Monthly Archives: April 2022

CORVALLIS, Ore. Oregon State University history professor and author Jacob Darwin Hamblin has been awarded the 2021 Oregon Book Award in general nonfiction for his book, The Wretched Atom: Americas Global Gamble with Peaceful Nuclear Technology.

He accepted the award April 25 at Literary Arts first in-person ceremony since 2019.

It was very exciting I did not expect to win at all, Hamblin said. And with the category, general nonfiction, I was honored to be in the same mix with some of these really good writers across the state. It was cool to have a historical research book win.

Hamblins book, published by Oxford University Press, is a historical examination of the United States pattern of promoting nuclear solutions in developing nations across the world, and how these proposals are inextricably linked to race, the environment, colonialism, the arms trade and nuclear weapons.

These are all things we dont tend to associate with peaceful atomic energy. We think of it as nuclear power, he said. People ask me a lot whether this is a pro-nuclear book or an anti-nuclear book. It is neither anti nor pro; it is a historical work. I definitely have things to say in it that are troubling, but its not meant to be a book that can only be read by one side of that pro or con issue.

Hamblin is one of several OSU faculty members to win an Oregon Book Award in the last decade. Most recently, Elena Passarello, director of the Master in Fine Arts program, won for nonfiction in 2018, while Tracy Daugherty, writing professor emeritus, won for his biography of Joan Didion in 2017. Writing instructor George Estreich won in 2012 for creative nonfiction and OSUs poet-in-residence David Biespiel won for nonfiction in 2016 and for poetry in 2011.

As one of Oregon States most distinguished and productive scholars, Jakes latest book on the challenges surrounding non-military use of atomic energy continues the colleges tradition of outstanding writing about topics of enduring public interest, said Larry Rodgers, dean of the College of Liberal Arts. The Wretched Atom is as readable and engrossing as it is rigorous and deeply researched.

Hamblin teaches courses on the history of science and technology, along with environmental history, in OSUs School of History, Philosophy, and Religion within the College of Liberal Arts.

His research for The Wretched Atom took him to archives across Europe to uncover stories of different campaigns to bring nuclear energy projects to the developing world over the past seven decades.

He wrote about how both the U.S. and Great Britain promised nuclear-based solutions for a wide variety of problems, such as grain disinfection using radiation, crop fertilizers, medical uses with nuclear isotopes and nuclear power plants connected to water desalination plants used to irrigate deserts.

The war between Russia and Ukraine has reignited interest and concern over nuclear issues across the world, and Hamblin is among many nuclear scholars who have received press inquiries seeking to better understand current risks of nuclear war or contamination.

The climate crisis has also heightened discussion of nuclear power. Hamblin said his book aims to highlight the ways political rhetoric is used to link environmental problems to nuclear solutions.

Today we use climate as a way to promote nuclear energy, but there is a long history of promoting nuclear solutions using environmental threats: population problems, resource scarcity, insect control for disease management, Hamblin said. What I wanted to explore was how that was done by governments, and how those tactics worked for lots of different governments.

Hamblin is currently co-editing a book of essays with OSU history instructor Linda Richards about contested histories of radiation contamination and exposure at locations around the world.

The Wretched Atom is available through Oxford University Press and all major booksellers.

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OSU history professor Jacob Darwin Hamblin wins Oregon Book Award for 'The Wretched Atom' - Oregon State University

The NC Democracy Eleven Elections interactive gallery shows how NC elections from 1776 to 2010 are still shaping democracy today.

GREENSBORO, N.C. Many North Carolinians will spend the next several weeks exercising their right to vote ahead of the May 17th primary election.

The evolution of democracy has allowed citizens to have a say in who represents the government.

TheGreensboro History Museumhas opened a new exhibit called NC Democracy: Eleven Elections' to show the many forms democracy took over 11 state elections.

The exhibit starts with the 1776 election. Glenn Perkins, the curator of community history at the museum said they chose election years with interesting stories that brought about change.

We wanted to see how those elections opened up opportunities and presented challenges for people to claim their right to vote here in North Carolina, Perkins said.

One example of this is when North Carolina A & T State University graduate justice Henry Frye become the first black legislator in the North Carolina general assembly in the 20th century.

During the 1970 election, Frye wrote a bill to take the literacy test out of North Carlina law.

Voters approved, removing a barrier that kept certain groups of people from being able to vote.

Carol Ghiorisi Hart the director of Greensboro History Museum saidsome of the restrictions imposed on voters in the past are still present today.

Some of the same issues that were there from the beginning are still with us today. How easy it is to get to where you vote and what is required, that can be manipulated, Hart said. These are things that seem reasonable but when you look at it it's often very targeted to make it difficult for people to vote.

Bringing the exhibit to life took two years of research and meetings with scholars and historians from across North Carolina.

There are artifacts and essential pieces that bring history to life.

"There are cool things like we didn't know about the history of the secret ballot," Perkins said. "It's something we take for granted, that no one is going to look over our shoulder and know how we're voting. That's a late addition that didn't come until the 1920s.

The exhibit focuses on elections from 1776 to 2010, but there are themes and objects that surround the 2020 election and voting during a pandemic.

People have worked hard for 250 years for you to have the right to vote," Hart said. "To not exercise that right you're turning your back on the blood sweat and tears of generations of people.

The exhibit is free and will run well into 2023.

Gallery updates and programs will be held in exhibit rooms.click here for programing.

The history museum is open every day but Monday until 5 p.m.

Originally posted here:

New Greensboro History Museum exhibit: choices and changes over 11 NC elections - WFMYNews2.com

12 years ago, the Philadelphia Eagles traded up during the first round of the 2010 NFL Draft to the 13th-overall selection. Many thought, when they did so, the decision was made to allow themselves the opportunity to take Earl Thomas, an all-star safety out of Texas. They elected instead to go with a defensive lineman. That young mans name was Brandon Graham.

Thomas got off to the faster start and, in all likelihood, will find his way to Canton, Ohio, but even though it may have taken longer for the light bulb to come on with B.G., his selection worked out pretty well for the Birds. Were talking about the author of the greatest strip-sack in Super Bowl history.

Grahams career continues as hes set to begin year 13. Earl Thomas, though still technically a free agent at the time of this story being written and published, hasnt played for anyone since a one-and-done campaign with the Baltimore Ravens.

Meanwhile, history seems to have repeated itself in the City of Brotherly Love.

The first night of the 2022 NFL Draft was a lively one for Eagles Nation. The Birds brass threw some haymakers.

They traded the second of their two first-round picks, along with a Day 2 selection to the Tennessee Titans to acquire A.J. Brown, who was immediately signed to a four-year, $100 million deal.

Their first selection played out much like their first in 2010. As they did 12 years ago, they traded up to the 13th-overall selection and ignored the drafts best safety prospect to go with a defensive lineman, Jordan Davis, formerly of the Georgia Bulldogs.

How many of you were thinking the Birds might have a shot at landing Kyle Hamilton as the first round wore on though? Perhaps those of us who thought that there might be a chance of seeing that happen were ignoring Phillys nature to some extent.

We know the Eagles like to build from the defensive line out. Meanwhile, theyve only taken three defensive backs during the first round in their history: Roynell Young (1980), Ben Smith (1990), and Lito Sheppard (2002). Ironically, Hamilton went to the Baltimore Ravens one spot after Philly landed Davis

The former Georgia Bulldog is a Howie Roseman-esque selection. No one should be surprised that hes the guy Philadelphia wound up with.

Will they eventually regret passing on Hamilton? They may not. Jordan Davis figures to contribute faster than Graham did. Theres still an issue in Philadelphia though.

Who in the heck is going to play the safety position? Maybe they can get somebody in the mid to late rounds. Maybe they have Tyrann Mathieu in their back pocket. Whatever the plan, theyve given us much to talk about between now and the beginning of spring and summer camps.

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History repeats itself as the Philadelphia Eagles pass on Kyle Hamilton - Inside the Iggles

Picture it: The date is October 25, 2012, and Quartz throws a launch party from the space-age future. Photo: Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Quartz (qz.com)

Quartz, a business publication, today announced its sale to G/O Media. This is yet another chapter of several in Quartzs history, co-founder and now editor-in-chief Zach Seward tells me. But how many chapters? Over the last decade, Quartz has moved faster and broken more things than nearly any other publication. Is Quartz a cautionary tale for publishers? Or an inspirational one? You decide.

Quartz launches in 2012 as a premium ad space, for fancy brands that love to reach business consumers, in the bosom of Atlantic Media. Everyone loves it. Quartz India launches 2014; Quartz Africa launches 2015. This is Original Quartz breaking ground in terms of article format mobile first, then drafting on the back of building an audience through social, says Seward.

In 2016, Quartz achieves an operating profit and launches a much-discussed chatbotlike app that is debated by media companies for months.

Quartz also rides a profitable but eventually exhausting and undermining industry wave, funded and delivered by Facebook, of native social video, going from zero to 200 million video views.

We and many other publishers felt the pull of continued growth there. I dont even regret it! says Seward. It meant that Quartzs remit expanded greatly. Whether that was the right or wrong choice, then, when Facebook traffic went away, the most important thing was we had a distinguishable brand that was focused and for a certain type of reader.

In late 2017: Quartz observes its fifth anniversary. It promises ambitious video series, a new culture-and-lifestyle vertical, and a new at work vertical.

As the Facebook era ends for publishers, Quartz enters its subscription era and, in July 2018, sells to Uzabase, a public company based in Japan, for $86 million.

Being acquired by a public company, I wouldnt recommend it as a life experience for everyone, but it was super-interesting to go through, Seward says.

Quartz is a rare success in a media industry that continues to struggle to adapt to the internet says the New York Times though it notes that despite its strengths, Quartz needs to shift its business model to paid subscriptions. Uzabase says that, by 2023, it will be the most important business website in the world. Quartz agrees its next biggest source of growth will come from reader revenue; in late 2018, the membership program is rolled out. In 2019, a paywall descends. Also, two rounds of layoffs happen, both on the business side. That October, co-founder and editor-in-chief Kevin Delaney leaves, replaced with Harvard Business Reviews Katherine Bell. (Bell did not reply to inquiries.)

The company loses a ton of money: In 2019, Quartz reported a $18.4 million loss on $26.9 million in revenue. The next May, Quartz brutally lays off 80 people, nearly half its staff.

Then, six months later, in a very unusual move, Quartz buys itself back from its owner. I have reached an agreement to acquire Quartz myself and take us private, Seward writes at the time, and shares equity with the staff.

He plans to raise money, but cannot. The site is making about $11 million in revenue.

Through the pandemic, Quartz looks from the outside that it is scrambling through iterations of its business model. In August 2021, Quartz refocuses subscription program on email newsletters for paying readers. Then, in April of this year, Quartz has permanently dropped its paywall, replacing it with a regi-wall to harvest emails.

This is the end of Quartz as its own company, Seward says.

Not having raised any money in its period of independence, and losing nearly $7 million last year, today Seward announced Quartzs sale to G/O Media, which owns the remains of the Gawker Media Network and the Onion, the Root, and A/V Club.

He plans to eventually drop the general-manager title after the business transition and remain as editor-in-chief, with Bell departing. I miss journalism! Theres nothing like running a newsroom, he says. All I get to write these days is memos and I pour a lot into those.

Having a parent company also allows Quartz to return to what it was like in the beginning. Weve already made a bit of a return to original Quartz in our tone and approach, Seward says, shortly before going to address the newsroom at 12:30 p.m. ET today. What does he expect from that meeting? Just like any other editor-in-chief, lots of questions about work from home.

Fortunately, or not, now he has a boss. G/O Media honcho Jim Spanfeller, often brutally dunked on by the companys writers, apparently sent an announcement to the staff this morning with the subject line Quarts News.

Quartz can join the companys other brands, for now, in sometimes benefitting from and sometimes fighting with management. Im looking forward to a more traditional workplace battle, Seward says. Not everything has to be existential all the time, as it sometimes felt.

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Quartz Is the History of Internet Media in Just 10 Years - New York Magazine

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The Steelers would have been more successful if they decided to take these players in the draft rather than their original selections.

The Steelers are one of the most consistent franchises in the NFL. They have been able to stay competitive for the most part since the dynasty began in the 1970s. There were some dark times in the 80s, but the team did compete. They finally became Super Bowl contenders again throughout the 90s, 2000s, and 2010s.

The draft is where this team has built its team and developed through time. Adding players through this part of the offseason is the preferred method by this franchise. It has been a common denominator that leads to the results made on the football field.

No matter how good a draft class is, there might be some players that continue to separate themselves from the pack. These Hall of Fame prospects could be huge misses if your team decides to go in another direction. Those misses have happened for the black and gold and will happen again in the future.

These draft options that the team passed over are tough to look back on. It will always lead to people wondering what would happen if this certain player got to play for this team? That answer will never be answered, but it is hard to stomach some players that Pittsburgh did select over them.

Many will remember some other draft takes that could have landed on this list. There have been many misses, especially in the later rounds of the draft. This team is mostly successful throughout the draft process, but they are not impervious to mistakes.

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5 players the Steelers regret passing on in the draft throughout history - Still Curtain

The gnarled old locust tree standing at the southeast corner of S.W. Huntoon and Clay is the oldest tree in Topeka,according toa plaque located there.

That tree is among fivesignificant Topekatrees or groups of trees The Capital-Journal is recognizing to markArbor Day, which isFriday.

Here is the list:

Thirty-twostudents in an eighth-grade class at nearby Central Park School arranged for theplaque identifying it as Topeka's oldest tree to be attached in 1913 to the tree at S.W. Huntoon and Clay, according to the website of the Kansas Historical Society.

Theplaque was latermoved to a place on the ground near the tree's base, that site says.

"Believed to date from the city's early history, the tree may have been full-grown when Kansas was opened as a territory in 1854," itsays. "Trees commonly were planted as guideposts along the trail that carried travelers from Fort Leavenworth to theSanta Fe Trailjunction near Burlingame."

More: Jennie Chinn, who died Saturday, ran Kansas Historical Society for 18 years. Her job gave her joy.

The locust tree drew students'attention after it was mentionedin"The Price of the Prairie," a book about post-Civil War settlers in Kansaspublished in 1910 by Margaret Hill McCarter, the namesake for McCarter Elementary School at5512 S.W. 16th.

The historical society website says awoman who taughtat Central Park School in 1913saidthe tree might not have been the area's oldest, but"it was supposed to be the oldest tree between the Statehouse and Shunganunga Creek to the southwest."

City forester Travis Tenbrink said Topeka's city government has no official record or documentation of thetree's being Topeka's oldest,buthe has no reason to doubt that.

"We continue to trim the tree as needed, and actually have it on our schedule to be trimmed in the next few months," he said. "We are also planning to do some chemical treatments to help support, and hopefully improve the root system of the tree."

For more than a century, a massive, 90-foot-tall cottonwood tree stood on the Kansas Statehouse grounds, just southeast of the Capitol.

The historicalsociety website says legend has it that the tree grew from a stakeworkers drove into the ground while building the Statehouse. Another account says the treewas already present as a sapling when construction of the Statehouse began in 1866.

Kansas legislators, perhaps inspired by its nearby presence, voted in 1937 to choose the cottonwood as the Kansas State Tree.

The Statehouse cottonwood survived Topekas historic 1966 tornado, though it was badly damaged. Tree surgeons replaced a large piece of its trunk with concrete in an effort to keep it alive.

In the years that followed, the tree slowly died.All branches above the main trunk were cut down in 1983. The stump was removed in 1984.

More: What happened to Amelia Earhart? This $15 million Kansas museum will honor the pilot's legacy

Claire Swogger's favorite tree was the redbud.

The Topeka woman and her husband,Kaw Valley Bank & Trust Co. owner Glenn Swogger, consequentlygave the name "Redbud Foundation" to the philanthropic organization they formedto benefit various causes.

Thoseincluded creating Redbud Park, a public gathering place that features various redbud trees.

The park is located on the site of what used to be a parking lotat the southeast corner of N. Kansas Avenue and Gordon, in downtown North Topeka's NOTO ArtsDistrict.

Claire Swogger died in 2017, but Glenn Swogger survived long enough to takepart inribbon-cutting ceremonies held at the park in 2019. He died last August.

Tenmonths afterthe 1966 tornado killed many trees in Topeka, Fidelity State Bank & Trust Co. began a 53-year Arbor Day tradition of giving awayseedlings it had bought.

We started giving out trees in the lobby of the bank, the bank's late president and CEO, Anderson Chandler,told The Capital-Journal in 2016.We only had two locations then. By the next year, we decided that the best way to get more trees planted was to give them to schools.

The tradition continued through 2020.

Members of the Topeka History Geeks Facebook group spoke positivelythis past week on that site of the role in that effort playedby Chandler, who died in 2019.

"He was a very community-oriented businessman and a great Topeka citizen," said Topekan Kurt Kieffer.

The late Capital City Bank president Frank Sabatinispearheaded efforts to create and develop the Lake Shawnee Arboretum, which contains numerous trees and stands just southwest of S.E. 37th and West Edge Road.

The site was an open fieldwhenSabatiniset out in 1993 to make it anarboretum. That arboretumwas dedicated in 1997.

"Emotionally, it's just kind of a dream come true for me to leave some kind of legacy," Sabatini told The Capital-Journal at rededication ceremonies held in 2005.

Sabatini died in October.

The Kansas Forest Service says Topeka is the location of five "champion" trees, which are the largest of their type in Kansas.A report on the KFwebsitesaysthose trees are as follows:

Tim Hrenchir can be reached at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934.

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Have you seen the 5 trees that helped make Topeka what it is today? Celebrate them Arbor Day. - The Topeka Capital-Journal

The 164th Airlift Squadron conducted a ceremonial final formation flight of two C-130H Hercules as part of itsFlying Legacy tribute ceremony April 23at the 179th Airlift Wing of the Ohio National Guard.

The unit invited current members, their family and friends as well as prior service members to join them in a private ceremony at the base at Mansfield Lahm Airport in order to pay tribute to the historical flying units aviation history as it enters a new era with a new non-aviation based mission, according to a Friday news release from the 179th.

Last year, the 179thwas chosen to become the first cyber wing in the Air National Guard.

More: Top stories: Nos. 2 and 1: 179th gets new mission, COVID-19 pandemic continues

More: 179th Airlift Wing welcomes new commander

Col. Darren Hamilton, 179th Airlift Wing commander, opened the ceremony by thanking those in attendance and briefing an outline of the plan for embarking on the ceremonial final formation flight, followed by remarks regarding the historical significance of the day for the crowd in front of a C-130H Hercules static display.

Its tradition to have a Fini Flight for aviators flying their last time. In this case, its a symbolic final flight for our C-130 community, a mission that has been our identity in Mansfield since 1976," Hamilton said. "We will continue to fly this mission into early June when the last of the iron leaves the ramp, but this was our last chance to give it the ceremonial ending it deserves and share that with our past and present members, their families and friends."

Hamilton has been a part of this C-130 community his entire life. He looked into the crowd and identified prior members who helped him along the way, detailing how he first visited the base as a child, later joined as an enlisted C-130 maintainer, took advantage of the Ohio Air National Guards state tuition assistance to obtain his degree and commission as an officer, eventually flying the C-130 and becoming the 179th Airlift Wing commander.

The skull patch that you see on our 164th Airlift Squadron is world-renowned. The heritage goes back to 1942, when it was first flown with the 363rd Fighter Squadron in World War II with Aces like Bud Anderson and Chuck Yeager. Hamilton said, Then in 1946, they transferred that unit to Mansfield and it was formally recognized by 1948. Thats 74 years, officially, of flying here and if you go back to the World War II lineage, thats 80 years of flying.

Ohio is home to a rich aviation history, known widely as the birthplace of aviation. The unit at Mansfield Lahm Air National Guard Base has a very rich history in military aviation.

The 363rd Fighter Squadron was established at Hamilton Field, California, in December 1942. The skull was first painted on a P-39 Airacobra door and followed the unit to World War II, flying the P-51 Mustang. That wartime 363rd Fighter Squadron was re-designated as the 164th Fighter Squadron and was allotted to the Ohio Air National Guard, on May 24, 1946, bestowing the lineage, history, honors and colors of the 363rd Fighter Squadron.

Over the past 74 years of aviation at Mansfield Lahm ANGB, the squadron has been assigned the F-51D/H Mustang, B-26 Invader, F-80C Shooting Star, F-84E/F Thunderstreak, F-100D/F Super Saber, C-130B/H Hercules and C-27J Spartan.

During the F-84 fighter era, Fred Haise Jr., flew with the unit before going on to become an astronaut and flew as the lunar module pilot as part of the historic Apollo 13 mission in 1970.

The unit transitioned from a fighter squadron to an airlift squadron in 1976, and has remained an airlift squadron until now.

Hamilton acknowledged that the transitions from one aircraft to another have always been hard, but this may be their greatest challenge yet.

Although the loss of the aviation based mission is not easy, it is important to recognize that the unit will carry on its legacy as it transitions to this new era as the 179th Cyber Wing.

We look to the future with optimism. We recognize the history this unit continues to make. Being selected to become the first cyber wing in the Air National Guard is another historic milestone in a long tradition of adapting to the call of duty. Hamilton said, In a world of increasing technological advancement, this new mission secures Mansfields future as a vital contributor to the defense of Ohio and this great nation for generations to come.

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179th ceremony pays tribute to aviation history at Mansfield base - Mansfield News Journal

Paramores Hayley Williams will guide a deep dive into the history and evolution of emo in a new 20-part podcast series, Everything Is Emo.

The new weekly show is part of BBC Sounds Back to Back series, and the first episode perfectly titled All Music Is Emotional is available to listen to now. In the first episode, Williams discusses her all music is emotional theory and reflects on her own emo history by sharing music from some her favorite bands, as well as stories from Paramores early days (the soundtrack includes a mix of old and new hits, from the Postal Service, My Chemical Romance, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs to Wet Leg and Lime Garden).

Not long ago, people started calling me a veteran of my scene and of the music industry, Williams said in a statement. It sounds so funny to me because most of the time I still feel like a fan. The serious truth is I have, in fact, grown up in this scene for the last two decades. I guess thats a pretty long time. Im really excited to have the opportunity to publicly nerd out about bands and songs that make my favorite subgenre feel like home to me. And while it will be fun to take some trips down memory lane, Im just as excited, if not more, to play music from new artists Im discovering all the time.

Williams added that she designed the show to feel like a conversation, and she hopes the kind of interaction it fosters will feel somewhat reminiscent of the message boards and forums I used to frequent as a teenage scene kid. Per the shows website, fans can submit voice notes with band recommendations of their own, or with their own bits of emo nostalgia.

More than anything, I hope music fans and artists alike will be psyched to hear a highly considered spectrum of Emo in all its forms, Williams said. And yeah, of course, youll hear some Paramore.

As of this past January, Paramore were back in the studio working on their first album since 2017s After Laughter. The LP will also be the first that Williams, Zac Farro, and Taylor York have started and finished together as a trio (Farro came in halfway through the making of After Laughter).

While Williams told Rolling Stone at the time that the new LP was inspired by some of her earliest influences, she said the group wasnt necessarily plotting a comeback emo record. She continued: The music we were first excited by wasnt exactly the kind of music we went on to make. Our output has always been all over the place and with this project, its not that different. Were still in the thick of it but some things have remained consistent from the start. 1) More emphasis back on the guitar, and 2) Zac should go as Animal as he wants with drum takes.

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Hayley Williams to Deliver the Ultimate Emo History Lesson on New Podcast - Rolling Stone

ALBANY An appellate court issued a decision Thursday overturning the termination of a former high-ranking state official who was fired from his jobfollowing the release of an inspector general's report that found he had "a history of improper and sexually inappropriate acts" targeting female colleagues.

James "Jay" Kiyonaga was initially terminated from his job as executive deputy commissioner at the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities in May 2018, where he was the second-in-command. A spokeswoman for OPWDD at the time said Kiyonaga was fired due to the findings of the inspector general's office.

But his court case centered on a petition he filed challenging his subsequent termination from a second, fall-back civil service position he held as financial director at the Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs, where much of the alleged misconduct had occurred.

As a result of the appellate division's decision, Kiyonaga is expected to be reinstated to his civil service position with the Justice Center, including back pay and benefits. He was being paid more than $130,000 a year in that job.

"We are pleased with the courts decision protecting the due process rights of state employees like Mr. Kiyonaga," said Michael Hawrylchak, an attorney for Kiyonaga.

The convoluted employment battle unfolded for more than two years beginning in 2018 after Kiyonaga invoked his right to return to his Justice Center position, where he was suspended and eventually terminated by Denise M. Miranda, the director of that office.

In February 2020, a hearing officer dismissed all nine charges that had been filed against Kiyonaga related to his alleged misconduct, much of it involving remarks or his behavior involving female employees. But five months later, Miranda overruled the hearing officer on one of the charges and terminated Kiyonaga after determining he was guilty of official misconduct for an alleged remark to a female colleague.

But the appellate division ruled the state erred because when that charge was served on Kiyonaga it accused him of making the inappropriate remark at an after-hours social gathering outside the workplace. The female employee, however, testified that he made the remark in the workplace.

There were other issues with the state's case. Court records indicate the nine charges filed against Kiyonaga all charging him with official misconduct lacked details such as the identity of the alleged victims and witnesses or the dates and times of the purported misconduct.

The appellate ruling also noted that Miranda had overruled the hearing officer's dismissal of the charges without hearing any testimony in the case, which they characterized as "an abuse of discretion." They also found that Kiyonaga's right to due process was violated.

It's unclear whether the state can appeal the decision or seek to reinstate any disciplinary charges against Kiyonaga, which is unlikely given the statute of limitations governing disciplinary proceedings involving state employees.

The Justice Center is reviewing the decision and evaluating its legal options.

The Justice Center has zero tolerance for any type of workplace harassment," said Christine Buttigieg, a spokeswoman for the office. "Because this matter is ongoing, the agency cannot comment further."

A letter outlining the findings of the investigation by the inspector general's office was sent to Miranda in May 2018.

"My investigation, which involved numerous witnesses who testified under oath, revealed Kiyonaga's history of improper and sexually inappropriate acts towards and comments to fellow staff members and subordinates at the Justice Center," then-Inspector General Catherine Leahy-Scott wrote in the letter. "The specific acts and pattern of conduct described to my office under oath ranging from inappropriate sexual comments and comments about employee's sexual preferences to an unwanted sexual physical contact with an employee are reprehensible and indefensible."

Leahy-Scott, who is now a judge, also said that during the inspector general's investigation "a number of Justice Center employees testified to my office of other inappropriate acts by Kiyonaga in the workplace and at off-site social gatherings with staff members, including sexual comments to and about female employees and unwanted advances towards female staff members."

The Times Union had reported earlier that month that Kiyonaga had been the subject of complaints filed by women at various state agencies through the years, including the Justice Center, the Budget Division and the Division of Criminal Justice Services.

That same month, a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint was filed by Patricia Gunning, a former high-level attorney at the Justice Center, who cited a "complete failure of the governor's office and the state to deal with this serial sexual harasser and discriminator."

"By September 2017, Mr. Kiyonaga's 15 years in state employ had a consistent pattern," Gunning's complaint stated. "He fostered a boys' club atmosphere in the agencies where he worked. He favored women he found attractive. He retaliated against women who complained."

Gunning's complaint alleged Kiyonaga engaged in repeated sexual harassment, favored or promoted women who "were a willing recipient of his sexual advances," and "distorted Justice Center policy to accommodate his romantic liaison."

The EEOC complaint enabled Gunning to subsequently file a federal lawsuit against Kiyonaga and the Justice Center. That case is pending.

In an interview Thursday afternoon, Gunning said that the decision by the appellate division does not vindicate Kiyonaga and that his termination was "reversed on a technicality."

"In my reading of the transcripts, it appears that it was poorly handled by the Justice Center and now these women are faced with the possibility of him returning to their workplace," Gunning said. "Its not that hes been exonerated on the merits."

In 2012, several female employees at DCJS filed a complaint about inappropriate and sexually charged conversations that took place in Kiyonaga's 10th-floor office. Wanda Troche, a former affirmative action officer for the agency, told the Times Union four years ago that her investigation was overtaken by the agency's human resources director andfirst deputy commissioner.

Troche said she later was told that a sealed envelope apparently documenting something about the case she wasn't told what it contained -- was placed in Kiyonaga's personnel file.

Troche, who retired from the agency in 2015, said the incident was part of a pattern in which the agency's human resources director intervened in matters involving high-level appointees such as Kiyonaga, who transferred to another state agency not long after the incident.

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Court reinstates job of state executive with 'history of ... sexually inappropriate acts' - Times Union

By the spring of 1865, a weary, war-torn nation had had enough.

Americas deadliest war was sputtering to a bloody close. Its first president to die at an assassins hand had just been murdered and was awaiting burial. Next, the killer was killed.

Then came a tragedy so immense, that it still holds a record today.

It wasnt supposed to have turned out that way. It should have been the opposite, a Hollywood-style happy ending for men who had sufferedand survivedsome of the Civil Wars worst horrors. Yet in an instant, the Disney tale turned into a horror movie.

In 1865, hundreds of steamboats chugged the Mississippi River from Minnesota to New Orleans carrying products and people. It was a busy place then, the quickest way to travel long distances when you were in a hurry.

The men in blue were indeed in a hurry to get home. After all, most of them were Union soldiers recently released from the Andersonville POW camp in Georgia. With the war over, the weakened survivors wanted to put it behind them.

Enter the steamboat, Sultana. She was designed to carry cotton on runs from St Louis to the Big Easy. But money is money, and her owner supplemented his income by ferrying Federal troops up and down the river. When used as a passenger vessel, she was authorized to carry 376 people.

The Sultana was docked at Vicksburg, Miss. when an army officer came looking for Captain James Mason. The officer knew the war had hit Masons bottom line hard and that he desperately needed cash to keep his boat in business.

The officer had a problem of his own, too. A temporary holding camp outside town was overrun with liberated soldiers from Andersonville and another POW camp in Alabama. So, he offered a deal.

The army paid $2.75 for each enlisted man and $8 for every officer transported up the river. If Mason would turn a blind eye to the number of men crammed on board, plus give a generous kickback to the officer, the Sultanas trip upriver would be her most lucrative ever. They shook hands.

When the anchor was weighed and her side paddlewheel began churning on the night of April 24, an estimated 1,960 liberated prisoners, 22 other soldiers, an additional 70 paying travelers, plus a crew of 85 were aboard. That was 2,137 peopleon a boat designed to carry 461.

The sight was so unusual when the Sultana docked upriver at Helena, Ark. some 36 hours later, photographer Thomas Bankes rushed to the levy to capture the scene. Photography was cumbersome and time-consuming back then, meaning such an overloaded boat was so extraordinary it was considered worth preserving. The image clearly shows Sultana listing to port from the excess weight. A few hours later she took off again. There had been engine trouble. Worse was to come.

It was slow going, paddling against the ferocious current with a weight the boat was never intended to bear. On top of everything, the Mississippi was at flood stage just then. The boats complex steam engine, prone to problems even in ideal conditions, strained to provide power.

She reached Memphis around 7:00 p.m., dropped off some 200 men and 120 tons of sugar freight while taking on several tons of coal, then resumed plodding northward at midnight.

Two hours later, it happened.

There was a massive explosion. A giant fireball lit up the spring night. Bodies and pieces of wreckage flew everywhere.

Survivor Anna Annis recalled, my husband, with our child, jumped overboard I held on to the rudder till I was obliged to let go by the fire.

Solomon Bogart said, I jumped overboard among countless numbers of drowning men and made my way to the bank after hard swimming for eight or nine miles.

Well never know the exact number of fatalities. Estimates range from 1,100 to as many as 1,547. Recent research suggests it was likely close to 1,200.

Some people suggested it was an act of late-war sabotage. While many theories about the explosions cause abound, it was most likely mechanically related.

Two things are beyond dispute. First, no one was held accountable. Captain Mason died in the blast. The army officer who bribed him was found guilty in a court-martial, but his sentence was later overturned.

Second, it remains the worst disaster in American maritime history. The approximately 1,200 lives lost put it on par with the Titanics 1,500 death toll.

So given the magnitude, why dont we remember it today? Because it happened at the wrong time. It occurred at the end of a month that had already seen more than its share of death. It was finally one tragedy too many. Americans simply wanted to forget.

And forget they did.

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Holy Cow! History: The Record-Setting Tragedy You've Never Heard Of InsideSources - InsideSources