Regis Philbin, TV personality (more at Wikipedia)
Designer of the gigantic Three Gorges Dam
Zheng Shouren (Chinese: 郑守仁; pinyin: Zhèng Shǒurén; January 30, 1940 – July 24, 2020) was a Chinese engineer and chief designer of the Three Gorges Dam.[1] He had been engaged in the planning and design of the Yangtze River Basin and major water conservancy projects for a long time and had published more than 60 papers and 4 books. He was a member of the Communist Party of China.
Zheng was born in Yingshang County, Anhui, on January 30, 1940. After graduating from East China University of Water Resources (now Hohai University) in September 1963, he was assigned to the Yangtze River Basin Planning Office, where he was promoted to deputy chief engineer in 1991 and to chief engineer in 1994. He was chief designer of the Three Gorges Dam. He died of illness in Wuhan, Hubei, on July 24, 2020.[2]
He successively participated in the designs of Lushui Hydropower Project of Hubei, Wujiangdu Hydropower Project of Guizhou and Yangtze River Gezhouba Hydropower project, and took responsibilities for diversion design of the Wujiangdu as well as river closure design and cofferdam design of the Gezhouba Dam. He also joined and took charge of the designs of Qingjiang Geheyan Hydropower Project and Three Gorges Dam.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_Shouren
LONDON (AP) — Peter Green, the dexterous blues guitarist who led the first incarnation of Fleetwood Mac in a career shortened by psychedelic drugs and mental illness, has died at 73.
A law firm representing his family, Swan Turton, announced the death in a statement Saturday. It said he died “peacefully in his sleep″ this weekend. A further statement will be issued in the coming days.
Green, to some listeners, was the best of the British blues guitarists of the 1960s. B.B. King once said Green “has the sweetest tone I ever heard. He was the only one who gave me the cold sweats.”
Green also made a mark as a composer with “Albatross,” and as a songwriter with “Oh Well” and “Black Magic Woman.”
https://apnews.com/4d0f163fa8fdbfe5627830912bfc99af
With the death of Olivia de Havilland, the last surviving person with a credit in Gone With the Wind is Mickey Kuhn, then 7 and now 87.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McNamara_(baseball) was an American professional baseball manager, coach and player. After spending over 15 years in the minor leagues as a player and player-manager, McNamara helmed six Major League Baseball (MLB) teams for all or parts of 19 seasons between 1969 and 1996. He directed the 1986 Boston Red Sox to the American League pennant, and was named his league's "Manager of the Year" by both the BBWAA and The Sporting News. However, the Red Sox were defeated by the New York Mets in seven games in the 1986 World Series when they failed to hold a two-run, two-out, two-strike lead in Game 6, and a three-run advantage in Game 7.
Minor leagues
McNamara began his managing career with the Lewis-Clark Broncs in Lewiston, Idaho, of the Class B Northwest League in 1959, and when the club became an affiliate of the Kansas City Athletics in 1960, McNamara joined the Athletics' system. He won Southern League pennants with the Birmingham A's, Kansas City's Double-A affiliate, in 1966 and 1967, where he groomed many future members of the Oakland Athletics' early-1970s dynasty (Baseball Hall of Famers Rollie Fingers and Reggie Jackson, as well as Sal Bando, Blue Moon Odom, Joe Rudi and others) during his tenure as the organization's Double-A manager. At the same time, McNamara also mentored future Hall of Fame manager (then an infielder) Tony LaRussa and future pitching coach (then catcher) Dave Duncan. Jackson, in particular, credits McNamara with helping him through his time with Birmingham, with the racial tensions that existed in the Deep South at the time.[2]
Oakland Athletics
McNamara served as a coach at the major-league level for Oakland from 1968 through September 18, 1969. On that day, A's owner Charlie Finley fired manager Hank Bauer and promoted McNamara, then 37, to succeed him. The Athletics were in second place in the American League West Division, nine games in arrears of the Minnesota Twins. They went 8–5 under McNamara for the rest of the campaign, then finished second to the Twins again in 1970 with an 89–73 mark.[2] Finley replaced him with Dick Williams at season's end,[2] and the A's would go on to win five successive division titles and three straight American League pennants and World Series titles under Williams and Alvin Dark.[6]
San Diego Padres
McNamara returned to the coaching ranks from 1971–73 with the cross-bay San Francisco Giants before he took over the struggling San Diego Padres as their manager in 1974. The Padres improved incrementally, winning 60, 71 and 73 games through 1976,[1] then signed free agents Fingers and Gene Tenace away from McNamara's old team, the A's.[2] Expected to dramatically improve in 1977, instead the Padres stood at only 20–28 on May 28,[1] when McNamara was fired and replaced by Dark. He spent 1978 as a coach for the California Angels, then was hired to succeed Sparky Anderson, also a future Hall of Fame manager, as skipper of the 1979 Cincinnati Reds.[2]
Cincinnati Reds
The Reds had finished second to the Los Angeles Dodgers for two consecutive seasons in the National League West Division, and Anderson had been fired amid controversy,[7] reportedly because he refused his front office's order to fire members of his coaching staff.[8]
McNamara's 1979 Reds, minus legend Pete Rose, who had defected to the Philadelphia Phillies as a free agent, won 90 games—two fewer than Anderson's 1978 team. But they edged the Houston Astros by 11⁄2 games to win the NL West and became McNamara's first postseason entry. In the 1979 National League Championship Series, however, the Reds dropped the first two games at home in extra innings to the Pittsburgh Pirates, then were swept out of the playoffs in Game 3. Pittsburgh went on to win the 1979 World Series. McNamara's 1980 Reds won 89 games but finished third, 31⁄2 lengths behind Houston. Then came Cincinnati's frustrating 1981 season: the Reds compiled the best overall record in the National League West (66–42, .611), but the split-season format adopted because of the 1981 Major League Baseball strike denied them a place in the playoffs because they finished second (initially to the Dodgers, then to the Astros) in each half-season. The 1981 campaign became all the more distressing because the 1982 Reds unraveled, losing 58 of their first 92 games, falling into the division basement. McNamara was fired on July 20, 1982, with Cincinnati 23 games out of first place.[1][2]
California Angels
Buzzie Bavasi had been the president of the Padres when McNamara became their manager in 1974, and had moved to the California Angels after the 1977 season as general manager. Along with then-manager Dave Garcia, he had hired McNamara as an Angels coach in 1978, before the Reds job opened up. After the 1982 season, when the Angels lost a heart-breaking ALCS to the Milwaukee Brewers, their veteran manager, Gene Mauch, retired.[2] Bavasi then hired McNamara a third time, this time as skipper of the 1983 Angels, although that team dropped precipitously in the standings, winning only 70 games[2] – 23 fewer than in 1982 – and finishing 29 games behind the Chicago White Sox.[9] The following year, the 1984 Angels clawed back to .500 at 81–81, but came within three games of the division champion Kansas City Royals, who won only 84 contests all season.[10]
Boston Red Sox
Further information: 1986 American League Championship Series
When Ralph Houk, 65, retired as Boston's manager at the close of the 1984 season, the Red Sox approached the Angels about McNamara's availability for the opening; he and Haywood Sullivan, the Red Sox' chief executive officer and co-owner, had managed together in the Athletics' organization in the mid-1960s. With Mauch ready to return to the dugout, the Angels agreed to let McNamara go to Boston, and in 1985, he led the Red Sox to another .500 season; but at 81–81, they finished 181⁄2 games behind the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East Division.[2]
However, 1986 would be a different story. With fireballing Roger Clemens winning his first 14 decisions en route to the Cy Young Award and American League Most Valuable Player Award, the Red Sox won 95 games and captured the division title, setting the stage for McNamara's second and final postseason appearance as a manager.[1] First, they battled back from a three-games-to-one deficit to defeat Mauch's Angels in the 1986 American League Championship Series, reaching the World Series against the National League champion New York Mets.[2]
Cleveland Indians and interim Angels' pilot
McNamara's managing career was not over, however. He spent 1989 as a Seattle Mariners scout, but on November 3, 1989,[17] the Cleveland Indians hired him as their skipper for 1990. Under McNamara, the 1990 Indians improved by four games compared with the 1989 edition, going 77–85 and finishing fourth in the AL East, only 11 games behind the Red Sox.[18] But in 1991, Cleveland took a major step backward; they won only 25 of 77 games under McNamara until his firing on July 5,[1] and dropped 105 of 162 games that season.[19]
McNamara returned to the Angels' organization as a minor league catching instructor, but was called to manage in the majors a final time in 1996 at age 64. He became interim pilot upon Marcel Lachemann's resignation on August 6, and had directed them to a 5–9 record when he was hospitalized for a blood clot in his leg on August 20.[20] After coach Joe Maddon helmed the Angels for three weeks while he was treated, McNamara was able to return to the Angels and finish the 1996 season.[2] He compiled a 10–18 overall record,[1] and was eventually succeeded by Terry Collins for 1997.[21]
Former General-Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (and that is where the power usually lies in a state under Communist rule):
Lê Khả Phiêu (27 December 1931 – 7 August 2020[1]) was a Vietnamese politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam from December 1997 to April 2001. [2] Lê Khả Phiêu served in the Vietnam People's Army during the First and Second Indochina Wars, join in the Cambodian war, and was Head of the General Political Department of the Vietnam People's Army.[3]
Lê Khả Phiêu has previously been viewed as a conservative.[4] However, this categorization has been challenged by historian Martin Gainsborough, who notes that Lê Khả Phiêu made some remarkably outspoken comments about problems in the party before the Tenth Party Congress. Lê Khả Phiêu criticized what he called 'illness of partyization' (bệnh đảng hoá), meaning that the Party controls everything.[5] Lê Khả Phiêu was a protégé of his predecessor, Đỗ Mười.[6] He was elevated to the Politburo in the early 1990s.[7]
Lê Khả Phiêu died on August 7, 2020 in Hanoi, at age 88.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%AA_Kh...Phi%C3%AAu
(08-15-2020, 04:18 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: [ -> ]Former Illinois Governor James Thompson
James Robert Thompson Jr. (May 8, 1936 – August 14, 2020), also known as Big Jim Thompson, was the 37th and longest-serving governor of the US state of Illinois,[1] serving from 1977 to 1991. A Republican, Thompson was elected to four consecutive terms and held the office for 14 years. Many years after leaving public office, he served as a member of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission).
Thompson was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Agnes Josephine (Swanson) and James Robert Thompson, a physician. His maternal grandparents were Swedish.[3] Thompson graduated from North Park Academy (now North Park University), studied at the University of Illinois at Chicago Navy Pier campus, and at Washington University in St. Louis. He received his J.D. from Northwestern University in 1959.[citation needed]
Prior to becoming governor, he worked in the Cook County state's attorney's office, taught at Northwestern University's law school and was appointed by President Nixon to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. As a federal prosecutor in the early 1970s, he obtained a conviction against former Governor Otto Kerner, Jr., for his use of improper influence on behalf of the racetrack industry.[citation needed]
He tried and convicted many of Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley's top aides, most notably Alderman Thomas E. Keane and County Clerk Matt Danaher, on various corruption charges. People like Keane and Danaher, the mayor's point man on patronage were also major figures in the Cook County Democratic Party's political machine. These high-profile cases gave Thompson the celebrity that fueled his run for governor in 1976.[citation needed]
To the chagrin of many, Thompson was bipartisan in his attacks on corruption in Cook County and Chicago. He not only prosecuted high-profile Democrats, but also prominent Republicans such as County Commissioner Floyd Fulle and former U.S. Senate candidate, William Rentschler. Organized crime in Chicago was harder for his unit to crack and there were few high-profile cases during his era.[citation needed]
In the 1976 election, he won 65 percent of the vote over Democratic Secretary of State Michael Howlett, who had defeated incumbent Governor Dan Walker in the primary and who had the support of Chicago Mayor and Cook County Democratic Party chairman Richard J. Daley. Thompson was the first candidate for governor to receive over 3 million votes; his tally of 3,000,395 remains the largest number of votes ever cast for a candidate in an election for Governor of Illinois. His first term was for only two years because Illinois moved its gubernatorial election from presidential-election years to midterm-election years. Thompson was re-elected to a full four-year term in 1978 with 60 percent of the vote, defeating State Comptroller Michael Bakalis. In 1982, Thompson was very narrowly re-elected over former U.S. Senator Adlai E. Stevenson III. Thompson won the contest by only 5,074 votes.[4] A rematch in 1986 was expected to be almost as close, but the Democrats were severely hamstrung when supporters of Lyndon LaRouche won the Democratic nominations for lieutenant governor and secretary of state. Stevenson refused to appear on the same ticket as the LaRouchites, and formed the Solidarity Party with the support of the regular state Democratic organization. With the Democrats badly split, Thompson skated to victory in the general election. Thompson was accused of hiding the sad shape that Illinois' economy and budget were in while campaigning, but once elected, called for an emergency session of the Illinois legislature to address the crisis.[citation needed]
On November 12, 1980, Thompson, by his executive order, instituted a hiring freeze for all state agencies, boards, bureaus, and commissions under his control as governor. The order affected approximately 60,000 state positions.[[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed]citation needed]
These positions could only be filled if the candidates were first approved by an office created by Thompson, the Governor's Office of Personnel. Suit was brought and the Supreme Court held this political patronage practice unconstitutional as a violation of the First Amendment rights of low-level public employees in Rutan v. Republican Party of Illinois, 497 U.S. 62 (1990).
In 1989, Governor Thompson agreed to establish a compounding, 3 percent cost-of-living increase for retirees from Illinois government jobs, including public school teachers. Years later, in an interview with a Chicago business magazine, Thompson said he never knew the cost might exceed $1 billion and likely would not have signed it if he had known.[5] In recent years, the cumulative effect of the 3 percent annual increases has been recognized as one of the major causes of Illinois' public employee pension crisis.
In 1993, the State of Illinois Center in Chicago was renamed the James R. Thompson Center to honor the former governor.[6]
Jim Thompson also outed fellow Republican Spiro Agnew following his fall from grace, referring to him as a crook the country is well rid of. This following his quasi-forced resignation as Vice President over a kickback scandal when he was Governor of Maryland.
(08-15-2020, 08:11 PM)beechnut79 Wrote: [ -> ] (08-15-2020, 04:18 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: [ -> ]Former Illinois Governor James Thompson
James Robert Thompson Jr. (May 8, 1936 – August 14, 2020), also known as Big Jim Thompson, was the 37th and longest-serving governor of the US state of Illinois,[1] serving from 1977 to 1991. A Republican, Thompson was elected to four consecutive terms and held the office for 14 years. Many years after leaving public office, he served as a member of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission).
Jim Thompson also outed fellow Republican Spiro Agnew following his fall from grace, referring to him as a crook the country is well rid of. This following his quasi-forced resignation as Vice President over a kickback scandal when he was Governor of Maryland.
Considering the troubled Governors who have succeeded him... that seems extremely ironic now. Taking Agnew out -- that was a big deed. We could use more pols like him. A successful 4T weeds out the moral cowards from public life... maybe even academia and Big Business.
LOS ANGELES (AP) —
Ben Cross, an actor who starred in the Academy Award-winning film “Chariots of Fire” and “Star Trek,” has died. He was 72.
His representative Tracy Mapes said the actor died Tuesday after a short illness. The actor’s daughter, Lauren Cross, said her father died in Vienna, Austria.
A family statement called Cross a born showman and entertainer who was a walking encyclopedia of music that could “sing anything.”
“He was a man who taught us to embrace our feelings, whatever they may be,” the statement said. “We are grateful for the time we had with him. His spirit lives on in our hearts through his words, his music, and the love that we still feel.”
Cross was a veteran actor who broke through with the 1981 film “Chariots of Fire,” which won the Oscar for best picture. He had the leading role as Olympic runner Harold Abrahams in the true story about two British athletes at the 1924 Games.
Cross starred alongside Sean Connery and Richard Gere in the 1995 film “First Knight.” He played Spock’s father Sarek in the 2009 reboot of “Star Trek” and portrayed Prince Charles in the television film “William & Kate: The Movie” in 2011.
In other roles, Cross was the leading character in the TV miniseries “Solomon” in 1997. In the same year, he appeared as Captain Nemo in the CBS remake of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.”
Mapes said Cross had just finished filming the horror movie “The Devil’s Light” with Virginia Madsen for Lionsgate. He will star in the upcoming “Last Letter From Your Lover.”
Cross was survived by his wife, two children and three grandchildren.
https://apnews.com/a1ab285e1a2c8696f608cb4b754f2055
Thomas Slade Gorton III (January 8, 1928 – August 19, 2020) was an American politician. A Republican, he was a U.S. Senator from Washington state from 1981 to 1987, then from 1989 to 2001. He held both of the state's Senate seats in his career and was narrowly defeated for re-election twice as an incumbent: in 1986 by Brock Adams, and in 2000 by Maria Cantwell following a recount. As of 2020, he is the last Republican U.S. senator from Washington.
In 2002, Gorton became a member of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (popularly known as the "9/11 Commission") and the commission issued its final report in 2004. [10]
In 2005, Gorton became the Chairman of the center-right Constitutional Law PAC, a political action committee formed to help elect candidates to the Washington State Supreme Court and Court of Appeals.
Gorton was an Advisory Board member for the Partnership for a Secure America, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to recreating the bipartisan center in American national security and foreign policy. Gorton also served as a Senior Fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center.[11]
Gorton served on the Board of Trustees of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, which is a museum dedicated to the U.S. Constitution.[12]
Gorton represented the city of Seattle in a lawsuit against Clay Bennett to prevent the relocation of the Seattle SuperSonics basketball franchise, in accordance to a contract that would keep the team in KeyArena until 2010. The city reached a settlement with Bennett, allowing him to move the team to Oklahoma City for $45 million with the possibility for another $30 million.[13]
In 2010, the National Bureau of Asian Research founded the Slade Gorton International Policy Center. The Gorton Center is a policy research center, with three focus areas: policy research, fellowship and internship programs, and the Gorton History Program (archives).[14] In 2013 the Gorton Center was the secretariat for the ‘Commission on The Theft of American Intellectual Property’, in which Gorton was a commissioner.[15] Gorton is also a Counselor at the National Bureau of Asian Research.[16]
In 2012, Gorton was appointed to the board of directors of Clearwire, a wireless data services provider.[17]
Gorton was a member of the board of the Discovery Institute, notable for its advocacy of intelligent design.
Gorton was also of counsel at K&L Gates LLP
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slade_Gorton
TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) – A leading Cherokee linguist whose contributions led to him being named a “Cherokee National Treasure” has died.
Durbin Feeling was 74.
The Cherokee Nation called Feeling its “single largest contributor to the Cherokee language since that of Sequoyah.”
Feeling wrote the Cherokee dictionary and worked for the tribe since 1976.
Feeling authored or co-authored at least 12 books, contributed to countless research articles, and taught Cherokee at the University of Oklahoma, the University of Tulsa, and the University of California.
Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. released a statement:
“Durbin Feeling was our modern-day Sequoyah, a Cherokee National Treasure who was the very first person chosen to sign our Cherokee Language Speaker’s Roll because he was so cherished by our first-language speakers and entire tribe. Everything we are doing for language revitalization is because of Durbin. Durbin was also a dear friend to me and First Lady January, and we extend our heartfelt condolences to his family and want them to know how deeply sorry our entire Cherokee Nation family is for this tremendous loss.”
Feeling was a Vietnam veteran, earning a Purple Heart and National Defense Medal, and was an ordained minister.
He was named a Cherokee National Treasure in 2011.
https://ktul.com/news/local/leading-cher...ing-was-74
ABC-8, Tulsa, Oklahoma.