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May 12, 2025

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Colleagues,

Good Monday morning on this May 12, 2025,

Have you been riding the fence on whether to attend the second annual Jack Stokes Memorial AP dinner in LA? Well, with the event less than two weeks away, it’s time to act.

The dinner, the cost of which is covered by AP for retirees and members of the AP 25-Year Club and their guests, will be held at 5:30 pm at Mijares Mexican Restaurant in Pasadena on Thursday, May 22. To date, 46 of your colleagues have registered. They are:

Rachel Ambrose, John Antczak, David Beard, Brian and Jeanne Bland, Sue Cross and Mike Steere, Donna Davidson and Don Montgomery, Richard Drew, Lynn Elber, Rosalie Fox, Howard Goldberg, Susan Goldman, Molly Gordy, Deb Halberstadt and Jon Hainer, Beth Harris, Diana and Paul Heidgerd, Woody Hughes, Fong Lien, Andy Lippman, David Liu, Martha and Raymond Mendoza, Ryan and Peg Pearson, Doug and Betty Pizac, Dinesh Ramde, John and Alice Lee Rogers, Reed Saxon, Paul Simon, Anita Snow and Jim Teeple, Paul and Linda Stevens, Nick Ut, Richard Vogel, Cecilia White, Bernie and Kathy Wilson, Jeff Wilson, Roy Wu.

Deadline for registration is in the next few days, so drop me a note if you can join us.

Here’s to a great week – be safe, stay healthy, live each day to your fullest.

Paul



Owen Canfield joins Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame

Lindel Hutson - Owen Canfield, former Oklahoma AP sports editor, was inducted into the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame on Friday, part of the organization's 55th anniversary ceremony.

Canfield, seen above at left with former Oklahoma City COB Lindel Hutson, was often called on by New York sports for national work.

He was part of AP’s coverage of nine NCAA Final Fours and five Olympic Games (Seoul, Barcelona, Atlanta, Nagano, Japan; and Sydney). He covered numerous first-and second-round games in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

He helped direct coverage of five U.S. Olympic Festivals.

In June 2003, Canfield left the AP and was hired as an editorial writer for The Oklahoman, later becoming opinion editor.

 He currently works with a Catholic church organization.

WWII Family History

Kevin Noblet - My dad, Earl Noblet, was an infantryman whose division joined the fighting later than many—right after the Battle of the Bulge. They broke through the Siegfried line and marched across Germany under General Patton, winding up not far from the Czech border when peace came.

He talked little about combat, just a few self-effacing anecdotes, including the time he bravely charged a pillbox only to discover it already had been taken by other GIs. He shared more about the 10 weeks his company occupied a small German town, where he skirted “no-fraternization” rules to befriend an attractive young woman and her family. Fluent in German, he dined with them on Sundays on a roast or a ham he supplied. Her father, an officer in the German SS, returned from the war to find my father at the dinner table. An uncomfortable moment.

The town was within a swath of Germany the Americans captured but eventually ceded to the Soviets. After his company pulled back to West Germany, my father kept writing the woman, who told him how the Red Army sent her college-educated father to work in a coal mine. Within a few months he was back home, a broken, dying man. Not long after that, she asked my father to stop writing—the Soviets looked with suspicion at her correspondence with an American soldier.

I recently finished a novel that leans heavily on the stories my father told me about the war, and on years of research into the area and the time. It’s my first attempt at fiction and I doubt it’ll see publication, or even whether it should. I do plan to share it with my four brothers, who likely will tell me how they remember his stories very differently!

Farewell party in Kansas City

A celebration of the career of Jim Salter and a farewell to Summer Ballentine brought a dozen or so current and former AP staffers and their spouses together Saturday night at the Mission, Kan., home of Kansas City newswoman Heather Hollingsworth and her husband Dave.

Salter took a buyout from AP in January and retired after a 31-year career, all of it in St. Louis and 27 as correspondent. Ballentine worked in AP’s Jefferson City bureau for 10 years before leaving recently to become an auto writer for the Detroit News.

Shown in the photo above are, from left: John Hanna, Paul Stevens, Heather Hollingsworth, Bill Draper, Jim Suhr, Kia Breaux, Rod Richardson, Jim Salter, Margaret Stafford, Summer Ballentine, Dana Fields, Kent Zimmerman and Carl Manning.



Napalm Girl Update: AP’s Backpedal - from 100% Nick Ut to ‘Possible,’ and the Leica Takes the Fall. It was an Asahi Pentax!

Carl Robinson – And so who was there - and photographed too - holding an Asahi Pentax camera as the Napalm Girl ran past at Trang Bang northwest of Saigon on 8 June 1972? That was Nguyen Thanh Nghe, the man who’s claimed he was the real photographer in the controversial documentary ‘The Stringer.’ Now earlier this week, the Associated Press (AP) published an even-longer investigation (97 pages!) than just before its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January and is no longer quite so sure its photographer Nick Ut took the famous photo. “AP has concluded that it is possible Nick Ut took the photo.” (Italics mine.) But then boldly announces: “At the same time, no proof has been found that Nguyen [Thanh Nghe] took the picture.” (Again, my italics.)

So what’s going on here anyway? I am still back here in Vietnam and got this report travelling around - up in the cool mountains of Da Lat, in fact - and have purposefully waited for a few days to absorb and re-read AP’s updated and voluminous report, the first 20 pages of which are the most important and revealing.

My reaction on first early morning reading of the report was disquiet at another personal attack. But as the day wore on, that feeling turned to the joy of vindication upon the realization the AP had finally confirmed what I’d long suspected that an Asahi Pentax, and not a Leica, had shot the famous Napalm Girl image. A crucial missing detail that challenged long-held assumptions about the photo’s authorship.

The long-standing assumption that Nick Ut captured the Napalm Girl photo with a Leica has been deeply intertwined with his legacy. Leica itself has reinforced that connection, inducting him into its Hall of Fame in 2012, providing him with high-end Leica cameras, and even creating a special edition Leica X2 bearing his name. They have also sponsored his photo exhibitions.

Yet the AP’s investigation revealing that the iconic image was, in fact, shot with an Asahi Pentax now complicates the neat narrative that has formed around Ut and his Leica. What does Leica have to say, I wonder?

Read more here.

AP statement on ‘Terror of War’ report 

By LAUREN EASTON

The Associated Press

May 6, 2025

The Associated Press on Tuesday issued this statement about its comprehensive report examining authorship of its iconic “The Terror of War” photograph from the Vietnam War:

The Associated Press has spent almost a year examining all available evidence related to its iconic “The Terror of War” photo, in pursuit of an accurate historical record.

The report published today shows how seriously AP has taken questions about the authorship of its image. The AP has concluded that the credit will remain with Nick Ut.

AP standards require that a photo credit be removed if definitive evidence shows the person claiming to have taken a photo did not. In the absence of such proof, the photo credit remains. 

AP’s extensive visual analysis, interviews with witnesses and examination of all available photos taken on June 8, 1972, show it is possible Ut took this picture. None of this material proves anyone else did.

Our investigation has raised significant questions, which are outlined in the report, that we may never be able to answer. Fifty years have passed, many of the people involved are dead and technology has limitations.

In keeping with AP’s news values, it is paramount we take a critical inward look any time our journalism is called into question and that is precisely what the AP has done here. 

AP’s report is available here. 

Turning 80

Craig Klugman  - That’s Maysie, six months old, being held by me, her grandfather. The photo was taken May 10, one day short of my 80th birthday, by my son, Josh. I was in New Jersey visiting Maysie and to take note of Mother’s Day and, as it happens, a couple of birthdays.

Connecting wishes Happy Birthday

Mike Harris

Mary Koch

Stories of interest

Trump administration fires top copyright official days after firing Librarian of Congress (AP)

By MATT O’BRIEN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has fired the nation’s top copyright official, Shira Perlmutter, days after abruptly terminating the head of the Library of Congress, which oversees the U.S. Copyright Office.

The office said in a statement Sunday that Perlmutter received an email from the White House a day earlier with the notification that “your position as the Register of Copyrights and Director at the U.S. Copyright Office is terminated effective immediately.”

On Thursday, President Donald Trump fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, the first woman and the first African American to be librarian of Congress, as part of the administration’s ongoing purge of government officials perceived to oppose the president and his agenda.

Hayden named Perlmutter to lead the Copyright Office in October 2020.

Perlmutter’s office recently released a report examining whether artificial intelligence companies can use copyrighted materials to “train” their AI systems and then compete in the same market as the human-made works they were trained on.

Read more here. Shared by Doug Pizac, Peggy Walsh.

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America and our democracy are under attack (Editor and Publisher)

Jonathan Reiss, co-founder of the Media and Democracy Project

American democracy is under siege. Most of us, including journalists and newsroom leaders, have been slow to fully acknowledge it. But those who have experienced authoritarianism, such as Masha Gessen and Maria Ressa, recognize it. The press has a vital role and duty to accurately and urgently alert the public to what is happening.

Editors’ responses to appeals like this have been a mix of “to do that would be partisan” and “we are already doing that.” Acting in support of democracy is partisan. While sporadic alarms have been sounded on opinion pages and news analyses occasionally scrutinize the parallels between the Third Reich and the Trump administration, the opinion pages also have platformed authoritarians. Most importantly, the quotidian news coverage rarely gives broad context and often uses misleading terms and frameworks promoted by those deliberately undermining the U.S. Constitution.

The press needs to reorient itself in small ways — such as the use of language — and more significant ways, such as banding together against attacks and reporting in defense of our country.

Read more here. Shared by Len Iwanski.

The Final Word

A Surreal Encounter with Sir Galahad the Pure

Dan Perry

If you have 90 minutes to spare, and realistically you do, I urge you to watch one film (which you can do right here). I’ve memorized every line of its prescient brilliance, which was unleashed upon the universe amid general indifference 50 years ago this week. You could do worse with your time, very much worse indeed. And here’s my attempt to prove it.

In one of my favorite scenes of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the Knights of the Round Table struggle to read Aramaic etchings in a cave. Brother Maynard, their scholar, deciphers: “Here may be found the last words of Joseph of Aramathea: ‘He who is brave and pure of spirit may find the Holy Grail in the Castle of … aaarrrggghhh.’" Confusion erupts. “He must have died while carving it,” says Maynard. “If he was dying, he wouldn't bother to carve ‘aaarrrrggghhh,’” reasons King Arthur. “He'd just say it!”

“Perhaps he was dictating!” offers Sir Galahad the Pure (played by Michael Palin). As the Knights weigh this they are attacked by a legendary beast and thrust into a events that eventually deliver them to the actual Castle Aaargh. I shall return to this, but first let me explain.

I first saw this life-altering work at age 15, in a hotel room in Paris, which seems appropriate to me now, given its dedication to mockery of the French. It etched itself into my brain, leaving me decades later embarrassing myself in pubs. Pro tip: No one wants to hear a fake Cockney accent.

Such is the awesome power of exuberant cinema.

Read more here.

The Final, Final Word(s)

Shared by Reed Saxon

Shared by Richard Chady - note the dogged AP in the upper right.

Shared by Adolphe Bernotas

Today in History - May 12, 2025

By The Associated Press

Today is Monday, May 12, the 132nd day of 2025. There are 233 days left in the year.

On this date in history:

On May 12, 2008, a devastating 7.9 magnitude earthquake in China’s Sichuan province left more than 87,000 people dead or missing.

Also on this date:

1780 — The besieged city of Charleston, South Carolina, surrendered to British forces in one of the worst American defeats of the Revolutionary War.

1846 — The pioneers of the Donner Party left Independence, Mo., on the Oregon Trail, beginning their ill-fated attempt to migrate to California.

1932 — The body of Charles Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old kidnapped son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh, was found in a wooded area near Hopewell, NJ.

1933 — The Franklin D. Roosevelt administration established both the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, which provided federal funding to states for relief programs, and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, which provided economic support to farmers through agricultural surplus reductions.

1949 — The Soviet Union lifted the Berlin Blockade, which the Western powers had succeeded in circumventing with their Berlin Airlift.

1975 — Members of the new Khmer Rouge-led Cambodian government seized an American merchant ship, the SS Mayaguez, in international waters, sparking a three-day battle that resulted in the deaths of 41 Americans.

1982 — In Fatima, Portugal, security guards overpowered a Spanish priest armed with a bayonet who attacked Pope John Paul II. (In 2008, the pope’s longtime private secretary revealed that the pontiff was slightly wounded in the assault.)

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS - Hockey Hall of Famer Johnny Bucyk is 90. Musician Steve Winwood is 77. Actor Bruce Boxleitner is 75. Actor Gabriel Byrne is 75. Singer Billy Squier is 75. Basketball Hall of Fame coach George Karl is 74. Country musician Kix Brooks is 70. Actor Ving Rhames is 66. Actor-filmmaker Emilio Estevez is 63. Chef/TV personality Carla Hall is 61. Actor Stephen Baldwin is 59. Skateboarder Tony Hawk is 57. Actor Kim Fields is 56. Actor Rhea Seehorn is 53. Actor Malin Akerman is 47. Actor Jason Biggs is 47. Actor Rami Malek is 44.

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. We include deceased staffers when their information is shared; their names are italicized.)

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), Robert Dubill (Buffalo)

1959 – Charlie Bruce (Montgomery)

1960 – Claude Erbsen (New York), Bill Lenz (Detroit), Carl Leubsdorf (New Orleans), Harry Moskos (Albuquerque)

1961 – Peter Arnett (Jakarta, Indonesia), Strat Douthat (Charleston. WVa), Warren Lerude (San Diego), Ed Staats (Austin)

1962 – Paul Albright (Cheyenne), Malcolm Barr Sr. (Honolulu), Myron Belkind (New York), 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), Lew Simons (New York), 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), Jim Rubin (Trenton). Lynn Sherr (New York), Mark Thayer (San Francisco)

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), Earleen Fisher (Indianapolis), 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), Harry Cabluck (Pittsburgh), Dick Carelli (Charleston, WVa), Dennis Coston (Richmond), Ron Frehm (New York), 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 Wertz (Minneapolis), Jim Willse (New York), Bill Winter (Helena)

1970 – Richard Boudreaux (New York), David Briscoe (Manila), Sibby Christensen (New York), Richard Drew (San Francisco), Bob Egelko (Los Angeles), James Gerstenzang (San Francisco), Steve (Indy) Herman (Indianapolis), Tim Litsch (New York), Lee Margulies (Los Angeles), Arthur Max (Tel Aviv), Chris Pederson (Salt Lake City), Brendan Riley (San Francisco), Chuck Robinson (Indianapolis), 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), Rod Davis (Dallas), Bob Fick (St. Louis), Joe Frazier (Portland, Ore.), Terry Ganey (St. Louis), Mike Graczyk (Detroit), Denis Gray (Albany), Lindel Hutson (Little Rock), Linda Kramer Jenning (San Francisco), Brent Kallestad (Sioux Falls), Tom Kent (Hartford), Nolan Kienitz (Dallas), Kent Kilpatrick (Detroit), Andy Lippman (Phoenix), 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), Steve Fox (Los Angeles), Joe Galianese (East Brunswick), Merrill Hartson (Richmond), Mike Hendricks (Albany), Tom Journey (Tucson), Steve Loeper (Los Angeles), Jesus Medina (New York), Ellen Miller (Helena), 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), Julie Dunlap (Philadelphia), David Espo (Cheyenne), Dan George (Topeka), Robert Glass (Philadelphia), Steve Graham (Helena), Tim Harper (Milwaukee), Elaine Hooker (Hartford), Sue Price Johnson (Charlotte), Fong Lien (Los Angeles), 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), David Crary (Jackson), Steve Crowley (Washington), Diane Duston (Columbus), David Egner (Oklahoma City), Carole Feldman (Newark), Steve Hindy (Newark), Marc Humbert (Albany), Steven Hurst (Columbus), Richard Lowe (Nashville), Mike Mcphee (Boston), John Nolan (Nashville), Guy Palmiotto (New York), Charlotte Porter (Minneapolis), Chuck Wolfe (Charlotte)

1977 – Bryan Brumley (Washington), Robert Burns (Jefferson City), Charles Campbell (Nashville), Carolyn Carlson (Atlanta), Dave Carpenter (Philadelphia), Solange De Santis (New York), Jim Drinkard (Jefferson City), Ken Herman (Dallas), Mike Holmes (Des Moines), Doug Jeffries (New York), Brad Kalbfeld (New York), Larry Kilman (Atlanta), Scott Kraft (Jefferson City), John Kreiser (New York), Peter Leabo (Dallas), Kevin LeBoeuf (Los Angeles), Ellen Nimmons (Minneapolis), Joyce Rosenberg (New York), Dan Sewell (Buffalo), Estes Thompson (Richmond), David Tirrell-Wysocki (Concord)

1978 – Jane Anderson (Providence), Vinnie D'Alessandro (Hartford), 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), Peter Banda (Albuquerque), 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), Joe Madison (New York), Barry Massey (Kansas City), Phillip Rawls (Nashville), John Rice (Carson City), Kurt Rossi (New York), Linda Sargent (Little Rock), Joel Stashenko (Albany), Rebecca Trounson (Denver), Robert Wielaard (Brussels)

1980 – Alan Adler (Cleveland), Christopher Bacey (New York), Diane M. Balk (Indianapolis), Jeff Barnard (Providence), Mark Duncan (Cleveland), Bill Kaczor (Tallahassee), Mitchell Landsberg (Reno), Mike Mazzo (East Brunswick), Kevin Noblet (New Orleans), Lee Perryman (Tampa), Jim Rowley (Baltimore), David Speer (Jackson), Hal Spencer (Providence), Jo Steck (Los Angeles), 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), Susan Okula (Hartford), Roland Rochet (New York), Larry Ryckman (Carson City NV), 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), Mike Gracia (Washington), Howard Gros (New Orleans), Mark Humphrey (Nashville), Dan Juric (East Brunswick), Robert Kimball (New York), Rob Kozloff (Detroit), Bill Menezes (Kansas City), David Ochs (New York), Eric Risberg (San Francisco), Cecilia White (Los Angeles)

1983 – Elise Amendola (Boston), Edward L. Birk (Boston), Donna Cassata (Albany), Scott Charton (Little Rock), Sue Cross (Columbus), Mark Elias (Chicago), Mary Esch (Albany), Doug Fisher (Columbus), Alan Fram (Newark), David Ginsburg (Washington), Lisa Hamm-Greenawalt, Diana Heidgerd (Miami), Kevin McGill (New Orleans), Sheila Norman-Culp (New York), Carol Esler Ochs (New York), Jim Reindl (Detroit), Amy Sancetta (Philadelphia), Angie Lamoli Silvestry (New Orleans), Rande Simpson (New York), Dave Skidmore (Milwaukee), Barbara Worth (New York)

1984 – Laurie Asseo (Phoenix), David Beard (Chicago), Owen Canfield (Oklahoma City), Raf Casert (Brussels), Wayne Chin (Washington), Jack Elliott (Oklahoma City), Jim Heintz (Columbus), Candice Hughes (Dallas), Danny Johnston (Little Rock), Kelly P. Kissel (New Orleans), Hank Kurz (New York), Joe Macenka (Richmond), Paul Newberry (Atlanta), Eva Parziale (San Francisco), Walt Rastetter (New York), Malcolm Ritter (New York), Keith Robinson (Columbus), Cliff Schiappa (Kansas City), David Sedeño (Dallas), Andrew Selsky (Cheyenne), Pedro Sotomayor (Los Angeles), Patty Woodrow (Washington)

1985 – Dennis Conrad (Cleveland), George Garties (Los Angeles), 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), Paul Geitner (Montgomery), Jim Gerberich (San Francisco), Howard Goldberg (New York), Mark Hamrick (Dallas), Sandy Kozel (Washington), Arlene Levinson (Boston), Robert Meyers (London), David Morris (Harrisburg), Susan Ragan (New York), Lori Dodge Rose (Jefferson City), Bob Seavey (Lima), Barbara Woike (New York)

1987 – Donna Abu-Nasr (Beirut), Jim Anderson (Mexico City), Dave Bauder (Albany), Bob Bellafiore (Albany), Chuck Burton (Charlotte), Ted Duncombe (Philadelphia), Beth Harris (Indianapolis), Lynne Harris (New York), Steven L. Herman (Charleston, WVa), Elaine Kurtenbach (Tokyo), Rosemarie Mileto (New York), John Rogers (Los Angeles), Julia Rubin (Denver)

1988 – Chris Carola (Albany), Peg Coughlin (Pierre), Frank Eltman (New York), Kathy Gannon (Islamabad), Steve Hart (Washington), Melissa Jordan (Sioux Falls), Margaret Lillard (Nashville), Bill Pilc (New York), Philip Rosenbaum (New York), Kelley Shannon (Dallas), Darlene Superville (Newark)

1989 – Charlie Arbogast (Trenton), Susan Boyle (New York), John Braunreiter (Milwaukee), Ted Bridis (Oklahoma City), Paul Randall Dickerson (Nashville), Katie Fairbank (Indianapolis), Ron Fournier (Little Rock), Ann Gibson (Richmond), Josh Lemieux (Kansas City), Teresa Walker (Nashville)

1990 – David Boe (Chicago), Frank Fisher (Jackson), Ken Giglio (Washington), Kathryn Loomans (Washington), Dan Perry (Bucharest), Steve Sakson (Baltimore), Sean Thompson (New York)

1991 – Amanda Kell (Richmond), Suzanne Mast Lee (Washingon), Santiago Lyon (Cairo), Lisa Pane (Hartford), Wayne Partlow (Washington), Ricardo Reif (Caracas), Bill Sikes (Buffalo)

1992 – Emery P. Dalesio (Trenton), Jennifer Garske (Washington), Kerry Huggard (New York), Wilfredo Lee (Washington)

1993 – Connie Farrow (St. Louis), Shawn Pogatchnik (London), Jim Salter (St. Louis), Tim Sullivan (New York), Adam Yeomans (Tallahassee)

1994 - Glen Johnson (Boston), Ralph Siegel (Trenton)

1995 – Elaine Thompson (Houston), Donna Tommelleo (Hartford)

1996 – Patricia N. Casillo (New York), Burt Herman (Sacramento), John Khin (New York)

1997 – J. David Ake (Chicago), Peter Banda (Albuquerque), Martha Bellisle (Carson City), Kia Breaux (Kansas City), Chuck Burton (Charlotte), Pamela Collins (Dallas), Aaron Jackson (New York), Rachel La Corte (Miami), Madhu Krishnappa Maron (New York), Jim Suhr (Detroit), Jennifer Yates (Baltimore)

1998 – Alan Clendenning (New Orleans), Guthrie Collin (Albany), David Koenig (Dallas), Mitch Stacy (London), Richard Turkheimer (New Orleans)

1999 – Melinda Deslatte (Raleigh), Stacey Plaisance (New Orleans), Laura Rauch (Las Vegas), Terry Spencer (Miami)

2000 – Carrie Antlfinger (Milwaukee), Betsy Blaney (Dallas), Gary Gentile (Los Angeles), Ken Miller (Oklahoma City), Rhonda Shafner (New York), Tom Tait (Las Vegas)

2001 - Mike Weissenstein (New York)

2002 - Michael Casey (Jakarta)

2003 - Valerie Komor (New York)

2004 - Jim Baltzelle (Dallas)

2005 – Ric Brack (Chicago), Richard Jacobsen (Mexico City), Frank Jordans (London)

2006 – Jon Gambrell (Little Rock)

2008 - Steve Braun (Washington)

2011 - Joseph B. Frederick (New York)

2013 - Alex Sanz (Atlanta)

2014 - Peter Costanzo (New York)

2024 - Gabriela Aoun (San Diego)

Got a photo or story to share?

Connecting is a daily newsletter published Monday through Friday that reaches 2,000 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