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Provision #514: Just Move
When all else fails, just move. That’s the message of this Provision. It’s a message that’s hardwired into our genetic code. For thousands and millions of years, the human being has been a motion being. We are meant to be physically active and strong, far more so than most of us are today. For the past hundred years, our fitness and, in turn, our health has been slipping away. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Take it from Jack LaLanne who, at age 92, still exercises two hours per day: it’s not beyond anyone to move.
Although his presidency lasted an all-too-brief 1,068 days, I remember US President John F. Kennedy better than any other President of my youth. Unlike today, when terror has become part of the cultural landscape, President Kennedy’s assassination was a real show stopper. I will never forget the school bus driver abruptly stopping the bus on a steep hill, commanding total silence, and then announcing that the President had been shot dead. I, along with my mother and much of the nation, spent many days in front of the television (which switched to 24-hour news coverage for the first time ever). I can remember her telling me to pay attention, because this kind of thing doesn’t happen very often. Oh, if only she had been right.
I remember many other things about President Kennedy, including, of course, his famous remark, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” He also asked the nations of the world to join together to fight what he called the “common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.” We are still fighting those enemies, and it seems appropriate • given that it is Memorial Day weekend in the United States • to memorialize one of our truly great leaders. It was an age of idealism that infected me as a youth and lives on yet today.
Three things stick with me as to President Kennedy’s time in office. One was the creation of the Peace Corps. Although I never served in the Corps, it became a model that I followed through the Appalachia Service Project and my time in the inner-city of Chicago. We were all paying forward to create a better world. Another was the challenge to put a person on the moon before the end of the decade. Kennedy did not live to see that day, but I had the privilege of sharing a stage with Neil Armstrong, the first person on the moon, not long after he returned from that distant and hostile environment. “We choose to (do this and) other things,” President Kennedy asserted, “not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
Which leads to my third sticking point • the hardest of them all, or so it seemed at the time. In 1956, President Eisenhower created the President’s Council on Youth Fitness to serve as a “catalytic agent” concentrating on creating public awareness. President Kennedy, after he took office in 1961, changed the name to the President’s Council on Physical Fitness to reflect an expanded mandate. The Council continues to this day to “advise the President through the Secretary of Health and Human Services about physical activity, fitness, and sports, and to recommend programs to promote regular physical activity for the health of all Americans.”
Soon after President Kennedy changed the name and mandate of the Council, Meredith Willson (of “The Music Man” and “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” fame) composed and Robert Preston recorded a song that is remembered by just about every baby-boomer who attended elementary school in the 1960s. That’s because the song • “Go You Chicken Fat, Go” • was distributed to every school in the United States with the idea that it would be played over the Public Address system in the morning while students did calisthenics. Imagine Harold Hill leading a Jazzercise class, and you get the idea.
For many of us, myself included, the song lives on in infamy. First of all, it’s one of those jingles that you can’t get out of your head (“Give that chicken fat, Back to the chicken, And don’t be chicken again. No, don’t be chicken again.”). Second of all, for those of us who did the six minute and thirty second workout routine day in and day out during gym class or at some other time during the day, we remember sweating and groaning our way through the drill: Toe Touches, Push Ups, Toe Touches, Push Ups, Marching In Place, Sit Ups, Torso Twists, Pogo Springs, Jumping Jacks, Marching In Place, Arm Circles, Bicycle Rides, Deep Breathing, Running In Place first Slow as a Tortoise than Fast as a Hare. Finally, “Everybody sing! Go, you chicken fat, go! Go! Go! Dismissed!”
Phew! I used to dread that song, as Robert Preston’s perky voice ratcheted things up to a frenetic pace. You can listen or even move to the music yourself, if you dare, by Clicking Here.
Long before President Kennedy and the 1960s, America’s first physical fitness guru, Jack LaLanne, was busy in San Francisco with the same mission: getting people in shape by getting them to move. Born in 1914, LaLanne lives on today with a vigorous fitness regimen at the age of 92. As a child, LaLanne was addicted to sugar, junk food, and acts of violence (he set his parents’ house on fire and attacked his brother with an axe). After hearing a lecture by Paul C. Bragg, when he was 15, LaLanne and his mother became convinced of a connection between his diet and his violent acts. As a result, LaLanne turned his life around by adopting a strict diet and exercising daily.
Two of his maxims became, “If man made it, don’t eat it.” and “If it tastes good, spit it out.” In what represents an early version of the Paleolithic diet and the Optimal Wellness Prototype, LaLanne gave up sugar, coffee, processed foods, and dairy products in favor of whole foods such as fresh fruits, vegetables, and fish. Diet alone would not have done the trick, however.
“If all else fails, just move.” became LaLanne’s third maxim. And move he did. At a time when strength training was not in vogue, LaLanne developed not only a vigorous daily regimen, involving swimming and weight lifting, he also developed the first weight machines in the country. Today, such machines are standard equipment in the fitness industry. In 1936, LaLanne opened his first health spa and in 1951 he became the first TV fitness personality with shows that ran until 1984, when LaLanne retired from television at the of 70.
To celebrate his 70th birthday, LaLanne fought strong winds and currents as he swam 1.5 miles, handcuffed and shackled, while towing 70 boats with 70 people from the Queen’s Way Bridge in the Long Beach, California harbor to the Queen Mary. He had done crazy stunts like that all his life, including a number of world records (such as 1,033 pushups in 23 minutes and swimming the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, underwater, with 140 pounds of equipment, including two air tanks).
But one doesn’t have to be that extreme to follow LaLanne’s third maxim, “If all else fails, just move.” In fact, ironically enough, for more than thirty years on “The Jack LaLanne Show” he focused primarily on exercise aimed at homemakers, using items found around the home. LaLanne demonstrated that it’s not only possible, it may even be preferable, to get in shape through everyday activities rather than through athletic contests.
That’s why we first made the suggestion that you shift your body frequently throughout the day. What could be simpler than that? It’s a far cry from Chicken Fat or Jack LaLanne, but it is a step in the right direction to stand up and to sit back down, for example, at regular intervals throughout the day. Or to get up to change the channel rather than to use the remote. Or to turn your head all the way in one direction before turning it all the way in the other direction. Such gentle movements are essential to Optimal Fitness.
But they’re not enough. That’s why last week I encouraged you to step it up a notch with Ron Jones’ “Dynamic Warm Up“. In less than six minutes, and with none of the Chicken Fat frenzy, Ron takes you through a series of 10 warm up exercises that replicate the balance, reach, and strength requirements of everyday activities. I find Ron’s routine to be a great prelude to more vigorous exercise.
This assumes, of course, that you have no physical limitations when it comes to exercise. Even the “Dynamic Warm Up” may be too much for some people. When in doubt, check with your doctor. One way to check yourself is with the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire (PAR-Q). Answer “Yes” or “No” to the following seven questions:
Has your doctor ever said that you have a heart condition and that you should only do physical activity recommended by a doctor?
Do you feel pain in your chest when you do physical activity?
In the past month, have you had chest pain when you were not doing physical activity?
Do you lose your balance because of dizziness or do you ever lose consciousness?
Do you have a bone or joint problem (for example, back, knee or hip) that could be made worse by a change in your physical activity?
Is your doctor currently prescribing drugs (for example, water pills) for your blood pressure or heart condition?
Do you know of any other reason why you should not do physical activity?
If you answer “Yes” to any of the questions, see your doctor first. You may have to follow special instructions in order to ease your way into an exercise program. But some form of exercise will work for just about everyone; even heart patients do better when they get the body moving. That should be your orientation. You’re not asking your doctor if you can exercise; you’re asking your doctor how you can exercise. Remember LaLanne’s maxim: “If all else fails, just move.”
If you don’t have much energy, just move.
If you’re feeling kind of groggy, just move.
If you’re depressed and down in the dumps, just move.
If you have too much work to do, just move.
If you’re feeling anxious or afraid, just move.
If you can hardly eat another bite, just move.
If you’ve been sitting at your computer too long, just move.
If you want to spend time with someone, just move.
If you need to clear your mind, just move.
If you don’t know what else to do, just move.
LaLanne put it quite succinctly when he said, “You eat everyday, you sleep everyday, your body was made to exercise everyday.” Those are the things we have been doing since the beginning of time, only now we are eating more, sleeping less, and moving hardly at all in comparison to our ancestors. In 2002, for example, 25 percent of adult Americans did not participate in any leisure time physical activities in the past month, and in 2003, 38 percent of students in grades 9 to 12 viewed television 3 or more hours per day. No wonder we have so many health problems! President Kennedy’s mandate has not been fulfilled; indeed, we’ve gone backward rather than forward when it comes to physical activity in the past 40 years.
Here are the current recommendations to promote health, psychological well-being, and a healthy body weight:
30 minutes per day of moderate-intensity physical activity, in addition to whatever you normally do at home or work, is the bare minimum.
Doing more than that in both intensity and duration generates greater health benefits for most people.
60 minutes per day of moderate- to vigorous-intensity activity assists most people to maintain their optimal body weight.
90 minutes per day supports weight-loss for people who want to reach their optimal body weight.
This means that not even Chicken Fat, as exhausting as it may be, is enough activity on a daily basis. Six minutes and thirty seconds just isn’t enough (although it felt like an eternity in the fifth grade). We need to warm up and then to challenge ourselves with a combination of aerobic activities, strength straining, stretching, and balance work. The more well-rounded the regimen, the better.
Moderate- to vigorous-intensity aerobic activities, such as walking, running, swimming, or cycling, form the base of the exercise pyramid. That’s not because they are more important than strength training, stretching, and balance work; that’s rather because they take the most time.
Next week we’ll talk about aerobic activities that you may want to add to your daily routines. Between now and then, you might find it illuminating to keep a movement log. Write down your movements throughout the day, including their starting time, duration, and intensity, to get some sense of your activity level. Are you at or below the 30-minute level? The 60-minute level? The 90-minute level? Awareness is the keystone to change.
Coaching Inquiries: What are your favorite activities? Do you do them as much as you would like? Who do you enjoy doing them with? How could you increase their duration and intensity? How could you make them more fun?
In your last Provision, Warm Up, you refer to the lazy way dogs wake up, with yawns and stretches. That may be true for domesticated animals, but wild animals leap into action without warming up beforehand. Not everyone thinks it’s so important to warm up; being consistently active is the key. (Ed. Note: Thanks for pointing this out. I will have more to say about stretching in the weeks ahead.)
https://www.lifetrekcoaching.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/logo.jpg 559 559 Bob Tschannen-Moran /wp-content/uploads/2014/06/logo.jpg Bob Tschannen-Moran2014-06-06 18:25:312014-07-17 13:40:13Provision #514: Just Move
Provision #513: Warm Up Provision #515: Push Yourself


Area community colleges facing a full year devoid of almost all sports | The Daily Gazette
Area community colleges facing a full year devoid of almost all sports
By Adam Shinder | January 13, 2021
Categories: -The Daily Gazette, College Sports, Sports
Most area community colleges will be going an entire year almost entirely without athletic competition.
SUNY Schenectady announced Wednesday that it was canceling its baseball and women’s crew seasons for the spring, taking an entire academic year’s worth of intercollegiate athletics off the table due to the COVID-19 pandemic. SUNY Schenectady hasn’t had teams compete since canceling its 2020 spring season in the early days of the pandemic.
It’s a move that SUNY Schenectady athletic director Dave Gonzalez said Wednesday was going to be echoed throughout Capital Region junior colleges this spring. He said that of the remaining schools in the Capital Region — Fulton-Montgomery Community College, Hudson Valley Community College, Columbia-Greene Community College and SUNY Adirondack — only Adirondack was going forward with a plan to offer a large slate of spring sports.
“We’ve been meeting weekly, all of the [NJCAA] Region 3 athletic directors, we have Zoom meetings every Wednesday,” Gonzalez said. “This has been the biggest topic of discussion, the spring. With all the different variables, and they’re so hard to control, it’s really very difficult to have a season. We all had to make a commitment this week. I looked at all the schools, and Hudson Valley, F-M and Columbia-Greene all did the same thing that we did.”
F-MCC athletic director Kevin Jones confirmed via text message that the school would not be offering baseball or softball this spring, but the school is planning to offer golf. The only other sport the Raiders offered this academic season was cross country in the fall.
HVCC also issued a release Wednesday that it was canceling its spring sports slate.
Athletic officials at SUNY Adirondack did not respond to requests for comment.
Also Wednesday, the Division II Northeast-10 Conference, of which The College of Saint Rose is a member, made the decision to cancel plans for a repositioned regular season for the conference’s seven traditional fall sports. The affected sports, which the NE10 had hoped to sponsor during the spring, are men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country, football, field hockey and volleyball.
According to a release from the conference, the NE-10 remains “unanimously committed” to sponsoring competition in its 10 spring sports, including tennis and golf.
Saint Rose is exploring opportunities for non-conference competition for the school’s fall and winter programs.
“Although there will be no formal NE-10 competition for our fall and winter sport programs, we are committed to our steadfast goal of providing competition opportunities for the student-athletes in these programs,” Saint Rose athletic director Lori Anctil said in a release. “We are prepared to resume activity for all 19 varsity programs and will follow NCAA guidelines on testing as we gear up for competition. We are excited to welcome our Golden Knights back to campus this spring semester and are hopeful for the opportunities ahead.”
At the junior college level, wiping out an entire year of competition was an extremely difficult decision, Gonzalez said, but ultimately made the most sense.
“Last summer, when we were trying to make a decision about the fall, I can remember two community colleges — Bunker Hill Community College in Boston and Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio — that at time canceled their whole seasons in advance,” he said. “In retrospect, that might’ve been the right move, because that’s pretty much what is happening.”
It’s especially difficult for the spring sports, which are now facing a second straight season without competition.
“These kids have come to our place to play, and for two years in a row we haven’t been able to do it,” Gonzalez said. “It’s really disappointing.”


Caroline Taylor née Cancellor
Photograph with kind permission of Lacy Scott & Knight LLP
Caroline Taylor (1810-1876) was an early, previously unknown, photographer whose calotype images recently came to light in an auction of photographic ephemera in December 2017.
Caroline Cancellor was born on 16th January 1810, the youngest of five and the only daughter of stockbroker John Cancellor and Caroline Hall.[1] Within two months Caroline suffered the fate of many nineteenth century infants regardless of social standing; her mother died. John Cancellor never remarried but, despite this tragedy, the family lived a comfortable life on Upper Gower Street, St Pancras, London, just a twenty minute walk from her future husband at Great Marlborough Street in Soho.[2]
Caroline’s father left a generous inheritance, augmented three years later by her brother Richard’s bequest in 1834. She was now the lease holder of a fashionable residence at Cambridge Place near Regent’s Park and this was to become her marital home. On 11th July 1834 Caroline married Alfred Swaine Taylor (1806–1880), an aspiring doctor and lecturer, specialising in forensic medicine.
Alfred and Caroline Taylor
One year into their marriage, Caroline and Alfred’s son Richard Alfred was born but survived only five months and died in January 1836. Eight years later their only child Edith Caroline completed the Taylor family.
Caroline assisted her husband in revising his books for publication including On Poisons in Relation to Medical Jurisprudence and Medicine (1847), even though the subjects covered included the most abhorrent imaginable.[3]
Alfred Swaine Taylor took an immediate interest in the new scientific discovery of photogenic drawing by William Henry Fox Talbot, announced in January 1839. He was a skilled chemist and responded to Talbot’s invention, suggesting improvements to the fixing process, with a publication On the Art of Photogenic Drawing, published in the summer of 1840.
The British Medical Journal stated “It should be mentioned that his wife, whom he only survived four years, identified herself with all his pursuits…” [4]so there can be little doubt that she shared his great interest in photography.
Caroline Taylor
Calotype photographs marked “CT” were discovered among the December 2017 auction at Lacy Scott & Knight in Bury St Edmunds. These faded salt prints depicted views of English landscapes, Kenilworth, Tintern, Hampstead, Hampton Court and Highgate, also Continental views such of Rome and Pompeii.[5]
Salt Print From Calotype View
Forum of Rome, Dec 1848, CT July 1848. Conflicting dates (1849 added in bold) and additional title added as ‘Roman Forum’[6]
In addition to these views Caroline was interested in using photography to reproduce works of art. Thirteen photographic prints annotated “CT” depicted copies of engravings by Rembrandt, Landseer, De la Roche, Pinelli and Bonnington.
Caroline may have been the “Mrs Taylor” exhibiting two photographs in 1856 at the Exhibition of the Norfolk and Norwich Fine Arts’ Association; and the Photographic Society.[7]
Caroline Taylor died on 8th February 1876 and is buried at Highgate Cemetery with her husband.[8]
The discovery of her photographs 141 years later shines new light on her status as Alfred Swaine Taylor’s wife, acknowledging her as one of a growing collection of quiet pioneers from the dawn of photography.
My grateful thanks to Darran Green for his introduction and information regarding Caroline Taylor.
Also Helen Barrell whose excellent biography of Alfred Swaine Taylor contained important references to Caroline’s life.
Also Edward Crichton ASFAV and Helen Robson, Lacy Scott & Knight LLP for their assistance with catalogue image permission.
Barrell, Helen, Fatal Evidence: Professor Alfred Swaine Taylor & the Dawn of Forensic Science, (Barnsley: Pen & Sword History 2017)
[1] Baptism record of Old Church,Saint Pancras,London May 3rd 1810 also lists date of birth as 16th January 1810 www.ancestry.uk Accessed 10/04/2018
[2] Helen Barrell, Fatal Evidence: Professor Alfred Swaine Taylor & the Dawn of Forensic Science, (Barnsley: Pen & Sword History 2017) p.20
[3] “Obituary, Alfred Swaine Taylor, M.D., F.R.S.” British Medical Journal, June 12 1880, p.905-6
“It should be mentioned that his wife, whom he only survived four years, identified herself with all his pursuits, and greatly assisted him in the revision of his work for the press.”
[4] ibid
[5] Darran P. M. Green, “Much Remains to be Done”- The Pioneering Work in Photography of Dr.Alfred Swaine Taylor – A Neglected History. 2018, Unpublished
[6] Darran P. M. Green The Taylor Collection: A Catalogue of Photogenic Drawings and Calotype Prints in Lot 1061 of Lacy Scott & Knight’s Home and Interiors Sale, Saturday 2 December 2017.
[7]http://www.earlynorfolkphotographs.co.uk/Norwich%20Photographic%20Societies/Norwich_Photographic_Societies.html Accessed 01/04/2018
[8] Burial registers Highgate Cemetery : Caroline Taylor February 11th 1876 and Alfred Swain (sic) Taylor May 29th 1880


In a statement issued today, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada's (ELCIC) National Bishop Susan C. Johnson offered her condolences to the family of The Honourable Jack Layton, remembering his contributions to Canadian society and his legacy of hope and optimism. The full text of the statement follows:
On behalf of the members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, I would like to offer our deepest condolences to the family of The Honourable Jack Layton.
We mourn the loss of a great leader who was unfailing in his compassion for people in need. Jack stood up and stood strong for what he believed in, never compromising in his dedication towards seeking social justice, nor in his passion for issues such as Aboriginal rights, the environment, affordable housing, and ending violence against women.
Jack inspired us all with his hope and optimism, both in his political career and in his personal life, and especially during his battles with cancer.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Jack’s family, and all who mourn his loss.


Art Graffiti News NYC
On a mission, we wondered for a few hours through a section of Barcelona considered the most dangerous. Some local say it’s even worse than The Bronx, and with an estimated 25 reported robberies per day, they may have a point.
But nobody robs a graffiti art aficionado from New York City of the chance to check some prized graffiti artwork. Time for a tour…
Just a few blocks away from the touristy hotspots of Las Ramblas, Plaça Catalunya and the port sits this oasis of graffiti artwork.
Historically, the area has not always been the nicest or cleanest. The part of El Raval nearest the port is known as the city’s red light district. So unless your a savvy street artist, or street walker, touristing around here is not highly recommended. But the natural high that comes from strolling around catching glimpses of world class graffiti art is well worth it. Original New York City graffiti writers should feel proud of how far NYC graffiti art culture has spread.
El Raval, worse than The Bronx? Some locals think so.
Parallel skatepark: Tres Chimeneas
Nearest Metro Station: Paral-lel (L3) Green Line
This area is known as a haven for street art in Barcelona. Some walls in the neighborhood are specifically protected through the Wallspot Project for street artists to do their thing legally. Here, you will not only find graffiti art lovers, but the artists themselves who like to hang around and get busy.
Dangerous can mean many things.
The main reasons why people raise concerns about some parts of El Raval are drugs, prostitution. They don’t pose much of a problem for most tourists and can be ignored. But beware of pickpockets.
Last Year, graffiti writer, Yeset, brought his Barcelona style to a New York City Subway train. But then got caught.
Yeset was busted December of last year in Brooklyn by the NYPD, with the help of Spanish Transit Police after he tagged his trademark signature on NYC subway cars.
When Yeset was asked why he came to New York:
“All the Europeans come to New York because that’s where graffiti was born.”
Even though El Raval is no longer considered as dangerous, it still has an edgy, red-light aura about it. Scattered among the wave of Moroccan and Middle Eastern immigrants you’ll find trendy bars, clubs and tattoo parlors.
A few corners in El Raval may still be a bit nervous, but worse than sections of The Bronx? Not really. But if you ever find yourself in Barcelona, be sure to check out the amazing graffiti art in El Raval. But you might want to bring a friend and don’t say we didn’t warn you.
https://www.thelocal.es/20181018/welcome-to-el-raval-barcelonas-most-dangerous-neighbourhood
https://nypost.com/2018/12/18/nypd-teams-up-with-spanish-cops-to-catch-graffiti-artist/
https://thebarcelonian.com/el-raval-neighborhood-barcelona/


Legal Assistant 2
Current UC employees must apply internally via SuccessFactors > http://bit.ly/UCEMPL
The University of Cincinnati’s Office of General Counsel is seeking a Legal Assistant II. This position will report to the Vice President of Legal Affairs and General Counsel or her designee, will be responsible for helping to manage the Office’s contract review process, and will support all areas of operation, instruction, research and administration at the University. This is an outstanding professional opportunity for a paralegal or other qualified legal professional to work with highly talented and committed colleagues and to contribute to the growth of a Tier One research institution.
The Office of General Counsel is a fast-paced, high-volume environment that provides legal services to the entire University. The successful candidate will assist Office of General Counsel attorneys with providing, managing and coordinating high-quality legal services to the University in a high-volume, fast-paced environment. This position is an individual contributor who is expected to assume significant responsibility for assigned areas and work collaboratively with attorneys to manage the contract review process; identify and communicate legal risks; and execute necessary steps to carry out their duties, including clear and helpful communications with attorneys, other University personnel, and third-parties.
The Office of the General Counsel supports the dynamic educational environment of the University of Cincinnati by providing legal advice to support all areas of operation, instruction, research, and administration at the University.
Reporting to the Vice President of Legal Affairs and General Counsel or her designee, this position assists Office of General Counsel attorneys and other staff with providing, managing and coordinating high-quality legal services to the University on multiple unrelated matters rapidly, accurately, and effectively in a high-volume, fast paced environment consistent with the expectations of the General Counsel or her designee, University stakeholders, and the Ohio Attorney General. The position will have primary responsibility for the contract review process, to include acting as the Office’s primary point of contact for issues related to the University’s contract management system or contracting questions, providing in-depth legal review of contracts, tracking Office and University metrics for contract processing times, and coordinating with other University departments who have contacted the Office of General Counsel to inquire about submitted contracts.
The position requires effectively communicating, working cooperatively and interacting comfortably with a diverse community and with multiple constituencies including administrators, staff, faculty, students, trustees, external professionals and vendors. The successful candidate will have strong oral and written communications skills, excellent organizational skills, high attention to detail, and the ability to execute directives from the General Counsel or Office of General Counsel attorneys promptly, accurately, and with alacrity.
Receive contracts; analyze, review and negotiate proposed contracts and secure necessary approvals; prepare for attorney review and final signature by appropriate, authorized person; route for signature.
Subject matter expert in Office of General Counsel’s use and support of the University’s contract management system; primary Office point of contact for University department and third-party contracting system and contract-processing questions.
Maintain accurate computerized filing and logging systems documenting all contract activity and generate reports as needed.
As needed, support attorneys and staff with matter intake and file maintenance; maintain attorney calendars and arrange and schedule meetings; prepare correspondence.
Maintain a thorough understanding of the University’s policies, procedures, and practices, as relevant to their assigned areas of responsibility.
Liaison with University departments, staff, faculty, outside counsel and various agencies.
Assist with special projects within the Office of General Counsel.
Perform other duties as assigned by the General Counsel or her designee and perform other related duties based on departmental need.
Required Trainings/Certifications
Six (6) years of experience with a law firm, corporation, government entity, or university as a paralegal, contract administrator, or other legal professional.
Experience reviewing contracts and using a contract management system.
Proficient with Microsoft Office Suite, including Excel.
Additional Qualifications Considered
Physical Requirements/Work Environment
Office environment/no specific unusual physical or environmental demands.
The University of Cincinnati, as a multi-national and culturally diverse university, is committed to providing an inclusive, equitable and diverse place of learning and employment. As part of a complete job application you will be asked to include a Contribution to Diversity and Inclusion statement.
As a UC employee, and an employee of an Ohio public institution, if hired you will not contribute to the federal Social Security system, other than contributions to Medicare. Instead, UC employees have the option to contribute to a state retirement plan (OPERS, STRS) or an alternative retirement plan (ARP).
The University of Cincinnati is an Affirmative Action / Equal Opportunity Employer / Minority / Female / Disability / Veteran.
REQ: 57042
SF:LJN (OMJ) SF:RM SF:HEJ SF:INS SF:HERC SF:DIV
About University of Cincinnati
HISTORY IN BRIEF - The University of Cincinnati is a public urban serving research institution that was founded in 1819 and today is one of the country’s largest universities offering more than 350 academic programs to more than 44,000 students. UC has many top ranked programs in areas such as Music and Arts, Medical and Human-Services, Criminal Justice and more. Located in an urban setting, UC is close to the heart of Cincinnati and allows easy access for students to enjoy all that the city offers. UC is also the alma mater of many notables such as President William Howard Taft; Albert Sabin, developer of the oral polio vaccine; Astronaut Neil Armstrong and Mary Weinberg, 2008 Olympic gold medalist. UC is classified as a Research University (Very High Research Activity) by the Carnegie Commission and is ranked as one of America’s top 35 public research universities by the National Science Foundation. UC jumped 17 spots in the U.S. News & World Report rankings in the past two years alone. In addition to being named a “green university” by Princeton Review, UC has been named one of the world’s most beautiful campuses by Forbes and Delta Sky magazines. Learn more at www.uc.edu.MISSIO...N STATEMENT - The University of Cincinnati serves the people of Ohio, the nation, and the world as a premier, public, urban research university dedicated to undergraduate, graduate, and professional education, experience-based learning, and research. We are committed to excellence and diversity in our students, faculty, staff, and all of our activities. We provide an inclusive environment where innovation and freedom of intellectual inquiry flourish. Through scholarship, service, partnerships, and leadership, we create opportunity, develop educated and engaged citizens, enhance the economy and enrich our University, city, state and global community.
Connections working at University of Cincinnati
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I have decided to change my name. Not that there is really a me here whose name needs to be changed; but I admit to an impulse to label this unit differently. Not legally. Not right now anyway; but in the context of these teachings.
Some background first: Growing up, my parents and grandparents (and later, my brothers, cousins, and all relatives for that matter) used to call me Vinnie J, in large part to differentiate this biological unit from all the others in the family with the same name. Legally, my name was Vincent James III. So was my father’s name. Except he was Junior. And I had an older cousin with the same name, but he wasn’t given a number. This continued a tradition for naming children after a living patriarch, who in this case was my paternal grandfather, named Vincenzo. (I later learned that his grandfather was named Vincenzo, as was his great grandfather and his great great grandfather. For some reason, my grandfather’s grandfather skipped the tradition when his son, named Onofrio, was born. Perhaps it was because he understood what it was like to be the third in a line of succession of individuals with the same name that he did not want to subject his own son to that indignity. Unfortunately, years later when Onofrio’s wife Anna gave birth to their first born son, they named him Vincenzo, and, well, here we are.)
Now, back in Italy. For reasons unbeknown to me, individuals named Vincenzo were often given the nickname Gimí. Thus, Onofrio’s first born son, Vincenzo, as called Gimí.
However, when the family emigrated to the United States in the early 20th century, the name Gimí became Americanized as Jimmy. Now here’s where things get interesting. When my father was born, he was given the legal name Vincent James, rather than Vincenzo. James, of course, is the formal version of Jim or Jimmy. And although James was not a translation of Gimí, it became commonly attached to those with the name Vincent. Look it up. Most Vincent’s of Italian descent born in American have the middle name James.
So, in America my grandfather, was called “Gimí,” but it was spelled “Jimmy”. When my dad, Vincent James Jr. was born, he was referred to as Jimmy Junior. When I was born, I was legally named Vincent James III. Now, perhaps because calling a child Jimmy the third (or the turd, as my brothers liked to tease me) was deemed a little too much, I was referred to as Vinnie J. These days, my family calls me Vin or Vinnie, without the J, in large part, because as I entered puberty, I asked (i.e., demanded) that family stop calling me Vinnie J. At twelve years old, I was no longer a child, was I? Professionally, I become known as Vince. And here at home, I’m referred to as Vincent, among other endearing (written sarcastically) names.
So, back to the point. Although, I once believe that there was a ‘me’ who was named Vincent, along with all its variants, there really is no ‘me’ to identify with. Yes, there are still conditioned patterns that seem, from an outside perspective, to constitute a set of personality and behavioral characteristics (get it?); but, upon investigation, there really is no ‘me.’ Nor is there a ‘you’. (See my first post for more on this.)
And yet, names are useful. We can’t just go around calling other people “Hey you!” or Hey, nobody!” or when introducing ourselves say “Hi, I’m no one!” (Except if you’re Arya Stark from Game of Thrones.)
So, in a humorous homage to the non-existent character known as Vincent, Vince, Vin, and Vinnie J, in this context the moniker ‘Vinji’ will be used. By the way, ‘ji’, in Japanese, which is usually found in the form of a suffix and although having many meanings, also means ‘self’ or ‘character’. So, Vinji! Appropriate, isn’t it?


Response to COVID-19 Will Make Us All Stronger
By Rick Schostek, Executive Vice President at Honda North America Inc.
This week, Honda accelerated its preparation for an entirely new product in our 40-year history of building things in America. We will soon begin manufacturing compressors for ventilators that will help victims of COVID-19. This vital activity will soon get underway in a training center we established five years ago to help our associates develop manufacturing skills for the future, now home to the latest initiative in our company-wide effort to help provide solutions to many of the challenges posed by this pandemic.
I’m humbled to be part of a manufacturing enterprise that is working to find ways to join this fight, with each of our business lines — automobiles, power equipment, power sports and aircraft — offering unique solutions and support. And I’m proud that our response focuses on three vital and immediate human needs. We are addressing food insecurity at a time when so many families are struggling, working to employ our manufacturing know-how to produce medical equipment to help those battling COVID-19, and enabling our associates to serve as ‘virtual volunteers,’ to help people in need. …
The Honda Women Engineers Who Drive Us Forward
Liz Casteel and Tasha Krug are Honda engineers who competed together as Team Sand Mode in the 2019 Rebelle Rally, a grueling 1,500-mile off-road competition for women. These extraordinary engineers from Honda R&D Americas tackled the competition to pursue their outdoor passions and push the company’s future innovations to the next level. As the recipients of the Rebelle Rally Rookie of the Year award and Third Place winners in the Crossover Class, these superstars have proven that they can handle the toughest of challenges. Passionate and fearless women like them drive Honda forward with their challenging spirit.
What do you do at Honda?
Liz Casteel (LC): I’m a chassis reliability test engineer and that means I work on the suspension and frame of the car, to test and make sure it stays reliable for the life of the vehicle. So, in real-world terms, I check to make sure that your car lasts and will be okay when you run over potholes or railroad tracks, or hit curbs. …
Inclusion is Everyone’s Job
By Yvette Hunsicker, Vice President Human Resources & Inclusion and Diversity at Honda North America Inc.
I joined Honda three decades ago as a production associate in the weld department of our Marysville Auto Plant in rural Ohio. Honda had become the first Japanese automaker to build cars in America seven years earlier and as a woman of color in a predominately white and male environment, well, let’s just say being different and new made for some challenging days.
Today, I’m a vice president of Human Resources at Honda, and I lead our Office of Inclusion and Diversity. So, my job includes guiding the effort to bring younger versions of myself to the company and create an environment where young people of different backgrounds can contribute to Honda’s success. …
A Woman’s Place is Behind the Wheel
By Lara Harrington, Chief Engineer and Honda Passport Development Leader
When I was young, I couldn’t see myself in the way most women were portrayed in the media. I liked to work with my hands, and my father — a classic do-it-yourselfer — didn’t hesitate to involve me when he was out in the garage working under the hood of the car.
These opportunities fueled my own passion for working on mechanical things, but as a young woman, I questioned whether I had the confidence to pursue a non-traditional career path.
I’m now some four decades removed from that critical time in my life, and I’ve spent most of my professional career as a Honda R&D engineer. In fact, I’m proud to be the first woman to serve as the development leader for a new vehicle at Honda, the Honda Passport. …
Securing a Carbon-Free Future through Virtual Power
Rendering of Boiling Springs Wind Farm in Oklahoma
By Ryan Harty, Manager, Connected and Environmental Business Development, American Honda
Standing on this windswept stretch of central Oklahoma, it’s hard to imagine the connection this land will have to reducing CO2 emissions for an auto manufacturing plant a thousand miles east in central Ohio. But it’s our job to imagine the future we want to achieve. So the wind turbines that will soon dot this landscape are pivotal to Honda’s plan to reduce CO2 emissions from our North American auto manufacturing plants by more than 60 percent.
CO2 from burning fossil fuels over the past century has changed our climate. We need to change our business in response. We have to change the energy that powers not just our operations, but also our entire society, from fossil fuels to zero-carbon sources as soon as we can. Tackling CO2 emissions is the biggest challenge that our business and our society face today. …
Honda is developing technologies and products with the goal of creating a cleaner, safer and more convenient world.


McCormick quoted in Al Jazeera article on release of Gen. Cienfuegos
"At the end of the day, arresting Cienfuegos jeopardized future collaboration between the two militaries because it meant that no one on the Mexican side was safe from possible prosecution, even after helping the Americans," Gladys McCormick, Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations, tells Al Jazeera. "All in all, freeing Cienfuegos without any charges or penalties showcases that his arrest was a complete debacle for both the DEA and DOJ [Department of Justice]," she says. Read more in "Mexico denies deal to nab cartel leader in return for Cienfuegos." 11/24/20


Home / World News / Canada PM Trudeau expresses concern at farmers’ protest; India says remarks ‘unwarranted’
Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.(File photo)
Canada PM Trudeau expresses concern at farmers’ protest; India says remarks ‘unwarranted’
Trudeau made the remarks while participating in a Facebook video interaction to mark Gurupurab or the 551st birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion
By Rezaul H Laskar | Hindustan Times, New Delhi
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday that Ottawa has conveyed its concerns about the protest by Indian farmers to New Delhi, but the external affairs ministry dismissed his remarks as “unwarranted” as they pertained to the country’s internal affairs.
Trudeau made the remarks while participating in a Facebook video interaction organised by Canadian MP Bardish Chagger to mark Guruparb or the 551st birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion. The event was joined by Canadian ministers Navdeep Bains and Harjit Sajjan and members of the Sikh community.
In his opening remarks during the interaction, Trudeau said: “I would be remiss if I didn’t start also by recognising the news coming out of India about the protest by farmers. The situation is concerning and we’re all very worried about family and friends.
“I know that’s a reality for many of you. Let me remind you, Canada will always be there to defend the right of peaceful protest. We believe in the importance of dialogue and that’s why we’ve reached out through multiple means directly to the Indian authorities to highlight our concerns.”
Hours later, external affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said in a brief statement: “We have seen some ill-informed comments by Canadian leaders relating to farmers in India. Such comments are unwarranted, especially when pertaining to the internal affairs of a democratic country.”
Also read | Farmers’ protest: All you need to know
Srivastava added, “It is also best that diplomatic conversations are not misrepresented for political purposes.”
People familiar with developments said on condition of anonymity that Trudeau’s comments appeared to be aimed at Canada’s influential Indian-origin diaspora.
Trudeau also referred to the Covid-19 pandemic and said this “is a moment for all of us to pull together”. He added, “We’re going to be there to continue to work together as we are there to help each other out.” He also said it was important to remember Guru Nanak’s teachings of compassion, equality and selfless service, which are at the heart of both Sikhism and Canadian values.
Trudeau is probably the first world leader to comment on the protest by Indian farmers, which entered its fifth day on Monday. The protest is aimed at against a set of laws to liberalise farm trade and open up agricultural markets. The Union government has offered talks to the protestors camping at New Delhi’s borders, but they have insisted on the repeal of the laws.
The comments weren’t seen favourably in New Delhi, especially at a time when both India and Canada have been taking steps to restore normalcy to bilateral ties that were hit by Trudeau’s perceived softness on pro-Khalistan activists in Canada during his first term.
Justin Trudeau Guru Nanak farmers protest
A medical worker wearing protective equipment monitors patients after they received the coronavirus vaccine at a vaccination facility in Beijing, Friday, Jan. 15, 2021. A city in northern China is building a 3,000-unit quarantine facility to deal with an anticipated overflow of patients as COVID-19 cases rise ahead of the Lunar New Year travel rush. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)(AP)
China's monetary policy to support 2021 economic recovery
Backed by tough coronavirus containment measures and emergency relief for businesses, the world's second-largest economy has largely recovered to pre-pandemic levels, but a resurgence of infections worldwide and in parts of China is keeping policymakers cautious.


Home » Cholos Are As American As Apple Pie
There's a reason Mexican American street gangs transcend economic class, geography, and even centuries.
My decade as a member of a Mexican American street gang was explosive. I learned how to fight. I learned how to dodge bullets. I learned how to elude police. Yet despite the intimidating glares, shaved heads and tattooed faces, there was something strangely endearing about the gang members I knew. Something far more complex and closer to home than most people realize. A world brimming with classic cars, music and art.
Something unmistakably American like Apple Pie.
Understanding the origins of Mexican American street gangs (and the Central American street gangs they influenced on the surface) is crucial to curbing the violence often associated with them. Contrary to portrayal, the world’s largest street gangs not only originated on American soil in response to widespread discrimination and rampant nationalism, but spread to the rest of the world as a result of overactive immigration policies. And until the federal government acknowledges the failure of these policies, the true catalyst behind these problems can never be addressed.
War and Nationalism
You can’t talk about street gangs without talking about Mexican American street gangs, whose American origins run deep. Unlike white and black gangs, Mexican American street gangs transcend economic class, geography, and even centuries. In fact, some of the oldest Mexican American cliques date back to the late 1890s (Dog Town Rifa, for example), roughly 70 years before the Crips or Bloods, and almost 30 years before the first Outlaw Motorcycle gang.
Many of these same cliques not only still operate in the same neighborhoods, outlasting both the Irish and Italian gangs that began at the same time, but have withstood repeated attempts by the federal government to root them out (38th Street, Big Hazard, and White Fence, for example). It’s an impressive feat. However, if you understand the cultural impact Mexican American gangs have had on American gang culture—and American culture in general—it’s not surprising.
As Leon Bing wrote in her book, Do or Die, which Luis J. Rodriguez subsequently quoted in his famous memoir, Always Running: “It was the cholo homeboy who first walked the walk and talked the talk. It was the Mexican American pachuco who initiated the emblematic tattoos, the signing with hands, the writing of legends on walls.”
But the cliques of the early 1900s weren’t the violent criminal street gangs we know today. Forced into segregated communities and widely discriminated against during a time when the American Southwest was in the middle of a turbulent transformation, young Mexican Americans primarily banded together out of self-preservation and common interests—not criminal intent. Some found identity through family surnames and close-knit neighborhoods. Others found brotherhood through car clubs and the zoot suit subculture of African American jazz music.
Seeking respect and recognition, Mexican American Pachucos openly adopted the flamboyant “wide-legged” style associated with zoot suits. But as nationalist sentiment soared, American sailors began hunting down and attacking Pachucos over social and cultural differences. On one hand, sailors considered zoot suits to be unpatriotic during a time of war rationing. On the other, sailors viewed Mexican Americans as traitors and invaders despite being born in the United States.
Tensions eventually boiled over following a highly publicized incident at a popular swimming hole known as “Sleepy Lagoon” in Southern California. During the incident, a young Mexican American named José Díaz was found stabbed with a fractured skull on the side of the road. He later died. Following his death, widespread panic ensued, and officials began labeling all Pachucos and groups of young Mexican American males as criminal “gangs.” In response, the government rounded up some 600 Mexican Americans across Los Angeles, culminating in the wrongful conviction of 17 Mexican American youth, and later spawning the infamous Zoot Suit Riots.
“As drugs flooded the streets…and divisions between neighborhoods grew, rivalries intensified. Cliques became gangs. Barrios became war zones.”
The incident at Sleepy Lagoon in 1942 and subsequent Zoot Suit Riots in 1943 were major flash points in the evolution of modern Latino street gangs. Following the riots, distrust of law enforcement skyrocketed, and Mexican Americans began protecting their neighborhoods from outsiders the same way outsiders had protected their neighborhoods from them. Worse, as drugs flooded the streets a few decades later and divisions between neighborhoods grew, rivalries intensified. Cliques became gangs. Barrios became war zones. The modern day Cholo (a Mexican American gang member) was born.
In 1943, all of the pachucos from the incident at Sleepy Lagoon had their cases overturned and reentered society (see People v Zammora 66 Cal.App.2d 166). These pachucos would go on to become heroes across Los Angeles. Some have speculated—including myself—that this is where the fashion of the California state prison system would go on to mix with the pachuco fashion of the 1940s—laying the foundation for one of the most recognizable and distinct gang fashions today (white t-shirts, creased pants, shaved head, dark sunglasses etc.).
Failed Immigration Policies
Throughout the mid and late 20th century, Mexican American street gangs grew in sophistication, adopted distinct customs and—contrary to widespread belief—initially discriminated against immigrants from Mexico and Central America. As a result, many immigrants were forced to adopt American gang culture or form their own gangs to survive.
This divide, and the debate over whether immigrants from Mexico or Central America should be allowed to join Mexican American gangs, ultimately led to the formation and growth of some of the largest transnational gangs in the world—each which recruited immigrants and went on to expand beyond the confines of their traditional neighborhoods.
Divisions escalated both on the streets and in the prison system. On one hand, Mexican American gang members viewed Mexican and Central American immigrants, many who had fled to the United States to find work, as unsophisticated and subservient. On the other, immigrants viewed Mexican American gang members as “Americanized Hispanics”—or Pochos—who had forgotten their culture and roots.
In response, the federal government implemented strict mass deportation policies, not too unlike policies advocated today by President Donald Trump. But the move was rash and didn’t take into account the complex social constructs of gangs. As a result, the federal government not only failed to curb gang activity in American cities like Los Angeles, but exported American gang culture to places it had never previously existed—places like Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador.
While in Mexico, gang members lost stature due to local aversion and powerful cartels, in places like El Salvador—which was in the midst of a bloody civil war at the time—gang members became militarized and empowered. Today El Salvador is home to over 60,000 militarized gang members—none that existed until the United States exported American gang culture. Now, thousands of innocent civilians attempt to escape the violence each year, which claims more than 3,000 lives.
American As Apple Pie
Some of these same gang members have since tried to return to the United States, leading politicians to believe that deportation is again the answer. But it isn’t. The truth is undocumented gang members represents a minuscule fraction of total gang membership in the United States, and Central American gang members represent an even smaller faction. For perspective, Los Angeles county alone still remains home to more than 50,000 gang members—the majority of which are not Central American.
“Since the 90s, one could argue that Mexican American gang culture in the United States has become a lucrative pop culture phenomenon at the demand of American consumers.”
Too often, the media generalizes gang members of Latino origin, lumping Mexican American and Central American gang members into one phenomenon. But while central American gang culture was certainly influenced by Mexican American gang culture on the aesthetic level (as many gangs have been), the two have very different histories. More importantly, the two come from two very different social environments, and operate by sets of very different rules.
Since the 90s, one could argue that Mexican American gang culture in the United States has become a lucrative pop culture phenomenon at the demand of American consumers. On social media, YouTube shows such as “Cholos Try” have amassed huge followings and landed television deals. In music, Chicano rap has spawned hundreds of artists and record labels. And in film and apparel, major multinational corporations ranging from Warner Bros to Nike have commissioned artwork from Mexican American artists whose style reflect Chicano gang culture.
Nike ad featuring Chicano-style Cortez shoes, designed by LA artist Mister Cartoon.
Like most things that involve capitalism, the result has been a double-edged sword. On one hand, the advent of technology has probably done more to curb gang violence than any government program. On the other hand, it has also watered down many other aspects of Chicano culture, while perpetuating stereotypes.
The Trump administration hasn’t helped. Like the 1940s, increasing hysterics and a new wave of populism have again led to discrimination and dangerous nationalist rhetoric. With this, facts have been skewed and statistics muddled. But context is crucial. Though gang violence has spiked in recent years, it has plummeted over the past two decades, largely due to non-profit outreach, and the advent of technology. In fact, one could argue we are living in one of the most peaceful times in history.
This doesn’t mean gang violence doesn’t exist. It does. But before addressing gangs, we must first start with addressing the underlying social conditions that produce and fuel gangs, which begins by first acknowledging the failures of past government policies and sentiments. It was the Pachuco roundups of the 1940s and deportations of the 1990s, after all, that resulted in the unintended consequences we continue to deal with today. How much sense does it make to repeat them?
After all, cholos are as American as Apple Pie.
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The Unpublished Letters To El Niño Dios


Shaun Mark Bean (born 17 April 1959), credited professionally as Sean Bean (), is an English actor. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Bean made his professional debut in a theatre production of Romeo and Juliet in 1983. Retaining his Yorkshire accent, he first found mainstream success for his portrayal of Richard Sharpe in the ITV series Sharpe, which originally ran from 1993 to 1997. Bean's film roles include Patriot Games (1992), GoldenEye (1995), Ronin (1998), The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–2003), Equilibrium (2002), National Treasure (2004), Odysseus in Troy (2004), Flightplan (2005), North Country (2005), The Island (2005), Silent Hill (2006), Black Death (2010), Jupiter Ascending (2015) and The Martian (2015). His television roles include the BBC anthology series Accused, Game of Thrones and the ITV historical drama series Henry VIII. As a voice actor, Bean has been featured in the video games The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Sid Meier's Civilization VI, and the drama The Canterbury Tales, among several others.
Complete biography of Sean Bean »
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Orville G. Herning
Orville Herning, undated
Photo from Coleen Mielke.
Prospectors began searching for Alaska's mineral wealth at Alaska purchase in 1867, and even before. The pace of development increased in Southeast and along the Yukon in the 1870s. Good prospects at Willow Creek in the Forty-Mile in 1886 and at Circle in the 1890s resulted in minor stampedes. These minor rushes became a torrent after the discovery of gold in the Klondike in 1896, the focal point of the Alaska-Yukon Gold Rush. All across America, entrepreneurs, usually without too much knowledge of minerals, created prospecting syndicates, raised funds, and headed north and west to strike it rich. One of these entrepreneurs was Orville G. Herning. Like most others, Herning did not obtain great wealth from the mines, but proved to be a competent mine operator and later, a successful businessman and civic leader.
Herning was born in Eyota, Minnesota on July 30, 1868. He lived in Liard, Minnesota and also in Naugatuk, Connecticut - the later location is where he met Martha Amelia "Mattie" Rogers, whom he married on October 10, 1894. The Hernings had two sons; short-lived Elmer who was born on October 18, 1895 and died on August 14, 1906; and George Stanley, born on December 6, 1904 and died in 1987. George Stanley mined the New Bullion on Craigie Creek, also in the Hatcher Pass district.
In 1898, Orville G. Herning was instrumental in forming an east-coast-based mining exploration venture to prospect the north. In the spring of 1898, the Klondike & Boston Gold Mining Company of Massachusetts, with E. C. Davis Company as its official broker, hired two expedition teams to search for gold in the Cook Inlet area of Alaska. The first team was headed by Colonel E. J. Meagher; his men were Fred Falconer, I. Fonda, E. R. Chapman, W. J. Hayes, J. H. Bates, H. L. Grover, Frank Churchill, Charles Wolcott and M. Cameron. The second team was headed by Orville Herning; his men were Edward Kirkpatrick, Fred M. Young, William H. Thorne, George F. Butler, Michael Dineen, H. P. Daniels, Daniel Coleman, George H. Brown and George F. Burrows. Herning was a thirty-year-old Connecticut-based salesman. He and his team left Boston, by train, on March 23, 1898 and arrived in Seattle five days later. The men had reservations aboard the S. S. Whitelaw, scheduled to sail for Alaska on April 1st.
The morning of their departure, Herning was told that the Whitelaw would not be sailing; she had burned in the Alaskan town of Skagway. It wasn't going to be easy to find passage aboard another northbound ship since all vessels destined for Alaska were loaded to capacity with gold rush stampeders. It took the men twelve days to find room aboard the S. S. Dirigo which sailed from Seattle's Yesler Wharf on April 12, 1898.
Two days north of Seattle, the Dirigo began to wind its way through the protected waters of Alaska's Inside Passage. The ship bypassed the small fishing village of Wrangell and made a short stop at the mining town of Juneau before sailing north on the 2,000 feet deep (but narrow) Lynn Canal. At the northern extremes of the Canal, the ship swung wide around a small island known as Eldred Rock, where the 150 foot Steamer, Clara Nevada, had exploded nine weeks earlier, killing all aboard. Once safely around the uncharted rock island, the Dirigo steamed to the northern reaches of Chilkoot Inlet, then veered east into Taiya Inlet and docked at Skagway, the largest town in Alaska, population 10,000. Here, the men inspected the remains of the burned out S. S. Whitelaw as well as the partially submerged Mercury, a bark that had fallen victim to Skagway winds four days earlier. They also took a short side trip to Dyea, population 5,000, to see the infamous Chilkoot Pass where thousands of men, and a few hardy women, were climbing the torturous thirty-three mile Pass with dreams of striking it rich in Canada's Yukon Territory.
From Skagway, the Dirigo backtracked south on Lynn Canal and into the Icy Straits where she experienced mechanical problems and anchored for repairs near the Tlingit village of Hoonah, on the north shore of Chichagof Island. The chief engineer diagnosed the ships mechanical problem as a faulty condenser; the ship would have to limp 40 miles back to Juneau to order the new part. While the team waited eight days in Juneau for the new condenser to arrive from Seattle, they enjoyed a working-tour of the Treadwell Quartz Mine on Douglas Island. With repairs completed, the Dirigo was preparing to leave Juneau when she accidentally rammed a coal transport called the Czarina. The collision cut a large hole in Czarina's side and she had to be beached at Douglas Island to avoid sinking.
Finally out of Juneau, the men sailed past Glacier Bay and Brady Glacier before entering open ocean for the first time in their journey. The next scheduled stop was the Port of Valdez on the Valdez Arm of Prince William Sound. Six miles from Valdez, the Dirigo ran aground at low tide, leaving her bow high and dry and her stern in sixteen feet of water; there she lay stranded until the next high tide released her and she sailed into Valdez for the night. The following morning the ship departed in a blinding snowstorm and sailed through Prince William Sound where a foot of dense white snow floated on the water surface. The S. S. Dirigo, originally built as a two-mast schooner, was converted to steam power in late 1897. At 843 tons, she had one-fourth the tonnage of most steamships traveling between Seattle and Alaska. As she entered the Gulf of Alaska, the storm intensified, and the ship's smaller size reacted accordingly: she was rolled from gunnel to gunnel for the next two days. The waves were so relentless that a young Massachusetts man named Burrows (from the Revere Expedition Party) died, reportedly of seasickness, and was buried at sea, as the ship entered Cook Inlet.
Orvlle Herning's destination was an outpost called Tyonek near the head of Cook Inlet. It was primarily an Athabascan Indian village, but it also had a nearby Alaska Commercial Company outpost which was a major supply source for anyone entering South-central Alaska. The trip from Seattle to Tyonek had taken twenty days, fifteen days longer than expected. Freight was lightered ashore from the Dirigo and left in great stacks on the muddy Tyonek Beach. Herning's team went to work moving their supplies to a location above the high tide line and building a series of tents for cooking, sleeping, and storage. Once situated, their first major goal was to locate Willow Creek in the extreme southwest corner of the Talkeetna Mountains, 110 unmapped miles from Tyonek. Unfortunately for the team, the rivers were still full of ice, which meant Susitna River access to the Willow Creek mining area would be delayed for another two weeks.
Miners continued to arrive at Tyonek every day, and before long, 300 novice prospectors populated the beach. Expectations were high and tall tales of secret gold strikes were the talk of the day. Boodlers, selling imaginary claims and "priceless" treasure maps, were abundant. The beach resembled a shipyard with hundreds of first time boat builders scratching their heads in confusion. The most economical way for Herning's team to obtain a boat was to build one, but that option did not seem practical. Not only was lumber scarce, but the men had heard many stories about newly constructed boats disintegrating in the rough Cook Inlet waters. Instead of building, Herning decided to buy a boat with a proven history; he purchased a sea otter boat from a Tyonek merchant for $75. The merchant assured him that the boat was built for seal hunting and was very strong. Anxious to try out their boat, the men took it out for a quick trial run on a sunny afternoon; it handled nicely as the team rowed out into the deep waters of Cook Inlet. However, without warning, the sunny weather turned into a late afternoon gale force wind. Rowing for their lives, it took the men an hour to reach shore while the waves brutally battered their boat. Safely back on land, the men were convinced that a lesser boat would have cost them their lives; the sea otter boat turned out to be a very wise purchase and would save their lives many more times during the next few seasons. The experience also gave the team a lifelong respect for the weather and waters of Cook Inlet.
Two prospectors died the first week at Tyonek. One (unnamed) man died from natural causes. The second young man, from the Patterson Expedition Party of Kansas, became gravely ill after eating desiccated cabbage. With no medical help available, the men on the beach did what they could to comfort the dying man. One of Herning's men played his violin while the rest of the team sang In the Sweet By and By. The deaths were a sobering experience to everyone, even the most hard-bitten old timers.
In late May, the rivers were ice-free and it was time to locate Willow Creek. The men chose the most practical route, which began with a two-part sloop ride to Knik Station. Part one took the men 30 miles, from Tyonek to Fire Island at the head of Cook Inlet (three miles from present day Anchorage) where they spent the night on the beach and waited for the next high tide; part two of the journey took the men from Fire Island to Knik Station, an additional forty miles.
Knik Station was barely a spot on the map in 1898; it had a small Alaska Commercial Company outpost, thirty-six Athabascan residents and three Non-native residents. Here, Herning's team learned about a system of ancient Athabascan walking trails that laced through South-central Alaska. Historically, the trails were used by seasonal nomadic hunting parties, and were narrow and hard to find. Herning hired two Athabascans, at the going rate of $6 per trip, to lead his men over the trail from Knik Station to Willow Creek. The team and their guides left Knik, reaching the foothills of Bald Mountain by the end of the third day. Their fourth day's progress was not as good; after ten hours of climbing their way over and around the snowy remnants of last winter's avalanches, the Native guides seemed to be lost. In an effort to summon help, they set a dry spruce tree on fire and shot their rifles into the air. Receiving no reply, the team set up camp for the night and dried their clothing.
The next morning, the guides had regained their sense of direction and led the team to a group of miners on who were already actively mining gold at Grubstake Gulch, off of Willow Creek. Their names were, L. H. Herndon, Billy Morris, Brainard, E'Van and Captain Andrews. Herning's team spent two days prospecting with Captain Andrews to "learn the ropes".
Within a week, Herning's team had located fifteen full placer claims on Willow Creek, and built a sluice box that produced a good sample of placer gold, a piece of silver, and reportedly, one ruby. On June 11, 1898, Herning, and his men, Edward C. Kirkpatrick, George H. Brown, Fred M. Young, William H. Thorne, George F. Butler, George F. Burrows, Michael Dinneen, H. P. Daniels and Daniel Coleman, joined the Grubstake Gulch miners, to establish the Willow Creek mining district, and appointed L. H. Herndon as recorder. The end of this historic meeting was punctuated with a strong earthquake that shook the gold dust off the recorder's table.
After two weeks at Willow Creek, Herning and two of his men left on a re-supply run to the mouth of the Susitna River. Travel on foot was slow; the men were plagued with clouds of voracious mosquitoes that emerged from the wetlands along the creek's edge. Without the aid of netting, the insects were unbearable. With every breath, the men inhaled mosquitoes; their only relief was a nightly smudge fire or the hope of a strong breeze.
At the end of the third day on the trail, the men could smell heavy smoke. Thinking it might be a forest fire; they found refuge on a sandbar in the middle of a small side-stream and waited. Within thirty minutes, they could hear the approaching fire. The men buried their blankets and supplies in the wet sand and crouched in the shallow water as the flames raced down the banks on both sides of the stream. The men were surrounded by fire, and slapped frantically at the sparks that ignited their clothing. Once the fire had consumed all of the dry vegetation in the immediate area, the danger seemed to be over. The men were elated to discover their damages were limited to wet blankets, holes in their clothing and singed hair. To celebrate their survival, as well as the subsequent demise of the mosquitoes, the men said a prayer of thanks, shared a drink of Jamaica Ginger and retired for the night.
The next morning, as soon as the men had traveled outside of the burned area, the mosquitoes returned with a vengeance. So intolerable were the bugs that Herning decided to build a raft and float the Susitna River for relief. It didn't take long to fall the trees then build and launch the raft. On the second bend in the river, the hastily built raft struck the bank and fell apart, dumping the trio into the swift cold water. The men struggled their way to shore and decided it would be safer to continue on dry land and battle the mosquitoes.
Travel along the river was slow, and food was short. The three men made plans to buy food at the Alaska Commercial Company (AC Co.) store at Susitna Station, which was closer than their supply camp. They weren't sure exactly where the Station was, they only knew that it was on an island roughly 30 miles from the mouth of the Susitna River. Tired and hungry, but fearing another broken raft disaster, the men continued downriver on foot, for two more days with no sign of the Station. They passed dozens of small islands, and at each one, they let out signal whoops but received no reply. On the sixth day, they ate the last of their food. . . one piece of bacon for each man.
In hungry desperation, the men decided to try their luck with another raft. It took two hours to fasten three 24 foot spruce trees together. Herning wrote their names on the tree stumps as well as the log ends of the raft. If their attempt failed, and no one lived to tell their story, the names written on the trees would record their fate. The plan was for one man to stand on the bow of the raft, with a long pole, and keep it from hitting the banks; a second man would stand on the stern, with a 16 foot oar and propel the raft; the third man would stand on the side midsection to help steer. The trio pushed the raft out into the swift current of the Susitna River; before long, they were traveling at (what Herning guessed to be) 10 miles per hour. Floating hour after hour, the men came to a section of the river where the current overpowered their control of the raft. The raft was now steering itself and picking up speed; they were totally at the mercy of the river. A group of Athabascan Indians, from a village two miles downriver, heard the men scream and came to their rescue. Paddling birch bark canoes, at a high rate of speed, the valiant Natives caught up with the raft, threw the men a towline, and began the heroic struggle of pulling the raft to shore against the fast current. Overjoyed with their escape from certain death, Herning eagerly paid the rescuers two bits each to take his men to the Station, a distance of two more miles.
The three men were a sorry sight when they arrived at Susitna Station: one had no shoes and his pants and shirt were nearly gone, the other two men only had the soles of their shoes left and their pants were worn off to the knees. The AC Co. agent, James Cleghorn, fed the men a welcome banquet of pork and beans, corned beef, bread, butter, cheese, canned peaches, canned apricots, crackers and tea with cream and sugar. After dinner, Herning hired the Natives to transport the trio to the mouth of the Susitna River, a thirty mile, three-hour canoe trip for $6.
In mid-July, Herning decided to make an unguided, solo trip to Willow Creek. He packed 65 pounds of provisions, and left Knik by boat at 8:30 one night to take advantage of the tides. He arrived at Cottonwood two hours later, and camped for the night. The next morning, he left Cottonwood at 10:30, on a horse he borrowed from a man named Lee, and arrived at Big Lake at 5:45 that evening, where he made camp, cared for the horse and slept, in the rain, under a tarp. Herning left Big Lake at 8:30 the next morning, and traveled due north to the Little Susitna River, arriving there at 1:00 in the afternoon. After a brief rest and a dinner of fried ptarmigan, he continued on to the base of Bald Mountain, where he spotted some caribou, but he wasn't close enough to shoot one. The next day, Herning reached the summit of Bald Mountain at 1:00 in the afternoon, where he arranged to have Lee's horse taken back to Knik by a prospector who was going that way. From the summit of Bald Mountain, it took him 3½ hours to snowshoe over to his mine.
Herning's team spent a total of 80 days working the ground at Willow Creek (in Grubstake Gulch) that first summer, and produced 39 ounces of gold. . . not bad considering most of their time was spent staking claims, building cabins, hauling supplies, building dams, and whip sawing enough lumber to build a dozen sluice boxes measuring 12 feet long x 16 feet wide x 6 inches deep.
Grubstake Gulch did contain placer gold, some of it rather coarse and angular, suggesting that it had not traveled far from its lode source, but it was not a simple placer gold deposit. Developed off and on for more than 100 years, one deposit type appears to have gold concentrated in an alluvial fan at the mouth, while the other deposit type contains placer gold within multiple river channels of Willow Creek. In both cases, gold may or may not be concentrated on bed rock surfaces, which is typical for most river placers. In any event, Herning realized that the deposit was potentially large, and could be attacked with hydraulic giants operating at a head of about 180 feet that could be developed in upper Grubstake Gulch.
The Boston-Klondike company would later make a valiant effort to develop and mine the deposit, ultimately with three hydraulic giants and thousands of feet of ditch. The mine's heyday was in the early 1900s, but, handicapped by floods, it was never very successful. Only three or four of the original venturers stuck with Herning, who built up his mining team with Indians, including Chief Nicolai from Old Knik. In the meantime, though, Herning assembled other claims, and developed contacts that would serve him substantially in later ventures.
In mid-August 1898, the men broke camp and headed for Knik Station. When they reached the Little Susitna River, they set up camp and were cooking dinner when their dog ran into camp with an angry brown bear sow nipping at its heels. The men scrambled for their revolvers as the cook began screaming and banging cooking pots together. The startled bear stopped within ten feet of the campfire and stood upright, towering over the men. The tense face-off lasted for several seconds before the bear retreated into the brush, leaving her two cubs crying in a distant tree. Assuming the bear would return, the men stood guard all night but they did not see her again.
In late August, with the mining season winding down, Herning's team wanted to build two food caches south of Knik Station for future use. The first cache was built at Goose Bay on the west side of Knik Arm. The second food cache was built at (what Herning called) Crescent Bay, on the east side of Knik Arm, directly across from Goose Bay. Herning predicted major growth for Crescent Bay. With its plentiful fresh water, wood, game, and deep Bay, he predicted it would someday be the "Skagway of Cook Inlet".
With the food caches completed, the men headed for their main supply camp at the mouth of the Susitna River. En route, they stopped, on the beach, just west of the Little Susitna River to inspect an abandoned AC Co. store building precariously perched in shallow water at high tide. The 1898 Lake George flood had washed the building from its original Knik River foundation and floated it, intact, including merchandise, down the Knik Arm to the Cook Inlet mud flats. The building and its contents would soon be devoured by scavengers and the Cook Inlet tides.
The discovery and subsequent development of the Skyscraper and Gold Bullion hard rock gold deposits in the Hatcher Pass area soon eclipsed the placer gold deposits on the tributaries of Willow Creek. Herning maintained his placer interests, but soon concluded that "mining the miners" was the way to go, and he opened the Knik Trading Company in 1905, then the leading transfer point on Cook Inlet. While Herning was operating the Knik Trading Company, his wife Mattie wintered in Seward. Mattie helped determine Herning's path in life, as she was 'urban-bound'. Herning built a new house in Wasilla for both of them to live in, but Mattie refused to move in, preferring to live in the growing community of Anchorage, or, later, the established community of Seattle. In 1917, Herning built a general store (the first permanent building) in the new railroad camp town of Wasilla, which he operated until his death in 1947.
Herning family washing dishes on Knik Beach, circa 1901. Elmer (with shovel), Mattie, and Orville Herning(?).
Photo from Alaska's Digital Archives.
When he died, Herning's store and home were sold to Walter and Vivian Teeland. Today, the building is located behind the fire station in downtown Wasilla, is owned by the Wasilla-Knik Historical Society, and houses a coffee shop.
Orville Herning's general store in Wasilla, Alaska, circa 1931.
Many of the prospectors that landed at Cook Inlet in 1898 stayed, and mined the Willow Creek, a.k.a. Hatcher Pass, district for many years. Many Wasilla streets, businesses and subdivisions are named after gold mines in the Willow Creek mining district - Hatcher Pass, Independence, Lucky Shot, Gold Bullion, Grubstake Gulch, War Baby, Gold Cord, and Gold Mint to name just a few.
Herning was a very civic-minded man. He was the only source of medical aid (and veterinary care) for early Knik residents and Athabascan villagers. He helped build the first school at Knik in 1912. He and J. N. Johnston drew the first detailed map (1898) of the area between Hope and Mount McKinley, showing all rivers, trails, boat routes and gold fields. Before law formally arrived at Knik, Herning was part of an informal court that dealt with local scofflaws, and occasionally he was the unofficial coroner. Orville worked tirelessly to bring a school to early Wasilla. He wrote a series of letters to Alaska's Territorial Governor, which resulted in funding for the first school in 1917. He drew plans for the building, donated fire wood and gas lamps, and built school desks. As a member of the School Board, he was instrumental in hiring Wasilla's first teacher, Miss Ora Dee Clark. Herning also acted as the unofficial bank of Wasilla for thirty years. He cashed checks, collected debts, carried lines of credit and held money and valuables for people in his safe. He was well respected and hard working, and scrupulously honest. He never forgot a good deed or a scoundrel. He is the unsung patriarch of the Wasilla we see today and the quintessential Alaskan pioneer.
Orville Herning passed away in Wasilla in 1947, shortly after the end of World War II. He was a faithful chronicler of events. Various attempts have been made to transcribe his rather hard-to-read diaries. Currently the author (Mielke) is now proofing her transcription of hundreds of thousands of words written by Herning over his fifty-year career in Alaska.
By Coleen Mielke, 2009, with mining and photographic additions by C. C. Hawley and C. R. Laird.


Umpire Joe West calls the Red Sox and Yankees "pathetic" and "embarrassing"
By Craig CalcaterraApr 8, 2010, 9:57 AM EDT
I said I’d stop complaining about Yankees-Red Sox game times, but that doesn’t mean I can’t quote other people who are doing it. Especially when they’re the ones in charge of moving the game along. Veteran crew chief Joe West, who had the plate for Sunday Night’s game:
“They’re the two clubs that don’t try to pick up the pace. They’re two of the best
teams in baseball. Why are they playing the slowest? It’s pathetic and embarrassing. They take too long to play. The commissioner of baseball says he wants the pace picked up. We try. And [Tuesday night’s game] still almost went four hours . . . This is embarrassing, a disgrace to baseball.”
I think Joe West is one of the worst umpires in baseball, so the fact that I find myself agreeing with him on this is going to cause me to have to reevaluate my position somewhat. In the meantime, though, let’s go with it.
But as we go with it, let us also acknowledge — as Jason at IIATMS so deftly does this morning — that Joe West’s crew did a pretty poor job of calling the low strike yesterday, and Joe West personally squeezed the zone on Sunday night. And presumably does so all the time, actually, as does every other umpire who works Yankees-Red Sox games, at least to my untrained eye.
Yeah, the hitters on those teams are among the best at working the count, but they work the umpires a hell of a lot too, and get a lot of calls they shouldn’t get. If the umps were calling the low strikes — and don’t even get me started on the almost completely absent high strike — these games wouldn’t drag on nearly as long as they do.
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Chairman Boxer and 15 Senate Colleagues Call for EPA Nominee with a Strong Record on Protecting Public Health
Washington, D.C. - Senator Barbara Boxer, Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, joined with 15 of her Senate colleagues on a letter to President Obama urging him to nominate a strong leader as the next Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The letter called for an EPA nominee with a "demonstrated record of working to safeguard our children and families" who will "enforce the Clean Air Act and our other landmark environmental laws." Lisa Jackson, the current EPA Administrator, announced her resignation last month.
The full text of the letter is below:
Your words in your second inaugural address were an inspiration to all of us who seek to maintain and build on our nation's landmark public health and environmental protections. We have an obligation to further this legacy for the sake of future generations.
We share your commitment to protect public health and the environment using the best available science, while promoting economic growth, innovation, competitiveness, and job creation. To achieve these goals, we believe it is critical that you appoint an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator who has both a vision and demonstrated record of working to safeguard our children and families.
The EPA nominee must also build on Administrator Lisa Jackson's critical work to protect the air we breathe and the water we drink. We know that pollution can cause asthma attacks, heart and lung disease, cancer, damage to the reproductive system, strokes, and premature death. As we confront these numerous and growing threats to our health, our nation needs another strong leader at EPA who will work to craft bold solutions to these serious problems, as well as enforce the Clean Air Act and our other landmark environmental laws that protect public health.
We stand ready to work with you to use available tools to provide stronger safeguards that will address dangerous air pollution, including carbon pollution. An effective example has been your administration's historic new automobile efficiency standards that will save consumers $1.7 trillion in fuel costs over the life of their vehicles.
By working together, we can build on your administration's efforts to promote a strong and robust economy, foster our nation's global leadership in clean energy innovation and job creation, and reduce the significant harms posed by climate change.
Committee on Environment and Public Works
Committee on Veterans Affairs
Kirsten E. Gillibrand
Mazie K. Hirono
Committee on Agriculture
Permalink: https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2013/1/post-8c28a6d7-dd23-2eb8-740c-b861cc5c7dd3


Saudis: Don't Want War But Will Defend
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Saudi Arabia does not want war but will not hesitate to defend itself against Iran, a top Saudi diplomat said Sunday amid heightened tensions in the Persian Gulf after attacks on the kingdom's energy sector.
Adel al-Jubeir, the minister of state for foreign affairs, spoke a week after four oil tankers— two of them Saudi— were targeted in an alleged act of sabotage off the coast of the United Arab Emirates and days after Iran-allied Yemeni rebels claimed a drone attack on a Saudi oil pipeline.
"The kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not want war in the region and does not strive for that... but at the same time, if the other side chooses war, the kingdom will fight this with all force and determination and it will defend itself, its citizens and its interests," al-Jubeir told reporters.
A senior Iranian military commander was similarly quoted as saying his country is not looking for war, in comments published in Iranian media on Sunday.
Fears of armed conflict were already running high after the White House ordered warships and bombers to the region earlier this month to counter an alleged, unexplained threat from Iran. The U.S. also has ordered nonessential staff out of its diplomatic posts in Iraq.
But President Donald Trump appears to have softened his tone in recent days, saying he expects Iran to seek negotiations with his administration. Asked on Thursday if the U.S. might be on a path to war with Iran, the president answered, "I hope not."
The current tensions are rooted in Trump's decision last year to withdraw the U.S. from the 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and world powers and impose wide-reaching sanctions, including on Iranian oil exports that are crucial to its economy.
Iran has said it would resume enriching uranium at higher levels if a new nuclear deal is not reached by July 7. That would potentially bring it closer to being able to develop a nuclear weapon, something Iran insists it has never sought.
Energy ministers from OPEC and its allies, including major producers Saudi Arabia and Russia, are meeting in Saudi Arabia on Sunday to discuss energy prices and production cuts. Iran's oil exports are expected to shrink further in the coming months after the U.S. stopped renewing waivers that allowed it to continue selling to some countries.
OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers have production cuts in place, but the group of exporters is not expected to make its decision on output until late June, when they meet again in Vienna.
Saudi Arabia's King Salman, meanwhile, has called for a meeting of Arab heads of state on May 30 in Mecca to discuss the latest developments, including the oil pipeline attack.
The kingdom has blamed the pipeline attack on Iran, accusing Tehran of arming the rebel Houthis, which a Saudi-led coalition has been at war with in Yemen since 2015. Iran denies arming or training the rebels, who control much of northern Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa.
"We want peace and stability in the region, but we won't stand with our hands bound as the Iranians continuously attack. Iran has to understand that," al-Jubeir said. "The ball is in Iran's court."
Al-Jubeir also noted that an investigation, led by the UAE, into the tanker incident is underway.
The state-run Saudi news agency reported Sunday that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to discuss regional developments. There was no immediate statement by the State Department about the call.
An English-language Saudi newspaper close to the palace recently published an editorial calling for surgical U.S. airstrikes in retaliation for Iran's alleged involvement in targeting Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure.
The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Hossein Salami, was quoted Sunday as saying Iran is not looking for war, But he said the U.S. is going to fail in the near future "because they are frustrated and hopeless" and are looking for a way out of the current escalation. His comments, given to other Guard commanders, were carried by Iran's semi-official Fars news agency.


Emile Wamsteker
Light Work PublicationsContact Sheet 66
Websitehttp://www.wamstekerphotography.com/
Working as a street photographer Emile Wamsteker spends the time to learn about each of his subjects - their circumstances, desires, habits, and their 'chosen path in life'. As part of his ongoing series, Essays and Observations Wamsteker photographed people who frequent Washington Square Park in New York City. The diverse sampling of artists, college students, teenagers, the homeless, drug-pushers, panhandlers, street performers, and tourists make up the demographic composition of this active park in the middle of Greenwich Village at any given movement. For each individual this public space serves a different purpose - some vie for the attention of the crowds, others vanish into groups with their peers while others prefer to remain anonymous. In this series Wamsteker creates a rich portrait of American culture from a microcosm occupying four city blocks of New York City.
Emile Wamsteker was awarded the Light Work Photographers' Grant in 1995.
Slobodan Milosevic’s quest for a “Greater Serbia” has been going on in the mostly ethnic-Albanian province of Kosovo since 1989. In the summer of that year, he made history in Kosovo Polje. Milosevic was there to reawaken a nationalist spirit held dormant by years of communism. In an impassioned speech— declaring Kosovo the heart of Serbian civilization—he reminded his Serb brethren that they had paid for Kosovo with the blood of their ancestors, who were defeated on that very day, 600 years before, by invading Ottoman Turks in the battle of the Field of Black Birds.
Up until 1989, Kosovo was an autonomous province of Serbia. After Milosevic’s famous speech, he began a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing, stripping Kosovo of its autonomy, and declaring all those opposed to his policy as terrorists. The majority population of ethnic Albanians was now being ruled by the minority Serbian population in a kind of Balkan apartheid (prior to the war in Kosovo, ethnic Albanians outnumbered Serbs 9-to-1 in the province). The Albanian language was declared unofficial, and school curricula changed to reflect Serb history, culture, and language.
By 1991, a separatist movement was in full swing with Albanian Kosovars organizing their own political parties and holding elections. Ibrahim Rugova, an academic, was voted their president. In that same year, the de facto Albanian Kosovar government declared Kosovo independent of Yugoslavia. Consumed with the war in Croatia, and then Bosnia, the declaration was given scant attention by Belgrade.
By 1996, violence in the region began to escalate as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)—Kosovo’s separatist rebel army—regularly clashed with Serb police, and claimed control of nearly a third of the region of Kosovo.
In the spring of 1998, Milosevic responded by intensifying his campaign of ethnic cleansing, routinely using force against the civilian population, leveling villages, and driving people from their homes, causing a humanitarian disaster with over 300,000 Albanian Kosovars internally displaced. Anyone seen as the opposition, or in collaboration with the KLA, became fair game to Serb forces. In January 1999, 45 Albanian Kosovar civilians were massacred in the village of Racak. Milosevic claimed that they were all members of the KLA, despite the fact that they were unarmed and dressed in civilian garb.
Nearly ten years after Milosevic’s speech at Kosovo Polje, in the spring of 1999, leaders of NATO, the KLA, and Serbia, met in Rambouillet, France, to try to arrive at a peace agreement. Having failed to adhere to an earlier cease-fire agreement, this was Milosevic’s last chance. Prior to Rambouillet, NATO had made numerous threats to intervene in Kosovo and was beginning to lose face. Although the KLA agreed to the terms outlined at Rambouillet, the Serbs eventually walked out, and on March 24, 1999, NATO began an air war against Serbia in an effort to bring Milosevic back to the bargaining table and protect Albanian Kosovars from Serb police and armed forces.
What happened as a result was a refugee crisis of massive proportion. Milosevic’s police and army raided villages throughout Kosovo, forcing families to flee, and in many cases murdering men that they accused of being affiliated with the KLA, or who they thought might leave and come back fighting for the KLA. Although men considered to be of fighting age were most likely to be killed, in many instances women, children, and the elderly were also victims. According to a published report in The New York Times, with statistics provided by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, of the 1.8 million ethnic Albanians residing in Kosovo, close to 800,000 were displaced throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Macedonia, with more than half the total number absorbed by Europe’s poorest country, Albania. The NATO bombing campaign and the exodus lasted 72 days before Milosevic gave in and efforts began to repatriate Albanian Kosvars.
In The Field of Black Birds: Kosovar Refugees in Albania and Italy by Emile Wamsteker was exhibited at the Light Work Gallery from November 1 to December 17, 1999. Wamsteker is a freelance photo- grapher and lives in New York City.