The LuLac Edition #1877, December 29th, 2011

WOMEN WE LOVE 2011

Our 2011 edition of “Women We love” has some pretty topical and news worthy picks this year. “Women We Love” is a feature that LuLac started a few years ago. We make our picks based on the number of comments we get, non published and published, the e mails generated by a particular female in the news, the buzz generated by the person or intriguing facts that we just can’t ignore. That said, here’s the 2011 edition of “Women We Love”.
MOLLY HANLON MIRABITO: Even though she just missed being a Luzerne County Judge by less than 550 votes, Molly has enhanced her stature as an honorable officer of the court who impressed mightily on the campaign trail. Mirabito’s race was supposed to be a head to head match up with GOP barrister Dick Hughes but she wound up facing off with dual nominee Lesa Gelb for the 6th spot on the County bench. In losing, Luzerne County lost an accomplished prosecutor that would have been a great Judge. However, because of that thought, it is said that Mirabito has a bright future in legal and political circles because of the way she conducted herself in this latest campaign.
ATHENA FORD: Ms. Ford is a frequent e mail contact of mine. She is a community organizer in the Philadelphia area for the Pennsylvania Health Access Network. PHAN is an organization that keeps an eye on health care issues in the state of Pennsylvania. PHAN also monitors any shenanigans the health care insurers in the state might try. PHAN also was instrumental in fighting for more people enrolled in the children’s insurance program and fought vigorously against the ending of the Adult Basic program in the state. Ford is a ball of energy and presents these community issues passionately and regularly to Keystone State residents.
KRISTEN MULLEN: A seasoned photo journalist, the Citizen Voice’s Kristen Mullen is an award winning photographer. Mullen is a ubiquitous presence in Northeastern Pennsylvania. She might show up at a political meeting, a forum, debate, school meeting, PTA get together, athletic event, you name it, you see her acrobatically positioning herself to get the best shot of her photographic prey. On location, she is habitually pleasant and is a fine representative of her paper and her trade. Whenever I see her at an event, and she takes my picture, magically I’m 10 years younger and 8 pounds lighter. Ya gotta love that!!!
HEATHER LONG: A regular on PCN’s “Journalist’s Roundtable” Heather Long impresses with her knowledge of state wide issues as well as her dead on assessments of the political powers that be in the state Capitol. Long’s “Our Views and Yours” in the editorial section of the paper is widely read and regarded by Central Pennsylvania readers as well as state wide on line followers.
TRISH HARTMAN: Just a few month’s ago, this Philadelphia area native was anchoring the weekend news on WNEP TV. She is now the night time co anchor with Scott Shaffer and rarely makes a miscue. Hartman also covers stories when off the anchor desk putting together informative and efficient packages that inform 16 viewers. An avid runner, Hartman participated in the Steamtown Marathon this fall.
LIZ RANDOL: 2011 was a big year for Liz Randol. She burst on to the political scene and ran for the job of Lackawanna County Commissioner. Randol nearly made it coming within a few votes of unseating incumbent Corey O’Brien. Randol wisely rejected trying an independent run in the general election and instead made her presence known appearing at various events and keeping her political profile high. Randol was once Chief of Staff in the Lackawanna County Commissioner’s office. If you couple that knowledge with her obvious political skills, you just now Liz Randol has a future in Lackawanna County politics. And people, if you don’t want her in the Lac, we’ll gladly take her in Luzerne County.
ANNE RICHARDS: When the Penn State scandal broke, this young lady stepped up big time to give her age demographic’s view of the unsettling events in State College. Appearing on PCN’s “Journalist’s Roundtable”, Richards was articulate, knowledgeable and presented her views very well. Richards is a staff member and co anchor of the widely respected “Centre County Report”.
MANDEE MARIE: You may or may not be familiar with Happy Jack Burns polka broadcasts on WALN Digital Cable Radio out of Allentown. But if you are, you know an integral part of his broadcasts are “The Party Channel Girls”. The newest addition came in the form of Mandee Marie who co hosts with Happy Jack every Sunday evening. Jack and the other Party Channel girls, Layla and Vicki attend various community and charity events in the Allentown/Bethlehem area. Mandee Marie is one of the trio’s brightest add ons. WALN broadcasts can be seen on SERVICE ELECTRIC HD Channel 137 in the Wilkes Barre area.
HILLARY CLINTON: She now is being mentioned as a possible Vice President on a 2012 ticket. Talk about a turn of events. But I don’t think Barack Obama will allow that to happen since his substantial ego will not make allowances for a Clinton to bail his butt out. As Secretary of State she has proven herself to be tough on the world stage, articulate and passionate. Watching her work is a type of sideshow that provides an insight into what type of President she might have been. Or maybe a preview of what is to be. Clinton might find herself in a situation where something might finally come to her….long after she stopped searching for it.
KATHLEEN PARKER: Parker’s syndicated nationally by The Washington Post. and is a regular guest on television shows like The O'Reilly Factor and The Chris Matthews Show. Parker describes herself politically as "slightly to the right of center. Parker is the author of Save the Males: Why Men Matter, Why Women Should Care (New York: Random House, 2008). A columnist since 1987, she has worked for five newspapers, from Florida to California, and is the 1993 winner of the H.L. Mencken writing award presented by the Baltimore Sun. She has written for several magazines, including The Weekly Standard, Time, Town & Country, Cosmopolitan, and Fortune Small Business. She also serves on the Board of Contributors for USA Today's Forum Page, part of the newspaper's Opinion section. She is also a contributor to the online magazine, The Daily Beast. The Week magazine named her one of the nation's Top Five columnists in 2004 and 2005. .Parker is reasonable, thoughtful, easy on the eyes and a broadcast survivor. She had a show on CNN with former New York Governor Elliot Spitzer.
LARA LOGAN: Logan is the chief foreign affairs correspondent for CBS News, and a correspondent for CBS's 60 Minutes. Logan made news this year when she was covering the uprising in Egypt. Logan and her CBS crew were arrested and detained for one night by the Egyptian Army on 3 February 2011, while covering the Egyptian Revolution. She said the crew was blindfolded and handcuffed at gunpoint, and their driver beaten. They were advised to leave the country, but were later released. On 15 February 2011, CBS News released a statement that Logan had been beaten and sexually assaulted on 11 February, while covering the celebrations in Tahrir Square following Hosni Mubarak's resignation.. CBS 60 Minutes broadcast an interview with her about it on 1 May 2011; she said she was speaking out because of the prevalence of sexual assault in Egypt, and to break the silence about the sexual violence women reporters are reluctant to report in case it prevents them from doing their job. .]She said the incident involved 200–300 men and lasted around 25 minutes. She had been reporting the celebrations for an hour without incident when her camera battery failed. One of the Egyptian CBS crew suggested they leave, telling her later he heard the crowd make inappropriate sexual comments about her. She felt hands touching her, and can be heard shouting "stop", just as the camera died. One of the crowd shouted that she was an Israeli, a Jew, a claim that CBS said, though false, was a "match to gasoline". She went on to say that they tore off her clothes and, in her words, raped her with their hands, while taking photographs with their cellphones. They began pulling her body in different directions, pulling her hair so hard she said it seemed they were trying to tear off chunks of her scalp. Believing she was dying, she was dragged along the square to where the crowd was stopped by a fence, alongside which a group of women were camping. One woman wearing a chador put her arms around Logan, and the others closed ranks around her, while some men who were with the women threw water at the crowd. A group of soldiers appeared, beat back the crowd with batons, and one of them threw Logan over his shoulder. She was flown back to the U.S. the next day, where she spent four days in hospital. That my friends in an intrepid reporter in the true tradition of CBS News.
JENNIFER LEARNES ANDES: Anything you want to know about Luzerne County government, anything you know about Luzerne County government was most likely gleaned from an article written by Jennifer Learnes Andes. Throughout the corruption trials earlier this year, Andes was there with her lap top giving Times Leader readers a minute by minute account of the court proceedings. Observing her work, I was struck by the fact that it seemed like she never took a break. I saw her bantering back and forth with Defense Attorney for Mark Ciavarella, Al Flora. A week later there was a detailed story about how Flora was going to try to run the Public Defender’s office after the trial ended. The old time reporters would love her work ethic, head down, ear to the ground and tons of accurate and informative stories that any writer or reporter would give this ultimate compliment to: “I wish I wrote that”.

TIFFANY CLOUD: You see her on TV for WYLN’s “Storm Politics”. Her show is informative and on point. But Tiffany Cloud (and she will never admit this) has fast become a power broker in Luzerne County politics. In the last two years, she has helped plot and nurture two upset candidacies that have shaken to the core the old boys network. She virtually ran Tarrah Toohill’s 2010 upset against the still invisible Todd Eachus and became one of the biggest cheerleaders for young Stefanie Salavantis who became the Luzerne County District Attorney. In future years, I predict Cloud will be bringing forth more strong candidates that will bedevil the Democratic establishment and revitalize the Luzerne County GOP. Some people think Storm’s power comes from the Interview table she presides over on the Hazleton based TV station. Not so, sources tell me her political plotting comes off the laptop on the kitchen table. Revolutions usually start unnoticed and undetected. Look to this one to be for a silent but powerful force in NEPA politics in the next decade.

NANCY KMAN: Nancy Kman is the big cheese at WILK News/Talk Radio. A fellow cancer survivor, sometimes I think that Kman and I are the only two progressives left in this part of the world. Doing double duty as a manager as well as an on air host, this mother of two puts that experience to good use managing the sometimes rambunctious and boisterous children of WILK. Think of the people she works with in the morning, Webster, Tarone, Brown, Steele and Thomas. Between the 5 that’s over 150 combined years of broadcast experience, not to mention broadcast egos. I mean we aren’t even getting into the rest of the crowd she has to manage during the remainder of the day. Nancy K keeps the train on schedule and even if at times it looks like someone will derail it, she manages to put it back on track and more or less on time. You gotta love her for that!

MONICA MADEJA: Monica Madeja is the co host of the popular WBRE show Pa Live which replaced Oprah. Monica has anchored and reported the news on WBRE serving with distinction during the great Flood of 2011. Madeja took a lot of crap this year on a message board that dealt with the news media. That board was shut down due to all types of bad internet behavior. Madeja essentially ignored the inane criticism and went about her business of being a good reporter and commentator. Her new show with Dave Kuharchick highlights her knowledge of the area and obvious talents.