Latest news with #MichaelSmith
Daily Mail
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Michelle Obama enjoys intimate lunch with longtime male friend as she jets off on lavish Spain getaway WITHOUT Barack
Michelle Obama and her daughters were pictured enjoying lunch at an exclusive club on the idyllic Spanish island of Mallorca. In photos obtained exclusively by the Daily Mail, the former first lady, 61, kept a low profile in large, stylish sunglasses and a multi-colored print dress, while dining at The Lobster Club in Puerto Portals. Michelle, 61, was joined by James Costos, 62, former US ambassador to Spain and his partner Michael Smith, 62, the Obamas' longtime interior designer and former White House decorator‑in‑chief. Aspiring filmmaker Malia, 26, looked chic in a black polka dot halter neck crop top and a black mini skirt and flashed her toned stomach. Younger sister Sasha, 24, flaunted her effortlessly style in an oversized off the shoulder white tee and a long pleated brown skirt. Notably not in attendance: former President Barack Obama. Michael and James have been longtime friends of the Obamas and hosted the family many times at their Rancho Mirage home in Palm Springs, California. 'When they were here, it occurred to me that more than 50 years ago JFK had stayed just down the road at Bing Crosby's home,' Michael told Architectural Digest in 2017. 'The President and Mrs Obama basically woke up in the morning to the same view of the valley. There was something lovely about that thought. 'It made me contemplate all the change that has taken place in those decades, contrasting with the timelessness of this beautiful desert landscape.' This group outing comes amid ongoing rumors about the state of Michelle and Barack's marriage status over the last several months. Michelle dismissed speculation about her marriage and addressed the rumors head on during a podcast episode of The Diary of a CEO in May. During the episode, she told the hosts, 'If I were having problems with my husband, everybody would know about it.' Michelle also praised her husband on her latest podcast episode as a 'tremendous father.' She said that even when Barack was president, he left the job at the door whenever he talked to his daughters to help cultivate their formative years. Rumors surrounding the Obama's relationship began when Michelle skipped several high-profile events, including Donald Trump's inauguration and former President Jimmy Carter's funeral. Michelle's lunch trip comes just days after she appeared on Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang's Las Culturistas podcast where she made it clear she doesn't like being referred to as 'Mrs. Obama'. During their sit-down, Matt revealed that before cameras started rolling, Michelle had asked him not to call her 'Mrs. Obama.' 'Earlier I was like, "Thank you so much, Mrs. Obama," and you said, "Michelle,"' Rogers said. 'I did say that,' Michelle responded with a laugh, before explaining why she likes to avoid the name. 'We cannot have a real conversation if you're saying, "Mrs Obama," that's too many syllables,' the former first lady protested. Matt then asked if she is usually quick to 'put down that shield for people,' and Michelle claimed that she's generally tries to appear less intimidating. 'I was trying to do that when I was first lady because I just think... I am not that position. I am Michelle,' she explained. 'I'm always trying to break down that wall to say, "We're just all here,"' she continued. 'And the first thing to do is like, let's drop that title, that's a little heavy.' 'I know what we call her - your Highness,' her brother and podcast co-host Craig quipped. 'Well, it's great to be on a first name basis,' Matt joked.
Cision Canada
19 hours ago
- Business
- Cision Canada
Decision Notice - CIRO Hearing Panel sanctions Michael Rolland Smith Français
HALIFAX, NS, June 19, 2025 /CNW/ - Following a disciplinary hearing held on June 2, 2025, at which an Agreed Statement of Facts was provided, a hearing panel of the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) under the Mutual Fund Dealer Rules found that Michael Rolland Smith: (a) misappropriated monies from a client or otherwise obtained monies from a client, some or all of which were not repaid, (b) changed the designated beneficiary for a client's mutual fund accounts to family members, and (c) failed to cooperate with an investigation into his conduct by CIRO Staff. The hearing panel imposed the following sanctions on Michael Smith: (a) a global fine of $1,509,879.41 (b) a permanent prohibition from conducting securities related business in any capacity while in the employ of or associated with any Dealer Member of CIRO. Michael Smith will also pay costs of $20,000. The hearing panel's reasons for decision will be made available at The Agreed Statement of Facts is available at: Smith, Michael – Agreed Statement of Facts At all material times, Michael Smith conducted business with Investors Group Financial Services Inc. in the Amherst, Nova Scotia area. Michael Smith is not currently registered in the securities industry in any capacity. The Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) is the national self-regulatory organization that oversees all investment dealers, mutual fund dealers and trading activity on Canada's debt and equity marketplaces. CIRO is committed to the protection of investors, providing efficient and consistent regulation, and building Canadians' trust in financial regulation and the people managing their investments. For more information, visit All information about disciplinary proceedings relating to current and former member firms and individual registrants under the Investment Dealer and Partially Consolidated Rules (for investment dealers), the Mutual Fund Dealer Rules (for mutual fund dealers) and the Universal Market Integrity Rules (UMIR) is available on CIRO's website. Background information regarding the qualifications and disciplinary history, if any, of advisors currently employed by CIRO-regulated investment firms is available free of charge through the AdvisorReport service. Information on how to make dealer, advisor or marketplace-related complaints is available by calling 1-877-442-4322. CIRO investigates possible misconduct by its member firms and individual registrants. It can bring disciplinary proceedings which may result in sanctions including fines, suspensions, permanent bars, expulsion from membership, or termination of rights and privileges for individuals and firms. SOURCE Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO)
Irish Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Voice from the Grave – Frank McNally on a debut poetry collection from Niall Montgomery, 38 years after his death.
When Niall Montgomery died in 1987, an appreciation in this newspaper mentioned the imminent, posthumous publication of his first ever collection of poetry, 'ominously entitled Terminal '. The appreciator, 'M.S.' (his friend and occasional publisher in magazines, Michael Smith), added: 'I cannot express the bitterness of my disappointment that he will not be alive to see it.' But Smith needn't have worried because, for whatever reason, the thing Montgomery wasn't alive to see didn't appear then either. Instead, nearly 40 years later, a collection of the poems has only now finally seen the light, this time under the title Terminal 1 . While even more posthumous, it sounds less ominous than the 1987 version. If anything, it has taken on an ironic quality, thanks to the subtitle: 'Arrivals'. As it finally touches down, despite the four-decade delay, a Ryanair-style fanfare may be justified. READ MORE The recurrent aviation terminology is explained in part by Montgomery's day job as an architect, in which role he worked under Desmond Fitzgerald on the masterpiece that is the original Dublin Airport terminal. But Montgomery (1915 – 1987) was a man of many talents. A painter, sculptor, and influential literary critic, he was also an Irish Times columnist, doubly disguised, for many years. First, on an unknown but substantial number of occasions, he stood in for his friend Brian O'Nolan, aka Myles na gCopaleen. The possibility that any given edition of Cruiskeen Lawn could have been written by Montgomery or a third party has been credited with preserving O'Nolan's day job as a senior civil servant, at least until one too many attacks on his boss, the Minister for 'Yokel Government', precipitated his early retirement in 1953 Later, in the mid-1960s, Montgomery acquired his own Irish Times column, entitled The Liberties. For this he used the pseudonym Rosemary Lane, resulting in some indignant letters to the editor about 'Miss Lane's' opinions. In fact, Rosemary Lane was a defunct Dublin address, once the site of a tavern in which furtive masses were said during penal times, and today occupied by the Church of the Immaculate Conception, better known to Dubliners (and those who've read the opening line of Joyce's Finnegans Wake) as 'Adam and Eve's'. Alas, the short-lived column had obvious similarities in style to Cruiskeen Lawn – and why wouldn't it, since the author had so often deputised on that? And when sub-editors place them side-by-side one day, it provoked a fit of angry paranoia in O'Nolan – not a well man by then anyway. Montgomery promptly relinquished the job and so the literary Rosemary Lane disappeared from the map too. But Montgomery was also a reluctant poet: reluctant in the sense that he so revered the form, his own contributions had to be dragged out of him, by Smith and others. As the editor of the belated collection, Joseph LaBine, notes, the obscurity of Montgomery's early work drew a backhanded compliment once from a young Samuel Beckett. Criticising some better-known Irish poets of the time, Beckett named a few others of whom he knew 'nothing'. Then he singled out Montgomery's poetry, of which he knew 'nothing at all'. For Beckett, as LaBine jokes, there were degrees of nothingness: the kind applying to Montgomery was more absolute than the others. That didn't last. As he had with Joyce, Montgomery became one of Ireland's most respected authorities on Beckett's work, and in the process a good friend of the writer. Not only did Beckett come to know the architect well, he knew himself better in the process. After one epic essay ('a three-month job'), which Montgomery had sent to Paris for the subject's approval, Beckett responded: 'I learned a lot about myself I didn't know and hadn't suspected'. By 1955, in a warm letter, Beckett looked forward to their meeting on a possible return to Dublin the following year, and lapsed into Hiberno-English: 'If I do, and the family dying dead, it's the quare times we'll be having.' Montgomery wrote poems in both of Ireland's official languages and is not easy to read in either. He was a great admirer of jazz, drawing inspiration from it for his free, unconventional verse. He 'pays homage to Dublin and Joyce' (with a bit of Flann O'Brien too) LaBine notes, 'but his characteristic style, with its odd enjambment and capitalisation, anticipates beat poetry, particularly Allen Ginsberg's Howl (1956)'. Less happily, his early poems feature occasional outbursts of apparent ant-Semitism and misogyny. This may have resulted in part of Montgomery's urge to challenge the strict censorship of his era, with which he had an unusually personal relationship: his father was appointed the Free State's first film censor in 1923. Retaining certain offensive phrases 'for the sake of context', LaBine says: 'They should not be excused away but, in certain cases, are clearly the mistakes of a young poet.' Like a jazz lyricist of more recent vintage, the late Paul Durcan, Montgomery was an entertainingly eccentric reader of his own work. Luckily, we still have recordings. Among those speaking at the very belated launch of his debut collection, in the Irish Architectural Archive on Friday evening, will be the man himself.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘No Kings' protests and the race for Kansas governor
TOPEKA (KSNT) – Outrage over moves from the Trump administration is building, with 'No Kings' protests taking place across the country over the weekend. On this episode of Inside Kansas Politics, political expert Michael Smith breaks down what's behind the movement and the impact of the latest round of federal cuts. 'Big Beautiful Bill' could cause thousands of Kansans to lose Medicaid | Also on this episode, Inside Kansas Politics co-host Rebekah Chung sat down with Stacy Rogers, a Republican running for governor in 2026. The 'life-long Kansan' and businesswoman shares where she stands on top issues, including taxes, healthcare, abortion and more. You can watch our one-on-one interviews with other gubernatorial candidates Jeff Colyer and Doug Billings here. You can also watch our one-on-one interview with Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab here. Border War heats up: Will the Chiefs, Royals choose Kansas or Missouri? | You can watch Inside Kansas Politics at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday mornings only on KSNT (check your local listings). To get the latest news on Inside Kansas Politics, check out our X account, or follow us on Facebook. If you have a story you think we should cover, email us at ikp@ For more Capitol Bureau news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and signing up for our news email alerts. Get the latest in weather alerts by downloading our Storm Track Weather App. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Buffalo's Juneteenth Festival set to celebrate freedom, culture, and resilience this weekend
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — One of the largest Juneteenth celebrations in the country returns to Buffalo this weekend, promising two days of music, food, art and history at Martin Luther King Jr. Park. The annual Juneteenth Festival, approaching its 50th anniversary, honors the end of slavery in the United States and highlights the strength and resilience of the Black community. Organizers say this year's celebration is not only about honoring the past but also about building a stronger future. 'We know who we are,' said Carrone Evon Crump, president of the Juneteenth Festival of Buffalo. 'Empowered as a people, we're just as smart and worthy as anybody else. And just to be able to experience that on a holiday, now that it's a federal holiday, it's psychologically empowering.' The festivities begin at 10 a.m. on Saturday with the annual Juneteenth Parade. The route starts at St. Louis and Genesee streets and leads to the park. The parade, which draws large crowds every year, is a key part of the weekend's events. Organizers say the festival is about creating lasting memories and inspiring future generations. 'It feels full circle,' said Michael Smith, parade co-chair. 'As a kid, I watched the parade, came to the park, enjoyed the culture and the food. Now I have the opportunity, the privilege and the honor to create that same experience for the next generation.' Festivalgoers can expect live performances, local vendors, cultural programming and activities for all ages. For a full schedule of events, click here. Gwyn Napier is a reporter who joined the News 4 team in 2025. See more of her work by clicking here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
