Susa was an ancient city of the Proto-Elamite, First Persian Empire, Seleucid and Sasanian empires of Iran, one of the most important cities of the Ancient Near East. It is located in the lower Zagros Mountains about 250 km east of the Tigris River, between the Karkheh and Dez Rivers; the site now "consists of three gigantic mounds, occupying an area of about one square kilometer, known as the Apadana mound, the Acropolis mound, the Ville Royale mound."The modern Iranian town of Shush is located on the site of ancient Susa. Shush is identified as Shushan, mentioned in the Book of other Biblical books. In Elamite, the name of the city was written Ŝuŝun, etc.. The origin of the word Susa is from the local city deity Inshushinak. Susa was one of the most important cities of the Ancient Near East. In historic literature, Susa appears in the earliest Sumerian records: for example, it is described as one of the places obedient to Inanna, patron deity of Uruk, in Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta. Susa is mentioned in the Ketuvim of the Hebrew Bible by the name Shushan in Esther, but once each in Nehemiah and Daniel.

According to these texts, Nehemiah lived in Susa during the Babylonian captivity of the 6th century BCE, while Esther became queen there, married to King Ahasuerus, saved the Jews from genocide. A tomb presumed to be that of Daniel is located in the area, known as Shush-Daniel. However, a large portion of the current structure is a much construction dated to the late nineteenth century, ca. 1871. Susa is further mentioned in the Book of Jubilees as one of the places within the inheritance of Shem and his eldest son Elam; the site was examined in 1836 by Henry Rawlinson and by A. H. Layard. In 1851, some modest excavation was done by William Loftus. In 1885 and 1886 Marcel-Auguste Dieulafoy and Jane Dieulafoy began the first French excavations. All of the excavations at Susa, post 1885, were organized and authorized by the French Monarchy. Jacques de Morgan conducted major excavations from 1897 until 1911; the excavations that were conducted in Susa brought many artistic and historical artifacts back to France.

These artifacts filled multiple halls in the Museum of the Louvre throughout the late 1890s and early 1900s. These efforts continued under Roland De Mecquenem until 1914, at the beginning of World War I. French work at Susa resumed after the war, led by De Mecquenem, continuing until World War II in 1940. To supplement the original publications of De Mecquenem the archives of his excavation have now been put online thanks to a grant from the Shelby White Levy Program. Roman Ghirshman took over direction of the French efforts after the end of the war. Together with his wife Tania Ghirshman, he continued there until 1967; the Ghirshmans concentrated on excavating a single part of the site, the hectare sized Ville Royale, taking it all the way down to bare earth. The pottery found at the various levels enabled a stratigraphy to be developed for Susa. During the 1970s, excavations resumed under Jean Perrot. In urban history, Susa is one of the oldest-known settlements of the region. Based on C14 dating, the foundation of a settlement there occurred as early as 4395 BCE.

At this stage it was very large for the time, about 15 hectares. The founding of Susa corresponded with the abandonment of nearby villages. Potts suggests that the settlement may have been founded to try to reestablish the destroyed settlement at Chogha Mish. Chogha Mish was a large settlement, it featured a similar massive platform, built at Susa. Another important settlement in the area is Chogha Bonut, discovered in 1976. Shortly after Susa was first settled over 6000 years ago, its inhabitants erected a monumental platform that rose over the flat surrounding landscape; the exceptional nature of the site is still recognizable today in the artistry of the ceramic vessels that were placed as offerings in a thousand or more graves near the base of the temple platform. Susa's earliest settlement is known as Susa I period. Two settlements named by archaeologists Acropolis and Apadana, would merge to form Susa proper; the Apadana was enclosed by 6m thick walls of rammed earth. Nearly two thousand pots of Susa I style were recovered from the cemetery, most of them now in the Louvre.

The vessels found are eloquent testimony to the artistic and technical achievements of their makers, they hold clues about the organization of the society that commissioned them. Painted ceramic vessels from Susa in the earliest first style are a late, regional version of the Mesopotamian Ubaid ceramic tradition that spread across the Near East during the fifth millennium BC. Susa I style was much a product of the past and of influences from contemporary ceramic industries in the mountains of western Iran; the recurrence in close association of vessels of three types—a drinking goblet or beaker, a serving dish, a small jar—implies the consumption of three types of food thought to be as necessary for life in the afterworld as it is in this one. Ceramics of these shapes, which were painted, constitute a large proportion of the vessels from the cemetery. Others are coarse cooking-type jars and bowls with simple bands

The La Guardia and Wagner Archives was established in 1982 at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City, New York, to collect and make available primary materials documenting the social and political history of New York City, with an emphasis on the mayoralty and the borough of Queens. The purpose of its founding went beyond serving as a repository, but to establish the college as a location for scholarly research; the archives serves a broad array of researchers, students, exhibit planners, policy makers. Its web site provides guidelines to the collections, as well as over 55,000 digitized photographs and close to 2,000,000 digitized documents; this growing repository contains the papers of several mayors, the records of the New York City Council, the New York City Housing Authority, the piano maker Steinway & Sons, a Queens History Collection. Many of the documents and photographs are available on the archives' website; as mayor during the turbulent period from 1934 to 1945, Fiorello H.

La Guardia initiated major reforms during the Great Depression and World War II. In 1982, the mayor's widow, the late Marie La Guardia, donated her husband's personal papers to LaGuardia Community College; these documents and personal artifacts chronicle Mayor La Guardia's life and times, providing an invaluable record of New York City history. The collection contains transcripts of La Guardia's speeches, personal correspondence, more than 3,000 photographs, it has original sketches and records of his tenure as director general of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration after World War II. The archives holds a microfilm copy of selected series of La Guardia's mayoral papers housed at the New York City municipal archive; this includes the mayor's scrapbooks, which record the media's reaction to La Guardia and the issues of the time. Selected documents are available online on the Archives' website in full-text digital form, including letters from Mayor LaGuardia to his sister Gemma, who sought her brother's help in returning to the United States after surviving a Nazi forced labor camp.

After his last term, LaGuardia traveled across war-torn Europe and China to deliver aid to starving children as Director General of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. The thank you letters he received from children in Italy are featured. Available electronically are the text of his Sunday radio broadcasts over WNYC from 1942 through 1945; the archives has available a microfilm copy of La Guardia's congressional papers, which are housed at the New York Public Library. The collection contains more than 100 hours of audio and video tapes of and about La Guardia, including oral history interviews with the mayor's friends and associates, radio broadcasts and newsreel footage. Mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr. was the second generation of the Wagner family to devote himself to public service. His father was U. S. Senator Robert F. Wagner, a major figure on the national scene in the New Deal era who sponsored landmark labor, civil rights, social security, social welfare legislation.

The mayor's son, Robert F. Wagner, Jr. served as a member of the New York City Council, chair of the New York City Planning Commission, deputy mayor for policy, president of the New York City Board of Education. Mayor Robert F. Wagner served as chief executive of New York City for three terms. From 1954 to 1965, he oversaw the construction of housing, parks and schools, he championed the growth and empowerment of municipal labor unions, sponsored the creation of The City University of New York. He mobilized resources for the War on Poverty and ventured into new fields in income redistribution for the benefit of lower income groups and individuals, he used city government to combat job discrimination. All of these activities and concepts are reflected in the Wagner Collection, which consists of correspondence, transcripts of 3,000 speeches, over 7,000 photographs, personal artifacts, a 100-interview oral history collection. Available in electronic full-text form are the papers of Julius Edelstein, Wagner's executive assistant and closest advisor.

Edelstein was a major figure in the redevelopment of the Upper West Side–-once described as "the most comprehensive urban renewal project in the U. S."—and a driving force in urban housing throughout the city. Available in electronic form is the Judah Gribetz donation, a comprehensive file of newspaper clippings, journal articles, reports by city agencies and market surveys of city businesses organized by neighborhood, providing an invaluable guide to the boroughs in New York, neighborhood by neighborhood, for the 20th century. Judah Gribetz was Commissioner of Housing under Wagner. In addition, portions of Senator Robert F. Wagner's papers, held by Georgetown University, are available on microfilm. In 1994, the archives received the personal papers of Robert F. Wagner, Jr. documenting the third and final generation of the Wagner family to serve in a public role. Abraham Beame enjoyed a long and distinguished career in public service, including a term as mayor, 1974–77; the Beame Collection consists of 1,800 photographs, more than 100 artifacts, an assortment of papers documenting key themes of the Beame years.

These include the fiscal crisis of the United States Bicentennial. The Beame oral history project has gathered unique recollections of more than 30 associates and contemporaries of the mayor; the archives is acquiring the personal papers of Edward I. Koch, New York's dynamic 105th mayor served three terms, 1978–89; this collection of predominantly post-mayoral materials includes 2,300 photographs, a variety of documents. Included in the collect

Green Action Centre is an environmental organization based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It works to promote greener living through environmental education for households, workplaces and communities, it develops and advocates environmental policies for Manitoba communities. Its primary areas of activity include green commuting and waste, sustainable living and resource conservation. In the early 1980s in Manitoba, a group of citizens and environmental activists held meetings at Westminister Church in Winnipeg to share concerns about the amount of waste, going to landfill. On February 14, 1985, they founded the Recycling Council of Manitoba with the goal of promoting recycling. Members of the Council included individuals, recycling groups and municipal officials in communities across the province of Manitoba; the new organization held a number of special recycling events, which proved overwhelmingly popular with city residents. Subsequently, the Council set about creating ongoing recycling depots in various locations around Winnipeg, such as community centres.

Much of the work of collecting and shipping the recyclables was done by volunteers. The group met with City of Winnipeg and Manitoba provincial officials to urge establishment of a permanent recycling program for Winnipeg. In 1989, the Recycling Council of Manitoba helped form the Manitoba Recycling Action Committee to promote the idea of producer responsibility in Manitoba. In short, in Manitoba as elsewhere across Canada, the movement for municipal solid waste recycling was led by citizens; the Recycling Council played a key role in demonstrating not only the practicality of recycling, but the strong public demand for it. By 1996, with a Waste Reduction and Prevention Act in place provincially and a new crown entity in position to administer beverage container levies collected at retail, members of the Recycling Council voted to change the name to Resource Conservation Manitoba; the reinvented organization declared a broader mission in the promotion of ecological sustainability and ventured into new areas beyond waste reduction—climate change, sustainable transportation and green living.

New initiatives were developed and additional staff were hired to conduct programs of public environmental education. After operating for more than a decade as Resource Conservation Manitoba, members decided in March 2010 to change the group's name once again—this time to Green Action Centre. Today, the organization is involved in a broad range of environmental education initiatives in Manitoba. Green Action Centre describes itself as "a non-profit, non-governmental hub for greener living based in Winnipeg, serving Manitoba." It is incorporated as a non-profit corporation under Manitoba legislation and is a federally registered charity. The Centre is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors elected by members at an annual general meeting. Green Action Centre has a growing list of 2,000 individual supporters; the agency is a member of the Manitoba Green Communities Canada. Programs and outreach are supported by donations from individuals, grants from foundations and governments, sponsorships.

The Active and Safe Routes to School program works with schools and communities to help them encourage kids to walk and bike to school. The program promotes active transportation in order to keep children healthy, to ensure they have clean air to breathe. Green Action Centre runs a compost promotion project to provide information and support for composting across Manitoba, they offer free public workshops for residents including backyard composting, winter composting and worm composting. The organization coordinates a Master Composter program that provides in depth training on composting to individuals who become volunteer composting trainers. Green Action Composting works with schools and communities to develop individualized programs; the Environmental Speakers Bureau offers classroom environmental presentations for schools in Winnipeg. Topics include recycling, litterless lunches, climate change and the ecological footprint concept. Presentations are offered for age ranges from Nursery to Grade 12.

The program delivers over 300 presentations annually to schools in Winnipeg and, by special arrangement, delivers in-service workshops on environmental education for teachers across Manitoba. This popular school program is supported by the Manitoba Department of Conservation and Water Stewardship and by donations from individuals. Living Green Living Well is a program that offers ideas and tips for households and businesses to help reduce their environmental impact; the project offers presentations to community organizations and workplaces on environmental topics including green cleaning products, climate change, pesticides, sustainable agriculture and water conservation. The program runs a blog commenting on environmental news affecting Manitoba. Green Action Centre works with companies and their employees to promote commuter options other than single passenger automobiles; the program helps employers develop supportive policies and programs to support biking, carpooling or other forms of transportation that reduce the greenhouse gas impact of commuting.

Green Action Centre’s Workplace Commuter Options program has worked with: Assiniboine Credit Union Boeing Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre Integrated Designs International Institute for Sustainable Development Manitoba Hydro MTS Allstream National Leasing Public Works and Government Services Canada Taylor McCaffrey LLP Transport Canada United Way of Winnipeg Green Action Centre runs several seaso