Latest news with #JonathanRoberts
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
GOTL gearing up for summer, administrative changes
GENEVA-ON-THE-LAKE — Leaders of the village are hoping for less rain, more sun and are working to create a new administrative team, said GOTL Mayor Dwayne Bennett. The village is looking for a new finance director a new village administrator, and recently hired a new police chief, Bennett said. He said the former police chief and administrator resigned earlier this spring. Jonathan Roberts was hired to run the police department in May. He comes from a department in the Cleveland area, where he was a lieutenant for seven yeas and a sergeant for five, Bennett said. 'He wanted to move up and be a chief,' he said. Bennett said the chief has already instituted some policy changes and is gearing up for the July 4 celebration, complete with a massive fireworks show. Bennett said there has been a period of time when Sean Ratican came in to help with some administrative and finance needs, but a working interview for the finance job is expected to occur toward the end of the month. GOTL Deputy Administrator Jessi Spurlock has been handling administrative duties for the village, Bennett said. He said she worked with former administrator Jeremy Shaffer, whose last day was May 16. Spurlock is doing a good job, Bennett said. 'She is pretty well versed,' he said. Bennett said Shaffer returned to southern Ohio, where he spent a lot of time. He thanked Shaffer for his work bringing $12 million to the village during his four years on the job. The early spring weekend weather has put the village back a little bit, but businesses are adjusting. The Fourth of July weekend is a huge time for the village and its businesses. Bennett said village safety forces and a hired traffic control operation are preparing for the fireworks show on the evening of July 4. He said there will be 17 private company staff assisting the police department, full and part-time workers on the big night. The police department currently employs four full-time and three part-time officers, with two more part-time officers about to be hired, Bennett said. There is also a group of officers that work occasional shifts for the village. Bennett said a development group has approached the village about creating more than 20 permanent homes on four acres of land being cleared east of the Lodge at Geneva-on-the-Lake. He said he expects more detailed plans soon, but the homes would be 1,800-2,200 square feet.
Telegraph
13-05-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
We tracked down 12-year-old who won the inaugural Telegraph Fantasy Football
For a few weeks in May 1995, Jonathan Roberts was one of the most celebrated football managers in Britain as he featured on the front page of The Daily Telegraph and was interviewed on television about a feat nobody had accomplished before. He had won the inaugural fantasy football competition for the 1994-95 season – and he was just 12 years old. Now 42, and with 12-year-old twin sons of his own, Roberts can look back on a triumph 30 years ago that heralded the dawn of a new age in gaming and predictions. The Premier League's fantasy football competition on its app now has 11.5 million entrants globally, hooked on the popularity of the world's most successful domestic football league. When Roberts won, the first competition was Telegraph Fantasy Football and it was immediately popular, drawing 342,000 entrants. It is still going to this day, with 50,000 devoted players and 85,000 teams. The major difference in the pre-digital days of the mid-1990s was that the competition was conducted entirely via postal correspondence. Teams and transfers were submitted by coupon, and after the weekend and Monday night action, the top 100 were published in The Daily Telegraph on the following Wednesday. 'I had to wait for the phone call on the Monday morning after the last day of the season to tell me I had won,' Roberts says. 'In those days you just didn't have a clue how many points others had won, or who they had in their team. I went into the last weekend leading by a point. There were many things that could have happened that final day which could have swung it in another direction.' Indeed, he would later find out that had Andy Cole scored one of his many chances for Manchester United at Upton Park that day, not only the Premier League title but the fantasy football crown would have gone elsewhere. As it was, Roberts returned home from school in Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands to find out via a call from The Telegraph that he was the first-ever fantasy football champion. 'It kicked off a crazy few weeks for me,' he says. 'At times I think my parents thought that the whole thing was a bit mad but I loved it. I was revelling in it for six months.' It never quite launched a career in football management proper – he is a partner at the chartered accountants Moore Kingston Smith, and lives with his partner and children in South Oxfordshire. But for a 12-year-old devoted to playing and watching football, and a Liverpool fan, this was almost as good. On Wednesday, May 17, 1995, The Telegraph featured Roberts on its front page – a rarity at the time for football. His picture in a Liverpool kit caught the attention of Adidas, then – as they will be next season – the club's kit manufacturer, and sponsor Carlsberg. 'They couldn't believe their brand was on the front page of a national newspaper,' Roberts says, even though the kit in question was the 1993-1994 edition. It was advertising in the days of print media dominance that money simply could not buy. Adidas arranged for him to meet Roy Evans and his players that July, when they gathered at Anfield for their pre-season team picture. David James, one of Roberts's original fantasy XI, had read all about his triumph. A peroxide-dye Robbie Fowler was delighted to hear he had been a crucial late-season signing by Roberts in what was the striker's breakthrough year at Anfield. Roberts's father Mike was a Telegraph subscriber and the family had also signed up early to the nascent Sky Sports, which father and son watched every Sunday while mother Margaret played golf. When Telegraph Fantasy Football launched in the summer of 1994, Jonathan, then just 11, was encouraged by Mike to pick a team. Jonathan called it Laura's Leftovers – referencing a family joke – and spotted a way of gaming the system that would not be possible in the digital age. 'I felt that Liverpool would keep a lot of clean sheets so I signed David James and Stig Inge Bjornebye. You could pick a maximum of two players from each club. But it was also clear that Phil Babb would sign for Liverpool that season, although at the time I entered he was still listed as a Coventry City player. I signed him in time and every time Liverpool kept a clean sheet I got nine points.' Another inspired signing was Andrei Kanchelskis, Manchester United's top scorer in the league that year. So too Bryan Roy, who scored 14 goals and registered the same number of assists in a season when, as now, Nottingham Forest were in the top four. The Norwich City stalwart John Polston will be pleased to know he made the cut as a budget midfielder. When Bjornebye broke a leg in April, Fowler came into the Laura's Leftovers XI in red-hot goalscoring form. Only six transfers could be made per season, in three pairs. 'As soon as Bjornebye was carried off against Southampton,' says Roberts, 'I got the stamp and envelope out.' With three weeks of the season to go, Roberts was already well known to Telegraph Fantasy Football players. He had a 20-point lead and had twice been featured in the weekly commentary on the top 100 which was published every Wednesday. Like all shrewd managers he declined to tell the reporter exactly who was in his selection and, although his lead was whittled away in the last few weeks, he loved every minute of it. 'As a kid whose dad had always read the Telegraph, suddenly being part of the news and part of this new game was crazy at the time.' His victory propelled him into local newspapers, and on to the BBC Midlands Today programme. As a perk he accompanied BBC Midlands to interview Aston Villa's big-name summer signing, Gareth Southgate, who had also heard about his win. When he appeared as the 'And finally' item on ITV's News at Ten, again wearing his Liverpool shirt, Carlsberg's marketing department could hardly believe their good fortune. Ordinarily, they would have presented him with a year's supply of beer but reasoned that was not an appropriate prize for a 12-year-old. After meeting the Liverpool players at Anfield, Jonathan travelled to a friendly at St Andrew's against Birmingham City that day. Adidas presented him with a new Liverpool kit and a pair of the new boots it had launched that year – the original Predators. The Telegraph prize was a holiday for two anywhere in the world although, once again, it had not bargained for a 12-year-old winner. It became a holiday for three. A trip to Turin to watch Juventus and then a holiday in Mauritius, where the Roberts family met Denis Law by the pool and Jonathan explained to the late great Scotsman the benefits of playing fantasy football. Roberts has played fantasy football ever since, although the vintage year of 1994-1995 has never been repeated. His best finish since was 1,142nd, in 2006-07. His sons, Harry and Freddie, play too, although the old days of teams submitted by post and wall charts filled in by hand are long gone. The trophy and the memories, however, remain.
Associated Press
07-04-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Leading Pharmaceutical Supplement Company, NovaFerrum Celebrates Fifteen Years of Clinically Proven Results, Positive Patient Outcomes
Company to mark occasion with patient/doctor social campaign, sales promotions, charitable donation to support children's health GREENVILLE, S.C., April 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- NovaFerrum, the ONLY over-the-counter iron supplement clinically proven to be safe, effective and well-tolerated through a multi-year clinical study, is celebrating its 15th in 2025 – fifteen years of helping everyone from preemies to seniors stay healthy and feel better, while being widely recommended by physicians. Founded in 2010 by a concerned father desperate to help his preemie daughter get the iron she needed, NovaFerrum offers a complete line of natural and highly effective iron supplements specially formulated to work well, be more easily absorbed and minimize the gastrointestinal side effects like constipation and stomach pain often caused by other iron supplements. Its infant and children's liquid iron products also feature a patented taste-masking technology making the products more palatable, enhancing compliance and helping frustrated parents across the globe. In 15 years, the company has grown from a garage start-up to one of the most widely used and recommended iron supplements, selling more than 50,000,000 bottles through pharmacies and Amazon and enjoying thousands of five-star reviews. In keeping with the company's focus on science and improving the lives of children, NovaFerrum will celebrate this milestone in several ways throughout the year, including a donation to Vitamin Angels, a public health non-profit working to improve nutrition for pregnant women, infants and children, as well as a social campaign featuring medical testimonials. For the months of April and May, NovaFerrum will also offer on 15 percent discount on all order placed directly through its website, using the code 15YEARS. In offering his congratulations on the anniversary, Dr. Jonathan Roberts, Associate Medical and Research Director of the Bleeding and Clotting Disorders Institute wrote, 'NovaFerrum continues to be my go-to oral iron supplement for children needing oral iron therapy. They love the taste, and it is very well-tolerated compared to ferrous sulfate.' NovaFerrum has grown exponentially with minimal advertising, relying almost exclusively on physician recommendations and word of mouth from happy customers and relieved parents. 'I founded NovaFerrum with a laser focus on proven clinical outcomes rather than slick marketing, a desire to help others and a pledge to never cut corners,' noted NovaFerrum/Gensavis Pharmaceuticals founder and CEO Patrick Monisivais. 'For 15 years, we have gone above and beyond, and that commitment to doing the right things the right way has paid off immensely in improving the health of countless people.' About NovaFerrum Headquartered in Greenville, S.C. and founded in 2010 by a former pharmaceutical executive and concerned parent, NovaFerrum makes iron and multi-vitamin supplements designed to keep adults and children healthy and thriving. Our all-natural and American-sourced and manufactured products are the only over-the-counter iron supplements clinically proven to be safe, effective and well-tolerated through an in-depth multi-year clinical study. For more information about our complete line of natural iron supplements, please visit
