Magic? Headline forecast right on for both papers
By GEORGE WELKER
Salem News Staff Writer

COLUMBIANA --- The envelopes were sealed. There was nothing up his sleeve. He didn’t make a quick switch of the paper inside the envelopes.

Even still, the predictions Columbiana magician Michael Dustman made last week were right on.
Perfect.

Dustman, 19, last Thursday made predictions of headlines he thought would appear in Friday’s editions of the Salem News and Lisbon-based Morning Journal.

The predictions were signed and sealed in two envelopes and placed in safe keeping for a week. They were opened Friday after both papers had been printed.

His prediction for the Salem News: “Clinton’s budget plan to pass House by narrowest of margins.”
The actual headline: “It’s up to the Senate---Clinton’s tax bill squeaks through the House.”

Big deal, right? Anyone following the national news cold have predicted Clinton’s budget proposal would pass by just a few votes.

Not so fast.

The headline forecast for the Morning Journal was not as predictable.

His prediction was that an announcement would be made concerning a major highway to be built through Columbiana County.

The newspaper headline detailed three possible routes for U.S. Route 30.

Surprise trick

And to show his accurate forecasts were not just lucky guesses, Dustman threw in an added trick.
A Morning Journal reporter was asked to pick a card from a seemingly ordinary deck of playing cards. The card was tucked away in her notebook and forgotten about for about 20 minutes.
When Dustman asked her to reveal her card, he first pointed to a display advertisement he had placed in the newspaper.

It was a simple statement in a box on page 2: “You will pick the three of hearts.”

He made arrangements earlier in the week to have the statement printed.

Her card was the three of hearts.

The card trick is just one of the many acts Dustman has learned since taking up magic as a hobby when he was eight years old. He will perform many of the tricks today at the Harvey S. Firestone Park Festival of the Arts. Dustman is scheduled to perform at 1 p.m.