Author: Admin

Friday, March 13, 2009

Hundreds of mourners paid their last respects in honour of Colleen Howe yesterday at St. Hugo of the Hills Church in Michigan, United States.

According to a statement released by the Detroit Red Wings, Howe, who was a business entrepreneur and sports agent with the nickname “Mrs. Hockey”, died on Friday of Pick’s disease, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. She was 76 years old.

Howe, who was born in Sandusky, Michigan in 1933, was most famous for establishing Power Play International and Power Play Publications to manage the hockey career of her husband Gordie Howe and her sons, Marty and Mark. She established the first Junior A hockey team to the United States and Michigan’s first indoor ice hockey rink.

Howe is survived by husband Gordie Howe, sons Marty, Mark, Dr. Murray A., daughter Cathy Purnell née Howe, nine grandchildren and one great grandchild.

Red Wings owners Mike and Marian Ilitch and Red Wings coach Mike Babcock attended the funeral along with vice president Steve Yzerman, Red Wings players Kris Draper Brian Rafalskim, Pavel Datsyuk, and Henrik Zetterberg. Amid the Red Wings contingent was also captain Nicklas Lidstrom.

Retired hockey players also paid their respects, in attendance were Bill Gadsby, Johnny Wilson, Frank Mahovlich, Alex Delvecchio, and Brian Watson.

Howe’s motto was “Why not?” said her son, during the services.

Howe was diagnosed in 2002 with Pick’s disease, an incurable neurological disease that causes dementia. Red Wings general manager Ken Holland held a moment of silence before the Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets hockey game last Saturday. When a picture of Howe and Gordie lit up the scoreboard, fans responded with a standing ovation at the Friday, March 6 Vancouver Giants’ game against the Calgary Hitmen in the Pacific Coliseum.

Howe was one of the founders of the Detroit Junior Red Wings, the first Junior A hockey team in the United States. Howe served as general manager for three years with the Detroit Junior Red Wings. As an assertive and business savvy sports agent she formed Power Play International to manage Gordie, Marty and Mark’s business interests. Howe trademarked Gordie Howe’s name and nickname, “Mr. Hockey”, and her own nickname, “Mrs. Hockey”, as registered trademarks.

Howe was instrumental in the construction of the Gordie Howe Hockeyland arena, Michigan as well as the first Michigan indoor ice hockey rink. She was named Sportswoman of the Year in Detroit in 1972 followed by Michigan Sportswoman of the Year in 1973.

The Colleen J. Howe Arena, Sandusky, Michigan, was named in her honour. The Colleen & Gordie Howe Middle School, Abbotsford, British Columbia, British Columbia and the Howe Arena in Traverse City, Mich. are also named in their honour.

Howe established the 1993 Gordie Howe tribute tour in 65 cities and the Howe Foundation which supports charities. She was also the proud recipient of The Hartford Chamber of Commerce award for outstanding community achievement in 1979.

Howe and Gordie jointly received the Wayne Gretsky Award from the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 2001.

Howe wrote the book My Three Hockey Players published in 1975 which became her first venture into writing. Howe, Gordie and Charles Wikins collaborated on the book After the Applause published 1989, followed by When the Final Buzzer Sounds in 2000. A 20th Century Hockey Chronicle written by Howe and Gordie was published in 1994, And …Howe!: An Authorized Autobiography was written together by Howe, Gordie and Tom Delisle and released in 1995. The final joint venture between Howe and Gordie was You Read to Me & I’ll Read to You: 20th-Century Stories to Share which came out in print in 2001. Charities were supported by proceeds from the sales of her books.

Howe was born as Colleen Joffa, to a farming family in Sandusky, Michigan and married Gordie Howe on April 15, 1953. Together they had four children, Mark, Marty, Murray and Cathy. Together they had four children, Marty, Mark, Dr. Murray A. and Cathy Purnell née Howe. Her son, Murray diverged from the family’s footsteps, becoming a doctor, and helped treat Howe during her ordeal with Pick’s disease. Howe is survived by nine grandchildren and one great grandchild.

Howe’s most remarkable negotiation as sports agent occurred in 1973, when she brought Gordie out of retirement and arranged for Mark, Marty and Gordie to all play together on the Houston Aeros. The three had also played together for the Hartford Whalers. Gordon “Gordie” Howe, Mr. Hockey, OC is a retired professional ice hockey player from Saskatchewan, Canada who played for the Detroit Red Wings and Hartford Whalers of the National Hockey League (NHL), and the Houston Aeros and New England Whalers in the World Hockey Association.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Chilean actor Oscar Garcés was arrested last Saturday morning by Carabineros in Calama after a 25-year-old woman accused him of sexual abuse.

Garcés, who was the boyfriend of Francini Amaral, was traveling with Cristián Vidal and Francisco Schilling to Calama. A few hours before the incident, he had attended an event in the “Sala Murano” disco.

Prosecutor Pablo Medina reports that Garcés went at 5:00 AM to the Sonesta Hotel, and called the reception desk to request room service. Soon after, he was involved in a fight with a female hotel worker. The victim accused Garcés of forcibly attempting to kiss her and trying to molest her. Medina later said: “The detained was accused of sexual abuse against a woman.”

After the incident, the woman called Carabineros and later verified her lesions at the Carlos Cisternas Hospital. Police subsequently informed Medina, who ordered that Garcés be arrested. Medina reported the investigation will take about 80 days. Garcés is currently free with some restrictions.

“The accused cannot come within a 200-meter radius from the victim”, Medina said. He also explained that Garcés could be imprisoned from three to seven years.

After being set free, Garcés came back to Santiago, saying: “I’m very sad. I don’t want to say anything until I can talk with my lawyer,” La Cuarta reported.

Monday, April 11, 2005

Anna Ayala, the Las Vegas woman who claims to have found the notorious “chili finger” at a Wendy’s outlet in San Jose, California, has filed lawsuits against other businesses, according to researchers at the Associated Press. Her previous court battles included the national El Pollo Loco chicken-chain, a previous employer, and even General Motors.

Ayala successfully won her suit for medical expenses against El Pollo Loco, after her daughter Genesis contracted salmonella poisoning from eating at the restaurant. However, Ayala lost another suit in 2000 claiming that a wheel fell off her car.

Ayala’s original account of the incident spoke “emotionally and with disgust” to the San Jose Mercury News when she described it to the paper.

“Lies, lies, lies, that’s all I am hearing. They should look at Wendy’s. What are they hiding? Why are we being victimized again and again?” Ayala recently told The Associated Press. Ayala is now in her Las Vegas home, avoiding reporters.

“It doesn’t prove anything,” family spokesman Ken Bono told the San Francisco Chronicle. “My mom has 10 lawsuits. A lot of people have lawsuits. Why would she sue for money? She has plenty of money,” he said.

Nick Muyo, a spokesman for the San Jose Police department, said not to expect new information in the case for at least a week.

“We just want to step back and take a deep breath,” Muyo told Knight Ridder Newspapers. “From a law enforcement point of view, once you establish it is a human finger, you have to wonder is this a case of industrial accident or is this a case of unreported homicide,” he said.

Las Vegas police searched Anna Ayala’s home on Wednesday, retrieving a cooler and other effects from her home, such as a makeup case.

Despite the incident, which has dramatically reduced sales at Northern California Wendy’s outlets, die-hard Wendy’s fans are still turning up for lunch, even at the outlet where the finger was found, at 1405 Monterey Highway, just south of downtown San Jose.

“We’ve eaten here for years,” a police officer told the San Francisco Chronicle under the condition that he remain anonymous. “They’re very nice people. When we work Spartan Stadium, we always eat here,” he said.

San Jose City Council candidate Andrew Diaz still eats the chili. And he witnessed the finger discovery.

“I walked away real slow,” Diaz told the San Francisco Chronicle. “I didn’t want any commotion,” he said.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

India is the latest of the countries where the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) experiment has started. Children from the village of Khairat were given the opportunity to learn how to use the XO laptop. During the last year XO was distributed to children from Arahuay in Peru, Ban Samkha in Thailand, Cardal in Uruguay and Galadima in Nigeria. The OLPC team are, in their reports on the startup of the trials, delighted with how the laptop has improved access to information and ability to carry out educational activities. Thailand’s The Nation has praised the project, describing the children as “enthusiastic” and keen to attend school with their laptops.

Recent good news for the project sees Uruguay having ordered 100,000 of the machines which are to be given to children aged six to twelve. Should all go according to plan a further 300,000 machines will be purchased by 2009 to give one to every child in the country. As the first to order, Uruguay chose the OLPC XO laptop over its rival from Intel, the Classmate PC. In parallel with the delivery of the laptops network connectivity will be provided to schools involved in the project.

The remainder of this article is based on Carla G. Munroy’s Khairat Chronicle, which is available from the OLPC Wiki. Additional sources are listed at the end.

Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Wikinews extended invitations by e-mail on March 23 to multiple candidates running in the Texas’ 6th congressional district special election of May 1 to fill a vacancy left upon the death of Republican congressman Ron Wright. Of them, the office of Democrat Daryl Eddings, Sr. agreed to answer some questions by phone March 30 about their campaigns and policies. The following is the interview with Ms Chatham on behalf of Mr Eddings, Sr.

Eddings is a federal law enforcement officer and senior non-commissioned officer in the US military. His experience as operations officer of an aviation unit in the California National Guard includes working in Los Angeles to control riots sparked by the O. J. Simpson murder case and the police handling of Rodney King, working with drug interdiction teams in Panama and Central America and fighting in the Middle East. He is the founder of Operation Battle Buddy, which has under his leadership kept in touch with over 20 thousand veterans and their families. He was born in California, but moved to Midlothian, Texas. He endeavours to bring “good government, not no government”. Campaign manager Faith Chatham spoke to Wikinews on matters ranging from healthcare to housing.

An Inside Elections poll published on March 18 shows Republican candidate Susan Wright, the widow of Ron Wright, is ahead by 21% followed by Democrat Jana Sanchez with 17% and Republican Jake Ellzey with 8% with a 4.6% margin of error among 450 likely voters. The district is considered “lean Republican” by Inside Elections and voted 51% in favour of Donald Trump in last year’s US presidential election. This is down from 54% for Trump in 2016’s presidential election, the same poll stated.

Monday, April 11, 2005

Anna Ayala, the Las Vegas woman who claims to have found the notorious “chili finger” at a Wendy’s outlet in San Jose, California, has filed lawsuits against other businesses, according to researchers at the Associated Press. Her previous court battles included the national El Pollo Loco chicken-chain, a previous employer, and even General Motors.

Ayala successfully won her suit for medical expenses against El Pollo Loco, after her daughter Genesis contracted salmonella poisoning from eating at the restaurant. However, Ayala lost another suit in 2000 claiming that a wheel fell off her car.

Ayala’s original account of the incident spoke “emotionally and with disgust” to the San Jose Mercury News when she described it to the paper.

“Lies, lies, lies, that’s all I am hearing. They should look at Wendy’s. What are they hiding? Why are we being victimized again and again?” Ayala recently told The Associated Press. Ayala is now in her Las Vegas home, avoiding reporters.

“It doesn’t prove anything,” family spokesman Ken Bono told the San Francisco Chronicle. “My mom has 10 lawsuits. A lot of people have lawsuits. Why would she sue for money? She has plenty of money,” he said.

Nick Muyo, a spokesman for the San Jose Police department, said not to expect new information in the case for at least a week.

“We just want to step back and take a deep breath,” Muyo told Knight Ridder Newspapers. “From a law enforcement point of view, once you establish it is a human finger, you have to wonder is this a case of industrial accident or is this a case of unreported homicide,” he said.

Las Vegas police searched Anna Ayala’s home on Wednesday, retrieving a cooler and other effects from her home, such as a makeup case.

Despite the incident, which has dramatically reduced sales at Northern California Wendy’s outlets, die-hard Wendy’s fans are still turning up for lunch, even at the outlet where the finger was found, at 1405 Monterey Highway, just south of downtown San Jose.

“We’ve eaten here for years,” a police officer told the San Francisco Chronicle under the condition that he remain anonymous. “They’re very nice people. When we work Spartan Stadium, we always eat here,” he said.

San Jose City Council candidate Andrew Diaz still eats the chili. And he witnessed the finger discovery.

“I walked away real slow,” Diaz told the San Francisco Chronicle. “I didn’t want any commotion,” he said.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

MV Suilven, a ferry in service in Fiji, capsized and sank in Suva Harbour today.

Around thirty people, all crewmembers, were on board. Local media report all were rescued. The 41-year-old vessel previously saw service in Scotland and New Zealand.

The ship capsized early this afternoon and sank within an hour. It had been converted from passenger to cargo use following its most recent sale, to Venu Shipping in 2012 or 2011. Local reports indicated police, the Navy, local tug boats, and volunteer rescuers all attended the accident.

The converted ferry reportedly began to list on entering the harbour. It was working a route carrying cargo between Suva and the Northern Division.

Built in Norway, in service from 1974, the ship served with Scottish ferry firm Caledonian MacBrayne until 1995, connecting the mainland town of Ullapool to Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis. It was ultimately replaced by a larger, faster vessel and was sold to Strait Shipping who used it until 2004 to ply New Zealand’s seas, connecting Wellington to Picton and to Nelson.

The name MV Suilven is in reference to the Suilven mountain in Scotland’s Sutherland region.