RIP

Bob Barker, Famed Game Show Host, Dies at 99

Mike Barnes
Sat, August 26, 2023

Bob Barker, the energetic game show legend who for more than 50 years made every day entertaining as host of Truth or Consequences and The Price Is Right, has died. He was 99.

Barker, who also was celebrated for his animal-rights activism and for one hilarious brawl with Adam Sandler in the 1996 golf comedy Happy Gilmore, died Saturday morning of natural causes in his longtime Hollywood Hills home, his representative, Roger Neal, told The Hollywood Reporter.

“It is with profound sadness that we announce that the World’s Greatest MC who ever lived, Bob Barker, has left us,” Neal said in a statement.

After a decade toiling on the radio, Barker was named host of the nationally televised Truth or Consequences in December 1956 and stayed with that program through 1975. He joined a revival of The Price Is Right in September 1972 and remained the host there until June 2007, breaking Tonight Show host Johnny Carson’s record for continuous performances on the same network TV program.

On both audience-participation shows (on Truth or Consequences, contestants were asked a question, and if they didn’t have the right answer, they had to perform a zany stunt), Barker mastered the art of interviewing and coaxing the fun out of regular folks.

“So many hosts will ask a question of a contestant and pay no attention because they’re so busy thinking about what they, the host, will say next,” he said in a 2003 interview with the St. Petersburg Times. “If you ask a question or make a remark and listen, often that contestant will provide you with a little gem you can work with.”

Barker collected 15 Emmy Awards, including 12 for hosting. He was presented a Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999 and was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame five years later.

The Guinness World Records named him TV’s Most Durable Performer as well as the Most Generous Host in Television History, having doled out, by its estimation, more than $200 million worth of prizes.

In 1987, Barker stopped coloring his gray hair because of the animal products used in dyes and chastised the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants, which he hosted, for their use of furs.

Upon arriving as host of the 1987 Miss USA Pageant, he declined to go on after learning that the contestants would be wearing animal skins. When fake furs were substituted, it generated huge publicity for animal rights activists.

Barker later severed ties with both pageants and, soon, he was closing each edition of The Price Is Right with the line, “Have your pets spayed and neutered.” He donated a total of $3.1 million to his alma mater Drury College/University to establish and support the school’s interdisciplinary Animal Studies Program.

In a statement, PETA noted that Barker was “one of the first stars to go vegetarian more than 30 years ago, urged families to stay away from SeaWorld, demanded the closure of cruel bear pits masquerading as tourist attractions, implored Hollywood to take action to protect animals used in film and TV and, as a Navy veteran, called for the end of military medical drills on live animals.

“His generous donation allowed PETA to open its West Coast headquarters, the Bob Barker Building, in 2012, and it stands as a testament to his legacy and profound commitment to making the world a kinder place. To us — and to so many animals around the world — Bob will always be a national animal rights treasure.”

Robert Barker was born on Dec. 12, 1923, in Darrington, Washington, but raised on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, where his mother, Tillie, was a teacher. After his father died, he and his mom moved to Springfield, Missouri, where he attended high school and then Drury on a basketball scholarship, graduating in 1947. He trained as a Navy fighter pilot during World War II.

Following his discharge, Barker returned to Springfield, working at radio station KTTS while he completed his degree in economics. He read news and sports, and when one staffer failed to show up at the last minute, did his first audience-participation show.

Afterward, “My wife [Dorothy Jo] told me, ‘You did that better than you’ve done anything else,” Barker recalled in a 2000 interview for the Television Academy Foundation’s The Interviews website. He had found his calling.

“I was doing shows from grocery markets, drug stores, from movie theaters, from my own little studio,” he said. “I did man on the street shows when you are out on the street with a hand mic — live — and you are just talking with whomever comes along. And you have to make it entertaining.”

After spending time at a Florida station, Barker moved to Los Angeles and was hosting The Bob Barker Show on the radio when Ralph Edwards, the creator and original host of Truth or Consequences, heard him in his car while driving his daughters to an ice-skating lesson.

Edwards was looking for a host, and Barker, then 32, got an audition. He performed before 11 execs and later learned he got just one vote — “but I got the right one, from Ralph Edwards,” he said.

Edwards called Barker at five minutes past noon on Dec. 21, 1956, and told him he had the job. (For years, he and Edwards had lunch on that date and toasted their good fortune at 12:05 p.m.)

“It’s the greatest thing that ever happened to me professionally and the greatest thing that ever will,” he said. Truth or Consequences became the No. 1 show on daytime television and then went on five times a week in syndication.

In 1970, Barker gave future Family Feud host Richard Dawson his first game-show job (on Lucky Pair).

While he was doing Truth for nighttime viewing, Barker accepted producer Mark Goodson’s offer to host a daytime show, a new version of The Price Is Right. He said he would have asked for more money had he known that CBS daytime head Bud Grant would not have bought the show unless Barker was on board.

In 1998, upon the taping of the 5,000th episode of The Price Is Right, CBS dedicated Stage 33 at CBS Television City as the Bob Barker Studio.

Barker, who at age 50 began studying karate with Chuck Norris, gained a new generation of fans when he exchanged blows with Sandler’s hockey-player character, his partner in a golf tournament, in Happy Gilmore. (“The price is wrong, bitch,” Happy says after he slugs the game show host.)

“Nobody had heard of Adam Sandler until I beat him up,” Barker joked. They won the 1996 MTV Award for best fight, beating out the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Wrote Sandler on Saturday: “The man. The myth. The best. Such a sweet funny guy to hang out with. Loved talking to him. Loved laughing with him. Loved him kicking the crap out of me. He will be missed by everyone I know! Heartbreaking day. Love to Bob always and his family! Thanks for all you gave us!”

Outside of game shows, Barker flirted with a young lass on Bonanza in 1960; contributed his voice to Family Guy and Futurama; played Mel Harris’ father on the NBC drama Something So Right; and appeared as himself on episodes of The Nanny, Yes, Dear and How I Met Your Mother.

Dorothy Jo, whom he married in 1945, died of lung cancer in 1981. Barker never remarried but had a relationship with Dian Parkinson, a Price Is Right model, from 1989-91. She sued him and the program for sexual harassment (she dropped that suit) and wrongful termination (a judge dismissed that one). Several other former models also sued Barker and the show.

Survivors include his half-brother, Kent; half-nephews Robert and Chip; and half-niece Vickie.

The Hollywood Reporter

Through Philanthropy and Activism, Bob Barker Fought Animal Cruelty
Chris Cameron
Sun, August 27, 2023 

Bob Barker joins an anti-fur demonstration outside Fred the Furrier, a store on Fifth Avenue in New York on Nov. 25, 1988. (Don Hogan Charles/The New York Times)

Bob Barker, the longtime host of television game show “The Price Is Right” who died Saturday, made animal welfare advocacy a hallmark both of his career in show business and his life after retirement.

Over decades as the host of the longest-running game show in American television history, Barker, beginning in the 1980s, used his bully pulpit to remind millions of viewers to “help control the pet population; have your pet spayed or neutered.”

In one instance in 1996, he powered through his announcement even as an excited contestant clung at his arm, unable to contain her joy at having just won $51,676, or $99,602 when adjusted for inflation.

He continued that tradition for more than 20 years, until his very last show on June 15, 2007.

“There are just too many cats and dogs being born,” he explained in an interview with The New York Times in 2004. “Animals are being euthanized by the millions simply because there are not enough homes for them. In the United States, there is a dog or cat euthanized every 6.5 seconds.”

Barker supported a wide range of efforts to fight what activists saw as rampant animal cruelty in American society.

As one of the most prominent allies of the movement in Hollywood, he became a strict vegetarian, stopped dyeing his hair because the products were tested on animals and quit his job as host of the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants because their organizers refused to remove fur coats from the prize packages.

“I am so proud of the trailblazing work Barker and I did together to expose the cruelty to animals in the entertainment industry,” Nancy Burnet, a fellow animal welfare activist who had been overseeing his care, said in a statement Saturday.

Barker put $25 million into founding the DJ&T Foundation, which finances clinics that specialize in spaying and neutering. The foundation was named after Barker’s wife, Dorothy Jo, and his mother, Matilda Valandra, who was known as Tilly.

Estimates show that the number of dogs and cats euthanized in shelters has been reduced to a fraction of what it was in the 1990s, at least partially attributable to “the drive to sterilize pet dogs and cats,” according to a 2018 study.

Barker also donated $5 million to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society at the urging of its founder Paul Watson, who used the money to buy a ship named for Barker for use in the organization’s anti-whaling campaigns.

“He said he thought he could put the Japanese whaling fleet out of business if he had $5 million,” Barker said of Watson in an interview with The Associated Press. “I said, ‘I think you do have the skills to do that, and I have $5 million, so let’s get it on.’”

Ingrid Newkirk, the president of animal rights group PETA, said in a statement Saturday that Barker had a “profound commitment to making the world a kinder place.”

Newkirk added, “To us — and to so many animals around the world — Bob will always be a national animal rights treasure.”

Barker’s efforts were born from a lifelong affinity for animals.

“I always had a pack of dogs with me,” he said in 2004, recalling his upbringing in the small town of Mission on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota. “There were a lot of dogs in Mission. Not many people, but a lot of dogs.”

His dedication to opposing animal cruelty continued well into his retirement, as Barker continued to donate to organizations such as PETA, which named its West Coast headquarters in Los Angeles for Barker after he made a $2.5 million donation in 2012 for renovations.

c.2023 The New York Times Company

HE CAME TO EDMONTON TO PLEAD TO HAVE LUCY THE ELEPHANT REMOVED FROM THE CITY ZOO TO A SANCTUARY. HIS PLEAS FELL ON DEAF EARS.

Jane Goodall reverses stance, says Lucy the elephant should stay in Edmonton | Globalnews.ca

THIS IS THE ZOO'S USUAL GO TO EXCUSE

https://kitchener.citynews.ca/2023/03/22/edmonton-zoo-says-lucy-the-elephant-too-sick-to-be-moved-to-sanctuary-6734946/

Children reaching UK in small boats sent to jail for adult sex offenders

Mark Townsend, Sian Norris and Katharine Quarmby
Sun, 27 August 2023 

Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

Vulnerable children who arrive in Britain by small boat are being placed in an adult prison that holds significant numbers of sex offenders.

A growing number of cases have been identified where unaccompanied children, many of whom appear to be trafficked, have been sent to HMP Elmley, Kent, and placed among foreign adult prisoners.

According to the most recent inspection of Elmley, the block where foreign nationals are held also houses sex offenders.


Of 14 unaccompanied children so far identified by staff at Humans For Rights Network as being sent to an adult prison, one is believed to have been 14 when they spent seven months in Elmley.

Most of the cases involve Sudanese or South Sudanese children who travelled to the UK via Libya, with most appearing to have been trafficked or having experienced some form of exploitation.

This weekend there were calls for the Home Office to launch an immediate investigation into the issue and urgently release anyone believed to be a child who is inside an adult jail.

Maddie Harris, of Human Rights Network, said the group had worked with more than 1,000 age-disputed children and that those sent to adult prisons were among the most “profoundly harmed”.

She said: “These children are locked down in their cells, not knowing who to call for help, prevented from adequately accessing legal advice and from challenging the arbitrary decision made about their ages by immigration officials upon arrival in the UK. These are children looking for safety who instead find themselves in an adult prison, denied that protection and exposed to great harm.”

Anita Hurrell, head of the migrant children’s project at the children’s charity Coram, said: “It is wrong to criminalise these children and dangerous to send them to adult men’s prisons.”

The children – whose ages are contested by the Home Office – have been charged with immigration offences introduced under the Nationality and Borders Act, which became law last year and introduces tougher criminal offences to deter illegal entry to the UK. Lawyers warn that the practice of sending unaccompanied children to adult prisons appears to be increasing. On Thursday, an age-disputed child was identified in Folkestone magistrates court bound for prison, and there were reports that another minor was in police custody in Margate and also expected to be sent to Elmley.

The imprisoning of minors is, say critics, the latest facet of a broken asylum system. On Thursday, the asylum backlog rose to a high of more than 175,000, up 44% from last year, despite government spending on asylum almost doubling.

The children sent to Elmley were declared adults by the Home Office following what many experts describe as a “cursory and arbitrary” age assessment by officials, often conducted within hours of them reaching the UK by small boat.

A number of Home Office decisions that meant children were sent to an adult prison have already been overturned after detailed assessments by independent or local authority specialists.

New data obtained by the Observer confirms that hundreds of asylum-seeker children are being wrongly treated as adults by the Home Office. According to data from dozens of councils, more than half of the unaccompanied asylum-seeking children who undergo Home Office age assessments on arriving into the UK are later confirmed to be children.

Data from 55 councils under freedom of information laws shows that of 1,416 age assessments carried out over the five years to April 2023 by specialist social workers on age-disputed asylum seekers, 809 were found to be children. In 10 councils, all of the young people assessed were found to be children.

Syd Bolton, co-director of Equal Justice For Migrant Children, said: “Age assessment has developed into the most monstrous of procedural devices.”

Bolton said he considered the practice to be a “deliberate barrier to accessing asylum protection and denying young asylum seekers access to children’s services. It is a major tool of the Home Office in discrediting an asylum claim.”

Wrongly classifying children as adults means they can also be placed alone in unsupervised accommodation alongside adults. In Elmley, Harris said, youngsters shared cells, although a number of age-disputed children had since been released.

According to Elmley’s latest inspection, one in four inmates in a survey said they felt unsafe in the jail. It also said that, despite the prison being “no longer designated to hold prisoners convicted of a sexual offence”, 70 such inmates were still there.

Days ago, details emerged of a paedophile being held at Elmley who was convicted of 14 sex offences and found guilty of abusing two children.

Harris added: “The children are always deeply harmed by the time they have spent in prison in the UK, expressing clearly how they are unable to sleep, do not understand why they were held there and struggle to speak about their time there.”

She added: “It should be made clear that neither adult or child should be criminalised for arriving in the UK to claim asylum, an offence that clearly contravenes the refugee convention.”

Hurrell referred to a recent court ruling that unaccompanied minors should be looked after by councils “where they can be kept safe and recover”. It is thought that many more unaccompanied children have been placed in adult prisons. Human Rights Network staff attending hearings at Folkestone magistrates court have identified them by noticing a young person contesting the date of birth given to them by immigration officials upon arrival in the UK.

Related: Asylum seekers say Bibby Stockholm conditions caused suicide attempt

A government spokesperson said: “Assessing age is a challenging but vital process to identify genuine children and stop abuse of the system. We must prevent adults claiming to be children, or children being wrongly treated as adults – both present serious safeguarding risks.

“To further protect children, we are strengthening the age-verification process by using scientific measures such as X-rays.”

The spokesperson added that the government had not been provided with the information needed to investigate the points raised by the Observer, although at the time of publication it had not asked to view any evidence.

Panthers star Brandon Montour's 'amazing year' celebrated by family, First Nations community

"It's exciting to know that a Native is playing in the NHL," 

Story by Aicha Smith-Belghaba, Eva Salinas • CBC

May 12, 2023

It's the second period in another intense NHL playoff game. On this particular Sunday, it's Game 3 in the series that has pitted the Toronto Maple Leafs against the Florida Panthers.

For most fans of the Leafs, the Eastern Conference second round has been, excitedly, the farthest their team has made it in 19 years.

But for supporters of the blue and white in Six Nations of the Grand River who were watching the game at a community centre, loyalties were torn. One of their own, Brandon Montour, is a star for the other team.

Arihwaiens Martin, who helped organize the watch party at Gathering Place by the Grand, said his entire family are Toronto fans, adding: "The Panthers, for me, [are] important because Brandon's on there. Number 62.

"I knew there would be the Leafs fans [watching]. That's through and through here on Six Nations. But then there's Panthers, you know — hometown hero, right?"

While adults watched the game on a big screen inside, about a dozen or so kids were running around in the front foyer, hockey sticks in hand, slapping pucks into a small net. For them, the defenceman — who, as of earlier Friday, had scored nine points for the Panthers in 11 games during these playoffs — is someone they look up to.

"It's exciting to know that a Native is playing in the NHL," said Jobi Isaacs, 13.


Eleven-year-old Bella Beaver, left, and a friend attend a Six Nations of the Grand River watch party. Bella plays hockey and was cheering for the Leafs.© Eva Salinas/CBC

Jobi said he's been playing hockey since he's "been able to go on the ice." Like Montour, he's from Six Nations, the most populous First Nations reserve in Canada.

Is Jobi the next Montour? "Maybe," he said with a shy smile and a shrug.

Garett Longboat, 11, plays with the Hagersville Hawks. He wants to make the NHL one day, and said Montour's playoff performance is inspiring.

Bella Beaver, 11, was standing nearby in a Leafs jersey. She plays for the Haldimand Rivercats and is sticking with Toronto. "Go Maple Leafs!" she shouted.

The Leafs enter Friday night's game down 3-1, so it's a must win as the series returns to Toronto.



Esenogwas Jacobs, left, attended the Game 3 watch party with her son Jamie, 6, her 15-month-old Ogwiyase and her partner, Rick Brant. © Eva Salinas/CBC

Esenogwas Jacobs was also at the watch party — a fundraiser for local language immersion school Kawenni:io — with her partner Rick Brant, his six-year-old son Jamie and their 15-month-old.

"I'm not much of a hockey fan," Jacobs said. "[Jamie] just started ice skating, so he's really into hockey…. We told him there was an Ogwehoweh guy playing and he was so pumped. He doesn't really know who he is, but he's excited that it's someone who we know that's from here."

Aunt gets 'complete joy' seeing Montour's success

Montour's star has been rising since the 29-year-old, born in nearby Brantford, Ont., was drafted into the NHL by the Anaheim Ducks in 2014. He played with the Ducks for nearly three seasons before being traded to Buffalo in 2019 and then to Florida in 2021.

A goal by Montour on April 30, with one minute left in the third period — the goal that tied the game against the Boston Bruins and helped send the Panthers on to the next round — caught the attention of many.

"This week has been crazy," Montour's aunt, Jaime Lynne Montour, told CBC Hamilton earlier this week.

"The further it goes, the more intense it gets, especially for those that know us and know that that's our family, right?"

Jaime Lynne, who's been watching Montour play since he was a kid and whose children have watched him their whole lives, said the moment feels "big."

"You hear from people across the nation, across Turtle Island, and they know your name? … To see your last name in the lights like that? Like, you know for a fact the ancestors, they're so proud."

Jaime Lynne said Montour "had great potential his whole life," and was always a great hockey and lacrosse player. She credits her family, including her parents and her brother, Montour's father, for helping to create "such greatness."

She recalls going to a game in Buffalo and her son choked up even before they had reached their seats, just seeing Montour warm up.

"I can't limit it to how it actually feels with one word. It is this overall, just complete joy that this person who I'm connected with, has truly found his purpose, and can truly excel and bring awareness for Indigenous communities, Indigenous children — give hope, where fear once limited us from being able to step outside that comfort, you know?"

Speaking to media ahead of Game 2 against Toronto last week, Montour said the support from back home "is huge."

"A lot of fans are rooting for us," he said.

Even diehard Leafs fans have been admiring Montour's on-ice performances.

Jaime Lynne recounted watching a recent game in a sports bar in Ontario, surrounded by blue and white.

"Me and my son are sitting there in our Florida Panthers [jerseys]," she said, recalling getting some boos from the crowd, until someone noticed her jersey was signed and asked about it.

"'Well, it's my nephew,'" she told them. "And all of a sudden, people's attitudes switch, right? Like, that's your family. They're like, 'He's doing amazing, he's having an amazing year. But you know, can you just tell him to stop?'"

Brandon Montour shining for surprising Panthers: ‘I just wanted to run with it’

By Joshua Clipperton

The Canadian Press
Thu., May 4, 2023

TORONTO - Brandon Montour unloaded a one-timer and watched the puck hit the back of the net before dropping to one knee and sweeping his glove over the ice in celebration.

The third-period goal on a delayed penalty took the air out of Scotiabank Arena and gave his Florida Panthers breathing room on the way to a 4-2 victory in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

For anyone not paying attention this season, Montour stepping up in a key moment has become the norm.

The 29-year-old defenceman nearly doubled his career high with 73 points in 2022-23 after finally getting the chance to play a bigger role in his eighth NHL campaign.

Largely a third-pair blueliner until this past fall, Montour was elevated to Florida’s second duo and earned power-play quarterback duties on the team’s No. 1 unit.

He was shot out of a cannon early in the schedule, and never looked back in setting a franchise record for points by a defenceman.

“Getting out there more, getting the opportunities, them believing in,” Montour said when explaining his rise ahead of Game 2 against Toronto. “I just wanted to run with it, take as much advantage as I can with that, and show what I could do.

“Things have been good.”

Montour, who also tied Florida’s high-water mark for goals by a defenceman in a season with 16, was selected in the second round of the 2014 NHL draft by the Anaheim Ducks before getting traded to Buffalo during the 2018-19 campaign.

He would endure parts of three miserable campaigns with the Sabres, including an 18-game losing streak in 2021, before mercifully getting dealt to Florida.

On top of Montour’s regular-season stats, his six goals through eight playoff contests — including a late equalizer in the Panthers’ dramatic Game 7 upset of the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Boston Bruins in the first round — is the third-most by a defenceman in NHL history to start a playoffs, behind only Bobby Orr and Paul Coffey.

“I’ve tried to play the same way,” he said of his offensive explosion after putting up 37 points last season. “Numbers change with the amount of ice time and power play, but I think that was always a strength of mine.

“It was just a matter of getting out there and doing it.”

The product of Ohsweken, Ont., on Six Nations of the Grand River Territory — Canada’s most populous reserve and not far from Wayne Gretzky’s hometown of Brantford — has appreciated the support back home despite it being in the middle of Leafs country.

“It’s huge,” said Montour, who was also born in Brantford. “A lot of fans are rooting for us.”

Panthers head coach Paul Maurice, in his first year in South Florida, said the blueliner’s fitness level gave him the foundation to get going following a tough training camp.

“Came out of the gate very strong,” Maurice said. “He starts putting up (power-play) numbers. That in turn allows his 5-on-5 game to settle.”

The third part of the equation was defence partner Marc Staal.

“Marc has been fantastic,” Maurice continued. “Marc is so incredibly consistent and experienced and knows the game and talks the game — is funny as hell. Those two guys just built a fantastic chemistry. Brandon has benefitted from that.

“He did the work to come to camp in great shape. He got the opportunity because he had some fantastic skills ... it allowed his game to settle. And then he got the right partner.”

Staal, who like Maurice is in his first season with the Panthers, has been impressed by Montour since Day 1.

“Knew he was a dynamic player,” said the 36-year-old. “But being on the ice every day and playing with him, he does some pretty incredible things.

“We rely on him a lot for our offence. He’s a big part of that. That pressure and responsibility was put on him. He just took it and ran with it.”

Montour was part of a number of blue-line tandems up and down the lineup last season, but has appreciated seeing that familiar, reliable face whenever he looks to his right.

“Great guy,” Montour said of Staal. “Keeps the room light, keeps me light. I like that connection.


“I know what he brings every night, he knows what I bring every night.”

Montour had one long playoff run with Anaheim as a rookie in 2017. It’s not lost on him these moments can be fleeting in a hockey player’s finite career.

And just like the opportunity he grabbed, the defenceman is keen to see how long the Panthers can keep this run going.

“It’s crazy ... time flies so quick,” Montour said. “This is my eighth season and we really had that one crack at it.

“You just want to win that much more.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 4, 2023.

Breakout Season for Brandon Montour Has Fueled Florida Panthers

By Colby Guy

FLORIDA HOCKEY NEWS

Brandon Montour is having a breakout season with the Florida Panthers as he has helped lead them to a spot in the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs.

 // Photo courtesy Roger Lee Photographer


SUNRISE — Brandon Montour has come up huge for the Florida Panthers time and again throughout this breakout season.

Of his 16 goals — which tied for the most in Florida’s franchise history by a defenseman in a single season — five are game-winners with two being scored in overtime.

Perhaps his biggest of the season fits in neither category.

With 10:24 to go in Monday’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montour jumped up into the rush and fired a feed from Carter Verhaeghe past Ilya Samsonov to tie the game and eventually send it to overtime.

He might not have known it after John Tavares scored the overtime winner but that goal ended up securing the point Florida needed to clinch a playoff spot.

Montour was upset with himself for losing a net-front battle Auston Matthews on his deflection goal that put the Maple Leafs up 1-0 but the sting hurts a little less after the Panthers got the help they needed with losses by the Penguins and Sabres to officially secure a spot in the postseason.

”As a player growing up, and especially now that I’m getting the opportunity, I want to take the opportunity to and run with it,” Montour said.

”I trust myself. On that first goal, I was a little upset with that play, I thought I could have made something there but you shake that off and you want to make the next big play and luckily that puck popped out into the slot and I found the lane.”

His game on Monday was indicative of his whole season.

No matter what happened during a game or during a season where Florida has faced many trials and tribulations, he has been able to shake it off and make big plays for the Panthers.

Montour’s five game-winning goals are tied for the fourth-most in the NHL among defensemen.

It is one of many categories Montour ranks in the Top 5 among defensemen in during a breakout season for the ages.

As a 28-year-old, he went from being a bottom-pair defenseman and a second-unit power play quarterback with 37 points to ranking fourth at his position in points with 73.

His knack for finding holes in the opposing team’s defense and picking his spots at the right time has helped him reach those heights.

”I think you just have to be a little patient,” Montour said.

”Trusting your skating is important, obviously you have to make the defensive plays there. Especially on that goal there, it does not get noticed as much, but my partner made a heck of a play in our own end and you just watch where the forwards are.

”I trust my skating and I get up there when I can and obviously Marc Staal made a great play to Carter Verhaeghe and he just went right to the middle and I was right in the slot.”

Montour has credited much of his rise to coach Paul Maurice’s confidence in him with an increased role and the stability Staal has given him on his left side.

The 36-year-old does not get talked about a lot — and sometimes negatively after a few early season turnovers — but he settled in and has made huge defensive plays next to Montour.

And it has given him the confidence he needs to jump up into the rush often.

“It starts in our own end,” Montour said. ”You have to be patient and I have been working on that all year and I feel like I’ve been doing that all year and just being smart with that and bearing down on my chances.”

With the improvement of his game came more responsibility that he had not seen before in his career.

Florida needed to find defensemen from within to eat minutes after trading MacKenzie Weegar in the blockbuster Matthew Tkachuk deal after free-agency was all said and done and Montour answered the bell quickly.

He ranks 16th among defensemen averaging a shade over 24 minutes per game, which is six more than his average last season.

Montour had to shoulder close to — or even over — 30 minutes at times when star defenseman Aaron Ekblad went down with injury and his skating ability and endurance made him a viable option to answer the bell every time.

”The grind hits and he gets up the ice so very fast,” Maurice said Monday night.

”He is an incredibly fit man. We had him at 28 minutes and none of that is easy because against a team like Toronto, you have to skate. Then he gets up the ice in the third period and he has a lot in the tank.”

His skating ability is something that Staal — despite playing in the NHL for 16 seasons — has not seen a lot of.

”I knew he was a good skater but not at the level I have seen him play,” Staal said.

”A lot of times when I’m playing with him, I don’t think he is back and he is back. I’ll watch the clip after and I’ll be like ‘he was in position because he can cover so much ground so fast,’ and that part of his game is so impressive.”

Maurice has trusted him in many different situations because of it.

He quarterbacks Florida’s power play — and has even been the lone defenseman over Ekblad at times — and is also often trusted alongside Ekblad when the Panthers pull the goalie for the extra attacker.


Florida defenseman Brandon Montour celebrates with Sasha Barkov after he scored the game-winning goal in overtime against Chicago on March 10.

 (AP Photo/Michael Laughlin)

”I think that goes back to maturity and experience,” Maurice said.

”Now he is on the power play, he has put up numbers, so he does not have to be up the ice the entire night indiscriminately. He picks his spots now to find the hole and then he can get into it.

”There are a lot of guys that can see the hole but there are not a lot of guys that can get into it.”

Montour has not gotten much love from national media in the conversation for the Norris Trophy, which is handed out to the NHL’s best defenseman, but he certainly deserves to be in the conversation.

Combining his point total with his knack for showing up in big situations and stability on both ends of the ice, he fits the bill.

Not to mention the fact he filled a massive hole while Ekblad was dealing with and recovering from multiple serious injuries this season.

“I think when you have the emergence of a player like that and it’s extreme, when he goes from playing in the five, six hole to running a power play and putting up the numbers that he has, I think you can look at the individual and certainly say he’s been a key piece to our success,” Maurice said.

”As that relates to the Norris Trophy, who is the most important defenseman on a team, he might be able to argue that he is. When there is a guy that is scoring 100 points and there’s some defensemen with some big, big numbers, at the end, that’s the easiest measure and that’ll be looked at.”

Published 1 month ago on April 12, 2023

https://www.nhl.com/player/brandon-montour-8477986

Brandon Montour Stats and News | NHL.com 

He had 37 points and an NHL-best 73 his first two seasons with the Panthers, respectively, and finished the 2023 Eastern Conference First Round with five goals, ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Montour

Brandon Montour - Wikipedia 

Brandon Montour (born April 11, 1994) is a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman for the Florida Panthers in the National Hockey League (NHL).

NOT THE ONLY FIRST NATIONS PLAYER IN THE NHL

ESPN’s Anderson apologizes for mocking Whitecloud’s name

AND ON A NHL WINNING TEAM

May 9, 2023

New George Michael documentary tells how the singer was outed

Miranda Norris
Sat, 4 March 2023 

George Michael (Image: NQ staff)

A new documentary explores how Oxfordshire resident George Michael bravely defended his sexuality with 1998 single 'Outside' and became a gay icon.

The superstar, who had a home in Goring, was arrested in 1998 for a lewd act in a LA public toilet.

The two-part documentary to mark the quarter-century since the story broke tells the story of "how a potentially career-crushing event became a defining moment for gay liberation".

The singer stood up to the press and told CNN in 1998: “I’m a very proud man. I want people to know that I have not been exposed as a gay man.

“I feel stupid and I feel reckless and weak for having allowed my sexuality to be exposed this way, but I don’t feel any shame whatsoever. And neither do I think I should.”

The same year, he released the hit song Outside which satirised his arrest and had a video set in a men’s toilet with Michael dressed as an LAPD police officer.

This summer George Michael fans will flock to the Oxfordshire village the singer loved to celebrate what would have been his 60th birthday.

The Wham! star, who had a 16th century £3.4million home by the river, died on Christmas Day in 2016 aged 53.

Oxford Mail:

Three lifelong fans have collaborated with tribute artist Steve Mitchell to put on a celebration event at Goring Village Hall this June.

All the money raised by the GM60 event will go to the Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity, a charity which George supported.

Rachel Alderton, from Bury, Lancashire, said: “Many of the fans meet in Goring village every year but this year we wanted to do something special and not only celebrate George’s 60th birthday together but raise money for one of his charities.

"He was an exceptionally generous man and his charitable work meant so much to him, so it’s important for the fans that we continue to do this for him.

"It was also important for us to thank the lovely locals for welcoming us to Goring, so we decided to make a donation to the Goring Village Hall fundraising appeal in support of the local community.”

A limited number of tickets can be purchased at www.gm60.co.uk

George Michael: Outed airs at 9pm on Channel 4 on March 6 and 7.

UK

Gone Fishing's Paul Whitehouse meets sewage campaigners in hard-hitting documentary

Miranda Norris
Sat, 4 March 2023 

Paul Whitehouse (Image: BBC)

Witney sewage campaigners feature in a hard-hitting documentary by comedian and keen angler Paul Whitehouse.

Paul, who has starred in Gone Fishing with fellow comedian Bob Mortimer since 2018, sets out to discover whether the water companies are illegally discharging untreated sewage into our waterways to cut corners and protect profits.

In Our Troubled Rivers, he learns that firms are ignoring the regulations to only discharge sewage during heavy rainfall.


In episode one, he meets the founders of Windrush Against Sewage Pollution (WASP), retired maths professor Peter Hammond and ex-police officer Ashley Smith who are trying to hold the water firms to account.

Oxford Mail:

A group of volunteers, they investigate the pollution of the River Windrush and her sister rivers.

They collect and analyse information on water quality and sewage discharges.

In 2020, Thames Water reported spilling untreated sewage for 3,644 hours on 228 occasions from four of the sewage works on the River Windrush.

Without the work of WASP, the scale of the pollution in the Windrush Valley would have stayed hidden.

And as this is happening to rivers across the country Ash Smith has become an influential voice on the subject nationwide.

He was also instrumental in pressuring Thames Water to produce an interactive map providing near real-time information about its storm overflow activity.

In the documentary, the duo say the claim that raw sewage is only discharged during stormy conditions is “complete rubbish”.

Ash Smith claims that since 1989, £72billion has gone from the industry, mostly to stakeholders in China, Canada and Abu Dhabi.

They say they believe that the solution is to return the firms to public ownership.

Paul, 64, also meets pop star-turned-campaigner Feargal Sharkey in the show,

He has raised concerns about sewage pollution from Thames Water's Sewage Treatment Works at Church Hanborough contaminating bathing waters at Port Meadow in Oxford.

Paul says: “I still find it astonishing that the water companies would put untreated sewage into our rivers.”

And he meets Mark Barrow who shows him a collection of wet wipes and sanitary products he has collected from the River Wharfe in Yorkshire.

Paul tells him: “You wouldn’t get me in there, not in a million years.

“Oh my God. It’s liquid death. That is deeply unpleasant.

"It’s obvious that if you show that to people they’ll be appalled.

"It defies belief.”

Paul Whitehouse: Our Troubled Rivers, Sunday, BBC2, 8pm

Feds may expand solar, wind across the West, including in the California desert


Janet Wilson, Palm Springs Desert Sun
Tue, January 10, 2023 

Lights from a solar transfer station taken at night from Lake Tamarisk retirement community in Desert Center, CA. December 2022

Mark Carrington, 72, thought he had found his piece of heaven in the vast California desert two years ago, when he bought a trailer pad in Lake Tamarisk Resort in Desert Center, 70 miles east of Palm Springs. He parked his RV and prepared to live out a peaceful retirement. The dark, star-spangled night skies and soaring mountain vistas of Joshua Tree National Park were a thrill.

Then the jackhammers started pounding and a pall of dust blotted the open sky.

He and other neighbors in the 55-plus community were shocked to learn a large-scale solar project called Oberon was being built on 2,600 acres of land, half a mile from their homes. Mature trees were ripped out, shrubby desert scraped bare, and the birds, rabbits, foxes and occasional desert tortoise disappeared. Then they learned two more huge projects have been proposed, including one 750 feet from their homes, Carrington said.

All told, they calculated the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and Riverside County have now approved nearly 18,000 acres of large-scale solar in the area. Another 6,000 acres of development are being weighed. And the projects, first built several miles away, are coming closer and closer, complete with truck traffic, chain link fencing and searing night lights on workstations and solar inverters.

“It’s very frustrating,” Carrington said. “When these projects are complete this will literally be like a prison compound. We will no longer be an oasis in the middle of a living desert, we will be an island in a solar sea that’s completely dead.”

More could be on the way.

Federal officials are now considering a major expansion and possible modification of designated solar zones on public lands across the West, to include five more states, wind as well as solar projects, and slopes as well as flat areas. The agency will kick off a dozen public “scoping meetings” on the redesign effort on Friday via a virtual session and an in-person meeting in Sacramento on Jan. 18.

BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning said in a prepared statement that the agency “is committed to expanding renewable energy development on public lands to help lead the nation into a clean energy future, enhance America’s energy security, and provide for good-paying union jobs. She added, ”“We look forward to hearing from the public on effective ways to expand our nation’s capacity for producing solar energy while continuing to ensure robust protection of our public lands and waters.”

Chopped, destroyed ironwood trees on land cleared for Oberon solar project, Desert Center CA. in late 2022.

For Carrington and others in this tight-knit, isolated hamlet 50 miles from a grocery store, it's the latest blow in what they call the eradication of their community identity and way of life. The study also may look at amending California’s 10 .8 million acre Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan, a separate, hard-fought and carefully negotiated compromise agreement between federal and state agencies, developers, environmentalists and others that designated both development zones and conservation areas.

Renewable energy trade representatives say modifying the plans could actually reduce conflicts between rural residents and developers.

"There's plenty of land," said Ben Norris, senior director of regulatory affairs for the Solar Energy Industry Association, based in Washington, D.C. “We actually think certain changes would open up more lands for solar away from populated areas,”

But residents here are not convinced.

"I don't like it," Carrington said, noting many of the slopes and what remains of the open space around them are part of carefully preserved "areas of critical environmental concern" that should not be modified. They're already battling two more proposed projects, the Easley and the Sapphire solar farms, that they knew nothing about until they started sleuthing.

Public notice is an ongoing concern. Residents of the retirement park were not notified of the potential major expansion, despite promises by BLM officials that they would be added to official lists after they discovered the two other huge solar projects.

Carrington and his neighbors in the retirement park say they also were not notified in advance by federal or county officials or the developer, Intersect Power, about the Oberon project. Now they want a 5 mile buffer zone between their rural community and any more renewables, including Easley and Sapphire.

Their timing might or might not be good.

Ironwood trees leveled for new large-scale solar farm in Desert Center, CA
Push is on for large renewables across the West, amid rural objection

With climate change and its impacts taking hold, federal officials are now weighing broadly expanding but also potentially modifying development zones for large-scale solar and wind projects across the West, including in the California desert, where industrial renewables proposals have faced local backlash. Neighboring San Bernardino County in 2019 banned large renewables projects on 1 million acres of private land, including near 14 rural communities, after loud protests from residents.

To do it, the BLM may amend its sweeping 2012 Western Solar Plan and a related "programmatic environmental impact statement" that governs commercial solar development on public lands in six southwestern states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. A new, sweeping environmental impact study designed to cover millions of acres in one fell swoop will weigh adding energy development zones in five more states: Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming, and may include wind power areas and hilly slopes left out of the original plan. Ultimately, as with the current plan and its accompanying PEIS, it could streamline renewable development in designated areas, and allow set-asides of other lands when habitat and species destruction can’t be avoided.

Most of the approvals issued by BLM since 2012 for solar projects have actually occurred via variances for work outside the designated areas.

Industry trade officials are highly supportive. They say while initial mapping of so-called solar energy zones, or SEZ’s, was done with good intentions by the Obama administration, they have not worked perfectly on the ground. They say it’s time for an update that might better avoid rural communities and truly expedite clean energy.

Norris with the solar industry group noted the current plan and PEIS only allow projects on flat land and with high solar radiation, which was done to fit now largely out-of-date technology.

“Easing those limits would, first, align the document with current 2023 technologies, and second, allow companies to consider more sites that could present lower potential for issues with surrounding communities.” said Norris. ”We very much appreciate BLM’s efforts to take another look at this high level environmental review document.”

He said North Dakota should also be added, and added that a 2021 Department of Energy report had found up to 10 million acres of renewable projects are needed to decarbonize the country’s electric grid by 2050. The 2012 Western Solar Plan designated about 285,000 acres as priority solar energy zones and excluded about 79 million acres from solar development. The plan also identified 19 million acres available for development under a variance process.

But Carrington and neighbors say despite being told by BLM they would be notified 15 days in advance of any new activity, they learned about the potential huge redesign effort accidentally, when he was searching for a phone number of a local staffer on the proposed Easley project. They’re also not happy that the California meeting will be in Sacramento, not in eastern Riverside County.

“How are we supposed to get there?” Carrington asked. “They should come here, and see where it’s happening.”

BLM press secretary Brian Hires, in response to questions from The Desert Sun, said in an email that the proposed update includes lands across California. ”The BLM determined that holding a meeting in Sacramento would allow for significant public participation.” He also noted the agency “will hold two virtual meetings accessible to the public for those that are not able to attend an in-person meeting.”

The study may also look at California’s 10 .8 million acre Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan, a separate, hard-fought and carefully negotiated compromise agreement between federal and state agencies, developers, environmentalists and others that designated both development zones and conservation areas.
Choking dust, lost views and water worries

The clock is ticking. BLM is pushing to meet a 2020 mandate set by Congress under the Trump administration, requiring them to authorize at least 25 gigawatts of renewable power by 2025,, enough to power close to 19 million homes.

Within a week of taking office, President Joe Biden signed an executive climate change order that in part requires the Secretary of the Interior to “review siting and permitting processes on public lands” to increase “renewable energy production on those lands . . . while ensuring robust protection for our lands, waters, and biodiversity and creating good jobs.”

As of last month, BLM, which reports to the Interior Secretary, had permitted 34 projects expected to produce 8,140 megawatts of electricity, about a third of the required 25 gigawatts by 2025, Hines said. Projects to produce nearly 3 gigawatts more are undergoing federal environmental reviews. Those totals include about one gigawatt built or is underway in and around Desert Center, enough to power about 750,000 homes.

Teresa and Skip Pierce, retiree residents of Lake Tamarisk Resort retirement community in Desert Center, CA

Teresa Pierce, 70, and a resident of the Lake Tamarisk retirement community for six years, is helping spearhead community opposition to more huge projects in their area. She said industrial projects on fragile desert landscapes are the wrong path to slowing greenhouse gas emissions from power production.

“Really it should be on every rooftop in California and the nation,” she said. They “should not destroy deserts, since they sequester the carbon dioxide (the main greenhouse emitted into the atmosphere), and therefore disturbing the soil releases it.”

Norris with the solar trade group and some national environmental groups say rooftop solar and commercial solar are both needed.

Area environmentalists and tribal members who’ve opposed specific projects in the past are keeping a wary eye on the proposal, which they note is in the early stages. They also point out that any increased commercial development must be examined in the context of separate federal and state proposals, dubbed “30 by 30,” to preserve nearly a third of available and valuable open spaces by 2030.

"We look forward to seeing concrete proposals once scoping is complete," said Chris Clarke, associate director of the California deserts program for the National Parks Conservation Association. "We strongly feel that the DRECP should be taken as a working model and not amended or weakened, and that overall landscape level planning in other states is a must, and that planning HAS to protect areas of significant resource conflict from development. This process absolutely must not undermine the administration’s 30 by 30 goals."

Close to home, Pierce said the traffic from Oberon construction is “horrible,” and she and other mostly older residents now suffer from allergies, aggravated COPD and other woes from the dust. Those and other concerns were laid out in a comment letter submitted to Riverside County planners last week about the proposed Easley project, signed by scores of residents. They include the possibility of dangerous silica being present in windblown construction dust, excessive water being drawn from an ancient underground aquifer for the solar projects, and the loss of dark night skies and daytime hiking routes.

Fugitive dust from the Oberon commercial solar construction project, one-half mile south of Lake Tamarisk retirement community in Desert Center, CA. Taken December 11, 2022 at 9:30am during 16 mph southwest winds, with gusts to 30 mph.

Solar developer pushes back

An Intersect Power representative gave a different version of what has occurred with the Oberon project, and said the Easley project is in the very early stages.

“The Oberon project represents one of the largest habitat mitigation efforts of any single energy development project in California’s history, and is a great example of clean energy and conservation going hand-in-hand,” wrote Elizabeth Knowles, Intersect’s Director of Community Engagement, in an email. “This project will permanently protect nearly 6000 acres of high quality desert habitat for the Mojave desert tortoise, the desert kit fox, migratory birds, and other protected species.”

While that habitat is off-site, she said, “the Oberon … development footprint also avoids about 2,000 acres of sensitive on-site habitat for wildlife, ensuring habitat connectivity between conservation areas north and south of the project. The Oberon project is also complying with hundreds of conservation and mitigation measures to protect public health and safety and the environment.”

In December 2021, as that project neared final approval over objections from area environmentalists,, an Intersect spokesman said in total 80 acres or less of woodlands would be cleared on the 2,600 acre site, and areas of impact in a buffer zone had been reduced to about 55 acres.

Knowles said the public was notified about the Oberon project via BLM press releases and notices published in the Federal Register. The latter is a voluminous daily record of legal activity by more than 400 public agencies and the White House. She said while the Easley project “is in the very early stages of development and design decisions have not yet been finalized,” it could not be moved to a new location.

“We actively explored siting the Easley project in alternative locations, including east of Hwy 177, but the area was technically prohibitive,” she said.

But, she added, “the Lake Tamarisk community is actively involved in the public process for the Easley project. Since being made aware of their concerns, we have been in close contact with (them) and surrounding neighbors to understand and address any questions and concerns they have regarding our projects in the Desert Center Area. We will continue to work with them throughout the planning, construction and operations of the project.”

Carrington and Pierce said Knowles and other Intersect staff had met with them on Pierce’s patio, and the company might consider dimming or redirecting powerful night lights to help keep the skies above dark. But they said such small measures would do little.

“What’s occurring is just a pure disregard for us as a community, and us as human beings,” Pierce said.

In addition to Sacramento, BLM will hold public scoping meetings in Phoenix, Arizona; Grand Junction, Colorado; Washington, DC; Boise, Idaho; Billings, Montana; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Reno, Nevada; Bend, Oregon; Salt Lake City, Utah; Spokane, Washington and Cheyenne, Wyoming. A second virtual meeting will be held on Feb. 13.

Public comments will be accepted for 15 days after the last public scoping meeting. For the most current information, to register for the virtual sessions. and to view related documents, visit BLM’s ePlanning web site at https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2022371/570.

Janet Wilson is senior environment reporter for The Desert Sun, and co-authors USA Today's Climate Point. She can be reached at jwilson@gannett.com and on Twitter @janetwilson66

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Feds may expand solar and wind across the West, including the CA desert

London, Ontario

Entry-level labour shortage has flipped the power dynamic, says London recruiter

LONDON IS THE CLASSIC MIDDLE CLASS CANADIAN CITY ACCORDING TO POLLSTERS, ACTUARIES, ADVERTISING COMPANIES, ETC, ETC,

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Companies raise wages to compete for entry and mid-level workers

James Chaarani · CBC News · Posted: Sep 17, 2021 5:00 AM ET | Last Updated: September 17

A 'Help Wanted' sign hangs in a store window. Job hunters can have their pick of entry and mid-level jobs right now, says London recruiter James Norris. (Mark Lennihan/Associated Press)

A shortage of people willing and able to work entry and mid-level jobs has flipped the power dynamic between employers and job hunters, says James Norris. 

The sales manager with Express Employment Professionals, a recruitment agency in London, Ont., believes that it has become an employee's market.   

He said he's noted more change in the employment landscape over the last 12 months than over the rest of his six-year career in the industry. 

The type of jobs where the employees are in the driver's seat, he says, are entry-level to mid-level ones.

"So, if we're talking in kind of the $15.50 range up to about the $19, or maybe even $20 an hour range," says Norris. "That's a very competitive market because a number of companies — production, assembly, warehousing, distribution — they are all extremely busy right now as supply chain issues that had occurred over the pandemic have started to ease."

He says this, coupled with consumers buying more, has created a demand for workers. 

He's seeing that companies offering entry-level employment, or employment just above that, have upped their hourly rates a dollar or two more than pre-pandemic rates.

James Norris, sales manager with Express Employment Professionals in London                                   (Submitted by James Norris)

Employee shortage

He says that employees left the service industry or entertainment sectors, which were influenced most by restrictions or lockdowns, looking for new careers due to the instability of their employment.  

"I think another big factor in terms of individuals making a move or wanting to move to different companies or industries was a large part due to the way they felt they were treated or maybe the way they felt they were valued or not valued by their company," Norris said. 

He thinks COVID-19 financial assistance could have also played a role.  

• London's jobless rate drops in August with 1,900 people hired

Carolina Andrade agrees it has become a job hunter's market. She's a human resources manager for Meridian in Strathroy, which specializes in cast metal used in the transport industry.

She says her company has struggled to find people to work general duty and die cast. In the past, Meridian has been able to rely on foreign workers, but that isn't an option right now, as a result of the pandemic. 

• What does job hunting look like in a post-pandemic world? We talked to experts in London

"So, we have to rely only on people here," she says. "They sometimes are working, so we have to raise our salary to be able to compete with other companies." 

"The companies that have increased their wages are the ones that are winning what [they] call ... the recruiting race," she said.

At first, she said she thought people left the workforce because of things like Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), but she doesn't think that's the case anymore. Now she believes her company has struggled to hire and retain people due to a highly competitive market. 

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