Latest news with #PatrickO'Donnell
Los Angeles Times
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Obituary: Former Daily Pilot photographer O'Donnell kept focus trained on life in O.C.
Patrick O'Donnell had a knack for being in the right place at the right time — a talent that served the photographer and former Daily Pilot staffer well throughout six decades of capturing scenes from a burgeoning Orange County. Working his vast professional networks with aplomb, the seasoned lensman notably photographed a string of American presidents, from Lyndon B. Johnson to Joe Biden, and snapped pics of Margaret Thatcher, Groucho Marx and Buzz Aldrin during visits to local groundbreakings, fundraisers and speaking events. Highlights from that extraordinary career were fastidiously documented by the Fountain Valley photographer and Peggy O'Donnell, his longtime business partner and wife of 57 years, in the 2024 book, 'What Do 11 U.S. Presidents, the Dalai Lama and Whoopi Have in Common?' Peggy O'Donnell recalled how, even after retiring from the biz, her intrepid husband was still avidly shooting photos during a visit to see his son's family in Northern California last November. 'It was raining on a Friday night. We went to a football game, and he's out taking photos of his son, who's a high school teacher and runs the photo department,' she recalled. 'That whole weekend Pat was shooting photos. He couldn't stop himself.' Those prized shots would be among his last. After receiving a cancer diagnosis in December, Patrick O'Donnell died peacefully in his Fountain Valley home on March 27. He was 83. 'He had no pain, he just slipped away quietly,' his wife said Wednesday. Born on May 22, 1941 in Nebraska, Patrick O'Donnell moved with his parents to Whittier when he was 8 years old. He attended public school and was a sophomore at Whittier High School when he landed in the class of a photography teacher who would inspire a lifelong career. 'I caught the photo bug in that first semester of my sophomore year from Ernie Hemmerling, a master teacher who taught photography there for many years,' O'Donnell recalled in his memoir. Two years later, he won a state-level Kodak High School Sweepstakes Award for a black and white photo showing the family dog, Sandy, peering through the slightly open front gate of his home. He titled it, 'Left Behind.' At 17, O'Donnell had saved up enough money to purchase a 4x5 Speed Graphic press camera and built his own darkroom. By the time he began taking classes at Cerritos College, he was shooting sports games and working on the weekly student paper, Talon Marks, O'Donnell reflects in his memoir. He went on to earn a bachelor's degree from Cal State Long Beach, before serving as a sergeant in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, based at Riverside's March Air Force Base from 1965 to 1971. While on active duty, he worked for the base's newspaper and chronicled missions to Southeast Asia, Europe and Alaska. Hired at the Orange Coast Daily Pilot in 1968, O'Donnell spent the next 15 years working on call, awaiting breaking news from Seal Beach to San Clemente and capturing images of John Wayne and Richard Nixon in their Orange County residences. After the Times Mirror Co. sold The Pilot to another publication, O'Donnell took a full-time faculty position at Cal State Fullerton, later becoming a photographer for the university. In that capacity, he documented two trips the Titans took to the White House after winning the College World Series championship, snapping pics of then-presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Concurrent with occasional stints at the East Whittier Review and Whittier Daily News, the photographer launched a freelance photography business with Peggy and taught photo journalism classes at Orange Coast and Rio Hondo colleges and Cal State Dominguez Hills. Together, the husband-and-wife duo shot the Orange County Fair from 1988 to 2009, keeping pace with technological advances in photography over the decades, even converting a home darkroom back to a bedroom when digital cameras became king. His numerous connections to area colleges and organizations gave O'Donnell many high-profile photo opportunities, though he was hardly a paparazzo, his wife says. His work drew praise from the Associated Press, California Press Photographers Assn. and Orange County Press Club, the last of which honored him with a Sky Dunlap Award for outstanding lifetime achievement and community service. 'He was always in the right place at the right time,' Peggy said, describing her husband's can-do attitude. 'You'd meet someone involved with one thing, and they'd suddenly say, 'Can you do this?' and you never say no. If you're in business for yourself, you always say, 'Of course I can do that — it doesn't matter what it is.' O'Donnell is survived by his wife, Peggy, and sons Ryan and Steven (a third son, Kevin, died in 2000), daughters-in-law Andrea and Maggie and grandchildren Alex, Rachel, Mikey and Shane. A private memorial service for friends and family is planned for May 3.
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Indianapolis charter schools and parents look for help busing students
Students at the Invent Learning Hub charter school in Indianapolis board buses the school pays for at the end of the school day. (Patrick O'Donnell/The 74) Shawanda Tyson loves the Paramount charter schools in Indianapolis where she sends her young son. There's just one big drawback for Tyson in this city where more than half of students attend charters — transportation. Like most other states, Indiana doesn't require or pay for buses to bring charter students to classes, which advocates are pushing for as Indiana continues its aggressive support of charter and private schools. The lack of busing is such a hot button issue that one Indiana charter network advertises on billboards that they offer student transportation. And one Indianapolis charter school director called the lack of busing 'an equity issue.' Though some Indianapolis charter schools dig into their budgets to pay as much as $1 million a year for buses, most, like Paramount, don't want to sacrifice academics for transportation. That leaves parents like Tyson to fend for themselves, often making logistically complicated arrangements such as carpooling with other families or relatives. Tyson usually drops her son, 9, off with an aunt early each morning who then brings him and other kids to Paramount. 'It's a major issue,' said Tyson. 'Parents like me have to reach out to other parents to get help.' Tyson and her aunt have developed 'a system' to get their kids to school. 'Some days I'm off work and I do the pick-up,' she said, ' but it gets hard.' Transportation has long been a pressure point in Indiana and nationally for charter and voucher schools, with backers arguing students have to be able to get to a school for it to be a real choice. School districts often balk at paying to take students to schools they view as competition. Practically, district and charter school schedules don't always align, creating conflicts around drop off and pickup times. In Indiana, some Republican state legislators want an overhaul of school transportation and have proposed combining busing for district, charter and private school students into a single system in Indianapolis and four other cities. The education pro-charter advocacy group ExcelInEd rates Indiana as one of 20 states with 'limited' transportation for charter and private school students. Neighboring states such as Illinois and Ohio, are rated as 'fair' to charter students by offering similar busing as district students. A busing bill has been on hold, however, while the state is embroiled in a battle over the broader issue of how it pays for charter schools. The Indianapolis Public Schools board has pushed back, calling for a moratorium on adding new charter schools and maintaining local control. Board members and residents object to state plans to take money from the district and give it to charters, saying it would force them to close 20 schools. The bill drawing district complaints, Senate Bill 518, would shift some local property taxes from school districts to charters. It passed the Senate last month after heated debate. Backers say sharing taxes is needed to close a funding gap between districts and charter schools — a gap of $8,000 in Indianapolis with the district spending $18,500 and charters $10,600. Critics say districts will have to close schools and cut programs if they lose money. If passed, the tax-sharing bill could give charters enough money to afford buses for students. That's one reason parents like Ada Remus, whose son attends Edison School of the Arts, an unusual independent school in Indianapolis, supports the tax-sharing, even as the Indianapolis Public Schools district opposes it. 'Even when great schools exist, they often lack transportation, leaving families like mine on the far east side without access,' Remus told the Indianapolis Public Schools board last week. 'If funding were more equitable, more families, including mine, would have access to better schools without worrying about how to get there.' Other Indianapolis parents and teachers blasted state officials for threatening to take money away from the district and raised concerns over what might be cut. 'Everyone in this room, commissioners or not, must realize that for the foreseeable future, the state will be run by rural and suburban Republicans with neither interest in nor affection for the city of Indianapolis,' city resident Guthrie Beyer told the board. Indiana bill to shift more dollars from traditional publics to charter schools earns Senate approval Alecia Ostler, executive director of the Invent Learning Hub charter school, said she decided to pay for buses when the school launched six years ago to make sure transportation didn't prevent families from enrolling. She now pays nearly $200,000 a year for three buses that transport 60 percent of her students. 'This is inner-city, so quite honestly, there are just some situations where families are like,' I don't feel comfortable with my child having to walk there',' Ostler said. 'But then we have some families that don't have transportation, so they really lean on that bus. They're not going to be able to get them here without that.' 'Transportation is an equity issue,' she added. 'There needs to be consideration given to the needs of families.' A small group of charter or independent schools avoid those expenses by partnering with the Indianapolis Public Schools as part of its unique Innovation Schools network — in which the district shares a mix of busing, school buildings and technology support with 30 schools that would typically be shunned as competitors. District officials estimate they spend about $12 million a year to provide transportation for 17 of the 30 Innovation Schools. Those include KIPP Indy charter schools that boast of having 'Transportation Available' on billboards promoting them. 'It's core and essential to our model,' said Andy Seibert, KIPP Indy's executive director. Advocates are still holding out hope for a common transportation system that would drastically change school busing in the city. State Rep. Bob Behning, chairman of the House education committee, has proposed creating a central authority to oversee transportation for students of district, charter and private schools. Indianapolis Public Schools officials object to how Behning's proposal would put busing under a new panel mostly appointed by state officials. District officials oppose the state's Republican supermajority picking a panel overseeing the city's largely minority and Democratic residents. 'The question really needs to be debated by the community instead of as a piece of legislation that comes down the pipeline,' said IPS Deputy Superintendent Andrew Strope. 'It kind of takes away the power of the people through an elected board.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Wall Street Journal
04-03-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Store-Brand Supplier Feels the Pain as Shoppers Pull Back Even on Lower-Cost Groceries
First, shoppers squeezed by inflation began ditching name-brand snacks and drinks in favor of lower-price store brands. But now, with costs for coffee, eggs and other basic grocery items surging, consumers are cutting out many cheaper items as well. That has TreeHouse Foods, one of the country's largest manufacturers of private brands, feeling the pinch. The maker of cookies, crackers, coffee and other goods for retailers such as Walmart, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and Target, gained ground in recent quarters as inflation pushed shoppers into cheaper food options. With sales growth now slowing significantly, TreeHouse is working to protect its margins by slashing costs and fine-tuning its list of products, anticipating that shoppers will remain stretched, at least for now. 'We don't have any strong indicators that consumers are going to be less stressed in the near term,' said TreeHouse finance chief Patrick O'Donnell. 'If that's not true and it turns around, I think doing the cost work benefits you either way.' Grocery retailers typically rely on third parties like TreeHouse to make their store-branded items. With giants like Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons and Costco Wholesale boosting investments in their branded products, private labels were growing faster than name-brand goods heading into the pandemic. Then, consumers stuck at home with money to spend, went back to the national brands they were familiar with and that were, at times, more available on store shelves than some generic options. Lower-cost brands have seen a resurgence again for a couple of reasons. Aside from higher grocery prices squeezing shoppers, retailers are expanding their store-brand offerings. Walmart, for one, introduced a premium line of food called Bettergoods alongside its Great Value brand. Shoppers still want private-label chips, cookies and crackers, but their appetite for them is slowing, TreeHouse executives said recently. Industrywide, private-label unit sales in categories where TreeHouse sells its products, which also include pickles, candy, nondairy creamer and in-store bakery goods, grew 0.6% for the three months ended in late December, compared with a year earlier. Unit sales were up 4.5% in the first three months of last year, according to TreeHouse. 'People continue to move to private labels, and we're taking some share, but you're just seeing lower category growth,' O'Donnell said. 'So we're pivoting a little bit of the mentality, at least in the near term, to say, 'The consumer is uncertain, let's go control the things we can control to help drive profit.'' That means slashing supply-chain spending in a few ways. TreeHouse is working with suppliers of ingredients and packaging materials to bring costs down. The company is also speeding up the time it takes to produce sweets, snacks and drinks in its factories with efficiencies such as automated case packing. TreeHouse aims to reduce its gross supply-chain costs by $250 million over a period of four years ending in 2027. Meanwhile, prices and packaging are under the microscope to ensure customers get the size offerings and price variety they want, as is TreeHouse's list of products. In some areas, the company is expanding. These include its approximately $100 million acquisition of certain coffee operations from Farmer Brothers in 2023 and its roughly $205 million purchase of Harris Tea, which closed in January. Meanwhile, TreeHouse is getting out of some businesses, most recently exiting from a ready-to-drink business that O'Donnell said largely consists of discretionary purchases for consumers and is an area where branded labels have a better foothold. 'You may see us step away from a few things in the year,' according to the CFO. This will likely affect specific products rather than overall categories, he said, declining to provide specifics. Analysts are looking for smoother operations from TreeHouse. After taking its broth facility offline for maintenance and upgrades in 2023, the company struggled to bring it back to full production, weighing on sales. A voluntary recall of frozen griddle products such as waffles added another drag. Net sales in the quarter ended in December were down 0.6%, the fifth consecutive quarter of declines. 'They need to execute better,' said William Blair research analyst Jon Andersen. 'No more plant-related issues. No more recalls.' The company's focus this year on eliminating costs and improving profitability, while not racing to drive sales at any cost, makes sense in a softer demand environment, analysts said. That means slower growth: TreeHouse expects adjusted net sales in the first three months of the year to be down around 3.5% compared with a year earlier. But it is a needed, and temporary, pivot, according to Andersen. 'You have to live with the environment you're operating in,' he said. 'And that's what they've done this year.' Write to Jennifer Williams at
