1.
International Year of Astronomy
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The Year was declared by the 62nd General Assembly of the United Nations. A global scheme, laid out by the International Astronomical Union, was endorsed by UNESCO, the UN body responsible for educational, scientific. The IAU coordinated the International Year of Astronomy in 2009 and this initiative was an opportunity for the citizens of Earth to gain a deeper insight into astronomy’s role in enriching all human cultures. Moreover, served as a platform for informing the public about the latest astronomical discoveries while emphasizing the role of astronomy in science education. IYA2009 was sponsored by Celestron and Thales Alenia Space, Astronomical observatories around the world promised to reveal how planets and stars are formed, how galaxies assemble and evolve, and what the structure and shape of our Universe actually are. In the same year, Johannes Kepler published his work Astronomia nova, however Galileo was not the first to observe the Moon through a telescope and make a drawing of it. Thomas Harriot observed and detailed the Moon some months before Galileo, although Hans was not awarded the patent, Galileo heard of this story and decided to use the Dutch perspective glass and point it towards the heavens. The vision of IYA2009 was to help people rediscover their place in the Universe through the sky, IYA2009 activities took place locally, nationally, regionally and internationally. National Nodes were formed in each country to prepare activities for 2009 and these nodes established collaborations between professional and amateur astronomers, science centres and science communicators. More than 100 countries were involved, and well over 140 participated eventually, Astronomy, perhaps the oldest science in history, has played an important role in most, if not all, cultures over the ages. The aim of the Year was to stimulate worldwide interest in astronomy and science under the central theme The Universe, several committees were formed to oversee the vast majority of IYA2009 activities, which spun local, regional and national levels. These committees were collaborations between professional and amateur astronomers, science centres and science communicators, individual countries were undertaking their own initiatives as well as assessing their own national needs, while the IAU acted as the events coordinator and catalyst on a global scale. The IAU plan was to liaise with, and involve, as many as possible of the outreach and education efforts throughout the world. This initiative also aimed at reaching economically disadvantaged children across the globe, the central hub of the IAU activities for the IYA2009 was the IYA2009 Secretariat. This was established to coordinate activities during the planning, execution and evaluation of the Year, the Secretariat was based in the European Southern Observatory headquarters in the town of Garching near Munich, Germany. The International Year of Astronomy 2009 was supported by eleven Cornerstone projects,100 Hours of Astronomy is a worldwide astronomy event that ran 2–5 April 2009 and was part of the scheduled global activities of the International Year of Astronomy 2009. The main goal of 100HA was to have as many people throughout the world as possible looking through a telescope just as Galileo did for the first time 400 years ago. It was collaborating with the US IYA2009 National Node to develop a simple, accessible, easy-to-assemble, in theory, every participant in an IYA2009 event should be able to take home one of these little telescopes, enabling them to observe with an instrument similar to Galileos one
2.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
3.
Democratic Party (United States)
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The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The Democrats dominant worldview was once socially conservative and fiscally classical liberalism, while, especially in the rural South, since Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal coalition in the 1930s, the Democratic Party has also promoted a social-liberal platform, supporting social justice. Today, the House Democratic caucus is composed mostly of progressives and centrists, the partys philosophy of modern liberalism advocates social and economic equality, along with the welfare state. It seeks to provide government intervention and regulation in the economy, the party has united with smaller left-wing regional parties throughout the country, such as the Farmer–Labor Party in Minnesota and the Nonpartisan League in North Dakota. Well into the 20th century, the party had conservative pro-business, the New Deal Coalition of 1932–1964 attracted strong support from voters of recent European extraction—many of whom were Catholics based in the cities. After Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal of the 1930s, the pro-business wing withered outside the South, after the racial turmoil of the 1960s, most southern whites and many northern Catholics moved into the Republican Party at the presidential level. The once-powerful labor union element became smaller and less supportive after the 1970s, white Evangelicals and Southerners became heavily Republican at the state and local level in the 1990s. However, African Americans became a major Democratic element after 1964, after 2000, Hispanic and Latino Americans, Asian Americans, the LGBT community, single women and professional women moved towards the party as well. The Northeast and the West Coast became Democratic strongholds by 1990 after the Republicans stopped appealing to socially liberal voters there, overall, the Democratic Party has retained a membership lead over its major rival the Republican Party. The most recent was the 44th president Barack Obama, who held the office from 2009 to 2017, in the 115th Congress, following the 2016 elections, Democrats are the opposition party, holding a minority of seats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party also holds a minority of governorships, and state legislatures, though they do control the mayoralty of cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Washington, D. C. The Democratic Party traces its origins to the inspiration of the Democratic-Republican Party, founded by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and that party also inspired the Whigs and modern Republicans. Organizationally, the modern Democratic Party truly arose in the 1830s, since the nomination of William Jennings Bryan in 1896, the party has generally positioned itself to the left of the Republican Party on economic issues. They have been liberal on civil rights issues since 1948. On foreign policy both parties changed position several times and that party, the Democratic-Republican Party, came to power in the election of 1800. After the War of 1812 the Federalists virtually disappeared and the national political party left was the Democratic-Republicans. The Democratic-Republican party still had its own factions, however. As Norton explains the transformation in 1828, Jacksonians believed the peoples will had finally prevailed, through a lavishly financed coalition of state parties, political leaders, and newspaper editors, a popular movement had elected the president
4.
110th United States Congress
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It was composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The apportionment of seats in the House was based on the 2000 U. S. census, the Democratic Party controlled a majority in both chambers for the first time since the end of the 103rd Congress in 1995. Although the Democrats held fewer than 50 Senate seats, they had a majority because the two independent senators caucused with the Democrats for organizational purposes. No Democratic-held seats had fallen to the Republican Party in the 2006 elections, democrat Nancy Pelosi became the first woman Speaker of the House. The House also received the first Muslim and Buddhist members of Congress, members debated initiatives such as the Democrats 100-Hour Plan and the Iraq War troop surge of 2007. Following President Bushs 2007 State of the Union Address, Congress debated his proposal to create a surge to increase security in Iraq. President Bush, however, vetoed the bill as promised, making this his second veto while in office, both houses of Congress subsequently passed a bill funding the war without timelines, but with benchmarks for the Iraqi government and money for other spending projects like disaster relief. January 23,2007, President Bush delivered the 2007 State of the Union Address August 2,2007 and this led to an investigation by the House Select Committee on Voting Irregularities. December 18,2007, The Senate set a record for the most cloture votes, November 4,2008, General elections - Democrats increased their congressional majorities and Senator Barack Obama was elected President. These are partial lists of prominent enacted legislation and pending bills, see also,2008 Congressional Record, Vol.154, Page D845, Resume of Congressional Activity February 2,2007 — House Page Board Revision Act of 2007, Pub. L. 110–2,121 Stat.4 May 25,2007 — U. S, troop Readiness, Veterans Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act,2007, Pub. L. 112, including Title VIII, Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007,121 Stat.188 June 14,2007 — Preserving United States Attorney Independence Act of 2007, Pub. L. 110–34,121 Stat.224 July 26,2007 — Foreign Investment and National Security Act of 2007, 110–49,121 Stat.246 August 3,2007 — Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007, Pub. L. 110–53,121 Stat.266 August 5,2007 — Protect America Act of 2007, 110–55,121 Stat.552 September 14,2007 — Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, Pub. L. 110–81,121 Stat.735 November 8,2007 — Water Resources Development Act of 2007, 110–114,121 Stat.1041 - Veto Overridden December 19,2007 — Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, Pub. L. 110–140,121 Stat.1492 February 13,2008 — Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, 110–185,122 Stat.613 May 21,2008 — Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, Pub. L. 110–233,122 Stat.881 May 22,2008 — Food and Energy Security Act of 2007, 110–234,122 Stat.923 - Veto Overridden June 30,2008 — Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2008, Pub. L. 2323, including Title V, Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008 July 10,2008 — FISA Amendments Act of 2008, 110–261,122 Stat.2436 July 29,2008 — Tom Lantos Block Burmese JADE Act of 2008, Pub. L
5.
United States elections, 2006
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The 2006 United States elections were held on Tuesday, November 7,2006 in the middle of Republican President George W. Bushs second term. The victory of the Democratic Party in the 2006 Congressional elections was a milestone for an additional reason. Reasons for the Democratic party takeover include the decline of the image of George W. That May, just two months after the invasion, Bush announced the end of major combat operations in Iraq. In the following months, insurgents began resisting the American occupation, additionally, religious tensions between majority Shiite and minority Sunni Muslims, tensions which had been suppressed under the grip of the Hussein regime, began to result in violence. By the end of 2003, despite the war being initially popular, a November 2003 Gallup poll showed that Bush’s job approval rating had fallen to 50% from a high of 71% at the outset of the war. It was, however, the first time since 1988 that a winner garnered a popular majority, terrorism and the war in Iraq dominated the election, with domestic issues taking a secondary role. Bush began his term with a continuation of the occupation. Both policies proved unpopular, and violence in Iraq continued to increase, compounding the unpopularity of the war was that no weapons of mass destruction were found. August 2005 was the last time any public opinion poll recorded majority approval of Bush’s job. Negative perceptions of Bush following the slow response to Hurricane Katrina further weighed on his popularity. Simultaneously, the Republican-controlled 109th Congress’s popularity was declining as well, throughout 2006, sectarian violence was ongoing in Baghdad and other areas of Iraq, many claimed that the conflict was evolving into a civil war. President Bush’s job approval rarely rose above 40%, perceptions of Congress and Republicans in general remained highly negative. The Democratic Party won a majority of the governorships and the U. S. House and Senate seats each for the first time since 1994. For the first time since the creation of the Republican party in 1860, no Republican captured any House, Senate, Democrats took a 233–202 advantage in the House of Representatives, and achieved a 49–49 tie in the United States Senate. The Senate figure is quoted in the media as 51-49. The final Senate result was decided when Democrat James Webb was declared the winner in Virginia against incumbent George Allen, on November 9,2006, Allen and fellow Republican incumbent Sen. Conrad Burns both conceded defeat, ceding effective control of the Senate to the Democrats. The election made Nancy Pelosi the first-ever female, first-ever Italian-American, keith Ellison became the first Muslim ever elected to the U. S. Congress and Mazie Hirono and Hank Johnson became the first Buddhists in a United States governing body
6.
Nancy Pelosi
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Nancy Patricia DAlesandro Pelosi is an American politician who is the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, representing Californias 12th congressional district. A member of the Democratic Party, Pelosi represents Californias 12th congressional district, the district was numbered as the 5th during Pelosis first three terms in the House, and as the 8th from 1993 to 2013. She served as the House Minority Whip from 2002 to 2003, Pelosi is the first woman, the first Californian and first Italian-American to lead a major party in Congress. On November 17,2010, Pelosi was elected as the Democratic Leader by House Democrats, Pelosi is Italian-American and was born Nancy Patricia DAlesandro in Baltimore, Maryland. She is the youngest of six children of Annunciata M. Nancy, who was born in Campobasso, South Italy, on 25 March 1909, Congressman from Maryland and a Mayor of Baltimore. Pelosis brother, Thomas DAlesandro III, also a Democrat, was mayor of Baltimore from 1967 to 1971, Pelosi was involved with politics from an early age. In her outgoing remarks as the 60th Speaker of the House and she graduated from the Institute of Notre Dame, a Catholic all-girls high school in Baltimore, and from Trinity College in Washington, D. C. in 1962 with a B. A. in political science. Pelosi interned for Senator Daniel Brewster alongside future House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and she met Paul Frank Pelosi while she was attending Trinity College. They married in Baltimore at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen on September 7,1963, after moving to San Francisco, Pelosi worked her way up in Democratic politics. She became a friend of one of the leaders of the California Democratic Party, in 1976, Pelosi was elected as a Democratic National Committee member from California, a position she would hold until 1996. She was elected as party chair for Northern California on January 30,1977, and for the California Democratic Party, Pelosi was appointed Finance Chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the campaign arm of the U. S. Senate Democrats, in 1985. That same year, she ran to succeed Chuck Manatt as chair of the Democratic National Committee, Pelosi left her post as DSCC finance chair in 1986. Phillip Burton died in 1983 and was succeeded by his wife, in late 1986, Sala became ill with cancer and decided not to run for reelection in 1988. She picked Pelosi as her successor, guaranteeing her the support of the Burtons contacts. Sala died on February 1,1987, just a month after being sworn in for a full term. Pelosi represents one of the safest Democratic districts in the country, Democrats have held the seat since 1949 and Republicans, who currently make up only 13 percent of registered voters in the district, have not made a serious bid for the seat since the early 1960s. She won the seat in her own right in 1988 and has been reelected 10 more times with no substantive opposition and she has not participated in candidates debates since her 1987 race against Harriet Ross. The strongest challenge Pelosi has faced was in 2008 when anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan polled 16%, in the House, she served on the Appropriations and Intelligence Committees, and was the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee until her election as Minority Leader
7.
United States Senate
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The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress which, along with the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, composes the legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the Senate are established by Article One of the United States Constitution. S. From 1789 until 1913, Senators were appointed by the legislatures of the states represented, following the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913. The Senate chamber is located in the wing of the Capitol, in Washington. It further has the responsibility of conducting trials of those impeached by the House, in the early 20th century, the practice of majority and minority parties electing their floor leaders began, although they are not constitutional officers. This idea of having one chamber represent people equally, while the other gives equal representation to states regardless of population, was known as the Connecticut Compromise, there was also a desire to have two Houses that could act as an internal check on each other. One was intended to be a Peoples House directly elected by the people, the other was intended to represent the states to such extent as they retained their sovereignty except for the powers expressly delegated to the national government. The Senate was thus not designed to serve the people of the United States equally, the Constitution provides that the approval of both chambers is necessary for the passage of legislation. First convened in 1789, the Senate of the United States was formed on the example of the ancient Roman Senate, the name is derived from the senatus, Latin for council of elders. James Madison made the comment about the Senate, In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people. An agrarian law would take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation, landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests, and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority, the senate, therefore, ought to be this body, and to answer these purposes, the people ought to have permanency and stability. The Constitution stipulates that no constitutional amendment may be created to deprive a state of its equal suffrage in the Senate without that states consent, the District of Columbia and all other territories are not entitled to representation in either House of the Congress. The District of Columbia elects two senators, but they are officials of the D. C. city government. The United States has had 50 states since 1959, thus the Senate has had 100 senators since 1959. In 1787, Virginia had roughly ten times the population of Rhode Island, whereas today California has roughly 70 times the population of Wyoming and this means some citizens are effectively two orders of magnitude better represented in the Senate than those in other states. Seats in the House of Representatives are approximately proportionate to the population of each state, before the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, Senators were elected by the individual state legislatures
8.
President of the United States
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The President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. The president is considered to be one of the worlds most powerful political figures, the role includes being the commander-in-chief of the worlds most expensive military with the second largest nuclear arsenal and leading the nation with the largest economy by nominal GDP. The office of President holds significant hard and soft power both in the United States and abroad, Constitution vests the executive power of the United States in the president. The president is empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves. The president is responsible for dictating the legislative agenda of the party to which the president is a member. The president also directs the foreign and domestic policy of the United States, since the office of President was established in 1789, its power has grown substantially, as has the power of the federal government as a whole. However, nine vice presidents have assumed the presidency without having elected to the office. The Twenty-second Amendment prohibits anyone from being elected president for a third term, in all,44 individuals have served 45 presidencies spanning 57 full four-year terms. On January 20,2017, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th, in 1776, the Thirteen Colonies, acting through the Second Continental Congress, declared political independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution. The new states, though independent of each other as nation states, desiring to avoid anything that remotely resembled a monarchy, Congress negotiated the Articles of Confederation to establish a weak alliance between the states. Out from under any monarchy, the states assigned some formerly royal prerogatives to Congress, only after all the states agreed to a resolution settling competing western land claims did the Articles take effect on March 1,1781, when Maryland became the final state to ratify them. In 1783, the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies, with peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs. Prospects for the convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washingtons attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia. It was through the negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the U. S. The first power the Constitution confers upon the president is the veto, the Presentment Clause requires any bill passed by Congress to be presented to the president before it can become law. Once the legislation has been presented, the president has three options, Sign the legislation, the bill becomes law. Veto the legislation and return it to Congress, expressing any objections, in this instance, the president neither signs nor vetoes the legislation
9.
United States House of Representatives
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The United States House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the United States Congress which, along with the Senate, composes the legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the House are established by Article One of the United States Constitution, since its inception in 1789, all representatives are elected popularly. The total number of voting representatives is fixed by law at 435, the House is charged with the passage of federal legislation, known as bills, which, after concurrence by the Senate, are sent to the President for consideration. The presiding officer is the Speaker of the House, who is elected by the members thereof and is traditionally the leader of the controlling party. He or she and other leaders are chosen by the Democratic Caucus or the Republican Conferences. The House meets in the wing of the United States Capitol. Under the Articles of Confederation, the Congress of the Confederation was a body in which each state was equally represented. All states except Rhode Island agreed to send delegates, the issue of how to structure Congress was one of the most divisive among the founders during the Convention. The House is referred to as the house, with the Senate being the upper house. Both houses approval is necessary for the passage of legislation, the Virginia Plan drew the support of delegates from large states such as Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, as it called for representation based on population. The smaller states, however, favored the New Jersey Plan, the Constitution was ratified by the requisite number of states in 1788, but its implementation was set for March 4,1789. The House began work on April 1,1789, when it achieved a quorum for the first time, during the first half of the 19th century, the House was frequently in conflict with the Senate over regionally divisive issues, including slavery. The North was much more populous than the South, and therefore dominated the House of Representatives, However, the North held no such advantage in the Senate, where the equal representation of states prevailed. Regional conflict was most pronounced over the issue of slavery, One example of a provision repeatedly supported by the House but blocked by the Senate was the Wilmot Proviso, which sought to ban slavery in the land gained during the Mexican–American War. Conflict over slavery and other issues persisted until the Civil War, the war culminated in the Souths defeat and in the abolition of slavery. Because all southern senators except Andrew Johnson resigned their seats at the beginning of the war, the years of Reconstruction that followed witnessed large majorities for the Republican Party, which many Americans associated with the Unions victory in the Civil War and the ending of slavery. The Reconstruction period ended in about 1877, the ensuing era, the Democratic and the Republican Party held majorities in the House at various times. The late 19th and early 20th centuries also saw an increase in the power of the Speaker of the House
10.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt, commonly known as FDR, was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 32nd President of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. A Democrat, he won a record four presidential elections and emerged as a figure in world events during the mid-20th century. He directed the United States government during most of the Great Depression and he is often rated by scholars as one of the three greatest U. S. Presidents, along with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Roosevelt was born in 1882 to an old, prominent Dutch family from Dutchess County and he attended the elite educational institutions of Groton School, Harvard College, and Columbia Law School. At age 23 in 1905, he married Eleanor Roosevelt, and he entered politics in 1910, serving in the New York State Senate, and then as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson. In 1920, Roosevelt was presidential candidate James M. Coxs running mate and he was in office from 1929 to 1933 and served as a reform governor, promoting the enactment of programs to combat the depression besetting the United States at the time. In the 1932 presidential election, Roosevelt defeated incumbent Republican president Herbert Hoover in a landslide to win the presidency, Roosevelt took office while in the United States was in the midst of the worst economic crisis in its history. Energized by his victory over polio, FDR relied on his persistent optimism and activism to renew the national spirit. He created numerous programs to support the unemployed and farmers, and to labor union growth while more closely regulating business. His support for the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 added to his popularity, the economy improved rapidly from 1933–37, but then relapsed into a deep recession in 1937–38. The bipartisan Conservative Coalition that formed in 1937 prevented his packing the Supreme Court, when the war began and unemployment ended, conservatives in Congress repealed the two major relief programs, the WPA and CCC. However, they kept most of the regulations on business, along with several smaller programs, major surviving programs include the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Wagner Act, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Social Security. His goal was to make America the Arsenal of Democracy, which would supply munitions to the Allies, in March 1941, Roosevelt, with Congressional approval, provided Lend-Lease aid to Britain and China. He supervised the mobilization of the U. S. economy to support the war effort, as an active military leader, Roosevelt implemented a war strategy on two fronts that ended in the defeat of the Axis Powers and initiate the development of the worlds first atomic bomb. His work also influenced the creation of the United Nations. Roosevelts physical health declined during the war years, and he died 11 weeks into his fourth term. One of the oldest Dutch families in New York State, the Roosevelts distinguished themselves in other than politics. One ancestor, Isaac Roosevelt, had served with the New York militia during the American Revolution, Roosevelt attended events of the New York society Sons of the American Revolution, and joined the organization while he was president
11.
Great Depression
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The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place during the 1930s. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, in most countries it started in 1929 and it was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. In the 21st century, the Great Depression is commonly used as an example of how far the economy can decline. The depression originated in the United States, after a fall in stock prices that began around September 4,1929. Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide GDP fell by an estimated 15%, by comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession. Some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s, however, in many countries, the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the beginning of World War II. The Great Depression had devastating effects in both rich and poor. Personal income, tax revenue, profits and prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more than 50%, unemployment in the U. S. rose to 25% and in some countries rose as high as 33%. Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially dependent on heavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries, farming communities and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by about 60%. Facing plummeting demand with few sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as mining and logging suffered the most. Even after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 optimism persisted for some time, john D. Rockefeller said These are days when many are discouraged. In the 93 years of my life, depressions have come, prosperity has always returned and will again. The stock market turned upward in early 1930, returning to early 1929 levels by April and this was still almost 30% below the peak of September 1929. Together, government and business spent more in the first half of 1930 than in the period of the previous year. On the other hand, consumers, many of whom had suffered losses in the stock market the previous year. In addition, beginning in the mid-1930s, a severe drought ravaged the agricultural heartland of the U. S, by mid-1930, interest rates had dropped to low levels, but expected deflation and the continuing reluctance of people to borrow meant that consumer spending and investment were depressed. By May 1930, automobile sales had declined to below the levels of 1928, prices in general began to decline, although wages held steady in 1930
12.
New Deal
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The New Deal was a series of programs, including, most notably, Social Security, that were enacted in the United States between 1933 and 1938, and a few that came later. They included both laws passed by Congress as well as executive orders during the first term of the Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Republicans were split, with opposing the entire New Deal as an enemy of business and growth. By 1936 the term liberal typically was used for supporters of the New Deal, from 1934 to 1938, Roosevelt was assisted in his endeavours by a pro-spender majority in Congress. In the 1938 midterm elections, however, Roosevelt and his supporters lost control of Congress to the bipartisan conservative coalition. Many historians distinguish between a First New Deal and a Second New Deal, with the one more liberal. The First New Deal dealt with the banking crises through the Emergency Banking Act. The Securities Act of 1933 was enacted to prevent a repeated stock market crash, the controversial work of the National Recovery Administration was also part of the First New Deal. The economic downturn of 1937–38, and the split between the AFL and CIO labor unions led to major Republican gains in Congress in 1938. Conservative Republicans and Democrats in Congress joined in the informal Conservative Coalition, by 1942–43 they shut down relief programs such as the WPA and Civilian Conservation Corps and blocked major liberal proposals. Roosevelt himself turned his attention to the war effort, and won reelection in 1940 and 1944, the Supreme Court declared the National Recovery Administration and the first version of the Agricultural Adjustment Act unconstitutional, however the AAA was rewritten and then upheld. As the first Republican president elected after Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower left the New Deal largely intact, Johnsons Great Society used the New Deal as inspiration for a dramatic expansion of liberal programs, which Republican Richard M. Nixon generally retained. After 1974, however, the call for deregulation of the economy gained bipartisan support, the New Deal regulation of banking was suspended in the 1990s. The largest programs still in existence today are the Social Security System, the phrase New Deal was coined by an adviser to Roosevelt, Stuart Chase. Although the term was used by Mark Twain in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court. From 1929 to 1933 manufacturing output decreased by one third, prices fell by 20%, causing deflation that made repaying debts much harder. Unemployment in the U. S. increased from 4% to 25%, additionally, one-third of all employed persons were downgraded to working part-time on much smaller paychecks. In the aggregate, almost 50% of the nations human work-power was going unused, before the New Deal, there was no insurance on deposits at banks
13.
2007 State of the Union Address
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The 2007 State of the Union address was a speech given by United States President George W. Bush on Tuesday, January 23,2007, at 9,13 P. M. It was the first address to a Democratic-controlled Congress since 1994, furthermore, the speech marked the second time that a Democrat sat behind President Bush during a joint session of Congress and the first time at a State of the Union address. Traditionally, the Speaker of the House and the Vice President are the individuals on the rostrum with the President. As the first female Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi is also the first woman in American history to stand on the podium during a State of the Union address. Only four Supreme Court Justices attended the speech, Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Stephen Breyer, Samuel Alito, Senator Tim Johnson and Congressman Charlie Norwood were not present because of serious health problems, but were acknowledged with applause. Johnson recovered and returned to work by September, while Norwood died on February 13,2007, the Presidents speech focused equally on domestic policy and foreign policy. Bush supported laws that are fair and borders that are secure in regards to immigration, suggesting a temporary worker program, stating that, s a result and he suggested resolving the status of current illegal residents without animosity and without amnesty. Bush said the United States has been dependent on oil for too long. Bush asked Congress to work to reduce gasoline usage in the United States by 20 percent over the ten years. He asked Congress to double the current capacity of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and these technologies will help us be better stewards of the environment, and they will help us to confront the serious challenge of global climate change. Bush specifically named plug-in hybrid vehicles as part of his advanced energy initiative to end the United States addiction to oil. Bush asked Congress to give future federal court nominees a fair hearing, in the realm of education, he asked Congress to renew the No Child Left Behind Act and consider school vouchers, although he never mentioned vouchers by name. A large part of Bushs speech centered on the Iraq War, Bush emphasized that he still stood behind it, stating that, to win the War on Terror, we must take the fight to the enemy. He stated that the dangers of terrorism have not ended, and he stated that it was not responsible to leave Iraq yet, as it would put ourselves in danger and our friends at risk. He emphasized that stability in Iraq is essential, and that chaos is the enemys greatest ally, Bush advocated adding to the ranks of the military. He asked Congress to authorize an increase in the Army and Marine active duty forces by 92,000 in the five years. The phrase terror appeared 22 times in his speech, highlighting its continuing significance in his administrations foreign policy, Bush advocated saving the people affected by the conflict in Darfur, Sudan. He advocated continuing to fight HIV/AIDS, especially in Africa, Bush asked for $1.2 billion over the next five years to combat malaria in 15 African countries
14.
United States Congress
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The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States consisting of two chambers, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the Capitol in Washington, D. C, both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election, though vacancies in the Senate may be filled by a gubernatorial appointment. Members are usually affiliated to the Republican Party or to the Democratic Party, Congress has 535 voting members,435 Representatives and 100 Senators. The House of Representatives has six non-voting members in addition to its 435 voting members and these members can, however, sit on congressional committees and introduce legislation. Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the members of the House of Representatives serve two-year terms representing the people of a single constituency, known as a district. Congressional districts are apportioned to states by using the United States Census results. Each state, regardless of population or size, has two senators, currently, there are 100 senators representing the 50 states. Each senator is elected at-large in their state for a term, with terms staggered. The House and Senate are equal partners in the legislative process—legislation cannot be enacted without the consent of both chambers, however, the Constitution grants each chamber some unique powers. The Senate ratifies treaties and approves presidential appointments while the House initiates revenue-raising bills, the House initiates impeachment cases, while the Senate decides impeachment cases. A two-thirds vote of the Senate is required before a person can be forcibly removed from office. The term Congress can also refer to a meeting of the legislature. A Congress covers two years, the current one, the 115th Congress, began on January 3,2017, the Congress starts and ends on the third day of January of every odd-numbered year. Members of the Senate are referred to as senators, members of the House of Representatives are referred to as representatives, congressmen, or congresswomen. One analyst argues that it is not a solely reactive institution but has played a role in shaping government policy and is extraordinarily sensitive to public pressure. Several academics described Congress, Congress reflects us in all our strengths, Congress is the governments most representative body. Congress is essentially charged with reconciling our many points of view on the public policy issues of the day. —Smith, Roberts, and Wielen Congress is constantly changing and is constantly in flux, most incumbents seek re-election, and their historical likelihood of winning subsequent elections exceeds 90 percent
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Republican Party (United States)
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The Republican Party, commonly referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, the other being its historic rival, the Democratic Party. The party is named after republicanism, the dominant value during the American Revolution and it was founded by anti-slavery activists, modernists, ex-Whigs, and ex-Free Soilers in 1854. The Republicans dominated politics nationally and in the majority of northern States for most of the period between 1860 and 1932, there have been 19 Republican presidents, the most from any one party. The Republican Partys current ideology is American conservatism, which contrasts with the Democrats more progressive platform, further, its platform involves support for free market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defense, deregulation, and restrictions on labor unions. In addition to advocating for economic policies, the Republican Party is socially conservative. As of 2017, the GOP is documented as being at its strongest position politically since 1928, in addition to holding the Presidency, the Republicans control the 115th United States Congress, having majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party also holds a majority of governorships and state legislatures, the main cause was opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise by which slavery was kept out of Kansas. The Northern Republicans saw the expansion of slavery as a great evil, the first public meeting of the general anti-Nebraska movement where the name Republican was suggested for a new anti-slavery party was held on March 20,1854, in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin. The name was chosen to pay homage to Thomas Jeffersons Republican Party. The first official party convention was held on July 6,1854, in Jackson and it oversaw the preserving of the union, the end of slavery, and the provision of equal rights to all men in the American Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861–1877. The Republicans initial base was in the Northeast and the upper Midwest, with the realignment of parties and voters in the Third Party System, the strong run of John C. Fremont in the 1856 United States presidential election demonstrated it dominated most northern states, early Republican ideology was reflected in the 1856 slogan free labor, free land, free men, which had been coined by Salmon P. Chase, a Senator from Ohio. Free labor referred to the Republican opposition to labor and belief in independent artisans. Free land referred to Republican opposition to the system whereby slaveowners could buy up all the good farm land. The Party strove to contain the expansion of slavery, which would cause the collapse of the slave power, Lincoln, representing the fast-growing western states, won the Republican nomination in 1860 and subsequently won the presidency. The party took on the mission of preserving the Union, and destroying slavery during the American Civil War, in the election of 1864, it united with War Democrats to nominate Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket. The partys success created factionalism within the party in the 1870s and those who felt that Reconstruction had been accomplished and was continued mostly to promote the large-scale corruption tolerated by President Ulysses S. Grant ran Horace Greeley for the presidency. The Stalwarts defended Grant and the system, the Half-Breeds led by Chester A. Arthur pushed for reform of the civil service in 1883
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9/11 Commission
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The commission was also mandated to provide recommendations designed to guard against future attacks. Chaired by former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean, the commission consisted of five Democrats, the commission was created by Congressional legislation, with the bill signed into law by President George W. Bush. The commissions final report was lengthy and based on extensive interviews and its primary conclusion was that the failures of the U. S. After the publication of its report, the commission closed on August 21,2004. The commissions website was shut down, but has been archived, however, Kissinger resigned only weeks after being appointed, because he would have been obliged to disclose the clients of his private consulting business. Senator George Mitchell was originally appointed as the vice-chairman, but he stepped down on December 10,2002, on December 15,2002, Bush appointed former New Jersey governor Tom Kean to head the commission. By the spring of 2003, the commission was off to a start, needing additional funding to help it meet its target day for the final report. In late March, the Bush administration agreed to provide an additional $9 million for the commission, the first hearings were held from March 31 to April 1,2003, in New York City. Thomas Kean - Republican, former Governor of New Jersey Lee H. Hamilton - Democrat, resigned in December 2003, stating that the White House has played cover-up Fred F. Fielding - Republican, attorney and former White House Counsel member, jamie Gorelick - Democrat, former Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton Administration Slade Gorton - Republican, former U. S. Senator from Washington Bob Kerrey - Democrat, President of the New School University and he replaced Max Cleland as a Democratic Commissioner, after Clelands resignation. John F. Lehman - Republican, former Secretary of the Navy Timothy J. Roemer - Democrat, the session was not officially transcribed because the White House considered it a private meeting in which highly classified information would be discussed. Asked to limit the length of testimony to one hour, testimony took place in the Oval Office. Initially, Bush insisted that he testify only to the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the commission, dick Cheney - Vice President, testimony not under oath. The session was not officially transcribed because the White House considered it a meeting in which highly classified information would be discussed. Testimony took place in the Oval Office, George John Tenet - Director of Central Intelligence Agency Colin Powell - Secretary of State Donald H. Testimony was recorded and not limited in time, al Gore - former Vice President, testified in private separately from Bill Clinton. Testimony was recorded and not limited in time, President Bush and Vice President Cheney insisted on testifying together and not under oath, while Clinton and Gore met with the panel separately
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Port security
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Port security refers to the defense, law and treaty enforcement, and counterterrorism activities that fall within the port and maritime domain. It includes the protection of the seaports themselves, the protection and inspection of the cargo moving through the ports, internationally, port security is governed by rules issued by the International Maritime Organization and its 2002 International Ship and Port Facility Security Code. Additionally, some United States-based programs have become de facto global port security programs, including the Container Security Initiative and the Customs Trade Partnership against Terrorism. In the United States, port security is handled jointly by the Coast Guard and U. S. Customs and Border Protection, local law enforcement agencies and the FBI also have a role in port security at the local and regional level. Port security gained prominence politically in 2006 due to the sale of British company P&O Ports to Dubai Ports World, the ensuing controversy led to charges that the purchase would pose a national security risk. In March 2006, Dubai Ports World announced that it would sell off its American assets, the new attention to port security that the controversy generated led to the passage of the SAFE Port Act in Congress in 2006. The importance of the shipping industry is equally matched by its vulnerabilities to terrorist attack. The U. S. maritime system consists of over 300 sea and river ports with more than 3,700 cargo, the volume of trade throughout the U. S. and the world creates a desirable target for terrorist attack. An attack on any aspect of the system, mainly major ports, can severely hamper trade. The security of ports and their deficiencies are numerous and leave US ports vulnerable to terrorist attack, the vulnerabilities of our ports are many, leading to potential security breaches in almost all aspects of the container shipping industry. Given the overwhelming number of ships and containers, there are areas of concern regarding the security of U. S. ports. Cargo containers represent the largest area of concern in terms of security and vulnerability, with an estimated global inventory of over 12 million, the securing, tracking, and inspection of all shipping containers is a difficult task. The largest obstacle to overcome with cargo and port security is cost, the cost of inspecting the containers, a large container ship has the capacity to carry in excess of 3,000 containers, making inspection impossible without disrupting shipment. More than 6 million cargo containers enter U. S. seaports annually, terrorists can, and eventually may, exploit the shipping industries deficiencies in cargo security. Potential threats include the smuggling of weapons of destruction, a radiological dirty bomb, a conventional explosive device. Studies have claimed a Hiroshima sized nuclear detonation at a major seaport would kill fifty thousand to one million people, the container shipping system is an attractive outlet for terrorist activities. Greenberg states that whenever and wherever a container is handled during movement represents a potential vulnerability for the security and integrity of the cargo and this produces many different windows of opportunity for terrorist infiltration of containers. There are other areas of vulnerability that terrorist may infiltrate, the geographical/physical layout of the ports themselves is of concern
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Stem cell
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Stem cells are undifferentiated biological cells that can differentiate into specialized cells and can divide to produce more stem cells. They are found in multicellular organisms, in mammals, there are two broad types of stem cells, embryonic stem cells, which are isolated from the inner cell mass of blastocysts, and adult stem cells, which are found in various tissues. In adult organisms, stem cells and progenitor cells act as a system for the body. There are three known accessible sources of adult stem cells in humans, Bone marrow, which requires extraction by harvesting. Adipose tissue, which requires extraction by liposuction, Stem cells can also be taken from umbilical cord blood just after birth. Of all stem cell types, autologous harvesting involves the least risk, by definition, autologous cells are obtained from ones own body, just as one may bank his or her own blood for elective surgical procedures. Adult stem cells are used in various medical therapies. Stem cells can now be artificially grown and transformed into specialized cell types with characteristics consistent with cells of tissues such as muscles or nerves. Embryonic cell lines and autologous stem cells generated through somatic cell nuclear transfer or dedifferentiation have also been proposed as promising candidates for future therapies. Research into stem cells grew out of findings by Ernest A. McCulloch, till at the University of Toronto in the 1960s. The classical definition of a cell requires that it possess two properties, Self-renewal, the ability to go through numerous cycles of cell division while maintaining the undifferentiated state. Potency, the capacity to differentiate into specialized cell types, apart from this it is said that stem cell function is regulated in a feed back mechanism. Stochastic differentiation, when one cell develops into two differentiated daughter cells, another stem cell undergoes mitosis and produces two stem cells identical to the original. Potency specifies the differentiation potential of the stem cell, totipotent stem cells can differentiate into embryonic and extraembryonic cell types. Such cells can construct a complete, viable organism and these cells are produced from the fusion of an egg and sperm cell. Cells produced by the first few divisions of the egg are also totipotent. Pluripotent stem cells are the descendants of totipotent cells and can differentiate into all cells. Multipotent stem cells can differentiate into a number of cell types, oligopotent stem cells can differentiate into only a few cell types, such as lymphoid or myeloid stem cells
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Pharmaceutical industry
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The pharmaceutical industry discovers, develops, produces, and markets drugs or pharmaceutical drugs for use as medications. Pharmaceutical companies may deal in generic or brand medications and medical devices and they are subject to a variety of laws and regulations that govern the patenting, testing, safety, efficacy and marketing of drugs. The modern pharmaceutical industry traces its roots to two sources, the first of these were local apothecaries that expanded from their traditional role distributing botanical drugs such as morphine and quinine to wholesale manufacture in the mid 1800s. Multinational corporations including Merck, Hoffman-La Roche, Burroughs-Wellcome, Abbott Laboratories, Eli Lilly, in 1897, John Abel of Johns Hopkins University identified the active principle as epinephrine, which he isolated in an impure state as the sulfate salt. Industrial chemist Jokichi Takamine later developed a method for obtaining epinephrine in a pure state, Parke Davis marketed epinephrine under the trade name Adrenalin. Injected epinephrine proved to be efficacious for the acute treatment of asthma attacks. By 1929 epinephrine had been formulated into an inhaler for use in the treatment of nasal congestion, while highly effective, the requirement for injection limited the use of norepinephrine and orally active derivatives were sought. A structurally similar compound, ephedrine, was identified by Japanese chemists in the Ma Huang plant, following the work of Henry Dale and George Barger at Burroughs-Wellcome, academic chemist Gordon Alles synthesized amphetamine and tested it in asthma patients in 1929. The drug proved to have only modest anti-asthma effects, but produced sensations of exhilaration, amphetamine was developed by Smith, Kline and French as a nasal decongestant under the trade name Benzedrine Inhaler. Amphetamine was eventually developed for the treatment of narcolepsy, post-encepheletic parkinsonism, the discovery was patented and licensed to Bayer pharmaceuticals, which marketed the compound under the trade name Veronal as a sleep aid beginning in 1904. Phenobarbital was among the most widely used drugs for the treatment of epilepsy through the 1970s, today, amphetamine is largely restricted to use in the treatment of attention deficit disorder and phenobarbital in the treatment of epilepsy. A series of experiments performed from the late 1800s to the early 1900s revealed that diabetes is caused by the absence of a substance produced by the pancreas. In 1869, Oskar Minkowski and Joseph von Mering found that diabetes could be induced in dogs by surgical removal of the pancreas. In 1921, Canadian professor Frederick Banting and his student Charles Best repeated this study, the researchers sought assistance from industrial collaborators at Eli Lilly and Co. based on the companys experience with large scale purification of biological materials. Chemist George Walden of Eli Lilly and Company found that careful adjustment of the pH of the extract allowed a relatively pure grade of insulin to be produced, prior to the discovery and widespread availability of insulin therapy the life expectancy of diabetics was only a few months. In 1911 arsphenamine, the first synthetic drug, was developed by Paul Ehrlich. The drug was given the commercial name Salvarsan, arsphenamine was prepared as part of a campaign to synthesize a series of such compounds, and found to exhibit partially selective toxicity. Arsphenamine proved to be the first effective treatment for syphilis, a disease which prior to time was incurable and led inexorably to severe skin ulceration, neurological damage
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Medicare (United States)
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United States Medicare is funded by a payroll tax, premiums and surtaxes from beneficiaries, and general revenue. It provides health insurance for Americans aged 65 and older who have worked, in 2015, Medicare provided health insurance for over 55 million—46 million people age 65 and older and nine million younger people. On average, Medicare covers about half of the health care charges for those enrolled, the enrollees must then cover their remaining costs either with supplemental insurance, separate insurance, or out-of-pocket. Out-of-pocket costs can vary depending on the amount of care a Medicare enrollee needs. They might include the costs of uncovered services—such as for long-term, dental, hearing, a similar but different CMS system determines the rates paid acute care and other hospitals—including skilled nursing facilities—under Medicare Part A. Medicare was the originally given to a program providing medical care for families of individuals serving in the military as part of the Dependents Medical Care Act passed in 1956. President Eisenhower held the first White House Conference on Aging in January 1961, johnson signed the bill into law on July 30,1965 at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri. Former President Truman and his wife, former First Lady Bess Truman became the first recipients of the program, many of this latter group became dual eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid with the passage of the law. In 1966, Medicare spurred the racial integration of thousands of waiting rooms, hospital floors, Medicare has been in operation for a half century and, during that time, has undergone several changes. Since 1965, the provisions of Medicare have expanded to include benefits for speech, physical, Medicare added the option of payments to health maintenance organizations in the 1980s. The association with HMOs begun in the 1980s was formalized under President Clinton in 1997 as Medicare Part C, in 2003, under President George W. Bush, a Medicare program for covering almost all drugs was passed as Medicare Part D. Since the creation of Medicare, science and medicine have advanced, the fact that people are living longer necessitates more services for later stages in life. Thus in 1982, the government added hospice benefits to aid the elderly on a temporary basis, two years later in 1984, hospice became a permanent benefit. Congress further expanded Medicare in 2001 to cover people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The Chief Actuary of CMS is responsible for providing accounting information, contracted processes include claims and payment processing, call center services, clinician enrollment, and fraud investigation. Beginning in 1997 and 2005 respectively, these and other companies also began administering Part C. Medicare has several sources of financing, Part As inpatient admitted hospital and skilled nursing coverage is largely funded by revenue from a 2. 9% payroll tax levied on employers and workers. Beginning January 1,1994, the limit was removed
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Student loans in the United States
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Student loans in the United States are a form of financial aid used to help more students access higher education. Student loan debt has been growing rapidly since 2006, rising to nearly $1.4 trillion by late 2016, approximately 43 million have student loans, with an average balance of $30,000. Loans usually must be repaid, in contrast to forms of financial aid such as scholarships, which never have to be repaid, and grants. Research indicates the usage of student loans has been a significant factor in college cost increases. Student loans play a large role in U. S. higher education. Nearly 20 million Americans attend college each year, of that 20 million, close to 12 million – or 60% – borrow annually to help cover costs. In Europe, higher education receives much more government funding, so student loans are less common. Some believe this substantially increases intergenerational correlations in income, although other factors, Student loans come in several varieties in the United States, but are basically split into federal loans and private student loans. The federal loans, for which the FAFSA is the application, are subdivided into subsidized and unsubsidized, Federal student loans are subsidized at the undergraduate level only. A subsidized loan is by far the best kind of loan, some states have their own loan programs, as do some colleges. In almost all cases, these student loans have better conditions – sometimes much better – than the heavily advertised, Student loans may be used for any college-related expenses, including tuition, room and board, books, computers, and transportation expenses. An unusual provision in the law prohibits student loans from being discharged through bankruptcy, the main types of student loans in the United States are the following, Federal student loans made to students directly. These loans are made regardless of credit history, approval is automatic if the student meets program requirements, the student makes no payments while enrolled in at least half-time studies. If a student drops below half time or graduates, there is a grace period. If the student re-enrolls in at least half-time status, the loans are deferred, All Perkins loans and some undergraduate Stafford loans receive subsidies from the federal government. Amounts of both subsidized and unsubsidized loans are limited, there are many deferments and a number of forbearances one can get in the Direct Loan program. For those who are disabled, there is also the possibility of 100% loan discharge if you meet the requirements, due to changes by the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, it became easier to get one of these discharges after July 1,2010. However, loan forgivenesses or discharges are considered taxable income by the Internal Revenue Service under 26 U. S. C, Federal student loans made to parents, Much higher limit, but payments start immediately
22.
Jane Harman
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Jane Margaret Lakes Harman is the former U. S. Representative for Californias 36th congressional district, serving from 1993 to 1999, Harman was the ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security’s intelligence subcommittee. When Democrats held the House majority, she was in line to chair the House intelligence committee but was denied the post by then-Speaker Pelosi, resigning from Congress in February 2011, Harman became President and CEO of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She succeeded former Congressman Lee Hamilton and is the first woman to lead the 45-year-old “living memorial” to America’s 28th President, Harman was born Jane Margaret Lakes in New York City, the daughter of Lucille and Adolf N. Lakes. Her father was born in Poland and escaped from Nazi Germany in 1935 and her mother was born in the United States and was the first one in her family to receive college education. Her maternal grandparents immigrated from Russia, Harman attended Los Angeles public schools, graduating from University High School in 1962. She received a degree in government with honors from Smith College in 1966 and was Phi Beta Kappa. Harman continued her studies at Harvard Law School, earning her law degree in 1969, Harman married Richard Frank in 1969 and divorced him in 1980, later that year, she married Sidney Harman,26 years her senior. After graduating from law school, Harman began her career in Washington, D. C. by serving as chief counsel. Harman was first elected to Congress in 1992 and became the first Smith College graduate to be elected to Congress, from 1993 to 1999, Harman represented the 36th, serving in the 103rd, 104th, and 105th Congresses. In 1994, she barely survived reelection in a heavily Republican year, Harman did not run for the 106th United States Congress in 1998, instead entering the 1998 California gubernatorial race. It was during that race that she was called the best Republican in the Democratic Party, Harman won her old seat in 2000, and was easily re-elected in 2002,2004,2006,2008, and 2010. She made numerous congressional fact-finding missions to hotspots around the world, including North Korea, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, during her long public career, Harman has been recognized as a national expert at the nexus of security and public policy issues. She received international attention for being interrupted during an interview on MSNBC, the NSA transcripts reportedly recorded Harman ending the phone call after saying, this conversation doesnt exist. Harman denied the allegations, and called for the government to release the full transcript of the wire-tapped conversation, in June 2009, Harman received a letter from the Justice Department declaring her neither a subject nor a target of an ongoing investigation by the Criminal Division. Though the espionage charges were dropped on the two employees from AIPAC, against the wishes of the FBI, Harman did not get the chair for the foreign intelligence committee. Harman is on most issues a liberal, earning a 95% rating from the liberal group Americans for Democratic Action, on intelligence and defense issues, she tends to be a moderate. For example, she was one of many Democrats who supported the Iraq War, Harman has combined a moderate stance on economic, trade, and foreign policy issues with a more liberal stance on social issues
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Dennis Hastert
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He represented Illinoiss 14th congressional district in the House for twenty years,1987 to 2007. He is the longest-serving Republican Speaker of the House in history, Hastert grew up in rural Illinois. He graduated from Wheaton College with a degree in economics in 1964, from 1965 to 1981, Hastert was a high school teacher and coach. He lost a 1980 bid for the Illinois House of Representatives and he was first elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1986, and re-elected every subsequent election until he retired in 2007. Hastert rose through the Republican ranks in the House, becoming chief deputy whip, as Speaker of the House, Hastert supported the George W. Bush administrations foreign and domestic policies. In May 2015, Hastert was indicted on charges of structuring bank withdrawals to evade bank reporting requirements. Federal prosecutors said that the money was to compensate for and conceal deliberately-unspecified misconduct by Hastert against an unnamed individual years earlier, soon afterward, public accusations emerged that Hastert had sexually abused three male students when he was a teacher more than three decades earlier. In October 2015, Hastert entered into an agreement with prosecutors. Under the agreement, Hastert pleaded guilty to the charge. At the sentencing hearing later that month, Hastert admitted that he had sexually abused boys whom he coached. The judge in the referred to Hastert as a serial child molester and imposed a sentence of fifteen months in prison. He entered the Federal Medical Center prison in Rochester, Minnesota on June 22,2016, Hastert was born on January 2,1942, in Aurora, Illinois, the eldest of three sons of Naomi and Jack Hastert. Hastert is of Luxembourgeois and Norwegian descent on his fathers side, Hastert grew up in a rural Illinois farming community. His middle-class family owned a farm business and a family farm. As a young man, Hastert also worked shifts in the familys Plainfield restaurant, The Clock Tower, Hastert became a born-again Christian as a teenager, during his sophomore year of high school. Hastert attended Oswego High School, where he was a star wrestler, Hastert briefly attended North Central College, but later transferred to Wheaton College, a Christian liberal arts college. Jim Parnalee, Hasterts roommate at North Central who transferred him to Wheaton, was a Marine Corps Reserve member who in 1965 became the schools first student to be killed in Vietnam. Hastert continued to visit Parnalees family each year in Michigan, because of a wrestling injury, Hastert never served in the military
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National Review
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National Review is an American semi-monthly magazine focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955 and it is currently edited by Rich Lowry. The online version, National Review Online, is edited by Charles C. W. Cooke and includes free content and they also wanted to marginalize what they saw as the antiwar, noninterventionistic views of the Old Right. In 1953 moderate Republican Dwight D. Louis Globe-Democrat, a few small-circulation conservative magazines, such as Human Events and The Freeman, preceded National Review in developing Cold War Conservatism in the 1950s. In 1953, Russell Kirk published The Conservative Mind, which sought to trace an intellectual bloodline from Edmund Burke to the Old Right in the early 1950s and this challenged the popular notion that no coherent conservative tradition existed in the United States. A young William F. Buckley Jr. was greatly influenced by Kirks concepts, Buckley, from a wealthy oil family, first tried to purchase Human Events, but was turned down. The statement of intentions read, Middle-of-the-Road, qua Middle of the Road, is politically, intellectually and we shall recommend policies for the simple reason that we consider them right, and we consider them right because they are based on principles we deem right. On November 19,1955, Buckley’s magazine began to take shape, Buckley assembled an eclectic group of writers, traditionalists, Catholic intellectuals, libertarians and ex-Communists. The group included, Russell Kirk, James Burnham, Frank Meyer, the former Time editor Whittaker Chambers, who had been a Communist spy in the 1930s, eventually became a senior editor. In the magazine’s founding statement Buckley wrote, Let’s Face it, Unlike Vienna, it seems possible that did National Review not exist. When James Burnham became one of the senior editors, he urged the adoption of a more pragmatic editorial position that would extend the influence of the magazine toward the political center. For it is the fact that nowadays there are no conservative or reactionary ideas in general circulation. The conservative impulse and the reactionary impulse do not, express themselves in ideas but only. In irritable mental gestures which seek to resemble ideas, there never was an age of conformity quite like this one, or a camaraderie quite like the Liberals’. National Review promoted Barry Goldwater heavily during the early 1960s, Buckley and others involved with the magazine took a major role in the Draft Goldwater movement in 1960 and the 1964 presidential campaign. National Review spread his vision of conservatism throughout the country, the early National Review faced occasional defections from both left and right. Garry Wills broke with N. R. and became a liberal commentator, Buckley’s brother-in-law, L. Brent Bozell Jr. who ghostwrote The Conscience of a Conservative for Barry Goldwater, left and started the short-lived traditionalist Catholic magazine, Triumph in 1966. Buckley and his editors used his magazine to define the boundaries of conservatism—and to exclude people or ideas or groups they considered unworthy of the conservative title, therefore, they attacked the John Birch Society, George Wallace, and anti-Semites
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BBC News
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BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the worlds largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, the service maintains 50 foreign news bureaux with more than 250 correspondents around the world. James Harding has been Director of News and Current Affairs since April 2013, the departments annual budget is in excess of £350 million, it has 3,500 staff,2,000 of whom are journalists. BBC News domestic, global and online news divisions are housed within the largest live newsroom in Europe, parliamentary coverage is produced and broadcast from studios in Millbank in London. Through the BBC English Regions, the BBC also has regional centres across England, as well as national news centres in Northern Ireland, Scotland, all nations and English regions produce their own local news programmes and other current affairs and sport programmes. As with all media outlets, though, it has been accused of political bias from across the political spectrum. The British Broadcasting Company broadcast its first radio bulletin from radio station 2LO on 14 November 1922, on Easter weekend in 1930, this reliance on newspaper wire services left the radio news service with no information to report. The BBC gradually gained the right to edit the copy and, in 1934, however, it could not broadcast news before 6 PM until World War II. Gaumont British and Movietone cinema newsreels had been broadcast on the TV service since 1936, a weekly Childrens Newsreel was inaugurated on 23 April 1950, to around 350,000 receivers. The network began simulcasting its radio news on television in 1946, televised bulletins began on 5 July 1954, broadcast from leased studios within Alexandra Palace in London. The publics interest in television and live events was stimulated by Elizabeth IIs coronation in 1953 and it is estimated that up to 27 million people viewed the programme in the UK, overtaking radios audience of 12 million for the first time. Those live pictures were fed from 21 cameras in central London to Alexandra Palace for transmission and that year, there were around two million TV Licences held in the UK, rising to over three million the following year, and four and a half million by 1955. This was then followed by the customary Television Newsreel with a commentary by John Snagge. It was revealed that this had been due to producers fearing a newsreader with visible facial movements would distract the viewer from the story. On-screen newsreaders were finally introduced a year later in 1955 – Kenneth Kendall, Robert Dougall, mainstream television production had started to move out of Alexandra Palace in 1950 to larger premises – mainly at Lime Grove Studios in Shepherds Bush, west London – taking Current Affairs with it. It was from here that the first Panorama, a new programme, was transmitted on 11 November 1953. On 28 October 1957, the Today programme, a radio programme, was launched in central London on the Home Service. In 1958, Hugh Carleton Greene became head of News and Current Affairs and he set up a BBC study group whose findings, published in 1959, were critical of what the television news operation had become under his predecessor, Tahu Hole
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Steny Hoyer
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Steny Hamilton Hoyer /ˈstɛni ˈhɔɪər/ is the U. S. Representative for Marylands 5th congressional district, serving since 1981, the district includes a large swath of rural and suburban territory southeast of Washington, D. C. Immediately following the retirement of Barbara Mikulski, Hoyer became the dean of the Maryland Congressional delegation, a Democrat, he was first elected in a special election on 19 May 1981 and served as the House Majority Leader from 2007 to 2011. He had previously served as House Minority Whip from 2003 to 2007 and these positions make him the second-ranking figure in the House Democratic Leadership hierarchy. Hoyer was born in New York City, New York, and grew up in Mitchellville, Maryland, the son of Jean and Steen Theilgaard Høyer. His father was Danish and a native of Copenhagen, Steny is a variant of his fathers name, Steen and his mother was an American, with Scottish, German, and English ancestry, and a descendant of John Hart, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He graduated from Suitland High School in Suitland, Maryland, in 1963, he graduated magna cum laude from the University of Maryland, College Park, where he also became a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. He earned his J. D. from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, in 1966, Hoyer won a seat in the Maryland State Senate, representing Prince Georges County-based 26th Senate District. In 1975, Hoyer was elected President of the Maryland State Senate, in 1978, Hoyer sought the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor of Maryland as the running mate of then acting Governor Blair Lee III, but lost out to Samuel Bogley 37%-34%. In the same year, Hoyer was appointed to the Maryland Board of Higher Education, fifth District Congresswoman Gladys Spellman fell into a coma three days before the 1980 election. She was reelected, but it became apparent that she would never regain consciousness. Hoyer narrowly won a crowded seven-way Democratic primary, beating Spellmans husband Reuben by only 1,600 votes and he then defeated a better funded Republican, Audrey Scott, in the May 19 special election by 56%-44%, earning himself the nickname of boy wonder. In the 1982 general election, Hoyer won re-election to his first full term with 80% of the vote and he has only faced one relatively close contest since then, when he defeated future Governor of Maryland Lawrence Hogan, Jr. with just 55% of the vote in 1992. His second worst performance was his 1996 bid against Republican State Delegate John Morgan, domestic issues Social Issues, Hoyer is pro-choice on abortion rights. He voted against the Partial-Abortion ban bill in 2003, Hoyer supports affirmative action and LGBT rights. Gun Rights, He is rated F by the NRA, indicating a pro-gun control voting record, “It’s not compromise, it’s pure theater. ”Health Care, In a 2009 USA Today opinion piece regarding healthcare reform, Steny Hoyer wrote that Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American. President Obama wants to extend them permanently for individuals making less than $200,000 a year, foreign issues India, Hoyer supports civilian nuclear cooperation with India. Iraq, Hoyer initially supported the Iraq War and was recognized by the DLC for his vocal leadership on this issue
27.
Paul Pelosi
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In addition, he was the owner of the Sacramento Mountain Lions of the United Football League. Pelosi was born in San Francisco and he sits on many philanthropic and corporate boards in San Francisco and the Washington, DC area. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in service at Georgetown University and has studied at the Stern School of Business at New York University. He is the husband of Nancy Pelosi, former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and they were married on September 7,1963 in Baltimore, Maryland at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen. Paul and Nancy have five children, Nancy Corinne, Christine, Jacqueline, Paul Jr. and Alexandra, profile at UFL-Football. com Pelosis husband prefers a low profile Paul Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi and their businesses and finances on sfgate. com
28.
Christine Pelosi
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Pelosi is the author of Campaign Boot Camp 2.0 and Campaign Boot Camp, Basic Training for Future Leaders, books used in her leadership trainings for candidates and causes. Department of Housing and Urban Development Special Counsel in the Clinton/Gore Administration, Pelosi has also served as a board member and the Interim Executive Director of the Young Democrats of America. In addition, Pelosi has served as board member for the National AIDS Memorial Grove. She holds a JD from the University of California Hastings College of the Law, Pelosi has been elected six times to the Democratic National Committee, where she cofounded the DNC Veterans and Military Families Council and serves as a vice chair. As a member of the DNC, Pelosi has also been a Superdelegate to the Democratic Party National Conventions and she endorsed Senator Barack Obama on June 3,2008, when he won the popular delegate vote, and joined Ready for Hillary in April 2014. Pelosi is currently running for a position of the DNC Executive Committee representing the Western Region. This reflects a long-standing position of Pelosis, in 2008, she promoted the reduction the total number of superdelegates, to have superdelegates vote for the winner of the pledged delegates, and to allow absentee ballots at the caucuses. In 2016, Pelosi was an elector for the state of California in the United States presidential election. Every presidential election year, the 538 members of the Electoral College meet in their state capitals on Dec.19 to cast the vote for president. She helped lead the effort to inform the electors and the public about foreign interference in our elections and her Motion of opposition to Russian interference in the United States elections was formally unanimously approved by Californias Electoral College. Pelosi is the daughter of Nancy Pelosi, a Democratic Congresswoman from California and former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, among Christines siblings include environmental activist Paul Pelosi, Jr. and filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi. Pelosi is married to Emmy-nominated filmmaker Peter Kaufman and they married on February 16,2008 in San Francisco. Their daughter Isabella has accompanied mom to Pelosi Boot Camps in 26 states and 3 foreign countries advancing Democrats, an avid fan of baseball, she lives within walking distance of her beloved San Francisco Giants and serves on the Giants Community Fund board of directors. Since January 2007, Pelosi has been writing articles on the Huffington Post. Christine Pelosi, Campaign Boot Camp 2.0 | ISBN1609945166 | ISBN 978-1609945169 Christine Pelosi, Campaign Boot Camp
29.
Alexandra Pelosi
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Pelosi is an American journalist, documentary filmmaker, and writer based in New York City. She is the daughter of House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and Paul Pelosi, in 2000, Pelosi worked as a network television producer for NBC covering George W. Bushs presidential campaign. After spending a decade at NBC News, she left network news to work exclusively for HBO, during the 2004 Democratic primaries, she returned to the campaign trail, this time following the Democratic candidates. She stated that her conversations with Candy Crowley of CNN, Howard Dean, in 2006, she created the documentary about evangelical Christians called Friends of God, A Road Trip with Alexandra Pelosi which featured former pastor Ted Haggard. After it aired on HBO in 2007, she made a film, The Trials of Ted Haggard, chronicling the exile of Ted Haggard from New Life Church after his sex. CNN reported in July 2010 that Pelosi was no longer making political documentaries and her 2010 HBO film, Homeless, The Motel Kids of Orange County follows the children of the working poor in Orange County, California. In 2011, HBO debuted Pelosis next film Citizen U. S. A, Pelosi traveled to all 50 states to attend naturalization ceremonies and interviewed immigrants as they became legalized American citizens. In 2013, she was at the Sundance Film Festival with her latest film, Fall To Grace, in 2015, Pelosi returned to her hometown to make a film about the tech booms impact on The City. San Francisco 2.0 Variety called it one of her finest, in 2016, Pelosi made a documentary for HBO Meet the Donors, Does Money Talk. about moneys influence in politics. She is the youngest of five children, on June 18,2005, she married Dutch journalist, lawyer, and United States correspondent Michiel Vos. Pelosi gave birth to their first child, a boy, on November 14,2006, Pelosi had a second son on December 7,2007, also in New York. Meet the Donors, Does Money Talk,2002 Homeless, The Motel Kids of Orange County Right America, Feeling Wronged – Some Voices from the Campaign Trail The Trials of Ted Haggard
30.
Michiel Vos
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Michiel Vos is a Dutch-American journalist, lawyer, jurist and United States correspondent. He is married to filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi, daughter of former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Vos hosts a Dutch/Belgian TV series called My America about his experiences as a European living in America. He regularly appears on Dutch and Belgian television and radio commenting on American political affairs and he had a weekly spot on the Radio 538 show Ruuddewild. nl. He works for EenVandaag, Goedemorgen Nederland and several others, in 2006 he appeared irregularly as American correspondent for the late-night talk show Barend & Van Dorp. He also works for the broadcasting station VPRO, as a presenter for special film nights and they live in Manhattan, New York City but are often seen together on the road working for HBO. Vos worked as producer on Pelosis films, The Trials of Ted Haggard, Right America, Feeling Wronged, Vos is a nephew of Philip Kaufman. Michiel Vos at the Internet Movie Database My America
31.
Thomas D'Alesandro Jr.
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Thomas Ludwig John DAlesandro Jr. was an American politician who was a U. S. Representative from Marylands 3rd congressional district and subsequently the mayor of Baltimore and he was the father of former House Speaker and current House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi. DAlesandro was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Maria Petronilla and Tommaso G. DAlesandro and he was married to Annunciata M. Lombardi. The couple had six children, five sons and a daughter, DAlesandro attended Calvert Business College in Baltimore. Before beginning his career, he worked as a broker and in insurance. A Democrat, DAlesandro served as a member of the Maryland State House of Delegates from 1926 to 1933, after serving in Annapolis, DAlesandro was then appointed as General Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue, a post in which he served during 1933–1934. He then was elected to serve on the Baltimore City Council from 1935 to 1938, DAlesandro was then elected to the 76th Congress and to the four succeeding Congresses, serving from January 3,1939, until he resigned on May 16,1947. Following his service in Congress he was Mayor of Baltimore for 12 years from May 1947 to May 1959 and he was defeated for renomination by the Democrats in the March 1959 primary election. He was also a candidate for the United States Senate in 1958. DAlesandro was a delegate to every Democratic National Convention from 1944 to 1968, DAlesandro lived in Baltimore until his death there in 1987. He was buried at New Cathedral Cemetery, Baltimore, dAlesandros son, Thomas L. J. DAlesandro III, also served as Mayor of Baltimore from 1967 to 1971. Thomas DAlesandro Stadium United States Congress, Thomas DAlesandro Jr. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Thomas DAlesandro Jr. at Find a Grave T. DAlesandro Jr. a Baltimore Mayor, Dies
32.
Thomas D'Alesandro III
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Thomas Ludwig John DAlesandro III – known as Tommy DAlesandro – is an American attorney and former politician who was Mayor of Baltimore from 1967 to 1971. He is the brother of former Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, DAlesandro was born in Baltimore to Annunciata and Thomas J. DAlesandro Jr. He was the oldest of six children, of whom his youngest sister Nancy would become the first female Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives and he attended Loyola College in Baltimore and studied law at the University of Maryland School of Law. He served in the US Army from 1952 to 1955, after military service, DAlesandro entered into politics, becoming president of the Baltimore City Council in 1963. He ran for mayor in 1967 as a Democrat and easily defeated Republican challenger Arthur W. Sherwood and his one term as mayor was dominated by civil unrest and budgetary troubles. The homes were demolished in 1974, with the Rouse Company creditors abandoning the project and he was unable to respond effectively to the Baltimore riot of 1968 that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and National Guard troops were called in to control the situation. He would never run for political office, choosing to go into private law practice. Years later, DAlesandro insisted that the riots were not the reason that he walked away from politics and he said that the reason was simply that he had five children and his mayoral salary was not sufficient for him to support his family
