Phenix City is a city in Lee and Russell counties in the U. S. state of Alabama, the county seat of Russell County. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 32,822. Phenix City lies west across the Chattahoochee River from much larger Columbus, Georgia. Sometimes called Hub City, Most of Phenix City is included in the Columbus Metropolitan Statistical Area, but a section is located in Lee County, is therefore in the Auburn, Alabama Metropolitan Statistical Area; the entire city is part of the Columbus-Auburn-Opelika Combined Statistical Area. In 2007, BusinessWeek named Phenix City the nation's #1 Best Affordable Suburb to raise a family, it is home to Chattahoochee Valley Community College. This is a public, two-year college with an acceptance rate of 100%; as of 2020, the mayor is the city's first black mayor elected by the public. The city manager, who holds the task of organizational matters, is Wallace Hunter. Phenix City is located at 32°28′22″N 85°1′12″W, it is the easternmost settlement in the state of Alabama as well as the Central Time Zone, but it and some other nearby areas unofficially observe Eastern Time, as these areas are part of the metropolitan area of the larger city of Columbus, in the Eastern Time Zone and adjacent to the city across the Chattahoochee River to the east.
Many major highways run through Phenix City, namely U. S. Routes 80, 280, 431. U. S. 80 runs through the northern and western parts of the city, leading west 44 mi to Tuskegee and northeast to Columbus, Georgia. U. S. Route 280 runs through the western part of the city from northwest to southeast, leading northwest 27 mi to Opelika and southeast into Columbus. U. S. Route 431 runs north to south to the west of the city, concurrent with US 280, which it follows to Opelika, leads south 47 mi to Eufaula. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 24.8 square miles, of which 24.6 square miles is land and 0.2 square miles is water. The climate in this area is characterized by high temperatures and evenly distributed precipitation throughout the year. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Phenix City has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps. What some claim was the last battle of the Civil War took place in Phenix City known as Girard. What is Phenix City today began as two towns bordering each other on the North and South.
On the south side was Girard, in Russell County, the town of Brownville, on the north side, within Lee County. Because a community in Tuscaloosa County claimed the name of Brownville, the post office insisted on the name of "Lively." To compound the confusion, the nearby railroad depot was called Knight's Station. Because residents preferred Brownville, on the 1880 U. S. Census, it was listed as both Lively, it was formally incorporated by the legislature on February 23, 1883. Within the decade, the name would be changed to Phenix, although some misspellings had it as "Phoenix." It was not clear if it was named for Phenix Mills in adjacent Columbus, Georgia, or for the fabled bird. It appeared as Phenix City on the 1890 U. S. was incorporated as such on February 19, 1897 by the state legislature. The City Official Website displays the mythical Phoenix; the City's Seal depicts the Phoenix burning up in its nest. The'Our Community/History' page confirms the uncertainty behind the name: "Although no definitive source reveals why this name was chosen."
On August 9, 1923, Russell County's neighboring Girard and Lee County's Phenix City formally merged, keeping the name of Phenix City. Because the consolidated city still remained divided into two counties, in 1932, the Lee County portion was moved into Russell County. Lee County received the rural segment centered on Marvyn as compensation, in Russell County's northwest corner. In 1926, the Russell County portion of Phenix City was designated the second county seat. In 1934/35, Phenix City became sole county seat. Phenix City was notorious during the 1940s and 1950s for being a haven for organized crime and gambling. Many of its customers came from the United States Army training center at Georgia; the leaders of the crime syndicate in Phenix City were Hoyt Shepherd. Albert Patterson, from Phenix City, was elected to become attorney general of Alabama on a platform of reforming the city, but was shot and killed in 1954 outside his office on 5th Ave, N of 14th Street; as a result, the city had a negative reputation, many people still associate this legacy with Phenix City.
The Tragedy and the Triumph of Phenix City, Alabama by Margaret Ann Barnes chronicles these events, which led the small town to be known as "Sin City, USA". The bordertown was the subject of an acclaimed film, The Phenix City Story, made in 1955. In 1955, it won the All-America City Award from the National Municipal League. Curiously, despite the city having been annexed into Russell County in 1932, the growth of the city has spread northward back into Lee County, where it first appeared on 1980 U. S. Census records; as of 2010, nearly 4,200 residents reside in the Lee County portion exactly the same number that lived in Phenix City in 1910. Phenix City is home to many Christian churches; the denominations include: Protestantism Baptist Southern Baptist Convention Unit
The National Intelligence Centre is the Spanish official intelligence agency, acting as both its foreign and domestic intelligence agency. Its headquarters are located in the A-6 motorway near Madrid; the CNI is the successor of the Centro Superior de Información de la Defensa, the Higher Centre for Defence Intelligence. Its main target areas are North Africa and South America and it operates in more than 80 countries. CNI's official budget for 2018 is 282 million euros; the Secretary of State-Director of the CNI is Paz Esteban López. The Center's essential goal is to provide the Spanish Government all the necessary information to prevent and avoid any risk or menace that affects the independence or integrity of Spain, its national interests and rule of law. In the same way, the law states that the specific goals of the CNI will be determined and approved yearly by the Council of Ministers; these goals will be included in the Intelligence Guidelines. Besides this organic control of the Center by the Ministers Council, there is a judiciary control, given the fact certain activities require such intervention.
This control is carried out by a judge of the Spanish Supreme Court, chosen by a qualified majority. In this sense, those actions requiring previous authorization by the court are those regarding communications interdiction and registration at home or enterprise addresses, or any other would-be violations of the fundamental rights granted by the Spanish Constitution of 1978; the first Spanish intelligence service was created in 1935, in a short-lived experience with an null activity, due to the Spanish Civil War paralysing its development. Student revolts by the end of the 1960s motivated the creation of a National Countersubversive Organization, the seed for the Servicio Central de Documentación, founded in 1972; the Centro Superior de Información de la Defensa was formed between 1976 and 1977, from the fusion of the SECED and the High Staff of the Army Information Service. José María Bourgón López-Dóriga Gerardo Mariñas Narciso Carreras Emilio Alonso Manglano Félix Miranda Javier Calderón Jorge Dezcallar Manzanedo Alberto Saiz Cortés Félix Sanz Roldán Paz Esteban López.
Servicios Secretos. Editorial Plaza & Janés. Antonio M. Diaz Fernandez. Los servicios de inteligencia españoles. Desde la guerra civil hasta el 11-M. Historia de una transición. Alianza Editorial. Carlos Ruiz Miguel. Servicios de Inteligencia y Seguridad del Estado Constitucional. Editorial Tecnos. Fernando J. Muniesa y Diego Camacho. La España Otorgada. Servicios de Inteligencia y Estado de Derecho. Editorial Anroart. National Intelligence Centre National Intelligence Centre Intelpage.info
Cornelis Gerhard Anton de Kom was a Surinamese resistance fighter and anti-colonialist author. De Kom was born in Suriname, to farmer Adolf de Kom and Judith Jacoba Dulder, his father was born a slave. As was not uncommon, his surname is a reversal of the slave owner's name, called Mok. De Kom obtained a diploma in bookkeeping, he worked for the Balata Compagnieën Suriname en Guyana. On 29 July 1920 he resigned and left for Haiti where he worked for the Societé Commerciale Hollandaise Transatlantique. In 1921, he left for the Netherlands, he volunteered for the Huzaren for a year. In 1922 he started working for a consultancy in The Hague. One year he was laid off due to a reorganization, he became a sales representative selling coffee and tobacco for a company in The Hague, where he met his future wife, Nel. In addition to his work, he was active in numerous left-wing organizations, including nationalist Indonesian student organisations and Links Richten. De Kom and his family left for Suriname on 20 December 1932 and arrived on 4 January 1933.
From that moment on he was watched by the colonial authorities. He started a consultancy in his parents' house. On 1 February he was arrested while en route to the governor's office with a large group of followers. On both 3 and 4 February his followers gathered in front of the Attorney General's office to demand De Kom's release. On 7 February a large crowd gathered on the Oranjeplein. Rumor had it; when the crowd refused to leave the square, police opened fire, killing two people and wounding 30. On 10 May De Kom was exiled from his native country, he was unemployed and continued writing his book, Wij slaven van Suriname, published in a censored form in 1934. De Kom participated in demonstrations for the unemployed, traveled abroad with a group as a tap dancer, was drafted for Werkverschaffing, a program similar to the American WPA, in 1939, he gave lectures for leftist groups communists, about colonialism and racial discrimination. After the German invasion in 1940, De Kom joined the Dutch resistance the communist party in The Hague.
He wrote articles for the underground paper De Vonk of the communist party about the terror of fascist groups in the streets of The Hague. On 7 August 1944, he was arrested, he was imprisoned at the Oranje Hotel in Scheveningen, transferred to Camp Vught, a Dutch concentration camp. In early September 1944, he was sent to Oranienburg-Sachsenhausen, where he was forced to work for the Heinkel aircraft factory. De Kom died on 24 April 1945 of tuberculosis in Camp Sandbostel near Bremervörde, a satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp, he was buried in a mass grave. In 1960, his remains were brought to the Netherlands. There he was buried at the Cemetery of Honours in Loenen. De Kom was married to Petronella Borsboom, they had four children. Their son, Cees de Kom, lives in Suriname; the University of Suriname was renamed The Anton de Kom University of Suriname in honor of De Kom. Anton de Kom was listed in De Grootste Nederlander as #102 out of 202 people. In Amsterdam Zuidoost a square is named after the Anton de Komplein.
It features a sculpture of Anton de Kom as a monument to his life and works, sculpted by Jikke van Loon. Anton de Kom: Wij slaven van Suriname. English translation: We Slaves of Surinam, 1987. Antondekom.nl website devoted to the Anton de Kom square and monument
Francis Chester redirects here. For those of the same or a similar name, see Chester baronets and Frank Chester Lieutenant-Colonel Francis George Leach "Gort" Chester DSO, OBE was a British soldier who led several Z Special Unit operations in Borneo during World War II. Chester was born in Johannesburg, South Africa on 14 June 1899, the son of Arthur and Edith Florence Rose Chester, both British, he was educated at Highfield School, Hampshire and from May 1914-July 1916 at King's School, Kent. He graduated from the Royal Military College and during the First World War he served in King Edward's Horse, a cavalry regiment of the British Army, in 1917, he gained the nickname "Gort" due to his physical resemblance to the British Army Field Marshal John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort. Chester was a rubber planter at the Lokawee Estate near Jesselton in the West Coast area of North Borneo for twenty years before the Japanese invasion of January 1942, he was in Australia. At some point he was attached to the Australian Army's Services Reconnaissance Department Z Special Unit.
Chester commanded the first Z Special Unit operation in Borneo during World War II: Operation Python I. This operation took place in early October 1943, reported on Japanese sea-traffic in the Sibutu Passage and the Balabac Strait of the Sulu Sea, just to the north of North Borneo; the unit landed opposite the Tawi-Tawi islands. Chester provided support for a band of Filipino guerrillas under the command of an American officer, Captain J. A. Hamner. Chester was in touch with the East Coast of North Borneo: "He made many visits to his friends ashore there, he maintained communication with them by means of submarine and radio, helped form guerrilla bands on the east coast. His visits were not always secret and he moved from place to place with the Japanese and a pack of spies in close pursuit." He heard of the plans for an uprising against the Japanese and advised that it be postponed until the Allied forces were in a position to advance into Borneo. Thousands more local people died in the reprisals.
Following this operation, Australian authorities recommended that he should be awarded the Distinguished Service Order, but after discussions between the Australian and British authorities, it was agreed that since there was no evidence that the unit had come under direct Japanese fire gallantry awards were inappropriate, so he would instead be appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire. The awards recommended for the other members of the unit were amended from the Military Cross for Lieutenant Lloyd James Woods to appointment as Member of the Order of the British Empire and Military Medals for Warrant Officer II Alexander Chew and Sergeant Frederick Gordon Olsen were amended to another MBE and the British Empire Medal respectively; the awards were gazetted on 26 April 1945, dated 8 March 1945. Others connected with the mission were Mentioned in Despatches, all the awards were given minimal publicity as several of the recipients had relatives who were still interned by the Japanese or were prisoners of war.
Over a year in early March 1945, Chester commanded Agas I, which landed near Labuk Bay in North Borneo. He went on to command Agas III which operated in the Jesselton-Keningau-Beaufort area of North Borneo; this operation incorporated Stallion IV, which aimed to obtain intelligence of enemy movements along the Jesselton-Beaufort part of the North Borneo Railway, the Ranau-Tambunan-Keningau Road, the hinterland of Kimanis Bay. Chester was chosen for all these roles due to his intimate knowledge of the area of operation and his fluency in Malay. In addition, by the time of Agas III and Stallion IV, Chester had agents and known safe contacts in the region. Following these missions, he was again recommended for the DSO, this time successfully; the recommendation describes how, with three other officers and three NCOs, Chester was landed from a submarine on 3 March 1945, despite the Japanese land and sea patrols. On landing, they discovered a number of posters with a picture of Chester offering $15,000 reward for his capture—dead or alive—prompted by his earlier mission.
This initial landing was between held Japanese positions at Tegahang and Pura Pura, just 3 miles apart. The natives in this area were hostile, so the party travelled 250 miles by canoe before being able to head inland and start the main part of their mission to gather intelligence, raise a guerrilla force, persuade the natives not to provide food and other supplies to the Japanese. On 25 May 1945, Chester was extracted by PBY Catalina flying boat, so he could brief II Corps staff, he was re-inserted, again by Catalina, along with some additional personnel, on 29 May, to obtain further information for 9th Division; the recommendation states that at the time of the eventual Japanese surrender, forces under Chester's command controlled two-thirds of British North Borneo. His DSO was gazetted on 6 March 1947, dated 2 November 1946, he was awarded the American Medal of Freedom. Colonel J. Finlay of the SRD headquarters in Melbourne wrote that Chester could "cut his way through close jungle quicker than any man
John Austin IV, better known by his stage name Ras Kass, is an American rapper. He returned as a member of the hip hop supergroup The HRSMN along with Canibus, Killah Priest, Kurupt in 2014. Ras is a member of the group Golden State Warriors with Saafir. Editors of About.com ranked him #30 on their list of the Top 50 MCs of Our Time. Pitchfork Media called him "one of the best rappers of all time." Austin grew up in Carson, Ca. In 1996 he had twin sons with R&B and soul singer-songwriter Teedra Moses. BMF Entertainment artist Barima "Bleu DaVinci" McKnight is his cousin. Ras Kass took his stage name from the legendary Ethiopian Emperor Yohannes IV whose name was Ras Kassa Mircha before he was crowned as an emperor. Ras Kass sent waves through the hip-hop world with his debut independent single release "Remain Anonymous," earning him a Hip-Hop Quotable in The Source Magazine. Before his signing with Priority/EMI Records, Ras Kass began making guest appearances on several records and freestyles on numerous radio shows, further solidified the emerging lyricist's notoriety.
Recorded guest appearances include Sway & King Tech's "Come Widdit" and their "Wake Up Show Anthem'94", as well as Chino XL's "Riiiot", KeyKool and Rhettmatic's "E=MC5" Up Above Records. From a young age, Austin was influenced by hip hop music and inspired by a variety of emcees including Ice Cube, Scarface, KRS-One, his first album, Soul on Ice, was released in 1996. Taking its name from a book by Eldridge Cleaver, Ras addressed racial relations in the same manner, most notably with "Ordo Abchao" and "Nature of the Threat." The album was released on Priority Records, as was the follow-up, which featured beats from Easy Mo Bee and guest appearances by RZA, Xzibit, Mack 10 and Dr. Dre. Lead single "Ghetto Fabulous" was pushed by a lavish video shoot; the album received positive reviews, shortly afterward the MC announced his third album, Van Gogh. During the recording of Ras's intended third album, Van Gogh, Priority Records merged with Capitol Records, which acquired the emcee’s contract and his material.
Near completion, the album was bootlegged before any single or promotion could be prepared. In fact, the would-be single "Van Gogh" was played on an episode of The Sopranos. Ras went back to work overhauling the project, procuring tracks from DJ Premier, Hi-Tek, Dr. Dre and retaining songs from Rockwilder and Battlecat. Tensions arose during the re-recording, from budget restrictions to lack of promotion: Despite the fact that "Van Gogh" remained shelved the album's singles "Back It Up" and "Goldyn Chyd" received decent amount of spins on Los Angeles urban contemporary radio stations KKBT and KPWR during the course of 2001-02. Ras Kass was involved in The HRSMN, sometimes called the 4 Hrsmn, consisting of himself, Killah Priest, Canibus; the Horsemen Project, a white-label of rough tracks by the four, was released in 2003, but no other releases have been subsequently forthcoming. Nearing the completion of his album, the MC and Priority disagreed over the lead single. Pushing "Goldyn Chyld," produced by DJ Premier, Priority executives decided to try to release the Dr. Dre-produced "The Whoop" instead, against the wishes of both Ras Kass and Dr. Dre.
As he was finishing up Goldyn Chyld, Kass was pulled over in California and arrested for a D. U. I. Marking his third. Two weeks before the start of his sentence, Priority informed him of their decision not to put out Goldyn Chyld after all. Becoming a fugitive, Ras attained the masters to his project, recorded some music, turned himself in to police. During this time, he had minor problems with producer the Alchemist, who sold Ras a beat that he re-sold to rapper Jadakiss, which formed the basis for the track "We Gon' Make It." After serving only 19 months for his D. U. I. Charge, Ras Kass recorded the album Institutionalized and began seeking release from his contract with Priority/Capitol Records. Though intended to be an album, it was released as a mixtape, generating a moderate buzz despite Capitol's alleged reluctance, he would go on to release two more mixtapes in 2006, Revenge of the Spit and Eat or Die, got into a fight with former G-Unit rapper The Game over an alleged reference to the rapper's son in a freestyle.
In October 2007, Kass succeeded in being released from his record contract. However, after rumors of a deal with Def Jam or G-Unit Records, he was again incarcerated, this time for violating his parole by flying to the 2007 BET Awards. During this time, he put out the album Institutionalized Volume 2 on Babygrande Records. After nearly two years of incarceration, Ras Kass was released from jail at the end of May 2009. Ras Kass talks about his arrest and incarceration in the 2011 film Rhyme and Punishment, which documents rap artists who have spent time behind bars. Featured in HipHopDX's Underground Report, Ras Kass revealed that his next release would be a project called The Quarterly. Intended to be completed within the fourth quarter of 2009, it comprises a song a week released in the fashion of fellow west coast emcee Crooked I's Hip-Hop Weekly and Freeway's Month of Madness. "The Quarterly" was released on November 23, 2009 via www.raskass-central.com and includes nineteen tracks featuring collaborations by Killah Priest, Mistah F.
A. B. and Krondon of Strong Arm Steady
Vantage Media is an advertising technology company with headquarters in El Segundo, California that specializes in real-time bidding for customer acquisition. Vantage Media's advertisers and publishers exist in three verticals: Education Insurance Home Vantage Media was founded by Mark DiPaola. Based in Venice, the company specialized early on in performance search marketing in online education. Clients included University of Phoenix and other major distance learning providers; the company became well known within the paid search space claiming to manage over 50 million keywords across the three major search engines. In March 2007, Vantage Media raised a Series A round valued at $70M led by Montgomery & Co, Scale Venture Partners, Tudor Ventures, Integral Capital Partners; the company named a new CEO, Steve Jillings of FrontBridge Technologies. As noted by Mr. Jillings in an interview with SoCalTech in early 2008, the financing was intended to allow Vantage to expand into new verticals outside of education, including home services and consumer services.
It named three new board members: Jamie Montgomery, CEO of Montgomery & Co. and Rory O'Driscoll, Managing Director with Scale Venture Partners. The company completed its first acquisition in December 2007 with its purchase of the health insurance lead generation company Secure A Quote; as part of the acquisition, Vantage brought on SAQ's two original founders, Jon Engleking and Steve Curry. In October 2010, Vantage Media announced that Patrick Quigley a senior vice president at QuinStreet, would be replacing Jillings as CEO of the company; the company completed its second acquisition in 2011, when it purchased leading pay-per-click insurance advertising firm, BrokersWeb. In 2012, Vantage Media launched SchoolSelect, a clicks product on the BrokersWeb platform that enabled advertisers target a new segment of customers with pre-defined parameters. In October 2013, Vantage Media launched a new platform, called Vantage Media Marketplaces. Marketplaces is a self-serve, real-time bidding platform for the insurance, home services, education verticals.
Marketplaces joins together high-traffic publishers with household-name advertisers. It gives advertisers the power to pay what they want, when they want, how they want, for the exact consumers they want; this is achieved through giving the advertiser the power to control how they want to engage with the customer, vice versa, through either clicks, calls, or leads. In August 2007, Vantage Media was ranked #31 on the 26th annual Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies in the U. S, it was ranked #4 in the nation for the category of Top Companies in Advertising and Marketing. A few months in October 2007, the company topped the list of fastest-growing companies in Los Angeles and surrounding counties as recognized by Deloitte and Touche USA LLP, it ranked 10th nationwide in Deloitte's Technology Fast 500. In January 2008, Vantage Media named a finalist for the 5th Annual Entrepreneurship Awards 2008 by Entretech, a leading nonprofit association supporting high-tech companies in Greater Los Angeles.
The award was offered together with PricewaterhouseCoopers. Vantage once again made the list of fastest-growing technology companies in the Los Angeles area in November 2008, as named by Deloitte's Technology Fast 500, coming in at #4. In the same month, it was named one of the fastest-growing private companies in the Los Angeles area according to the Los Angeles Business Journal's 2008 Fastest-Growing Private Companies ranking. Vantage Media was recognized in 2011 as the #1 fastest-growing private company in the U. S. in Insurance by the Inc. 500. Vantage Media was honored with the same award in 2012 as well. Additionally, Vantage Media's BrokersWeb division was recognized in both 2011 and 2012 as one of the top 50 fastest-growing companies in the U. S