Celebrating Dad in our Father's Day Contest

Your Dad is the best because:

 "He always makes me smile!"

  "He is always the one to pick me up when I fall down."

  "He is always here for us when we need him. He always will be."

   "He always supports me in everything I do and is always there for me when i need him!"

These are the first four entries in our newest online contest at Bradenton.com. Choosing your entry might be the toughest part, as you look at the competition lining up. We're asking you to submit your favorite photo of Dad -- and most have included the nominee -- and include the reason why your Dad is the best. (Your memories of Dad will also be cherished, and ovations to your significant other are welcome -- as I will be doing this Father's Day...)

There aren't any losers, just a few luckier winners than others. All will be added to this photo gallery as they are submitted, too. The three top prizes:
$50 Gift Card at Crowder Bros. Ace Hardware
$50 Gift Card at Backyards N More
$50 Gift Card at American Car Care Center

Bradenton Herald's Digital News Director William Winter modeled it after -- what else -- our successful  Mother’s Day Photo Contest,  in which readers submitted a picture of their mom along with the best advice she ever gave them. An interesting tidbit: almost 40 percent entered their photos via a mobile device. Thousands of you viewed the contest pages before we chose 

Amanda Huffman, right, and her mother, Sharon Guerra

Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2013/05/19/4531598/herald-readers-pay-tribute-to.html#storylink=cpy

these three beautiful winners, featured in this A&E cover story by features writer Marty Clear.

Melina Adkins, right, of Sarasota, honored her mother Amelia Alanis

Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2013/05/19/4531598/herald-readers-pay-tribute-to.html#storylink=cpy

Tiffany Velez, with her baby, Ray,

What the Mall at UTC needs: indie music, books and gooey butter cake

The top vote-getters so far: Cheesecake Factory and Apple. My favorites on that list: Anthropologie, World Market and an IMAX theater (my real picks are below, and won't make any CFO happy).

Those are among the more than 120 votes Herald Business Reporter Charles Schelle has received so far to his column on Sunday asking what you want to see come to the Mall at University Town Center!

Charles has launched our latest blog, "Up in Your Business." A bit edgy, you might ask? "A bit over the edge?" is what I asked Charles and Business Editor Toni Whitt when they proposed the title and subject matter.

"Urban, southern, local -- the business world now," was their response. And Charles' launch sets that tone in his intro:

"By getting involved in your business, I want to know what's happening and share it with the world -- the good and the not so good  -- but mostly what's on the up-and-up.

"I have a tendency to come up with ideas that I think would be cool as a tourist attraction or business in the area, and this space will be a place where I'll spitball and put it out there, and it's ok if everyone tells me how harebrained they really are."

So I hope you bookmark Up in Your Business. Weigh in on whether Tropicana would make an amazing tour. Give Charles your bucket list for shopping. Sound off on all things business.

My own personal picks for UTC?
 Park Avenue Coffee, complete with 76 kinds of gooey butter cake
Grimey's New and Preloved Music, straight from Nashville
City Lights Bookstore, bringing the west coast's best independent book store to our West Coast

An aerial photo of the construction site for the Mall at University Town Center

Troy Morgan and PhotosFromTheAir.com/Special to the Herald

Read more here: http://bradenton-herald-business.blogspot.com/2013/05/your-top-mall-at-utc-suggestions.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://bradenton-herald-business.blogspot.com/2013/05/welcome-to-up-in-your-business.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://bradenton-herald-business.blogspot.com/#storylink=cpy

2013 Golden Heralds: superlative, as always

Stellar.
Inspiring.
Diverse.
Beautiful.
BFFs

Those were just a few of the phrases swirling through Bradenton Auditorium last night as the 2013 Golden Herald nominees took to the stage before 2,000 friends, relatives, teachers, administrators, media, judges, volunteers... you name it.

Somehow this annual event never fails to inspire everyone as, once again, we witness how many great young people make up Manatee County. For 36 years, the Bradenton Herald has sponsored the Golden Heralds to recognize the top high school seniors here. I've been lucky enough to join for 14 years now, as a judge, a host, a fan. Each time -- wow. Reporter Richard Dymond and photographer Grant Jefferies covered this year's ceremony, capturing the optimistic joy of these kids. Herald Marketing Director Jill McGarry pulled off the amazing job of organizing 99.9 percent of the evening, too -- hats off to you, Jill.

It's always so difficult to pick just two winners in each category, or to single out one success story from all 142 nominees. That room overflowed with 142 success stories last night. But Rich certainly picked one of the most moving in Alexandria Priebe, who started her night with a stunning kickoff rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" and ended it dedicating her Golden Herald victory in music to her mother, Denise "Dee" Priebe, who is battling two serious tumors.

"My mother is my inspiration," said Alexandria, a member of Music Members Vocal Ensemble, National Honor Society, American Sign Language Club and captain of Bayshore's color guard.

Alexandria, you are our inspiration. You and all the other Golden Herald nominees, year after year.

Alexandria, her mom Denise, and her dad Doug

Hamming it up for the iPhones

Reporter Rich Dymond, right, interviewing the Priebe family

 

Happy retirement, Jim Jones!

Jim in his office Thursday, after a day of celebrating his retirement.

Happy Easter! What a glorious day we've had here in Bradenton...

As we wind down from celebration, family and totally awesome Easter dinner, East Manatee Editor Jim Jones is busy in the newsroom, slugging away to get Monday's edition in shape. He volunteered, of course, for the Easter holiday editor gig. Let's see, he started with Easter Sunrise service along the new downtown Riverwalk, and will probably wrap up just around midnight after he checks the last page proof. A mere 18-hour day, give or take a few breaks...

James A. Jones Jr. is going out in style -- his style, and his alone. For today is his last official day with the Bradenton Herald. He humbly announced his retirement in his column this morning, with a lede that took him at least a year to write. That's how much notice he gave me -- a whole year! But I still can't imagine our newsroom without him.

I have never met a kinder, stronger, more sincere man in this business. Jim believes in people –- all shapes, all sizes, all creeds. Everyone. And that’s what makes him such a damned good journalist. He finds a story in every corner, then reports it, writes it, shoots the photos and video, then publishes it to the web and to print. And nowadays, he tweets, builds galleries, posts to Facebook...

For the past 14 years, Jim has led our coverage of East Manatee and Lakewood Ranch and helped define its legacy. And we will continue to emulate the standards he has set for us as editor Jim DeLa takes over and editor Terry O'Connor joins the newsroom.

Jim, you will always be one of my most treasured friends. It has been an honor to work with you for these past 14 years. May your next chapter be as rich as this one has been for all of us.

Joan

Local young weather artists in the spotlight

You'll find one of my favorite bright spots every day in the bottom right corner of the Bradenton Herald's front page:

Our youngest readers' weather art. For several years, we've gathered some fabulous art from Manatee County's elementary school students for this feature. It adds a touch of young talent, imagination and sometimes humor to our 1A report -- and the kids love to find that we've chosen their art.

It's such a popular feature that we get far more than 365 drawings every year. So, starting this week, we're creating online galleries so you can view all of the entries. Herald news designer Jon Sachtjen has taken on this project, and he launched the first gallery today -- everything we just received from Blackburn Elementary School.

Weather art gallery on Bradenton.com

Make that 76 inspired pieces of art -- so many that Jon hasn't tagged them with the students' names yet. But we love the concept and hope it inspires you.

If a local youngster you know hasn't had this chance in their classroom, perhaps their teacher would be interested in the project. Or you can contact us directly -- one very proud grandpa recently hand-delivered his grandson's masterpiece! And yes, it made Page 1A that week.

They never run out of ideas with Florida's crazy weather, either. These are two of my favorites from Blackburn fifth-graders: Jacob Soob, above, at the beach; and Manny Reyes, left, in the eye of our recent tornado warning.

Paying tribute to Stan the Man

Associated Press file photo

"Baseball's perfect warrior, baseball's perfect knight."

That was Stan the Man, one of my all-time heroes. We lost him this weekend, but in many ways we found him for a lot more people through this. So many of the stories I've read by writers not in the St. Louis area talk about how Stan Musial was underappreciated, underrated, unrecognized.

Not in my home town. Not anywhere KMOX could be heard, broadcasting the Cardinals' games to their diehard fans. Stan the Man embodied our love of the game of baseball, helped us build on that reputation of being the greatest baseball fans in the world. He was a constant. He was loved. He was ours.
 
My memories are mostly through the recollections of my dad, who worked in Sportsman's Park as an usher in the '50s. Dad had a glove and a ball signed by Stan Musial, and an old black-and-white photo with Dad and Stan the Man, side by side.

I don't know what happened to those gems, but my first softball glove bears the signatures of "Stan Musial" and "Lou Brock" -- thanks to a Fort Worth Star-Telegram sports columnist who, unbeknownst to me, snuck my glove to a sportswriters' convention and came back with the autographs.

Those memories came flooding back Saturday night when Night Metro Editor Jim DeLa left me a voice mail with the news of Musial's death. I didn't check for messages until almost 11 p.m. -- and by the time I called, they already had this beautiful sports cover well in the works. Designer/copy editor Jon Sachtjen, with guidance from Sports Editor Tim Wolfrum, crafted this amazing tribute to one of the all-time greats in sports history.

For the next few hours, I followed some threads on Twitter. #StantheMan and @cardinals offered some of the best links to columns and stories that poured out, from the New York Times and ESPN to fellow McClatchy journalist Joe Ostermeier at the Belleville News-Democrat. My brother called, I talked with my best childhood friend, my mom called ... we all shared memories.

Still, my love of the printed word holds steady -- they're sending me a copy of the Sunday St. Louis Post-Dispatch, including a 14-page special section commemorating Stan the Man's life. And you can bet that this Bradenton Herald sports cover is going to be a keeper for me.

As Musial's statue outside Busch Stadium declares, "Baseball's perfect warrior, baseball's perfect knight."

That is our Stan the Man. Rest in peace.

Winners all at the 2013 Manatee County Fair

Final countdown is running for the official opening of the Manatee County Fair at 5 p.m. today -- but we've been in fair mode all week. And we didn't have to check with the weather service before grabbing umbrellas and jackets. Rainy skies and cooler temps are synonymous with the fair's first day!

Herald reporters, photographers and editors will be sure you're getting the highlights from the fairgrounds in Palmetto for the next 10 days. All the stories, photos, videos and more will be one click away at bradenton.com/manatee-county-fair/

If you have fair photos we can post, email them to metro@bradenton.com Send your tweets with the hashtag #ManateeFair and join the fun.

Reporter Katy Bergen and photographer Grant Jefferies were under the big tent at noon to capture Manatee's 2013 Distinguished Citizen: Ken Burton Sr. 

What a resume this humble gentleman has! And there were four generations of Burtons there to honor him. Our community owes him so much.

Just across from that tent is the Arts & Crafts' Chaires building, filled with more than 2,000 entries -- jewelry, artwork, crochet, quilting, photographs, you name it. Plenty of competition, which is why I have to brag on our Metro Editor Marc Masferrer.

He sent a nonchalant email to me with a photo -- check it out! Marc is now a proud member of the 2013 Manatee County Fair Ribbon Winners.
 

Here's what he has to say about his entries:

During the summer months, I spend a lot of time out of Anna Maria Island, including early Saturday mornings accompanying my wife Marie as she patrols the beach for Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch. On one of the walks, I photographed a fisherman casting a net as the rising sun illuminated clouds in the western sky. (this is the blue ribbon winner).

I also spend a lot of sunsets on the beach, and one occasion I captured the second image. The challenge always is to make a sunset photo as unique as possible. (red ribbon)

Both photographs were shot with my iPhone and enhanced using Instagram.

First time I had entered any photo contest. -- Marc

There's nothing that says "community" more than our annual fair. And there's nothing more beautiful than Anna Maria Island at sunset. How lucky am I -- they're both on my calendar this weekend.