Latest news with #MIAC
New York Times
28-03-2025
- New York Times
A Tropical Haven for Design and Seafood Is Back on the Tourist Map
After a tumultuous few years, Colombo, Sri Lanka's largest city, is once again beckoning tourists. Shaking off the political upheaval that followed the country's 2022 economic collapse, the city is proving its resilience and putting on a more democratic and left-leaning face. While most visitors know Colombo, with a metropolitan area population of about four million, for its monumental lotus-shaped tower and sprawling array of temples and mosques, there's now a distinct interest in the revival of its cultural heritage. The recent arrival of new fairs like the Ceylon Literary & Arts Festival and the Matara Festival for the Arts have brought a more international focus to Colombo and the southern fort cities of Sri Lanka. And in February, Jagath Weerasinghe, one of the country's leading authorities on art and archaeology, co-founded a new gallery called MIAC, or Millennium Art Contemporary, just outside of Colombo, in the suburb of Athurugiriya. There's also more appreciation internationally these days for the art and design that have emerged from Sri Lanka's unique circumstances over time, from the Tropical Modernism style of the late architect Geoffrey Bawa to the male erotica of the Colombo-born photographer Lionel Wendt. Among the country's many contemporary talents is the fashion designer Amesh Wijesekera, who works with artisanal craft textiles and dead stock fabrics left behind in Sri Lankan factories to produce boundary-breaking pieces that address South Asian gender and sexual identity. Sri Lanka's first international tourism campaign in more than a decade and the expansion, since 2023, of its visa-free entry program have contributed to a rebound in visitors, with more than two million arrivals last year, a 38 percent increase. Many of them are finding Colombo's gallery and restaurant scenes and its newer designer hotels to be as tempting a draw as Sri Lanka's famous tea trails and southern surfing beaches. Here, four Colombo insiders offer a tour of the places that are driving a renewed sense of optimism in the city. 'As an archaeologist, I can tell you this island has been receiving international people since at least the third century B.C.,' Weerasinghe says. 'This has been a cosmopolitan place for centuries, for millennia, so it's written into our cultural genes.' Trained as an architect, Shayari de Silva is the chief curator of the Geoffrey Bawa Trust. She also runs a ceramics practice called Clay Bodies. Colombo-born Rishi Naleendra is the chef behind Singapore restaurants Cloudstreet, Kotuwa and Station by Kotuwa, the last of which opened in the first week of March. The artist and archaeologist Jagath Weerasinghe co-founded the Colombo-based Theertha International Artists Collective, which promotes experimental art in Sri Lanka, in 2000. The fashion designer Amesh Wijesekera moved back home to Colombo in 2024 after five years in London and three in Berlin to set up his own studio. Stay 'The Geoffrey Bawa Trust is a nonprofit that generates its operating income through visits and stays. It's very special to stay at Lunuganga, Bawa's former country estate [about two hours' drive south of Colombo] and to experience the garden at different times of day; it's magical at sunrise in one spot, and then later you see the sunset from across the lake. There are 14 bells located on the property, each of which has a distinct sound, that Bawa used so that staff in the main house could locate him as he moved through the garden over the course of the day.' (Rooms from about $410 per night) 'There are also some really interesting homestays throughout Colombo, including Number 11, Geoffrey Bawa's former home, which has a guest suite containing two bedrooms. Staying here is such a special and immersive way to understand Bawa and his world. Highbury Colombo is a homestay with a wonderful urban garden. There are also homes that have been converted into charming boutique hotels, like Ishq, a beautiful house that was designed by Channa Daswatte.' (Rooms from about $250 a night at Ishq; rooms from about $70 at Highbury Colombo; suite from about $350 at Number 11) — Shayari de Silva 'A newly built hotel called Cinnamon Life at City of Dreams has more than 900 pieces of Sri Lankan art in its collection, including one of mine. It's a wonderful hotel in a building designed by Cecil Balmond, who was part of the team that engineered the Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing. (Rooms from about $138 per night) — Jagath Weerasinghe 'Tintagel is a boutique hotel in a historic house where a lot of important political moments took place. The interiors are very grand [and are] by the family behind the Paradise Road Gallery Café.' (Rooms from about $250 per night) — Amesh Wijesekera Eat and Drink 'About a year and a half ago, three brothers opened a restaurant called Gini, [whose name] means 'fire' in Sinhalese. Most of the food is grilled or features a fire component in the way it's prepared. They serve dishes like oysters with herb-infused coconut cream and Malay-style beef cheek pie, and there's sometimes a fancy version of a s'more on the dessert menu. They have the best arrack sours in Colombo [arrack is a liquor made from the fermented sap of coconut flowers]. 'The Gallery Café, located in a fantastic space that was Geoffrey Bawa's old office, has been a Colombo favorite for decades. The black pork curry is one of their best Sri Lankan dishes. I think they also have the best desserts in Colombo. 'Palmyrah Restaurant is in the no-frills basement of the Renuka City Hotel, but it has amazing food, including lots of northern dishes such as kool (seafood stew) and Jaffna crab curry. The best crab and shrimp dishes are from the north. The spices tend to be roasted more, and there's less coconut milk or grated coconut in the dishes.' — S.D.S. 'You can't talk about Colombo without talking about Ministry of Crab. Sri Lanka is well known for our giant mud crabs (also known as lagoon crabs), but funnily enough, we don't often get to eat them in Sri Lanka because [most of the catch] gets exported to Singapore, Hong Kong or Taiwan. So if you want to try the highest quality of Sri Lankan crabs here, Ministry of Crab is the place that you should go — sometimes, if you're lucky, you'll get a crab that weighs one and a half or two kilos. 'Club Ceylon in Negombo is convenient to the airport if you're catching a flight. Liz Norris is a half-English, half-Sri Lankan chef cooking in a colonial house a four-minute drive from Lellama, which is the best fish market in the country. She handpicks whatever she wants to cook that day and prepares it with a Mediterranean feel. 'In Sri Lanka we call everyone an uncle or an auntie, so it's hard to not want to go for a drink at a bar called Uncle's. The drinks change often and [the bartenders] use a lot of local ingredients. It gets really busy some nights, and the music is always good — it's a vibe. 'There's this crazy tradition we have at Galle Face Hotel when a bagpiper, dressed in a kilt, comes to play at the lowering of the flag every day when the sun goes down. I'll go to In on the Green, a pub in the hotel, and have a beer and a little bite — we never have a drink without a bite — and usually it's hot butter cuttlefish or spicy fish croquettes. It's not the most Sri Lankan experience, but it's a tradition that's been going on for over a hundred years.' — Rishi Naleendra 'If you want good Jaffna food [Jaffna is the largest city in northern Sri Lanka], Olai in Wellawatte is a small family-run restaurant. Many Jaffna people are vegetarians, and Olai's dishes include puttu — a cylindrical rice cake made of steamed grated coconut and rice flour — served with different curries.' — J.W. Shop 'Barefoot [originally called Colombo Gallery] was started [in the 1960s] by Barbara Sansoni, a textiles designer who had been approached by Mother Good Counsel of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd [an order of Catholic nuns] looking for ways to promote social empowerment projects in rural parts of the island. It's one of the most interesting places to take somebody to understand Sri Lankan crafts. There's a gallery and a fantastic cafe as well.' — S.D.S. 'Several stores support young Sri Lankan designers. PR is a very high-end concept store started by Annika Fernando of Paradise Road, which is the iconic store that has a bit of everything. The Design Collective (the main entrance is inside Gandhara, a high-end furniture and interior design store) has a wide range of designers.' — A.W. Take Home 'The country is really known for producing black tea and spices. The best cinnamon comes from Sri Lanka as well. You can get beautifully packaged ones at Paradise Road and Barefoot, but you can also find them in grocery stores. There are certain canned condiments that I still take for my friends every time I go to New York, like pol sambol, which is grated coconut with spices and umbalakada, or Maldives fish — dried, cured tuna that has a distinct taste.' — S.D.S. 'My wife loves the tapioca chips salted with chili and roasted cashew nuts [found at supermarkets] and I always bring home lamprais — short-grain rice cooked in stock and then added to mixed-meat curry, ash plantains, caramelized onion and a fish cutlet. It's all wrapped in a little packet with banana leaf. The best place to get them is from the Dutch Burgher Union, [which will sell them to you] ready frozen. Preorder in advance and they'll have them ready for you to pick up. They'll keep for a couple of months in the freezer. Whenever I miss home, I'll steam one up in the oven and when I open the banana leaf, it's an amazing smell.' — R.N. 'Urban Island [sells] homewares, organic spices and a bit of everything, almost all [grown or] designed in Sri Lanka. 'Kala Pola is a big open-air art fair that happens on the street once a year [normally in February] where all the artists from across Sri Lanka come to show their work in booths set up around the Viharamahadevi Park. You can meet the local artists and find their work at its raw source, before it gets to the shops.' — A.W. Explore 'The Colombo National Museum is one of my favorite places because you could literally be the only person in this massive building. A lot of national museums tend to be pretty heavy on narrative, but somehow here, you can take it in more on your own terms.' — S.D.S. 'The best places to see art are the Sapumal Foundation, which was the home of one of the members of the '43 Group, the avant-garde modernists of Sri Lanka, and the galleries of Saskia Fernando [PRSFG] and Dominic and Nazreen Sansoni [Barefoot].' — J.W. 'Kelaniya Temple is a beautiful Buddhist place with lots of 18th-century and early 20th-century Buddhist murals by Solias Mendis. In Thimbirigasyaya there are two temples, Asokoramaya and Isipathanaramaya, built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries [and] fully painted by M. Sarlis, whose teacher, Richard Henricus, was a painter of murals and theater backdrops. The results were extremely kitsch and colorful renderings of ancient palaces. Also from the early 20th century is Gothami Viharaya, a 15-minute drive north, with murals by George Keyt. Mendis's work in Kelaniya, the temples in Thimbirigasyaya and Gothami Viharaya were all painted during the same period for the same audience but in three different styles, showing the cosmopolitan nature of Sri Lankan society.' — J.W. 'Getting lost is the best way to explore the Pettah Market because you never know what you'll find. One alleyway leads to little toy shops, another to electronics shops with the craziest things. Then you'll randomly go upstairs and enter a bridal boutique. In the center of the market is the Red Mosque, which combines Islamic, Gothic and Neoclassical influences. The surrounding architecture is also historic, with many British colonial constructions, like the Cargills Building.' — A.W. These interviews have been edited and condensed.
CBS News
20-03-2025
- Sport
- CBS News
Augsburg University women's hockey team heads to Division III NCAA Tournament for the first time
The MIAC women's hockey champions are competing in the Division III NCAA tournament this week — for the first time in the program's 30-year history. Their overtime win over Gustavus in the MIAC championship marked the Auggies' 23rd victory, which was the most wins this program has ever had in one season. This moment also gave them the top seed going into the Division III NCAA tournament. "It's just so much fun that it's finally getting to pay off our senior year," said Emily Cronkhite, Auggies senior captain and Eagan native. Going this far in the postseason is something that's always been just out of reach for these seniors. "Pretty much every year that I've been here, we've finished 2nd in the MIAC, so it's so awesome to finally get over that hump," senior Elizabeth Fagerlind said. "And I've been saying all year, this is the year we're going to do it." The success they saw this season was unexpected with so much change they endured. One of those big changes was in leadership. Elizabeth Bauer is their new head coach. She was promoted from assistant last season. "I got really lucky to be put in this position and brought into a program that was already so successful, due to the previous head coaches who were here that already built it," Bauer said. Another big change is half their roster is new with 11 first year players and two transfers, including goaltender and Delano native, Kayla Simonson. She's been in the net for 14 wins this season, including five shutouts, with a 94% save percentage. "Everything just clicked, and I felt right at home," Simonson said. The chemistry on this team is undeniable, as they embrace each other and the challenge ahead to a championship. "It's a new experience, and I want to soak up every moment and remember this for the rest of my life," Cronkhite said. The Auggies play St. Norbert College in the quarterfinals at 3 p.m Saturday. As the No. 1 seed, they have home ice advantage.
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lawmakers try again to hire auditor to oversee Maine's secretive state police intelligence unit
Feb. 28—Some Maine lawmakers are renewing efforts to tap into what's happening inside the state's secretive — and controversial — police intelligence unit. The Maine Information and Analysis Center, also called the MIAC, has been the subject of controversy since 2020 when a whistleblower complaint said the center was illegally monitoring and storing data on civilians. A subsequent document leak also revealed that it had disseminated what some called shoddy intelligence that infringed on people's civil rights. Ever since, lawmakers have been trying to either close the center entirely, or hire an independent auditor to oversee its work. The bill, LD 419, would create an auditing position within the Maine Office of the Attorney General to oversee accountability and transparency of the center, as well as accept questions and complaints. Lawmakers from the Legislature's Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee heard mixed testimony at a public hearing Wednesday, with some saying the agency already provides regular reports. "I think the exact asks of this bill are the exact things that we're doing today," MIAC's director Lt. Mathew Casavant said in a phone interview Thursday. "We've taken every one of those steps to do everything that's outlined in the bill presently. If an auditor would allow for some increased transparency, there's no issue on our end." The proposal was resurrected from last year — it had passed in both chambers but died at the end of the session without funding. Supporters say the bill provides clearer, more proactive guidance for the new role and may contribute to increased transparency. Its sponsor, Rep. Grayson Lookner, D-Portland, told the committee Wednesday that the auditor would ensure that the agency follows its privacy policies and respects all Mainers. "This lack of transparency is a direct threat to civil liberties and undermines the trust between Mainers and their government," Lookner said. "The MIAC was created to protect us, not to spy on us. Its current practices are a betrayal of its original mission and a violation of the public trust." HISTORY OF CONTROVERSY The MIAC is run by the Maine State Police and the Maine Emergency Management Agency, and is one of 80 "fusion centers" in the United States that were created after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to prevent future threats by storing and sharing information — though many centers have focused more on domestic crimes. In 2020, Maine's fusion center came under fire after George Loder, a state trooper in Scarborough, said he was demoted after reporting illegal information collection practices such as storing personal identifying information on people who did not commit a crime. (He was awarded $300,000 in compensatory damages by a federal jury in 2022.) Later that year, data from the unit was made public after a nationwide hack of police intelligence showed the center had collected information on racial-justice protestors and others exercising their First Amendment rights. The center has been under increased scrutiny since then by lawmakers, who passed legislation in 2021 requiring the center to produce annual reports — which they have also criticized for not being detailed enough. Brendan McQuade, an assistant professor of criminology at the University of Southern Maine who studies fusion centers, testified in favor of the bill because he said it would be a good first step in establishing better oversight of the center. McQuade has also analyzed the MIAC with his law students and published a "shadow" report on the same day the center released its annual report in 2022. His version called out a flawed audit process and intelligence reports that violate privacy policies. "For me, this is a disparaging reminder of the effects of mass incarceration," McQuade said in a phone interview Thursday. "Things like mental illness, substance abuse, those are problems of security. Those are problems of the cops and courts. And that's a really clumsy tool to deal with those problems." RAISING THE STANDARD? But critics say hiring an auditor is unnecessary because it is essentially the same position as the center's privacy officer — who is also staffed within the attorney general's office and coordinates the regular audits and annual reports with an advisory board. York County Sheriff Bill King, who spoke against the proposal on behalf of the Maine Sheriffs Association, said he hasn't seen any privacy violations from a "boots on the ground" perspective, and worries the bill would be duplicative of the privacy officer's current role. If the bill were to pass, Casavant said, it may eliminate the need for the privacy officer and the 12-member advisory board. McQuade said previous privacy officers were attorneys for the Maine State Police who were also part of the center's "self-selecting" board, which reviews policy and produces regular audits. Though he said he understands how having an auditor could be duplicative, McQuade said the bill's language is "much stronger" and raises the standard. Having an independent position written into Maine law would result in clearer, well-defined audits, even if the current officer works for the attorney general's office, he said. Casavant said his team has taken steps since 2020 and is continuing to evolve and review their standards "as the world changes and as the mission changes," citing the annual reports and privacy audits. "I don't think that people were really asking a lot of questions about anything for a long time, so we didn't know what we didn't know," Casavant said. "When you start getting questions about how you operate and what your mission is, you try to answer as many of those as you possibly can. We certainly have taken many steps to answer those questions." He said representatives from the center have participated in work sessions, public hearings and have a standing invitation out to the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee to visit the center and ask questions. But the nature of their investigative works means they can't share a lot of details about what they have. "It's unfortunate that, in law enforcement, we can't just provide every single detail, just by the shared nature of the work that we do," Casavant said. "It could compromise a victim or safety of others. But we have taken some substantial steps to increase the amount of information that we share." Copy the Story Link
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lawmakers try again to hire auditor to oversee Maine's secretive state police intelligence unit
Feb. 28—Some Maine lawmakers are renewing efforts to tap into what's happening inside the state's secretive — and controversial — police intelligence unit. The Maine Information and Analysis Center, also called the MIAC, has been the subject of controversy since 2020 when a whistleblower complaint said the center was illegally monitoring and storing data on civilians. A subsequent document leak also revealed that it had disseminated what some called shoddy intelligence that infringed on people's civil rights. Ever since, lawmakers have been trying to either close the center entirely, or hire an independent auditor to oversee its work. The bill, LD 419, would create an auditing position within the Maine Office of the Attorney General to oversee accountability and transparency of the center, as well as accept questions and complaints. Lawmakers from the Legislature's Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee heard mixed testimony at a public hearing Wednesday, with some saying the agency already provides regular reports. "I think the exact asks of this bill are the exact things that we're doing today," MIAC's director Lt. Mathew Casavant said in a phone interview Thursday. "We've taken every one of those steps to do everything that's outlined in the bill presently. If an auditor would allow for some increased transparency, there's no issue on our end." The proposal was resurrected from last year — it had passed in both chambers but died at the end of the session without funding. Supporters say the bill provides clearer, more proactive guidance for the new role and may contribute to increased transparency. Its sponsor, Rep. Grayson Lookner, D-Portland, told the committee Wednesday that the auditor would ensure that the agency follows its privacy policies and respects all Mainers. "This lack of transparency is a direct threat to civil liberties and undermines the trust between Mainers and their government," Lookner said. "The MIAC was created to protect us, not to spy on us. Its current practices are a betrayal of its original mission and a violation of the public trust." HISTORY OF CONTROVERSY The MIAC is run by the Maine State Police and the Maine Emergency Management Agency, and is one of 80 "fusion centers" in the United States that were created after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to prevent future threats by storing and sharing information — though many centers have focused more on domestic crimes. In 2020, Maine's fusion center came under fire after George Loder, a state trooper in Scarborough, said he was demoted after reporting illegal information collection practices such as storing personal identifying information on people who did not commit a crime. (He was awarded $300,000 in compensatory damages by a federal jury in 2022.) Later that year, data from the unit was made public after a nationwide hack of police intelligence showed the center had collected information on racial-justice protestors and others exercising their First Amendment rights. The center has been under increased scrutiny since then by lawmakers, who passed legislation in 2021 requiring the center to produce annual reports — which they have also criticized for not being detailed enough. Brendan McQuade, an assistant professor of criminology at the University of Southern Maine who studies fusion centers, testified in favor of the bill because he said it would be a good first step in establishing better oversight of the center. McQuade has also analyzed the MIAC with his law students and published a "shadow" report on the same day the center released its annual report in 2022. His version called out a flawed audit process and intelligence reports that violate privacy policies. "For me, this is a disparaging reminder of the effects of mass incarceration," McQuade said in a phone interview Thursday. "Things like mental illness, substance abuse, those are problems of security. Those are problems of the cops and courts. And that's a really clumsy tool to deal with those problems." RAISING THE STANDARD? But critics say hiring an auditor is unnecessary because it is essentially the same position as the center's privacy officer — who is also staffed within the attorney general's office and coordinates the regular audits and annual reports with an advisory board. York County Sheriff Bill King, who spoke against the proposal on behalf of the Maine Sheriffs Association, said he hasn't seen any privacy violations from a "boots on the ground" perspective, and worries the bill would be duplicative of the privacy officer's current role. If the bill were to pass, Casavant said, it may eliminate the need for the privacy officer and the 12-member advisory board. McQuade said previous privacy officers were attorneys for the Maine State Police who were also part of the center's "self-selecting" board, which reviews policy and produces regular audits. Though he said he understands how having an auditor could be duplicative, McQuade said the bill's language is "much stronger" and raises the standard. Having an independent position written into Maine law would result in clearer, well-defined audits, even if the current officer works for the attorney general's office, he said. Casavant said his team has taken steps since 2020 and is continuing to evolve and review their standards "as the world changes and as the mission changes," citing the annual reports and privacy audits. "I don't think that people were really asking a lot of questions about anything for a long time, so we didn't know what we didn't know," Casavant said. "When you start getting questions about how you operate and what your mission is, you try to answer as many of those as you possibly can. We certainly have taken many steps to answer those questions." He said representatives from the center have participated in work sessions, public hearings and have a standing invitation out to the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee to visit the center and ask questions. But the nature of their investigative works means they can't share a lot of details about what they have. "It's unfortunate that, in law enforcement, we can't just provide every single detail, just by the shared nature of the work that we do," Casavant said. "It could compromise a victim or safety of others. But we have taken some substantial steps to increase the amount of information that we share." Copy the Story Link
CBS News
12-02-2025
- Sport
- CBS News
Macalester's Peyton Starks on pace to lead MIAC in scoring for 3rd straight year
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Macalester women's basketball team has a weapon: Peyton Starks. "She does a little bit of everything," said the Scots' head coach Katie Kollar. "We call her a chameleon because she can score inside, she can score outside, she can defend inside, she can defend outside." Two seasons ago, last season, and this season, Starks has led the MIAC in scoring. "Honestly, it's been awesome," said Starks, a senior listed as a guard/forward. "I try to work really hard in the offseason and in season to get to the this point. It's been great. Honestly, it just goes back to my teammates. Without them I wouldn't be here." The Scots have endured years of struggles. This season is on track to be their best since 2010, with Starks leading the way. "This year has been awesome because we walk into every game with the ability to win. I can't say that was true when I first got here," said Kollar, who took over the program before the 2019-20 season. "As we've grown, as our players have grown, as our program has grown; to be competitive in every game we walk into it believing that we can win. It has just been really rewarding." "It's super exciting," said Starks, who is from St. Louis, Missouri. "When I got here the basketball team was at a very different place and it's been awesome to be a part of this growth." Soon, Starks will graduate. Like many Macalester athletes, she'll have earned an impressive degree. "I'm a neuroscience major and I have a concentration in community and global health," she said. "I really love it. It's super interesting. I mean, we all have a brain, so we might as well learn how to use it."
