The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Tuesday, February 3, 2015 — 5
MIKE GROLL/AP
Assemblyman Todd Kaminsky, D-Long Beach, left, Assemblyman Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, and Luis R. Sepúlveda, D-Bronx, leave a meeting of the so-called Reform Caucus.
Heastie poised to take office
in New York State Assembly
In Kalamazoo,
work begins
to revamp the
State Theatre
Couple pairs art with
wine in new business
STEPHEN SENNE/AP
New England Patriots fans take photos at the Boston Marathon finish line Sunday, Feb. 1 in Boston, while celebrating the
Patriots winning.
Boston snow storm leads
to delay in celebration
after Super Bowl victory
Former leader to
resign in face of
corruption charges
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Carl
Heastie, a Democratic lawmak-
er from the Bronx, is poised to
take over leadership of the New
York state Assembly on Tuesday
after the resignation of longtime
speaker Sheldon Silver amid fed-
eral corruption charges.
Heastie had faced as many
as four other contenders in the
race to succeed Silver, but his
final opponent conceded Mon-
day and the Democrats who hold
the Assembly majority nominat-
ed him with a unanimous vote.
Republicans hold less than a
third of the chamber’s seats and
cannot block his selection.
The 47-year-old Heastie will
become speaker as the Assembly
heads into critical budget nego-
tiations with the state Senate
and Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The
speakership is one of the most
important positions in state
government, with the power to
set committee assignments and
control which bills get votes and
which ones languish.
In a statement, Heastie said he
was humbled by his colleagues’
support.
“He’s a good man and he’ll do
a good job,” Silver told reporters
as he left the Capitol on Monday.
Silver’s
resignation
comes
after he was charged with tak-
ing nearly $4 million in payoffs
and kickbacks over a decade for
his influence on real-estate leg-
islation and medical grants. The
Manhattan Democrat says he
expects to be exonerated and will
keep his Assembly seat. He led the
Assembly as speaker for 21 years.
Assembly Democrats had ini-
tially said they would wait until
Feb. 10 to select Silver’s replace-
ment, to encourage an open
and deliberative process. That
changed, however, as Heastie
quickly locked up support.
“The members felt that ... a
consensus had emerged,” said
Assembly
Majority
Leader
Joseph Morelle of Rochester,
who was briefly a candidate for
speaker. “We need to move for-
ward on budget deliberations ...
to get back to work.”
Heastie’s final rival, Assem-
blywoman
Catherine
Nolan
of Queens, conceded minutes
before the Democrats voted. “I
lost,” she said. “I accept their
judgment.”
On Monday, Heastie met with
a group of lawmakers known
as the “reform caucus” because
of their interest in government
transparency and accountabil-
ity. The meeting was closed to
reporters and other members of
the public, however, and Heastie
declined to answer reporters’
questions as he walked in.
In a statement, Heastie vowed
to pursue a series of ethics
reforms including a new Office of
Ethics and Compliance led by a
non-legislator, new limits on how
much outside income lawmakers
can earn, and greater reporting
of outside income and legislative
stipends. Outside pay is a central
issue in the case against Silver.
“We must seize this oppor-
tunity for reform and enact the
type of lasting change that will
make the Assembly more open,
transparent and accountable to
the voters,” he said in a state-
ment.
Cuomo on Monday suggested
his own proposals to overhaul
legislative ethics rules and said
he wouldn’t sign a state budget
unless lawmakers take action.
Parade for the Pats
must wait as snow
blankets the city
BOSTON (AP) — The Super
Bowl celebration for New Eng-
landers and their beloved Patriots
will have to wait another day as
Boston continues to get battered
by heavy snow.
Mayor Marty Walsh said the
city will postpone a planned vic-
tory parade through downtown
until Wednesday morning.
He said the city and team have
both agreed to hold off on the
parade due to Monday’s protract-
ed snowstorm, which dumped
more than a foot of fresh snow in
the Boston area, making morning
and evening commutes treacher-
ous.
“We thank everyone for their
flexibility and patience during
the planning of this parade and
we look forward to celebrating
with Patriots fans during better
weather on Wednesday,” he said
in a joint statement with the team.
The city had announced earlier
that the downtown parade would
take place Tuesday. But with
weather continuing to worsen,
Boston public schools preemp-
tively canceled Tuesday classes,
the fifth snow day in the past
week. A decision to cancel the
parade followed shortly after.
Boston has seen a record 34.2
inches of snow over seven days,
according to the National Weath-
er Service. The previous seven-
day record was 31.2 inches in
January 1996.
Following their 28-24 victory
over the defending champion
Seattle Seahawks in Arizona, the
Patriots flew back to Massachu-
setts as scores of flights in and out
of Boston’s Logan airport were
canceled or delayed Monday.
The latest snowstorm didn’t
stop New Englanders from bask-
ing in the glow of their team’s
fourth Super Bowl victory.
Todd Penney, of Coventry,
Connecticut, was still recovering
from a heady night of celebrating
as he prepared for work Monday
morning as a town engineer.
“My voice is very hoarse from
screaming at the TV. I was all in
last night,” he said. “It will be a
lot more fun for me to snowblow
this morning after the Patriots’
win, than if they would have lost,
that’s for sure.”
Other fans recounted tense
moments from the rollercoaster
victory.
“It was an exciting game, a
nail-biter to the end. You don’t get
to see games like that very often,”
said George Vemis, as he cleared
the sidewalk in front of his vari-
ety store in Whitman, south of
Boston.
Cheryl Happeny, a business
analyst from Whitman, said the
victory is especially satisfying
because so many people outside
of New England have been call-
ing the team cheaters since the
scandal over underinflated foot-
balls in the Patriots’ winning
game over the Indianapolis Colts
erupted.
“It was a sweet victory,” she
said. “I don’t think it will quiet
the critics. I’m waiting for it to
heat up again. Everyone hates the
Patriots because we’re breaking
so many records. ...We’re like the
Yankees of the NFL.”
Renovations include
refurbishments to
theatre’s marquee
KALAMAZOO,
Mich.
(AP)
— Kalamazoo’s State Theatre is
spending money to make money.
Executive
director
Stepha-
nie Hinman is in the midst of a
renovation at the historic theatre
that includes refurbishment and
relamping of the marquee, removal
of old curtains, rearrangement of
some seating, cleaning and repair
of dressing rooms, removal of old
fixtures and replacement of cables
behind the scenes.
The work started with fixes that
addressed the safety and integrity
of the building and has moved on to
production systems.
The reason for the activity,
which began this summer: “We’re
putting money into it in hopes we
can get our money back,” Hinman
told the Kalamazoo Gazette.
“We hope more people buy
tickets and when more people buy
tickets to the shows we’re able to
provide this experience for every-
body,” she said.
Hinman’s father Roger Hinman
put her in charge of the building
and guiding its update in April. Her
wish list of improvements could
cost up to $5 million. Some of the
work that’s already taken place
includes painting and recarpeting
the green rooms and fixing a roof
leak. She’s considering adding air
conditioning, which would allow
the theater to operate in the sum-
mer.
One of the most visible current
renovations: putting new curtains
on the stage.
“The materials are one thing,
the installation is another,” Hin-
man said. “They don’t just cut them
down. We had to demo the old ones.
It’s a process. Everything is weight-
ed and balanced.”
Along with the actual curtains,
workers have been replacing old
ropes with new cables for operating
the curtains, with workers cleaning
as they go along and salvaging what
they can of old materials.
Jacob Wargo, production man-
ager at the 1,500-seat theater, said
one thing they wanted to save was
the original fire curtain from the
theater, which was designed by
Chicago architect John Eberson in
1927 for $350,000.
“The fire curtain was a signature
item in all of his theaters,” Wargo
said. “His go-to thing when he fin-
ished every theater was to put a
mural on the fire curtain. He’s got
about six of these Spanish court-
yard theme curtains. The Palace in
Gary (Indiana) is almost identical
to this.”
Back stage, workers have also
removed old lights, many of
which were wired with old asbes-
tos wiring and work is being done
to disconnect the huge old light
panel.
“My god, I love the panel. It’s
really sweet,” she said, but it has
to be moved to create more room,
where space is at a premium.
Hinman said that during the
renovations, she discovered some-
thing she never knew about the
theater — that there are a lot more
dressing rooms and bathrooms
than she knew about.
Franchise offers
unique classes for
local art enthusiasts
in Traverse City
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.
(AP) — Mix paint, wine, social
time. Stir with some instruc-
tion. End up a couple of hours
later with something to hang
on your wall, and perhaps a
new friend.
David and Nicole Les-
lie just opened a Painting
With a Twist franchise in
Traverse City. The business
offers
artist-led
sessions
during
which
customers
paint a copy of a picture,
imbibe if they like and have
a bit of social time with oth-
ers in the class.
“We
went
to
Colorado
Springs and went to (a ses-
sion). We had a blast,” David
Leslie told the Traverse City
Record-Eagle.
They researched Painting
With a Twist and discovered
the 8-year-old company has
nearly 200 franchises in 28
states.
The
concept
revolves
around the opportunity for
anyone, even those with no
painting experience, to create
a painting from a blank can-
vas good enough to display at
home.
The Leslies hired four local
painters to lead various ses-
sions.
Preparation
for
opening
the new business was hectic,
David Leslie said.
“I was sweating. I was los-
ing sleep,” he said. “Then sign-
ups started rolling in. They’re
easing my worries. Everything
has fallen into place.”
Participants sign up on the
franchise’s
website,
www.
PaintingWithaTwist.com/tra-
verse-city. There, they choose
from a selection of images in
the company’s repertoire. That
choice determines the session
date. Sessions currently are
held on Tuesday, Thursday,
Friday and Saturday evenings
from 7 to 9 p.m. Another ses-
sion is offered on Saturdays
from 3 to 5 p.m. The Leslies
also offer private parties in a
separate room for groups from
10 to 35.