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Loveland’s Winter Holiday Council struggles to keep the lights on amid vandalism, thefts
Meghan Albañez, the new chair of the Winter Holiday Council, warns that without help from the public or the city of Loveland, many of the lights and decorations maintained by the council could go dark.
With projects including holiday decorations at Foote Lagoon, Lake Loveland, Dwayne Webster Veterans Park and the lighting of the Namaqua Star, the group is funded through sales of an annual Christmas ornament, and is staffed entirely by volunteers. Recent vandalism and thefts combined with financial struggles prompted Albañez to address the Loveland City Council on Tuesday, asking for help.
“The more money and help we have the better the chances we have to keep this tradition, one that began in 1989, not only alive but growing bigger and better,” Albañez told the City Council on Tuesday. “Dwindling support coupled with vandalism makes me a little nervous for prolonged survival. We remain optimistic, but we can’t do it alone.”
Several instances of theft and property damage were reported to police over the holiday season, including the destruction of a commissioned display by a local artist on the opening of the annual Light the Lagoon event. A witness described a group of young people dismantling the display, pieces of which were found floating in the lagoon the following morning.
The city currently provides a few in-kind donations, according to Ben Cordsen, a member of the council who manages the sale of ornaments and the selection of the artist who will create it each year. But financing for maintenance and other costs, which includes paying artists to create ornaments and displays, is generated only through ornament sales, he said.
This year, ornament sales generated a little more than $28,000 in revenue, half of which went towards the creation of the ornaments themselves, Cordsen said.
A tradition that began in 1990, the ornaments are created by a local artist and include the year and the name of the city of Loveland. Prior years’ ornaments are available on the Winter Holiday Council’s website.
Albañez, a licensed realtor, has only been on the holiday council since May of last year. She asked the City Council on Tuesday to consider providing financial support for the Winter Holiday Council, and asked the public to help out through volunteering, ornament purchases and donations.
She compared the annual tradition to Pastels on 5th, another local event that brings the community together and supports local artists. The difference, she said, is that some of the winter traditions might not be around much longer.
“If those disappeared, it would be noticeable,” she told the Reporter-Herald on Thursday. “It takes away part of the holidays, so we’re trying our best to keep this going.”
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Considering the Orlando Magic’s draft lottery history, nothing is easy during the scouting process that culminates with the NBA draft in New York.
But when taking into account what lies ahead for them, the easier part is behind the Magic.
Orlando landing the No. 1 pick in the June 23 draft gave the Magic full control. Now they have the pressure — which they welcome — of making sure they choose the right player.
“We have more work to do,” general manager John Hammond said on In The Zone with Brandon Kravitz. “Evaluation of watching these guys a little more thoroughly, a little more succinctly. Most importantly, a chance to actually spend time with them, get to know them, run them through a battery and find out everything we can.”
The Magic will start hosting workouts at their facility for prospects over the next few weeks, giving them a chance to make more in-depth evaluations than they did during the draft combine in Chicago — where many of the top prospects didn’t take part in scrimmages, on-court drills or measurements.
Duke’s Paolo Banchero, Gonzaga’s Chet Holmgren and Auburn’s Jabari Smith are considered the top players in the draft.
Hammond reiterated that Orlando will choose the player the Magic believe will be the best in the long run, not just who fits next year’s team better.
“You hate to be too cliché and say, ‘We’re going to go with the best player on the board,’ but I really believe that when you get to this level of the draft, you live by that,” Hammond said. “We can’t sacrifice a lesser player just because we have this need. I don’t think any need can be that great.”
But would the Magic lean on the guys on their roster for those evaluations?
Wendell Carter Jr. (Duke), Chuma Okeke (Auburn) and Jalen Suggs (Gonzaga) all went to college where one of the top prospects did, although none of them did at the same time as the players the Magic are considering.
“[Wendell] probably knows Paolo, somewhat, maybe from the Duke connection,” Hammond said. “I don’t know if Chuma has a real strong relationship with Jabari. The interesting one is Jalen Suggs and Chet are close. If we’re going to consult with one on one situation, that’d be it.”
The Magic also have the Nos. 32 and 35 picks in the second round.
They spoke with multiple players during last week’s combine who could be available when they’re on the board with one of those second-round picks.
Orlando will bring in prospects it believes could be available in the range of those second-round selections for workouts.
“This is kind of like the dating process — you don’t know who that person is until you actually live with them,” Hammond said. “That’s when you make the full commitment. We’re going to have to get to know them the best we can.”
This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email Khobi Price at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter at @khobi_price.
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Voters in southern Minnesota will choose candidates in a special primary this week in the first step in a complicated process for filling the seat of Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn, who died of cancer in February.
REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES
The GOP candidates Tuesday for the 1st District seat include Hagedorn’s widow, Jennifer Carnahan, who has leveled a series of bitter attacks in the final days of the campaign against two of her main rivals in the primary, state Rep. Jeremy Munson and former state Rep. Brad Finstad. She has labeled both of them as captives of “Establishment Republicans and the Washington Swamp.” And she has claimed that her husband made it clear before he died that he did not want Munson to replace him.
EARLIER: Jeremy Munson, with help of own money, leads fundraising for Jim Hagedorn congressional seat
Former President Donald Trump hasn’t endorsed a candidate to replace the staunchly pro-Trump Hagedorn, but Carnahan, of Blue Earth, has been making the most overt appeals to Trump supporters. Her website is loaded with photos and videos of her and Hagedorn with Trump, and of her appearances at Trump campaign events in 2020.
Carnahan was forced out as chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota last August after a prominent donor was indicted on child sex trafficking charges and former staffers complained of a toxic work environment. And she was sued by Hagedorn’s mother, stepfather and sister this month in a dispute over money they loaned to help cover his medical bills. But she’s painting herself as the best candidate to carry on her husband’s legacy — and Trump’s.
Munson, of Lake Crystal, is a founder of a hard-right faction that broke from the main Minnesota House GOP Caucus. He’s painting himself as the truest conservative in the race. He has been touting his string of endorsements from nationally prominent congressional hard-liners, including Sens. Ted Cruz, of Texas, and Rand Paul, of Kentucky; Reps. Jim Jordan, of Ohio, Scott Perry, of Pennsylvania, and Thomas Massie, of Kentucky; and former U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, of Minnesota. His website includes a photo of him at a Trump rally with Trump in the background.
Munson won 55% of the vote when 1st District Republicans met last month to try to endorse a candidate for the general election in November, but he fell short of the required 60%. Due to the accelerated calendar, the party hasn’t endorsed a candidate for the special primary nor the special general election Aug. 9 that will decide who gets to fill out the rest of Hagedorn’s term.
Finstad, of New Ulm, has the backing of several Minnesota GOP officeholders, including U.S. Reps. Michelle Fischbach and Pete Stauber of Minnesota, as well as the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association. And he’s been quick to remind voters that he was Trump’s state director for USDA Rural Development in Minnesota.
But Carnahan has attacked Finstad for clicking “like” on tweets perceived as anti-Trump and claims he’s a “squishy” Republican establishment figure who never truly supported Trump.
Other Republicans on the ballot include agricultural attorney Matt Benda, of Albert Lea, and state Rep. Nels Pierson, of Rochester.
DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES
On the Democratic side, the endorsed candidate is former Hormel Foods CEO Jeffrey Ettinger, of Austin, who now chairs the Hormel Foundation.
His opponents include University of Minnesota law professor Richard Painter, of Mendota Heights, a former White House ethics lawyer in President George W. Bush’s administration.
Turnout for Tuesday’s special primary is expected to be low, and the process for what will follow is complicated.
The special primary and the Aug. 9 special general election are being held within the district’s existing borders. But Aug. 9 is also when Minnesota will hold regular primaries statewide.
The winner of the special general election, who will fill out the rest of Hagedorn’s term into January, presumably will also win the district’s regular primary that same day. That should give him or her an advantage heading into the November general election, which will determine who holds the seat in the next Congress.
Both the regular primary and the general election will be held within the district’s new court-adjusted borders. Redistricting this year didn’t change the political balance of the district much, so it still leans Republican.
By The Associated Press
CANNES, France (AP) — Star power has been out in force at the 75th Cannes Film Festival.
After a 2021 edition muted by the pandemic, this year’s French Riviera spectacular has again seen throngs of onlookers screaming out “Tom!” “Julia!” and “Viola!”
The wattage on display on Cannes has been brighter this year thanks the presence of stars like Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts, Viola Davis, Anne Hathaway, Idris Elba and others who have made their way down the festival’s famed red carpet.
But as the first half of the French Riviera spectacular has shown, stardom in Cannes is a global concept that stretches around the world. Just as much as cameras have focused on Hollywood stars, they’ve been trained on the likes of India’s Aishwarya Rai and South Korea’s Lee Jung-jae.
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