Comic Relief is an operating British charity, founded in 1985 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Lenny Henry in response to the famine in Ethiopia. The concept of Comic Relief was to get British comedians to make the public laugh, while raising money to help people in need in Africa, at home in the United Kingdom, it is led by Liz Warner, founder of a production company. Key people include: Ruth Davison, Helen Wright, Charlotte Hillenbrand and Suzi Aplin; the highlight of Comic Relief's appeal is Red Nose Day, a biennial telethon held in March, alternating with its sister project Sport Relief. The first live fundraising show, held on 4 April 1986, featured comedians and pop stars, including Rowan Atkinson, Billy Connolly, Stephen Fry, Kate Bush and co-founder Lenny Henry. A prominent biennial event on British television, Comic Relief is one of the two high-profile telethon events held in the UK, the other being Children in Need, held annually in November. At the end of the 2015 Red Nose Day telethon on 14 March it was announced that in the 30-year history of Comic Relief the Red Nose Day and Sport Relief appeals had raised in excess of £1 billion.

Comic Relief was launched live on Noel Edmonds' Late, Late Breakfast Show on BBC1, on Christmas Day 1985 from a refugee camp in Sudan. The idea for Comic Relief came from the charity worker Jane Tewson, who established it as the operating name of Charity Projects, a registered charity in England and Scotland. On 4 April 1986 the inaugural live fund-raising show, "Comic Relief Utterly Utterly Live", was staged at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London featuring popular alternative comedians and pop stars. An audio recording was released on WEA which included a live performance of the charity single "Living Doll" by Cliff Richard and the Young Ones; the highlight of Comic Relief is Red Nose Day. On 8 February 1988, Lenny Henry went to Ethiopia and celebrated the first Red Nose Day Telethon. Over 150 celebrities and comedians participated; the event raised 15 million British pounds sterling and attracted 30 million television viewers on BBC1. To date, Richard Curtis and Lenny Henry are still active participants of the Red Nose Day Telethon which continues to raise funds for numerous charities that help children in need and tackle worldwide poverty.

The charity states that its aim is to "bring about positive and lasting change in the lives of poor and disadvantaged people, which we believe requires investing in work that addresses people's immediate needs as well as tackling the root causes of poverty and injustice". One of the fundamental principles behind working at Comic Relief is the "Golden Pound Principle" where every single donated pound is spent on charitable projects. All operating costs, such as staff salaries, are covered by corporate sponsors, or interest earned on money waiting to be distributed, its main supporters are the BBC, BT, Sainsbury's supermarket chain and British Airways. The BBC is responsible for the live television extravaganza on Red Nose Day; the July 2010 accounts for charity registration 326568 show grant payments of £59 million, net assets of £135 million, with an investment portfolio held in a range of managed pooled funds and fixed term deposits. The average full-time staff was 214, with 14 staff paid over £60,000 with remuneration for the year, excluding pensions, for Kevin Cahill, chief executive of £120,410.

In 2002, Comic Relief and BBC Sport teamed up to create Sport Relief, a new initiative, aiming to unite the sporting community and culminate in a night of sport and fund-raising on BBC One. Sport Relief is a biennial charity event, the campaign deliberately alternates years with Red Nose Day, Comic Relief's flagship event. Red Nose Day occurs in odd-numbered years, Sport Relief in even-numbered years. In 2009, Comic Relief launched a website calling for a financial transaction tax, the "Robin Hood" tax. At the end of the 2015 Red Nose Day telethon on 14 March it was announced that in the 30-year history of Comic Relief the Red Nose Day and Sport Relief appeals had raised in excess of £1bn; the television programming begins in the afternoon, with CBBC having various related reports, money raising events and celebrity gunging. This is all in-between the regular programmes, but after the six o'clock news, the normal BBC One schedule is suspended at 7 pm in favour of a live show, with a break at 10 pm for the regular news programme.

Whilst the BBC News at Ten is aired on BBC One, Comic Relief continues on BBC Two, resumes on BBC One at 10:35 pm, with each hour overseen by a different celebrity team. These celebrities do the work for free, as do the crew, with studio space and production facilities donated by the BBC. Regular themes throughout the shows include parodies of recent popular shows and clips, specially filmed versions of comedy shows. Smith and Jones, a parody sketch starring Rowan Atkinson are both featured. Since 2015, Red Nose Day USA's annual Red Nose Day Special airs each May on the Thursday before Memorial Day; the First Red Nose Day was held on Friday 5 February 1988 with the slogan: "The Plain Red Nose", raised £15 million. The Second Red Nose Day was held on Friday 10 March 1989 with the slogan: "Red Nose Day 2", raised £27 million; the Third Red Nose Day was held on Friday 15 March 1991, with the slogan "The Stonker", Raised £20 million. The charity song was a double A-sided single featuring "The Stonk" performed by H

The Minister for Finance is the senior minister at the Department of Finance in the Government of Ireland. The minister is responsible for all financial and monetary matters of the state, is considered the second most important member of the Government of Ireland, after the Taoiseach; the current office holder is Paschal Donohoe, TD, who serves as Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. He is assisted by: Michael W. D'Arcy, TD – Minister of State at the Department of Finance Patrick O'Donovan, TD – Minister of State for Public Procurement, Open Government and eGovernment The Minister for Finance holds the second most important ministerial position in the Irish Cabinet after that of the Taoiseach, he or she is in charge of the Department of Finance responsible for all financial matters in the Republic of Ireland. Due to the importance of the cabinet post, the Minister for Finance must be a member of Dáil Éireann. Many Ministers who have held the Finance portfolio have gone on to become Taoiseach, including Jack Lynch, Charles Haughey, Albert Reynolds, John Bruton, Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen.

The department and minister are called the Irish Exchequer, a term used under the Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland. One of the most important aspects of the Minister's work is the creation of the annual Budget, announced to the Dáil in a speech, which must be delivered before 15 October due to the Two-Pack agreement. In the budget the Minister details the Government's spending programme for the coming year; the budget consists of: a Financial Statement to the Dáil, Budgetary Measures, Budget statistics, financial resolutions. National Lottery Office of Public Works Revenue Commissioners Department of Finance

James Peyton Smith, known as James P. Smith, was a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from Union and Morehouse parishes in North Louisiana, a position which he held from 1964 to 1972 during the administration of Governor John McKeithen. In the first term he represented only Union Parish. Thereafter from 1972 to 1992, he was the sergeant-at-arms of the Louisiana State Senate. Smith was one of eight children of the former Sallie Jane Turner; the Reverend Smith served in the state House of Representatives from Union Parish from 1944 to 1948 during the first term of Governor Jimmie Davis. Smith was born in the Conway Community of Union Parish but resided in his adult life in the parish seat of Farmerville. In August 1946, Smith was ordained as a deacon by the Antioch Baptist Church in Farmerville and for six decades was the caretaker of the Antioch Cemetery, where he and many of his family members are interred, he was a member of the Gideons International, Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, Lions International, Masonic lodge, the Order of the Eastern Star, Woodmen of the World.

He worked for construction of a monument on the Alabama Landing Road near the Dean Community in honor of an "Unknown Soldier" of the American Civil War. As part of the 106th Infantry Division, Smith earned a Bronze Star for combat bravery in 1944 in the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. Smith and his wife, the former Foye Nolan, to whom he was married for more than sixty years, had three sons, James Bradley Smith and wife Nikki of Farmerville, Danny Allen Smith and wife Ann of Marion in Union Parish, Max Graham Smith and wife JoAnne Bennett Smith of West Monroe, two daughters, Roslyn A Smith and husband Stan and Jayne Smith-Green and husband Bobby, both couples from Farmerville, he was survived by Lucille Smith Dawson of Iowa, Louisiana. Smith won his second and last term in the House in the general election held on February 6, 1968, when he and former intraparty rival, T. T. Fields of Farmerville, defeated the Republican Edwards Barham of Oak Ridge in Morehouse Parish, who polled 44 percent of the vote in a three-candidate field in which only two could be elected.

In 1975, Barham became the first Republican since Reconstruction to be elected to the Louisiana Senate, but he was unseated in 1979 by the Democrat David'Bo' Ginn of Bastrop in Morehouse Parish. In September 2013, the Louisiana Highway 33 bridge over Lake D’Arbonne in Farmerville was named in Smith's honor; the legislative bill to rename the bridge was introduced by Republican Representative Rob Shadoin of Ruston, whose House District 12 includes part of the territory once represented by Smith, whom Shadoin calls "one of the greatest men of Union Parish". The Senate sponsor of the legislation is Mike Walsworth, a Republican from West Monroe