The National Press Club

The NPC’s beloved painting, “Norman Rockwell Visits a Country Editor,” is on its way home after spending the past year traveling to Brooklyn, N.Y., El Paso, Texas, Stockbridge, Mass., and Rochester, N.Y.

The painting was part of the highly popular exhibit, “Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera,” sponsored by the Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass. The exhibit, which offered new perspectives on Rockwell’s creative process and his intensive use of photography, was greatly enriched by the inclusion of NPC's “Country Editor,” and it was viewed by thousands of people at each venue.

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Black Etertainment Television (BET) founder Robert L. Johnson announced at a February 1 Newsmaker the launch of Web-based OppsPlace as a company aimed at getting more jobs -- and more key jobs -- for minority candidates.

"As today marks the first day of Black History Month, I am pleased to announce that OppsPlace will go live on Feb. 13th, and I am confident that we will make history," said Johnson, the nation's first African-American billionaire as founder and chairman of The RLJ Companies.

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Mayor Vincent Gray has proclaimed this week, Jan. 30 to Feb. 4, “National Press Club Week” in Washington, D.C.

The Proclamation marks the beginning of the new term in office of the Club’s 105th president, Theresa Werner, who was sworn in to office by Barbara Harrison, morning anchor of NBC News4, at a gala ceremony in the Club’s Ballroom on Jan. 28. Wendy Rieger, also a News4 Anchor, was the keynote speaker for the evening. Werner, who is a freelance journalist, worked at News4 earlier in her career.

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America is in safe hands, as the U.S. Homeland Security Department has improved efforts to detect threats, respond to natural disasters and prevent terrorist attacks, Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a National Press Club speech.

In her second annual State of America’s Homeland Security address on Jan. 30, Napolitano said the 230,000-employee agency has improved its ability to analyze and distribute threat information. Agency successes included border protection, natural disaster response and cyber security, the third Homeland secretary said.

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Theresa Werner, inaugurated Jan. 28 as the Club’s 105th president, said at a gala dinner the National Press Club will help journalists adapt to rapid changes in the profession while defending press freedom around the world.

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Job creation is one of four central priorities of Denmark's six-month European Union presidency, which began this month, the country's U.S. ambassador to the United told a Jan. 18 Newsmaker audience.

Denmark "hopes its EU presidency can help give Europe a stronger voice in global affairs," Ambassador Peter Taksoe-Jensen said.

The other three goals are to help create a "dynamic Europe" by stimulating long-term growth, working for a "green" Europe, and creating a safe Europe, both internally and externally,Taksoe-Jensen said.

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Merle Hoffman, owner of the nation’s oldest and largest abortion clinic, Choices Women’s Medical Center in New York, said that abortion is “not politics, but necessity" at a Jan. 17 Newsmaker.

"It is an issue of survival," said Hoffman, a pro-choice activist. “American women are placed in a Kafkaesque no-win situation. Poor, young, disenfranchised feel it the heaviest. As the economy worsens, as job loss worsens, more women will attempt to prevent pregnancy."

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A sneak preview of "Clinton," a new four-hour, 2-part in-depth look at the Clinton presidency at the National Press Club on Jan. 12 provided an insider’s look at the Clinton administration and the reporters who covered it.

The film details budget battles with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Clinton’s extra-marital affair with Monica Lewinsky and the dogged investigation by Kenneth Starr that would eventually lead to Clinton's impeachment.

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Personal finance expert Suze Orman is on a mission to make it easier for people who make purchases using cash or debit cards to get a better credit score.

“You have people who are in credit-card debt who pay the minimum payment due at a 29 percent interest rate,” Orman said.

Those people have higher credit scores than people who have no debt, but pay for their purchases using cash or debit cards, she said.

Orman appeared at a National Press Club Newsmaker Jan. 12 with PBS TV host Tavis Smiley and Princeton Professor Cornel West.

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The Internet is about to get a lot larger.

Beginning Jan. 12, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which coordinates how the Internet communicates, will begin taking applications for new top-level domain names, launching the most significant change the system has undergone since the organization was established more than a decade ago.

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