DES MOINES, IA (08/15/2012)(readMedia)-- Ribbons were awarded in the FFA Photography competition judged prior to the start of the 2012 Iowa State Fair.

Complete results follow:

Black and White/Toned

1) Marshal Wilz, Eddyville

2) Amanda Ratliff, Eddyville

3) Matthew Noland, Adair

4) Caitlin Reed, Fremont

5) Tayler Foster, Riverside

Color

1) Katrina Van Ringelestein, Fremont

2) Alaina Martensen, Onslow

3) Morgan Diedrich, DeWitt

4) Amanda Ratliff, Eddyville

5) Anna Brooks, Blue Grass

Animals, Birds and Wildlife

1) Alexandra Cleverley, Newton

2) Sierra Kaufman, Chelsea

3) Hannah Fisher, Coggon

4) Lynn Koenigsfeld, Reinbeck

5) Alex Foust, Bernard

Still Life Compositions

1) Shelby McKinney, Lytton

2) Felicia Summers, Olin

3) Maria Finan, Knoxville

4) Maria Finan, Knoxville

5) Christina Dittmer, Lacona

Iowa Landscape

1) Hannah Fisher, Coggon

2) Allie Renner, Independence

3) Courtney Hughs, Knoxville

4) Travis George, Slater

5) Cynthanee Heeren, Anamosa

Landscape Outside Iowa

1) Eli Joslyn, Muscatine

2) Abby Pothoven, Knoxville

3) Joe Gast, Story City

4) Kristen Lowe, Dysart

5) Greigh Olson, Sumner

Plants

1) Bridget Bouska, Waucoma

2) Anna Krug, Newhall

3) Mandalyn Martin, Moulton

4) Mandalyn Martin, Moulton

5) Quinn Ruth, Adair

FFA

1) Christina Dittmer, Lacona

2) Sarah Doese, Fairbank

3) Savannah Wilz, Eddyville

4) Hannah Fisher, Coggon

5) Kayleigh Koch, Hawkeye

Supervised Agricultural Experience

1) Levi Collins, Knoxville

2) Hunter Wilz, Eddyville

3) Matthew Noland, Adair

4) Lane Vanderhart, Knoxville

5) Sean Owens, Oskaloosa

Agricultural Photo Essay

1) Dakota Nelson, Anamosa

2) Mckenna Davenport, Adair

3) Danielle Delange, Albia

4) Katrina Van Ringelestein, Fremont

5) Bret Cunningham, Dike

Contemporary/Creative

1) Macy Lanser, Lynnville

2) Alexandra Cleverley, Newton

3) Gabi Martens, Wyoming

4) Cassie Rosauer, Walker

5) Benjamin Zelle, Waverly

Theme Class

1) Alison Schrage, Waverly

2) Brittany Shaw, Newton

3) Kelcey Loges, Farmington

4) Austin Henningsen, Griswold

5) Alexandra Cleverley, Newton

State Advisor's Choice: Katherine Newhouse, State Center

State Executive Secretary/Treasurer's Choice: Emma Christensen, Shenandoah

Best of Show Grand Champion: Alison Schrage, Waverly

Best of Show Reserve Champion: Hannah Fisher, Coggon

"Nothing Compares" to the 2012 Iowa State Fair, August 9-19. The Fairgrounds are located at East 30th and East University Avenue, just 10 minutes east of downtown Des Moines, and are open 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. each day of the Fair. Exhibit hours may vary. For more information, call 800/545-FAIR or visit iowastatefair.org.

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CHICAGO - August 14, 2012. Lt. Governor Sheila Simon today announced that Kati Phillips will serve as her new chief of staff effective August 15. Phillips has served as the deputy chief of staff for communications in Simon's office since January 2011 and will continue to fulfill that role. She replaces DK Hirner who plans to work in Missouri.

As chief of staff and communications director, Phillips will work as a senior policy advisor, manage office operations and execute the administration's internal and external communications. She replaces DK Hirner who resigned after successfully re-establishing the office that had been vacant since 2009.

"Kati Phillips shares my commitment to transparency and accountability, and she will serve taxpayers well in this expanded role," Simon said. "I thank DK Hirner for her leadership in starting the office from scratch, and look forward to working with Kati to move our office and state forward."

Phillips formerly served as deputy director of communications for State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias. Prior to entering public service, she was an education and news reporter at the Daily Southtown and Star Newspapers in the south suburbs of Chicago and Elmira Star-Gazette in upstate New York. Her watchdog coverage of school districts in Calumet Park and Sauk Village received local and national awards. Born and raised in Bloomington-Normal, Phillips graduated from the University of Iowa and resides in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago.

"I appreciate this opportunity to serve as chief of staff and maintain continuity in our leadership," Phillips said. "I have great respect for Lt. Governor Simon and am excited to pursue meaningful education and ethics reforms that will make a difference for Illinois students and taxpayers."

Among her accomplishments as chief of staff, Hirner lists the Lt. Governor's Complete College tour of the state's 48 community colleges and the resulting policy report, "Focus on the Finish." As a result of Simon's attention to education reform, Illinois was chosen by the Lumina Foundation to participate in its Postsecondary Productivity Strategy Labs, a network that is providing guidance on performance funding for community colleges and universities and higher education affordability and completion issues.

"Now that the office is fully operational and positioned to make a difference in the education of Illinois children, I feel my work in the Illinois Lt. Governor's office is complete," said Hirner, who previously served as the chief of staff and policy director for former Missouri Lt. Governor Mel Carnahan and deputy chief of staff for former Missouri Governor Bob Holden. "I plan to put my experience to good use in helping my friend of 33 years, Mary Still, in her run for the Missouri Senate. It has been a pleasure serving Illinois, and I wish Lt. Governor Simon and her staff all the best and continued success in the remainder of her term."

Davenport West High School grad Grace Allison launches "Wander," a comedic fantasy epic

SAVANNAH, GA (08/10/2012)(readMedia)-- Grace Allison, 2007 graduate of Davenport West High School and 2011 graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design, has just released the first installment of her digital-only comic series, "Wander: Olive Hopkins and the Ninth Kingdom," a comedic fantasy that follows perpetual grad student Olive Hopkins as she finds herself transported to the Ninth Kingdom, a World of Warcraft-style fantasy land straight out of that section of the Barnes and Noble Olive has always avoided. Grace is the artist and colorist for the series.

Having graduated with a B.F.A. in Sequential Art from SCAD, Grace was accepted into the prestigious artist collective, Periscope Studio, in Portland, OR, where she currently lives and works.

Comic Book.com calls "Wander" a "terrifically entertaining book....Allison's art is stylized to the book in a way that's perfect."

"Wander: Olive Hopkins and the Ninth Kingdom" is available on Comixology, part of publisher Monkeybrain's new initiative to offer a digital comics line, available cross-platform, meaning one purchase will allow readers to enjoy the comic on computer, iPhones, iPads, etc.

The second installment in the epic series will be out in early September.

Does our society hold too narrow a view of what defines strength?

The things many would point to as indicators - youth, wealth, a fully capable body - fall short, says Charles Gourgey, a veteran hospice music therapist and author of Judeochristianity: The Meaning and Discovery of Faith (www.judeochristianity.org), a book that explores the unifying faith elements of Judaism and Christianity.

"Youth is ephemeral, abundant wealth is for just a few, and we all experience some kind of disability, usually at several points in our lives," he says. "A car accident, the loss of a job or a home, grief over a loved one's dying: such things can happen to anyone and easily destroy our happiness."

Gourgey says some of the greatest strength he's ever seen was demonstrated by certain of his patients facing imminent death.

"Some people have complete love and grace when facing death - it's how they've lived their lives, and at the end of their lives, it's what supports them," he says. "Those who, at the end, are peaceful, grateful and confident share some common characteristics."
They are:

• Their love is non-self-interested. When we have awareness of and deepest respect and reverence for the individuality of others, we overcome the high walls of ego and experience a tremendous sense of freedom, says Gourgey. He says he continues to be inspired by patients who cared more for the well-being of others, including their fellow hospice patients, than themselves while facing their own mortality. Non-self-interested love - loving others for themselves without expecting or needing anything in return - is the greatest form of love, he says.

• They had an unwavering faith that transcended religious dogma. Faith is the knowledge that there is more to life than the apparent randomness of the material world; a sense that we are known to a greater reality and will return to that reality. No matter what their religion, the patients who were most at peace with their life's journey were those who had faith in something higher than themselves. The problem with many concepts of faith, Gourgey continues, is that people attach specific doctrines to it, which means some people will always be excluded. A unifying faith - that all people are connected and love is the force that binds us - allows for trust, compassion and caring.

• They were motivated by an innate sense of what is good. They didn't get mad at themselves; they didn't beat themselves up for mistakes they might have made in the past. That's because they were always guided by their sense of what is good, and they made their choices with that in mind. That did not prevent them from making some bad choices or mistakes over the course of their lives, Gourgey says. But when they erred, they addressed the problem with the same loving compassion they extended to others. "Their compassion overcame even any self-hate they may have experienced."

Many patients left lasting impressions on Gourgey, and taught him valuable life lessons. He remembers one in particular.

"She was in hospice, a retired nurse who had developed a rare, incurable disease," he recalls. "She would go around every day, checking to see what she could do for the other patients. She fetched blankets for a 104-year-old lady who always complained of cold feet. She sat with and listened to patients who needed company and someone to talk to. She had an attentive awareness about her, like she was fully in touch with her soul."

Gourgey was with the woman when she died.

"She was radiant, she just glowed. She kept repeating how grateful she was for her life," he says. "It was as if the life of love she'd lived was there to transport and support her at the end."

About Charles "Carlos" Gourgey

Charles "Carlos" Gourgey, PhD, LCAT, MT-BC, is a board-certified and New York state-licensed music therapist. He has more than 20 years of experience working in hospices and nursing homes, and for 10 years was music therapist for Cabrini Hospice in New York City. He has published articles on psychology and religion in various journals.