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The American filmmaker Jim Hubbard has been making experimental films that explore lesbian and gay activism and community building since the mid-1970s. Today, Hubbard is perhaps best known for his work as an AIDS activist and historian of AIDS activism. In 2012, he directed and co-produced the documentary United in Anger: A History of ACT UP, a powerful account of the emergence of AIDS activism in New York in the mid-to-late 1980s from the perspective of members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, with the activist and writer Sarah Schulman. Hubbard and Schulman also coordinate the ACT UP Oral History Project, a collection of interviews with surviving members of the group.
On 9th December 2016 – shortly after World AIDS Day 2017 – CRUSEV's Fiona Anderson and members of the fellow HERA-funded project EUROPACH (Disentangling European HIV/AIDS Policies: Activism, Citizenship and Health) hosted a screening and discussion with Hubbard about his life and work at the Cinema Museum in London. For the screening, Hubbard selected four films which span the breadth of his practice, from poetic reflections on personal loss to documentary interviews, and dealt with themes of loss, memory, activism and empowerment.
In the late 1970s, Hubbard recorded protests against the filming of William Friedkin's controversial movie Cruising in New York's West Village on Super 8 film, using the material in a short work that he titled Stop the Movie Cruising (1980). Hubbard's film switches between footage of street protests in the West Village, aiming to disrupt the filming of Cruising, and voyeuristic recordings of extras on the set, chatting, laughing, and dancing inside the leather bars by the waterfront like the Ramrod and the Eagle's Nest in which Friedkin filmed. Filming the action from outside the bar, peering in, Hubbard utilised the vantage point of cruising in this work. Moving between the club and the street, between inside and outside, setting up clear parallels between the multiple queer bodies congregating, fictionally, in the bars and the crowds of queer activists rallying against the film in the streets of the Village.
Two Marches (1991), shot on 16mm film, juxtaposes scenes recorded at two national marches on Washington D.C.: the first and second National Marches on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in 1979 and 1987. Hubbard's combination of footage, presented mostly in silence, makes clear the devastating and unanticipated changes that impacted queer communities in the US between the late 1970s and the late 1980s. Hubbard's earlier film Elegy in the Streets (1989), also shot in 16mm, takes a similar approach, bringing together intimate footage of Hubbard's former partner, the filmmaker Roger Jacoby, who died in 1985, and documentations of public demonstrations by ACT UP and the public unfurling of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt in 1987.
The event concluded with an excerpt from the documentary film Speak for Yourself (1990), in which the AIDS activists and ACT UP members Sarah Schulman and Maxine Wolfe shared their thoughts on the challenges facing activists as they seek to establish solidarity between the diverse communities affected by AIDS. This rarely screened footage provided a fascinating counterpoint to Hubbard and Schulman's work with the ACT UP Oral History Project and the interviews which appear in Hubbard and Schulman's film United in Anger: A History of ACT UP.
In a generous discussion with the audience after the screening, Hubbard shared his thoughts on new challenges facing LGBTQ activists in the present and the relationship between recent activism for marriage equality and the historic examples of AIDS activism documented in his film work. He also spoke about the distinctions between his recent work as a documentary filmmaker and his longstanding investment in experimental filmmaking and his desire to make non-narrative films which explore the emotional and visual experience of personal connection, loss, social exclusion, and activist world making in the time of AIDS and earlier. This collaborative event provided the CRUSEV and EUROPACH teams with an opportunity to cruise the queer visual cultures of the 1970s through Hubbard's films, and trace the experience of activism, citizenship, and health from the 1970s to the present.
Text and Photographs by Fiona Anderson.


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The Rise and Fall
Sightings from The Catbird Seat
~ o ~
May 12, 2000
Summit Communications
Enters the Call Center Arena
By Rob Kay and Jeff Bloom, Pacific Business News
Over the past two years Tim Bajarin, one of the top analysts in Silicon Valley, has come to Hawaii advocating that our state focus on developing call centers as an industry. He understood that Hawaii may not have the infrastructure to support full bore Silicon Valley companies but we surely did have a chance to grow a call center sector which didn't demand the kind of high powered engineers that software companies or manufacturing facilities depend upon….
One of the most interesting companies to do so is Summit Communications, a 40-person operation that got its start at the Manoa Innovation Center but will soon move to a 4000 square foot office at 1132 Bishop Street. A telecommunications company, Summit originally based its business on setting up shared tenant services for office buildings and hotels. Shared tenant services become possible after the state deregulated the telecommunications industry. This allowed smaller telecom to provide and aggregate telephone services, Internet access, long distance calling and other traditional telecommunications services in large buildings.
Recently Summit has gotten into the call center business in a big way. Early this
year they won a bid to provide a call center that would field all calls for the Hawaii
Visitor's and Convention Bureau. The three year contract will be worth about
$400,000 a year to Summit and will entail hiring an additional 15 operators and
supervisory personnel. The jobs will pay anywhere from $10-13 per hour, which
translates as about $25,000 to $28,000 per year.
Oddly enough, currently the call center for the HVCB is located in Arizona. However, the powers that be decided it was time to inject a little more Aloha spirit into the tourism promotion business by utilizing local people and wisely decided to move the operation back to the Islands. Multi-lingual operators would be employed with fluency in German, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean and French. The new call center will be web-enabled and have the latest technologies in place such as "click to talk" capabilities. That means that a web surfer looking at the HVCB site need only click an icon to speak with an operator.
Summit Communications' General Manager, Chad Johnston, told us that the company is not a newcomer to call centers. "We've been providing telecommunications services to Physicians Exchange, a doctor's call center here in Honolulu since 1998," said Johnston, so we have experience supporting mission critical operations."…
Summit is proving something that we've believed in all along.
You don't need super high tech companies to build our economy and provide meaningful employment. By making our state more business and technology friendly we can grow or tattered economy. However, without prior deregulation of the state's telecommunications industry, Summit would never have had the opportunity to expand and eventually branch out into the call center arena.
The key in our estimation is for local companies to leverage available technologies and enter niches that the larger, stodgier companies would hesitate to attempt. This is exactly what Summit has done and we wish them the best of luck.
February 15, 2002
Summit Communications files bankruptcy
The local telecommunications company has debts
between $1 million and $10 million
By Lyn Danninger, Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Summit Communications, a local company that provides telecommunications services for clients including Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday.
Summit, founded in 1996, listed debts of between $1 million and $10 million, estimated assets of between $1 million and $10 million and between 50 and 99 creditors on its bankruptcy filing.
Telecommunications services provided by Summit include alternative local and long-distance telephone services to multi-tenant buildings and call center services.
Company president Grant Johnston said the company does not plan to lay off any of its 40 employees. Summit reduced its staff by about 20 percent in June 2000. Management and administration staff also took a 20 percent pay cut, he said.
"Now the plan is to get some temporary relief from creditors to re-group and get back on track," he said.
With approximately $3 million in annual revenues, Johnston said the company had been growing. But economic ups and downs in the telecom industry, the fallout from Sept. 11 and difficulty getting vendor financing hurt the company….
Summit's contract with the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau is worth between $30,000 and $50,000 per month, depending on the bureau's marketing activities and the volume of calls handled by Summit, said Barbara Okamoto, HVCB's vice president of customer trends and communications.
Okamoto said the Bureau plans to retain its contract with Summit.
"Summit has kept HVCB informed of their re-structuring plans," she said.
Okamoto said Summit assured the bureau that it intends to continue to provide uninterrupted service for HVCB's toll-free number as well as respond to visitor e-mail inquiries.
$ $ $
February 20, 2002
Local Telecom Reorganizing
Summit Communications files for Chapter 11
By Kelli Abe Trifonovitch
Summit Communications, Inc., a Hawaii-based telecommunications firm has filed for Chapter 11 protection and has named a president. The company provides local and long distance service to multi-tenant buildings and call center services. The state of Hawaii has highlighted Summit in the past as an example of a high technology company doing business in Hawaii.
Summit was co-founded in 1996 by former GTE Hawaiian Tel executive Harold Johnston, who still holds a major stake in the company. His son, Grant Johnston, has been named President. Grant joined Summit in 2001 as general manager of the call center operation.
Grant Johnston says Summit has had steady sales growth since it was founded. "Economic conditions within our industry as well as the events of September 11th negatively affected business, so the filing allows the company some breathing room," he said in a statement.
Johnston also said that they are in the process of contacting customers to discuss Summit's plans for continuing and expanding the business.
He said, "We are a Hawaii company and will be here for our customers for the long term since we value our reputations and understand our responsibilities."…
* * *
September 10, 2002
State, feds seek Summit trustee
The telecom firm owes more than $1 million
to the state and feds
By Tim Ruel, Honolulu Star-Bulletin
The fate of a million-dollar tax delinquency is coming to blows in the bankruptcy of telecommunications services firm Summit Communications Inc.
In the past several weeks, the U.S. Attorney's Office, the U.S. Trustee's Office and the state Department of Taxation have raised the heat in Summit's bankruptcy proceedings. They support the appointment of an outside trustee to manage and investigate the firm's finances.
Summit owes $528,603 to the state and $512,315 to the federal government for taxes, according to claims in Summit's Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy case.
In an early August court filing, attorneys for the U.S. government cited Summit's "gross mismanagement and incompetence" as a justification for the appointment of a trustee.
Summit opposes the appointment of a trustee and disputes the government's assertions. It says the appointment of a trustee will raise the expense of administering its bankruptcy case, a point the U.S. government concedes. Having a trustee at the helm would reduce confidence in the firm, potentially warding off customers, and make it harder for Summit to emerge from bankruptcy successfully, according to a filing by Summit's attorneys Steven Guttman and James Duca.
Summit is seeking an extension of time to submit its in-house plan for reorganization, which was due two months ago. The government says Summit shouldn't get an extension. A hearing on the disputes is scheduled for Monday before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Faris.
During a brief hearing yesterday, Summit and its creditors said they would meet outside court to talk things over. One of the potential topics was whether the government's desire to appoint a trustee would merit the potential loss of tax dollars, according to Carol Muranaka, special assistant U.S. attorney.
"We are in a bad place, I think, the state and United States," Muranaka said during yesterday's hearing.
Among the U.S. government's assertions:
>> Summit's current management is related to the management that led the firm to its tax situation. Shortly before Summit filed bankruptcy, Grant Johnston, the son of a Summit co-founder and owner, became president;
>> Summit has made a couple major revisions to its financial statements. As such, the firm's numbers are not reliable.
In response, Summit said the relationship between its management teams is not relevant. If there's a question of whether the relationship has interfered with efforts to fix Summit, "no such claim can factually be proven," the company said.
The company blames its erroneous financial statements on disarray in its finances at the time of filing bankruptcy. Since then, the company says it has hired an outside accountant.
In a March interview, Grant Johnston said Summit ran into major cash-flow problems that were more important at the time than paying taxes. According to Johnston, the firm discovered the tax problem after it changed management in 2001. Johnston could not be reached for further comment yesterday.
Unpaid taxes make up about one-third of Summit's $3 million total claims.
In a court filing, Summit noted it is current on its post-bankruptcy financial obligations, and it has made $38,223 in adequate protection payments to the federal government.
The state Tax Department, which has supported the federal government's case for appointing a trustee, has its own bone to pick with Summit. In a recent filing, the state claims Summit has been "tightfisted" with information, hindering a state audit.
Before filing bankruptcy in February, Summit hadn't filed general excise tax returns since 1997. Also, Summit has refused to file public service company returns, the state said.
There's a simple reason for that, Summit said: The firm is exempt from public service company taxes, and hasn't compiled the information needed to compute the tax liability.
The state says Summit has failed to show how it can increase growth to finance a viable reorganization plan. Summit says the state misread the firm's financial statements, and understated its June and July earnings.
The firm projects its operations will generate $15,000 each month to pay its tax obligation over several years. Summit provides long- and long-distance telephone services and call center services.
* * *
September 17, 2002
Bankrupt Summit gets outside auditor
The telecom firm makes a deal
to avoid an appointed trustee
By Tim Ruel, Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Bankrupt telecommunications services firm Summit Communications Inc. has agreed with state and federal government officials to appoint an independent accountant to audit the firm's financial records.
As part of the agreement, the U.S. Attorney's Office is holding off on its request for a court-appointed bankruptcy trustee to manage and investigate Summit's financial affairs.
Summit, which filed for Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy in February, will be allowed to continue running under its current management. Once the auditor's report is released, the firm will have 30 days to submit a plan of reorganization for approval by creditors and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Faris.
Summit must also reduce its annual payroll by $68,000, under the new agreement. The firm has 34 employees.
The government wants to examine management salaries to see if compensation fits the job descriptions, according to the agreement.
Summit owes more than $1 million, or about one-third of its total debt, in unpaid state and federal taxes.
In early August, the U.S. Attorney's Office asked the bankruptcy court to appoint a trustee to oversee Summit, alleging the firm had been mismanaged, a request that was supported by the state Department of Taxation and the U.S. Trustee's Office.
In response, Summit says it is recovering from financial disarray caused by outside accountants and bookkeepers.
"My understanding is they just simply didn't do a good job," said Grant Johnston, who became president of Summit when the firm filed for bankruptcy protection.
The sheer size of the tax delinquency caused the government to raise an eyebrow, Johnston said.
"I think the size of the tax debt, it was just natural for them to question how it happened," he said.
Since filing bankruptcy, the firm has submitted major revisions to its court-filed financial statements, a point seized upon by the government in asking for a trustee.
Summit has made no more accounting errors in recent months, Johnston said. In early August, around the time the government asked for a trustee, Summit retained a new outside accountant, Landis Char. Johnston said he sees the firm's accounting cleanup as a positive step toward its financial rehabilitation.
Summit's tax problem was caused when the firm ran into major cash-flow problems a few years ago, Johnston said. The firm, founded in 1996, had not yet turned a profit and faced going out of business if it didn't pay certain bills, Johnston said. If the company had closed, the government would not have received any tax payments, he added. New management came in and discovered the tax liability in 2001.
The government wants a financial review to see if it is feasible for Summit to reorganize its debt under the bankruptcy process, said James Duca, attorney for Summit.
Johnston said he is confident the company can emerge from bankruptcy successfully, and pay its debts. The firm has been profitable since June, and plans to set aside at least $15,000 each month to pay its tax debt over several years, Johnston said.
Summit provides local- and long-distance telephone services, and call center services. Since filing bankruptcy, the firm has not lost any customers, and has added six call-center customers, as well as 150 new phone lines on its share-tenant service.
An independent auditor for Summit has not been named yet.
* * *
January 6, 2003
Examiner critical of Summit's finances
The bankrupt telecom firm is a
"mini-Enron," says a bankruptcy trustee
By Tim Ruel, Honolulu Star-Bulletin
An examiner hired to look at the books of bankrupt telecommunications services firm Summit Communications Inc. says the firm's leaders have benefited to the financial detriment of creditors.
"It's sort of like a mini-Enron, or mini-WorldCom," said Mark Yee, who was hired to review Summit's financial condition.
Yee, a bankruptcy trustee, has filed a court report that says Grant Johnston and Harry Johnston received questionable payments from Summit and from a separate company owned by Grant Johnston that works closely with Summit.
Summit, which provides call-center and telephone services, filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors in February 2002. Summit owed more than $1 million in unpaid state and federal taxes, though the company said it has repaid one-fifth of what it owes to the Internal Revenue Service.
Grant Johnston is president of Summit. Harry Johnston is Grant's father and is a co-founder and principle shareholder of Summit.
Grant also owns a company, Summit Exchange Inc., which provides similar services as Summit Communications, and has its work done by the staff of Summit Communications, Yee's report said. Yee said the companies should be treated as one and the same. Grant Johnston disagreed.
Grant Johnston also took exception to having Summit Communications labeled a "mini-Enron."
"(Yee's) comment … confirms in my mind that he and others are on a fishing expedition," Grant Johnston said. "They're looking and fishing for wrongdoing."
The Johnstons say Yee's report is inaccurate and misleading, and said they will rebut any allegations of wrongdoing. The fundamental problem with the report, they said, is that they were not given a chance to clear things up before it was filed with the court.
When asked to respond to specific accusations within Yee's 17-page report, they repeatedly declined.
"There is available an explanation to every question that (Yee) may have come across," Grant Johnston said Friday. "Whether or not he chooses to believe our answers is up to him."
It may also be up to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Faris. Last year, the U.S. Attorney's Office, the state Department of Taxation and the U.S. Trustee's Office all backed the court appointment of a trustee to replace Summit's current management. Summit, in opposition, says the appointment of a trustee would only make it harder for the company to stay in business and pay off debts.
Yee's appointment was a temporary compromise between Summit and the government. His report supports the appointment of a trustee, as well as further investigation of the firm's finances. A lawyer for the U.S. government could not be reached for comment Friday.
In his report, Yee said Summit's latest financial statements to creditors are not to be believed, and that the company is not producing the profits that it claims. Plus, he describes Summit's past records as being in a mess that is so bad, he said, there is no point in trying to figure it out.
"To get those books in order is going to take a major undertaking," Yee said.
Summit has acknowledged in the past that it had major problems with record-keeping under previous management, though the Johnstons said the more recent financial statements are accurate.
Summit recently lost approximately 20 percent of its overall business from one of its bigger customers, Sandwich Isles Communications Inc. Summit had provided technical support for Sandwich Isles, which is building a $500 million communications system that would link all Department of Hawaiian Home Lands residents.
Grant Johnston said that loss will not hurt Summit's plans to reorganize its finances, stay in business and pay off its debts over time. Summit has pared down expenses and increased its call-center business and other revenues, he said.
Since filing for bankruptcy, Summit has reduced its work force to 28 employees from 40.
For more, GO TO > > > Act 221; Vultures of the Sandwich Isles; Woo vs. Harmon
* * *
January 13, 2003
U.S. Attorney renews call for
trustee at Summit
The bankrupt telecom firm says the move would hurt
the company by scaring off customers
By Tim Ruel
The U.S. Attorney's Office has renewed its call for a court-appointed trustee to replace the management of bankrupt telecommunications firm Summit Communications Inc.
The move follows the December filing of an examiner's report that said Summit's financial situation was worse than company leaders were saying.
A hearing on the appointment of a trustee is scheduled for Jan. 24 before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert J. Faris.
The examiner, bankruptcy trustee Mark Yee, supported an earlier motion by the government to appoint a trustee to investigate Summit's finances.
Yee would not be able to serve as a trustee in this case, since he served as examiner.
A trustee is needed, in part, to review and collect questionable payments that went to Harry Johnston, Summit's former president, and to Harry's son Grant Johnston, who is Summit's current president, Yee's report said.
The Johnstons say the report contains inaccuracies that could have been cleared up before the document was filed in court. Grant Johnston said Summit was given the 17-page report only hours before it was filed.
The Johnstons accused the government of going on a fishing expedition for wrongdoing after revelations about the firm's tax problem.
When Summit filed Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy in February 2002, it owed more than $1 million in unpaid taxes, penalties and interest, according to claims by the state and federal government. Summit has since paid one-fifth of its bill to the Internal Revenue Service, the company has said.
Summit plans to respond to and rebut the examiner's report at the upcoming hearing, Grant Johnston said Friday.
The company strongly objects to the examiner's recent public comparison of Summit's situation to that of Enron and WorldCom, describing it as "defamatory and damaging."
"His comments may have caused a substantial and irrevocable economic loss to Summit," Johnston said. Clients and vendors are showing concern, he said.
Even if Yee believed his comments to be accurate, "you don't say something like that until you have proven they are true," Johnston said.
The appointment of a trustee will only hurt Summit's financial condition, and its creditors, because it will ward off customers, Johnston said.
* * *
January 25, 2003
Court ousts Summit management
A trustee will reorganize the finances of the
Honolulu telecommunications firm
By Tim Ruel, Honolulu Star-Bulletin
A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge has ordered the management of Honolulu telecommunications firm Summit Communications Inc. to be replaced by an appointed trustee who will attempt to reorganize Summit's finances while it remains in bankruptcy.
In a hearing yesterday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Faris rejected an assertion by management that Summit's immediate ability to do business would suffer under a trustee. Faris said there were big risks in not appointing a trustee.
The decision brings to an end to a growing dispute between Summit's management, some of its shareholders and its largest creditors – the state of Hawaii and the U.S. government – over the appointment of a trustee.
The argument goes back to revelations that the company once owed more than $1 million in back taxes, including penalties and interest. Taxes receive a high priority for repayment in bankruptcy. Since Summit's assets would yield little in a liquidation, the only way to pay the taxes and other creditors is for the firm to stay in business.
The government has long sought the appointment of a trustee, alleging that Summit's management is made up of essentially the same people that led the company to such a major tax problem.
Summit, which provides call-center and telephone services, was founded in 1996 by Harry Johnston, a former executive of Hawaiian Telephone, and Richard Ichikawa, a former engineer of Hawaiian Telephone.
The firm's tax problems started in late 1997 and worsened over the next several years, though Summit's board of directors was not told about the tax liability until late 2001, according to sworn court declarations by Ichikawa and Alan Brown, who were board members at the time.
Harold Johnston resigned as president and was replaced by his son, Grant Johnston.
Ichikawa left Summit's board shortly before the company filed Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy a year ago, though Ichikawa still owns one-quarter of Summit. Ichikawa initially opposed the appointment of a trustee, because he was afraid the firm would be liquidated, but eventually changed his mind.
The government's call for a trustee was backed by an examiner's scathing report of Summit in December. The report said the company had kept poor track of its finances, even in bankruptcy and that several questionable thousand-dollar payments had been received by Grant and Harry Johnston, which should be investigated by a trustee.
Following disclosure of the examiner's report, Summit convened a board meeting and discussed several options, including liquidation, though that was ruled out, Grant Johnston said.
In a court document, Summit said the examiner, Mark Yee, focused on matters that happened before Harold Johnston stepped down, which provided an inaccurate picture of Summit's situation.
Summit said Yee's report was based on a superficial review of records, in which the company was not given a chance to give its side of the story. Summit later deposed Yee.
In court yesterday, Summit attorney Steven Guttman said there was no major problem with how Summit presented its finances after filing for bankruptcy.
Judge Faris noted that the examiner did his job as spelled out in an agreement last year between Summit and the government.
In court, Summit conceded that it needs investment badly to stay in business, but said it had found an investor who was willing to put in $500,000.
Judge Faris pointed out that $500,000 would not likely cover the outstanding amount of the tax claims.
After yesterday's court ruling against the company, Grant Johnston said, "Obviously we're disappointed because I felt that our argument was compelling."
The U.S. Trustee's Office will appoint a trustee to Summit shortly, after talking with all sides in the dispute.
For more, GO TO > > > Act 221
* * *
May 14, 2003
Summit loans questioned
Money loaned to the bankrupt firm's CEO resulted in improper payments, a new lawsuit contends
By Tim Ruel, Honolulu Star-Bulletin
A politically adept telecommunications company financed primarily by the federal government has several connections to troubled firm Summit Communications Inc., including a $456,793 loan that is being questioned by a bankruptcy trustee.
Sandwich Isles Communications Inc., headed by Al Hee, loaned the money in March 1998 to Summit through Summit's then-chief executive and part-owner, Harold C. Johnston, according to a lawsuit. In 2001, Harold Johnston received $8,400 in interest payments from Summit for the loan.
Harold Johnston denied loaning the money to Summit.
Summit filed Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy in February 2002, owing more than $1 million in federal and state taxes, including penalties and interest.
Because of revelations over Summit's tax problem, the company's management was removed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Now, the trustee in Summit's Chapter 11 bankruptcy case says Summit's dependency upon Sandwich Isles was not disclosed to the company's board of directors.
The trustee, Derek J. Sakaguchi, filed a lawsuit April 30 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court against Harold Johnston and his sons Grant Johnston and Chad C. Johnston, who were all officers of Summit.
The five-count suit said Harold Johnston misled some of Summit's directors, investors and creditors about the relationship with Sandwich Isles, which allowed the company to continue to operate under the status quo when it was in trouble.
The lawsuit also accuses the Johnstons of receiving excessive compensation and benefits.
Harold Johnston denied the allegations, and accused the trustee of throwing out "the kitchen sink" in hopes of recovering any funds in Summit's bankruptcy case.
Harold Johnston said the suit was based on erroneous information provided in part by a dissident Summit shareholder and company co-founder, Richard Ichikawa.
Hee, president of Sandwich Isles, and Harold Johnston confirmed that Sandwich Isles made a loan to Johnston. "Whatever happened between me and Sandwich Isles is a private and personal matter," Johnston said.
They declined to answer any questions about the loan, including its status or its purpose.
However, the lawsuit said: "A loan for $456,793 to SCI made in March of 1998 was shown on SCI's financial statements as a loan made by Harold Johnston. In fact the $456,793 was loaned and funded by Sandwich Isles."
The loan was secured by a pledge of Harold Johnston's stake in Summit, the lawsuit said. Harold Johnston owned 37.7 percent of Summit as of January 2003, while Ichikawa owned 25.1 percent.
The Johnstons battled with the federal and state government over various allegations after the company filed bankruptcy. An examiner appointed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court issued a blistering report last year that said questionable payments went to Johnston family members.
The Johnstons said the report was inaccurate. The lawsuit appears to delve beyond the examiner's report, although Harold Johnston took issue with the lawsuit as well.
Al Hee noted that Sandwich Isles has not been sued by the bankruptcy trustee.
"They can say whatever they want to say. Obviously, if we were germane to the filing … we would have been named in the filing," Hee said.
Sandwich Isles is working on a $500 million fiber-optic cable telecommunications system that would link all Department of Hawaiian Home Lands residents who lack telephone service. Of that, $400 million will be paid through a loan from the U.S. Agriculture Department's Rural Utilities Service, which will be almost entirely repaid by the Federal Communications Commission.
The federal funds are meant to pay solely for the construction of the telecommunications network, a Sandwich Isles spokeswoman said.
Al Hee is brother to former Office of Hawaiian Affairs Chairman Clayton Hee.
Robert Kihune, trustee of the Kamehameha Schools, is chief executive of Sandwich Isles.
Al Hee said the loan to Johnston did not involve any federal funds.
Claiborn Crain, spokesman for the Rural Utilities Services in Washington, D.C., said yesterday he was not aware of any problems with the Sandwich Isles' federal loan.
Sandwich Isles has another connection to Summit Communications. Summit, founded in 1996, began providing technical services to Sandwich Isles around April 1998, the lawsuit said. That was around the same time that Sandwich Isles loaned the money to Johnston.
Also around that time, Johnston stopped spending time with Summit and became general manager for Sandwich Isles.
Sandwich Isles soon provided nearly half of Summit's total annual revenue through the technical services arrangement, nearly $1 million a year, the lawsuit said.
But the money began decreasing "dramatically" in the fall of 2001, a few months before Summit filed for Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy, the lawsuit said.
Summit has other sources of revenue. Another large source was a contract to provide call-center services to the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau, starting in May 2000, which brought $30,000 to $50,000 in revenue for Summit each month. The bureau said it is negotiating a new contract with Summit.
Clearly, the loss of income from Sandwich Isles was a blow to Summit. The contract expired in December 2002, according to previous statements by Summit.
When asked why Sandwich Isles cut back on its business with Summit, Hee said the decision was handled by his operations people. Hee declined to give their names.
After Harold Johnston began working for Sandwich Isles, Chad Johnston became responsible for day-to-day operations at Summit.
During this time, the company expanded too quickly, misused corporate funds, failed to pay bills and didn't keep the board informed, the lawsuit said.
In a letter to Summit shareholders, Harold Johnston said he was not aware until January 2001 that Summit was not paying its taxes.
Harold Johnston said an outside accountant had been handling those affairs, and was terminated. He declined to name the accountant.
The court-appointed examiner has described Summit's pre-bankruptcy books as worthless.
Today, Summit continues to operate as a company while in bankruptcy, and has about 23 employees. Summit provides local and long-distance telephone services as well as call-center services.
"We will have our day in court and the truth will come out," Harold Johnston said.
Johnston said he accepts some responsibility for Summit's financial problems, but he did not commit fraud or other misdeeds.
The lawsuit seeks repayment of the $8,400 in interest that Harold Johnston allegedly pocketed from the loan to Summit, as well as repayment of a $50,245 loan Summit allegedly made to Harold Johnston. The lawsuit also seeks actual damages and punitive damages.
For more, GO TO > > > Act 221; Vultures of the Sandwich Isles; Woo vs. Harmon
$ $ $
July 9, 2003
Audit spurs criminal probe
The Attorney General's Office is investigating issues raised at the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau
By Tim Ruel, Honolulu Star-Bulletin
The state Attorney General's Office has opened a criminal review into points raised by the critical audit of the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau.
The criminal justice unit of the Attorney General's Office is looking into the matter, said Linden Joesting, a deputy attorney general. Joesting declined to say what aspects of the audit are being probed, because it's an internal matter.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority asked the Attorney General's Office to review findings of the state audit, which was released last week. The audit faulted the authority for lax oversight of the bureau's $151.7 million in state contracts to market Hawaii to travelers. The authority was created in 1998 to contract with the Hawaii visitors bureau, a private agency funded mainly by taxpayer dollars.
On Thursday, bureau officials admitted the organization had done some things wrong, none intentionally. Tony Vericella, president and chief executive of the visitors bureau, said he had paid back $670 in state-funded personal expenses, and apologized.
The bureau said it never should have paid invoices forwarded by Joe Blanco, Gov. Ben Cayetano's tech czar, which bureau Chairman Tony Guerrero described as "wrong, wrong, wrong." The audit questioned the arrangement as a way of evading the state procurement code. Blanco denies the accusation.
The bureau will no longer allow Japan Airlines to pay for the benefits of bureau Vice President Kiyoshi Mukumoto, which the audit said carried the appearance of a conflict of interest.
And the bureau said that, if it could do things over again, it would have put a Taiwan promotional contract out to bid, rather than awarding it to a company run by Wei-Wei Ojiri, who was a bureau vice president at the time. The bureau said Ojiri had technically resigned before the contract was awarded to her company.
Guerrero could not be reached for comment yesterday….
# # #
Act 221
Aloha, Harken Energy!
Apollo Advisors
Arbitrate This!
A Connecticut Yankee in King Kamehameha's Court
The Bankruptcy Buzzards
Birds that Drink from Cesspools
The Blackstone Group
Broken Trust
Buzzards of Paradise
Claims By Harmon
Dirty Money, Dirty Politics & Bishop Estate
Flying High In Hawaii
Global Crossing
Investigating Investcorp
Pointing the Finger at WorldPoint
Predators in Paradise
RICO in Paradise
The Indonesian Connection
The Morgan, Lewis & Bockius Report
The Sinking of the Ehime Maru
Tracking The Murdoch Flock
Vampires on Gilligan's Island
Woo vs. Harmon
Yakuza Doodle Dandies
~ o ~
~ o ~
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Last update June 14, 2006, by The Catbird Seat.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
I once wrote a post about the weirdest tourist attractions in Europe. Admittedly, I have a taste for those out-of-line sites. Everywhere I go I try to visits those spots away from the public eye, the obscure and bizarre locations that in my view convene the best "feel" of a place, much better than the well-known, well-tramped tourist traps. As of recently, I am greatly assisted in my quest for the strangest places by Spotted By Locals, a website I contribute to myself, writing about my favourite spots in Rotterdam. On my recent trip to Vienna, thanks to Spotted By Locals, I was able to bag not one, but two quite absurd sites into my collection of "Europe's weirdest".
I was in town for a conference, the 2014 EGU meeting to be specific, and since I can't spend 5 days straight in dark, hot classrooms, especially when its 25 C outside, I took time off to explore Vienna. Honestly, I wasn't expecting much. I mean, what's up with Vienna? On the surface, its a big city, a major European capital with a lot of history and it is supposed to have all it takes to be a coveted destination. But Vienna just doesn't arouse, fails to excite. You rarely come across bloggers putting Vienna on their must-go list, do you? It has a reason – while Paris is "city of love", Amsterdam the "city of sin", Berlin has the whole anarchist vibe going on and London is… well, just London, but what is Vienna? The "city of opera"? Not really the crowd magnet, isn't it? Actually, Vienna does attract a lot of tourists, but its mostly middle-aged Americans doing fiaker tours and looking utterly ridiculous while at it. Not the backpacker city by any rate.
As I was about to discover, underneath the classy polish, Vienna does have a lot to offer, but its charms are to be found outside the city centre, which is crowded with Russian tourists and impossibly expensive souvenir stores. After an early morning session at the EGU, I took the subway to town for a brief escape to the courtyards of the university. The shaded patios were an excellent shelter from the passionately bright sun and a welcome opportunity to stretch one's legs. But the best thing was that turning around the corner I bumped into the Narrenturm. Better still – I happened to be there on Wednesday, during its very limited opening hours!
Built in 1784, the Narrenturm is the first psychiatric hospital in the world. Inside is a museum, dedicated to medical pathologies and its as creepy as can be. The collection is full of the disgusting, the abnormal, the obnoxious cases of everything that can go wrong with a human body. Staffed by medicine students in once-white robes, the completely outdated setup and dusty exhibition are absolutely perfect and I hope they won't change a thing. Its like walking into a freak-show. The museum-shop sells appropriate souvenirs. I stopped short of getting my daughter a cuddly syphilis doll – I got the amoeba instead.
The next day was a bit cooler and with a slight breeze – ideal for cycling! I rented a bicycle via Vienna's Citybike scheme and off I was. I had just the right destination reserved for this day – Friedhof der Namenlosen. At this cheery spot the nameless dead people who drowned in the Danube were buried for a 100 years. Since it's located in an industrial area on the outskirts of Vienna, I expected to find a desolated, deserted spot, and I was absolutely wrong. Of course, first I had to get there. The route was a classic example of the road being at least as important as the goal but I'll let the photo's speak for themselves.
When I finally reached the day's destination, to my big surprise I found a guesthouse annex cafe, named after the Friedhof der Namenlosen, and it was quite busy. I completely forgot that it was the 1st of May, which is a big holiday in Austria (and is completely ignored in the Netherlands), so Tout-Vienna was out there, recreating. In fact, having seen the masses everywhere else later that day, I think the Friedhof was probably the most subdued place in all the city after all. The place itself is not what you'd call "spectacular", and most graves actually have names on them (I guess the victims were identified afterwards). But if you're in Vienna and looking for a different kind of connection to the city's history, visiting this site is a unique experience.
So I did enjoy Vienna after all. Perhaps it just needs a bit of an effort and some time to adjust to the leisurely style and pace of the city. And of course being blessed with wonderful spring weather and great insider tips helps a lot, too. I guess what I'm trying to say is – when travelling, take the time, and appreciate good advice. But mostly – don't be afraid to step off the beaten path.


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Versatile angle square for quick, accurate measurements
Designed to make easy rafter pitch or slope calculations, this handy angle square is also suitable for use as a protractor, combination square and depth adjustment on table saws. The square tool is marked with inches and degrees with cast markings that won't rub off. Easy to read and easy to use.


text:
Episodes from serial killer
By Sacolour (non-member)
See how long you can go playing as a mentally disturbed ruthless old maniac? He just had escaped mental asylum. Cross all the limts in the missions. Try it, you will never get this out of your mind.
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TrailersNo trailers yet, be the first to create one this missionLog in to propose your own trailer
Added by BlackMafia on Nov 10 2017, 11:13
Any skins, mods, or addons we should download for this?
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text:
While the recent news of Armored Core's December Japanese release was somewhat disappointing, Bandai Namco has stepped in to give the PS3's launch a mech game of a different flavor. The company announced today that Mobile Suit Gundam: Target in Sight will see Japanese release on 11/11, simultaneous with the PS3 hardware. This makes the Bandai Namco title the first confirmed PS3 launch game.
In America, where the game is known as Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire, a specific release date has yet to be given but Namco Bandai has confirmed it for 2006 -- keeping in the PS3 launch window.
Resistance, Motorstorm and Fatal Inertia, and even sonic and RR7, heck most of the launch is fantastic, get the first 3 and you'll be fine but you wouldn't go wrong getting the other games either
but EU is still out of the launch............and that kinda sucks for those ppl who want it this YEAR!


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The objective of DETA Research is to promote student access and success through evidence-based online learning practices and learning technologies. Specifically, DETA identifies and evaluates instructional and institutional practices in blended and online learning, including competency-based education, with particular interest in underrepresented individuals (i.e., pell grant eligible, first generation, minorities, and students with disabilities) through rigorous research. In doing so, the members of the DETA Research Center Community have crafted a series of databases and toolkits to help educators in their research endeavors. Learn more about each resource below.
The DETA Research Toolkit serves to guide research conducted across institutions and disciplines, including both experimental and survey studies.
The database of research annotations is a curated collection of empirical research on effective practices within digital education.
This collection houses a series of publications that evaluate and curate perceptions and findings from the field.
This collection of position papers synthesizes cross-institutional research into executive summaries.
This database is a repository of comparative media studies in education research based on the book by Thomas L. Russell of the same name.
This is a collection of our presentations on the work coming out of the DETA Research Center Community.


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Ice Cream Theme!Book List
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases
Songs & Fingerplays
Ice Cream Colors
We have ice cream, the best in town,
Let us begin with chocolate brown.
Now, let us scoop us some bubble-gum pink,
It is sweet and yummy, the best, some think.
Here is ice cream minty and green,
It is the creamiest I have ever seen.
Yellow ice cream is lemony and tart,
We like its taste from the very start.
Scoops of blueberry would make my day,
Look at all this ice cream, hip, hip hurray!
Red ice cream is a strawberry delight,
All these scoops are a heavenly sight.
Vanilla white is a popular flavor,
It tastes very good to an ice-cream craver.
Purple ice cream really gives me a kick,
Good and yummy till the very last lick.
Ice cream, ice cream, what a cool sensation,
We love ice cream in any combination!
(This could also be made into a flannel board story.)
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
Chocolate Ice Cream Cone
My mama said if I'd be good,
She'd send me to the store
She said she'd bake some Gingerbread
If I would sweep the floor.
She said if I would make the bed
And watch the telephone
That she would send me out to get
A chocolate ice cream cone.
And so I did the things she said
And then she made some Gingerbread
Then I went out, just me alone
And got my chocolate ice cream cone.
While coming back I stubbed my toe
Upon a big old stone
Now need I tell you that I dropped
My chocolate ice cream cone.
A little puppy came along
And he took a great big lick
And so I hit that mean old dog
With just a little stick.
Then he bit me where I sit down
And he chased me all over town
So, now I'm lost, I can't find my home
And all because of that chocolate ice cream cone
And all because of that chocolate,
Chocolate ice cream cone.
~Kenny Roberts
Poem - make flannelboard pieces for this
First we need a cone, (brown triangular felt ice cream cone shape)
Nice and crunchy.
Then we need some ice cream,
Sweet and yummy,
Scoop 'em on; stack 'em on'
Up to the sky.
We love ice cream; my, oh my!
First comes vanilla,
Cold and sweet. (white felt ice cream scoop)
Then comes chocolate (brown scoop)
A delicious treat.
Here's some strawberry; (red/pink scoop)
Orange sherbet, too, (orange scoop)
A super-duper scooper cone
Just for you!
One scoop, two scoops,
Three scoops, four.
We love ice cream
Let's have some more!
Also have available a blue scoop (blueberry), yellow scoop (lemon sherbet), etc....and change the words of the poem.
~Carrie Lacher
Traditional Poem
I scream!
You scream!
We all scream for
"Eighteen Flavors"
Eighteen luscious, scrumptious flavors
Chocolate, lime and cherry,
Coffee, pumpkin, fudge banana
Caramel cream and boysenberry.
Rocky road and toasted almond,
Butterscotch, vanilla dip,
Butter brickle, apple ripple,
Coconut and espresso chip,
Brandy peach and lemon custard,
Each scoop lovely, smooth and round,
Tallest ice-cream cone in town,
Lying there (sniff) on the ground.
~By Shel Silverstein
Ice Cream Cone Flannel Board Rhyme
Make felt ice cream cones (I made mine with strawberry tops). Place them on the board as you say the rhyme.
Five little ice cream cones so good to eat.
The first one said I'm a summertime treat.
The second one said it's such a hot day
The third one said I'm melting away.
The fourth one said, don't lose your top.
The fifth one said, oh dear, ker-plop! (Place the last cone upside down.)
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
Arts & Crafts
Ice Cream Cone - triple scoop
Make an ice cream cone with a child's handprint. Have the child trace/cut his/her handprint out on three piecess of paper --depending on what flavor of ice cream he/she likes. Then he/she can glue these overlapping and upside down on to a brown ice cream cone-shaped pattern. Make a cone by making a long triangle and rounding the bottom point.
~Submitted by Cheryl's Sweethearts ChildCare
Go to Page 2 of Ice Cream ThemeWhere would you like to go now?
Graphics on this page by....
graphic site closedCopyright 2004 - 2020 * Jana's Web Design * All Rights Reserved


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1. Texas
The defending champs will have one of the nation's best defenses again, and perhaps its best secondary. Garrett Gilbert spent the spring validating his performance in the national title game, showing some of his near-limitless potential. The Longhorns won't be easy to unseat in 2010, especially if they finally discover a running game.
2. Oklahoma
Here's why the Sooners are here: The gap between Oklahoma's offense and Nebraska's offense is wider than the one between the Sooners' defense and the Huskers' defense. If Oklahoma's offensive line can show improvement next season, the Sooners won't have trouble scoring with the amount of talent they have at the skill positions, talent that's much better than Nebraska's.
3. Nebraska
The Huskers get Missouri and Texas in Lincoln and don't see the Sooners, which has Big Red looking for a big season, but don't count on another 10-win season if the offense doesn't improve. The offense previewed its fall reopening in the 33-0 bowl win over Arizona, but if the quarterback play isn't solid, the reopening could be a bad thing. With what could be the best defense in football again, and two solid backs in Roy Helu Jr. and Rex Burkhead, the Huskers' floor is pretty high and the ceiling is even higher.
4. Missouri
Home losses to Nebraska and Baylor ended any chance the Tigers had of winning the North in 2009, but they bring back a lot from last year's eight-win team and have a lot of experienced talent at linebacker and receiver ready to replace the big names -- Sean Weatherspoon and Danario Alexander -- they lost from last year's team. Blaine Gabbert has to show he's ready to become a household name, and if he does, the Tigers could make a serious run at the North.
5. Texas A&M
The Aggies kept almost the entire core from last year's team, but remember, A&M still only won six games last season. It'll be replacing three offensive linemen who could stop the Aggies' skill position players -- cumulatively the best in the conference -- from being as productive as they could be. One of those replacements should be true freshman Luke Joeckel, but if the defense improves and the line re-establishes itself, the Aggies are South contenders. If not, they won't be much better than a seven-win team.
6. Kansas State
The Wildcats aren't built to win 10 games just yet, but if Nebraska and Missouri stumble, they'll be there to slip into the North conversation just like last season, when they were one upset win over the Huskers from a trip to Arlington. Carson Coffman took hold of the starting quarterback job in the spring, but he'll need to keep it in the fall and be productive with his three new receivers to lighten the load on running back Daniel Thomas. If that happens, there'll be more happy Saturdays than sad ones in Aggieville.
7. Texas Tech
Injuries kept the Sticks vs. Potts debate from really heating up this spring, but the switch to a higher risk/reward strategy with an aggressive defense could be fun to watch next season. The Red Raiders are deep at running back and receiver, but look for the former to get more touches this fall than they have in over a decade.
8. Oklahoma State
The Cowboys grabbed hold of Dana Holgorsen's offense this spring, and Brandon Weeden grabbed hold of the starting role. Oklahoma State should have an impact player at each level of the defense in defensive end Ugo Chinasa, safety Markelle Martin and linebacker Orie Lemon, but they'll need the rest of the D to solidify for the Cowboys to climb to a higher rung of the South ladder.
9. Iowa State
Iowa State is getting better, but the tough schedule and young defense will make it difficult for the Cyclones to improve on their 7-6 record in 2009. Five linebackers from last year's team graduated, and the three likely starters this year, sophomore A.J. Klein, Jake Knott and juco transfer Matt Tau'fo'ou have a combined 41 career tackles. Iowa State is solid in the secondary, but with the amount of quality running backs in the North, a good defense up front is more important. It's also replacing two starters on the defensive line.
10. Baylor
A bowl game isn't out of reach for the Bears, but they'll have to prove something before they move out of the South's cellar. Robert Griffin gives Waco hope, but the other 21 guys have to provide substance for Baylor to succeed. Replacing two safeties, two linebackers who combined for 190 tackles last season and an offensive line shift to replace All-American center J.D. Walton could make Baylor's early road a bumpy one.
11. Kansas
Kansas will be short on talent this year, but expectations are measured after losing plenty on both sides of the ball. The Jayhawks are a team that could get a lot better as the season progresses, but when it starts, they'll have a lot of work to do. They'll be competitive in the bottom half of the North, but slipping past rival Kansas State to finish in the top half of the division is about as good as it could get for the Jayhawks in Turner Gill's first season. Not having Texas or Oklahoma on the schedule could help make that happen.
12. Colorado
Transfer Toney Clemons infuses some excitement into the Colorado faithful, and alongside Markques Simas and leading receiver Scotty McKnight, the Buffaloes could have one of the more underrated receiving corps in the conference, helping loosen things up for Rodney Stewart. But the defense gave up the second-most points in the conference last season, and there's little reason to think they'll be a lot better in 2010. Scoring 22 points a game and allowing just under 29 is the opposite of a recipe for success.


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Ball State gets 10 complaints about alum Papa John
MUNCIE, Ind. — Marlo David accompanied her son to freshman orientation at Ball State University this month.
John Schnatter's name and face, she says, were touted to the incoming students and their parents as a "notable" BSU graduate.
"Imagine my disappointment," David later wrote to BSU officials, "to leave my son's exciting freshman orientation on July 9-10 to read of Schnatter's comments on July 11."
David happens to be black, a scholar of African American culture, an associate professor and director of the African American Studies and Research Center at Purdue University.
She is one of 10 people who, in strongly worded messages sent to Ball State, have condemned Schnatter's use of the n-word on a conference call with a marketing agency during a media-training exercise in May.
The detractors are urging Ball State to strip Schnatter, founder of the Papa John's pizza empire, of his honorary doctorate of laws awarded by Ball State in 2015; to remove his name from the John H. Schnatter Institute for Entrepreneurship and Free Enterprise, and to stop using its celebrity alumnus in marketing materials. He earned a bachelor's in business administration in 1983.
The Star Press obtained the 10 complaints through an Access to Public Records Request from the university, whose campus remains relatively quiet and empty until the start of fall semester in mid-August.
After saying it would be "premature for us to comment or act on" the Schnatter controversy on July 12, Ball State on July 18 said it was "well aware of concerns that have been expressed by some people" and was "thoughtfully and carefully considering the most appropriate response." Nothing has changed since then.
David found Ball State's "celebration" of Schnatter during orientation "problematic, because Schnatter's attitudes about race — his open disdain for President Obama and antagonism toward black NFL players protesting racial injustice — have been well-documented," she wrote.
She told The Star Press she does not represent Purdue on this matter in any way, and her concerns are those of a parent.
"Sadly," her employer, Purdue, which also has a Schnatter center, "has been silent on this matter as well," wrote David, who says BSU and Purdue are sending a message that "the state of Indiana is not hospitable toward diversity."
"Continuing to embrace him will send a message to students, parents, faculty and staff of color that they are not welcome," she went on. "Your silence sends the message to white students that there are no consequences for racially insensitive public actions."
►Ball State: 'premature to act or comment'
►John Schnatter Distinguished Prof addresses racial slur
Other complaints received so far:
• James Rooney asked Ball State to stop sending him the alumni magazine. "This man is no role model no matter how much money he gives the school." He cited Schnatter's "bad business practices and ethics."
• Dan Edwards, a 2015 BSU graduate, was "very troubled by the university's hollow response" to the "racist remarks … I'm seeking further explanation as to why condemning this is 'premature.' " Edwards calls for an apology to students of color, "who, honestly, deserve better leadership from the university."
• "We have been involved with the university for many, many years," wrote George Bull, "and appreciate what it has done for the community and the state. Unfortunately, I will no longer be able to donate to Ball State in any way, until the university makes a public denunciation of the recent verbal statements of John Schnatter, and removes his name from any public display. We find inclusion of his name an affront to the mission and students of Ball State."
• BSU journalism/political science graduate Bob Vitale, editor of an Ohio LGBTQ lifestyle publication called Prizm, wrote that keeping Schnatter's name associated with the university "would be a terrible stain on Ball State's reputation." He urged the university not to allow "the disgusting actions of a man whose bigotry has now destroyed his own legacy" to "damage the good name of Ball State."
• Another graduate of Ball State terminated his annual donation to the university to fund a scholarship. The alumnus, who asked The Star Press not to identify him due to his career, wrote of Schnatter, "He's out of his own company, off the board at Louisville and they've removed his name from a stadium. It doesn't appear it's been premature for anyone else."
• Two others who couldn't be reached for comment wrote that Schnatter's behavior was "unbecoming" and "embarrassing" to the university (class of 2009); "your silence speaks louder than any canned statement ever could," "the easy way out takes no courage whatsoever;" and "suddenly, 'We Fly' are just words and have no true meaning" (class of 2002).
• Seth Kahn, an English professor at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, who has friends who teach at BSU, urged the university to "be courageous because of what you know, and tell Schnatter to take his bigotry and his checkbook elsewhere."
Schnatter joined the Charles Koch Foundation in 2016 to donate $3,250,000 to Ball State for the creation of the John H. Schantter Institute for Entrepreneurship and Free Enterprise.
Schnatter denies being a racist. In a letter discussing the conference call, he wrote:
"I then said something on the order of, Colonel Sanders used the word' 'N,' (I actually used the word,) that I would never use that word and Papa John's doesn't use that word.
"Let me be very clear: I never used the 'N' word in that meeting as a racial epithet, nor would I ever."
Contact Seth Slabaugh at (765) 213-5834 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
President Richard L. McCormick
Friday, September 24, 2010
Jump to key topics and initiatives
Our Rutgers | Our Budget Challenges | Our Responses | Our Future | Our Campaign
Thank you, Professor Panayotatos, and good afternoon to everyone. We meet today at a time of unprecedented challenges and opportunities for Rutgers. In this, my 8th annual address, I will offer my perspective on these realities and, I hope, chart a pathway ahead for our university.
With us today are several dozen members of our boards of governors, trustees, and overseers; alumni leaders; representatives of the Parents Association; and, above all, Rutgers students, faculty, and staff. Thank you for your presence this afternoon and for all you do for Rutgers.
May I say especially to my faculty and staff colleagues: Thank you for carrying on so well the work that is responsible for the achievements and successes of which Rutgers is so proud. Thank you for your shared sacrifices in the interest of protecting our university. Rutgers is Rutgers because of you, and it will fulfill its goals and solve its problems because of you.
To everyone who is present, may I say this: Rutgers has become one of the best public research universities in the world, and it will remain so by meeting the challenges we face. But attaining our bold ambitions for Rutgers and responding effectively to the compelling issues before us will require difficult strategic choices and carefully chosen directions—both now and for the years ahead. I take seriously my responsibility as president to articulate these choices and directions, but they are not mine alone. They have been gleaned over time, through myriad experiences at Rutgers and, above all, by listening to you.
Over the course of the past academic year, as I promised I would on this occasion last September, I visited with faculty and staff in every school and college on our three campuses and listened closely as they shared their plans, their opportunities, and the hard decisions they are facing. The most common feature of those 20 meetings was the inspiring expression of academic goals. These included new programs in education, up-to-date and technologically advanced modes of instruction, innovative ways of assessing student learning, and outreach to men and women whom we were not previously teaching. At these same meetings I also heard about our university's signature mission of research: in fields where Rutgers has opportunities and comparative advantages, where the 21st century world has needs, where our students have interests, and where resources are available. Faculty and staff also told me about their own and their students' application of knowledge in real-world circumstances: through legal clinics and health-care clinics in Camden and Newark, within the schools of New Brunswick, on farms across New Jersey, and in private-sector and nonprofit institutions around our state and beyond.
As I tried to pull together what I had heard from our colleagues, it added up to a portrait of a remarkably ambitious and already successful institution. So much of what we see at Rutgers today bears out what I heard in those meetings. Rutgers has its all-time largest enrollment on all three campuses, with more out-of-state and international students than ever, more diversity, and more students with very high academic achievements. There are Signature Courses in the School of Arts and Sciences and Byrne Family First-year Seminars enrolling fully half of our New Brunswick freshmen; new undergraduate curricula in Newark and New Brunswick; expanded opportunities on each campus for students to engage in research; more off-campus and online courses and programs than ever; and in Camden two strategically selected new doctoral programs, one in computational and integrative biology and the other in public affairs.
Last week we received fresh evidence of our success in educating students for lives of achievement. The Wall Street Journal surveyed nearly 500 corporate recruiters to ask their preferences for hiring college graduates. They ranked Rutgers 21st among all universities in the nation. The great majority of the top 25 were drawn from among the country's leading public research universities, because those institutions are perceived to prepare students well for work and leadership in today's economy. This is exactly the group of universities in which Rutgers always wants to find itself.
In research, last year our faculty won more than $430 million in new support for their investigations, most of it from the federal government. This is an increase from $390 million the previous year, which was, in turn, an even bigger jump from the year before that. Rutgers has identified, and successfully targeted for support, areas of research where we can make a difference to something important—highway safety, childhood nutrition, wireless technology, urban entrepreneurship, alternative energy, and many more. The faculty and staff with whom I met last year were justifiably proud of their initiatives in research and of the practical uses to which their new knowledge was being put. Rutgers faculty in the arts and humanities expressed equal pride, and rightly so, in creations and discoveries that increase the store of human art and wisdom.
But these points of pride were not the only things I heard about in my meetings with faculty and staff in every school. I also heard about the severe shortage of resources, the loss of valuable staff, the outstanding graduate students for whom there was inadequate support, the inability to make many of the faculty and TA appointments that were needed, and the shortage of well-equipped classrooms and laboratories. These observations were valid and, if anything, they are even truer today than they were a year ago.
What are the causes of these problems? How has the university responded to them? And, most important, how will we solve these problems for the future? The remainder of my remarks today will be entirely devoted to answering these questions.
The most significant cause of the budget problems is the two-decades-long decline of government support for public higher education in America. President Obama recently declared that "education is the economic issue of our time." It is sobering, then, that the United States, which once led the world in the percentage of adults with college degrees, now ranks 12th out of 36 developed nations in this category. State after state—even California, which is synonymous with public support for higher education—has been dramatically reducing funding for colleges and universities. New Jersey's track record may be worse than most, but it is far from alone.
What a historic change this is from the decades between World War II and the 1980s, when my parents' generation of Americans made continuous new commitments to higher education through government at every level. Those commitments were based on the belief that the whole society benefited when growing numbers of men and women had access to college and when universities were entrusted to address boldly the most important challenges facing humankind. And what world-historic changes those investments in American higher education brought about: vast increases in the numbers and diversity of college students; the invention of whole new institutions like community colleges; and, through university-based research, the elevation of the American economy to international preeminence and the solutions to problems ranging from human health to the preservation of our environment.
Now the theory is that a college education benefits only the person who receives it, and he or she should pay the cost. What a change in the social contract between government and public higher education, between government and the people. And while states across America are spending ever less on colleges and universities, other countries around the world are committing more resources to higher education and university research.
How much has Rutgers been affected by this American trend away from government investments, and especially state investments, in higher education? It has been affected a lot. This year Rutgers' operating aid from the State of New Jersey—which has been declining for many years—has now fallen back to the actual dollar level of 1994, when Rutgers had 10,000 fewer students and when the dollar was worth much more than it is today. The most recent state budget cuts for Rutgers include a midyear rescission of $18.5 million last spring, followed by a $46 million reduction for the current year. And, unlike last year, there are no federal stimulus dollars to soften the blow.
The reductions in our budget have been caused not only by the long-term pattern of disinvestment in higher education, but by other developments as well. Most recent and most important is the severe and relentlessly continuing economic downturn, which has dramatically decreased the revenues received by the state. Not just higher education, but practically everything government does, has seen reductions, and not just in New Jersey but across the country.
Other long-term causes of our budgetary condition include the ever-increasing burden of governmental regulations, reporting requirements, and unfunded mandates. In many instances, these demands have led to good educational outcomes and to necessary forms of accountability, but they are expensive and time-consuming, and they diminish the resources directly available to our academic programs. Yet another cause of our budget problems is the inexorable competitive pressure from some of the very best, and best-financed, private colleges and universities. We go head-to-head with them for top students and faculty, and their ability to make generous investments in their programs has driven up the costs that Rutgers must pay.
The budget reductions caused by all these trends have severely affected every department, school, and unit at Rutgers—with impacts that are similar to those I heard about in my visits to the schools and colleges last year, only now they are worse. Even with the tuition cap imposed by the state, moreover, many of our students and their families are struggling to pay their bills. Those receiving Tuition Aid Grants are getting less than they expected because the demand for this assistance has been so high across the state. So far, Rutgers has maintained the economic as well as ethnic diversity of its student body, but we must be concerned about how to remain accessible to students from low-income families and from families who are suffering in this recession.
So that's my brief summary of the budget problems. What is Rutgers doing about them now, and what will we do going forward?
Most onerously, as each of you knows, the university has taken the drastic step of imposing a salary freeze for faculty and staff. Withholding salary increases, while permitted by our contracts, is a significant burden for all our employees, especially for those who are at the lower ranges of pay, those who may have a partner who lost a job, those who were counting on a salary increase to help pay for a child's college education or for the mortgage on a house. Like you, I personally know Rutgers employees who are experiencing each of these painful problems, and sometimes several at once. They are very worried and very hurt.
But the alternatives are even worse. In Illinois, university employees were compelled to take furlough days without pay this spring on top of a salary freeze. In Wisconsin, mandatory furloughs over a two-year period will result in annual pay cuts of more than 3%. In Maryland, university employees are in their third straight year of furloughs. In Louisiana, university faculty and staff are facing layoffs in a terrible employment market, where some will not be able to find new jobs.
Unfortunately Rutgers, too, will have some layoffs, but far fewer than if the university paid the salary increases. We did not make this decision lightly, and we do not wish for any employee to suffer economic hardship, but we believe shared sacrifice hews to the Rutgers spirit and is more humane than the alternatives we have before us.
The salary freeze is among several steps Rutgers is taking to respond to the current budget problems. We have continued to cut costs and to realize savings and efficiencies. We have grown our enrollments, and thereby increased tuition revenue, in selected fields and among targeted student populations. And we have made some carefully chosen investments that are paying dividends now and will pay more in the future. Let me briefly describe what we are doing in each of these areas and then turn our attention to the years ahead, because, in fact, each of the actions I have just mentioned is a critical component of Rutgers' plans for the future.
First, there are cost savings. Over the past two years, Rutgers has reduced its energy expenditures by approximately 5% despite adding almost 120,000 square feet of new space. We are anticipating additional energy savings of 7% this year, for an annual total savings of almost $5 million. Next month, the Office of Information Technology will begin phasing in a new internet-based phone system in New Brunswick, saving $1.4 million a year. Although Rutgers continues to invest in new faculty, as each dean knows, we have curtailed the number of faculty searches and have sought to incentivize faculty retirements. All across our campuses, there are additional examples of savings and cost efficiencies, and, I implore you, there need to be many more.
Second, as noted above, we have increased enrollment, especially in targeted fields such as business and engineering, where student demand is very great; on our Camden Campus whose master plan includes significant expansion to accommodate the growing college-bound population of South Jersey; and on all our campuses among out-of-state, international, and nontraditional students who add so much to our university. These enrollment increases have produced crowded conditions on the buses, in the residence halls, and in our classrooms, but they have also brought in badly needed new revenue. Again, as each dean knows, the budget cuts to our schools would have been much worse this year without the enrollment increases. At the same time, we know that we cannot enroll our way out of our budget problems.
Third, this year we have made selected strategic investments, despite our severe budgetary constraints, because these investments are essential to the future excellence of Rutgers and because, in many instances, they have, or soon will, increase our revenues. These investments include nearly 130 new faculty in fields from autism to municipal finance to high-energy physics; new or improved facilities like the Gateway building, now under construction at the New Brunswick end of College Avenue, which will house the Barnes & Noble Rutgers Bookstore; the proteomics building, which is rising on the Busch Campus; and the renovation of Olson Hall in Newark. The university has also made other notable investments this year, none more important than financial aid for students who need help paying their bills. If we were not making investments like these, Rutgers would be neither academically excellent nor fiscally sound in the years to come.
The steps we are now taking, and others like them, will serve Rutgers well in the future. We hold in our hands Rutgers' destiny as a university, and we bear responsibility for its future. The current situation is painful, but Rutgers—like other public research universities—is in a time of historic transition. We can and will move successfully through the transition into a new era of even greater achievement, but doing so will require sacrifice and will demand decisions that are not always easy or popular.
For the future, our decisions should be marked by three qualities that I have already noted: cost savings and efficiencies, strategically chosen investments, and the generation of new revenues. Everything we undertake, every goal we set must be academically sound and be consistent with the missions of Rutgers and with its highest standards. But in the new era we are entering, our goals simply cannot neglect or ignore efficiency, strategy, and revenue.
Let's go back to the subject of our students. Right now our undergraduate student body is overwhelmingly from New Jersey, over 90%. And while it's appropriate for the state university to serve mainly women and men from here at home—indeed, we are educating more New Jersey students than ever this year—we have much to gain by recruiting, admitting, and educating students from other states and other countries. Their presence, and especially the geographic and cultural diversities they bring, will enrich everyone's education. Because their tuition is higher, these students will also improve our budget. Through planning and hard work and growing recruitment efforts around the country and in strategic locations abroad, our first-year class in New Brunswick this fall includes more than 10% increases of both out-of-state and international students. This is a good start on a goal that will enable Rutgers to prepare all our students better and will improve the university's financial self-sufficiency.
The makeup of the student body is also changing in response to demands and expectations. On all our campuses, business education remains very popular, as do engineering and pharmacy in New Brunswick. Where student demand is growing and where the anticipated personal income of our graduates is also high, we will increasingly see differentially higher tuition rates. In this way, Rutgers will meet the needs of students while helping the university's bottom line.
The student diversity we seek also includes men and women whose situations in life are different from those of most college students. Just as in the case of out-of-state and international students, the presence of these nontraditional students improves everyone's education because they bring tremendous motivation, perspective, and experience to our classrooms. They also add to the financial resources that are available to all our programs.
For decades, Rutgers has welcomed and educated thousands of nontraditional students. But today more of these men and women than ever want and need our programs: people who are unemployed or under-employed in this economy, those who might not have formerly required a baccalaureate degree for their careers but now do, those whose family situations demand that they become breadwinners, those returning from military service (of whom we have proudly welcomed more than 500 this year), and those who are living longer than ever after retirement. I have asked a group of faculty and deans to develop recommendations providing more Rutgers options for nontraditional students. Some of these options would be available on our campuses, others would involve completing Rutgers degrees at off-campus sites, still others would involve a mix of on-campus and online experiences.
These new educational programs will not only enable us to reach students whom we would otherwise never see but will also be sources of revenue. Executive and continuing education, new master's degrees, summer and winter sessions, and off-campus and online teaching are both efficient and profitable. Over the past year, the university's revenue from off-campus degree completion programs increased by 14%, while income from online courses doubled. The Mason Gross School of the Arts has quickly gone from having almost no online courses to becoming the leader among all schools at Rutgers—and there is plenty of room for more online courses in every unit. The School of Arts and Sciences is inviting faculty to compete for seed grants to support entrepreneurial activities such as new masters programs, web-based teaching, and lifelong learning. A common feature of my many meetings with faculty and staff last year was the appetite they expressed for undertaking new revenue-generating programs—and the acceptance of responsibility for obtaining many of the resources upon which their academic programs depend.
The faculty also told me that Rutgers has much to gain by increasing our global reach, and so we are investing there, too. A committee is working to improve and expand our international service learning program, and I have asked a group of Rutgers faculty with experience in China to recommend strategic choices for advancing our programs and opportunities there. We already enjoy partnerships in China through many of our schools. But we can do much more—to increase significantly the number of students coming here from China, to send more Rutgers students for a semester or longer in China, and to build new research collaborations for mutual benefit. The opportunities are vast, and they can bring new revenue to Rutgers.
Attaining the educational goals I have been describing, and garnering the revenues they bring, will require continuing investments in people, programs, technology, and facilities. Even at a time when our budgets are severely constrained, we simply must make commitments for the future. The new faculty and staff we have appointed this year, and those whom we seek to appoint for next year, are in both instances less numerous than we would like, but are completely essential to progress at Rutgers.
Where will our growing numbers of on-campus students live, if not in the new residence halls at Busch and Livingston? Newark and Camden need new residence halls, too, and we're trying to develop business plans that will make them feasible. Where will our faculty do their research, if not in new buildings like those for proteomics, going up today; nutrition, tomorrow; and nursing in Camden, before long? How can Rutgers maintain its historic excellence in the core field of chemistry without undertaking wholesale renovations of Wright-Reiman? How can we meet the demand for 21st century engineers without adding to a facility that still mostly resembles the School of Engineering as it was built in the 1960s?
Hard as it may be to believe today, when our budgets are so constrained, these goals for Rutgers are achievable. But the responsibility rests with us to assure the university's future in a demanding environment. The greatest public research universities—like the other ones that were listed in that Wall Street Journal article last week—are making the transition that I'm describing, and Rutgers can do it, too.
A couple of weeks from now, on October 13, Rutgers will kick off the public phase of a fundraising campaign with a goal of $1 billion. Some have said we should not be starting a campaign in such bleak economic times. I say we must. We cannot wait for the state to provide a windfall, nor can we delay while the economy recovers. We need to give our students more scholarship support. We need to keep attracting world-class scholars to our faculty. We need facilities that match our ambitions. We need to continue our outreach as the state university. So we will confidently launch a campaign that asks individuals, corporations, and foundations to embrace the future that we and they envision for Rutgers. We feel sure they will respond to our appeal because the Rutgers Foundation, deans, and development directors have spent years of quiet preparation for this moment. We know it, too, because we have seen the generosity of our donors again and again through the years.
Richard Goldman, Class of 1972, made the gift that launched the Signature Courses in the School of Arts and Sciences. Jack Byrne, Class of 1954, made the gift that secured the future of the first-year seminars that bear his name. Steve Colson, a friend of the university, has given three large donations to the Rutgers Future Scholars program, which is providing opportunities for boys and girls in our hometowns of Camden, Newark, New Brunswick, and Piscataway to prepare for college. Beverly Johnson, Class of 1971, established a scholarship to help students in Roselle Park, where she grew up, to attend Rutgers. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has given $10 million to launch the Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health.
The name of the campaign is "Our Rutgers, Our Future." And it will succeed. That same phrase, "Our Rutgers, Our Future," also expresses what I have been discussing with you this afternoon. Here and now is an institution called Rutgers about which we care deeply and which we must protect and nurture. We must consciously seize the future or be overwhelmed by it. The choice is easy, but the decisions required to face the future are not.
Rutgers has mighty challenges ahead, but also a wealth of talent and commitment among our faculty, staff, students, alumni, donors, board members, parents, and friends. I deeply appreciate the goodwill and extraordinary efforts that are being exerted across our university, by all in a tough time, to maintain quality and achieve our goals. Because of these efforts we will meet the demands I have described today, just as we and those who came before us have done for nearly 250 years.
These goals for Rutgers are achievable. The students and their parents who are paying tuition believe it. The federal agencies supporting our research believe it. The football fans who have bought tickets for tomorrow's game believe it. The donors who are contributing to our $1 billion campaign believe it. And so must we.
Rutgers has never had it easy, never benefited from a whole lot of entitlement—but our accomplishments are very real, indeed they are remarkable, for our students, for the state, and for the world. For that record of achievement, and for the next installments to come, for which you are responsible, I thank you. This is our Rutgers and our future.


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Formally electrifying and ethically discomfiting at the same time, Flight of a Bullet is a movie one could just as easily gawk at in wonder or endlessly debate over. The documentary's premiere at a Russian film festival was crashed by protestors, and there has been controversy over whether it got one of its subjects killed — if the man is in fact even dead, that is. In the linked interview, Russian director Beata Bubenec expresses an irritatingly cavalier attitude over questions of her responsibilities as a filmmaker. Particularly alarming is that the movie, shot in an active war zone which to this day remains active, apparently first screened with participants' names and addresses said aloud (in the version which played at True/False, all location and civilian names are bleeped out). There is a legitimate argument to be made that this movie is morally deficient, perhaps even evil if did indeed enable a subject's death through sloppiness. Yet it is also undeniably engrossing as an artistic piece.
Bubenec has made her bones as a documentarian amidst the ongoing political upheaval and war in Ukraine. Her first film, God's Will, featured an extremist Eastern Orthodox leader, and her next, Chechen, followed a veteran soldier through the Maidan protests, Russian annexation of Crimea and the War in Donbass. In 2014, she was informally embedded with Urkaine's Aidar Battalion, a fascist volunteer military detachment which included her lead subject from Chechen. While she captured over 400 hours of footage during her time with the unit, Flight of a Bullet features a single 81-minute stretch and nothing else. Little outside context, no character introductions — just a single, unbroken period of time during which she had her camera running. It's what is fit into this single shot, and how Bubenec continually maneuvers herself through it, that keeps the doc riveting.
The film opens in the queasy serenity of a battle's aftermath, with Bubenec and some militia members surveying a bridge that's half-destroyed and riddled with gawkers. The film takes an abrupt turn for the harrowing when the Aidar footmen abduct a man who's questioning Bubenec's right to film him, stuffing him into a car while accusing him of being a pro-Russian separatist. Bubenec protests his innocence, but the man is brought to their headquarters and interrogated. And this intense ordeal is only half the movie. After the man is released, Bubenec continues to film.
War is a fraction terror and mostly boring, and Flight of a Bullet emphasizes this as it unspools. A mere few minutes after the abduction ordeal is finished, it seems ages ago, with camera now occupied with a volunteer arguing with his girlfriend on the phone. Much of the film is deliberately numbed mundanity. When one of the soldiers sexually propositions (jokingly?) Bubenec in the last stretch, it raises fewer questions about her position in the battalion than it does a muted "Oh, now this is happening." Vitally, Bubenec's shooting style does not change no matter the situation, treating a bombed-out bridge, battle strategy, an interrogation and making plans for lunch with equal calm remove. The suggestion is that the day-to-day experience for these fighters is not frenzied action but surreal negotiations between normal necessities and the demands of the war.
Dan Schindel is a Maryland-born, currently Los Angeles-based film critic and freelance editor. Follow him on Twitter @DanSchindel.
Categories: 2018 Film Reviews, Film Reviews


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In 1945, the first Bahá'ís settled in Sotik, Kenya. Today, the Kenyan community has more than 180 local Bahá'í administrative councils, known as Local Spiritual Assemblies.
Women and men have been and will always be equal in the sight of God.
– Bahá'u'lláh
The Bahá'í community in Kenya is known for its work in promoting social and economic development activities such as building skills in weaving and health care.
A Bahá'í inspired organization called "The Livelihood Foundation" carries out activities related to health care and education. Through this project, a health centre with maternity wards has been constructed and is operational. The Foundation also promotes education on AIDS for local people.


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Mitt Romney supporters taunted Barack Obama with chants of "four more weeks" as their candidate surged into the lead in US opinion polls, propelled by his debate win last week.
With both candidates campaigning in perennial kingmaker state Ohio, top Obama aides put a brave face on the president's slide, insisting they had always known his re-election bid would be tough.
A flurry of new polls out Tuesday showed the delayed impact of Romney's debate triumph last week in Denver.
For the first time since he accepted the Republican Party nomination, Romney topped the widely-read poll of polls conducted by the RealClearPolitics website, albeit by only 0.7 points.
He led Obama by two points in daily tracking polls by Gallup and Investors Business Daily, but the pair were tied in another tracking poll, by Rasmussen.
"Today, there are 28 days before the election," Romney told a crowd of about 12,000 people in Cuyahoga Falls, his largest rally to date in Ohio.
"I think the right chant ought to be for them: 'Four more weeks! Four more weeks!'" he added, in a play on the "Four more years" chant reserved for incumbents.
The raucous supporters obliged, and Romney followed up by letting them know just how important the first debate was.
"I actually think the people have heard what he had to say," Romney said of Obama, "and it's time for them to see him leave the White House and to say goodbye to him on November 6."
Romney's rise in the polls in part reflected his tack toward the political center during the debate, a shift he continued on Tuesday by telling an Iowa newspaper he had no plans to introduce legislation restricting abortion.
Romney did say, however, that he would restore a law ended by Obama that prohibits non-profit groups receiving federal government funds from providing abortions in other countries.
Meanwhile at an Obama rally in Columbus, Ohio, the large crowd chanted "Four more years! Four more years!" after the president took the stage.
"I need you ready to go to vote because we've got some work to do. We've got an election to win," Obama said.
"Everything that we fought for in 2008 is on the line in 2012."
Despite the clear bounce in Romney support, national polls are only one reflection of the race, and the campaigns are more interested in the eight or so swing states that will decide the election.
Obama is up in most battlegrounds, though full data is yet to emerge on local races following the debate.
And in a welcome respite for the president's camp, struggling to shake off the fallout of last week's listless debate performance, a CNN/ORC poll showed Obama holding steady in Ohio, leading 51 to 47 percent among likely voters.
No Republican has ever become president without winning Ohio.
Romney's senior aide Kevin Madden told reporters the campaign was not getting carried away by the sudden spurt, despite mounting excitement among Republicans, many of whom had feared the race was slipping away.
"I think you can't put too much stock in this idea of momentum. It's a very elusive thing," he said.
Obama's camp insisted it has long predicted a tough fight, with the president running for re-election in an uncertain economic environment.
"We've always felt this race would be close," campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters on Air Force One.
"We've always run this race like we're five points down."
As Obama addressed his rally at Ohio State University on the first day of early voting in the state, Romney was at Cuyahoga Falls outside Cleveland with New Jersey's tough-talking Governor Chris Christie.
"Alright, Ohio, you ready to get the job done?" Christie boomed.
With a political map that still favors Obama, the focus of the race is increasingly turning to Thursday's debate between Vice President Joe Biden and Romney's running mate Paul Ryan.
Romney's itinerary Tuesday was no mistake: should Obama win both Iowa and Ohio, the Republican would have to counter with victory in several states seen as solidly Democratic if he is to oust the president from the White House.
Obama has tried to reassure disappointed Democrats that he is still hungry for victory ahead of his debate rematches with Romney on October 16 and 22.
The Obama camp said it has superior organization in Ohio, with more than 1,200 local officers to identify and mobilize voters, and plans to stress Obama's backing of an auto industry bailout that Romney opposed.
When Obama reminded Ohioans of Romney's call to let the auto industry go bankrupt, the crowd booed. "Don't boo, vote," the president said.