Latest news with #Spangler
San Francisco Chronicle
21-06-2025
- Sport
- San Francisco Chronicle
De La Salle's Tyler Spangler, All-Metro POY, draws big comparisons, posts huge numbers
De La Salle-Concord baseball coach David Jeans couldn't help himself watching Tyler Spangler one day at practice. He had to voice a comparison. Big frame. Big bat. Durable. Smooth. Quiet demeanor. 'You remind me of a young Cal Ripken Jr.,' said Jeans, who figured his junior shortstop wouldn't be familiar with the 19-time All-Star and two-time MVP who was out of Major League Baseball seven years before Spangler was born. Spangler thought for a moment and nodded gratefully. 'He had a pretty good career, didn't he, Coach?' Spangler said. Of course Spangler knew who Ripken was, Jeans reminded himself. This was Spangler, 'the throwback,' Jeans said. Never rattled. Nothing flashy. The consummate team player. Mature beyond his years. Never too up or too down. Ripken is a player Spangler would naturally emulate. But because he bats left-handed, Spangler is more often compared to Texas Rangers shortstop Corey Seager. Spangler's baseball idol is Barry Bonds. 'Utterly coachable,' Jeans said of Spangler. 'You tell him one thing to work on, he applies it right away. He processes it, works on it and gets it done.' Here's one thing he might not easily process: Spangler is the Chronicle's 2025 Metro Player of the Year. The modest 6-foot-3, 190-pounder led the Spartans (29-4) to their seventh North Coast Section title in eight seasons and third Northern California crown in four years, utilizing every facet of a nearly flawless all-around game. He entered the season having secured a scholarship to Stanford and was ranked the third-best junior in the nation (No. 1 in California) by Prep Baseball Report. He then went out and met all expectations, hitting a team-best .430 (43 hits, 100 at-bats) with 42 runs scored and 40 RBIs. He tied a De La Salle record with 10 home runs to go along with eight doubles and six triples, for a hefty OPS of 1.470 and slugging percentage of .930. On a team filled with stars — he's joined on the All-Metro first team by pitcher Graham Schlicht, infielder Antonio Castro and outfielder Alec Blair — Spangler was the obvious team and East Bay Athletic League MVP. 'He's the best player I've ever played with,' said senior Ethan Sullivan, a second-team All-Metro outfielder. 'His bat control, his hitting and defense is amazing. He's a great teammate, too. Super modest.' When asked about his junior campaign going into the season's final week, the third-year starter said: 'As long as we're winning, it doesn't really matter what I'm doing. As long as we're winning, it's all good and I'm happy.' Spangler rarely swung at pitches out of the zone and would often take the ball to left. He did so twice in the NorCal title game, lacing RBI doubles in the first and seventh innings down the left-field line, igniting the Spartans to a 5-4 win over Serra to close the season. It was a perfect conclusion to a season for Spangler, who made just five errors in 102 total chances, while leading the team with 63 assists. The Spartans made a program-low 25 errors this season, with Spangler also having a hand in a team-best 15 double plays. 'There's nothing he didn't do for us,' Jeans said. 'He's not fazed by exterior or interior expectations. If he makes a mistake, he corrects it, all with a very quiet confidence.'
Boston Globe
16-06-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
‘By chance, did you win a cottage in Ireland?'
With her new citizenship, she had been browsing Irish real estate sites on Instagram when she saw a post announcing the chance to win a house on 1.75 acres in County Leitrim, a pastoral corner of northwest Ireland. Tickets cost 5 British pounds apiece, and the site was promoting a buy-two-get-one-free offer. On a whim, Spangler entered, paying $12.67 for three tickets. 'And then I completely forgot about it,' she said. 'Nobody enters these things really thinking that they're going to win. At least, I don't. But there's always a chance, and that's the fun part.' Advertisement Six months later, on May 22, she got a text from a friend asking, 'By chance, did you win a cottage in Ireland?' 'And I said, 'I don't think so, but let me check,'' Spangler said. Her friend had just read an article about Imelda Collins, the Irish woman who was hosting the raffle with the goal of offloading her two-bedroom cottage and moving to Italy. But by the time she decided to enter herself, the contest had closed and a winner had been announced by Raffall, the British company sponsoring it. It was Kathleen Spangler. Advertisement Spangler didn't believe it. She sent a text to her husband, who was in class, as a question more than a declaration: 'I think I just won a house in Ireland?' 'My wife doesn't even gamble,' Michael Spangler said, 'so that was a surprising text to get in the middle of a math course.' She told him more about the contest; he thought it was a scam. What were the chances that she had won a worldwide raffle competition based in Britain with just three tickets? But when she received an email from Raffall, and then from Collins herself, Spangler realized it had actually happened. 'Imelda's first email mentioned how I must be in shock, but she's excited for me,' she recalled. They spoke a few hours later on WhatsApp. 'It was a great experience to be able to speak directly to her, and helped to make things real.' Moving to Ireland would be something of a homecoming: Spangler's grandmother emigrated from County Mayo, in northwest Ireland, and her great-grandfather's family hailed from Sligo, a town about 12 miles from the house. Collins, 52, was thrilled to hear that she had roots in the area. 'I truly feel my home was meant to be hers,' she said. With a newborn, a new home, and a new academic venture, the Spanglers are now beginning to sort out how and when they'll take possession of the house, from the legal red tape to the tax implications. Advertisement 'My husband and I have talked about someday, when we are out of the military, getting property overseas and splitting time between the United States,' she said. 'But that was obviously a future goal.' Fortunately, they have some time. Property transfers in Ireland typically take around three months to complete, said Stelios Kounou, Raffall's CEO. The company acts as a go-between for hosts transferring their goods — which range from sports tickets to cars to homes — to the winners. In this case, Raffall will supply the legal team to oversee the due diligence for the company and for Collins. As part of her contest offer, Collins will pay for Spangler's attorney and the Irish stamp duty on the transaction. Kounou said that Raffall's solicitors have begun the paperwork in Britain. 'The contracts are handled by the lawyers much like a traditional property sale,' he said. 'The key difference is that, since the property was won rather than purchased, the winner doesn't have the same rights as a buyer — similar to how it works at auction. Once both parties are happy with the terms, the transfer of ownership and release of funds take place simultaneously, all managed by the lawyers.' For Collins, who decided to raffle her house after reading about another Irishwoman who had raffled her Dublin apartment, the closing of the contest brings a huge sense of relief. When she launched her raffle in October, she set a goal of selling 150,000 tickets via Raffall. At 5 British pounds apiece, that would come to 750,000 pounds, or about $1 million. Not bad for a house she bought for about $150,000 in 2022. She monitored her ticket sales every day, spending nearly 25,000 euros (about $29,000) out of pocket for advertising and marketing. 'I accepted that I probably wasn't going to succeed, but I am an optimist and was going to remain hopeful until the very last minute,' she said. Advertisement If she fell short of 150,000 tickets, as per Raffall's terms, she could give the winner 50 percent of the revenue and keep 40 percent and the house, or give the house away and keep more of the revenue for herself. Up until a few days before the May 20 drawing, she was unsure she'd meet her goal. But in the end, Collins said, 206,815 tickets were sold, grossing 1,034,705 pounds (about $1.4 million). Besides the 10 percent to Raffall, she has about 2,600 euros to pay in affiliate fees, plus a 33 percent capital gains tax, 1 percent of the value of the house for stamp duty, and fees for her lawyers and the Spanglers' lawyers. 'There are days I am still in disbelief that it happened and it actually happened to me,' Collins said. 'I don't want to say I believe in miracles, but I always try and give it a go to see what happens. I'm over the moon.' She and Spangler anticipate meeting at some point for the handing over of keys. While they wait for instruction from the attorneys, Collins is sure of one thing: 'There will be a big deal when the keys actually get transferred. I will make it very special.' This article originally appeared in
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Somerset County advocates press for statewide aid to combat child care teacher shortage
SOMERSET, Pa. – Advocates for early education cited big numbers and small children Thursday in Somerset in an effort to solve a Pennsylvania-wide teacher shortage in the child care field. Somerset County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Ron Aldom quoted a new report that Pennsylvania is losing $6.5 billion annually in earnings, productivity and tax revenue because so many parents have to stay at home with their children. Standing next to a group of pre-kindergarten students, The Learning Lamp CEO Leah Spangler said her organization's Somerset center could be preparing 63 more kids for elementary school if just seven more teaching positions were filled. 'That's 63 futures,' she said. That total would grow to 25,000 more children statewide – and thousands of families would benefit – if the statewide teacher shortage was erased, Spangler added. Aldom and Spangler were among the early childhood education advocates aiming to ramp up support for a $55 million state budget proposal to help address the shortage. It's at a 'crisis' point – and Pennsylvania, its businesses and its next generation of workers are all being impacted, said state Sen. Patrick Stefano, R-Fayette, who supports the measure. The child care teacher shortage has continued for years across the region, which has seen child care centers struggle to find staff – and, increasingly, close as a result. It all boils down to the reality that early child care teachers are paid near-poverty-level wages – less than half of their elementary school counterparts, Stefano and Spangler said. They earn an average of just $29,480 annually statewide – barely enough for one person, let alone a parent with a family of their own, to survive in today's economy, United Way of the Southern Alleghenies CEO Karen Struble Myers said. Low wage-earning families and 'the child care workers who serve them are trapped in a cycle where underfunded care equals underfunded staff. (That equals) unaffordable care and workforce shortages,' she said. 'It's a downward spiral that hurts everyone.' There are people on the sidelines who want to work, Aldom said. 'They just can't,' he added, 'because for many people, the cost of child care offsets the money they make.' That's one reason why child care providers such as The Learning Lamp cannot solve the teacher wage crisis by simply ratcheting up tuition costs for the working families they serve, Spangler added. The Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young People cited an Early Learning PA Coalition study that showed 83% of likely voters surveyed in March supported increasing state funding for child care teacher recruitment. Stefano, a state Senate Aging and Youth Committee member who has backed efforts to solve the issue, said there's reason for hope this budget cycle. Gov. Josh Shapiro has proposed adding $55 million to the early education budget specifically for child care recruitment and retention – a move that may be a first for a Pennsylvania governor, Stefano said. It's important to make sure the topic remains a bipartisan priority as budget discussions continue, he said. Lawmakers need to settle on a final dollar amount and how it will be paid for and, separately, work with Pennsylvania businesses to clear regulatory hurdles that are barriers to supporting child care-needy employees, Stefano said. Shapiro was in Erie Thursday advocating for a stronger investment in early childhood education. Part of his proposal calls for a Child Care Works recruitment bonus program aimed at retaining new hires. Stefano said it's going to take several different measures to solve the issue. 'It's going to require public-private partnerships,' he added. He said the fact that Chambers of Commerce statewide, including Somerset County's, are lobbying Harrisburg to address the teacher shortage adds weight to the movement. Aldom said it's a no-brainer for businesses. 'I think we're all on board with this idea,' he said. 'Child care is vital to the future of our economy and the well-being of working families everywhere.'
Miami Herald
19-05-2025
- Health
- Miami Herald
Dum Dums lollipops stands by bright dyes, despite RFK Jr.'s push
The U.S. government is pushing food companies to switch their bright synthetic dyes to natural colors - but the maker of Dum Dums lollipops and Sweethearts candy hearts is in no rush. Kirk Vashaw, chief executive officer of Spangler Candy Company, said a key problem with changing ingredients is taste. Take beet juice: "That's a nice red, but it tastes like beets," he said. Then there's carmine, which makes some consumers queasy because the reddish pigment comes from cochineal insects. "People said, 'I'd rather get cancer than eat the bug,' " Vashaw said, referring to an instance when his company used the coloring. Spangler, which employs about 550 workers in Bryan, Ohio, also makes Bit-O-Honey candy, Necco Wafers and Circus Peanuts. The 119-year-old company already uses some natural colors and is testing other natural dyes. But a number of its confections include artificial colors such as Yellow 5 and Red 40. Spangler pulls in an estimated $200 million in annual retail sales, and it produces roughly 12 million Dum Dums a day. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said last month that it will work with the packaged-food industry to phase out artificial dyes by early 2027. Kennedy and other officials have linked the ingredients to diseases such as obesity and diabetes while calling for "real and transformative change" to get "the worst ingredients out of food." Health advocates have said for years that synthetic colors add no taste or nutritional value but make unhealthy foods more visually appealing. Red No. 3, which has been linked to cancer and is used in products such as candy and cold medicine, will be banned in the U.S. starting in early 2027. Spangler doesn't use the ingredient. Food-industry lobbyists have said that there's no official agreement in place with the government, at least for now. The industry says artificial food dyes are safe, and Vashaw's comments underscore how some companies aren't on board with Kennedy's time line and perspective. Vashaw said his company has used artificial dyes for around 50 years and "we believe they're safe." He added Spangler hasn't reached an agreement "with anybody" on discontinuing their use. There aren't any regulations currently saying companies will have to stop using the dyes, he said. "There's talk, but actual regulations are another thing," he said during an interview at the Sweets & Snacks Expo in Indianapolis last week and a subsequent phone conversation. "It's likely that when we get to the end of 2026 that we will still have products that will still have these artificial colors," Vashaw said. "One, there might not even be the supply for these natural colors, and two, we have to do what the consumers want, and it's not clear to us that these consumers want these natural colors." Spangler has made dye-free variants of some of its products with natural flavorings for more than 30 years, including candy canes and, at times, a line of Dum Dums. But Vashaw's experience is that these products aren't what consumers actually want. "We have natural items now," Vashaw said. "They're just not bought in any meaningful way." In the case of the candy canes, "some people think it tastes like dirt," he said. Natural candy canes make up less than 2% of Spangler's total candy cane sales, and the firm ended up pulling its natural Dum Dums after they proved a flop. Allergy concerns Vashaw also expressed concern about new colors that the FDA approved this month, such as Galdieria extract blue, which is derived from algae, and butterfly pea flower extract, made from dried flower petals, saying the ingredients could potentially be allergenic for some people. In their regulations approving the dyes, the FDA concluded that both colors pose little risk for allergic reactions. Some companies are expanding their tests of natural dyes as government pressure for a change increases. PepsiCo Inc., for example, has come out with Simply Ruffles Hot & Spicy, which uses tomato powder and red chile pepper instead of the artificial dyes that give other chips their vibrant color. Vashaw said his company will continue to test natural ingredients, but the lack of regulatory clarity is creating confusion about what will happen. "Right now, it's more of a guideline," he said. "Is it really going to get enforced? Is it going to get pushed back? When their Doritos are a dull orange, are people going to accept that?" Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
The Hindu
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Matthew Spangler talks about his most celebrated adaptation, The Kite Runner
'For you, a thousand times over.' These words from Khaled Hosseini's acclaimed novel The Kite Runner became symbolic of the friendship between Amir, a privileged Pashtun, and his servant Hassan, a Hazara boy. Set against the backdrop when the rise of the Taliban regime (dominated by Sunnis) in Afghanistan led to the persecution of the Hazara population (Shia Muslims). The books explores the themes of friendship, betrayal, guilt, and redemption through the protagonist Amir. Now a celebrated stage adaption by Matthew Spangler, The Kite Runner was recently staged by Arena Theatre Productions under the direction of Tahera S. For longtime fans and newcomers, the production drew a standing ovation and left many in the audience teary-eyed by the powerful narration on stage. What made it even more special was Spangler's presence, who was equally moved seeing his adaption on stage. Spangler's adaption of The Kite Runner has been in production for 20 years now being played in theatres worldwide. Spangler is also a professor of performance studies at San José State University in California, where he teaches courses on how refugees and asylum seekers and other immigrants are represented in plays. Talking about the challenges of adapting an epic into a play, Spangler says, 'With this book, the challenge is length, if you read it aloud, it takes almost 15 hours, while the pay is just over two hours. How do you condense a 15-hour long story to two hours? People who love the book come to the play and say, 'Oh, you didn't leave anything out,' when I might have left 13 out of the 15 parts out.' Even though the play was previously showcased in Mumbai few years back, this was Spangler's first time watching it on stage in India, 'The audience here listen carefully… They are emersed in the story as it unfolds, which I feel was really beautiful.' Theatre plays an important role in cross-cultural understanding and empathy building, Spangler says. 'Amir comes from a very specific background, and life experiences; growing up in Afghanistan and coming to the United States as a refugee, he comes from a Muslim culture; but he is not practicing as you can see from the play. As an adult he wants to do the right thing for the boy (Hassan's son Sohrab). At the end, you understand him at more emotional level.' There has always been a production of The Kite Runner, somewhere over the past 20 years, Spangler says. 'I have seen this play staged in different countries including London, Canada, or Russia. It is just so unique for a writer to be able to see your play in different contexts and settings.' Counting Samuel Beckett's works as his greatest inspiration, Spangler says, 'I did my PhD and my Master's degree in Irish theatre, and it has been a great influence on my work.' The Kite Runner will be staged on May 4 at 3.30pm and 7.30pm at Ranga Shankara. Tickets are available at the venue and online.
