Altin’s Café and Grill is a family-owned and operated restaurant with relaxing outdoor seating and a recently expanded indoor dining room. Open seven days a week from 8 AM to 10 PM (Sundays closed at 4 PM), they offer awesome wraps, thin, crispy oven-baked pizzas and dinner specials: two entrées and a bottle of wine for $34.99. Their omelettes are served with fresh fruit, home fries and toast, and all the lunchmeats are Boar’s Head, with a dozen sandwiches to choose from.

“We love to help local groups with their special discounts,” said Pedge, the jovial patriarch who embraces you on the sidewalk. “We welcome all the tourists who come to beautiful Naples in the winter, but we count on and appreciate year-round residents who want us open every day during the hot summers. We look forward to meeting more members of the Naples Press Club as they learn of our partnership with your group.”

Pedge, whose real name is Schpenzie, is often seen riding his bicycle at lunchtime delivering food from Altin’s kitchen to businesses in the vicinity. When he is not on location, he is watching a multitude of grandchildren. Some of his family works with him. His son Altin runs the kitchen while his wife Pamela heads the serving team, busy going from sidewalk to kitchen to dining room and back again.

This affordable and excellent local restaurant offers a generous 15% discount on food and wine to all members of the NPC. If you go with more than two people, they will honor a 10% discount—on food only—for the whole group.

Be sure to mention your NPC affiliation when making a phone reservation, and flash your card on arrival.

Altin’s Café and Grill
Owners Pedge and Altin Meleqi
368 Fifth Avenue South
Naples FL 34102
239-261-5853
altinmeleqi@yahoo.com

Submitted by Hélène Gaillet de Neergaard

President Carole J. Greene

When investigative reporters hear of something shocking, they want to dig in and learn more. Often, after that, they want to tell others so their reporting can make a difference.

This happened when one of our NPC board members heard the disturbing fact that over one thousand children in our local schools have been identified as homeless. The actual figure is likely much higher, as many parents, fearing their children might be taken from them, won’t report their homeless status.

Lest you automatically picture these children in Immokalee, let me say right now that ninety percent of them live in Naples. Every single school in the Collier County system reports homeless children attend there. Many sleep in a vehicle, with someone in the family moving the car every few hours. The kids wash their faces and brush teeth in a gas station restroom before heading to school. If they’re lucky, they might get to a truck stop with shower facilities once a week. Or maybe not.

Many faith-based organizations and non-profits provide food for these families. What often is overlooked is their need for toiletries—soap, shampoo, toothpaste and brush, deodorant, even make-up and cologne.

That’s where NPC can help. The board approved publicizing this issue and requesting that NPC members donate toiletries at one of our summer mixers—or, who knows, maybe all of them. Most of us have stowed in our cabinets unused products gleaned from hotels and cruise ships. Bring them. Better yet, every time you buy yourself some toiletries you can’t live without, buy an extra bottle or two for those who DO live without them. I’d like to see this continue at all our meetings throughout the year and hope you will, too.

That’s it. I’ll take it from there and get the collected items to a group that will sort, pack and deliver the much-needed staples for distribution by the school system’s “Homeless Education Liaison.” I didn’t know the schools even employed such a person. Did you?

Help NPC make a difference. I expect it will make you feel good. I know it will make me feel better.

NPC President Carole Greene, FGCU Journalism Prof. Lyn Millner, journalism students Maryann Batlle, Kahlan Rosenblatt, Tia Brown, Andrew Friedgen and Journalism Asst. Prof. Judd Cribbs
–photo by Helene Gaillet de Neergaard

At the April 25th luncheon meeting at the Hilton-Naples, NPC members heard from a panel of four FGCU Journalism students and their professors about Journalism classes, 2013-style.

The panel included three Journalism majors, all juniors: Andrew Friedgen (Opinion Editor-FGCU’s Eagle News and current recipient of the NPC Endowed Journalism FGCU Scholarship), Kahlan Rosenblatt (soon to be Editor-in-Chief-Eagle News) and Tia Brown (Asst. News Editor-Eagle News). FGCU Journalism Grad Maryann Batlle, now covering Lee County for the Naples Daily News, also participated. Journalism Professors Lyn Millner and Judd Cribbs spoke, as well.

The first comparison was the “reel-to-reel tapes” for videos in the “old days” to today’s tiny microchip video cards. Friedgen held up the tiny video card and explained that the FGCU Journalism students learn to use it to capture video clips from the field, dump them onto their hard drive, drag them onto a software timeline to edit, arrange, cut, render, etc. Once it’s ready, the completed video can then be sent to the FGCU Eagle News Facebook page, and onto the website, YouTube or anywhere you want to send it, such as an iPhone or iPad.

Rosenblatt commented that it’s “way easier than the old way.”

FGCU J-Students’ Video Kit
–photo by Helene Gaillet de Neergard

Asst. Journalism Prof. Cribbs explained to the NPC members that today’s J-Students are totally mobile. They learn to do it all.  Students in his Audio-Visual Journalism Class are able to check out a “Video Kit” that has everything needed to gather information in the field. In the kit, costing about $1,000, is a 1.5 lb. high-quality camera with a flip-out screen with zoom capability and is set up for Wi-Fi and video cards. It has a highly directional microphone and a light ring with different filters, plus a tripod. The three-hour and five-hour power source accessories are very small and rechargeable. Basically, the multimedia kit is lightweight and mobile, and can go anywhere—just what today’s “Modern Multimedia Journalist” needs to do his or her job in the field. Cribbs said, “We’re trying to give our students as much experience as possible, so that when they are out in the field as graduates, they are up to date and know how to do it. We want our students to know what it’s like to be a working multimedia journalist.”

Brown pointed out that she had “no idea” how to create a video until she took Prof. Cribbs’ class, but she found it “very easy to learn how to film the video, add sound and music, and edit it on the timeline software.” She completed her first-ever video for Ronald McDonald House, and then went to YouTube to show it to the NPC members on the large screen.

Journalism Prof. Lyn Millner added, “We started this last year. It’s not just for class; it also has an application outside of the classroom.”

Batlle spoke on the topic, “Who is a journalist?” She covered the concept of “citizen journalists” who do NOT work for a media outlet, and asked the question, “Are they journalists?” She also brought up the “ethics” question. She said that the citizen journalists who focus on ethics and the greater community they serve could probably be considered journalists today. “Journalism is still about connections,” she said. “Feedback helps us refine our stories.”

Asst. Prof. Cribbs stated that the FGCU Journalism classes talk about accuracy all the time because there is always a rush to get something on the air. But, once “credibility” is gone, it’s gone and you can’t get it back!” He said that it is a fine line between preparing the students for the challenges and facing them. Currently, there are over 100 Journalism major students in the now two-year-old program at FGCU.

The students passed out copies of the current issue of Eagle News which was filled with large photos with a QR Code imbedded in each one. For the “rest of the story,” readers scan the codes with QR Scan Apps on their Smart Phones, which takes them to the Eagles News website. Rosenblatt said that Tom Hanson of the Naples Daily News helped the FGCU J-students develop that technology.

Nina Harkness, author of the book, “The Sahib’s Daughter,” recently had a successful book signing along with another artists who exhibit their works at the Mercato in Naples. Her paperback will be out in a few weeks and will be followed by e-book version. More info at her website: www.ninaharkness.com

Larry DeMaria tells us he has a new e-thriller, “Killerfest” available on Amazon. “Shades of Salmon Rushdie,” he says, explaining that the book is a tangled tale where one author has been murdered for allegedly insulting Islam, and then the killers announce that the world’s most popular thriller novelist is next.
More info at his website: www.lawrencedemaria.com

Gregory met with over 200 Afghan nationals, in both the private and public sectors, as well as a leader of the opposition, potential presidential candidates and “the local war lord.” She participated in a briefing from President Karzai. Gregory and team were also briefed by the US personnel on the ground in Kabul: USAID, Press and Communications, the Rule of Law, and sat in meetings with UN Special Representative Jan Kubis, and General John Allen, leader of the International Security Assistance Force.

Their collective impressions at the end of a week on the ground in Kabul generated the reports written. These reports will be the subject of her May 23 presentation to the Naples Press Club.

Gregory, a past president and now program chairman of the Naples Council on World Affairs, has traveled extensively in Central and Eastern Europe, participated in a Council Leadership Mission to Germany, and led a Great Decisions group for eleven years. She also lived in France for several years and maintains strong ties to France through her association with the Alliances Francaises. President Sarkozy honored her with the National Order of Merit, Rank of Commander.

As usual, reservations are required.

$23/NPC members, $28/non-members, cash or check at the door.**

Guests are welcome, so invite your neighbors.

1.  Select your luncheon entree: STANDARD – herb-encrusted chicken breast; VEGETARIAN – grilled Portobello mushroom; SPECIAL NEEDS – gluten free, etc. – please specify need.

2.  Send your luncheon selection and number of attendees to rsvp@naplespressclub.org.

**Deadline to reserve (and to cancel a reservation already made) is May 19. 

3.  To pay by credit card, click here

This book is a ”must read” refresher course about journalism today and what should be expected of a journalist.

Bill Kovach, the chairman of the Committee of Concerned Journalists, has been editor of the Atlanta-Constitution and Washington bureau chief for the New York Times. Rosenstiel is the director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

As members of the Naples Press Club, whether we are working journalists, retired journalists or “press people,” it is imperative we remind ourselves from time to time of the points made in this book.

Kovach points to several elements of journalism that are crucial. Some of these are:

** Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth.

** Its essence is a discipline of verification.

** Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover.

** Its practitioners have an obligation to exercise their personal conscience.

All of us are aware of these principles, certainly have practiced them in our careers and realize how important it is to update our information and keep up with the rapidly changing era of journalism.

Following a two-year study, the journalists on the Committee of Concerned Journalists set out on a plan to engage journalists on the “careful examinations of what journalism was supposed to be.”

Results of this study, including “exhaustive research, surveys, interviews and public forums, uncovered some interesting conclusions.” The authors distilled from their research the fact that “there are some clear principles that journalists agree on and that citizens have a right to expect. The first among them is that the purpose of journalism is to provide people with the information they need to be free and self-governing.”

“To fulfill this task,” Kovach explains “is to adhere to the axiom that journalism’s first obligation is to the truth.”

At a recent NPC luncheon, speakers Charles Gibson and Phil Jones, who were veteran reporters and one-time competitors in breaking-news television journalism, lamented the idea that media audiences (both print and broadcast) are continually decreasing in numbers – and espoused the fact that digital technology, the emergence of the Internet, social media and mega-corporate ownership are putting good journalism at risk. They also noted that objective reporting has become compromised, and the emergence of the Internet and social media has contributed to this situation.

A particularly interesting chapter in the book is called “Journalism of Assertion vs. Journalism of Verification.” The authors explain that technology is big part of this emerging trend. “The Internet, Nexis, social media and services developed over the last decade or so for sharing and disseminating video, afford journalists easy access to stories and quotes without doing their own investigating.”

The consensus of this chapter is that the ethics of journalism cannot be compromised if the reading or listening public is to continue to believe what is written or broadcast in the media.

Any journalism refresher course, enrichment course, or life-long learning career update on the subject should include this book. The American Journalism Review has called it “essential reading for journalism professionals and students – and for the citizens they serve.”

Robert Ebert

Roger Ebert, global ambassador of film reviews and criticism, has died–a great loss for all cinema lovers. His influence on film appreciation permeated our lives for many years. His ability to extend his judgment, positive or negative, with flexibility and master strokes, was unique.

As someone who prefers to read reviews after seeing a movie, he opened my eyes to nuances and ambiance, teaching me to delve into the spirit of a picture, to focus on its sensitive values, and to reach beyond directors and actors into the soul of the medium.

President Obama is probably the first president to eulogize a film critic, and this is what he said: “Even amidst his own battles with cancer, Roger was as productive as he was resilient — continuing to share his passion and perspective with the world. The movies won’t be the same without Roger, and our thoughts and prayers are with Chaz and the rest of the Ebert family.”

Roger Ebert will not be soon forgotten.

Helene de Neergaard 4/6/2013

Olga Hirschorn has found a home for her mini collection, “The Mouse House.” The Patty & Jay Baker Naples Museum of Art announced that the small but powerful grouping will become part of the museum’s permanent collection. “The Mouse House” has been on loan and installed at the Naples Museum since 2009.

Kathy Bertone says although it is a little late, she wants to let members know that she had a book signing on March 28 at Sunshine Booksellers on Marco Island. She encourages the support of Indie bookstores. The name of her book is “The Art of the Visit: Being the Perfect Host; Becoming the Perfect Guest.” For television clips and articles Visit the Website

Helene de Neergaard tells us she has attended the Lyle Bultman lectures on China at FGCU and finds the speaker to be very warm and instructive. “He moves from left to right, looks at everyone, gets us all involved, knows all the answers to questions I wouldn’t even know to ask.” She suggests that some of his lectures at FGCU may still be open and are worth attending.

D.K. Christi suggests we check the blog post “Forever Families,” editor Shelagh Watkins’ free ebook. Included is the D.K. Christi Story – but it was free on the weekend of March 22 only. Unfortunately this post came to us too late, but it is a coup for Christi to have her book recognized this way. Congrats!

Michele Stakianos  informs us that her latest book, “The 4-1-1 on surviving Teenhood” which was released October, 2012 has won Honorable Mention in the 2012-2013 Los Angeles Book Festival, and Runner-Up in the 2013 Great Southeast Book Festival. Congratulations, Michele!

Did you like our SCOOPs du jour that were published during March? It was our way of keeping in touch while SCOOP was on sabbatical.

The best way for us to write about member activities is to have you contact us at npcscoop@aol.com.

Thanxx!

Denise
NPC SCOOP Editor

First, I found, auditioned and hired a professional narrator. Months later, I screened the completed narration to ensure what’s said exactly matches what’s written. This typically requires several listening-and-comparing sessions, each lasting the length of the book (or in my case 12 hours per screening). The finished product is uploaded to ACX (Audible’s production department), one chapter at a time, along with a PR blurb and book cover picture. Fulfilling ACX’s upload specifications proves challenging. Once you comply with every detail, ACX takes 14 more days to ”validate” your submission. Then, voila: your book is available on itunes and Audibles.com. My audio project took a year to complete.

If producing an audio book interests you, may I introduce my narrator, Debbie Stromberg, a voice-over artist currently living in Fredericksburg, VA. She’s been narrating and telling stories for over ten years working locally from her home studio as well as in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Some of her clients include the FBI, Audibles, Weston Woods, Oasis Audio and the National Park Service. She was also the voice of Hallie Flannigan in “Who Killed the Federal Theater: An Investigation” for PBS. Most recently, she voiced the Kiplinger Exhibit, which is currently showing at the Historical Society of Washington, DC, and collaborated with me on my novel audio version of “Garage Sale Stalker.”

As an actresss, Deborah has appeared at Ford’s Theater as well as the Kennedy Center, playing a swashbuckling pirate in the children’s musical “Dick Whittingham and His Cat.” Locally, she performed the role of Mrs. Meers in the musical “Thoroughly Modern Millie” at Riverside Center Dinner Theater. She holds a B.F.A. in Theater from Virginia Commonwealth University. For more information, Contact Debbie Stromberg at (540) 972-7954.

President Carole Greene

Your Board of Governors pays attention! In our member survey that accompanied your recent dues notice, we asked for your input. Many of you gave some thought to various issues and let us know your feelings.

You want more programs relevant to press and media matters. We IMMEDIATELY gave you TV news icons Charlie Gibson and Phil

Jones in an “off the record” fireside chat. Randy Jones, our new program chair, works diligently to find program presenters that have media connections. Throughout the season, stay tuned for more luncheon speakers with media credentials. Support your club by attending.

You want more interaction between members. Don’t know if you noticed, but at our first 2013 luncheon, board members spread themselves around the room, trying to make sure at least one board member sat at each table. We intend to continue this practice so you can have easy access to the board to express anything on your mind.

Another way to increase member interface is to provide a way for members to know more about one another. Starting immediately, when new members attend their first luncheon after being accepted for membership, make sure we know you’re new and we’ll make sure you have ONE MINUTE to stand and tell us a little about yourself.  We will look for a way to let long-standing members do the same.

Finally, continue to let us know how to improve your Naples Press Club. I really want to hear from you. Contact me at 239-594-1484 or cjgliteraryagent@gmail.com.