California
‘12 Years a Slave’ rolls at Spirit Awards
SANTA MONICA, Calif. – “12 Years a Slave” rolled at the Spirit Awards, winning five awards including best feature at the annual independent film celebration.
On the eve of the Academy Awards, the historical drama won awards for director Steve McQueen, actress Lupita Nyong’o, screenwriter John Ridley and cinematographer Sean Bobbitt.
All of the acting favorites were honored as expected, including best actor for Matthew McConaughey in “Dallas Buyers Club” and Cate Blanchett in “Blue Jasmine.”
Nebraska
Buffett upbeat about future despite trailing S&P
OMAHA, Neb. – Billionaire Warren Buffett is confident that Berkshire Hathaway will be a mainstay of the U.S. economy for the next 100 years, regardless of whether it sometimes underperforms bull market runs, like it did last year.
In his annual letter to shareholders released Saturday, he didn’t disclose any new information about Berkshire’s plans for succession once the 83-year-old someday leaves the helm. But he emphasized that the company he’s led for 49 years is built on a “rock-solid foundation” and will endure long after he’s gone.
“A century hence, BNSF and MidAmerican Energy will still be playing major roles in our economy,” Buffett wrote. “Insurance will concomitantly be essential for both businesses and individuals – and no company brings greater human and financial resources to that business than Berkshire.”
Oklahoma
Woman claims university’s painting stolen by Nazis
OKLAHOMA CITY – For more than a decade, the University of Oklahoma has exhibited a piece of Nazi-looted artwork bequeathed to it by the wife of an oil tycoon. But renewed claims by a family that owned the oil painting before World War II has drawn the school’s fundraising arm into a fight it thought was settled in Switzerland more than 60 years ago.
The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art provides no clue that Camille Pissarro’s “Shepherdess Bringing in Sheep,” an 1886 painting that once belonged to a French Jew, fell into Nazi hands as Germany overran Europe. The school maintains it is the painting’s rightful owner, citing a Swiss court decision from 1953.
Leone Meyer has sued the university in New York federal court, seeking the painting’s return. Swiss records show Meyer’s father was a former owner of the painting, but a judge denied a previous claim to the work because her family couldn’t prove postwar owners obtained it in bad faith.
Massachussetts
Deal could allow gays in Boston St. Pat’s parade
BOSTON – The St. Patrick’s Day parade in Boston is easing its two-decade ban on gay organizations under a tentative deal to allow them to march in an event that once went to the Supreme Court to keep gays out, a marriage equality group said Saturday.
MassEquality Executive Director Kara Coredini said a group of gay military veterans can march under its banner as part of a tentative deal with parade organizers brokered by Boston Mayor Martin Walsh.
Marchers from the gay-rights group would not, however, be allowed to wear clothing or hold signs that refer to sexual orientation, Coredini said. Negotiators will work out final details in the coming week, she said.
Associated Press
