dies

Williard (Bill) Christine Jr., a multiple award-winning journalist who spent 23 years covering horse racing for the Los Angeles Times, died on Monday (Aug. 25) after being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia three years ago. He died at his home in Hermosa Beach, with family by his side. He was 87.

While Christine was known in Southern California as the Times’ voice of horse racing, it was really just the end of a storied career that saw him at seven different newspapers over 42 years that also contained a stopover in racing pubic relations.

Former Los Angeles Times reporter Bill Christine.

(Christine family)

He was the author of three books, one on Roberto Clemente, another on jockey Bill Hartack and one on a pair of songwriters. After leaving newspapers, he liked to investigate and write about true crime, especially in his hometown of East St. Louis.

Christine won Eclipse Awards for outstanding writing about horse racing, in 1984 and 2004. In 2000, he was given Walter Haight Award for career excellence in turf writing. He won the David F. Woods Memorial Award in 1991 and 1992 for his coverage of the Preakness Stakes.

He was also president of the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters, a group that also includes public relations people, from 1990 to 1992.

“Bill was an old school journalist,” said Mike Willman the former longtime media relations executive at Santa Anita. “He kept copious notes and was a contrarian by nature. He was fair and extremely knowledgeable.

“He really enjoyed being around the people in racing. You could take issue with something he wrote and then debate it and there was never any animus. I really respected him for that.”

Even after he retired, Christine would write emails to friends and colleagues recounting people and events from his career in racing and baseball.

Born in Illinois, he attended Southern Illinois Carbondale where he graduated in 1963 and wrote for the college newspaper. His first job out of college was at the East St. Louis Journal, where he covered baseball among other sports. After two years he moved to the Baltimore News American, followed by the Louisville Times, Pittsburgh Press, Chicago Daily News and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where he was briefly the sports editor.

It was then that he switched to public relations taking the top media job at Commodore Downs in Pennsylvania, followed by four years as the assistant to the executive vice president at the National Thoroughbred Racing Assn.

The Times rarely hires people from the public relations side, but then sports editor Bill Dwyre decided to take a chance.

“Bill Christine was my first hire as sports editor of The Times, and being the first, it was a big deal not only for me, but for people watching me and trying to figure out what I was thinking and how I would cover each sport,” said Dwyre, who later went on to cover horse racing for The Times.

Former Los Angeles Times reporter Bill Christine receives an Eclipse Award honoring his horse racing reporting.

(Christine family)

“It was 1981. I interviewed some of the best national turf writers, including Maryjean Wall, Jennie Rees and Jack Mann, as well as Christine. I knew Bill better than the others because I had been his roommate at API (American Press Institute). … I liked that Bill was a great story-teller and that his newspaper experience went beyond just turf writing — he had covered lots of baseball on deadline and had also been the sports editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

“When he came to The Times, Santa Anita and Hollywood Park and Del Mar were booming and he worked tirelessly to give the sport the coverage it deserved.”

Bob Mieszerski, who has reported and handicapped horse racing in Southern California for many years and worked alongside Christine after Mieszerski came to the Times and added a full page of racing daily, echoed Dwyre’s sentiment about his abilities and presence.

“He was very welcoming to me when I joined the Times and I always appreciated that,” Mieszerski said. “He was a great storyteller and I Ioved hearing him recall anecdotes about different people — both in and out of racing — that he encountered.”

Dan Smith, the retired marketing and media head at Del Mar, remembers Christine for his very distinctive laugh.

“It was like ghee, ghee, ghee,” Smith said struggling to duplicate the sound. “It was very distinctive and very unique.

“He was also a big movie buff. He and his wife went to a lot of movies. And we loved to discuss movies. He followed all of that very closely.”

Christine was known for his strong opinions, which sometimes put him at odds with the people he covered.

Christine’s most notable feud was with Wayne Lukas, who didn’t speak to the reporter for several years after something Christine wrote.

“He wasn’t reluctant to discuss his opinions, which a lot of people didn’t agree with, but that was OK,” Smith said.

Dwyre, who would often change beats every year, once offered Christine the Dodgers job, arguably the best job in the department, because Christine had been complaining about needing something new. But in the end, Christine decided he would rather cover racing.

“He really knew his baseball and had a Hall of Fame ballot,” Willman remembers. “You might have your own opinion and if it disagreed with Bill’s, he had all the ammunition to show you why he was right.”

Even if Christine’s daily coverage was often buried on a page deep in the section, surrounded by handicapping and small-type results, Christine would rise to the occasion and give you a well crafted non-obvious story.

“I remember often doing critiques for my staff, especially those who had put out the previous morning’s paper,” Dwyre said. “I would hold up the sports section and ask which story that was in the section should have been on the front page and wasn’t. Invariably, it was a Christine horse racing story.”

The press box at Del Mar, named in honor of Dan Smith, has a wall where the pictures of deceased turf writers go.

“I guess his picture will go on the wall soon,” Smith said. “We’ve still got a few spots left and hope we don’t fill them anytime soon.”

Christine is survived by his wife of 43 years, Pat, and two twin daughters, Laura and Leslie, his first wife, Dianne, and stepson Chris.

Christine asked that his body be donated to USC for medical research. After the cremains are returned, there will be a small celebration of life.

MONTREAL — Ken Dryden, the Hall of Fame goaltender who helped the Montreal Canadiens win six Stanley Cup titles in the 1970s, has died after a fight with cancer. He was 78.

The Canadiens announced his death early Saturday, saying Dryden’s family asked for privacy. A team spokesperson said a close friend of Dryden’s appointed by the family contacted the organization, adding he died peacefully Friday at his home.

“Ken Dryden was an exceptional athlete, but he was also an exceptional man,” Canadiens owner Geoff Molson said. “Behind the mask he was larger than life. We mourn today not only the loss of the cornerstone of one of hockey’s greatest dynasties but also a family man, a thoughtful citizen and a gentleman who deeply impacted our lives and communities across generations.”

Dryden backstopped the NHL’s most successful franchise to championships in six of his eight seasons in the league from 1970-71 to ’78-79. He won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year, the Vezina as the best goalie five times and the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP in 1971, while being a six-time All-Star.

Montreal Canadiens goalie Ken Dryden deflects a shot during a game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on March 15, 1971.

(Harry Cabluck / Associated Press)

“Ken embodied the best of everything the Montreal Canadiens are about,” Molson said.

Known for resting his blocker and glove hands on top of his stick in a relaxed manner that became one of hockey’s most recognizable poses, the 6-foot-4 Dryden retired at just 31 in 1979.

“From the moment Ken Dryden joined the Montreal Canadiens as a 23-year-old rookie in 1971, he made an immediate and lasting impact on the NHL, the Canadiens franchise and the goaltending position,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “Ken’s love for his country was evident both on and off the ice.”

Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983, Dryden was 258-57-74 with a .922 save percentage, 2.24 goals-against average and 46 shutouts in just over seven seasons and went 80-32 in the playoffs.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney posted on social media he was “deeply saddened to learn of the passing of the Hon. Ken Dryden, a Canadian hockey legend and hall of famer, public servant and inspiration.”

“Few Canadians have given more, or stood taller, for our country,” Carney said. “Ken Dryden was Big Canada. And he was Best Canada. Rest in peace.”

Ken Dryden waves to the crowd while being recognized as a member of Canada’s 1972 Summit Series team before a game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens on Sept. 28, 2022.

(Claus Andersen / Getty Images)

From Hamilton, Ontario, Dryden played three seasons at Cornell University from 1966-69, leading the Big Red to the 1967 NCAA title. He also was a cornerstone of Canada’s 1972 Summit Series team that defeated the Soviet Union.

Dryden entered the NHL in 1971 and spent just six games in the crease before making his NHL postseason debut. He and Montreal upset rival Boston in the first round and beat Chicago in the final.

He also worked at a Toronto firm while sitting out the 1973-74 NHL season — after previously earning a law degree at Montreal’s McGill University.

After retiring as a player, he went into broadcasting and wrote “The Game,” one of the best known books about the sport, after publishing “Face-off at the Summit” as part of an accomplished career as an author. He was the color analyst alongside Al Michaels for the “Miracle on Ice” when the U.S. beat the Soviet Union and went on to win the gold medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics.

Dryden served as president of the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1997 through 2004 — a stretch accented by trips to the Eastern Conference final in both 1999 and 2002 — before resigning to enter politics. He ran for the federal Liberals in 2004 and was named minister of social development in Prime Minister Paul Martin’s cabinet.

Dryden, who also taught at various universities across Canada, held onto his seat in Toronto’s York Centre riding in 2006 when the Liberals were ousted, and again in 2008, but lost in 2011.

Dryden is survived by wife Lynda and their two children.

Brother Dave Dryden was a longtime NHL and WHA goalie. He died in 2022 at the age of 81.

A man has died on a Sydney beach after being bitten by a suspected “large shark”, Australia’s New South Wales police has said.

In a statement, the police said emergency services pulled the man out of the morning surf onto the shore at Long Reef Beach – but he “died at the scene”.

“Two sections of a surfboard have been recovered and taken for expert examination,” the statement read.

Saturday’s incident has resulted in a string of closures in the popular area known as the Northern Beaches.

The state police said the emergency services acted after receiving reports shortly after 10:00am local time on Saturday (00:00 GMT) that “a man had suffered critical injuries”.

The victim’s identity was yet to be confirmed.

Local police officers and experts would work together to “determine the species of shark involved”.

The last deadly shark attack in the Sydney area in 2022, when Simon Nellist – a British diving instructor – was mauled by a great white shark.

Prior to that, there had not been a fatal attack since 1963.

Australia typically records about 20 shark attacks each year, with most in New South Wales and Western Australia.

Historically, dying from a shark bite is uncommon. In over a century of records, Australia’s shark attack mortality rate is 0.9 – less than one person per year.

Mark Volman, the singer who co-founded the buoyant 1960s hitmakers the Turtles and was half of the humorous harmony duo Flo & Eddie, has died. He was 78.

Representatives for Volman confirmed the death to Rolling Stone, citing a “brief, unexpected illness.” In 2020, Volman was diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia, but continued touring and only announced his diagnosis in 2023.

When promoting his memoir “Happy Forever: My Musical Adventures with the Turtles, Frank Zappa, T. Rex, Flo & Eddie, and More” in 2023, Volman went public with his 2020 diagnosis of Lewy body dementia, a disease that results in a decline in cognitive ability, affecting reasoning, memory and movement.

In a People magazine story, Volman accepted his fate: “I got hit by the knowledge that this was going to create a whole new part of my life. And I said, ‘OK, whatever’s going to happen will happen, but I’ll go as far as I can.’”

Volman’s partner in both the Turtles and Flo & Eddie was Howard Kaylan, a high-school friend who turned into a lifelong creative partner. Sharing a taste for sweet melodies, cultural fads and unrepentant silliness, Volman and Kaylan adeptly navigated the cultural changes of the 1960s, steering the Turtles from surf-rock survivors to psychedelic freaks over the course of a decade.

The group’s sweet spot arrived in the second half of the 1960s, when they polished their Southern Californian folk-rock with studio savvy, creating hits — “Happy Together,” “She’d Rather Be With Me,” “Elenore” and “You Showed Me” — that appealed to mainstream listeners — they were the favorite band of Richard Nixon’s daughter Tricia, even playing the White House in 1970 — while winking at hipper audiences.

As they drifted away from the middle of the road, the Turtles could occasionally give the sense that they were too smart for the room; one of their best albums, 1968’s “The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands,” was constructed as a concept album where the group adopted a different guise and musical style for each track.

The Turtles in 1967, clockwise from top left: Al Nichol, Jim Tucker, Mark Volman, Howard Kaylan, Johnny Barbara and Jim Pon.

(Central Press / Hulton Archive / Getty Images)

Volman and Kaylan capitalized on this quirk when they rechristened themselves as Flo & Eddie, a moniker they devised after a bitter legal battle with their former record label left them without the right to perform either as the Turtles or using their own names. During this period, Frank Zappa invited Flo & Eddie to join his Mothers of Invention, giving the duo a boost that led to an enduring career.

Flo & Eddie specialized in providing harmonic support to high profile acts: they toured with Alice Cooper, sang on T. Rex’s landmark glam album “Electric Warrior” and were recruited to sing on Bruce Springsteen’s “Hungry Heart” when the Boss was looking for Beach Boys-like harmonies. On their own, Volman and Kaylan also honed their comedic shtick as recording artists, later taking their act to radio and, once they reacquired the rights to the Turtles moniker, on the road, playing the oldies circuit into the 2010s.

Unlike many other oldies acts, Volman and Kaylan possessed sharp business skills, acquired after their messy fallout with their record label, White Whale. Once they regained their master tapes, they licensed their catalog to reissue labels and kept a vigilant eye on how their recordings were disseminated in the marketplace.

On realizing that the Turtles’ “You Showed Me” provided a pivotal sample on De La Soul‘s 1989 debut album, “3 Feet High and Rising,” the duo sued the rap pioneers for $2.5 million in exemplary and punitive damages. The matter was settled out of court in favor of Volman and Kaylan; while the terms were not publicly disclosed, they reportedly were awarded $1.7 million in damages. The lawsuit and its fallout effectively ended the golden age of sampling in hip-hop.

Mark Volman during the 10th anniversary of the Happy Together tour at Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza in 2019.

(Scott Dudelson / Getty Images)

Born in Los Angeles on April 19, 1947, Volman grew up in a musical household in the neighborhood of Westchester. Even when he was young, relatives were struck by his exuberant personality. His aunt Ann Becker recalled in “Happy Forever”: “I can remember my mother shaking her head and saying, ‘That boy is so smart — he shouldn’t be so silly.’”

By the time he enrolled at Westchester High — his classmates included comedian Phil Hartman and Manson Family member Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme — Volman had gravitated toward irreverence.

Meeting New York transplant Kaylan in choir, Volman soon became part of the Crossfires, playing saxophone alongside his new friend in the surf-rock combo. The Crossfires had two singles to their name before they signed to the fledgling White Whale Records in 1965. Already in the process of abandoning surf for folk-rock — Volman and Kaylan swapped their saxes for lead vocals — the group’s members accepted their new label’s suggestion to rename themselves; they rejected the stylized spelling of the Tyrtles in favor of the Turtles.

Taking a cue from the Byrds’ hit version of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man,” the Turtles released a revved-up cover of Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe” that squarely hit the zeitgeist, climbing into the Billboard Top 10 in summer 1965. Volman later remembered, “I graduated from high school in February 1965 and was on tour in June with a Top 10 record and on the Dick Clark Show.”

A couple of spirited sequels, “Let Me Be” and “You Baby,” kept the band in the Top 40 into 1966 but the Turtles’ hot streak quickly cooled, as a series of singles — including “Outside Chance,” written by White Whale staffer Warren Zevon — barely scraped the charts. “Happy Together,” a song rejected by a number of pop groups, revived the group’s fortunes, thanks in part to a sterling arrangement masterminded by new bassist Chip Douglas.

“Happy Together” topped the charts and would become one of the standards of its era, appearing often in commercials and films. In 1967, it propelled the Turtles back to the upper reaches of the charts, a place they’d stay through 1969, as they accumulated such hits as “She’d Rather Be With Me” and “Elenore.”

By far the biggest act on the small-scale White Whale, the Turtles were subjected to pressure by the label to record more commercial material, yet Volman and Kaylan kept pushing the band to make hip music. When the label suggested firing the rest of the Turtles, the singers arranged for the remaining three members to share songwriting credits on “The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands,” the first album they released after the success of “Happy Together.” On their final album, “Turtle Soup,” the Turtles hired Ray Davies as their producer; it was his first production outside his main band, the Kinks.

Tensions between the Turtles and White Whale escalated in 1970, leading the group to disband. In turn, the label exercised a clause in the band‘s recording contract that prevented the members from performing either “individually or collectively,” effectively barring Volman and Kaylan from continuing to work either as a group or as themselves. The pair decided to call themselves the Phlorescent Leech & Eddie, a name that would swiftly be shortened to Flo & Eddie; Volman was the former, Kaylan the latter.

Zappa brought the duo into his Mothers of Invention ensemble not long after the implosion of the Turtles. They stayed with him through an eventful year that included a concert in Montreux, Switzerland, that ended with the venue engulfed in fire; Deep Purple memorialized the event in “Smoke on the Water.”

Alice Cooper, second from left, with Mark Volman (drinking beverage) and bandmates in Copenhagen, Denmark, 1972.

(Jorgen Angel / Redferns / Getty Images)

Beginning with 1972’s “The Phlorescent Leech & Eddie,” Flo & Eddie released a series of increasingly facetious albums throughout the 1970s, but they had greater success singing harmonies for T. Rex and Cooper. “Hungry Heart,” Springsteen’s first Top 10 hit, served as a curtain call for this period of Flo & Eddie’s career. Soon, the duo put their days as recording artists to rest. While they still would contribute original music to animated television shows, including specials focusing on “Strawberry Shortcake” and “The Care Bears” series, the duo stopped writing and recording new Flo & Eddie music.

The move coincided with the duo finally winning back the rights to their names. Volman and Kalyan began this process in 1974, when they acquired the Turtles’ master recordings when White Whale assets were up for auction.

A decade later, they were able to tour as The Turtles … featuring Flo & Eddie, a billing they’d retain into the 2010s, until Kaylan retired from the road in 2018. With Ron Dante filling in for Kaylan, Volman continued performing as the Turtles as part of their regular Happy Together package tours.

Although Flo & Eddie embraced their status on the oldies circuit, they hadn’t faded entirely from modern music. When De La Soul sampled “You Showed Me” for their track “Transmitting Live From Mars” in 1989, the trio failed to clear the rights prior to release, so Volman and Kaylan sued the group, winning a large settlement that established a precedent for sample clearance in hip-hop.

The duo launched another major lawsuit in 2013 when they filed suit against Sirius XM for failing to pay sound recording royalties in California, New York and Florida. A California judge ruled in the duo’s favor in 2014, while a Florida judge ruled for Sirius XM in 2015. Although a settlement was reached in 2016, Sirius XM would win subsequent legal appeals in Florida and California.

Volman went back to school in 1992, pursuing a bachelor’s degree at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. After earning a master’s degree in screenwriting in 1999 at Loyola Marymount, Volman soon moved into teaching, eventually becoming an associate professor at the Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn.

Volman is survived by his daughters, Sarina Marie and Hallie Rae, both from his marriage to Patricia Lee.

THE widow of an Olympic hero and schoolteacher has paid tribute to “a proud Yorkshireman” after his tragic death at the age of 80.

John Sherwood lived in Hillsborough and shot to fame in 1968 when he won the bronze medal in the hurdles at the Mexico Olympics in 1968.

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He sadly passed away after a long illness at the palliative care unit at the Northern General Hospital on August 19. 

His heartbroken wife, Sheila, who also won an Olympic medal in Mexico has paid tribute to her husband who she said always gave his best whatever he did.

She went on to say: “There were never any half measures. He would do things properly and that was why he had such a great sporting career and was such a good teacher.

“We were unique in 1968, a married couple who both won medals. We’d married six months before the games.

“We were amateurs and both worked full time as teachers. John was at Intake School in Doncaster at that time, I was at Myers Grove.

“After we won our Olympic medals we just carried on as normal.”

John’s wife Shiela has received dozens of messages of condolence from John’s former pupils at Forth Park Comprehensive, where he worked for 37 years.

John, who is survived by his two grown up children, retired from teaching in 2005.

He and his wife trained for the games together and both took home medals.

Sheila said: “We were unique in 1968, a married couple who both won medals. We’d married six months before the games.

“We were amateurs and both worked full time as teachers. John was at Intake School in Doncaster at that time, I was at Myers Grove.

“After we won our Olympic medals we just carried on as normal.”

She taught at Myers Grove School and the pair returned to their careers following their Olympic success.

Sheila added: “He loved teaching, and didn’t want to go into an office as a head of year. He wanted to stay as a PE teacher.”

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Walfredo de los Reyes Sr., the internationally lauded Cuban percussionist who had a prodigious six-decade career in the music industry, died Aug. 28 in Concord, Calif. He was 92.

Walfredo de los Reyes Jr. — who plays drums for the legendary rock band Chicago — shared the news of his father’s death in an Instagram post last week.

“My father, Walfredo de los Reyes Sr., passed away last night, surrounded by his loving wife, Debbie, my brother Danny, and my wife, Kirsten,” he wrote. “He was not only an incredible father, but also a mentor in music and in life. He will always live in my heart. … His spirit, his rhythm will never stop.”

Speaking with The Times, De los Reyes’ son Daniel, drummer of the Grammy-winning country group Zac Brown Band, recalled his most recent memories of his father and the pain of his loss.

“I did everything I could to help him in his last months, his last days, as far as comfort,” he said. “You see a bunch of testimonials that everybody’s been writing in… but to me, he’s just my father. He’s just my father that I help out and I go to work with. To process everything [has] been very, very difficult. He was my Superman. He was like my Bionic Man. I thought, ‘Nothing’s ever going to happen to him.’ And the end has finally come.”

Walfredo de los Reyes Sr. plays congas onstage.

(Courtesy of Daniel de los Reyes)

While he hopes that his father’s musical legacy is preserved and appreciated, Daniel also wants people to remember the person his father was outside the industry.

“He would take in whoever it was and help them,” Daniel said. “[It] didn’t matter where they were from. If they called him, I can assure you, he would invite him to the house he would share with them — make them feel like they were part of his family immediately.”

Daniel also shared his father’s last words to him: “Always play your best.”

“It wasn’t just playing in the music instrument,” he said. “It was being the best person that you could possibly be. And that when you close your eyes at night, you feel good with yourself.

“I’m going to take those last words and that’s going to be my mantra for the rest of my life. I always try to be the best person as possible, but now it’s just I have my father’s love shining through me.”

Walfredo de los Reyes III was born in Havana on June 16, 1933, into a musical family. His father, Walfredo de los Reyes II, was a trumpeter who helped found the Orquesta Casino de la Playa in 1937.

De los Reyes would go on to play percussions alongside Latin music icons like Tito Puente, Cachao López, Willie Bobo and Cuban singer La Lupe. He also performed with famous American acts such as Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis Jr., Linda Ronstadt, Dionne Warwick, Steve Winwood and Debbie Reynolds. He expanded his list of featured performances through his longtime residence in Las Vegas where he shared the stage with Milton Berle, Wayne Newton, Robert Goulet, Bernadette Peters and Rita Moreno.

His signature style of simultaneously playing a drum kit and percussion instruments was inspired by both Cuban and American influences — like Candido Segarra and Ed Shaughnessy — but also by necessity.

Tito Puente, left, poses for a photo with Walfredo de los Reyes Sr.

(Courtesy of Daniel de los Reyes)

“When I got my band at the Casino Parisien [in Havana], I didn’t have enough [money] to [hire] a conga player,” De los Reyes said in a 2011 interview with the National Assn. of Music Merchants. “I had to decide between a conga and a singer. I got the singer, because you always need a singer. [Then] I started putting congas on the left side [of my drum set] and playing with my left hand, the tumbao. … Why should I play only a conga drum? My feet just lay there.”

Figures from across the music world shared tributes to De los Reyes, including Tito Puente Jr., Gregg Bissonette, Luis Conte, Raul Pineda, Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez, Israel Morales and Al Velasquez.

He is survived by his wife, Debbie Bellamy de los Reyes, his five children and 10 grandchildren. His son, actor Kamar de los Reyes, died of cancer in 2023 at age 56.

As a young man, he stood next to Martin Luther King Jr. as he delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech. As a college basketball coach, he blazed a trail for Black coaches and players. As an executive, he was instrumental in signing Michael Jordan to his groundbreaking endorsement deal with Nike.

George Raveling had an impact that stretched far beyond basketball, the sport which he last coached three decades ago at USC. He became a revered figure in the game, not for the number of wins he accumulated over his career, but for his role as a mentor to many.

Raveling, 88, died Monday after a battle with cancer, his family announced.

“There are no words to fully capture what George meant to his family, friends, colleagues, former players, and assistants — and to the world,” the family said in a statement. “He will be profoundly missed, yet his aura, energy, divine presence, and timeless wisdom live on in all those he touched and transformed.”

Raveling coached at USC from 1986 to 1994, the first Black coach to take the helm of the Trojans basketball program. Over his first four seasons at the school, Raveling didn’t experience much success, winning just 38 of USC’s 116 games over that stretch.

Raveling found his stride in the second half of his tenure, taking the Trojans to two straight NCAA tournaments and two NITs after that. But his overall record at USC never broke .500 (115-118). In September 1994, Raveling was in a serious car accident that eventually led him to retire. He suffered nine broken ribs and a collapsed lung and fractured his pelvis and collarbone.

After his coaching career, Raveling joined Nike as the director of grassroots basketball, later rising to the role of director of international basketball.

But his biggest contribution at Nike came out of his relationship with Jordan, whom Raveling had coached as an assistant with the U.S. national team at the 1984 Olympics. Jordan, whose deal with Nike sent the brand into a new stratosphere, credited Raveling for making it happen. In the foreword for Raveling’s book, Jordan called him “a mentor”.

“If not for George, there would be no Air Jordan,” Jordan wrote.

Across the basketball world, similar plaudits came pouring in Tuesday in light of Raveling’s death.

Eric Musselman, USC’s current basketball coach, said Raveling was “not only a Hall of Fame basketball mind but a tremendous person who paved the way on and off the court.”

Former Villanova coach Jay Wright wrote on social media that Raveling was “the finest human being, inspiring mentor, most loyal alum and a thoughtful loving friend.”

Raveling grew up in Washington D.C., during a time of segregation and hardship. His family lived in a two-room apartment above a grocery store, where they shared a bathroom with four other families on the same floor. His father died suddenly when he was 9. His mother suffered a mental health crisis a few years later and spent most of her remaining years in a psychiatric hospital. Raveling left home at 14 to attend a boarding school.

It was at St. Michaels, a mostly white boarding school in Pennsylvania, that Raveling first started playing basketball. He earned a scholarship at Villanova, where he became a captain and later an assistant coach.

But the college experience, he later said, had an even more profound impact on Raveling.

“I’ve always felt like a sprinter who’d slipped at the starting box and was 20 yards behind everybody — I’ve been in a mad dash to catch up with everybody ever since,” Raveling told The Times in 1994. “My mom worked two jobs when I was a kid. There were no books in our house. Nobody envisioned that I’d graduate from college. No one even encouraged me to go to college.”

He’d spend the rest of his life, it seems, trying to make up for lost time.

Raveling was standing just a few feet away from King on the National Mall in Washington D.C. in 1963 as he delivered his famed “I Have A Dream” speech. King actually handed Raveling his copy of the historic speech immediately after he finished.

For decades, Raveling kept it tucked inside of a book, before recounting the story to a journalist. According to Sports Illustrated, a collector later offered Raveling $3 million for his copy of the speech. But he declined and donated it instead to Villanova.

George Raveling was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., in 2015.

(Charles Krupa / Associated Press)

Raveling pioneered a path that few Black coaches ever had through his career. He was the first Black coach in the history of the Atlantic Coast Conference when he started as an assistant in 1969. Three years later, at Washington State, he became the first Black coach to lead a Pac-8 (now Pac-12) Conference basketball team.

He coached at Iowa from 1983-86 before being hired at USC. At the time, the Trojans had a roster that included Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble, who were coming off their freshman season. Raveling gave the players a firm deadline to tell him if they planned to remain on the team and when they didn’t he revoked their scholarships. Both went on to star at Loyola Marymount.

Raveling was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015. But as a “contributor”, not as a coach. Even while he was coaching, Raveling seemed to understand that his role meant more than that.

“Winning basketball games just helps you keep your job,” he told The Times in 1994. “But keeping your job helps you work with these kids about the real challenges of life, which all happen away from the court. I know there’s an enormous demand around here to win. But I don’t want someone to ask me what I accomplished in my life and for me to say that I won this amount of games or took a team to some tournament.

“If all I can say is that I taught a kid how to shoot a jump shot, well, that’s not good enough. These kids come out of underprivileged, inner-city areas, and I’m just wasting my time if I haven’t put something of substance into their lives.”

Graham Greene, the Oscar-nominated actor who helped open doors for Indigenous actors in Hollywood, died on Monday in Toronto after battling a long illness, Deadline and others report. The Canadian actor was 73.

Born in Ohsweken, on the Six Nations Reserve, Greene saw his Hollywood profile catapult after Kevin Costner cast him as Kicking Bird (Ziŋtká Nagwáka) in 1990’s “Dances With Wolves,” which won the Academy Award for best picture and earned Greene an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor.

During his screen career, which began with the 1979 Canadian drama series “The Great Detective,” Greene was cast in more than 180 films and TV shows. His first movie role was in 1983’s “Running Brave.”

He went on to star in several other high-profile films including “Maverick,” “The Green Mile,” “Die Hard With a Vengeance” and “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2.” The actor also appeared in “Tulsa King,” “Riverdale” and as Maximus in the final season of the Emmy-nominated show “Reservation Dogs,” which was among his final roles.

Graham Greene, right, and Kevin Costner in “Dances With Wolves.”

(Courtesy of Orion Pictures Corp.)

At the time of his death, he had eight upcoming projects, including the Stefan Ruzowitzky-directed thriller “Ice Fall,” which he had completed filming with Joel Kinnaman and Danny Huston. It’s scheduled to be released in October.

“He was a great man of morals, ethics and character and will be eternally missed,” Greene’s agent Michael Greene (no relation) said in a statement released to several outlets, including Deadline and TMZ. “You are finally free. Susan Smith is meeting you at the gates of heaven,” he added, referring to the actor’s former agent, who died in 2013.

Graham Greene and Molly Kunz in a scene from the 2021 drama “The Wolf and the Lion.”

(Emmanuel Guionet / Courtesy of Blue Fox Entertainment)

Outside of his acting career, Greene won a Grammy in 2000 for best spoken word album for children for his work on “Listen to the Storyteller.” He is also a Gemini and Canadian Screen Award winner and an Independent Spirit nominee. In 2021, he was immortalized with a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame, and earlier this year, he received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award in his native country.

Graham Greene in 2022 at the unveiling of his commemorative plaque for Arts & Entertainment on Canada’s Walk of Fame at Beanfield Centre in Toronto.

(Mathew Tsang / Getty Images)

In 1991, Greene told The Times that “Dances With Wolves” “was certainly the biggest film I’ve done. It’s made definite changes in my life — I’m more popular with the media, scripts are being offered to me from people I’ve never heard of. On the other hand, I’m being inundated. It’s good in a way. I shouldn’t complain.”

Greene is survived by his wife of 35 years, Hilary Blackmore; daughter Lilly Lazare-Greene; and grandson Tarlo.

A BABY whose mother was not vaccinated against whooping cough has died after contracting the infection.

The UK Health Security Agency said the tot, thought to be under the age of one, died between March and June.

It is the first whooping cough death in the UK this year and comes after a child died of measles in Liverpool last month.

The agency’s Dr Gayatri Amirthalingam said: “Sadly, we are again reminded how severe whooping cough can be for very young babies.

“Vaccination is the best defence.

“It is vital pregnant women and infants receive their vaccines at the right time, ideally between 20 and 32 weeks.

“This passes protection to their baby in the womb so that they are protected from birth.”

Overall vaccination rates for primary school pupils are at the lowest for 15 years — with almost one in five not fully protected from diseases.

Over the coming weeks, millions of children will be flooding into classrooms across the UK.

And there’s a real risk they will return home with more than a few new friends and knowledge.

Pharmacist Thorrun Govind tells Sun on Sunday Health: “There’s often lots of hugging and playing between friends they haven’t seen all summer — and all that close contact means germs can easily spread.

“They also tend to cough and sneeze without covering their mouths and don’t always wash their hands without supervision.

“With early wake-ups, hard work in lessons and sports clubs, children can also get tired, which weakens their immune systems, leaving them prone to picking up illnesses.”

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Merrick Bobb, one of the godfathers of the modern police oversight movement in Los Angeles and beyond, has died. He was 79.

Bobb, whose health had deteriorated in recent years, died Thursday night at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in L.A., his two children, Matthew and Jonathan, confirmed Friday.

A Los Feliz resident for more than 40 years, Bobb had four grandchildren, was fluent in several languages and was respected as one of the earliest champions of civilian oversight of law enforcement.

He had a long career, shining a light on problems within major law enforcement agencies from L.A. to Seattle. And he accomplished his most significant work without the use of his hands or legs, which became effectively paralyzed after he contracted a rare and debilitating autoimmune condition called Guillain-Barré syndrome in 2003.

“He was always a person who was really engaged in the world,” Jonathan said in an interview with him and his brother. “I think that growing up in the 1950s and 1960s with the civil rights movement and other associated movements was very seminal for him in terms of instilling belief in justice [and] understanding the voices of traditionally underrepresented groups.”

For two decades beginning in 1993, Bobb served as special counsel to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. In that position, he delivered semiannual reports that detailed pervasive issues within the department, from widespread violence in the county’s jails to excessive force, driving a number of reforms in the department.

In 2014, the board created the Office of Inspector General and dismissed Bobb from his role with the county. That decision came in the wake of criticism that he and Michael Gennaco, the then-head of the Office of Independent Review, had not done enough to stop the problems in the jails, which had become a major scandal.

Two years earlier, a federal judge had appointed Bobb to serve as independent monitor of the Seattle Police Department’s consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice. He held that position until 2020, when he resigned in protest of the department’s use of force and “powerful and injurious” crowd control weapons against protesters in the months following George Floyd’s killing by a white Minneapolis police officer.

In 2001, he founded the Police Assessment Resource Center, a nonprofit that provides “independent, evidence-based counsel on effective, respectful, and publicly accountable policing,” the center’s then-vice president Matthew Barge wrote in 2015.

Before that, Bobb served as deputy general counsel for the Christopher Commission, which examined use of force within the Los Angeles Police Department in the wake of the 1991 beating of Rodney King. The commission published a sweeping report that year that called on then-LAPD Chief Daryl Gates to step down and found the department had a persistent and pervasive problem with excessive use of force.

Bobb graduated from Dartmouth College in 1968, then received his law degree three years later from UC Berkeley, according to his curriculum vitae. He worked for private law firms between 1973 and 1996. Bobb was named one of the top 50 lawyers in L.A. by the Los Angeles Business Journal that year, when he left a major law firm to focus on his law enforcement oversight work.

But for many people he met, according to his sons, it was Bobb’s kindness that made the strongest impression.

“No matter who it was in his life he was engaging with at that point, he focused in on them and developed a personal connection,” Matthew said. “You never knew if he was going to be having lunch with the former chief of police or his former handyman who came by once a week, and everyone in between.”

Bobb is survived by his children and grandchildren, his ex-wife Aviva Koenigsberg Bobb — a former judge with whom he remained close — his sister Gloria Kern and his longtime assistant and caretaker, Jeffrey Yanson.

Bobb’s funeral will take place at 10 a.m. Sept. 5 at Mount Sinai Hollywood Hills, 5950 Forest Lawn Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90068.

Aug. 29 (UPI) — Randy “Duke” Cunningham, a decorated Vietnam War pilot and U.S. House member convicted of corruption, has died. He was 83.

Cunningham, the inspiration fo Tom Cruise‘s character Maverick in the film Top Gun, died Wednesday at a hospital in Little Rock, Ark., after an illness, the San Diego Union reported.

He represented the San Diego area in Congress for 15 years until 1990,

In 2005, Cunningham pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges and spent 8 1/2 years in prison, mostly at a minimum-security work camp in Tucson, Ariz. He admitted to accepting $2.4 million in illegal gifts from defense contractors in exchange for government contracts and other favors.

“The truth is, I broke the law, concealed my conduct and disgraced my office,” Cunningham told reporters in a tearful downtown San Diego news conference on the day he pleaded guilty. “I know that I will forfeit my freedom, my reputation, my worldly possessions and, most importantly, the trust of my friends and family. … In my life I have had great joy and great sorrow. And now I know great shame.”

Two defense contractors were sentenced in 2008 for bribery.

Brent Wilkes was sentencted to 12 years in prison for giving money, prostitutes and other bribes in exchange for securing $90 million in Pentagon work for his document scanning company.

Mitchell Wade was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for bribing Cunningham with more than $1 million in gifts, including cash, home furnishings, a Rolls-Royce and an antique commode.

It was considered the largest bribery scandal in congression history.

He was released from prison in 2013 and went to a halfway house in New Orleans.

Cunningam moved to nearby Little Rock.

On the day President Donald Trump left office on Jan. 20, 2021, he pardoned Cunningham, noting he tutored inmates while in prison and volunteered for a local fire department. The pardon forgives the offense and restores civil rights, including the right to vote or hold public office.

Former Rep. Duncan Hunter Sr. visited his former colleague just last week.

“Duke was a wonderful guy, and he was a wonderful friend,” Hunter said .”His legacy is as one of the great fighter pilots of his era, but Duke’s more special than that. He was flying off the Constellation on a daily basis even when the politicians had given up on the Vietnam War.”

The Aviation National Geek Club reported he had been in and out of a hospital for eight months with heart problems.

Cunningham, who shared a nickname with the Hollywood icon John Wayne, was born in Los Angeles on Dec. 8, 1941, one day after Japanese fighters attacked Pearl Harbor.

After his family moved to Missouri, he attended the University of Missouri, earning degrees in education and physical education.

In 1967, he joined the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.

He earned the Navy Cross and two Silver Stars. He flew F4 Panthom jets.

“With complete disregard for his own personal safety, he continued his attack through a hail of cannon fire to rescue his wingman,” the citation for one of his Silver Stars read.

“We flew 170 combat missions together and we were in some pretty harrowing situations,” Willy Driscoll, the only other naval aviator to earn ace designation during the Vietnam era, said. “Randy was the consummate professional as an aviator, constantly working to improve his knowledge of fighter tactics and committed to excellence in the air at all times.”

He rose to the rank of commander before retiring in 1967.

Cunningham became a political commentator on national television.

He decided to run against House Democrat Jim Bates, who was accused of sexual harassment.

In the left-learning 44th District, he promised to be a “congressman we can be proud of.” He won the race by 1 percentage point in 1990.

Cunningham lived on a boat on the Potomac River — “The Duke-Stir” — that was owned by a defense contractor.

He became chairman of a subcommittee that put him in control of billions of dollars in defense spending.

The San Diego Union reported a defense contractor had purchased Cunningham’s home for $1.7 million, which was several hundred thousand dollars above comparable homes.

The newspaper then reported he also accepted millions of dollars in bribes. The Union-Tribune and its news organization, Copley News Service, were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting.

“Probably the legacy he leaves is a reminder that the public square and public office can be very corrupting,” Marcus Stern, one of the reporters who broke the stories on Cunningham, said. “You go to Washington as a congressperson, and everything can become very tempting. He succumbed to it – but a lot of other people have as well.”

Winning the Derby in 1971 was the crowning moment in one of the finest seasons ever seen in the saddle.

With Mill Reef he captured the Derby, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris – victories that remain etched in the sport’s history.

He also claimed the Oaks, the Coronation Cup, the Ascot Gold Cup and the Lockinge, making him virtually unbeatable that year.

Although his family moved to London when he was a boy, Lewis’ roots in Wales were never forgotten.

His journey into racing began at the Waldorf Hotel, where he worked as a page boy before jump jockey Tim Molony spotted his build and suggested he try racing.

Apprenticed to Ron Smyth at Epsom, he quickly rose through the ranks, riding his first winner in 1953.

By 1957 he was first jockey at Kingsclere, enjoying big-race victories for Sir Winston Churchill and Queen Elizabeth II.

But it was Mill Reef who defined him, the little colt who carried a Welshman to racing immortality.

Lewis went on to partner 1,880 winners in Britain, twice finishing runner-up in the jockeys’ championship and winning five Classics.

After retiring as a jockey, Lewis turned his hand to training and found success once more.

Based in Epsom, his stable included champion sprinter Lake Coniston, who stormed to glory in the 1995 July Cup.

In November 2024, Lewis’ lifelong contribution to Welsh sport was celebrated when he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Welsh Horse Racing Awards in Cardiff.

Too ill to attend in person, his daughter Mary and grandchildren Luci and Alex collected the award on his behalf.

The award was a fitting reminder of his place in Welsh sporting history.

A WOMAN has tragically died in hospital after she was pulled from the sea at a popular UK beach.

Emergency services raced to the scene on the Promenade, opposite the Belvedere Hotel in Blackpool yesterday.

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Lancashire Police, HM Coastguard and the town’s beach patrol all responded to the incident.

Officers have confirmed that a woman in her 30s was rushed to hospital after receiving treatment on the scene.

She has since sadly passed away and her next of kin has been informed.

Cops said the tragic death is not being treated as suspicious, a file is being prepared for the coroner.

A spokesperson for the force said: “We were called at about 10am today, August 25, following reports a woman had been pulled from the sea opposite the Belvedere Hotel at Blackpool.

“Despite the best efforts of emergency services at the scene and at the hospital, the woman sadly later died.

“Following enquiries, the woman, in her thirties, has now been identified and her next of kin has been informed.

“Our thoughts are with her loved ones.

“The death is not being treated as suspicious, and a file will be prepared for HM Coroner.”

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Angela Mortimer Barrett, Britain’s 1961 Wimbledon women’s singles champion, has died at the age of 93.

Mortimer Barrett, who was born in Plymouth, won three Grand Slam singles titles and one in doubles, which came alongside Anne Shilcock at Wimbledon in 1955.

Her other Grand Slam singles wins came at the 1955 French Championships and 1958 Australian Championships, and she was runner-up at Wimbledon in 1958 when American Althea Gibson defeated her in the final.

Mortimer Barrett contended with numerous challenges throughout her career, including hearing loss, and she was battling a troublesome case of tennis elbow prior to her triumphant 1961 Wimbledon run which ended with her beating fellow Briton Christine Truman 4-6 6-4 7-5 in the final.

She was known as Angela Mortimer at the time of her Slam wins and in 1967 married John Barrett, a fellow British tennis player who became a distinguished tennis writer and broadcaster.

Mortimer Barrett was also awarded an MBE in 1967 for services to tennis.

Debbie Jevans, chair of the All England Club, said Mortimer Barrett will be remembered “for her determination and extraordinary dedication”.

“An honorary member since her triumph in 1961, Angela has been a familiar face and valued member for more than six decades. Her passing leaves a hole in the fabric of the club, and she will be greatly missed,” Jevans said.

“On behalf of everyone at the All England Club, I offer my sincere condolences to Angela’s husband, John; their children, Michael and Sarah Jane; grandchildren, family and friends.”

Mortimer Barrett was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1993, and her husband joined her in those ranks in 2014.

Jerry Adler, who spent decades backstage on Broadway before reinventing himself in his 60s as a television actor, most memorably as Herman “Hesh” Rabkin on HBO’s “The Sopranos” and Howard Lyman on CBS’ “The Good Wife,” has died. He was 96.

Adler died Saturday in New York, where he lived, according to his family. A cause was not disclosed.

On “The Sopranos,” Adler played Hesh, a Jewish music producer and loan shark with long ties to the Soprano crime family. Not a member of Tony Soprano’s inner crew but close enough to be trusted, he was one of the few who could speak bluntly to James Gandolfini’s mob boss without fear of reprisal. Adler remained with the series from its 1999 pilot through the final season in 2007, a steady presence on the margins of Tony’s world.

Hesh turned up in some of the show’s most memorable arcs, helping Tony’s protégé Christopher and his girlfriend Adriana in their ill-fated stab at the music business, joining Tony in a horse-racing venture and, in the final season, watching their relationship sour when the boss pressed him for a large loan.

Steven Van Zandt, Adler’s “Sopranos” castmate and guitarist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, paid tribute to Adler on social media: “Such an honor working with you. Travel well my friend.”

While “The Sopranos” launched a number of previously little-known actors to instant fame, Adler’s rise was unusual, the culmination of more than four decades spent behind the scenes on Broadway before he ever stepped in front of a camera.

A Brooklyn native born Feb. 4, 1929, Adler began his career as an assistant stage manager in 1950 on “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and went on to work as stage manager, production manager or supervisor on more than 50 shows, including the original “My Fair Lady,” Harold Pinter’s “The Homecoming” and “The Apple Tree,” directed by Mike Nichols. He also directed several productions.

By the 1980s, he had moved to Los Angeles to be closer to his children and found steady work in daytime television as a stage manager. It wasn’t until his early 60s that acting entered the picture. After debuting on CBS’ “Brooklyn Bridge” in 1991, Adler found steady film and TV work as a character actor through the 1990s, appearing in Joe Pesci’s “The Public Eye” (1992) and Woody Allen’s “Manhattan Murder Mystery” (1993).

After “The Sopranos,” Adler remained a familiar presence on television. He joined “The Good Wife” in 2011 as Howard Lyman, a blustery, out-of-touch partner at the Lockhart/Gardner law firm. What was initially meant to be a one-off guest spot turned into a recurring role across six seasons, with Adler reprising the part in “The Good Fight” in 2017 and 2018.

Adler also recurred on FX’s “Rescue Me” as fire chief Sidney Feinberg and appeared in series ranging from “Northern Exposure” and “Mad About You” to “Transparent” and “Broad City.” His film credits include “In Her Shoes” (2005), “Synecdoche, New York” (2008) and “A Most Violent Year” (2014).

Adler returned to Broadway as a performer late in life, appearing in Elaine May’s 2000 comedy “Taller Than a Dwarf” and Larry David’s “Fish in the Dark” in 2015. Adler’s last screen credit came in the 2019 revival season of “Mad About You.” In 2024, he published a memoir, “Too Funny for Words: Backstage Tales From Broadway, Television, and the Movies,” reflecting on his unusual path through show business.

On Instagram, “Sopranos” co-star Michael Imperioli, who played Christopher, praised Adler as “a fantastic actor and the kindest of human beings. He brought so much humor, intelligence and truth to the role of Herman ‘Hesh’ Rabkin and was one of my favorite characters on ‘The Sopranos.’ I loved working and spending time with Jerry. A true class act.”

Survivors include his wife, Joan Laxman, whom he married in 1994, and his daughters, Alisa, Amy, Laura and Emily.

WASHINGTON — Retired Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., the soft-spoken, courtly Virginian whose decisions set the nation on a middle-road course on the issue of race and affirmative action, died Tuesday at age 90.

Increasingly frail and weak in recent years, Powell had retreated to his Richmond, Va., home, where he died in his sleep, the court announced.

Powell–the crucial swing vote on the nine-member court–was often referred to as the most powerful lawyer in America. He had never served as a lower court judge.

On matters ranging from civil rights and affirmative action to the death penalty and abortion, his decision often became the court’s decision. He was a moderate-liberal on civil rights and civil liberties and a conservative on crime. As a result, so was the court during his 15 years on the bench.

President Clinton praised him as “one of our most conscientious and thoughtful justices [who] approached each case without an ideological agenda. His opinions were a model of balance and judiciousness.”

His retirement in 1987 set up a contentious battle over the nomination of Robert H. Bork, a conservative who was rejected in the Senate as too ideological.

A white Southerner who grew up in the era of rigid segregation, Powell nonetheless played the key role in preserving affirmative action as an open door of opportunity for a generation of minority students.

In the celebrated Bakke case of 1978, Powell stood alone but forged a compromise position that has remained as the law ever since.

A white 38-year old civil engineer from Los Altos, Calif., Allan Bakke had charged the medical school at UC Davis with discrimination because he had been rejected for admission despite high grades and test scores. The school reserved 16 of its 100 slots for minority students.

Joining four conservative colleagues, Powell rejected the use of such quotas or fixed formulas that reserved positions for black, Latino or Asian students. However, he wrote separately to say that race can be taken into account as “a plus factor” when evaluating individual minority applicants.

Despite two decades of debate and dispute since, Powell’s formula has remained the federal constitutional standard governing affirmative action in colleges and universities. California voters amended the state’s Constitution in 1996 to prohibit preferential treatment by race in the state’s colleges.

Uncommonly Gentle and Courteous Man

Among his Supreme Court colleagues, Powell is remembered best not for particular decisions but as an uncommonly sweet, gentle and courteous man.

“I have known no one in my lifetime who is kinder or more courteous than he,” said Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who formed an especially close bond with Powell when she joined the formerly all-male court in 1981. “He graced the lives of all who had the privilege of his company and counsel.”

“All of us admire your extraordinary capacity to forcefully participate in our private and public debates without ever allowing advocacy to degenerate into contentiousness,” the justices said in a letter to Powell upon his retirement.

His biographer, University of Virginia law professor John C. Jeffries, said Powell “came from an older and grander tradition where the lawyer was a public citizen. He had a sense [that] he owed a lot to his country and to his community and he spent years serving in a variety of thankless tasks. He was a member of the school board, served on the state education board and raised money for legal aid for the poor.”

He did not aspire to serve on the nation’s highest court, however.

The Nixon White House, eager to appoint a Southerner to the court, had twice approached Powell but he rejected those overtures. Finally, in 1971, he reluctantly accepted Nixon’s nomination. He believed he was too old at age 64 to start a judicial career and relented only after the president called personally to say it was his duty to serve.

“Ten years of Lewis Powell on the court was worth 20 years of anyone else,” Nixon said at the time.

The nomination drew wide praise and Powell won Senate confirmation on an 89-1 vote. He officially joined the court in January 1972, at the same time as Associate Justice William H. Rehnquist, later to become chief justice.

Along with two other Nixon appointees–Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and Justice Harry Blackmun–the new quartet was supposed to end the liberal activism of the court under the late Chief Justice Earl Warren and usher in a law-and-order era.

But it did not work out just that way. In 1972, the court struck down the death penalty as unconstitutional, with Powell and the other Nixon appointees in dissent.

The following year, the court struck down all of the nation’s abortion laws in the case of Roe vs. Wade. Powell joined Blackmun’s opinion that spoke for a 7-2 majority.

Powell never wavered from his view that a woman had the right to end an unwanted pregnancy. However, he later joined his more conservative colleagues to rule that the government need not fund abortions for poor women. This compromise approach also has remained the law.

Crucial Votes for Death Penalty

Though no fan of the death penalty, Powell provided a crucial vote in 1976 to restore capital punishment as an option for the states. He also wrote the court opinion for a 5-4 majority in 1987 that rejected a challenge to the death penalty as racially biased.

Dismissing data showing that murderers of whites in Georgia were more likely to receive death sentences than murderers of blacks, Powell focused narrowly on the cop killer whose case came before the court. Having shot a police officer at close range during a robbery, Warren McCleskey deserved the punishment he received, Powell concluded, and the statistics did not prove otherwise.

After retiring from the court, the justice said he regretted one decision.

In June 1986, after weeks of indecision, Powell cast the crucial fifth vote to uphold Georgia’s anti-sodomy law in the case of Bowers vs. Hardwick. At the time, he said, he might have voted differently had the gay man who brought the case actually been prosecuted. But years later, Powell said in an interview that he “probably made a mistake” and should have voted to strike down such laws as flatly unconstitutional.

“The truth is he was never of one mind on Bowers. He remained in doubt,” said Jeffries, who was clerk to Powell. “On the one hand, he thought the sodomy laws were barbaric. On the other hand, he didn’t think the Supreme Court was the right place to lead a revolution on gay rights.”

Powell’s resignation at the end of the court term in June 1987 set off one of the momentous court struggles of the 20th century.

President Reagan, seeking to cement a conservative majority, nominated U.S. appeals court Judge Bork to succeed him. But after a summerlong battle between liberal and conservative interests and a week of televised confirmation hearings, the Senate rejected Bork.

Reagan’s second nomination, of Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg, also failed when the former Harvard Law School professor admitted that he had regularly smoked marijuana. Finally, Reagan found a replacement for Powell in Judge Anthony M. Kennedy of Sacramento.

Senate Democrats hoped that the new justice would be “another Lewis Powell,” and his nomination was approved unanimously. And to a considerable extent, Kennedy has followed the middle-road course set by his predecessor.

Powell was born Sept. 19, 1907, in Suffolk, Va., near Norfolk, and was the son of a furniture maker. He attended Washington & Lee University, where he was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honorary society and president of the student body. His legal education came at Washington & Lee, where he graduated first in his class in 1931, and at Harvard University, where he spent a year as a graduate law student before returning to Richmond to practice law.

He married Josephine M. Rucker in 1936 and was the father of three daughters and one son. His wife died two years ago.

In World War II, Powell served as a member of a supersecret Allied Unit in Bletchley, England, engaged in cracking German war codes.

After the war, he went into private law practice in Richmond and generally represented corporations. He served as president of the American Bar Assn. in 1965 and the American College of Trial Lawyers in 1969.

He Was ‘Exceptionally Wise,’ Stevens Says

Nixon elevated him to the Supreme Court upon the death of Justice Hugo Black.

He joined a court that had powerful liberals, such as Justices William J. Brennan and Thurgood Marshall, and staunch conservatives, such as Rehnquist, but he joined neither faction. He won unstinting praise, however, as a model Supreme Court justice.

“I prized my association and friendship with him throughout his 15 years of service on the court and after his retirement in 1987,” Rehnquist said in a statement issued by the court. “He was the very embodiment of ‘judicial temperament’: receptive to the ideas of his colleagues, fair to the parties to the case but ultimately relying on his own seasoned judgment.”

“Lewis Powell was a true gentleman, a loyal and exceptionally wise man,” added Justice John Paul Stevens. “He served the country that he loved faithfully and as well as anyone I have ever known.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

His Influence on the Court

President Richard M. Nixon nominated Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr. to the Supreme Court on Oct. 21, 1971. His confirmation by the Senate was quick and overwhelming, with an 8-1 vote. Much of his 16 years on the Supreme Court was spent establishing compromise between a court evenly split along ideological lines. He retired on June 26, 1987.

His influence is seen in the following rulings:

FIRST AMENDMENT

June 1972: He wrote the majority opinion upholding the right of the owner of a shopping plaza to limit the distribution of anti-war pamphlets on his property.

June 1974: Powell ruled that a non-public figure could recover damages from the media for “negligence” instead of the previous and more exacting standard of “actual malice.”

April 1978: In First National Bank vs. Bellotti, writing for the majority, Powell maintained that the right of a corporation to donate to a political campaign is protected political speech.

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RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

July 1974: In Milliken vs. Bradley, he voted against achieving integration by busing students across school district lines.

April 1977: In Village of Arlington Heights vs. Metropolitan Housing Development Corporation, Powell wrote that zoning boards could restrict low-income housing as long as their motive was not racial.

June 1978: Powell developed a compromise position between two groups of judges in University of California Regents vs. Bakke. He asserted that colleges were entitled to pursue diversity as a goal, but they were not allowed to use quota systems based on race to achieve that goal.

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PRESIDENTIAL POWER

June 1972: Powell wrote that the president could not use electronic surveillance domestically without a warrant.

June 1982: Powell wrote the majority opinion in Nixon vs. Fitzgerald that incumbent presidents are immune from civil damage suits for actions they take while in office.

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ON ABORTION

January 1973: In Roe vs. Wade Powell sided with the majority opinion that the decision of a woman whether to perform an abortion during her first trimester of pregnancy was protected under the 14th Amendment.

June 1983: Powell wrote in Planned Parenthood Assn. of Kansas City, Missouri vs. Ashcroft, Ashcroft that a Missouri law requiring a minor to obtain parental or judicial consent before obtaining an abortion was constitutional.

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ON SELF-INCRIMINATION

May 1972: Powell wrote in Kastigar vs. United States the majority opinion that any evidence obtained under a grant of immunity cannot be used in any subsequent prosecution of that person.

Researched by TRICIA FORD / Los Angeles Times

You try to buy a kilo of flour in Gaza.

You open your wallet; what’s inside?  A faded 10-shekel note, barely held together by a strip of tape. No one wants it; it is all rubbish now.

The 10-shekel note, normally worth about $3, was once the most commonly used bill in daily life. Now, it is no longer in circulation. Not officially—only practically. It has been worn out beyond recognition. Sellers will not accept it. Buyers cannot use it.

There is no fresh cash. No replenishment.

Other banknotes are following the fate of the 10 shekels, especially the smaller ones.

If you pay with a 100-shekel note for an 80-shekel purchase, the seller will likely be unable to return the remaining 20 due to the poor physical state of the banknotes.

Many notes are torn or taped together, and entire stalls now exist just to repair damaged currency so it can be used again. Anything is better than nothing.

But the disintegration of banknotes is not the only problem we have in Gaza.

Civil servants have gone months without pay. NGOs are unable to transfer salaries to their employees. Families cannot send remittances. What once supported Gaza’s financial structure has vanished. There is no mention of when it will return. Just silence.

Money is stuck. Trapped behind closed systems and political barriers.

If you manage to obtain money from outside sources — perhaps from a cousin in Ramallah or a sibling in Egypt — it comes at a cost. A brutal one. If you get sent 1,000 shekels ($300), the agent will hand you 500. That’s right, the commission rate on cash withdrawals in Gaza is now 50 percent.

There are no banks to offer such withdrawals or oversee transfers.

The signs are still there. Bank of Palestine. Cairo Amman Bank. Al Quds Bank. But the doors are shut, the windows are dusty, and the inside is empty. No ATMs work.

There are only brokers, some with connections to the black market and smugglers, who are somehow able to obtain cash. They take huge cuts to dispense it, in exchange for a bank transfer to their accounts.

Every withdrawal feels like theft disguised as a transaction. Even so, people continue to use this system. They have no choice.

Do you have a bank card? Great. Try using it?

There is no power. There’s no internet. No POS machines. When you show your card to a seller, they shake their head.

People print screenshots of account balances that they cannot access. Some walk around with expired bank documents, hoping someone will think they’re “good enough” as a pay guarantee.

Nobody does.

There are a few sellers who accept so-called “digital wallets”, but those are few, and so are people who have them.

In Gaza today, money you can’t touch is equivalent to no money at all.

And so people have to resort to other means.

At the market, I saw a woman standing with a plastic bag of sugar. Another was holding a bottle of cooking oil. They did not speak much. I just nodded. Traded. Left.

This is what “shopping” in Gaza looks like right now.  Trade what you’ve got. A kilo of lentils for two kilos of flour. A bottle of bleach for some rice. A baby’s jacket for several onions.

There is no stability. One day, your item will be worth something. The next day, nobody wants it. Prices are guesses. Value is emotional. Everything is negotiable.

“I traded my coat for a bag of diapers,” my uncle Waleed, a father of twins, told me. “He looked at me as if I were a beggar. I felt like I was giving up a part of my life.”

This is not a throwback to simpler times. This is what happens when systems disappear. When money dies. When families are forced to sacrifice dignity for survival.

People don’t just suffer—they shrink. They lower their expectations. They stop dreaming. They stop planning. What future can you plan when you can’t afford tomorrow?

“I sold my gold bracelet,” Lina, my neighbour by tent, told me. “It was for emergencies. But now, every day is an emergency.”

Gaza’s economy did not collapse due to bad policy or internal mismanagement. It was broken on purpose.

The occupation has not just blocked goods entering Gaza; it has also blocked currency and with it, any sense of financial control. It has destroyed the banking system. It has made liquidity a weapon.

Cutting off Gaza’s money is part of a larger siege. There is no need to fire a bullet to destroy a people. Simply deny them the ability to live.

You can’t pay for bread, for water, for medicine, so how do you sustain life?

If this trend continues, Gaza will be the first modern society to completely return to barter. There are no salaries. There is no official market. Only personal trades and informal deals. And even those will not last forever. Because what happens when there is nothing left to trade?

If this isn’t addressed, Gaza will be more than just a siege zone. It will be a place where the concepts of money, economy, and fairness will die forever.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Ron Turcotte, who rode Secretariat during his Triple Crown year in 1973 and electrified the sport, died Friday at his home near Grand Falls, New Brunswick, Canada. He was 84. According to his longtime friend and business partner Leonard Lusky, his death was due to natural causes.

Turcotte, who despite being in a wheelchair since 1978 after a riding accident left him paralyzed from the waist down, often showed up at big races to sign autographs, pose for pictures and act as an ambassador for the sport.

During his almost two-decade career, beginning in 1961, Turcotte won 3,023 races with lifetime earnings of more than $28 million. He was forced to retire in 1978 when, at 36, he suffered career-ending injuries in a spill at Belmont Park.

Turcotte’s accomplishments earned him a spot in six different Halls of Fame, including the National Racing Hall of Fame in 1979 and the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in 1980. He won the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, presented at Santa Anita, the Avelino Gomez Memorial Award, given in Canada, and the Turf Publicists Big Sport of Turfdom Award.

He spent much of his later years bringing attention to the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, or PDJF.

Of all his more than 3,000 wins, he will most be remembered for his ride aboard Secretariat winning the Triple Crown and Belmont Stakes by an unheard of 31 lengths.

“I couldn’t hear the announcer all the time, saying how far I was in front,” Turcotte told The Times in 2023, to mark the 50th anniversary of Secretariat winning the Triple Crown. “I knew I was quite a ways in front because I couldn’t hear any other horses hitting the ground behind me. When I got the quarter pole I looked and I could barely see them and I looked at the clock and saw 1:59 on the board, which was faster than we ran the Derby.”

The family plans a private funeral and asks that in lieu of flowers donations be made to the PDJF. Turcotte is survived by his wife of almost 60 years, Gaetane, and their four daughters: Tina, Ann, Lynn and Tammy.

Aug. 22 (UPI) — The man believed to be the last surviving World War II official American ace naval fighter pilot has died at age 103.

Described in his legacy.com page as a compassionate and humble soul, Don McPherson, of Nebraska, died Aug. 14.

McPherson enlisted in the U.S. Navy in February 1943 and was qualified for a naval aviator’s golden wings and an ensign’s commission in August 1944.

He was posted in February of 1945 aboard an aircraft carrier as part of a fighter squadron equipped with Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat planes. McPherson served in the war campaign on Okinawa, Japan, in which he was credited with five aerial victories and bestowed flying ace status.

McPherson left active service in November of that year, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal and three gold stars. He then completed his Navy Reserve obligation in October of 1956.

Nearly 60 years later, McPherson was named to the Nebraska Aviation Hall of Fame in January of 2015, and then in May of that year was one of 37 fighter aces presented with the Congressional Gold Medal in Washington.

McPherson also had a final Hellcat flight, as at age 102 he flew a restored fighter. He turned 103 in May and died last week in his home state.

“As we’ve celebrated 80 years of WWII victory, I’ve been humbled by the incredible stories of service members like Donald McPherson — who was America’s last-living WWII Ace,” Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen wrote on X Wednesday. “After bravely serving our country, he committed himself to his faith, his family, and his Nebraska community.”

“Donald McPherson built an amazing legacy in our state — and will forever be an American hero,” he concluded.