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Connecting
July 12, 2024
Click here for sound of the Teletype
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Colleagues,
Good Friday morning on this July 12, 2024,
It was announced Thursday that The Associated Press and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation will work together to ensure AP’s election content and services are accessible to local newsrooms in battleground states ahead of the U.S. presidential election.
Select nonprofit and local newsrooms in key states including Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada that are members of the Institute for Nonprofit News and Local Independent Online News Publishers qualify.
Read more in one of today’s lead stories.
Want a target for your prayers and good karma? No better person than our colleague Paula Froke, AP’s Stylebook editor, who writes from Philadelphia:
At Chestnut Hill Hospital preadmission testing Thursday morning, the intake person asked who I work for. Associated Press, I replied. "Oh!" she said. "Keep up the great work!! I'm rooting for you!"
A great morale boost for me, and deeply deserved kudos from an unexpected place for the tremendous work of all my AP colleagues.
In another fun piece of karma, I learned during my April appointment that my breast surgeon graduated from the same high school that I did, and her dad still works for Penn State.
A week from today, I will put an end (mostly) to my high-risk breast cancer situation and rid myself of the offending appendages. My second lumpectomy, in December, three years after the first, was at least one too many to risk keeping that streak going. Also, proof that the high-risk theory was in fact true.
Friends! Get your mammos and other screenings! Getting news you don't want is sucky, but it's far better than not knowing something you need to know and thereby letting it get worse. I am very lucky that both occurrences were early stage. I am extremely lucky that after, um, a few years of delay, I finally got that 2020 mammogram that turned out to be perfectly timed. Good timing is NOT something you can count on. Do it now.
And send me good vibes next Thursday ...
PATRICIA LANTIS OBITUARY BY NANCY SHULINS: from Andy Lippman – “I did not know Patricia Lantis well, but Nancy Shulins' obituary really brought her to life. I know how esteemed the obituary writers are on The New York Times. Nancy was up with the best of them with this piece. She really did Patricia proud.” And from Jim Carlson: “Thanks to Nancy Shulins for her beautifully written obit for Patricia Lantis. What a wonderful tribute.”
Have a great weekend – be safe, stay healthy, live each day to your fullest.
Paul
Biden’s challenge: Will he ever satisfy the media’s appetite for questions about his ability?
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BY DAVID BAUDER
NEW YORK (AP) — Toward the end of his closely watched news conference Thursday night on the sidelines of the NATO summit, President Joe Biden was talking about being examined by doctors for his mental acuity. Suddenly, a little frustration slipped through.
“No matter what I did,” he said, “no one’s going to be satisfied.”
That’s the challenge Biden faced during his meeting with American and international reporters, two weeks after a poor debate performance ignited calls for him to step aside and let another candidate take up the Democratic campaign against former president Donald Trump.
Biden was animated at times, particularly during an opening statement when he spoke about the importance of the NATO alliance and delivered a defense of his presidency on issues of the economy and the border with Mexico. He relished an opportunity to talk about the nation’s relations with China and where that might go.
But on the very first question put to him, he also rewarded viewers, opponents and journalists who were looking for gaffes: He referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as Donald Trump. He rambled at times, dropping in stray facts inexplicably, and came across as tired, particularly as the hour drifted past 8 p.m. Eastern. His voice was gravelly and, at times, tentative.
Ultimately, the news conference was an ink-blot test for people who were watching him, NBC News’ Hallie Jackson said at the end. Supporters were likely encouraged by his grasp of issues, she said, “but if you think he should step off the ticket, this probably didn’t change your mind.”
Read more here.
Some smaller news outlets in swing states can’t afford election coverage. AP is helping them
BY DAVID BAUDER
NEW YORK (AP) — Many of the swing states in this fall’s election contain small, independent news organizations that can’t afford comprehensive election coverage. The Associated Press said Thursday that it will help them in coming weeks and months.
Newsrooms that are members of the Institute for Nonprofit News or Local Independent Online News Publishers and are based in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada will be able to get AP campaign coverage this summer and fall along with detailed counts of what happens on election night, AP said. The move comes through a $1.5 million grant from the Knight Foundation, a nonprofit that funds journalism endeavors.
The Institute for Nonprofit News estimated that some 50 of its members would be eligible for the material. The publishers group said that all but a few of its 140 members in those states would qualify.
Through a Google News Initiative announced earlier this year, the AP is providing election night information — vote counts and charts — to some 100 small newsrooms across the country, and more are eligible. Thursday’s announcement broadens that to the election’s runup as well.
“Members of the INN Network regularly do the most consequential journalism around, and are sometimes the only source of accurate, independent coverage in a community,” said Jonathan Kealing, chief network officer of the Institute for Nonprofit News. “This collaboration with AP will allow them to augment their own essential local coverage with the AP’s vast array of election reporting and resources.”
In a certain sense, the project could enable AP to reach some news consumers it may have lost earlier this year: The Gannett and McClatchy news chains, with more than 230 outlets across the country, said in March they would no longer use AP journalism because of financial pressure on the news industry.
There was no immediate information available on whether the AP-Knight collaboration would spread beyond the swing states. The initiative is among a total of $6.9 million that Knight is spending to provide political data, polling and training to newsrooms this elections season.
Click here for link to this story. Shared by Myron Belkind.
Click here for AP news release.
Cranial Cardio Question
Doug Pizac - This month we’ll test your cognitive skills on multiple levels: reasoning, common sense and decades old memory. While this is mainly geared for photographers, it also applies to amateurs, novices and hobbyists from back in the days (1950s and ’60s) when cameras were completely manual -- no auto focus, no auto exposure, no auto color balance, etc. -- where you had to use your brains and quick wits instead of relying on computer chips today to think for you.
Today we have two questions based on the same scenario. It is a clear night with no clouds, no air pollution and no light pollution when you see there is a full moon in the sky in all its glory. It is gorgeous. You grab your dSLR or mirrorless camera and find the electronic automatic functions have died, including the meter. It still works, but you have to dial in the settings manually. (And no bracketing allowed.)
First question: What color balance do you set your camera to? You can choose either a preset or Kelvin color temperature.
Second question: What exposure (ASA/ISO, shutter speed and f/stop) do you set the camera too? It could be the equivalent exposure you would commonly use on earth or more precise, the pseudo mathematical formula from back in the day when film inside screw cap metal canisters in the yellow boxes.
Look for the answers in Monday's issue.
Volunteering in retirement
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Preparing to serve ham, rolls, mashed potatoes and gravy, other goodies to an anticipated 300 homeless individuals and families at a bare lot in south Tucson two days before Christmas 2023. From left, Mark Mittelstadt, Mary Mittelstadt, church council president Dick Flones.
Mark Mittelstadt - Taking up Connecting's suggestion at the bottom of each edition I thought I'd share how Mary and I are volunteering in retirement.
We're active in two church efforts to serve the homeless and those in need. I lead a "Cup of Cold Water" ministry to provide water, snacks, clothing, tents, other items to the unhoused who come to the church on the outskirts of Tucson seeking help. The name comes from Scripture when Jesus sent his 12 disciples into the country to find believers. Our team opens a cooling spot (or warming in the winter) for three hours each week. We generally have six to eight visitors, although lately we're seeing fewer as the heat rises above 110 and no one wants to be outdoors.
Our group helps to maintain a "grace center" where we collect clothing, toiletries, shoes, sleeping bags, blankets, baby diapers, dog and cat food and other items for those who need it. We keep approximately 300 "manna bags" of bottles of water, protein (packed tuna, chicken), fruit cups, snacks, other essentials. We give the bags to individuals who come to see us and we encourage church members to hand them out as they drive around. Many do. Law enforcement and two fire departments also have access so they can pick up items needed by people suddenly displaced by fire or to give to motorists stranded in the heat in traffic back-ups from accidents.
Another ministry at our Lutheran church helps a separate nonprofit prepare and serve a meal to as many as 200 people, many homeless, on a bare lot in south Tucson. The nonprofit brings people together twice a week for prepared food and also distributes clothing, hygiene products and other items. The woman who runs it has been providing services almost single-handedly since 2012. We've bought and cooked food and helped serve it.
We've found both activities immensely rewarding. Personally, it has changed my heart and my view of homelessness. Encountering poorly clothed, often smelly, individuals lying on the street or hanging out in store fronts in New York City or the train stations, I usually looked away, often in disgust. Occasionally I was afraid of them. While I would bring used winter outerwear to Christmas coat drives set up in New York Penn Station, I would rarely talk to or engage with a homeless person.
My views have softened as a result of helping at church. I've developed connections with some of the unhoused who've come to see us. I know their names and their stories, and they know mine.
It's a community that is experiencing significant challenges in the Tucson area now. Police clear out massive encampments, usually tossing tents, bedding, clothes, other personal belongings. Formerly known as a sanctuary for the unhoused, the city of Tucson has become surprisingly hostile, taking extreme steps such as putting large boulders and other obstacles under bridges and overpasses where homeless might otherwise live, closing off parks, chasing homeless away from businesses and threatening to arrest anyone who feeds or helps them.
Because of a difficult experience when one homeless individual on drugs collapsed at our administrator's desk, our church purchased Narcan opioid overdose antidote kits and we've received training how to use them. Fortunately, we have not had to.
We're now looking to expand our Cup of Cold Water effort to aid struggling neighbors in the church's own back yard, a series of 1970s developments where some homes are occupied by elderly single individuals with only one income, Social Security.
AI and people gone wild
Doug Pizac - The use of AI to animate people talking and saying things they never voiced has become so good it is scary. The good news is that it will never replace sports photography for a long while -- knock on wood.
Here’s a PetaPixel story with examples on what AI generates when asked to create women’s gymnastics routines, men’s table tennis matches, a ballerina dancing and others. The results are hilarious -- from the women missing a leg to having three or no head, to ping pong without a table, and a bicycle race crash where cyclists become a swirling tsunami wave of bodies.
Now that you’ve had a laugh, let’s go back to scary. Here’s another PetaPixel story on a tech college in Lithuania coming up with an AI model that can remove cameramen in real time whenever they appear in a shot -- such as a videographer backtracking in front of players entering a stadium. It is like cloning a person out in a still photo, but can be done with live sports broadcasts to remove the distractions.
Photographers and cameramen a distraction? How dare they.
But then, maybe we need AI to save lives or at least keep people from becoming really stupid -- like approaching a bison in Yellowstone to shoot a selfie with it or even pet the animal whereupon they get tossed in the air with a head butt.
Here’s a PetaPixel story on a tourist leaving the safety of his vehicle to take closer photos of a breeding herd of elephants in a South African national park. Protecting its baby, a 3.5 ton adult cow and two adult bulls charged and trampled him to death.
What is happening to plain old common sense and ethics? Gads.
Obituary for Elisabeth Sims
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Hank Ackerman – Here is an obituary for Elisabeth Sims, the wife of former AP journalist Watson Sims.
You may recall the Connecting story I put together after meeting Betsy at the Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Center. She had a fall the same day I was leaving the rehabilitation program I was in and she died four days later. As an AP spouse, she, like many of our spouses, clearly supported the lifestyle of an AP reporter-editor as he moved into newspapers as editor of several key newspapers in Michigan and New Jersey. She studied and performed in a superlative way.
Visit to a Sarah Hutson restaurant in Boston
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Retired AP executive Elaine Hooker visited one of Sarah Hutson Wade’s Boston restaurants Thursday. Pictured are Sarah, Elaine’s husband, Herrick Jackson, and Elaine at Sloane’s. Elaine spent about 30 years with AP starting in Hartford. She also was news editor and later bureau chief in Hartford and Boston news editor. She worked at AP Corporate Communications and also NY Membership. She took time out to attend theological school, then returned to AP. She served as Oregon COB in Portland and then returned to Hartford as COB. Sarah, daughter of former AP Oklahoma City bureau chief Lindel Hutson, opens a third Boston restaurant this fall.
Blue Angels Skyshot
| Bill Kaczor - I took this shot of the Blue Angels doing a practice air show Thursday at Pensacola Beach looking across Santa Rosa Sound from Gulf Breeze. The Pensacola-based Navy flight demonstration squadron will perform its annual beach shows on Friday and Saturday. | |
Connecting wishes Happy Birthday |  | |
Stories of interest
Opinion | Editorials blast Trump while questions about Biden remain (Poynter)
By: Tom Jones
And here they come.
As various news organizations’ editorials and commentators continue to beat the drum that President Joe Biden should drop out of the 2024 presidential race, a common refrain among many is “What about Donald Trump?”
As in “How come no one is calling Trump unfit?” And “Why isn’t anyone saying Trump should drop out?”
I wrote about the possible reasons why earlier this week, as very few, including The Philadelphia Inquirer, ran editorials or commentaries suggesting that it was Trump, and not Biden, who should walk away.
The chief reason why is that it’s an unreasonable request. Trump is not going to drop out, and his party doesn’t want him to. In addition, one couldn’t help but ask if it was grandstanding to say that Trump should drop out now when there were no such editorials until after it was suggested that Biden drop out.
But here we go: Two major newspapers published editorials on Thursday saying Trump was unfit to be president.
Read more here.
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A Fine Joe-mance (New York Times)
By Michael M. Grynbaum
A few minutes before 10 a.m. on Monday, Mika Brzezinski, the co-host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” paused to listen to a producer’s voice in her ear. “We have a special guest,” she informed her viewers, before a familiar voice piped up.
“Hey, Mika,” President Biden said.
There are very few journalists on a first-name basis with this president, and even fewer cable news hosts. But Brzezinski and her husband and co-host, Joe Scarborough, have carved out a strikingly intimate relationship with the man in the Oval Office — which is why Biden turned to their airwaves at a moment of political peril.
Their on-air phone conversation hearkened back to the days when a different politician under pressure regularly called into “Morning Joe”: Donald Trump, who as a Republican candidate in 2016 was a frequent guest. (Indeed, Trump made his own cable TV appearance hours after Biden’s “Morning Joe” cameo, calling into “Hannity” on Fox News.)
But Trump and the “Morning Joe” crew fell out, and Scarborough and Brzezinski have since emerged as two of Biden’s most stalwart champions in the news media. Scarborough made headlines when he raised concerns after Biden’s poor debate performance, but Brzezinski has refused to waver.
Read more here. Shared by Dennis Conrad.
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Biden Campaign Has Long Fed Softball Questions to Friendly Interviewers (New York Times)
By Ken Bensinger
A few days before his State of the Union address in March, President Biden called in to “Afternoon Vibes,” a popular radio show in Charlotte, N.C. The host, Jessica Williams, asked him if he would list his accomplishments, say why he had decided to run for a second term and explain what was at stake for Black voters in the election.
That same day, Mr. Biden called into “DeDe in the Morning” in Dallas, where he was asked if he would list his accomplishments, say why he had decided to run for a second term and explain what was at stake for Black voters in the election.
Nine days later, the president called into a third show, this time in Milwaukee. “What do you think is at stake in this election for Black Americans specifically?” the host, Michelle Bryant, asked.
A close look at more than two dozen radio and podcast interviews given by Mr. Biden over the past two years reveals a distinct pattern: In appearance after appearance, the president has been served up nearly identical questions, prescreened or suggested ahead of time by campaign staff members. And in nearly every case, the questions set the president up to deliver on-message talking points, without notable flubs.
Read more here. Shared by Dennis Conrad.
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Opinion How the media sleepwalked into Biden’s debate disaster (Washington Post)
By Megan McArdle
In my 20 years of writing right-leaning columns at mainstream publications, I’ve made two arguments over and over. First, I’ve tried to convince my fellow journalists that liberal media bias is real. And second, I’ve tried to convince conservatives that, though it’s real, it’s not the conspiracy they imagine.
This is a hard moment to make that latter point. Frankly, if we had been colluding to cover up the decline of a Democratic president, who then undid all our efforts by going on national television and breaking the story himself … well, how much different would our coverage have looked? And if he hadn’t self-immolated at the debate, wouldn’t our readers still be in the dark?
That said, it really wasn’t a conspiracy. For one thing, mainstream outlets did report on the president’s age, even if too gently. Why were we so gentle? Well, there’s a broad journalistic norm against picking on physical characteristics (which is why even certified Donald Trump-hating columnists have made remarkably few cracks about his comb-over).
Read more here. Shared by Mark Mittelstadt.
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NPR gets $5.5 million grant to strengthen local journalism as news deserts spread (NPR)
By Lola Murti
Philanthropists Eric and Wendy Schmidt have given NPR a $5.5 million grant to invest in regional newsrooms – an infusion of cash at a time when local journalism is struggling financially.
The grant, announced Wednesday, will be used to establish the Appalachia regional newsroom, uniting six public media outlets in Kentucky and Tennessee. The money will fund four new positions and help support existing reporters and editors at those stations.
A digital editor and a journalist covering indigenous affairs will also be hired for the Mountain West News Bureau, which unites 14 stations across Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. A visual journalism pilot program will be launched in New England as well.
Read more here. Shared by Richard Chady.
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AP classes, by the year...
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a listing of Connecting colleagues who have shared the year and the bureau where they started with the AP. If you would like to share your own information, I will include it in later postings. Current AP staffers are also welcome to share their information.)
1951 - Norm Abelson (Boston)
1953 – Charles Monzella (Huntington, WVa)
1955 – Henry Bradsher (Atlanta), Paul Harrington (Boston), Joe McGowan (Cheyenne)
1957 - Louis Uchitelle (Philadelphia)
1958 – Roy Bolch (Kansas City)
1959 – Charlie Bruce (Montgomery)
1960 – Claude Erbsen (New York), Carl Leubsdorf (New Orleans)
1961 – Peter Arnett (Jakarta, Indonesia), Strat Douthat (Charleston. WVa), Warren Lerude (San Diego), Ed Staats (Austin)
1962 – Paul Albright (Cheyenne), Malcolm Barr Sr. (Honolulu), Myron Belkind (New York), Kelly Smith Tunney (Miami)
1963 – Hal Bock (New York)
1964 – Rachel Ambrose (Indianapolis), Larry Hamlin (Oklahoma City), John Lengel (Los Angeles), Ron Mulnix (Denver), Lyle Price (San Francisco), Arlene Sposato (New York), , Hilmi Toros (New York)
1965 – Bob Dobkin (Pittsburgh), Harry Dunphy (Denver), John Gibbons (New York), Jim Luther (Nashville), Larry Margasak (Harrisburg), Rich Oppel (Tallahassee)
1966 – Shirley Christian (Kansas City), Mike Doan (Portland, OR), Edie Lederer (New York), Nancy Shipley (Nashville), Mike Short (Los Angeles), Marty Thompson (Seattle), Nick Ut (Saigon), Kent Zimmerman (Chicago)
1967 – Dan Berger (Los Angeles), Adolphe Bernotas (Concord), Lou Boccardi (New York), Linda Deutsch (Los Angeles), Don Harrison (Los Angeles), Doug Kienitz (Cheyenne), David Liu (New York), Bruce Lowitt (Los Angeles), Chuck McFadden (Los Angeles), Martha Malan (Minneapolis), Bill Morrissey (Buffalo), Larry Paladino (Detroit), Michael Putzel (Raleigh), Bruce Richardson (Chicago), Richard Shafer (Baltimore), Victor Simpson (Newark), Michael Sniffen (Newark)
1968 – Lee Balgemann (Chicago), John Eagan (San Francisco), Joe Galu (Albany/Troy), Peter Gehrig (Frankfurt), Charles Hanley (Albany), Jerry Harkavy (Portland, Maine), Herb Hemming (New York), Brian King (Albany), Samuel Koo (New York), Karren Mills (Minneapolis), Michael Rubin (Los Angeles), Rick Spratling (Salt Lake City), Barry Sweet (Seattle)
1969 - Ann Blackman (New York), Ford Burkhart (Philadelphia), Dick Carelli (Charleston, WVa), Dennis Coston (Richmond), Mary V. Gordon (Newark), Daniel Q. Haney (Portland, Maine), Mike Harris (Chicago), Brad Martin (Kansas City), David Minthorn (Frankfurt), Cynthia Rawitch (Los Angeles), Bob Reid (Charlotte), Mike Reilly (New York), Doug Tucker (Tulsa), Bill Winter (Helena)
1970 – Richard Boudreaux (New York), Richard Drew (San Francisco), Bob Egelko (Los Angeles), Steve (Indy) Herman (Indianapolis), Tim Litsch (New York), Lee Margulies (Los Angeles), Chris Pederson (Salt Lake City), Brendan Riley (San Francisco), Larry Thorson (Philadelphia)
1971 – Harry Atkins (Detroit), Jim Bagby (Kansas City), Larry Blasko (Chicago), Jim Carlson (Milwaukee), Jim Carrier (New Haven), Chris Connell (Newark), Bill Gillen (New York), Bill Hendrick (Birmingham), John Lumpkin (Dallas), Kendal Weaver (Montgomery)
1972 – Hank Ackerman (New York), Bob Fick (St. Louis), Joe Frazier (Portland, Ore.), Terry Ganey (St. Louis), Mike Graczyk (Detroit), Denis Gray (Albany), Lindel Hutson (Little Rock), Brent Kallestad (Sioux Falls), Tom Kent (Hartford), Nolan Kienitz (Dallas), Andy Lippman (Phoenix), Ellen Miller (Helena), Mike Millican (Hartford), Lew Wheaton (Richmond)
1973 - Jerry Cipriano (New York), Susan Clark (New York), Norm Clarke (Cincinnati), Joe Galianese (East Brunswick), Merrill Hartson (Richmond), Mike Hendricks (Albany), Tom Journey (Tucson), Steve Loeper (Los Angeles), Tom Slaughter (Sioux Falls), Jim Spehar (Denver), Paul Stevens (Albany), Jeffrey Ulbrich (Cheyenne), Owen Ullmann (Detroit), John Willis (Omaha), Evans Witt (San Francisco)
1974 – Norman Black (Baltimore), David Espo (Cheyenne), Dan George (Topeka), Robert Glass (Philadelphia), Steve Graham (Helena), Elaine Hooker (Hartford), Sue Price Johnson (Charlotte), Dave Lubeski (Washington), Janet McConnaughey (Washington), Lee Mitgang (New York), Bud Weydert (Toledo), Marc Wilson (Little Rock)
1975 – Peter Eisner (Columbus), David Powell (New York), Eileen Alt Powell (Milwaukee)
1976 – Brad Cain (Chicago), Judith Capar (Philadelphia), Dick Chady (Albany), Steve Crowley (Washington), David Egner (Oklahoma City), Marc Humbert (Albany), Steven Hurst (Columbus), Richard Lowe (Nashville), John Nolan (Nashville), Charlotte Porter (Minneapolis), Chuck Wolfe (Charlotte)
1977 – Bryan Brumley (Washington), Robert Burns (Jefferson City), Charles Campbell (Nashville), Dave Carpenter (Philadelphia), Ken Herman (Dallas), Mike Holmes (Des Moines), Brad Kalbfeld (New York), Scott Kraft (Jefferson City), John Kreiser (New York), Peter Leabo (Dallas), Kevin LeBoeuf (Los Angeles), Ellen Nimmons (Minneapolis), Dan Sewell (Buffalo), Estes Thompson (Richmond), David Tirrell-Wysocki (Concord)
1978 – Tom Eblen (Louisville), Ruth Gersh (Richmond), Doug Pizac (Los Angeles), Charles Richards (Dallas), Reed Saxon (Los Angeles), Steve Wilson (Boston)
1979 – Brian Bland (Los Angeles), Scotty Comegys (Chicago), John Daniszewski (Philadelphia), Frances D’Emilio (San Francisco), Pat Fergus (Albany), Brian Friedman (Des Moines), Sally Hale (Dallas), Jill Lawrence (Harrisburg), Barry Massey (Kansas City), Phillip Rawls (Nashville), John Rice (Carson City), Linda Sargent (Little Rock), Joel Stashenko (Albany), Robert Wielaard (Brussels)
1980 – Alan Adler (Cleveland), Christopher Bacey (New York), Jeff Barnard (Providence), Mark Duncan (Cleveland), Bill Kaczor (Tallahassee), Mitchell Landsberg (Reno), Kevin Noblet (New Orleans), Jim Rowley (Baltimore), David Speer (Jackson), Hal Spencer (Providence), Carol J. Williams (Seattle)
1981 – Paul Davenport (Phoenix), Dan Day (Milwaukee), John Flesher (Raleigh), Len Iwanski (Bismarck), Ed McCullough (Albany), Drusilla Menaker (Philadelphia), Kim Mills (New York), Mark Mittelstadt (Des Moines), Roland Rochet (New York), Lee Siegel (Seattle), Marty Steinberg (Baltimore), Bill Vogrin (Kansas City)
1982 – Dorothy Abernathy (Little Rock), Al Behrman (Cincinnati), Tom Cohen (Jefferson City), John Epperson (Chicago), Ric Feld (Atlanta), Nick Geranios (Helena), Howard Gros (New Orleans), Robert Kimball (New York), Rob Kozloff (Detroit), Bill Menezes (Kansas City), David Ochs (New York)
1983 – Scott Charton (Little Rock), Sue Cross (Columbus), Mark Elias (Chicago), Diana Heidgerd (Miami), Sheila Norman-Culp (New York), Carol Esler Ochs (New York), Amy Sancetta (Philadelphia), Rande Simpson (New York), Dave Skidmore (Milwaukee)
1984 – Owen Canfield (Oklahoma City), Wayne Chin (Washington), Jack Elliott (Oklahoma City), Kelly P. Kissel (New Orleans), Joe Macenka (Richmond), Eva Parziale (San Francisco), Walt Rastetter (New York), Keith Robinson (Columbus), Cliff Schiappa (Kansas City), David Sedeño (Dallas), Andrew Selsky (Cheyenne), Patty Woodrow (Washington)
1985 – Beth Grace (Columbus), Betty Kumpf Pizac (Los Angeles)
1986 – Joni Baluh Beall (Richmond), David Beard (Jackson), Tom Coyne (Columbia, SC), Dave DeGrace (Milwaukee), Alan Flippen (Louisville), Jim Gerberich (San Francisco), Howard Goldberg (New York), Mark Hamrick (Dallas), Sandy Kozel (Washington), Robert Meyers (London)
1987 – Donna Abu-Nasr (Beirut), Dave Bauder (Albany), Chuck Burton (Charlotte), Beth Harris (Indianapolis), Lynne Harris (New York), Steven L. Herman (Charleston, WVa), Rosemarie Mileto (New York), John Rogers (Los Angeles)
1988 – Chris Carola (Albany), Peg Coughlin (Pierre), Kathy Gannon (Islamabad), Steve Hart (Washington), Melissa Jordan (Sioux Falls), Bill Pilc (New York), Kelley Shannon (Dallas)
1989 – Ted Bridis (Oklahoma City), Charlie Arbogast (Trenton), Ron Fournier (Little Rock)
1990 – Frank Fisher (Jackson), Dan Perry (Bucharest), Steve Sakson (Baltimore), Sean Thompson (New York)
1991 – Amanda Kell (Richmond), Santiago Lyon (Cairo), Lisa Pane (Hartford), Ricardo Reif (Caracas), Bill Sikes (Buffalo)
1992 – Kerry Huggard (New York)
1993 – Jim Salter (St. Louis)
1995 – Donna Tommelleo (Hartford)
1996 – Patricia N. Casillo (New York)
1997 – J. David Ake (Chicago), Pamela Collins (Dallas), Madhu Krishnappa Maron (New York), Jim Suhr (Detroit), Jennifer Yates (Baltimore)
2000 – Gary Gentile (Los Angeles)
2006 – Jon Gambrell (Little Rock)
| Today in History – July 12, 2024 | |
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Today is Friday, July 12, the 194th day of 2024. There are 172 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On July 12, as an angry reaction to the popularity of disco music, the Chicago White Sox held the “Disco Demolition Night” promotion, in which a crate of disco records was blown up on the field between games of a double-header; the ensuing riot and damage to the field caused the White Sox to forfeit the second game.
Also on this date:
In 1543, England’s King Henry VIII married his sixth and final wife, Catherine Parr.
In 1812, United States forces led by Gen. William Hull entered Canada during the War of 1812 against Britain. (However, Hull retreated shortly thereafter to Detroit.)
In 1862, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill authorizing the Army Medal of Honor.
In 1909, the House of Representatives joined the Senate in passing the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, allowing for a federal income tax, and submitted it to the states. (It was declared ratified in February 1913.)
In 1962, the Rolling Stones played their first show, at the Marquee Club in London.
In 1967, rioting erupted in Newark, New Jersey, over the police beating of a Black taxi driver; 26 people were killed in the five days of violence that followed.
In 1984, Democratic presidential candidate Walter F. Mondale announced his choice of U.S. Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York to be his running-mate; Ferraro was the first woman to run for vice president on a major-party ticket.
In 1991, Japanese professor Hitoshi Igarashi, who had translated Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses,” was found stabbed to death, nine days after the novel’s Italian translator was attacked in Milan.
In 1994, President Bill Clinton, visiting Germany, went to the eastern sector of Berlin, the first U.S. president to do so since Harry Truman.
In 2003, the USS Ronald Reagan, the first carrier named for a living president, was commissioned in Norfolk, Virginia.
In 2012, a scathing report by former FBI Director Louis Freeh said the late Joe Paterno and other top Penn State officials had buried child sexual abuse allegations against Jerry Sandusky more than a decade earlier to avoid bad publicity.
In 2022, Twitter sued Elon Musk to force him to complete the $44 billion acquisition of the social media company after Musk said he was backing off his agreement to buy the company. (He would eventually become Twitter’s owner three months later.)
Today’s Birthdays: Writer Delia Ephron is 80. Fitness guru Richard Simmons is 76. Singer Walter Egan is 76. Writer-producer Brian Grazer is 73. Actor Cheryl Ladd is 73. Gospel singer Ricky McKinnie (The Blind Boys of Alabama) is 72. Gospel singer Sandi Patty is 68. Actor Mel Harris is 68. Boxing champion Julio Cesar Chavez is 62. Rock singer Robin Wilson (Gin Blossoms) is 59. Actor Lisa Nicole Carson is 55. Olympic gold medal figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi is 53. CBS newsman Jeff Glor is 49. Actor Anna Friel is 48. R&B singer Tracie Spencer is 48. US Senator Kyrsten Sinema is 48. Actor Topher Grace is 46. Actor Michelle Rodriguez is 46. Country singer-musician Kimberly Perry (The Band Perry) is 41. Actor Natalie Martinez is 40. Actor Ta’Rhonda Jones is 36. Golfer Inbee Park is 36. Actor Rachel Brosnahan is 34. Olympic gold medal gymnast Jordyn Wieber is 29. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai is 27. NBA guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is 26. Soccer player Vinicius Junior is 24.
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Connecting is a daily newsletter published Monday through Friday that reaches more than 1,800 retired and former Associated Press employees, present-day employees, and news industry and journalism school colleagues. It began in 2013. Past issues can be found by clicking Connecting Archive in the masthead. Its author, Paul Stevens, retired from the AP in 2009 after a 36-year career as a newsman in Albany and St. Louis, correspondent in Wichita, chief of bureau in Albuquerque, Indianapolis and Kansas City, and Central Region vice president based in Kansas City.
Got a story to share? A favorite memory of your AP days? Don't keep them to yourself. Share with your colleagues by sending to Ye Olde Connecting Editor. And don't forget to include photos!
Here are some suggestions:
- Connecting "selfies" - a word and photo self-profile of you and your career, and what you are doing today. Both for new members and those who have been with us a while.
- Second chapters - You finished a great career. Now tell us about your second (and third and fourth?) chapters of life.
- Spousal support - How your spouse helped in supporting your work during your AP career.
- My most unusual story - tell us about an unusual, off the wall story that you covered.
- "A silly mistake that you make"- a chance to 'fess up with a memorable mistake in your journalistic career.
- Multigenerational AP families - profiles of families whose service spanned two or more generations.
- Volunteering - benefit your colleagues by sharing volunteer stories - with ideas on such work they can do themselves.
- First job - How did you get your first job in journalism?
- Most unusual place a story assignment took you.
Paul Stevens
Editor, Connecting newsletter
paulstevens46@gmail.com
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