a.m., after games studying and finishing up homework. Kamp also had to sacrifice his social life to maintain his grades. "Just trying to juggle everything, it's definitely not easy," Kamp said. "My parents were always on me about using my time wisely, because I'm still a teenager and want to have fun with my friends and stuff, but they were like, 'if you want to accomplish this goal, you might have to give up something else.'" "He's probably one of the hardest workers I know," added senior pitcher Rigg Mahurin. "To be able to have his GPA and to be one of the better baseball players on the field, it just takes that much more work. ... He's usually one of the first ones out here, doesn't put his cleats on yet, just goes straight to setting the field up for practice. He's the last one off the field, last one to take reps. He's just that kid to stay after and just put the work in when he knows he needs it." Kamp and Mahurin have developed into a shutdown battery. Kamp relays the calls from coach Shawn Lyons to the pitching staff and the defense. Kamp caught Mahurin's nine-strikeout no-hitter against Cascade in the regional championship. Mahurin has not allowed an earned run over three postseason starts. For the season, Mahurin is 9-1 with a 1.38 ERA and 85 strikeouts over 60⅔ innings. Kamp's experience and ability to process the game keeps him in sync with his coach and pitchers. Lyons trusts his backstop to make the right signals based on what he's seeing from the dugout, and Kamp has the defensive ability to execute all the plays on the diamond. The Anderson commit has a .977 fielding percentage, with nine assists and just five errors in 216 chances. At the plate, Kamp is batting .311 with 19 runs scored, 26 RBIs, seven doubles, one triple and a team-high six home runs. "He's my quarterback for the defense," Lyons said of Kamp. "He'll make sure the pitcher and him are on the same page. He'll let me know, 'hey the umpire is really tight. Or he's giving a ball on the outside or the inside (of the plate).' We're always communicating. "Jackson has been with us since his freshman year. ... They understand our coaches. They understand where we're coming from, and they trust the process." Just two games from the state championship is a familiar place for the Dragons. In 2022-23, they lost in the semistate semifinals to Castle. Last season, New Pal lost in the semistate semis again, this time in extra innings to Class 4A runner-up Mooresville. There's a sting that comes from getting that close to the championship and coming up short. Failure is painful, but New Pal is hoping to build from the experience gained over the past two seasons. "The atmosphere is crazy," Kamp said of the semistate tournament. "So, if you've never been in it, it's surreal. Having that experience just lets you play instead of being all tight because you're like, 'oh, there's a lot of people in the stands right now.'" Follow IndyStar high school baseball Insider Akeem Glaspie on X at @THEAkeemGlaspie and get IndyStar's high school coverage sent directly to your inbox with the High School Sports newsletter. Class 4A at South Bend Riley (Four Winds Field at Coveleski Stadium) Class 4A at Mooresville Class 3A at LaPorte Class 3A at Jasper Class 2A at Oak Hill Class 2A at Castle (at University of Evansville) Class A at Lafayette Jeff (Loeb Stadium)
Miami Herald
04-06-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Is development ‘out of control?' A Florida county wants developers to pay more
As development booms in Florida, leaders in one Gulf Coast county want to start charging builders millions more to pay for issues caused by growth. Manatee County ommissioners have reviewed a plan to raise impact fee rates for local development to the maximum allowed by state law. The one-time fees collected from developers help pay for infrastructure like new roads, water and sewer utilities, schools, parks, libraries and emergency services. Manatee County's past handling of impact fees has drawn criticism from some residents and officials, who say that Braenton-area developers aren't paying their fair share for problems caused by rapid building. Last year, commissioners had a chance to revisit the fees. But rather than seeking substantially higher rates, they chose to approve a moderate increase of 50% over four years. They also chose to base the increase off of rates set in 2015 rather than using updated figures — a move critics said would result in millions of dollars of impact fees going uncollected. But after November's election brought a shift in policy to the county commission, leaders have moved forward with a plan to significantly update and raise the fees. They contracted an engineering firm, Benesch, to complete a study showing that Manatee County meets the 'extraordinary circumstances' needed to do so under state law. While residents have shown broad support for the hike in impact fees, some local developers are not happy. They showed up at a recent Land Use Meeting to protest the county's plan. Now commissioners are set to hold a final vote on a fee increase. Manatee County moves to raise fees on development In 2021, state legislators created extra steps that local governments must take to raise impact fees by more than 50%. First, counties must order a study showing that 'extraordinary circumstances' exist to justify a fee increase. Then, the county must hold two public workshops to discuss it. Manatee County commissioners held those workshops on May 7 and May 8. Finally, five of seven board members must approve the fee increase. State law does not define what counts as 'extraordinary circumstances,' but local governments around Florida have successfully used the language to raise fees. Nilgun Kamp, a principal associate with Benesch, said legitimate reasons to raise fees include rapid growth, higher infrastructure costs and unfunded infrastructure needs. Local governments can also adjust fees that are outdated or 'artificially low' due to past policies, Kamp said. Kamp said Manatee County checks all of those boxes as it experiences one of the highest levels of population growth and development in the state. During a presentation to commissioners, Kamp said Manatee ranks 12th of Florida's 67 counties for projected growth rate, with 159,000 new residents expected to arrive by 2050. While the county ranks 15th in population, it ranks 8th in permits issued for new housing, Kamp's presentation noted. 'This is all to say, you're a large county, growing rapidly,' Kamp said. 'You're ranking ... top 20% of all counties in terms of your growth levels.' Increase could double Manatee's impact fee revenue At the current rates, Manatee County collects around $63 million per year in impact fee revenue. With maximum fees, the county could more than double that number, Kamp said. The Benesch study projects that Manatee County could collect, at maximum, $119 million to $153 million per year with updated rates. For example, under the current rates, a developer pays about $14,000 in impact fees for a 1,700-square-foot home. Under the proposed rates, that amount would increase by 133% to around $33,000. The extra funding would help expand public safety programs, law enforcement, libraries, parks and transportation, the study says. Impact fees must be spent in the part of the county where they are collected and cannot be used to repair or maintain existing infrastructure. But they can be used to expand existing infrastructure capacity, such as adding additional lanes to a road. Developers criticize impact fee hike Developer Pat Neal of Neal Communities started public comment with accusations that the board's public hearings about the impact fee increases were poorly advertised. 'I do think there'll be some legal controversy because this is so different than the decision made by the board (last year),' Neal said. Neal argued that higher impact fees will increase home prices by thousands of dollars and have a negative impact on first-time home buyers. He said the county should look at other sources of money to upgrade infrastructure. 'As I have said many times, there are lots of other sources of revenue for transportation. We kind of feel ... that you're punishing the building industry,' Neal said. 'We ask that you be careful with what you do.' As an example, Neal argued that the proposed impact fees would result in a $20,000 price increase for buyers of SimplyDwell Homes, a subsidiary of Neal Communities with average home prices in the mid $300,000 range. The developer said he does not oppose impact fees, but asked the county to rethink the rates. 'We'd like you to consider this more gently,' Neal said. Over a dozen employees of Neal Communities and SimplyDwell Homes also spoke during public comment to oppose the impact fee increase. Local land use attorney Ed Vogler, who recently spoke against the board's move to restrict development in East Manatee County, spoke against the impact fee increase on behalf of the Suncoast Builders Association. The association has advocated for other development-friendly policies, including the reduction of Manatee County's wetland protections. 'The policy of increasing impact fees does nothing to improve the quality of life of current residents that live in the core of our community. This is an unbalanced approach,' Vogler said. Vogler also claimed that the move to raise impact fees could violate state law, an argument that developers have recently used to oppose other county policies aimed at reining in growth and protecting the environment. Residents support higher fees for developers Eight residents called in to support raising impact fees, citing concerns about the strain that rapid growth has placed on the county's traffic, schools, utilities and safety. 'The market is already stagnating ... because we are overselling at providing a lot of these so-called quality homes,' Dalton Nelson said. 'The infrastructure has to catch up ... we have to raise the impact fees now in order to slow things down enough so that we can address a lot of these backlog issues.' 'We all know the impact fees need to be raised. We are driving on roads that are not made for all the traffic,' Myakka City resident Heidi Minihkeim said. 'These developers have been getting a free ride for a long time. It needs to stop.' 'We have had astronomical growth here. I don't think it's sustainable long term,' Matt Woods said. Commissioners debate impact fees Several commissioners expressed concerns that a sharp hike in impact fees could scare away businesses from building in Manatee County, from day care centers to manufacturing. Commissioner Mike Rahn said he would like to get more feedback from the Bradenton Area Economic Development Corporation before moving forward with an increase. 'The percentages across the board are astronomical on these impact fees,' Rahn said. 'With fees like this, I don't think that businesses are going to relocate to Manatee County,' Commissioner Amanda Ballard said. 'They'll see our numbers and they'll go to Hillsborough or Sarasota.' Ballard pointed to figures in the study showing that the cost of impact fees to build a 4,000-square-foot day care facility would be around $100,000. 'How can we exempt or discount for industries that we need and want to attract to the county?' Ballard asked. County staff responded that there are ways to discount or adjust impact fees for projects that are deemed beneficial to the community. For example, state law allows some impact fee exemptions for affordable housing projects. Commissioner George Kruse argued that the board can later look at ways to lower impact fees for certain types of development. 'We've had the ability to take these schedules and modify them,' Kruse said. 'The issue is, we haven't increased these since 2015. These were under-collected for 10 years.' Kruse said that developers' arguments about higher impact fees hurting housing affordability are disingenuous. 'You're not trying to build affordable. You're trying to build with the maximum profit margin you possibly can. Don't come to me and ask me to help subsidize your profit margin. This is a cost of business,' Kruse said. Other commissioners also spoke in favor of the fee increase, arguing that low impact fees have resulted in the county taking on debt to pay for infrastructure needs. 'This community has grown so far out of control that people are having problems living here now,' Commissioner Robert McCann said. 'We've been tasked out on this board to take care of the county's business, and to make sound business decisions, just like Mr. Neal,' Commissioner Jason Bearden said. 'We're not in the business of losing money. The taxpayers are not in the business of continuing to pay more and more taxes for the unsupported growth that is happening in this county. People that live in West Bradenton shouldn't have to be paying for the roads in east county.' 'This is something that we have to do,' Commissioner Carol Ann Felts said. 'The pendulum swung too far in one direction for too long.' 'I'm in support of moving this forward,' Commissioner Tal Siddique said. 'We are facing extraordinary circumstances. We can't just keep putting on more and more debt for future generations to pay it off.' What happens next? The commission is set to vote on the impact fee increase at 5 p.m. Thursday, June 5, during a Land Use Meeting in the commission chambers at 1112 Manatee Ave. W. in Bradenton. The meeting can be watched live on the county's YouTube channel. If approved, the new fees would go into effect in 90 days, according to the county.
Campaign ME
08-05-2025
- Business
- Campaign ME
Khaleej Times appoints Ted Kemp as Chief Content Officer
Khaleej Times has announced the appointment of Ted Kemp as its new Chief Content Officer. The addition to one of the UAE's longest-standing English-language newspapers's leadership bench comes in an effort to keep pace with the region's rapidly changing media landscape. With a sharper focus on digital storytelling, real-time coverage, and audience engagement, Kamp's appointment aims to continue to build stronger connections with a younger, increasingly diverse readership across the GCC and MENA. Charles Yardley, Chief Executive Officer of Khaleej Times, said, 'Ted's leadership will be instrumental as we accelerate our digital transformation and expand our reach across the GCC and MENA regions. His passion for journalism and innovative thinking make him an ideal fit for Khaleej Times.' A seasoned editorial leader with over two decades of experience in media and international journalism, Kamp has built a strong track record in driving strategic growth and expanding audiences. He most recently served as Editor of Moniify in Dubai, where he led a dynamic newsroom delivering content to millennial and Gen Z audiences across the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia. Prior to this, he also served as Managing Editor at CNBC International, overseeing EMEA and APAC editorial operations from Singapore and delivering record-breaking digital audience growth. Mohammed Galadari, Co-Chairman and Group CEO, added, 'On behalf of Khaleej Times, I warmly welcome Ted. His extensive experience and forward-looking vision will be crucial as we continue to redefine excellence in content creation. Together, we look forward to shaping the future of journalism and delivering compelling narratives that resonate with our diverse audiences.' In his new role, Kemp will lead the Khaleej Times newsroom, and has been tasked with championing the title's commitment to journalism, and spearheading innovation across editorial functions. Khaleej Times says his appointment comes at a pivotal time for the brand, which claims to be currently reaching the largest audience in its history. Readers under the age of 35 now account for 40 per cent of Khaleej Times' audience, with growth largely driven by its KT Plus platform. Commenting on his appointment, Kemp said 'It's the professional opportunity of a lifetime to join Khaleej Times, an organisation that has gained universal esteem over the years. It's not just the brand's rich heritage that excites me – it's the future. Khaleej Times stands as one of the most powerful and trusted news outlets in the most dynamic region on the planet. The editorial team holds in its hands the opportunity not only to reflect the UAE and the wider region, but to help define it. That's what inspires me.'
Campaign ME
07-05-2025
- Business
- Campaign ME
Khaleej Times appoints Ted Kamp as Chief Content Officer
Khaleej Times has announced the appointment of Ted Kamp as its new Chief Content Officer. The addition to one of the UAE's longest-standing English-language newspapers's leadership bench comes in an effort to keep pace with the region's rapidly changing media landscape. With a sharper focus on digital storytelling, real-time coverage, and audience engagement, Kamp's appointment aims to continue to build stronger connections with a younger, increasingly diverse readership across the GCC and MENA. Charles Yardley, Chief Executive Officer of Khaleej Times, said, 'Ted's leadership will be instrumental as we accelerate our digital transformation and expand our reach across the GCC and MENA regions. His passion for journalism and innovative thinking make him an ideal fit for Khaleej Times.' A seasoned editorial leader with over two decades of experience in media and international journalism, Kamp has built a strong track record in driving strategic growth and expanding audiences. He most recently served as Editor of Moniify in Dubai, where he led a dynamic newsroom delivering content to millennial and Gen Z audiences across the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia. Prior to this, he also served as Managing Editor at CNBC International, overseeing EMEA and APAC editorial operations from Singapore and delivering record-breaking digital audience growth. Mohammed Galadari, Co-Chairman and Group CEO, added, 'On behalf of Khaleej Times, I warmly welcome Ted. His extensive experience and forward-looking vision will be crucial as we continue to redefine excellence in content creation. Together, we look forward to shaping the future of journalism and delivering compelling narratives that resonate with our diverse audiences.' In his new role, Kamp will lead the Khaleej Times newsroom, and has been tasked with championing the title's commitment to journalism, and spearheading innovation across editorial functions. Khaleej Times says his appointment comes at a pivotal time for the brand, which claims to be currently reaching the largest audience in its history. Readers under the age of 35 now account for 40 per cent of Khaleej Times' audience, with growth largely driven by its KT Plus platform. Commenting on his appointment, Kamp said 'It's the professional opportunity of a lifetime to join Khaleej Times, an organisation that has gained universal esteem over the years. It's not just the brand's rich heritage that excites me – it's the future. Khaleej Times stands as one of the most powerful and trusted news outlets in the most dynamic region on the planet. The editorial team holds in its hands the opportunity not only to reflect the UAE and the wider region, but to help define it. That's what inspires me.'
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Easterseals Community Rally 2025: Day 1
PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — Volunteers were taking calls on Monday for the first day of the Easterseals Community Rally Telethon. The community rally will raise money and awareness for children with disabilities. As part of the Rally, Easterseals will be holding a telethon from April 21 through 25. Easterseals Walk Run Rally kicks off week long Community Rally Martha Kamp with CEFCU said it's important for them to give back to organizations like Easterseals that do so much good for the community. 'They are doing so much good work for kids, for families, for adults, and the work is so meaningful and so important and they are helping to build stronger lives through the work that they do at Easterseals,' Kamp said. Those who want to donate can call (309) 688-2022 during the telethon or go to the Easterseals website. This story will be updated. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
