Better Newspaper Contest

Page 31 Best General Commentary/Category 4 First Donna Steele Daily Reporter (Greenfield) The strongest columns in this category. Engaging writing and a clear point of view - agree or disagree. Nicely done. Second Dave Schultz The News-Banner (Bluffton) Third Jessica Williams Bricker The News-Banner (Bluffton) Best Editorial Writer/Category 5 First Rod Rose The Lebanon Reporter It was tough to pick the top three among the entrants, but Rod Rose's columns were persuasive, direct and hard-nosed. A guy you'd like to have in your corner. Second Mark Miller The News-Banner (Bluffton) Third Todd Lancaster Washington Times-Herald Best Business/Economic News Coverage/Category 6 First Christina M. Seiler The Rochester Sentinel After 2 ransoms, Woodlawn beefs up A fascinating story that shows the real-world implications of cybersecurity shortcomings. Second Samm Quinn & Caitlin VanOverberghe Daily Reporter (Greenfield) Big boost Third Ray Cooney The Commercial Review (Portland) Getting to the point Donna Steele Daily Reporter (Greenfield) In my dream Lady Liberty whispered to me, "Can you help me?" I looked up to see her sinking into New York Harbor. Her torch was not lit; she struggled. In my mind's eye, I saw her in her former glory, strength her trademark as she welcomed the poor, tired, sick and homeless. Why was she sinking? Some of her foundations had been exposed and crumbling for a while, and her nicks and dings as time passed were to be expected. Nothing is perfect, not even the enlightenment of democracy she represented. The actual Lady Liberty was born in 1776. Her physical embodiment debuted in 1886, a time of disenfranchisement for many in America, as Reconstruction was still wreaking havoc, and spiritual and physical wounds from the Civil War could still be felt. Though exposed, her foundations were strong on Liberty Island. Lady Liberty's foundation weakened when the United States fought against workers in their struggle to form unions; when American/Japanese citizens were interred in camps during World War II; during the McCarthy era when witch hunts destroyed lives; when a president resigned in the face of probable impeachment for wire- tapping his opponents; and when civil rights were denied to many. Citizens United caused some recent cracks. Nonetheless, Lady Liberty's foundations remained mostly intact. It wasn't until 1916 that proper technology illuminated Lady Liberty's torch beyond the pale of a "glow-worm." Likewise, the United States began as a beacon of liberty, yet took about 100 years before it abolished slavery. It took about 60 more for women to get the vote. "We are all created equal" was clearly subject to interpretation in this democracy. Despite this, the United States has been a symbol of freedom, a place to find refuge and liberty from war, famine, despots and persecution. The clarion call of opportunity has been heard in every corner of the world, and Lady Liberty's beacon has drawn immigrants to our shores for a large part of our history. Until very recently. The dark pall of President Donald Trump's executive order to suspend immigration from certain countries will hover over the air a long time. With one signature, and no preparation, he has undone the dream of coming to America and up-ended lives. In my dream, the tablet representing law that Lady Liberty carries is mostly submerged in a murky brown water, but enough of it is exposed to see the play of light against its flat surface as the clouds cover and uncover the sun. Illumination is bright, then not so bright. The inscription, July 4th, 1776, appears then disappears as the brown water laps against it. Rod Rose The Lebanon Reporter More important issues than 'brand' face Lebanon Lebanon's city council is going to spend a fair amount of money to explore a new identity for the community. "Rebranding," the process is called. The intent is to generate certain imagines — positive ones — when people think of Lebanon. I've a few ideas for steps that can be taken without spending $100,000 on whether the street signs should be the same color as the water towers. First, weed the sidewalks downtown. A healthy crop of weeds sprouts from cracks on the west side of the Square between Main and Washington streets and other locations. Better yet, replace the sidewalks downtown. The faux brick motif, produced by pressing molds into concrete, was refreshing for many years. There are now small crevasses in the concrete at intersections. See weed reference, above. Sections of downtown's sidewalks buckled so badly it was necessary to grind them down. Since that grinding buffed away the brick appearance, the sidewalks are safer for pedestrians and the occasional bicyclist, but the look is unattractive. Lebanon's downtown is finally coming back to life, after several false starts in efforts to "revitalize" the Square. Congratulations to everyone involved in those efforts — which leads into the second project. Find more places for the customers of those businesses to park. Civic-mindedness aside: Want some input on what happens downtown? Go to www. cityoflebanon.org and take the Lebanon Downtown Action Plan survey. Third project that's more important than "rebranding?" Send a code enforcement official through the neighborhoods and have people remove their vehicles from the sidewalks and yards. Adjunct to the third project: Compile a list of absentee landlords — I can think of a couple — and insist they clean up, and then maintain, their properties. Insist that all property owners meet building codes. Fourth goal? Attract more families to Lebanon — and that means attracting developers who will build more rooftops for young families who will send their children to Lebanon schools, staunching an infuriatingly steady decline in public school enrollment here. Drowning in the swamp After 2 ransoms, Woodlawn beefs up More important issues than 'brand' face Lebanon For the complete story, visit hspa.com. For the complete story, visit hspa.com. Christina M. Seiler The Rochester Sentinel Twenty-nine bitcoins, or $25,700. That's what it cost Woodlawn Hospital to get its hacked computers unlocked in the past year. But the word "terrorists" is a better way to explain the people who were able to lock the hospital out of a good portion of its servers and computers, said Hospital IT Director Travis Albright. There are few things in a hospital that are not computer-controlled. Albright recently ran the Woodlawn Hospital board of trustees through the ransomware hacks the hospital experienced. There were two, a small one in the summer and a much larger one at the first of the year. On June 26, 2016, front desk workers at Woodlawn Medical Professionals received a few error messages from the Allscripts computer software – which manages patients' electronic health records. Allscripts support indicated the files in a network share were locked by ransomware, but the rest of the server was fine. "Our initial thought was what user did this? So we began searching the network for the affected computer that caused the issue. Albright was working with Allscripts support restoring files in the hospital's system when a ransomware message was found on the desktop of the server, which was working fine. The message asked for one bitcoin – worth about $700 cash at the time – for the release of the files. Albright said he called the IT company that maintains the hospital's firewall. "We were starting to notice functions were being lost, " he added. The decision to pay the ransom was made. First Albright said, he had to learn how bitcoins – untraceable internet currency – work and get a bitcoin wallet. He found a bitcoin seller, made the transaction and set up an encrypted email, or ghostmail, account. The decryption code from the ransomware hackers was sent to the ghostmail account after the hackers received their bitcoin. "Within 20 minutes the servers was back to normal," Albright said. The next step was researching how to prevent such an attack from happening again. An additional layer of firewall protection and whitelisting software was researched and quoted, but administration asked Albright to wait until this budget year, Hospital President John Alley said. For the complete story, visit hspa.com. Division 3

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