The many different theoretical studies of energy loss of a quark or gluon traversing a medium have one thing in common: the transport coefficient of a gluon in the medium, $hat{q}$, which is defined as the mean 4-momentum transfer$^2$, $left<q^2right
>$, by a gluon to the medium per gluon mean free path, $lambda_{rm mfp}$. In the original BDMPSZ formalism, the energy loss of an outgoing parton, $-dE/dx$, per unit length ($x$) of a medium with total length $L$, due to coherent gluon bremsstrahlung, is proportional to the $left< q^2right>$ and takes the form: ${-dE/dx }simeq alpha_s left<{q^2(L)}right>=alpha_s, mu^2, L/lambda_{rm mfp} =alpha_s, hat{q}, L $ , where $mu$, is the mean momentum transfer per collision. Thus, the total energy loss in the medium goes like $L^2$. Additionally, the accumulated momentum$^2$, $left<{k_{perp}^2}right>$, transverse to a gluon traversing a length $L$ in the medium is well approximated by $left<{k_{perp}^2}right>approxleft<{q^2(L)}right>=hat{q}, L$. A simple estimate shows that the $left<{k_{perp}^2}right>approxhat{q},L$ should be observable at RHIC at $sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV via the broadening of di-hadron azimuthal correlations resulting in an azimuthal width $simsqrt{2}$ larger in Au$+$Au than in $p+p$ collisions . Measurements relevant to this issue will be discussed as well as recent STAR jet results presented at QM2014. Other topics to be discussed include the danger of using forward energy to define centrality in $p(d)+$A collisions for high $p_T$ measurements, the danger of not using comparison $p+p$ data at the same $sqrt{s}$ in the same detector for $R_{AA}$ or lately for $R_{pA}$ measurements.
Highlights of news from Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) and results from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) in the period July 2013-June 2014 are presented. It was a busy year for news, most notably a U. S. Government shutdown for 16 day
s beginning October 1, 2013 due to the lack of an approved budget for FY2014. Even with this unusual government activity, the $sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV Au+Au Run14 at RHIC was the best ever with integrated luminosity exceeding the sum of all previous runs. Additionally there was a brief He$^3$+Au run to continue the study of collective flow in small systems which was reinforced by new results presented on identified particle flow in d+Au. The other scientific highlights are also mostly concerned with ``soft (low $p_T$) physics complemented by the first preliminary results of reconstructed jets from hard-scattered partons in Au+Au collisions at RHIC . The measurements of transverse energy ($E_T$) spectra in p-p, d+Au and Au+Au collisions, which demonstrated last year that constituent quarks are the fundamental elements of particle production in all 3 systems, led to the conclusion that the two-component ansatz which has been used to represent $E_T$ distributions as a function of centrality is simply a proxy for the number of constituent quark participants as well as to an explanation of the surprising elliptical flow results from U+U collisions. An extensive discussion of the latest measurements in Au+Au of net-charge and net-proton distributions represented by Cumulants of the distributions and plans for a Beam Energy Scan at RHIC to look for a QCD critical point is presented and compared to the claim implied by a press release during the 2011 ISSP.
