Category: City Government
Proposals From the Bartholomew Master Plan For Dallas — 1940s
Behold… (click for larger image)
A few proposals from the Dallas master plan for post-war development and planning, commissioned by the city from the St. Louis firm of Harland Bartholomew and Associates (in association with Hare & Hare Landscape Architects). The scanned reports which made up this plan — submitted between 1943 and 1946 — can be found on the Portal to Texas History site, here, courtesy of the Dallas Municipal Archives. If you’re interested in urban planning and maps, these reports are fascinating.
The image above (from 1946, rendered by architect Erwin Earl Schmidt) shows a proposed municipal center on the familiar “South Akard Street Site.” The plan is below. (All images are larger when clicked.)
The previous year, the site for this proposed municipal center was north of Pacific:
And Schmidt’s rendering for that compound is just as interesting:
Also discussed in the plan was what to do with Fair Park. Here’s a 1945 redevelopment proposal:
And here’s the 1946 re-jiggering (the Cotton Bowl’s getting a lot of action):
And, lastly, a 1946 plan for expansion of the “Hall Street Park for Negroes.” I’m not sure that any of this ever happened. The last mention I see of this park was in 1945 (the first mention I found of the park in the Dallas Morning News archives was 1922, and it had clearly been around for a while before that — perhaps it was absorbed into the existing Griggs Park? “Central Boulevard” would soon be built and renamed Central Expressway, the highway that sliced through the thriving black neighborhood centered around Hall Street.
The 1945 plates can be found in the original publication here; the 1946 plates here.
All illustrations are from the Bartholomew master plan proposal; these reports are from the collection of the Dallas Municipal Archives, accessible on UNT’s Portal to Texas History, here.
Additional images from the plan can be found in the Flashback Dallas post “‘Your Dallas of Tomorrow’ — 1943,'” here.
All images larger when clicked.
“Your Dallas of Tomorrow” — 1943
Main Street, 1943… (click for larger image)
Harland Bartholomew, a St. Louis urban planner and civil engineer, was asked by the City of Dallas in 1943 to prepare a master plan for Dallas which would address the needs of the city’s post-war growth and livability. As then-mayor Woodall Rodgers said, “We need another Kessler Plan and have waited long enough to start. We want to be ready to put Dallas ahead when the war is over and we will have great opportunities to put a master plan in effect” (Dallas Morning News, April 1, 1943).
Read Bartholomew’s incredibly thorough 51-page report titled “Your Dallas of Tomorrow” here. It has been scanned in its entirety and is presented (courtesy of the Dallas Municipal Archives) on UNT’s Portal to Texas History site. In addition to the report, there are drawings, graphs, maps, and the wonderful photo seen above showing an already-vibrant metropolis, with its newest addition to the skyline, the Mercantile Bank Building. Below are a few other things from Bartholomew’s master plan I found interesting. (All images are larger when clicked.)
This map showing the growth of the city, from 1855 to 1943, is really interesting. Check out the “disannexed” areas. (I think that area east of the Park Cities was disannexed because landowners — which included W. W. Caruth — argued that it was undeveloped farmland and shouldn’t be subjected to city taxation. …I think.)
A somewhat recognizable skyline.
Levee District.
The old Union Depot at the edge of Deep Ellum, demolished in 1935.
There is much more in this interesting report, including quite a bit of good historical information on the development and growth of Dallas.
Source & Notes
All images from “Your Dallas of Tomorrow, A Master Plan for Dallas, Texas,” prepared by Harland Bartholomew and Associates of St. Louis, Missouri in September, 1943. Booklet from the Dallas Municipal Archives, accessible on the Portal to Texas History, here.
The report above was the first one issued — and it was the most glitzy. The ones that followed were more down-to-business. Some of the plans were implemented, some were not. See all of the reports of the master plan prepared by Bartholomew and Associates — issued between 1943 and 1946 — here. If you like maps, this link has your name all over it!
How Dallas Used to Get Election Returns
A Dallas crowd waits for returns in 1928 (click for larger image)
I think there’s some sort of political thing going on? Like most every other human being in the United States (…and beyond), I’m pretty sick of hearing about politics and politicians. Like nauseous sick. So why not write about elections! Below are some fun facts about how Dallasites used to get their election returns — share them with your fellow voters while standing in line at the polling station. They will think you are either very interesting or very annoying.
Forget the issues and the personalities, let’s look at election results: how were they passed along to the public in the days before radio and television? Other than newspapers (the primary source of all things informational), there was a time when results were “bulletined” by throwing images onto stretched canvases or even onto the sides of buildings by a powerful stereopticon or “magic lantern.” These results were continuously updated as manual counts in local races were tabulated; farther-flung races were updated via tallies received by telegraph or telephone. Crowds gathered in front of buildings — usually newspaper offices — to watch the returns. Some accounts have this form of information dissemination beginning in the 1860s (see an illustration from 1872 here), with the practice becoming more widespread by the 1880s and more technologically advanced by the 1890s.
Below, an illustration showing jubilant crowds watching congressional returns in Columbus, Ohio in 1884.
Columbus, Ohio, 1884
Things had been refined by 1896, as this illustration from the Atlanta Constitution shows. The caption: “Flashing out the returns in front of the Constitution office. Thousands of people gathered in front of the Constitution Building last night and watched the returns come in.” In the rain! That’s dedication.
Atlanta, Georgia, 1896
Also in 1896 — things got crazy in New York, with a ridiculously large “screen” hung from a very tall building.
from “Film and the American Presidency”
The first mention I found in The Dallas Morning News about projecting election results before a large crowd was in 1891. Not only did the newspaper have a large bulletin board (maybe like a large chalk board?), they also used the stereopticon. (The full article about the results of the 1891 election can be read here.) (All pictures and clippings are larger when clicked.)
Dallas Morning News, April 8, 1891
The magic lantern was called back into service the next year (read an entertaining DMN article about an 1892 election here in which the crowd huddled in front of the screen watching the returns despite rain and open saloons) — in fact, this “electric bulletin board” was so popular it was used for at least 40 more years.
In 1896, interest was really intense — an unbelievable 94% of Dallas’ registered voters had turned out to cast ballots. (It took four days to tally the votes!) A huge crowd gathered around the News building at Commerce and Lamar to watch the bulletins which were “flashed by means of a powerful stereopticon on a large canvas screen stretched across the street” (“Republicans Doubled Votes in ’96” by Sam Acheson, DMN, Jan. 1, 1968).
By 1900 this stereopticon thing was getting to be standard operating procedure.
DMN, Nov. 6, 1900
DMN, May 2, 1908
By 1911, “25,000 or 30,000 persons” were showing up to watch the returns.
DMN, July 23, 1911
I guess people used to just phone the papers after elections to ask about the results. The News would rather you didn’t, thanks.
1918 was an interesting year for a few reasons: (1) WWI was underway, (2) the polls opened — for some reason — at 9:27 AM and closed at 8:27 PM (?), and … (3) it was the first election in Dallas in which women were allowed to vote. There was suddenly a huge number of registered voters to have to deal with. Newspaper reports showed registration of women outnumbering men in several precincts. The large number of new voters meant that votes began to be counted “one hour after the polls are opened and will continue until the work is concluded” (DMN, July 19, 1918). Which seems odd. Also, women were encouraged to vote early in the day so as to avoid long lines and men were instructed to watch their behavior if there were women present.
It’s surprising that the use of projectors to display election returns was used as late as 1930, well after the advent of radio. Apparently the Texas Election Bureau and Press Association had rules forbidding radio stations from announcing election results over the air until they had been printed in the newspaper — they were, however, allowed to give “relative standings” to their audiences at fifteen-minute intervals (DMN, July 27, 1930).
Seems like the newspapers held all the power (probably not a huge problem for radio stations since most of them were owned by the newspapers, and, of course, no problem at all for the papers who printed oodles of “extra” editions). By 1930, though, crowds had gotten so large downtown that they were diverting people to Fair Park where they could sit and enjoy the cool breezes as they listened to see if their candidates had won or lost. (“Sitting” seems to be the operative word here.) But soon radio would wrest the “instant news bulletin” power away from the newspapers, and these quaint magic lantern watching-parties would be unnecessary. Eventually people wouldn’t know they’d ever even existed.
Fast-forward to today. I can’t even imagine trekking downtown to watch election results come in at a snail’s pace, magic lantern or not. It’s the 21st century, man, and I’ll be plopped in front of my TV, channel-hopping, stress-eating and stress-drinking, and wondering what friendly country I might consider “visiting” for a while.
Top photo shows crowds of Dallasites watching election returns. This Frank Rogers photo — a Dallas Public Library photo reproduced in A. C. Greene’s book Dallas, The Deciding Years — shows a crowd (which seems to be devoid of women) watching the 1928 presidential election returns on Elm Street. Another Rogers photo from the DPL, undated, probably taken 5 or 6 years earlier:
It’s convenient that he was able to include his studio in the background! The photograph is undated, but Frank Rogers and the Adam Schaaf Piano Store shared a building — at 1303 Elm — between 1922 and 1923. The building to the right is the Dallas Times Herald Building, and it would make sense that the crowd was looking toward the other side of the street. In fact, this may have been the night that the KKK famously marched through downtown, past the large crowds gathered in front of both the Dallas Times Herald and Dallas Morning News offices, to celebrate that their candidates had won … and won big.
DMN, Aug. 27, 1922
The illustration showing Ohio returns in Columbus being projected on the night of Oct. 14, 1884 is from Frank Leslie’s Weekly (this illustration was featured in the book Politicking and Emergent Media: U.S. Presidential Elections of the 1890s by Charles Musser).
The 1896 illustration is from the Atlanta Constitution, found on Twitter.
The 1896 photograph of the World Building in New York is from the trade journal The Electrical Engineer, Nov. 11, 1896. The paragraph below it is from the book Film and the American Presidency by Jeff Menne and Christian B. Long.
Further reading from the archives of The Dallas Morning News (regarding the July 26, 1930 election):
“News and Journal To Give Two Election Count Parties” (DMN, July 25, 1930) — an announcement to voters where they could get the “flashed” returns of the next day’s voting (in front of the News building “as usual,” and at Fair Park “where results will also be thrown on a screen at the moving picture booth near the grand stand”
“Fates of Favorites Watched on News and Journal Screens” (DMN, July 27, 1930) — two photos showing crowds at Commerce and Lamar and at Fair Park watching the returns
Click pictures and clippings to see larger images.
The Fair Park Bond Issue — 1934
“Forward 1936…” (DeGolyer Library, SMU)
With all the heated discussion currently going on about what the city is going to do with Fair Park, I thought this little pamphlet from 1934 seemed timely. Published by the “Centennial Fair Park Bond Committee” (comprised of all the Dallas movers and shakers one would expect), the get-out-the-vote brochure was issued to explain the $3,000,000 (about $54,000,000 in today’s money, adjusted for inflation) bond issue, the approval of which was essential in order to clinch the honor of hosting the Texas Centennial Exposition in 1936. The entire pamphlet — part of the George W. Cook Collection in the DeGolyer Library — may be read on SMU’s website, here.
A couple of excerpts:
The issue passed, overwhelmingly, by a 5-1 margin. It’s interesting to note that the voting restrictions on this referendum were … pretty restrictive. Not only was payment of a poll tax required to vote (…one had to pay for the “privilege” of voting…), but one also had to be a property owner — and that property owner was not allowed to vote until a “rendition” was signed downtown in the tax assessor’s office. Many property owners who had signed the necessary paperwork were still unable to vote as they had not paid (or could not afford) the poll tax. It’s pretty obvious here that a substantial number of lower income residents (i.e. non-property owners or property owners unable to afford the poll tax) — including many who lived in the area immediately surrounding Fair Park — were legally prohibited from casting a vote.
6,550 ballots were cast (5462-1088), which represented “little more than one-third of the 18,000 supposed qualified to decide this important issue” (Dallas Morning News, Nov. 1, 1934). It was declared to be “the largest majority ever cast for a bond issue in [the] history of Dallas” (DMN, Oct. 31, 1934).
The passage of the October, 1934 bond issue assured that Dallas would host the Texas Centennial Exposition, a statewide celebration which proved to be a huge success and was a tremendous economic boon to the city.
The pamphlet “Texas and Dallas … Forward 1936: Why We Should Vote For Centennial Fair Park Bonds, Tuesday, October 30, 1934” is part of the George W. Cook Dallas/Texas Image Collection, DeGolyer Library, Central University Libraries, Southern Methodist University; the entire pamphlet is contained in a PDF which may be read and/or downloaded here.
More on this vote can be found in these two Dallas Morning News articles:
“OK on Bonds For Huge Fair Up to Voters” (DMN, Oct. 30, 1934) — published on voting day, this article includes the particulars of the voting restrictions
“Five-to-One Majority Scored As City Favors Centennial Bonds to Assure Huge Fair” (DMN, Oct. 31, 1934) — the results
Payment of a poll tax was still required to vote in Texas elections until 1966, when the U. S. Supreme Court ruled such taxes were unconstitutional. More about that from the Dallas Public Library, here.
So You’re Considering a Move To Dallas … What’s That Tax Situation Like? — 1943
You and your gardener will *love* Dallas! (click for larger image)
It’s 1943. You’re considering relocating your business and your family to Dallas. You’ll probably be owning a mansion like the one pictured above. Should you and your large bank account settle in Dallas? I mean, is it really the best place … tax-wise?
Below is a page from a pamphlet called So This Is Dallas, a publication which was intended to sway decisions such as this. It was issued for several years by a group called “The Welcome Wagon,” and this edition came out sometime during World War II. Here’s what Big D had to offer in those days. (Click to see much larger image.)
Dallas offers a favorable tax situation that can be found in but few communities. There is no State income tax in Texas and no general sales tax.
Corporations operating in the State are subject to three forms of taxation. If they are foreign corporations, they must qualify legally in the State and pay a permit fee, an annual franchise tax and ad valorem taxes. If they are domestic corporations, they pay a fee to secure a Texas charter, an annual franchise tax and ad valoreum [sic?] taxes.
Texas laws do not discriminate against foreign corporations. The permit fee for a foreign corporation and the charter fee of a Texas corporation are arrived at in the same way, the proportionate amount of capital used in Texas by the foreign corporation and the capital stock of the domestic corporation. Franchise taxes for both foreign and domestic corporations are also assessed on the same basis.
Ad Valorem Taxes
All corporations, whether domestic or foreign, and all others owning property within the State of Texas, must render their property as of January 1 each year for city, State and county taxes. The property is rendered at its inventory value. The basis of assessment varies in different counties.
Current ad valorem taxes in Dallas are: City of Dallas, $2.45 per $100 valuation, basis of assessment 53 per cent of value; Dallas County, 74 cents per $100 valuation, basis of assessment 50 per cent of value; State, 69 cents per $100 valuation, basis of assessment 50 per cent of value.
Dallas has the lowest tax rate of any large city in the Southwest. Each city has a different basis of assessment. Reducing their rates to a basis of assessment on 100 per cent of value, net tax rates for the four leading cities in Texas are:
Dallas ….. $20.56 net per $1,000
Houston ….. $22.03 net per $1,000
San Antonio ….. $26.89 net per $1,000
Fort Worth ….. $29.25 net per $1,000
I don’t know what ANY of that means, but it looks like Dallas wins. Welcome to your new mansion!
Page from So This Is Dallas, published around 1943 by The Welcome Wagon; courtesy of the Lone Star Library Annex Facebook page.
If you recognize any of these homes, let me know and I’ll add the info here. I’m seeing what looks like Lakewood and Swiss Avenue, and maybe Highland Park and Oak Cliff.
Click pictures for larger images.
Cold Smut: Henry Miller’s “Tropic of Cancer” Banned in Dallas — 1961
Today is my late father’s birthday. He was a Dallas bookseller, and when searching on his name in the Dallas Morning News archives, I found this pithy letter to the editor he had written in the summer of 1961 (click for larger image; transcribed below).
It is refreshing that there is such a dearth of crime that the Dallas police department has to amuse itself by resorting to comstockery. The cops have been busy poking through the girlie mags at downtown newsstands, which is pleasant work. Now they have taken to harassing bookstores. If they get away with their ban of poor old Henry Miller’s tedious classic, it will only whet their appetite for more meddling.
I resent a group who seldom, if ever, has entered a bookstore or voluntarily read a book dictating what can or cannot be read. Literary criticism should be left to Lon Tinkle: he gives us freedom of choice. To have a bunch of policemen drooling over juicier passages and then whooping pietistic nonsense is frightening. Dallas is sophisticated and progressive?
Dick Bosse
After I looked up the word “Comstockery,” I was spurred to find out what he was writing about.
Henry Miller’s “tedious classic,” Tropic of Cancer, was originally published in Paris in 1934. It was considered too vulgar to be published in the United States. In fact, it was considered “obscene” by the U.S. Customs Department, and its very presence in one’s suitcase after returning home from a holiday in France was illegal. The only booksellers in the U.S. that sold the book did so at the risk of being jailed. That’s not to say there wasn’t a lot of piracy, bootlegging, and hush-hush selling of this much talked-about book going on, because there was — especially in New York.
In 1961, the book was finally published in the U.S. by Grove Press, and it was an immediate hit. (Grove priced it at an unbelievably steep $7.50, the equivalent today to about $60.00! The typical new hardcover fiction title in 1961 was around $3.95.) Unsurprisingly, the book was immediately banned in Boston, because Boston’s “thing” was banning stuff. But then … it was unexpectedly banned in Dallas, even though it was the #1 bestseller at the respected McMurray’s Bookshop downtown.
Dallas Police Department officials had decided the book violated a new Texas “anti-smut” law, and, on August 15th, policemen visited all the large bookstores in the city and informed them that if any copies of the book continued to be offered for sale, criminal charges would most likely be brought against the booksellers and the stores. (The state law called for fines up to $1,000 and one year in county jail for selling lewd and obscene material.) Dallas joined Boston as the only major American city banning the book. And then the whole thing became a cause célèbre — a “Dallas-Boston axis”!
The Long Beach (California) Independent, Aug. 18 1961
The move was roundly deplored by most of the Dallas public. The “Letters to the Editor” section of the historically very conservative Dallas Morning News contained many, many letters to the editor from outraged Dallasites, speaking out against the police department’s action. Sure, there were a few who were happy that objectionable material was being removed from Dallas bookstores, but they seemed to be in the minority. Even those who vehemently disliked the book were steadfastly opposed to its being banned, including the editors of The News.
As with many other non-issues like this that tend to cause near-obsession by the media, this story would not go away. The summer of ’61 was, for Dallas, the Summer of Smut. Best headline throughout all of this? One which appeared on a Morning News editorial: “COLD SMUT.”
Booksellers pulled the book, but, as the editorial says above, there were almost certainly sales continuing to interested clientele. Also, it should be noted that only Dallas was banning the book at this point (by 1962 other cities around the country had become embroiled in threatened legal action, resulting in books being pulled from shelves). You couldn’t buy the book in Dallas, but you could buy it in Fort Worth.
Elston Brooks, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Aug. 22, 1961
One assumes bookstores in Cowtown were cashing in on Tropic of Cancer sales — Barber’s Book Store must have been doing land-office mail order business.
FWST, Nov. 8, 1961
I thought this was a silly flare-up that lasted only a few weeks, but letters to the editor continued to show, at least through the winter of 1963, that it was still impossible to find the book in a Dallas bookstore. It probably wasn’t until 1964, when the United States Supreme Court ruled that the book was not obscene, that Dallas booksellers were finally free to openly sell a book which was published in 1934. No one seemed to care much when the X-rated film version (starring Texan Rip Torn) played at the Granada in 1970.
Sept., 1970
Cartoon by Herc Ficklen, from Aug. 30, 1961.
More on Tropic of Cancer at Wikipedia, here. This article contains my favorite line of any I read from the people who really, REALLY hated the book. It came from a Pennsylvania judge:
“[It is] not a book. It is a cesspool, an open sewer, a pit of putrefaction, a slimy gathering of all that is rotten in the debris of human depravity.”
Tons of articles on this appeared in The Dallas Morning News.in just ONE WEEK. Here are just a few (seriously, it’s the tip of the iceberg):
“Sales Banned: Police Label Book Obscene” by James Ewell (DMN, Aug. 16, 1961)
“Stores Stop Selling Book Called Obscene” by James Ewell (DMN, Aug. 17, 1961)
“Censorship of ‘Tropic’ Looses Opinion Barrage” by Scott Buchanan (Aug. 17, 1961)
“What Is Obscenity?” — editorial (DMN, Aug. 19, 1961)
“Book Fight Takes On Circus Air” (DMN, Aug. 19, 1961)
“Citizens Group Lauds Police Move On Book; Some Less Costly Smut Considered Main Problem” by Frank Hildebrand (Aug. 20, 1961)
“Cold Smut” — editorial (DMN, Aug. 20, 1961)
“Wade Orders Study On Smut Literature” by Carlos Conde (DMN, Aug. 21, 1961)
“Police Lectured On Book Action” by Jimmy Thornton (DMN, Aug. 22, 1961)
“Primer for Censors: A Few Basic Ideas” by Lon Tinkle, Book Critic of The News (DMN, Sept. 3, 1961)
Every time I came across the word “smut” mentioned in connection with this topic — and it was mentioned a LOT — I couldn’t help but think of Vera Carp and the other Smut Snatchers of the New Order from Greater Tuna.
If it looks too dang small to read, click it!
Home Sweet Home at Commerce & Harwood
“Main Street Garden?” (click for larger image)
Quaint homes, mere steps from City Hall. Not sure of the exact date of this photo, but these homes and this service station were at the above location in 1920. Wonder when those homeowners finally decided to sell? Talk about your primo real estate!
Below is a similar photo, but this one shows more of Commerce looking east — I don’t come across a lot of photos of this era showing downtown past what was unofficially thought of as its eastern boundary.
Photo from Noah Jeppson’s Flickr page, here.
Second photo, titled “Dallas City Hall,” is from the George W. Cook Dallas/Texas Image Collection, DeGolyer Library, Central University Libraries, Southern Methodist University; more info on this photo can be found here.
More on the building of the City Hall/Municipal Building in the post “The Elegant Municipal Building — 1914,” here.
Click picture for larger image.
“A City Built On the Solid Rock of Service” — 1927
“Opportunity!” (click for larger image)
Below, a 1927 Dallas Chamber of Commerce ad with some interesting statistics.
The CITY OF PROGRESS invites YOU to share in its PROSPERITY.
DALLAS–in 1900 a town of forty-thousand; in 1927 a city of a quarter million; forty-second in population; third as an agricultural implement distributing point; fifth as a dry goods market; fifteenth as a general jobbing center–the first city of the Southwest, in the fastest growing section of the United States.
Manufacturers, distributors and retailers are invited to investigate Dallas–a city built on the solid rock of service.
Pretty impressive. And the illustration of a dynamic city on the other side of that viaduct is all but throbbing with energy
The illustration from a 1929 Chamber of Commerce ad is even less modest: it shows Dallas as the center of the universe, center stage on Planet Earth, lit up by the sun and the giant Klieg lights of space.
I kind of think Dallas has pretty much always seen itself like this.
Ads from the 1927 and 1929 editions of The Texas Almanac and State Industrial Guide.
Trinity Heights: The Tallent Furniture Studio and The Sunshine Home
Vermont & South Ewing… (click for larger image)
The postcard image above shows a bird’s eye view of a few blocks in the Trinity Heights neighborhood of Oak Cliff, from the late 1940s. As I looked at it, I wondered a) what does this intersection look like now, b) what is that unlabeled building that looks like a jail behind the furniture store, and c) what was Tallent’s Furniture Studio?
Tallent’s Furniture Studio, owned by Raymond E. Tallent, was located at 815 Vermont Avenue.
Not only did it house a furniture store, but it also served as an office for Tallent’s real estate business. According to Tallent’s obituary, he came to Dallas in 1920 and started his real estate business five years later. Starting out, he’d’ve been happy to trade you property for diamonds. “What have you?”
The first mention I found for the furniture store is this Christmas ad from 1947.
Dec., 1947
Tallent died in January of 1950 at the age of 53. Both of his businesses continued after his death, and the furniture store was still going in the late 1960s.
So, nothing out of the ordinary — just a small business, like thousands of other small Dallas businesses. Probably the most interesting thing about Tallent was that he had the good taste to have that great promotional postcard made. That strange little building behind the store was a lot more interesting.
What was that building? The first time it popped up on a Sanborn map was 1922: it was identified as a “County Detention Home” (click for larger image).
1922 Sanborn map detail — see full page here
Despite its name, the “detention home” was not a correctional facility for juvenile delinquents, but it was a home for dependent children who had been made wards of Dallas County because of neglect or abandonment or because parents had died or were simply unable to care for them. This detention home was built in 1917 at 1545 South Ewing (“south of Oak Cliff”). During its construction in 1917, its roof collapsed, killing one of the workers.
Dallas Morning News, Apr. 13, 1917
The home was almost immediately overcrowded, and its superintendents were constantly scrambling for an increase in funding. Children, ranging in age from toddlers to teenagers, lived there as long as they needed — some for a few months, some for several years. They attended nearby schools, and even though they were wards of the court and were living in an institution, the people who ran the place tried to make it as home-like as possible. In January, 1934, the name of the county facility was changed to the much more cheerful “Sunshine Home.”
In 1950, the Sunshine Home received $165,000 in bond money for improvements and expansion, adding modern structures to the large campus but still retaining the original two-story red brick building built in 1917.
In 1975, the Dallas County Sunshine Home and the Girls’ Day Center merged, and the former Sunshine Home was renamed Cliff House.
In 2014, the 28,000-square-foot property on just under five acres was put up for sale, and in early 2015 plans for a charter elementary school were approved.
Below, a Google Earth image of the same view as the postcard featuring Tallent’s Furniture Studio, captured before the old Sunshine Home buildings had been demolished (click for larger image).
The view is remarkably similar to the one taken more than 65 years earlier. A little bleaker these days, perhaps, but certainly still recognizable.
Top postcard is from the Boston Public Library Tichnor Brothers Postcard Collection; it is viewable here.
Information on the plans for the KIPP Truth Academy submitted to the City of Dallas (with interesting illustrations/maps on pages 10 and 11) can be found in a PDF, here.
A recent Google Street View of this block of Vermont Avenue can be seen here. The Tallent furniture store occupied the building to the left of the Vermont Grocery.
The heart-tugging article “For All Loving Care Bestowed, Sunshine Home, Space Small, Needs Much to Cheer Children” (DMN, July 24, 1941) — written by popular Dallas Morning News columnist Paul Crume — describes daily life in the Sunshine Home and can be found in the Dallas Morning News archives.
A then-and-now comparison (click for larger image):
“The Walls Are Rising” (1967): Watch It Online!
Dallasites love their cars…. (photo from “The Walls Are Rising”/AIA Dallas)
Late last year I stumbled across mention of a 1967 film about Dallas called “The Walls Are Rising.” It was made by the American Institute of Architects, Dallas Chapter, and was sponsored by the Greater Dallas Planning Council as a sort of warning to the people of Dallas about the dangers of auto-centric sprawl and uncontrolled urban planning. I searched and searched for the whereabouts of the film, but it seemed to have disappeared without a trace. I contacted AIA Dallas, and after much searching, they found the film, still on an old reel. They digitized the film and screened it before a large and enthusiastic crowd in January, and after viewing the film and listening to a panel discussion, audience members launched into a lively and concerned discussion about the state of Dallas today. It turns out that most of the topics of grave concern in 1967 continue to be topics of grave concern today, almost 50 years later.
AIA Dallas has uploaded the 27-minute film to Vimeo, and it is now available for all to watch online. Made to emphasize the dangers of out-of-control urban blight brought on by an over-reliance on automobiles, a lack of green spaces, and depressing expanses of visual clutter, the film is a sardonic look at a claustrophobically “modern” Dallas. It’s a hip documentary — absolutely a product of its era — made by a filmmaker with avant-garde tendencies; imagine what an industrial film would have been like had it been made by “with-it” ad men who were given free-rein to get their message across (and who may have indulged in illicit substances during the editing phase). Not as weird as the film itself (though still plenty weird) are some of the proposals from architects and planners on ways to improve the city’s “livability.”
Best of all, though, are all the photos of the city. It’s great being able to hit “pause” and take a look at each and every 1967 photo of Dallas, from a jam-packed downtown, to a cluttered Oak Lawn, to a serene Turtle Creek.
Thanks again to AIA Dallas for finding the film and uploading this weird little slice of Dallas history!
The Walls are Rising from AIA Dallas on Vimeo.
A few screengrabs (click for larger images):
The video can be found on Vimeo here.
All photos by Ronald Perryman, from his film “The Walls Are Rising” (1967), “produced by Greater Dallas Planning Council in collaboration with Dallas Chapter of American Institute of Architects.”
The AIA Dallas website is here.
Robert Wilonsky’s Dallas Morning News blog post (May 21, 2015) on the uploading of this film is here.
My previous posts on “The Walls Are Rising” can be found here.


(BB Gun Press)
"If we came out now, we wouldn’t have a chance in hell": Shirley Manson looks back at 20 years of Garbage
The Garbage frontwoman looks back at the leap of faith that took her to the U.S. to play with guys she'd never met
Check out this article! https://www.salon.com/2015/10/08/if_we_came_out_now_we_wouldnt_have_a_chance_in_hell_shirley_manson_looks_back_at_20_years_of_garbage/
Annie Zaleski
October 9, 2015 3:00AM (UTC)
When Garbage’s “Vow” hit the airwaves in early 1995, the dizzying, electronic- and distortion-warped single sounded like nothing else out there at the time. Lyrically, its complexity was an especially refreshing change of pace: “Vow” explored the dichotomy between a burning desire to exact revenge on a spurned lover—while still trying to shake remnants of intense physical and emotional attraction.
As it turns out, unorthodoxy and complexity were also intrinsic to Garbage’s genesis. The Madison, Wisconsin-based group featured Butch Vig, who was then fresh off producing seminal albums by Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and Sonic Youth; Vig’s Smart Studios co-founder, Steve Marker; and Vig’s former bandmate, Duke Erikson. At the forefront was a fiery Scotswoman, Shirley Manson, who was most recently in the band Angelfish. Incredibly, Manson actually agreed to join Garbage before she had even collaborated with the other band members.
That leap of faith paid off in a big way, however. The group’s 1995 self-titled debut album—an aggressive, riotous amalgamation of hip-hop, electronic music, dance music and guitar-based rock & roll—catapulted Garbage into alt-rock’s upper echelons almost immediately. Not only did “Vow” become a hit, but so did the slinky “Queer,” a contradiction-celebrating “Only Happy When It Rains” and the glassy, dance-oriented “Stupid Girl.” A remastered version of the album, released October 2, only highlights how futuristic “Garbage,” sounded, especially in how tenaciously it tackled feminism, sexuality, self-perception and self-empowerment.
Manson checked in from Edinburgh, Scotland, just before midnight her time, a week before rehearsals kicked off for the band’s “20 Years Queer Tour,” which starts Tuesday in San Diego. She reminisced about her fateful decision to join Garbage and about recording the album, what made the unexpected band gel, and the impact the group’s had on her life and popular culture—both then and now.
I saw in another interview that you guys were looking for archival material for this release, and were having trouble trying to find it.
Oh yeah, just our record labels over the years have basically lost all our content, and nobody really knows where anything is. We did full-camera shoots of gigs and radio performances and TV shows and so on and so forth. It’s just been all lost to the ages, for the most part, along with, artwork, raw materials—you name it. We were originally having a flip out because we couldn’t even find the analog tapes of the first record, and nobody really knew where they were either. [Laughs.] So, you know, welcome to the music industry: They demand that they own all your material and then they just shove it in a cupboard somewhere and forget all about it. It’s frustrating.
You finally did discover the tapes. Where did you end up finding them?
We did. We found them in a mixture of places. Some of them were in London; some of them were at Smart [Studios] in Madison; and some of them were in Los Angeles. Eventually, after a lot of work on our management’s part and my husband’s, our studio engineer, we tracked everything down. But it took months and months and months of detective work, and it was very frustrating and not for the faint of heart [Laughs.]
I was going to say, that’s like the worst scavenger hunt ever.
It’s really maddening, though, you know, when you… I mean, I have enough problems with the way the music industry is run at the best times, but when you realize that a business is being run basically by [people] that squander all their investments, it’s bemusing, you know? It’s just ridiculous.
Considering that what you guys are making is art, basically, and it’s treated so carelessly, it’s a very odd juxtaposition.
It’s treated with contempt, yeah. So, you know, we all got over that that, but it does make me want to send a red alert to all bands, and say, “Be careful with your content.” But then my husband rushed to remind me that that’s not such an issue for people anymore, because it’s all digitally in a library now, whereas back then it was all physical content. So, you know, now everything’s on a computer database somewhere, but our stuff, our shit, is everywhere. [Laughs.]
So when you finally did get everything back, what were your takeaways hearing the songs again fresh 20 years later?
I was really pleasantly surprised at how I think it still sounds pretty contemporary. You know, I think you could play it on modern radio, and it would still stand out, so I was really proud of that fact. I’m heartened by it. I’m proud of the record; I think it’s an interesting debut.
Back then, the music sounded very futuristic to me. Listening to it now, it still feels like that—like it’s a far-off, light years away-type thing.
I do think, looking back— and I cannot take any credit for this, because really this came from the band and specifically Butch—I feel like they had a grasp on [where music] was gonna go. They understood that to make a record that could stand up on its own legs, and compete with the kind of records that Butch had been making, they had to make a record that was very different from the records Butch was famous for producing. And in doing so, I think they created kind of a modern archetype almost for contemporary music.
You know, music changed then— like, all of a sudden it was fine to steal from all different types of genres and marriage them all together in a melting pot. I think that’s what you mean by futurism, you know. It was a very forward-thinking record. I think you could listen to it today and not necessarily think it sounds that edgy, because we’re all used to hearing records now that are a melting pot like that one was. But at the time, that had not really been done before, you know? I think people forget that. It’s like that was unacceptable. [Laughs.]
I think people were very suspicious of us when we first came out with that record, because we were breaking rules that people just did not approve of; they didn’t approve of alt-rock taking elements of pop music and hip-hop and industrial and merging them all together. That was considered really uncool. But we felt that’s what made it unique and exciting, because it hadn’t been done before.
People forget just how dominant guitars were in alternative rock in 1995. Like, keyboards were totally out of fashion. In the late ‘90s, there were people like The Chemical Brothers and, you know, even David Bowie—his stuff did get a lot more electronic and merged genres a lot more. But it wasn’t very common when Garbage started.
No, no, it wasn’t. And it was also frowned upon. You know, people were expected to stay inside their little boxes. People—particularly music journalists— were very keen on having labels, and God forbid that you break out of your box, you know. I think it made people quite uncomfortable. We definitely encountered a lot of cynicism and suspicions… A lot of people accused us of being fake and not real—not for real. It was interesting how we were treated at first, obviously by our detractors.
When you first met everyone in the band, it wasn’t necessarily an instant creative connection. What made you keep plugging away and making things work? Was it kind of the sense that you guys were onto something different? What spurred you on?
We got a kick out of one another. We really liked one another, and we laughed a lot, and we had fun making music together. And I think that’s what made us keep coming back to try and make it work. In the process of doing that, we just, by default, became a band. You know, we started to think the same way we started to just find a rhythm together. We were very fortunate. We really did find a chemistry together. [And] for all our foibles and all our little arguments and squabbles, we still have this strange chemistry when we’re all together that really has endured and works for us. It’s special. I wouldn’t recommend anybody else to try and, you know, form a band across the Atlantic with people you’ve never met before, but in our case we really were fortunate.
Yeah, I mean, you think about that, that’s such a leap of faith. It’s weird! It’s like preposterous.
It is preposterous, that’s such a great word. It was an act of great stupidity, actually. [Laughs.]
It paid off! [Laughs.]
Yeah, it paid off but, you know, on paper it just looks— like you said— preposterous. You have all three older men living in the Midwest, in Wisconsin, and a girl, a strange creature, from Edinburgh, Scotland— we couldn’t have been more different. I mean, we still are very different human beings, but somehow we enjoy each other. It’s cool.
What do you recall most now about making the record? You were in kind of the middle of nowhere, Wisconsin. I imagine it was a little bit of fish out of water.
I was such a freak. I mean, I really was. I didn’t fit in at all. I couldn’t drive, which you being American will understand how difficult that is when you’re living in a Midwestern town that doesn’t have any real significant form of public transport. I had zero money— I mean, I really had zero money, so I couldn’t afford cabs, I had to walk everywhere, and it was either, you know, 100 degrees or it was -20 degrees. And so I really suffered making that record on a physical level. [Laughs.] I associate that first record with gross discomfort physically and, you know, mentally, because I felt very uncomfortable and I didn’t know the band. I mean, I got along with them, but I didn’t know them. I had no friends, no finances, no transport, and I was really very cut off from home because I couldn’t afford to call home, and I barely ate unless I was in the studio with the band. [Laughs.]
I associate it with great discomfort but, you know, it was all part of the crazy ride of it. And I’m so happy that I suffered, because it makes it so much more rewarding when things start going right.
To me, I’ve always thought the album drew its power from espousing the idea that nonconformity was empowering. So when you say these things, it makes sense, then, why a lot of the themes evolved the way they did.
[Laughs.] Yeah, yeah, I guess. [reflective pause] It was just the best we could do at the time, and now, looking back, it was enough. And when you’re an unproven artist, you don’t know if what you’re doing is going to have any value whatsoever. You can just follow your own muse, and hope that other people might be as interested in it as you are. [Laughs.]
That’s true. It seems like there might not be as much pressure then, too, because there was no real precedent as a band. I mean, obviously people knew Butch’s work as a producer, but as a band, it was an unproven quantity.
Yeah. I mean, I felt no pressure whatsoever that first record. That was all on Butch, you know? And I know for a fact he was stressed, like, beyond my wildest imaginings, you know, because he had a lot to lose. He had a reputation at stake, so I think he took that first record to heart and worked really hard on it and drove himself into the ground. He hardly ever slept; he was constantly at the studio. It was pretty intense.
How did kind of the making the album really stretch you as a musician and a person?
Well, you know, I was writing for the first time in my life. When they invited me to join the band they said, “You know, we expect you to be a full quarter member of this band. You write, don’t you?” And I instinctively knew that somehow they needed and wanted me to write, so I said, “Yeah, I write! Of course I do!” [Laughs loudly.] And I had never written a word in my life or really ever had the confidence to contribute musically to any recordings I’ve ever been involved in. You know, at the time I could play piano, and I had been a singer in a band and I’d sung with choirs, and I’d played in orchestras, but I had never, ever contributed an idea in any sense whatsoever beyond some backing vocals. I was thrown into a creative melting pot, and I just had to fucking get it together. I just had to; I had no other choice. So I was lucky in that regard: I was just sort of forced into it without having to think about it too much.
Sometimes, though, that’s good, because if you overthink things — I mean, as a writer I know I have this problem. I’ll be staring at a blank document overthinking everything, and nothing will happen. You just let yourself go, and that’s when creativity can actually flow.
Yeah, I think you’re absolutely right. If things had turned out any other way, I probably would never, ever be a writer, never ever write a song in my life. By default I’ve been forced into the role, and as such, I was smart enough to understand that this is an incredible opportunity in my life, and I better get my shit together, and I tried, you know? I wanted to try. I was hungry, I wanted a future; I needed a job. I literally had no future when they approached me at all.
Well, and then the record took off. I mean, I remember seeing the video for “Vow,” and it was one of those things that was just really aggressive, and it just really grabbed your attention right away. It seemed like that was the start of everything. So what was that like for you, then, I guess, the rocket ship of attention and everything right away?
I mean, it was thrilling at first, and then it became incredibly intense and mind-blowing. But you’re right—I mean, “Vow” was the first track that blew up for us, and it created and garnered speed so fast it was shocking. I mean, even our record label was caught off guard. We hadn’t even finished the album by the time there was a little sort of storm about us in the U.K., and garnering force in Australia and in North America all at once. So it was crazy and exciting and exhilarating.
Had you guys made this record as a new band in 2015, do you think that it would’ve been received as warmly or would you guys have been able to release it with so little interference?
I mean, as a band, if we came out now, we wouldn’t have a chance in hell. We’d been saying this for the last, God, ten years. There’s no way we would’ve been able to enjoy that level of mainstream exposure for an alternative band. It hadn’t happened before—alternative music had never been in the mainstream up until that point of our first record, not really. I mean, there were other bands that enjoyed that explosion with us, but we were all part of a wave of alt-rock being the mainstream musical choice of radio, TV, media. And it hasn’t really been like that since. Yes, there’s successful alternative bands, but they’re not managing to just completely overtake mainstream media.
That is true. I mean, it seems like because perhaps there are so many bands, it’s hard to get to the same level of success, because there’s so many other people competing for that same level of success.
Yeah, where there’s so much noise and so much access and a different idea every day, and so to maintain any kind of momentum is really difficult for any band. And there’s this obsession by the public to be on top of the brightest, newest, shiniest penny—and, of course, there’s brand new shiny pennies every 30 seconds on the internet. So it’s very hard to garner a lot of following beyond your first record. I mean, there’s always that explosion of a new artist, and they’ll enjoy that crazy run, but then to try and follow that up with a second or a third record is practically unheard of at this point, particularly in alternative rock.
As a fan, it’s really fatiguing because it’s hard to keep up with bands you like and that there just is so much to follow. It’s physically difficult.
It is, it’s truly exhausting. I mean, I used to really know so much about contemporary music, because I was an avid reader of the music press and I really knew my shit. And now it’s too much. I’m just overwhelmed by it. I don’t even see a jumping in point without spending hours and hours and hours of my day trying to figure it all out and give everything a listen. It’s just impossible. I don’t have the time anymore, so it’s just overwhelming.
I feel the same way. It’s kind of like it’s paralysis. I don’t even know where to begin. [Laughs.]
I mean, obviously you ask people that you meet. I’m always asking everybody, “What are you listening to? What excites you?” It’s not that I don’t discover new music, but I certainly don’t have that feeling that I used to have of really knowing what is going on in general, you know. It’s just everything is so heavy with noise. Saturated, you know. Saturation point.
And it’s more of a surface relationship to music, I guess at least personally. I feel like you used to have a lot more of a personal relationship to an artist or a band and their music. I find that’s harder to cultivate now, which is disappointing to me.
Well, it’s interesting— yeah, I think you’re right. We all made deep connections. We were all looking for contact and connections in music, I think, and now it’s become a strange sort of way to define our lifestyles, and I’m not sure people even have the time to make a connection in the same way as we did.
You know, everything moves so fast right now. And I’m sure that will change and this is just how things are right now, but everybody’s moving so fast and ripping through information on their phones and watching movies on their telephones on their way to work and reading books and, you know, between working out and going to work and feeding the children or going on a date or, you know, blah blah blah. It’s just everyone’s doing so much all the time. It’s getting manic! [Laughs.]
It is. For me, I feel like someone’s grabbing my arms and legs and pulling in different directions, if that makes any sense.
Yeah, I mean it’s super intense, isn’t it? And well, I certainly was created pre-internet so, of course, it’s gonna be more peculiar, more intense for someone like myself, because that’s just— the speed at which everything moves now is still quite foreign to me. But I think it’s intense for— you know, I’ve watched some of my friends’ kids and they seem super stressed, too. [Laughs.] I don’t know why I laugh; it’s not funny.
But there’s also great things that come from it, too. I mean, I love the internet, too. There’s so many things I love about it, so… I think it’s just like anything. There’s great things that come from it, and there’s some horror as well, and that’s evolution. That’s how things change and move forward, and we all have to adapt or die.
To wrap up then: Twenty years out, where do you see Garbage’s legacy in popular culture, in music or really anywhere?
You know, I don’t really think too much in terms of legacy, per se. I mean, there’s so many other artists out there who are genius musicians and incredible singers. None of us in Garbage are particularly amazing at what we do, but we’ve managed to garner our forces to make interesting, eclectic-sounding records that are very unique. You know, you hear one of our records— we don’t sound like anybody else out there. And that, I think, is an achievement—to sound different from literally of millions of bands that the world has been exposed to, I think that’s kind of crazy and cool. [Laughs.]
But I do feel in some ways there is a legacy connected to our first record, this debut record, and I wish I could take credit for it, but I really can’t. I had a role in it, a small part in it, I definitely think it would’ve turned out very different had I not been involved, but what I think is our first record’s greatest achievement is it broke down a lot of barriers. And I think that has to be laid at Butch’s feet. He really did create an archetype for a contemporary record and showed the world that you can break down all the boxes, all the cliques and all the genres, and we can make interesting, fresh-sounding music by breaking down the walls.
Butch is a very modest man and he never really talks about himself in any grandiose terms. He’s very humble. But I do think he did something quite extraordinary, as it turns out. I’ve been lucky enough to be along on that ride with him and the rest of the band, too.
Annie Zaleski is a Cleveland-based journalist who writes regularly for The A.V. Club, and has also been published by Rolling Stone, Vulture, RBMA, Thrillist and Spin.
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African Presidents wives to hold summit in Abuja on women’s development
By Amina Alhassan | Published Date Feb 21, 2018 15:14 PM Jul 18, 2018 16:19 PM
Abuja will in April host wives of African Presidents, Vice Presidents and other female leaders across the African continent at the 2018 African Women Summit organized by the Coalition of Wives of Presidents and Vice Presidents in Africa (COWAP).
According to a press statement issued by Belema Meshack-Hart, Team Lead, COWAP, the Summit which will be chaired by the former President of Malawi Joyce Banda will draw participation from all African countries live streamed to more than three million viewers across the globe.
The two-day Summit themed: ‘Using Innovative Technology to Solve Africa’s Development Challenges’ has been scheduled to hold between Saturday 21st to Sunday 22nd April 2018 in Abuja.
The coordinators of the event have said the summit will serve as a melting pot of ideas towards achieving peace and development in Africa, anchoring on the four (4) thematic points of COWAP – Peace; Girl Child Education; Ending Hunger and Ending Poverty.
The cordinators also say, “The Summit will allow participants to identify the greatest barriers to peace and development and formulate sustainable solutions to these challenges, empowering women across the continent to become solution providers to themselves, their communities and the world around them.”


Home Miss Universe Jenny Kim is Miss Universe Korea 2016
Jenny Kim is Miss Universe Korea 2016
Miss World Korea 2015 first runner-up, Jenny Kim, was appointed as Miss Universe Korea 2016! She will be competing in the 65th edition of Miss Universe which will be held in the Philippines in January 2017.
Kim is currently double majoring in International Office Administration and English Language and Literature at Ewha Womans University. Kim moved to Indonesia when she was only one year old with her family, and has attended an international school in Jakarta. She can speak English and Indonesian language fluently.
The highest placement of Korea was during Miss Universe 1988 by Jang Yoon-jeong, who placedas 1st Runner-up.
Jenny Kim is Miss Universe Korea 2016 Reviewed by Pageanthology 101 on Wednesday, October 26, 2016 Rating: 5


Home → → Assessing the China-Philippines MOU on Cooperation on Oil and Gas Development
By Jianwei Li and Ramses Amer
Assessing the China-Philippines MOU on Cooperation on Oil and Gas Development
Dec. 27, 2018 | | 0 comments
On November 20, 2018 during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to the Philippines, 29 cooperation documents were signed between relevant authorities from both countries in the presence of President Xi and President Duterte. The 2nd among the long list of cooperation projects is the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation on Oil and Gas Development between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Government of the People’s Republic of China (hereafter the MOU). The MOU is a carefully-drafted political document and its signing is an important step for bilateral efforts towards the direction of expanding their cooperation to marine resources development. Its evolvement will also impact bilateral dispute management and peace and security in the South China Sea (SCS) region and beyond.
Nature of the MOU
As Article II of the MOU states, the MOU is in relation to oil and gas exploration and exploitation in relevant maritime areas. Based on the context of Article I by referring to the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) and that both governments “have made substantial progress and meaningful gains in exploring opportunities and means to cooperate with each other in maritime activities”, the MOU is about bilateral cooperation in the SCS.
The topic of bilateral marine resources development in particular oil and gas cooperation has attracted attention from the political opposition in the Philippines headed by the group of politicians and judges who are either in opposition to Duterte or were involved in the 2016 Arbitration Case invoked by the former Aquino III Administration against China. They have been accusing the Duterte administration of “selling sovereignty and sovereign rights to China” defined by the award from the Arbitral Tribunal. It is important to note that from the very beginning of the Case, China considered it as not in line with the basic principles of international law and refused to participate and accept the award. After the signing of the MOU, two Philippine officials, Secretary of Foreign Affairs Locsin and Secretary of Energy Cusi, clarified that the MOU was an “agreement to agree”, that is, both parties agreed, through the MOU, to arrive at an agreement within a certain time. Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo refers to the MOU as a “framework” that is “not legally binding.”
Following concerns that the MOU could compromise the country’s sovereignty or lead to a debt trap, the Philippines’ Senate President called for a legislative review of the MOU. After examination of the MOU, Justice Secretary Guevarra said that he did not find any violation of the laws. He further elaborated that the MOU did not concern sovereignty issues and it merely expresses “a mutual desire to agree on specific cooperation arrangements within 12 months”.
Although details of cooperation will be discussed afterwards, the MOU clarified the positions of both countries, that is, “the MOU, and all discussions, negotiations and activities of the two governments or their authorized enterprises under or pursuant to this MOU, will be without prejudice to respective legal positions of both governments” (Article IV). This MOU does not create rights or obligations under international or domestic law. This is a pragmatic attitude towards their SCS disputes. Both recognized the existence of differences relating to their claims of sovereignty and sovereign rights in the SCS, but they agreed to shelve the differences and begin discussing cooperation, leaving the disputes to be resolved by later generations.
Implications of the MOU
The MOU conveys several messages. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson described the process at a press conference. It was, as he said, through in-depth exchanges of views for several times and after communication and negotiations that the two sides reached agreement on signing the inter-governmental MOU. During the whole process, the two sides demonstrated pragmatic attitudes and positive will to develop China-Philippines friendship and deepen bilateral cooperation. Therefore, the signing of the MOU is a testament to the mutual respect, equal-footed negotiation and mutual trust between China and the Philippines. Furthermore, based on the above working environment, marine resources development can work between the two countries.
Second, the signing of the MOU reflects strong political willingness from the top leaders of both countries to co-operate on oil and gas development in the SCS. The cooperation on oil and gas development is an important consensus reached by top leaders of both countries since Duterte took office in 2016. Back in October 2016 when President Duterte paid his first state visit to China, both countries signed a joint statement in which it was indicated that both sides agreed to explore (other) areas of co-operation in the SCS (Point 42 of 2016 Joint Statement).
In the 2017 joint statement signed during Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s official visit to the Philippines, it was clearly emphasized that both sides “may explore means to cooperate with each other in other possible maritime activities including maritime oil and gas exploration and exploitation, in accordance with the respective national laws and regulations of the two countries and international law including the 1982 UNCLOS, and without prejudice to the respective positions of the two countries on sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction” (Point 14 of 2017 Joint Statement).
Taking into consideration of the existing bilateral disputes in the SCS, any choice of cooperation area in the overlapping-claimed area which is located within the Philippines’ EEZ of 200 nm from the coast will be sensitive, even though there is “without prejudice to respective legal positions”.
The recent 2018 joint statement relating to President Xi’s visit, both sides welcomed the signing of the MOU, and agreed to discuss maritime cooperation including maritime oil and gas exploration, sustainable use of mineral, energy and other marine resources, among other consensus on implementing relevant international maritime instruments to ensure the safety of life at sea, marine environmental protection, and human resources development (Point 27 of 2018 Joint Statement). Without the strong support from the top leaders, it would be difficult to start co-operation in the unchartered water.
Third, the MOU also reflects the commitment from both government agencies to push ahead with cooperation on oil and gas development in relevant maritime areas. It was declared in the MOU that relevant agreements would be reached on oil and gas exploration and exploitation within 12 months. Such development is important for the Philippines. Currently the Philippines relies overwhelmingly on imports to fuel its fast-growing economy and needs to develop indigenous energy resources. In 2016 it imported 10,670kt of crude oil and domestic production was only 760kt. In the same year natural gas supply met the domestic demand, both 153,275tj. However, its main source of natural gas, the Malampaya field located closer to disputed waters, will be depleted within a decade. To reach agreement for oil and gas development will be good news for the Philippines economic development.
Fourth, China-Philippine oil and gas cooperation in the SCS is not an easy task. Both governments have taken a cautious and careful move. As discussed above, the MOU was reached after two years of negotiations and consultations. In the meantime, some key issues still need to be tackled in the near future.
Two Articles in the MOU, Article II and III, give guidance for both governments to work together to reach arrangements to facilitate oil and gas exploration and exploration in an accelerated manner. Article II specifies the principles to be followed. They include “mutual respect, fairness, and mutual benefit, flexibility and pragmatism and consensus”, “equal and friendly consultation” and “being consistent with applicable rules of international law”.
Article III, entitled “Working Mechanism”, specifies the mechanism under the MOU and their relevant responsibilities. Two kinds of organizations will be formed, an Inter-Governmental Joint Steering Committee and one or more Inter-Entrepreneurial Working Group(s). The Committee will be co-chaired by the Foreign Ministries and co-vice chaired by the Energy Ministries with equal number of members of relevant agencies from the two governments. The Committee will be responsible for negotiating and agreeing the cooperation arrangements and cooperation maritime areas.
It is also the responsibility of the committee to decide on the number of Working Group(s). Each Working Group will consist of representatives from enterprises authorized by the two governments. The Working Group(s) is(are) responsible for negotiating and agreeing on inter-entrepreneurial technical and commercial arrangements. China authorizes China National Offshore Oil Corporation as the enterprise for each Working Group. The Philippines will authorize, depending on the applicable working area, the enterprises(s) where a service contract exists, or otherwise the Philippine National Oil Company — Exploration Corporation.
Furthermore, with Article VI “Other Matters”, the Committee or a Working Group can be consulted for any other matters rather than those in the MOU.
Future Challenges
The MOU has sent a positive signal to the SCS region and beyond that cooperation in the SCS can be expanded to marine resources development, oil and gas in particular. However, from the MOU to any concrete bilateral cooperation agreement in the SCS, two key issues need to be agreed upon, co-operation area (where) and business arrangements (how). Taking into consideration of the existing bilateral disputes in the SCS, any choice of cooperation area in the overlapping-claimed area which is located within the Philippines’ EEZ of 200 nm from the coast will be sensitive, even though there is “without prejudice to respective legal positions”. The options of working areas will be under close scrutiny of the political opposition in the Philippines. The previous pretext used to bring the 2005 China-Philippines-Vietnam Tripartite Agreement on Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking on a halt might be invoked again — being inconsistent with the Philippine constitution and selling the Philippine sovereignty.
How China and the Philippines could really shelve their maritime disputes and how the MOU will evolve into a cooperation agreement will have significant impact not only on the Philippine domestic politics but also on China-Philippine relations over the SCS. Political wisdom is very important. The China-Philippine experience might set a precedent for co-operation on oil and gas development in the SCS region.
Jianwei Li and Ramses Amer
Jianwei Li is Director and Research Fellow, National Institute for South China Sea Studies, China. Ramses Amer is Associate Professor in Peace and Conflict Research and Associated Fellow, Institute for Security & Development Policy, Sweden.
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About El Camino Health
Iftikhar Hussain
Iftikhar Hussain joined El Camino Hospital as the chief financial officer in the spring of 2014. He has more than 30 years of healthcare financial experience. Most recently, Iftikhar was chief financial officer of Mills-Peninsula Health Services in Burlingame, California. Other previous roles include director of finance at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland, California, and director of accounting services at Mercy Healthcare/Catholic Healthcare West in Sacramento, California. He earned a bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting from the University of California, Berkeley. Iftikhar is a member of the Healthcare Financial Management Association.
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Jiulong Baguazhang
History of Jiulong Baguazhang
Jiulong Baguazhang Cirriculum
The art of Jiulong Baguazhang (pronounced Jee-ohLung BaGwaJong) or Nine Dragon, Eight Trigram Palm (boxing art) comes to us by way of the Li family of Sichuan province, China. It is but one facet of the Li family’s martial and health exercise system called Daoqiquan (pronounced Dao Chee Chewen) – which can be interpreted as “Martial Way of Vitality”
The history of Daoqiquan weaves a story about a wandering Tibetan monk, Lama Zurdwang (1530 -1620) from Quamdo Tibet. Lama Zurdwang is said to have been a student of the 5 Excellencies: philosophy, poetry, painting, medicine, and martial arts sometime during the Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644 AD).
Legend has it that Lama Zurdwang left his native Tibet on a quest to learn more of Daoism, Buddhism, and Chinese martial arts. During his travels through China, Zurdwang is believed to have stopped at many Daoist and Buddhist monasteries, where he learned methods of healing, herbology, and various styles of Chinese martial arts.
Lama Zurdwang eventually came to take the Daoist name Dao, Long-Ren and eventually settled in the village of Daofu, in Sichuan province, where he became the tutor of a family named Li. He taught them the many skills he had learned over decades of travel and study. In this way, the arts of Dao, Long-Ren passed into the hands of the Li clan and over the years the family became known as highly reputable bodyguard/wagon masters, or Baobiao.
Each patriarch of the clan learned the original methods of Lama Zurdwang’s martial arts and combined them with other styles and combat methods they came across that proved useful. Over numerous generations, the Li family developed their own interpretation of martial art styles such as Taijiquan (Tai Chi), Xingyiquan, and Baguazhang based on the martial principles they had learned from Dao, Longren. After many changes of name, their art came to be known as Daoqiquan.
Baguazhang was incorporated into the Daoqiquan system by Master Li, Ching-yuen, who named it Jiulong, or Nine Dragon, Baguazhang, in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s, though it is not certain where he learned it. It is possible that the Li family system of Jiulong Baguazhang has the same roots as other systems of Baguazhang which developed from the lineage established in Beijing by the recognized founder of the art, Dong Hai-chuan. Whatever the case, Jiulong Baguazhang was initially taught only to Li family members and, as such, its connection to the lineage of Dong, Hai-chuan is uncertain. From the Li family it was passed on to the first Westerner, the current Shigong (grandfather teacher) of the art, Dr. John P. Painter, who has taught the method to thousands of students across the world.
White Dragon Healing Arts
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Aston Martin Shows Off Electric Sedan Prototype Driving
Aston Martin is best known for its luxury sports cars but the company has been working on a fully electric sedan which it says has been engineered to “retain and enhance the feel, character and delivery of the V12-engined Rapide S.” The company’s CEO Andy Palmer tweeted a milestone moment for the upcoming vehicle recently. The video shows its Rapide E prototype driving under its own power for the very first time.
This also happens to be Aston Martin’s first fully electric car. It will be able to follow through on its promise of making customers feel they’re in a V12-engined Rapide S with an impressive 800V battery system that’s compatible with DC fast chargers. It will also have twin electric motors to deliver the equivalent of 602 horsepower and a top speed of 155 miles per hour.
The video tweeted out by the CEO shows the prototype slowly making its way across a parking lot. It’s not doing high speed runs or lighting up its rear tyres, but at least we know now that Aston Martin has reached the point in the development of this vehicle which ensures that it will be able to drive under its own power.
Further information about this electric sedan will be confirmed closer to its launch. Aston Martin is expected to launch it at some point in the fourth quarter of this year.
A moment of @astonmartin history. First Validation Prototype Aston Martin RapideE moves under its own power for the very first time with its breakthrough 800v battery. Great work from the development team which includes Williams Engineering. pic.twitter.com/b2mRaeCsNP
— Andy Palmer (@AndyatAston) January 21, 2019
Filed in Transportation. Read more about Aston Martin and Electric Cars.
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Roger Thomas Memorial Cup 2017
On Friday 24th March 2017 a staff select XI competed for the Roger Thomas Memorial Cup against a confident Year 13 XI ably supported by a number of hard working year 12 students.
As always, the match was to be played in memory of Mr Roger Thomas who was an exceptional man who did a vast amount for Sport at Westgate School during his time as Headmaster here. In his memory, this annual event has a charitable focus and we raised the sum of £165 which will be donated to Asthma UK.
We very much appreciate the supporters for their kind donations and continued enthusiasm throughout the match.
The game was a fantastic opportunity for the students to back up their confident pre-match chat and they became under immense pressure from the outset where it was clear that they were not going to have it all their own way against this strong, hard working staff side. Mr Innis scored the opening goal for the staff, followed shortly by a short tap in from Mr Watson to take a commanding 2-0 lead. It was then that the students had a glimmer of hope, with a mix up at the back, Sam Collins ably took control and neatly tucked away a confident finish into the bottom corner to keep the students in the game at 2-1.
Mr Watson was keen to make up for his slight error at the back and did so almost immediately with an outstanding diving header to put the staff side back in control with a 2 goal advantage going into half time.
Both sides came out into the second half with a new focus and determination and it was the staff side again who struck first with two goals coming in quick succession the first of which was delivered by Mr Mangat from a throw in and finally Mr Innis with a neat finish to get his second of the day. At 5-1 the staff side looked comfortable and the students struggled to get themselves back into the game. The staff continued to push but the game was called to an end with a confident 5-1 score line in favour of the staff who were very proud to be the 2017 holders after their loss on penalties in the 2016 tie.
Special mention must go to Mr Clark for organising the match and the staff side and Maan Chana for organising the students side. The game was excellently officiated by Adam Mcloughlin who did an outstanding job, supported by Harvey Townsend and Mikolaj Pietluch from Year 11.


Archive for the ‘Middlesex County’ Category
Posted in New Jersey, Perth Amboy on June 17, 2009|
NEWARK – Last week, a former advisor to state Assemblyman Joseph Vas pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of illegally funneling money into Vas’ 2006 congressional campaign.
Ray Geneske, a longtime friend of Vas, admitted accepting $30,0000 from a developer and giving most of it to “straw donors” who wrote checks to the campaign. The move circumvented campaign finance regulations that cap the maximum donation at $2,100 per individual.
The former Democratic committee chairman in Perth Amboy agreed to cooperate with the U.S. Attorney General’s Office. Geneske faces a maximum of two years in prison, but he may only receive probation when he is sentenced on Sept. 21.
An Evening Of Elegance
Posted in Edison, Middlesex County, New Jersey on June 10, 2009|
The courtyard at The Wardlaw-Hartridge School in Edison was filled with seniors and juniors dressed in exquisite gowns and tuxedos having their pictures taken before boarding a bus to attend Prom at The Farrington Manor in East Brunswick on June 2. Pictured above, Roland Marionni of Scotch Plains, Upper School chemistry teacher, poses with juniors Ayna Agarwal of Colonia, Devi Mody of Edison, Katie Lee of Edison, Lotus Cannon of Edison and Garima Kapoor of Edison before boarding the bus. (Photo by Bill Jenkins)
Vas Campaign Leader Pleads Guilty To Corruption Charge
Posted in Middlesex County, New Jersey, Perth Amboy on June 5, 2009|
TRENTON – A man who served as a leader of the 2006 congressional campaign of state Assemblyman Joseph Vas pleaded guilty today to soliciting fraudulent campaign contributions, Attorney General Anne Milgram and Criminal Justice Director Deborah L. Gramiccioni announced.
According to Gramiccioni, Raymond Geneske, 73, of Perth Amboy, pleaded guilty before Superior Court Judge Frederick P. DeVesa in Middlesex County to a third-degree charge of financial facilitation of criminal activity, commonly known as money laundering.
In pleading guilty, Geneske admitted that he solicited employees of the City of Perth Amboy and others to make fraudulent contributions to Vas’ 2006 campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives for the 13th Congressional District. At the time, Geneske was chairman of the Perth Amboy Democratic Committee and was a key advisor to the Vas campaign. Geneske admitted that he paid cash to the people he solicited to reimburse them for writing personal checks payable to “Vas for Congress.”
Ricigliano Wins Bitter Battle Against Choi
Posted in Edison, Middlesex County, New Jersey on June 3, 2009|
EDISON – Councilwoman Antonia Ricigliano is one step closer to becoming Edison’s first female mayor after defeating incumbent Jun Choi in Tuesday’s primary.
The two-term councilwoman had the backing of the township’s Democratic Committee as well as the local police union, but still trailed Choi by 18 points in a poll taken two weeks before election day.
“Does it get any better?” Ricigliano asked at her campaign headquarters on Tuesday night. “I couldn’t believe it. When the phone call came in, I didn’t know who it was—it was Mayor Choi conceding. We didn’t even have all the numbers on our board yet.”
H1N1 Flu Cases Confirmed In Middlesex County
Posted in Middlesex County, New Jersey on June 3, 2009|
MIDDLESEX COUNTY—Four cases of H1N1 flu have been confirmed in Middlesex County, according to the Middlesex County Public Health Department.
Three of the cases, two from Highland Park and one from Edison, are from an influenza cluster in students from a private parochial school in Piscataway. A cluster is defined as two or more individuals with symptom onset within seven days of each other who have common exposure, i.e. school.
The private school was closed for a week, and reopened on Monday, June 1.
County health officer David A. Papi said, “We have been working closely with the school, local physicians, parents, and all local health departments in the county, particularly Piscataway and Edison health departments.”
Award-Winning Artist
Athena Gerasoulis of Edison, a fourth grader at the Wardlaw-Hartridge School in Edison, captured first place in the nationwide 2009 Creative Student Art Contest for her “vivid color usage and imaginative interpretation of the theme, ‘Outside World.’” She received a $250 check and $250 art supply gift certificate. She is pictured with her plaque and artwork at right. Athena is the daughter of Dr. Apostolos Gerasoulis and Xiaolan Zhang. (Photo Courtesy of Xiaolan Zhang)
Posted in Edison, Middlesex County, New Jersey on May 28, 2009|
MIDDLESEX COUNTY—Three cases of H1N1 flu have been confirmed in Middlesex County, according to the Middlesex County Public Health Department.
Two of the cases, one from Highland Park and one from Edison, are from an influenza cluster in students from a private parochial school in Piscataway. A cluster is defined as two or more individuals with symptom onset within seven days of each other who have common exposure, i.e. school.
The private school has been closed since Friday, May 22, and will remain closed until Monday, June 1. County health officer David A. Papi said, “We have been working closely with the school, local physicians, parents, and all local health departments in the county, particularly Piscataway and Edison health departments.”
A third confirmed case involves an adult male from North Brunswick and is not related to the cases from the Piscataway school, officials said.


Posts tagged 2012 News
MI ballot committees raised $154.3 million in Campaign 2012
LANSING - Michigan ballot committees smashed all previous records for fundraising and spending in 2012. In aggregate, the 2012 ballot committees raised $154.3 million. All six proposals lost at the polls on November 6th. The spending in three of the ballot contests - Proposal 2, 3 and 6 - broke t... read more
Dark money and justice
By Rich Robinson This commentary first appeared in edited form in the Detroit Free Press under the title, "Who paid for those Michigan Supreme Court ads?" Michigan earned national election notoriety in 2012. Our Supreme Court campaign appears to have been the most expensive, least accountable ... read more
Outside groups outspending candidates 2:1 in1st Congressional
LANSING - Spending by outside groups is already nearly twice what the candidate committees have raised in Michigan's most hotly contested congressional race. Through the pre-general campaign finance reports, incumbent Republican Rep. Dan Benishek had total receipts of $1,889,740 and Democratic chall... read more
Michigan House candidates raised $13M by pre-general reports
LANSING - Fundraising by Michigan House candidates is running well ahead of the pace of the last two election cycles. Through pre-general reports, the general election candidates have raised $13.04 million. The comparable figures for 2010 and 2008 were $9.45 million and $11.7 million, respectively. ... read more
America's most expensive, most secretive judicial election
LANSING - Michigan's Supreme Court election campaign appears to be headed for the notorious distinction of being the nation's most expensive and least transparent judicial election campaign in 2012. The candidates' pre-general election campaign finance reports filed Friday show that the major-par... read more
Ballot committees have raised $141 M
amended 4:00p, 10/29/2012 LANSING - Active ballot committees raised $141.4 million in Michigan this election cycle, as of Friday, October 26th. Three of the six proposals voters will decide on November 6th have already smashed the state's previous record for a ballot contest, the 2004 campaign t... read more
Top 150 state PACs have raised $34.7M
revised, 5:30p, 10/26/2012 LANSING - Michigan's top 150 state political action committees have raised $34.7 million through the October campaign finance reports. That total is the lowest recorded since the 2004 election cycle for the state's top 150 PACs. Rankings were compiled by the nonparti... read more
Michigan's U.S. House candidates have raised $26.1M
LANSING - Michigan's general election candidates for the United States House of Representatives have raised $26.1 million in campaign cash through September 30th, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. Michigan's most heavily contested U.S. House race is the 1st District... read more
Ballot committees' TV ad bill: $30M
LANSING -Proponents and opponents of the proposed constitutional amendments that will be on Michigan's November ballot have spent approximately $30 million for television advertisements since August, according to figures compiled by the nonpartisan Michigan Campaign Finance Network. Sales totals ... read more
Supreme Court race well-funded for final month
LANSING - The Michigan Supreme Court campaign moves into its final four weeks with candidates who are well financed and political parties that are fully engaged. The six major-party nominees have collectively raised $2.26 million, so far. Incumbent Justice Brian Zahra, a Republican nominee wh... read more
Michigan advertising one-sided for Senate, Presidential Races
LANSING -- Television advertising records show one-sided advertising in Michigan's U.S. Senate race and the contest for the state's presidential electoral votes. However, data suggest a highly competitive campaign in Michigan's First Congressional District. Presidential In the presidential rac... read more
Lansing lobbyists' spending on record pace
amended 5:30p.m., 9/13/2012 LANSING - Lansing lobbyists have reported spending $20.7 million through the first seven months of 2012, according to reports filed with the Michigan Department of State and compiled by the Michigan Campaign Finance Network. That figure is up by 4.5 percent compared to... read more
Michigan presidential air war: $10.9M - $0
LANSING -- The presidential television ad war in Michigan continues to unfold unlike anywhere else in America. Through Labor Day, a group of superPACs and nonprofit "social welfare" corporations opposing President Barack Obama and supporting Republican nominee Mitt Romney has spent $10.9 million. Ne... read more
Incumbent Supreme Court justices have pre-convention campaign finance advantage
updated 8/31/2012, 8:00 a.m. LANSING - Incumbent Michigan Supreme Court Justices Stephen Markman and Brian Zahra have significant campaign finance advantages over other candidates for this year's election, according to pre-convention reports filed with the Michigan Bureau of Elections. Justice... read more
A campaign like no other
LANSING - The nonstop barrage of television advertisements Michigan viewers have seen attacking the policies and administration of President Barack Obama are part of a campaign targeting nine states considered to be potential battlegrounds for the November presidential election: Colorado, Florida, I... read more
MI candidates for U.S. House, Senate have raised $40M
LANSING - Michigan candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate have raised more than $40 million so far this election cycle according to data compiled by the Michigan Campaign Finance Network from reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. The reports are complete th... read more
State House candidates have raised $9.7M
LANSING - Candidates for the Michigan House of Representatives raised $9,657,667 by July 22nd when they closed books on their pre-primary election reports. That total is up by 17.4 percent compared to the comparable point in the 2010 election cycle, and it is up by 14.6 percent compared to 2008. ... read more
LANSING--Michigan's top 150 state political action committees have raised $27.3 million so far this election cycle according to reports filed this week with the Michigan Department of State. That total lags behind the corresponding total from 2010, when the Republican Governors Association had place... read more
Ballot committees have spent $20M
LANSING -- Just twelve committees have raised $29.3 million - and already spent $20 million - in initial financial activity surrounding seven ballot questions that may be decided by the Michigan electorate in November. Records were compiled by the Michigan Campaign Finance Network from reports fi... read more
Incumbents dominate Michigan congressional fundraising
LANSING -Second quarter campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission by Michigan's 2012 congressional candidates show incumbents dominating fundraising with little financial competitiveness apparent for the August 7th primary election or the November general election. Incum... read more
Nonprofits blast Obama with $6M "issue ad" campaign
LANSING - The presidential air war is playing out in Michigan without participation of the candidates' campaign committees. Neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney has paid for television advertising in Michigan since the presidential primary on February 28th. The television ad war has been a one-si... read more
DIBC ad spending against bridge tops $3 million in 2012
LANSING - A television advertising blitz by the Detroit International Bridge Company that ran from Memorial Day to the end of June has increased DIBC's ad spending in opposition to a new public/private bridge between Detroit and Windsor to $3.36 million so far in 2012. That figure is gross sales thr... read more
Millions in Michigan political ads unreported
LANSING – A five-party, multi-million-dollar Michigan television ad campaign orchestrated by Mentzer Media Services illustrates the major role of nonprofit advocacy corporations in contemporary presidential politics. Four nonprofits organized as 501(c)(4) corporations – Americans for Prosperi... read more
Top PACs have raised $22.2M this cycle, up 12.2%
Coming on the heels of a record year of lobbyists' spending, there are more signs of recovery in the money-in-politics sector of Michigan's economy. Michigan’s top 150 political action committees have raised $22.2 million so far this election cycle. That figure is up by 12.2 percent compared to th... read more
Bipartisan task force calls for more transparency, less partisanship in Supreme Court selection process
After a year-long study, the Michigan Judicial Selection Task Force yesterday released its report and recommendations for improving the state's process for selecting Supreme Court justices. Led by two veteran Michigan jurists, Supreme Court Justice Marilyn Kelly and Senior Judge James L. Ryan of ... read more
Campaign reports suggest limits of congressional competition
Michigan candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives have filed their campaign finance reports for the first quarter of 2012. Those reports suggest a limited number of competitive primaries and even fewer competitive races in the November general election. A synopsis of races that are likely to... read more
Pres TV 2012: Independents outspend candidates by 50%
LANSING – First quarter television advertising in Michigan related to the 2012 presidential election stands at $7.6 million. SuperPACs and nonprofit “issue” advertisers have outspent the candidates’ campaign committees by 50 percent. Spending data were compiled by the nonprofit Michigan ... read more
Record spending by MI lobbyists in 2011
LANSING – Reported Lansing lobbying expenditures totaled $35,348,800 in 2011, according to figures compiled by the Michigan Campaign Finance Network from reports filed with the Michigan Department of State. That amount is up by 11 percent compared to 2010 and it is a new state record for annual lo... read more
Michiganders slow to feed SuperPACs
LANSING – SuperPACs associated with individual presidential candidates raised $47 million in 2011 but Michigan donors were slow to join the fray. Only Restore Our Future, which Mitt Romney has referred to as, “my SuperPAC,” raised more than $1,000 from Michigan contributors. Michigan donors... read more
Can Durant tap West Michigan donors?
LANSING – Fund-raising for Michigan’s Republican senatorial primary campaign is competitive, as of year-end reports that cover the period through December 31, 2011. Pete Hoekstra had raised $2,001,832 and had $1,524,458 in cash on hand, while Clark Durant had raised $1,376,744 and had $1,183,885... read more
Congressional fundraising reflects redistricting
LANSING -- Fund-raising figures reported by Michigan’s active congressional candidates carry a strong suggestion of the effect of the 2011 redistricting process. There will be competitive Democratic primaries this year, as there were after the 2001 redistricting process, and less competition in No... read more
Monetizing Democracy
This commentary first appeared in Dome Magazine By Rich Robinson This is campaign finance orthodoxy in early 2012: Corporations are people, money is speech and democracy is when my billionaire whups your billionaire. Comedians have lampooned the silliness of the first strained equivalence. ... read more
Officeholders raised $5.9M during reporting hiatus
LANSING – Michigan’s legislators and elected constitutional executives filed their first campaign finance reports in more than a year on Tuesday, January 31st. In aggregate, they reported raising $5.9 million: $3.5 million by representatives, $1.6 million by senators and $832,000 by the Governor... read more
Ethics, lobbying and campaign finance reform
It was welcome news when Governor Snyder announced during his 2012 State of the State address that he believes Michigan needs campaign finance, lobbying and ethics reforms. It has been a long time since a Michigan governor has expressed serious interest in this important area of government accountab... read more