Flyover in memoriam of alumnus lost in 9/11 attack
A flyover preceding Friday night’s nationally televised Fresno State football game will honor the memory of Navy Lt. Cmdr. Otis Vincent Tolbert, a defensive end for the ‘Dogs from 1980 to ’83 who was killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the Pentagon.
Friday̢۪s flyover of F-16 Fighting Falcons by the California Air National Guard 144th Fighter Wing before the kickoff against Boise State will be dedicated to Lt. Cmdr. Tolbert, who graduated from Fresno State in 1985.
His wife Shari, a Hoover High School graduate who now resides in Clovis, their children, Amanda, 17, Brittany, 15, and Anthony, 9, will be acknowledged on field in the third quarter. His parents, Butch and Nancy Tolbert of Fresno, may also attend. They will be joined by Fresno State President John D. Welty and Athletics Director Thomas Boeh.
Last week, Fresno State President John D. Welty commemorated the eighth anniversary of 9/11 by directing that campus flags be flown at half-staff in memory of Lt. Cmdr. and alumnus Todd Beamer, a passenger on United Flight 93.
Fresno State student announced as Panetta Intern
Navy San, a senior at California State University, Fresno, has been chosen by the Leon & Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy as one of 25 California college students to be Congressional interns in Washington, D.C.
Students will spend their internships in the offices of California congressional representatives. San and other interns will attend seminars with key administration personnel on different aspects of government policy, ranging from economics to the environment, foreign affairs and defense resources. Each student intern will receive 20 academic credits upon successful completions of the internship program.
Former White House chief of staff Leon Panetta and his wife, Sylvia, founded the Panetta Institute, which serves the 23-campus California State University system.
Obama-as-Hitler posters lead to man̢۪s arrest
EDMONDS, Wash. — As a child in Armenia, Henry Gasparian witnessed firsthand the horrors of Nazi Germany. Two uncles were killed, his father wounded and a brother starved to death during the German invasion and occupation of the Soviet Union. So when Gasparian, 70, saw a poster of President Obama with a Hitler mustache near the entrance to the Edmonds Farmers Market Sept. 5, he concedes his reaction was “personal and emotional.”
He tried to grab the fliers being passed out by supporters of Lyndon LaRouche, a perennial presidential candidate who has likened Obama’s health-care proposals to the Nazi extermination of Jews and other “undesirables.â€Â
Two young LaRouche workers told police that Gasparian repeatedly pushed them and grabbed one of their arms. Gasparian said it was they who first pushed him.
Now Gasparian is charged with two counts of 4th degree assault in Edmonds Municipal Court.
A week after his arrest, Gasparian was still emotional. He said he recalled his miserable childhood in Armenia.
“I saw Hitler’s soldiers. I saw swastikas every day. To call Obama stupid, even criminal, OK, that’s politics. But Hitler? It’s hurting to anyone no matter who is president,” he said.