Lawsuit medical coverage cards arriving in the mail

Membership cards for United Healthcare AARP Medicare Supplement Plan N, which will restore printer and Guild retirees to their approximate retirement-day medical coverage, are arriving in the mail for the 50 people who will benefit from the successful healthcare lawsuit against the Beacon Journal.

The $2 and $5 co-pay cards from Medical Mutual of Ohio, which will be handling the prescriptions, arrived earlier.  

Both prescription and medical coverage will be restored to approximate retirement-day levels, beginning Jan. 1, 2013.

As an example of how much the 50 retirees may benefit:

Olesky paid $1,285.83 for his medical costs in 2012, but would have paid about $600 under Plan N for a difference of $685.83. If Olesky hit his average of paying $3,407.78 per year in medical costs for the 2005-2012 period covered by the reimbursement agreement, he would save about $2,800 a year in medical costs to go with the projected $2,700 in savings from the $2 prescription co-pay card for a combined projected total of about $5,500. Others benefitting from the lawsuit may save even more.

BJ Settlement Administrator Roger Messmore, who has been at the Beacon for 32 years in Human Resources, 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; Bob and Linda Abbott, Massillon (Bob pursued relief informally on his own before he joined the Whites’ lawsuit); Ruth and Tom West, Rittman; Hugh and Sharon Downing, The Villages, Florida; Larnie and Stephanie Greene, Hartville; Joe Catalano, Akron; Lloyd and Claudine Bigelow, Cuyahoga Falls; John Costello, Akron; Dick Gresock, Medina; Henry and Kathleen Heinbuck, North Canton; Denzil Parker, Wadsworth; Francis and Rita Reeves, Akron; Bob Walker, Medina; Cecil and Josephine Santaferro, Akron; Sid Sprague, Loveland, Colorado; Isabel Watson (Blanton’s widow), Naples, Florida; Janice Hogg (Trammel’s widow), Waynesville, North Carolina; Russ and Martel Bendel, Wadsworth; Eunice and Bonnie Collins, Copley; Richard and Patricia Fair, Akron; Marjorie Hanna, Wadsworth; Ed Hanzel, Barberton; Bob Kendall, Berlin Center; Harriet Ledbetter, Canton; Norm and Naomi Mattern, Wellsville; Charles O’Neill, Akron; Fred Pollack, Akron; Don Reppart, North Canton; Ron Sanderlin, Canton; Charles Stadelman, Tallmadge; and Ray and Amaryllis Wolfe, Greentown.

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 in 2009; retired reporter Dick McBane, Lilburn, Georgia; maintenance retiree Harold Bailey and wife Elizabeth, Kent; copy desk retiree Dick McLinden, North Canton, and retired photographer Don Roese, Cuyahoga Falls.

U.S. Federal District Court Judge David Dowd approved the settlement Nov. 9.

In early 2007, shortly after Canadian media mogul David Black's Black Press acquired the Beacon Journal, the newspaper switched healthcare coverage plans and drastically reduced these retirees' benefits. 

That sparked a reaction among Guild and printer retirees that led to the successful lawsuits. 

Tom Marvin: Guitar man keeps travelin' on

Tom Marvin (right), brother-in-law Bob Lecraft

By John Olesky (BJ 1969-96)

Former Beacon Journal photographer Tom Marvin is king of the road.

Tom and wife Kay finished a 3,000-mile autumn trip along the Gulf Coast and up through Appalachia last month before parking their 6-month-old camper on their Guernsey County farm in southern Ohio.

Before that, they spent 6 months and covered 10,000 miles in a truckbed camper, most of it in Alaska, which is familiar territory to another retired BJ photographer, Don Roese, who lives in Cuyahoga Falls. 

The Marvins sold the truckbed  camper, thinking their camping days were over, but decided to buy the trailer camper they used for their trip south.

They’ll have to leave the trailer behind next September, though, when they fly to Hawaii for their 25^th wedding anniversary, which is Oct. 1.

Speaking of Don Roese, Tom and Don and their wives took a trip through the Panama Canal together not that many years ago.

Don and wife Maryann are planning a trip to New Zealand, where 1970s BJ reporter Cathy Strong is a university  journalism guru. 

Paula and I will be meeting Cathy in New Zealand during our March 12-April 2 New Zealand/Australia trip next year.

Tom Marvin says he still has a sheepskin rug, a gift from Cathy.

The photo of Tom shows him with Bob Lecraft, husband of Tom’s wife Kay’s sister. Tom has been playing the guitar since he was 11 years old. That’s 55 years of strumming. 

He recalls playing with another former BJ reporter, Ted Gupp, who was on harmonica, at Hunter’s on Turkeyfoot Lake.

Tom and Kay have 10 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren. Beth Marvin Stevens, a Los Angeles attorney, from Tom’s marriage to former BJ staffer and former Hoover High School English and journalism teacher Pam McCarthy, gave birth to the two most recent grandchildren, which means that Pam’s grandchildren total is growing, too.

Pam is district manager for Arbonne International, a skin care and health products company.

Tom’s new email address is TMarvin7471@gmail.com His phone number is (740) 498-7471. His address is:

74321 Birch Rd
Kimbolton,Oh 43749

The Marvin farm is just north of Salt Fork State Park in southern Ohio, near I-77 and north of Cambridge.

What about YOU? Have you been traveling lately? If you have, email details and jpeg photos, showing you and family at your destinations, to John Olesky at jo4wvu@neo.rr.com If you found Tom’s travels interesting, then other BJ folks (current and retired) will find yours of interest, too.

Print newspapers RIP in 5 years?

Most U.S. print newspapers will be gone in five years, writes Jeffrey I. Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Journalism. Coles writes that only four major daily newspapers with global reach will continue in print: New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal.

He says local weekly newspapers may survive, as well as the Sunday print editions of metropolitan newspapers that otherwise may exist only in online editions.

To read about the nail heading for the print newspaper coffin, and other effects of the Internet explosion, click on

http://journalism.about.com/od/printjournalisminperil/a/Newspapers-Are-Not-Dead-Not-Yet.htm

Upbeat report from John Dunphy

Former BJ reporter and Orange County Register retiree John Dunphy has this upbeat report on his Facebook about his medical condition:

The news is about as good as we could have gotten. The cancer hasn't spread as far as the docs can tell from the PET scan.

John Dunphy 

It’s Stage 1 or 2, so it was caught early.

Next step is a consultation with USC surgeon John Lipham who will do more scoping and measuring of the tumor. It should help determine whether chemo should be done before surgery.

Thanks for all your kind thoughts, prayers, wishes and offers of help.

For earlier reports on Dunphy’s health situation, click on http://bjretirees.blogspot.com/search?q=john+dunphy+health

John Dunphy medical update

Former Beacon Journal John Dunphy’s wife, Rebecca, provides an update on the Orange County Register retiree’s medical situation:

Rebecca & John Dunphy

He is doing well. The brain scan (which was just precautionary) was not something anyone would choose to do. John's head was in a vise and then a cage was put over his face. He had to be completely still for 45 minutes!! This is the guy who can't bear to hit a red light. Then they put him in a chamber where the thunder gods pounded on a drum, a barrel and a gong at various times until any sane person would be screaming to get out. And every itch he had jumped up and demanded to be scratched, but he couldn't move to scratch it. Then they pulled him out, injected him with superpowers or radiation, and put him in for another good thumping.

He was a very patient patient and everything went fine. We will get the results in 3 to 5 days.

He has an oncology appointment tomorrow at 2. The doc won't have the results from this test, but he will have the results of Wednesday's PET scan, which will tell us if it is contained to the esophagus or has spread. That will determine what treatment needs to be done and in which order.

For an earlier report on John’s medical situation, click on http://bjretirees.blogspot.com/search?q=John+Dunphy+health+situation

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.

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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.