View full sizeBay Village's Samantha Fay, a 2009 Plain Dealer Senior Standout, is one of two local students interning at the White House this summer. The other is Lily Roberts of Shaker Heights.Say what you want about the Obama White House -- and judging by the comments on cleveland.com people have a lot to say pro and con -- one thing you have to admit: They know how to size up interns.
The White House released a list of nearly 150 students hired for an internship program meant to "prepare those devoted to public service for future leadership opportunities."
Two deserving Northeast Ohioans were chosen: Samantha Fay of Bay Village and Haverford College, who was a Plain Dealer Senior Standout in 2009; and Lily Roberts of Shaker Heights and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, part of a team from Hathaway Brown School in 2006 that won a prestigious award from NASA for research to determine which materials perform best in low Earth orbit.
Fay, who graduated from Lake Ridge Academy, excelled in the classroom and on stage there in theater and dance. She competed in the Miss Ohio Teen USA pageant and was recognized with a $1,000 scholarship from Kohl's Department Store for her work collecting school supplies for needy students.
"My dream job is being a political analyst and sitting around the table during the big elections and doing the talk-backs," she told The Plain Dealer three years ago.
Roberts is an accomplished harpist and singer who won the Anne Kinder Eaton Performing Arts Award and the "Emerging Artist' and "Outstanding Vocal Performance" awards for her high school chorus. She edited the school paper at Hathaway Brown and served as president of Amnesty International and Young Progressives.
Vacation from spelling: The billboard features an azure sky, a cotton candy wisp of clouds, a deep blue sea, a palm tree and the picture-perfect mom with her cute-as-a-button daughter enjoying the beach. Stare for more than a second as you are stopped at the light facing north on East 18th Street at Carnegie Avenue and you zone out. Before the light turns green, you're on that beach. You're three margaritas in.
So you can forgive whoever was in charge of the words for the Apple Vacations billboard, which reads: "Summer fun for eveyone."
Maybe it was the daydreaming. Maybe it was the margaritas. Regardless, it's vacation. Who cares? The red pencil's back at the office.
Urban oasis: A small planter on the south side of Superior Avenue between East Ninth and East 13th streets is filled with sand and some small tropical plants.
A sign reads, "Cleveland Dreamin' "
A clean beach in Cleveland? After Plain Dealer columnist Mark Naymik's reports last week, that must be a dream.
Sound of Ideas: Dean Starkman of the Columbia Journalism Review joined the Sound of Ideas last week for a discussion about the seismic changes in the news business and what that means for society and the strength of the democracy.
Part of the discussion included the decision by Advance Newspapers to publish the New Orleans Times-Picayune three days per week instead of daily, preferring to concentrate on online customers. A large number of newsroom staffers are losing their jobs there and at papers owned by Advance in Alabama. Advance owns The Plain Dealer, though no announcement has been made about any changes at the Cleveland daily.
David Abbott, a former Plain Dealer reporter and now executive director of the George Gund Foundation, said during the show that reducing staff and cutting back daily publication is worrisome for any community.
"People don't realize the degree to which a daily newspaper shapes not just what they read in that paper, but the coverage of all news in that community . . . It really has an agenda-setting component that we're at risk of losing," he said. "In terms of the depth of coverage and the breadth of coverage of issues, the community that doesn't have that is at risk of making much worse decisions about civic issues and about political issues."
Today on the program, a discussion with four accomplished women executives honored by Crain's as Women of Note in Northeast Ohio.
The Sound of Ideas, hosted by Tipoff's Mike McIntyre, airs weekdays at 9 a.m. on WCPN 90.3 FM.