S&P 500 confirms bull market with record close
S&P 500 confirms bull market with record close — Reuters
The S&P 500 (.SPX) confirmed on Friday that it has been in a bull market since October 2022, as it notched a record high close for the first time in two years.
Radicalized by the right wing opinion media
Middle Tennessee man arrested, accused of threatening border agents, migrants
Nashville TennesseanA Middle Tennesse man is facing a federal firearms charge after he "illegally transferred" an unregistered silencer to an undercover employee and threatened acts of violence against border patrol and migrants, according to federal authorities.
Paul Faye Sr., 55, of Cunningham, was taken into custody earlier this week on a charge of possession of an unregistered silencer.
According to a criminal complaint filed in federal court, the FBI became aware of Faye while investigating a separate case involving Missouri man Bryan Perry.
"Based upon a review of Perry's cell phone seized during that investigation, Perry had extensive contact with Faye leading up to Perry's arrest in Missouri," the complaint said. "Specifically, Faye expressed a desire to travel with Perry and another individual to the U.S./Mexico border and commit acts of violence."
In March 2023, an undercover employee began messaging with Faye on TikTok, the popular video social media platform, before he offered his cell phone number. Weeks later, the undercover employee and two others met Faye in person.
"During the meeting, Faye inquired if the [undercover employees] were federal law enforcement," the complaint said. "After confirming that [undercover employees] were not law enforcement, Faye discussed his belief that the government was training to take on its citizens, and more specifically, that the federal government was allowing illegal immigrants to enter the United States to help the government."
The undercover employees saw a photograph on Faye's phone that showed a 6.5 Creedmoor rifle with what appeared to be a suppressor on the end, which was not on his National Firearm Registration and Transfer Record.
In later conversations, Faye stressed the importance of training before making the trip to the border and discussed how much gear they'd need. Faye said he'd have some extra weapons, and they could pick up any that "may be laying around," the complaint said.
"This statement, based on my training and experience, indicated that Faye believed there would be deceased individuals from whom the [undercover employee] could recover equipment," the complaint said.
Faye also implied has was gathering explosives for the trip, the complaint said.
In a November conversation, Faye told the undercover employee that he'd met with a North Carolina man who had been to the border and planned to return on Jan. 20 with members of a militia group, the complaint said.
"'Are we gonna go to work? Are we going down there to put eyes on or are we going down there to do work,'" the employee asked Faye, according to the complaint.
"'No no, we're gonna work, we're gonna work,'" Faye responded, indicating that he was "planning to conduct acts of violence," the complaint said.
In an early January conversation, the undercover employee asked if Faye had a suppressor for an AK47. Faye said he could provide him one that did not have a "tax stamp," marking it unregistered, the complaint said.
During a visit to Faye's home, the employee was shown into the "war room," which held several firearms, large amounts of ammunition, radios and a bullet proof vest. During this visit, Faye sold the suppressor to the employee for $100, according to the complaint.
After taking Faye into custody, federal agents found firearms, another firearm silencer, a militia patch, multiple jars of Tannerite, a brand of explosive targets that can be converted into improvised explosive devices, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Middle Tennessee man arrested, accused of threatening border agents, migrants
Paul Faye Sr. sold an unregistered suppressor and threatened acts of violence against border patrol and migrants, federal authorities said.
www.tennessean.com
Thoughts on Drew Campbell and Will Tompkins from Last Weekend
- By Eliot Clough
- The Press Box
- 1 Replies
An idea of where Campbell will play for the #Hawkeyes, why I expect Tompkins' offer list to grow, thoughts from CF's head coach, and more.
STORY:
iowa.rivals.com
STORY:
Go Iowa Awesome - Drew Campbell and Will Tompkins Excel for Cedar Falls
Though Cedar Falls fell to Centennial Friday night, two of their prospects in the trenches impressed.
iowa.rivals.com
Iowa lawmakers advance bill making illegal immigration a state crime
- By cigaretteman
- Off Topic
- 14 Replies
State courts would be permitted to order the deportation of immigrants arrested in Iowa while in the country illegally, and local officials would be given legal immunity when assisting in immigration enforcement measures under a bill advanced in the Iowa Senate.
Senate File 2211 would create a state crime for migrants who enter or re-enter the state illegally from another country and would give Iowa law enforcement authority to arrest undocumented immigrants in the state.
It also allows state judges the option of ordering some migrants to return to their home country instead of pursuing prosecution.
Officers and state agencies would be cleared to transport undocumented migrants to ports of entry to make sure they comply. If migrants refused to comply with an order to return, or those who were ordered to be removed after being convicted of a felony, could be charged with a Class C felony and face up to 10 years in prison and a $13,660 fine.
Those whose removal followed being convicted of two or more misdemeanor drug crimes, crimes against a person, or both, could be charged with a Class D felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,245 fine.
Law enforcement officers would not be allowed to arrest or detain an undocumented migrant on the grounds of a public or private school, place of worship, at a health care facility where a migrant is receiving medical treatment or those receiving a medical examination for sexual assault.
The bill was advanced on a 2-1 vote and is now eligible for consideration by the full Senate Judiciary Committee.
Immigrant rights organizations and Democrats voiced strong opposition to the bill, which would have major implications for migrants across the state and is certain to trigger lawsuits.
Read More:
Capitol Notebook: Migrant activists rally against anti-immigration bills in Iowa
They noted the bill is unconstitutional as immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility.
Federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have ruled that immigration laws can only be enforced by the federal government.
Republican lawmakers in Texas passed and Gov. Greg Abbott signed a similar measure in December that’s being challenged in court. Supporters of the Texas law have said they hope to push the issue back before a more conservative U.S. Supreme Court.
Immigrant rights advocates warned that the bill would lead to widespread racial profiling and a circumvention of protections asylum-seekers have under constitutional law and international obligations. The bill does not provide funding or a requirement to train officers on immigration law, despite authorizing them to make decisions about a person’s immigration status.
Opponents also raised concerns that parents may be separated from their children if arrested under the new state crime, and lead to migrants being sent across the southern border regardless of their legal status in the United States.
“It’s going to instill fear, and it’s going to drive immigrant families that have been living here like mine for 30 years,” said Kenia Ceron, of Des Moines.
Immigration and refugees have helped sustain rural areas, while domestic migration has drawn people away.
In 2022, Iowa lost nearly 7,300 people to domestic migration, but gained nearly 7,300 international migrants, according to U.S. census data.
“What we have in Iowa is mixed-status families,” comprised of both U.S. citizens and undocumented immigrants, Ceron said. “What this bill will do is … drive Iowans — U.S. citizens Iowans — out of the state in fear for their families’ members that will be persecuted under this bill.”
She said the bill would also undo years worth of work by Iowa law enforcement to build trust with Iowa immigrant communities to report crimes, identify issues and establish mutual respect and communication.
“What this bill will do is make immigrants like myself more fearful of our law enforcement as they’re acting as federal agents,” Ceron said.
Salmon noted arrests for illegal border crossings from Mexico reached an all-time high in December. The U.S. Border Patrol recorded 249,785 arrests on the Mexican border in December, up from 191,112 in November and up from 222,018 in December 2022, the previous all-time high.
“This is unsustainable,” she said, adding border agents have encountered individuals on the terror watchlist trying to enter the U.S. via Mexico.
Salmon said Iowa needs to defend itself, attributing increases in fentanyl seizures, drug overdose deaths and human trafficking to illegal immigration issues and what she said has been a failure of Democratic President Joe Biden administration’s to secure the border and enforce federal immigration laws.
“This is something we can do to help protect out state and protect our nation,” Salmon said.
After a weekend trip to Texas, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds this week said she plans to once again send Iowa State Patrol officers and Iowa National Guard troops to aid Texas authorities with border security efforts.
Erica Johnson, executive director of the Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice, said the bill would place pressure on Iowa law enforcement and Iowa judges to interpret federal immigration law, “which is not their job.”
“It’s a nonsense law,” Johnson said, calling Salmon’s talking points on the bill “a list of grievances and laying them at the feet of immigrants.”
Tom Chapman, representing the Iowa Catholic Conference, said the group is opposed to the bill, noting much of it is clearly preempted by federal law and the U.S. Constitution.
“We don’t encourage illegal immigration,” Chapman said. “ … We support our country’s right to control its borders, and we understand the situation at the southern border cannot continue as it has,” but the issue needs to be solved at the federal level with passage of “border protection policies that are consistent with humanitarian values.”
U.S. Senate Republicans voted Wednesday against advancing a bipartisan border security deal that was part of a larger emergency foreign aid package to fund the war in Ukraine, Israel and Indo-Pacific security.
Iowa's two Republican U.S. senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst both voted against the deal their own party members helped negotiate.
Grassley, in a statement, said while he appreciated efforts made to negotiate border policy, “the resulting deal fails to address the border crisis caused by President Biden’s open border polices and refusal to enforce our immigration laws, which have allowed 8.8 million illegal immigrants and counting into our country.
“Gaping loopholes, poor border enforcement mechanisms and a lack of accountability measures make this legislation woefully inadequate,” Grassley continued. “Ultimately, this bill would yield massive discretionary power on border policy to President Biden and his administration. I will not vote to advance a bill that would codify ineffective policies and give President Biden more power to abuse what he has already so badly broken.”
Republican state Sens. Lynn Evans, of Aurelia, and Jeff Reichman, of Montrose, voted to advance the bill, with state Sen. Janice Weiner, D-Iowa City, opposed.
Weiner said Iowa’s legal system is not set up and lacks the legal expertise to deal with immigration issues.
“I worry that what we’re heading for is the use of more Iowa taxpayer dollars to try and defend an unconstitutional law,” she said. “ … I suggest, rather than passing this bill, we call our (federal) senators and representatives and ask them to revive” the failed border security deal.
Reichman, echoing Salmon, said “something’s go to be done" absent the political clout in Congress to curb illegal border crossings.
Evans said changes are needed to the bill “to clean up some of the language” as it moves forward.
www.thegazette.com
Senate File 2211 would create a state crime for migrants who enter or re-enter the state illegally from another country and would give Iowa law enforcement authority to arrest undocumented immigrants in the state.
It also allows state judges the option of ordering some migrants to return to their home country instead of pursuing prosecution.
Officers and state agencies would be cleared to transport undocumented migrants to ports of entry to make sure they comply. If migrants refused to comply with an order to return, or those who were ordered to be removed after being convicted of a felony, could be charged with a Class C felony and face up to 10 years in prison and a $13,660 fine.
Those whose removal followed being convicted of two or more misdemeanor drug crimes, crimes against a person, or both, could be charged with a Class D felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,245 fine.
Law enforcement officers would not be allowed to arrest or detain an undocumented migrant on the grounds of a public or private school, place of worship, at a health care facility where a migrant is receiving medical treatment or those receiving a medical examination for sexual assault.
The bill was advanced on a 2-1 vote and is now eligible for consideration by the full Senate Judiciary Committee.
Democrats opposed
Immigrant rights organizations and Democrats voiced strong opposition to the bill, which would have major implications for migrants across the state and is certain to trigger lawsuits.
Read More:
Capitol Notebook: Migrant activists rally against anti-immigration bills in Iowa
They noted the bill is unconstitutional as immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility.
Federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have ruled that immigration laws can only be enforced by the federal government.
Republican lawmakers in Texas passed and Gov. Greg Abbott signed a similar measure in December that’s being challenged in court. Supporters of the Texas law have said they hope to push the issue back before a more conservative U.S. Supreme Court.
Immigrant rights advocates warned that the bill would lead to widespread racial profiling and a circumvention of protections asylum-seekers have under constitutional law and international obligations. The bill does not provide funding or a requirement to train officers on immigration law, despite authorizing them to make decisions about a person’s immigration status.
Opponents also raised concerns that parents may be separated from their children if arrested under the new state crime, and lead to migrants being sent across the southern border regardless of their legal status in the United States.
‘Instill fear’
“It’s going to instill fear, and it’s going to drive immigrant families that have been living here like mine for 30 years,” said Kenia Ceron, of Des Moines.
Immigration and refugees have helped sustain rural areas, while domestic migration has drawn people away.
In 2022, Iowa lost nearly 7,300 people to domestic migration, but gained nearly 7,300 international migrants, according to U.S. census data.
“What we have in Iowa is mixed-status families,” comprised of both U.S. citizens and undocumented immigrants, Ceron said. “What this bill will do is … drive Iowans — U.S. citizens Iowans — out of the state in fear for their families’ members that will be persecuted under this bill.”
She said the bill would also undo years worth of work by Iowa law enforcement to build trust with Iowa immigrant communities to report crimes, identify issues and establish mutual respect and communication.
“What this bill will do is make immigrants like myself more fearful of our law enforcement as they’re acting as federal agents,” Ceron said.
‘Soft invasion’
Salmon noted arrests for illegal border crossings from Mexico reached an all-time high in December. The U.S. Border Patrol recorded 249,785 arrests on the Mexican border in December, up from 191,112 in November and up from 222,018 in December 2022, the previous all-time high.
“This is unsustainable,” she said, adding border agents have encountered individuals on the terror watchlist trying to enter the U.S. via Mexico.
Salmon said Iowa needs to defend itself, attributing increases in fentanyl seizures, drug overdose deaths and human trafficking to illegal immigration issues and what she said has been a failure of Democratic President Joe Biden administration’s to secure the border and enforce federal immigration laws.
“This is something we can do to help protect out state and protect our nation,” Salmon said.
After a weekend trip to Texas, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds this week said she plans to once again send Iowa State Patrol officers and Iowa National Guard troops to aid Texas authorities with border security efforts.
‘Not their job’
Erica Johnson, executive director of the Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice, said the bill would place pressure on Iowa law enforcement and Iowa judges to interpret federal immigration law, “which is not their job.”
“It’s a nonsense law,” Johnson said, calling Salmon’s talking points on the bill “a list of grievances and laying them at the feet of immigrants.”
Tom Chapman, representing the Iowa Catholic Conference, said the group is opposed to the bill, noting much of it is clearly preempted by federal law and the U.S. Constitution.
“We don’t encourage illegal immigration,” Chapman said. “ … We support our country’s right to control its borders, and we understand the situation at the southern border cannot continue as it has,” but the issue needs to be solved at the federal level with passage of “border protection policies that are consistent with humanitarian values.”
Federal vote
U.S. Senate Republicans voted Wednesday against advancing a bipartisan border security deal that was part of a larger emergency foreign aid package to fund the war in Ukraine, Israel and Indo-Pacific security.
Iowa's two Republican U.S. senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst both voted against the deal their own party members helped negotiate.
Grassley, in a statement, said while he appreciated efforts made to negotiate border policy, “the resulting deal fails to address the border crisis caused by President Biden’s open border polices and refusal to enforce our immigration laws, which have allowed 8.8 million illegal immigrants and counting into our country.
“Gaping loopholes, poor border enforcement mechanisms and a lack of accountability measures make this legislation woefully inadequate,” Grassley continued. “Ultimately, this bill would yield massive discretionary power on border policy to President Biden and his administration. I will not vote to advance a bill that would codify ineffective policies and give President Biden more power to abuse what he has already so badly broken.”
Iowa bill
Republican state Sens. Lynn Evans, of Aurelia, and Jeff Reichman, of Montrose, voted to advance the bill, with state Sen. Janice Weiner, D-Iowa City, opposed.
Weiner said Iowa’s legal system is not set up and lacks the legal expertise to deal with immigration issues.
“I worry that what we’re heading for is the use of more Iowa taxpayer dollars to try and defend an unconstitutional law,” she said. “ … I suggest, rather than passing this bill, we call our (federal) senators and representatives and ask them to revive” the failed border security deal.
Reichman, echoing Salmon, said “something’s go to be done" absent the political clout in Congress to curb illegal border crossings.
Evans said changes are needed to the bill “to clean up some of the language” as it moves forward.
Iowa lawmakers advance bill making illegal immigration a state crime
Bill would allow state courts to order undocumented immigrants deported
www.thegazette.com
Michael Mann up next on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire...
- By Joes Place
- Off Topic
- 0 Replies
Climate Scientist Michael Mann Confronts Defamers in Court After 12-Year Delay and Wins - Eos
The trial comes as climate impacts and attacks on science and its practitioners are worse than ever.
eos.org
Update, 8 February 2024: A jury unanimously decided in favor of Mann in the lawsuit against Simberg and Steyn. The pair were found guilty of defamation. Mann was awarded more than $1,000,000 in damages.
The defamation trial brought by climate scientist Michael Mann comes to a close this week after Mann, defendants Rand Simberg and Mark Steyn, and several witnesses took the stand. The trial began on 18 January in Washington, D.C., 12 years after Mann first sued Simberg and Steyn, climate change deniers and prominent right-wing voices, for years of defamation.
RIP Seiji Ozawa
- By cigaretteman
- Off Topic
- 0 Replies
Seiji Ozawa, the Japanese conductor who amazed audiences with the lithe physicality of his performances during three decades at the helm of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and was a former Ravinia Festival music director, has died, his management office said Friday. He was 88.
The internationally acclaimed maestro, with his trademark mop of salt-and-pepper hair, led the BSO from 1973 to 2002, longer than any other conductor in the orchestra’s history. From 2002 to 2010, he was the music director of the Vienna State Opera.
Ozawa was music director at Ravinia in the 1960s and returned regularly over the years to conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in performances at the Highland Park festival.
He died of heart failure Tuesday at his home in Tokyo, according to his office.
He remained active in his later years, particularly in his native land. He was the artistic director and founder of the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival, a music and opera festival in Japan. He and the Saito Kinen Orchestra, which he co-founded in 1984, won the Grammy Award for best opera recording in 2016 for Ravel’s “L’Enfant et Les Sortileges” (“The Child and the Spells”).
In 2022, he conducted his Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival for the first time in three years to mark its 30th anniversary. That turned out to be his last public performance.
Ozawa exerted enormous influence over the BSO during his tenure. He appointed 74 of its 104 musicians, and his celebrity attracted famous performers including Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman. He also helped the symphony become the biggest-budget orchestra in the world, with an endowment that grew from less than $10 million in the early 1970s to more than $200 million in 2002.
When Ozawa conducted the Boston orchestra in 2006 — four years after he had left — he received a hero’s welcome with a nearly six-minute ovation.
Ozawa was born Sept. 1, 1935, to Japanese parents in Manchuria, China, while it was under Japanese occupation.
After his family returned to Japan in 1944, he studied music under Hideo Saito, a cellist and conductor credited with popularizing Western music in Japan. Ozawa revered him and formed the Saito Kinen (Saito Memorial) Orchestra in 1984 and eight years later founded the Saito Kinen Festival — renamed the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival in 2015.
Ozawa first arrived in the United States in 1960 and was soon hailed by critics as a brilliant young talent.
He attended the Tanglewood Music Center, where he caught the attention of Leonard Bernstein, who appointed him assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic for the 1961-62 season. After his New York debut with the Philharmonic at 25, The New York Times said “the music came brilliantly alive under his direction.”
He directed various ensembles including the San Francisco Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra before beginning his tenure in Boston in 1970.
At the time, there were few nonwhite musicians on the international scene. Ozawa embraced the challenge and it became his lifelong passion to help Japanese performers demonstrate they could be first-class musicians. In his 1967 book “The Great Conductors,” critic Harold C. Schonberg noted the changing ranks of younger conductors, writing that Ozawa and Indian-born Zubin Mehta were the first Asian conductors “to impress one as altogether major talents.”
Ozawa had considerable star quality and crossover appeal in Boston, where he was a well-known fan of the Red Sox and Patriots sports teams. In 2002, Catherine Peterson, executive director of Arts Boston, a nonprofit group that markets Boston’s arts, told The Associated Press that “for most people in this community, Seiji personifies the Boston Symphony.”
Ozawa is largely credited with elevating the Tanglewood Music Center, a music academy in Lenox, Massachusetts, to international prominence. In 1994, a 1,200-seat, $12 million music hall at the center was named for him.
His work at Tanglewood had some controversy. In 1996, as music director of the orchestra and its ultimate authority, he decided to move the respected academy in new directions. Ozawa ousted Leon Fleisher, the longtime director of Tanglewood, and several prominent teachers quit in protest.
Despite glowing reviews for his performances in Europe and Japan, American critics were increasingly disappointed in the later years of his tenure with the BSO. In 2002, Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times wrote that Ozawa had become, after a bold start, “an embodiment of the entrenched music director who has lost touch.”
Many of the orchestra’s musicians agreed and even circulated an anti-Ozawa newsletter claiming he had worn out his welcome in Boston.
Ozawa won two Emmy awards for TV work with the Boston Symphony Orchestra — the first in 1976 for the BSO’s PBS series “Evening at Symphony” and the second in 1994, for Individual Achievement in Cultural Programming, for “Dvorak in Prague: A Celebration.”
Ozawa held honorary doctorates of music from the University of Massachusetts, the New England Conservatory of Music, and Wheaton College in Norton, Mass. He was one of five honorees at the annual Kennedy Center Honors in 2015 for contributing to American culture through the arts.
In later years, Ozawa’s health deteriorated. He was treated for cancer of the esophagus in 2010, and in 2015 and 2016 he canceled performances for various health problems.
Ozawa’s management office said his funeral was attended only by close relatives as his family wished to have a quiet farewell.
He canceled some appearances in 2015-16 for health reasons, including what would have been his first return to the Tanglewood music festival — the summer home of the Boston symphony — in a decade.
chicago.suntimes.com
The internationally acclaimed maestro, with his trademark mop of salt-and-pepper hair, led the BSO from 1973 to 2002, longer than any other conductor in the orchestra’s history. From 2002 to 2010, he was the music director of the Vienna State Opera.
Ozawa was music director at Ravinia in the 1960s and returned regularly over the years to conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in performances at the Highland Park festival.
He died of heart failure Tuesday at his home in Tokyo, according to his office.
He remained active in his later years, particularly in his native land. He was the artistic director and founder of the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival, a music and opera festival in Japan. He and the Saito Kinen Orchestra, which he co-founded in 1984, won the Grammy Award for best opera recording in 2016 for Ravel’s “L’Enfant et Les Sortileges” (“The Child and the Spells”).
In 2022, he conducted his Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival for the first time in three years to mark its 30th anniversary. That turned out to be his last public performance.
Ozawa exerted enormous influence over the BSO during his tenure. He appointed 74 of its 104 musicians, and his celebrity attracted famous performers including Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman. He also helped the symphony become the biggest-budget orchestra in the world, with an endowment that grew from less than $10 million in the early 1970s to more than $200 million in 2002.
When Ozawa conducted the Boston orchestra in 2006 — four years after he had left — he received a hero’s welcome with a nearly six-minute ovation.
Ozawa was born Sept. 1, 1935, to Japanese parents in Manchuria, China, while it was under Japanese occupation.
After his family returned to Japan in 1944, he studied music under Hideo Saito, a cellist and conductor credited with popularizing Western music in Japan. Ozawa revered him and formed the Saito Kinen (Saito Memorial) Orchestra in 1984 and eight years later founded the Saito Kinen Festival — renamed the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival in 2015.
Ozawa first arrived in the United States in 1960 and was soon hailed by critics as a brilliant young talent.
He attended the Tanglewood Music Center, where he caught the attention of Leonard Bernstein, who appointed him assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic for the 1961-62 season. After his New York debut with the Philharmonic at 25, The New York Times said “the music came brilliantly alive under his direction.”
He directed various ensembles including the San Francisco Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra before beginning his tenure in Boston in 1970.
At the time, there were few nonwhite musicians on the international scene. Ozawa embraced the challenge and it became his lifelong passion to help Japanese performers demonstrate they could be first-class musicians. In his 1967 book “The Great Conductors,” critic Harold C. Schonberg noted the changing ranks of younger conductors, writing that Ozawa and Indian-born Zubin Mehta were the first Asian conductors “to impress one as altogether major talents.”
Ozawa had considerable star quality and crossover appeal in Boston, where he was a well-known fan of the Red Sox and Patriots sports teams. In 2002, Catherine Peterson, executive director of Arts Boston, a nonprofit group that markets Boston’s arts, told The Associated Press that “for most people in this community, Seiji personifies the Boston Symphony.”
Ozawa is largely credited with elevating the Tanglewood Music Center, a music academy in Lenox, Massachusetts, to international prominence. In 1994, a 1,200-seat, $12 million music hall at the center was named for him.
His work at Tanglewood had some controversy. In 1996, as music director of the orchestra and its ultimate authority, he decided to move the respected academy in new directions. Ozawa ousted Leon Fleisher, the longtime director of Tanglewood, and several prominent teachers quit in protest.
Despite glowing reviews for his performances in Europe and Japan, American critics were increasingly disappointed in the later years of his tenure with the BSO. In 2002, Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times wrote that Ozawa had become, after a bold start, “an embodiment of the entrenched music director who has lost touch.”
Many of the orchestra’s musicians agreed and even circulated an anti-Ozawa newsletter claiming he had worn out his welcome in Boston.
Ozawa won two Emmy awards for TV work with the Boston Symphony Orchestra — the first in 1976 for the BSO’s PBS series “Evening at Symphony” and the second in 1994, for Individual Achievement in Cultural Programming, for “Dvorak in Prague: A Celebration.”
Ozawa held honorary doctorates of music from the University of Massachusetts, the New England Conservatory of Music, and Wheaton College in Norton, Mass. He was one of five honorees at the annual Kennedy Center Honors in 2015 for contributing to American culture through the arts.
In later years, Ozawa’s health deteriorated. He was treated for cancer of the esophagus in 2010, and in 2015 and 2016 he canceled performances for various health problems.
Ozawa’s management office said his funeral was attended only by close relatives as his family wished to have a quiet farewell.
He canceled some appearances in 2015-16 for health reasons, including what would have been his first return to the Tanglewood music festival — the summer home of the Boston symphony — in a decade.
Acclaimed Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa, a longtime Ravinia Festival fixture, dead at 88
The acclaimed maestro, with his trademark mop of salt-and-pepper hair, led the Boston Symphony Orchestra longer than anyone else, then was music director of the Vienna State Opera.
chicago.suntimes.com