Drowned Horsham man's family holds golf outing in his memory

Last August, the family of Horsham resident Brad Smith described him as a role model after his sudden death while visiting the Jersey Shore.

Smith was walking with another man and their daughters in the knee-deep waters of southern New Jersey when the sand beneath them suddenly gave way and all four were pulled into the ocean by the undertow. The others survived, but the body of the 54-year-old was found several days later on a North Wildwood beach.

One year later, Smith?s family is hosting the first Brad Smith Memorial Golf Outing in his memory, and all the proceeds will go to college funds for Smith?s two children, who are 8 and 12 years old.

The event, which is slated for Sept. 6 at the PineCrest Golf Club in Lansdale, will include 18 holes of golf, several contests, including longest and straightest drive, and dinner.

Jared Gaeta, Brad?s son-in-law, who previously described Smith as ?a man in every sense of the word,? said the event has enough golfers. What is needed are ?sponsors for each hole? and donations.

According to Gaeta, Smith?s last act before he was taken by the undertow was saving his youngest daughter by pushing her into calm waters.

For more information on the event, visit golf4brad.com.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/52511632/ns/local_news-delaware_valley_pa_nj/

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Six held over violence in France after police check veiled woman

PARIS (Reuters) - Six people were arrested after overnight violence that erupted in a Paris suburb after police checked the identity of a woman wearing a Muslim veil, French authorities said on Saturday.

Public disturbances have shaken depressed, largely immigrant quarters of major French cities at regular intervals for years, often triggered by resentment over spot police checks.

It is illegal in France for women to wear full face veils in public but the law is contested in the mainly Muslim suburbs that ring major cities - where tensions reign in relations between residents and police.

In Trappes, a gritty suburb southwest of Paris, police said a crowd gathered in response to the arrest on Thursday of a man who had assaulted a police officer during an identity check on his wife, who was entirely veiled.

Some 250 people who collected outside the Trappes police station on Friday night threw stones and other projectiles and destroyed property before being repelled by riot police in the early hours of Saturday, a police statement said.

A witness said the crowd called on police to release the husband but were "insulted" by authorities.

"They (the police) didn't want to listen and it got out of control," the man, who gave his name as Sofiane, told iTele. "Trappes is a big family. When you attack us we're going to respond."

Police said order was restored by daybreak in Trappes, an area of grim housing estates, but that reinforcements sent in overnight would remain in coming hours to help ensure calm.

Authorities dealing with immigrant unrest fear a repeat of riots in 2005, France's worst for 40 years, when nationwide violence led to the imposition of a state of emergency.

In Trappes, as cleanup crews cleared away shattered glass from bus shelters, burned trash bins and stones littering the pavement, the chief administrator of the department (county) of Yvelines described the suburb as "calm and serene."

"We will maintain this calm in the coming hours," Prefect Erard Corbin de Mangoux told journalists. "Police will stay put until we believe the threat is over."

(Reporting By Chine Labbe and Alexandria Sage; editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/six-held-over-violence-france-police-check-veiled-120302482.html

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Chinese state paper slams multinationals over bribery, high prices

BEIJING | Wed Jul 17, 2013 12:46am EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) - China must crack down on commercial bribery by multinational firms, the country's top state paper said on Wednesday, two days after police accused British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline of the widespread bribery of Chinese officials and doctors.

In a commentary, the People's Daily newspaper accused some multinationals of using their market dominance to exploit gaps in regulatory systems in developing countries.

The article suggests Chinese authorities are not about to step back from a spate of investigations launched in recent months into how foreign companies do business in China, from the setting of prices to quality controls.

"A crackdown on commercial bribery by multinationals is deeply significant to safeguarding the order of the market economy and protecting an environment of fair competition," said the commentary in the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party.

Chinese police on Monday accused GlaxoSmithKline of bribing officials and doctors to boost sales and raise the price of its medicines in China. Police said GSK transferred up to 3 billion yuan ($489 million) to 700 travel agencies and consultancies over six years to facilitate the bribes.

In response, GSK said it was deeply concerned by the developments, which it called "shameful".

A second commentary in the People's Daily said China must "lift a sharp sword to pierce the improper, even illegal, costs behind rising drug prices" for which multinationals, such as GSK, were responsible.

The first article said the GSK case was an illustration of "the commercial anti-corruption struggle" in China. Project bidding and tax systems for multinationals were also problematic, the commentary said, without giving details.

"In recent years, some multinationals have utilized strong market and technological advantages, operated through intermediary agents, and taken advantage of the imperfect regulatory system in developing countries to drill loopholes," the commentary said.

FOCUS ON FOREIGN FIRMS

Some experts have suggested China may be expanding an anti-corruption drive beyond government ranks and domestic companies including state-run entities, focusing now on foreign firms.

China has targeted foreign firms on multiple fronts in the past few months, although the probe into GSK is the only high-profile, publicly known investigation focused on bribery.

European food companies Nestle and Danone said early this month they would cut infant milk formula prices in China after Beijing launched an investigation into the industry.

Chinese media has been giving the GSK story plenty of attention.

On Tuesday night, state broadcaster CCTV night aired an interview with one of four detained Chinese executives from GSK.

Liang Hong, vice president and operations manager of GSK (China) Investment Co Ltd, offered details on how he funneled money through travel agencies by arranging conferences, some of which were never held.

"To have contact with some government departments you need money that you cannot normally expense to the company," Liang said during the broadcast.

Liang said he paid bribes to officials from the powerful planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), and the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, which are among those required to get medicines approved or prices set.

It is rare for state TV to carry such interviews, although state news agency Xinhua had earlier been given access to Liang. (Reporting By Megha Rajagopalan and Michael Martina. Editing by Dean Yates)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/reuters/topNews/~3/wvuM5AsOZ8M/story01.htm

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Cleveland Heights Golf Course Getting Renovations

Published: Tuesday, July 16, 2013 at 3:58 p.m.

Last Modified: Tuesday, July 16, 2013 at 3:58 p.m.

The centerpiece of the overall project is rebuilding greens on the A Course under the direction of Lakeland golf course architect Ron Garl.

"It was time to address them and improve the putting surfaces for playability," said Brock Witmyer, general manager at Cleveland Heights Golf Course.

"I think it's been a long time coming," Witmyer said. "I think folks are going to be real happy with it."

The condition of the greens at the city's 27-hole public course has been in decline, a source of ongoing complaints by area golfers because of spots where grass had died, leaving bare sand and uneven, bumpy putts.

"We don't expect a country club. But we expect grass," said Paul Boeh of Lakeland, a longtime member who organizes the Cleveland Heights Men's Golf Association tournaments on Wednesdays.

"We're just all hopeful that this works," said Boeh, 69. "There's a lot of long-term members who are hopeful, and a lot of young players."

The project also includes:

A new irrigation system.

New forward tees on several holes.

Laser-leveling existing tee boxes.

Installing new netting between the driving range and No. 9C.

Repairing cart paths.

And paving the south end of the south parking lot.

"The city manager's office, the commissioners, they want this to work," said Bob Donahay, Lakeland's director of parks and recreation. "They want it to make money. That's why they've given us so much leeway to put more money into the course, even though it's losing so much money right now."

DRAIN ON BUSINESS

Many public and private courses are struggling in Polk County and around the nation. The National Golf Foundation reports that 155 courses closed nationally in 2012, compared with 14 openings, and that 68 percent of those that closed were public courses.

The closings of The Golf Club at BridgeWater in Lakeland and Sun Air in Haines City in 2011 exemplified what the NGF said is a net reduction of 500 courses nationwide since 2006.

In addition, there have been ownership or management changes because of financial hardship in the past few weeks at two Winter Haven courses ? Lake Region Yacht and Country Club and Willowbrook Golf Course.

Donahay, who became director 18 months ago, said Cleveland Heights is losing about $800,000 per year, which is subsidized by the city.

Witmyer said memberships have dropped significantly in the past five years, partly because the struggling economy has impacted discretionary spending but also because of the deteriorating quality of the greens.

"You pay your 20 bucks to putt. It's not fun when the greens aren't good," said Boeh, a member since 1990.

Some golfers are taking their business to other courses.

"There's people in my Wednesday group that said they'll come back when the greens get in shape," Boeh said, echoing a common sentiment.

Witmyer said there are about 125 memberships today, compared with 325-350 five years ago.

"A couple of years ago, we made some cuts to the budget," Witmyer said. "That maybe hurt us a little bit. I think that the golf course has gotten better. We're making improvements. I think people can see that we're improving the course. We want people to come here. We want to be the best municipal course in Central Florida."

Donahay said there are currently about 51,000 rounds per year played at Cleveland Heights, a William Flynn design that opened in 1925.

"We're hoping to see a spike," Donahay said. "To make a dent in the deficit, we need to be at 65,000 rounds."

UPGRADES THAT PAY

The bulk of the $175,500 project is $84,500 for green renovations on the A Course.

Garl is chairman of the greens committee, which had soil samples sent to the United States Golf Association's Green Section for testing this spring before finalizing a recommendation to the city for the best approach to revitalize putting surfaces.

Following strict protocols, the greens were rebuilt, scraping away the top four inches and replacing that material with a pristine mix of sand and peat. After smoothing and reshaping the surfaces, they were sprigged with Tif-Dwarf Bermuda grass last week.

Dustin Plemons, the course superintendent, said the goal is for play to reopen on the A Course on Oct. 15.

The greens are being rebuilt for the first time since 1999, when the A and B Courses were completely redone.

Donahay said greens on the B Course will be renovated next year right after the 4-Ball Invitational golf tournament in early April.

"The good thing about Cleveland Heights is a lot of people in Lakeland grew up playing the Heights," Donahay said. "It's kind of like being a Red Sox fan, or a Yankees fan.

"Everybody wants to gravitate back to the Heights. But because the product went south, we lost a lot of folks," he said. "We're hoping with an improved course, those people will come back."

Donahay has already enhanced the food and beverage part of the balance sheet. He said profits in the bar and restaurant have increased from $8,000 in 2011 to $80,000 in the 2013 budget year that ends Sept. 30.

He is hopeful that upgrades to the golf course will pay off as well.

"We're taking that same business plan and applying it to the greens side," Donahay said.

In addition to greens, project improvements include $30,000 for a new irrigation controller, $36,000 to repair cart paths and pave the south end of the south parking lot, and $25,000 for the driving range net that was left in tatters by the hurricanes in 2004.

The $84,500 for green renovations includes putting down sod on the practice putting green, work on tee boxes, reshaping the driving range tee area, and adding 10 artificial grass mats on concrete pads at the driving range for golfers to warm up on in addition to the existing turf area.

The top 4 inches of material removed from greens is being used to create new forward tees on some holes.

Donahay said 7,000 feet of cart paths ? out of a total of 25,400 feet or about 5 miles of paths ? will be repaired by the city's Public Works Department.

"We don't want people to come back and say, ?Wow, you guys hit a home run on the greens side, but those cart paths are terrible,'?" Donahay said. "We want people to come back and say, ?Greens excellent. Cart paths excellent. What a difference!' That's what we're shooting for.

"We want to show people that the city is committed to putting out a good product."

[ Del Milligan can be reached at del.milligan@theledger.com or at 863-802-7555. ]

Source: http://www.theledger.com/article/20130716/news/130719458

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