Debbie Van Tassel wins 'best section' award

Debbie Van Tassel Warner  once again as AME/Features at the Plain Dealer produced one of the topthree arts and life sections in the country in the largest circulation competition (before she left for Arizona): She was the winner in Division 3 for best section.
 
Societies for Feature Journalism Excellence-in-Features awards honor the craft of feature writing and the people who do it for a living at news organizations and wire services. Winners will be honored at SFJ’s national conference at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Oct. 9-12, 2013.

Dunphy Update May 21

• Dunphy update May 21

  The clock is ticking down to surgery time. Met today with Dr. Lipham, the surgeon. He said my last endoscope showed some improvement and the tumor is smaller than the last scope. He laid out two options: continue chemo some more and radiation or go for the surgery and the prospect of eating somewhat normally again. We chose surgery and we're ready to go. I will go up to the Keck Medical Center in a week or so for some pre-op work: blood test, EKG and heart stress test. After that I report at 5:30 a.m. June 5 for prep and surgery starts at 7:30 a.m. Estimates are the surgery will last 6 hours if there are no complications and then a couple of days in the intensive care unit before they move me to a room. Estimated hospital stay is 6-7 days. They will send me home with some pain meds and a feeding tube and a nurse will stop by once a day to see that things are going smoothly. Recovery is estimated at 3-4 months. We'll keep you posted.

  
  

  
  

John Dunphy busy seeing family

Former Beacon Journal reporter John Dunphy is busy with visiting family while he awaits June 5 surgery to combat his cancer.

John Dunphy (right), son Kevin

John’s son, Kevin Dunphy, got together with dad at Seal Harbor near Long Beach, California.

Previously, John’s brother, Steve Dunphy, came from Seattle to Lakewood, California, where John and wife Rebecca Allen live.

John is contributing editor at Southland Golf and a former reporter for the Orange County Register in California. John is a Cincinnati Xavier University graduate from New York City.

John’s other siblings are Harry Dunphy, Sister Patricia Dunphy, Maureen Dunphy Welling, Paul Dunphy, Peter Dunphy, Dennis Dunphy and Christine Dunphy Barnett.  

Their dad, Harry Dunphy, died in 2011. Their mom, Angela, predeceased Harry. 

Thrity in California; her phone took side trip

Thrity Umrigar

Former Beacon Journal reporter turned author Thrity Umrigar is touring California, doing readings from her novels set in her native India at such posh locations as the Beverly Hills Hilton. 

She loves the limo treatment but hit a speed bump when she lost her cellphone. Modern technology located it and it was FedExed to her.

Her books include “The Weight of Heaven,” “If Today Be Sweet,” “The Space Between Us” and “First Darling of the Morning.”

Thrity, born in Bombay, teaches creative writing and journalism at Case Western Reserve University.

Cleveland, Cincinnati among top hospitals for safety

Cleveland University Hospitals Case Medical Center and Cincinnati Christ Hospital are the only Ohio hospitals listed among the top hospitals for safety, according to Leapfrog Group, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit.

There are 66 hospitals on the list.

To read the AARP the Magazine special health issue article and the list of America's safest hospitals, click on  http://pubs.aarp.org/aarptm/20130405_PR?folio=46#pg50

This will take you to page 48. Go to the top of the screen, in the middle where you'll see 48 / 84, and click on the down arrow between 48 and 84 and then click on 49 to see the next page of the safe hospitals list.

BJ's former Erie property will house Akron students

The Beacon Journal's former Erie warehouse will be demolished to make way for even more University of Akron student housing.

The 1916 building was once a freight house for the Erie Railroad and Erie Lackawanna Railroad. 

The BJ bought the 3.4-acre property in 1967 for more than $200,000 and sold it for about $3 million. 

This will be the fourth off-campus housing for the University of Akron with a combined capacity for 2,000 students. The Erie property also will have a five-story parking deck.

To read Stephanie Warsmith's story in the BJ, click on http://www.ohio.com/news/local/old-railroad-building-coming-down-to-make-way-for-akron-student-housing-1.396421

Regina Brett to Angelina Jolie: Crazy Smart

Angelina Jolie

PD & former BJ columnist Regina Brett, who had both her breasts removed to substantially reduce her risk of cancer, applauds actress Angelina Jolie's decision to do the same thing as "crazy smart."

Regina and her daughter Gabrielle had both their breasts removed. So did Regina's sister, Patricia. Angelina opted for reconstructive breast surgery. Regina instead got prostethetic breasts that fit into her bra. Her daughter did neither.

All four women have a gene that means they have an 87% chance of developing breast cancer. Removing their breasts reduces the chances to 5%. 

To read Regina's PD column about her reaction to Angelina's decision, click on  http://www.cleveland.com/brett/blog/index.ssf/2013/05/angelina_jolies_decision_to_ha.html

It wasn't mentioned by Regina or in Angelina stories, but it should be: 99% of women don't have the BRCA1 mutation that both women have. So breast removal is an unnecessary action for all but 1% of women.

To read about the 99%, click on http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/17/opinion/welch-jolie-mastectomy/?iref=obnetwork

Listen to Cathy Strong discuss essay cheating in colleges

Cathy Strong, 1970s Beacon Journal State Desk reporter on the faculty of Massey University in Wellington, New Zealand, discusses the rampant use of purchased essays written by others in college.

Cathy Strong

The Internet and digital technology make it easy to cheat.

Cathy discusses her proactive techniques for ferreting out the cheaters in a New Zealand radio interview. 

One flaw for catching culprits in New Zealand, where the writing is British: If the purchased essay is written by an American, then it’s obvious because of such spelling as “color” instead of “colour.”

To listen to Cathy’s radio interview, click on http://www.facebook.com/l/eAQFPCvEy/podcast.radionz.co.nz/ntn/ntn-20130514-0910-cheating_in_the_university_system-048.mp3

Jim Carney's Mother's Day tribute to his mom

Beacon Journal reporter Jim Carney posted this Mother's Day tribute to his mom on his Facebook page:

A few words about my Mom.

Her name officially was Willie Madge Slate. She was born in AprIl 1922 in Honaker, Virginia. Her Dad died when she was seven and the family was split apart with brothers Carl, Ralph and Brack going to live with an uncle in Maryland, her little brother living with Uncle Dot Slate, and she and her sister Gladys living with their mother, Sophia Slate.

She went to nursing school in nearby Bluefield (West Virginia), and joined the Army as a nurse, where she met my Dad, Bill. They married and had three kids -- Patsy,  Ralph and me.

Willie Slate Carney

She was a funny woman who had a terrific laugh. She stayed home with the kids till 1966 when she went back to work at Rockynol. She was great at basketball and cooking things like Swiss steak and liver and onions. She liked to have a smoke and a Scotch and water and sweet tea on the front stoop in the summer.

She cried at John Denver's “Country Roads” and wrote poetry when no one was around. She and my Dad would get weepy after a few drinks when their kids were all gone as they listened to Randy Newman on vinyl.

She loved her grandsons and had a special drawer where she kept her candy for them. She had a faulty thermostat and fans on all summer, even while the AC was running. She didn’t learn to drive till she was past 40. She loved her soaps when we were kids and made us lunch every day when we walked home from King School. She loved looking at birds and babysitting her little grandsons.

She was devastated when Patsy was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer and died two years and two months before Patsy in February 1995.

As time has passed, the joy of her love and presence has only grown, even as memories fade. I plan to listen to “Country Roads” on the way to the cemetery today.

God bless all mothers of all time.

“Country Roads” has become the unofficial state song of West Virginia. It is sung in Mountaineer Field and elsewhere after every West Virginia University sports victory. Transplanted West Virginians sing it in bars all over this country.

The city council of Bluefield, West Virginia, where Jim’s mom went to nursing school, is leading a push to make “Country Roads” the fourth official state song, joining “The West Virginia Hills” by Ellen Ruddell King and Henry Everett Engle in 1885, “West Virginia, My Home Sweet Home” by Col. Julian G. Hearne, Jr. in 1947 and “This Is My West Virginia” by Iris Bell in 1962.

3 make it to May BJ retirees lunch

There were three people at the monthly BJ retirees lunch at Papa Joe’s Restaurant at Akron/Peninsula Road and Portage Trail Extension May 8. The lunches are at 1 p.m. the second Wednesday of each month.

A report on the May lunch by Advertising Art retiree Mike Williams (BJ 1968-2012), fresh from trips to Ecuador and the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Carl Nelson and Al Hunsicker from Composing were there this month. Plus me.

Mike Williams

Carl had his camera, took a photo of me with Al.  I had talked about sharing some photos via email with him, but Carl said he and his wife have an ancient computer that he hardly uses.  Will try to reach him to see if he can get a copy of the photo he took to you.

Shared some reminiscences of times past.  I kidded Carl about being a go-between when his daughter sold me a skunk -- yes, a skunk -- in 1978.  Rosebud the skunk had great fun with Jane and me for a couple of years until our first born became ambulatory, though our cat Gilda held a more jaundiced view.

It was fun watching these two old friends -- Carl, who retired in 1991 and Al, who retired in 1998 -- gently poke fun at each other, and bring me into their circle. The two of them have been regulars at the Wednesday lunches since the beginning. They'd love to see more attendance there.

No, I haven't made any trips since Ecuador this year, but for a quick trip to the Outer Banks to see my nephew Eric Chima get married.

-- Mike Williams

The Outer Banks are a 200-mile long string of barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina and a small part of Virginia. It’s where the Wright brothers accomplished man’s first flight on Kill Devil Hills off Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Mike and wife Jane have two sons. Eric Chima is the son of Mike's sister, Cindy Williams Chima, who writes fiction novels for young adults.  Cindy worked in the BJ classified phone room in the 1970s.

Why no BJ staff coverage of Cleveland captives case?

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      C O M M E N T A R Y
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BY JOHN OLESKY (BJ 1969-96)

The biggest news story in years in Northeast Ohio, which happened 40 miles north of the Beacon Journal's building, had no BJ reporter or photographer covering it.

CNN has been all over it. Cleveland TV stations are all providing wall-to-wall coverage, and have extended their normal newscast hours to do it. The Plain Dealer has extensive articles about it. 

But the BJ has been using Associated Press and New York Times articles to cover this tremendous event in its back yard. There were no articles by staff reporters. There were no photos by staff photographers. Even the editorial cartoon about the house of horrors and the Cleveland Police dispatcher in the BJ was by an outside editorial cartoonist.

Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight got no more coverage from the BJ staff than if the decade of imprisonment and rape happened in California or Nebraska or Maine.

This is a newspaper that won four Pulitzers, journalism's highest award, for its reporting. Newspaper staffs, including at the BJ, have been decimated. Travel costs are examined closely. 

But it's sad to see it come to this: Failure to staff a story that has rocked the nation, even though it's just up I-77 from Akron. 

I asked BJ management for comment, and promised to run its explanation verbatim. I'm still waiting.

 BJ newsroom retiree Tom Moore emailed this response to my commentary: 

John

Hey, that's the pattern these days. Look at the Chardon shootings. No local coverage. 

As far as this old newsman is concerned, journalism is really in toilet here. They've got the talent but nobody wants to spend the necessary dollars.

Tom

1,859 jobs eliminated since 2012

 It's another bleak week for the New York media industry, as layoffs and buyouts hit three of the city's newspapers. Two editors quit the Village Voice on Thursday after being instructed to cut five people. That came on the same morning that the New York Post announced it would reduce its newsroom staff, and the New York Daily News planned its second round of layoffs in two days.

 Editors Will Bourne and Jessica Lustig chose to resign from the Village Voice rather than oversee a round of layoffs, the New York Times' David Carr reported Thursday. They had been instructed to eliminate five positions from a 20 person staff. 

"I have enormous respect for the staff here and the work they have been doing and I am not going to preside over further layoffs," Bourne told the Times. 

 Meanwhile, The Daily News planned a second round of cuts for Thursday — just one day after eliminated an estimated 15 positions. Capital New York reported Thursday that editor Colin Myler attributed the cuts to a "restructuring" of the paper's digital side. Over at the Post, editor Col Allan announced that the paper is offering voluntary buyouts in order to shrink the newsroom by ten percent. Capital New York reported Thursday that Allan hinted at layoffs if not enough people take buyouts, saying that the paper could reach its goal through "other measures if necessary."
 
The cuts come as News Corp. prepares to separate its newspapers and book publishers from its entertainment properties. The move could weaken the publishing properties, which will no longer have the cash flow of News Corp.'s film and television studios and Fox News to fall back on. 

 The journalism industry, unfortunately, is no stranger to dizzying rounds of cuts. The 2012 holiday season, for example, saw layoffs and buyouts announced at the Times, Newsweek, the Cleveland Pain Dealer and the Guardian, as well as the shuttering of the Daily. Paper Cuts, a website that tracks newspaper layoffs, estimates that 1,859 jobs have been eliminated since 2012.

John Dunphy cancer update

John with brother Steve

DUNPHY cancer update May 8: 
Here I am at USC Keck center waiting an endoscopy, the final look at the tumor before surgery. With me is my brother, Steve from Seattle and Flat Stanley, a project my young grandson is doing to see how man places Flat Stanley can go and be photographed. One more chemo session on Thursday and then I will "detox" for a few weeks: Big surgery date is June 5: — with Steve Dunphy

[post on facebook]

John Dunphy recalls his coverage of 1970 Kent State shootings

Former BJ reporter John Dunphy and brother Steve Dunphy were reunited Sunday, May 5 in Lakewood, California. But it was May 4 that was on John’s mind the most.

On his Facebook page, John recalls his days of covering the aftermath of the May 4, 1970 Ohio National Guard shooting that killed four and wounded nine Kent State students:

John Dunphy (left), brother Steve Dunphy

“May 4 is the 43rd anniversary of the Kent State shootings. I was assigned to Kent in October 1970 a few months after the shooting for the Akron Beacon Journal. I spent more than 7 years full-time covering all the investigations and trials. Hard to believe it's been that long.”

John performed his task under the vigilant and passionate whip of the late Pat Englehart, who was switched from his State Desk Editor role to direct the BJ’s Kent State coverage. One result was a Pulitzer Prize for the BJ.

Janis Froelich, another former BJ reporter, added on John’s Facebook page:

“You really were all over that story -- and the newspaper won a Pulitzer although tears were all over that prize.”

Jeff Sallot, on the faculty of the Carleton University School of Journalism and Communication after a long career at the Toronto Globe and Mail,  and the late Terry Oblander also had significant roles in the BJ’s coverage.

So did the late Ray Redmond. The Portage County district attorney trusted the quiet-spoken Ray so much that he walked out of the room, leaving the FBI report critical of the Ohio National Guard on his desk for Ray to read and take notes which he turned over to Englehart and his minions to explode onto the media world.

Ray was the Portage County BJ bureau chief, but he came up with the hottest scoop of the coverage because of the way he conducted himself with Portage County officials throughout his BJ career.

Dunphy is dealing with Stage 3 esophageal cancer in a remarkably upbeat and humorous way.

Catching up with . . . Connie Bloom

Former Beacon Journal features department editor/columnist Connie Bloom continues to have an interesting career as an art quilts guru. It’s a talent described as creating fiber art that looks like paintings.

Connie has a 350 square foot studio as the resident quiltmaker in Summit Artspace on the third floor at 140 E. Market Street. It’s next door to the Akron Art Museum.

Her phone number is (330) 472-0161. Or you can email her at connie@conniebloom.com

Connie Bloom with
a quilt art piece

You also can visit Connie’s studio the first weekend of every month during Artwalk, which is 5-10 p.m. Saturday and noon-4 p.m. Sunday. There’s art for sale, snacks and free rides from Lolly the Trolley to all the studios in the art district.

Connie moved a few years ago from her Red Light Galleries, 111 N. Main Street, next door to Luigi’s.

She is publisher/editor of QSDS (Quilt Service Design Symposium), a quarterly online magazine about fabric art.

She married Bob Shields in 2008. They have been together for more than a decade. 

Connie once was married to former BJ Beacon magazine, Miami Herald Tropic and Hartford, Connecticut Courant magazine editor Lary Bloom, who taught writing at Trinity College for years. Lary is with CPTV/WNPR, the Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network, and lives in Chester, Connecticut. 

Former Garfield High majorette Connie has done art quilts for BJ reporter Kim McMahan, a memorial for Kim’s late daughter Brooke McMahan, and for Maura McEnaney, who gave it to her husband, former BJ sports department honcho Ken Krause, for Christmas. Ken and Maura live in Medford, Massachussetts.

Summit Artspace has exhibited works of past and current BJ artists Chuck Ayers, John Backderf, Art Krummel, Dennis Balogh, Kathy Hagedorn and Brian Shellito.

Connie was part of the 2008 BJ exodus that saw more than 400 years of experience walk out the door. Others included copy editors Charles Montague and Betsy Lammderding, reporter Tracy Wheeler, sportswriter Brian Windhorst, photographers Ken Love and Lew Stamp, librarian Diane Leeders, line-drawer/photographer Ted Schneider and artist Dennis Earlenbaugh, .

It was the beginning of a decimation that reduced the BJ staff to one floor – the third – and kick-started attempts to rent out the first and second floors and the mezzanine to other businesses.

City refused gangs map; Toledo reporter came up with it on her own

When the city of Toledo’s authorities refused to release a map showing territories controlled by gangs, Toledo Blade reporter Taylor Dungjen rounded up the information, one person at a time, and had the Blade art department draw the map to go with her series on gangs in Toledo.

Last June, nine people were shot in a handful of incidents. That prompted the request for a gangs map and the Blade series on gangs in the city just across the Ohio-Michigan border from Detroit.

To read the full article, click on http://www.poynter.org/how-tos/newsgathering-storytelling/212284/when-the-police-refused-to-release-a-gang-map-crime-reporter-drew-her-own/

Journalists deadly targets in Syria

Journalists have become targets during the revolt in Syria against the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Agence France-Presse and Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders put the total at 23 since March 2011.

American Marie Colvin, 56, working for the Sunday Times, was killed by Syrian Army mortar.  

An additional 60 “citizen journalists” have been killed. Click on http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130502/journalists-who-have-died-syria-war

to see the list.

Among those listed as missing are Agence France-Presse and GlobalPost freelance journalist James Foley and McClatchy and Washington Post freelancer Austin Tice.

Click on http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/212510/james-foley-likely-being-held-with-one-or-more-western-journalists-in-syria/

to read the entire article on Foley and Tice.

Attack today; gone tomorrow

Daily Beast writer Howard Kurtz went after the Sports Illustrated story about NBA player Jason Collins publicly announcing that he was gay. The next day the Beast and Kurtz have “parted company,” Beast editor in chief Tina Brown announced.

To read two stories, click on http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/212428/daily-beast-and-howard-kurtz-have-parted-company/

And, this one tracing Kurtz’ false statements, click on  

http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/05/daily-beast-drops-howie-kurtz-163130.html

Newspapers continue to lose readers

U.S. newspapers continue to lose readers, but digital subscription growth is muddling the task of counting circulation, says industry circulation tracker Alliance for Audited Media in its latest six-month report.

Average daily circulation slipped 0.7% for the six months ending March 31 vs. the period a year ago for the 593 U.S. newspapers reporting comparable averages for print and digital subscriptions, says AAM. Sunday circulation for the 519 newspapers reporting comparable data was down 1.4%. The report is issued every six months and is widely accepted as the standard for the newspaper industry.

Four of the 10 largest newspapers in average circulation — USA TODAY, New York Daily News, New York Post and The Washington Post — reported declines.

The 7.9% decline at USA TODAY — to 1.67 million — allowed it to be overtaken as the second-largest newspaper by TheNew York Times, which reported a 17.6% increase to 1.87 million.

The nation's largest newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, also reported a circulation increase — 12.3% to 2.38 million.

[Source: USA TODAY)

Pam McCarthy at Black Keys concert in Pittsburgh tonight

• 

  Pam McCarthy

  Former BJ State Desk reporter Pam McCarthy, who retired from North Canton's Hoover High School after decades of teaching journalism, will be in the Pittsburgh audience tonight for a Black Keys concert by BJ reporter Jim Carney's son, Patrick Carney, and Dan Auerbach.

  
  

  Says Pam about the Mother's Day present from her daughter, Kate: "My first rock concert in 40 years!"

  
  

  As for the Black Keys, they will move on to concerts in Atlanta, Nashville, Memphis, New Orleans, Napa Valley and Irvine, California, Ottawa and Quebec, Canada, Raleigh, Greenville, South Carolina and Louisville. And that only takes them through July 13.

  
  

  
  

  
  

BJ pension plan at 85.31% of liabilities at end of 2012

The Beacon Journal's assets for funding the employees' retirement plan at the end of 2012 was at 85.31 percent of the plan's liabilities, according to the annual funding notice provided to BJ retirees.

That's up from the 75.49 percent of 2011 but down from the 86.56 percent of 2010. 

The plan had almost $44.1 million in assets for 2012, compared to almost $41.8 million in 2011 and almost $46 million in 2010. Mutual funds make up 42.65 percent of the assets, which helps explain the rise and fall nature of the yearly totals. 

There are 337 current BJ retirees affected by the plan. Another 193 are entitled to future benefits. The other 158 are active participants.

Why is 1 death a bigger deal than 15 deaths?

Former BJ sports editor Tom Giffen, retired artist Art Krummel and former BJ assistant managing editor (and PD honcho for a while) Stuart Warner bring up an interesting point in their Facebook discussion of how the media treats different events, well, differently.

Tom started it off with: “The media's overall comparable indifference to the deaths of 15 first responders in the West, Texas, fertilizer plant explosion. Everyone knows the name of the campus policeman killed in Boston, but who can name one person killed in Texas (without looking it up)? I guess a fertilizer plant explosion just isn't very sexy in the overall scheme of things."

Stuart chimes in: “The fertilizer plant would have been very sexy if it had been in Manhattan.”

Tom also was unhappy that former New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow’s open expression of his religion and faith is the cause of ridicule.

Art’s thoughts: “Tom, I've been thinking the same thing about Tebow. Belittled and snickered at for expressing his faith. Yet ‘killer’ linebackers are cheered from shore to shore.”

Art may have in mind Ray Lewis, former Baltimore Ravens linebacker, who was involved in a 2000 fight that resulted in indictments for murder and aggravated assault. He was allowed to plead guilty to obstruction of justice in return for testifying against two others involved in the killing – the two who rode away from the crime scene with Lewis in his limo after the two stabbing deaths outside an Atlanta night club with a knife that had Lewis’ name on the receipt as the purchaser.

If you have an opinion about how the media treats some deaths so differently than others, click on the “Comments” at the end of this article and let us know how you feel.  

Wilma Smith's final signoff May 22.

WJW (Channel 8) news anchor Wilma Smith – born Wilma Pokorny in Garfield Heights -- will end her 35-year Cleveland broadcast career May 22.

Smith, who won 10 local Emmys, will spend more time with her husband, Tom Gerber. She began her Cleveland broadcast career in 1977 on WEWS (Channel 5), moved . to Channel 8 in 1994.

At Bowling Green State University, she was an undergraduate double major in speech and English, and got a master's in broadcast journalism. She began her TV career in 1972 at WXEX in Richmond, Va.

For Mark Dawidziak’s story, click on http://www.cleveland.com/tv-blog/index.ssf/2013/04/wilma_smith_ends_her_35-year_cleveland_broadcast_career_on_may_22.html#incart_river#incart_m-rpt-2

Tiptoeing through Twitter trap

People who work in the media should be careful about which Twitter lists have their names on them, particularly if they want to avoid the appearance of not being objective about sizzling topics.

Often, media folks are put on Twitter lists by someone other than themselves. They have to remove themselves from any Twitter lists that might bite them in the butt later. 

That’s the advice from columnist/humorist Nina Diamond.

Click on http://www.poynter.org/how-tos/digital-strategies/211540/how-journalists-can-remove-themselves-from-twitter-lists-why-it-matters/ to read her entire article.

Downing's future columns

From BJ outdoors writer Bob Downing's Facebook page:

travel plans changed...too cold to camp in west virginia...had an ohio day with three nature preserve visits for upcoming travel columns: a bald eagle by the sandusky river, giant burr oaks in prairie in crawford county and glades of marsh marigolds in richland county.