Briefs

LOCAL & VCU

Five Inductees Selected for Virginia Communications Hall of Fame

The 2009 class of inductees into the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame includes a decorated print journalist, an influential educator, a dedicated First Amendment lawyer, a service-minded public relations executive and television host and an innovative broadcasting executive.

Hazel Trice Edney, editor in chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association New Service; the late Ronald MacDonald, who taught for three decades at Washington and Lee University; Craig Merritt, a lawyer who has worked with a number of media companies and organizations; Joel Rubin, CEO of Rubin Communications Group and former host of the roundtable show, “On the Record;” and Steven Soldinger, who has managed a number of radio and television stations in Virginia and elsewhere, will be inducted in a ceremony April 2 at the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond.

The VCU School of Mass Communications will host the ceremony.

Brief by VCU News Center

Radio ad group partners with VCU

The Radio Advertising Bureau has pledged $250,000 to expand the curriculum at VCU’s Brandcenter. The bureau will donate $50,000 annually for the next five years as part of a new partnership with the center.

Rick Boyko, director of the Brandcenter, said the funding will not just expand VCU’s radio-advertising curriculum but will “help us to evolve the program” overall. But the emphasis will be on elevating radio in the creative industry and helping students “respect it as a powerful medium.”

Brief by The Richmond Times Dispatch

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

Obama economic adviser predicts relief

Measures to save law enforcement and teaching jobs embodied in the stimulus plan now being considered by Congress will help cities see changes “within weeks,” one of President Obama’s top advisers said Sunday.

National Economic Council director Lawrence Summers said despite the fact the U.S. economy’s problems took months or years to create – and it may take just as long to solve them – immediate stimulus could come with hundreds of billions of dollars in government spending and tax cuts.

Brief by FoxNews.com

Some global adversaries ready to give Obama chance

In his inaugural address, President Barack Obama signaled conciliation to America’s foes by using the metaphor of an outstretched hand to an unclenched fist.

Already, there are signs that some of those foes were listening, sensing an opening for improved relations after eight combative years under former President George W. Bush. Fidel Castro is said to like the new American leader, and North Korea and Iran both sounded open to new ideas to defuse nuclear-tinged tensions.

Brief by The Associated Press

Hamas opens makeshift offices, Gaza talks to begin

Hamas’ government in Gaza began its first week back in business Sunday, operating from makeshift offices because most administrative buildings were bombed. The Palestinian militant group prepared for new talks with Egypt on consolidating the weeklong cease-fire with Israel.

The group said it would be distributing $52 million in aid to people affected by Israel’s three-week offensive against
Hamas, which devastated Gaza. The cash compensations for lost relatives or damaged homes would come from its own funds,
Hamas said, until relief pledged by international donors can come in.

Brief by The Associated Press

Bolivians vote on new Morales-backed constitution

President Evo Morales’ quest to transform Bolivia on behalf of its long-suffering indigenous majority is on the line Sunday as voters consider a new constitution that could keep the leftist leader in power through 2014.

Morales says the charter will decolonize South America’s poorest country, undoing the influence of its Spanish conquerers. But differences over the document’s indigenous focus and often opaque wording could increase political turmoil in a divided nation where tensions over race and class have recently turned deadly.

Brief by The Associated Press