Great Performances Turns 50 Great Performances continues its 50th anniversary season on PBS with Great Performances at 50: Celebrating Broadway’s Best, a celebration of Broadway in the past 50 years hosted by two-time Tony Award winner Sutton Foster performed from Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater. Premiering Friday, May 12 at 9:00 pm, the concert will include performances by André de Shields, Robyn Hurder, Jane Krakowski, Norm Lewis, Donna McKechnie, Betty Buckley, Jessie Mueller, Chita Rivera, Vanessa Williams and many more.
Birthdays
Mindy McMahon – 5/4
Kristin Bittner – 5/9
WPSU Radio Highlights
In Case You Missed It . . .
Hear The Winners Of WPSU's Student Poetry Writing Contest Read Their Poems
April was National Poetry Month. To celebrate, WPSU held its first ever Student Poetry Writing Contest. Students in kindergarten through 12th grade were encouraged to write poems and send them into the station. Poems were reviewed by over 30 community volunteers and the four winning poems were selected by Poetry Moment host, Todd Davis, who served as the contest judge. Davis is a professor of English and Environmental Studies at Penn State Altoona. Listen to the winners here.
A Penn State Professor Explains How The Northern Lights Put On A Show For Pennsylvanians
Normally when you talk about the northern lights, places like Iceland or Alaska or maybe Canada come to mind. But skywatchers in Pennsylvania got to see the phenomenon last week. WPSU’s Anne Danahy talked with Bill Bristow, a Penn State professor of atmospheric science, about the science behind the light show; and a Penn State meteorology student who saw Sunday night’s display. Listen here.
Democracy Works: How Civil Wars Start, And How To Stop Them
Barbara F. Walter, author of "How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them," has spent decades studying civil wars around the world and working with other political scientists to quantify how strong democracy is in a given country. She joins the Democracy Works staff to discuss those findings, how the democratic health of the United States has shifted over the past decade, and more. Listen here.
WPSU Television Highlights
Independent Lens “Matter of Mind: My ALS” — Monday, May 1 at 10:00 pm
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neuromuscular disease with an average survival time of 2-5 years from diagnosis. In this intimate story, three people bravely face different paths as they live with the progressively debilitating illness.
NOVA “Saving the Right Whale” - Wednesday, May 3 at 9:00 PM
The North Atlantic right whale is on the brink of extinction. But a handful of specialists are determined to help save it as they discover new secrets about the lives of these giants of the sea.
Independent Lens “Sam Now” --Monday, May 8 at 10:00 PM
In this coming-of-age documentary about generational trauma, follow Sam Harkness from age 11 to 33 as his once average, middle-class Seattle family is heartbroken and unsure of what to do after his mother suddenly abandons them.
Frontline “Clarence and Ginni Thomas: Politics, Power and the Supreme Court” - Tuesday, May 9 at 9:00 pm
The power and influence of Clarence and Ginni Thomas on the Supreme Court and American politics. An investigation of the controversial rise of one of Washington's most powerful couples, and their role in reshaping the country's politics and law.
Wild Scandinavia (part 1 of 3) — Wednesdays at 8:00 pm, starting May 10
Immerse yourself in these breath-taking Scandinavian landscapes, beautiful fjords, magical forests, and volcanic and arctic extremes. Watch as surprising wildlife stories, myths, and modernity are all woven into this icy natural world.
Great Performances “Celebrating 50 Years of Broadway’s Best” - Friday, May 12 at 9:00 pm
Enjoy a revue of milestone Broadway shows and songs from 1973 to 2023 hosted by two-time Tony Award winner Sutton Foster. Features performances by Andre De Shields, Chita Rivera, Vanessa Williams and more from Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater.
Come Back Anytime — Saturday, May 13 at 12:00 pm
Self-taught ramen master Masamoto Ueda and his wife Kazuko have run their Tokyo ramen shop, Bizentei for more than forty years. Together with their customers, they have created a welcoming place of community. An intimate portrait of Japan's culture of food, community, and work, COME BACK ANYTIME features gorgeous scenery, mouth-watering dishes, and a delightful cast of regular customers. It's a heart-warming reminder of life's simplest pleasures: a delicious meal, relaxed conversations with friends, and a special place to call one's own.
Governmental Relations
A Beautiful Day At The Capitol
On Tuesday, May 2 from 10am - 2pm, station reps from Pennsylvania PBS will be on hand in the East Wing Rotunda of the state capitol building in Harrisburg as there celebrate champions of lifelong learning with Good Neighbor Awards. Rep, Scott Conklin will receive an award for his many years of support for public television. Mr. McFeely (David Newell) will be on hand to meet legislators as well. Daniel Tiger will also be there to “Meow, thank legislators, meow, for their support for public TV meow.”
Possible Federal Cuts Loom
On Wednesday, April 26, 2023, the House of Representatives passed Speaker McCarthy’s debt-ceiling bill by a vote of 217-215.
As a reminder, the bill would:
• Increase the debt-limit by $1.5 trillion, enough to avoid default until March 2024 or later.
• Reduce federal spending to fiscal year (FY) 2022 levels.
• Cap future spending growth at one percent annually for the next 10 years.
While this legislation has no chance of passing in the Democratic-controlled Senate, it is important because it sets the House’s position on topline funding levels for fiscal year (FY) 2024 and it serves as the House’s opening position for negotiations with the Senate and White House.
Individual program cuts are not proposed in this bill. Instead, those decisions will be left to the Appropriations Committee. However, this legislation makes it clear that the House Appropriations Committee will be drafting bills using a topline spending level that is tied to FY 2022 levels. To achieve this, very significant cuts will have to be made to programs throughout the federal budget.
APTS is expecting significant cuts to be included in the House funding bills. These cuts will not necessarily be evenly applied across the board and there will be sizable pressure on appropriators to cut some programs, while doing their best to spare others.
House appropriators are currently drafting their annual funding packages and we are asking all stations represented by House Labor, Health and Human Services and Education (Labor-HHS-Education) and House Homeland Security Subcommittee Members to reach out now to remind them of the local importance of our funding requests in those bills.
Again, the House bills are only one step in the long annual appropriations process, but stations should be prepared for austere bills coming out of the House, including the potential cut or elimination of public media funding. APTS urges stations to stay fully engaged throughout the year as there will be several important inflection points when we must all weigh in to ensure that our programs receive the best possible funding levels.
Oh The Humanity!
BRUSSELS — The guardians of “Champagne" will let no one take the name of the bubbly beverage in vain, not even a U.S. beer behemoth. For years, Miller High Life has used the “Champagne of Beers” slogan. This week, that appropriation became impossible to swallow. At the request of the trade body defending the interests of houses and growers of the northeastern French sparkling wine, Belgian customs crushed more than 2,000 cans of Miller High Life advertised as such. The Comité Champagne asked for the destruction of a shipment of 2,352 cans on the grounds that the century-old motto used by the American brewery infringes the protected designation of origin “Champagne.” The consignment was intercepted in the Belgian port of Antwerp in early February, a spokesperson at the Belgian Customs Administration said on Friday, and was destined for Germany. [AP - 4/22/23]
¡Olé!
“I hate Cinco de Mayo,” Said no Juan Ever!"
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