Latest news with #ThomasFowler
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Wichita Falls hosts Memorial Day events in local areas
WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL)—In honor of those who've sacrificed for our freedom, many groups across Texoma will be hosting Memorial Day services to pay tribute to local veterans on Monday, May 26. In Wichita Falls, a ceremony will be held at 6:30 p.m. at Crestview Memorial Park at the headstone of Medal of Honor recipient Thomas Fowler. In Burkburnett, VFW Post 10455 invites everyone to the Burkburnett Cemetery at 11:45 a.m. American Legion Post 18 will meet at the Clay County Texas War Memorial in Henrietta at 9 a.m. VFW Post 2676 and Auxiliary will host two ceremonies. One will be at 9:30 a.m. in Scotland Park at Saint Boniface Cemetery, and the other will be at 11 a.m. in Windthorst, at St. Mary's Grotto. American Vets Post 11 will gather at Memorial Park at noon in Duncan. In Lawton, Mount Scott Kiowa United Methodist Church invites everyone to join their service at the Mount Scott KCA Cemetery at 11 a.m. There will be a tribute at the Fort Sill Post Cemetery at 11:45 a.m. in Fort Sill. The event will be livestreamed on the official Fort Sill YouTube channel if you can't view the Fort Sill ceremony. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
American Legion to honor veterans at Crestview Cemetery event
WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — Monday, May 26 is Memorial Day, and the American Legion Post 169 is inviting community members to help honor local deceased veterans. 7 a.m. – Meet at the front of Crestview Cemetery for a short welcome, prayer, guidelines and then to place flags at more than 4,000 headstones of deceased veterans. 6:30 p.m. – Ceremony at the headstone of World War II Medal of Honor recipient, Thomas Fowler, then retrieve all flags placed early that morning. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
South China Morning Post
19-05-2025
- South China Morning Post
In the footsteps of Saigon's Quiet American, 70 years on
Northeast of central Saigon lies the Dakow canal. It was here, in its dirty waters, that the body of an American man was found drowned in the mud – stabbed in the chest, it would later be determined, by 'a rusty bayonet'. Thus begins Graham Greene 's The Quiet American, published 70 years ago this year. Set during the first Indochina war (1946-1954), the novel tells of a love triangle between a jaded British foreign correspondent and self-professed désengagé, Thomas Fowler; Vietnamese beauty Phuong; and a young American, Alden Pyle, whose quietness belies a dangerous idealism. Often noted for its foresight into American involvement in the Vietnam war, the novel's real triumph lies in how vividly it brings its setting to life. Today, it makes for an interesting companion while exploring Saigon – now officially known as Ho Chi Minh City – where traces of remote Greeneland can still be found. The Cao Dai Temple in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Oliver Raw The far bank of the canal, described in the novel as Vietminh territory by night, is now part of the urban core, with restaurants lining the water and apartment buildings shooting upwards beyond. During my visit, I find no bodies floating under the bridge, just elderly residents doing their morning exercises and a man fishing in the muddy waters. A woman empties a plastic bag filled with juvenile catfish into the canal. 'For peace,' she tells me, before hopping on her scooter and speeding away like someone fleeing the scene of a crime. Those familiar with the novel will know I have begun, like Greene, where the story comes full circle. To follow events properly, however, we must visit the Rue Catinat, or Dong Khoi ('mass uprising') Street as it is known today, where much of the action of the novel takes place. The Hotel Continental is the city's oldest hostelry and during the war was a watering hole for journalists. Greene doesn't offer much detail about its appearance but its Grecian-influenced design remains largely unchanged from early photographs, although the terrace, which once would have resounded to the clatter of dice games (a favourite pastime of French colonials) is now fully enclosed.
Boston Globe
03-04-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Mass. police say a 25-foot buffer will keep them safe. First Amendment advocates call it ‘dangerous.'
The proposal largely mirrors a new 'It's a fine line when someone is right up in the officer's face, not necessarily touching or getting in between them and the person they're talking to, but making it difficult to do their job,' said Thomas Fowler, Salisbury's police chief and chair of the legislative committee for Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, which is advocating Advertisement 'And then there's a fine line about their right to video tape, which they have,' Fowler said. 'But where does it cross the line?' Advertisement For First Amendment advocates, the bill goes too far. Attorneys said the measure would make it substantially more difficult for the media and others to record police, which, in some instances, has provided crucial evidence of misconduct. A teenager's cellphone video of officer Derek Chauvin pressing his knee into George Floyd's neck in May 2020 offered Federal courts have repeatedly said that 'It's a danger to the First Amendment rights of the public and of the press,' Sullivan said of the legislation. 'Every case turns on its own set of facts. That's why overly broad and vague statutes are dangerous, and don't serve the purpose they're intended to serve.' The proposal, which was filed by a bipartisan pair of lawmakers who previously served as police officers, would bar people from going within 25 feet of police officers, firefighters, or EMTs after one of those first responders gives a verbal warning 'not to approach.' Anyone who disregards that order — with the intention to 'impede or interfere,' threaten with physical harm, or harass the officer — would face up to a $1,000 fine, and possible prison time for subsequent offenses. The proposal defines harassment as any action that intentionally causes an officer or first responder 'substantial emotional distress . . . and serves no legitimate purpose.' Advertisement State Representative Steven Xiarhos, a former Yarmouth police officer, saluted the flag during a 2022 political rally for Republican candidates. Nathan Klima for The Boston Globe Supporters say the bill doesn't seek to bar someone from recording police and would help stave off what state Representative Steven Xiarhos, one of the bill's authors, said can be rare but 'ugly' incidents. 'It's not respectful to yell and scream obscenities or whatever you want to say to a human being who is just trying to do their job,' said Xiarhos, a West Barnstable Republican and Yarmouth's former deputy police chief. He is sponsoring the bill with Representative Richard Wells Jr., a Milton Democrat who served as that town's police chief. Those who interfere with police can already face arrests on other charges, but 'there can be some gray area' in how police choose to apply the current law, said Michael Bradley, executive director of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association. 'Is it interference? Is it disorderly conduct? Is it breach of the peace?' he said. 'This [bill] spells it out more clearly. Here is the warning to let us do our job. And if people choose to ignore that, we have a statute that we can point to.' The bill's language is similar to a Advertisement 'It is very easy to imagine in a stressful situation — say very similar to what we saw with Block lobbied against the Florida measure before it passed, warning that it was ill defined and left too much to an individual officer's 'discretionary interpretation.' 'And laws that lend themselves to discretionary interpretation,' he said, 'usually aren't good ones.' Other buffer-zone laws have already faced legal turbulence. A federal judge in 2023 ruled that an Arizona law that Federal judges in recent months have blocked similar 25-foot buffer zone laws in two states — The Florida law and similarly written Massachusetts bill represent the 'third generation' of these proposals, in which lawmakers have included some more specific language but, in practice, still raise 'serious First Amendment concerns,' said Grayson Clary, a staff attorney at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and part of the legal team that challenged the Louisiana and Indiana laws. 'You're still handing officers a lot of power to detain somebody — who is trying to document what they're doing — if they don't want to be recorded,' Clary said. Advertisement There can be other real-world impacts, Clary said: Pushed back 25 feet, reporters will have a harder time trying to interview people, record audio, or take video of a scene — meaning the public will also have less visibility into how officers are interacting with the public. Members of the media are also more likely to comply with any requests from officers to move from a certain area, even if it's unclear whether they're receiving a formal 'verbal warning' as outlined in the bill, he said. 'Even if these laws don't ultimately lead to a reporter getting arrested, they have a chilling effect,' Clary said. 'What a reporter is going to do in [that situation] is move, so they don't spend a night in jail.' Block, of the First Amendment Foundation, said in the months since the Florida law took effect, he has taken calls from worried groups, including organizations representing photojournalists, 'wanting to know what we are going to do' about the statute. His answer: He can't do much legally, at least until there's an apparent 'abuse' of the law that can provide a foundation for challenging it in the courts. 'There is a lot of lip service being paid to everyone's First Amendment rights. But when you get down to it, people are taking chunks out of it at every opportunity they have,' Block said. 'The only way to push back unfortunately is through lawsuits. But we all know lawsuits can take a long time and be very costly.' Matt Stout can be reached at
