Some coaches, too, are still trying to

Marine Col. Joel Bonavente, who was among the visiting military officials, told AP that military personnel posted in the remote outpost get additional pay to compensate for the “hazard and loneliness.”On Thitu, the largest Philippines-claimed island, which lies west of West York, civilians have thrived for decades in a small fishing village alongside the military forces.

An AP journalist who visited Thitu several years ago saw an island with only a few low-slung wooden and concrete buildings and a gravel airstrip that was being eroded by the constant pounding of waves. There were a few shanties mainlanders had moved to from Palawan in exchange for a monthly government provision of groceries, rice and cash in a bid to grow a civilian community.Dramatic infrastructure improvements have occurred through the years on the 37.2-hectare (92-acre) island, which now has a concrete runway, a huge aircraft hangar, a wharf, a storm shelter and concrete roads running through the fishing village, military encampments and a three-story coast guard surveillance center.A high school building is nearly finished near a seawater desalination facility.

“I want to stay on this island because my blood pressure remains stable without the wide selection of fatty food you find in the city like hamburgers,” said Nenita Bania, a 59-year-old villager who has lived with her husband on Thitu for 12 years.“Lonely? Not really. It’s not the case if you’re with family,” she told the AP aboard an air force C-130 aircraft, as she and other villagers hitched a ride back to Thitu from Palawan province.

Living in China’s shadow in the disputed waters, however, has been challenging, said Larry Hugo, 47, who leads a group of at least 114 fishermen.

More than a decade ago, China transformed seven disputed South China Sea reefs into island bases, where Chinese coast guard and navy ships can now refuel and obtain supplies for longer periods far from the Chinese mainland.However, the arrangement between Talen and Amazon — called a “behind the meter” connection — has been held up by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in the first such case to come before the agency.

It has raised questions over whether diverting power to higher-paying customers will leave enough for others and whether it’s fair to excuse big power users from paying for the grid.For Big Tech, plugging energy-hungry data centers directly into a power plant can take years off their development timelines and is a much faster route to procuring power than having to connect to the congested electricity grid.

It’s not clear when FERC, which blocked the deal on a procedural grounds, will decide the matter, leaving in limbo regulatory treatment of the deal and others that likely would follow.Already in Pennsylvania, Microsoft announced a deal with the owner of the shuttered