March 5, 2019: Goldstein ’96 Leads Obstruction Investigation; Holgate ’87 Discusses Nuclear Weapons

While Robert Mueller ’66 is the face of the investigation of President Donald Trump, on questions related to obstruction of justice Andrew Goldstein ’96 is responsible for most of the interviews with the president’s aides and other high-level officials. — The New York Times
 
Laura Holgate ’87, the former U.S. representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency, reflects on nuclear weapons and ongoing negotiations with North Korea. — CBS News
 
The use of “redface” painting at football games ought to be condemned, like “blackface,” as disrespectful and socially unacceptable, says Kevin Gover ’78, director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. — The Undefeated
 
Maria Ressa ’86, a Philippine journalist who recently was charged with libel, says that Facebook failed to respond appropriately to false accounts created to incite violence and garner support for Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. — The Sydney Morning Herald
 
Former federal housing secretary and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro selected Manny Espitia ’11, a state representative in New Hampshire, to be his campaign director for the key primary state. — WMUR Manchester
 
At a recent auction in London, brothers Monte Wallace ’53 and Neil Wallace ’55 unveiled a private collection that was described as “the most important single-owner group of Impressionist and modern art offered in London in a decade.” — Bloomberg

“All my life I’ve been a creative person, writing my own songs. Producing all these famous acts was a day job for me.”

— Former record producer John Simon ’63, who worked with Janis Joplin, the Band, and Simon & Garfunkel. He recently published a memoir about his life in the music industry. Read more in the Connecticut Post.

Contemporary artist Frank Stella ’58 is selling a handful of paintings, including two of his own, at auctions in London and New York this month. — Barron’s 

 
Author and Bard College professor Daniel Mendelsohn *94 has been appointed to the new position of editor at large of The New York Review of Books. — The New York Review of Books

Genevieve Ryan ’11 has developed Real World Playbook, an online platform with information on finances, health care, and housing intended to help college graduates navigate the transition from college to living on their own. — Fox News Sunday
 
Veteran midfielder Diana Matheson ’08 returned from an injury to play with the Canadian women’s soccer team at the Algarve Cup in Portugal, part of the lead-up to 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France. — Edmonton Sun
 
Memphis architect Jimmie Tucker ’77 was named a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, a distinction achieved by only 3 percent of the Institute’s members. — Daily Memphian
 
Lara Norgaard ’17 has been named a Luce Scholar for her work using journalism, the arts, and digital platforms to address histories of repression and state violence in Brazil. — Henry Luce Foundation
 
“A Stone to the Head: The Death of Eugene Williams,” a new choral work composed by Flannery Cunningham ’13 and Tanyaradzwa Tawengwa ’14, will be performed in Brooklyn to commemorate the racial violence of the “Red Summer” of 1919. — Brooklyn Paper

Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi ’00 and her husband and co-director Jimmy Chin won the Academy Award for best documentary feature for Free Solo, the story of rock climber Alex Honnold’s rope-free ascent of the El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park. — Associated Press

Veteran journalist David D. Kirkpatrick ’92 was detained in Cairo and then escorted onto a flight back to London. (Kirkpatrick discusses his new book about Egypt, Into the Hands of the Soldiers, in PAW’s March 6 issue.) — The New York Times
 
National Security Council senior director and climate-change skeptic William Happer *64 is in line to lead a White House panel to assess whether climate change poses a national-security threat, according to reporting by Juliet Eilperin ’92 and Missy Ryan. — The Washington Post
 
For the second consecutive year, Ben Taub ’14 of The New Yorker won the George Polk Award for magazine reporting; his prize-winning story chronicled how Iraqi Shiites have punished members of the country’s Sunni minority alleged to have collaborated with ISIS. — The New Yorker
 
“A” Train, actress and writer Anne Torsiglieri ’85’s one-woman show about her experience as the mother of an autistic child, opens at the HartBeat Ensemble in Hartford, Conn., Feb. 28. — Hartford Courant
 
John Tortorella, coach of the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets, praised rookie forward Eric Robinson ’18, saying, “You can’t help but love his speed, his size, and his reach. … The puck tends to follow him around.” — Columbus Dispatch
 
A baseball historian chronicles the career of Dick Armstrong ’46, who worked in major-league front offices before pursuing a life of ministry in the Presbyterian church. — Society for American Baseball Research