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Social Media Helps Shine Light into Congress, Panelists Say
The job description of a Congressman: Write laws. Twitter. Debate. Appear in public. Campaign. Check Facebook. And, if you are Rep. John Culberson of Texas, make time to do a telephone conference call, online town hall meeting, check text messages and, if you're really old-fashioned, check your e-mail. Simultaneously. "Whether we like it or not, the electronic information superhighway will force us all to change," he said Friday during a panel discussion about social media at the National Press Club. "It's not survival; it's evolution." Social media is an invaluable tool to lighten up the…
Type: News
Rotary President Describes Polio Fight
The president of Rotary International told a March 30 Newsmaker that despite the current "economic climate," his worldwide organization has raised $75 million -- one-third of its $200 million goal -- for global polio eradication. RI has 1.2 million members in 33,000 clubs in more than 200 countries. Dong Kurn Lee, chairman of the Bubang manufacturing companies of South Korea and a former trustee of the Bank of Seoul, said the $200 million will match a $355 million challenge grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, for a total of $555 million to be used for eliminating the crippling…
Type: News
Comedy Night Brings Laughter Amid Layoffs
Journalists-turned-comics brought comedy to tough times in a packed ballroom Friday night as the first-ever "Commedia dell Media" came off as a roaring success. Emcee and longtime club member Bob Madigan, along with Scott Lanman, Matt Cooper and others entertained more than 350 people with jokes that were timely as well as funny. "You know, your friends try to help you when they learn that you've lost your job. They say stuff like, 'When one door closes another one opens," said Mike Walter, a former news anchor at WUSA-9 in Washington. "It should go like this: When one door closes, another…
Type: News
Nobel Laureate Says Conflicts Can Be Resolved
"We need to untie the Middle East knot," a Nobel laureate and former president of Finland told a Press Club luncheon April 7, and said we must begin by untying the "Israeli-Hamas knot." Martti Ahtisaari, president of Finland from 1994 to 2000 and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008, said the international community has the "right and responsibility" to settle the Israeli-Hamas conflict. "Americans have the ability to correct their mistakes," he said, but Europeans don't always have what he described as "such vigorous debate." He noted that the U.S. played "a central role in establishing…
Type: News
Authors Discuss New Baseball Books
Paul Dickson and Allen Barra formed an entertaining baseball doubleheader Tuesday evening, April 7. Dickson, a long time NPC member, discussed his book, the third edition of "The Dickson Baseball Dictionary," and Barra, a sportswriter for the Wall Street Journal with his book, "Yogi Berra, Eternal Yankee." Dickson described the genesis of his dictionary series. The first one came out in 1984 after his son asked, “Why do they call it a bunt?” (You’ll have to buy the book to find out why!) From this first edition with 3,000 entries, it now has 10,000 in which you can learn the origins of "…
Type: News
Iceland Rebounding from Financial Crisis, Finance Minister Says
After leading an April 6 Newsmaker through the events leading up to -- and causing Iceland to be one of countries hardest hit by -- the global financial crisis, that Atlantic island nation's minister of business affairs explained what it is doing to recover and said, "the outlook is not all that bad." Gylfi Magnusson, a former reporter with an economics doctorate from Yale, said Iceland's economic recovery measures include reorganizing not just what he conceded was "not a very well developed banking system," but the entire financial sector of the economy as well. "Not all of this is going to…
Type: News
A Plan to Keep the Club Thriving; Read it Here, Vote on May 8
The National Press Club Strategic Planning Committee has completed its two-year effort to develop a blueprint for the Club for the next five years. The strategic plan, called "Preserving and Growing the World's Leading Professional Organization for Journalists," aims to ensure improved journalism training, continued excellent restaurant and bar service, better governance and financial stability at the Club through the middle of 2014. The plan won the unanimous approval of the Board of Governors Strategic Planning Committee this week. "It's simple: The Club needs to think ahead -- to prepare…
Type: News
IRS Presses Off-shore Tax Havens, Commissioner Says
With millions of Americans are facing job losses and the threat of foreclosure — and just two days before the April 15 income tax filing deadline — IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told the luncheon audience, “In today’s economic environment, it’s more important than ever that the American public feels confident that individuals and corporations are playing by the rules and paying the taxes they owe.” He said the IRS has been turning up the pressure on off-shore financial institutions that help U.S. citizens conceal taxable income. “We are breaking down the much vaunted veil of secrecy,” said…
Type: News
Tips on Covering Congress for Int'l Journalists
The International Correspondents Committee had its largest turnout of the year for its monthly meeting Tuesday when 40 Club members and guests, including foreign correspondents from Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Europe and South America, came to hear former NPC President Sylvia Smithgive tips about covering Congress. Smith said foreign correspondents need to accept the fact that members of Congress rate speaking to international media representatives at the low end of their priorities for press coverage -- after first dealing with media from their hometowns, their states and the…
Type: News
Fran Drescher's Powerful Role: Health Advocate for Women
I am not glad that I got cancer, but I am better for it,” Fran Drescher, the award-winning actress told the luncheon audience Tuesday. Drescher, State Department special envoy for women's health, was in DC to promote her non-profit organization, Cancer Schmancer, which is also the title of her 2003 New York Times best-selling book. The writer, director, co-producer,and star of the CBS television series "The Nanny," Drescher was diagnosed with uterine cancer in 2001. It had taken several years and eight doctors to find the tumor. Because it went undiagnosed for so long, the disease had…
Type: News