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☆ Howard Weaver, Who Helped an Alaska Newspaper Win 3 Pulitzers, Dies at 73
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-12 | by ( Sam Roberts | More About Sam Roberts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Howard Weaver, a self-described “poor kid from a shabby neighborhood,” was 24 years old and terrified when he was assigned by the floundering Anchorage Daily News to expose a rapacious chapter of the Teamsters union that was corruptly profiting from Alaska’s oil pipeline boom. “Any way you sliced it,” he recalled, “the odds were against us, a mismatch of Goliathian proportions.”But Mr. Weaver was hungry. Hungry enough that after months of investigative reporting, he and his colleagues exposed “a complex maze of political, economic and social power,” which, they wrote, “challenges at times both mighty industry and state government itself.”Three weeks before The Daily News declared that it was on the brink of bankruptcy, the scrappy newspaper with a circulation of about 13,000 was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 1976 for its reporting on Teamsters Local 959. It was the smallest paper and the first in Alaska to win the coveted medal.

Persons: Howard Weaver, ”, Weaver Organizations: Anchorage Daily, Teamsters, Daily News Locations: Anchorage, Alaska

☆ John Nichols, Author of ‘The Milagro Beanfield War,’ Dies at 83
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-02 | by ( Sam Roberts | More About Sam Roberts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

John Nichols, a New York City transplant to New Mexico whose exuberant novels, notably “The Milagro Beanfield War,” transformed him from an urban gringo into a local idol, died on Monday at his home in Taos. Imbued with a heady pedigree and a peripatetic upbringing, Mr. Nichols evolved instinctively from a cosmopolitan New Yorker and world traveler to a Western writer of the purple sage. He was best known for “The Milagro Beanfield War” (1974), a 445-page political allegory that tells the story of farmers in the fictional town of Milagro Valley who are denied the right to irrigate their farms because water is being diverted to a huge development. “The Milagro Beanfield War” became a crowd pleaser on college campuses, was venerated in his adopted state, and for a while was considered among the most widely read novels about Latinos. In 1988 it was adapted into a film, directed by Robert Redford and starring Rubén Blades, Christopher Walken and Melanie Griffith.

Persons: John Nichols, ”, Tania Harris, Nichols, Robert Redford, Rubén Blades, Christopher Walken, Melanie Griffith Organizations: Yorker Locations: New York City, New Mexico, Taos, Western, Milagro

☆ William Casey, Who Uncovered Police Corruption, Dies at 78
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-24 | by ( Sam Roberts | More About Sam Roberts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

William M. Casey, a former New York City deputy police chief who was the unheralded hero of the “Dirty 30” corruption investigation that ensnared one-sixth of the officers assigned to a West Harlem precinct, died on Nov. 9 at his home in Pleasantville, N.Y. The cause was complications of a stroke and Parkinson’s disease, his daughter, Kimberly Wildey, said. The scandal — often described as the largest police corruption case involving a single precinct in the department’s history — was uncovered by a commission on police corruption appointed by Mayor David N. Dinkins in 1992 and headed by Justice Milton Mollen of the New York State Supreme Court. The case was prosecuted by the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York under Mary Jo White. The operation resulted in charges against 34 officers, 30 of whom were either convicted or pleaded guilty to crimes ranging from perjury and civil rights violations to stealing drugs or cash from narcotics dealers.

Persons: William M, Casey, Kimberly Wildey, —, David N, Dinkins, Milton Mollen, Mary Jo White Organizations: New York, Court, U.S, Southern, of, West 151st Locations: New York City, West Harlem, Pleasantville, N.Y, of New York, Amsterdam Avenue

☆ Joe Sharkey, Travel Writer Who Survived Midair Collision, Dies at 77
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Sam Roberts | More About Sam Roberts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The cause was a hypertensive stroke, said his wife, Nancy Sharkey, a retired Times editor. The executive jet managed to land safely at a remote military airport, but the Gol Linhas Aéreas commercial airliner it collided with did not have such a fortunate fate: It nose-dived to the ground, killing all 154 people on board. It was the deadliest civilian aviation accident in Brazil at the time. The collision prompted inquiries by Brazil’s military and by American transportation safety investigators. Both placed blame on air traffic controllers but never fully resolved who was at fault or why the planes were flying at the same altitude.

Persons: Joe Sharkey, Nancy Sharkey, Mr, Sharkey Organizations: The New York Times, Boeing, Business Jet, Embraer Locations: The, Brazil, Tucson, Ariz

☆ David Mitchell, Weekly Editor Who Exposed a Corrupt Cult, Dies at 79
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-01 | by ( Sam Roberts | More About Sam Roberts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

David Mitchell, a muckraker whose tiny California newspaper challenged the violent drug rehabilitation cult Synanon and, as a result, became one of only a handful of weeklies to win a Pulitzer Prize, died on Oct. 25 at his home in Point Reyes Station, Calif., in Marin County. His wife, Lynn Axelrod Mitchell, said the cause was complications of Parkinson’s disease. A gangly, grizzled former literature teacher, Mr. Mitchell also figured in a retaliatory libel suit by Synanon, the results of which advanced the rights of investigative reporters. In 1984, the California Supreme Court ruled that in certain cases they could keep the names of confidential sources secret without forfeiting their defense in libel and other civil cases. Mr. Mitchell’s newspaper, The Point Reyes Light, was struggling financially, and the strain of keeping it afloat ultimately cost Mr. Mitchell his second marriage; his wife at the time, Catherine Mitchell, was co-publisher with him.

Persons: David Mitchell, Lynn Axelrod Mitchell, Mitchell, Synanon, Reyes, Catherine Mitchell, ”, David Organizations: California Supreme Locations: California, Point Reyes, Calif, Marin County

☆ Peter C. Newman, 94, Journalist and Scourge of Canada’s Powerful, Dies
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-13 | by ( Sam Roberts | More About Sam Roberts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Peter C. Newman, a maverick journalist and historian who skewered the political establishment in Canada while evolving into a fervent nationalist there, his adopted country, to which he had fled as a boy from Nazi-occupied Europe, died on Sept. 7 in Belleville, in southeast Ontario. His death, in a hospital, was caused by complications of Parkinson’s disease, which he developed after a stroke last year, said his wife, Alvy Newman. In a long and prolific career, Mr. Newman had stints as editor of the Toronto-based Maclean’s magazine and of The Toronto Star while churning out nearly three dozen books, some delving into the inner sanctums of four Canadian prime ministers, the Canadian-based Bronfman liquor dynasty and the Canadian media mogul Conrad Black. He also wrote a history of the Hudson’s Bay Company, founded in 1670; a three-volume dissection of “The Canadian Establishment” (1975); and a memoir that began with his Jewish family’s escape from Europe under fire from a dive bomber.

Persons: Peter C, Newman, Alvy Newman, Bronfman, Conrad Black Organizations: The Toronto Star, Canadian, Hudson’s, Company Locations: Canada, Nazi, Europe, Belleville, Ontario, Toronto

☆ Bill Richardson, Champion of Americans Held Overseas, Dies at 75
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-02 | by ( Sam Roberts | More About Sam Roberts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Bill Richardson, who served two terms as governor of New Mexico and 14 years as a congressman before devoting himself to the cause of Americans who were being held hostage or who he believed were being wrongfully detained overseas, died on Friday at his summer home in Chatham, Mass., on Cape Cod. His death was announced by the Richardson Center for Global Engagement, which he founded. The cause was not given. Under President Bill Clinton, Mr. Richardson was ambassador to the United Nations, succeeding Madeleine Albright in early 1997, and then secretary of energy, beginning in August 1998. He served in the House of Representatives, as a member of the New Mexico delegation, from January 1983 to February 1997 and as the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Persons: Bill Richardson, Bill Clinton, Richardson, Madeleine Albright, William Brewster Organizations: Richardson Center, Global, United Nations, Representatives, New, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Mayflower Locations: New Mexico, Chatham , Mass, Cape Cod, California, Pasadena, Mexico City

☆ Keith Spicer, Canada’s Offbeat Envoy of Reconciliation, Dies at 89
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-31 | by ( Sam Roberts | More About Sam Roberts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Keith Spicer, who as a spirited government official pushed his fellow Canadians to define their national identity and reconcile their bilingual heritage more than two centuries after the British defeated the French to capture Quebec, died on Aug. 24 in Ottawa. His death, in a hospital, was confirmed to The Canadian Press by Nick Spicer, one of his three children. Raised by Protestant parents who were anti-Catholic and anti-French, Mr. Spicer began his professional career as a political science professor before being drafted by two prime ministers into ombudsman’s jobs that more risk-averse Canadians might have rejected. One task was to get all Canadians to accept their country as officially bilingual; the other was hear them out if they complained about language mandates and other irritants.

Persons: Keith Spicer, Nick Spicer, Spicer Organizations: British, The Canadian Press, Catholic Locations: Quebec, Ottawa

☆ Samuel Wurzelbacher, Celebrated as ‘Joe the Plumber,’ Dies at 49
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-28 | by ( Sam Roberts | More About Sam Roberts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, who briefly became “Joe the Plumber,” the metaphorical American middle-class Everyman, by injecting himself into the 2008 presidential campaign in an impromptu nationally-televised face-off with Barack Obama over taxing small businesses, died on Sunday at his home in Campbellsport, Wis., about 60 miles north of Milwaukee. The cause was complications of pancreatic cancer, his wife, Katie Wurzelbacher, said. Mr. Obama, then a United States senator from Illinois, was campaigning on Shrewsbury Street in Toledo, Ohio, on Sunday, Oct. 12, 2008, when Mr. Wurzelbacher interrupted a football catch with his son in his front yard to mosey over and confront the Democratic nominee about his proposed tax increase for small businesses. During a cordial but largely inconclusive five-minute colloquy in front of news cameras, Mr. Wurzelbacher said he was concerned about being subject to a bigger tax bite just as he was approaching the point where he could finally afford to buy a plumbing business, which he said would generate an income of $250,000 a year. Three days later, “Joe the Plumber,” as he was popularized by Mr. Obama’s Republican rival, Senator John McCain of Arizona, was invoked some two dozen times during the final debate of the presidential campaign.

Persons: Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, Joe, Barack Obama, Katie Wurzelbacher, Obama, Wurzelbacher, “ Joe, ”, John McCain of Organizations: United, Shrewsbury, Democratic, Republican Locations: Campbellsport, Wis, Milwaukee, United States, Illinois, Toledo , Ohio, John McCain of Arizona

☆ Did You Know About the 16-Foot Trump Tower Clock? Neither Did the City.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-27 | by ( Sam Roberts | More About Sam Roberts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Every year, New York City’s Department of Transportation collects tens of millions of dollars from property owners in return for permission to place street furniture on, over or under city sidewalks. This includes, but is not limited to, signs, filigreed lampposts, benches, bollards, planters, permanent trash receptacles, delivery ramps, underground vaults and just about anything else imaginable, including ornamental clocks. Each bears the surname of its owner, Donald J. Trump. Belatedly, the City of New York would like to be paid for allowing the Trump Tower clock to occupy part of a public sidewalk. The fee for what is called revocable consent — temporary permission that can be revoked after 10 years and is subject to renewal — varies widely.

Persons: filigreed, Donald J Organizations: New York City’s Department of Transportation, Trump Locations: New, City of New York

☆ Betty Tyson, Who Was Wrongfully Imprisoned for Murder, Dies at 75
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( Sam Roberts | More About Sam Roberts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Betty Tyson, who spent half her life in prison for the brutal murder of a businessman in a gloomy alleyway in Rochester, N.Y., before a judge ruled that she had been wrongfully convicted, died on Thursday in Rochester. She was 75. Her sister, Delorise Thomas, said the death, in a hospital, was caused by a heart attack. On May 28, 1998, 25 years to the day after she was arrested, Ms. Tyson, 49, left the maximum-security Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County and headed home to freedom after Monroe County’s district attorney announced that he would not seek to try her again. By then she had become New York State’s longest-serving female inmate.

Persons: Betty Tyson, Delorise Thomas, Tyson, Monroe, “ Betty’s, Gary Craig, Jon Getz Organizations: Correctional Facility, The Rochester Democrat, Chronicle Locations: Rochester , N.Y, Rochester, Bedford, Westchester County, Monroe County’s

☆ Rosemary S. Pooler, Federal Judge and Consumer Defender, Dies at 85
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-19 | by ( Sam Roberts | More About Sam Roberts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Rosemary S. Pooler, a lifelong champion of consumer rights who broke barriers by becoming the first woman to serve as a state and federal judge in two upstate New York districts, died on Aug. 10 at her home in Syracuse, N.Y. She was 85. Her death was announced by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, where she had sat since 1998. Judge Pooler got her start defending consumers when she was appointed chairwoman and executive director of New York State’s Consumer Protection Board by Gov. Hugh L. Carey in 1975. When she was a civil rights lawyer, Judge Pooler, a committed feminist, represented two fellow members of the National Organization for Women who in 1970 successfully challenged the century-long men-only policy of McSorley’s Old Ale House in Manhattan.

Persons: Rosemary S, Judge Pooler, Hugh L, Carey Organizations: United States, Appeals, Second Circuit, New York, Consumer, Gov, National Organization for Women, Ale Locations: New York, Syracuse, N.Y, Manhattan

☆ Robert H. Giles, Newspaper Editor and Nieman Curator, Dies at 90
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Sam Roberts | More About Sam Roberts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Robert H. Giles, who oversaw Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage at two newspapers — including reports on the fatal shooting of four antiwar protesters by National Guard troops on the Kent State University campus in Ohio in 1970 — and later served as curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University for more than a decade, died on Aug. 7 in Traverse City, in northern Michigan. The cause of his death, in a hospice facility, was complications of metastatic melanoma, said Ellen Tuttle, a spokeswoman for the Nieman Foundation. A lifelong journalist and author and a former Nieman fellow himself, Mr. Giles (pronounced with a soft “G”) presided over the Nieman Foundation from 2000 to 2011. He enhanced the prestigious foundation's primary mission: educating midcareer journalists. He also presided over the online expansion of its quarterly magazine, Nieman Reports, as well as the Nieman Watchdog Project, which examines and supports public-interest journalism; the Nieman Journalism Lab, which helps prepare journalists for the digital future of the profession; and the Nieman Storyboard website, which promotes long-form narrative storytelling.

Persons: Robert H, Giles, —, Ellen Tuttle Organizations: National Guard, Kent State University, Nieman Foundation, Journalism, Harvard University, Nieman, Nieman Journalism Locations: Ohio, Traverse City, Michigan

☆ Philip L. Sherman, Who Circumcised Thousands of Babies, Dies at 67
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-15 | by ( Sam Roberts | More About Sam Roberts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Armed with only a scalpel, a clamp and a metal probe, Philip L. Sherman would routinely carry out his surgical mission in about 15 seconds, leave in as little as 10 minutes and hotfoot it to his car, which was probably parked illegally but perhaps spared a ticket by the inspired placard on his windshield: “Mazel Tov! Bris in progress. Please don’t ticket.”Mr. Sherman, whose website (as well as his vanity license plate) was emoil.com =, claimed to have performed some 26,000 ritual circumcisions, mostly in the New York metropolitan area, during his 45-year career. He was trained in the Jewish religious practice of brit milah — a profession generally spelled “mohel” in English and pronounced “moil.”His record, he said, was 11 in a single day, including two pairs of twins — a considerable scheduling feat, considering that the ritual is to be performed on the eighth day of the baby’s life and during daylight. Mr. Sherman also performed ritual circumcisions on Muslim and Christian infant boys, as well as the son of a man he had circumcised as an infant and the grandsons of two Israeli prime ministers, and in all kinds of places, including Hong Kong, the Cayman Islands and a bar on Third Avenue (for a family who lived upstairs).

Persons: Philip L, Sherman, Mr, brit milah —, ”, —, Hong Kong Locations: New York, Hong, Cayman Islands

☆ Herbert J. Siegel, Investor in Major Media Deals, Dies at 95
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( Sam Roberts | More About Sam Roberts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Herbert J. Siegel, a maverick investor who became a billionaire entertainment-industry mogul most notable for finally enabling the merger of Warner Communications and Time Inc. in 1989 and for selling 10 television stations to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation in 2000, died on Saturday at his home in Manhattan. Mr. Siegel, the gregarious son of an immigrant garment manufacturer, combined his boyhood passions — deal-making and an infatuation with the film industry — to reap massive profits. The humorist Art Buchwald once said that Mr. Siegel deserved an Academy Award for having earned the most money in Hollywood without ever making a movie. Mr. Siegel got started young; he was still in college when, flush with a trust fund from his father, he sought to purchase a 20 percent stake in the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League for $60,000. His bid was unsuccessful, so instead he bought an interest in a company that packaged television programs and that was partly owned by his father-in-law, an organizer of the Columbia Broadcasting System.

Persons: Herbert J, Siegel, Jeanne, —, Art Buchwald Organizations: Warner Communications, Time Inc, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, Hollywood, Philadelphia Eagles, National Football League, Columbia Broadcasting System Locations: Rupert, Manhattan

☆ Rhoda Karpatkin, Who Led Consumer Reports for Decades, Dies at 93
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-07 | by ( Sam Roberts | More About Sam Roberts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Rhoda Karpatkin, who pressed for painstaking product testing for safety and quality while promoting comparison shopping for value during more than four decades at Consumers Union as counsel, executive director and president, died on Friday at her home in Manhattan. Ms. Karpatkin, a New York lawyer and civil rights advocate, had served for 16 years as the nonprofit organization’s counsel when she was selected in 1974 as executive director, the first woman to hold that position. Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, later changed its name to Consumer Reports. “Rhoda led CR to become the trusted name and consumer champion we are today,” Marta L. Tellado, the president and chief executive of Consumer Reports, said in a statement. Ms. Karpatkin also raised $40 million to build a new headquarters in Yonkers, N.Y., and an automobile testing track.

Persons: Rhoda Karpatkin, Deborah Karpatkin, Karpatkin, “ Rhoda, CR, ” Marta L Organizations: Consumers Union, Consumer Locations: Manhattan, New York, Yonkers, N.Y

☆ Richard O. Simpson, First U.S. Product Safety Czar, Dies at 93
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( Sam Roberts | More About Sam Roberts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Richard O. Simpson, a self-made Republican businessman who as the first chairman of the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission aggressively protected the American public from buying millions of risky goods, died on July 21 in DeLand, Fla., north of Orlando. His death, in a hospital near his home, was confirmed by his daughter Karen Simpson Tweedie. Mr. Simpson was appointed to the commission by President Richard M. Nixon in 1973, shortly after it was created by a Democratic Congress. Still, during his three-year tenure, the commission declared some 25 million items unsafe and demanded that they be recalled, repaired or replaced. They included flammable mattresses, TV antennas that could lead to electrocution and pill bottles without child-resistant caps.

Persons: Richard O, Simpson, Karen Simpson Tweedie, Richard M, Nixon Organizations: federal, Product Safety, Democratic Locations: DeLand, Fla, Orlando

☆ James Reston Jr., Author With a Hand in Nixon Apology, Dies at 82
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Sam Roberts | More About Sam Roberts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

James Reston Jr., an eclectic historian and novelist who helped the British television host David Frost prod former President Richard M. Nixon into admitting his complicity in the Watergate scandal and apologizing in a wrenching broadcast interview, died on Wednesday at his home in Chevy Chase, Md. The cause was pancreatic cancer, said his wife, Denise Leary. Mr. Reston, whose father was a renowned figure at The New York Times as a columnist, Washington bureau chief and executive editor, largely bypassed daily journalism to focus on timely and historical nonfiction and novels and adapting four of his books into plays. As a result, Mr. Reston was primed when Mr. Frost bought exclusive rights to interview Nixon after the president resigned in 1974 and recruited Mr. Reston as a researcher.

Persons: James Reston Jr, David Frost, Richard M, Nixon, Denise Leary, Reston, ”, Frost Organizations: The New York Times, Democratic Locations: British, Chevy Chase, Md, Washington, Whittier, Watergate, Reston

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