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thesak · 6 years

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2004 US Open: Second title is good for the Goosen

Fourteen years ago, I had the honor of covering the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills for The Long-Islander. Along with local-centric stories on golfer Chris DiMarco, who spent time as a child in Huntington, and NBC’s Bob Costas, who grew up in Commack, I wrote this final-round “gamer” on Retief Goosen’s win.

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — The epic battle of Shinnecock Hills, where whipping winds and sun-baked greens turned a relatively benign U.S. Open into one of the harshest major championships ever played, ended Sunday with Retief Goosen sinking a par putt and tipping his cap to the cup after American favorite Phil Mickelson shattered on the 17th green.

Goosen, from South Africa, shot a 1-over-par 71 in the final round and finished 4-under-par for the championship – 2 shots better than Mickelson, who had taken a one-stroke lead over Goosen with two holes to play.

Mickelson – in the second to last pairing with Fred Funk (sixth place, 5-over-par) – birdied the serpentine, 540-yard par 5 at 16 after Goosen – in the final group with friend and countryman Ernie Els (ninth place, 7-over-par) – bogied the 14th, a 443-yard, par 4 with a gentle mid-fairway tilt left to right. Goosen regained a stroke with a 12-foot birdie putt on 16 and Mickelson gave up 2 more strokes at 17 with a miss into the sand trap left of the hole and a three putt for double bogey.

Mickelson, a lefty, landed his wedge from the trap about 6 feet high of the hole. He stroked the downhill putt softly, with a right to left break that was counteracted by a blustery left to right wind. The ball carried 4 feet past the hole. He missed the bogey try too and tapped in, quickly down 2 strokes.

“I hit an easy putt because I knew it was quick, but it still shouldn't have gone six, seven feet by,” Mickelson said of the first putt at 17. “The wind took it more to the right than I thought. If there was no wind, it would have broke left.”

Goosen parred the 17th after his tee shot sunk into the sand and on 18, with the gallery filling in on the fairway behind a row of bicycle-wheeling police officers, made par and won the championship.

It was Goosen’s second Open victory – he won the title in an 18-hole Monday playoff with journeyman Mark Brooks in 2001 at Southern Hills in Tulsa – and the third second-place Open finish for Mickelson, who won his first major at the Masters in April.

“It wasn't any easier than the first time,” Goosen said. “I scrambled a little bit on the back nine and holed a few good par putts, and with Phil in front of me, I knew he was playing well. But on 17 when he made a double bogey, it went my way.”

Goosen remained steady throughout his round and perhaps saved his chances with a remarkable par on the 13th, a 370-yard par 4 dogleg right. Goosen carried his tee shot, a 2-iron, in a stretch of rough parallel to a patch of high fescue on the right side. Goosen caught his sand wedge on the high grass and pulled the ball left of the green into a crowd of spectators about 10 people deep. The spectators were cleared out of the way and Goosen chipped on to set up his lengthy par saver.

“Luckily where I was lying there, the crowd had been walking all day or the whole week, and I had a pretty good lie. Making contact wasn't a problem, I just had to land it perfectly in that fringe, which I did,” Goosen said of the third shot.

By the time Goosen got to 18, the thousands who had trampled down the grasses around that green were juggling emotions.

Barring a major malfunction, Mickelson, the crowd favorite who engaged New York fans at the Open at Bethpage Black in 2002 and the player for whom most cheers had been reserved on Sunday, would not win.

They cheered Goosen, out of respect for him, for the game and its traditions – save for the pinhead that yelled “Noonan,” in an ill-advised reference to the film “Caddyshack” as Goosen hit his second shot at 18.

“It’s just as disappointing as it was thrilling to win a Masters, sure. To come very close, to play so hard for 72 holes and play better than anybody but one guy is disappointing, sure,” Mickelson said. “I'm not disappointed in the way I played at all. I just would have liked to have won, that's all. But I can't worry about the fact that somebody played better than me, because Retief played some great golf. I thought 2-under would have won by two, maybe three, and it just didn’t.”

Goosen and Mickelson thrived on Sunday while most of the field succumbed to the tantalizing and tumultuous course layout, where greens played like glass and the rough became drier and more gnarled as the sun shone through a near cloudless blue sky.

The final round scoring average checked in at 78.7, highest since Pebble Beach in 1972 and second highest since before World War II, and among the notables whose scores ballooned in their final holes were Sergio Garcia of Spain (10-over-par on Sunday, 11-over-par overall), and the Americans Billy Mayfair (19-over-par on Sunday, 30-over-par overall), Dudley Hart (15-over-par on Sunday, 19-over-par overall), and Tiger Woods (6-over-par on Sunday, 10-over-par overall).

Goosen and Mickelson were the only players to finish the tournament with a cumulative under-par score and only one player, Robert Allenby, shot par in the final round.

“Winning another U.S. Open I don’t think puts you as a great player. This game can turn around on you very quickly, and next week or the week after when I tee it up, you’re just the same player again as the rest of the field,” Goosen said. “You’ve got to play hard to win.”

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thesak · 7 years

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The Dunnes: ‘Stronger than ever.’

Twenty years ago today, Tim Dunne made a quick dive into a friend’s pool and woke up hours later in an intensive care unit, partially paralyzed. He has been an inspiration to his family, friends and everyone who’s known him ever since. Here’s a story I wrote about Tim and his family in 2005, as his sister, Kelly, was helping lead Northport’s girl’s basketball team to a county championship.

A passion than strengthens family ties The Dunnes: Seven-and-half years after accident and ‘stronger than ever.’

Northport Record, Jan. 20, 2005 — Kelly Dunne gritted her teeth and curled her face into a slight sneer as she lay on the floor in front of the Northport bench, the victim of a shirt-grabbing, arm-flinging intentional foul late in an ugly game against Sachem North, last Saturday.

Kelly, the junior who starts at guard, collected herself, stood up and reacquired the stoic look, the wide-eyed straight stare that she nearly always maintains as part of a quiet, unassuming na-ture on the basketball court. The teeth and the facial contortion were gone with a flashbulb.

Only family noticed. Kelly’s mother and father, John and Eileen, and brother Tim, all veter-ans of on-the-court battles and far greater off-the-court obstacles, were watching from the stands and on the sideline.

“I don’t think she meant to hit you that hard,” John told Kelly after the game.

“I don’t know, I felt like I was Superman,” Kelly said. “Someone said to me, ‘I was getting ready for you to get up and deck that girl.’ I was like, ‘Um, no.’”

Therein lies the character, the determination and the sportsmanship that is embodied by Kelly, in continuation of a tradition set forth by her parents and her brothers — Greg, Richard and Tim.

Inspired To Succeed

Greg, 27, played basketball on the 1995 Long Island championship team at Northport and at Nazareth College in Rochester. He led the team to the NCAA tournament and was selected as an All-American while earning the nickname “the Magic Johnson of Division III.” He current serves as the assistant head men’s basketball coach at the State University of New York-Brockport and works as an investment professional in Rochester.

“I’m busy all the time, I’m working all the time, but it’s fun,” Greg said from Rochester, be-tween his shift at the investment firm Pics Telecom and an evening practice.

Richard, 21, also played basketball at Northport and maintained academic dexterity with nightly trips to the library and late study sessions. He is in his senior year of pre-med studies at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. He works at a homeless shelter and last year interned in the emergency room at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York. Kelly calls him a genius.

“I live my life on the go. I’m nonstop,” Rich said from South Bend, following a walk across the campus where 10 inches of snow has fallen in the last three days.

His hectic pace is similar to that of Greg and Kelly, who balances basketball, performance in the school choir, study and a social life. Following a game against Walt Whitman, the week before Christmas, Kelly rushed to the locker room, changed into a sweater and skirt and dashed to the choir room to prepare for a concert performance.

“We’re very active people and we don’t like sitting around and waiting for things to happen,” Rich said. “We’re proactive people and maybe that’s why we work so well as a family. Being active keeps us going and it makes our lives exciting.”

Tim, 25, is an inspiration. It has been seven-and-a-half years since the steamy early summer afternoon, the week before graduation from Northport, when he made a quick dive into a friend’s pool and woke up hours later in the intensive care unit at Huntington Hospital, partially paralyzed.

During his recovery, and the years of adjustment since, Tim has inspired Kelly, who was nine at the time, to a precocious emotional maturity and Rich, who was in eighth grade, to a career in medicine.

“I spent months and months in the hospital and I saw how my brother and my family reacted to tragedy and turned it into a positive,” Rich said. “I saw myself being able to help people in a similar way, helping people who were sick.”

Tim has influenced friends, more than any paid inspirational speaker ever could, to grumble less about their own insignificant misfortunes and to live each day with a positive outlook. And he has motivated the Northport community to philanthropy, evoking donations to fund hundreds of thousands of dollars in needed renovation costs for his parents’ home, for the van that is used to transport him, for the motorized wheelchair that has become part of his visage and for other victims of spinal cord injury.

“It was unbelievable, the outpouring of support that people showed to me,” Tim said. “If there was a day that I didn’t feel like getting out of bed to go to physical therapy, I just sat there and would think about all the people who sent letters, who sent donations and it really motivated me.”

Tim graduated from Hofstra University in Hempstead in 2003 with a double major in journalism and psychology. He wrote feature stories during an internship with the local weekly newspaper, the Northport Observer, but had to back away from those duties when health woes and back pain from typing limited his productivity. He plans to apply to law school — his friend Joey DiPalo, the young man whose cardio pulmonary resuscitation helped revive Tim after the accident, is a lawyer in Queens — or a Master’s program.

“I’m really kind of indecisive about what I want to do next,” Tim said. “I’d like to go to law school, but I’m worried that with some health issues that I have it might be too difficult. I know that I would be able to do the work, once I get in there, but physically I don’t know if I’d be able to handle it. It took me five years to graduate [from Hofstra] and it really took a physical toll on my body. Even just to write a two-page paper it’s difficult on my back. ”

For now, he remains committed to being a fixture at Northport girls basketball games, cheering Kelly and sharing his observations with her, whether she likes it or not.

“Kelly gets frustrated because I try to tell her little too much, sometimes,” Tim said.

“Too much, every time,” Kelly interjected.

Bound By Basketball

John and Eileen were introduced to basketball while growing up in the Boulevard Gardens apartment complex in Woodside. They were friends, but did not begin a formal courtship until they reached their 20s, Greg said. The game was their first love and the infatuation grew through play in high school. John crashed the boards at Brooklyn Tech in Fort Greene and Eileen honed her shooting at Mater Christi in Astoria.

As John and Eileen drove toward professional life and marriage, basketball remained as much a constant as strong religious values and the strength and determination that have carried them through tragedy and triumph. It is a kinship that has been passed to each of their four chil-dren, that Greg, Kelly and John continue to foster and that Tim, Rich and Eileen support from the sideline with praise, critique and affection.

“We just all love it, it’s a passion,” John said. “Basketball is our first love.”

Between Greg, Tim, Rich and Kelly, and the leagues of the Amateur Athletic Union, the CYO and the Eaton’s Neck youth program, John has coached more than 600 games. He has attended well over 1,000, including battles at Northport long before he ever knew his children would play on the varsity squad.

“We started coming to the games long before our kids were even of age to play,” Eileen said.

“I probably came to girls games before Kelly was born,” John said. “I would watch Rich Castellano coach before I knew we would even have a girl.”

The Dunnes’ early development helped aid their success on the teams at Northport High School. Tim, Rich and Kelly have each appeared in the county semifinals.

Greg, playing in the veritable glory days of Northport boys’ basketball, reached that level of the playoff labyrinth twice. In his senior year, 1995, he led the Tigers to 23 straight wins and a berth in the state semifinals in Glens Falls.

Along the way, the Tigers scored a 50-35 win over Bridgehampton for the county championship, before a capacity crowd at Stony Brook University. Several of the Bridgehampton fans, Tim noted, took exception to his brother’s razzle-dazzle style and, more notably, his overweight appearance. They drew a sign and hung it from a railing.

“Pillsbury Dunneboy,” it said, complete with a doughy caricature of Greg, who had been shaped rounder than the prototypical point guard.

“When I saw that sign from across the way, I got so mad,” Tim recalled.

Tim sneaked around to the Bridgehampton section of the stands and stood near the sign, a sophomore from Northport amid rows of enemy territory.

“I waited for the right time,” Tim said. “[Greg] made a really nice move and scored on a nice driving layup.”

Tim ripped the sign and screamed wildly at the fans that he suspected had made it.

“I hated to see anything like that about my family,” Tim said. “I just wanted to stick up for him.”

Nearly a decade later, the story of Tim’s self-guided seek and destroy mission still provokes smiles and a sense of appreciation.

“He went over there and took care of business, that’s the kind of kid he is,” Greg said. “He’s fiercely loyal to his family and his friends. If you’re doing something wrong to his family, you better watch out, even now.”

Greg connected on 4 three-pointers and led the Tigers with 20 points. He scored 19 in the Ti-gers’ Long Island Class A championship win over Hempstead and added a team-high 22 in a 57-56 double-overtime loss to Henninger in the state semifinals.

“It was a great experience because I was doing it with all of my best friends,” Greg said.

John coached several players from the 1995 Northport squad, in AAU and reached the organization’s national championship against teams from across the country, some of which featured eventual pro-fessional stars. “We grew up playing basketball in the park every single day since eighth grade.”

Tim played on the 1997 Northport team that beat Sachem to reach the semifinals and then lost to William Floyd, 34-28, in what became a battle of defense, will and perimeter shooting. Rich appeared in the semifinals in 2001 and scored a basket, as Northport lost to Brentwood 49-43. Kelly made her trip last year, while a sophomore, as the Lady Tigers made a remarkable run to a state semifinal against Ossining.

Kelly Green, Blue & Gold

Kelly’s affinity for Northport athletics, and her intrinsic relationship with the Lady Tigers’ success, began well before she ever addressed Rich Castellano as coach. At age 3, she was an honorary cheerleader, complete with uniform, for her brothers’ teams. Later, she watched as a fan as the girls teams led by Cami and Kim Ruck charged toward the Long Island Championship.

“When Kelly was a little girl and probably when the other girls were little girls, and any little girl that likes basketball in Northport, grows up and wants to be a Lady Tiger,” Tim said. “They’ve been to the games, they’ve been to Hofstra. Kelly came with us to the games at Hofstra when Kim Ruck was playing in the Long Island Championship. These girls have grown up wanting to be a part of the Lady Tigers.”

Kelly attained her childhood dream and, shortly into her sophomore season, left an indelible print in Castellano’s mind — a three-pointer from the corner to defeat Sachem in the 2003 Suffolk Shootout tournament.

“That’s one of my favorite shots of the year,” Castellano said. Kelly hit a similar basket in the county championship game against the same Lady Flaming Arrows, last March. “Here she is a slight little blonde girl canning the three from the corner.”

Well-liked off the court and respected for her knowledge and diplomacy on the court, Kelly has assumed an unspoken leadership role. She also has one of the team’s most singsong plays named after her — Kelly Green.

“She’s one of my favorite kids on the team, she’s just positive all the time, she’s receptive all the time,” Castellano said. “She has grown as a defensive player. She’s very perceptive. She’s got one of the best shots on the team.”

After the Sachem North game, and the takedown that momentarily pulled the cover off of Kelly’s cool demeanor, last Saturday, Castellano approached her with thanks.

“I just told her, I said, ‘Listen, I appreciate what you do,’” Castellano said. “She’s a student of the game; she knows what to do to win.”

Her brother Greg, the assistant coach at SUNY-Brockport, agreed.

“As a player, she’s very skilled, she’s not the strongest, not the fastest, but she’s got a very good basketball I.Q.,” Greg said. “She does what Rich Castellano asks her to do.”

Teammate Jillian Byers, the senior guard who also plays on the girls’ lacrosse team with Kelly, concurs.

“She’s every coach’s dream player. You want to have that girl on your team. She’s very determined. She has unbelievable court vision,” Byers said. “She’s an all-around person. She’s one of the girls on the court who you think, ‘should I give this ball to her,’ and you have total confidence in her that she’s not going to turn the ball over.”

Through the tragedy of Tim’s accident and the triumph of his recovery, of basketball championships and academic success, the Dunnes have remained strong and steadfast to live in a new kind of normalcy. Kelly plays and Tim takes down mental notes.

“Seven years later, we’re still going and we’re stronger than ever,” Rich said. “We’ve become a closer family and each and every one of us is better for it. We’ve become better people, we respect one another and we really love each other. I couldn’t ask for anything more for a family life.”

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thesak · 8 years

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Oscar Picks: 2017

Best Picture Should win: ”Lion” Will win: ”La La Land”

“Lion,” the true story of a lost boy trying to reconnect with his family decades after a dramatic disconnection, is the most complete and compelling of the nine Best Picture nominees. Sunny Pawar drives the first third of the film as the young Saroo, searching in vain for a way home after falling asleep on a train and winding up on the other side of India. Dev Patel, as older Saroo, drives the film home as a fuzzy memory of childhood before his adoption by an Australian family blooms into full-on obsession with finding his old village, his mother and his siblings. The search, encouraged and then discouraged by his American girlfriend — the always wonderful Rooney Mara — and aided by Google Earth plays out like a great detective tale: “Sherlock” meets “Slumdog Millionaire.” In a different year, without the songs and dances of “La La Land” and the misery loves company of “Manchester by the Sea” and “Moonlight,” it would win.

Here’s how I saw the Best Picture nominees, based on a five-star scale:

Best Director Should win: Damien Chazelle, “La La Land” Will win: Damien Chazelle, “La La Land”

“La La Land” is a thoroughly enjoyable film and — of course — the likely Best Picture winner. It’s also a remarkable feat of directing. Try corralling dozens of singers and dancers on a freeway ramp, or perfectly executing a winding single take sequence through a house party where, at just the right time, an actor has to leap into a pool. It’s the stuff of action films, not musicals, and it’s what really makes “La La Land” such an awesome spectacle. The visuals (the film is also a lock to win Best Cinematography), choreography, score and songs make up for some major deficits — a relatively simple story that’s been criticized for being too driven by the I-know-best actions of its male lead (Ryan Gosling’s Seb) and an irksome plot hole that muddles the film’s end. In the age of social media and TMZ, how could anyone — let alone people as plugged in as Hollywood types — really go five years without knowing how an old flame’s life turned out? But hey, I’m still humming “Another Day of Sun,” and that’s all credit to Damien Chazelle’s vision and direction.

Best Actress Should win: Isabelle Huppert, “Elle” Will win: Emma Stone, “La La Land”

Huppert delivers a powerful, critically acclaimed performance in “Elle.” Stone, loveable in “La La Land,” has come down the stretch a length or two ahead of early favorite and Oscar winner Natalie Portman for “Jackie.” Stone will probably win in a “La La Land”-dominated night, but I’d like to see the crafty veteran pull this one out.

Best Actor Should win: Denzel Washington, “Fences” Will win: Casey Affleck, “Manchester by the Sea”

Denzel Washington brings more energy and emotion while he’s sleeping in “Fences” than Casey Affleck does in all of “Manchester by the Sea.” And maybe that’s the point. The two top contending performances couldn’t be more different. Denzel Washington’s Troy Maxson is big, loud and demonstrative. He speaks in August Wilson’s long monologues that rise and fall with twists of emotion — one moment happily swigging gin, the next angrily decrying the injustices of race, civil service and baseball’s color barrier. Casey Affleck’s Lee Chandler is quiet and reserved. His performance is much more subtle, emoting the death of his brother and sudden role as guardian/father figure to a high schooler through glances, grimaces and the occasional bar fight. Some critics and moviegoers say they couldn’t see another actor in the Chandler role. That’s high praise for Affleck and a slap to the many talented actors who could. How would Matt Damon have done in the role? Or Liev Schreiber? Or Ryan Gosling? Or Casey’s brother, Ben? Any of them would have been better served by a stronger script and sharper direction (I mean really, after a while, who gives a shit about these people?). Denzel Washington’s performance in “Fences” is an all-timer. He’s won twice before for playing a dick (”Glory” and “Training Day”). The Academy would be wise to make it a third.

Best Supporting Actress Should win: Viola Davis, “Fences” Will win: Viola Davis, “Fences”

Viola Davis is a lock here. Her performance in “Fences” is every bit as strong as Denzel Washington’s. And, for some quirk of the Academy process, she’s nominated here in the Supporting Actress category despite being Denzel’s co-lead. But that might be a blessing. Viola is free to dominate this category while Isabelle, Emma and Natalie battle for Best Actress. Hey, the statuettes all weigh the same anyway.

Best Supporting Actor Should win: Jeff Bridges,”Hell or High Water” Will win: Mahershala Ali, “Moonlight”

I don’t get the obsession with Mahershala Ali. Sure, he’s a fine actor. Anyone who’s watched his great turn as Remy Danton on “House of Cards” knows that. But is this role really worthy of an Oscar? Ali’s character disappears after the first act of “Moonlight,” a disjoined, incomplete mess that has, inexplicably, earned lots of critical praise and awards season gold.

The best performances in this category came from Jeff Bridges in “Hell or High Water” and Dev Patel in “Lion,” both of which could’ve easily been included in the Best Actor category. Again, the Academy nominating standards are mind-boggling. Both Bridges and Patel are in the bulk of their respective films. What gives, Oscars? Of the two, Bridges gets my vote. He’s as strong as he’s ever been as a near-retirement Texas lawman thrust into investigating an atypical string of bank robberies. “Hell or High Water” is a masterful take on the greed that capsized the economy nearly a decade ago and the (criminal) lengths a pair of brothers go to ensure their family’s slice of stability stays in the right hands. Chris Pine and Ben Foster are great as the brothers, but Bridges’ pursuing Texas Ranger is the fuel that keeps the film going. He’s should win for his crackling performance as a modern-day Rooster Cogburn.

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thesak · 9 years

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Complex legacy: US military bases bearing Confederate names

One-hundred and forty miles from the Columbia, South Carolina capitol that could soon be stripped of its controversial Confederate flag, stands another nod to the breakaway republic: Fort Bragg.

The massive North Carolina Army base was named nearly a century ago for General Braxton Bragg, a native Tar Heel who served as military adviser to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

It is one of 11 U.S. military installations bearing the names of Confederate leaders.

The others include Fort Benning in Georgia, named in 1918 for pro-slavery general and lawyer Henry L. Benning, and Fort Hood in Texas, named in 1942 for General John Bell Hood. His exploits ended with defeats in the battles of Atlanta, Franklin and Nashville.

The killings of eight worshippers and their pastor last Wednesday at the historic Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina revived the debate over the Confederacy’s place in modern America.

The suspect, 21-year-old Dylann Roof, posted a photograph on a website showing himself holding the familiar Confederate battle flag. He wrote of visiting slave plantations and the graves of Confederate soldiers.

A growing chorus of civil rights and political leaders called for the removal of the battle flag flying on the state capitol grounds and on Monday, Gov. Nikki Haley said she would call the legislature back into session if it did not take immediate action to remove the flag.

“A hundred and fifty years after the end of the Civil War, the time has come,” Haley said.

So far, the national focus has been limited to the flag, but the Confederacy’s roots run far deeper — especially in the south. The battle flag, with a star-filled blue St. Andrew’s cross on a red field, adorns bumper stickers and keychains. Some states, including North and South Carolina, offer the flag as an optional license plate icon. Statues of Confederate soldiers stand in town squares.

And military bases in Virginia, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas and North Carolina bear thy names.

The same government that transformed those states — and others once Confederate — with civil rights legislation and the forced desegregation of public schools and facilities, continues to pay homage to the leaders of the armed forces that killed thousands of Union soldiers in a fight for none of that.

The installations bearing Confederate names were built and christened between 1917-1942, in the rapid expansions of the military prior to World War I and World War II.

During that time, it was common for camps and forts to be named after local features or veterans with a regional connection, according to a defense department primer on base naming. In the southern states, they were frequently named after celebrated Confederate soldiers.

“Although naming forts and camps after distinguished military veterans from both the U.S. and Confederate Armies had become a common practice, it was not the official policy until the publication of a War Department memorandum dated 20 November 1939,” the military’s naming primer said.

“In the years 1939-1946, almost all military installations designated as forts or camps were named after distinguished military individuals, including veterans of the Confederate Army.”

Fort Bragg’s namesake graduated fifth in his class from West Point in 1837. His loss to Union forces led by Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman — the namesake of a defunct U.S. base in Panama — ended the Confederate resistance in North Carolina.

Fort Pickett — an Army National Guard Maneuver Training Center in Virginia — is named for General George Pickett, the namesake of the Confederate’s ill-fated Pickett’s Charge strategy at Gettysburg.

There’s Fort Lee, named for Robert E. Lee, in Virginia and Camp Beauregard, named for the brigadier general who ordered the shots at Fort Sumter, in Louisiana.

Camp Pendleton in Virginia is named for Lee’s artillery chief, William N. Pendleton. (Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton is named for U.S. Marine Major General Joseph Henry Pendleton).

Brigadier General Malcolm Frost, the Army’s chief of public affairs, said the bases were named “in the spirit of reconciliation, not division.”

“Every Army installation is named for a soldier who holds a place in our military history,” Frost said Wednesday. “Accordingly, these historic names represent individuals, not causes or ideologies.”

Neither President Obama, Defense Secretary Ash Carter nor Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey have addressed the issue.

Jamie Malanowski, an author of several books and articles on the Civil War, addressed the incongruity of retaining Confederate names on U.S. bases in a May 2013 essay for The New York Times, “Misplaced Honor.” “The United States Army maintains bases named after generals who led soldiers who fought and killed United States Army soldiers,” he writes, “indeed, who may have killed such soldiers themselves.”

#charlestonshooting #confederacy #confederateflag #military #armybases

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thesak · 10 years

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Oscar picks

BEST PICTURE

Should win: The Imitation Game

Will win: Birdman

BEST ACTOR

Should win: Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game

Will win: Michael Keaton, Birdman

BEST ACTRESS

Should win: Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl

Will win: Julianne Moore, Still Alice

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Should win: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Will win: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Should win: Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game

Will win: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

BEST DIRECTOR

Should win: Tie — Morten Tyldum, The Imitation Game and Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel

Will win: Richard Linklater, Boyhood

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thesak · 10 years

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Lyin' Williams

Brian Williams faced more fire this week than he ever saw in Iraq.

Introducing a segment on a veteran he knew, the NBC Nightly News anchor offered a war story of his own: that he had survived a harrowing attack on an Air Force helicopter during the 2003 invasion.

Only, he didn’t. Veterans involved in the mission immediately objected and said Williams was actually riding in another helicopter that landed 45 minutes to an hour after the one wounded by a rocket-propelled grenade.

Stars and Stripes reporter Travis Tritten found their comments on a Facebook post linking to Williams’ report, as well as Williams’ mea culpa further down in the same chain.

Triffen interviewed Williams and broke the story Wednesday afternoon. Williams read a clarification during that evening’s newscast, saying he “made a mistake in recalling the events of 12 years ago” and that it was a ”bungled attempt to thank one special veteran.”

In his earlier Facebook response, Williams said he told objecting veterans he thought the “constant viewing of the video showing us inspecting the impact area — and the fog of memory over 12 years” had confused his memory.

Williams portrayed his fiction as the byproduct of a rush to honor an American hero and the honest mistake of a reporter who foolishly went on air and spoke to millions without checking his notes or his network’s archives.

Triffen heard Thursday from more veterans involved in the mission. They objected to what they said were factual errors in Williams’ on-air statement and the way he appeared to downplay the enormity of his specious recollection.

The pilot of Williams’ helicopter told CNN on Thursday that they were flying in the same formation as the stricken aircraft and that all three Chinooks (one had been grounded, he said) were struck by small arms fire. He chalked Williams’ story to wartime theatrics.

Williams’ original report aired March 26, 2003, two days after the attack and the lengthy desert stand down that followed.

In his narrative, over pictures of gnarled helicopter skin and sounds of alerted soldiers calling in the attack on radio, Williams rightly said another of the four helicopters in their group — not his — had taken fire.

"On the ground, we learn the Chinook ahead of us was almost blown out of the sky," Williams says as the helicopter’s puncture wound is shown. "That hole was made by a rocket-propelled grenade, or RPG, fired from the ground. It punched cleanly through the skin of the ship, but amazing it didn’t detonate."

Williams’ apology and explanation Wednesday made his version of valor seem like a new problem, born out of his and the New York Rangers hockey team’s desire to honor his military comrade. But Williams told the same basic story of near death nearly two years ago on the "Late Show with David Letterman."

Williams and Command Sgt. Major Tim Terpak attended the Rangers’ Jan. 29 game together and appeared on the video screen over the Madison Square Garden ice as an announcer repeated the details of the helicopter attack Williams told on air the next night.

Rangers spokesman John Rosasco declined Thursday to answer these questions regarding the planning for the tribute:

1.) How did the Rangers become aware of Sgt. Major Terpak’s service in order to plan this tribute? 2.) Who informed the team of Sgt. Major Terpak’s role, as mentioned in the tribute, in helping keep Mr. Williamsand his crew safe after their Chinook helicopter was hit and crippled by enemyfire? Mr. Williams gave credit to the Rangers in a subsequent news piece, butobviously someone with knowledge of the incident would’ve had to let theRangers in on what happened.

The legendary Hollywood screenwriter William Goldman titled his memoir of life in Hollywood “Which Lie Did I Tell,” a play on the tendency of producers and agents to lie, lie again and then lose track of their lies.

In Williams’ case, the fiction started out as a truth that persisted for at least four years, from the original March 2003 report through a July 2007 post on NBC News’ website on the death of Gen. Wayne Downing.

Williams wrote that he had accompanied Downing with the Chinook fleet and that the retired general, working as a consultant for NBC, shared concerns about possible insurgent activity below just before the attack on another helicopter close by.

Not long after Wayne’s warning, some men on the ground fired an RPG through the tail rotor of the chopper flying in front of ours. There was small arms fire. A chopper pilot took a bullet through the earlobe. All four choppers dropped their heavy loads and landed quickly and hard on the desert floor.

Three points from Williams’ 2007 post stand out in contrast to what his pilot told CNN on Thursday:

1.) No small arms fire was directed at his helicopter; 2.) Four helicopters, not three, were in the formation; 3.) All of the helicopters landed at the same time.

Williams’ story of witnessing an attack permuted into full-on participatory journalism over the next six years.

The evolution began with a May 2008 post on NBC News' website. Williams had received a note from the still-deployed Terpak and used his space in the now-defunct Daily Nightly blog to recount the attack and the stand down that led to their meeting.

The Chinook helicopter flying in front of ours (from the 101st Airborne) took an RPG to the rear rotor, as all four of our low-flying Chinooks took fire. We were forced down and stayed down -- for the better (or worse) part of 3 days and 2 nights.

It grew further, from passing mention in a college commencement biography to a riveting account on a late-night television show.

The biography Fordham University distributed ahead of Williams’ May 2011 speech described him as “part of a U.S. Army helicopter mission that was forced down by enemy fire south of Najaf.”

It has since been appended with an editor’s note.

Williams continued with the small-arms fire narrative on the March 4, 2013 edition of Alec Baldwin's WNYC podcast, "Here's The Thing." Speaking about confidence fueling his reporting, he said: "I’ve done some ridiculously stupid things under that banner, like being in a helicopter I had no business being in in Iraq, with rounds coming into the airframe."

Williams appeared on David Letterman’s CBS talk show three weeks later — March 26, 2013, the 10-year anniversary of his report on the helicopter attack. He offered Letterman a vivid account of what he said he lived through:

WILLIAMS: “Two of our four helicopters were hit by ground fire, including the one I was in.” LETTERMAN: “No kidding.” WILLIAMS: “RPG and AK-47.” LETTERMAN: “What altitude were you hit?” WILLIAMS: “We were only at a hundred feet doing a hundred forward knots because we had these massive pieces of bridge beneath us on slings.” LETTERMAN: “What happens the minute everybody realizes you’ve been hit?” WILLIAMS: “We figure out how to land safely, and we did. We landed very quickly and hard and we put down and we were stuck. Four birds in the middle of the desert and we were north out ahead of the other Americans.” LETTERMAN: “As a guy, as a journalist, do you think this is a great position to be in, or ‘holy crap, I’ve got to get out of here’?” WILLIAMS, deadpanning: “More toward the ‘holy crap.’”

Later in the Letterman appearance Williams says the helicopter’s pilot took a Purple Heart injury to his ear, a bullet wound, and that the major concern of the crew on board was being out in the Iraqi desert without additional troop support. Williams again underscores his helicopter had been hit.

LETTERMAN: “I have to think of you now with renewed respect. It’s a tremendous story.” WILLIAMS: “Oh, don’t think any differently of me. I was an accidental tourist covering a conflict, trying to get close to these fantastic volunteers we have in the war, who raised their hands to go fight two wars. We got hit and I came away just with more respect for these men and women.”

This wasn’t a mistake. It was an abdication of a journalist’s duty to the truth.

This wasn’t a one-time glitch. It was a pathological perversion, told two years apart in riveting cadence from a late-night guest chair and an anchor seat.

A mistake is a flub or a missed line on the TelePrompTer. It’s a bad fact in a broader story, not a personal account that is neither personal nor accurate.

Surviving an attack in an Iraq desert is a life-searing moment. A near miss, thanks to the fate of being in a different helicopter, is too.

Barring memory loss or psychological trauma that would compromise a reporter and anchor’s ability to perform anyway, the differences should stick.

And, if there’s any doubt, there are ample resources to verify the facts.

Williams’ original March 26, 2003 report and contemporaneous notes;

The recollections of his crew, soldiers on the helicopters and the veteran he helped honor, Command Sgt. Major Tim Terpak;

The absence of news accounts from the time about Williams, then the anchor of his own cable news show and the anointed heir to Tom Brokaw, surviving the attack;

Common sense.

Brian Williams failed the journalism test. There’s an old adage in the industry: “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.” In this case, "If you think you survived a rocket-propelled grenade attack on your helicopter but aren’t quite sure, check it out."

Anyone else, the benefit of the doubt is great.

A journalist? They know better and get fired over less egregious acts.

Brian Williams should’ve known better. And that's the way it is.

#journalism

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thesak · 10 years

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On the El, On to the Next

He was born New Year’s Day 1947, he says. Looks like a muddied Sam Elliott. He’s pining after a girl named Joann. They just met maybe 20 seconds ago. Pleasantries, you know. He asks to sit next to her, but she stands, already ready to leave him at the next stop. Good things come in small packages, he flirts. But she’s married, you see. Been so for 15 years. His hopes are dashed. “This is how we do this,” he sings. You’ve heard the song. Here, now, it’s the gravel-lined ballad of the SEPTA Market-Frankford El guy. More small talk. Awesome! Awesome! He yells. And then she’s gone, off to 5th Street. A second later, a man walks on wearing a black Stetson and a ‘stache. “Cowboy!” our man yells, and “cuz!” He mumbles something and something else and then, rhythmically, “E-A-G-L-E-S Eagles! Next year! Next year! Next year!” On to the next one.

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thesak · 10 years

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Leaf blowers and the shifted burden of homeownership

Why are leaf blowers still legal? What do they accomplish beside shifting one person’s orange and yellow burden onto someone else’s property?

Driving around in my hometown this weekend, I saw two leaf-blower wielding men nearly converge on the street across from my old high school. The first man pushed a two-foot pile of leaves down a sidewalk toward a side street while his lumbering fellow blower stood in the middle of the road and pushed a line of leaves from his property toward the high school parking lot.

Inevitably all of us will pay for these folks’ landscaping. Why rake and bag when you can blow off homeownerly responsibility? What’s a few thousand more leaves on a school ground already covered in them? Maybe the cost is negligible, but there certainly is a price in upkeep that gets passed along to all of us whenever a neighbor’s leaves — or trash — get pushed onto our private lots or into the jurisdiction of our public institutions.

The building and grounds crew at Commack High School works hard to maintain high-quality classroom environments and athletic fields, safe parking lots and a well-manicured campus. The town highway department does the same for clear, passable roads and sidewalks. Your leaves, Mr. Citizen, aren’t helping.

#citizenship #leaves #fall #america

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thesak · 10 years

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Q&A: Penn State Blue Band Director O. Richard Bundy on the march to retirement

(Photo: Penn State University)

I reached out to Penn State Blue Band director O. Richard Bundy today after the university posted this job listing for a new Director of Athletic Bands starting in July 2015. He confirmed his impending retirement for a brief AP story and gave some insight on how he’ll be spending his time away from the band. Here’s the full Q & A: Does this mean you’re retiring as band director?

Earlier this summer, I informed the director of the School of Music regarding my intention to retire at the end of the 2014-15 academic year. I understand the vacancy description above was posted today by Penn State. A national search will be conducted throughout the coming academic year to identify a qualified candidate. Is this your decision, or is the university looking to move in a new direction?

This is my decision. I am pleased that the notice of vacancy indicates a candidate is sought who will continue to build upon the program that I've invested my career to develop. Anytime there is a change of director within a band program like Penn State's there are bound to be new ideas brought to the position but I don't believe the university is looking necessarily to move in a new direction. Do you have any ideas for a successor, if you had your pick?

I was asked for input on the job description and duties that were included in the vacancy notice. I will not be a member of the committee that will be formed to conduct the national search process but believe I may have an opportunity to provide feedback on candidates. I think it’s best that i not speculate on possible successors at this juncture. Any plans for what you’ll do next – and how you’ll spend those early mornings and Saturday afternoons in the fall?

My plans include addressing the "honey-do" list my wife has been compiling for the last 35 years. I do have some interests such as photography, woodworking and learning to play guitar that I look forward to having time to pursue in retirement - and I hope to get back to playing music as a trombone performer again. Probably most importantly, my wife and I plan to travel; we hope to explore as many of the national parks as possible. And - we especially look forward to having more time to spend with our four children and their families which have blessed us with five grandchildren. I'm sure I'll be nostalgic on Saturdays during the fall of 2015 and beyond. I am a Penn Stater through and through and will be cheering on the students and staff of the Blue Band as they continue to "raise the song" for the university we love. I’ve always enjoyed your work and the band’s performances. The Blue Band truly is the best darn band in the land (no offense, Ohio State).

Thanks very much, I appreciate your kind comments. I've been extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with so many great students over the last 35 years. It's always been gratifying to see the connection to their alma mater that students make as a result of their involvement with the band. Although I look forward with anticipation - and some degree of trepidation - to retirement, I know I will greatly miss the wonderful students, support staff, and professional colleagues who have been an important part of my 35-year career with the Penn State Blue Band.

#pennstate #blueband

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thesak · 10 years

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Deadly fires, complicated by clutter and law

Here's an expanded version of a story Rachelle Blidner and I did (with special help from Vanessa Alvarez) on the dangers firefighters face when they enter a hoarder's home. It may have been a factor in the July 5 death of New York fire Lt. Gordon Ambelas. (Photo by John Minchillo / Associated Press):

NEW YORK — Another danger lurked as fire and smoke swept through the upper floors of a Brooklyn public-housing high-rise: junk.

The 19th floor apartment where the blaze started last weekend was filled with it, fire officials said, creating an urban minefield that they are looking at as a potential factor in the city's first line-of-duty death in more than two years.

Lt. Gordon Amebelas’ death July 5 came amid what officials say is an uptick in some areas of fire calls complicated by clutter, conditions the Fire Department of New York code names “Collyer’s Mansion” after the infamous 1947 case of two brothers found dead amid the floor-to-ceiling clutter in their Harlem brownstone.

Between 6 million and 15 million Americans are considered hoarders, according to the American Psychiatric Association, and experts say the behavior is particularly prevalent in older populations. Extreme examples of the disorder, in many cases a manifestation of obsessive compulsive behavior, were portrayed on the television show “Hoarders.”

Across the country, first responders are finding their own reality, with front doors blocked by piles of newspaper, living rooms littered like flea markets and hallways narrowed to nearly impassible by trash.

“We find it more common today because people have more possessions,” New York Assistant Chief Jim Hodgens said. “People have two, three TVs. People have more clothes today. I think as a society we have more stuff. It complicates the search.”

And there's little they can do about it.

Privacy laws and red tape often prevent property owners and the authorities from knowing or understanding fully the dangers hiding behind the walls of their buildings and neighborhoods — like the electronics, old trophies and bundles of trash that were squeezed into the apartment where Ambelas was overcome, or the debris that blocked the stairway at a Jersey City, New Jersey home where a woman died in a fire Thursday.

Fire departments inspect stores, offices and other commercial structures but are usually powerless to check residences for fire hazards. With various agencies governing housing, buildings and code enforcement, they have limited authority to create or enforce laws on hoarding.

“We can’t just go in and tell someone to clean their apartment,” New York Deputy Commissioner Frank Gribbon said.

Instead, they have focused on training firefighters on handling “Collyer’s Mansion” fires, which officials say spread faster and bring more intense heat, awkward footing and maze-like passageways.

The department has also taken to noting hoarding conditions in its dispatch system when it learns of them through EMS calls or outside sources, but Gribbon said that happens infrequently.

Jason Evans, of the Dallas, Texas Fire-Rescue Department, said fires in cluttered homes feed off the excess material, producing “a much larger fire than what firefighters typically experience in a normal home.”

A fire smoldering under piles of clothes and newspapers, for example, “suddenly intensifies when it is uncovered and exposed to oxygen,” he said.

The Fire Department of New York recreates cluttered conditions at its Randall’s Island fire academy. They teach firefighters to cut through an adjoining wall if a door is blocked and, if everyone else is out, to abandon a cluttered room if conditions imperil their lives.

The department also updates firefighters on the latest tactics through bulletins on an internal website accessible at each firehouse. The last update, May 29, warned that crawling atop debris is “extremely hazardous” and could inadvertently lead them out a window.

Other departments have implemented similar protocols.

The National Fire Protection Association offers a training session, “Hoarding and the Fire Service,” and the firefighting website firehouse.com, includes several training articles including: “Hoarder Homes: Piles of Hazards for Firefighters.”

“We try to prepare for the unknowns,” Hodgens, the head of the city’s fire academy, said. “It’s unfortunate we can’t prepare for every situation.”

The U.S. Fire Administration does not track hoarding-related fires in its National Fire Incident Reporting System, nor does its counterpart in the United Kingdom.

An oft-cited study from Melbourne, Australia showed 24 percent of fire deaths over a 10-year period involved hoarding even though those types of fires accounted for one-quarter of 1 percent of fire calls. The study found hoarding fires required an additional truck and nine additional firefighters, on average, and caused $87,500 more damage than a normal structure fire.

Some U.S. departments are starting to track hoarding fires within their jurisdiction — for example, 7 of the 353 fires in a five-year span in Grand Forks, North Dakota involved clutter, one of which was deadly.

In other departments, the evidence is anecdotal, like the knee-deep debris Manchester, New Hampshire firefighters said hampered their attempts to save a 72-year-old woman in February; the railroad memorabilia that blocked the door to a burning home near Lancaster, Pennsylvania in March, killing its owner; and the extreme clutter that impeded firefighters in Portland, Oregon from saving a man in his 90s from an April fire.

Officials in Canada have implored property owners there to be more vigilant about hoarding ever since a fire at a 30-story Toronto public-housing tower burned for more than 8 hours in 2010, fueled by an apartment so packed with papers the front door opened just 18 inches. Inspectors had warned about the hazardous apartment months earlier and later found 19 others in the 713-unit building with similar hoarding-like conditions.

But fire complications from clutter are not a new phenomenon, Ken Willette, of the National Fire Protection Association, said.

Willette, a firefighter for 35 years, said awareness and media coverage of Collyer’s Mansion have increased, not the number of cases.

Firefighters used to think it happened only to “unusual people,” Willette, the manager of the association's public fire protection division, said. “Now there’s a name for it and we pay more attention to it.”

New York fire officials declined to discuss in detail the fire that killed Amebelas citing an ongoing investigation, but they did acknowledge the apartment was “heavily cluttered with debris and belongings” as the 14-year department veteran searched for possible victims.

Noreida Santiago, who lives in the apartment next to where the fire started, said Ambelas spoke to her as the fire raged and told her to seek shelter in a back room. He told her he would knock to let her know to come out.

“But he never came,” Santiago told The Associated Press. “The others did.”

The tenant of the fire apartment, Angel Pagan, was not home when the fire began. A telephone number listed for him was repeatedly busy. In various interviews after the fire, the 51-year-old expressed sympathy to Ambelas' family. He denied that the apartment was cluttered to excess.

Santiago, 64, said Pagan’s apartment was “full of stuff” and including multiple air conditioners and furnishings he would find on the street.

“Anything he would find, he would bring into his house,” she said.

The New York City Housing Authority, the owner of the 21-story Williamsburg building is barred by law from entering tenants’ apartments without permission unless there is a health concern or an obvious safety hazard.

Its leases require tenants to keep their apartments tidy, but it must rely on a patchwork of outside informants — from complaining neighbors or workers invited to make repairs in an apartment — to enforce that rule.

New York City said it does not separately categorize hoarding complaints to its 311 line because they are not “common.” Complaints that are received, a city spokesman said, are directed to the fire department or adult protective services.

The fire department did not say whether it was aware the apartment was cluttered before the fire, which it said started with an air conditioning power cord pinched between a bed frame and a wall. The housing authority would not answer the question either, citing the ongoing investigation.

In cases where the authority does become aware of hoarding, the remedies usually include mental health treatment, a massive cleanup process and counseling to prevent a recurrence.

Authority spokeswoman Zodet Negron said their goal is to help the resident, not evict them. A cluttered apartment in a privately owned residence, however, can be grounds for a more terse eviction.

Cecille Hershkovitz, who runs community guardian programs in New York, said hoarding accounts for a high percentage of clients facing eviction.

“It impacts on neighbors, it impacts on the building and it can create health issues and fire hazards as we’ve experienced now,” Hershkovitz said.

Dozens of communities in the U.S. have created task forces to develop hoarding mitigation protocols, following the lead of Fairfax County, Virginia, which started the first in 1989. In some jurisdictions the panels include fire marshals.

Herskovitz, a member of the New York City Housing Authority’s task force, said they work collaboratively with the authority to whittle a hoarding tenant’s possessions to essentials, important documents, photographs and a few mementos. They call in cleaning companies to haul away the excess and counselors to steer residents away from a relapse.

“It’s a very tough thing to beat,” Kristin Bergfeld, the founder of a cleaning company specializing in clearing hoarding cases, said.

“As much as we can, we make sure somebody is in place to stay with the client and keep it going,” she said. “That’s as simple as having someone come in every week to take out the recycling and trash to make sure the person doesn’t slide back and get in trouble.”

#journalism

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thesak · 10 years

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Rangel’s final victory lap: results then nostalgia

I wrote this after covering venerable New York Congressman Charlie Rangel's primary night party on Tuesday. He says it was his last race. If so, he made the most of it. Parts of this reporting appeared in various AP stories about the race. I wrote this narrative to put all the pieces together and give a sense of the stories and the scenes that were playing out away from the camera and the election-night spot news. Enjoy! --- NEW YORK -- Rep. Charles Rangel waited in an apartment, high above the chanting masses, as the early returns trickled in from what he pledged — and his wife insisted — would be the final primary of his five-decade career. Alma Rangel sat by his side, along with former New York City Mayor David Dinkins — Rangel’s good friend and the last of his compatriots from the “Gang of Four” prominent Harlem politicians. But the results the 84-year-old Democrat saw in that room Tuesday night trumped any sense of nostalgia or history he might have had. For nearly two hours after the polls closed, Rangel waited, fretted and pondered the odds, geography and demographic variables of victory and defeat. He wondered which precincts had already reported results, which were still out and whether those not counted were where the bulk of his voters lived. And, Rangel admitted later, he pondered whether his once strongly unified 13th Congressional District had split along racial lines between pro-Rangel blacks and Hispanics supporting his Dominican-born opponent, Adriano Espaillat. “I was scared as hell,” Rangel recalled, after the results turned in his favor and he declared victory. “The numbers weren’t going right.” The swing in the results — from an early edge for Espaillat, to a Rangel lead of fewer than 2,000 votes with all but absentee and affidavit ballots counted — paralleled the wily political veteran’s wild final night as a candidate for office. What began in a secluded room with family and close confidantes — as most candidates’ election nights do — sprawled onto the stage of Rangel’s Harlem campaign headquarters midway through the local 11 o’clock newscasts. Barely half the precincts in New York’s 13th Congressional District had been counted but Rangel felt he needed to be with the people, on the stage in the basement gymnasium that his campaign converted for the occasion. “I looked at my wife and said, ‘Why are we upstairs?’” Rangel said, explaining the unorthodox approach to the crowd. "The question was: do we leave all of you down here sweating it out while were upstairs, separate from you, sweating it out?” he added. “I said, ‘what the heck, let’s sweat it out together.’” And so went Emcee Rangel’s political variety hour, complete with stream of consciousness rambling and This Is Your Life-style tributes from a parade of supporters, including the 86-year-old Dinkins, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and the city’s public advocate, Letitia James. Rangel, a veteran of Korea and two-dozen political campaigns, was filibustering against uncertain fate until he could be sure enough — or, as sure as he could be — to let the red, white and blue balloons fall, the crowds cheer and the music play. “Happy,” the cheerful Pharrell Williams tune from the movie “Despicable Me 2” became the evening’s de facto anthem, popping up between mixes of hip hop, Latin jazz and disco, including the fitting Donna Summer hit, “Last Dance.” But Rangel, the master showman who long ago earned the nickname Lion of Lenox Avenue for his fierce devotion to his Harlem constituents, toyed with the idea of victory — with the notion of declaring himself the winner — until the end. He called Rep. Gregory Meeks, himself a primary winner Tuesday, to the podium to deliver the news. Meeks, recalling Rangel’s time as head of the House’s powerful Ways and Means Committee, chanted: “The chairman has won! The chairman has won!” Rangel — after rambling a few minutes more about moving the Statue of Liberty to Washington Heights (“where it belongs”) and fighting to protect New York’s view of the New Jersey Palisades — gave the people assembled before him what they wanted: a victory lap, one final time. “This was your victory,” he declared. “This is your Congressman.” Rangel made his declaration — at long last — without hearing from Espaillat, the runner up by about 1,000 votes in their 2012 matchup who refused to concede Tuesday. The Associated Press did not declare a winner because the city Board of Elections was not able say how many absentee and affidavit ballots were still outstanding. Rangel later told reporters he was inspired by the New York cable news station NY1’s decision to call the race in his favor and joked with a reporter from CNN, which had not settled the contest, that her network was “way behind the curve!” Instead of a challenge, Rangel said, “Sen. Espaillat should be saying that NY1 declared me a victor.” Rangel eased from the stage around midnight, beaming like a weary prizefighter on the winning end of a late-round decision. Adam Clayton Powell IV, the son of Rangel’s legendary predecessor, declared the battle with Espaillat more exhilarating than Muhammad Ali’s legendary “Rumble in the Jungle” and “Thrilla in Manilla.” Corner men, in the form of beefy bodyguards and frantic campaign aides, parted a fast-swelling sea of supporters and photographers as Rangel turned a corner and passed a campaign poster picturing him in an equally ebullient mood. They directed him toward a camera riser, near the top of the key on the gymnasium’s basketball court, and a throng of reporters. Rangel, reiterating that he had run his last campaign, relayed an exchange with his wife as they headed to the polls at the start of his extraordinary final day as a candidate. “I told my wife this morning, and I can hardly believe that I said it because it wasn’t thought out, but I said ‘Honey, this is the last time I’m going to be voting for me!’” he said. At last, room for nostalgia on a milestone day.

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thesak · 10 years

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How SEC Defensive Players of the Year have fared in the NFL Draft

Year Player College Pick

2013 Michael Sam Missouri 249

2012 Jarvis Jones Georgia 17

2011 Morris Claiborne LSU 6

2010 Patrick Peterson LSU 5

2009 Rolando McClain Alabama 8

2008 Eric Berry Tennessee 5

2007 Glenn Dorsey LSU 5

2006 Patrick Willis Mississippi 11

2005 Demeco Ryans Alabama 33

2004 David Pollack Georgia 17

2003 Chad Lavalais LSU 142

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thesak · 10 years

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Behind the scenes with the editor of this year's Pulitzer-winning photography

The New York Times won both Pulitzer prizes for photography. I spoke today to Michele McNally, the newspaper's assistant managing editor for photography. She said of the breaking news and feature wins: “It makes you see the breadth and scope of what we do.” Our entire conversation won't make the wire, so I'll share it with you here.

View the images

Tyler Hicks, of The New York Times, won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for his vivid photographic coverage of a militant attack on a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya.

“Tyler was picking up some framed photographs from his wedding, mere weeks before, that other photojournalists had given him. He heard something was going on at the mall and drove right over. He was right around the block.”

Hicks started shooting with point and shoot. He knew he needed better equipment and personal protection when he started seeing blood and bodies.

“He then had the wherewithal because he’s been in these difficult situations many, many times over, to call his wife and get his helmet and flak jacket and his cameras – his real gear. He managed then to attach himself to some undercover police officers and military who were going in to seek out the al-Shabab militants... Very, very treacherous situation because at that point they’re probably still in there...”

“The amazing thing about Tyler is, under those circumstances he manages to make amazing, penetrating images that are also historical and aesthetically amazing, while under fire.”

“He has pretty brilliant instincts. He will sense out the situation. He’s smart.”

View the images and read the accompanying story

Josh Haner of The New York Times won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for a photo essay on Jeff Bauman, who lost his legs last year in the Boston Marathon bombing. The photographs accompanied a story by sports reporter Tim Rohan.

“This was a completely different sort of project. The sports desk simply wanted to find one of the victims and follow their story as long as they could.”

Rohan spent hours waiting in a hospital for victims’ relatives to come in. Eventually, they found Bauman. The Times assigned Haner to the project in part because of his tenacity – an attribute McNally said he shared with Hicks.

“He’s tireless. He’s committed. And he has a wonderful personality. If anyone could get someone to open up to them over a period of time, he can. And Jeff really opened up to Josh, at really awkward moments in his life.”

Haner would send his photographs back to The Times each night. As compelling and rich with detail as they were, McNally said, Haner pushed himself to do better.

“Josh always wanted the pictures to be better than they were the day before. He’s really, really stretched himself and produced a beautiful body of work.”

Haner’s gift was getting Bauman’s trust and holding onto it, even when completing the project appeared in doubt. Bauman didn’t always want his most personal moments, like an argument with his mother, chronicled in still photographs or on video.

“The project was a roller coaster. It was fairly often in jeopardy.”

Whenever Bauman reached a breaking point, Haner worked to bring him back and keep the project going.

“Josh realized that Jeff was giving him a gift and he was going to do the best he possibly could.”

#journalism #pulitzers

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