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Cultural 'soft power' strategy could hasten Taiwan-China reconciliation, minister says
Decades after losing a civil war with China, Taiwan continues to suffer cultural isolation and is deprived of its right to participate in normal world affairs, Republic of China Minister of Culture Lung Yingtai told reporters at a National Press Club Newsmaker on Aug. 29. The island nation of 23 million people, under martial law until 1987, remains in the political shadow of mainland China. Its people feel they are treated as second-class citizens, according to Lung. "The injury cuts very deep in (Taiwan’s) cultural psyche," Lung said. "If this is not changed, it is hard to expect…
Type: News
Afghan forces improve as U.S. withdraws, Marine Commandant tells Club luncheon
Afghanistan's armed forces are improving their capability as the U.S. military withdraws from the country, Marine Corps Commandant James F. Amos told a National Press Club luncheon audience on Aug. 28. On a recent tour of Helmand Province, Amos said he saw progress and developments that "turn more favorable and turn more favorable," Amos said. He acknowledged that there have been assaults on U.S. troops by Afghan soldiers and Taliban attacks on civilians. But, in general, security is improving. Afghan forces are are "very capable on the ground in Helmand Province," he said. In addition to his…
Type: News
Panel Says America's school systems fail the test of racial equality
A five-member panel of educational experts concluded at an Aug. 23 Newsmaker that the nation has failed to achieve racially integrated schools. Housing patterns are a major reason, said Alex Medler, vice president for policy and advocacy of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers. "Housing is one of the most segregated things in America. Choice of schools comes by where you live." Mary Filardo, Executive Director of the District of Columbia's 21st Century School Fund, said she "works largely with urban issues and school choice continues to be an issue. We look at student…
Type: News
Catholic nuns’ leader answers Vatican and bishops' criticism
Sister Mary Hughes, past president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), told a club luncheon audience August 16 that she felt “humiliated” when a Vatican representative told her in April that the Vatican was appointing three U.S. bishops to oversee the LCWR, revise its statutes and review its programs. The LCWR is a group of 1500 administrators of congregations of Catholic nuns, whose members include 80 percent of the 57,000 nuns in the country. The group’s leadership meets with the Vatican every year, and Sister Hughes said she was completely surprised by the news at this…
Type: News
Consumer agency spread thin at U.S. ports, but stopping millions of unsafe products, Tenenbaum says
The Consumer Product Safety Commission staffs the nation's 300 ports with just 550 people, Commission Chairwoman Inez Tenenbaum said Thursday at a Newsmaker event. “We’re working to find the proper balance between the flow of commerce and detaining dangerous consumer products," she said. During 2011, CPSC’s Office of Import Surveillance found more than 1,100 violations of safety standards and halted the entry of 4.5 million unsafe products into the United States, many of which were designed for children, she said. The commission is serious about protecting the public, Tenenbaum said after…
Type: News
Energy industry must balance safety, production, Newsmaker panel says
Improvements to safety and oil production in the Gulf of Mexico remain a mixed picture two years after the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill, panelists said at a Newsmaker event Friday on the future of energy activity in the Gulf. Drilling in the Gulf contributes 28% of annual U.S.fossil fuel production, making it a critical part of the nation's energy infrastructure. The U.S. energy industry still needs to balance safety and oil production, said Jennifer Dlouhy, Washington correspondent for the Houston Chronicle. “I’ve been surprised and troubled at how quickly the memory of Macondo faded…
Type: News
Head table waiter Andrew Price ends remarkable 45-year career at Club, contemplates going fishing
In 1967, Andrew Price came to the National Press Club as a 20-year-old busboy. Much has changed since then, but Mr. Price has remained an enduring, if unassuming, presence at the Club for all the years since. Mr. Price worked his final Press Club Luncheon on July 24, serving a head table that included PBS news anchors Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff. When NPC President Theresa Werner announced to the gathering that Mr. Price would retire on Aug. 3 – 45 years to the day after he went to work at the Club – he received a standing ovation. “That made me feel great,” Mr. Price said in an interview…
Type: News
Stellar journalists recognized for courage, best work
Distinguished journalists Marie Colvin and Anthony Shadid and freelance photographer Remi Ochlik were honored posthumously with the John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award at the National Press Club for the courageous work covering the Syrian civil war that claimed their lives earlier this year. The journalists were determined to make sure the Syria story was told, no matter the cost, friends, family and colleagues said. "It was really important to Remi to continue his work," Ochlik's longtime girlfriend Emilie Blachere said in a message delivered to the Washington crowd by Delphine Halgand,…
Type: News
PBS Newshour co-anchors promise exhaustive, illuminating political convention coverage
PBS Newshour co-anchors Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff promised the show’s viewers greater in-depth coverage of the political conventions this year than they have ever seen. “We believe the architecture of democracy matters,” Ifill told a National Press Club luncheon audience on July 24, expressing the philosophy that suffuses the show's award-winning coverage and serves as the foundation for its plans to cover the conventions exhaustively. Those inside the convention halls, she said, are the most politically informed and engaged people in America. But the people Newshour will also devote a…
Type: News
Reduce health care costs by putting docs on salary, says Cleveland Clinic executive
U.S. hospitals must find new ways to halt the nation's soaring health care costs, Dr. Delos Cosgrove, president and chief executive of the Cleveland Clinic, said at a July 20 National Press Club luncheon. One step they should take is to put all doctors on salary, as the Cleveland and Mayo Clinics do, according to Cosgrove. Most doctors charge patients based on tests and other services they perform. "Doctors on salary are paid the same no matter the number of tests and other services," Cosgrove said. He also came down hard and repeatedly on the "obesity epidemic," chronic smoking and the poor…
Type: News