Dawidziak busy as the Dickens for the holidays

    

     If it’s the holiday season then Plain Dealer TV critic and former Beacon Journal TV critic Mark Dawidziak is performing  Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” with Mark dressed as Dickens.

    Mark’s schedule ("A Christmas Carol" at Zoar, "A Visit With Charles Dickens" at the other venues):

   1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 1, United Church of Christ, 142 E. Fifth Street, in Zoar.

   7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 6, Wayne County Library, Wooster
   2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8, Rodman Public Library, Alliance
   7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 13, Canton, MICHIGAN Public Library near Ann Arbor

   1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 15, College Club of Akron, Akron Woman's City Club, Akron

    This year marks the 200^th anniversary of Charles Dickens’ birth.

Mark has been playing Dickens for more than 10 years and is a member of the Cleveland chapter of the International Dickens Fellowship.

The Largely Literary Theater Company was founded by Mark and wife Sara Showman in 2001. They live in Cuyahoga Falls with daughter Becky.

Mark and friends also do Mark Twain – Dawidziak is a dead ringer for Samuel Langhorne Clemens with less and less makeup needed as our Mark’s hair turns as white as Hannibal, MO’s Mark – and Edgar Allan Poe thrillers. 

Dawidziak first portrayed Twain in one-man shows during the early 1980s in Tennessee and Virginia before he began working for the BJ and long before he joined the parade of Beacon reporters and editors who left Akron for Cleveland.

All aboard! Family style

Tom Moore with daughter Kathy in Polar Express outfits

BJ newsroom retiree Tom Moore has climbed aboard the Polar Express again, and this time he has his daughter Kathy with him.  

Kathy lives in Cuyahoga Falls after retiring from the Environmental Protection Agency with 35 years of service. She began her “career” as a copy girl in the BJ newsroom.

Hopefully Tom won’t fall face-first from the train the way he did in January. That was not a pretty picture in the BJ Alums blog.

You can board the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad’s Polar Express at 7900 Old Rockside Road in Independence, 1630 Mill Street in Peninsula and 27 Ridge Road in Akron.

The Express operates only on weekends at this time of the year and most trips are sold out. You can try your luck at (800) 468-4070.

Lawsuit Rx co-pay cards arriving in mail

The $2 Guild retirees and $5 retired printers prescription co-pay cards are arriving in the mail for the 50 people who will benefit from the successful healthcare lawsuit against the Beacon Journal.  Medical Mutual of Ohio is handling the prescription co-pays.

United Healthcare will handle the AARP Medical Supplement Plan N, which will restore printer and Guild retirees to their retirement-day medical coverage.

Both restored prescription and medical coverage will begin Jan. 1, 2013.

To give you an idea of the savings for the BJ retirees, John Olesky paid $2,857.87 this year under Aetna’s prescription coverage through the BJ, but would have paid $104 under the $2 co-pay, a difference of $2,753.87. 

Much of the cost for Olesky came after he hit the donut hole, when the total prescription cost for the BJ and its retirees  exceeded a specified annual limit. Once in the donut hole, Olesky had to pay 100% of brand-name prescription costs, some of which were in the neighborhood of $300. 

There is no donut hole for retired printers and Guild retirees who won their lawsuit against the BJ.

As for medical costs, Olesky paid $1,285.83 in 2012, but would have paid about $600 under Plan N for a difference of $685.83. 

And this was a down year for Olesky in medical costs. He averaged paying $3,407.78 per year for the 2005-2012 period covered by the reimbursement agreement.

BJ Settlement Administrator Roger Wettmore is handling the reimbursement claims for extra medical and prescription expenses from a $100,000 fund.  If the total exceeds  $100,000, which is not expected, then the reimbursements would be pro-rated. 

Those checks have not been received yet.

Forty-five retired printers and their spouses are eligible. 

They are Dave and Gina White, of Venice, Florida, who began  the lawsuit on behalf of the printers; Sid Sprague, Loveland, Colorado; Hugh and Sharon Downing, The Villages, Florida; Isabel Watson, Naples, Florida; Janice Hogg, Waynesville, North Carolina; Bob and Linda Abbott, Massillon; Russ and Martel Bendel, Wadsworth; Lloyd and Claudine Bigelow, Cuyahoga Falls; Joe Catalano, Akron; Eunice and Bonnie Collins, Copley; John Costello, Akron; Richard and Patricia Fair, Akron; Larnie and Stephanie Greene, Hartville; Dick Gresock, Medina; Marjorie Hanna, Wadsworth; Ed Hanzel, Barberton; Henry and Kathleen Heinbuck, North Canton; Bob Kendall, Berlin Center; Harriet Ledbetter, Canton; Norm and Naomi Mattern, Wellsville; Charles O’Neill, Akron; Denzil Parker, Wadsworth; Fred Pollack, Akron; Francis and Rita Reeves, Akron; Don Reppart, North Canton; Ron Sanderlin, Canton; Cecil and Josephine Santaferro, Akron; Charles Stadelman, Tallmadge; Bob Walker, Medina; Ray and Amaryllis Wolfe, Greentown, and Ruth and Tom West, Rittman.

Five Guild retirees and a spouse are eligible for the settlement, which depended on the wording in retirement letters. 

They are John Olesky, of Tallmadge, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Guild retirees; Dick McBane, Lilburn, Georgia; Harold and Elizabeth Bailey, Kent; and Don Roese, Cuyahoga Falls.

anHanH

John Dunphy health situation

Former Beacon Journal reporter John Dunphy had a PET (positron emission tomography) scan today, which uses a radioactive substance to look for disease in the body. He will have a brain MRI on Sunday.

John will review the results with his oncologist Monday.

Says John on his Facebook page: “We’re off and running folks!”

John and wife Rebecca Allen live in Lakewood, California. 

He was laid off from the Orange County Register in California earlier this year. John also worked for newspapers in Kansas City, Detroit and Seattle. He is one of nine children of the late Angela and Harry Dunphy of Cincinnati.

Paris trip photos

By John Olesky (BJ 1969-96)

If you want to see photos & explanations of the week-long 8^th anniversary trip to Paris by John Olesky and Paula Tucker, who worked together on Pat Englehart's State Desk in the 1970s, click on https://picasaweb.google.com/115483244393507838338/Paris2012Trip#

What about YOU? If you have jpeg photos of a recent trip to foreign countries with you and family in the photos, with details about your experiences there, email them to jo4wvu@neo.rr.com and I’ll compile them in an online album for BJ readers to see. If you have only one or two photos then I’ll just post them on the BJ Alums blog.

Also, what countries have you visited in your lifetime? Maybe I can put together a list of all the countries visited by BJ alumni with your name attached to each country you visited. 

I’ve been to 50 countries since my 1996 retirement from the BJ. I suspect other BJ alumni have visited even more nations.

Phishing expedition ensnares Jeff Sallot

Former Beacon Journal reporter Jeff Sallot, who was involved in the Beacon Journal’s Pulitzer-winning coverage of the 1970 Kent State shootings by the Ohio National Guard long before he retired from the Toronto Globe, got entangled in a phishing foray. So he warned everyone in his email list about it.

Jeff’s email:

Hello,

This is a mass email to all the people in my contacts list in my email. First, sorry for the mass mailing. But I'm especially sorry that some of you already have received phony twitter messages purporting to be from me, saying somebody is spreading gossip about you. You are asked to click on a link. This is a sophisticated phishing operation and whoever is behind it is looking for passwords. If you've already clicked through and entered a password for anything change it right away. If you haven't received a twitter message like this from me - or anyone else for that matter - you may yet see one. I got caught when I got a twitter message like this from a former boss at the Globe a few days ago.

To read more about the phishing tactics, click on http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/nov/08/twitter-warns-hack-password-reset

If you want to renew acquaintances with Jeff, his cellphone number in Canada is 613 668-6412.

Jeff also runs a website -- reportinglab.com -- designed by journalism educators at Ottawa's Carleton University, where Jeff is on the faculty, that links to stories about news events around the world.  

Myths about Obamacare

MYTH 1: The new law cuts Medicare drastically, so I won't be able to get quality health care.

The Affordable Care Act prohibits cuts to guaranteed Medicare benefits. Provisions to help curb the soaring costs of Medicare include taxing high-premium plans (beginning in  2018), cracking down on fraud and waste, and preventive care to avert chronic conditions like heart disease and diabetes, which cost billions. 

By 2020 the law closes the Medicare Part D prescription drug "doughnut hole," in which Medicare beneficiaries pay full price for prescription drugs after exceeding a dollar limit each year. There will be ever-increasing discounts till 2020.

MYTH 2: Medicare Advantage plans will be cut or taken away.

The Affordable Care Act, referred to as Obamacare by critics, does not eliminate Medicare Advantage plans, which are privately administered but cost taxpayers 14 percent more per enrollee than the traditional Medicare program. 

MYTH 3: I'll have to wait longer to see my doctor — or I won't be able to see my doctor at all.

"If your current plan allows you to see any physician in the plan, nothing will change," says Shana Alex Lavarreda,  director of health insurance studies at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

MYTH 4: If I have Medicare, I will need to get more or different insurance.

Stuart Guterman, vice president of the Commonwealth Fund, said "Medicare beneficiaries will continue to have Medicare, and there's no requirement that they get additional coverage beyond what they already have."

To read the full article by Beth Howard in the September 2012 AARP The Magazine, click on http://www.aarp.org/health/health-insurance/info-09-2012/medicare-and-health-care-reform-myths.html

Old folks learning new digital tricks

Senior citizens are getting with it when it comes to digital technology.

-- 60% of Internet users 65 or older get their news online, according to Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. They no longer wait for the morning newspaper or even the 6 o’clock TV news or top-of-the-hour radio reports.

-- 58% go online to research medical information. If you’re Medicare age, you have a lot of need for that info.

-- More than two-thirds research products online before buying. And more than half have bought products online.

Senior citizens no longer depend on pre-teen family members to use the computer for them. It seems the children and grandchildren have been easing we old geezers into the Internet age, including Facebook.

Rainie’s article appears in the November 2012 AARP Bulletin.

Mark's Mark in Niles on Saturday

Cleveland Plain Dealer and former Beacon Journal television critic Mark Dawidziak will be taking his “A Visit with Mark Twain” road show to Niles' McKinley Memorial Auditorium Saturday at 1 p.m. 

Mark has done this one-man show at a variety of Northeast Ohio locations over the years.

Mark Dawidziak as Mark Twain

He first portrayed Twain during the 1980s in Tennessee and Virginia before he began working for the Beacon Journal.

Mark will perform solo this time, but he has done "Twain by Three" often with his wife, Sara Showman, and Jason Davis, an Akron native who lives in Fairlawn Heights.

Mark and Sara’s Largely Literary Theater Company, founded in 2001, also does shows centered on Charles Dickens and Edgar Allan Poe. Their first performance of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” was given in 2002 in Taylor Memorial Library in Cuyahoga Falls.

Mark has written many non-fiction books, a novel, short stories and several plays, and teaches the Reviewing Film and Television course at Kent State University.

Mark Twain’s birth name was Samuel Clemens. He was an author, river boat pilot and humorist. "Huckleberry Finn" was one of his most famous books.

Acting CIA director's Falls roots

So, who is acting CIA director Michael Morell, other than just a Cuyahoga Falls native?

Michael Morell

Well, before he joined the CIA in 1980 and became an expert on Asian affairs, Morell was a St. Joseph’s School student in Cuyahoga Falls through eighth grade, then went to Roberts Junior High before his 1976 graduation from Cuyahoga Falls High. He rode his bike and played a lot of baseball growing up on Notre Dame Avenue.

Karen Gaone of Cuyahoga Falls is Mike’s only sibling.

Mike got a bachelor of arts degree in economics from the University of Akron and earned money as an usher at the old Richfield Coliseum, once home of the Cleveland Cavaliers. 

The CIA paid for his Georgetown University doctorate.

After Michael and Karen's mother, Irene, died in April 2005, their father, Joseph, moved in with Karen and her family. 

Morell lives in McLean, Va., which is where the CIA has its headquarters, with his wife, Mary Beth, a Michigan native, and their three children.

Kathy Berg, who lives in Cuyahoga Falls with husband Ed Berg, is Mike’s cousin.

In May 2010, Morell was sworn in as CIA Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, succeeding Stephen Kappes.  On July 1, 2011, Morell became the Acting Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Friday Morell got the same job after the resignation of David Petraeus, who confessed to having an affair.

To read more about Morrell in a 2008 Falls News Press article, click on http://fallsnewspress.com/news/article/3503622

Judge approves BJ healthcare lawsuits settlement

U.S. Federal District Court Judge David Dowd on Friday approved a settlement between the Akron Beacon Journal and Guild and Composing retirees over retirement-day healthcare benefits that the BJ changed later that could cost the newspaper millions of dollars.

 

Judge Dowd also approved turning over a check for $772,500 from the BJ’s liability insurance company  to the attorneys for Dave and Gina White, et al and John Olesky, et al to cover the plaintiffs’ expenses for the suits, which were filed in 2009 and 2010.

 

All that’s left is for BJ Settlement Administrator Roger Wettmore to handle the reimbursement claims for extra medical and prescription expenses caused by the Beacon’s shifts in coverage and Jan. 1 implementation of the restored coverage.

 

The $100,000 set aside for this purpose is expected to cover the payments, minus the $16,511 reimbursed for retired printers named in their lawsuit after a 2009 injunction by Judge Dowd. If not, the reimbursements would be pro-rated.

On Jan. 1, 2013 the printers and Guild retirees included in the settlement will revert to their $2 (Guild) and $5 (printers) co-pays for prescriptions and will be covered medically under Plan N, which should give the printers and Guild retirees coverage equal to or better than their retirement-day coverage. This will save some retirees thousands of dollars a year compared to the current BJ coverage under Aetna. 

 

Eligible retirees will be enrolled with United Healthcare for AARP Medicare Supplement Plan N and Medical Mutual of Ohio for the $2 and $5 prescription co-pays. The Beacon Journal will pay all the premiums.

Based on 2012 information, retirees will pay at least a $140 annual deductible for medical care although that could change upward in 2013.  

 

Dave and Gina White started this process by putting up $2,500 of their money. When John Olesky filed his lawsuit in 2010, that made Guild retirees also eligible for the settlement.

 

In addition to the Whites, the named plaintiffs are retired printers Hugh and Sharon Downing, Ruth and Tom West, Bob Abbott, Bob Walker, Larnie and Stephanie Greene, Ora and Shirley Thombs, Ray and Amy Wolfe and Norm and Naomi Mattern.

 

The process began in 2005 when Dave White and Siesta Key, Florida Island House Condominium owner Lou Smith, who had become friends, discussed the BJ reneging on healthcare coverage.

Smith referred White to Allen G. Anderson of his Smith & Johnson law firm in Traverse City, Michigan. Anderson got Chandra Law Firm of Cleveland involved because the plaintiffs needed Ohio representation.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs are the Chandra Law Firm under Subodh Chandra with lawsuit point-man Don Screen, and Anderson and Kenneth M. Petterson of Smith & Johnson in Traverse City. Screen, Anderson and Petterson were in Judge Dowd’s court Friday, with retired printer Ruth West and husband Tom West and John Olesky witnessing the historic settlement.

 

The Beacon had three attorneys, including Brett Bacon and Colleen C. Murnane, outside counsel from the Cleveland law firm of Frantz Ward, and Beacon Journal Settlement Administrator Roger Wettmore, who has been at the BJ for 32 years, at its table.

 

In early 2007, shortly after Canadian media mogul David Black's company acquired the Beacon Journal, the newspaper switched health-insurance plans and drastically reduced these retirees' benefits even more. 

 

The resentment built into the lawsuit filed in 2009. Later that year, Judge Dowd filed a temporary injunction requiring the BJ to restore $5 prescription benefits to retired printers named in the lawsuit.

 

Guild retirees eligible for the settlement, which depended on the wording in retirement letters, are Olesky, of Tallmadge; Dick McBane, Lilburn, Georgia; Harold and Elizabeth Bailey, Kent; and Don Roese, Cuyahoga Falls.

 

Retireed printers and spouses eligible are the Whites, of Venice, Florida; Sid Sprague, Loveland, Colorado; Hugh and Sharon Downing, The Villages, Florida; Isabel Watson, Naples, Florida; Janice Hogg, Waynesville, North Carolina;  Bob and Linda Abbott, Massillon; Russ and Martel Bendel, Wadsworth; Lloyd and Claudine Bigelow, Cuyahoga Falls; Joe Catalano, Akron; Eunice and Bonnie Collins, Copley; John Costello, Akron; Richard and Patricia Fair, Akron; Larnie and Stephanie Greene, Hartville; Dick Gresock, Medina; Marjorie Hanna, Wadsworth; Ed Hanzel, Barberton; Henry and Kathleen Heinbuck, North Canton; Bob Kendall, Berlin Center; Harriet Ledbetter, Canton; Norm and Naomi Mattern, Wellsville; Charles O’Neill, Akron; Denzil Parker, Wadsworth; Fred Pollack, Akron; Francis and Rita Reeves, Akron; Don Reppart, North Canton; Ron Sanderlin, Canton; Cecil and Josephine Santaferro, Akron; Charles Stadelman, Tallmadge; Bob Walker, Medina; Ray and Amaryllis Wolfe, Greentown, and Ruth and Tom West, Rittman.anHanH

Save the PD effort launches Sunday

 The people who find and report the news for the Plain Dealer are launching a campaign starting Sunday to preserve printing the paper seven days a week.

Local 1 of the Newspaper Guild has bought billboards, bus placards and on Sunday will launch a acebook page and petition website asking readers, advertisers and community leaders to reach out to the paper's owners to try and convince them Cleveland wants and needs a 7-day-a-week paper.

See the article

9th year for 2 former BJ Toms' project

Beacon Journal newsroom retiree Tom Moore is in his 9th year of publishing a daily newspaper for the Roy Hobbs Baseball World Series for older players run by former BJ sports editor Tom Giffen in Fort Myers, Florida, in October and November. 

The photo shows Giffen at a staff meeting and in consultation with Moore.

Moore writes stories for "The Inside Pitch," the newsletter published most days with game results and other stuff about the 200+ baseball teams of older players.

The series is divided into age divisions---youngest group is 28-plus and oldest is 70-plus.

Giffen, now 63, in 1990 formed a four-team league of adult men playing out of Akron. The next year the league grew to 11 teams and joined Roy Hobbs Baseball, which was owned by Ron Monks of California. In 1992 Monks sold Roy Hobbs Baseball to Giffen and his wife, Ellen.

For several years, Giffen ran Roy Hobbs Baseball out of his basement and continued to work at the Beacon Journal. In the mid-1990s, as the organization brought in more and more teams, Giffen resigned from the BJ to work fulltime at his business.

Roy Hobbs is the fictional hero of Bernard Malamud's novel, “The Natural,” and the movie starring Robert Redford as Hobbs.

New York Times, Guild reach agreement

The New York Times Company and the Newspaper Guild of New York have reached a conceptual agreement on a new five-year contract. The tentative compromise reached late today with the aid of a mediator is subject to ratification by Guild members. At the request of Mediator Martin Scheinman, details will not be released until language is finalized. The Guild Negotiating Committee has voted to support the settlement, which preserves a Defined Benefit Pension, protects the jointly trusteed medical plan, and includes increases in compensation. We will provide more information in coming days, and a ratification meeting will be scheduled in the near future.

See story

Tom Moore makes a baseball trade

Tom Moore is back for the ninth year on Tom Giffin's Roy Robbs World Series staff. 

"We have 218 teams this year, including one women's group from Japan," Tom reports. "And this year I traded in my former bodyguards for these two ladies...Meg and Kim."

Online revenue to overtake print

Digital media this year could exceed the $35.8 billion that U.S. print magazines and newspapers garnered in ad revenue in 2011.   

See report     

Lisa Abraham to speak at Author! Author! event

Beacon Journal food editor Lisa Abraham will be speaking November 14 at the Our Lady of Elms Author! Author! series. She is the author of Famous Chefs & Fabulous Recipes.

A native of Niles, Ohio, Lisa is a graduate of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. Abraham is the recipient of numerous writing and reporting awards and has been named best food columnist by the Association of Food Journalists and was twice named best lifestyle columnist in the Ohio Excellence in Journalism Awards.

  A newspaper writer in Ohio for more than twenty-five years, she previously worked for The Blade in Toledo and the Tribune Chronicle in Warren. Her work regularly appears in newspapers across the country through the McClatchy-Tribune news service. When she’s not working, Abraham can be found at home in her kitchen, cooking up food and fun with her husband, Richard Hart.

This fall marks the 26th season of Author! Author! at Our Lady 0f the Elms. In 1987  the Elms Alumnae Association inaugurated a three session book and author luncheon/lecture/signing series.  The program gave national and local authors the forum to speak to avid readers in the Akron area.

The series has hosted more than  120 well-known authors and has hosted an audience of more than  325 constituents per venue for years.  In addition the series has raised more than $450,000 in scholarship dollars for young women to receive an Elms education.  Scholarship dollars are raised through patron tickets, sponsorships, and book sales.

Event Schedule:
11:00 am Doors open, Books available for purchase
11:30 am Light buffet luncheon begins
12:20 pm Auditorium doors open
12:30 pm Author talk begins
1:45 pm Book signing am dessert

Get Ticket information

Newsweek to end print editions

Newsweek magazine, which will be 80 next year, will have its last printed edition Dec. 31, 2012. The octogenarian will be completely digital in 2013 as Newsweek Global.

IAC/Interactive Corp, Newsweek’s parent company, reported a $7.3 million quarterly loss from its media operations, which include Newsweek and The Daily Beast. Newsweek’s print advertising is in a freefall – down $334 million, or 70%, from 2007 to 2011.

Computer tablets have grown from 13 million to 70 million in just two years. Thirty-nine percent of Americans get their news from a digital source.

To read the entire article, click on  http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/18/news/companies/newsweek-print-edition/index.html

Connie Bloom art quilts on display

Former Beacon Journal editor/reporter/columnist Connie Bloom's art quilts are being featured through Oct. 27 in A Celebration of American Crafts show at the Don Drumm Studios and Gallery, 437 Crouse Street, around the corner from the University of Akron's Infocision Stadium.

Connie is a “textile artist,” meaning she puts together fabric that looks like paintings. She hand dyes, hand paints and hand prints much of her cloth.

 

Other stops for Connie next year are Heart of Ohio Quilt Guild in Newark, April 16-17; Talk & Trunk Show, Calico Hearts, in Ravenna, May 14; Talk & Trunk Show, North Coast Needlers, Rocky River, Aug. 13; and a pet portraits workshop in Rocky River, Aug. 17.

Connie’s shop is on the third floor of Summit Artspace, 140 E. Market Street, where her phone number is (330) 472-0161.

Reading of printed page plummets

In only a decade the percentage of Americans reading a printed newspaper has fallen from 41 percent to 23 percent, according to a Pew Research Center poll. More and more, we are reading our newspapers digitally rather than in print -- Internet, hand-held, etc. 

Book readings in print are down 8 percent and, for magazines, 7 percent since 2006.

While watching the news on television remains at 55 percent, only 34 percent of those younger than 30 watch (49 percent did in 2006).

To read the entire article, click on http://houston.cbslocal.com/2012/10/15/study-less-than-a-quarter-of-americans-read-newspapers/?shared=email&msg=fail

Jim Ricci's mother dies at 98

Former Beacon Journal reporter Jim Ricci's mother died. The email from Jim:

= = = = = = = = = = =

Fellas, I want you to know that my mother, Cecilia Ricci, died
yesterday at age 98.

She had a great run. Her decline began only a few
weeks ago, and she was under hospice care for only a few days.

Of course, we in the family are sad, but also grateful for the long, spirited life she had.

= = = = = = = = = = =

“Yesterday” was Friday, Oct. 12. Jim’s email to friends was forwarded to BJ Alums blog by former BJ reporter Bill Hershey (now with the Dayton Daily News).

Jim left the BJ for the Detroit Free Press, joining former BJ managing editor Scott Bosley as part of the “Akron Mafia” in the newsroom. 

Jim’s next stop was the Los Angeles Times, as a Pulitzer Prize finalist columnist till his 2008 retirement.

Jim has two daughters by first wife Kathy (they were married 30 years), Annie the opera singer and Laura the artist. He has a son and a daughter by his current companion, Carrie, a TV and film executive. 

Dawidziak is frightful again

Current Plain Dealer and former Beacon Journal television writer Mark Dawidziak and his wife, Sara Showman, are still frightening people. 

This time it’s “an evening of folk tales and true ghost stories” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 18 at the Nordonia Hills Branch of the Akron-Summit County Library at 9458 Olde Eight Road, Northfield.

Mark and Sara, who live in Cuyahoga Falls, have been presenting Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens and Mark Twain shows in the area for years. Sometimes they include daughter Becky.

Beth Hertz writes Medical Economics cover story

Beth Thomas Hertz wrote  the cover story for the latest issue of Medical Economics magazine discussing how primary care physician earnings remain flat.

Read the story

Traveling top retirees topic

Rosetta Blanton and cousin Lonnie Thomas are headed for Hopkinsville, Kentucky; Tom Moore is bound for Fort Myers, Florida; Tracy McClellan is hoping to return to Albuquerque, New Mexico; and John Olesky is preparing to fly to Paris, France.

All that came out of the conversation today at the monthly lunch for Beacon Journal retirees and their family members at Papa Joe’s Restaurant on Akron/Peninsula Road at Portage Trail Extension.

Rosetta Sholdar Blanton will be visiting her birthplace. Lonnie’s mother also was born in Hopkinsville. Rosetta’s mother and Lonnie’s mom were sisters and Hopkinsville natives. Rosetta’s husband, BJ engraving retiree Watson Blanton, died in 2009. 

Rosetta and Lonnie live near each other in the Merriman Road and Palisades areas of Akron.

Rosetta will be visiting her brother, who still lives in Hopkinsville.

Rosetta told how she sold the last of the 10 acres that her and husband Watson owned in Clearwater, Florida. The buyer kept upping the price because it was the last land left that hadn't been developed and built on in that area. Rosetta kept saying: "Can't you give me a little bit more?" The buyer did, again and again, so Rosetta got thousands of dollars more than the original offer.

BJ newsroom retiree Tom Moore will leave next week for former BJ Sports Editor Tom Giffen’s Roy Hobbs Baseball World Series for older guys in Fort Myers. The tournament, which has nearly 300 teams, lasts into November. Tom writes and publishes the daily newsletter for the players, plus whatever else Tom Giffen wants him to do. Giffen pays Moore for his skills and provides Moore with lodging.

Tracy McClellan, daughter of retired printer Gene McClellan, who died in March 2012, has sold Gene’s vintage cars and motorcycle but still is trying to dispose of the Mogadore home that Gene had. 

That’s where Tracy is living till she can settle pop’s affairs and return to her husband, Ken, in their Albuquerque home. They moved there while Tracy works on her law degree through the University of New Mexico.

Tracy’s sister, Erin, lives in California. Their brother, Dean, lives in Japan.

Newsroom retiree John and former State Desk reporter Paula will be flying to Paris for an Oct. 25-Nov. 2 stay (between WVU Mountaineer football games, of course), John’s 8^th anniversary present to Paula. While they’ve been to 50 countries together, it’s the first visit to Paris for John, unless you count a stop at Charles DeGaulle Airport on the way from Venice to New York City.

Retired printer Al Hunsicker also joined the lunch bunch.

The sextet provided the third-highest attendance at the monthly chat-and-chew events since August 2011.

BJ retirees, family and friends are welcome to join the party at 1 p.m. the second Wednesday of every month at Papa’s Joe Restaurant on Akron/Peninsula Road at Portage Trail Extension.

How does media stop plagiarism?

Mallary Jean Tenore in Poyntner.com writes about ways to prevent plagiarism at college newspapers and maybe in real-world newsrooms, too.

Penn State’s student newspaper The Daily Collegian, suspended a writer for plagiarizing and fabricating quotes by Sue Paterno, the widow of former coach Joe Paterno. This was the paper’s second plagiarism case this year. 

In September, Arizona State University’s State Press and Columbia University’s Daily Spectator both revealed that their students had plagiarized.

Problems include:

Taking information from another source, which may have plagiarized the information.

Relying heavily on source material rather than getting the information first-hand.

Quoting what a person says on TV.

Some colleges are requiring their student newspaper’s reporters to provide sourcing notes with their stories and then send out the story to the sources quoted asking if the quotes are accurate.

Some train their reporters about plagiarism, although plagiarized quotes were in stories written by reporters who had been trained.

Some use plagiarism-detecting software to see if identical or similar wording is used elsewhere on the Internet.

The author suggests that some of these tactics might be used in mainstream newsrooms, too. Plagiarized stories appeared in NPR, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Time, CNN and The Boston Globe.

To read the full story, click on http://www.poynter.org/how-tos/journalism-education/190754/10-ways-to-prevent-plagiarism-fabrication-at-college-newspapers-and-in-any-newsroom/

Attending lunch with Linda McElroy

Beacon Joural friends  attended a lunch at the Golden Corral on S.Arlington St. with Linda McElroy, Becon Circulation Accounting Department retiree who was in town from North Carolina. Atrtending the 11:30  lunch were Bob Craiglow and his wife, Pat, Mike Jewell and Janet Hall in the one photo.and Cheryl Sheinin, Linda, Martha (Cookie) Lipford and Noreen Dimmerling. Not in the photos but attending the luncheon were Mick Dimeff and Carol Eubank. 
(Photos and infro from Carol Eubank)

Joseph Kovach funeral Mass is Thursday

Joseph Anthony (Joe) Kovach died from the complications of Alzheimer's disease on September 27, 2012.

He was born June 21, 1956 in Akron, Ohio. Joe graduated from Garfield High School in 1974. He made his living as a journalist first working as a reporter for the Ashtabula Star Beacon. He came back to the Akron based Babcox Publications as a writer and eventually as editor of several of their magazines such as Import Car. He later moved to Michigan and was employed for 15 years by Crain Communications where he was an editor for Auto Week Magazine. As a writer, Joe loved words and loved to read. He was an avid sports fan with a special love for the Cleveland Indians. Joe will be missed by his family and friends.

He was preceded in death by his father, John (Yotz). He is survived by his mother, Mary; and sister, Cindy Kovach of Akron; brothers, Tom and John (Kris) Kovach; niece, Ava; and nephew, Sevi of Austin, Texas; and many cousins.

Joe's family is grateful for the people who cared for him during his illness including the therapists at Bath Manor, the staff at Arden Court especially his guardian angel Ren, and the staff at Hickory Ridge Nursing home. At the end, Joe received care and support from the staff at City Hospital's Acute Palliative Care Unit especially from his cousin and good buddy, Mike Klein; who is a nurse practitioner there.

Cremation has taken place. A Memorial Mass will be held on Wednesday, October 3, 2012 at 11 a.m. at St. Vincent Catholic Church, 164 W. Market St. in Akron. Fr. Joseph Kraker celebrant. Further interment will be private and held at the convenience of the family.

(Anthony, Akron, 330-724-1281, www.anthonyfh.com)
[Akron Beacon Journal, Akron, OH, Tuesday, October 2, 2012, page B5, col. 2]

Bored readers deserting newspapers

Everyone blames the Internet for newspapers’ plummeting bottom line, but a Journalism & Mass Communications Quarterly says the newspapers are the problem: They need more engaging and stimulating content.

Study authors Rachel Davis Mersey, Edward C. Malthouse and Bobby J. Calder suggested "a question of the day around a major, local or even barely known but interesting news story that runs on the front page and is designed to encourage conversation among readers and between readers and the newsroom."

Yesterday's newspaper models don't work in today's high-tech, quick-satisfaction world. 

To read the article, click on http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120927174912.htm#.UGmTI6dqErs.email