Archive - March 5, 2014

The March 10, 2014, issue of The New Yorker carries a long “Letter From Cairo” piece by Peter Hessler (China 1996-98) from Egypt entitled, Revolution On Trial: The strange world of the Muslin Brotherhood court cases. Peter and his wife, Leslie, and their two babies live in Cairo. His most recent book is Strange Stones: Dispatches from East and West.

Dear Peace Corps Colleagues, I wanted to make folks across the agency aware that, in the coming week, we expect The New York Times to publish an extensive multi-media story about the Peace Corps both in print and online. The Office of Communications has been working with the paper extensively on this story, which  will include commentary from Acting Director Hessler-Radelet, along with both supporters and critics of the agency. The Times has solicited a wide variety of stories from current Volunteers and RPCVs, and we expect the piece will include both positive and negative sides to it.  Finally, it is our strong hope that agency reforms to enhance support for Volunteers and enhance their experience in the years ahead will be highlighted throughout. Because of the depth of this story, I fully expect that it will go viral quickly in the Peace Corps community and beyond.  To help Peace Corps . . .

Novelist, rancher, and country music singer, Kinky Friedman, got one step closer Tuesday to adding another line to his résumé: agriculture commissioner of Texas. Kinky made the  Democratic primary runoff for the position. He’ll compete against cattle farmer Jim Hogan in that May 27 contest. A Republican is favored to win the general election. Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/03/richard-kinky-friedman-texas-agriculture-commissioner-runoff-104270.html#ixzz2v5cIHl5B