title: David Amess

text: Amess continued to serve both as an MP and a local councillor until 1986 when he stood down from Redbridge Borough Council to concentrate on his Westminster seat. He held his Basildon seat narrowly at the 1987 general election, in part by developing a significant personal following. After the election, Amess was appointed a Parliamentary Private Secretary to Michael Portillo, a position he held for ten years throughout Portillo's ministerial career. Amess held his seat again at the 1992 general election, which was the first sign that the Conservatives would unexpectedly win that election; the Basildon constituency was viewed as the make-or-break milestone.


title: David Amess

text: Prior to the 1997 general election, there was a boundary review which divided the Basildon seat into two parts, which were added in to two neighbouring seats. At the time, Amess remarked that the Boundary Commission "had raped the town of Basildon" by adding an extra seat there. Given his small majority, the new Basildon constituency was almost certainly going to be gained by Labour. Amess thus decided to seek re-election elsewhere. In June 1995, Amess was selected for Southend West after the retirement of former Cabinet minister Paul Channon. He was consequently returned to Westminster again in the 1997 general election. Angela Evans Smith won the newly-drawn Basildon seat for Labour in 1997 by over 13,000 votes.


title: David Amess

text: Amess was known for being at the centre of a long-running campaign to make Southend-on-Sea, the main town of his constituency, a city. On 18 October 2021, it was announced that the Queen had agreed to grant Southend city status in his honour. On 1 March 2022, the Prince of Wales presented the letters patent on behalf of the Queen in the council chamber at Southend Civic Centre, officially granting the town city status.


title: David Amess

text: Amess sponsored many bills in Parliament, including the Protection Against Cruel Tethering Act 1988, and the Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act 2000.


title: David Amess

text: In 2014, he helped to pass the Security Printing (Specialist) Materials Bill. This bill ended a loophole which allowed companies who supplied specialist printing equipment to counterfeiters to evade prosecution.


title: David Amess

text: In 2016, he helped to pass the Driving Instructors (Registration) Bill. This statute streamlined the process whereby instructors whose registration has lapsed can apply to return to the register. It also allowed instructors who wish to leave the register for personal reasons to do so without being penalised. The bill was supported by driving school owners and motoring organisations.


title: David Amess

text: The Protection Against Cruel Tethering Act came about as a result of Amess's long-standing concern for animal welfare, supported by the National Farmers' Union. Amess stated in the House of Commons that the Ten Minute Rule Bill was "inspired by the Essex Horse and Pony Protection Society". The bill stated:In section 1 of the Protection of Animals Act 1911 there shall be added in subsection (1) the following words after paragraph (e) "or (f) shall tether any horse, ass or mule under such conditions or in such manner as to cause that animal unnecessary suffering …


title: David Amess

text: Amess's most publicised legislative success came in 2000 with the Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act. According to a speech in the House of Commons made by Amess, the Act came to fruition after he was drawn out of the Private Members Ballot. He met with Martyn Williams, a campaigner from Friends of the Earth, who convinced him of the need for the Act following on from the death of a constituent in a cold house.


title: David Amess

text: The Act required the Secretary of State to "publish and implement a strategy for reducing fuel poverty".


title: David Amess

text: This Act was widely credited with a significant change in both attitude and policy towards fuel poverty within the UK. The scale of fuel poverty in England fell from 5.1 million households to 1.2 million households between 1996 and 2004, indicating the impact of the Act.


title: David Amess

text: Amess served on the Health Select Committee from 1998 until 2007. Due to his role on the Health Select Committee, he became Chair of the Conservative Party Backbench Committee for Health in 1999. He campaigned on various health issues since. While a member of the Committee, Amess played a prominent role in holding an inquiry into the state of obesity in the UK, leading to the publication of a report in 2004. The report found that two-thirds of the population of England are overweight or obese and went on to discuss the causes of obesity, as well as making various recommendations to combat the problem. He maintained an interest in the issue, tabling a series of Parliamentary Questions in July 2013.


title: David Amess

text: Amess was also a member of the Panel of Chairs, which comprises the chairman and two deputy chairmen of Ways and Means, as well as ten members nominated at the start of each session by the Speaker of the House of Commons. Amess was last appointed on 26 May 2010, but had been on the Panel since 2001. As a member of the Panel, Amess was responsible for chairing public bill committees; chairing Westminster Hall debates; and at times, for chairing committees of the whole House.


title: David Amess

text: Amess became a member of the Administration Committee in 2015. This committee is responsible for overseeing the running of the Parliamentary Estate and services. He stepped down from the Committee following the 2019 general election.


title: David Amess

text: Amess campaigned for many years to have a statue erected in honour of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who saved tens of thousands of Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary, an endeavour for which Wallenberg eventually lost his life. Amess began asking parliamentary questions in the late 1980s regarding Wallenberg, campaigning for him to be awarded honorary British nationality. Amess had previously attempted to push through a Raoul Wallenberg (Memorial) Bill in the 1989–90 session and he held an adjournment debate in Wallenberg's honour in 1996. The resultant memorial created by sculptor Philip Jackson was installed in London, at Great Cumberland Place, outside the Western Marble Arch Synagogue and unveiled in 1997.


title: David Amess

text: In March 2018, Amess launched an all-party parliamentary group on endometriosis to raise awareness of the condition, and to investigate how those who suffer from endometriosis can get the support that they need. The group was chaired by Amess, with Emma Hardy, Jackie Doyle-Price and Hannah Bardell as vice-chairs.


title: David Amess

text: Amess became a Fellow of the Industry and Parliament Trust in 1994. Amess completed an IPT Post-Graduate Fellowship I in 2012 specialising in the Cultural and Creative Industries, at BRIT School, ITN and the Royal Opera House. Amess became chairman of the Board of Trustees in 2014 and stood down at the end of his term in 2017.


title: David Amess

text: In October 2017, following the Harvey Weinstein sexual misconduct allegations, a statement was issued in the name of Amess which described the allegations against Weinstein as "dubious to say the least" and quoted Amess as having said that the "sudden flurry of alleged inappropriate advances beggars belief". Amess later retracted the statement and apologised "for any upset", saying that the statement had been issued by his staff without his authorisation.


title: David Amess

text: Amess wrote a pamphlet about his 1992 re-election to the Basildon constituency, "Basildon—Against all Odds" (2012). It was launched in the House of Commons at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the election and was attended by Prime Minister David Cameron and Conservative Party activists.


title: David Amess

text: Amess compiled a pamphlet titled "Party of Opportunity" with the Renewal Group, which contained thirteen short biographical accounts of Conservative MPs who identify as working class or who come from a working-class background. The pamphlet, which was launched in the House of Commons in April 2014, included contributions from four government ministers, including Sajid Javid, Mark Francois, Patrick McLoughlin, and Mike Penning. The second edition of "Party of Opportunity" was launched in January 2015, sponsored by the Association of Conservative Clubs and included contributions from 29 Conservative MPs.


title: David Amess

text: "Ayes & Ears: A Survivor's Guide to Westminster" was published by Luath Press in December 2020. The book includes sketches of colleagues, memorable speeches, scandals, and descriptions of major events in Parliament from an insider's viewpoint. In February 2021, it was announced that the book had been shortlisted for the Parliamentary Book Awards in the Memoir/Biography category.


title: David Amess

text: Amess appeared in the "Drugs" episode of the spoof current affairs television programme "Brass Eye", and was fooled into filming an elaborate warning against the dangers of a fictional Eastern European drug called "cake". Amess later asked a question about "cake" in Parliament, alongside real substances khat and GHB. In response, the Home Office minister incorrectly replied that "cake" was a name "we understand refers to 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-benzylamphetamine", a real drug. In 2001, when "Brass Eye" was repeated and released on DVD, a disclaimer was added to the "Drugs" episode at Amess's request reiterating his disapproval of recreational drug use.


title: David Amess

text: Amess normally adhered to Conservative party policy when voting in the Commons. He voted for the 2003 invasion of Iraq but was afterwards critical of the Labour government's failure to find the weapons of mass destruction with which they justified the action at the time. On foreign policy, he was also a leading member of Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI). He was one of the few Conservative MPs to support the campaign to impeach Tony Blair.


title: David Amess

text: Amess was one of 30 Conservatives who voted against military action in Syria in August 2013. He later commented that he felt the way he and his colleagues voted "made a difference" and if he had previously voted against the war in Iraq "things might be different" there as well. Amess supported the reintroduction of capital punishment. He was a critic of the government of Iran, and advocated for the National Council of Resistance of Iran; he publicly endorsed Maryam Rajavi's 10-point manifesto. Amess was supportive of refugees and asylum seekers.


title: David Amess

text: Amess opposed abortion. In June 2005, Amess supported the Prohibition of Abortion (England and Wales) Bill introduced by Laurence Robertson that sought to almost entirely ban abortion. After entering the House of Commons, Amess generally opposed bills furthering LGBT rights, including equal age of consent and same-sex marriage.


title: David Amess

text: Amess campaigned for improvements in animal welfare and husbandry. He consistently voted to ban foxhunting and hare coursing. He was a patron of the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation. Amess supported many campaigns, including banning cages for game birds, animal testing, puppy farming and smuggling, and ending the transport of live animals for export.


title: David Amess

text: In September 2011, Amess accused the BBC of being biased regarding its reporting of events in Israel, which he said was covered in a "highly disproportionate manner", showing the state in a "poor light".


title: David Amess

text: Amess was a Eurosceptic and came out in support of Brexit prior to the EU referendum, in which he said it was "dangerous" and a "huge mistake" to vote "remain". He described the loss of parliamentary sovereignty and supremacy of EU law as the main negatives of UK–EU relations. Amess criticised then United States president Barack Obama's intervention in the EU referendum campaign when he met with David Cameron, stating that he had "absolutely no right whatsoever getting involved".


title: David Amess

text: At the Dods Charity Champion Awards 2011, Amess won the Animal Welfare and Environment Champion award, in which he was recognised formally for his leading role in and commitment to animal welfare, and was presented with the award by John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons, in the State Rooms of the Speaker's House. The award is given to the parliamentarian who has done the most to tackle issues concerning the welfare of animals and the natural environment.


title: David Amess

text: Amess received the "Outstanding Achievement Award" at the Charity Champion Parliamentary reception hosted by Dods in 2012 in recognition of his lifetime commitment to charitable work.


title: David Amess

text: He was nominated for the Policy Driver for Animal Rights Protection award at the Grassroot Diplomat Awards 2014 for his longstanding dedication to animal rights.


title: David Amess

text: He and his wife Julia Arnold had one son and four daughters. Arnold was a part-time caseworker for her husband. Their eldest daughter is actress Katie Amess. Amess was a lifelong supporter of Premier League team West Ham United and attended their final game at the Boleyn Ground in May 2016.


title: David Amess

text: As an animal-lover, his family had several pets. In 2016, these included a rescue dog; a pug called Lily. Lily was succeeded by a French Bulldog called Vivienne who, shortly after his death in 2021, won the Westminster Dog of the Year Show.


title: David Amess

text: Amess was the president of The Music Man Project, a local charity that provides musical opportunities to people with learning disabilities. He appeared with the group in performances at the Royal Albert Hall and the London Palladium.


title: David Amess

text: On 15 October 2021, Amess was stabbed multiple times at his constituency surgery at Belfairs Methodist Church Hall in Leigh-on-Sea. He received treatment at the scene, but died from his injuries soon after the attack. He was pronounced dead at the scene at 1:13 pm.


title: David Amess

text: Amess's murder was later declared a "terrorist incident" by the Metropolitan Police. The investigation, led by Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command, is exploring "a potential motivation linked to Islamist extremism". The suspect, Ali Harbi Ali, a 25-year-old British citizen of Somali descent, was arrested at the scene on suspicion of murder and later detained under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000. On 21 October, he was charged with murder and preparing terrorist acts under the Terrorism Act 2006. His trial was scheduled for March 2022.


title: David Amess

text: On 27 October an inquest was opened into Amess's death, but was immediately suspended "pending the outcome of the criminal proceedings". The suspension would be reviewed in April 2022. Coroner's officer Paul Donaghy told the inquest that, the day after Amess's death, a Home Office pathologist carried out a post-mortem examination which found that Amess had died from multiple stab wounds to the chest.


title: David Amess

text: A procession and memorial service took place in Southend on 22 November. The private service, attended by family, was held at St Mary's Church, the Church of England parish church in Prittlewell. The service was led by the Reverend Paul Mackay and Monsignor Kevin William Hale. A family statement was read by the former Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe. Afterwards his casket processed through the streets in a horse-drawn hearse. The following day a funeral service was held at Westminster Cathedral. Prime Minister Boris Johnson joined former prime ministers, the Speaker of the House Lindsay Hoyle and the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer at the service. A message from Pope Francis was delivered by Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, the Apostolic Nuncio to Great Britain.


title: David Amess

text: On 6 April 2022, Ali revealed that the motive behind the murder was due to Amess supporting airstrikes on Islamic State in Syria. He stated: "If I thought I did anything wrong, I wouldn't have done it... He voted previously in Parliament, not just him... I decided if I couldn't make hijrah, if I couldn't help the Muslims, I would do something here." When asked what difference killing Amess made, he replied: "For one, he can't vote again... If he had previous for doing votes like that he won't do it in the future, and perhaps send a message to his colleagues... So hopefully, he won't be able to harm Muslims in that regard." Furthermore, Amess's membership of the CFI was confirmed to be another motive. Under cross-examination by Tom Little , Ali said: "I wouldn't use the word 'shameless', but I don't have any shame." He has denied allegations of terrorism, expressing "If I used that word [terrorist] on myself, I would expect the British politicians who bombed Syria to use that word on themselves... I am a moderate Muslim". He told the court he expected to die a martyr, and be shot dead, but decided to drop his weapon after being confronted by unarmed police.


title: David Amess

text: Ali also confessed he wanted to kill Michael Gove: "I believe he was someone who was a harm to Muslims. I thought if I couldn't go join Islamic State, I should try and do something here to help Muslims here[.]" He revealed he deeply regretted not being able to join the terrorist group: "As a Muslim, I was obligated to do something during that period." He hoped the murder would "cease hostilities with Muslims". On 11 April 2022, Ali was found guilty of murdering Amess, and two days later received a whole life term of imprisonment.


title: David Amess

text: One year on from his death, politicians paid tribute to Amess and a tree was planted in his memory in Southend.


title: The Game of Life

text: The Game of Life, also known simply as Life, is a board game originally created in 1860 by Milton Bradley as The Checkered Game of Life, the first ever board game for his own company, the Milton Bradley Company. "The Game of Life" was US's first popular parlour game. The game simulates a person's travels through their life, from early adulthood to retirement, with college if necessary, jobs, marriage, and possible children along the way. Up to six players, depending on the version, can participate in a single game. Variations of the game accommodate up to ten players.


title: The Game of Life

text: The modern version was originally published 100 years later, in 1960. It was created and co-designed by Bill Markham and Reuben Klamer, respectively, and was "heartily endorsed" by Art Linkletter. It is now part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History and an inductee into the National Toy Hall of Fame.


title: The Game of Life

text: The game was originally created in 1860 by Milton Bradley as "The Checkered Game of Life", and was the first game created by Bradley, a successful lithographer. The game sold 45,000 copies by the end of its first year. Like many 19th-century games, such as "The Mansion of Happiness" by S. B. Ives in 1843, it had a strong moral message.


title: The Game of Life

text: The game board resembled a modified checkerboard. The object was to land on "good" spaces and collect 100 points. A player could gain 50 points by reaching "Happy Old Age" in the upper-right corner, opposite "Infancy" where one began.


title: The Game of Life

text: In 1960 the modern "Game of Life" was introduced. A collaboration between Reuben Klamer and Bill Markham, it consists of a track which passes along, over, and through small mountains, buildings, and other features. A player travels along the track in a small plastic automobile, according to the spins of a small wheel on the board with spaces numbered one through ten. Each car has six holes into which pegs are added as the player "gets married" and "acquires children". Some "early modern" editions have eight cars. The modern game pegs or "people" are pink and blue to distinguish the sexes (blue for male, pink for female). Each player starts the game with one peg that matches their sex.


title: The Game of Life

text: There is also a bank which includes money in $5,000, $10,000, $20,000, $50,000, and $100,000 bills; automobile, life, fire, and/or homeowners' insurance policies (depending on the version); $20,000 promissory notes and stock certificates. Other tangibles vary between versions of the game. $500 bills were dropped in the 1980s as were $1,000 bills in 1992. The rules in all different modern versions of the game are generally the same even though they may have different cards and spaces.


title: The Game of Life

text: "The Game of Life", copyrighted by the Milton Bradley Company in 1960, had some differences from later versions. For example, once a player reached the "Day of Reckoning" space, they had to choose one of two options. The first was to continue along the road to "Millionaire Acres," if the player believed they had enough money to out-score all opponents. The second option was to try to become a "Millionaire Tycoon" by betting everything on one number and spinning the wheel. The player immediately won the game if the chosen number came up, or went to the "Poor Farm" and was eliminated if it did not. If no player became a Millionaire Tycoon, the one with the highest final total won the game. In addition, there were spaces that forced a player to go back; in the case a player landed on one of these, they were forced to take the shortest route and pay no attention to any penalties and rewards in doing so.


title: The Game of Life

text: This version had Art Linkletter as the spokesman, included his likeness on the $100,000 bills (with his name displayed on the bills as "Arthur Linkletter Esq.") and a rousing endorsement from Linkletter on the cover of the box. It was advertised as a "Milton Bradley 100th Anniversary Game" and as "A Full 3-D Action Game."


title: The Game of Life

text: About halfway through the production of this version, many dollar values doubled. This description focuses on the later version with the larger dollar amounts. The late 1980s version also replaced the convertibles from earlier versions with minivans. Early 1960s-era convertibles were still used in the 1978 edition. The "Poor Farm" was renamed "Bankrupt!" in which losing players would "Retire to the country and become a philosopher", and "Millionaire Acres" was shortened to "Millionaire!" in which the winner can "Retire in style". Like the 1960s version, there were spaces that forced a player to go back; in the case a player landed on one of these, they were forced to take the shortest route and pay no attention to any penalties and rewards in doing so.


title: The Game of Life

text: Exactly seven years after Hasbro acquired the Milton Bradley Company, "The Game of Life" was updated in 1991 to reward players for good behavior, such as recycling trash and helping the homeless, by awarding players "Life Tiles", each of which was worth a certain amount. At the end of the game, players added up the amounts on the tiles to their cash total, and counted towards the final total. The spaces that forced players to go back were removed, starting with this version.


title: The Game of Life

text: The 1998 PC and Sony PlayStation video game adaptations of "The Game of Life" by Hasbro's own video game production company are based on this version. Players could play either the "classic" version using the Life Tiles, or the "enhanced" version where landing on a space with a Life Tile allow players to play one of several mini-games. The PC version was later re-released in 2003 by Atari Interactive, under ownership from Infogrames Entertainment SA, as the result of a merger between Hasbro Interactive and the old Atari Interactive.


title: The Game of Life

text: An updated version of the game was released in 2005 with a few gameplay changes. The new "Game of Life" reduced the element of chance, although it is still primarily based on chance and still rewards players for taking risks.


title: The Game of Life

text: The 2013 version removed the lawsuit square which was replaced by a lawsuit card. A new "keep this card for 100k" feature was added as well.


title: Pine Tree Flag

text: The Tree Flag (or the Appeal to Heaven Flag) was one of the flags used during the American Revolution. The flag, which featured a pine tree with the motto "An Appeal to Heaven," or less frequently "An Appeal to God", was originally used by a squadron of six cruisers which were commissioned under George Washington's authority as Commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in October 1775.


title: Pine Tree Flag

text: It is the official maritime ensign for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, though the script was removed in 1971. It was used by state navy vessels in addition to privateers sailing from Massachusetts.


title: Pine Tree Flag

text: The design of the flag came from General Washington's secretary, Colonel Joseph Reed. In a letter dated October 21, 1775, Reed suggested a "flag with a white ground and a tree in the middle, the motto AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN" be used for the ships Washington commissioned.


title: Pine Tree Flag

text: The following summer, on July 26, 1776, the Massachusetts General Court established the flag of the state navy with a resolution that stated in part: "...that the Colours be a white Flag, with a green Pine Tree, and an Inscription, 'Appeal to Heaven'."


title: Pine Tree Flag

text: The pine tree has been symbolic in New England since the late 16th century, predating the arrival of colonists. After warring for decades, leaders of five nations — the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk — buried their weapons beneath a tree planted by the Iroquois Confederacy founder, the Great Peacemaker, at Onondaga. The "tree of peace" is featured in the center of the Hiawatha Belt, the Iroquois national belt, named for the Great Peacemaker's helper, Hiawatha.


title: Pine Tree Flag

text: Colonists adopted the pine as a symbol on flags and currency in the 17th century, including variants of the flag of New England and coinage produced by the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1652 to 1682. Leading up to the Revolutionary War, the pine tree became a symbol of colonial ire and resistance as well as multi-tribal support of independence.


title: Pine Tree Flag

text: New England's eastern white pine was prized in the colonial shipbuilding industry for its quality and height. Following their 1620 arrival to Plymouth, the Pilgrims began harvesting the indigenous pines; two decades later, they began exporting the wood as far as Madagascar.


title: Pine Tree Flag

text: Lacking domestic production of timber, and with imports from Russia and Sweden vulnerable to disruption, England included a mast-preservation clause in the 1691 Massachusetts Charter to ensure a reliable supply of 24-inch (61 cm) diameter trees for the Royal Navy. Surveyors marked trees appropriated to the Crown with the broad arrow symbol, but the so-called broad-arrow policy was never effectively enforced and colonists cut mast pines for sale on the black market.


title: Pine Tree Flag

text: In the Province of New Hampshire, enforcement led to the Pine Tree Riot in 1772, where a statute had been in effect since 1722 protecting 12-inch diameter trees. After being fined and refusing to pay for possessing trees marked with the broad arrow, a New Hampshire mill owner leading other mill owners and townsmen assaulted the sheriff and his deputy sent to arrest him by giving him one lash with a tree switch for every tree which the mill owners were fined, cutting the ears, manes, and tails off their horses, and forced them out of town through a jeering crowd. This was one of the first acts of forceful protest against British policies. It occurred almost two years prior to the more well-known Boston Tea Party protest and three years before open hostilities began at the Battles of Lexington and Concord.


title: Pine Tree Flag

text: According to legend, months prior to Colonel Joseph Reed's suggestion for using the pine, the pine was used on the flag that the colonists flew at the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775, though this is disputed by modern scholars. The historically accepted flag has a red field with the green pine tree in the upper left corner as depicted in John Trumbull's "The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17, 1775" painting. Provided Reed was aware of the Bunker Hill flag, there was a precedent to incorporate the pine in another Colonial martial flag.


title: Pine Tree Flag

text: Given the pine tree's significance to the colonists and since the flag was to fly over colonial warships, the pine offered an appropriate and ironic symbol, as it flew atop the very structure for which the British had sought to harvest the white pine.


title: Pine Tree Flag

text: The flag of Maine, the "pine tree state", featured a pine tree on a buff field with a blue star in the canton from 1901 to 1909.


title: Pine Tree Flag

text: The phrase is a particular expression of the right of revolution used by British philosopher John Locke in chapter 14 of his "Second Treatise on Civil Government" which was published in 1690 as part of "Two Treatises of Government" refuting the theory of the divine right of kings.


title: Pine Tree Flag

text: Locke's works were well-known and frequently quoted by colonial leaders, being the most quoted authority on the government in the 1760–1776 period prior to American independence. Locke’s specific writing that most influenced the American philosophy of government was his "Two Treatises of Government". In fact, Richard Henry Lee, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, saw the Declaration as being copied from that work. Locke was not only one of the most-cited political philosophers during the Founding Era, but the single most frequently-cited source in the years from 1760–1776 (the period leading up to the Declaration of Independence).


title: Pine Tree Flag

text: Prior to Colonel Reed's suggestion and Massachusetts General Court establishing the Pine Tree flag as the standard of the Massachusetts navy, "an appeal to Heaven" or similar expressions had been invoked by the Massachusetts Provincial Congress in several resolutions, Patrick Henry in his Liberty or Death speech, and the Second Continental Congress in the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms. Subsequently, it was used again by the Second Continental Congress in the Declaration of Independence.


title: Pine Tree Flag

text: The flag was prominently displayed in the introduction credits to HBO's John Adams miniseries (2008), referring to John Adams' proud, staunch New England identity.


title: Pine Tree Flag

text: In the 2010s, the flag became appropriated as a religious and political symbol by some conservative and nationalist activists within the United States.


title: Pine Tree Flag

text: In 2013, the flag was seen at a Million Vet March where it flew behind Sarah Palin in photographs. At the time, commentator Andrew Sullivan discussed the relevance of the flag's appearance, focusing on the connections between the historical message of the flag and its modern usage by political conservatives. In 2015, the Freedom From Religion Foundation demanded the flag's removal from a county courthouse in Arkansas. Also in 2015, the Appeal to Heaven flag and slogan were adopted by a conservative religious movement using the same name. In 2019, Illinois State Representative Chris Miller made a public appearance with the flag to "help focus attention" on a National Day of Prayer. The flag was also flown by Trump supporters and rioters during the 2021 United States Capitol attack.


title: Sheree J. Wilson

text: Sheree Julienne Wilson (born December 12, 1958) is an American actress, producer, businesswoman, and model. She is best known for her roles as April Stevens Ewing on the American primetime television series "Dallas" (1986–1991) and as Alex Cahill-Walker on the television series "Walker, Texas Ranger" (1993–2001).


title: Sheree J. Wilson

text: Wilson was born in Rochester, Minnesota. The daughter of two IBM executives, Wilson moved to Colorado at the age of nine and graduated from Fairview High School. In 1981, she received a degree in fashion merchandising and business from the University of Colorado Boulder.


title: Sheree J. Wilson

text: While working in Denver on a fashion shoot, one of the photographers mistook Wilson for a model and then introduced her to a New York modeling agent who signed her on the spot. Wilson then moved to Manhattan, and within 18 months, she had appeared in over 30 commercial campaigns for Clairol, Sea Breeze, Keri-Lotion, and Maybelline. Her print work ran in such popular magazines as "Mademoiselle", "Glamour", and "Redbook".


title: Sheree J. Wilson

text: After three years of modeling, Wilson moved to Los Angeles for a career in acting. Her first roles included the black comedy film "Crimewave" (1984) directed by Sam Raimi, "Velvet" (1984), an ABC/Aaron Spelling television movie opposite Leah Ayres, Shari Belafonte, and Mary Margaret Humes, and a guest role on the espionage series "Cover Up" (1984). She had a lead role with Tim Robbins in the comedy motion picture "Fraternity Vacation" (1985) and also appeared in a CBS television miniseries "Kane & Abel" (1985) with Peter Strauss. This immediately led to "Our Family Honor" (1985-1986), an ABC drama about Irish cops versus the Mafia, in which she co-starred with Ray Liotta, Michael Madsen, and Eli Wallach. Her career continued to flourish with a role in the television movie "News at Eleven" (1986) alongside Martin Sheen.


title: Sheree J. Wilson

text: Wilson gained the role as April Stevens Ewing on the CBS soap opera "Dallas" (1986–1991). Her character was gunned down in the final season during her honeymoon (with new husband Bobby Ewing) in Paris. She continued to make some appearances in Bobby's dream sequences later that season. In reality, Wilson was killed off and left the series due to maternity. Her performance earned her the Soap Opera Digest Award for Best Death Scene in 1991, as well as four other nominations. In 2006, she attended the TV Land Award ceremony for "Dallas" and in November 2008, the "Dallas" 30th anniversary reunion party at Southfork Ranch in Parker, Texas, with cast members Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy, Linda Gray, Ken Kercheval, Steve Kanaly, and Charlene Tilton.


title: Sheree J. Wilson

text: In 1993, following guest roles in the television series "Matlock" (opposite Clarence Gilyard's former acting mentor, Andy Griffith), "Burke's Law (1994 TV series)", and "Renegade" (opposite Lorenzo Lamas), Wilson played the lead female role in "Hellbound" opposite Chuck Norris, which led to her best-known role as Alexandra "Alex" Cahill-Walker also opposite Norris in "Walker, Texas Ranger" (1993-2001). In 2005 she reprised her role in the television movie "" which ended with her character being the victim of a courthouse shooting. This left many viewers to believe that there would be a follow-up movie which was severely impaired when CBS said that they would no longer be producing "Sunday Night Movie of the Week" projects. She also co-starred in the Showtime movie "Past Tense" (1994).


title: Sheree J. Wilson

text: In 2006, Wilson appeared in "Fragile", the first short film by documentary filmmaker Fredric Lean. She played the lead role in television movies "Mystery Woman: Game Time" (2005) and "Anna's Storm" (2007). She produced and starred in independent films "Killing Down" (2006), "The Gundown" (2011), "" (2012), and "Dug Up" (2013). She co-starred in the television series "Pink" (2007-2008) and had a guest role in the television series "DeVanity" (2014). She played a major role in the television movie "Christmas Belle" (2013), "A Mermaid for Christmas" (2019), and "The Silent Natural" (2019).


title: Sheree J. Wilson

text: In 2016, Wilson began performing in the role of Miss Daisy Werthan in the Neil Simon Film Festival's "Driving Miss Daisy" opposite her former "Walker, Texas Ranger" co-star, Clarence Gilyard.


title: Sheree J. Wilson

text: Wilson married Vince Morella in 2018 and currently resides in Dallas, Texas. She has two sons from a previous marriage to Paul DeRobbio (1991-2004).


title: Sheree J. Wilson

text: Wilson has been active in the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Trail of Tears Remembrance Motorcycle Ride, Wings for Life aimed at healing spinal cord injuries, and White Bridle Humane Society, a horse rescue equine therapy nonprofit organization for children with developmental disabilities located in Texas. Wilson also created a line of beauty therapy skin care products.


title: The End (Lost)

text: "The End" is the series finale of the television series "Lost", consisting of the 17th and 18th episodes of season 6. It is also the 120th and 121st episodes overall of the series. It aired on ABC in the United States on May 23, 2010. In the episode, the Man in Black (Terry O'Quinn) executes his plan to destroy the island as Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) tries to stop him once and for all. Meanwhile, the true nature of this season's "flash-sideways" narrative device is revealed.


title: The End (Lost)

text: The finale was written by co-creator/executive producer Damon Lindelof and executive producer Carlton Cuse, and directed by executive producer Jack Bender. Unlike the previous season finales, which were two hours long with advertisements, the series finale was expanded by half an hour, running two and a half hours starting at 9 pm ET, with a retrospective of the past six seasons running for two hours, starting at 7 pm.


title: The End (Lost)

text: "The End" was watched by 13.5 million Americans and received a polarized response from both fans and critics. Reviewers from the "Chicago Tribune" and IGN called it the best episode of the season and praised its emotion and character. Reviews from the "Los Angeles Times" and "The Philadelphia Inquirer" criticized the finale for answering so few of the series' questions. Web site Metacritic gave "The End" a score of 74 out of 100, suggesting "mostly positive reviews", while "The Guardian" and "The Daily Telegraph" reported mixed and "lukewarm" reviews. Retrospective reviews have been equally polarizing.


title: The End (Lost)

text: Desmond gathers many of the islanders at the benefit concert of Daniel Widmore (Jeremy Davies) and Drive Shaft. One by one, each protagonist begins to recognize one another based on close contact with a person or object that was important to them throughout their time on the island, receiving flashes of memory. Eventually, most of them remember their past lives and are drawn to the church that was to be the site of Jack's father's funeral. John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) regains the use of his legs after being successfully operated on by Jack. After remembering his time on the island through the flashes of memory, Locke attempts to convince Jack of the truth, but Jack, although also experiencing flashes of memory, resists the revelation. Locke later meets Ben outside the church where Locke forgives him for murdering him. Ben then meets Hurley, who says everyone is inside, motioning him to join them, but Ben elects to stay outside. As Hurley heads back inside, he says to Ben that he was a "real good number two...", to which Ben replies back that Hurley was a "great number one". Kate later encounters Jack, and while her presence causes him to experience more flashes, he continues to resist. She takes him to the church and instructs him to enter through the back door, telling him the others will be waiting for him. In the church, he enters a room where there are symbols not just of Christianity, but also of other faiths such as Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, etc. He then encounters his father's coffin. He opens the coffin lid and discovers it to be empty. Christian Shephard (John Terry) then appears behind him. Jack slowly comes to realize that he is dead as well. After an emotional embrace, Christian reassures him that the events leading up to now actually happened and the time he spent with the people on the island was "the most important period" of his life. He explains to Jack that time has no meaning in this place and that they "made" the place to "find each other", independent of the time at which they died. Christian explains that place exists so the Oceanic 815 survivors could "let go" and "move on" together. Jack and Christian go out into the church to meet the others. Everyone is able to see, recognize, and remember everyone else and their lives together. After an emotional reunion, Christian opens the front doors, revealing another bright light that slowly envelops everyone inside the church.


title: The End (Lost)

text: Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox), Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly) and Hugo "Hurley" Reyes (Jorge Garcia) head to the heart of the island, while James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway) goes after Desmond Hume (Henry Ian Cusick), who was thrown into a well. Arriving there, Sawyer is confronted by Ben Linus (Michael Emerson) and the Man in Black (Terry O'Quinn), who reveals his plan to destroy the island. Sawyer then steals Ben's rifle and reunites with Jack's group. Jack then tells Sawyer that he plans to confront the Man in Black.


title: The End (Lost)

text: At the same time, Desmond, having been rescued by Rose Henderson (L. Scott Caldwell) and Bernard Nadler (Sam Anderson), is confronted by the Man in Black, who has Ben with him. The Man in Black threatens to kill Rose and Bernard if Desmond does not come with him, and he complies, provided the Man in Black leaves the couple unharmed. Meanwhile, Miles Straume (Ken Leung) finds a no longer ageless Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell) in the jungle, and they set out by boat to destroy the Ajira plane which would allow the Man in Black to escape. Along the way, they rescue Frank Lapidus (Jeff Fahey), who had survived the destruction of the submarine, and they decide to leave the island by using the plane.


title: The End (Lost)

text: On the way to the heart of the Island, Jack's group encounters the Man in Black's group. Jack tells the Man in Black that he is going to kill him, and together with Desmond, they travel to the heart of the Island. Jack tells Sawyer that he believes Desmond can kill the Man in Black because he thinks Jacob brought him back not as bait but as a weapon. Desmond tells Jack that destroying the island and killing the Man in Black do not matter because he is going down to the heart of the island and leaving for another place. Jack and the Man in Black lower Desmond down to the heart of the island and he reaches a chamber, leading to a glowing pool with an elongated stone at its center. Immune to the pool's electromagnetic energy, Desmond manages to remove the giant stone stopper in the center of the pool. However, the light goes out and the pool dries up, setting about the destruction of the island which the Man in Black predicted. A result of Desmond's act is an unforeseen side-effect of making the Man in Black mortal again. During a prolonged fight, the Man in Black stabs Jack in the same spot where his appendix was taken out and almost kills him when Kate shoots the Man in Black in the back, allowing Jack to kick him off the cliff to his death. The island continues to crumble and Jack realizes that he has to restore the light of the heart of the Island. He tells Kate to get Claire Littleton (Emilie de Ravin) on the plane and leave the island in case he fails. The two profess their love for each other and Kate leaves with Sawyer while Hurley and Ben follow Jack back to the pool.


title: The End (Lost)

text: Kate and Sawyer travel to Hydra Island via Desmond's boat "Elizabeth", to the site of the Ajira Airlines plane where Lapidus, Richard, and Miles have been quickly trying to make it air-worthy. Kate convinces Claire she can help her raise Aaron and they head for the plane. After Kate, Sawyer, and Claire board the plane, Lapidus successfully gets it off the island. Jack leads Hurley and Ben back to the heart of the Island, where Jack convinces an emotional Hurley to take over as the protector of the island, stating Hurley was always meant to be the leader. Hurley and Ben lower Jack to the dry pool where he rescues a barely conscious Desmond. Jack manages to restore the light by replacing the stone plug and is enveloped in the light that surrounds him. Hurley, in his role as the new protector of the island, does not know what to do. Ben tells him he should help Desmond get home and suggests there may be a better way of protecting the island than how Jacob did. Hurley asks him for help, and Ben is honored. Jack reawakens outside by a river and walks toward the bamboo forest. After Jack collapses to the ground, Vincent approaches him and lies next to him. Jack gazes happily at the sky while watching the Ajira plane fly overhead away from the island. Jack slowly closes his eyes as he dies.


title: The End (Lost)

text: Damon Lindelof, producer, reported on his Twitter page that the finale completed shooting in Hawaii on April 24, 2010, exactly six years after filming was completed on the show's pilot. When interviewed about the finale, Carlton Cuse stated that it had a real, definite resolution instead of a snow globe, waking up in bed, it's all been a dream, cut to black' kind of ending," referencing the series finales of "St. Elsewhere", "Newhart", and "The Sopranos", respectively.


title: The End (Lost)

text: Only Fox and O'Quinn's scripts explained the nature of the Sideways world; Lindelof and Cuse explained its meaning to the others while filming the church scene, the last time the cast members were together. They have expressed satisfaction regarding the finale; Daniel Dae Kim stated "If you think about how many pieces the writers had to put together in order to make it fall into place, it’s mind-boggling, and they did such a great job... For me it was very satisfying. After I read it, I had to sit for five or 10 minutes, just reflecting and digesting, because it definitely makes an impact." Emerson said: Carbonell described the finale as being "all about everyone’s resolutions." Cusick said "There are so many walks of life getting together to talk about the show and so many issues to be brought up and that's exactly what the ending will bring up. People will be talking about it for weeks afterwards and that's what the show has always done."


title: The End (Lost)

text: Instead of being displayed along with ABC promotional material (which in most cases would consist of a preview of the next "Lost" episode), the finale's closing credits are shown alongside various shots of the Oceanic 815 plane wreckage. However, this footage was not added by the producers of the show and is not considered a part of the actual episode. ABC independently decided to add the footage as a soft, nostalgic transition between the final scene and upcoming local news broadcast.


title: The End (Lost)

text: After the finale, a post-finale special of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", titled "Jimmy Kimmel Live: Aloha to Lost", aired at 12:05 am, showing three alternate endings, which turned out to be finale spoofs from "Survivor", "The Sopranos", and "Newhart". An ABC source reported that the DVD and Blu-ray release of season six will feature twenty minutes of additional scenes, some of which will have answers to questions, cut from the storyline because of running time.


title: The End (Lost)

text: All former series regulars who appear (Jeremy Davies, Maggie Grace, Rebecca Mader, Elizabeth Mitchell, Dominic Monaghan, Ian Somerhalder, Cynthia Watros) are restored to the main cast in this episode. Those who do not return are Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Malcolm David Kelley, Harold Perrineau, Michelle Rodriguez, Kiele Sanchez, and Rodrigo Santoro (Rodriguez appeared in the previous episode). Additionally, long-time recurring guest stars Sam Anderson, L. Scott Caldwell, François Chau (incidentally, it's the first time Chau was credited for his appearance), Fionnula Flanagan, John Terry and Sonya Walger are upgraded to the main cast.


title: The End (Lost)

text: Despite being killed off in the twelfth episode of the season and reprising her role only once more in the thirteenth, cast member Zuleikha Robinson received an on-screen, main cast credit for every episode. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje turned down an offer to return because of salary disagreements. Despite the fact that it was earlier reported by Carlton Cuse that Malcolm David Kelley would appear, he only appeared in archive footage.


title: The End (Lost)

text: The episode was initially broadcast on ABC in the eastern United States and CTV in eastern Canada, then simultaneously in the western United States, Western Canada, Fox in Italy and Portugal, Fox and Cuatro in Spain, DiziMax in Turkey, Sky1 in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and HOT 3 in Israel at 9 pm Pacific Time on May 23, 2010. Because of the time difference, its initial simulcast airing was at 5 am BST, 6 am CEST. In Ireland, RTÉ Two decided to air it on Monday, May 24 at 9 pm rather than its usual Thursday night slot in the interest of fans who did not want the ending to be spoiled. ABC charged up to US$900,000 for a 30-second commercial during the May 23 U.S. broadcast.


title: The End (Lost)

text: Its broadcast on Cleveland ABC affiliate WEWS-TV was almost completely interrupted and rendered unwatchable by a number of technical difficulties with the station's digital signal. This caused numerous viewer complaints, leading the station to issue numerous apologies both on-air and on WEWS's website.


title: The End (Lost)

text: In its original American broadcast, "The End" was viewed by 13.5 million households with a 5.8 rating/15% share in the 18–49 demographic, coming first in every time slot and boosting ABC to the highest rated network on Sunday. The best rated half-hour (the last one) was viewed by 15.31 million viewers and earned a 6.4 rating/19% share in the 18–49 demographic. At least 20.5 million viewers watched at least six minutes of the episode according to ABC. After its first broadcast, the series finale became the 55th highest viewed series finale ever in the United States. "Entertainment Weekly"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Michael Ausiello called the ratings "Solid, not spectacular". According to Ausiello, even though it was the show's highest rated episode in two years, it was still "far from a record-breaking performance".


title: The End (Lost)

text: In the UK, 584,000 viewers tuned in to see the episode on Sky 1 during a 5 am broadcast. A later broadcast the following night was viewed by approximately 2.5 million. In Canada, viewers averaged over two million with the 7 pm special and the two-hour finale.


title: The End (Lost)

text: "The End" provoked an immediate response, and received a strongly polarized reaction from both fans and TV critics alike. Response to the episode was positive and negative in equal measures, both in the United States and internationally. According to the web site Metacritic, "The End" received "generally favorable reviews" with a Metascore – a weighted average based on the impressions of 31 critical reviews – of 74 out of 100. Of the most positive reviews, "IGN" writer Chris Carbot gave the episode a score of 10/10, describing it as "one of the most enthralling, entertaining and satisfying conclusions [he] could have hoped for." Eric Deggans of the "St. Petersburg Times" also gave "The End" a perfect score, calling it "emotional, funny [and] expertly measured". Robert Bianco of "USA Today" rated the finale as perfect as well, stating that it could "stand with the best any series has produced". James Poniewozik of "Time" also praised "The End", calling it "full of heart and commitment"; Zap2it's Ryan McGee described the episode as "a masterpiece." Jason Hughes of "TV Squad" felt that "as finales go, 'The End' will definitely go down as one of the more satisfying ones". Emily VanDerWerff of the "Los Angeles Times" felt that the episode "provides character payoffs we’ve been waiting for. ... The important thing ... is not answers. It’s resolution. And 'Lost' provided that in spades." Richard Roeper gave the episode an A+ rating, calling it a "great finale to one of the best TV shows of all time."


title: The End (Lost)

text: Not all critics were satisfied with the episode: the British newspapers "The Guardian" and "The Daily Telegraph" both reported that "The End" received negative reviews and disappointed its viewers. Alan Sepinwall of "Star-Ledger" was less enthusiastic about the finale and stated that he didn't consider the episode to be "wholly satisfying, either as closure for this season or the series", highlighting the episode's "narrative dead ends" as part of the reason. Mike Hale of "The New York Times" gave "The End" a mixed review, as the episode showed that the series was "shaky on the big picture". Matthew Gilbert of the "Boston Globe" also gave the episode a mixed review, citing some of the episode's "quite hokey" metaphors. David Zurawik of the "Baltimore Sun" gave the episode a highly negative review, describing the final scenes as "wimpy, phony, quasi-religious, white-light [and] huggy-bear". He added: "It looked like [Jack] was walking into a Hollywood wrap party without food or music – just a bunch of actors grinning idiotically for 10 minutes and hugging one another." Max Read of Gawker was also particularly scathing, calling the finale "incredibly dumb" and remarking that "it ended in the worst way possible". Mary McNamara of the "Los Angeles Times" gave the episode 1½ stars out of 5, saying that many fans would wish "for a time slip that would give them those 2½ hours and possibly six seasons back". M.L. House of TV Fanatic felt "bored" and "especially disappointed" by the finale, and that the show's resolution was "overarching". Peter Mucha of "The Philadelphia Inquirer" also spoke negatively of the finale, calling the series "one of TV's longest, lamest cons." Laura Miller of Salon.com suggested that the finale episode was a failure because of its fan base, calling the series "the quintessential example of a pop masterpiece ruined by its own fans."


title: The End (Lost)

text: Outside the US, the episode also prompted a polarized response. The BBC's Entertainment reporter Kev Geoghegan felt that the episode was "emotionally satisfying" and that "the show was wrapped up rather nicely". Michael Deacon in "The Daily Telegraph" was "beatifically surprised" at the "great" ending. Shane Hegarty in "The Irish Times" felt that the final scene was "somewhat of a letdown", comparing it to the recent similar ending of "Ashes to Ashes" and contrasting it with the last ever episode of "The Sopranos". He remarked: "["The Sopranos"] was not about mystery, but its final scene was so inscrutable that fans are still squinting in an effort to figure it out. "Lost"s finale, though, was not too obtuse." Some reviewers ended puzzled about the meaning of "Lost". Tim Teeman in "The Times" referred to "a global scratching of heads" in his review but concluded "The questions are ceaseless: it may be healthier, as one online fan put it, 'to just accept it and move on. Steve Busfield and Richard Vine of "The Guardian" spoke positively about the episode, saying that the series would "continue to baffle, infuriate and delight fans for an eternity". Conversely, the TV critic Charlie Brooker, also writing for "The Guardian", remarked that "The End" plot "made less sense than a milk hammock", while the comedian Danny Baker called the episode "an outrage".


title: The End (Lost)

text: Reception of the episode, as well as later seasons of Lost on a whole, grew more negative over time to the point of infamy, regularly being considered one of the worst series finales ever. Chris E. Hayner of Zap2It named "The End" as the number one worst series finale, calling it "the king of disappointing series finales". Indiewire similarly branded the finale as the number one worst ever, criticizing it for being "unbelievably long" and having a "decided lack of dramatic tension and any real thrills". Discussing the final season as a whole, Indiewire described season six as "directionless" and "largely a 'miss. Writing for MTV in 2015, Josh Wigler called the episode "the finale that sucks", and said that it would live on "as the model for how NOT to finish your show". Daniel D'Addario, writing for Salon.com, listed "The End" as one of the "worst finales ever", describing the series as "a show whose twists and turns didn't always seem to be undertaken by people who knew what they were doing."


title: The End (Lost)

text: The resolution of the flash-sideways storyline as being a form of purgatory received considerable criticism: writing for "Rolling Stone" in May 2015, Sean Collins named "The End" as one of the worst series finales, and described the flash-sideways plot point as "corny". Collins felt that "this short-sighted decision [made] the series hard to happily revisit", and that the episode as a whole had "balked". Brian Moylan of "The Guardian" felt that the finale had failed to fulfill some of the writers' promises, specifically the purgatory storyline. Moylan believed that the writers had set up mysteries that they "had no intention of answering". Danny Walker of the "Daily Mirror" listed the episode as one of the seven worst TV series finales, saying that it "left viewers with even more unanswered questions". Maddie Crum of "The Huffington Post" selected "The End" as her choice for the most disappointing series finale of all time, saying that it was "a complete stock ending" with "cheap pathos plays". In 2019, Kelly Lawler of "USA Today" named the episode the third worst series finale, describing the ending as "easy" and "schmaltzy".


title: The End (Lost)

text: Writing in September 2014, Tom Eames of Digital Spy defended the finale, explaining that, although "divisive and controversial", it was "a beautiful piece of television". He stated: "It had returning characters, tears, action, romance and as happy an ending as possible for a show like "Lost"." Cory Barker of TV.com also retrospectively reviewed the episode positively, naming it one of his all-time favorite series finales, and describing it as "emotionally satisfying" and "jam-packed with amazing moments". "Entertainment Weekly" listed "The End" as the seventh best series finale ever, describing it as "a high-energy epic romp". Reception from audiences continues to be mixed: , an ongoing poll for E! states that 53.87% of the audience loathed the finale, while the remaining 46.13% loved it. In 2021, eleven years after the episode was broadcast, respondents to a survey conducted by the website OnBuy.com name "The End" as the most disappointing series finale ever, with its receiving 27.3% of the vote.


title: The End (Lost)

text: The episode was nominated in eight categories for the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards, the most Emmy nominations for a "Lost" episode. The episode was nominated for Primetime Emmy Awards in the categories of Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series and Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. For the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, "The End" won for Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series, while other nominations included Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series, Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series, Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score).


title: Cynthia Gibb

text: Cynthia Gibb (born December 14, 1963) is an American actress and former model who has starred in film and on television. She began her career as a cast member on the musical television drama "Fame", based on the movie of the same name. She also appeared in the films "Youngblood" (1986), "Salvador" (1986), "Malone" (1987), "Short Circuit 2" (1988) and "Death Warrant" (1990). She received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance as Gypsy Rose Lee in the film "Gypsy" (1993).


title: Cynthia Gibb

text: Gibb grew up in Westport, Connecticut, and graduated from Staples High School. At the age of 14, she began assignments with the Ford Modeling Agency in New York City. She was on the cover of "Vogue" and "Young Miss" magazines. She was cast for her first film role, a small part as a Young Fan in Woody Allen's 1980 film "Stardust Memories".


title: Cynthia Gibb

text: Gibb appeared in "Youngblood" starring Rob Lowe. She also played the role of Susan Martin Wyatt Carter on the soap opera "Search for Tomorrow", appearing from 1981 to 1983. Gibb was a regular for three of the six seasons of the television series "Fame", which aired from 1982 to 1987. She appeared in the "" movies in 1992 as Dr. Amanda Bentley. In "Salvador" (1986), directed by Oliver Stone and starring James Woods, she portrayed an American lay missionary in El Salvador who was brutally raped and murdered. In the TV adaptation of "Gypsy", for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film; she played the adult Gypsy Rose Lee opposite Bette Midler as Madame Rose. Gibb later starred in the NBC sitcom "Madman of the People" (1994–95), and UPN series "Deadly Games" (1995–97). She has also played in many TV movies, including the role of Karen Carpenter in "The Karen Carpenter Story" (1989). She played Mary Maloney opposite John Schneider in "Mary Christmas".


title: Vermeil in Gold

text: Written by Kōta Amana and illustrated by Yōko Umezu, "Vermeil in Gold" began serialization in Square Enix's "shōnen" manga magazine "Monthly Shōnen Gangan" on August 10, 2018. The first "tankōbon" volume was released on April 12, 2019. As of June 2022, six volumes have been released.


title: Vermeil in Gold

text: An anime television series adaptation was announced on March 10, 2022. The series is produced by Staple Entertainment and directed by Takashi Naoya, with scripts written by Tatsuya Takahashi, character designs handled by Kiyoshi Tateishi, and music composed by Ken Itō and Kenichi Kuroda. It aired from July 5 to September 20, 2022, on AT-X, Tokyo MX, BS11, and SUN. The opening theme song is "Abracada-Boo" by Kaori Ishihara, while the ending theme song is "Mortal With You" by Mili. Sentai Filmworks has licensed the series under the title Vermeil in Gold: A Desperate Magician Barges Into the Magical World Alongside the Strongest Calamity. At their Otakon panel in July 2022, Sentai Filmworks announced that the series will receive an English dub, which premiered on September 27, 2022.


title: Tinsley Mortimer

text: Tinsley Randolph Mortimer (née Mercer; born August 11, 1975) is an American socialite and television personality. She is known for starring in reality television series "High Society" and "The Real Housewives of New York City".


title: Tinsley Mortimer

text: Mortimer was born Tinsley Randolph Mercer in Richmond, Virginia. Her father was George Riley Mercer Jr., a wealthy real-estate investor, and her mother is Dale Tatum Mercer, an interior designer and socialite. She has a younger sister, Dabney Winston Mercer. Her paternal grandfather, George Riley Mercer Sr., founded Mercer Rug Cleansing in 1936. Mortimer is descended from multiple First Families of Virginia. She grew up at Graymont, her family's estate in Richmond.


title: Tinsley Mortimer

text: Mortimer attended St. Catherine's School, a private all-girls Episcopal school in Richmond, and later the Lawrenceville School, a boarding school in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, where she was a member of the Kirby House. Mortimer was a debutante, having been presented to Richmond society at the Bal du Bois at the Country Club of Virginia.


title: Tinsley Mortimer

text: She went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a freshman in college, but later transferred to Columbia University. At Columbia, she was a member of St. Anthony Hall. She was also a nationally ranked tennis player and played varsity tennis for Columbia. She graduated from Columbia with a bachelor of arts degree in art history, and later obtained her master's degree in decorative arts from the Cooper Hewitt design museum.


title: Tinsley Mortimer

text: Early in her career, Mortimer worked as a beauty assistant at "Vogue" and an event planner for Harrison & Shriftman. Mortimer had a line of handbags and clothing in Japan for Samantha Thavasa, for which she was featured in an advertising campaign. She also features prominently in Samantha Thavasa USA's online promotional materials and in the company's Madison Avenue store, which also carries her handbags. She subsequently formed her own clothing line, Riccime by Tinsley Mortimer, which was sold exclusively in Japan. In 2008, Mortimer became involved in branding and design for a condominium development.


title: Tinsley Mortimer

text: Mortimer has served as Christian Dior’s beauty ambassador and helped to create a lip gloss named Tinsley Pink. She has appeared in several magazine editorials, including "Vogue", "WWD", "Harper’s Bazaar" and "Marie Claire." In May 2012, she appeared on the cover of "Vestal" magazine, which also featured an editorial styled by Lo'renzo Hill-White and shot by fashion photographer Kevin Sinclair. She has appeared on the magazine covers of "Page Six Magazine", "Virginia Living", "Avenue", "CVLUX", "Maniac", and "New York".


title: Tinsley Mortimer

text: She made a cameo on the season two premiere episode of "Gossip Girl", which aired on September 1, 2008 on The CW. In an interview for "Vanity Fair", "Gossip Girl"'s costume designers Eric Daman and Meredith Markworth-Pollack considered New York socialites Tinsley Mortimer and Arden Wohl as a muse when dressing actress Blake Lively and when asked if they were influenced by New York socialites, respectively. Daman and Markworth-Pollack said that "if you put Blair and Serena together, you get Tinsley Mortimer. Tinsley’s hair is always set and she always looks perfect, but she takes risks." On March 10, 2010, Mortimer debuted her own reality television show called "High Society", starring Mortimer along with other socialites such as Paul Johnson Calderon and Devorah Rose. The show documented the lives of Mortimer and her friends in New York City, but it was critically panned and cancelled after 8 episodes because of low ratings. The failure of the show was credited with causing Mortimer's subsequent "downfall" as a New York socialite.


title: Tinsley Mortimer

text: Mortimer wrote a novel titled "Southern Charm", which follows Minty Davenport from South Carolina to New York, where she is the victim of rumors. It was published by Simon & Schuster in April 2013. Mortimer also wrote chapter in the book "The Park Avenue Diet", which outlines recommendations on improving one's conversation and social skills, written by Manhattan diet doctor Stuart Fischer. She has been a contributor for "Town & Country" magazine since 2017. In 2017, Mortimer joined the cast of Bravo's reality television series "The Real Housewives of New York City" for the show's ninth season.


title: Tinsley Mortimer

text: In 2014, she launched Home Collection manufactured by Pop Culture Living, an e-commerce site featuring curated collections of home accessories. She currently has her own line of housewares products sold at Bed Bath & Beyond and Wayfair. The collection includes dinnerware, decorative glasses, barware and ice buckets. In June 2019, Mortimer launched a new collaboration of fake lashes with the beauty brand Winky Lux titled "XXO Tinsley for Winky Lux." She designed the product packaging herself. In September 2019, Mortimer walked the runway for Garo Sparo's fashion show at New York Fashion Week. In October 2019, Mortimer announced that she has partnered up with RuMe to launch a Resort 2020 Collection, which consists of travel, fashion, and beauty accessories.


title: Tinsley Mortimer

text: In July 2020, Mortimer appeared in a pro-adoption billboard "Buy Shoes, Not Dogs" for PETA. The billboard was located in Chicago, Illinois and Mortimer also appeared in a video, where she encouraged people to adopt dogs from shelters. Mortimer has adopted her two dogs called Strawberry and Shortcake.


title: Tinsley Mortimer

text: Mortimer met Robert Livingston "Topper" Mortimer (son of John Jay Mortimer) at Lawrenceville School and eloped when they were both 18. However, their parents forced them to annul the marriage. On May 4, 2002, they remarried in Richmond, Virginia. The Mortimers got divorced in 2010. Her ex-husband married British fashion designer Tabitha Simmons in 2018.


title: Tinsley Mortimer

text: On July 23, 2010, Mortimer was featured with her mother Dale on the "Dr. Phil" show discussing her divorce and her differences with her mother.


title: Tinsley Mortimer

text: On February 11, 2017, Mortimer was introduced to Chicago-based Coupon Cabin CEO Scott Kluth by her "Real Housewives of New York City" castmate Carole Radziwill. The pair then entered an on-and-off long distance relationship between New York and Chicago, and as of October 2018, the couple had separated. Mortimer and Kluth were engaged in November 2019 and ended their engagement in March 2021.


title: Tinsley Mortimer

text: In April 2016, Mortimer was arrested for trespassing on her former boyfriend Alexander "Nico" Fanjul’s property in Palm Beach, Florida. The charges were later dismissed.


title: Ken Paxton

text: Warren Kenneth Paxton Jr. (born December 23, 1962) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the Attorney General of Texas since January 2015. Paxton has described himself as a Tea Party conservative.


title: Ken Paxton

text: Paxton was re-elected to a third term as Attorney General on November 8, 2022. In his 2022 run, he faced a Republican primary opponent on May 24, George P. Bush, whom he defeated 68% to 32%, thus winning his party's nomination to advance to the 2022 Texas Attorney General election. He previously served as Texas State Senator for the 8th district and the Texas State Representative for the 70th district.


title: Ken Paxton

text: Paxton has been under indictment since 2015 on state securities fraud charges relating to activities prior to taking office. He has pleaded not guilty. As of 2022, he is not standing trial. In October 2020, several high-level assistants in Paxton's office accused him of "bribery, abuse of office and other crimes".


title: Ken Paxton

text: After Joe Biden won the 2020 U.S. presidential election and Donald Trump refused to concede while making false claims of election fraud, Paxton aided Trump in his efforts to overturn the result, from filing the unsuccessful "Texas v. Pennsylvania" case in the U.S. Supreme Court to speaking at the rally Trump held on January 6, 2021, that immediately preceded the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack.


title: Ken Paxton

text: Paxton was born on Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota where his father was stationed while in the United States Air Force. His parents and their three children lived in a trailer, often without air conditioning, parked outside wherever his father was temporarily stationed. At various times, they lived in Florida, New York, North Carolina, California, and Oklahoma. A lifelong football fan, Paxton carried a jersey autographed by Bill Bates, formerly of the Dallas Cowboys. Bates later was named Paxton's campaign treasurer.


title: Ken Paxton

text: At the age of twelve, Paxton nearly lost an eye in a game of hide-and-seek; a misdiagnosis led to long-term problems with his vision. As a result, his good eye is green; his damaged one, brown and droopy. He further injured his eye while in college.


title: Ken Paxton

text: Paxton received a psychology degree in 1985 and a Master of Business Administration in 1986, both from Baylor University, where he was elected president of the student government.


title: Ken Paxton

text: Paxton then worked for two years as a management consultant before returning to school in 1988. In 1991, he received a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Virginia.


title: Ken Paxton

text: Paxton worked at Strasburger & Price, L.L.P. from 1991 to 1995, and J.C. Penney Company, Inc. from 1995 to 2002.


title: Ken Paxton

text: In 2002, Paxton ran in the Republican primary for the Texas House in District 70. He captured 39.45% of the vote and moved into a runoff with Bill Vitz, whom he then defeated with 64% of the vote. He went on to face Fred Lusk (D) and Robert Worthington (L) for the newly redistricted open seat. On November 4, 2002, Paxton won with 28,012 votes to Lusk's 7,074 votes and Worthington's 600 votes.


title: Ken Paxton

text: Paxton won re-election against Democrat Martin Woodward in 2004. Paxton captured 76% of the vote, or 58,520 votes compared to 18,451 votes for Woodward. Paxton won re-election in 2006, defeating Rick Koster (D) and Robert Virasin (L). Paxton received 30,062 votes to Koster's 12,265 votes and Virasin's 1,222 votes. Paxton won re-election by again defeating Robert Virasin (L), 73,450 to 11,751 votes. Paxton ran unopposed for re-election in 2010.


title: Ken Paxton

text: After getting re-elected, Paxton ran for Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives against Joe Straus of District 121 in Bexar County and fellow Republican Warren Chisum of District 88 in Pampa, Texas. Paxton said that if elected speaker, he would take "bold action in defense of our conservative values." Sensing certain defeat, Paxton pulled out of the Speaker's race before the vote. Paxton was endorsed by "HuckPAC", the official political action committee of Mike Huckabee, and was endorsed by the National Rifle Association. Straus was elected to his second term as Speaker and was re-elected in 2013, 2015, and 2017.


title: Ken Paxton

text: Paxton was in the Texas State Senate from 2013 until January 2015 when his term as Attorney General began.


title: Ken Paxton

text: Paxton became a candidate for Texas attorney general when the incumbent Greg Abbott decided to run for governor to succeed the retiring Rick Perry. Paxton led a three-candidate field in the Republican primary held on March 4, 2014, polling 566,114 votes (44.4%). State Representative Dan Branch of Dallas County received 426,595 votes (33.5 percent). Eliminated in the primary was Texas Railroad Commissioner Barry Smitherman of Austin, who polled the remaining 281,064 (22.1 percent). Paxton faced Dan Branch in the runoff election on May 27, 2014, and won with 465,395 votes (63.63 percent). Branch received 265,963 votes (36.36 percent).


title: Ken Paxton

text: In the November 4, 2014, general election, Paxton defeated his Democratic opponent, an attorney from Houston named Sam Houston.


title: Ken Paxton

text: Paxton took office on January 5, 2015. Paxton's campaign raised $945,000 in the first half of 2016, leaving Paxton with just under $3 million in his campaign account for a potential 2018 re-election bid.


title: Ken Paxton

text: Paxton's wife, Angela Paxton, his closest political advisor, often opens up his events with a musical performance. She calls her husband "a very competitive person". Paxton won the attorney general's election without the endorsement of a single Texas newspaper. In 2018, Angela Paxton won the District 8 seat in the Texas Senate.


title: Ken Paxton

text: In 2018, Paxton ran unopposed for re-election in the Republican primary. Having received the endorsement of U.S. President Donald Trump, Paxton won a second term as attorney general in the general election on November 6, 2018, narrowly defeating Democratic nominee Justin Nelson, a lawyer, and Libertarian Party nominee Michael Ray Harris by a margin of 4,173,538 (50.6 percent) to 3,874,096 (47 percent) and Harris receiving 2.4%. Justin Nelson's campaign ad for attorney general included surveillance video from the Collin County courthouse in 2012, showing Paxton taking a Montblanc pen worth $1,000, which had been accidentally left behind at a metal detector by fellow lawyer Joe Joplin. The pen was later returned "when the error was realized", said a spokesman for Paxton.


title: Ken Paxton

text: The 2022 Texas Attorney General election will take place on November 8, 2022, to elect the Attorney General of Texas. Paxton advanced to the November 8 general election after winning primary contests on March 1 and May 24.


title: Ken Paxton

text: In 2022, Paxton was sued by Fund Texas Choice, a non-profit organization aiming to prevent Paxton from prosecuting people who assist Texans to receive out-of-state abortions. In September 2022, a process server alleged in an affidavit for the court that when he attempted to serve a subpoena to Paxton at his home, he saw Paxton coming to the door but turning back; Paxton's wife answered the door saying Paxton was on the phone, with the process server stating that he had important legal documents for Paxton; Paxton left the house an hour later but ran back into the house when the process server called his name; minutes later Paxton ran out of the house and left in a truck driven by his wife, ignoring the process server stating his intentions. Paxton responded claiming that the process server "yelled unintelligibly, and charged toward me. I perceived this person to be a threat", while further stating that the process server "is lucky this situation did not escalate further or necessitate force".


title: Ken Paxton

text: Paxton initiated a lawsuit seeking to have the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) ruled unconstitutional in its entirety.


title: Ken Paxton

text: In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Paxton threatened to file lawsuits against local governments unless they rescinded stay-at-home orders and rescinded rules regarding the use of face masks to combat the spread of coronavirus. The city of Austin encouraged restaurants to keep logs of contact information, so as to as to ensure contact tracing in the event of an outbreak; Paxton described this as "Orwellian." Paxton sued the city of Austin again in December 2020 when the city implemented restrictions preventing indoor dining and drinking on New Years weekend amid surging COVID-19 cases. In March 2021, Paxton filed a lawsuit against Austin as well as Travis County, this time for the city and county continuing their local mask wearing requirements after Governor Abbott had signed an order ending the statewide mask-wearing mandate.


title: Ken Paxton

text: Paxton defended Texas in a federal lawsuit involving allegations that Texas's congressional districts were gerrymandered. In 2017, a three-judge panel of a U.S. federal court based in San Antonio ruled that the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature drew congressional-district to discriminate against minority voters, and ordered the redrawing of Texas's 35th and 27th congressional districts. Paxton appealed the ruling, contending that the previous maps were lawful, and vowed to "aggressively defend the maps on all fronts"; U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett criticized the appeal as a "desperate, highly questionable Paxton-Abbott maneuver" coming "after yet another ruling against the state of Texas for intentional discrimination". Texas won on appeal when in a 5-4 decision the Supreme Court ruled there was insufficient evidence to prove that state Republicans acted in bad faith and engaged in intentional discrimination with respect to the 27th and 35th congressional districts.


title: Ken Paxton

text: Paxton created a human trafficking unit in the AG office in 2015. In 2019, he convinced Texas lawmakers to more than quadruple the human trafficking unit’s annual funding. The year after, the unit did not secure a single human trafficking conviction and only four in 2020.


title: Ken Paxton

text: In 2018, Paxton falsely claimed that undocumented immigrants had committed over 600,000 crimes since 2011 in Texas. "PolitiFact" said that it had debunked the numbers before, and that the numbers exceed the state's estimates by more than 400%.


title: Ken Paxton

text: Paxton led a coalition of twenty-six states challenging President Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) executive action, which granted deferred action status to certain undocumented immigrants who had lived in the United States since 2010 and had children who were American citizens or lawful permanent residents. Paxton argued that the president should not be allowed to "unilaterally rewrite congressional laws and circumvent the people's representatives." The Supreme Court heard the case, "United States v. Texas", and issued a split 4-4 ruling in the case in June 2016. Because of the split ruling, a 2015 lower-court ruling invalidating Obama's plan was left in place.


title: Ken Paxton

text: In July 2017, Paxton led a group of Republican Attorneys General and Idaho Governor Butch Otter in threatening the Trump administration that they would litigate if the president did not terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy that had been put into place by president Barack Obama, although never implemented in Texas because of legal action on behalf of the state. The other Attorneys General who joined in making the threats to Trump included Steve Marshall of Alabama, Leslie Rutledge of Arkansas, Lawrence Wasden of Idaho, Derek Schmidt of Kansas, Jeff Landry of Louisiana, Doug Peterson of Nebraska, Alan Wilson of South Carolina, and Patrick Morrisey of West Virginia.


title: Ken Paxton

text: In 2017, Paxton voiced support for the application of eminent domain to obtain right-of-way along the Rio Grande in Texas for construction of the border wall advocated by President Donald Trump as a means to curtail illegal immigration. Paxton said that private landowners must receive a fair price when property is taken for the pending construction. He said that the wall serves "a public purpose providing safety to people not only along the border, but to the entire nation. ... I want people to be treated fairly, so they shouldn't just have their land taken from them," but there must be just compensation.


title: Ken Paxton

text: In 2017, Paxton joined thirteen other state attorneys general in filing a friend-of-the-court briefs in defense of both Trump's first and second executive orders on travel and immigration primarily from majority-Muslim countries (informally referred to as the "Muslim ban"). In filings in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court, Paxton argued that the order—which places a 90-day ban on the issuance of visas to traveled from six designated majority-Muslim countries, imposes a 120-day halt on the admission of refugees to the U.S., and caps annual refugee admissions to 50,000 people—is constitutionally and legally valid.


title: Ken Paxton

text: In May 2017, Paxton filed a preemptive lawsuit designed to ascertain the constitutionality of the new Texas law imposing penalties on sanctuary cities, known as SB 4, signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott. The law imposes penalties on local officials who place restrictions on their police forces or other agencies' cooperation with immigration enforcement, and requires county jails to honor requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold detainees suspected of being eligible for deportation. The suit asked the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas to clarify whether the law is at odds with the Fourth and Fourteenth constitutional amendments or is not in conflict with some other federal law. Paxton said that the measure "is constitutional, lawful and a vital step in securing our borders." Among those opposed to the measure are the police chiefs and sheriffs of some of the largest jurisdictions in Texas. Critics call the ban legalization of discrimination against minorities, and suits against the legislation are expected to be filed. Although initially key aspects of the law were enjoined by the court, the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld nearly all of it on appeal, except for a provision that interfered with the First Amendment right to freedom of expression on the subject by local officials.


title: Ken Paxton

text: Paxton has mounted a legal challenge to the Clean Power Plan, which is President Obama's "state-by-state effort to fight climate change by shifting away from coal power to cleaner-burning natural gas and renewable resources." Paxton has said that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is trying to "force Texas to change how we regulate energy production" through an "unprecedented expansion of federal authority." The Clean Power Plan would require Texas to cut an annual average of 51 million tons of emissions, down 21 percent from 2012 levels. Paxton says the required reductions would cost the state jobs, push electricity costs too high, and threaten reliability on the electrical grid. Paxton says there is no evidence that the plan will mitigate climate change, directly contradicting studies by the EPA that have shown the regulation will reduce carbon pollution by 870 million tons in 2030. He further asserts that the EPA lacks the statutory authority to write the state's policies.


title: Ken Paxton

text: In 2016, Paxton was one of eleven Republican state attorneys general who sided with ExxonMobil in the company's suit to block a climate change probe by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.


title: Ken Paxton

text: Paxton and the other state AGs filed an "amicus curiae" brief, contending that Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey used her office to "tip the scales on a public policy debate, undermine the first Amendment and abuse the office's subpoena power." Healey had launched a probe of ExxonMobil's historical marketing and sale of fossil fuel products, requiring the company to produce 40 years worth of documents regarding fossil fuel products and securities. Healey said the documents would prove that ExxonMobil "knew about the risks of climate change decades ago and fraudulently concealed that knowledge from the public." The amicus brief supported Exxon Mobil's motion for a preliminary injunction. Paxton questioned Healey's use of law-enforcement authority regarding the global warming controversy, which he called an "ongoing public policy debate of international importance." Paxton described Healey's attempts to obtain historical company records for a public policy debate as a threat to freedom of speech, stating: "The Constitution was written to protect citizens from government witch-hunts that are nothing more than an attempt to suppress speech on an issue of public importance, just because a government official happens to disagree with that particular viewpoint." The brief portrayed climate change as an issue that was still a matter of scientific debate, although in fact the scientific consensus is that the earth is warming and human activity is primarily responsible.


title: Ken Paxton

text: U.S. Virgin Islands attorney general Claude Walker had also issued a subpoena for Exxon's records. Paxton issued a request to intervene in the case, stating: "What is Exxon Mobil's transgression? Holding a view about climate change that the Attorney General of the Virgin Islands disagrees with. This is about the criminalization of speech and thought." Walker dropped the subpoena in June 2016.


title: Ken Paxton

text: Paxton sued the Obama administration over a new rule by the United States Department of Labor which would make five million additional workers eligible for overtime pay. The new rule would mean workers earning up to an annual salary of $47,500 would become eligible for overtime pay when working more than 40 hours per week. Paxton has said the new regulations "may lead to disastrous consequences for our economy." Along with Texas, twenty other states have joined the lawsuit.


title: Ken Paxton

text: Paxton is involved in a legal challenge to a rule by the Department of Labor which forces employers to report any "actions, conduct or communications" undertaken to "affect an employee's decisions regarding his or her representation or collective bargaining rights". Known as the "persuader rule", the new regulation went into effect in April 2016. Opponents of the rule say it will prevent employers from speaking on labor issues or seeking legal counsel. In June 2016, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction against the rule. Paxton called the injunction "a victory for the preservation of the sanctity of attorney-client confidentiality".


title: Ken Paxton

text: As Attorney General, Paxton appointed several social conservatives and opponents of LGBT rights to positions in his department.


title: Ken Paxton

text: In June 2015, after the issuance of the "Obergefell v. Hodges" decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, Paxton offered support for clerks who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. His statement said, "I will do everything I can from this office to be a public voice for those standing in defense of their rights."


title: Ken Paxton

text: In 2016, Paxton led a coalition of thirteen states that sought an injunction to block a guidance letter issued by the Department of Education and Department of Justice that interpreted Title IX to require public schools to allow transgender students to use restrooms that accorded with their gender identity. Paxton submitted court filings alleging the Obama administration had "conspired to turn workplaces and educational settings across the country into laboratories for a massive social experiment" and termed the directive a "gun to the head" that threatens the independence of school districts. In September 2016, Paxton and his wife had dinner with activist Amber Briggle and her family, including her trans son. The states dropped the suit after the directive was revoked by President Donald Trump.


title: Ken Paxton

text: On February 18, 2022, Paxton issued a new interpretation of Texas law in a written opinion that characterized gender-affirming health care (such as hormone treatments and puberty blockers) for transgender youths as child abuse. Established medical practice allows for puberty blockers to be explored after initial signs of puberty, although evidence for their use is still evolving. On February 28, Amber Briggle was notified that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services had opened an investigation into her family. On March 11, a Texas District Court issued a temporary injunction, which temporarily stopped state investigations into families who provide gender-affirming medical care for their children, and scheduled a trial for July 11, 2022.


title: Ken Paxton

text: In June 2022, Paxton said he would defend state laws against 'sodomy' or same-sex sexual relationships if the Supreme Court precedent invalidating such laws, the "Lawrence v. Texas" decision, was overturned. On March 17, 2022, Paxton made a post on Twitter in which he referred to U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine – a trans woman — as a man. Twitter flagged the tweet for violating its conduct rules, but did not remove the post. The following day, Paxton tweeted a statement in which he again referred to Levine as a man, and stated that he was "exploring legal options" against Twitter. During that same month, according to a report by "The Washington Post", Paxton's office requested a list of citizens who had changed their gender on their driver's licenses, circumventing the accepted procedure of contacting DPS’ government relations and general counsel’s offices by instead directly contacting the driver license division staff. No reason was given for this request. In August, the data was provided to Paxton's office, despite that in November 2022, officials indicated the office had no such information.


title: Ken Paxton

text: In 2012, Paxton was part of a lawsuit by 33 state attorneys general against Apple, charging the company with violating antitrust laws by conspiring with publishers to artificially raise the prices of electronic books. Apple was ordered to pay $400 million to U.S. consumers who paid artificially-inflated prices for e-books, and $20 million to the states in reimbursement for legal costs.


title: Ken Paxton

text: As part of a suit involving 44 states, in June 2016, it was announced that Volkswagen would pay the state of Texas $50 million in relation to the Volkswagen emissions scandal. Paxton, and most other states, had sued the company in 2015 in connection with the automaker's admitted use of software that allowed its vehicles to circumvent emissions limits.


title: Ken Paxton

text: Paxton is part of a 21-state lawsuit against the state of Delaware. The lawsuit alleges that MoneyGram gave uncashed checks to the state of Delaware instead of the state where the money order or travelers check was bought. The case has gone directly to the U.S. Supreme Court because it is a dispute among states. Paxton said an audit showed that Delaware owed other states $150 million, and that Delaware unlawfully took possession of uncashed checks instead of sending the checks back to the states where the money orders were purchased. The state of Delaware disputes these claims.


title: Ken Paxton

text: In 2015, the Texas State Legislature passed a law implementing property tax reductions by increasing the homestead exemption to $25,000 and prohibiting localities from reducing or repealing any local option homestead exemption already on the books. After this law was passed, 21 school districts reduced or eliminated their local optional homestead exemptions.


title: Ken Paxton

text: In 2016, Paxton intervened in a lawsuit challenging the practice of school districts reducing or repealing their local optional homestead exemptions.


title: Ken Paxton

text: In 2016, three University of Texas at Austin professors sued in an effort to ban concealed handguns from campus, blocking the state's campus carry law. Paxton called the lawsuit "frivolous" and moved to dismiss. The federal district court dismissed the suit in 2017, and the dismissal was upheld by a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2018.


title: Ken Paxton

text: In 2016, Paxton sued the City of Austin to allow license holders to openly carry handguns in Austin City Hall. Paxton prevailed, and the court decided not only that the city of Austin must allow such carry, but also ordered it to pay a fine to the state for each day it prevented investigators from the attorney general's office from carrying their firearms.


title: Ken Paxton

text: In March 2017, Paxton told "The Washington Times" that he was convinced that voter fraud exists in Texas, and claimed that local election officials in Texas were not on the lookout for detecting fraud. According to a July 11, 2021 "The New York Times", even though voter fraud is "very rare in the United States"—most cases are minor errors on the part of a voter, Paxton "made it a mission" as attorney general to lay voter-charge charges; According to a July 9, 2021 article in "The Guardian", "[F]ew prosecutors have pursued election-related crimes more than Paxton."


title: Ken Paxton

text: By February 2017—as part of his "crusade" against voter fraud Paxton sought to investigate 2016 Texas voting records—such as access to individual voting history and application materials for voter registrations—to uncover potential voter fraud, for example, voting by non-citizens or in the name of the deceased. In February 2017, officials in Bexar County said there have been no major cases of voter fraud in San Antonio. However, the Associated Press reported that the top election official in Bexar County estimates that nearly six hundred affidavits submitted by voters declined to present identification and should have been declined. Instead, the official said such voters should have been required to cast provisional ballots. AP projected that the overall number who cast improper affidavits as 13,500 in the largest Texas counties. Fort Bend County's top elections official said that these cases are not voter fraud, noting that only those who were registered to vote qualified for an affidavit, and that "poll workers were trained to 'err on the side of letting people use the affidavit instead of denying them the chance to vote.'" According to a May 2, 2017 ProPublica article', there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Texas. In 2017, the "Texas Tribune" reported that, experts had said there was no reliable evidence of widespread voter fraud in the United States, and a Texas study of elections over a decade determined that there were about three cases of fraud for every one million votes in the state.


title: Ken Paxton

text: In 2017, the "San Antonio Express-News" criticized the state's voter identification law, which Paxton seeks to have reinstated after it was struck down by United States District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos of Corpus Christi, who found the measure to be a violation of the Voting Rights Act, and found that it was passed with the intent to discriminate against black and Hispanic voters. Paxton's office appealed the decision. Appeals continue in the case. By May 2017, the Office of the AG's "efforts to enact and enforce the strictest voter ID law in the nation were so plagued by delays, revisions, court interventions and inadequate education that the casting of ballots in the 2016 election was inevitably troubled."


title: Ken Paxton

text: Of the voter fraud cases that his office chose to pursue, 72% were people of color. Paxton had also filed charges against Hervis Rogers, a Black man who was working two jobs. Rogers had received media coverage as a "national hero" for waiting six hours in a line at Houston's Texas Southern University in Harris County, Texas in order to vote in the March 2020 Democratic presidential primary election. A July 9, 2021 article in "The Guardian" said that Rogers was a symbol for Black Americans of "tenacity" in making his voice heard. Rogers had been convicted in 1995 for "burglary and intent to commit theft" and served nine years in prison. His 2004 parole expired in June 2020. In Texas it is illegal for a person to vote if they have been convicted of a felony until the completion of the sentence, probation and/or parole. Bail for Rogers was set at $100,000—an "extremely high bail amount"—which he could not afford. Hervis was not charged in Harris County, Texas, county. a majority-minority community. Instead he was charged in the adjacent Montgomery County, Texas, where only 4% of the population is Black, and was jailed until The Bail Project, a non-profit, posted his bail." If convicted he could be sentenced to 40 years in prison for the non-violent offense. It's not the first time that Paxton had indulged in "forum shopping." He tried to get a Harris County elections official indicted and tried for alleged interference with a poll watcher, attempting to obtain that indictment in Montgomery County.