Around the nation

‘Passages’ author Gail Sheehy, 83, dies

NEW YORK — Gail Sheehy, the journalist, commentator and pop sociologist whose best-selling “Passages” helped millions navigate their lives from early adulthood to middle age and beyond, has died. She was 83.

Sheehy, widow of New York magazine founder Clay Felker, died Monday of complications from pneumonia in Southampton, New York, according to her daughter, Maura Sheehy.

“Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life” was published in 1976 and immediately caught on with a generation torn by the cultural revolution of the time, sorting through mid-life struggles, marital problems, changing gender roles and questions about identity. As Sheehy noted in the book’s foreword, close studies of childhood and old age were widely available, but far less scrutiny had been given to the prime years of work and relationships.

California

Ski resort dropping ‘Squaw’ from its name

TAHOE CITY — Squaw Valley Ski Resort will change its name because the word “squaw” is a derogatory term for Native American women, officials said Tuesday. The site was the scene of the 1960 Winter Olympics.

The decision was reached after consulting with local Native American groups and extensive research into the etymology and history of the term “squaw,” said Ron Cohen, president and COO of Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows.

The word “squaw,” derived from the Algonquin language, may have once simply meant “woman.” But over generations, the word morphed into a misogynist and racist term to disparage indigenous women.

Mississippi

Final flag proposals: a shield, a magnolia

JACKSON — As Mississippi replaces its former flag that had the Confederate battle emblem, five proposals were literally run up a flagpole Tuesday. A group then narrowed the choice to two designs: One with a shield and one with a magnolia.

“When you fly a flag up a flagpole, it sure does look different than it does on paper,” said the chairman of the nine-member flag commission, former state Supreme Court Justice Reuben Anderson.

Commissioners will choose a single design next week, and that will go on the Nov. 3 ballot for voters to accept or reject.

Iowa

Farmers unsure what’s next after windstorm

WOODWARD — Hundreds of Iowa farmers are still puzzling over what to do after the Aug. 10 derecho, a storm that hit several Midwestern states but was especially devastating in Iowa as it tore a 40-mile-wide swath through the state with winds of up to 140 mph.

The storm damaged crops in just over one-third of Iowa’s 99 counties, according to early estimates. Iowa is typically a national leader in corn and soybean production, and farmers in the worst-hit counties had planted 3.6 million acres of corn and 2.5 million acres of soybeans.

After years of trade wars, exports were increasing to China, an increase in driving was raising demand for corn-based ethanol, and Iowa was expected to approach a record for the crop.

“It’s discouraging, I guess. Frustrating. We had a nice looking crop,” said Rod Pierce, who began farming in 1973.

Wire reports