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Please Welcome 39 New NPC Members
The Board of Governors approved 39 membership applications Monday, bringing to 227 the total so far this year, compared to 197 for the same period last year.The new members are: ActiveMary Ann Gomez - National Association of Hispanic Publications, Executive Director; Dennis Noone – Gannett, Washington Editor; Junji Tachino - Asahi Shimbun, Correspondent/Bureau Chief; Ann Wog - 630 WMAL (Citadel), Producer - Grandy & Andy Morning Show; Tetsuro Yamada - The Yomiuri Shimbun, Staff CorrespondentActive ReinstatementJoyce Winslow – Freelance JournalistActive Non-ResidentJ. Dale Debber, Granite…
Type: News
Baseball's Woeful Nationals Poised to Contend, Kasten Says
Despite its 20-49 won-loss record -- worst by far in the major leagues -- the Washington Nationals baseball team is “not far from just being competitive, but contending” for a championship, its president, Stan Kasten, told a Club Luncheon Thursday. “I continue to be optimistic about where we’re headed,” said the Nationals’ top executive, who echoed the rosy remarks he made in a previous NPC Luncheon appearance soon after taking his job three years ago. “We are on course.” That course, he said, “is to develop young pitching.” Rather than acquiring pitchers through trades or free agency, he…
Type: News
FASB Chairman Says Transparency Key to Sound Financial System
“One welcome development that has arisen from the financial crisis is that a broader constituency is calling for greater transparency as necessary ingredient for recovery and the rebuilding of investor and public confidence,” said Robert Herz, chairman of the influential Financial Account Standards Board, at a June 26 Club luncheon. While accounting did not cause the crisis and improvement of standards will not end it, Herz said, “it did reveal a number of areas requiring improvement of standards and overall transparency.” Transparency, Herz said repeatedly in his hour-long speech, is the…
Type: News
Economist, Environmentalist Extol Pollution Offsets
An economist and an activist called pollution “offsets” an effective and efficient way to cut greenhouse gases and praised a climate change bill approved last week by the House that includes them in a cap-and-trade system at a June 30 Newsmaker. A company, organization, government or individual that is producing pollution can buy carbon-offset credits that finance projects elsewhere that bolster the environment. Robert H. Frank, a professor of economics and management at Cornell University, dismissed criticism that offsets are “indulgences” that enable polluters to continue harmful practices…
Type: News
Smithsonian Chief Discusses Going Digital at NPC Luncheon
G. Wayne Clough, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, told a luncheon audience July 1 that the Smithsonian is quickly entering the digital age, opening vast portions of its 137 million item collection to anyone with a computer. “We have the capacity to tell the story of American and all its hopes, struggles, triumphs, creativity, contradictions and courage,” said Clough, former president of Georgia Institute of Technology who has just completed one year at the helm of the 163-year-old museum. “Today we have the opportunity to reach people with this story in ways not previously imaginable…
Type: News
Kosovo Making Strides, Foreign Minister Says
Since declaring independence 16 months ago, Kosovo -- whose population is mostly ethnically Albanian -- has taken major steps to establish "democratic and accountable institutions in which all citizens are equal under the law," the country's minister of foreign affairs told a June 30 Newsmaker. Skender Hyseni, who is also a member of parliament, said his country is building its diplomatic service and by the end of the year will have 18 embassies and nine consular missions open and fully functioning. Hyseni said Kosovo has been recognized by 60 countries, including 22 EU member states, and…
Type: News
WaPo Magazine Profiles Club Member Nell Minow
Club member Nell Minow is the subject of a Washington Post Magazine profile in the July 5 edition. It begins: "Nell Minow has two lives. By day, she's a sharp-tongued, widely quoted expert on executive compensation and shareholder rights for a firm called the Corporate Library. But she's also known to hundreds of thousands of online followers and radio listeners as Movie Mom." To read the article, visit: http://tinyurl.com/kwk45d To read a transcript of her on-line chat, visit: http://tinyurl.com/ldxcyf
Type: News
UN Drug Officer Urges Enforcement Against Kingpins
"Go after the piranhas, not the minnows," the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said at a June 24 Newsmaker, where he and the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy released the 2009 UN World Drug Report. Antonio Maria Costa, who also is a UN under secretary general, was encouraging law enforcement agencies to focus on what he called "high-profile, high-volume and violent" drug traffickers as opposed to "petty offenders." Devoting time and manpower to the latter, he said, "is a waste of money for the police, and a waste of lives for those thrown in jail…
Type: News
Next 12 to 18 Months Critical in Afghanistan, Joint Chiefs Chairman Says
It will be 12 to 18 months before it is known how long American troops will be required to fight in Afghanistan, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a Club Luncheon July 8. “My expectation is that we will have a long-term relationship” in Afghanistan, the nation’s top military leader said. Within that 12- to 18-month time frame, he said, “we have to start to turn the tide against the Taliban.” Only after that, he said can he project a date for a U.S. pullout. Meanwhile, he warned, the American public should brace for a higher injury and death toll among U.S.…
Type: News
Group Kicks Off Campaign to Repeal Military Ban on Gay Servicemembers
A law banning gay men and lesbians from serving openly in the military is diminishing U.S. capacity to meet the demands of conducting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to advocates seeking to repeal the restriction. “The policy is not working for the armed services, and it hurts our national security,” said Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Pa., at a July 8 Newsmaker. “This is not something that we can punt down the road, when our troops are spread so thin in the Middle East.” Murphy, an Iraq veteran, is the lead sponsor of a bill that would end the "don’t-ask-don’t-tell" policy toward gay and…
Type: News