NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

Schwarzenegger opposes fee on arts, sports, entertainment

COLUMBUS

Actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is opposing a proposed 5 percent fee on arts, sports and entertainment ticket sales in Ohio’s capital city as debate over the proposal continues.

Schwarzenegger says the fee will damage business in Columbus. The Columbus Dispatch reports Schwarzenegger says he doesn’t understand taxing sports events and giving the money to arts.

Schwarzenegger founded the city’s giant Arnold Sports Festival and Fitness Expo, which draws thousands of visitors each March and which also opposes the fee.

Oprah offers rousing tribute to Mandela

JOHANNESBURG

Oprah Winfrey on Thursday delivered a rousing tribute to Nelson Mandela, a century after he was born, and urged the youth of South Africa and beyond to overcome failure and trauma on the road to accomplishing their goals.

“Your day will come. I applaud your resilience,” Winfrey told a cheering crowd in Soweto. “I say there’s no such thing as failure. Failure is just a mistake trying to move you in a better direction.”

Winfrey, who opened an academy for girls in South Africa a decade ago, acknowledged the high unemployment, poverty and other social challenges persisting in the country that had its first all-race elections in 1994 after the end of white minority rule.

Associated Press