HAVE YOU SEEN THESE TWO?

Thirty minutes ago, the FBI released photos of two suspects related to the horrific bombing this past Monday at the Boston Marathon.  The photos are below:

If you know anything about these men at all, you are urged to contact the FBI immediately here or call them at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), prompt #3, with information.

The FBI is stressing that no tip is too small or insignificant.

The Shadow is also pleading that if you know anything at all, please contact the FBI or Boston Police.

We will keep you posted as events warrant.

Good night and good luck.

And The Winners Are....

We have to say, this has been one of the most interesting Academy Awards shows we have seen in over 15 years.  In fact, we will go so far to say that this has to be the worst show that we have seen in 15 years.  Seth MacFarlane took pot shots at everyone insulting several women at the begging of the show, giving an ill-timed intro to Christopher Plummer and insulted Selma Hayek, claiming that you cannot understand what she is saying, just prior to introducing her.  It is our hope that Seth MacFarlane never hosts this show again.

On the other hand, there were some great moments.  Singer Adelle was very gracious when she accepted her first Academy Award for Best Original Song.  Jennifer Hudson raised the roof when she reminded people of the power of her voice when she sung "And I Am Telling You" from Dreamgirls.  Seeing Barbra Striesand on stage again was another great moment.

But we will not expound on this any further -- we are sure that the Academy will review all of this in the coming days, weeks and months.

Yesterday, The Shadow gave you his predictions for the major awards that were given out tonight.  Listed below are the actual winners (and there were some pleasant surprises):

• Best Picture - Argo
• Best Director - Ang Lee (Life of Pi)
• Best Actor - Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)
• Best Actress - Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)
• Best Supporting Actor - Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)
• Best Supporting Actresses - Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables)
• Original Screenplay - Django Unchained
• Adapted Screenplay - Argo
• Animated Feature - Brave
• Cinematography - Life of Pi
• Original Score - Life of Pi
• Original Song - Skyfall

As we mentioned, we will say nothing more on the actual program tonight -- we will leave that to the Academy.  Otherwise, we will be back to this next year.

Good night and good luck.

And The Oscar Goes To......

We are now about 24 hours away from Seth MacFarlane welcoming the world to the Academy Awards Show.  This has been quite a controversial year with many movies not nominated for major awards and at least two directors who were snubbed in the Best Director category.

In what has been an annual tradition for this blog, The Shadow is now prepared to give you his predictions of the Academy Award winners in the major categories this year.  They are:

• Best Picture - Argo
• Best Director - Steven Spielberg (Lincoln)
• Best Actor - Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)
• Best Actress - Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty)
• Best Supporting Actor - Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln)
• Best Supporting Actress - Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables)
• Original Screenplay - Zero Dark Thirty
• Adapted Screenplay - Argo
• Animated Feature - Brave
• Cinematography - Life of Pi
• Original Score - Life of Pi
• Original Song - Skyfall

Be sure to return to this blog after the award ceremony for the actual winners list.  Enjoy the show!

Good night and good luck.

And The Oscar Goes To....

As of this writing we are now five hours away from the start of the Academy Awards. There have been rumors and speculations and predictions made since the nominees were announced earlier this month.

In what is now an annual tradition, The Shadow will give you his predictions of the Academy Award winners in the major categories this year. They are:

• Best Picture - The Artist
• Best Director - Martin Scorsese (Hugo)
• Best Actor - Brad Pitt (Moneyball)
• Best Actress - Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady)
• Best Supporting Actor - Jonah Hill (Moneyball)
• Best Supporting Actress - Octavia Spencer (The Help)
• Original Screenplay - The Artist
• Adapted Screenplay - Hugo
• Animated Feature - Puss in Boots
• Cinematography - Hugo
• Original Score - War Horse
• Original Song - Man or Muppet (The Muppets)

Be sure to return to this blog after the award ceremony for the actual winners.  Enjoy the show!

Good night and good luck.

Good Wines with a Good Cause

Every so often, The Shadow finds a cause which must be publicized.  And we would be very remiss if we did not mention a company that donates 50% (no this is not a typo) of its profits to charitable causes.

Recently The Shadow met the owners of DoGood Vines, Adrian Holt and Ariana Fort, who are currently producing two excellent wines:  a 2010 Viognier and a 2009 Petite Sirah.  We have tried both wines and can tell you without qualification that both are excellent wines.

As a matter of disclosure, we must tell you that Holt and Fort gave us a bottle of each wine to sample for the purposes of writing this entry.  The Shadow is not being compensated in any way for writing this review.

The Viognier is made from 90% Viognier and 10% Muscat.  It has a very clean, crisp taste with intense apricot and pear aromas.  It has a very clean finish.  This is a wine that we would recommend as a table wine or a nice pick-me-up at the end of the day.

The Petite Sirah is made from 100% petite sirah and has an intense blueberry aroma as the primary focus.  It is a very full-bodied wine, also great as a table wine or as a part of a meal featuring pork or veal.

2010 Viognier on Ice

2009 Petite Sirah

The owners of DoGood Vines recently released its first vintages at the Round Up Saloon in Lafayette, CA.  Along with the wines, there was lots of great food seasoned with the company's new Grandma Olive's Spice Rub served and dancing provided by local DJ Diamond Dave.

 DoGood Vines' Adrian Holt with the Petite Sirah at the Round Up Saloon

We mentioned at the beginning of this blog that 50% of the profits from these wines are donated to charity.  The current benefactors of this generosity is STAND! Families Free of Violence and Hopalong & Second Chance Animal Rescue (you can click on the links to go directly to the charity's sites).

You cannot go wrong here.  You can purchase excellent wines and at the same time help youth-at-risk, battered women and rescue animals.

If you would like more information or to order these wines (they are very reasonably priced) you can go to DoGood Company's website.  We are sure that we will hear more about this great effort in the coming months.

Good night and good luck.

Occupy Oakland Responds to The Shadow

We have received the following response from Occupy Oakland in response to our earlier posting of the false accusations made against ABC7 news anchor Kristen Sze and NBC Bay Area anchor Janelle Wang.  We now post their response in full:

From the occupy Oakland media team:
We are sorry about the false accusations. We have the episode on tape, and have decided to leave the issue alone, and not release the tape. Apologies to those who were falsely accused. Everything moves very fast here. Yes, the anchor you mention was asian [sic], and we did faulty research on the woman, and came up with two wrong people in a row. Totally lame on our behalf. We are very sorry for that. Not being professional journalists and being under the threat of constant PTSD-inducing attacks i think were the main culprit of our blunder.

I have never seen a professional news representative act in such an unprofessional way. We have decided there are more important issues at hand, and to not release the tape of the incident. The scene down there was very tense. A reporter did in fact assault someone however. She spun on her heels after accidentally knocking over candles, turned towards a man who had said somthing [sic] i did not hear, and went over to him and pushed him rather hard, and then ran across the street to flee from people chasing her down. We did not make it up. We just absolutely screwed up the ID of the person, bringing up an issue of racial profiling that I personally consider irrelevant and over reactive. Which we too may be guilty of in this case. (over reaction) Lets all drop it I say.

The Shadow's response to this statement:

We are satisfied with this and know that you have been in contact with both Kristen and Janelle through Twitter.  In terms of this being an issue of racial profiling -- that was a charge that we never specifically stated, only a theory.

We also appreciate your not releasing the video of this incident, we agree that you have bigger worries right now and there is no need to fan the flames on this.

The Shadow thanks you for this response and we will not comment further on this incident.

Good night and good luck.

An Apology is Due from OccupyOakland to Two Reporters

We started this blog a few years ago to provide news and commentary in the style and tradition of Edward R. Murrow.  We have tried to keep to Mr. Murrow's ideas of journalistic integrity and fairness.  And we celebrate any blogger or journalist who also adhere to these ideals.

As many of you are aware, last Thursday there was a fatal shooting near the OccupyOakland encampment in downtown Oakland (we will comment on this and on OccupyOakland in another post).  A candlelight vigil was held later in the evening for the victim.

However, there was allegedly an incident where a network reporter knocked over some candles during the vigil.  And here is where the trouble begins.

Someone with the Twitter account @OccupyOakland (note I say Twitter account and not hashtag) tweeted the following:

Tonight Kristen Sze of Channel 7 ABC news kicked over a bunch of vigil candles and then assaulted a person lighting them.  Just Saying #OO

As you can imagine, tweets were coming all over the place stating that there should be a boycott of ABC7 and that Sze should be punished.  The problem with this accusation?  Sze was not there -- she was home asleep (Sze anchors the early morning news on ABC7 and is on the air at 4:30 a.m.).  Sze tweeted that she went to bed at 8:00 p.m. (about the time that the vigil started).

There was a major outcry from many people, including The Shadow, asking them to retract this statement.

Now enter Janelle Wang, former ABC7 reporter and now NBC Bay Area news anchor.  Wang defended Sze tweeting that "She never works nights.  She sleeps at 7:30pm and goes into work at 3am"

So what does @OccupyOakland do.  They issue the following tweet hours later:

Correction - it was Janelle Wang who pushed the protester last night after kicking over candles.  #OccupyOakland #OWS Sorry Kristen Sze.

The problem with this new accusation -- Wang was not there either.  Wang's response to the accusation:

I support you @occupyoakland but please get your info straight. It wasn't me either. I also don't work nights.

 So now @OccupyOakland falsely accuses two news anchors (again, note I say NEWS ANCHORS and not FIELD REPORTERS) of disrupting this vigil.  And we wonder why.

Kristen Sze
(Photo courtesy ABC7)

Janelle Wang
(Photo courtesy NBC Bay Area)

Could it be the fact that both women are Asian as the deciding factor in making this accusation?  So who will the next Asian person be?

The Shadow has spoken to several reputable sources and we believe we know the identity of the reporter involved and that this entire incident was accidental.  However, because this is only speculation and for her safety, we will not release her name in this blog.

Bottom line here -- Occupy Oakland owes both Sze and Wang a public apology.  Also, because of these false accusations and the reaction that it caused on Twitter for both Sze and Wang, The Shadow will no longer rely on tweets from Occupy Oakland as a news source.  They have now lost all credibility with us.

The Shadow will give @OcuppyOakland a chance to respond to this post.  People are welcome to respond in the comments section below or you can email us directly at this link.  We will respond to all comments.

Freedom of the press is an important right in the United States.  But it is also the duty of anyone who reports news or gives commentary, and that includes The Shadow, to make sure that it is accurate.  We hope that this never happens again.

Good night and good luck.

Our Thoughts on September 11, 2001

It has been 10 years.  Ten years that changed the lives of the citizens of the United States of America forever.

On September 11, 2001, the impossible happened.  The United States was attacked by terrorists in the most violent attack on American soil in the history of this country.  Before the day was over, over 3,000 people lost their lives at the World Trade Center in New York City, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, PA.

While we could offer our theories of what went wrong that day, comments on how President George W. Bush first responded to news of the attacks, or of the many conspiracy theories that have developed since the attacks, we will not do so.

What we wish to do is focus on the people.  The people who needlessly died that day.  The people who were first responders in New York as they tried to save as many people as possible before the twin towers came down.  The people on United Flight 93 who sacrificed their lives to prevent the plane that they were on from hitting either the White House or Capital Hill.

We want to focus on the American spirit....how perfect strangers came together for a common cause in the aftermath of this national tragedy.  And how America bounced back and became a stronger nation despite the terrorists best attempts to bring us down.

The American people are strong.  We are resilient.  We will not allow terrorists to destroy the American spirit.

To the families of those who died needlessly on 9/11 -- you have our sympathy.  Please have comfort that they did not die in vain and they will forever be remembered.  And to the families of the people who died on United Flight 93 -- the American people owe all of you a great debt that can never be repaid.  The Shadow will never be able to find the words to express his admiration for these selfless Americans.  It is our hope that these families will find comfort in that they died true heroes.

To the first responders -- the word "hero" has been used excessively over the past 10 years.  But the word "hero" is an understatement to describe you. We are proud of what you did that day and what you continue to do in New York City and around the country.  The Shadow salutes you!

And to our fellow American citizens -- continue to remain strong.  It is our unwavering spirit that defeated the terrorists on 9/11 and continues to do so today.  The Shadow asks all of you to continue to stand proud, regardless of race, religion, sexual identity, or political party.  We are one nation.

Yes America -- on this anniversary, let us celebrate the American spirit as we remember those who passed on. 

E pluribus unum -- From many, one.

Good night and good luck.