Public broadcaster Tavis Smiley is co-sponsoring a daylong symposium for discussion of issues of importance to the Latino community, modeled on his State of the Black Union gatherings. The April 6 event at Chicago State University, “Latino Nation: Beyond the Numbers,” is the first time that “such a diverse and representative group of Latinos discusses its broad agenda on a national stage,” said Antonio Gonzalez, president of the co-sponsoring William C. Velásquez Institute, headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. Smiley said that the “exponential growth” of the Latino community “demands that we re-examine the assumptions we hold to create new ideas and possibilities for a better, more united tomorrow.”

The Association of Public Television Stations handed out Champions of Public Broadcasting awards during its Public Media Summit in Washington, D.C., Feb 24–26, recognizing Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D) and Oregon Rep. Greg Walden (R). APTS also gave EDGE Awards to Twin Cities Public Television and New Jersey’s NJTV and recognized individuals with Advocacy Awards. Mikulski, who replaced recently deceased Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye (D) as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has been an ardent defender of public broadcasting in the Senate and was a vocal defender of the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program before it was eliminated in 2011. As chair of the House Energy Subcommittee on Communications and the Internet, Walden has helped secure federal aid for public broadcasters to help defer costs related to spectrum legislation.

Public radio will be well-represented at the musical portion of the annual South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, March 13–16. The NPR Music showcase March 13 will feature the Yeah Yeah Yeahs performing new songs from their forthcoming album Mosquito, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Mexican rockers Café Tacvba and others. Audio of the live set at 8 p.m. Eastern will be offered for station broadcast and distributed online; NPR Music will also offer a live video stream through its website and mobile apps. Café Tacvba will put in double duty and appear in a March 14 showcase arranged by NPR Music’s Alt.Latino

Thurston Briscoe is no longer at WBGO-FM in Newark, N.J. His last day was Friday. The news was first reported on the blog of the Public Radio Program Directors Association. Briscoe had served as the station’s program director for 23 years. When asked by Current whether Briscoe left willingly or was dismissed, General Manager Cephas Bowles said only, “Let us say that he is no longer at the station. That’s our position right now.”

American Documentary, home to PBS’s independent film showcase POV, and StoryCorps, the oral history project heard on NPR, are each receiving $1 million from the MacArthur Foundation’s latest round of Awards for Creative and Effective Institutions. The grants, awarded to 13 recipients in five countries, help ensure the long-term sustainability of each organization, according to the foundation. “The award is not only recognition for past leadership and success but also an investment in the future,” the Chicago-based foundation said in the Feb. 28 announcement. “Organizations will use this support to build cash reserves and endowments, develop strategic plans and upgrade technology and physical infrastructure.”

The Iowa Public Television Board on March 8 selected Molly Phillips, the station communications director, to become its new general manager, reports the Indianapolis Star. She takes over from Dan Miller, who retired last year after 37 years at IPTV following a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. The other finalist, Greg Schnirring, CPB’s vice president for radio, withdrew from consideration last week, the newspaper reported. “His statement to our board president was that after doing a lot of thinking it just wasn’t a fit,” said Jennifer Konfrst, a spokeswoman for IPTV.

AUSTIN, Texas — Former All Things Considered co-host Michele Norris discussed details of her Race Card Project during a March 9 panel at the South by Southwest Interactive conference. The project, which began during a 2010 book tour promoting her memoir The Grace of Silence, is a conversational tool in which Norris facilitates an ongoing dialogue about race. She distributes physical “race cards” to participants, who are asked to write their thoughts on race in six words or fewer and mail the cards back to Norris (whose parents were both U.S. postal workers). Norris then compiles the responses onto a website.

This is CPB’s account of its history of annual appropriations since its founding in more than 40 years ago. Figures shown represent millions of dollars (for example, $5.0 = $5 million). More recent figures may be posted by CPB. Fiscal Year Admin. Request House Allocation Senate Allocation Appropriation 1969 $9.0 (b) $6.0 $5.0 1970 $15.0 (b) $15.0 $15.0 1971 $22.0 (b) $27.0 $23.0 1972 $35.0 $35.0 $35.0 $35.0 1973 $45.0 $45.0 $45.0 $35.0 1974 $45.0 (b) $55.0 $50.0 1975 $60.0 $60.0 $65.0 $62.0 1976 $70.0 $78.5 $78.5 $78.5 TQ (a) $17.0 $17.5 $17.5 $17.5 1977 $70.0 $96.7 $103.0 $103.0 1978 $80.0 $107.1 $121.1 $119.2 1979 $90.0 $120.2 $140.0 $120.2 1980 $120.0 $145.0 $172.0 $152.0 1981 $162.0 $162.0 $162.0 $162.0 1982 $172.0 $172.0 $172.0 $172.0 1983 $172.0 $172.0 $172.0 $137.0 1984 $110.0 $110.0 $130.0 $137.5 1985 $85.0 $130.0 $130.0 $150.5 1986 $75.0 $130.0 $130.0 $159.5 1987 $186.0 (b) $238.0 $200.0 1988 $214.0 (b) $214.0 $214.0 1989 $214.0 $214.0 $238.0 $228.0 1990 $214.0 $238.0 $248.0 $229.4 1991 $214.0 (b) $245.0 $245.0 1992 $242.1 $242.1 $260.0 $251.1 1993 $259.6 $259.6 $275.0 $259.6 1994 $260.0 $253.3 $284.0 $275.0 1995 $275.0 $271.6 $310.0 $285.6 1996 $292.6 $292.6 $320.0 $275.0 1997 $292.6 (b) $330.0 $260.0 1998 $296.4 $240.0 $260.0 $250.0 1999 $275.0 $250.0 $250.0 $250.0 2000 $325.0 $300.0 $300.0 $300.0 2001 $340.0 $340.0 $340.0 $340.0 2002 $350.0 $340.0 $350.0 $350.0 2003 $365.0 $365.0 $365.0 $362.8 2004 (c) $365.0 $395.0 $377.8 2005 (c) $380.0 $395.0 $386.8 2006 (c) (d) $335.0 $400.0 $396.0 2007 (c) (d) $400.0 $400.0 $400.0 2008 (c) (d) $400.0 $400.0 $393.0 2009 (c) (d) none $400.0 $400.0 2010 (c) (d) $420.0 $420.0 $420.0 2011 (c) $430.0 $430.0 $429.1 2012 $440.0 $440.0 $450.0 $444.1 2013 $460.0 $460.0 $460.0 $445.0 2014 $451.0 none $445.0 $445.0 Notes (a) Transition Quarter funding, during which federal budget year changed from July to September.

NPR Newscast Editor Brenda Michelle Box Johnson died Thursday following a four-year battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 58. A statement from NPR said that since her arrival in 2003, Box had “shaped the sound” of NPR newscasts. “Brenda had an exacting eye and a natural, comfortable way in her dealings with reporters and correspondents, distinguishing her as the type of consummate editor that most organizations can only dream of,” said Robert Garcia, NPR newscast executive producer. “Anyone who ever dealt with Brenda knows what a special and unique person she was; equal parts outspoken and hilarious, brilliant and fun and warm and self-deprecating.”

Salon.com is reporting what it calls “a case of apparent plagiarism” by former NPR Correspondent Juan Williams, now a Fox News political analyst. The site said that Williams lifted “sometimes word for word” from a Center for American Progress (CAP) report, without attribution, for a Hill newspaper column that carried his byline last month. Nearly two weeks after publication the column was revised online, Salon said, and citations to the report were added. A Hill editor’s note told readers of the revisions “to include previously-omitted attribution” to CAP. Williams told Salon that a researcher was to blame. “I was writing a column about the immigration debate and had my researcher look around to see what data existed to pump up this argument and he sent back what I thought were his words and summaries of the data,” Williams said.

Dick Stein, Midday Jazz host on KPLU-FM in Tacoma, Wash., experiences a conundrum every spring over cookies — Girl Scout Cookies, that is. “I always buy a carton the very first day I encounter the kids outside the supermarket,” Stein said in a press release. “Next trip, I might even buy another. But that’s it. I can only buy so many. Then because I am a complete softie, I feel terrible turning them down on subsequent market trips.” So last year Stein contacted Girl Scouts of Western Washington with an idea: How about an “I Bought Girl Scout Cookies” button? Local Girl Scouts spokesperson Stefanie Ellis said the organization loved the idea.