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Year One : A Look At David Van Zandt’s New School Presidency

David Van Zandt in his office shortly after assuming the presidency of the New School. Yumna Al-Arashi

When David Van Zandt succeeded Bob Kerrey on January 1, 2011 to become the eighth president of The New School, he was tasked with not only leading the institution, but formulating a vision for its future.

The former dean of Northwestern University School of Law went from overseeing the education of roughly 800 law students to being responsible for a multi-divisional institution with 10,000 students in a host of fields as diverse as design, theatre, public policy, fashion, jazz, and the liberal arts. In his first year Van Zandt has confronted virtually every challenge The New School has traditionally presented to its leaders — whether it has involved the disparate nature of the administrative bureaucracy, the financial strains of being a tuition-driven institution, or a student-led occupation. Opinions on how he has handled these obstacles vary, but one constant emerges – that Van Zandt has a much better grasp of the institution, on both a practical and ideological level, than his predecessor did.

A Mandate for Change

President David Van Zandt in the Orozco Room. Courtney Stack

Coming into the job, Van Zandt had two distinct advantages. First, he was an academic, with 25 years combined experience as a dean and faculty member, and second, he was not Bob Kerrey.

The advantages were not lost on many among the university faculty — the same folks who had given Kerrey a grim vote of no confidence in 2008. The former Nebraska senator had managed to alienate the faculty time and again during his decade at The New School, whether it was going through six provosts — including himself — or running the administration in an exclusive, non-transparent fashion.

From the start, Van Zandt seemed intent to avoid the mistakes of the recent past. He spent his first days on the job meeting with virtually anyone he could — faculty, staff, students — in order to get a better idea of The New School as both an academic institution and an institutional bureaucracy. As far as the faculty were concerned, he began by consulting the three co-chairs of the faculty senate roughly every month, a move that Kerrey, despite being instrumental in the formation of the senate, had rarely offered.

“He struck us as being open and eager to work with faculty,” said Milano professor Nidhi Srinivas, one of the co-chairs at the time. “In his personal interactions he was both comfortable and relaxed with us, and also frank,” Srinivas went on. “He’s different from Bob Kerrey in the sense that he is actually quite comfortable with faculty, and he understands universities in a way that Bob never did.” The change represented only one aspect of a leadership style that diverged greatly from the previous decade. Van Zandt appeared committed to changing the culture of the institution’s day-to-day functioning, whether it was how vice presidents and administrators worked with the provost’s office and deans from each academic division, or how efficiently the university provided services to students, faculty, and the entire community.

His announcement of the “Service Improvement Initiative” in March 2011 sought to address many of the institution’s long-standing bureaucratic woes. The administration began working on the initiative almost immediately upon Van Zandt’s arrival; among other things, it put into motion the university’s transition to Gmail and mandated that all expense reimbursements be issued within 10 days.

The president’s methods in working with others to shape the university’s future have proven even more popular. By all accounts, Van Zandt prefers to have as much input from those around him, and as much empirical data at his disposal, before coming to a decision. He expects the institution’s various components of the university — from the provost’s office to financial services — to work together in the best interest of the university. It is a modus operandi, faculty and administrators claim, that is a distinct departure from the past.

“It’s a dramatic change, to be honest,” Provost Tim Marshall, the university’s senior academic administrator, told the Free Press, adding that the president has a “basic approach that we all work for one university and toward one goal, and that these divisions, or supposed divisions, between the administrative and academic are not at all helpful.” From “day one,” Marshall added, Van Zandt made it clear “that he wasn’t interested in an institution that was operating in that way.”

Marshall himself has been a vitally important part of that approach, a man whom Van Zandt described as “a visionary” in an interview with the Free Press, and “invaluable” in helping make his own transition run smoothly. Van Zandt acknowledged that Marshall played the lead role in organizing the university’s search for new deans at Lang, Mannes and The New School for Drama, which saw Stephanie Browner, Richard Kessler and Pippin Parker appointed to their respective positions over the summer.

“We basically see eye to eye in just about everything,” Van Zandt said of Marshall. “When it comes to the academic vision for The New School, we’re on the same page.”

Van Zandt’s working relationship with Marshall exemplifies just how differently he operates from Kerrey, a man whose inability to settle on one provost — before eventually naming himself to the position —- resulted

President David Van Zandt outside of the 90 Fifth Ave. on November 21, 2011 during the occupation of the space Courtney Stack

in the loss of virtually all support within the faculty and student body.

Dollars and Sense

On January 21 of this year, Van Zandt and Marshall sent a letter to faculty and staff detailing The New School’s financial outlook. It revealed that the university is facing a $17 million deficit in its $330 million budget for the next fiscal year and that the administration will have to make tough decisions to ensure that the institution’s financial state remains sustainable.

Rather than implementing drastic cuts in the academic and support services at The New School, Van Zandt and Marshall’s letter stated that they would implement a more nuanced, strategic method of scaling back costs. Regardless of whatever financial constraints lay ahead, the university, they pledged, will commit itself to “limiting tuition increases” and “maintaining core academic and related services for students.”

“We did not want to make across-the-board cuts this time,” Van Zandt and Marshall wrote in the letter. “Instead, we decided to use the strategic financial planning process already underway to adjust expenses in a more deliberate manner.”

The announcement confirmed what has become a reality of Van Zandt’s presidency — he has inherited an institution that, while not in dire financial straits, is forced to deal with fiscal limitations resulting from a variety of factors. Above all, The New School has proven unable to reach its expected levels of enrollment; while the university projected a growth of around 4 percent in enrollment for the Fall 2011 semester, all seven academic divisions experienced marginal growth at best. For a tuition-driven institution that receives 80 percent of its annual budget from student revenue, the numbers bear consequences.

“We had projected a 4 percent enrollment growth last fall, about $10 million of revenue which we didn’t get in,” Frank Barletta, The New School’s senior vice president for finance and business, told the Free Press. “But our budget was spending that $10 million, so now we had to cut the budget on the expense side.”

For some, the fiscal constraints are a result of the unsustainable growth implemented by Kerrey’s administration. The New School grew in an accelerated fashion under the former president, the result of a Kerrey initiative to expand the institution’s academic and administrative services to reflect the infrastructure of a more traditional university.

“In retrospect, it’s clear that everything that worried faculty, and certain deans who had much more of a firsthand view of what was going on, has come to pass,” said NSSR politics professor James Miller, one of Kerrey’s most vocal critics at The New School. “[Kerrey] was a very poor manager, and James Murtha was his partner in devising a completely unrealistic plan of continued infinite growth. The New School literally mortgaged its future under Bob Kerrey.”

Van Zandt acknowledged that he recognized The New School’s exorbitant expectations for growth upon arriving at the university. His academic vision for the university, he told the Free Press, would now focus less on growth and more on quality.

“As I said when I first came in, I thought from an academic quality standpoint that it was very difficult to maintain that kind of growth,” Van Zandt said. “I hadn’t been thinking of it on budgetary terms, but as the year wore on and we got into the fall, the budgetary implications became obvious to me.”

The New School’s budget for the next fiscal year now assumes no increase in tuition revenue, and the extent to which Van Zandt and Marshall will be able to cut the budget without squeezing programs remains uncertain. The university is scaling back searches for full-time faculty and will probably reduce the number of part-time faculty. At the October 26 town hall, Marshall mentioned the Fashion Design BFA at Parsons and certain Ph.D programs at The New School for Social Research as “programs we’d like to reduce in the future.”

“It’s tough,” Van Zandt told the Free Press. “I don’t want to reduce the services to the students, but we do have to restructure our expense side to be more consistent with a low enrollment growth plan, and hopefully a low tuition increase plan going forward.”

Van Zandt’s Occupation

On the afternoon of November 17, thousands of college students from across New York City rallied in lower Manhattan for a student day of action in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. New School students had organized a walkout of their own, and at 3 p.m., a handful of them began to march toward Union Square. As they made their way out of the West 12th Street building, Van Zandt was there. He held open the door for the protesters. “Do a good job,” he said. “Stay warm.”

Within hours, Van Zandt’s university was occupied by many of those same students. They had entered the Student Study Center at 90 Fifth Ave., barricading the entrance, and establishing the “All City Student Occupation,” a place that many hoped would become the epicenter of the student movement in New York.   Thus began the third student occupation of a New School building within three years.

“I’d heard of occupations before I came here” Van Zandt said. “I’d never been occupied before, so I didn’t quite know what to expect.”

The occupation of 90 Fifth Ave. would prove the most dramatic moment of Van Zandt’s first year.

It raised the question of how he would respond. Kerrey had further alienated himself from many within the university community with his response to the student occupation of the then-standing building at 65 Fifth Ave. in April 2009. He allowed NYPD officers in riot gear to swarm the building, arresting 22 students and ending the occupation after five hours.

Van Zandt recognized that many of The New School’s core values and principles were at play in the occupation. In a series of emails to the university community, he mentioned open dialogue and political engagement as among these values. In dealing with the situation, however, his primary concern was the safety of all involved.

On the evening of November 17, as police surrounded 90 Fifth Ave. in the midst of Occupy Wall Street-related protests across the city, Van Zandt told the NYPD to stand back and let the university handle the situation internally.

After speaking to the occupiers, the administration would allow them to stay in the building contingent on a set of terms — among them, that the students would not damage the property or violate the building’s legal occupancy limit.

“David’s position in general was that he did not want violence, he did not want any extreme action, he wanted the best available resolution with the least discomfort to everyone,” said Milano professor Srinivas, who advised the administration throughout the occupation. “Bob generally wanted to appear decisive, muscular, and quick,” Srinivas added. “David prefers to be consulted, he prefers to be more analytical before being decisive.” Van Zandt opted for a new approach from his predecessor, one that emphasized communication among all the parties and a commitment to a peaceful resolution. Throughout the week, he ensured that numerous members of the faculty, administration and student body were consulted before deciding on any course of action.

“We had different people around the table all week,” Marshall said. “There was just a tremendous amount of teamwork, and in my eyes, an exemplary approach to a very difficult situation. That moment certainly expressed [Van Zandt’s] new leadership style in the most tangible way.”

By week’s end, though, Van Zandt was forced to take a definitive stand .

The university had received several legal summons from the owner of the building, who refused to brook the damage to its property. As a result, the university stood to lose the lease on the space.

Meanwhile, the backlash from the university community was growing. Students complained about losing the premium study area and expressed concerns that the occupation had devolved into an exclusive and unwelcoming affair.

On November 23, after a group of occupiers expressed that they had no interest in leaving the space, Van Zandt sent a letter to the community that carried a far more serious tone. In it, he described the situation at 90 Fifth Ave. as “antithetical” to The New School’s values, and expressed that it was “imperative that the Study Center be returned to its intended use.”

As the occupation approached one week, it appeared possible that the police would get involved.

“I don’t rule out anything,” Van Zandt said, when asked how close the administration came to forcibly removing the occupiers. “Fortunately, it took a really good path, and I really attribute that to the community — the community made it clear that things had to change. It’s counter-factual to say what would have happened if the community hadn’t, but I was not ruling out anything.”

The last of the occupiers ended up vacating the building by the morning of November 25. They left behind extensive property damage, which Van Zandt estimated as costing the university upward of $40,000 to repair. But a forced eviction had been avoided, and no students were hurt.

Van Zandt’s handling of the affair especially pleased many among the faculty. In comparison to Kerrey’s performance, “it was like day and night,” according to Miller.

“It was very, very impressive, and shows a lot of guts for someone who was less than one year into their presidency,” Miller said.

Among some in the faculty, the sentiment remains that while Van Zandt has learned well on the job, his presidency has not yet featured the kind of real institutional change that many would like to see at The New School. The opinion, though, often comes with a caveat: 13 months in, it is much too early to properly evaluate his position.

“When you talk about [Van Zandt’s] first year, you’re also talking about Bob Kerrey’s last couple of years,” said Lang writing professor Mark Statman. “What he’s handled in his first year, a lot of it has been leftover from what Bob was working on, and that’s tricky.”

For his part, Van Zandt said he has thoroughly enjoyed his first year, and is eager to face the challenges, no matter how numerous or unexpected, that lie ahead.

“It’s been great. It’s had the excitement, the potential, the challenges that I was looking for when I took a job like this,” he said.

Reporting by Danielle Balbi

Stephany Chung


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Gordon D’Arcy vows Ireland will fix their mistakes

Ireland's Gordon D'Arcy tackled by Dylan Hartley of England

Ireland's Gordon D'Arcy tackled by Dylan Hartley of England

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Dashed Triple Crown and Grand Slam dreams will not damage Ireland’s bid for a first RBS 6 Nations title in five years, according to Gordon D’Arcy.

England edged out Joe Schmidt’s side 13-10 at Twickenham on Saturday, blowing the Six Nations wide open.

Stuart Lancaster’s men can lift the Triple Crown if they see off Wales in round four, while the title is a now a four-way fight between England, Wales, Ireland and France.

Leinster centre D’Arcy vowed Ireland will not let their frustrations in defeat to England overshadow their drive towards the championship.

“We’re a better team than we were eight months ago,” said D’Arcy of Ireland’s resurgence under new head coach.

“And the chances of a loss like this derailing the rest of the championship for us, there’s no chance of that happening.

“With Joe driving that, and Paul (O’Connell), Brian (O’Driscoll), Johnny (Sexton), Jamie (Heaslip) and those guys, they are going to be getting everybody back together.

“We can’t change the result but we look at the positives, fix the mistakes and we move forward.

“We focus for Italy and France, then we refocus for Italy, and then we go from there.

“You want to win silverware, so that’s pretty disappointing.

“The whole tournament can be a bit of a game within a game, there’s the Triple Crown but also the championship.

“We’ve lost one but we’re still in the hunt for the other, so it’s not really that easy to think that way at the moment.

Rob Kearney’s smart score to open the second-half raised hopes of a superlative Ireland victory on Saturday.

England hit straight back through Care, who raced clear after a fine break from in-form full-back Mike Brown.

Ireland built several late field-position platforms to attack, but were unable to force a game-changing score at the death.

D’Arcy admitted frustrations at Ireland producing plenty of attacking rugby without enough end product.

“We gave them three kickable penalties and that was probably the difference,” said the 35-year-old.

“They were pretty dangerous in broken field and capitalised on a good offload, and maybe a slip at the back of the field.

“But the discipline around the kickable penalties, that’s the difference.

“We played pretty positive rugby, we definitely played the more attacking rugby and when you don’t get the results from that it can be pretty frustrating.

“We had a couple of scrums on the right-hand side late on and I thought we were definitely going to get something out of it.”

Brian O’Driscoll’s final Twickenham appearance passed without the 35-year-old surpassing Mike Gibson’s Irish record of eight personal victories over England.

Saturday’s defeat means the Leinster stalwart will retire in the summer without adding another Grand Slam to his trophy haul.

D’Arcy said O’Driscoll is not the only experienced Ireland star running out of chances to claim another European clean sweep.

“There’s definitely an age profile on the squad and maybe a few guys won’t get that many more chances at a win in Twickenham,” said the 34-year-old.

“We’ve done so well in the last 10 to 12 years here, so that just makes this harder.

“So to fall by three points, it’s pretty tough.”

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Tags: EU | Britain | Blair's | Book

Blair Memoir Excites Booksellers, Riles Critics

Tuesday, 31 Aug 2010 01:34 PM

It's a political memoir with celebrity trappings — secrecy, security, controversy and a multimillion-dollar deal.

Tony Blair's "A Journey" is published Wednesday, promising to give readers behind-the-curtain insights into major world events from the death of Princess Diana to the Sept. 11 attacks and the invasion of Iraq.

British booksellers are reporting heavy interest in the book, for which the former British prime minister was paid an estimated 4.6 million pounds ($7.5 million). He's donating the proceeds to a charity for injured troops.

Billed by publisher Random House as a "frank, open" account of life at the top, "A Journey" is being published in a dozen countries, alongside an e-book and an audio version read by Blair himself. This week it's in the top 10 on Amazon's British best-seller list — though it's only 4,000 on the retailer's U.S. site.

"Initial sales will be huge," said Jonathan Ruppin of Foyles book store chain. "But whether those sales are sustained will depend on how frank and open it is."

Blair — who is scheduled to be in Washington on publication day, attending Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in his role as an international Mideast envoy — said he "set out to write a book which describes the human as much as the political dimensions of life as prime minister."

"Though a memoir is by its very nature retrospective, the book is also an attempt to inform and shape current and future thinking, as much as an account of the past," Blair said in comments released in advance of publication.

That account is unlikely to resolve the conflicting views and emotions Blair evokes.

For many Americans, he remains a well-regarded ally who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the U.S. in the fight against international terrorism. He's scheduled to receive the 2010 Liberty Medal from former President Bill Clinton in Philadelphia on Sept. 13.

At home, he is a more divisive figure. Swept to power in 1997 on a wave of popular enthusiasm, Blair left office a decade later reviled by many for taking Britain into the U.S.-led Iraq war, and viewed as a liability by much of his own Labour Party.

"He began as a leader who was a friend of everyone, and he finished as a friend of almost no one in Britain," said Blair biographer Anthony Seldon.

Anti-war groups say they will picket Blair's book signings in Dublin on Saturday and in London on Sept. 8. Both are high-security affairs at which book buyers will have to surrender their bags, cameras and mobile phones — and are barred from asking for personal dedications.

Blair, 57, stepped down in June 2007 after a decade that included a historic peace accord in Northern Ireland, the deeply unpopular war in Iraq and the continuing conflict in Afghanistan.

He was Labour's most successful leader for decades, moved the left-leaning party toward the center and brought it back to power after 18 years in opposition.

But when he left, after years of increasingly open hostility with his rival and successor Gordon Brown, his party was divided.

He remains controversial even now. Families of some of the hundreds of British troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan have criticized Blair for earning millions from the book and public speaking and since leaving office.

Blair has been at the center of numerous books, notably "The Blair Years," by former press secretary Alastair Campbell, and the recently published memoir "The Third Man," by Labour insider Peter Mandelson.

He was also the inspiration for the former prime minister dogged by allegations of war crimes in Robert Harris' thriller "The Ghost," which was turned into a film by Roman Polanski.

Seldon said most political memoirs are self-serving, "historically pretty useless" and don't live up to the hype.

Blair insists his will be different, and Seldon says the former politician is part of a small group whose words may have wide appeal.

"Britain doesn't have many prime ministers who are international figures," said Seldon. "We have had Churchill, we have had Thatcher, we have had Blair."

Online: http://www.tonyblairjourney.co.uk

© Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Tags: US | Obama | Taxes

White House, GOP Look for Middle Ground on Taxes

Sunday, 14 Nov 2010 01:14 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House and Republican lawmakers set the terms of a looming tax debate Sunday, coalescing around a possible temporary extension of existing income tax rates that would protect middle-class and wealthy Americans from sharp tax increases next year.

Top White House adviser David Axelrod stressed that President Barack Obama opposes a "permanent" extension of current tax rates for individuals making more than $200,000 a year and married couples making more than $250,000.

But Axelrod was carefully silent on the possibility of extending current tax rates for the short term. He said he wants to leave negotiations to Obama and members of Congress.

A compromise would put off fundamental questions about taxes for the time being, virtually guaranteeing their prominence as campaign issues heading into the 2012 presidential election. That debate also would dovetail with a more profound discussion over how to rein in deficits and reduce the nation's escalating debt.

Congress returns this week with Democrats in control of the House and Senate for a lame-duck session that is expected to stretch into December. But Republican votes are essential and the GOP has additional leverage because it will begin the new year with Republicans in charge of the House and with more members in the Senate.

Two prominent Republicans conceded Sunday that the best Congress might be able to accomplish in the coming weeks is a short term-continuation of the current tax rates, set under President George W. Bush.

"If the president wants to compromise on a two- or three-year extension ... if that's all we can get out of the president, ane he is the president, so we'll work with him on that," said Sen. Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican and a leader of his party's conservative wing.

Likewise, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the Republican presidential contender in 2008, said he could fathom a short-term extension of all the tax cuts. McCain voted against the Bush tax cuts in 2004, saying they disproportionately benefited wealthy Americans.

"They should be extended until we are out of this recession," McCain said. "At such time we can look at other tax hikes. But when we're in a serious recession I cannot believe that raising taxes is a good thing on anybody."

In fact, the recession ended in June 2009, but the recovery has been markedly slow, with unemployment stuck at 9.6 percent.

Some Democrats have called for taxes to be extended for all taxpayers except those making more than $1 million. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., argued that such a limit would ensure that tax rates would remain the same for the middle-class and "virtually all small businesses."

Schumer said millionaires and billionaires have seen their incomes rise this decade while middle-class incomes have fallen.

Axelrod appeared on "Fox News Sunday" and NBC's "Meet the Press." McCain appeared on NBC and DeMint on Fox. Schumer spoke on CBS' "Face the Nation."

© Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Tags: nutrition | kimberly | reed | health

Bad Economy Pushing Americans to Buy Cheaper Food

Monday, 08 Aug 2011 03:30 PM

By Jim Meyers and Kathleen Walter

Kimberly Reed, executive director of the International Food Information Council Foundation, tells Newsmax that price rather than taste is increasingly becoming a major factor Americans consider when they shop for food.

Reed’s foundation is a Washington-based organization that provides information on food safety, healthy eating, and nutrition.

In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, Reed explained the origins and goals of her group.

“Twenty years ago, we recognized that there was a need for a science-based organization to help consumers, health professionals, and journalists get the facts about food and understand important topics ranging from obesity and energy balance to the latest food safety disaster.

“Over the past 20 years, we have been dedicated to educating everyone, and now because of the Internet you can go directly to our website and learn great tips for your family.

“There’s a lot or discussion now with families and in the news about processed food and understanding where our food comes from. So we have an initiative called Understanding Our Food, and if you go there you’ll find some helpful facts on the role of processed foods, how they fit into our lives, their nutritional value, their history. When consumers read these, they are enlightened.”

Story continues below the video...

Reed discussed the surprising results of a recent food and health survey her organization conducted.

“When consumers think about food, when you’re in a store shopping, what do you think about most when making purchasing decisions? Always in this annual food and health survey, taste has been the number one priority for people. But over the past five years, we’re seeing a 15 percent spike in price finally coming up to taste as important for consumers when they are thinking about what is important for them.

“That’s really interesting, especially given the hard economic times. People are really focused on that price tag as well.”

Asked for her message on the growing obesity problem in America, Reed responds: “The key message is energy balance. Calories in, calories out.
“Our waistlines are continuing to grow in this country. But our food and health survey shows that only 9 percent of Americans can accurately estimate how many calories they consume in a day, and over half of Americans don’t know how much they should be burning in a day.”

Reed says a government website, choosemyplate.gov, can help visitors determine on an individual basis the number of calories they should be consuming.

She also tells Newsmax that families are extremely important in teaching young people about healthy eating, and a feature on her organization’s website called kidnetic provides lots of information on improving the nutrition of young people and entire families.

Her foundation’s website is www.foodinsight.org.

© 2015 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

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Tags: food | banks | drought | donations

US Food Banks Raise Alarm as Drought Dents Government Supplies

Wednesday, 21 Nov 2012 01:01 PM

The worst U.S. drought in more than half a century has weakened the safety net for the 50 million Americans who struggle to get enough to eat, and the nation's food banks are raising the alarm as the holiday season gets into full swing.

Demand for food assistance — unrelenting as the U.S. economy slowly recovers from the worst recession since the Great Depression — ticks higher during the winter holidays.

This summer's crop-damaging weather in the U.S. farm belt has driven up costs for everything from grain to beef. That means higher prices at the grocery store, but it also means the U.S. government has less need to buy key staples like meat, peanut butter, rice and canned fruits and vegetables to support agricultural prices and remove surpluses.

Most of the products from those government purchases are sent to U.S. food banks, which then distribute them to food pantries, soup kitchens and emergency shelters that are a lifeline for people who struggle with hunger — including low-income families, senior citizens and people with disabilities.

The decline in government donations is exacerbating the pain inflicted by stubbornly high unemployment and a lack of income growth for many low-wage workers.

"People have been coping with economic distress for a really, really, really long time ... After several years of tapping all the resources we have, we're starting to see that we're coming up short," said Carrie Calvert, director of tax and commodity policy at Feeding America, the nation's largest hunger relief organization.

Executives at major food banks across the United States worry they will not be able to keep pace with demand, which they don't expect to ease until more Americans find better paying jobs. In a sign of how stressed the budgets of many Americans are, a record 47.1 million people used food stamps in August 2012, up from 45.8 million the year earlier.

With such pressures at work, on-hand supplies at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank have fallen from a peak of about 3.3 weeks in 2010 to less than two weeks — the lowest in recent history, according to its president and CEO, Michael Flood.

Tightening food supplies last summer forced the food bank to start a waiting list because it does not have enough inventory to expand beyond the 640 agencies it already supplies with food. There are now 565 nonprofits on the waiting list, Flood said.

Government commodity purchases through The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) fell by more than half to $352.5 million for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, from $723.7 million three years earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

While the stated goal of such purchases is to support agriculture prices and remove surpluses, they also have been vital to fighting hunger.

USDA told Reuters it would do all that it could through TEFAP to support hunger relief efforts. It already is assisting in New Jersey and New York, which were hard hit by Superstorm Sandy.

Government commodities once made up 28 percent of the food flowing through the Feeding America network, which includes about 90 percent of U.S. food banks and provides food for about 37 million people during the year. This year those commodities account for 17 percent, Feeding America said.

The Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina has seen its monthly supplies of TEFAP products plummet by roughly two-thirds to about 170,000 pounds from 500,000 pounds. At the same time, state budget cuts have slashed its annual funding by about half to $500,000, Executive Director Clyde Fitzgerald said.

"Either one without the other would be enormously adverse to our ability to meet the need," Fitzgerald said. "We've spent $1 million buying food, but we haven't come close to making up for that shortfall."

Barbara Prather, executive director of the Northeast Iowa Food Bank, also is buying more food after government commodity donations fell by 50 percent to 700,000 pounds in the fiscal year ended June 30.

"We were, because of purchasing and local donations, able to bridge that gap by about 300,000 pounds, so our net difference was about 400,000 pounds," Prather said.

The picture is similar elsewhere.

At the Greater Chicago Food Depository, food purchases have more than doubled in recent years to account for 27 percent of overall supply, a spokesman said.

That strain shows up in the size and quality of food packages that nonprofits give to people who need to supplement food stamp benefits or whose meager incomes are a bit too high to qualify for food stamps or other government assistance.

Last week, women with young children, single men dressed in combat fatigues and senior citizens — some in wheel chairs — gathered at Monrovia, California's Foothill Unity Center to pick up rations, including staples like eggs, salad, milk and bread.

"We used to give more in those shopping carts," said Betty McWilliams, the executive director of the Los Angeles-area center. For example, carts now have six or seven cans of food rather than nine, she said.

Thus far the center, which is supplied by the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, has not had to turn anyone away.

Rochelle Fisher, 52, was grateful for what was available and credited the center's free food and healthcare services for getting her back on her feet.

"If they wouldn't have been there for me, I would have been starving to death," said Fisher, who just got a job at a homeless shelter where she used to stay.

Anti-hunger groups expect some relief from a planned $170 million TEFAP purchase that will send pork, chicken, lamb and catfish to U.S. food banks over the coming months.

But they are bracing for more challenges in 2013. Food prices are forecast to move even higher, making it harder for people with limited means to stretch their money.

Current proposals for the new U.S. farm bill — which sets funding for TEFAP and the food stamp program — include small increases for TEFAP.

But those increases would be dwarfed by proposals for billion-dollar cuts to the food stamp program.

Washington's the "fiscal cliff" fight over planned tax increases and spending cuts due to start in January is adding to the anxiety, since sharply partisan U.S. lawmakers need to come together to avert a big hit to the economy that likely would hurt the country's most vulnerable.

Donors such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Kroger Co. say they have increased both cash and food donations.

Most food bank executives quoted in this article said private and corporate donations seem to be holding up, despite increased competition for every dollar. Still, they say such charity is not enough to offset the decline in federal support.

Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition against Hunger, worries that funding for feeding programs could fall victim to the optimistic American view that things will always work out in the end.

"Often, in the real world they don't. People suffer more," Berg said.

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Tags: Schork | Mideast | War | Depression | iran | oil

Schork: Mideast War Would Spark US Depression

Wednesday, 28 Dec 2011 07:09 AM

By Forrest Jones and Kathleen Walter

Mideast saber rattling surrounding the Strait of Hormuz will unlikely escalate into a full-scale military conflict, but should that happen, the United States and the rest of the world will fall into a crippling depression, says commodities research analyst and trader Stephen Schork.

Iran has threatened to block access to the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow passageway connecting oil-rich Persian Gulf countries with the rest of the world if the West makes good on threats to sanction Tehran for allegedly pursuing a nuclear program.

Fears that the conflict could escalate into regional military conflict involving Israel are growing as well.

Story continues below video.

Such a scenario would be devastating, in that Arab countries would wage war against Iran because they, too, would be unable to get their oil out.

"Should the Iranians try and close the strait, you'll see war between Arabia and Persia at that point. In a worst-case scenario, there really is no limit on how high oil prices would go and therefore how high consumers would be paying at the pump," Schork told Newsmax.TV in an exclusive interview.

"It will make the last economic contraction of 2008 look like the good times, because we would be heading into a serious global depression in any sort of regional conflict between Israel and Iran or between any of the Arab countries and Iran."

Absent war in the Middle East, oil prices should hover around $90 to $100 a barrel next year, Schork says. Currently, oil is trading around $101 a barrel.

Tensions in the Middle East will continue even if war doesn't break out, and the U.S. economy is recovering and will need more oil and oil products to grow.

Plus as the winter ends in the coming months, refiners will switch over to blending summer-grade gasoline products, which are more expensive.

"Based on a normal supply and a normal demand relationship, we cannot go any higher, I believe, than $120 a barrel."

Armed conflict, however, changes everything.

"The risk that we run is, for instance, with Iran. Any sort of disruption to supply all bets are off and we can go as high as the market wants to push it. The sky is the limit at that point. But that is really a unique situation."

War is not likely because Iran can ill afford to close access to the Strait of Hormuz, Schork points out.

Iran needs the petrodollars to finance its government. Closing down access to the Strait of Hormuz also closes the flow of money going back into the country.

Furthermore, while Iran may be a large producer of crude, it produces very little refined oil products, such as gasoline.

"So what the country actually has to do is sell their oil and then buy it back in the form of petroleum products. Iran needs the dollars and the petroleum products," Schork says

"It is extremely unlikely that we will see any sort of disruption in the Strait of Hormuz."

The Obama administration has been hesitant to drill for more oil at home, which is something it should consider doing, Schork says.

"Every barrel that we can produce domestically is one less barrel that we have to import," he points out.

Drilling at home would curb dependence on foreign oil, which comes with hostilities not just from the Middle East but closer to home as well.

"Venezuela is our third-largest supplier of crude oil and the government in Caracas is absolutely belligerent to the White House, be it a Republican or a Democratic White House. It does not matter."

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Tags: Schiff | Fed | stimulus | economy

Peter Schiff: Fed Will Add Even More Stimulus, Not Less

Friday, 24 May 2013 08:14 AM

By John Morgan

Peter Schiff likes fighting the crowd — the president of Euro Pacific Capital believes the Federal Reserve will be forced to pump even more artificial dollars into the monetary system, not less, in a bid to keep the whole economy from crashing down.

In the meantime, Schiff said the United States is continuing to export its financial problems to the rest of the world.

In an interview with Index Universe, he noted that American debt is worthless. "It doesn't really matter what kind of rating Moody's or S&P put on it. Anybody who doesn't see that it's junk probably deserves to lose money," he said.

Editor's Note:
Economist Unapologetically Calls Out Bernanke, Obama for Mishandling Economy. See What They Did

"There is no way the U.S. government can pay its bills; it’s not even remotely possible."

According to Schiff, the Fed has exacerbated U.S. financial ills with quantitative easing (QE) and monetary stimulus.

"[P]eople who talk about the Fed taking away the punchbowl are wrong. The Fed is not going to do that," he told Index Universe.

"Unfortunately, it's going to keep spiking the punch. The $85 billion a month is not enough to keep this phony economy from imploding. The Fed is going to have to increase the size of its monthly QE."

The soundest course would be for the Fed to unwind its ultra-loose monetary policy and let the chips fall where they may, according to Schiff.

"If the Fed withdraws the stimulus, the economy will be in a worse recession than in 2008 and 2009. That doesn't mean the Fed shouldn't do it But had the Fed done the right thing in 2008, we wouldn't be in this situation."

Still a gold bug, Schiff used the metals recent weakness as an opportunity to buy more gold.

"The fundamentals have never been better for gold. The fact that there’s so much negativity in the mainstream investor community and the media, I think, is an excellent sign," he explained. "The gold market kind of stagnated after the speculators jumped on board in the last year or two — we haven’t really made new highs. And now that we’ve gotten rid of all that dead weight, the market is clear to make new highs."

Minutes from the latest Fed policy meeting and testimony from Fed Chairman hinted the Fed's bond-buying program could be trimmed back in coming months, MarketWatch reported.

Editor's Note: Economist Unapologetically Calls Out Bernanke, Obama for Mishandling Economy. See What They Did

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Sunday, March 3, 2013

R.B.I. Cudas Golf Tournament

The 3rd Annual R.B.I. Cudas Golf Tournament is coming up on May 11, 2013 at Hidden Lakes Golf Club. The R.B.I. Cudas Baseball Association, Inc. is the Booster Club for the New Smyrna Beach High School Baseball Program. They also operate a feeder team for middle school students who want to play high school baseball.

The R.B.I. Cudas do lots of other things too, they operate the concessions at the NSB Sports Complex for the games, they gave away $2500.00 in scholarships to graduating seniors from NSBHS last year (2 of which were not baseball players) and they work with both the City of NSB and the City of Edgewater on various charitable events and baseball leagues.

If you follow local baseball you may already know that the 2012 NSBHS Baseball Team made history by not only winning their district championship, regional championship but also going to the State Final Four tournament. So far this year the are 5-0 and looking good!

This golf tournament is their biggest fundraiser and they need the community and business to support them! If you are a golfer you can come out and have lunch, possibly win some great prizes, meet the coaches...and play golf. I will be there selling 50/50 raffle tickets and perhaps riding around on a beverage cart! Don't let that scare anyway! Register Here.

If you are a business we need sponsors. There are many opportunities to sponsor this event. Check them out here. If you would like to donate a door prize or silent auction item please contact me at 424-1303 or email me. No gift is too small.

If you would like the event flyer you can get it here.

The R.B.I. Cudas Baseball Association, Inc. is registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) organization and all donations are tax deductible as allowed by law.


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The Daily Republic from Mitchell, South Dakota · Page 1Click to view larger version
August 6, 1962

The Daily Republic from Mitchell, South Dakota · Page 1

The Daily Republic i
Mitchell, South Dakota
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Monday, August 6, 1962
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WEATHER FORECAST Partly Cloudy THE DAILY REPUBLIC if if if An Independent Newspaper Volume LXXIX Sell It FAST With DOUBLE SERVICE WANT ADS 16 Pages Mitchell, S. D., Monday, August 6, 196< Final Edition Sin tlo COPV IDc SD FAMILY OF FIVE SLAIN—The Hugh Paulson family, above, of Volga, died of rifle shots Friday evening at their farm home. A 16-year-old high school honor student has admitted to authorities that he tied them up and killed them becouse "I had to do something." (AP Wircphoto) *** * * * *** Arlington Youth Tells Story Of Slaying Of 5 BROOKINGS Iff) — A charge of murder was filed in municipal court here today against Dennis Roger Ottoson, 16, Arlington, admitted killer of all five members of a neighboring family. Judge P. H. Collins continued the case until 9 a.m. Wednesday to give the youth time to obtain counsel. He was ordered held without bond. The charge drawn by States Attorney Gordon Mydland specifically accused Ottoson of shooting Mrs. Lorraine Paulson to death last Friday night. It was Ottoson's second court appearance of the day. Earlier he appeared in county court before Judge Walter M. Aaberg, who cleared the case in a closed hearing for municipal court action. The next step in a criminal case normally would be to bind a defendant to circuit court for trial. Conviction of murder in South Dakota carries a penalty of death or life imprisonment. The boy's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Nels Ottoson of Arlington were at his side. The admitted youthful slayer of the Hugh Paulson family appeared completely composed but his mother was badly shaken. Mydland said the boy repeated to Judge Aaberg the story he had told officers < of killing the Paulson's after forcing their oldest daughter, Karlyn, 13, to disrobe in the Paulson home Friday night. Ottoson has shown no remorse, Mydland said. The blond slightly-built youth, * 5-foot-5 inches, walked slowly and deliberately into the courtroom. When he saw a group of photographers at the door, he straightened his eyeglasses and the cuff of the charcoal-colored coat he was wearing. His glance ran over all of the photographers as he posed for pictures. The youth appears b e fore County Judge Walter M, Aaberg today. A state statute forbids identification of arrested juveniles until they appear in court. Bodies of Hugh Paulson, 44, Mrs, Paulson, 35, and their .three daughters, Karlyn, 13, Anita, 9, and Leanne, 6, were found in their home near Volga Saturday. Karlyn's body, nude and bound, was in an upstairs bedroom. The others, downstairs, had been tied hand and foot. Vernon Rude, the county coroner, said the boy admitted shooting the five in their heads because "I had to do something." Rude said the youth told officers he tied the others and ordered Karlyn to go upstairs and undress. The boy then went upstairs and tied up the girl, Rude said. The coroner said the young man's sexual desire apparently was frustrated and he went berserk, and ran downstairs. "I knew I couldn't leave the family tied down there," and I didn't know what to do so I shot them," Rude quoted the youth. • The coroner said the boy then returned upstairs and shot Karlyn with the .22 caliber rifle, "I don't know where we failed," the youth's mother told a reporter Sunday. "He was a model boy, way above average, and never * * * 'Never Gave Us Trouble/ Mother Of Killer Says By GLENN McCASbAND Pierre Capital Journal Writer ARLINGTON tf> — "What caus- ad this we will never know, he never gave us a minute's trouble." Those were the comments of the parents of a 16 - year - old Arlington, S. D., youth who is being held in jail here in connection with the fatal shooting of five neighbors. The shocked parents of the boy were still grasping for a reason j that would explain why their son (Continued on Page Two* TRAGEDY gave us a minute's trouble heartache." The slayings occurred Friday or | to a bedroom and the two talked privately. Then Rev. Mr. Peder- evening. The night policeman at Arlington found the youth walking in a daze early Saturday. His father was called and brought the boy home. "I've done something awful," the boy told his parents. The Rev. Oliver Pederson of Trinity Lutheran Church, Arlington, was called to the farm. son came out and told the parents their son had said he "shot one of the Paulson girls." They were skeptical of the boy's story, but the father and minister drove to the Paulson place less than a mile away and found the bodies. Funeral services for the Paulson famtty will be at 2 o'clock Tuesday afternoon at the Trinity Lutheran The clergyman took the boy in-1 Church at Arlington. Kadoka Man Is Slain By His Wife; Ruled Justifiable By Republic News Service KADOKA — A Jackson County Coroner's Jury ruled justifiable homicide in the early Saturday morning shooting here in which a 37 - year - old missile worker was slain by his wife following a night of terror in the family trailer home. Dead is Orville Ramsey of St. Louis, Mo. He was shot an undetermined number of times in the head by his wife. Patsy, 29, about 6 a.m. after he allegedly attempted sexual advances toward Mrs. Ramsey's 10 - year - old daughter several times during the night. The jury ruled the homicide justifiable after Mrs. Ramsey told of her husband coming home about midnight Friday following a drinking party, shooting a .22 caliber pistol outside the trailer home several times, ordering his wife to send the young girl into his bedroom several times, and finally putting the girl through mental and physical duress. The girl, suffering multiple bruises and marks on her body, was examined by doctors, but they could not determine whether she had been raped that evening or previously. Mrs. Ramsey told police that her husband had made several previous advances toward the girl. The dead man had reportedly threatened his wife and the girl several times throughout the night, Mrs. Ramsey allegedly shot him early Saturday morning and Kennedy Back From Weekend In Home State HVANNIS PORT, Mass. (AP)President Kennedy flew back to Washington today after another vacation weekend with Mrs. Kennedy who is leaving for a two- week visit in Italy. Mrs. Kennedy is leaving today for New York for an overnight stay before flying out Tuesday for a two-week vacation in Italy. then notified the trailer camp op erator to call the sheriff. The family had been living in the Kadoka Trailer Camp for about two weeks. Previous to thai they lived in the Wagon Whee Motel. Investigating officers were Alvin Baldwin, chief of police, Sheriff Warren Pearson and Deputy Sher iff Clifford Parks plus a member of the state bureau of criminal investigation. The body was taken to Hall's Funeral Home in Philip. 3 Slates Hold Their Primary Election Tuesday By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Relatively quiet campaigns, highlighted by auto maker George Romney's plunge into partisan politics, come to an end Tuesday with primary elections in Michigan, Kansas and Missouri. In all, nominations for two governorships, two Senate seats and 34 House posts are at stake. Only in one of Kansas' two Republican senatorial campaigns has there been a spirited clash. Another candidate was picked Saturday when Idaho Republicans nominated former Gov. Len Jordan for the Senate. He will seek election this fall to the seat vacated by the death last month of Sen. Henry C. Dworshak. The Republican convention action Saturday also made it likely that Jordan will be appointed by Gov. Robert E. Smylie to fill Dworshak's seat in the interim. Idaho Democrats pick their senatorial candidate in a convention Aug. 18, with Rep. Gracie Pfost the favored candidate. Romney, former president of American Motors and already mentioned as a possible Republican presidential candidate in 1964, has only token opposition in Mich(Continued on Page Two) ELECTIONS 1957 Movie Was Believed Life Story Of MM NEW YORK (API — Marilyi Monroe's life story was said to lave been the basis for a 19,i7 movie, "The Goddess," in which — ironically enough— the heroine las a bottle of sleeping pills ir icr hands just before the final 'adeout. The Paddy Chayefsky screenplay told of a beautiful girl with a sorry home life who grows up in the depression years. She feels so insecure she marries, at 16, the 'irst man who gives her a second look. She leaves him. goes Hollywood, becomes a screen sex bomb makes millions of dollars, buys a showplace-type mansion—but isn't happy. An emotional wreck, she has a bottle of sleeping pills in her hands at the movie's end. JFK Wants Teeth Put Back Into Drug Bill Marilyn Monroe Is Found Dead Of Overdose Of Sleeping Pills Elisabethville Airfield Closed To All Bui U.N. ELISABETHVILLE, Katanga (AP)—The United Nations closed the Elisabethville airport Sunday to all traffic except U.N. aircraft. A U.N. spokesman said the airport was closed at the request of the central Congo government, which had asked that all aircraft be required to have its permission to land at any airport in Katanga Province except Albertville. Albertville is under control of the Congolese army. Members of Katanga president Moise Tshombe's government viewed the closing of the airport as the first move in a program of economic pressure to end the secession of Katanga from the central government's control. They said if the central government persisted in such blockades, it would mean an end to unity negotiations between Tshombe's regime and the government of Congo Premier Cyrille Adoula. The United States, Britain and Belgium were reported last weekend to have worked out a program of diplomatic and economic pressure on Tshombe to bring him to agreement with Adoula. The Western powers' chief aim is to divert to the impoverished central government some of the huge tax revenues the Union Miniere mining firm now pays to Tshombe's government on the copper and other ores it mines in Katanga. Jamaica Gains Commonwealth Nation Status KINGSTON, Jamaica (API-Jamaica became the newest nation of the Western Hemisphere today to the thunderous cheers of Jamaicans in a ceremony watched by British Princess Margaret and U.S. Vice President Lydon B. Johnson. The petite princess, in dazzling icy white gown and tiara, was solemn as Britain's Union Jack came fluttering down and another of the empire's colonies broke away. As 25,000 stood in National Stadium, massed bands played "God Save the Queen," a reminder that this calypso island remains a member of the British Commonwealth after 307 years of British rule. The hour was midnight, and all lights were switched off in the stadium as the last strains of the anthem echoed. The princess seemed to sense the feelings of her fellow countrymen. When the massed bands began playing, she arose and slowly moved over to her husband, Lord Snowdon, who was standing on the platform several chairs away. She stared straight ahead. This is a national holiday and no work is being done, but Tuesday the 50-member Parliament meets for the first time to begin the work of an independent nation. Johnson, who was accompanied here by his wife, told cheering Jamaicans Sunday afternoon President Kennedy had sent him "because of friendship which will grow ane prosper with your independence." Barter he announced a $75,000 U.S. government scholarship fund had been set up for Jamaican students. HOLLYWOOD (APi - A doctor smashed his way into a locked bedroom—and found Marilyn Monroe dead in bed, nude, a telephone clutched in ffui hand, an empty pttl bottle nearby. It was her psychiatrist who found the body early Sunday. The mysterious death brought a tragic end, at 36, to the trouble- scarred life of Norma Jean Baker —the frlghtcTicd waif who became the world's most famous blonde as Marilyn Monroe. She apparently died either late Saturday or early Sunday of an overdose of sleeping pills. The empty bottle had contained 50 Nembutal capsules. Was it suicide? Had she called someone before she died? A coroner's investigation team, aided by detectives, is seeking .the answers to these questions today. Evidence uncovered so far is conflicting. The coroner said the body is being released to Inez Nelson, conservator of tlif^mother's estate. Earlier, the coroner said Miss Monroe's half sister, Hernice Miracle of Gainesville, Fla., had authorized release of the body to ex-baseball star Joe DiMaggio, second of the actress' three husbands, or to her attorney, Milton Rudin. Dr. Ralph Greenson, her psychiatrist, said she called him at 5:15 p.m. Saturday, distraught, seeking reassurance. They talked an hour. He told her to take a drive in her car to relax. It was a ride she never took. Instead, she retired at 8 p.m., in what her housekeeper, Mrs. Eunice Murray, thought to be good spirits. If she made any calls that evening, they were local calls. Telephone company records disclosed no toll calls from her number. Mrs. Murray rose at 3 a. m. Sunday in her quarters in the star's Brentwood home — awakened by an uneasy dread she couldn't explain—and found Miss Monroe's light still burning, her door locked, and no answer to her knock. She phoned Dr. Greenson. He rushed to the home, smashed a bedroom window with a fireplace poker, forced his way in, and told Mrs. Murray: "She appears to be dead." No notes were found. She was found lying face down, the covers hunched around her shoulders. The body was taken to a nearby mortuary and then to the county morgue where it remains today, unclaimed. Hours before she had been one of the world's most famous personalities, But on her coroner's call sheet, tagged to crypt 33 in the morgue, were these unreveallng statistics: Weight 117 pounds, height 65% inches, hair blonde and eyes blue. Next of kin — Gladys Baker, mother. Address unknown. Her three husbands had little or nothing to say about her death, at least to newsmen. Joe Dimaggio the ex-baseball star, flew here Sunday, apparently to be nearby for the funeral. Her first husband, policeman (Continued on Page Two) DEATH New Nuclear Test Series Is Initiated By The Soviet Union UPPSALA, Sweden (AP) — The Soviet Union has launched a new nuclear test series with a super- bomb blast which Swedish scientists placed in the 40-megaton range, second only to the 50-megaton blast the Russians set off last October. The new blast Sunday, apparently touched off at Soyiet atomic test grounds in Arctic Siberia, came as no surprise to the West. Premier Khrushchev had announced his forces would have to resume testing because of the U.S. Pacific tests now being concluded. The U.S. State Department called the Soviet explosion a "somber episode" but made clear it wll not halt U.S. efforts to get a nuclear test ban. "The urgent problem before the world is not who tests last, but how we can rid, the world of nuclear testing once and for all," said the department statement, referring to Soviet statements that they insisted on holding the last round of tests. U.S. Ambassador Arthur H. Dean returned to the Geneva disarmament conference Saturday with new Western compromise proposals for a test ban treaty. No date has been announced for presentation of the proposal* t« the conference. Estimates varied as to the size of the Soviet explosion Sunday bet Man Injured In July Aberdeen Storm Succumbs ABERDEEN (/ft — A vicious storm which passed through Aberdeen July 19 has claimed its second victim. James C. Johnson, 78, a retired cigar maker, died Sunday of injuries received when a chimney crashed through the Hub City Hotel. Johnson was buried in debris in the basement of the two- story building. Rescuers dug him free and he had been hospitalized here since. Johnson was the second victim of the chimney collapse. Paul Decker, a 58-year-old construction worker, was also buried in the debris and was dead when rescuers uncovered him. Strong winds toppled a 60-foot chimney from the nearby Alonzo Ward Hotel onto the roof of the Hub City Hotel. MARILYN MONROE'S BODY REMOVED—Coroner's attendants remove the body of film star Marilyn Monroe from, a Los Angeles mortuary, en route to the Los Angeles County morgue. The glamorous star, 36, was found dead in her bed Sunday, with suicide suspected. (AP Wirephoto) Shock Expressed Around World At Marilyn's Death By BOB THOMAS Al> Movie-Television Wilier HOLLYWOOD (AP) - From London, from Paris and around the world came reverberations of the shock caused by the death of Marilyn Monroe. The news even penetrated the Iron Curtain. In Moscow, Tass reported: "The famous American film star Marilyn Monroe died today at Los Angeles at the age of 30. The official medical conclusion points out that death was caused by an extra large dose of soporific. A Los Angeles official coroner stated that suicide, in his opinion, was not excluded." In Paris, director Billy Wilder, who directed the star in "Some Like It Hot," said: "Maybe she was tough to work with. Maybe she wasn't even an actress. But it was worth a week's torment to get those three luminous minutes on the screen." In London, Sir Laurence Olivier agreed she was difficult to work with, but added: "She could be incredibly sweet, most tenderly appealing, and very, very witty." Olivier starred with her and directed her in "The Prince And The Showgirl." He blamed Hollywood for making her "the complete victim of ballyhoo and sensation." Marilyn's three ex-husbands of- fered only brief comment, or none at all. Policeman James E, Dougherty, who was Marilyn's first husband when she was 16, said: "I'm sorry." He was patrolling in a squad car, only 10 miles from her home, when reached for com menl. Hor second husband, famed baseball player Joo Dimaggio, flew into Los Angeles from San (Continued on Page Two) IlEAG'TION Hiroshima Is Shocked As Reds Resume Testing HIROSHIMA, Japuu lAP) •Shocked by thu Soviet Union's resumption of nuclear lusting, this city prayed today for iLs thousands killed in Hie U.S. atomic bomb attack 1' years ago. Tens of thousands of Japanese crowded into Hiroshima's Mcinor- ia Park at dawn for a nias.s prayer meeting, as they do every year on Aug. l>. Most had just learned that Russia resumed testing Sunday. "What irony," said Mayor Shinzo Hamai, "for us to receive such news on the anniversary of tlio very day the first atomic bomb was used over this city." WASHINGTON AP Pi . rrs Krl.M'Y mr.rcl llir Srnnlr Judiciary C'oinmiKiv inil.iv to \\\i. prove Pro.Milrn! Kcn.irdv'.-. rr- 0nests for incrcascil federal policing of po.-Mhly dangerous lir\\ drugs. Committee mcmlv!:. told le porters after the closed session that her testimony about, possibly serious and unexpected side effects of new drills apparently :iad enhanced prospects for en- ictmenl of at least some of the President's proposals. Chairman dames O Kastland. D-Miss.. announced only that the committee would meet again Tuesday and perhaps hear further testimony from Dr. Kelsey. Dr. Kelsey is the Pood and Drue Administration medical officer who blocked U.S. marketing of halidomidc. a tranquili/cr which some medical men blame for mal- 'ormation of infants in Europe. While never sold in the United States, thalidomldc was tlistribn- ,od to 1,231 U.S. doctors for possible experimental use. Kennedy sent to the commitlop J5 pages of proposed amendments ,o a measure sponsored by Sen. Hstes Kefauver, D-Tomi. Kennedy wrote Eastland asking, among other things, that the government be given additional an- .hority to remove unsafe or inef- eotual drugs from the market. "I am going to lay every one- of President, Kennedy's amendments before the committee," Eastland said. "It will be up to ,he committee to decide which of them It wants to write Into tho bill." Excepted from the President's recommendations were some patent controls originally proposed by Sen. Estes Kefauver, D-Tenn., and stripped from the bill alone with some stiffer controls by the Judiciary Committee. The Kefauver bill had paralleled in many respects proposals made by Kennedy In his consumer message to Congress early this year. Last spring, tho President strongly endorsed the Kefauver bill in a letter to Eastland. The committee modified the measure into what Kefauver says is now "a mere shadow of itself." Last week at his news conference, Kennedy said the Senate bill. which is still in the hands of the committee, "does not go far (Continued on Pag« Two) KENNEDY Weather Forecast SOUTH DAKOTA - Mostly fair tonight; cooler east tonight; partly cloudy Tuesday; warmer west; low tonight 55 - 62; high Tuesday 78-90. lieved touched off on the island of Novaya Zemlya about 1,350 miles east of Uppsala. Uppsala University's Seismological Institute classed it in the range of 40 million tons of TNT and said it occurred at a higher altitude than the Soviet series of! 1961. A Norwegian scientist said Ins instruments showed only that it was smaller than the 50-megaton bomb set off Oct. 30. The Japanese Meteorological Institute estimated the blast in the 20-megaton range. The U.S. Atomic Energy Com(Continued on Page Twoi SD Traffic Deaths THIS YEAR TO DATE 7/0 LAST YEAR TO DATE 774 ''SLOW DOWN-AND LIVE" Baby Hurled 10 Feet By Atomic Bomb At Hiroshima Is 17 Today Ky OSCAIt UDKN Muuuginii Edilor, San Josi-, Culif., Mercury HIROSHIMA, Japan (Al'p Hiroko Tomila celebrates her 17th birthday todaj. That, In itself, us a miracle. Uy all odds this winsome school nirl should never have survived her natal day. Aug. li. li>4">. A few minutes after liiroko born, history's first combat aloin-i lc bomb exploded a mile away. Hiroshima was leveled. More than 78,000 people pen.slied. The injured numbered :t7,4V.'j. Tin: story of Hiroko's birth was told. simply but ckxniently. through UH interpreter a.s she knelt with her parents m the liv- IIIK room of their modest borne before her visitors. The mother, Yosluko, <1'>, remembered the day well. "i was lying, lacu iluwu, there.." She pointed to a corner of the little room. "My husband was beside me, watching tin; new baby. The midwife had just stepped outside. Two of our children, Yaeko, who wa.s 7, and lli- roiiii, who was .), had been sent outside to play. Another daughter, Sakuye, who was li, was wiili! friends in tlic country. ' "There wa.s an awful noi:.e umlj heavy .shaking, and our, came down. The roof wa.s here." She indicated, by gestures, a slated space about tliivc feet liigli at its apex. The newborn baby was hurled about 10 fi'ol, away. The lather.; Torao, was struck on the head by a timber. "My only though! was in ouve 'Continued on l'anr Twn> EXTENDED FORECAST Extended forecast for South Dakota, Aug. 7-11: Temper a t u r e a through Saturday will average near normal. Normal highs 85-88. Normal lows 58-61. Cooler tonight with a warming about the middle of the week and turning cooler again late in the week. Precipitation will average one-tenth to one- half Inch in occasional periods or showers or thunderstorms about the middle of the week. MITCHELL WEATHER Average precipitation for poi tion of year to date 15.68. Total precipitation for portion of year to date 25.36. High Saturday 89 Low Saturday tw Trace Precipitation High Sunday 90 Overnight low 70 Trace Precipitation 7 a.m. temperature 70 Sunset today 7:51 Sunrise tomorrow 5:27 PRECIPITATION 25 All Month '62 '61 Avk Avg Rec Yi Jan. .12 .35 .47 .35 2.10 '97 Feb. 2.92 .45 .60 .116 2.92 '62 Mar. 1.41 1.19 1.41 1.24 3.45 '08 April 2.2(i 1.80 2.24 2.50 7.34 '27 May 7.17 5.65 2.73 2.21 10.59.'42 June 5.95 4.99 3.93 4.03 11.56 '20 July 5.13 1.85 2.2<i 3.0(i 8.85 '15 Aug. .40 2.06 2.71 2.(iO 6.25 '23 Kept. 1.98 2.16 2.12 6.72 '01 Oct. 3.57 Ub 1.48 4.U2 '11 Nov. .11 .69 .67 2.71 '47 Dec. .30 .50 .49 .212 '02 TKMI'KKATUUKS H L l'n». Rapid City 89 59 Philip ii.i 511 Pierre (ill (i(> Aberdeen !(.'( f>9 Watnrtown 90 HO Huron !H M Sioux Falls HV 71 Pick.stowii 91 74 Valentine !i:i Hi Lemmon fill f><> Mobridm- 91 112 Sioux City »i (i!) 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Cole County board hears assessment appeals

Roughly one in 12 Cole County property owners saw increases on their real estate values this year, and about the same number saw decreases.

For those wanting to appeal those assessment changes, the Cole County Board of Equalization has been holding hearings.

Those who saw an increase got a notice from the assessor’s office earlier this year. Of the total 33,661 real estate parcels in Cole County, 2,828 parcels saw an assessment increase.

Of those increases, 706 were raised because of new construction, additions or remodeling.

There were 2,794 parcels that decreased in value, while 28,038 saw no change.

Hearings can take as little as 15-20 minutes while others, especially those dealing with commercial properties, can take up to two hours.

On Friday, the board heard appeals from individual property owners.

Property owner Dennis Morrissey told board members he saw an increase of more than 10 percent for his home in the 1200 block of Amity Road.

He said his assessment hasn’t changed since 2005, but this bump will make the value go from $118,000 to $130,4000.

He also noted that the Board of Realtors reported that from 2005-12 the average sale price of a home in Jefferson City had only gone up 3.43 percent.

Kathy Goans represented the assessor’s office at the hearing and said since 2007 they hadn’t raised the assessment because they were being conservative in their process because of the housing market being very fragile for the past few years.

However, looking at the square-footage of Morrissey’s house and other amenities such as a three-car garage, Morrissey should be able to get $130,400 if he were to put the house on the market.

The equalization board eventually decided to keep Morrissey’s assessment at $130,400.

Since July 1, the board has had 13 hearings.

Out of those, the board decided to make no changes to the assessment in six cases and voted to lower it in seven.

Tuesday is the board’s last day to meet — and they have nine more hearings scheduled.

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Chiefs wide receiver Dwayne Bowe (82) runs after a catch against the Steelers on Monday in Pittsburgh. The Steelers won 16-13 in overtime.

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Discipline issues contributing to Chiefs losses

Romeo Crennel isn’t sure why the Chiefs decided to start playing Dance Dance Revolution on the turf of Heinz Field with a national television audience watching during Monday Night Football. He is sure he didn’t like it.

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BTB will announce its third quarter 2012 financial results ended September 30, 2012 on Monday November 12, 2012

MONTREAL, Nov. 8, 2012 /CNW Telbec/ - BTB Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX: BTB.UN) ("BTB") announced today that it will release its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2012, on Monday, November 12, 2012, after closing of the markets.

Management will hold a conference call on November 13, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. (ET) to discuss BTB's financial results and performance for the three-month period ended on September 30, 2012.

DATE :  Tuesday, November 13, 2012

TIME :  10:00 a.m. (Eastern Standard Time)

DIAL :  1-647-427-7450 (from Toronto and overseas) access code 65007728# 1-888-231-8191 (from North America) toll free, access code 65007728#.  To ensure your participation, please dial in fifteen minutes prior to the start of the conference call.

REPLAY :  From 1:00 p.m. Tuesday November 13, 2012, until 11:59 p.m. November 20, 2012, dial 1-416-849-0833 conference ID number 65007728#, or dial toll free 1-855-859-2056 conference ID number 65007728#.

The media and all interested parties may attend the call in listening mode only.

Conference call operators will coordinate the question and answer period, and will instruct participants regarding the procedures for the call.

About BTB

BTB is a real estate investment trust and its objective is to provide unitholders with stable cash distributions from investments in a quality portfolio of office, industrial, commercial and retail properties predominantly located in the province of Québec. BTB is led by an experienced management team with in-depth experience in the real estate industry and a Board of Trustees focused on governance and sound business practices.

BTB offers a distribution reinvestment plan to unitholders where by the participants may elect to have their monthly cash distribution reinvested in additional units of BTB.

For further information:

For further information, please contact:

Mr. Michel Léonard
President and Chief Executive Officer
514-286-0188, ext. 228

Mr. Benoit Cyr
Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer
514-286-0188, ext. 230


text:
Preventing Firefighter Injuries and Casualties by Examining the Culture of Safety

Released: 10-Oct-2012 11:55 AM EDT
Source Newsroom: Drexel University
Contact Information

Available for logged-in reporters only

Newswise — Drexel University was awarded a three-year, $1 million fire prevention and safety grant last month to develop tools to improve on-the-job safety for firefighters.

The award, from the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), builds on an existing FEMA-funded project at Drexel (FIRST) researching and developing the components of a national firefighter non-fatal injury data system (publichealth.drexel.edu/first). Both efforts are led by Dr. Jennifer A. Taylor, an assistant professor in Drexel’s School of Public Health.

With the new award, Taylor and collaborators will develop a survey to measure the safety climate – the measurable aspect of an organization’s or group’s attitudes toward safe behavior or “culture of safety”– for use in fire departments and by fire safety researchers.

“When there is a positive safety climate in a fire house, that means the leadership puts a high value on being safe. That value gets out to the frontline workers who change their behaviors to safe ones,” Taylor said.

According to Taylor, even the simplest steps to protect safety, such as buckling seatbelts, can be indicators of the value placed on safety. “Firefighters already put a high value on being ‘first in’ – the first on the scene to respond to an emergency. So if a fire chief says, ‘You won’t leave the fire house without buckling your seatbelt,’ that shows the value placed on safety.”

Conversely, “if they don’t buckle up, there will be other things they do that shortcut safety and increase the risk of preventable harm.”

That general principle has been demonstrated in more than 200 studies across a multitude of countries and industries that have concluded that safety climate is a robust predictor of safety outcomes, such as injuries. It’s valuable for an organization to know how strong its culture of safety is, in order to help improve it.

Yet the safety climate of fire departments is largely unmeasured.

After developing the survey of safety climate tailored especially for use in fire safety research, Taylor’s team will make the survey freely available to fire departments nationwide. Researchers will then be able to use the survey to measure a department’s safety climate both before and after implementing safety-related interventions, to determine whether an effort to improve safety culture has been effective.

Safety culture among firefighters has been noted as a major gap in firefighter safety knowledge by the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF). There are 70-80 firefighter deaths in the line of duty each year, according to NFFF. Nonfatal injuries among the nation’s 1.2 million firefighters are much more common, with estimates numbering in tens of thousands, though the exact number is unknown.

“The topic of culture holds special significance to NFFF,” said Chief Ron Siarnicki, NFFF’s executive director. “In March 2004, we convened over 200 people at our National Fire Fighter Life Safety Summit to discuss line of duty death prevention. From this unprecedented discussion, 16 initiatives emerged. The most fundamental issue that was agreed upon by the Summit participants was the need for the fire service in the United States to change the culture of accepting the loss of firefighters as a normal way of doing business. Initiative #1 was: ‘Define and advocate the need for a cultural change within the fire service relating to safety, incorporating leadership, management, supervision, accountability and personal responsibility.’ Therefore, Drexel’s grant, which will make it possible to measure safety climate in the fire service, is a natural extension of that commitment we made in 2004.”

Taylor’s research team will conduct focus groups and individual interviews with firefighters to rigorously develop survey items specific to the firefighting industry. The resulting survey will be administered to a geographically stratified random sample of U.S. fire departments. The survey results will be examined for the strength of their association with firefighter injuries.

In addition to Taylor, co-investigators include national and international scholars. The qualitative phase of the study will be guided by Drexel’s Dr. Lisa Bowleg, an associate professor in the School of Public Health who is an internationally recognized qualitative and mixed methods researcher. World-renowned safety climate expert Dr. Dov Zohar will advise the survey development. Zohar, a professor of Behavioral Sciences and Management in the department of Industrial Engineering & Management at the Technion in Haifa, Israel, developed the term “safety climate” in 1980 and has inspired the science behind it for over 30 years.

The project will be guided by academic and community partners including an advisory council comprising career and volunteer fire service leaders representing NFFF, the International Association of Fire Fighters, National Volunteer Fire Council, International Association of Fire Chiefs, FireRescue Magazine and The Secret List, who will advise the project team regarding research site recruitment, survey item development, and dissemination of the project results and survey.

Taylor, who leads this project, is an injury prevention and control researcher who investigates the relationship between organizational climate and injuries in healthcare settings and in the fire service. Taylor’s other firefighter research grants include an NIOSH RO3 award in narrative text mining, and a contract from the International Association of Fire Chiefs to analyze the National Fire Fighter Near Miss Reporting System. Taylor received her doctoral degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Health Policy and Management. She obtained her master’s of Public Health degree in Health Services from the Boston University School of Public Health.


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Uncorked! at Winterthur

Opening this weekend at Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library is "Uncorked! Wine, Objects & Tradition," an exhibit exploring and celebrating the range of items associated with the history of wine drinking, particularly in Britain and America, including more than 300 objects. The exhibit is on view from April 28 through January 6, 2013, with related programming including lectures, wine tastings, and more. Winterthur, Del. Tickets: $18 Adult, $16 Seniors and students with valid ID, $5 children (2-11)

Center City Jazz Festival

The Center City Jazz Festival, the first of its kind, gives Philadelphia's jazz scene a boost and closes out the city's Jazz Appreciation Month with a full day of performances on Saturday, April 28, at four venues from 1-8 p.m. Launched by visionary trombonist Ernest Stuart, the Festival offers more than 50 musicians, including headliner Sean Jones, former lead trumpeter of Wynton Marsalis' Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, bassist Mike Boone, vocalist Denise King, George Burton, Venissa Santi and Jaleel Shaw, with sounds ranging from hard-bop to groove, sultry to Latin jazz. Venues: Chris' Jazz Café, 1421 Samson Street, Philadelphia, Fergie's Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, Milk Boy Philadelphia, 1100 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, and Time Restaurant, 1315 Sansom Street, Philadelphia. General admission: $25 all-day access pass purchased online anytime or at the Box Office at Café Loftus, 136 S. 15th Street, Philadelphia, on Saturday, April 28, from 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

Cape May Spring Festival

The Cape May Spring Festival kicks off this weekend, April 27 through May 6, with a variety of tours, food and wine tastings, a craft and antiques show, flower festival and more, including the opening of the exhibit "Cape May's 20th Century Renaissance: From the Pages of 'The First Resort' Exhibit," adapted by the book's author Ben Miller, with rare photographs, video and artifacts showcasing the years immediately before and after the city's Urban Renewal movement, on display through November 4, Carriage House Gallery at the Physick Estate, 1048 Washington Street, Cape May, N.J. Co-sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities and the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Cape May.

Communiversity Festival of the Arts in Princeton

Communiversity Festival of the Arts, a "town-gown" event presented by the Arts Council of Princeton and the students of Princeton University, returns this Saturday, April 28, noon-5 p.m., rain or shine, with more than 200 artists, crafters and merchants with activities for all ages. Events include live entertainment on five stages, children's activities and games, food from around the world and wide representations of the communities and organizations that help the Princeton community thrive, in downtown Princeton, Nassau and Witherspoon Streets, Palmer's Square (on the Green), and throughout Princeton University's campus.

Philadelphia International Children's Festival

The 28th annual Philadelphia International Children's Festival returns to the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts with family friendly music, theatre and dance along with crafts, face painting, jugglers and more in the outdoor Fun Zone, May 3-5, 3680 Walnut Street, Philadelphia. Individual tickets $10, Children's Festival Fun Pass $25, includes three shows, the Fun Zone and lunch.

Fairmount Arts Crawl

The Fairmount Arts Crawl is this Sunday, April 29, from 2-6 p.m., as Fairmount restaurants and businesses open their doors and highlight the work of a wide variety of artists and their mediums, along with outdoor musical performances, family activities, and more, centered around 22nd & Fairmount Avenues in Philadelphia.

Brandywine Ballet’s Beauty and the Beast

Brandywine Ballet presents Nancy Page's Beauty and the Beast, Friday, April 27, 10 a.m., Saturday, April 28, 4 p.m., and Sunday, April 29, 2 p.m., Emilie Asplundh Concert Hall, 700 S. High Street, West Chester, Pa. Tickets $25-$40

The Night of the Iguana

South Camden Theatre Company wraps up their yearlong celebration of playwright Tennessee Williams' 100th birthday with "The Night of the Iguana," directed by Randall McCann, through May 6 at Waterfront South Theatre, 400 Jasper Street, Camden, N.J. General admission $15

New Jersey Folk Festival

The annual New Jersey Folk Festival is this Saturday, April 28, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., rain or shine, celebrating the culture of Bulgaria with music stages, artists & crafters, and more all part of Rutgers Day at the Eagleton Institute Grounds on the Douglass Campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. Free

West Chester Film Festival

The 8th Annual West Chester Film Festival kicks off this Friday, April 27-29, with screenings of short films up to 30 minutes in length submitted by independent filmmakers from around the world, along with workshops, special events and more, in downtown West Chester, Pa.

Philadelphia saxophonist and bandleader Bobby Zankel's big band, the Warriors of the Wonderful Sound, premieres a new piece, "Soundpath," written exclusively for the ensemble by legendary pianist and composer Muhal Richard Abrams, Saturday, April 28, 8 p.m., at Montgomery County Community College, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell, Pa.

Wildflower Celebration

The 8th Annual Wildflower Celebration is this Sunday, April 29, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., with live music, learning stations, children’s activities and more, Mt. Cuba Center, 3120 Barley Mill Road near Hockessin, Del. Free

Philadelphia Film Society presents Jason Starr's "Of Love, Death and Beyond," a documentary film exploring Mahler's Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection," with Neeme Jarvi, conductor and Thomas Hampson, narrator, featuring musicians from the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, Detroit and New Jersey Symphonies, Sunday, April 29, 5:15 p.m., Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Prince Theater, 37th & Walnut Streets, Philadelphia.

The Choristers, a 65 voice concert choir, performs its spring concert featuring the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, "Dona Nobis Pacem," a prayer for peace dedicated to Army Specialist David Hickman who died in the Iraq War, Saturday, April 28, 7:30 p.m. Program also includes "Serenade to Music, Five Mystical Songs" with soprano Maureen Francis, at Upper Dublin Lutheran Church, Ambler, Pa. Tickets $10-$25

Choral Arts Philadelphia presents "Entertainments Sacred and Profrane," two of Giacomo Carissimi's masterpieces, "Jephte," and "Jonas," in concert with the story Judas Maccabeus in David Ludwig's contemporary take on the oratorio, the "Hanukkah Cantata," commissioned by Choral Arts in 2006, with Leslie Johnson, soprano, Steven Bradshaw, tenor, members of the Philadelphia Bach Collegium and Matthew Glandorf conducting, Saturday, April 28, 8 p.m., Saint Mark's Episcopal Church, 1625 Locust Street, Philadelphia. Tickets $10-$30

The North Star Bar hosts concerts and events: Black Horse Motel/Linus the Moon/Sweet Eureka/Christopher Paul Stelling, Saturday, April 28, 9 p.m.; Elisha Kane/The Science Project, Monday, April 30, 8 p.m.; 20 Minute Tango/Yoya/The Mendles/High Olives, Tuesday, May 1, 8 p.m.; The Quick & Easy Boys/Rebecca Way/Kettle Pot Black, Wednesday, May 2, 8 p.m.; Wives (ex Person L)/Snake Road/Ape!/The Breaks, Thursday, May 3, 8 p.m.; Loe Cut Connie/California Wives, Friday, May 4, 9 p.m.; Old Man Cactus/Aaron & the Spell/Joanna Pacitti, Saturday, May 5, 9 p.m.; 2639 Poplar Street, Philadelphia. Tickets: $0-$17

The first PA Spring Music Explosion is Saturday, April 28, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., and Sunday, April 29, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., with over a hundred vendors from around the world buying, selling and trading rock & roll collectibles along with celebrity guests and more at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center, 100 Station Avenue, Oaks, Pa. Free

The Brandywine Valley Chorale presents "Love & Revolution," The Music of Paul McCartney, Saturday, April 28, 7:30 p.m., led by Artistic Director Jason Throne and joined by the Kennett Symphony Children's Chorus, featuring the music of the Beatles and marking the Philadelphia premiere of Sir Paul's classical work Ecce Cor Meum, Calvary Lutheran Church, 730 South New Street, West Chester, Pa. Tickets: $15 adults, $10 students

Philabundance hosts the 2nd annual Cupcake Smash at The Piazza at Schmidt's Saturday, April 28, 1-5 p.m., as professional and amateur bakers vie for the tastiest PYT themed cupcake to be deemed #1 by celebrity judges and the "People's Choice," 1050 N. Hancock St, Philadelphia. $20 in advance, $25 at the door. All proceeds go to Philabundance.

Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia continues its season with RITUALS: East/West Sunday, April 29, 4 p.m., featuring the Fauré Requiem and a world premiere by Andrea Clearfield, along with the Pennsylvania Girlchoir, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and members of the Tibetan community, at the Church of the Holy Trinity, 1904 Walnut Street, Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia. Tickets $28 online/$30 at the door

City Theater Company closes their 18th season with the regional premiere of "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson," the daring rock musical with music and lyrics by Michael Friedman and book by Alex Timbers with a historically inaccurate reinvention of Old Hickory as a rock god, April 27 through May 12, OPERADELAWARE Studios, 4 South Poplar Street, Wilmington, Del. General admission $25

Opening this weekend at Chapel Street Players is Wendy Wasserstein's "Isn’t it Romantic," directed by Nancy Storch, through May 5, 27 North Chapel Street, Newark, Del.

"Offering of the Angels: Treasures of the Uffizi," an extraordinary exhibit of works from the world-renowned Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, has arrived at the James A. Michener Art Museum, the only northeast United States museum to host the display, curated by its director, Antonio Natali. The selection of over 40 paintings and tapestries, which until this tour have never left Europe, depict biblical scenes by legendary Italian Renaissance artists such as Botticelli, Titian, Liberi, Tiarini, and Parmigianino, created between the 15th & 17th centuries. On view through August 10 at 138 S. Pine Street, Doylestown, Pa. Hours 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Tuesday through Friday, and 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday and noon-5 p.m. Sunday. Timed entry admission: adults $15; seniors $13; college students w/ ID $11, youth 6-18 $7.50; members and children under 6, free.

The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) at the University of Pennsylvania offers a unique glimpse into the mind of designer Stefan Sagmeister with the exhibit "The Happy Show," showcasing his 10-year exploration into the meaning of happiness through different maxims of typography, film, print, sculpture and interactive installations. Known for his outstanding blends of art, design and typography and for creating album covers for the likes of Talking Heads, Lou Reed and The Rolling Stones, the exhibit showcases a variety of the artist's intriguing works, some of which have been custom-made for this exhibition. On view now through August 12 at 118 S. 36th Street, Philadelphia, "The Happy Show" is Sagmeister's first museum show in the U.S. Hours are 11 a.m.-8 p.m. on Wednesday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free.

The second annual Philadelphia Science Festival, a city-wide celebration of science by schools, universities, cultural institutions and research centers is going on through April 29, featuring lectures, debates, activities, exhibitions and other science education experiences for all ages.

Onstage at the Opera Company of Philadelphia is Giacomo Puccini's "Manon Lescaut," through April 29, with soprano Michelle Johnson making her OCP debut, sung in Italian with English translations, Academy of Music, Broad Street, Philadelphia.

Act II Playhouse presents the classic Broadway musical "My Fair Lady," directed by Producing Artistic Director Bud Martin and starring Tony Braithwaite as Henry Higgins and Eileen Cella as Eliza Doolittle, through June 3 at 56 E. Butler Avenue, Ambler, Pa. Tickets $27-$41

The Resident Ensemble Players present "The Skin of Our Teeth," by Thornton Wilder, directed by Sanford Robbins, through May 5, Thompson Theatre, Roselle Center for the Arts, Newark, Del.

Onstage at Eagle Theatre is Collaborative Stage Productions' "Pippin" starring Liz Filios and directed and choreographed by Dann Dunn, through May 5 at 208 Vine Street, Hammonton, N.J. Tickets $22

The Renegade Company presents Heiner Muller's Hamletmachine and Medeaplays, directed by Michael Durkin, through May 5, Underground Arts, 1200 Callowhill Street, Philadelphia. Tickets $15-$20

Mainstage Center for the Arts presents Neil Simon's "Brighton Beach Memoirs," April 27-28, 8 p.m., Dennis Flyer Theater, Camden County College, Blackwood, N.J. Tickets $21, adults, $15 students under 12

The Philadelphia Dramatists Center Residency at Plays & Players presents the Philadelphia Playwright Showcase, including playwrights Jeff Stanley, Jeremy Gable, and Brian Grace-Duff, through April 28, 7 p.m., 3rd Floor Skinner Studio, 1714 Delancey Place, Philadelphia. Tickets $10 in advance, $12 at door

Stagecrafters Theater presents the psychological thriller "The Deadly Game,' adapted by James Yaffe from a novella by Swiss author Friedrich Duerrenmatt, through April 29 at 8130 Germantown Avenue, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. Tickets $20 at door, $16 online, Thursday evening performances 2 for $24, $13 students w/valid ID.

Philadelphia Black Gay Pride Inc. marks the 13th annual Black Pride celebration, through April 29, with a Spoken World & Poetry Slam, Evolution Ball, workshops, parties and more, Crowne Plaza Philadelphia West, 4010 City Avenue, Philadelphia.

People’s Light & Theatre presents "A Wrinkle in Time," adapted by John Glore from the Newberry Medal Award-winning book by Madeleine L'Engle, through May 20 on the Main Stage, 39 Conestoga Road, Malvern, PA. Tickets $35 adults, $25 youths under 18, Community Night tickets $25, PNC Access Night tickets half priced.

Triumph Brewing Company presents concerts and events: Ph Factor/Blue Boy Productions/Outlet, Saturday, April 28, 10 p.m.; F.L.O.W., a spoken word presentation, Sunday, April 29, 9 p.m.; Mike Lorenz Jazz Trio, Wednesday, May 2, 7 p.m.; Elliott Levin Jazz Group, Thursday, May 3, 6:30 p.m. & DAPP, 10 p.m.; The Day Life/Modern Inventors/The Workmen, Friday, May 4, 10 p.m.; Cinco De Mayo Party with Abstract Verses, Divine Rhymes, Josh Hey, 10 p.m.; 117 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. $5

The F. Harold Comedy Festival comes to the Walnut Street Theatre’s Studio 5 through Sunday, April 29, with stand-up, sketch, and improv, 6 p.m. each night, Walnut Street, Philadelphia. Tickets $10 for one night or $25 for all six nights.

To submit an event to be considered for the Weekly Entertainment Guide email Robin Bloom at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .