James Becket obit

James Becket, Filmmaker, Journalist and Human Rights Lawyer, Dies at 89

 He was not on the list.

James Becket, the American filmmaker, journalist and human rights lawyer whose career took him from documenting torture under Greece’s military dictatorship to making films about refugees, health and the environment, has died. He was 89. Becket died on Sept. 22, 2026.

Born in New York City on Oct. 5, 1936, Becket studied at Williams College before graduating from Harvard Law School in 1962. He also studied at the University of Chile as a Fulbright Scholar and at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva.

His career rarely stayed in one lane. During the 1960s, Becket worked as a foreign correspondent across Europe, Latin America and Africa, contributing to publications including The New Republic, The Nation, The New York Times and The Christian Science Monitor. He also wrote about land reform, economic development and international human rights law.

His human rights work became especially significant after Greece’s military junta seized power in 1967. Becket and his Greek wife, Maria, became active in the movement opposing the dictatorship. Amnesty International sent Becket and British barrister Anthony Marreco to Athens to investigate allegations of human rights abuses, producing a report based on firsthand testimony about the regime’s use of torture. Becket later wrote ‘Barbarism in Greece’, appeared on television to discuss the regime and helped organize the escapes of torture victims who travelled to Strasbourg to testify before the European Commission of Human Rights. The Greek regime declared him persona non grata.

From 1974 until 1981, Becket served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ Director of Public Information. As a spokesperson and filmmaker for the organization, he covered major refugee crises involving Vietnamese boat people, Cambodians fleeing genocide and people escaping wars and apartheid in Africa.

Film eventually became the central thread connecting many of Becket’s interests. His early political film ‘Que Hacer?’ was made in Chile during Salvador Allende’s rise and screened at film festivals including Cannes. After moving to Los Angeles in 1981, Becket wrote, directed and produced films internationally, drawing on the political and humanitarian experiences that had shaped his earlier career.

He also worked in American television, directing after-school specials and writing episodes of ‘Miami Vice’ and ‘Crime Story’. His feature-film credits included ‘Ulterior Motives’, ‘Natural Causes’, ‘The Best Revenge’, ‘Plato’s Run’, ‘Southern Cross’ and ‘Junior Pilot’. Across his career, he wrote 30 screenplays, 10 of which were produced.

In 1999, Becket created Becket Films and increasingly turned his attention toward documentaries about health and ecology. He made films about childhood epilepsy, inspired in part by his daughter’s experience with the condition, and stroke recovery. He also documented a series of environmental symposia bringing religious leaders and scientists together aboard ships travelling through ecologically threatened regions including the Amazon, Arctic and Adriatic. His later projects included 2014’s ‘Sons of Africa’ and 2020’s ‘The Seeds of Vandana Shiva’.

Becket leaves behind a body of work that crossed journalism, law, diplomacy and filmmaking while repeatedly returning to the same subjects: human rights, people displaced by conflict, political power and the environment. Whether he was reporting from abroad, documenting abuses in Greece or putting those concerns on film, his career was built around using storytelling to bring difficult issues before a wider audience.

 

Filmography

Feature films

Que Hacer? (1972) Co-filmmaker, Lobo Films (Directors’ Fortnight, Cannes Film Festival, Critics’ Award, Mannheim).

Ulterior Motives (1991), Writer/Director, (Thomas Ian Griffith, Ken Howard, Mary Page Keller), Den Pictures,

Natural Causes (1994), Director, (Linda Purl, Will Patton, Ali MacGraw), (Pacific Rim .Best Foreign Film, Houston Film Festival)

The Best Revenge (1995) Writer/Director, (Carlos Riccelli, Robert Pine), Becket Films. (Winner Best Feature, Breckenridge Film Festival)

Plato's Run (1996), Writer/Director, (Roy Scheider, Gary Busey), NuImage Films.

Southern Cross (1999), Writer/Director/Producer, (Malcolm McDowell, Esai Morales, Michael Ironside), Bon Films.

Junior Pilot (2006), Writer/Director, (Mark Dacascos, Eric Roberts, Larry Miller), Green Communications.

Television

Je Suis un Refugie (1979) Writer/Director, UNHCR, First Prize Cork Film Festival

Sanctuary,(1982) Writer/Director, PBS, Cindy Awards, Best in Festival awards

Crime Story (1988) Writer, Going Home 27 February 1988

Miami Vice (1988) Writer, Heart of Night 31 August 1988

Big Boys Don't Cry (1992) Director, CBS Schoolbreak Special, Churchill Films, Humanitas Award

Fast Forward (1994) Director, ABC Afterschool Special, Wild Films, Humanitas Award

Guns in School (1993) Director, PSA, George Foster Peabody Award.

Screenplays

Becket wrote 30 screenplays of which ten have been produced.

 

Documentaries

The Aegean: The Apocalypse, (1995) Producer/Director, RSE.

The Adriatic: A Sea at Risk, A Unity of Purpose (1998), Producer/Director, RSE.

El Misterio del Capital de los Indigenas Amazonicas, (2002), ILD,

The Baltic: A Sea in Peril, (2003) Producer/Director, RSE.

The Amazon: The End of Infinity (2004), Producer/Director, RSE.

Childhood Epilepsy ‘What you need to know’. (2005)

Diagnosis Epilepsy: Now what? (2006) Winner 2007 Telly Award

The Arctic: The Consequences of Human Folly, (2006), Producer/Director, RSE.

The Green Patriarch, (2008) Producer/Director, RSE, 2008

Stroke Recovery: Taking Back Our Lives, (2010) Producer/Director, Becket Films.

The Mississippi: At The Tipping Point (2011) Producer/Director, RSE, 2011

Sons of Africa,(2014) Producer/Director, Journeyman Pictures. Winner Best Doc, Seattle Independent Film Festival, Borrego Springs Festival

The Seeds of Vandana Shiva (2020), Producer/Director with Camilla Denton, Becket Films

Books

(1969) Barbarism in Greece Walker and Company LCCN 7310918 7-310918(also translated and published in Swedish, Italian, Greek, and Turkish)

(1973) (with Elise Smith) First Amnesty International Report on Torture, Duckworth's,

(1998) Inca Gold Bantam ISBN 978-1-933390-20-8

(1992) Murder on the Tour de France Bantam ISBN 0-553-29443-1

Selected articles

(14 May 1962) "Report from a Troubled Colony” The New Republic

(16 May 1964) "Autogestion: Algeria's Socialist Experiment" The Economic Weekly,

(23 May 1964) “Algeria's War Orphans” Christian Science Monitor

(19 July 1966) “Suez, dix ans apres, Les consequences de la nationalisation" Journal de Genève

(29 December 1967) “Chile's Mini-Revolution” Commonweal

(27 May 1968) “Torture in Democracy's Homeland” Christianity and Crisis

(March 1968) “The Real Latin America (photographic essay)” Renewal

( March, 1968) “How I Became National Champion: Letter from Bolivia” Skiing

(6 January 1969) “Greek Junta on Trial” The Nation

April 1970 pp 44–49) “Inquisition Greek style” Ramparts Magazine

(4 August 1972) "Torture as an Institution" New York Times

(March 1978) "The Subjective Camera as Leading Character" American Cinematographer

Jon Kyl obit

Former Sen. Jon Kyl, who shaped water policy and backed Kavanaugh, dies at 84

 

He was not on the list.

PHOENIX (AP/AZFamily) — Former U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, a longtime Republican lawmaker from Arizona who shaped landmark water policies in the U.S. West and guided the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, has died. He was 84.

Kyl died Wednesday night from a neurological disorder, said Gordon James, a communications professional who is a longtime friend of the Kyl family.

Kyl served in the U.S. House from 1987 to 1995 and the Senate from 1995 to 2013. He had withdrawn from public life in December 2025 after announcing he had been diagnosed with dementia.

He was born in Oakland, Nebraska, on April 25, 1942, and grew up in a rural farming district in Iowa that his father represented in the U.S. House. At 18, he headed southwest to attend the University of Arizona, where he met his wife, Caryll, and earned a law degree.

Kyl remembered as a ‘giant’ in Senate

He represented Arizona in both chambers of Congress for nearly three decades, with his career spanning Ronald Reagan’s presidency to President Donald Trump’s first term.

After retiring from politics in 2013 and becoming a lobbyist, Kyl returned to Congress briefly in 2018, when Ducey appointed him to fill the vacancy left by the late U.S. Sen. John McCain.

Kyl rose to a leadership position during his last full term in the Senate, when his Republican colleagues selected him as minority whip.

Kyl’s appointment drew high praise from Trump, who said he was looking forward to working with “the extraordinary senator.” Kyl stayed for less than four months before rejoining lobbying firm Covington and Burling.

Former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said Kyl was a “giant” in the Senate, further describing him as serious, engaging, forthright and thoughtful. His biggest impacts, Ducey said, came from the way he kept the Republican caucus together in opposition to Obamacare and his staunch support of Israel.

Kyl also backed legislation to authorize construction of a fence stretching hundreds of miles along the U.S.-Mexico border. He later joined with Democrats to support a bill that would provide a path to citizenship and temporary guest-worker status for those in the U.S. without authorization. The proposal ultimately failed.

As a lobbyist, Kyl helped guide the confirmation of Trump-picked U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. When Kyl returned to the halls of Congress in 2018, he was known as Kavanaugh’s chief Sherpa — an informal but widely known term for a nominee’s guide to the political tundra in the Senate.

In a statement disclosing his dementia diagnosis, Kyl harkened back to the words of Reagan, when the former president revealed his own Alzheimer’s diagnosis and said he was starting a journey that would lead him to the end of his life.

Kyl said he shared Reagan’s confidence for Arizona and the nation’s future, and that despite his diagnosis, he was a “very fortunate man.”

Shaped Arizona’s historic water policies

Before being elected for the first of his four terms in the House in 1987, Kyl was a key participant in shaping Arizona’s 1980 groundwater code as a lawyer representing a large water utility. The first-of-its-kind code created a regulatory framework for managing groundwater in the drought-stricken state, largely centering on the state’s population centers, including Phoenix and Tucson.

In 2004, Kyl authored legislation that provided one of the largest tribal water rights settlements, which, after a decades-long battle, gave the Gila River Indian Community enough water to fill nearly 313,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools annually.

Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who later served as majority leader, called Kyl’s work ethic “legendary” in a 2012 floor speech and said Kyl had labored mostly behind the scenes for 15 years to advance the settlement.

Arizona State University’s Kyl Center for Water Policy takes its name from him.

State, local leaders pay respects

Ducey, who considered Kyl a mentor, described the former senator in a February 2025 interview with The Associated Press as a true statesman and a “workhorse” among Washington, D.C.’s “showhorses.”

“Jon Kyl gave Arizona nearly three decades of principled, thoughtful leadership — and he gave me something just as valuable: his mentorship and friendship. I’ll miss him deeply. Rest in peace, Senator Kyl,” Ducey posted on X.

Gov. Katie Hobbs said Kyl was a dedicated leader who cared deeply for Arizona.

“Arizonans are mourning the loss of former U.S. Senator Jon Kyl. Throughout his decades of public service in the House and Senate, he was a dedicated statesman who always cared deeply for our state. My thoughts and deepest condolences are with his family and loved ones, ”she said.

Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell also paid homage to the late political leader.

“Devastating news. Senator Kyl was, in the truest sense of the word, a statesman. In addition to his many, many accomplishments, some do not know the efforts he extended to help children and other victims of sex crimes by championing evidence rule changes which continue to have an incredibly positive impact. My prayers go out to his family,” Mitchell posted.

Secretary of State Adrian Fontes shared condolences to Kyl’s loved ones and highlighted his contributions to tribal water rights.

“He made a lasting contribution through his work on tribal water rights, helping bring stakeholders together and advance important water settlement in Arizona. His dedication to public service and to resolving some of the West’s most complex water challenges is his legacy. Our heartfelt condolences go out to all who had the privilege of knowing him. May he rest in peace,” Fontes said.

Former Republican Sen. Jeff Flake praised Kyl for his longtime work, adding that “Arizona has lost a giant.”

“Jon Kyl was one of the most diligent and effective public servants Arizona has ever had. I was honored to follow him in the U.S. Senate, where his example of seriousness, integrity and devotion to public service was known to all. Cheryl and I send our deepest condolences to Caryll and the entire Kyl family,” Flake posted on X.

Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen said Arizona has lost “one of its finest statesman.”

“Whether he was negotiating complex water agreements or helping guide our nation’s security policy, Senator Kyl brought credibility, good judgment, and a determination to deliver results. He earned the respect of people across the political spectrum without compromising his principles. Just as important, Senator Kyl understood that public service is about more than holding office. It is about protecting the country, solving difficult problems, and leaving the next generation stronger than the one before it. He set an example that my colleagues and I continue to look to in our own service to Arizona,” a portion of Petersen’s statement said.

Former Gov. Jan Brewer praised Kyl, stating he served the state and nation with “extraordinary intellect.”

“Arizona has lost one of its finest public servants. Senator Jon Kyl served our state and nation with extraordinary intellect, integrity and humility. John and I extend our deepest condolences to Caryll and the entire Kyl family. May God comfort them, and may Jon rest in peace,” she said.

Following the death of John McCain in 2018, Kyl briefly returned to the Senate; his resignation led to the appointment of Martha McSally in 2019. He held both of Arizona's Senate seats at different times, serving alongside McCain during his first stint. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as Senate Minority Whip from 2007 until 2013. He previously served in the United States House of Representatives from 1987 to 1995. He first joined the lobbying firm Covington & Burling after retiring in 2013, then rejoined in 2019.

Charles Hatcher obit

Former Rep. Charles Hatcher dies at age 87

Moderate Georgia Democrat known as an advocate for peanut farmers

 

He was not on the list.

Former Rep. Charles Hatcher, who championed Georgia’s peanut industry for over a decade until losing his seat in House in 1992, has died at the age of 87.

The Georgia Democrat died Tuesday in Alexandria, Va., according to local news reports. The cause of death was not specified.

“Georgia lost a true public servant and leader,” Rep. Sanford D. Bishop Jr., D-Ga., said on the House floor Thursday, as Georgia’s congressional delegation gathered to honor the late congressman.

Bishop succeeded Hatcher in 1992. Hatcher lost to Bishop in a Democratic primary runoff after redistricting transformed his 2nd District seat into one with a Black majority. But Bishop said the two remained on good terms and that he was glad to have Hatcher’s counsel as he started his tenure on Capitol Hill.

First elected in 1980, Hatcher made his rural district’s agriculture concerns a key policy focus with one crop top of mind: peanuts.

A moderate Democrat, Hatcher crossed the aisle during his first term to vote for President Ronald Reagan’s contentious 1981 tax cuts package in an effort to preserve the federal peanut program from proposed cuts by the administration.

When the Office of Management and Budget lifted its objection to reauthorizing key portions of the peanut program, Hatcher reportedly told his constituents back home he had cut a deal to save it, although the link between the two events was questionable.

At the time Hatcher’s office argued his district grew 35 percent of the nation’s peanuts.

He also helmed the House Agriculture’s Tobacco and Peanuts Subcommittee, even flipping the order of the subcommittee name to emphasize peanuts before tobacco. During consideration of the 1990 farm bill, he also successfully lobbied for the preservation of the federal peanut program in the subcommittee’s peanut title.

“He was good to agriculture. He was good for agriculture,” Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., said on Thursday.

Getting federal funds to rural businesses was also a priority for Hatcher. In the 100th Congress, he used his perch atop the Small Business Committee’s panel on Energy and Agriculture to push for the expansion of Small Business Administration loans in rural areas. His proposal was enacted as part of the SBA’s reauthorization.

Hatcher crossed party lines on several high-profile issues at the time. He voted against his party’s proposal to block a plan to cut the capital gains tax and in favor of efforts to add amendments to the Constitution to criminalize the desecration of the U.S. flag and to require a balanced federal budget.

At the same time, he was also a reliable vote for Democratic leadership and supported the use of federal funds to pay for abortion in cases of rape or incest.

A military veteran and lawyer, Hatcher was elected to Congress following an eight-year stint in the Georgia House of Representatives. Previously, he ran a law practice in Albany, Ga.

His six terms in the House came to an end in 1992 when Bishop ousted him as a young state lawmaker. Rep. Bishop has represented the district ever since.

Born in Doerun, Ga., Hatcher served in the U.S. Air Force for four years before attending Georgia Southern University and earning a law degree from the University of Georgia in 1969.

Those involved in Georgia politics remembered his friendly demeanor and focus on service.

“I sat with him on the plane coming or going to D.C. numerous times. We talked old school politics…” Jody Redding, the director of field services at Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s office, wrote in a social media post on Hatcher. “They don’t make ‘em like Charles Hatcher anymore. He will be missed.”

He was born in Doerun, Georgia and served in the United States Air Force from 1958 to 1962 reaching the rank of Airman Second Class. After his military service, he attended Georgia Southern College in Statesboro in 1965 and then entered the University of Georgia School of Law in Athens. Hatcher graduated with a Juris Doctor degree in 1969, became a member of the state bar, and started practicing law in Albany, Georgia.

James Woolsey obit

James Woolsey, CIA director under Bill Clinton, dies at 84

His tenure was upended by the arrest of Aldrich Ames, a CIA traitor. In recent years, he suffered from “Havana syndrome,” his wife said. 

He was not on the list.

R. James Woolsey Jr., a Rhodes Scholar and lawyer who led the CIA and the rest of America’s intelligence community for two troubled years during the Clinton administration, as the nation’s spy services struggled to adapt to the post-Cold War era, died Tuesday at his home in Washington. He was 84.

The cause was a stroke, said his wife, Conchita Sarnoff Woolsey. She added that Mr. Woolsey had been in declining health in recent years as a result of “Havana syndrome,” the mysterious ailment that hundreds of American spies and diplomats have reported experiencing around the world.

The malady’s symptoms, which the government refers to as anomalous health incidents, include dizziness, memory problems and other neurological impairments. Mr. Woolsey began experiencing the condition following an incident in Washington in 2017 and in Istanbul the following year, according to his wife.

“We have traveled the world trying to find a cure and a treatment,” she said, “which sadly we never found.”

As the director of Central Intelligence in 1993 and 1994, Mr. Woolsey spent much of his time fighting to shore up morale and protect the nation’s intelligence agencies from sharp budget and staffing cutbacks, as Congress sought a so-called “peace dividend” following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

His tenure was upended by the FBI’s arrest in 1994 of Aldrich H. Ames, a senior CIA counterintelligence official who had spied for nine years for Moscow in what was then the worst known security breach in agency history.

Members of the House and Senate intelligence committees were openly critical when Mr. Woolsey declined to dismiss or demote anyone at the CIA, and instead reprimanded 11 current and former agency officials. Rather than focusing on individuals at fault, he highlighted a pattern of widespread inattention, citing a “systemic failure” in the agency’s inability to catch Ames, who was blamed for the deaths of at least 10 intelligence agents.

Mr. Woolsey sought to transform the agency’s culture. He was known among some staff as “the vacuum cleaner,” The Washington Post reported at the time, and told senior aides he always wanted to know more than anyone else in the room. He typically began his day reading classified cables at home at 4:30 a.m., and then arrived at CIA headquarters by 7:30 for meetings and briefings.

But he could be argumentative, even abrasive, and his relations with the White House became so strained that by the time he resigned after 23 months on the job, he complained that he could not get an appointment with the president.

White House aides said that Clinton had lost faith in his ability to overhaul CIA operations and reshape its priorities.

Still, the president praised Mr. Woolsey in a statement at the time, calling him “a staunch advocate of maintaining an intelligence capability that is second to none.”

Robert James Woolsey Jr., an only child, was born in Tulsa on Sept. 21, 1941. His father, a lawyer, was drafted into the Army and fought in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II. His mother was a homemaker.

Mr. Woolsey attended Stanford University, graduating with high honors and membership in Phi Beta Kappa in 1963. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at the University of Oxford in England, and then attended Yale Law School, where he was managing editor of the law review and was awarded his degree in 1968.

Mr. Woolsey served in the Army and came to Washington in the early 1970s, as a military aide to arms control negotiator Paul Nitze. He later served as general counsel to the Senate Armed Services Committee under Sen. John C. Stennis (D-Mississippi).

A so-called “defense Democrat,” Mr. Woolsey was undersecretary of the Navy from 1977 to 1979, during the Carter administration. He later found positions under two Republican presidents, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, as a part-time, delegate-at-large to strategic arms talks and as chief negotiator of a European arms treaty.

When not in government, he worked for the Washington law firm Shea & Gardner, where he sometimes represented defense contractors and companies whose interests required that he register with the Justice Department as a foreign lobbyist.

A trim man with a bald head and thin glasses, Mr. Woolsey was little known to the public when Clinton, soon after taking office in January 1993, named him to lead an intelligence community still trying to find its footing more than a year after the Cold War had ended.

From the start, he was put on the defensive, forced to justify the need for a strong CIA in a post-Soviet world.

“Yes, we have slain a large dragon,” he said at his Senate confirmation hearings. “But we live now in a jungle filled with a bewildering variety of poisonous snakes.” He said the CIA should focus on terrorist groups and arms proliferation, as well as adversaries such as Iran and North Korea.

Mr. Woolsey was initially seen as a politically savvy expert on national affairs. In his first year, he held more than 150 meetings with members of Congress, mostly to discuss his shrinking budget.

He told the Los Angeles Times in 1994 that despite his efforts, the number of spy satellites had been “substantially reduced,” the civilian staff had been cut by one-fourth, and the military workforce had been cut by one third.

“There’s a lot of slimming down that’s taking place,” he said.

Mr. Woolsey angered one group of senators when he sternly lectured them, pointer in hand, and demanded they not only reverse the cuts but add to his budget. He clashed repeatedly with Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-Arizona), who chaired the Intelligence Committee and, after Ames was arrested, charged that Mr. Woolsey acted more like a civil liberties lawyer than the head of a covert agency that had failed to keep its secrets.

Congress also was unhappy with Mr. Woolsey’s opposition to the creation of a congressionally mandated presidential commission to look at the CIA’s future role, and to Congress’s efforts to resolve a CIA and FBI turf battle over responsibilities for counterintelligence.

After leaving the CIA, Mr. Woolsey served on corporate boards and foundations and remained active in national security circles, including as a partner at Booz Allen Hamilton. He served as a senior adviser on Donald Trump’s transition team before resigning in January 2017, reportedly amid frustrations over the incoming president’s views on national security.

To the surprise of some of his former colleagues, he also published a 2021 book, “Operation Dragon: Inside the Kremlin’s Secret War on America,” in which he and co-author Ion Mihai Pacepa, a top Cold War defector from Romania, claimed that the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was rooted in a KGB plot sponsored by no less than Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader.

Mr. Woolsey’s marriage to Suzanne Haley, a former official of the National Academy of Sciences, ended in divorce. Mr. Woolsey was later married to Nancye Miller, a lobbyist, until her death in 2019. The following year, he married Conchita Sarnoff, an advocate for victims of trafficking, who had written a book about Jeffrey Epstein after covering his crimes in a series of articles for the Daily Beast.

In addition to his wife, survivors include three sons from his first marriage, Robert, Daniel and Benjamin Woolsey; two stepchildren, Cristina and Nicholas Sarnoff; and 10 grandchildren.

Mr. Woolsey had a wry sense of humor. Long after he left the CIA, he happily reminded interviewers about the pilot who stole a small airplane and crash landed on the South Lawn of the White House. The pilot was killed, but Mr. Woolsey found a punch line.

“Remember the guy who in 1994 crashed his plane onto the White House lawn?” he told an interviewer in 2002. “That was me trying to get an appointment to see President Clinton.”

Dixon Dern obit

Dixon Dern Dies: Attorney For CAA, CBS, TV Academy & Desilu, Was 97

 

He was not on the list.

Dixon Q. Dern, the longtime entertainment attorney who worked at CBS, Desilu and United Artists TV; who represented clients such as Desi Arnaz and the Television Academy; who often served as an arbitrator for labor disputes; who helped incorporate CAA and who was a pioneer in syndicated sales and pre-financing for TV, died on July 19. That, according to an obituary posted by Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills. He was 97.

Dern began his career as an in-house counsel for United Artists Television, Desilu and CBS before founding his own firm where he represented Desi Arnaz, the Television Academy, Village Roadshow, the Bob Hope Estate and many others.

Dern was often at the nexus of power in Hollywood.

One day in the mid-seventies, Michael Ovitz showed up, closed Dern’s office door and told him he and his associates would be back for a meeting the next day. The subject of the proposed meeting was not disclosed.

“The next day five guys showed up,” said Dern. “It was the five founders of CAA. They were basically the top five guys in William Morris’ television division and they told me they were leaving William Morris and wanted to set up a new agency. So I formed a corporation. They rented a little office with fold-up desks fold-up tables. We did their legal work for them for about six months.”

Dern often served as an arbitrator under various industry collective bargaining agreements, specifically the DGA and WGA.

Dern represented the Television Academy for decades. He played a key role in settling a long-simmering feud between its Los Angeles and New York contingents.

From the Academy’s official history:

By 1976, the situation had exacerbated to the point where, at the semiannual official national board meeting at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, each chapter designated five-man negotiation teams to meet separately from the rest of the attendees for a two-day summit convened to broker a detente.

The Los Angeles contingent consisted of Michael Baugh, Dixon Dern, Hank Rieger, the late Bob Sweeney and then Los Angeles chapter president Larry Stewart, who was chairman of the negotiating committee.

Reaching a settlement took far longer than two days.

Again, from the Academy’s official history:

After much legal wrangling, the two groups agreed to sever in 1977. According to the terms of the dissolution, both would retain their national status, with the group in Los Angeles retaining its original name, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and the New York body retaining the name of National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Each group would also control specific award shows: the Los Angeles-based Television Academy kept the Primetime Emmys, and jurisdiction over the Los Angeles chapter; the New York entity retained the Daytime, News, Documentary and Sports Emmys, as well as jurisdiction over the 19 chapters throughout the U.S. that produced their own local Emmy events.

Dern also learned a lot about the business while in the legal department at CBS.

“When I got there it was pre Fin-Syn, the financial interest syndication rule which later barred the networks from owning distribution rights,” he said in a 2021 interview with the Beverly Hills Bar Association, of which he was a former president. “But at the time…CBS could own its own shows. In fact, in most cases, it did and we did all the production work on them.”

Among those shows were classics like Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel and Perry Mason.

Dern later moved to Desilu when Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball were still involved there.

“One thing we did there that was, I think, instrumental to the industry: We decided to set up a syndicated sales organization. We set up Desilu Sales which became the forerunner of Paramount Television today.”

He left Desilu after Paramount acquired the company.

When Dern set up his own practice, Desi became one of his first clients and stayed with him until the day the actor/producer died. Even after Desi’s death, Dern maintained a working relationship with the family. In fact, Dern represented Lucy and Desi Arnaz Jr. in negotiating rights for Amazon’s Being the Ricardos.

Through the years, Dern also became involved in back-end television financing and pre-sales to foreign distributors.

“I had a number of clients who were producing shows and they would get the funds from the network but they wouldn’t have enough money to to finish production,” he recalled. “So you’d go out and get distributors. They were guaranteed to put up the money on delivery. Then I would go to a bank — or really I went to Lew Horowitz. He would set up the financing with a bank and then as soon as the picture was delivered the distributor would pay the bank and everybody would be happy. It’s very similar to the structure that was done in the independent film market.”

Services will be held at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills from 9:30 a.m. – 10 a.m. on July 31.

William D. Zabel obit

Lawyer who helped legalize interracial marriage dies at 93

William D. Zabel, who helped win Loving v. Virginia and later recovered $7.2 billion for Madoff victims, died at 93. 

He was not on the list.

William D. Zabel helped write an amicus brief for the American Civil Liberties Union in Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court case decided on June 12, 1967, that unanimously struck down Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage as a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. He considered that work his proudest accomplishment. His career included high-profile divorce cases and Wall Street litigation.

The case ended state bans across the country and became the civil-rights precedent Zabel later identified as one of the two most important achievements of his legal life, alongside co-founding Schulte Roth & Zabel in 1969.

By 1965, Zabel had published an Atlantic article, “Interracial Marriage and the Law,” arguing against the constitutionality of anti-miscegenation statutes. In his Harvard Law School reflections, Zabel wrote that his thinking was sharpened after a case involving a wealthy New York businessman who disinherited his daughter for marrying an African American man. After law school, Zabel traveled to Mississippi to support civil-rights workers, and as an undergraduate at Princeton he and his roommate petitioned the FBI to look more deeply into the acquittal of the men who killed Emmett Till.

Zabel later negotiated the $7.2 billion settlement from the estate of Jeffry Picower in the Madoff recovery effort. Harvard Law School called it the largest civil judgment against an individual in American jurisprudence at the time. The money helped restore losses to victims of Madoff’s fraud, and the Madoff Victim Fund made final payments to customers in 2025.

Human Rights First renamed its annual award after William D. Zabel, and Princeton established the William D. Zabel ’58 Professorship of Human Rights in his honor.

Gerry Meehan obit

Gerry Meehan, former Sabres captain and GM, passes away at 79

Forward earned 1st assist in team history; aided in Mogilny defection as GM.

 He was not on the list.

Gerry Meehan, a member of the inaugural Buffalo Sabres team who went on to serve impactful stints as both team captain and general manager, died Friday at age 79.

Meehan was selected by the Sabres in the 1970 expansion draft, thus beginning a lifelong association with the organization and Western New York. He ranked third on the team in goals and points during its inaugural season, including the first assist in Sabres history.

He was named the second captain in franchise history the following year, a role he held through the end of his Sabres tenure in October 1974. Meehan’s stint as captain included Buffalo’s first-ever playoff berth in 1972-73, when he scored a career-best 31 goals.

"The idea that an expansion team was coming - not only to Buffalo - but close to my home in Toronto, and to be selected by them and get a chance to play as an NHL regular, obviously made my career," Meehan said years later.

Meehan went on to play 10 NHL seasons for Toronto, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Vancouver, Atlanta and Washington. Upon retirement, he received his law degree from the University at Buffalo and joined the Sabres’ front office under general manager Scotty Bowman in 1984.

Meehan replaced Bowman as Buffalo’s fourth-ever general manager during the 1986-87 season. As general manager, he executed some of the most impactful transactions in Sabres history, including trades to bring in future Hall of Fame players Pat LaFontaine, Dale Hawerchuk and Dominik Hasek, plus the draft selection and subsequent defection of Alexander Mogilny from the Soviet Union.

Mogilny’s defection in 1989 proved to be a trailblazing moment in NHL history, with other Soviet players following suit in the ensuing years. Meehan and Don Luce, then the Sabres director of player development, played pivotal roles. The duo traveled to meet Mogilny in Stockholm, Sweden and ushered him through the process while evading the reach of the KGB.

Mogilny thanked Meehan and Luce during his Hall of Fame induction last November.

“You were my guiding lights when I came into the NHL,” Mogilny said.​

Mogilny’s career reached new heights following the acquisition of LaFontaine from the New York Islanders in 1991 – though their connection never would have happened had the Islanders gotten their way.

Revisiting the deal during a 2019 interview, Meehan said it was Mogilny that Islanders general manager Bill Torrey intended to acquire in the deal for LaFontaine. Meehan stood his ground, instead sending Pierre Turgeon to New York.

"I said, 'Well, that's why I'm trading for LaFontaine, to play with Mogilny. So, it's Turgeon or it's not going to happen,'” Meehan recalled. “That's what really closed it."

LaFontaine and Mogilny went on to have an all-time great season as linemates in 1992-93, when LaFontaine had 148 points and Mogilny had 76 goals – both Sabres franchise records.

Meehan’s trade for Hasek, meanwhile, stands as one of the most one-sided deals in league history. A backup in Chicago at the time of the trade, Hasek went on to win the Vezina Trophy six times and the Hart Trophy twice during his time in Buffalo.

The deal was a testament to Meehan’s foresight; the general manager had seen Hasek play an international game for Czechoslovakia and came away enamored with the goaltender’s potential.

"He was their goalie and I think they played the Russians, but he faced something like 100 shots and they either tied or won, 2-1," Meehan recalled. "I said, 'He's unconventional, he's athletic, he's wiry, and he stops the puck as much as possible of any human being as a goalie.'"

Meehan remained in the Sabres’ front office through the 1995-96 season. He was an active member of the Sabres Alumni Association in retirement and was inducted into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame in 2023.

Meehan is survived by his wife, Mirella; their children Dan, Adam, and Kate; and their grandchildren Christian, Alexander, Nathan, and Juniper.

He was drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1963 NHL amateur draft, fourth round, 21st overall. He played for the National Hockey League's Toronto Maple Leafs, Philadelphia Flyers, Buffalo Sabres, Vancouver Canucks, Atlanta Flames, Washington Capitals, as well as the Ontario Hockey Association's Toronto Marlboros, American Hockey League's Rochester Americans, CPHL's Tulsa Oilers, Western Hockey League's Phoenix Roadrunners, Seattle Totems, and the World Hockey Association's Cincinnati Stingers. He served as captain for both the Sabres and Capitals.

One of Meehan's career highlights as a Sabre remains a lowlight to Flyers fans. In the last game of the 1971–72 regular season, the Flyers needed a win or a tie against the Sabres to beat out the Pittsburgh Penguins for the final playoff spot. The score was tied, but with just four seconds on the clock, Meehan took a shot from the top of the blue line that somehow got by Flyers goalie Doug Favell – ending the Flyers' season.

After completing his undergraduate degree from Canisius College in Buffalo, Meehan graduated from the University at Buffalo School of Law in 1982. He practiced sports, corporate law, and immigration law with the firm Cohen, Swados, Wright, Hanifin, Bradford and Brett, including working on player contracts with Scotty Bowman, then the Sabres' coach and general manager. Meehan had joined the firm hoping to work with the Sabres.

John McClain obit

John McClain Dies: Michael Jackson Estate Co-Executor & Veteran Music Exec Was 71

 

He was not on the list.

John McClain, the veteran music executive who served as a co-executor for the Michael Jackson estate, has died. He was 71.

The former A&M and Interscope Records exec reportedly died of complications from a fall on Tuesday in Los Angeles, according to People, as his co-executor John Branca paid tribute.

“I am profoundly grieved at the loss of my partner and ‘brother’ John McClain,” he said in a statement. “One of the great innovators in the world of music and music marketing, John was a visionary, seeing past the mundane and into the future.”

Branca added, “When we were named in Michael’s will, I knew that he would bring great insight into Michael’s music and that his friendship and dedication to Michael would underscore all the great projects that we could bring to the world. He brought a passion and sense of conviction to all that he did and was the most generous of friends. It is difficult to imagine a world without him.”

After Jackson’s death in 2009, McClain and Branca became executors of his estate, continuing to release projects around the late artist, including the 2009 documentary This Is It and the record-breaking biopic Michael, currently approaching $800 million at the global box office.

In recent months, McClain and Branca have gone to court with Michael’s daughter Paris Jackson over unapproved bonus payments, which were ordered to be returned to the estate.

Clarence B. Jones obit

Clarence B. Jones Dies: Attorney Who Helped MLK Draft “I Have A Dream” Speech & Focus Of Sundance-Winning Short Film Was 95

 

He was not on the list.

Clarence B. Jones, a key adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. who helped organize the March on Washington and assisted King in drafting the Civil Rights leader’s “I Have a Dream” speech, has died. His family says the attorney and academic “passed away peacefully, surrounded by family, in Cupertino, California” on May 22. He was 95.

Jones is the focus of the short documentary The Baddest Speechwriter of All, directed by two-time Oscar winner Ben Proudfoot and NBA superstar Stephen Curry, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in January. The film is expected to premiere later this year on Netflix.

In a statement, Jones’ family said: “Dr. Jones stood at the center of the modern American civil rights movement. From 1960 until Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968, he served as Dr. King’s personal attorney, draft speechwriter, advisor, and trusted friend. He helped draft the opening of the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, smuggled the pages of the ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’ out of a Birmingham cell, was part of the legal team in the landmark Supreme Court case New York Times v. Sullivan, and contributed to Dr. King’s ‘Beyond Vietnam’ address at Riverside Church in 1967. Later that year, Dr. Jones joined the Wall Street investment banking firm Carter, Berlind & Weill, alongside Sanford I. Weill and Arthur Levitt Jr., who became lifelong friends, and was named the first African American allied member of the New York Stock Exchange.”

In 2024, President Joe Biden awarded Jones the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Jones taught at Stanford and the University of San Francisco, where he co-founded the university’s Institute for Nonviolence and Social Justice. In 2022, the institute honored Jones at a ceremony attended by singer Joan Baez, attorney and prominent social justice activist Bryan Stevenson, among others.

“Our father lived a life of conscience,” Jones’ family wrote in their statement. “He believed, until his final days, that an idea whose time has come is more powerful than the march of any army. We are grateful beyond words for the love, the prayers, and the friendships that sustained him, and us, across this long and remarkable life.”

As Deadline reported in February, it was Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr who introduced Jones to Curry, the team’s All-Star guard.

“[Jones] came and spoke to our team years ago,” Kerr told us. “He’s from San Francisco and we invited him to come speak to the group, and that was the impetus behind Steph’s idea to do the documentary.”

Proudfoot, whose credits include the Oscar-winning The Queen of Basketball (on which Curry served as an executive producer) and Oscar winner The Last Repair Shop, provided a statement to Deadline exclusively.

“I know Stephen and I and the whole filmmaking team are heartbroken for Clarence’s family at the devastating loss of a great man,” he wrote. “We are also deeply grateful to have had the chance to preserve his incredible story. Clarence B. Jones started his career as an IP copyright lawyer in Hollywood in the late 1950s. At the time, he lived in a beautiful home in Altadena which miraculously survived the fires last year. He was called to a life of purpose by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. himself and bravely gave up his lucrative job in Hollywood to devote his life to racial justice.”

Proudfoot added, “Let his story serve as an example of the power we all have to make sacrifices and live lives of purpose.”

The family says a memorial and a public celebration of Jones’ life will be held on dates to be announced.

Barney Frank obit

Barney Frank, longtime Jewish congressman from Massachusetts, dies at 86

Frank served in Congress for 32 years until his retirement in 2013.

 He was not on the list.

Barney Frank, the Jewish Democrat who advocated for LGBTQ rights in Congress and who coauthored the last major finance reform bill, has died at 86.

The former Massachusetts representative died in hospice care at home in Ogunquit, Maine, where he lived with his husband, Jim Ready, close family friends told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Frank served in Congress for 32 years as a progressive until his retirement in 2013. Among his signature accomplishments were co-authoring the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010 in response to the banking crisis and pushing for the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in the U.S. military.

In fighting for gay rights, Frank was motivated by his own experience as a gay man. When he came out in 1987, he was the first member of Congress to choose to do so. He became the first member of Congress to enter a same-sex marriage in 2012.

In his last weeks, Frank made an effort to share his warnings for the Democratic Party at a time of change. To JTA, he said party leaders should join with the progressive wing in pressing to cut off aid to Israel until Israeli leaders change their policies — a decision that he had been hard to reach given the liberal Zionism with which he was raised in New Jersey in the years surrounding Israel’s creation.

“I guess I held on longer than I should have to, ‘Well, we can work with them,’” Frank said about the current Israeli government. “But it’s become clear to me, particularly due to what they’re allowing to happen in the West Bank, that it is important morally and politically to repudiate the policy of supporting Israel’s military activity.”

He served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts from 1981 to 2013. A Democrat, Frank served as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee from 2007 to 2011 and was a leading co-sponsor of the 2010 Dodd–Frank Act. Frank, a resident of Newton, Massachusetts, was considered the most prominent gay politician in the United States during his time in Congress.

Born and raised in Bayonne, New Jersey, Frank graduated from Bayonne High School, Harvard College, and Harvard Law School. He worked as a political aide before winning election to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1972. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1980 with 52 percent of the vote. He was re-elected every term thereafter by wide margins. In 1987, he publicly came out as gay, becoming the first member of Congress to do so voluntarily. From 2003 until his retirement, Frank was the leading Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, and he served as committee chairman when his party held a House majority from 2007 to 2011. In July 2012, he married his long-time partner, James Ready, becoming the first member of Congress to marry someone of the same sex while in office. Frank did not seek re-election in 2012, and was succeeded by fellow Democrat Joe Kennedy III.

Prior to his time in the House of Representatives, Frank served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1973 to 1981.

Frank was born on March 31, 1940, in Bayonne, New Jersey, one of four children of Elsie (née Golush) and Samuel Frank. His family was Jewish, and his grandparents had emigrated from Poland and Russia. Frank's father ran a truck stop in Jersey City—a place Frank described as "totally corrupt"—and when Frank was 6 or 7, his father served a year in prison for refusing to testify to a grand jury against Frank's uncle. Frank was educated at Bayonne High School, before matriculating at Harvard College, where he resided in Matthews Hall his first year and then in Kirkland House and Winthrop House. He graduated in 1962.

Frank's undergraduate studies were interrupted by the death of his father, and Frank took a year off to help resolve the family's affairs prior to his graduation. In 1964, he was a volunteer in Mississippi during Freedom Summer.

He taught undergraduates at Harvard while studying for a PhD in government, but left in 1968 before completing the degree, to become Boston mayor Kevin White's Chief Assistant, a position he held for three years. He then served for a year as Administrative Assistant to Congressman Michael J. Harrington. In 1977, Frank graduated from Harvard Law School, where he was once a student of Henry Kissinger, while serving as a Massachusetts state representative.

In 1980, Frank ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 4th congressional district, hoping to succeed Reverend Robert Drinan, who had left Congress, following a call by Pope John Paul II for priests to withdraw from political positions. In the Democratic primary held on September 16, 1980, Frank won 52% of the vote in a four-candidate field.  As the Democratic nominee, he faced Republican Richard A. Jones in the general election and won narrowly, 52–48%.

For his first term, Frank represented a district in the western and southern suburbs of Boston, anchored by Brookline and his hometown of Newton. However, in 1982, redistricting forced him to run against Republican Margaret Heckler, who represented a district centered on the South Coast, including Fall River and New Bedford. Although the newly configured district retained Frank's district number—the 4th—it was geographically more Heckler's district. Frank focused on Heckler's initial support for President Ronald Reagan's tax cuts, and won with 60% of the vote.

n 2010, Frank ran for his 16th term. Public opinion polling showed him facing his first credible challenge since defeating Heckler in 1982. His opponent was Republican Sean Bielat, a U.S. Marine veteran and businessman. In mid-September, an internal poll showed Frank leading 48–38%. In late October, he loaned his campaign $200,000. In early October, The Cook Political Report changed its assessment of the district from "solid Democratic" to "likely Democratic"—meaning that while Frank was favored, a victory by Bielat could not be entirely ruled out. While Frank had a 3-to-1 advantage in terms of cash on hand, Bielat outraised him in September.[36] On October 25, a survey by The Boston Globe showed Frank leading 46–33%. Frank won re-election to his 16th term, 54–43%

In 1985, Frank was still publicly closeted. That year he hired Steve Gobie, a male prostitute, for sex, and they became "more friends than sexual partners."[40] Frank housed Gobie and hired him with personal funds as an aide, housekeeper and driver and paid for his attorney and court-ordered psychiatrist.

In 1987, Frank evicted Gobie after being advised by his landlord that Gobie kept escorting despite the support and was doing so in the residence. Later that year, Gobie's friends persuaded him that he had a gay male version of Mayflower Madam, a TV movie about an escort service. In 1989, Gobie tried to initiate a bidding war for the story between WUSA-TV (Channel 9), The Washington Times, and The Washington Post. He then gave the story to The Washington Times for nothing, in hopes of getting a book contract.

Amid calls for an investigation, Frank asked the House Ethics Committee to investigate his relationship "in order to ensure that the public record is clear." The Committee found no evidence that Frank had known of or been involved in the alleged illegal activity and dismissed all of Gobie's more scandalous claims; they recommended a reprimand for Frank using his congressional office to fix 33 of Gobie's parking tickets and for misstatements of fact in a memorandum relating to Gobie's criminal probation record. The House voted 408–18 to reprimand Frank.

In 2003, a documentary film about Barney Frank entitled Let's Get Frank was released. The documentary recounted Barney Frank's struggle coming out in public and political life as a prominent gay man, the height of which was his reprimand following the Gobie scandal, and documented Frank's dedicated defense of U.S. President Bill Clinton during his impeachment trial in January and February 1999. At the time of its release, Let's Get Frank received mixed reviews, some celebrating the film, as Ken Eisner did in Variety, and others struggling with director Bart Everly's distinct style and the dual telling of Frank's own personal story along with that of the Clinton Impeachment Trial through Frank's eyes, as Ed Halter did in The Village Voice.

Lawrence Smith obit

Former Congressman Larry Smith dies at 85 

He was not on the list.

Former U.S. Rep. Larry Smith of Hollywood, seen as “Florida’s go-to guy” during 10 years in Congress before his political career ended in scandal, has died at 85.

Smith died on Wednesday, said his son, Grant Smith.

“So many people lost a trusted and loyal friend, and the community lost a man who served and cared deeply about its success,” Grant Smith wrote on Facebook. “Everything he did, whether representing a client or a constituent, was deeply personal to him. His successes were public, but regrettably, so were his failures. … To the end, he was plotting for a better America and teaching us life lessons.”

Smith was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives five times, serving from 1983 to 1993. His district included much of southern and eastern Broward County, and extended into Miami-Dade County.

He was “Florida’s go-to-guy,” U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland said during a 2014 event in Broward County. At the time Hoyer was the No. 2 Democrat in the U.S. House.

Smith served on the Foreign Affairs Committee, where he was an advocate for Israel. His son said work on foreign affairs and Israel “became his calling” in life.

And, his son said, “He was proudly Jewish. He supported Jewish causes and was a fierce proponent and defender of Israel.”

Smith also kept an eye on local priorities, including securing federal funding for a large berm at the south side of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to help reduce the impact of airport noise on nearby residents of Dania Beach.

Smith opted not to run for reelection in 1992, after he was caught up in a major scandal of the era. Members of Congress, including Smith, bounced scores of checks at the House Bank.

The following year, Smith pleaded guilty to felony charges of income tax evasion and making a false statement to the Federal Election Commission in connection with his misuse of campaign funds.

He admitted that he failed to pay taxes on more than $100,000 of income. He also admitted that he lied to the Federal Election Commission about his use of $10,000 in campaign funds, some of which was used to pay gambling debts at a casino in the Bahamas, according to news accounts.

Smith’s attorney at the time said his client’s troubles were “a result of the financial pressures of public service” and that Smith “never misused his public office.”

Smith served a three-month sentence at a minimum security prison camp in Miami-Dade County and paid a $5,000 fine.

Later, he used his knowledge of government and politics to work as a lobbyist, including representing local governments in Broward County before other levels of government.

In the 1970s, Smith was chairman of the Hollywood Planning and Zoning Board, then spent four years as a member of the Florida House of Representatives, before he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982.

Smith was also a delegate to seven Democratic national conventions.

Lawrence Jack Smith was born in Brooklyn to Martin and Myra Smith on April 25, 1941. After receiving a law degree from Brooklyn Law School he practiced in New York before following his parents and moving to Florida.

In addition to his son, Grant Smith of Fort Lauderdale; Smith is survived by his wife of 64 years, Sheila (Cohen) Smith; a daughter, Lauren Failla of Hollywood; a sister, Ellen Russo of Sunrise, and three grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at Temple Solel, 5100 Sheridan St. in Hollywood. Internment follows immediately at Beth David Memorial Gardens (Levitt Weinstein), 3201 N. 72nd Ave. in Hollywood.

Robert Mueller obit

Former FBI director and special counsel Robert Mueller has died

Mueller, who served as special counsel in the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, was 81. 

He was not on the list.

Robert Mueller, the former FBI director for more than a decade who later served as special counsel in the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, died on Friday, according to two people familiar with the matter. He was 81.

The cause of death was not immediately known, but Mueller had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease for years, the people said.

Mueller, whose two-year probe concluded in 2019 that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election of Donald Trump, served as FBI director from 2001 to 2013. The Justice Department in 2017 appointed him special counsel to oversee the growing investigation after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey.

The Mueller probe became an obsessive subject for Trump, who repeatedly — as many as hundreds of times — called Mueller’s investigation a “witch hunt,” “a scam” and a “hoax.”

Upon hearing of Mueller’s death on Saturday, the president wrote in a Truth Social post: “Robert Mueller just died. Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people! President DONALD J. TRUMP”

The president’s comment was immediately condemned by Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who had vigorously pursued allegations of Trump’s ties to Russia while he served on the House Intelligence Committee.

Mueller’s investigation resulted in 37 indictments and seven guilty pleas, though he found no evidence that Trump or his aides coordinated with Russia. The Mueller report, as it came to be known, did not conclude that Trump committed any crime, but it also did not clear the president of obstruction of justice.

The investigation made Mueller a prime Trump target. For years, the president lobbed insults and sought to undermine Mueller’s credibility while claiming a “deep state” conspiracy against him.

The grudge that Trump held against Mueller persisted into his second term. In March 2025, he signed an executive order cutting ties between federal agencies and the law firm WilmerHale, Mueller’s former employer. The order was subsequently struck down by a judge as unconstitutional.

In a statement to MS NOW, WilmerHale called Mueller “an extraordinary leader and public servant and a person of the greatest integrity.”

He was a lawyer who served as the sixth director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2001 to 2013.

A graduate of Princeton University and New York University, Mueller served as a Marine Corps officer during the Vietnam War, receiving a Bronze Star for heroism and a Purple Heart. He subsequently attended the University of Virginia School of Law. Mueller was a registered Republican in Washington, D.C., and was appointed and reappointed to Senate-confirmed positions by presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.

Mueller served both in government and private practice. He was an assistant United States attorney, a United States attorney, United States assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division, a homicide prosecutor in Washington, D.C., acting United States deputy attorney general, partner at D.C. law firm WilmerHale and director of the FBI. He was the only FBI director who Congress allowed to serve more than the statutory limit of 10 years since the death of J. Edgar Hoover in 1972, by giving him a special two-year extension.

On May 17, 2017, Mueller was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as special counsel overseeing an investigation into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and related matters. He submitted his report to Attorney General William Barr on March 22, 2019. On April 18, the Department of Justice released it. On May 29, he resigned his post and the Office of the Special Counsel was closed.

Colleen Hanabusa obit

Former Hawaii congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa dies at 74

Hanabusa served in the state Senate, U.S. House, and as HART board chair during a decades-long career in Hawaii politics.

 She was not on the list.

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Former U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa has died after a private battle with cancer. She was 74.

Her family said in a statement:

“Colleen Hanabusa, a veteran lawmaker and attorney from Waianae who fought for local people for three decades as a Congresswoman and state Senate President, passed away early Friday.

“Hanabusa, the first Asian American woman elected as president of a state legislative body, was hospitalized for five months fighting cancer.

“The veteran member of the U.S. House of Representatives, state Senate, and HART board is survived by her husband, John Souza, and their beloved puppies Frannie and Pupper.”

Hanabusa was born in 1951 and raised in Waianae. She was elected to the Hawaii State Senate in 1998 and became the state’s first female Senate president in 2007.

A career defined by political battles

Within months of her 1998 state Senate election, Hanabusa demanded a recount of the gubernatorial race that Ben Cayetano narrowly won over Linda Lingle.

She later organized the Senate’s ouster of Cayetano’s Attorney General Margery Bronster after Bronster forced out the politically connected trustees of the Bishop Estate.

She was elected to Congress in 2010.

In 2012, as U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye was dying, he asked Gov. Neil Abercrombie to appoint Hanabusa to his seat. Abercrombie instead chose his lieutenant governor, Brian Schatz.

“I think it was one of the more momentous moments in Hawaii politics,” said Colin Moore, a political science professor and HNN political analyst. “It really was in some ways a rejection of the Inouye era.”

Hanabusa lost her 2014 bid to take the Senate seat from Schatz.

She returned to Congress in 2016 following the death of U.S. Rep. Mark Takai, where she championed the Honolulu rail system.

From Congress to the campaign trail

Moore said Hanabusa’s political strength was more internal than public-facing.

“Her power was often more as an inside strategist than a public communicator,” Moore said.

With labor union support, Hanabusa gave up her congressional seat in 2018 to challenge Gov. David Ige in the Democratic primary.

“At the highest level of state government today, there is a deeply troubling lack of leadership and vision,” Hanabusa said when she announced her gubernatorial campaign.

Former Gov. Cayetano, despite prior differences with Hanabusa, endorsed her. Despite early leads in the polls, she lost in the primary.

Rail, mayor’s race, and HART

Hanabusa later became chair of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation and was critical of rail management.

In 2020, she ran for Honolulu mayor, finishing third in the primary. She endorsed eventual winner Rick Blangiardi, who returned her to the HART board.

As chair, Hanabusa helped salvage the federal funding agreement for the rail project. In 2023, she rode the rail system she had long fought for.

“We’re able to put our differences aside for one specific purpose, and that is rail, the completion of rail,” Hanabusa said.

Hanabusa left the HART board for health reasons last September.

Richard Ottinger obit

Richard Ottinger, former NY congressman and Pace law dean, dies at 97

 

He was not on the list.

The Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University mourns the passing of Dean Emeritus Richard L. Ottinger: environmental pioneer, dedicated public servant, leading scholar, and beloved teacher whose influence shaped this Law School and helped define modern environmental law.

Dick Ottinger’s professional life traced the arc of public purpose. He was a co-founder of the Peace Corps. A sixteen-year Member of Congress. A leader in landmark environmental legislation. Founder and Chair Emeritus of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. Founder of the Pace Energy Project. Dean of Pace Law School. A Scholar, mentor, and advocate.

Dick’s life’s work measures far beyond impressive titles alone. His professional life is measured in part by the institutions he strengthened, the students he inspired, and the legal frameworks he helped construct, frameworks that continue to shape environmental policy in the United States and across the globe.

Foundations of a Life in Service

Born on January 27, 1929, in Westchester County, Dick was rooted in the community he would later represent in Congress and ultimately return to serve through education.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Cornell University in 1950 and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1953. That same year, he joined the United States Air Force, serving during the Korean War, rising to the rank of Captain, and twice achieving distinction for his service.

After leaving active military service, he practiced law in New York City, first as an associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Friendly & Hamilton and later as a partner at Kridel, Malone & Spear.

Notably, he also co-founded one of the most enduring institutions of American public service, the Peace Corps, serving as Director of Latin American Programs from 1961–1964. In those early years, he helped build the operational and philosophical foundation of an organization rooted in global cooperation and service.

Congress: Environmental Leadership Ahead of its Time

In 1964, Dick was elected to Congress, becoming the first Democrat to win his Westchester seat. He would go on to serve sixteen impactful years in the House of Representatives.

He entered Congress at a pivotal time in American history and quickly established himself as a reform-minded legislator. He played a leadership role in efforts to modernize and democratize Congressional rules and procedures, but it was environmental law where he left his most enduring marks.

Throughout his Congressional career, Dick was often cited as one of the earliest environmentalists in Congress and one of the best-known experts in energy conservation. He chaired the Subcommittee on Energy, Conservation and Power and was one of the principal authors of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA), legislation that fundamentally reshaped utility regulation by opening markets to renewable energy and cogeneration. Here Dick played a central role in shaping national energy policy.

Throughout his Congressional career, Dick was often cited as one of the earliest environmentalists in Congress and one of the best-known experts in energy conservation.

Long before renewable energy and climate change became dominant policy conversations, Dick was advocating conservation, government-backed solar initiatives, and energy systems that accounted for environmental cost.

He founded the Environmental and Energy Study Conference, the largest bipartisan, bicameral caucus in Congress, to provide objective information on environmental and energy issues. That body later evolved into the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI), which he would continue to guide as Founder and Chair Emeritus.

During his time in Congress, Dick did not merely participate in the development of environmental law, he helped define it.

Read more about his Congressional career in The New York Times.

Coming “Home” to Pace

In 1984, after sixteen years in Congress, Dick returned to Westchester and joined what was then known as Pace University School of Law.

It was here that Dick embarked on what would become one of the most consequential chapters of his career. As a professor he taught in the environmental law program from 1984-94, espousing his knowledge and passion on countless law students, bringing to the classroom not only scholarly expertise but firsthand experience in shaping national policy.

The Pace Energy Project: Transforming Environmental Law into Action

Shortly after joining Pace, Dick became co-director of the Center for Environmental Legal Studies and founded the Pace Energy Project, now known worldwide as the Pace Energy and Climate Center.

This was groundbreaking work, as in the late 1980s, climate change was not yet a central legal issue. Under his leadership, the Pace Energy Project was already advocating for the integration of renewable energy into state utility systems, promoting energy efficiency mandates, challenging conventional utility investment models, and reframing environmental harm as an economic externality rather than an unavoidable cost of progress.

The Project pushed for the replacement of outdated power plants and greater investment in clean energy—laying critical groundwork for the legal and policy frameworks that would later define modern climate advocacy.

Dick also pioneered Environmental Costs of Electricity (1990), recognized as the first U.S. study of energy environmental externalities. This research reshaped how regulators and courts understood the “true cost” of energy, integrating environmental harm into economic decision-making.

It was through the Pace Energy Project that the Law School became not merely a teaching institution, but a practical policy think tank, engaged in real-world reform, influencing regulatory proceedings, and training students to operate at the intersection of law, science, and governance.

It was Dick’s work here that helped bring national acclaim to the Law School’s environmental law program.

Leadership and Impact at Pace

In 1994, Dick became Acting Dean and later Dean of Pace Law School.

As Dean, his leadership was transformative. Some of his most notable accomplishments included:

Establishing the Law School’s Board of Visitors

Securing the development of a new classroom building

Strengthening international programs

Establishing and expanding the LLM program

Establishing the Law School’s Annual Fundraising Dinner

Instrumentally bringing the New York State Judicial Institute, the training center for all New York State judges, to the Law School campus

Most important to Dick was his relationship with his students. A 1999 graduating student, Alicia Menechino, published “A Tribute to Dean Richard L. Ottinger” law review article as Dick’s time as Dean came to a close. In the article, she described him as:

“a memorable Dean… acclaimed for his outreach to, and inclusion of students in all matters affecting the school.” He was further described as a “voice of reason,” someone who led with “compassion” and “integrity.” She noted that he was “an approachable Dean,” and someone who “wanted to ease our transition into law school”

Dick never lost sight of his students. He personally greeted entering students. He listened. He invited questions. He modeled accessibility in leadership. For Dick, it always came back to the students.

In Dick’s own words, “Students are what a university is all about. The greatest joy of teaching is to see our students grow and succeed. We so often learn more from them than they from us.” For thousands of students, he was not simply a former Congressman. He was Professor and Dean Ottinger.

In Dick’s own words, “Students are what a university is all about. The greatest joy of teaching is to see our students grow and succeed. We so often learn more from them than they from us.”

Ottinger Hall: More Than a Name

In 2013, the Law School’s classroom building, which he helped construct during his time as Dean, was officially dedicated as Richard L. Ottinger Hall.

Dick responded to the honor with humility and wit, noting:

“Such an honor usually is reserved for those who are deceased.”

During the dedication, he thanked faculty, staff, donors, students, and especially his family. He made clear the building was not about personal recognition — it was about a broader mission, stating that, “No one builds a building by oneself, or a law school either for that matter.”

During his remarks, he also invoked Opportunitas, Pace University’s founding motto, as central to the Law School’s mission, noting that when the Law School was created it was meant to be student-oriented, and providing an opportunity for a legal education to students and faculty of all backgrounds, income classes, and beyond. And, importantly, a school where justice and access to the law for all was imparted among students. For Dick, ensuring that the Law School remained true to this mission was paramount.

It was during these remarks that Dick noted how he appreciated serving with what he described as “like-minded faculty.” In his own words, he often described his time at Pace as a “privilege.” He felt inspired by his colleagues in furthering environmental protection and justice and most importantly, inspired to “help educate the next generation of lawyers to be the leaders in advancing the cause of justice in our community, our country and the world.” For Dick, that was what it meant to have his name on Ottinger Hall.

Today, Ottinger Hall stands as a visible reminder of a life devoted to justice, public service, and education.

Dick was widely considered one of the most influential people in the field of environmental law. Environmental law today, in its integration of sustainability principles, renewable energy frameworks, environmental cost accounting, international cooperation, and more, bears the imprint of his vision.

Scholar, International Leader, and Architect of Modern Environmental Law

Dick’s scholarship throughout his life further expanded his impact. He authored or co-authored more than 100 articles and numerous books on environmental law, renewable energy, sustainability, and climate governance. His work influenced domestic regulatory policy and international legal frameworks alike. He was also the recipient of many prestigious honors and awards, and a dedicated member of countless organizations where he imparted his wisdom and made an impact.

Dick’s influence extended deeply into the international arena. He was invited to lecture at the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the only U.S. professor ever so invited. He also attended several IRENA Assemblies in Abu Dhabi. He led the renewable energy studies of the Commission on Environmental Law of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and represented Pace at numerous IUCN World Conservation Congresses around the world.

His IUCN book on renewable energy law, edited with Professor Adrian Bradbrook of Australia, was launched at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bonn, a fitting testament to the global relevance of his work. He was also a founder of the Consortium for Ecological Law, which supports students at Pace Haub Law in their participation in IUCN activities, further extending his commitment to ensuring that our students engaged meaningfully in global environmental governance.

Dick was widely considered one of the most influential people in the field of environmental law. Environmental law today, in its integration of sustainability principles, renewable energy frameworks, environmental cost accounting, international cooperation, and more, bears the imprint of his vision.

You can find more information on Dick’s tremendous body of scholarship, achievements, honors, memberships, and more below.

A Legacy That Will Endure

Richard L. Ottinger’s professional life’s work reshaped environmental policy in Congress. It strengthened international legal frameworks. It institutionalized renewable energy law. It created the Pace Energy and Climate Center. It built one of the nation’s top environmental law programs. It influenced generations of lawyers.

He leaves behind his beloved wife June, four children, and ten grandchildren, and a community profoundly shaped by his presence.

Dick’s legacy will endure – through the students he taught, the policies he shaped, and the values he embodied. And through the law itself.