NORMAN Following approval by the Norman Public Schools Board of Education Wednesday, the district will partner with Norman-based KREF SportsTalk 1400 to offer livestreaming Internet broadcasts of major athletic events during the 2013-14 school year.

A notable feature of the partnership is NPS receiving 40 percent of the advertising profits by KREF for the Internet broadcasts, and NPS will use these funds to supplement the districts athletics and physical education programs.

We are excited by this partnership, said NPS Athletic Director Frank Thompson, who believes the livestreaming will not impact game attendance and gate proceeds. Parents and students will still want to attend the games. What this partnership does is provide more opportunity for the greater community and out-of-town alumni and family to take part in our athletic events.

Board of Education members and Superintendent Joe Siano were particularly excited at the prospect of the new communications feature Wednesday, as they discussed the broader audience range to be reached by the livestreaming.

This is a fantastic feature for out-of-town family members who want to see their neice/nephew or grandson/granddaughter play their sport, said Board President Don Shandy. If possible wed love to see this extended to performing arts events as well.

The first athletic event to be livestreamed will be Aug. 30 when the Norman High and Norman North varsity football teams compete in annual Crosstown Clash at the University of Oklahoma. Other events to be broadcast include the entire football season for Norman High School and Norman North High School; each crosstown clash for every male and female sport, including fast pitch softball, volleyball, wrestling, baseball and soccer and at least 15 basketball games for the varsity male and female teams of both schools.

The livestream broadcasts also will be available in high quality from mobile devices.

KREF owner Randy Laffoon said that his station may very well livestream additional games, both home and away, as a result of listener demand and the stations success in securing sponsorships.

KREF is proud to broadcast both schools events and enjoy the additional exposure this gives to the student athletes, Laffoon said, adding livestream broadcasts also may include special features, such as KREF radio or Skype interviews.

With the boards approval of the livestream partnership, NPS and KREF will move toward building website channels to showcase the livestream broadcasts, debuting the individual Tiger and Timberwolf channels before the start of the 2013-14 school year.

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KREF, Norman schools to partner

NORMAN Moore Medical Center is scheduled for demolition, but Norman Regional Health System will continue to serve the city, Health System CEO David Whitaker said in a special message released this week.

Whitaker said he wanted to clarify how the recovery process will work as the health system moves forward.

We stand together with Moore, now and into the future, Whitaker said.

Earlier reports that the NRHS Board is unsure whether the Medical Center will be rebuilt created confusion as to future service. In reality, the clean slate created by the destructive tornado will allow health system officials to analyze how best to serve Moore and what type of facility is most needed on that site.

That assessment process will take time, Whitaker said.

Immediately following the tornado that destroyed Moore Medical Center, NRHS implemented a three stage relief plan, Whitaker said.

The first stage dealt with the immediate needs including seeing that all patients, staff and people who sought shelter at the Medical Center during the May 20 tornado were safe and had appropriate medical care.

Miraculously, 125 employees, 30 patients and more than 300 people seeking shelter escaped without serious injury.

Many employees lost homes, vehicles or both that day.

The health system, with the help of the Norman Regional Health Foundation and the employee CARE Committee, began providing relief for these employees, Whitaker said. Also, part of the immediate need stage was securing the hospital, recovering what was salvageable inside and relocating the physicians that were housed at Moore Medical Center. These physicians will begin seeing patients tomorrow at their temporary locations.

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Norman Regional to remain

The Fleetwood School District recently inducted its inaugural class of distinguished alumni, recognizing six former students who have represented their alma mater admirably.

The alumni, who were selected from a group of 20 nominees, will have plaques documenting their achievements displayed at Fleetwood High School. The district recently held a ceremony to honor them. The honorees were:

Dr. Carl Constein, Class of 1938 - Constein was honored for his contribution to education and his service to the U.S.

Beginning his career as an English teacher, Constein went on to serve as superintendent in the Antietam and Wilson school districts. He also wrote a total of 400 weekly newspaper columns on education and published eight books.

Before his career in education, Constein served as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force, flying 96 supply missions and receiving two Air Medals and a Distinguished Flying Cross.

George Messersmith, enrolled in college early and did not graduate from Fleetwood - Messersmith, who passed away in 1960, served in the U.S. Foreign Service for three decades, working in 10 diplomatic posts on three continents from 1914 to 1947.

During World War I, he cracked a secret German code that led to the identification and deportation of enemy agents. He also served as the U.S. counselor general in Berlin prior to World War II.

Messersmith also served as assistant secretary of state under President Franklin Roosevelt and was once featured on the cover of Time magazine.

Dr. Kenneth Miller, Class of 1943 - Miller was honored for his dedication to improving the lives of others.

He led the effort to educate the community and bring about the acceptance of fluoridation of the Fleetwood water supply and supported and encouraged other dentists to establish practices in the area. Miller also was a generous supporter of many philanthropic causes.

Excerpt from:
Fleetwood inducts inaugural group of distinguished alumni

Washington, D.C. Felix German Contreras, age 22, is a second-year student at Atlantic Cape Community College in New Jersey on a sure-footed path to health sciences.

New Jersey State Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society President. Atlantic City Boys and Girls Club Staff Assistant. Medical school-bound.

Who knew this was possible for the six-year-old Dominican boy who immigrated to Atlantic City in 1996. His father, a biochemical engineer, discovered his experience did not translate laterally to the U.S. and settled for casino employment. His mother, a high school graduate, is a beauty school-trained cosmetologist who enjoys styling hair.

A naturalized U.S. citizen at 17, Contreras watched his neighborhood friends wither under the weight of harsh challenges. Four of them were lost to drug abuse, incarceration and death. Peter, his closest friend since age seven died from a heroin overdose in 2012.

"Wasn't this move to America supposed to open a brighter future?" he wondered. The situations could easily create more doubt than possibilities for Contreras who describes himself in a desperate search for that "catalyst to achieve."

One late night in early 2012, Contreras, a calculus and chemistry whiz, tapped a few keystrokes that redirected his fate. A Google search for "medical summer program" returned the life-changing link SMDEP Summer Medical and Dental Education Program.

The Summer Medical and Dental Education Program is a free, six-week academic enrichment program sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The intensive program which offers tuition, housing and meals at 12 university sites across the country equips college freshman and sophomores from underrepresented backgrounds to pursue careers in medicine or dentistry.

Contreras applied and was accepted by SMDEP at the Yale University site. The rigorous science, math and medical school preparation was accompanied by workshops to improve reading and writing skills. Contreras admits the training helped him clear hurdles around English as his second language.

Encouraged by a site advisor to "step up his game," Contreras read six novels in six months, turning the corner on a newly found love for English.

The rest is here:
Six Week Program Exceeds Dreams, Opens Opportunities

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Ched grants scholarships to poor college freshmen

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- Rutgers University's president, a neuroscientist, was brought in last year to turn the school into a medical sciences powerhouse, but he has quickly become a target of criticism from some lawmakers who question his ability to lead the university amid a series of embarrassments in the high-profile athletic department.

Still, Robert Barchi has the support of the state's most important politician, Gov. Chris Christie, who said Tuesday that he has "absolute confidence" in Barchi and won't meddle in university business, including its decision to hire Julie Hermann as athletic director.

There have been revelations in recent days that volleyball players at the University of Tennessee complained that Hermann abused them verbally and emotionally when she coached there in the 1990s and that she was involved in a sexual discrimination lawsuit while she was an administrator at Louisville. She was hired by Rutgers May 15 and is scheduled to start there June 17.

"I understand that there are some people that feel differently about it. It doesn't matter," Christie said during a testy moment in his monthly call-in show on TownSquare Media Tuesday night. "What matters is: What did the administration at Rutgers believe?"

Christie said he had talked with Barchi, the university's lawyer and the chairman of the Board of Governors and believes they should be allowed to run the university as they see fit.

"These are their decisions," Christie said. "Now they have to deal with the questions that are being raised."

Last month, Christie, a Republican, gave a similar view when some Democratic lawmakers first questioned whether Barchi should be president at the start of a cycle of problems in the athletic department. Then, the university fired basketball coach Mike Rice days after a video was made public of him berating players with gay slurs, kicking them and throwing basketballs at them.

The university's athletic director and top in-house lawyer both resigned under pressure. Since then, the university has defended its hiring of new basketball coach Eddie Jordan after the school said he was a Rutgers graduate when he was not. Lacrosse coach Brian Brecht was also suspended two games for verbally abusing his players during practice, something the university discovered in a probe of all its sports programs after Rice's dismissal.

In his defense of Barchi in April, Christie said it would be a mistake to let Barchi go because of his role in trying to rebuild Rutgers.

Lawmakers last year adopted a version of Christie's plan to reconfigure the state university system with the goal of making Rutgers into an elite medical science research center by having it absorb parts of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

See the article here:
Rutgers president gets governor's backing

Published: Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 8:42 p.m. Last Modified: Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 8:42 p.m.

Gunnar Paulson, vice chairman of the School Board of Alachua County, has been inducted into the Alumni Hall of Fame at the University of Florida College of Health and Human Performance, joining such notables as Steve Spurrier, Emmitt Smith and Amanda Butler.

Paulson is being recognized for his many accomplishments and extraordinary service to the Alachua County School District.

Paulson earned bachelors and masters degrees as well as a specialist degree and a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Florida. He has taught physical education and math, worked as an athletic director and coached a variety of sports, primarily football and weightlifting, at four high schools, including Buchholz and Gainesville high schools.

He established weightlifting in this area, and won four state championships in the sport at Buchholz. As defensive coordinator at Mosely High School in Panama City, he helped lead the football team to two consecutive undefeated seasons. Paulson also spent two years as a graduate assistant coach with the UF football team.

From 1998 until his retirement in 2010, Paulson served as president of the Alachua County Education Association, the union representing Alachua County public school teachers and support personnel. Paulson has also served a number of local organizations, including the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce and the Juvenile Justice Council. Hes led the North Central Florida Labor Council and the School Board Insurance Committee.

n n n

The Williston-based Hooks will compete for a national title at Cooperstown Dream Park during the week of June 29-July 4 at Cooperstown, N.Y., the home of the American Baseball Hall of Fame and the American Youth Baseball Hall of Fame.

The team, comprised of youths from Williston, High Springs, Gainesville, Newberry, Chiefland and Lake City, will compete with teams from across the nation in a skills competition that includes three individual events and one team event called Around the Horn. Bryce King will represent the team in the Golden Arm event, Ethan Slone will represent the team in the Sultan of Swat event, and either Matt Moss or Joe Ruth will represent the team in the Road Runner event.

The Hooks recent achievements include a championship win at the Florida Elite 2K13 in Lake City, championship for the Power of Pink Tougher than Cancer tournament, championship for Slam Fest II, and runner up at the Perry Qualifier.

Original post:
UF health college inducts Paulson into Alumni Hall of Fame

Princeton's annual alumnibacchanal is in crisis. Reunions, as the well-documented event is known, coincides this year with a campus-wide outbreak of meningitis. Festivities are scheduled for next weekend, but a recent string of diagnoses affecting three students and one visitor has placed the Ivy League school on edge, says Bloomberg News. Reporter (and Columbia alum)Janet Lorin cites an official Princeton directive instructing alumni "to pay increased attention to personal hygienic practices during Reunions" while otherwise party the weekend away under the dual influence of nostalgia and alcohol. But how serious of a threat, really, does meningitis pose to Princeton's campus-wide merriment? Not a whole lot if Princetonians can hold off on making out too much.

RELATED: Wait and See Is the Next Phase of the Meningitis Outbreak

The first three meningitis cases at Princeton have been attributed to a fairly mild bacterial strain known asNeisseria meningiditis, whose mortality rate (reported as 10 percent) usually accords to one's access to medical care and the exact cause of the inflammation bacterial, viral, fungal, and so forth. (The fourth case is still being studied.) The only problem?Neisseria meningiditisspreads by the exchange of saliva, a popular activity at the notoriously libidinal Reunions. So frisky Princetonians may want to reconsider any plans to recapture their younger, freer years, and keep their cocktails to themselves. Which shouldn't bethat hard.

RELATED: 19,000 New Species; The Choking Game Trend

According to New Jersey's Department of Health, which declared the outbreak earlier this week, the best precaution remains vaccination, even though the particular bacterial profile tied to the first three cases would not have been neutralized by a vaccine. (A vaccine which targets this particular profile, known as Serogroup B, is difficult to produce in large quantities, due to the bacteria's makeup and, apparently, tense Cuban-American relations.) "Adolescents and young adults may be at increased risk for infection due to certain lifestyle factors," the department furtherexplained in a memo addressing the Princeton outbreak. Those factors include "crowded living conditions," "going to bars," and "irregular sleeping patterns." In other words, college itself.

RELATED: The College Campus Rape Crisis Is News to This Fox News Host

Photo bygary718viaShutterstock

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Princeton Meningitis Scare Threatens Nostalgic Hook-Ups at Reunion

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The Fleetwood Area School District and the FASD Foundation were very pleased to induct the inaugural class of Distinguished Alumni of Fleetwood Area High School on May 17.

The honorees were selected from 20 nominations. The honorees earned recognition through their outstanding service to our country, service to the Fleetwood community, service to or financial support of others in need, or through their outstanding contributions to their career.

Dr. Carl Constein, Class of 1938, was selected for his contribution to education and his service to our country. Dr. Constein started his career as an English teacher, and later became Superintendent of the Antietam and Wilson School Districts. He also wrote 400 weekly columns on education for the Reading Eagle in the late 50s and early 60s. He has published eight books, including ones on his experiences flying between China, Burma, and India, and four novels. Prior to his career in education, Dr. Constein served our country as a C-46 pilot and flew 96 supply missions for which he received two Air Medals and a Distinguished Flying Cross.

George Messersmith was selected for his service to our country. Messersmith served our countrys foreign service for 30 years. During that time, he was assigned to ten diplomatic posts on three continents between 1914 and 1947. During World War I, he cracked a secret German code that resulted in the identification and deportation of enemy agents. He served as the United States Counsel General in Berlin prior to World War II and was known for being a fearless foe of the Nazis. He was the Assistant Secretary of State under President Franklin Roosevelt. He was also selected as Time Magazines Man of the Year in 1946. Messersmith began his career in education and at one point was a grade school principal.

Dr. Kenneth Miller, Class of 1943, was selected for his service to our community and for his philanthropy. Throughout Dr. Millers life, he has been dedicated to improving the quality of life for others. Dr. Miller led the education of community members to bring about acceptance of fluoridation of the Fleetwood water supply. He encouraged and supported other dentists to establish new practices in our community. He has also generously supported many philanthropic causes.

Eric Schaeffer, Class of 1980, was selected for his contributions to his career in the theater. Schaeffer is the Founder of the Signature Theater in Virginia. In 2002, he was selected as the Artistic Director of the Stephen Sondheim Celebration at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Later, he directed Carol Burnett in Sondheims Putting it Together on Broadway. Over his 21 year history at the Signature Theater, he has led the theatre to 70 Helen Hayes Awards for outstanding excellence in the theater. He also received the Arts Founder Award in 2007. Schaeffer has directed many plays from New York to Las Vegas.

Florence Elizabeth Streich, Class of 1939, was selected for her service to humanity. Along with her husband, Streich joined the United Andean Indian Mission working in Ecuador in 1946. The mission is supported by the Presbyterian, Methodist and UCC Churches. During her 32 years of mission work with the Andean Indians, she established six schools, provided assistance with agricultural projects including obtaining and helping to teach the local Indians how to care for farm animals. She also helped to provide medical care through a small clinic, the only care available to the locals for many years. Both Betty and her husband devoted their lives to improve the lives of others.

Lillian Schlegel Walter, Class of 1926, was selected for her service to the Fleetwood community. Walter served the children of Fleetwood as an elementary teacher for 46 years. She was a founding member of the Womens Club of Fleetwood and the Fleetwood Historical Society. Throughout her life, she donated hundreds of artifacts to the Historical Society.

It was a true honor to recognize these six outstanding men and women for their contributions. Each was honored with a plaque that is displayed on the wall opposite the high school auditorium entrance. Dr. Constein and Miller were able to attend; the others were represented by relatives.

Continued here:
Fleetwood honors six Distinguished Alumni

Princeton University is moving forward with its annual alumni reunion at the end of the month, and the New Jersey school is urging as many as 24,000 attendees to take added precautions in light of a meningitis outbreak.

The most recent case is a Princeton student who traveled to his home state and was receiving treatment in a hospital there after he was diagnosed with meningitis on May 20, according to a statement from the Ivy League school. No campus events have been canceled, Martin Mbugua, a spokesman, said in an e-mail today.

While many colleges hold reunions for classes every five years, Princeton draws thousands back annually. The May 30 to June 2 gathering includes alumni-faculty forums with prominent graduates. The school will also introduce its president-elect, Provost Christopher L. Eisgruber, a member of the class of 1983.

The university urges attendees to pay increased attention to personal hygienic practices during reunion events in light of the diagnoses of three students and one campus visitor over the past few months, according to a statement on a reunion website.

The first case was a student who developed symptoms of bacterial meningitis after returning to campus from spring recess in March, according to a statement from the New Jersey Department of Health. A visitor to campus was diagnosed after returning to another state in April. Another student was diagnosed on May 7.

Bacterial meningitis is generally transmitted through direct exchange of respiratory and throat secretions by close personal contact, such as coughing, sharing drinks, kissing and being in close proximity for an extended period.

More than 4,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with bacterial meningitis each year, and the damage can be severe, with 500 dying from it annually, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most cases can be treated with antibiotics. Timing is critical, though, and many patients dont realize symptoms like nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to light suggest they need immediate medical attention.

To contact the reporter on this story: Janet Lorin in New York jlorin@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lisa Wolfson at lwolfson@bloomberg.net

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Princeton Expecting 24,000 at Reunion Amid Meningitis Outbreak