Search
Displaying results 1571 - 1580 of 2062
Stories about Helen Thomas abound at Club's memorial tribute to her Oct. 5
Several hundred people who jammed the National Press Club Saturday, Oct. 5, to pay tribute to the late, groundbreaking journalist Helen Thomas, were treated to humorous, poignant stories about her from a host of her prominent friends – among them ABC News reporter Sam Donaldson, PBS “News Hour” anchor Judy Woodfuff, USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page, actress Diane Ladd and present “Dear Abby” columnist Jeanne Phillips. The legendary Thomas, a longtime National Press Club member who was born Aug. 4, 1920, died July 20. Many of her friends and relatives in attendance agreed the…
Type: News
Religious Beliefs Are "Totally Arbitrary," Author Dawkins Tells Club
Most people believe the religion of their parents and that is “totally arbitrary,” Richard Dawkins told a Club Book Rap Sept. 30. Dawkins was at the Press Club promoting his new book, ``An Appetite for Wonder.'' The book is part one of his autobiography. Part two should be available in a couple of years, he said. Sally Quinn, editor-in-chief of the Washington Post’s “On Faith” Blog, interviewed Dawkins. Quinn said she decided she was an atheist at age 5. It took Dawkins a bit longer, until the age of 17 to reach the same conclusion, she said. Dawkins dismissed as “exceptions” Quinn’s remark…
Type: News
Club's Delbert and Equinox's Grays Team Up for Fourth Estate Dinner
Equinox restaurant co-owners Todd Gray and Ellen Kassoff Gray teamed up with Club Executive Chef Susan Delbert to host a sold-out dinner featuring dishes from the Grays’ latest cookbook, The New Jewish Table, in the Fourth Estate Restaurant on Sept. 25. After the dinner, Kassoff Gray called it “one of the best dinners we have ever done - and we have done close to 1,000.” The evening began with a steady stream of hors d’oeurves:" Yukon Gold and sweet potato latkes, Gruyere cheese puffs, falafel, eggplant caviar and smoked trout on crostini. They were paired with the first of six Israeli wines…
Type: News
Duncan Calls Education a "Critical Investment" for Future
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan challenged Congress to "see education as a critical investment for our nation winning the race for the future" at a Sept. 30 Club Luncheon. "Right now, I believe our country faces stark choices," he said. "We can continue to play politics with the budget and the debt ceiling, or we can fund a federal government that Americans can count on.'' He said ``other countries get this, they're greatly expanding preschool and strengthening teacher preparation." He cited case after case of U.S. school systems raising educational standards and preparing their…
Type: News
Pulitzer Winners Reveal How They Got Their Big Stories
Recent winners of the Pulitzer Prize, the biggest awards in journalism, shared their stories with Club members Sept. 23 at a forum sponsored by the Professional Development Committee. The winners said hat their Pulitzer Prize-winning stories started with a germ of an idea, a piece of a story that they followed and just felt was bigger than it seemed at first. They used their news sense and intuition to connect the dots. They patiently and persistently followed leads, even when many led to dead-ends. They practiced shoe-leather journalism to develop their sources. They eventually found great…
Type: News
Mayors Decry Silence Surrounding Murder Epidemic in Cities
Americans need to stop being silent about the hundreds of murders each year, the majority of which are African-American young men killing other African-Americans, two urban Democratic mayors told a National Press Club Luncheon Sept. 26. Civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Representative John Lewis, D-Ga., ``did not take a beating for this drumbeat of death and violence to become a way of life,” New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said. In Philadelphia, 236 African-American males were murdered in 2012, said the mayor of that city, Michael Nutter. “If the Ku Klux Klan came…
Type: News
EPA administrator unveils power plant emission curbs at National Press Club breakfast
Gina McCarthy, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, in a breakfast speech at the National Press Club Sept. 20, released the agency’s much-anticipated proposed standards for limiting emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) in new power plants. A key step in President Barack Obama’s climate-action policy announced in June, the proposed standards will affect only power plants yet to be built, stressed McCarthy. But they are a prelude, she said, to regulations governing existing power plants that will be proposed in June of 2014. Existing facilities account for 40 percent of the United…
Type: News
Lawmaker wins Press Club spelling bee of the century
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., won the coveted title of “Best Speller in the United States” at a spirited spelling bee Sept. 18 pitting lawmakers against journalists that drew more than 350 people to the National Press Club's Ballroom. Amidst two hours of jokes, goading and high fives, Beltway denizens were asked to spell words such as "vicissitude," "shenanigans" and "potato." While the journalists lost the trophy, they won the competition in points – 38 to 36 – because more journalists than lawmakers stayed in the competition longer. Each team was awarded one point for each correctly spelled word,…
Type: News
NPC American Legion Post told U.S. diplomacy needs overhaul
Recent administrations have given the U.S. military "unachievable objectives" in trying to install democratic regimes in Iraq and Afghanistan," John Lenzowski, president and founder of the Institute of World Politics, told a luncheon meeting of the National Press Club's American Legion Post 20 on Sept. 18. He noted that both countries lack the basic social institutions needed to support a modern democracy. The U.S. cannot defeat radical Islam militarily because it is a political problem that requires the kind of public diplomacy that has been lacking since the 1980s, Lenzowski said. Lenzowski…
Type: News
Jindal calls DOJ lawsuit 'cynical, immoral and hypocritical' at NPC Newsmaker
Bobby Jindal, Republican governor of Louisiana, called a recent Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit to block Louisiana’s school-voucher system "cynical, immoral and hypocritical" at a National Press Club Newsmaker Sept. 18. The lawsuit would block the program, which provides vouchers that parents can use to pay for schools of their choice in Louisiana parishes that operate under federal desegregation orders. The governor termed the suit cynical because it would use desegregation laws designed to protect minority children to trap those children in failing schools. Ninety percent of the…
Type: News