title: Holy Spirit

text: The Holy Spirit in Judaism generally refers to the divine aspect of prophecy and wisdom. It also refers to the divine force, quality, and influence of the Most High God, over the universe or over his creatures, in given contexts.


title: Holy Spirit

text: For the large majority of Christians, the Holy Spirit (or Holy Ghost, from Old English "gast", "spirit") is the third person of the Trinity: The "Triune God" manifested as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; each Person being God. Two symbols from the New Testament canon are associated with the Holy Spirit in Christian iconography: a winged dove, and tongues of fire. Each depiction of the Holy Spirit arose from different accounts in the Gospel narratives; the first being at the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River where the Holy Spirit was said to descend in the form of a dove as the voice of God the Father spoke as described in Matthew, Mark, and Luke; the second being from the day of Pentecost, fifty days after Easter where the descent of the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ, as tongues of fire as described in the Acts of the Apostles, as promised by Jesus in his farewell discourse.


title: Holy Spirit

text: Called "the unveiled epiphany of God", the Holy Spirit is the One who empowers the followers of Jesus with spiritual gifts and power that enables the proclamation of Jesus Christ, and the power that brings conviction of faith.


title: Holy Spirit

text: The Holy Spirit (Arabic: روح القدس "Ruh al-Qudus", "the Spirit of Holiness") is mentioned four times in the Qur'an, where it acts as an agent of divine action or communication. The Muslim interpretation of the Holy Spirit is generally consistent with other interpretations based upon the Old and the New Testaments. On the basis of narrations in certain Hadith some Muslims identify it with the angel Gabriel (Arabic "Jibrāʾīl"). The Spirit (الروح "al-Ruh", without the adjective "holy" or "exalted") is described, among other things, as the creative spirit from God by which God enlivened Adam, and which inspired in various ways God's messengers and prophets, including Jesus and Abraham. The belief in a "Holy Trinity", according to the Qur'an, is forbidden and deemed to be blasphemy. The same prohibition applies to any idea of the duality of God (Allah).


title: Holy Spirit

text: The Baháʼí Faith has the concept of the "Most Great Spirit", seen as the bounty of God. It is usually used to describe the descent of the Spirit of God upon the messengers/prophets of God who include, among others, Jesus, Muhammad and Bahá'u'lláh.


title: Holy Spirit

text: In Baháʼí belief, the Holy Spirit is the conduit through which the wisdom of God becomes directly associated with his messenger, and it has been described variously in different religions such as the burning bush to Moses, the sacred fire to Zoroaster, the dove to Jesus, the angel Gabriel to Muhammad, and the Maid of Heaven to Bahá'u'lláh (founder of the Baháʼí Faith). The Baháʼí view rejects the idea that the Holy Spirit is a partner to God in the Godhead, but rather is the pure essence of God's attributes.


title: Holy Spirit

text: The Hindu concept of Advaita is linked to the Trinity and has been briefly explained by Raimon Panikkar. He states that the Holy Spirit, as one of the Three Persons of the Trinity of "father, Logos and Holy Spirit", is a bridge-builder between Christianity and Hinduism. He explains that: "The meeting of spiritualistic can take place in the Spirit. No new 'system' has primarily to come of this encounter, but a new and yet old spirit must emerge." "Atman" is Vedic terminology elaborated in Hindu scriptures such as Upanishads and Vedanta signifies the Ultimate Reality and Absolute.


title: Holy Spirit

text: In Zoroastrianism, the Holy Spirit, also known as Spenta Mainyu, is a hypostasis of Ahura Mazda, the supreme Creator God of Zoroastrianism; the Holy Spirit is seen as the source of all goodness in the universe, the spark of all life within humanity, and is the ultimate guide for humanity to righteousness and communion with God. The Holy Spirit is put in direct opposition to its eternal dual counterpart, Angra Mainyu, who is the source of all wickedness and who leads humanity astray.


title: Holy Spirit

text: The ancient Gnostic text known as the Secret Book of John refers to the supreme female principle Barbelo as the Holy Spirit.


title: Ekaterina Gordeeva

text: Ekaterina "Katia" Alexandrovna Gordeeva (; born 28 May 1971) is a Russian figure skater. Together with her husband, the late Sergei Grinkov, she was the 1988 and 1994 Olympic Champion and four-time World Champion (1986, 1987, 1989, 1990) in pair skating. After Grinkov's death, Gordeeva continued performing as a singles skater.


title: Ekaterina Gordeeva

text: Often called "Katia," Gordeeva was born in Moscow, Soviet Union (now Russia) to Elena Lvovna Gordeeva, a teletype operator for TASS, and Alexander Alexeyevich Gordeev, a dancer for the Alexandrov Song and Dance Ensemble. Gordeeva said, "[My father] worked with me on movement very often when I was little." Gordeeva has a younger sister, Maria Alexandrovna Gordeeva (born 1975), who lives in Moscow.


title: Ekaterina Gordeeva

text: Gordeeva began figure skating at age four, when she entered Children and Youth Sports School of CSKA Moscow. She wore multiple pairs of socks inside skates many sizes too big because skates small enough for her feet were unavailable in the Soviet Union. She was not a particularly strong jumper, and in August 1981, coach Vladimir Zaharov paired the 11-year-old Gordeeva with the 15-year-old Sergei Grinkov. Because Grinkov frequently missed practice, their coach eventually insisted that Gordeeva pair with someone else, but she refused. Instead, the pair changed coaches.


title: Ekaterina Gordeeva

text: Gordeeva and Grinkov won the 1985 World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The following year they won the first of their four World Figure Skating Championships. They are one of the few pair teams to win back-to-back junior and senior world championship titles. They successfully defended their world title in 1987. In November 1987, Grinkov caught a blade on the ice during a practice session and dropped Gordeeva on her forehead. She was hospitalized for a time, but they were still able to compete in and win a gold medal at the 1988 Winter Olympics, which began the following February in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. They remain the youngest pairs team ever to win Olympic gold. After a fall in their long program, they took silver at the World Championships in 1988, but reclaimed the title in 1989 and 1990. They turned professional in the fall 1990, winning their first World Professional Championship in 1991. They also won that title in 1992 and 1994.


title: Ekaterina Gordeeva

text: Gordeeva and Grinkov won almost every competition they entered. In the 31 competitions whose results are known at the senior and professional levels, they finished first 24 times and never lower than second place from the time they won their first senior world title. They are one of the few pair teams in history to successfully complete a quadruple twist lift in international competition. They landed the difficult element with ease at the 1987 World Championships. They also completed the element at the 1987 European Championships, but due to a problem with Grinkov's boot strap and a misunderstanding about the rules (the referee signaled them to stop, going so far as to turn off their music, but they continued skating), they were disqualified from that event. They stopped performing the quad twist because it made no significant improvement to their marks, making the added physical stress unnecessary. Katia writes in her book, "My Sergei: A Love Story," that this element raised her heart rate and blood pressure to levels that alarmed the Soviet team's doctors. "That summer we had learned a very difficult move called the quadruple split twist," she wrote, "in which Sergei threw me in the air, I did a split, then closed my legs and made four turns before he caught me. We were the only pair to do this quadruple element, and it was very exhausting—more exhausting than difficult, really. Soviet doctors had measured my pulse rate as exceeding two hundred beats per minute when I did it."


title: Ekaterina Gordeeva

text: By 1989, the skating partnership had grown into a romantic relationship. They shared their first kiss on New Year's Eve 1988 and were married in April 1991. Their state wedding was on 20 April and the church wedding was on 28 April. From November 1991 through April 1992, they toured with Stars on Ice for the first time. On 11 September 1992, their daughter, Daria Sergeyevna Grinkova, was born in Morristown, New Jersey. Shortly after Daria's birth, Gordeeva resumed training for the new season of Stars on Ice, which premiered in November 1992 and continued through the following April.


title: Ekaterina Gordeeva

text: When a new ISU rule allowed professional skaters to regain their Olympic eligibility, Gordeeva and Grinkov decided to return to amateur competition for the 1993–94 season and skate in the Olympics. In 1994, the couple won their second Olympic gold medal in Lillehammer, Oppland, Norway.


title: Ekaterina Gordeeva

text: After the Olympics, the pair returned to professional skating and moved to Simsbury, Connecticut. During the 1994–95 season, they toured with Stars on Ice, this time as headliners. That year, Gordeeva was named one of the "50 Most Beautiful People" by People Magazine. That summer, Gordeeva and Grinkov were chosen for induction into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame.


title: Ekaterina Gordeeva

text: They planned to return to Stars on Ice for their fourth season with the tour. On 20 November 1995, while the pair were rehearsing in Lake Placid, New York for opening night of the upcoming tour, Grinkov collapsed on the ice and died at age 28 from a massive heart attack. Doctors later discovered that he had a congenital heart condition which caused his death.


title: Ekaterina Gordeeva

text: Arguably the most influential, celebrated and highly decorated pair team in the history of the sport, many consider them to be the greatest pair team ever to take the ice. They are often referred to simply as "G&G". They were known for the quality of their basic skating technique: "Grinkov and Gordeeva had something special that was more easily appreciated in person. They didn't make noise when they skated. They moved so fluidly that their blades whispered over the ice, not scratching at it."


title: Ekaterina Gordeeva

text: In February 1996, Gordeeva returned to the ice, this time as a solo performer. Her first performance was a tribute to her late husband, skated to the "Adagietto" section of Gustav Mahler's "Symphony No. 5." The number was publicly performed only twice, first at a preview performance at the Minto Skating Club in Ottawa, Ontario and then on 27 February 1996, in a televised tribute to Grinkov called "Celebration of a Life," in which numerous skating luminaries took part. Gordeeva has said that she felt as if she skated with Sergei that night, that she was "double strong" because she felt him with her. The same year, with the aid of author E. M. Swift, she told her story in a book titled "". In February 1998, CBS aired an eponymous docudrama based on the book. She published a second book in April 1998, titled "A Letter for Daria". In 1998, she told an interviewer that "My life of great skating, and skating with him, is over ... I don't try to go now for Olympics. I take skating for a job."


title: Ekaterina Gordeeva

text: Gordeeva returned to Stars on Ice as a solo skater in 1996 and toured with the show every year until 2000, when she took time off to give birth to another daughter, Elizaveta Ilinichna Kulik, in June 2001. Gordeeva has returned to the tour as a guest star many times, but has never returned to full-time touring. In addition to tours and shows, Gordeeva competed successfully as a professional solo skater, finishing as high as second place at the World Professional Championships (in 1997). She stopped competing in 2000, but continues to skate in professional skating tours, shows and competitions. While she has never returned to pair skating as a full-time endeavor, she has performed pair elements in many shows through the years with partners including Artur Dmitriev, Anton Sikharulidze, David Pelletier and John Zimmerman. For the 1998–1999 season of Stars on Ice, she and fellow Russians Ilia Kulik, Elena Bechke and Denis Petrov performed a quartet which showcased her pair skills, and in 1999–2000, she and Kulik skated a romantic duet during the tour.


title: Ekaterina Gordeeva

text: Gordeeva has signed several endorsement contracts, the most notable of which was with Target and led to two perfumes ("Katia" and "Katia Sport") which were sold through Target stores. Gordeeva and her daughter, Daria, appeared in the 1997 holiday movie "Snowden on Ice" as part of the "CBS Sports Special;" Gordeeva appeared in the 1998 sequel, "Snowden's Raggedy Ann and Andy Holiday Show". She has represented Rolex and also appeared with Daria in a "Got Milk?" ad.


title: Ekaterina Gordeeva

text: In 2001, she was the subject of a Lenox figurine called "Katia's Celebration of Life," which depicts her performing a layback spin in the tribute she skated for Grinkov. She also appeared in the 2003 "Sports Illustrated" Swimsuit Issue as a featured athlete. In 2003, she appeared on the ice for the first time with Daria. The pair performed a duet during a Mother's Day show and took the ice together several times since 2003, including two different versions of Amy Grant's "Children of the World" at Kristi Yamaguchi's "Family & Friends" shows in 2005 and 2006. During that show in 2007, the mother-daughter duo became a trio when they were joined by Gordeeva's younger daughter, Liza, and all three skated together to "Homesick" performed live by The Cheetah Girls. Since 2007, all three are amateur skaters together.


title: Ekaterina Gordeeva

text: In 2007, Gordeeva starred in "Skate for the Heart", a show designed to raise awareness of heart disease. She skated in honor of Grinkov. Gordeeva briefly returned to pairs skating during the 2008–09 season when she participated in a Russian reality television show called "Ice Age 2", a figure skating version of "Dancing with the Stars". She was paired with Russian actor Egor Beroev and they won the show. During the taping of "Ice Age 2", she flew to the United States from Russia to headline "Skate for the Heart" a second time. She dedicated a number to the memory of her father, Alexander Gordeev, who died of a heart attack in 2008. In 2010, she was paired with hockey player Valeri Bure in another figure skating reality show, "Battle of the Blades". In the 22 November 2010 finale, she and Bure won the competition. Gordeeva rejoined Stars on Ice in November 2010 for the 25th Anniversary Tour.


title: Ekaterina Gordeeva

text: In addition to her skating, Gordeeva has ventured into coaching and choreography. She is currently a member of the coaching team at the Ice Palace Figure Skating Club in West Edmonton Mall.


title: Ekaterina Gordeeva

text: Gordeeva and Grinkov had a state wedding on 20 April 1991 and a church wedding on 28 April. Their daughter, Daria Sergeyevna Gordeeva-Grinkova, was born on 11 September 1992, in Morristown, New Jersey. On 20 November 1995, Grinkov died of a heart attack during practice in Lake Placid, New York.


title: Ekaterina Gordeeva

text: On 15 June 2001, Gordeeva gave birth to her second daughter, Elizaveta (or the diminutive "Liza," pronounced LEE-za) Ilinichna Kulik. Her father is 1998 Olympic men's singles champion Ilia Kulik. Gordeeva and Kulik married in a private ceremony in San Francisco on 10 June 2002.


title: Ekaterina Gordeeva

text: Gordeeva and her family resided in California for several years before moving to Avon, Connecticut, in 2003. They returned to the Los Angeles area in 2007 and resided in Newport Beach, California. Gordeeva, Kulik, Daria, and Elizaveta made their first televised appearance as a family for Kristi Yamaguchi's Friends and Family in 2005 and appeared in the 2006 and 2007 versions of the show. Gordeeva and her family spoke Russian at home and frequently traveled to Russia.


title: Ekaterina Gordeeva

text: In 2012, Kulik and Gordeeva opened Kulik's Skating, an ice rink and figure skating training environment in Lake Forest, California. Gordeeva and Kulik divorced in 2016.


title: Ekaterina Gordeeva

text: Gordeeva married Canadian figure skater David Pelletier on 25 July 2020. They live in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.


title: Ekaterina Gordeeva

text: "My Sergei: A Love Story" was written by Gordeeva with "Sports Illustrated" writer E. M. Swift and published in 1996. Gordeeva's account of her years together with Grinkov topped the New York Times Best Seller list and includes many black-and-white and color photos from Gordeeva and Grinkov's personal collection, as well as publicity photos from their various touring groups, such as Stars On Ice. A made-for-television movie version of "My Sergei" was also made Directed by Rob Dustin . Starring the Russian pair Elena Berezhnaya / Anton Sikharulidze, it included interviews with family and friends and archival skating footage.


title: Ekaterina Gordeeva

text: The children's book "A Letter for Daria" was written by Gordeeva for her daughter. It is an autobiographical letter from mother to daughter about childhood memories, skating, differences between Russian and American culture and the importance of family. It includes several pictures from Gordeeva's personal collection.


title: Gettysburg (1993 film)

text: Gettysburg is a 1993 American epic war film about the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War. Written and directed by Ronald F. Maxwell, the film was adapted from the 1974 historical novel "The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara. It features an ensemble cast, including Tom Berenger as James Longstreet, Jeff Daniels as Joshua Chamberlain, Martin Sheen as Robert E. Lee, Stephen Lang as George Pickett, and Sam Elliott as John Buford.


title: Gettysburg (1993 film)

text: Originally filmed as a miniseries for TNT, "Gettysburg" received a limited theatrical release from New Line Cinema under the direction of Ted Turner, who owned both entities. At 254 minutes (4 hours and 14 minutes), it is one of the longest films released by a major film studio in the United States. It received positive reviews from critics, but grossed only $12.7 million on a $20 million budget. It was however considered a hit regardless, due to its immediate TNT premiere ratings success, and subsequent home video sales. A prequel entitled "Gods and Generals" was released in 2003, also directed by Maxwell and featuring many returning cast members.


title: Gettysburg (1993 film)

text: The film begins with a narrated map showing the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by Robert E. Lee, crossing the Potomac River to invade the North in June 1863, marching across Maryland and into Pennsylvania. On June 30, Confederate spy Henry Thomas Harrison reports to Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, commander of the First Corps, that the Union Army of the Potomac is moving in their direction, and that Union commander Joseph Hooker has been replaced by George Meade. Longstreet reports the information to General Lee, who is concerned that the army is moving "on the word of an actor", as opposed to that of his cavalry chief, J. E. B. Stuart. Nonetheless, Lee orders the army to concentrate near the town of Gettysburg. At the Union encampments near Union Mills, Maryland, Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain of the 20th Maine is ordered to take in 120 men from the disbanded 2nd Maine who had resigned in protest, with permission to shoot any man who refuses to fight. Chamberlain speaks to the men, and is able to persuade all but six to take up arms.


title: Gettysburg (1993 film)

text: In Gettysburg, Brig. Gen. John Buford and his cavalry division spot elements of Henry Heth's division of A. P. Hill's Third Corps approaching the town and recognizes that the main body of the Confederate army is approaching. Buford recognizes that, with precedent from previous battles, the Confederates will arrive at Gettysburg first and entrench in strong positions, forcing the Union to charge them and suffer heavy casualties. To prevent this, he opts to stand and fight where he is, judging the terrain to be "lovely ground" for slowing the Confederate advance. Buford sends word to I Corps commander Maj. Gen. John F. Reynolds to bring up reinforcements. Heth's troops engage Buford's cavalry the following morning, July 1, with Richard S. Ewell's Second Corps moving in to flank them. Reynolds brings his corps forward, but is killed by a Confederate sharpshooter. The Union army is pushed out of Gettysburg to Cemetery Ridge, and Lee—rejecting Longstreet's suggestion to redeploy south of Gettysburg and go on the defensive—orders Ewell to take the Union position "if practicable". However, Ewell hesitates and does not engage. The armies concentrate at their chosen positions for the remainder of the first day. At Confederate headquarters at Seminary Ridge, Maj. Gen. Isaac R. Trimble angrily denounces Ewell's inaction to Lee, and requests another assignment.


title: Gettysburg (1993 film)

text: On the second day, July 2, Col. Strong Vincent's brigade from the Union V Corps is deployed to Little Round Top, and Vincent places the 20th Maine at the end of the line, warning Chamberlain that he and his regiment are the flank, and that if they retreat, the Confederate army can swing around behind them and rout the Union forces. Lee orders Longstreet to deploy his two available divisions to take Little Round Top and the neighboring Big Round Top. As Longstreet's corps deploys, Maj. Gen. John Bell Hood, commanding one of the divisions, protests to Longstreet; with the Union holding the high ground, he would lose half his forces if he attacked as ordered. Longstreet, despite his own protests to Lee, orders Hood to attack; Hood is later wounded fighting at Devil's Den. At the summit of Little Round Top, Chamberlain and the 20th Maine fight off wave after wave of advancing Confederates, and begin running out of ammunition. Colonel Vincent is mortally wounded, and none of the other three regiments in his brigade are able to provide support. Chamberlain orders his men to fix bayonets, and charge in a right wheel down the slope against the attacking Confederates, which Chamberlain describes as "we'll swing it down; we swing like a door." The attack successfully drives the Confederate assault back, and the Union flank holds. That evening, Stuart finally arrives, and Lee reprimands him for his being out of contact. At the same time, Longstreet's remaining division, under Maj. Gen. George Pickett, arrives on the field.


title: Gettysburg (1993 film)

text: For the third day, July 3, Lee decides to send three divisions—Pickett's, Trimble's, and J. Johnston Pettigrew's—to attack the center of the Union line at Cemetery Ridge. Longstreet expresses his belief to Lee that the attack will fail, as the movement is a mile over open ground, and that the Union II Corps under Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock is deployed behind a stone wall, just as Longstreet's men had been at Fredericksburg. Lee nonetheless orders the attack to proceed. Longstreet then meets with the three division commanders and details the plan, beginning first with Colonel Edward Porter Alexander's artillery clearing the Union guns off the ridge, before deploying the men forward. Despite heavy Confederate fire, Alexander is unable to make an impact upon the Union guns. When Pickett asks to move forward, Longstreet simply nods. The Confederate divisions march across the open field, and Hancock is wounded as he commands from the front line. One of Pickett's brigades, commanded by Brig. Gen. Lewis Armistead, makes it over the stone wall, but Armistead is wounded and captured by Union troops. The Confederates retreat due to high casualties. Seeing a despondent General Pickett, General Lee implores him to "See to his division" to which Picket replies "General Lee, I have no division": Pickett's Charge ultimately fails. Meeting with Longstreet that evening, Lee finally decides that they will withdraw. The film ends with the fates of the major figures of the battle.


title: Gettysburg (1993 film)

text: Ted Turner, the owner of the film's production company Turner Pictures, has an uncredited appearance as Colonel Waller T. Patton.


title: Gettysburg (1993 film)

text: Ken Burns, who wrote and directed the 1990 documentary "The Civil War", portrays an aide to Hancock. Civil War historian Brian Pohanka makes an uncredited appearance as Brigadier General Alexander S. Webb. The character Sergeant Owen is portrayed by Mark Moses. Matt Letscher, who would later appear in the 2003 prequel "Gods and Generals" as Colonel Adelbert Ames, makes his film debut as a 2nd Maine soldier.


title: Gettysburg (1993 film)

text: Reeves Teletape Studios first acquired the rights for an adaptation of "The Killer Angels" in 1978. In 1981, Ronald F. Maxwell acquired the rights to the property and hired Michael Sharaa to write a screenplay adaptation. Although Sharaa died in 1988, Maxwell completed the 400-page screenplay. PolyGram Pictures agreed to produce the project as a film starring Robert Duvall and William Hurt but went bankrupt shortly afterwards. Maxwell was unable to sell the project to any other studio because of the failures of recent historical epics such as "Heaven's Gate" and "Revolution". Kevin Costner was interested in adapting the film but chose instead to direct "Dances with Wolves".


title: Gettysburg (1993 film)

text: Although Maxwell was displeased with American Civil War television series such as "North and South" and "The Blue and the Gray", he reluctantly decided to try to release the project as a television series. The producers originally pitched the project to ABC in 1991, as a TV miniseries. ABC initially agreed to back the project, but when a miniseries about George Armstrong Custer, "Son of the Morning Star" (1991), got low ratings and after the Gulf War started, ABC pulled out. Maxwell, with help from documentarian Ken Burns, finally secured funding for the film from Ted Turner at the 3rd Golden Laurel Awards in 1991. Originally it was planned as a miniseries for Turner Network Television, but it was released as a film instead.


title: Gettysburg (1993 film)

text: Duvall decided against starring as Robert E. Lee in order to appear in "Stalin", while Albert Finney and George C. Scott declined the role.


title: Gettysburg (1993 film)

text: For the first time, the National Park Service allowed the motion picture industry to recreate and film battle scenes directly on the Gettysburg Battlefield, including scenes of Devil's Den and Little Round Top. However, much of the movie was shot at a nearby Adams County farm. Thousands of Civil War reenactors from across the country volunteered their time to come to Gettysburg to participate in the massive battle scenes.


title: Gettysburg (1993 film)

text: During filming of the battle scenes on Little Round Top, Bradley Egen, an extra playing a Union soldier, was unintentionally struck in the head by the butt of a musket and suffered a mild concussion, however Bradley was able to resume light duties the following day.


title: Gettysburg (1993 film)

text: Two more soundtracks, "More Songs and Music From Gettysburg" and a "Deluxe Commemorative Edition", were released as well. The first one included popular songs from the time period and a recitation of the Gettysburg Address by Jeff Daniels, while the second featured the original soundtrack album (above) and a second disc several previously unreleased tracks from the score and the aforementioned recitation.


title: Gettysburg (1993 film)

text: The miniseries was set to air on TNT, but when Ted Turner saw part of the film during post-production, he realized it was much bigger than a miniseries and decided to release the film theatrically. The film was distributed by New Line Cinema which Turner had just acquired. Only released to 248 theaters at its widest release and limited to just one or two showings per day because of its length, the film still managed to gross $12,769,960 at the box office. It would go on to become an all-time high seller on the VHS and DVD market, and has become a staple of classroom history lessons. Its June 1994 broadcast TV premiere, on TNT, garnered over 34 million viewers, a record for cable TV.


title: Gettysburg (1993 film)

text: One of the longest films ever released by a Hollywood studio, "Gettysburg" runs 254 minutes (4 hours, 14 minutes) on VHS and DVD. A "Director's Cut", 271-minute (4 hours, 31 minutes), with several extended or added scenes, was produced and sold as a part of a special "Collector's Edition" released on DVD and Blu-ray in 2011, to coincide with 150th commemoration of beginning of the Civil War in April 1861. It was also released in the UK by the Premium Collection as a DVD and Blu-ray combo which includes the Directors extended version and is number 21 in the collection.


title: Gettysburg (1993 film)

text: "Gettysburg" received a 77% positive rating on the film critics aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 22 reviews. The site's consensus states: ""Gettysburg"s reverent approach to history is balanced with the committed work of a talented cast - and the hard-hitting dramatization of a bloody turning point in the Civil War."


title: Gettysburg (1993 film)

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film three out of four stars, stating, "This is a film that Civil War buffs will find indispensable, even if others might find it interminable." Ebert said that despite his initial indifference, he left the film with a new understanding of the Civil War, and that he felt Jeff Daniels deserved an Oscar nomination for his performance. Ebert also gave the film a "thumbs-up" on "Siskel & Ebert", while Gene Siskel gave it a "thumbs-down", saying the film was "bloated Southern propaganda". He, however, also praised Daniels's performance and recommended his nomination for an Oscar.


title: Gettysburg (1993 film)

text: "Gods and Generals", a prequel based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Jeff Shaara (Michael Shaara's son), was released in 2003. It was also written and directed by Ronald F. Maxwell and featured many returning cast members, including Jeff Daniels as Joshua Chamberlain, Kevin Conway as Buster Kilrain, and C. Thomas Howell as Thomas Chamberlain. Stephen Lang, who portrayed George Pickett in the first film, also returned, but in the role of Stonewall Jackson after scheduling conflicts prevented Russell Crowe from taking the part. Billy Campbell, who portrayed Andrew Lewis Pitzer in "Gettysburg", replaced Lang as Pickett. New cast members included Robert Duvall as Robert E. Lee, replacing Martin Sheen.


title: Gettysburg (1993 film)

text: The film received negative reviews from critics and was a commercial failure, grossing $12.8 million on a $56 million budget.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: The pillars of Ashoka are a series of monolithic columns dispersed throughout the Indian subcontinent, erected or at least inscribed with edicts by the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka during his reign from c.  268 to 232 BCE. Ashoka used the expression "Dhaṃma thaṃbhā" (Dharma stambha), i.e. "pillars of the Dharma" to describe his own pillars. These pillars constitute important monuments of the architecture of India, most of them exhibiting the characteristic Mauryan polish. Of the pillars erected by Ashoka, twenty still survive including those with inscriptions of his edicts. Only a few with animal capitals survive of which seven complete specimens are known. Two pillars were relocated by Firuz Shah Tughlaq to Delhi. Several pillars were relocated later by Mughal Empire rulers, the animal capitals being removed. Averaging between in height, and weighing up to 50 tons each, the pillars were dragged, sometimes hundreds of miles, to where they were erected.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: The pillars of Ashoka are among the earliest known stone sculptural remains from India. Only another pillar fragment, the Pataliputra capital, is possibly from a slightly earlier date. It is thought that before the 3rd century BCE, wood rather than stone was used as the main material for Indian architectural constructions, and that stone may have been adopted following interaction with the Persians and the Greeks. A graphic representation of the Lion Capital of Ashoka from the column there was adopted as the official State Emblem of India in 1950.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: All the pillars of Ashoka were built at Buddhist monasteries, many important sites from the life of the Buddha and places of pilgrimage. Some of the columns carry inscriptions addressed to the monks and nuns. Some were erected to commemorate visits by Ashoka. Major pillars are present in the Indian States of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and some parts of Haryana.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: Ashoka ascended to the throne in 269 BC inheriting the Mauryan empire founded by his grandfather Chandragupta Maurya. Ashoka was reputedly a tyrant at the outset of his reign. Eight years after his accession he campaigned in Kalinga where in his own words, "a hundred and fifty thousand people were deported, a hundred thousand were killed and as many as that perished..." As he explains in his edicts, after this event Ashoka converted to Buddhism in remorse for the loss of life. Buddhism became a state religion and with Ashoka's support it spread rapidly. The inscriptions on the pillars set out edicts about morality based on Buddhist tenets.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: The traditional idea that all were originally quarried at Chunar, just south of Varanasi and taken to their sites, before or after carving, "can no longer be confidently asserted", and instead it seems that the columns were carved in two types of stone. Some were of the spotted red and white sandstone from the region of Mathura, the others of buff-colored fine grained hard sandstone usually with small black spots quarried in the Chunar near Varanasi. The uniformity of style in the pillar capitals suggests that they were all sculpted by craftsmen from the same region. It would therefore seem that stone was transported from Mathura and Chunar to the various sites where the pillars have been found, and there was cut and carved by craftsmen.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: The pillars have four component parts in two pieces: the three sections of the capitals are made in a single piece, often of a different stone to that of the monolithic shaft to which they are attached by a large metal dowel. The shafts are always plain and smooth, circular in cross-section, slightly tapering upwards and always chiselled out of a single piece of stone. There is no distinct base at the bottom of the shaft. The lower parts of the capitals have the shape and appearance of a gently arched bell formed of lotus petals. The abaci are of two types: square and plain and circular and decorated and these are of different proportions. The crowning animals are masterpieces of Mauryan art, shown either seated or standing, always in the round and chiselled as a single piece with the abaci. Presumably all or most of the other columns that now lack them once had capitals and animals. They are also used to commemorate the events of the Buddha's life.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: Currently seven animal sculptures from Ashoka pillars survive. These form "the first important group of Indian stone sculpture", though it is thought they derive from an existing tradition of wooden columns topped by animal sculptures in copper, none of which have survived. It is also possible that some of the stone pillars predate Ashoka's reign.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: There has been much discussion of the extent of influence from Achaemenid Persia, where the column capitals supporting the roofs at Persepolis have similarities, and the "rather cold, hieratic style" of the Sarnath Lion Capital of Ashoka especially shows "obvious Achaemenid and Sargonid influence". India and the Achaemenid Empire had been in close contact since the Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley, from circa 500 BCE to 330 BCE.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: Hellenistic influence has also been suggested. In particular the abaci of some of the pillars (especially the Rampurva bull, the Sankissa elephant and the Allahabad pillar capital) use bands of motifs, like the bead and reel pattern, the ovolo, the flame palmettes, lotuses, which likely originated from Greek and Near-Eastern arts. Such examples can also be seen in the remains of the Mauryan capital city of Pataliputra.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: It has also been suggested that 6th century Greek columns such as the Sphinx of Naxos, a 12.5m Ionic column crowned by a sitted animal in the religious center of Delphi, may have been an inspiration for the pillars of Ashoka. Many similar columns crowned by sphinxes were discovered in ancient Greece, as in Sparta, Athens or Spata, and some . The Greek sphinx, a lion with the face of a human female, was considered as having ferocious strength, and was thought of as a guardian, often flanking the entrances to temples or royal tombs.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: Some scholars such as John Irwin emphasized a reassessment from popular belief of Persian or Greek origin of Ashokan pillars. He makes the argument that Ashokan pillars represent Dhvaja or standard which Indian soldiers carried with them during battle and it was believed that the destruction of the enemy's dhvaja brought misfortune to their opponents. A relief of Bharhut stupa railing portrays a queenly personage on horseback carrying a "Garudadhvaja." Heliodorus pillar has been called Garudadhvaja, literally Garuda-standard, the pillar dated to 2nd century BC is perhaps the earliest recorded stone pillar which has been declared a dhvaja.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: Ashokan edicts themselves state that his words should be carved on any stone slab or pillars available indicating that the tradition of carving stone pillars was present before the period of Ashoka.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: John Irwin also highlights the fact that carvings on pillars such as Allahabad pillar was done when it had already been erected indicating its pre Ashokan origins.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: Though influence from the west is generally accepted, especially the Persian columns of Achaemenid Persia, there are a number of differences between these and the pillars. Persian columns are built in segments whereas Ashokan pillars are monoliths, like some much later Roman columns. Most of the Persian pillars have a fluted shaft while the Mauryan pillars are smooth, and Persian pillars serve as supporting structures whereas Ashokan pillars are individual free-standing monuments. There are also other differences in the decoration. Indian historian Upinder Singh comments on some of the differences and similarities, writing that "If the Ashokan pillars cannot in their entirety be attributed to Persian influence, they must have had an undocumented prehistory within the subcontinent, perhaps a tradition of wooden carving. But the transition from stone to wood was made in one magnificent leap, no doubt spurred by the imperial tastes and ambitions of the Maurya emperors."


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: Whatever the cultural and artistic borrowings from the west, the pillars of Ashoka, together with much of Mauryan art and architectural prowesses such as the city of Pataliputra or the Barabar Caves, remain outstanding in their achievements, and often compare favourably with the rest of the world at that time. Commenting on Mauryan sculpture, John Marshall once wrote about the "extraordinary precision and accuracy which characterizes all Mauryan works, and which has never, we venture to say, been surpassed even by the finest workmanship on Athenian buildings".


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: Five of the pillars of Ashoka, two at Rampurva, one each at Vaishali, Lauriya Araraj and Lauria Nandangarh possibly marked the course of the ancient Royal highway from Pataliputra to Nepal. Several pillars were relocated by later Mughal Empire rulers, the animal capitals being removed.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: The two Chinese medieval pilgrim accounts record sightings of several columns that have now vanished: Faxian records six and Xuanzang fifteen, of which only five at most can be identified with surviving pillars. All surviving pillars, listed with any crowning animal sculptures and the edicts inscribed, are as follows:


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: The Amaravati pillar fragment is rather problematic. It only consists in 6 lines in Brahmi which are hardly decipherable. Only the word "vijaya" (victory) can be made out, arguably a word also used by Ashoka. Sircar, who provides a detailed study, considers it as probably belonging to an Ashokan pillar.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: There are also several known fragments of Ashokan pillars, without recovered Ashokan inscriptions, such as the , Kausambi, Gotihawa, Prahladpur (now in the Government Sanskrit College, Varanasi), Fatehabad, Bhopal, Sadagarli, Udaigiri-Vidisha, Kushinagar, Arrah (Masarh) Basti, Bhikana Pahari, Bulandi Bagh (Pataliputra), Sandalpu and a few others, as well as a broken pillar in Bhairon ("Lat Bhairo" in Benares) which was destroyed to a stump during riots in 1908. The Chinese monks Fa-Hsien and Hsuantsang also reported pillars in Kushinagar, the Jetavana monastery in Sravasti, Rajagriha and Mahasala, which have not been recovered to this day.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: There are altogether seven remaining complete capitals, five with lions, one with an elephant and one with a zebu bull. One of them, the four lions of Sarnath, has become the State Emblem of India. The animal capitals are composed of a lotiform base, with an abacus decorated with floral, symbolic or animal designs, topped by the realistic depiction of an animal, thought to each represent a traditional directions in India.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: Various foreign influences have been described in the design of these capitals. The animal on top of a lotiform capital reminds of Achaemenid column shapes. The abacus also often seems to display some influence of Greek art: in the case of the Rampurva bull or the Sankassa elephant, it is composed of honeysuckles alternated with stylized palmettes and small rosettes. A similar kind of design can be seen in the frieze of the lost capital of the Allahabad pillar. These designs likely originated in Greek and Near-Eastern arts. They would probably have come from the neighboring Seleucid Empire, and specifically from a Hellenistic city such as Ai-Khanoum, located at the doorstep of India. Most of these designs and motifs can also be seen in the Pataliputra capital.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: The Diamond throne of Bodh Gaya is another example of Ashokan architecture circa 260 BCE, and displays a band of carvings with palmettes and geese, similar to those found on several of the Pillars of Ashoka.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: Based on stylistic and technical analysis, it is possible to establish a tentative chronological orders for the pillars. The earliest one seems to be the Vaishali pillar, with its stout and short column, the rigid lion and the undecorated square abacus. Next would follow the Sankissa elephant and the Rampurva bull, also not yet benefiting from Mauryan polish, and using a Hellenistic abacus of lotus and palmettes for decoration. The abacus would then adopt the Hamsa goose as an animal decorative symbol, in Lauria Nandangarh and the Rampurva lion. Sanchi and Sarnath would mark the culmination with four animals back-to-back instead of just one, and a new and sophisticated animal and symbolic abacus (the elephant, the bull, the lion, the horse alternating with the Dharma wheel) for the Sarnath lion.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: Other chronological orders have also been proposed, for example based on the style of the Ashokan inscriptions on the pillars, since the stylistically most sophisticated pillars actually have the engravings of the Edicts of Ashoka of the worst quality (namely, very poorly engraved on the Sanchi and Sarnath pillars, their only inscriptions). This approach offers an almost reverse chronological order to the preceding one. According to Irwin, the Sankissa elephant and Rampurva bull pillars with their Hellenistic abacus are pre-Ashokan. Ashoka would then have commissioned the Sarnath pillar with its famous Lion Capital of Ashoka to be built under the tutelage of craftsmen from the former Achaemenid Empire, trained in Perso-Hellenistic statuary, whereas the Brahmi engraving on the very same pillar (and on pillars of the same period such as Sanchi and Kosambi-Allahabad) was made by inexperienced Indian engravers at a time when stone engraving was still new in India. After Ashoka sent back the foreign artists, style degraded over a short period of time, down to the time when the Major Pillar Edicts were engraved at the end of Ashoka's reign, which now displayed very good inscriptional craftsmanship but a much more solemn and less elegant style for the associated lion capitals, as for the Lauria Nandangarh lion and the Rampurva lion.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: Of the Allahabad pillar, only the abacus remains, the bottom bulb and the crowning animal having been lost. The remains are now located in the Allahabad Museum.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: It is also known from various ancient sculptures (reliefs from Bharhut, 100 BCE), and later narrative account by Chinese pilgrims (5-6th century CE), that there was a pillar of Ashoka at the Mahabodhi Temple founded by Ashoka, that it was crowned by an elephant.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: The same Chinese pilgrims have reported that the capital of the Lumbini pillar was a horse (now lost), which, by their time had already fallen to the ground.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: The inscriptions on the columns include a fairly standard text. The inscriptions on the columns join other, more numerous, Ashokan inscriptions on natural rock faces to form the body of texts known as the Edicts of Ashoka. These inscriptions were dispersed throughout the areas of modern-day Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Afghanistan and Pakistan and represent the first tangible evidence of Buddhism. The edicts describe in detail Ashoka's policy of Dhamma, an earnest attempt to solve some of problems that a complex society faced. In these inscriptions, Ashoka refers to himself as "Beloved servant of the Gods" ("Devanampiyadasi"). The inscriptions revolve around a few recurring themes: Ashoka's conversion to Buddhism, the description of his efforts to spread Buddhism, his moral and religious precepts, and his social and animal welfare program. The edicts were based on Ashoka's ideas on administration and behaviour of people towards one another and religion.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: Alexander Cunningham, one of the first to study the inscriptions on the pillars, remarks that they are written in eastern, middle and western Prakrits which he calls "the Punjabi or north-western dialect, the Ujjeni or middle dialect, and the Magadhi or eastern dialect." They are written in the Brahmi script.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: These contain inscriptions recording their dedication, as well as the Schism Edicts and the Queen's Edict. They were inscribed around the 13th year of Ashoka's reign.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: Asoka's 6 Major Pillar Edicts have been found at Kausambhi (Allahabad), Topra (now Delhi), Meerut (now Delhi), Lauriya-Araraj, Lauriya-Nandangarh, Rampurva (Champaran), and a 7th one on the Delhi-Topra pillar.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: The most celebrated capital (the four-lion one at Sarnath (Uttar Pradesh)) erected by Emperor Ashoka circa 250 BC. also called the "Ashoka Column" . Four lions are seated back to back. At present the Column remains in the same place whereas the Lion Capital is at the Sarnath Museum. This Lion Capital of Ashoka from Sarnath has been adopted as the National Emblem of India and the wheel "Ashoka Chakra" from its base was placed onto the centre of the flag of India.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: The lions probably originally supported a Dharma Chakra wheel with 24 spokes, such as is preserved in the 13th century replica erected at Wat Umong near Chiang Mai, Thailand by Thai king Mangrai.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: The pillar at Sanchi also has a similar but damaged four-lion capital. There are two pillars at Rampurva, one with a bull and the other with a lion as crowning animals. Sankissa has only a damaged elephant capital, which is mainly unpolished, though the abacus is at least partly so. No pillar shaft has been found, and perhaps this was never erected at the site.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: The Vaishali pillar has a single lion capital. The location of this pillar is contiguous to the site where a Buddhist monastery and a sacred coronation tank stood. Excavations are still underway and several stupas suggesting a far flung campus for the monastery have been discovered. The lion faces north, the direction Buddha took on his last voyage. Identification of the site for excavation in 1969 was aided by the fact that this pillar still jutted out of the soil. More such pillars exist in this greater area but they are all devoid of the capital.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: In Prayagraj there is a pillar with inscriptions from Ashoka and later inscriptions attributed to Samudragupta and Jehangir. It is clear from the inscription that the pillar was first erected at Kaushambi, an ancient town some 30 kilometres west of Allahabad that was the capital of the Koshala kingdom, and moved to Allahabad, presumably under Muslim rule.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: The pillar is now located inside the Allahabad Fort, also the royal palace, built during the 16th century by Akbar at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers. As the fort is occupied by the Indian Army it is essentially closed to the public and special permission is required to see the pillar. The Ashokan inscription is in Brahmi and is dated around 232 BC. A later inscription attributed to the second king of the Gupta empire, Samudragupta, is in the more refined Gupta script, a later version of Brahmi, and is dated to around 375 AD. This inscription lists the extent of the empire that Samudragupta built during his long reign. He had already been king for forty years at that time and would rule for another five. A still later inscription in Persian is from the Mughal emperor Jahangir. The Akbar Fort also houses the Akshay Vat, an Indian fig tree of great antiquity. The Ramayana refers to this tree under which Lord Rama is supposed to have prayed while on exile.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: The column at Lauriya-Nandangarh, 23 km from Bettiah in West Champaran district, Bihar has single lion capital. The hump and the hind legs of the lion project beyond the abacus. The pillar at Lauriya-Areraj in East Champaran district, Bihar is presently devoid of any capital.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: The Pillars of Ashoka may have been erected using the same methods that were used to erect the ancient obelisks. Roger Hopkins and Mark Lehrner conducted several obelisk erecting experiments including a successful attempt to erect a 25ton obelisk in 1999. This followed two experiments to erect smaller obelisks and two failed attempts to erect a 25-ton obelisk.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: A number of the pillars were thrown down by either natural causes or iconoclasts, and gradually rediscovered. One was noticed in the 16th century by the English traveller Thomas Coryat in the ruins of Old Delhi. Initially he assumed that from the way it glowed that it was made of brass, but on closer examination he realized it was made of highly polished sandstone with upright script that resembled a form of Greek. In the 1830s James Prinsep began to decipher them with the help of Captain Edward Smith and George Turnour. They determined that the script referred to King Piyadasi which was also the epithet of an Indian ruler known as Ashoka who came to the throne 218 years after Buddha's enlightenment. Scholars have since found 150 of Ashoka's inscriptions, carved into the face of rocks or on stone pillars marking out a domain that stretched across northern India and south below the central plateau of the Deccan. These pillars were placed in strategic sites near border cities and trade routes.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: The Sanchi pillar was found in 1851 in excavations led by Sir Alexander Cunningham, first head of the Archaeological Survey of India. There were no surviving traces above ground of the Sarnath pillar, mentioned in the accounts of medieval Chinese pilgrims, when the Indian Civil Service engineer F.O. Oertel, with no real experience in archaeology, was allowed to excavate there in the winter of 1904–05. He first uncovered the remains of a Gupta shrine west of the main stupa, overlying an Ashokan structure. To the west of that he found the lowest section of the pillar, upright but broken off near ground level. Most of the rest of the pillar was found in three sections nearby, and then, since the Sanchi capital had been excavated in 1851, the search for an equivalent was continued, and the Lion Capital of Ashoka, the most famous of the group, was found close by. It was both finer in execution and in much better condition than that at Sanchi. The pillar appeared to have been deliberately destroyed at some point. The finds were recognised as so important that the first onsite museum in India (and one of the few then in the world) was set up to house them.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: Legend has it that Ashoka built 84,000 stupas commemorating the events and relics of Buddha's life. Some of these stupas contained networks of walls containing the hub, spokes and rim of a wheel, while others contained interior walls in a swastika (卐) shape. The wheel represents the sun, time, and Buddhist law (the wheel of law, or dharmachakra), while the swastika stands for the cosmic dance around a fixed center and guards against evil.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: Ashoka also built the Diamond Throne in Bodh Gaya, at the location where the Buddha had reached enlightenment some 200 years earlier. This purely Buddhist monument to the Buddha is a thick slab of polished grey sandstone with Mauryan polish


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: The sculpted decorations on the Diamond Throne clearly echoe the decorations found on the Pillars of Ashoka. The Diamond Throne has a decorative band made of honeysuckles and geese, which can also be found on several of the Pillars of Ashoka, such as the Rampurva capitals or the Sanchi capital. The geese (hamsa) in particular are a very recurrent symbol on the pillars of Ashoka, and may refer to the devotees flocking to the faith. The same throne is also illustrated in later reliefs from Bharhut, dated to circa 100 BCE.


title: Pillars of Ashoka

text: The 6th century pillar at the tomb of Xiao Jing, or Emperor Jing of Western Liang, is similar to the Ashoka pillar.


title: London Breed

text: London Nicole Breed (born August 11, 1974) is an American politician who is the 45th and current mayor of the City and County of San Francisco. She was supervisor for District 5 and was president of the Board of Supervisors from 2015 to 2018.


title: London Breed

text: Raised in the Western Addition neighborhood of San Francisco, Breed worked in government after college. She was elected to the Board of Supervisors in 2012 (taking office in January 2013), and elected its president in 2015. As president of the Board, Breed, according to the city charter, became the acting mayor of San Francisco following the death of Mayor Ed Lee. She served in this role from December 12, 2017, to January 23, 2018.


title: London Breed

text: Breed won the San Francisco mayoral special election held on June 5, 2018. Breed is the first black woman, second black person after Willie Brown, and second woman after Dianne Feinstein to be elected mayor of San Francisco. She was sworn in as mayor on July 11, 2018.


title: London Breed

text: Born in San Francisco, Breed was raised by her grandmother in Plaza East public housing in the Western Addition neighborhood of the city. Breed later wrote of her childhood in San Francisco: "... five of us living on $900 per month. 'Recycling' meant drinking out of old mayonnaise jars. Violence was never far away. And once a week, we took Grandma's pushcart to the community room to collect government-issued groceries." Her younger sister died of a drug overdose in 2006 and her brother is in prison serving a 44-year sentence for a 2000 manslaughter and armed robbery conviction, for which Breed has repeatedly asked for clemency from the governor's office. Breed said her brother's early release from prison was "what’s best for both Napoleon and society overall".


title: London Breed

text: Breed graduated with honors from Galileo High School. She earned a bachelor's degree in political science-public service from the University of California, Davis in 1997 and a master's degree in public administration from the University of San Francisco in 2012.


title: London Breed

text: Breed worked as an intern in the Office of Housing and Neighborhood Services for Mayor Willie Brown. In 2002, she became the executive director of the African American Art & Culture Complex, where she raised over $2.5 million to renovate the complex's 34,000 square foot space, including an art gallery, theater space, and a recording studio. Breed was named to the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency Commission in 2004. In 2010, Mayor Gavin Newsom appointed her to the San Francisco Fire Commission.


title: London Breed

text: In November 2012, Breed was elected to the District 5 supervisor seat, defeating incumbent Christina Olague, who had been appointed to the seat that year by Mayor Ed Lee after Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi was elected sheriff. Following five rounds of ranked-choice voting allocations, Breed won by over 12 points, marking the first time in San Francisco history that a challenger unseated a district supervisor. (The feat has occurred twice since, with Aaron Peskin unseating Supervisor Julie Christensen in 2015 to reclaim his District 3 seat, and Rafael Mandelman beating Supervisor Jeff Sheehy in District 8 in June 2018.)


title: London Breed

text: Breed was inaugurated as District 5 supervisor on January 8, 2013, with then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris administering the oath of office. On January 8, 2015, Breed was elected President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors first by a vote of 8 to 3 and then unanimously. She defeated supervisor David Campos, who was also nominated for the position. Breed succeeded District Four Supervisor Katy Tang, who assumed the presidency temporarily after then-Board President David Chiu resigned to begin serving in the California Assembly.


title: London Breed

text: As part of an FBI investigation into public corruption and bid-fixing primarily involving then-State Senator Leland Yee, businessman Derf Butler was recorded talking about allegedly paying for access to Breed. According to court documents released in 2015, Butler told an FBI source that he "pays Supervisor Breed with untraceable debit cards for clothing and trips in exchange for advantages on contracts in San Francisco." The allegation was denied by Breed, who as a member of the Board of Supervisors had no role in contract selections, and no evidence has ever been presented to substantiate it.


title: London Breed

text: In February 2016, Breed announced her reelection bid to represent District 5. The top issues she identified in her announcement were building and protecting affordable housing, increasing public safety, improving environmental health, and modernizing public transportation. Dean Preston, an attorney, ran against her. Breed won reelection 52% to 48% on November 8, 2016, beating Preston in 46 of the district's 68 precincts.


title: London Breed

text: Breed was unanimously reelected to another two-year term as Board President on January 9, 2017. No other supervisors were nominated for the position.


title: London Breed

text: Following the death of Mayor Ed Lee on December 12, 2017, Breed became the city's Acting Mayor by virtue of her position as President of the Board of Supervisors. She served in this position until January 23, 2018, when the Board of Supervisors selected Mark Farrell to serve as the interim "caretaker" mayor until a special election on June 5. Supervisors Aaron Peskin, Jane Kim (herself a candidate for Mayor), and others considered the progressive members of the board, sought to deny Breed the benefits of incumbency going into the election and to maintain a separation of powers between the positions of mayor and board president, both of which Breed occupied at the time. Progressive Supervisor Hillary Ronen delivered a speech accusing Breed of being supported by "white, rich men" and billionaires such as Ron Conway.


title: London Breed

text: Breed ran in the mayoral special election held on June 5. She led in the initial count's first-place votes with 35.6 percent, with Mark Leno in second with 25.9 percent, and Kim with 22.8 percent. Leno took the lead early the next day after the initial tabulation of ranked-choice ballots, but Breed retook the lead on June 9. On June 13, with 9,000 ballots left to count, Leno conceded defeat and congratulated Breed on her victory. Breed resigned as president of the Board of Supervisors on June 26, 2018 and was succeeded by Malia Cohen in a unanimous vote by the Board. Breed retained her position as District 5 supervisor until assuming the mayoralty on July 11. Breed was elected to a full term in the 2019 mayoral election against five relatively unknown candidates.


title: London Breed

text: In March 2019, Breed awarded a posthumous certificate of honor to Sinn Féin politician and former IRA member Martin McGuinness for his "courageous service in the military". The nomination had been made by the United Irish Societies, who had appointed him honorary marshal in the St. Patrick's Day parade. She apologized two days later following controversy over McGuinness's involvement with the IRA.


title: London Breed

text: On March 7, 2019, Breed and several other Northern California mayors endorsed Kamala Harris for president in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries. Harris later dropped out of the race. On January 23, 2020, Breed endorsed Mike Bloomberg for president in the primaries.


title: London Breed

text: In December 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that Alex Padilla would succeed Kamala Harris as U.S. senator after she was elected to serve as Vice President of the United States. Breed and former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown expressed disappointment that the replacement for the seat was not an African American woman as Harris was the only African American woman serving in the Senate at the time.


title: London Breed

text: Breed made homelessness an early focus of her administration. In October, she announced plans to build 1,000 shelter beds by 2020. To help achieve this goal, she introduced legislation declaring a shelter crisis in San Francisco, which allows the city to waive certain permitting and contracting requirements for homeless services. She also has worked to expand mental health and substance abuse recovery beds. When the Controller found an extra $415 million in property taxes, Breed introduced legislation to fund housing and homelessness programs with the discretionary portion of the funding. She also authored legislation with Supervisor Rafael Mandelman to expand San Francisco's conservatorship laws, based on California Senate Bill 1045, authored by State Senator Scott Wiener.


title: London Breed

text: Breed created a task force of members of the San Francisco Department of Public Works to clean up feces from city sidewalks, known as a Poop Patrol.


title: London Breed

text: A series of 2018 reports in the San Francisco Examiner focused on Breed's use of campaign funds carried over from previous years to pay for floats in San Francisco's annual Pride parade, and a 2020 report found that Nick Bovis, a restaurant owner arrested alongside Mohammed Nuru, was solely named on an invoice to pay for Breed's 2015 Pride float, when she was a member of the Board of Supervisors.


title: London Breed

text: Following the FBI's arrest of San Francisco Department of Public Works director Mohammed Nuru on corruption charges, Breed published an article on Medium on February 14, 2020, acknowledging a longtime friendship and a brief relationship with Nuru. The post also reported that Nuru gave Breed $5,600 for car repairs. Breed argued she did not have to disclose since her and Nuru's relationship preceded her mayoralty but was doing so in "the spirit of transparency". Supervisors Hillary Ronen and Matt Haney have criticized Breed's actions, saying that according to the city's ethics laws it is illegal for a supervisor to accept gifts from a subordinate.


title: London Breed

text: A 2020 report in the San Francisco Chronicle found that the woman identified as "Girlfriend 1" by federal officials in the criminal complaint filed against Nuru was Sandra Zuniga, former Director of the city's "Fix-It Team" and of Breed's Office of Neighborhood Services. The Neighborhood Services Office was dissolved shortly after Zuniga was identified as "Girlfriend 1" and remains inactive. In August 2021, Breed was fined $22,000 for abusing her office in a series of ethics violations.


title: London Breed

text: San Francisco issued a state of emergency because of COVID-19 in February 2020, before the federal government suggested doing so, and San Francisco became one of the first American cities to go into lockdown. On March 2, Breed advised residents, "Prepare for possible disruption from an outbreak". Under the state of emergency, private gyms were required to shut down, but the city government petitioned Cal/OSHA for a waiver to allow various government employees to continue to use gyms in city-owned facilities, which were allowed to continue to operate.


title: London Breed

text: On April 24, 2020, Breed reported that her city's PPE orders had been diverted to other cities and countries. She said, “We’ve had issues of our orders being relocated by our suppliers in China. For example, we had isolation gowns on their way to San Francisco and they were diverted to France. We’ve had situations when things we’ve ordered that have gone through Customs were confiscated by FEMA to be diverted to other locations."


title: London Breed

text: In November 2020, Breed attended an eight-person birthday party at the Michelin 3-star restaurant French Laundry in Napa County during the COVID-19 pandemic in California. The event was held in a partially enclosed room, despite California Department of Public Health discouraging such gatherings with a recommended three-household cap. Napa County allowed indoor dining at the time without a household cap. Still, Heather Knight of "San Francisco Chronicle" noted that the event violated San Francisco health guidelines at the time. San Francisco banned indoor dining three days later. Breed and other California politicians such as Governor Gavin Newsom and San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo were criticized for not following the same public health guidelines they administered.


title: London Breed

text: During the pandemic, sidewalks and parking spaces were turned into outdoor dining spaces. In 2021, Breed called for allowing small businesses to use sidewalk and parking spaces indefinitely as outdoor dining spaces.


title: London Breed

text: On September 16, 2021, videos surfaced showing Breed violating the city's mask mandate by not wearing a mask indoors while dancing at the Black Cat nightclub. She later explained the onstage reunion of the original members of Tony! Toni! Toné! "was something really monumental that occurred...I got up and started dancing because I was feeling the spirit and I wasn’t thinking about a mask." Breed later responded to critics, "Like, we don’t need the fun police to come in and try and micromanage and tell us what we should or shouldn’t be doing. No one has been more conservative about protecting themselves than I have, not just because I want to set an example, but because I don’t want to get COVID", she added. The city's mask mandate, advocated by Breed, requires everyone to wear a mask indoors regardless of vaccination status. At the time of her presence at the concert, she was photographed not socially distancing or wearing a mask.


title: London Breed

text: Breed authored legislation in 2014 to allow the San Francisco City Attorney to pursue civil damages against graffiti taggers, instead of solely relying on criminal prosecutions to punish taggers. In 2016, City Attorney Dennis Herrera used these new penalties to win a civil judgment against serial tagger Terry Cozy that resulted in a $217,832 fine.


title: London Breed

text: The San Francisco Fire Department's response times to emergency medical calls spiked dramatically in 2014, with ambulances often unavailable to respond. Breed was outspoken in demanding improvements, pushing then-Mayor Lee to do more, expressing a lack of confidence in Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White, and generating press attention for the issue. Breed fought for substantially more funding for emergency medical services, ultimately succeeding in getting $47.3 million invested to hire EMTs, paramedics, firefighters, and 911 dispatchers, as well as buy new ambulances and fire trucks, and improve SFFD facilities. Breed has cited her work on this issue as helping to reduce ambulance response times by over 26%. Her work also helped her earn the sole endorsement of the San Francisco Firefighters Local 798 union in the 2018 mayoral election.


title: London Breed

text: In 2015, Breed worked with then-Mayor Ed Lee to help add 400 new police officers to the San Francisco Police Department. After the shooting of Mario Woods by San Francisco police officers on December 2, 2015, Breed and Supervisor Malia Cohen passed a Resolution calling for a federal investigation of the shooting and a Department of Justice review of the SFPD's use of force policies. This ultimately resulted in 272 recommendations to improve the SFPD.


title: London Breed

text: In 2015, Breed led the effort to stop a proposed $380 million new jail for San Francisco, saying: “I’ve seen way too many people from my community, friends, even family members, end up on the wrong side of these iron bars,” and calling the jail proposal “a return to an era of mass incarceration, an era San Francisco is trying to leave behind.” She created a working group to develop an alternative to the jail proposal, including "new mental health facilities and current jail retrofits needed to uphold public safety and better serve at-risk individuals."


title: London Breed

text: In July 2019, Breed signed an ordinance effectively banning the sale of e-cigarettes in San Francisco, both at brick-and-mortar stores and online to a San Francisco address.


title: London Breed

text: Despite Breed publicly declaring support for overdose prevention sites, her administration abruptly stopped a nonprofit that was about to open a site to prevent overdoses. This was speculated to be due to her political ambition.


title: London Breed

text: As Supervisor in 2014, Breed secured $2 million to renovate unused public housing units for formerly homeless families.


title: London Breed

text: In 2015, Breed helped pass "neighborhood preference" legislation to prioritize neighborhood residents for the affordable homes built in their community. When the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development threatened to block the legislation, she flew to Washington, D.C., with a delegation of San Francisco officials and persuaded it to let the program proceed. The program first went into effect for the Willie B. Kennedy apartments in Breed's district, with 39 units prioritized for community residents at risk of economic displacement.


title: London Breed

text: San Francisco passed legislation in 2015 to create the Neighborhood Commercial Transit District in the Divisadero and Fillmore corridors in her district. The laws removed housing density caps, allowing more homes to be built on a given parcel without increasing the building's size or height. The Affordable Divis group requested that Breed rescind the law, citing concerns about the availability of affordable units and lack of community input. She declined, citing the need for more homes in the city and conflicts with Proposition C from 2012.


title: London Breed

text: In April 2015, the city of San Francisco passed legislation to remove minimum parking space requirements for new buildings and allow unused parking spaces in existing buildings to be converted housing.


title: London Breed

text: Breed was the lead sponsor and co-sponsor of two housing ballot measures: Proposition A in 2015, a $310 million bond for affordable housing which passed with 74% support, and Proposition C in 2016, a $261 million housing bond that repurposed unused city bond funds for affordable housing and passed with 77% support. Breed joined Supervisor Ahsha Safai in supporting the 2018 "Housing for All" ballot measure, Proposition D, to increase the city's tax on commercial rents to "raise about $100 million a year to pay for 10,000 low- and middle-income housing units and shelter accommodations for the city’s homeless population over the next decade." After facing a competing tax increase measure, Prop D did not pass.


title: London Breed

text: In 2017, Breed coauthored legislation to provide civil counsel for tenants facing eviction, reducing the chances of vulnerable tenants unfairly losing their homes. Voters approved a similar measure in June 2018, Proposition F.


title: London Breed

text: Breed is a major advocate for modular housing, arguing that it can be built more quickly and cheaply than conventional construction, helping the city create more housing sooner. As Acting Mayor, she announced a partnership with labor unions to build a modular housing factory in or near San Francisco.


title: London Breed

text: As a candidate for mayor, Breed aligned herself with pro-housing leaders like State Senator Scott Wiener and the SF YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard) Party, both of whom endorsed her. She committed to Mayor Lee's goal of building at least 5,000 new units of housing each year. In her inaugural address on July 11, 2018, Breed said: “The politics of ‘no’ has plagued our city for far too long—‘not on my block, not in my backyard.’ We have made mistakes in the past by not moving housing production forward all over this city. I plan to change the politics of ‘no’ to the politics of ‘yes.’ Yes, we will build more housing.”


title: London Breed

text: Breed carried multiple pieces of legislation allowing Muni to purchase hundreds of new buses and replace its entire fleet of trains. Introduced over several years, her legislation provided for 50 hybrid buses, 260 light rail vehicles, 61 hybrid buses, 60 trolley buses, 98 hybrid buses, and 33 trolley buses. The 260 new light rail vehicles are slated to replace Muni's aging fleet of Breda trains, add 24 trains for the new Central Subway, and provide 85 more trains for added service throughout the system. Built by Siemens in Sacramento, the new trains are lighter and quieter than the ones they replace and project to run almost 12 times longer before needing major repair. The first Siemens train went into service in San Francisco in 2017.


title: London Breed

text: As Supervisor, Breed focused much attention on the N Judah Muni train line, which runs through District 5 and is the busiest Muni line in the city. She worked with Muni to launch a morning commute shuttle train, serving the most crowded stops from Cole Valley to Downtown. Breed worked with then-Supervisor Scott Wiener in 2013 to persuade Muni to change the seat layout in its trains from forward-facing to side-facing to create additional room for passengers. Muni initially refused to test the idea, so the Supervisors called a public hearing. Muni eventually agreed, testing the change on several trains. Riders preferred this design according to Muni's surveys, and Muni incorporated it into their new train designs.


title: London Breed

text: Breed worked with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and Bay Area Rapid Transit and carried the legislation to add cellular service for riders on Muni's underground trains. The lack of cell service has been a long-standing complaint by riders.


title: London Breed

text: Breed cosponsored 2014's Proposition A, a $500 million bond to fund street repaving, infrastructure repair, transit service improvements, and increased bicycle and pedestrian safety. It passed with 72% support. She was also the deciding vote to place 2014's Proposition B on the ballot, which required transportation funding to be increased with population growth. It passed with 61% support and now provides approximately $25 million per year for transit, bike, and pedestrian improvements. When Kezar Drive, a major thoroughfare in her district, fell into disrepair, Breed addressed what she called a "case study in bureaucracy" between the Department of Public Works and Recreation and Parks Department and got the road repaved.


title: London Breed

text: In 2015, Breed coauthored legislation to create San Francisco's Transportation Sustainability Fee (TSF), requiring residential developers to pay a fee toward transportation improvements. The legislation is generating approximately $14 million annually in new funds for Muni and other transportation projects. Breed also worked with Mayor Lee to add $48.1 million in funding in the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Fiscal Year 2015-16 budget for "service increases, new capital investments, purchase of buses and trains, and bicycle and pedestrian safety enhancements." Also in 2015, she helped approve and secure funding for the Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit project, which is making infrastructure repairs and safety improvements to the Van Ness corridor and is projected to cut transit travel times by up to 32%.


title: London Breed

text: In 2017, Breed called for a hearing at the Board of Supervisors after the Municipal Transportation Agency disclosed that it had only spent 2% of the $500 million in bonds that voters had approved for transportation improvements more than two years earlier in 2014. Breed argued that delays at the SFMTA mean "our money grew less valuable and our transportation projects more delayed."


title: London Breed

text: Breed carried the legislation to place Regional Measure 3 on the San Francisco ballot in June 2018. The measure passed and "will be used to finance a $4.45 billion slate of highway and transit improvements." including BART, Muni, and Caltrain.


title: London Breed

text: During her first few months as Supervisor in 2013, Breed persuaded city departments to complete two new bike lanes on Oak and Fell Streets ahead of schedule, prompting the local transportation site StreetsblogSF to say she had “emerged as a bicycling champion.” She secured federal funding for the redesign of Masonic Boulevard in her district, which added bike lanes and traffic safety measures to one of the most dangerous corridors in the city. The official ribbon-cutting for the completed Masonic Avenue Streetscape Improvement Project between Geary Boulevard and the Panhandle took place in August 2018. The project cost $25 million. The bicycle improvements were limited to a buffered bike lane, which typically cost $15,000 per mile.


title: London Breed

text: Breed cosponsored the 2014 legislation to implement Vision Zero, a plan to eliminate all traffic fatalities via improved engineering, education, and enforcement. Breed's efforts to achieve Vision Zero in San Francisco have thus far been ineffective. As mayor, traffic fatalities increased 35% from 31 in 2018 to 42 in 2019. She also cosponsored the 2016 legislation to create the city's Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Program, in which housing developers provide transit benefits to their residents such as transit passes, bike parking, and carpool programs.


title: London Breed

text: When the SFPD began ticketing bicyclists for not completely stopping at stop signs in 2015, Breed became the first elected official in San Francisco to support the “Idaho Stop” law, which allows bicyclists to yield at stop signs instead of coming to a complete stop. A group of bicyclists protested the SFPD enforcement by completely stopping at all stop signs, a demonstration that "snarled traffic" and was "flanked by an army of TV cameras and amused onlookers." Breed and former Supervisor John Avalos wrote legislation to enact the Idaho Stop law, which passed the Board of Supervisors but was vetoed by Mayor Lee. Breed also passed legislation in 2015 banning certain obstructions to bike lanes and removing parking minimums in new buildings.


title: London Breed

text: A street construction project on Haight Street in Breed's district caused multiple safety issues in 2015 when Synergy Project Management, a subcontractor working under the General contractor Ghilotti Bros., repeatedly hit underground gas lines. Breed had work on the project stopped and called a hearing at the Board of Supervisors about the matter. She later passed legislation with then-Supervisor Scott Wiener to revise the city's contract awarding process, emphasizing a bidder's past safety record.


title: London Breed

text: In her 2016 reelection campaign Breed earned the sole endorsement of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, which said: "Breed has consistently supported smart, data-driven traffic enforcement and helped to move important bike projects.”


title: London Breed

text: Breed's best-known environmental work is likely her successful fight to launch the city's clean electrical energy program, CleanPowerSF, a Community Choice Aggregation program in which San Francisco purchases renewable, greenhouse-gas-free electrical energy and makes it available to San Francisco ratepayers. Its ultimate goal is to achieve 100% clean electrical energy in the city. According to the San Francisco Department of the Environment's Climate Action Strategy: "Moving to 100% renewable electricity is the single biggest step the City can take to reduce GHG [Greenhouse Gas] emissions. The potential GHG emissions reduction from this program is estimated to total 941,000 metric tons (mT) of CO2e annually by 2030."


title: London Breed

text: When Breed took office in 2013 CleanPowerSF had, according to the San Francisco League of Conservation Voters, "languished for 12 years" in the face of opposition from multiple mayoral administrations, the city's utility provider PG&E, and other business interests. "Breed took it upon herself to get CleanPowerSF off the ground," said the League of Conservation Voters.


title: London Breed

text: Under the city's charter, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission had ultimate authority to approve or reject the program. When they rejected proposed power rates for the program in August 2013, Breed authored a resolution at the Board of Supervisors, arguing: "In failing to set not-to-exceed rates for CleanPowerSF, the Public Utilities Commission is contradicting the policy directives of the Board of Supervisors...The Board of Supervisors refuses to acquiesce its policymaking authority to the Executive bureaucracy; and... If the Public Utilities Commissioners fail to set not-to-exceed rates, or hereafter fail in any way to timely implement CleanPowerSF, the Board of Supervisors shall, whether at the Board Chamber or the ballot, exercise every means at its disposal to enact its policy objective."


title: London Breed

text: Breed worked for the subsequent 17 months to launch CleanPowerSF, often fighting with the Lee administration. In January 2015 Mayor Lee announced he would support a slightly revised version of CleanPowerSF, and the program proceeded toward launch.


title: London Breed

text: In the summer of 2015 the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union 1245, which represents PG&E employees, submitted a ballot measure, Proposition G, that would have imposed restrictions on CleanPowerSF. Breed and former Supervisor John Avalos wrote a competing measure, Proposition H, that would have required PG&E to disclose its use of nuclear power among other things. Following negotiations between IBEW representative Hunter Stern and Breed, Avalos, and their staff, IBEW agreed to oppose their own proposition and support Breed's measure. It passed with 80% support.


title: London Breed

text: In 2016, the city of San Francisco passed the nation's strongest ban on sale and use of products made from polystyrene foam, including expanded polystyrene foam (also called Styrofoam) for food service ware, egg cartons, coolers, and packing peanuts. The law made national and international news.


title: London Breed

text: In the final week of Breed's 2016 reelection campaign, she released a comical web video about the legislation, "Styrofoam Monster". In the ad, she chases away a bully who is dressed in a costume made of polystyrene foam. The "San Francisco Chronicle" wrote, "The award for most creative campaign ad goes to Board of Supervisors President London Breed..[It] is akin to an ingenious high school video production."


title: London Breed

text: In 2015, the city of San Francisco passed legislation requiring drug manufacturers to fund a drug take-back program in San Francisco, enabling consumers to place unused medications in secure drop-off bins in pharmacies. Unused drugs are often disposed in the trash or toilet which can pollute waterways or lead to accidental poisonings. Breed published an op-ed in support of the legislation. It passed unanimously on March 17, 2015, making San Francisco only the third county in the nation to launch such a program. The program has collected well over 20 tons of medications.


title: London Breed

text: Despite her environmental record during her first term on the Board of Supervisors, the local chapter of the Sierra Club endorsed her opponent. This prompted Breed's then-Chief of Staff Conor Johnston to write a scathing article in the San Francisco Examiner accusing the local Sierra Club chapter of hypocrisy and "bewildering anti-environmentalism" for blocking new housing and engaging in "political tribalism".


title: London Breed

text: Breed has explored multiple options for guaranteed income. In March 2021, Breed launched a program to provide guaranteed income to artists impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, in November 2022, Breed launched a program to provide income for low income transgender individuals.


title: London Breed

text: In September 2022 a public records request revealed Breed had required 48 of her appointees to boards and commissions to sign undated letters of resignation for her use. The Mayor's spokesperson stated the letters were only for "the most extreme circumstances." Breed later announced she would discontinue the practice.


title: Reye syndrome

text: Reye syndrome is a rapidly worsening brain disease. Symptoms of Reye syndrome may include vomiting, personality changes, confusion, seizures, and loss of consciousness. While liver toxicity typically occurs in the syndrome, jaundice usually does not. Death occurs in 20–40% of those affected with Reye syndrome, and about a third of those who survive are left with a significant degree of brain damage.


title: Reye syndrome

text: The cause of Reye syndrome is unknown. It usually begins shortly after recovery from a viral infection, such as influenza or chickenpox. About 90% of cases in children are associated with aspirin (salicylate) use. Inborn errors of metabolism are also a risk factor. The syndrome is associated with changes on blood tests such as a high blood ammonia level, low blood sugar level, and prolonged prothrombin time. Often, the liver is enlarged in the syndrome.


title: Reye syndrome

text: Prevention is typically by avoiding the use of aspirin in children. When aspirin was withdrawn for use in children in the US and UK in the 1980s, a decrease of more than 90% in rates of Reye syndrome was seen. Early diagnosis of the syndrome improves outcomes. Treatment is supportive; mannitol may be used to help with the brain swelling.


title: Reye syndrome

text: The first detailed description of Reye syndrome was in 1963 by Australian pathologist Douglas Reye. The syndrome most commonly affects children. It affects fewer than one in a million children a year. The general recommendation to use aspirin in children was withdrawn because of Reye syndrome, with use only recommended in Kawasaki disease.


title: Reye syndrome

text: The cause of Reye syndrome is unknown. It usually begins shortly after recovery from a viral infection, such as influenza or chickenpox. About 90% of cases in children are associated with aspirin (salicylate) use. Inborn errors of metabolism are also a risk factor.


title: Reye syndrome

text: The association with aspirin has been shown through epidemiological studies. The diagnosis of Reye syndrome greatly decreased in the 1980s, when genetic testing for inborn errors of metabolism was becoming available in developed countries. A retrospective study of 49 survivors of cases diagnosed as Reye syndrome showed that the majority of the surviving patients had various metabolic disorders, particularly a fatty-acid oxidation disorder medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency.


title: Reye syndrome

text: There is an association between taking aspirin for viral illnesses and the development of Reye syndrome, but no animal model of Reye syndrome has been developed in which aspirin causes the condition.


title: Reye syndrome

text: The serious symptoms of Reye syndrome appear to result from damage to cellular mitochondria, at least in the liver, and there is a number of ways that aspirin could cause or exacerbate mitochondrial damage. A potential increased risk of developing Reye syndrome is one of the main reasons that aspirin has not been recommended for use in children and teenagers, the age group for which the risk of lasting serious effects is highest.


title: Reye syndrome

text: In some countries, oral mouthcare product Bonjela (not the form specifically designed for teething) has labeling cautioning against its use in children, given its salicylate content. There have been no cases of Reye syndrome following its use, and the measure is a precaution. Other medications containing salicylates are often similarly labeled as a precaution.


title: Reye syndrome

text: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Surgeon General, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommend that aspirin and combination products containing aspirin not be given to children under 19 years of age during episodes of fever-causing illnesses. Hence, in the United States, it is advised that the opinion of a doctor or pharmacist should be obtained before anyone under 19 years of age is given any medication containing aspirin (also known on some medicine labels as acetylsalicylate, salicylate, acetylsalicylic acid, ASA, or salicylic acid).


title: Reye syndrome

text: Current advice in the United Kingdom by the Committee on Safety of Medicines is that aspirin should not be given to those under the age of 16 years, unless specifically indicated in Kawasaki disease or in the prevention of blood clot formation.


title: Reye syndrome

text: Documented cases of Reye syndrome in adults are rare. The recovery of adults with the syndrome is generally complete, with liver and brain function returning to normal within two weeks of onset.


title: Reye syndrome

text: In children, mild to severe permanent brain damage is possible, especially in infants. Over thirty percent of the cases reported in the United States from 1981 through 1997 resulted in fatality.


title: Reye syndrome

text: Reye syndrome occurs almost exclusively in children. While a few adult cases have been reported over the years, these cases do not typically show permanent neural or liver damage. Unlike in the United Kingdom, the surveillance for Reye syndrome in the United States is focused on people under 18 years of age.


title: Reye syndrome

text: In 1980, after the CDC began cautioning physicians and parents about the association between Reye syndrome and the use of salicylates in children with chickenpox or virus-like illnesses, the incidence of Reye syndrome in the United States began to decline, prior to the FDA's issue of warning labels on aspirin in 1986. In the United States between 1980 and 1997, the number of reported cases of Reye syndrome decreased from 555 cases in 1980 to about two cases per year since 1994. During this time period 93% of reported cases for which racial data were available occurred in whites and the median age was six years. In 93% of cases a viral illness had occurred in the preceding three-week period. For the period 1991–1994, the annual rate of hospitalizations due to Reye syndrome in the United States was estimated to be between 0.2 and 1.1 per million population less than 18 years of age.


title: Reye syndrome

text: During the 1980s, a case-control study carried out in the United Kingdom also demonstrated an association between Reye syndrome and aspirin exposure. In June 1986, the United Kingdom Committee on Safety of Medicines issued warnings against the use of aspirin in children under 12 years of age and warning labels on aspirin-containing medications were introduced. United Kingdom surveillance for Reye syndrome documented a decline in the incidence of the illness after 1986. The reported incidence rate of Reye syndrome decreased from a high of 0.63 per 100,000 population less than 12 years of age in 1983–1984 to 0.11 in 1990–1991.


title: Reye syndrome

text: From November 1995 to November 1996 in France, a national survey of pediatric departments for children under 15 years of age with unexplained encephalopathy and a threefold (or greater) increase in serum aminotransferase and/or ammonia led to the identification of nine definite cases of Reye syndrome (0.79 cases per million children). Eight of the nine children with Reye syndrome were found to have been exposed to aspirin. In part because of this survey result, the French Medicines Agency reinforced the international attention to the relationship between aspirin and Reye syndrome by issuing its own public and professional warnings about this relationship.


title: Reye syndrome

text: The syndrome is named after Douglas Reye, who, along with fellow physicians Graeme Morgan and Jim Baral, published the first study of the syndrome in 1963 in "The Lancet". In retrospect, the occurrence of the syndrome may have first been reported in 1929. Also in 1964, George Johnson and colleagues published an investigation of an outbreak of influenza B that described 16 children who developed neurological problems, four of whom had a profile remarkably similar to Reye syndrome. Some investigators refer to this disorder as Reye-Johnson syndrome, although it is more commonly called Reye syndrome. In 1979, Karen Starko and colleagues conducted a case-control study in Phoenix, Arizona, and found the first statistically significant link between aspirin use and Reye syndrome. Studies in Ohio and Michigan soon confirmed her findings pointing to the use of aspirin during an upper respiratory tract or chickenpox infection as a possible trigger of the syndrome. Beginning in 1980, the CDC cautioned physicians and parents about the association between Reye syndrome and the use of salicylates in children and teenagers with chickenpox or virus-like illnesses. In 1982 the U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory, and in 1986 the Food and Drug Administration required a Reye syndrome-related warning label for all aspirin-containing medications.


title: Hotline Miami

text: Hotline Miami is a top-down shooter video game by Jonatan Söderström and Dennis Wedin, collectively known as Dennaton Games. The game was published by Devolver Digital and released on 23 October 2012 for Microsoft Windows.


title: Hotline Miami

text: Set in 1989 Miami, the game revolves primarily around an unnamed silent protagonist—dubbed "Jacket" by fans—who has been receiving coded messages on his answering machine instructing him to commit massacres against the local Russian mafia. The game blends top-down perspective with stealth, extreme violence and surreal storytelling, along with a soundtrack and visuals inspired by 1980s culture. The game's lead narrative influence was David Lynch, while another notable influence came from the 2011 film "Drive" for the game's minimalist plot, use of dialogue, portrayal of violence and musical style. The 2006 documentary "Cocaine Cowboys" influenced the game's setting, and "Half-Life" series protagonist Gordon Freeman influenced Jacket's lack of voice.


title: Hotline Miami

text: Upon release, "Hotline Miami" received critical acclaim, with praise regarding its narrative, themes, music and gameplay. It has since been considered to be one of the greatest games of all time, along with being cited as a highly influential independent video game and as a notable cult video game. A sequel, "", was released on 10 March 2015.


title: Hotline Miami

text: "Hotline Miami" is divided into several chapters, each of which is further broken down into several stages. At the start of most chapters, "Jacket" wakes up in his apartment and listens to cryptic messages on his answering machine. These messages tell him to perform an arbitrary task at a certain location, which in each case is inferred as a euphemism for killing every person at that location (e.g., "giving VIPs at a hotel a great stay" or "taking care of a pest infestation"). Prior to commencing a mission, the player is asked to select an animal mask to wear, each of which—with the exception of "Richard", the default rooster mask—provides a unique benefit, such as faster movement or a starting weapon.


title: Hotline Miami

text: In each stage, the player navigates a building from a top-down perspective, where the goal is almost always to kill every opponent therein. Occasionally, they must also defeat a boss at the end of the chapter or find key items as they explore. Some levels also include hidden animal masks for the player to find along the way, often in the bodies of other killers who failed the assignment now being undertaken by "Jacket".