Latest news with #Cowles
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New FM station coming to Westfield
WESTFIELD — A new FM radio station is coming to Westfield. Westfield programming at WSKB is moving to WSFD-LP at 107.5 FM at the beginning of July. Westfield Media Specialist Peter Cowles said in late 2023, the Federal Communications Commission opened a one-month filing period for a low power FM station for the first time in a decade. Cowles received permission from Mayor Mike McCabe to apply as a public safety entity and jumped on it, he said. Westfield was one of two applicants out of eight that were selected. Cowles said Westfield had an original partnership with the Westfield State University student station WSKB, but the students at the university have been wanting it back. WSFD will be city-owned, with students at Westfield Technical Academy, where the studio is located, as the primary technicians on the station. He said it will also be open to the community at large for programming. The city is licensed with all three businesses, ASCAP, BMI and CESAC to play music. The station will also broadcast all emergency alerts in the city. On May 12, the Finance committee voted to recommend a transfer of $20,222 from the PEG Undesignated fiscal year 2025 account to the PEG Additional/Capital Equipment Account to purchase equipment for the station to finish off a 300 watt transmitter chain for the emergency Services alarm system. Cowles said they already have the computer, audio board and mics. Information Technology Manager Lenore Bernashe was able to get additional savings from Westfield Gas & Electric, who will increase the 80-foot tower located at the Water Department by adding 20 feet. Cowles said there are public safety receivers on it now that were put in six to seven years ago, and have a good range. Cowles said the 100-watt LPV station will reach Springfield and Northampton. 'That's why this site was perfect, and it's backed up on a mountain in Granby,' he said, adding that they will transition over on July 1 when the work is done. The new station is only one of the changes going on in the studio. On April 14, the City Council approved an expenditure of $296,915 from the PEG Undesignated Account, which is an enterprise fund, for a Mobile Sprinter Van. The van will cost $80,000 with $217,000 for customization and equipment including a 40-foot mast and camera, and will be used as a mobile television unit, able to cover city meetings and sporting events, and also able to be used as a short-term mobile command post as needed by the Police Department. Also in the works is a Chapter 74 certification for digital media, formerly called television and radio, as another career technical education program under graphic arts at WTA. 'I think it's a huge advantage for the program,' Cowles said. He said students will be able to run the radio programming and staff the vehicle, with a lot of opportunities to use the equipment and to train. He said they are presently rewriting the frameworks for the program. The school will be meeting with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in the next two weeks for the final word on Chapter 74, and have already toured the television station at WTA and made suggestions. Cowles said all in all they were impressed by the setup at the school. 'I can't believe what you did in such a small space — that's a quote from DESE,' he said. He said next year when the students return to school, the radio station WSFD will be up and running, and the mobile production unit will be on its way. 'A lot of changes happening all at once,' Cowles said. Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Elected Christians partake in persecuting fellow Christians through mass deportations
Migrants wait throughout the night on May 10, 2023, in a dust storm at Gate 42, on land between the Rio Grande and the border wall, hoping they will be processed by immigration authorities. (Corrie Boudreaux for Source NM) The Bible says pain and agony engulfed Jesus Christ in the final hours before his death, while fear of the future gripped his followers. Fear once again is prevalent in churches as Christians gather for Easter. This time it is because 'roughly one in 12 Christians in the United States are vulnerable to deportation or live with a family member who could be deported.' That's according to a new report, 'One Part of the Body: The Potential Impact of Deportations on American Christian Families,' published by a coalition of Christian organizations. 'Many American Christians, we suspect, have not realized that among immigrants at risk of deportation, the vast majority — four out of five — are fellow Christians,' the report's introductory letter said. Noem cheers court order requiring immigrants without legal status to register and carry documents The report's purpose 'is to invite American Christians — within our congregations and within the halls of governmental power — to recognize that, if even a fraction of those vulnerable to deportation are actually deported, the ramifications are profound — for those individuals, of course, but also for their U.S.-citizen family members and, because when one part of the body suffers, every part suffers with it, for all Christians.' Four South Dakotans with government power who could make a difference are U.S. Senators John Thune and Mike Rounds, U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Government action, or inaction as the case may be, is the source of great distress in churches today. 'There is just a strong emphasis on fear,' among parishioners, said The Very Rev. Kristopher Cowles, vicar for Hispanic ministry in the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls. He also serves Our Lady of Guadalupe church in Sioux Falls. 'They don't know from day to day what is going to happen.' Cowles is featured prominently in the report, which said that '80 percent of all of those at risk of deportation are Christians. Sixty-one percent of those at risk of deportation are Catholic, 13 percent are evangelical and 7 percent are adherents to other Christian traditions.' The report notes that President Donald Trump said during his campaign there were as many as 20 million deportable immigrants present in the U.S. How many will be targeted for deportation is unknown. Noem, who said in a 2021 Newsmax interview that 'our faith is everything — we love the Lord,' has been the tip of the spear in deporting immigrants. The report quoted Cowles saying government policies often cause the problem. 'So many of our laws make it nearly impossible to have a course forward even if they want to do so legally,' he said of immigrants. He wished there was more empathy among elected leaders. 'I wish lawmakers would understand the sacrifices that so many people have gone through, and what so many of them are running from,' he said in the report. 'Some are just looking for a better life and some are looking to just survive.' Most people, the report said, want violent criminals and those with final orders of deportation to be the priority for immigration enforcement. But they don't want blanket deportation. Reforming the immigration system must be a priority. Congress, which largely created this humanitarian problem, has the power to solve it. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Thune, Rounds and Johnson all say religion is central to their lives. Thune has said his faith in Christ is 'the foundation for pretty much everything I do.' Rounds, in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, reflected on faith and his job. 'I think part of it goes back to asking for wisdom and asking for the ability and the help to do what's right, to make the right decisions. A lot of decisions are not black and white. It's a matter of making the right decision long term. That saves lives. I think that's something that all of us as Christians should be doing.' Johnson has said 'faith, family and freedom are pillars of our nation.' Given their faith, and their powerful political positions and ability to influence this issue, they should not sit on the sidelines. It shouldn't be that hard to sway Congress when 87% of voting members say they are Christians. Cowles reminded everyone that Jesus was an immigrant. 'He made his way from Galilee and Judea into Egypt to flee the persecution of Herod.' He pointed to the Catholic Church's position on immigration. It says people have a right to migrate to sustain their lives and the lives of their families. It acknowledges that a country has a right to regulate its borders but that it should regulate them with 'justice and mercy.' 'That is the issue we are running into right now,' he said. Cowles added that Jesus 'would stand with the immigrants because he understands the persecution of people.' As Christians gather in churches this week and gaze at the image of Christ nailed to the cross, the authors of the 'One Part of the Body' report have one wish. 'We hope that you will prayerfully ask the Lord what part you should play at a time when so many of your brothers and sisters are fearful of the impacts of deportation.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Cowles family plans to donate The Spokesman-Review to local nonprofit
Apr. 15—The Cowles family intends to donate The Spokesman-Review to a recently formed Spokane-based community nonprofit organization that plans to continue publishing the newspaper amid the changes and challenges roiling legacy media. The plan calls for Publisher Stacey Cowles and his family's Cowles Co. to transfer ownership of the newspaper and award a $2 million matching grant to the nonprofit, called the Comma community journalism lab, which was founded by current Spokesman-Review Executive Editor Rob Curley. "It's been a great venture for 132 years, but if you had the chance to extend its viability, as people know and love it, why would you not do that?" Cowles said. He is among the fourth generation of the Cowles family to publish the city's daily paper. Cowles will stay involved with the newspaper as a member of Comma's board of directors. Curley also will serve on the board of 11 and lead the nonprofit as founder and president. "We firmly believe this is a great plan and the community and Comma have the resources to carry it off," Cowles said. "Of course, we're going to be helping to whatever extent we can. We're super excited to see this go." The change will not affect how readers get their newspaper, Curley said. The Spokesman-Review will continue to publish as it does currently: six days a week in print and always online behind a paywall, though stories reported and written by reporters whose positions are funded at least partially by outside grants will remain free. When the nonprofit reaches its fundraising goal and takes over the newspaper — potentially by mid-summer — readers will be offered subscription plans with different ways to engage with the newspaper content and process. "We believe a community should own its narrative, and the local newspaper must be created with and for its communities," Curley said, "especially in today's climate, that starts with putting power back into the hands of readers and citizens." The agreement includes a stipulation that current employees of The Spokesman-Review keep at least the same pay and benefits, Cowles said. He noted there are some details that needs to be ironed out as Comma works to raise the initial $2 million to trigger the Cowles' $2 million match. "There won't be any positions cut as a result of this move, per se," Cowles said. "But we're always looking for efficiencies, so we'll have retirements, we'll have restructuring, but that won't be contingent on the nonprofit." Comma's business model, developed with help and guidance from nonprofit consulting firm the Bridgespan Group, calls for donations from individuals and major local companies and institutions such as Avista Corp. or Gonzaga, for example. Curley said what sets it apart from similar ventures is a hybrid revenue stream called the "Spokane model." The newspaper would shift from a reliance on advertising and subscription revenue under a for-profit structure to a hybrid model that continues gathering these forms of revenue with added philanthropy. Conversations around this model have been underway for years as Curley weaved elements of philanthropy through his eight years as editor. He started fundraising efforts through the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund, which includes Northwest Passages book club events and collecting corporate sponsors for coverage, such as the annual Difference Makers series. Last year, the newspaper collected about $300,000 from nonprofit ventures, Cowles said. Now it's going a step further under a model that could bring in between $800,000 to $3 million each year. It's an effort to move from "a community newspaper" to "the community's newspaper," Curley said. Cowles said the newspaper's focus on a community-style of journalism has better resonated with readers, who felt they were more represented in the stories on the front page. Cowles described the style as "the way of the future." "(Curley's) brand of community journalism is really what has driven this and the response he got when in the first two months, we went from 10 complaint letters to 200 love letters," Cowles said. "What more do you need to say, 'Well, this looks like the right formula.' Then the question is, 'Well, how can we sustain it over a long, long period?'" The added revenue stream is necessary to the function of the newspaper as readers know it today, Cowles said. The Spokesman-Review is not immune to woes of the newspaper industry struggling with profitability and survivability. "We're losing two newspapers a week across the country. And we have been for three years now. The industry is in a crisis; there's no question," Cowles said. "That's why you've got people like us coming up with solutions like this because of necessity. If we don't figure something out, we're going to end up on the junk heap." It's the societal shift toward digitization that has made it difficult for most newspapers. The Spokesman-Review is generating 70% less revenue than it was in 2007, largely due to the shift from print to digital advertising, Cowles said. Revenue from subscriptions isn't enough to compensate for this drag, even with hikes in subscription fees and value-added pricing for delivery that grew subscription revenue over the past five years, Cowles said, but even that is now leveling off. "How do we fill the gap if we're going to stay at some semblance of the size newsroom we have," Cowles said. Philanthropy, future Comma executives hope, is how to fill the gap, and for more than just The Spokesman-Review. "It's a way for people that are subscribers to grow into being supportive philanthropists within the community," said Comma principal and board member Scott de Rozic, who has worked with Curley to make Comma ready for the transfer. Once finalized, Comma's business plans, financial models, legal documents and other details will be open source, available for the reference of other newspapers, which de Rozic hopes could help keep other publications afloat. "We also want to deeply inform through sharing and an open source model, all of our learnings here with the rest of the country," de Rozic said. "Because geographically we know we can't fix all the problems in the country, but we want the lessons that we learned and invested money in to be available, freely available, for the rest of the industry." The decision to transfer Cowles' family's long-standing asset wasn't easy for him or his family, who all weighed in on this deal. In his sixth-floor office of the iconic Spokesman-Review Tower at the corner at southeast corner of Monroe Street and Riverside Avenue, black-and-white photos of his family offer reassurance. "I think all my ancestors would agree this is a good move," Cowles said. Elena Perry's work is funded in part by members of the Spokane community via the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.
Los Angeles Times
22-02-2025
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
Prep talk: Marisol Cowles has led Flintridge Sacred Heart to brink of history in water polo
With more than 300 goals during an illustrious four-year girls' water polo career at Flintridge Sacred Heart, Marisol Cowles and her dedicated eight teammates have the Tologs playing for a Southern Section Division 3 championship on Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College against Elsinore at 6 p.m. Cowles, who has committed to UC Irvine, had seven goals in her team's semifinal win over Long Beach Poly. Flintridge Sacred Heart has never won a water polo title or even made the final. It's been a particularly challenging year with only nine players, one of whom had to step away briefly after her family's home was lost in the Eaton fire. There are seven championship games on Saturday, including Oaks Christian taking on Newport Harbor in the Open Division final at 12:10 p.m. … Corona, ranked No. 1 by The Times, opens its high school baseball season on Saturday at 11 a.m. at home against Los Osos. … The City Section will hold a semifinal doubleheader in Open Division basketball on Monday at Roybal. Cleveland will face Westchester at 6 p.m., followed by Chatsworth playing Palisades. … This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email
