Latest news with #Fleming
Otago Daily Times
38 minutes ago
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Studying mother acknowledged by YWCA initiative
University of Otago philosophy student Ellathea Fleming, holding her son Kahukura Tonginako-Fleming, 3, and Queen's High School student Malak Tamimi were named on the YWCA Y25 programme this year. PHOTO: GREGOR RICHARDSON Becoming a mother at 18 years old inspired a Dunedin woman to make a difference in her community. Ellathea Fleming was recently recognised for her work in the community by being named in the YWCA Y25 programme — a celebration of 25 young wahine and gender-diverse change-makers between 15 and 25 years old. Ms Fleming said it was nice to be acknowledged. The biggest thing she was involved in was the Hive, a group of young people who act as a two-way bridge between youth and the government started by Curative NZ. Ms Fleming was involved in starting Hive's rangatahi civics engagement group which involved talking to young people in different communities about politics. She got into the work when she was 18 years old and taking a break from university after having a child. "I was getting bored. "I was like 'no, there's still stuff I want to do'. "I want to see more change." She wanted people her age to understand the policies and vote. Ms Fleming said it had not been easy going through university with a child and some days were more frustrating than others. "It required a lot of patience not just with him but also with myself," she said. "This is the hard part; all the other stuff is easy." On top of being a mother and a student Ms Fleming is actively engaged in Talavou Village, and university-based networks. She has served as te aka mātauraka (academic officer) for the Otago Māori Humanities Students' Association, vice-president of the Otago Cook Islands Students' Association, and is a komiti member for te Manaaki o Tamariki Kōhanga Reo. Queen's High School student Malak Tamimi, 15, was also named on the list of the impressive young change-makers. She was a part of many different youth-orientated initiatives including the Dunedin Youth Council, the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand Youth Advisory Croup and Gen Z Aotearoa as well as being involved in her family's Rozana for Palestine fundraiser. University of Otago medicine student Eleanor Dunn, 23, and Wakatipu High School head girl Manuella Sanches Pedrosa, 17, were also named on the list. The young women went to Auckland for a three-day wananga (learning retreat) last week where they networked with other young people from around the country.
Otago Daily Times
an hour ago
- Sport
- Otago Daily Times
Steel boss ‘couldn't be more proud' despite missing playoffs
"It's just an exciting season. The games have been exciting, and everybody's got really behind the Steel, and behind the team that we've created this year." — Netball South chief executive Sonya Fleming. Photo: supplied Netball South chief executive Sonya Fleming takes heart from a much-improved Southern Steel season. Fleming is busy reviewing and reflecting on the season after the Steel wrapped up their ANZ Premiership campaign last week with five wins and five losses to narrowly miss the playoffs. "To be honest, I couldn't be more proud of the girls," Fleming said. "Unfortunately it hasn't quite gone our way. Maybe if we had a couple more rounds things would've changed, or if we didn't have those injuries in the beginning of the season then we would've had a bit more time to make a difference." Former player Wendy Frew took over the reins as head coach — "she's a legend of the South" — and was supported by assistant Liana Leota, who returned home with experience. Frew has been open about learning on the go in her first elite coaching gig, but Fleming said what Frew had done for the franchise was "next level". "I reckon Robyn Broughton would be incredibly proud of what both her and Liana have done," Fleming said. "I believe the culture they've created ... the crowds that we've been able to bring into our fortress, both here (Invercargill) and Dunedin, we couldn't be more happy about that, really. "We've got the best fans in the country and we're really grateful for that." Fleming told the Otago Daily Times in January new memberships had "peaked higher than pre-Covid numbers" and that support remained throughout the season, attracting several sold-out crowds. Initially, Fleming attributed crowd numbers to the shorter season, but as the season went on she had second thoughts. "It's just an exciting season. The games have been exciting, and everybody's got really behind the Steel, and behind the team that we've created this year. "Our fans just wanted to see some great netball and they have never walked away disappointed." The ANZ Premiership has been through a handful of changes in 2025, including being reduced to 10 rounds, plus the traditional two rounds of playoffs. Not knowing where the playoff series would be held — or who would grab third spot — until the final round robin indicated it had been an exciting competition, Fleming said. She was a fan of the 10-round season, but encouraged more innovations, including larger squads — which could help teams manage injuries better — or changes to the finals set-up. "I believe that netball will be better and stronger and has got great following ... and we just need to keep it that way from the grassroots. "It's really important for that pathway to come through." The Steel players still have community commitments in the coming weeks before wrapping up the season at their awards night. After debriefing 2025, Fleming will be busying contracting players and staff for next season.
USA Today
7 hours ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Popular analytics guru projects Wisconsin football win total for 2025 season
The calendar is just days away from reading 'August,' which means it's time for final preparation before the 2025 college football season. One notable milestone in that preparation is Big Ten media days, which are currently taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada. Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell and player representatives quarterback Billy Edwards Jr., cornerback Ricardo Hallman and center Jake Renfro all spoke on Wednesday. Here is further coverage of their comments. Another important stage of the season countdown is updates to various power ratings and projection models. One leader in that regard is Parker Fleming (@statsowar on X), who released his model's projected win totals for every Football Bowl Subdivision team on Monday. Wisconsin's projected win total: 5.2. Meanwhile, Wisconsin's Big Ten schedule includes games against Ohio State (10.1 projected wins), Oregon (10), Indiana (8.6), Michigan (8.4), Illinois (7.6), Washington (7.3), Iowa (7.2) and Minnesota (6.2). Of course, each team's schedule heavily weighs into their projected final record. But in Fleming's model, eight of Wisconsin's nine Big Ten opponents are projected bowl teams, with three potentially representing the conference in the College Football Playoff. Wisconsin's projection of 5.2 wins falls in line with the consensus. ESPN's Football Power Index projects 5.6 wins for the Badgers, while most sportsbooks hold their line at 5 1/2. We at Badgers Wire are a bit more optimistic -- we picked a 6-6 record for Luke Fickell's team with wins over Miami (Ohio), Middle Tennessee, Maryland, Iowa, Washington and Indiana, and losses to Alabama, Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon, Illinois and Minnesota. College football's current structure creates a significant discrepancy between five and six wins. If Fleming's projection comes true, Wisconsin would miss a bowl game for the second straight season and risk falling even further in the Big Ten pecking order. 6-6 finish to the regular season, meanwhile, would represent a step in the right direction and build tangible momentum entering 2026. The Badgers begin their quest for a return trip to the postseason with a Week 1 matchup against Miami (OH). Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes and opinion
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill Cassidy tops GOP fundraising in U.S. Senate race
BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) – While he is undoubtedly a frequent target of MAGA Republicans for his yes vote in the impeachment of President Donald Trump, Sen. Bill Cassidy is handily outpacing his GOP challengers for campaign funds raised in next year's U.S. Senate race. In the last few months, Cassidy has raised more than $ 2 million. Trump nominates Louisiana BESE member for director of US Mint According to the Federal Election Commission, he has about $9 million in cash on hand. Treasurer John Fleming appears to be his closest challenger in the fundraising category. This year, Fleming has raised approximately $380,000 and has more than $2 million on hand. Louisiana Bond Commission OKs 3 East Baton Rouge tax plan ballot measures State Sen. Blake Miguez has $1.7 million in cash on hand. Miguez is a state senator and has been in attack mode since he announced his candidacy. He calls Cassidy a RINO, Republican in name only, and in his campaign ad says, 'I'm Blake Miguez and I'm running for the U.S. Senate because Bill Cassidy sucks.' But Fleming says he'll be the one to primary Cassidy. Fleming's campaign website states the former congressman is the closest challenger in terms of likely votes. Fleming commissioned a poll by JMC Analytics and Polling, which indicates Fleming is the most likely runoff opponent for incumbent Cassidy in the October Primary. The General Election will be held in November. Latest News Project 70805, Baton Rouge councilman to give out school supplies to kids PHOTOS: Remembering Hulk Hogan, iconic wrestler dead at 71 2025 Cortana Kiwanis Christmas Parade canceled due to rising costs, funding shortfall Chuck Mangione, known for 'Feels So Good,' dies at 84 Cause of death for celebrity chef Anne Burrell released Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hamilton Spectator
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hamilton Spectator
Renée Fleming makes directing debut with wrestling-themed ‘Così fan tutte' at Aspen Music Festival
ASPEN, Colo. (AP) — Renée Fleming's 'Così fan tutte' was ready to rumble. Long a star soprano, Fleming made her directing debut Monday night at the Aspen Music Festival and School by transporting Mozart's masterpiece from 18th century Naples, Italy, to a gym in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, amid professional wrestling's rise in 1980. Posters on stage display Sylvester Stallone as Rocky, wrestler Randy Savage and Jane Fonda hawking her workout video. In Fleming's concept, Fiordiligi and Dorabella are workout-obsessed high school sisters. 'It's a coming of age for the protagonists and a loss of innocence,' Fleming said. An outstanding student cast ages 25-32 mostly making role debuts, was accompanied by conductor Patrick Summers leading a 45-piece orchestra at the 375-capacity Wheeler Opera House, opened in 1889 during the Colorado Silver Boom. There are two additional performances through Saturday at a festival that includes about 200 public events from July 2 to Aug. 24. Lauren Carroll, the 26-year-old soprano who sings Fiordiligi, did a split. Dorabella, 27-year-old mezzo-soprano Ashlyn Brown, struggled to lift a heavy barbell. Michelle Harvey's scenic design in the tight space of a 25-foot-wide proscenium included punching bags, bo staffs and ThighMasters. Fleming sang her first Countess in Mozart's 'Le Nozze di Figaro' as an Aspen student in 1984. Now 66, she has, since 2017 , limited her singing to concerts, a few contemporary operas and Broadway. Staging spark was at a hockey game Fleming had a circuitous route to her concept. 'I can't do the opera relating to hockey, but I did think of another sport that reminds me so much of opera and that's professional wrestling. There's a suspension of disbelief that is huge,' she said. 'Fans believe these characters are real and that the moves are real, and of course it's all completely choreographed.' Fleming at first spoke with Francesca Zambello, the Washington National Opera's artistic director. 'I said, `Convince me, sell me, tell me,'' Zambello related, '`you really have to work it through from the overture to the final curtain.' WNO's 'Così' in 2021 was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. In 2020, Fleming and Summers launched Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS, with 15 singers annually attending an eight-week program that covers their $12,325 tuition, room and board plus pays a $1,500 stipend. Wrestling family history Ashlyn Brown, the 27-year-old mezzo-soprano who performs Dorabella, is a granddaughter of Don Stansauk, the wrestler known as Hard Boiled Haggerty. 'I grew up with wrestling culture,' she said. 'I used to go to the Cauliflower Alley Club meetings when I was a kid. He brought all of his buddies, like Andre the Giant.' Carroll was a cheerleader and her mother is an aerobics instructor. 'She really invests in young artists and it's authentic,' she said of Fleming. 'She really means it and backs it up with action.' In creating the look, Fleming thought back to her time at Churchville-Chili Senior High School in New York. 'I have photographs of me with a really bad mullet and overalls,' she said. Just before intermission ended, a Fonda dress-alike led the audience in calisthenics. Despina (soprano Laura Miah), a gym manager here instead of a maid, uses a blender to make protein shakes and heads stretching exercises. 'Renée of course demanded a lot of herself as a singer in that way and that's extended itself to her demands on them in this,' Summers said. Mozart's opera has the two boyfriends adopt hidden identities and romance each other's girlfriend to test their virtue. Both women fall for the other's boyfriend, and while the two couples get back together in the original, Fleming has both relationships come apart. Fiordiligi ends up wearing an 'ERA YES' shirt. Don Alfonso is a gym owner. Guglielmo and Ferrando, the boyfriends (baritone Finn Sagal and tenor Jonghyun Park), wear Amanda Seymour's colorful clothes, including powder blue and light gray tuxedos with ruffled shirts. Peter Barber, a 31-year-old bass-baritone who sings Don Alfonso, boxes to keep in shape. 'When I was I think 8 or 9 years old after watching `Rocky,' I had a custom boxing robe made for me,' he said. Role a part of Fleming's life for more than 30 years Fleming sang Fiordiligi for the first time at Geneva in March 1992. She greeted the cast at the first rehearsal on June 30 by telling them: 'Toi toi toi. Let's have some fun,' using a performers' expression for good luck. 'I'm astonished that someone who is such an extraordinary singer and performer, they are also an extraordinary stage director,' choreographer Sara Erde said. 'She knows every note of the music, every word of the text.' Fleming learned that unlike with singing, directing requires 'million decisions that have to be made day to day.' At WNO, Fleming had envisioned a set with a stadium-sized video screen. She hopes the staging has an extended life. 'If anybody wanted to do it, it would be really fun in a bigger theater with a budget,' she said. 'Especially the time we're in, it's not a bad time to bring pro wrestling into opera because of the similarities, for the sheer novelty of it.'
