Category: today’s top story

In his capacity as a hedge fund manager, Barrett Wissman has pled guilty to fraud in connection with the kickback scandal at a New York State pension fund; he will pay a $12 million fine and will receive a prison sentence at a later date. In 2003 Wissman, a former pianist, purchased IMG Artists, which manages a powerhouse roster ranging from Joshua Bell and Renée Fleming to Bill T. Jones and Pilobolus.

“Thumped by the uncertain economy, Ontario’s Stratford Shakespeare Festival has removed 31 performances from the season’s schedule. One April performance of West Side Story has been officially cancelled, while 30 other performances that were selling poorly are ‘on hold’ as the festival’s administration waits to see if ticket sales pick up and economic conditions improve. Ticket sales are down 15 per cent from last year at this time.”

“The long-awaited National Museum of African American History and Culture took an important step forward yesterday with the selection of an architectural and design team. The Smithsonian, which is overseeing the $500 million project on the Mall, chose Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup as the firm that will design the signature building across the street from the Washington Monument.”

“When the cash-strapped Massachusetts Turnpike Authority doused the lights on the Zakim Bridge last week, it crushed a lot of spirits, not least those of Miguel Rosales. The architect, who designed the bridge with a skirt of regal blue lights to evoke the shimmering Charles River, … mailed a check for $15,000 to the authority – enough to light the bridge for three months – and urged the agency to, please, let the lights shine again, for the sake of the city.” The authority’s response? It’s not enough.

“In response to nearly two days of angry online commentary, particularly on Twitter, Amazon.com said on Monday that ‘an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error’ had caused thousands of books on its site to lose their sales rankings and become harder to find in searches.” Contradicting the widespread charge that books with gay and lesbian themes had been targeted, “Amazon said 57,310 books in several broad categories had been affected, including books on health and reproductive medicine.”

“YouTube is soaring towards the future like a pigeon towards a plate glass window. The problem lies with the bean-counters. According to a report by Credit Suisse, YouTube is on track to lose roughly $470 million in 2009. No matter Google’s $116 billion market cap: a half-billion dollar loss on a single property, even one as large as YouTube, is a bitter pill to swallow.”

“The Corcoran Gallery of Art announced yesterday that it is eliminating 18 positions from the museum and the Corcoran College of Art and Design’s administration but still expects to end the fiscal year with a $3.5 million deficit.”

The opening of the Philips Center for the Performing Arts is planned for 2012, but recession-related financial difficulties – notably a steep plunge in receipts from the county’s resort tax – threaten to delay or even derail the project. What could get things back on track? Why, a Congressional earmark, of course!

“It is not every library that displays ancient Chinese manuscripts alongside postcards of Sarah Bernhardt, crumbling Iraqi newspapers near maps of the New World, and Rabelais originals next to the voice recording of a 101-year-old former slave named Fountain Hughes. But then the World Digital Library (WDL) is not every library. Hailed as an online ‘intellectual cathedral’, it is an unprecedented coming together of some of the world’s finest treasures.”