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Connecting
Aug. 22, 2024
Click here for sound of the Teletype
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Colleagues,
Good Thursday morning on this Aug. 22, 2024,
We lead today’s Connecting with news of the AP announcing three new content sharing agreements with U.S. nonprofit news newsrooms: Deep South Today, The Maine Monitor and The Nevada Independent.
The agreements are part of an effort to expand the reach of local news ahead of the 2024 U.S. presidential election and increase access to AP’s fact-based, nonpartisan journalism.
We're saddened to bring you news of the death of Herrick Jackson, whose family owned two New Haven (Conn.) daily newspapers. He was the husband of our colleague Elaine Hooker, longtime AP executive and bureau chief. Herrick died Monday in Berkeley, Calif., where he had lived since 2010.
A celebration of the outstanding AP career of John Antczak was held Tuesday night in Los Angeles – and we bring you photos and a story on how his colleagues honored his 44-plus years of AP service.
And today’s issue brings fond memories of our colleagues John Schweitzer and Bill Saul.
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Here’s to a great day – be safe, stay healthy, live it to your fullest.
Paul
AP announces 3 new content collaborations with nonprofit newsrooms
The Associated Press today (Wednesday) announced three new content sharing agreements with U.S. nonprofit news newsrooms: Deep South Today, The Maine Monitor and The Nevada Independent.
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The agreements are part of an effort to expand the reach of local news ahead of the 2024 U.S. presidential election and increase access to AP’s fact-based, nonpartisan journalism.
The new content collaborations follow arrangements AP announced in May with CalMatters, Honolulu Civil Beat, Montana Free Press, Nebraska Journalism Trust and South Dakota News Watch, along with a content sharing arrangement between AP and The Texas Tribune announced in March.
Each nonprofit news outlet will share AP content with its audience. AP will offer stories from the nonprofit newsrooms with its members and customers, supplementing the news agency’s own coverage of Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi and Nevada.
“As we gear up for the 2024 U.S. presidential election, AP’s efforts to expand access to factual, nonpartisan journalism are more critical than ever,” said AP U.S. News Director Josh Hoffner. “By working with nonprofit news outlets in Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi and Nevada we are able to reach local audiences and deliver the facts and information they need about issues that matter.”
“We are excited to work with the AP and expand the reach of The Maine Monitor’s nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative reporting on issues impacting people in Maine, many of which, rural health care, impacts of climate change, opioid recovery, judicial accountability, care for aging citizens, are national, and solutions being tried in Maine can inform discussions elsewhere,” said Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, executive director of The Maine Monitor.
“We at The Indy are thrilled to collaborate with the respected Associated Press to share content,” said Jon Ralston, CEO and editor of The Nevada Independent. “We have the same mission as the venerable AP: To provide readers with breaking, reliable and in-depth news in a world awash in misinformation and disinformation. Never has this been more critical.”
“Deep South Today is pleased to begin this content sharing agreement with The Associated Press through our newsrooms in Louisiana and Mississippi,” said Warwick Sabin, president and CEO of Deep South Today. “As we meet the need for local news in the communities we serve across two states, this collaboration with AP will make the most of our collective strengths and assets to maximize our impact.”
Read more here. Shared by Mark Mittelstadt, Myron Belkind.
Herrick Jackson, journalist and husband of AP’s Elaine Hooker, dies at 83
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In this 2017 photo at Lone Cypress in Del Monte Forest, Calif., Herrick Jackson and Elaine Hooker at left with Hal Buell and Claudia DiMartino. (Claudia died in 2023 and Hal died in January 2024.)
Herrick Jackson, whose family owned two New Haven (Conn.) daily newspapers, died Aug. 19 in Berkeley, Calif., where he had lived since 2010.
He began his newspaper career at the New Haven Journal-Courier after he graduated in 1962 from Yale University and earned a master’s degree from Columbia Journalism School. He later lived for several years at the Community of Jesus in Orleans, Mass.
After leaving the Community of Jesus, Jackson devoted himself to social work at Fellowship Place in New Haven, a drop-in center for people with mental illness.
He also was involved with music throughout his life. He played the double bass in New Haven area community orchestras and sang in various choruses, including the Yale Alumni Chorus. In Berkeley he sang in the Berkeley Community Chorus & Orchestra.
He and his wife, Elaine Norton Jackson, joined villages based on Boston’s Beacon Hill Village both in New Haven and in Berkeley. Villages help keep people in their homes as they age.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by his sister, Alison Van Dyk of Martha’s Vineyard, and Alison’s two children, John Van Dijk of Burlington, Vt., and Issa Van Dyk of New Orleans, La.; three daughters from his first wife, Mary Magoun Jackson of Orleans, Mass., – Sandy Pugsley, Sr. Joan Jackson of Orleans, Mass., and Polly Friess of Jackson Hole, Wyo.; two sons from his second wife, Margaret Mary Doud of Wilton, Conn. – Michael Jackson of Stamford, Conn., and Tyler Jackson of Corte Madera, Calif.; Elaine’s children – Analisa Madrone, Noah Hooker and Emily Hooker, all of Berkeley, Calif., and Miranda Hooker of Arlington, Mass., and Elaine’s stepdaughters Lucia Huntington of Cambridge, Mass., and Britt Gappelberg of Lexington, Mass.; several grandchildren and numerous cousins. A brother, Robert Wolcott Jackson, died in 1998 in Greenwich, Conn.
Jackson was born in New Haven on Sept. 13, 1940, to the late John Herrick Jackson and Mary Keen Richardson. His paternal grandfather, John Day Jackson, owned the New Haven newspapers, the New Haven Register and the Journal-Courier, which stayed in the family until 1989. His maternal grandfather was H. Smith Richardson, chairman of the Vick Chemical Co., which created Vicks VapoRub; the company was sold to Proctor & Gamble in 1985.
In addition to his career at the Journal-Courier, where he was a reporter and at one time assistant production manager, he spent two years at The Louisville Times and the Courier-Journal learning various aspects of the newspaper business, and he interned at The Wall Street Journal and the New York Daily News. He also worked for another family firm, the Smith Richardson Foundation in New York, N.Y.
He was inducted into the U.S. Army Reserve in June 1963 and did his basic training at Fort Jackson, S.C. During his 6 ½ years in the Army, he received a direct commission to the rank of Second Lieutenant. He also was a reporter for the Fort Jackson newspaper.
Jackson was a member of hereditary organizations -- the Society of the Cincinnati, the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence and the General Society of Colonial Wars.
A memorial service will be held Sept. 15 in Berkeley, Calif.
| John Antczak’s colleagues, past and present, gather to celebrate his 44-year AP career | AP colleagues past and present gather for a group shot with honoree John Antczak (he’s in the middle of what could be described as the second row in the white polo shirt). Photo/Jae C. Hong |  |  | |
John Antczak photographed by Damian Dovarganes and Nick Ut in this photo taken by Krysta Fauria.
Krysta Fauria - Dozens of current and former staffers on Tuesday celebrated John Antczak, who is retiring after a 44-year career with The Associated Press in Los Angeles.
They gathered downtown at Boomtown Brewery, not far from the LOS bureau.
The night culminated with a handful of speeches by colleagues and retirees, which were kicked off by Deputy Director of US News Gathering Frank Baker.
“I can’t think of a single time when John was asked to come in early, stay late, work on a day off that he didn’t answer the call,” Baker said.
Antczak was for decades at the center of breaking news coverage in the Los Angeles, supervising, writing and editing on many of the biggest global stories of his era. But as Baker pointed out, Antczak nearly always worked in anonymity, often co-writing under the better-known bylines of reporters who relied on him.
“There are a lot of people who contribute to what is the AP, which is the greatest global news entity ever conceived. And it’s guys like John who got us to this point,” Baker said.
Retirees Jeff Wilson, John Rogers, Brian Bland (Antczak’s former supervisor) and Richard DeAtley, who worked with Antczak when he was an office assistant, also paid tribute to their former colleague.
Pulitzer Prize-winning photographers Nick Ut and Reed Saxon had their cameras on hand to capture the spirit of the evening.
“I’m so grateful that as many of you could get here as possible,” Antczak said, though he lamented the absence of Linda Deutsch, whose cancer diagnosis was reported this week in Connecting, as well as his late colleague, Sue Manning.
Attendees splurged on beer, cake and Porto’s, the beloved Los Angeles bakery.
Antczak’s last day at AP is Aug. 30.
NOTE: Michelle Monroe has kindly put together a video of the evening's key points and a collection of still photos.
Remembering John Schweitzer
Dan Day - With sadness I read of the death of John Schweitzer, who as broadcast executive expanded my understanding and appreciation for the importance of what "membership" meant in the AP. When I was broadcast editor in Milwaukee, John took me along on a visit to a particularly tough and demanding radio news director in a small town outside Milwaukee. I don't remember the details but I know we calmed her down, and that made a major impression on me on how to respond to members. John was ever supportive, and his visits to the bureau always made me smile. I'm grateful for what he taught me, and I marvel at what a full life he led.
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John Dowling - I crossed paths with John after becoming Minnesota news editor in 1991. As broadcast executive he was not in the bureau much, but early in my tenure he made it a point to take me to lunch at a neighborhood tavern near the bureau (great chicken wings, Coke or iced tea for us, thank you). When he did appear in the bureau, he always had a smile and a kind word as he passed through the newsroom on the way to his cubbyhole at the back of the bureau. He was just a nice guy, widely regarded as such, and understood the value of good relationships. That was a good example for a know-it-all rookie manager to see.
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Charles Hill - I remember John Schweitzer fondly from my years as bureau chief in Minneapolis when John was the broadcast executive.
My overriding memory of John is of his broad smile and good humor. He was quite capable and good to work with, not only because of his friendly and welcoming demeanor but also because of his deep respect and appreciation for the news report and the AP’s mission.
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Brent Kallestad - I knew John very well, following him as Bismarck correspondent before a long run together in the broadcast sales division. Not sure I have run across many folks as accomplished, thoughtful and fun to be around as John.
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John Willis - John was a great story teller at our annual sales meetings, but he and I never really got a chance to hang out together. In recent years, Connecting helped us start corresponding. We both loved fishing for walleye, but he lived in places where you could go walleye fishing any time. Being in the deep south for much of the past 45 years, I could not, but we vacationed in Minnesota in the summers of the 70s and 80s. In the 94, Miami COC Charlie Bruce turned me on to the lakes (lacs) in western Quebec, and I've been going after walleye there ever since.
That was a great photo in Wednesday's Connecting of Schweitzer with walleye. For those wondering, walleyes have teeth, so you don't want to lip them. They are also considered by many to be the finest eating freshwater fish.
Over the years John and I shared many emails about everything under the sun from politics to recipes to jokes, and the following kind of falls into that category.
I saved the following which John wrote three years ago. It was his history in brief as a newsman and the foundation for a little publication that so enamored me that I had to get a copy for my library.
Here is what Schweitzer wrote, unedited, coming from my saved mail file:
"I have been a newsman almost all of my life. Mostly with newspapers, although I worked a long time calling on radio newsmen and newsrooms.
"I guess you could say I started in the news business before my teens. I don’t recall exactly when I started delivering newspapers for the Saint Paul Dispatch and Pioneer Press, but I quit in the spring of my senior year in high school. I delivered a couple hundred newspapers every morning, every evening and every Sunday.
"In those days the newsboys also called on each customer once a month to collect the subscription fees.
"When I qualified for a driver's license at age 14, I paid cash for a 1947 Chevrolet club coupe. It helped with the newspaper deliveries, and I drove it to high school as well as school and church events.
"I was out of the news business in my early college years, but after nearly three years of a five-year engineering course, I threw my books away and tried something else – political science, psychology, Spanish and English. I ended up in journalism school at the University of Minnesota.
"In the late 1950s I needed work to pay for college and to pay for text books as well as underage alcohol. I applied for, and was accepted for, a job at the Saint Paul Dispatch and Pioneer Press newsroom. I was in the news business – as a part-time copy boy.
"I worked eight hours a night three or four nights a week. In those days a copy boy visited every part of the plant – typesetting, stereotyping, press room, sports department...everything. A copy boy did everything, too. I delivered typeset copy as well as retrieved an empty coke bottle from a copy editor’s coat in the cloak room.
"I had to take the empty bottle across the street and have the copy editor’s bartender buddy fill it with vodka.
"I remember well my first assignment as copy boy. Bill Greer was the night managing editor. He handed me a small book and said I was to read it all the way through. Greer had written the book – “Gems of American Architecture.” The advertising powerhouse Brown and Bigelow published it. They made thousands of copies.
"I recently found a copy. It was published in 1935 – two years before I was born. Editor Greer listed his authorship in his ‘Who’s Who” paragraph.
"And the architectural gems – they were outdoor privies. The book was complete with photos and gushing explanations. Of course it was all a joke, and wildly popular with a nation that was starting to develop running water and indoor plumbing.
"With the newspaper business rapidly declining today the outdoor dooley is an apt insignia for the hedge funds buying and dumping the guts of our daily newspapers.”
Attached is a scan of the inside copyright and "Introduction":
Billy Saul – May 14, 1943 – August 6, 2024
Remembering My Closest Friend
Steve Fox - I worked alongside Bill Saul, who died August 6, during his half-dozen years at AP-LA in the early 1970s. He was my closest friend, and I believe he saved my life one hot evening in South Los Angeles.
Billl and I were among many dozens of reporters who worked on the Patty Hearst kidnapping story, which riveted the nation after her Feb. 4, 1974, abduction in Berkeley, CA by a rag-tag urban guerilla group calling themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). Patty was an heiress and the grand-daughter of the wealthy newspaper magnate Willaim Randolph Hearst. After seizing her, the SLA demanded that to obtain her freedom, the Hearst family had to distribute $70 worth of food to every needy Californian. Patty’s father arranged for $2 million worth of food to be distributed to the needy in the San Francisco Bay area but the operation never got off the ground and the SLA refused to release Patty. She became the object of an intense nationwide search.
On May 17, 1974, six members of the SLA, including the group’s leader, engaged in an intense gun battle with LAPD officers and FBI agents at a rundown, yellow wood-frame house at 1466 East 54th Street in South Los Angeles. I watched it all from a yard across the street as bullets clipped off the leaves of a scrawny tree I was trying to use as cover. The SLA members were in a crawl space underneath the house, firing out through several openings. LAPD officers and FBI agents had taken up positions behind me and were firing at the SLA members. I was caught in the crossfire.
I had a heavy two-way radio that connected me to the LA bureau and I called in with what I was seeing. Bill answered and talked to me throughout the gun battle, which lasted about two hours. Authorities later estimated that more than 9,000 rounds were fired. The SLA members had semi-automatic rifles and were wearing gas masks. They had fashioned makeshift grenades out of metal film canisters packed with explosives. They were ready for a fight.
After a while, bullets began kicking up little puffs of dirt around me. It seemed like the battle was heating up. I panicked. I had never been under fire before, and never since. I was certain I was going to die. I was terrified, shaking. I radioed Bill: “The bullets are all around me. I’ve got to get out of here. I’m going to move back.”
Bill’s voice, calm and soothing, answered: “Steve, don’t do that. They will pick up your movement and start shooting at you. Just stay down and stay where you are.”
That’s how Bill was – calm, cool and collected. We fished together, sailed together, vacationed with our wives together all over California. In 50 years, I never saw him get upset or angry, never heard him complain. He was a kind, thoughtful man with an impish sense of humor, great to be around. He was also one hell of a reporter.
I laid there, drenched in sweat, calling Bill repeatedly and getting the same soothing response. Had he not been on the radio, I would have run and, I think, died that day.
Finally, the house exploded in a huge fireball, flames and black smoke billowing out of the shattered windows. The police had fired several tear gas grenades into the house during the fight, but the SLA members were wearing their gas masks and continued shooting at the police. This is disputed, but I saw what happened and am convinced that some kind of explosive grenade was fired into the house and set it on fire. All of the SLA members died. Their gas masks were melted onto their faces. Patty was not among them.
I was exhausted when I got back to the bureau, just wrung out. Bill said: “You look like you been dragged through a keyhole backwards.” The bureau chief looked at me and told me to go home. I learned later that the television reporters had been using new, compact, portable television cameras and vans equipped with small satellite dishes. They were beaming everything back to their stations. The staffers in the bureau had been watching it all on TV.
The story careened on. Patty was arrested on Sept. 18, 1975, in a San Francisco apartment. On March 20, 1976, she was convicted of bank robbery and using a firearm during the commission of a felony and sentenced to 35 years in prison. President Jimmy Carter later commuted her federal sentence to the 22 months she had already served.
Bill and I never talked much about the events of that evening in South Los Angeles. I certainly didn’t want to relive it, and Bill respected my feelings. But a deep friendship had been formed, one that lasted for more than five decades. I will always treasure it.
Colleague Rod Davis authors war drama
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Rod Davis, staff reporter and editor at AP Dallas and Austin bureaus, early ‘70s, has a new novel, just out: The Life of Kim and the Behavior of Men: Human Bondage in the After-market of War (July).
Kirkus says it is a “moving and well-written war drama.” And it has earned two pre-pub awards: Winner, International Impact Book Awards, Contemporary Fiction, June 2024. And Finalist, Military Fiction, 7th Annual American Fiction Awards, American Book Fest, 2024.
In 1970, Second Lieutenant Thomas Jefferson Hobbes, fresh out of college and ROTC, find himself sent to South Korea instead of the expected Vietnam. His arrival at Kimpo Air Base turns his destiny from a war zone to another face of warfare, the destructive interactions between soldiers and camp followers, aka men and women, that are a part of conquest and occupation throughout history and around the world. Utterly unprepared, he follows trails and carves his own, his soul and sense of humanity falling to levels of hell that even Dante would find daunting.
A beautiful young Korean working girl, known only as Miss Kim, becomes Hobbes’s partner and his guide into deception and danger. Pushing through his 13-month tour, he becomes a part of the thoughtless, predatory subculture that binds him to the love of his life, but at an impossible price.
Described as a dark relative of Catch-22, M*A*S*H, South Pacific, and Madam Butterfly, the blunt realism of The Life of Kim and the Behavior of Men: Human Bondage in the After-Market of War is disturbing, but powerful.
Further information at: https://roddavisauthor.com/
The book is available at most online booksellers, such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.com, Walmart, Google. And can be ordered through local bookstores.
News from AP’s old stomping grounds
Rockefeller Center Reinvention Aims to Buck Midtown Malaise
By Kate King
The Wall Street Journal
Christie’s lease was coming up for renewal, and the owners of New York City’s Rockefeller Center didn’t want to lose the storied auction house.
To make their pitch to Christie’s executives, the owners headed to the private top floor of Pebble Bar, where they sat around a low coffee table, next to the piano. The trendy drinking spot, which opened in 2022, is frequented by “Saturday Night Live” cast members and reliably crowded at the start of happy hour.
“The environment was the message,” said Rob Speyer, chief executive of Tishman Speyer, the co-owner. “The message was, ‘Rockefeller Center is changing again.’ ”
The Midtown Manhattan shopping and office complex has attracted tourists, film crews and office workers since it opened in the 1930s. But even before the pandemic emptied out office buildings and caused many central business districts to fade, Speyer realized that it wasn’t enough.
He wanted to draw New Yorkers to Midtown for more than just the Monday-to-Friday workweek. It was an ambitious goal for a neighborhood where many restaurants were closed on weekends.
Read more here. Shared by Lou Boccardi.
A convention recollection
Jim Spehar - It was the summer of 1972, a stormy time in U.S. politics and a disappointing time in all-news radio in Phoenix.
After a couple of years of hard work by yours truly and some young compadres remodeling a miserable attempt at round-the-clock news programming, the Meredith Corporation had decided to sell KPHO AM, now up to the competitive ratings position enjoyed by similar stations in other large markets, to the local proprietor of a daytime country/western station. His announced plans were to re-format to full-time C/W, leaving the news staff not only without jobs but also ending our complimentary subscriptions to Better Homes & Gardens and Successful Farming.
Somehow, as the lame-duck News Director, I convinced the powers that be that Jim Hood and I should be dispatched to Miami to cover the Democratic National Convention which nominated George McGovern. If memory serves, he carried only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia but not his own state, South Dakota.
Working on Eastern time meant doing wrap-up reports on daily activities after returning late evening to the hotel housing the Arizona delegation. One attempt sometime around midnight found a worn-out News Director on the phone back to Phoenix making a half-dozen attempts at taping a coherent report for the next morning, finally being successful. His wife, heading to work the following morning, was proudly listening to her husband relate the previous days convention activities to a substantial morning drive audience when the report ended rather suddenly with a profane exasperation "Oh ****, roll the tape again." Memories differ on whether the missing four-letter word started with an "F" or a "S." I never heard just how morning anchor Dave Zorn recovered from that surprise, but he did manage to go on to a stellar career in news radio in Los Angeles.
I left shortly after the convention, exiting KPHO early to embark on a "hippie tour" of Europe in a $300 VW bus with Bonnie, my brother and his future wife. Hood succeeded me and entered our joint effort in the Arizona Press Club awards competition, presumably absent profanity, and we were cited for "Outstanding General Radio Reporting." Still have that certificate somewhere.
| Connecting wishes Happy Birthday | |
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Stories of interest
News/Media Alliance succeeds in takedowns by platforms using illegal technology to bypass news publisher paywalls (Editor and Publisher)
Press Release | News/Media Alliance
The News/Media Alliance has successfully prompted the removal by several online code repositories of illegal web browser add-on software offerings from their websites. These offerings, which unscrupulous third parties posted to the code repositories’ websites, are designed to allow the public to bypass technical measures that Alliance news publisher members use to protect access to their content.
News/Media Alliance President and CEO Danielle Coffey said, “The Alliance applauds these platforms for swiftly removing these bypass tools, which are unlawful circumvention technologies prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and which one platform expressly confirmed also violates that platform’s terms of service.”
Alliance members are dedicated to producing and distributing valuable reporting to public, including reporting on local, national and global developments; entertainment and the arts; food; wellness; and other matters of public interest.
Coffey added, “Quality reporting is not free. Our members make significant investments to produce the journalism that is vital to civic engagement and the functioning of our democracy. But to do so, our members depend on their ability to monetize their content, with subscription revenues and other payments providing an essential lifeline for many publishers.”
Read more here. Shared by Mark Mittelstadt.
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The Star Tribune isn’t the only local newspaper that’s growing (Poynter)
By: Kristen Hare
On Sunday, The Star Tribune announced a big change in its name. And lucky for all of us, it wasn’t to something cringe-inducing, a la Tronc, but rather a name to reflect its expanding ambitions – The Minnesota Star Tribune.
“Our decision to add Minnesota to our name is a commitment to expand our work across our state, a direction we chose after two statewide tours and hundreds of conversations with our fellow Minnesotans,” wrote CEO and publisher Steve Grove in a reintroduction letter.
The expansion is surprising if you’ve been following the contraction of local newspapers in the last decade. It’s not surprising if you’ve been following The Star Tribune.
“I grew up in Minneapolis, and The Star Tribune has always been at least a pretty good paper,” said Rick Edmonds, Poynter’s media business analyst. “Then a decade or so ago, they brought in a talented CEO and publisher, Mike Klingensmith, who came from a magazine background and saw newspaper issues with fresh eyes. And they were sold to billionaire Glen Taylor. Other regional papers were eager to figure out the Star Tribune formula and emulate it.”
Read more here.
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PBS’ Judy Woodruff apologizes for an on-air remark about peace talks in Israel (AP)
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Veteran PBS correspondent Judy Woodruff apologized on Wednesday for comments she had made on the air regarding former President Donald Trump and negotiations for a cease-fire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
Woodruff, during PBS’ Democratic national convention coverage on Monday, repeated a story she had read in Axios and Reuters that Trump had allegedly been encouraging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to put off peace talks until after the U.S. election in the belief that a deal could help Democrat Kamala Harris’ campaign.
But Woodruff said in a post on X Wednesday that she had not seen later reporting that the story had been denied by the Trump campaign and Israel. She said her remarks had not been based on any original reporting on her part.
“This was a mistake, and I apologize for it,” Woodruff said.
Read more here.
The Final Word
The last one has died
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Marc Wilson - The last one has died.
Tanilo Sandoval, 98, died Monday August 19 in Silvis, Illinois.
He was the last person who knew all eight of the combat victims honored at Hero Street U.S.A.
Two were his brothers.
The eight were killed in combat in World War II and Korea – the most combat deaths of any single street in America.
As long as his health permitted, he brought flowers twice a year – on Memorial Day and Veterans Day -- to the heroes buried or memorialized at the Rock Island National Cemetery. His brothers – Joe and Frank – rest side by side there.
Tanilo also regularly decorated the Hero Street Monument in Silvis with hundreds of small American flags on Memorial Day, July 4th and Veterans Day. Until his health failed, he attended the twice-annual celebrations at Hero Street Park, always standing to one side, looking like Santa Claus with his great white beard, listening and remembering.
His parents – Eduvigues and Angelina Sandoval – fled Mexico for the United States during the Mexican Revolution that lasted from 1910 to 1917. An estimated one million Mexicans died during the revolution, another million fled to America. Before they fled, his parents buried a young daughter at their home in Mexico, and lost a young son during their flight to the U.S. border.
His father was one of many Mexican refugees who found work at the Rock Island Railroad’s 900-acre yard in Silvis. The city didn’t allow the Mexicans to live in town, so the railroad furnished housing – boxcars. That’s where Tanilo and most of the heroes and their siblings were born.
Tanilo told me his mother probably witnessed more death than any person could bear – her two children in Mexico, her two sons in combat, another son in a car wreck, and baby Norbert.
Tanilo took me to visit his brothers’ graves at the national cemetery. He took me to visit his little brother’s and his mother’s and father’s graves at St. Mary’s Cemetery in East Moline. He allowed me to place flowers on their graves.
He helped me research and fact-check my book, Hero Street U.S.A., the story of Little Mexico’s Fallen Soldiers.
“You’ll tell him everything!” his late wife, Connie, jokingly complained when I asked Tanilo for details about the Hero Street families.
Tanilo and his late sister, Georgia, kept extensive records about their parents and brothers – great resources for a historian.
Records for the other six heroes – Tony Pompa, Claro Solis, William Sandoval, Peter Masias, Joe Gomez and Johnny Munoz – were less extensive, or in Masias’ case, almost non-existent.
But Tanilo remembered each of them because he grew up with all of them. He was an historian who was eager to help tell the story of Hero Street U.S.A.
In the acknowledgement in my book, I wrote: “My number one source was Tanilo “Tony” Sandoval, who was tireless and patient in helping me sort out the story of his parents…and his two brothers… He knows where all the bodies are buried, and he guards their memories and their graves with great care and love.”
Now, he, too, is gone.
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AP classes, by the year...
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a listing of Connecting colleagues who have shared the year and the bureau where they started with the AP. If you would like to share your own information, I will include it in later postings. Current AP staffers are also welcome to share their information.)
Newest additions:
Charles Hill, Charlotte, 1975
John Khin, New York, 1996
1951 - Norm Abelson (Boston)
1953 – Charles Monzella (Huntington, WVa)
1955 – Henry Bradsher (Atlanta), Paul Harrington (Boston), Joe McGowan (Cheyenne)
1957 - Louis Uchitelle (Philadelphia)
1958 – Roy Bolch (Kansas City)
1959 – Charlie Bruce (Montgomery)
1960 – Claude Erbsen (New York), Carl Leubsdorf (New Orleans)
1961 – Peter Arnett (Jakarta, Indonesia), Strat Douthat (Charleston. WVa), Warren Lerude (San Diego), Ed Staats (Austn)
1962 – Paul Albright (Cheyenne), Malcolm Barr Sr. (Honolulu), Myron Belkind (New York), Dave Mazzarella (Newark), Peggy Simpson (Dallas), Kelly Smith Tunney (Miami)
1963 – Hal Bock (New York), Jeff Williams (Portland OR)
1964 – Rachel Ambrose (Indianapolis), Larry Hamlin (Oklahoma City), John Lengel (Los Angeles), Ron Mulnix (Denver), Lyle Price (San Francisco), Arlene Sposato (New York), Karol Stonger (Indianapolis), Hilmi Toros (New York)
1965 – Bob Dobkin (Pittsburgh), Harry Dunphy (Denver), John Gibbons (New York), Bob Greene (Kansas City), Jim Luther (Nashville), Larry Margasak (Harrisburg), Rich Oppel (Tallahassee)
1966 – Shirley Christian (Kansas City), Mike Doan (Portland, OR), Edie Lederer (New York), Nancy Shipley (Nashville), Mike Short (Los Angeles), Marty Thompson (Seattle), Nick Ut (Saigon), Kent Zimmerman (Chicago)
1967 – Dan Berger (Los Angeles), Adolphe Bernotas (Concord), Lou Boccardi (New York), Linda Deutsch (Los Angeles), Don Harrison (Los Angeles), Frank Hawkins (New York), Doug Kienitz (Cheyenne), David Liu (New York), Bruce Lowitt (Los Angeles), Chuck McFadden (Los Angeles), Martha Malan (Minneapolis), Bill Morrissey (Buffalo), Larry Paladino (Detroit), Michael Putzel (Raleigh), Bruce Richardson (Chicago), Richard Shafer (Baltimore), Victor Simpson (Newark), Michael Sniffen (Newark), Kernan Turner (Portland, Ore)
1968 – Lee Balgemann (Chicago), John Eagan (San Francisco), Joe Galu (Albany/Troy), Peter Gehrig (Frankfurt), Charles Hanley (Albany), Jerry Harkavy (Portland, Maine), Herb Hemming (New York), Brian King (Albany), Samuel Koo (New York), Karren Mills (Minneapolis), Michael Rubin (Los Angeles), Rick Spratling (Salt Lake City), Barry Sweet (Seattle)
1969 - Ann Blackman (New York), Ford Burkhart (Philadelphia), Dick Carelli (Charleston, WVa), Dennis Coston (Richmond), Mary V. Gordon (Newark), Daniel Q. Haney (Portland, Maine), Mike Harris (Chicago), Brad Martin (Kansas City), David Minthorn (Frankfurt), Cynthia Rawitch (Los Angeles), Bob Reid (Charlotte), Mike Reilly (New York), Doug Tucker (Tulsa), Bill Winter (Helena)
1970 – Richard Boudreaux (New York), Sibby Christensen (New York), Richard Drew (San Francisco), Bob Egelko (Los Angeles), Steve (Indy) Herman (Indianapolis), Tim Litsch (New York), Lee Margulies (Los Angeles), Chris Pederson (Salt Lake City), Brendan Riley (San Francisco), Larry Thorson (Philadelphia)
1971 – Harry Atkins (Detroit), Jim Bagby (Kansas City), Larry Blasko (Chicago), Jim Carlson (Milwaukee), Jim Carrier (New Haven), Chris Connell (Newark), Bill Gillen (New York), Bill Hendrick (Birmingham), John Lumpkin (Dallas), Kendal Weaver (Montgomery)
1972 – Hank Ackerman (New York), Bob Fick (St. Louis), Joe Frazier (Portland, Ore.), Terry Ganey (St. Louis), Mike Graczyk (Detroit), Denis Gray (Albany), Lindel Hutson (Little Rock), Brent Kallestad (Sioux Falls), Tom Kent (Hartford), Nolan Kienitz (Dallas), Andy Lippman (Phoenix), Ellen Miller (Helena), Mike Millican (Hartford), Bruce Nathan (New York), Ginny Pitt Sherlock (Boston), Lew Wheaton (Richmond)
1973 - Jerry Cipriano (New York), Susan Clark (New York), Norm Clarke (Cincinnati), Marty Crutsinger (Miami), Jim Drinkard (Jefferson City), Joe Galianese (East Brunswick), Merrill Hartson (Richmond), Mike Hendricks (Albany), Tom Journey (Tucson), Steve Loeper (Los Angeles), Jesus Medina (New York), Tom Slaughter (Sioux Falls), Jim Spehar (Denver), Paul Stevens (Albany), Jeffrey Ulbrich (Cheyenne), Owen Ullmann (Detroit), Suzanne Vlamis (New York), John Willis (Omaha), Evans Witt (San Francisco)
1974 – Norman Black (Baltimore), David Espo (Cheyenne), Dan George (Topeka), Robert Glass (Philadelphia), Steve Graham (Helena), Tim Harper (Milwaukee), Elaine Hooker (Hartford), Sue Price Johnson (Charlotte), Dave Lubeski (Washington), Janet McConnaughey (Washington), Lee Mitgang (New York), Barry Shlachter (Tokyo), Bud Weydert (Toledo), Marc Wilson (Little Rock)
1975 – Peter Eisner (Columbus), Charles Hill (Charlotte), Jim Limbach (Washington), Bill McCloskey (Washington), David Powell (New York), Eileen Alt Powell (Milwaukee)
1976 – Brad Cain (Chicago), Judith Capar (Philadelphia), Dick Chady (Albany), Steve Crowley (Washington), David Egner (Oklahoma City), Marc Humbert (Albany), Steven Hurst (Columbus), Richard Lowe (Nashville), Mike Mcphee (Boston), John Nolan (Nashville), Charlotte Porter (Minneapolis), Chuck Wolfe (Charlotte)
1977 – Bryan Brumley (Washington), Robert Burns (Jefferson City), Charles Campbell (Nashville), Carolyn Carlson (Atlanta), Dave Carpenter (Philadelphia), Jim Drinkard (Jefferson City), Ken Herman (Dallas), Mike Holmes (Des Moines), Brad Kalbfeld (New York), Scott Kraft (Jefferson City), John Kreiser (New York), Peter Leabo (Dallas), Kevin LeBoeuf (Los Angeles), Jim Limbach (Washington), Ellen Nimmons (Minneapolis), Dan Sewell (Buffalo), Estes Thompson (Richmond), David Tirrell-Wysocki (Concord)
1978 – Tom Eblen (Louisville), Ruth Gersh (Richmond), Monte Hayes (Caracas), Doug Pizac (Los Angeles), Charles Richards (Dallas), Reed Saxon (Los Angeles), Steve Wilson (Boston)
1979 – Jim Abrams (Tokyo), Brian Bland (Los Angeles), Scotty Comegys (Chicago), John Daniszewski (Philadelphia), Frances D’Emilio (San Francisco), Pat Fergus (Albany), Brian Friedman (Des Moines), Sally Hale (Dallas), Susana Hayward (New York), Jill Lawrence (Harrisburg), Warren Levinson (New York), Barry Massey (Kansas City), Phillip Rawls (Nashville), John Rice (Carson City), Linda Sargent (Little Rock), Joel Stashenko (Albany), Robert Wielaard (Brussels)
1980 – Alan Adler (Cleveland), Christopher Bacey (New York), Jeff Barnard (Providence), Mark Duncan (Cleveland), Bill Kaczor (Tallahassee), Mitchell Landsberg (Reno), Kevin Noblet (New Orleans), Jim Rowley (Baltimore), David Speer (Jackson), Hal Spencer (Providence), Carol J. Williams (Seattle)
1981 – Paul Davenport (Phoenix), Dan Day (Milwaukee), John Flesher (Raleigh), Debra Hale-Shelton (Little Rock), Len Iwanski (Bismarck), Ed McCullough (Albany), Drusilla Menaker (Philadelphia), Kim Mills (New York), Mark Mittelstadt (Des Moines), Roland Rochet (New York), Lee Siegel (Seattle), Marty Steinberg (Baltimore), Bill Vogrin (Kansas City)
1982 – Dorothy Abernathy (Little Rock), Al Behrman (Cincinnati), Tom Cohen (Jefferson City), John Epperson (Chicago), Ric Feld (Atlanta), Kiki Lascaris Georgio (New York), Nick Geranios (Helena), Howard Gros (New Orleans), Robert Kimball (New York), Rob Kozloff (Detroit), Bill Menezes (Kansas City), David Ochs (New York), Cecilia White (Los Angeles)
1983 – Donna Cassata (Albany), Scott Charton (Little Rock), Sue Cross (Columbus), Mark Elias (Chicago), David Ginsburg (Washington), Diana Heidgerd (Miami), Sheila Norman-Culp (New York), Carol Esler Ochs (New York), Jim Reindl (Detroit), Amy Sancetta (Philadelphia), Rande Simpson (New York), Dave Skidmore (Milwaukee)
1984 – Owen Canfield (Oklahoma City), Wayne Chin (Washington), Jack Elliott (Oklahoma City), Kelly P. Kissel (New Orleans), Joe Macenka (Richmond), Eva Parziale (San Francisco), Walt Rastetter (New York), Keith Robinson (Columbus), Cliff Schiappa (Kansas City), David Sedeño (Dallas), Andrew Selsky (Cheyenne), Patty Woodrow (Washington)
1985 – Beth Grace (Columbus), Betty Kumpf Pizac (Los Angeles)
1986 – Joni Baluh Beall (Richmond), David Beard (Jackson), Tom Coyne (Columbia, SC), Dave DeGrace (Milwaukee), Alan Flippen (Louisville), Jim Gerberich (San Francisco), Howard Goldberg (New York), Mark Hamrick (Dallas), Sandy Kozel (Washington), Arlene Levinson (Boston), Robert Meyers (London), David Morris (Harrisburg)
1987 – Donna Abu-Nasr (Beirut), Dave Bauder (Albany), Chuck Burton (Charlotte), Beth Harris (Indianapolis), Lynne Harris (New York), Steven L. Herman (Charleston, WVa), Elaine Kurtenbach (Tokyo), Rosemarie Mileto (New York), John Rogers (Los Angeles)
1988 – Chris Carola (Albany), Peg Coughlin (Pierre), Kathy Gannon (Islamabad), Steve Hart (Washington), Melissa Jordan (Sioux Falls), Bill Pilc (New York), Kelley Shannon (Dallas)
1989 – Ted Bridis (Oklahoma City), Charlie Arbogast (Trenton), Ron Fournier (Little Rock)
1990 – Frank Fisher (Jackson), Dan Perry (Bucharest), Steve Sakson (Baltimore), Sean Thompson (New York)
1991 – Amanda Kell (Richmond), Santiago Lyon (Cairo), Lisa Pane (Hartford), Ricardo Reif (Caracas), Bill Sikes (Buffalo)
1992 – Kerry Huggard (New York)
1993 – Jim Salter (St. Louis)
1995 – Elaine Thompson (Houston), Donna Tommelleo (Hartford)
1996 – Patricia N. Casillo (New York), John Khin (New York)
1997 – J. David Ake (Chicago), Martha Bellisle (Carson City), Pamela Collins (Dallas), Madhu Krishnappa Maron (New York), Jim Suhr (Detroit), Jennifer Yates (Baltimore)
1998 – Alan Clendenning (New Orleans), Guthrie Collin (Albany)
1999 – Melinda Deslatte (Raleigh)
2000 – Gary Gentile (Los Angeles)
2004 - Jim Baltzelle (Dallas)
2005 – Ric Brack (Chicago)
2006 – Jon Gambrell (Little Rock)
| Today in History - Aug. 22, 2024 |  | |
Today is Thursday, Aug. 22, the 235th day of 2024. There are 131 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On Aug. 22, 1851, the schooner America outraced more than a dozen British vessels off the English coast to win a trophy that came to be known as the America’s Cup.
Also on this date:
In 1791, the Haitian Revolution began as enslaved people of Saint-Domingue rose up against French colonizers.
In 1910, Japan annexed Korea, which remained under Japanese control until the end of World War II.
In 1922, Irish revolutionary Michael Collins was shot to death, apparently by Irish Republican Army members opposed to the Anglo-Irish Treaty that Collins had co-signed.
In 1965, a fourteen-minute brawl ensued between the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers after Giants pitcher Juan Marichal stuck Dodgers catcher John Roseboro in the head with a baseball bat. (Marichal and Roseboro would later reconcile and become lifelong friends.)
In 1968, Pope Paul VI arrived in Bogota, Colombia, for the start of the first papal visit to South America.
In 1972, John Wojtowicz (WAHT’-uh-witz) and Salvatore Naturile took seven employees hostage at a Chase Manhattan Bank branch in Brooklyn, New York, during a botched robbery; the siege, which ended with Wojtowicz’s arrest and Naturile’s killing by the FBI, inspired the 1975 movie “Dog Day Afternoon.”
In 1989, Black Panthers co-founder Huey P. Newton was shot to death in Oakland, California.
In 1992, on the second day of the Ruby Ridge siege in Idaho, an FBI sharpshooter killed Vicki Weaver, the wife of white separatist Randy Weaver.
In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed welfare legislation that ended guaranteed cash payments to the poor and demanded work from recipients.
In 2003, Alabama’s chief justice, Roy Moore, was suspended for his refusal to obey a federal court order to remove his Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of his courthouse.
In 2007, A Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Iraq, killing all 14 U.S. soldiers aboard.
Today’s Birthdays: Author Annie Proulx (proo) is 89. Baseball Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski is 85. Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells is 83. Writer-producer David Chase is 79. CBS newsman Steve Kroft is 79. International Swimming Hall of Famer Diana Nyad is 75. Baseball Hall of Famer Paul Molitor is 68. Rock guitarist Vernon Reid is 66. Country singer Collin Raye is 64. Rock singer Roland Orzabal (Tears For Fears) is 63. Singer Tori Amos is 61. International Tennis Hall of Famer Mats Wilander (VEE’-luhn-dur) is 60. Rapper GZA (JIHZ’-ah)/The Genius is 58. Actor Ty Burrell is 57. Celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis is 54. Actor Rick Yune is 53. Singer Howie Dorough (Backstreet Boys) is 51. Comedian-actor Kristen Wiig is 51. Talk show host James Corden is 46. Pop singer Dua Lipa is 29.
| Got a photo or story to share? | |
Connecting is a daily newsletter published Monday through Friday that reaches 1,900 retired and former Associated Press employees, present-day employees, and news industry and journalism school colleagues. It began in 2013. Past issues can be found by clicking Connecting Archive in the masthead. Its author, Paul Stevens, retired from the AP in 2009 after a 36-year career as a newsman in Albany and St. Louis, correspondent in Wichita, chief of bureau in Albuquerque, Indianapolis and Kansas City, and Central Region vice president based in Kansas City.
Got a story to share? A favorite memory of your AP days? Don't keep them to yourself. Share with your colleagues by sending to Ye Olde Connecting Editor. And don't forget to include photos!
Here are some suggestions:
- Connecting "selfies" - a word and photo self-profile of you and your career, and what you are doing today. Both for new members and those who have been with us a while.
- Second chapters - You finished a great career. Now tell us about your second (and third and fourth?) chapters of life.
- Spousal support - How your spouse helped in supporting your work during your AP career.
- My most unusual story - tell us about an unusual, off the wall story that you covered.
- "A silly mistake that you make"- a chance to 'fess up with a memorable mistake in your journalistic career.
- Multigenerational AP families - profiles of families whose service spanned two or more generations.
- Volunteering - benefit your colleagues by sharing volunteer stories - with ideas on such work they can do themselves.
- First job - How did you get your first job in journalism?
- Most unusual place a story assignment took you.
Paul Stevens
Editor, Connecting newsletter
paulstevens46@gmail.com
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