José Galvez will be the keynote speaker for USI’s Columbus Day event, from 1:30 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. Thursday, October 10 in University Center’s Carter Hall. He will talk about his experience as a Latino photographer and journalist.

Galvez’s work is on display through October 15 in the first and second floor display cases in the Liberal Arts Center. Galvez has used the starkness of black and white photography to capture the essence of Latino life in America for the past 40 years. His approach is to reveal the simple beauty of everyday life. This has been his solitary commitment in his photography. His images pay homage to the culture, history, and personal story of the Latino people.

When Galvez was 10, he carried his shoeshine box into the building of the Arizona Daily Star.After that night, he was a permanent fixture in the newsroom. He bought a camera at a pawn shop in high school and inspired by his mentors at the paper, went on to major in journalism at the University of Arizona. Upon graduation he became a staff photographer at the Star.

No matter what his assignments were, Galvez always focused his lens on the barrios of Tucson – his home – and the people who lived, worked, and loved there. He had his first professional exhibition when he was just 22 years old. At about the same time, his participation in the Chicano Movement led him to see his work as more than a passion: he had a responsibility to capture the history of his people.

Galvez moved on to the Los Angeles Times, becoming the first Mexican-American photographer on staff. In 1984, he was on a team of reporters and photographers that won a Pulitzer Prize for a series on Latino life in southern California: the first Chicanos to win the prize. He left the Times in 1992 after winning many other awards for his photographs.

Galvez has never stopped photographing Latino life in the United States, reaching into new areas and new pursuits. He served as senior photo editor for Americanos, a multi-media exhibition led by Edward James Olmos. In 2000, he published his first solo book, Vatos, a collaboration with esteemed poet Luis Alberto Urrea. Then, in Beloved Land, he and oral historian Patricia Martin explored the lives of Mexican pioneer ranchers in the American Southwest. 

In the last 40 years, Galvez’s photographs have been exhibited in museums and galleries here and abroad, including the Smithsonian. But more often, you’ll find him toting portable exhibits to schools, libraries, fiestas, lowrider shows, and rodeos.

In 2004, Galvez and his family moved to North Carolina to photograph Hispanic immigration in the South. In 2005, the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC) through the support of the Ford Foundation and JP Morgan Chase awarded he and his wife, Anne, partial funding to create the photography/oral history project “Land of Opportunity: Latino Entrepreneurs of North Carolina.” 

Today, he tours the country with his work, inspiring audiences with his life stories with “Shine,” a presentation that evokes his beginnings as a shoeshine boy.

Both locations of The Evansville Surgery Center were awarded the APEX Quality Award, which recognizes the highest performing health care entities. The award is patient-centric, with scoring provided solely from each entity’s patients. This national distinction recognizes outstanding health care organizations that demonstrate the highest level of excellence in patient satisfaction and overall care for more than a 12-month period.

“We are delighted to be recognized by our patients for this award,” said Cathy Head, RN, MHA and administrator at Evansville Surgery Center. “Having the APEX Quality Award reaffirms our goal at Evansville Surgery Center, which is to deliver the highest quality surgical care and an exceptional experience for our patients. We thank our patients for honoring us with such positive feedback.”

The APEX Quality Award recognizes 91 health care organizations across eight health care markets and 29 states. This is the second year in a row that Evansville Surgery Center – Gateway has received the award and the first year that Evansville Surgery Center – Deaconess received it.

Canadian Hemp Producer Eyes Location in Kentucky

In an interview with the Louisville Courier-Journal the President of Hemp Oil Canada Inc., Shaun Crew, indicated the company is looking to expand its operations by building a hemp processing plant somewhere in the State of Kentucky.

Crew said in his remarks his company is seriously looking into the prospect and wants assurances from the Federal Government that their operations will not be the subject of harassment by the DEA or any other federal agency. ““If I’m going to invest money in this state and this industry here, I need to know that the DEA’s not going to come swooping in with Blackhawks and take out the farmer that we contracted with or take out the processing facility that we built.”

In March, the Kentucky State Legislature legalized the growing of industrial hemp paving the way for growth of the cash crop, which is used in many products, many of which are already legally imported into the US, but cannot be legally processed here.

Despite this, Kentucky Attorney General and former Senate candidate Jack Conway has said industrial hemp growers could still be prosecuted in the state. Conway has been an opponent of industrial hemp legalization saying in his 2010 Senate run, “if there’s a difficulty in distinguishing between hemp and marijuana then we shouldn’t have hemp farming in Kentucky, because it’s more of a law enforcement issue about making certain we don’t let a gateway drug get into the marketplace.”

In a recent memorandum by the US Justice Department in response to several states’ legalization of recreational marijuana, it was made clear that will not pursue enforcement of federal marijuana laws in states with legalized marijuana. In spite of this, Hemp Oil Canada still want legal assurances.

While still technically considered a controlled substance by the feds, hemp does not contain THC, the active drug in marijuana, in significant enough quantities to be suitable for abuse, a point both Kentucky Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul have made in their push to legalize the crop at the federal level. The Senators are co-sponsoring legislation to be considered for inclusion in the 2013 Farm Bill legalizing industrial hemp at the federal level and both claim that industrial hemp would be a huge economic boon for the state and the region.

It is estimated Kentucky farmers could be cultivating hemp as early as next spring if all goes well. A spokesperson for Hemp Oil Canada indicated they have not yet decided where in Kentucky a prospective plant might be built.

SOURCE: http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20131003/BUSINESS/310030153/Hemp-processor-looks-Kentucky-possible-plant