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He was quite a man and did Gloucester City and Gloucester Catholic proudly... ~Frank Batavick, Classmate and Friend William E. Cleary Sr. | CNBNewsnet GLOUCESTER CITY, NJ (CNBNewsnet)--William F. Barron, of Portland, Oregon (photo) lost his battle with kidney cancer on January 4, 2018. He was 73 years old. Bill grew... Read more →

photos credit Larry "Gus" Danks CHERRY HILL, NJ (CNBNewsnet)—Seventeen members of Gloucester Catholic High School Class of 1963 met for dinner in early May at Il Villagio in Cherry Hill. The next dinner is scheduled for the first Thursday in October. All classmates are welcome. Related: Rams Alumni Lions Alumni Gloucester... Read more →

Related: Frank Batavick by Frank J. Batavick | CNBNewsnet I was in the check-out line at the supermarket doing our weekly grocery shopping. Alongside of me screamed the headlines of the “National Enquirer”: “CORRUPT” was in 72 point type and accompanied by a photo of Hillary Clinton with arms outstretched and... Read more →

Frank J. Batavick | CNBNewsnet Given the findings of the FBI and the State Department's Inspector General, there is no doubt that Hillary Clinton willfully disregarded State protocols by using a private email server and lied about it in numerous ways. Their reports also show her to be arrogant and self-dealing.... Read more →

by Frank J. Batavick | CNBNewsnet Dear Donald Trump, I really like your “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan, even though you “borrowed” it from Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign. No big deal. I know how hard it is for some folks to come up with something original. However, I do... Read more →

Attention Trump supporters! Hop into my time machine and transport yourselves back to early June 2015. Now, what if I had told you back then that the candidate you would eventually champion for the U.S. presidency would also have the solid support of the KKK, North Korea, ISIS, a European fascist,... Read more →

RELATED:CNBNews stat report for September 2015 RELATED:CNBNews stat report for October 2015 Returning Visits- Basked purely on a cookie, if this person is returning to our website for another visit an hour or more later First Time Visits - Based purely on a cookie, if this person has no cookie then... Read more →

Frank J. Batavick | CNBNewsnet When I was teaching a Mass Communications course at McDaniel, I covered many topics that should have been incendiary— Internet privacy, violent video games, media bias, censorship—but was barely able to get a rise out of the students. No incensed comments. No outrage. It wasn’t until... Read more →

Frank J. Batavick | CNBNewsnet The term "failed social experiment" has taken on the character of an epithet in our fractured political climate. Republicans have used it to decry everything from the "Common Core" curriculum to Affirmative Action policies in higher ed. There is no doubt that some progressive attempts at... Read more →

Frank J. Batavick | CNBNewsnet We should all be familiar with the iconic World Trade Center at Baltimore's inner harbor. At 32 stories, it has towered over Harbor Place for almost 40 years. Now I'd like you to picture eight such buildings, cheek to jowl, and perhaps a few storeys higher.... Read more →

It was the first day of our eagerly-awaited trip to China, and I wanted to check my email and catch up on the news back home by reading the on-line versions of this paper and the "Washington Post.” I tried to connect to the Internet, using the password given us by... Read more →

Frank J. Batavick | CNBNewsnet We are all on the same arc—birth, life, death. Of course, we don’t have any control over the first stage, and sometimes the last can come unexpectedly, like a clap of thunder. But we can all be rulers of our own domain during the middle stage,... Read more →

PHOTO CREDIT CNBNews photo journalist Amanda Stevenson PHILADELPHIA PA July 27, 2016--A hodgepodge of photos taken at the Democratic National Conventions held July 25-28 at the Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center to officially name former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as its presidential nominee with Sen. Tim Kaine as her running mate.... Read more →

Frank J. Batavick | CNBNewsnet If you had a choice of superpowers, would you rather be invisible or able to fly? In 2001 actor and comedian John Hodgman conducted an unscientific poll on this topic for National Public Radio’s This American Life. Responders had to pick just one of these superpowers... Read more →

Frank J. Batavick | CNBNewsnet Earlier this year I attended an exhibit at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore. Titled “From Pen to Press: Experimentation and Innovation in the Age of Print,” the display focused on how the old world of hand-written manuscripts coped with the radical changes wrought by Guttenberg’s... Read more →

The tranquil Sea Isle Beach, Sea Isle N.J. (photo credit Sea Isle City) Frank J. Batavick | CNBNewsnet The placid ocean shimmered in the evening sun. Undulating ribbons of foam-kissed waves gently petted the shore. Long fingers of color — moss green, marine gray, midnight blue — softly vibrated across the... Read more →

Photograph of Princeton Battlefield State Park, Princeton, New Jersey, USA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Author Frank J. Batavick | CNBNewsnet On each patriotic holiday my wife gets up early to put out the flags. Back on July 4, 2007 we were living in a town just outside Princeton, N.J., and she retrieved... Read more →

Frank J. Batavick | CNBNewsnet It was a little over 150 years ago on April 7 that Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia, marking the end of the Civil War. We have just about closed the book on our nation’s Civil War sesquicentennial. But has the war... Read more →

Frank J. Batavick | CNBNewsnet You can call it misinformation, spin control or propaganda. Regardless, there are things that some people insist on believing that collide with the inconvenient truths of history. The assertion that this nation was founded on Christian principles flies in the face of the fact that many... Read more →

by Frank J. Batavick | CNBNewsnet Imagine laughing at death that's delivered from the air. In 1939, the renowned radio dramatist Arch Obler wrote a short and startling play for the NBC network. He centered the plot of "The Laughing Man" on a book that had been discovered in the ruins... Read more →

Orson Welles, March 1, 1937 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Author Frank J. Batavick CNBNewsnet The Germans always have a word for it. In this case it is wunderkind or wonder child, and it applies to any youth who has skills and accomplishments far beyond his or her age. There are many prodigies... Read more →

Author Frank J. Batavick CNBNewsnet I am the grandson of a one-time illegal alien. The Batavicks (née Batović) have been in the U.S. since 1910 when my grandfather and his brother jumped ship in Yonkers, New York and made their way to Philadelphia. Like many immigrants, they were escaping the poverty... Read more →

Author Frank J. Batavick | CNBNews Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, is a big fan of Ayn Rand and Objectivism, and his approach to creating a national budget reflects his beliefs. But what exactly does this mean? Imagine this: The legions of heaven gathered for the big debate. The topic-... Read more →

Author Frank J. Batavick | CNBNewsnet On March 2 I planted my garden. Or to be exact, I started an array of seeds that would comprise my garden once sprouted and grown into strong seedlings. I sowed bell peppers, eggplant, basil, parsley, four varieties of tomato, and a selection of annual... Read more →

Frank J. Batavick | Columnist CNBNewsnet Sometimes it feels as if our nation is lost hopelessly in the mirror maze of a fun house. Even when easy and logical courses of action lie before us, we illogically take wrong turns and end up where we started. Déjà vu meets déjà vu... Read more →

Frank J. Batavick | Columnist CNBNewsnet I saw an editorial page cartoon of Hillary Clinton in a basket powered by three, small hot air balloons. The balloons were labeled “Tax & Spend” respectively, the two sandbags hanging over the side of the basket were labeled “Debt,” and the basket itself carried... Read more →

Frank J. Batavick | Columnist CNBNewsnet If you want to study the velocity of change in this country, just compare restaurant menus from the early 1950s with today’s. Back then our Main Streets sported steak and chop houses, Italian and Chinese restaurants, seafood eateries, and the dependable diner. Fast food in... Read more →

Frank J. Batavick | Columnist CNBNewsnet The slow, staccato sound of the drums of war that began faintly a year ago is now echoing off the studio walls of the Sunday talk shows. The President’s critics claim that his “lead from behind” strategy on Syria and the Islamic State isn’t working,... Read more →

Frank J. Batavick | Columnist CNBNewsnet The Egyptians levied them on cooking oil. The Greeks and Romans enacted them to fund their military adventures and extend empire. Even one of the apostles was once involved in this unholy business, and when the British applied them to a favorite beverage, it helped... Read more →

Frank J. Batavick | Columnist CNBNewsnet It lurks deep in the temporal lobe of the brain’s cerebrum. It is almond-shaped and scientists call it the amygdala. It is where the emotions of fear and anger reside. A protective mechanism shared by all, it requires the right cue to spring into action.... Read more →

KENNESAW, Ga. (March 30, 2016) – Agnus McGlade Berenato, (photo) a 1975 graduate of Gloucester Catholic High School and a former resident of Gloucester City N.J., has been named head Women's Basketball Coach at Kennesaw State Univeristy. Berenato is the winningest coach at the University of Pittsburgh and the second-winningest at... Read more →

Frank J. Batavick Columnist CNBNewsnet Ecclesiastes 3 and no less an authority than the Byrds remind us that, “To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven— a time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant, a time to reap….” I think... Read more →

FRANK J. BATAVICK | Columnist CNBNewsnet Zealously rooting for a home-town team must be ingrained in our DNA and probably began when the Neanderthals first took on the Homo sapiens. Whether the team is the Phillies or Manchester, England’s United football club, fans wear their colors, religiously watch their games, and... Read more →

Frank J. Batavick | Columnist CNBNewsnet Back in the late 1970s when I was working at Maryland Public TV, an instructional TV producer was taping a math series for middle schools. He had the scriptwriter compose a rap song for one of the programs to teach the process of multiplication. When... Read more →

CECIL AND HARTFORD COUNTIES, MARYLAND--The Conowingo Dam is a Hydroelectric Plant located on the Susquehanna River a few miles north of where the river dumps into the Chesapeake Bay. A great video of Eagles fighting over fish. This film was a Finalist for the Nat Geo Wild to Inspire competition and... Read more →

Frank J. Batavick | Columnist CNBNewsnet It is all well and good to spout challenging ideas and theories, but the true assessment comes where the rubber meets the road or, more precisely, when the merit of any idea gets tested in the forge of real life. In 1974 economist Arthur Laffer... Read more →

Frank J. Batavick | Columnist CNBNewsnet A few summers ago my wife and I were preparing to visit an old college buddy in Boone, North Carolina. To fill some time over the long weekend, I suggested to my friend, via e-mail, that we visit the magnificent Biltmore estate, about 90 minutes... Read more →

Related Frank J. Batavick Frank J. Batavick | Columnist CNBNewsnet The U.S. is a generous nation. Giving USA 2013 estimated that contributions by individuals totaled $228.93 billion in 2012. Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy found in 2007 that 24 percent of a person’s annual donations occur between Thanksgiving and New Year’s... Read more →

Frank J. Batavick | Columnist CNBNewsnet Fear is a wondrous instinct. Those of us lucky enough to be walking this good earth can thank our genes, for it was our ancestors’ fear of saber tooth tigers and the like that ensured we’d be here today. But as with anything, too much... Read more →

Frank J. Batavick | Columnist CNBNewsnet This past summer we went out to eat breakfast at the Jersey Shore. A mom and her 18 month-old daughter were seated near us, and while the mother talked to others at her table, the toddler played with a tablet that had 24 short Disney... Read more →

Frank J. Batavick | Columnist CNBNewsnet I have a friend of forty years whose politics are diametrically opposed to mine. That would be fine if he didn’t insist on e-mailing me opinion pieces and news articles that articulate and support his way of thinking to the exclusion of all else. When... Read more →

Frank J. Batavick Columnist | CNBNewsnet Do you ever get the feeling that you are suddenly in the distant future, the future you used to read about all of the time but didn’t think you’d be around to experience? Well, I do. When my wife and I were undecorating the Christmas... Read more →

Frank J. Batavick | Columnist CNBNewsnet Growing up in the 1950s in Audubon, I lived across the street from one of our town’s policemen, Sonny Thomas. He was my idol. Once he took me to the station house, showed me the offices and jail, and even gave me some old wanted... Read more →

Frank J. Batavick | Columnist CNBNewsnet One of my favorite movies is 1964’s Dr. Strangelove and one of my favorite film characters is the paranoid but bravado-filled Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper. Ripper, as played by Sterling Hayden, is convinced that the Russians have introduced fluoride to our water supply to... Read more →

By Frank J. Batavick Columnist | CNBNewsnet This column has given me a wonderful opportunity to vent on a broad variety of topics, but some things that get under my skin just aren’t worthy of a column-length discussion. They fall into the category of pet peeves, so herewith are some of... Read more →

By Frank Batavick CNBNews Op-Ed It was a time of increased immigration to a previously imperialist country from a former possession. The newcomers settled in its biggest city and continued to speak their native language and maintain their cultural practices. Assimilation proved difficult. Jobs were scarce. The young, especially those 15-25,... Read more →

FRANK BATAVICK | CNB Columnist Christmas is almost upon us, and soon Christians throughout the world will be honoring the birth of a God-child and seeking a connection to the divine on bended knee. But in parts of Maryland, God is being sought with powerful electron microscopes and through a potent... Read more →

by Frank Batavick Columnist What if you were to receive a diagnosis from nine doctors, some of them from the finest hospitals in the country? They all say your symptoms and medical tests establish that you suffer from a severe narrowing of the heart’s aortic valve, a condition that is fatal... Read more →

BY FRANK BATAVICK CNBNEWS It’s gets personal for me. Perhaps that’s because at various times in my life I have felt the sting of prejudice and even anti-Semitism. Though of Croatian/Slovak/German/Irish stock, the Croatian genes are dominant, gifting me with Adriatic features topped with thick black hair. (You’ll have to imagine... Read more →

By Frank Batavick CNBNewsnet Frank Sinatra once crooned “Love and marriage, love and marriage, go together like a horse and carriage.” Leaving aside Sinatra’s checkered history in the marriage department, you have to admit that these lyrics sound somewhat old-fashioned today, and I don’t mean the “horse and carriage” part. I... Read more →