title: Quorum

text: In legislatures and other assemblies that have the legal power to compel the attendance of their members, the call of the house procedure may be used to obtain a quorum. This procedure does not exist in ordinary societies, since voluntary associations have no coercive power.


title: Quorum

text: When a call of the house is ordered, the clerk calls the roll of members and then the names of absentees. Members who do not have an excused absence are arrested and brought in. The arrested members may be charged a fee.


title: Quorum

text: Both chambers of the United States Congress have the power to compel the attendance of absent members; this procedure, authorized by Article I, Section 5 of the U.S. Constitution is rarely used in the modern Congress.


title: Quorum

text: While Section 22 and section 39 of the Constitution of Australia set the quorum for sittings of the House of Representatives and Senate at one-third of the whole number of MPs and senators, respectively, Parliament is permitted to change the quorum for each House by ordinary legislation.


title: Quorum

text: In the House of Representatives, the quorum was amended down to one-fifth by the House of Representatives (Quorum) Act 1989, which means the quorum of the current House of 151 MPs is 31 MPs. In the senate, the quorum was amended down to one-quarter by the Senate (Quorum) Act 1991, so 19 senators is a quorum. The quorum includes the occupant of the Chair, and is not reduced by the death or resignation of a member or senator.


title: Quorum

text: If at the beginning of a sitting the quorum is not met, the bells are rung for five minutes and a count is then taken; if the quorum is still not met the sitting is adjourned until the next sitting day. During the sitting, any MP or senator may draw attention to the lack of quorum in which the bells are rung for four minutes, and if a quorum is still not met the sitting is adjourned.


title: Quorum

text: Although quorum-busting is virtually unheard of in Australia, it is not unknown for parties to deliberately use quorum counts as a disruptive tactic and there have been some suggestions to enact rules to restrict this practice; however, this is very difficult due to the explicit mention of a quorum in the constitution. It is considered disorderly to call attention to quorum when one exists, and members or senators who do so can be punished.


title: Quorum

text: In the National Council of Austria at least one-third of the representatives must be present, so that they may decide on a simple law (participation quorum of 33.3%). At least half of the members must participate if a constitutional law should pass the parliament (participation quorum of 50% based on the total number of members). Over and above that, constitutional laws require the consent of at least two-thirds of the members present (quorum agreement of 66.6% based on the number of voting present).


title: Quorum

text: In Canada, the Constitution Act, 1867 sets quorum for sittings of the House of Commons of Canada at 20 MPs. If a member calls for quorum to be counted and a first count shows there are fewer than 20 members, bells are rung to call in the members; if after 15 minutes there are still fewer than 20 members, the session is adjourned to the next sitting day; the members present sign a roll on the table of the house, and this list is included in the Journal of the House. There is no need for quorum when the attendance of the House is requested in the Senate of Canada, for example, when royal assent is being given to bills. The quorum of the Senate is 15.


title: Quorum

text: In the German Bundestag at least half of the members (355 out of 709) must be present so that it is empowered to make resolutions. It is however common that fewer members are present, because they can still make effective decisions as long as no parliamentary group or 5% of the members of the parliament are complaining about the lack of quorum. This, in rare cases, is used by opposition parties to delay votes.


title: Quorum

text: Article 75 of the Basic Law of Hong Kong stipulates that the quorum required for the meetings of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo) as "not less than one-half of its members". Between 1997 and 2012 the quorum was 30, and since 2012 it has been 35. Prior to 1997 transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong, the quorum was set at 20.


title: Quorum

text: The quorum for the panels, committees and subcommittees is, nevertheless, one-third or three members, whichever the greater, as according to the Rules of Procedure. The three standing committees, namely, the Finance Committee, the Public Accounts Committee and Committee on Members' Interests, is exceptional that the quorums are 9, 3 and 3 respectively.


title: Quorum

text: Quorum-busting was used at least twice since 1997. In 2005, when some pro-democracy members of the council paid a silent tribute to late leader of the People's Republic of China, Zhao Ziyang, against the Rules of Procedure, the president of the council suspended the meeting. When the meeting was recalled, pro-Beijing members refused to return to the chamber, forcing the meeting to be adjourned.


title: Quorum

text: On 27 January 2010, when five pro-democracy members were intending to make their resignation speeches, pro-Beijing members of the council left the chamber as a sign of protest. One of the pro-Beijing members nevertheless stayed in the chamber to call for the quorum to be counted, effectively forcing the meeting to be adjourned. The resignation was intended as a "de facto" referendum across all five geographical constituencies of the territory, involving the entire electorate, which would not be officially recognised anyway. Most other factions, although against the move by these five Members, stayed in the chamber.


title: Quorum

text: On 2 May 2012, when the LegCo was debating a law change to bar resigning legislators to participate in by-elections in 6 months, effectively discouraging any more "de facto" referendums, some of the five pro-democracy members who resigned constantly issued quorum calls, especially when they were making their resignation speeches intended for 2 years before. In the nine-hour meeting, 23 quorum calls were issued, taking up to 3 hours. When LegCo reconvened on 3 May, it was adjourned for lack of quorum amid a boycott by the pan-democrats. The pro-government members drew a timetable to ensure a quorum, but it failed to prevent another lack of quorum.


title: Quorum

text: On 18 June 2015, when the LegCo was due to vote on a resolution to amend the provisions for the election of the territory's Chief Executive, pro-Beijing members left the chamber to force a quorum roll call to make sure that a sick member could be able to rush back to the chamber. However some of the members stayed behind, citing miscommunication, and the division proceeded with two members above the required quorum of 35. While the resolution was originally predicted to be narrowly defeated due to not able to get super-majority support votes, it turned out to be a landslide defeat.


title: Quorum

text: Quorum-busting and attempts to thwart it are also a common feature during the annual motion debate related to the 1989 Tiananmen massacre moved by pro-democracy Members. The quorum is called to be counted from time to time by the pan-democrats, in order to force the pro-Beijing camp to keep some members in the chamber.


title: Quorum

text: of the Constitution of India stipulates that at least 10% of total number of members of the House must be present to constitute the quorum to constitute a meeting of either House of Parliament. For example, if the House has the total membership of 250, at least 25 members must be present for the House to proceedings with its business.


title: Quorum

text: If at any time during a meeting of a House there is no quorum, the Chairman has to either adjourn the House or suspend it until there is a quorum.


title: Quorum

text: According to the most recent standing orders, published in 2011, the quorum for the Oireachtas, the Irish parliament, for both the lower House, Dáil Éireann, and the upper House, Seanad Éireann, is 20 members.


title: Quorum

text: The chamber of Dáil Éireann is rarely full outside question time, with often just one government representative (often an ordinary Teachta Dála, not a minister) present to answer opposition questions.


title: Quorum

text: Article 55 of the constitutions of Pakistan states that, If at any time during a sitting of the National Assembly the attention of the person presiding is drawn to the fact that less than one-fourth of the total membership of the Assembly is present, he shall either adjourn the Assembly or suspend the meeting until at least one-fourth of such membership is present, which comprises 87 out of total 342.


title: Quorum

text: In Congress of the Philippines, half of the membership (13 in the Senate and 153 in the House of Representatives) is needed to muster a quorum. If someone contests the lack of quorum, a roll call shall be done, and if there is indeed less than a majority of members present, the meeting shall be adjourned.


title: Quorum

text: Both majority and minority blocs in Congress have used the lack of quorum in defeating bills that they don't want to be passed without putting it to a vote. After an election during the lame-duck session, quorums are notoriously difficult to muster, more so in the House of Representatives as winning incumbents may opt to go on vacation, and defeated incumbents may opt to not to show up.


title: Quorum

text: According to article 96 of the Turkish Constitution, unless otherwise stipulated in the Constitution, the Turkish Grand National Assembly shall convene with at least, one-third of the total number of members (184 out of 550) and shall take decisions by an absolute majority of those present; however, the quorum for decisions can, under no circumstances, be less than a quarter plus one of the total


title: Quorum

text: Before the constitutional referendum of 2007, there was a quorum of two-thirds required in the Turkish Parliament: after opposition parties used the quorum to deadlock the presidential election of 2007, making it impossible for the parliament to choose a president, the ruling AK party proposed a referendum to lower the quorum to prevent a repeat of this event. Nearly seventy percent of the participants supported the constitutional changes.


title: Quorum

text: In the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the House of Commons has a quorum of 40 MPs, including the Speaker, out of 650 members of the House. There is no need for a quorum to be present at all times: Commons debates could theoretically continue even if only one MP and the Speaker were present.


title: Quorum

text: However, if a division is called and fewer than 40 MPs are present, then a decision on the business being considered is postponed and the House moves on to consider the next item of business.


title: Quorum

text: The quorum for votes on legislation in the House of Lords is 30, but just three of the 753 peers, including the Lord Speaker, are required to be present for a debate to take place.


title: Quorum

text: Historically, the quorum was a select group of the justices of the peace in each county in early modern Britain. In theory, they were men experienced in law, but many of the quorum were appointed because of their status. Some legislation required the involvement of a member of the quorum (e.g., granting a license to a badger). In practice, they increasingly were not qualified, as the proportion in the quorum rose faster than the proportion who were called to the bar or practising lawyers. By 1532, an average 45% of justices of the peace nationally were of the quorum. In Somerset, the proportion rose from 52% in 1562 to 93% in 1636. By then, most of those not on the quorum were new to the bench. Sometimes justices of the peace were removed from the quorum as a disciplinary measure less drastic than removal from the bench.


title: Quorum

text: The large deliberative bodies of the United Nations (the General Assembly and Economic and Social Council, as well as their subsidiary organs) generally require the attendance of one-third of the membership (currently 65 states in the General Assembly and 18 in ECOSOC) to conduct most business, but a majority of members (currently 97 states in the General Assembly and 28 states in ECOSOC) in order to take any substantive decisions. The rules of the United Nations Security Council make no provisions for quorum, but nine votes are in all cases required to pass any substantive measure, effectively meaning that a meeting with fewer than nine members in attendance is pointless.


title: Quorum

text: Article I, Section 5, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution provides that "Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business..."


title: Quorum

text: Therefore, in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, a quorum is a simple majority of their respective members (currently 218 in the House and 51 in the Senate).


title: Quorum

text: The Senate has the additional ordinary requirement in Rule VI of its Standing Rules that "A quorum shall consist of a majority of the Senators duly chosen and sworn."


title: Quorum

text: In the United States Senate, the procedure was last used in the early morning hours of 25 February 1988.


title: Quorum

text: Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, then the Senate Majority Leader, moved a call of the house after the minority Republicans walked out of the chamber in an attempt to deny the Senate a quorum after Senate aides began bringing cots into the Senate cloakrooms in preparation for an all-night session over campaign finance reform for congressional elections.


title: Quorum

text: Byrd's motion was approved 45-3 and arrest warrants were signed for all 46 Republicans: Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Henry K. Giugni and his staff searched the Capitol's corridor and Senate office buildings for absent Senators, and after checking several empty offices, spotted Senator Steve Symms of Idaho, who fled down a hallway and escaped arrest. After a cleaning woman gave a tip that Senator Robert Packwood of Oregon was in his office, Giugni opened the door with a skeleton key. Packwood attempted to shove the door closed, but Giugni and two assistants pushed it open. Packwood was subsequently carried feet-first into the Senate chamber by three plainclothes officers and sustained bruised knuckles.


title: Quorum

text: Prior to 1988, the last time the procedure had been used was during a 1942 filibuster over civil rights legislation: Southern Democrat senators had spent days filibustering legislation to end poll taxes, days after the midterm elections had resulted in the Democrats losing of nine seats. Democratic Majority Leader Alben W. Barkley obtained an order on a Saturday session on 14 November 1942, directing Sergeant at Arms Chesley W. Jurney to detain the five Southern absentees to obtain a quorum. Jurney sent his Deputy Sergeant at Arms, J. Mark Trice, to the apartment of Democratic Senator Kenneth McKellar of Tennessee at the Mayflower Hotel. Then 73 years old and the third-most senior Senator, McKellar was later described by Republican Senator Bill Frist in his book on Tennessee senators as an "extraordinarily shrewd man of husky dimensions with a long memory and a short fuse." Trice called from the lobby, but McKellar refused to answer his phone, so the deputy sergeant-at-arms walked up to the apartment and convinced the senator's maid to let him in:


title: Quorum

text: Quorum-busting, also known as a walkout, is a tactic that prevents a legislative body from attaining a quorum, and can be used by a minority group seeking to block the adoption of some measure they oppose. This generally only happens where the quorum is a super-majority, as quorums of a majority or less of the membership mean that the support of a majority of members is always sufficient for the quorum (as well as for passage). Rules to discourage quorum-busting have been adopted by legislative bodies, such as the call of the house, outlined above.


title: Quorum

text: Quorum-busting has been used for centuries. For instance, during his time in the Illinois Legislature, Abraham Lincoln leapt out of a first story window (the doors of the Capitol had been locked to prevent legislators from fleeing) in a failed attempt to prevent a quorum from being present.


title: Quorum

text: During the 2003 Texas redistricting, the majority Republicans in the Texas House of Representatives sought to carry out a controversial mid-decade congressional redistricting bill which would have favored Republicans by displacing five Democratic U.S. Representatives from Texas, nicknamed the "Texas Five", from their districts. The House Democrats, certain of defeat if a quorum were present, took a plane to the neighboring state of Oklahoma to prevent a quorum from being present (and thus the passage of the bill). The group gained the nickname the "Killer Ds".


title: Quorum

text: Similarly, the minority Democrats in the Texas Legislature's upper chamber, the Texas Senate, fled to New Mexico to prevent a quorum of the Senate to prevent a redistricting bill from being considered during a special session. The group, nicknamed the "Texas Eleven", stayed in New Mexico for 46 days before John Whitmire returned to Texas, creating a quorum. Because there was now no point in staying in New Mexico, the remaining ten members of the Texas Eleven returned to Texas to vote in opposition to the bill.


title: Quorum

text: During the 2011 Wisconsin protests, fourteen Democratic members of the Wisconsin Senate went to Illinois in order to bust the necessary 20-member quorum. Democrats in the Indiana House of Representatives did the same in order to block another union-related bill, causing the legislative clock on the bill to expire. Traveling out of their state placed these legislators beyond the jurisdiction of state troopers who could compel them to return to the chamber.


title: Quorum

text: Beginning in May 2019, Republican state senators in Oregon made a series of walkouts in opposition to an emissions trading bill. On 20 June 2019, Gov. Kate Brown authorized the Oregon State Police to bring back the senators, who had left the Oregon State Capitol to bust the needed quorum. State Sen. Brian Boquist said that he told the state police superintendent to "send bachelors and come heavily armed. I'm not going to be a political prisoner in the state of Oregon. It's just that simple."


title: Quorum

text: Democratic House Representatives in Texas fled the state on the 12th of July 2021 to block the passage of a bill that would change voting rules. At least 51 Democrats – the number needed to break quorum – left the state to Washington D.C. via plane. On 10 August 2021 the House authorised arrest warrants for the legislators breaking quorum. After 38 days quorum was regained when three Democrats, Garnet Coleman, Armando Walle and Ana Hernandez returned, though with Coleman providing quorum from home due to serious illness and Republican Steve Allison isolating in a side room of the chamber due to contracting COVID-19.


title: Quorum

text: The similar tactic of a disappearing quorum—refusing to vote although physically present on the floor or walking out before a vote–was used by the minority to block votes as a filibuster in the United States House of Representatives from 1842 (when a speaking time limit was introduced) until 1890, when Speaker Thomas Brackett Reed ordered that members who were present but abstaining would count for the purpose of a quorum.


title: Capricorn One

text: Capricorn One is a 1978 British-produced American thriller film in which a reporter discovers that a supposed Mars landing by a crewed mission to the planet has been faked via a conspiracy involving the government and—under duress—the crew themselves. It was written and directed by Peter Hyams and produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment. It stars Elliott Gould as the reporter, and James Brolin, Sam Waterston, and O. J. Simpson as the astronauts. Hal Holbrook plays a senior NASA official who goes along with governmental and corporate interests and helps to fake the mission.


title: Capricorn One

text: Capricorn One—the first crewed mission to Mars—is on the launch pad. Just before liftoff, astronauts Charles Brubaker, Peter Willis, and John Walker are suddenly removed from the spacecraft. Bewildered, they are flown to an abandoned military base in the desert. The launch proceeds on schedule, with the public unaware the spacecraft is empty.


title: Capricorn One

text: At the base, NASA official Kelloway informs the astronauts that a faulty life-support system would have killed them in-flight. He says they must help counterfeit the televised footage during the flight to and from Mars. Another failed space mission would result in NASA's funding being cut and private contractors losing millions in profits. Kelloway threatens their families to force their cooperation.


title: Capricorn One

text: The astronauts remain captive during the flight and appear to be filmed after landing on Mars, although they are actually inside of a makeshift TV studio at the base. At the command center, only a few officials know about the conspiracy until an alert technician, Elliot Whitter, notices that ground control receives the crew's televised transmissions before the spacecraft telemetry arrives. Whitter reports this to his supervisors, including Kelloway, but is told it is due to a faulty workstation. Whitter partially shares his concerns with a TV journalist friend, Robert Caulfield. Whitter suddenly vanishes, and when Caulfield goes to Whitter's apartment the next day, he discovers someone else living there and that all evidence of Whitter's recent life has been erased. As Caulfield investigates, several attempts are made on his life.


title: Capricorn One

text: Upon returning to Earth, the empty spacecraft burns up during atmospheric reentry due to a faulty heat shield, which would have killed the astronauts had they been on board. The astronauts realize officials will need to kill them to keep the hoax a secret. They escape in a small jet which quickly runs out of fuel, forcing a crash-landing in the desert. They split up on foot to increase their chances of finding help and exposing the plot. Kelloway sends helicopters after them. Willis and Walker are found, while Brubaker evades capture.


title: Capricorn One

text: Caulfield interviews Brubaker's "widow" after reviewing a televised conversation between the astronauts and their wives. Mrs. Brubaker had seemed confused when her husband mentioned their last family vacation. She explains that the family had actually gone to a different location, where a western movie was being filmed. Brubaker was intrigued by how special effects and technology made it seem real.


title: Capricorn One

text: Caulfield believes Brubaker would never make such a mistake and may have been sending his wife a message. Caulfield goes to the deserted western movie set and is shot at. As he investigates further, federal agents break into his home, arresting him for possessing cocaine that they planted there. His exasperated boss bails Caulfield out, then fires him.


title: Capricorn One

text: A reporter friend tells Caulfield about an abandoned military base located 300 miles (480 km) from Houston. The base is deserted, but Caulfield finds Brubaker's necklace and medallion and concludes the astronauts were there. Caulfield hires a crop-dusting pilot named Albain to search the desert. They spot and follow two helicopters to a closed isolated gas station where Brubaker is hiding. They rescue him as he attempts to escape his pursuers. The helicopters chase their plane through a canyon but crash when Albain blinds them with crop spray.


title: Capricorn One

text: Ultimately, Caulfield and Brubaker arrive at the astronauts' memorial service, where Kelloway and Brubaker's wife see them and live network TV coverage exposes the truth.


title: Capricorn One

text: Peter Hyams began thinking about a film of a space hoax while working on broadcasts of the Apollo missions for CBS. He later reflected regarding the Apollo 11 Moon landing, "There was one event of really enormous importance that had almost no witnesses. And the only verification we have ... came from a TV camera."


title: Capricorn One

text: Whenever there was something on the news about a [space flight], they would cut to a studio in St. Louis where there was a simulation of what was going on. I grew up in the generation where my parents basically believed if it was in the newspaper it was true. That turned out to be bullshit. My generation was brought up to believe television was true, and that was bullshit too. So I was watching these simulations and I wondered what would happen if someone faked a whole story.


title: Capricorn One

text: Hyams wrote the script in 1972 but no one wanted to make it. He says interest in the script was re-activated by the Watergate Scandal. He approached producer Paul Lazarus. Hyams and Lazarus had a meeting with Lew Grade, head of production company ITC Entertainment who had recently moved into film production with "The Return of the Pink Panther". Grade agreed to make the film after only five minutes. The budget was $4.8 million.


title: Capricorn One

text: Grade announced the film in October 1975 as a part of a slate of ten films he intended to make over the next 12 months, including "The Domino Principle", "Action - Clear the Fast Lanes" and "Juarez". The last two were ultimately not made.


title: Capricorn One

text: To stay within the budget, NASA's co-operation was needed. Lazarus had a good relationship with the space agency from "Futureworld". The filmmakers were thus able to obtain government equipment as props despite the negative portrayal of the space agency, including a prototype Apollo Lunar Module.


title: Capricorn One

text: In September 1976, it was announced the cast would include Elliott Gould, O.J. Simpson, James Brolin, Brenda Vaccaro, and Candice Bergen. The presence of Brolin and Simpson in the cast helped secure a presale to NBC. Ultimately Bergen pulled out and was replaced by Karen Black.


title: Capricorn One

text: Filming started in January 1977. Shooting locations included Cinema Center Films in Studio City, and Red Rock Canyon State Park.


title: Capricorn One

text: Hyams later joked, "O. J. Simpson was in it, and Robert Blake was in "Busting" [Hyams' first feature]. I've said many times: Some people have AFI Lifetime Achievement awards; some people have multiple Oscars; my bit of trivia is that I've made films with two leading men who were subsequently tried for the first-degree murder of their wives."


title: Capricorn One

text: The film originally was scheduled to debut in the United States in February 1978, but good preview screenings and delays in "Superman" caused it to move to June. "Capricorn One" became the year's most-successful independent film.


title: Capricorn One

text: Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" called the film "an expensive, stylistically bankrupt suspense melodrama" while describing much of its screenplay as "humorless comic-strip stuff." Conversely, Gene Siskel of the "Chicago Tribune" gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and called it "a surprisingly good thriller" with a runaway car sequence "that provides some of the best action footage I've seen in a long time." "Variety" faulted the film's "underdeveloped script" and "scattershot casting", calling the duo of Savalas and Gould "a bullseye" but Waterston and Simpson lacking in "group chemistry".


title: Capricorn One

text: Kevin Thomas of the "Los Angeles Times" thought the beginning of the film was the best part, and what follows "is wildly uneven, veering between the serious and the merely silly, and ending up likely to please only the least demanding." Gary Arnold of "The Washington Post" wrote, ""Capricorn One" harks back to the old adventure serials, but Hyams doesn't have remotely enough wit or technique to achieve a fresh stylization of vintage formulas."


title: Capricorn One

text: Richard Combs of "The Monthly Film Bulletin" stated "Somewhere within this flabby, overproduced fantasy about space-age double-dealing and Watergate-type sleuthing lives a smaller, tighter film—and a much wittier satire on the space program and technologies, like Hollywood, designed to deceive and manipulate. The trouble is that this more ideal version is not really struggling to get out but wallowing complacently in the limitless excess that has become the Lew Grade trademark."


title: Capricorn One

text: In a retrospective review, AllMovie critic Donald Guarisco wrote: "This agreeable high-concept effort is one of Peter Hyams' most accomplished films. The script's conspiracy-theory premise requires a major suspension of disbelief, but Hyams makes it worthwhile for those willing to make that leap."


title: Capricorn One

text: "Capricorn One" holds a 64% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 22 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10. The site's consensus states: "A string of questionable plot contrivances threaten to bury its story, but "Capricorn One" manages to unfurl an amusing, sharply cynical conspiracy yarn."


title: Capricorn One

text: Two novelizations of the film were written and published by separate authors. The first was written by Ken Follett (under the pseudonym Bernard L. Ross) and published in the United Kingdom; the other was written by Ron Goulart and published in the United States.


title: Capricorn One

text: The Follett novel is notable for giving Robert Caulfield more development than the movie does, including giving him something of a relationship with CBS reporter Judy Drinkwater (who has more time in the book than in the movie) and ending the book with him and Judy. The story saves his career and results in his being employed by CBS.


title: Capricorn One

text: Clips from the faked Mars landing scenes have been used for illustration purposes in various Moon landing hoax conspiracy documentaries, notably the Fox TV show "Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon" and Bart Sibrel's film "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon" (2001). The latter also features a still shot from the hoax scene on the DVD's front cover.


title: Capricorn One

text: In 2020–2021, "Capricorn One" was used as part of an internet prank. A viral video purported to be released by WikiLeaks was uploaded to BitChute, Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms and blogs with a title: "WIKILEAKS RELEASES - MOON LANDING CUT SCENE - FILMED IN NEVADA DESERT". In fact, WikiLeaks released no such video. Close inspection revealed this prank video to be made using clips from "Capricorn One" and even various film reels shot on the set of "Capricorn One", which were then cut and spliced with stock footage from the Apollo missions and training sessions.


title: Jerrie Cobb

text: Geraldyn M. Cobb (March 5, 1931 – March 18, 2019), commonly known as Jerrie Cobb, was an American aviator. She was also part of the Mercury 13, a group of women who underwent physiological screening tests at the same time as the original Mercury Seven astronauts. She was the first to complete each of the tests.


title: Jerrie Cobb

text: Born on March 5, 1931, in Norman, Oklahoma, Cobb was the daughter of Lt. Col. William H. Cobb and Helena Butler Stone Cobb. From birth, Cobb was on the move as is the case for many children of military families. Weeks after being born Cobb's family moved to Washington, D.C., where her grandfather, Ulysses Stevens Stone, was serving in the United States House of Representatives. After Ulysses Stone lost a reelection bid, the family moved back to Oklahoma where he and Cobb's father worked as automobile salesmen. Once the United States became involved in World War II Cobb's family moved once again, this time to Wichita Falls, Texas where Cobb's father joined his active U.S. National Guard unit. The family would move again to Denver, Colorado before finally returning to Oklahoma after World War II where Cobb spent the majority of her childhood.


title: Jerrie Cobb

text: As a child growing up in Oklahoma, Cobb took to aviation at an early age, with her pilot father's encouragement. Cobb first flew in an aircraft at age twelve, in her father's open cockpit 1936 Waco biplane. At 16, she was barnstorming around the Great Plains in a Piper J-3 Cub, dropping leaflets over little towns announcing the arrival of circuses. Sleeping under the Cub's wing at night, she helped scrape together money for fuel to practice her flying by giving rides. By the age of 17, while a student at Oklahoma City Classen High School, Cobb had earned her private pilot's license. She received her commercial pilots license a year later. In 1948, Cobb attended Oklahoma College for Women for a year.


title: Jerrie Cobb

text: She gained her Private Pilot's license at the age of 17 and her Commercial Pilot's license on her 18th birthday. Facing sex discrimination and the return of many qualified male pilots after World War II, she took on less-sought-after flying jobs, such as patrolling pipelines and crop dusting. She went on to earn her Multi-Engine, Instrument, Flight Instructor, and Ground Instructor ratings as well as her Airline Transport license. At the age of 21 she was delivering military fighters and four-engine bombers to foreign Air Forces worldwide.


title: Jerrie Cobb

text: Cobb set three aviation records in her 20s: the 1959 world record for nonstop long-distance flight, the 1959 world light-plane speed record, and a 1960 world altitude record for lightweight aircraft of . When Cobb became the first woman to fly in the Paris Air Show, the world's largest air exposition, her fellow airmen named her Pilot of the Year and awarded her the Amelia Earhart Gold Medal of Achievement. "Life Magazine" named her one of the nine women of the "100 most important young people in the United States".


title: Jerrie Cobb

text: To save the money to buy a surplus World War II Fairchild PT-23 to allow her to be self-employed, Cobb played women's softball on a semiprofessional team, the Oklahoma City Queens.


title: Jerrie Cobb

text: By 1959, at age 28, Cobb was a pilot and manager for Aero Design and Engineering Company, which also made the Aero Commander aircraft she used in her record-making feats, and she was one of the few women executives in aviation. By 1960 she had 7,000 hours of flying time.


title: Jerrie Cobb

text: In November 1960, following multiple crashes of the Lockheed L-188 Electra, American Airlines' marketing department identified that the aircraft's reputation was poor among women, impacting passenger bookings. At the time American Airlines had no female pilots. In an attempt to win over passengers, the airline invited Cobb to fly the aircraft on a highly publicized four-hour test. It was her first turboprop flight.


title: Jerrie Cobb

text: Although Cobb successfully completed all three stages of physical and psychological evaluation that were used in choosing the first seven Mercury astronauts, this was not an official NASA program, and she was unable to rally support in Congress for adding women to the astronaut program. At the time, Cobb had flown 64 types of propeller aircraft, but had made only one flight, in the back seat, of a jet fighter. As a NASA historian wrote:


title: Jerrie Cobb

text: In 1962, Cobb was called to testify before a Congressional hearing, the Special Subcommittee on the Selection of Astronauts, about women astronauts. Astronaut John Glenn stated at the hearing that "men go off and fight the wars and fly the airplanes", and "the fact that women are not in this field is a fact of our social order". Only a few months later, the Soviet Union would send the first woman into space, Valentina Tereshkova. Soon afterward, Tereshkova ridiculed Cobb for her religious beliefs but sympathized with the sexism she encountered: "They (American leaders) shout at every turn about their democracy and at the same time they announce they will not let a woman into space. This is open inequality."


title: Jerrie Cobb

text: Cobb lobbied, along with other Mercury 13 participants, including Jane Briggs Hart, to be allowed to train alongside the men. At the time, however, NASA requirements for entry into the astronaut program were that the applicant be a military test pilot, experienced at high-speed military test flying, and have an engineering background, enabling them to take over controls in the event it became necessary. Since all military test pilots were men at the time, this effectively excluded women. Liz Carpenter, the Executive Assistant to Vice President Lyndon Johnson, drafted a letter to NASA administrator James E. Webb questioning these requirements, but Johnson did not send the letter, instead writing across it: "Let's stop this now!"


title: Jerrie Cobb

text: Cobb then began over 30 years of missionary work in South America, performing humanitarian flying (e.g., transporting supplies to indigenous tribes), as well as surveying new air routes to remote areas. Cobb "pioneered new air routes across the hazardous Andes Mountains and Amazon rain forests, using self-drawn maps that guided her over uncharted territory larger than the United States". Cobb has been honored by the Brazilian, Colombian, Ecuadorian, French, and Peruvian governments. In 1981, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her humanitarian work.


title: Jerrie Cobb

text: In 1999, the National Organization for Women conducted an unsuccessful campaign to send Cobb to space to investigate the effects of aging, as John Glenn had been. John Glenn's main purpose on his space flight was to observe the effects of a micro-gravity environment on the body of an aged individual. Specifically, NASA wanted to observe whether the effects of weightlessness had positive consequences on the balance, metabolism, blood flow, and other bodily functions of an elderly person. Cobb believed that it was necessary to also send an aged woman on a space flight in order to determine whether the same effects witnessed on men would be witnessed on women. At 67, Cobb, and who had passed the same tests as John Glenn, petitioned NASA for the chance to participate in such a space flight, but NASA stated "it had no plans to involve additional senior citizens in upcoming launches". Many aviators and astronauts of the time believed this was a failed chance for NASA to right a wrong they had made years before. Cobb never reached her ultimate goal of space flight.


title: Jerrie Cobb

text: Cobb received numerous aviation honors, including the Harmon Trophy and the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale's Gold Wings Award.


title: Jerrie Cobb

text: Laurel Ollstein's 2017 play "They Promised Her the Moon" (revised in 2019) tells the story of Jerrie Cobb and her struggle to become an astronaut.


title: Jerrie Cobb

text: Sonya Walger portrays the character Molly Cobb, based on Jerrie Cobb, in the 2019 alternate history TV series "For All Mankind", in which Cobb becomes the first American woman in space. Episode four of the first season, "Prime Crew", is dedicated to her memory.


Two 2022 United States Senate elections in California were held concurrently on November 8, 2022, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of California. There were two ballot items for the same Class 3 seat: a special election to fill the seat for the final weeks of the 117th United States Congress (ending on January 3, 2023), and a general election for a full term (beginning on the same day), starting in the 118th United States Congress.


title: 2022 United States Senate elections in California

text: Incumbent Democratic Senator Alex Padilla was appointed in 2021 by Governor Gavin Newsom to fill the vacancy created by Kamala Harris's election to the vice presidency, and he sought a full term. A jungle primary for each of the terms took place on June 7. The top two candidates in each primary election, regardless of party, advanced to the special and regular general elections in November. With his advancement out of the primary, Mark P. Meuser ( ) became the first Republican since 2012 to advance to the general election, as both the 2016 and 2018 Senate elections solely featured Democrats as the top two candidates. This race was a rematch between the two, as both had previously run for the Secretary of State in 2018. Padilla ultimately won both elections. Padilla became the first Latino elected to the U.S. Senate from California.


text: Incumbent Senator Alex Padilla was appointed to the job in January 2021 following Kamala Harris's election to the office of Vice President of the United States. Following his appointment, Padilla quickly began to focus on his 2022 re-election campaign, as the fact that he has not been elected to the position means that he has a relatively low profile. Padilla's re-election strategy focuses on advocating for progressive policies and building ties with left-wing organizations that have a poor relationship with California's other Senator, Dianne Feinstein. The potential Democratic opponent to Padilla considered most likely to join the race was U.S. Representative Ro Khanna, a staunchly left-wing Democrat who rose to prominence as the co-chair of the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign, and who had a loyal base of support from California's Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities. On August 9, 2021, Khanna announced that he would be endorsing Padilla for re-election, which was viewed as likely ending any possibility that Padilla would face a serious Democratic opponent. It was noted by the "San Francisco Chronicle" that it was considered unlikely that Padilla would face any serious Republican opponent, as California's heavily Democratic lean has caused potentially strong candidates, such as U.S. Representatives Mike Garcia and Young Kim, to prefer to remain in their positions rather than launch a long-shot Senate run.


text: In April 2022, billionaire businessman Dan O'Dowd entered the race, launching a $650,000 ad campaign. O'Dowd's goal with this ad buy, and with entering the race in the first place, was to "make computers safe for humanity" and draw the attention of the public and politicians to the dangers of Tesla's unfinished Full Self-Driving software being rolled out to 100,000 cars on public roads.


title: Minnie Weisz

text: Anna Alexandra "Minnie" Weisz (born December 1972) is an English photographer and visual artist. She specialises in the camera obscura and adapts the technique to turn entire rooms into cameras.


title: Minnie Weisz

text: Weisz was born in London. Her father, George Weisz (1929–2020), was a Hungarian Jewish mechanical engineer. Her mother, Edith Ruth ("née" Teich; 1932–2016), was a teacher-turned-psychotherapist from Vienna, Austria. Her parents left for the United Kingdom around 1938, before the outbreak of the Second World War, to escape the Nazis. Scholar Rev. James Parkes helped her mother and her mother's family leave Austria for England. Her mother's ancestry is Austrian-Jewish, Catholic Viennese and Italian; Weisz's mother formally converted to Judaism upon marrying Weisz's father.


title: Minnie Weisz

text: Weisz's maternal grandfather was Alexander Teich, a Jewish activist who had been a secretary of the World Union of Jewish Students. Her older sister, Rachel Weisz, is an Academy Award-winning actress.


title: Minnie Weisz

text: Weisz received an MA in Communication Art and Design at the Royal College of Art and a BA in Graphic and Media Design at London College of Printing.


title: Minnie Weisz

text: She specialises in the camera obscura and adapts the technique to turn entire rooms into cameras, across Europe. She has described herself (with respect to her artistic activity) as an architectural detective.


title: Harrogate

text: Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa waters and RHS Harlow Carr gardens. away from the town centre is the Yorkshire Dales National Park and the Nidderdale AONB. Harrogate grew out of two smaller settlements, High Harrogate and Low Harrogate, in the 17th century. For three consecutive years (2013–2015), polls voted the town as "the happiest place to live" in Britain.


title: Harrogate

text: Harrogate spa water contains iron, sulphur and common salt. The town became known as 'The English Spa' in the Georgian era, after its waters were discovered in the 16th century. In the 17th and 18th centuries its 'chalybeate' waters (containing iron) were a popular health treatment, and the influx of wealthy but sickly visitors contributed significantly to the wealth of the town.


title: Harrogate

text: Harrogate railway station and Harrogate bus station in the town centre provide transport connections. Leeds Bradford Airport is southwest of Harrogate. The main roads through the town are the A61, connecting Harrogate to Leeds and Ripon, and the A59, connecting the town to York and Skipton. Harrogate is also connected to Wetherby and the A1(M) by the A661, while the A658 from Bradford forms a bypass around the south of the town. Harrogate had a population of 73,576 at the 2011 UK census; the built-up area comprising Harrogate and nearby Knaresborough had a population of 89,060, while the figure for the much wider Borough of Harrogate, comprising Harrogate, Knaresborough, Ripon, as well as a number of smaller settlements and a large rural area, was 157,869.


title: Harrogate

text: The name "Harrogate" is first attested in the 1330s as "Harwegate", "Harougat" and "Harrowgate". The origin of the name is uncertain. It may derive from Old Norse "hǫrgr" 'a heap of stones, cairn' + "gata" 'street', in which case the name presumably meant 'road to the cairn'. Another possibility is that the name means "the way to Harlow". The form "Harlowgate" is known from 1518, and apparently in the court rolls of Edward II.


title: Harrogate

text: In medieval times Harrogate was a place on the borders of the township of Bilton with Harrogate in the ancient Parish of Knaresborough, and the parish of Pannal, also known as Beckwith with Rossett. The part within the township of Bilton developed into the community of High Harrogate, and the part within Pannal developed into the community of Low Harrogate. Both communities were within the Royal Forest of Knaresborough. In 1372 King Edward III granted the Royal Forest to his son John, Duke of Lancaster (also known as John of Gaunt), and the Duchy of Lancaster became the principal landowner in Harrogate.


title: Harrogate

text: Harrogate's development is owed to the discovery of its chalybeate- and sulphur-rich spring water from the 16th century. The first mineral spring was discovered in 1571 by William Slingsby who found that water from the Tewit Well in High Harrogate possessed similar properties to that from springs in the Belgian town of Spa, which gave its name to spa towns. The medicinal properties of the waters were publicised by Edmund Deane; his book, "Spadacrene Anglica, or the English Spa Fountain" was published in 1626.


title: Harrogate

text: In the 17th and 18th centuries further chalybeate springs were discovered in High Harrogate, and both chalybeate and sulphur springs were found in Low Harrogate. The two communities attracted many visitors. A number of inns were opened for visitors in High Harrogate in the 17th century (the Queen's Head, the Granby, the Dragon and the World's End). In Low Harrogate, the Crown was open by the mid-18th century, and possibly earlier.


title: Harrogate

text: In accordance with an Enclosure Act of 1770, promoted by the Duchy of Lancaster, the Royal Forest of Knaresborough was enclosed. The enclosure award of 1778 clarified ownership of land in the Harrogate area. Under the award, of land, which included the springs known at that time, were reserved as a public common, The Stray, which has remained public open space. The Enclosure Award facilitated development around the Stray. During the 19th century, the area between High Harrogate and Low Harrogate, which until then had remained separate communities a mile apart, was developed, and what is now the central area of Harrogate was built on high ground overlooking Low Harrogate. An area to the north of the developing town was reserved to the Duchy of Lancaster, and was developed for residential building. To provide entertainment for the increasing numbers of visitors the Georgian Theatre was built in 1788. Bath Hospital (later the Royal Bath Hospital) was built in 1826. The Royal Pump Room was built in 1842. The site of Tewit Well is marked by a dome on the Stray. Other wells can be found in the Valley Gardens and Royal Pump Room museum.


title: Harrogate

text: In 1870, engineering inventor Samson Fox perfected the process of creating water gas, in the basement laboratory of Grove House. After constructing a trial plant at his home on Skipton Road, making it the first house in Yorkshire to have gas lighting and heating; he built a town-sized plant to supply Harrogate. After Parliament Street became the world's first route to be lit by water-gas, newspapers commented: "Samson Fox has captured the sunlight for Harrogate." After donating the town's first fire engine, and building the town's theatre, he was elected mayor for three years, an unbroken record.


title: Harrogate

text: In 1893 Harrogate doctor George Oliver was the first to observe the effect of adrenaline on the circulation.


title: Harrogate

text: Harrogate's popularity declined after the First World War. During the Second World War, Harrogate's large hotels accommodated government offices evacuated from London, paving the way for the town to become a commercial, conference, and exhibition centre.


title: Harrogate

text: Former employers in the town were the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB), the Milk Marketing Board and ICI who occupied offices and laboratories at Hornbeam Park where Crimplene was invented in the 1950s and named after the nearby Crimple Valley and beck.


title: Harrogate

text: In 2007, two metal detectorists found the Harrogate hoard, a 10th-century Viking treasure hoard, near Harrogate. The hoard contains almost 700 coins and other items from as far away as Afghanistan. The hoard was described by the British Museum as the most important find of its type in Britain for 150 years.


title: Harrogate

text: In 1884 the Municipal Borough of Harrogate was created, taking High Harrogate from the civil parish of Bilton with Harrogate and Low Harrogate from the civil parish of Pannal. The borough absorbed neighbouring areas in subsequent years, including the whole of the civil parishes of Bilton and Starbeck, and a large part of the civil parish of Pannal, including the village of Pannal, in 1938. The municipal borough was abolished in 1974, when Harrogate was transferred from the West Riding to North Yorkshire and became part of the wider Borough of Harrogate. Harrogate then became an unparished area, with no local government of its own.


title: Harrogate

text: The MP for the Harrogate and Knaresborough constituency is Andrew Jones, a Conservative. He was elected in 2010, ousting the Liberal Democrats who had won the seat at the previous three general elections. He subsequently won re-election in the 2015, 2017 and 2019 (albeit with a reduced majority) general elections.


title: Harrogate

text: The town is governed by Harrogate Borough Council, which since the 2010 election has had a Conservative majority.


title: Harrogate

text: The town has good commuter services for people who work in the City of Leeds, City of Bradford, York, East Riding of Yorkshire and North Yorkshire in general. Harrogate is prosperous and has some of the highest property prices in England, with many properties in the town and surrounding villages valued at £1 million or more, it is generally considered the most expensive place to live in the North of England. Fulwith Mill Lane in Harrogate is the most expensive street in Yorkshire.


title: Harrogate

text: Harrogate is situated on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, with the Vale of York to the east and the upland Yorkshire Dales to the west and north-west. It has a dry and mild climate, typical of places in the rain shadow of the Pennines. It is on the A59 from Skipton to York. At an altitude of between , Harrogate is higher than many English settlements. It has an average minimum temperature in January of slightly below and an average maximum in July and August of .


title: Harrogate

text: Harrogate's climate is classified as warm and temperate. There is significant rainfall throughout the year in Harrogate. Even the driest month still has a lot of rainfall. The Köppen-Geiger climate classification is Cfb. The average annual temperature in Harrogate is 48 °F (8.9 °C). In a year, the average rainfall is 29 inches (742 mm).


title: Harrogate

text: Harrogate has a strong and varied economy. The conference and exhibition industry is the focus of the town's business, with Harrogate International Centre the third largest fully integrated conference and exhibition centre in the UK, and one of the largest in Europe. Harrogate draws numerous visitors because of its conference facilities. In 2016 such events alone attracted 300,000 visitors to Harrogate. The convention centre was developed in 2020 to be used as a Nightingale Hospital. However, whilst it has been used in an NHS capacity, it has not treated any Coronavirus patients (as of late January 2021) because the conventional hospitals had not run out of capacity.


title: Harrogate

text: It brings in over £150 million to the local economy every year and attracts in excess of 350,000 business visitors annually. The town is home to the Great Yorkshire Showground and Pavilions of Harrogate, which are major conference destinations.


title: Harrogate

text: Harrogate is the home of Yorkshire Tea, exported by Taylors of Harrogate, as well as internationally exported Harrogate Spring Water. The town also exports Farrah's Toffee, Harrogate Blue cheese and Debbie & Andrews Harrogate sausages.


title: Harrogate

text: The Great Yorkshire Showground is the hub of the regional agricultural industry, hosted by the Yorkshire Agricultural Society. The Great Yorkshire Show, Countryside Live and the twice yearly Harrogate Flower Shows take place there annually. The many business visitors to Harrogate sustain a number of large hotels, some originally built for visitors to the Spa.


title: Harrogate

text: Harrogate's main shopping district is focused on Cambridge Street, Oxford Street, Beulah Street and James Street where most of the high street shops can be found. There is a wide range of boutique and designer shopping on Parliament Street and in the Montpellier Quarter, as well as independent shopping around Commercial Street.


title: Harrogate

text: Eating out is popular in Harrogate, and the town is well served by restaurants. Parliament Street and Cheltenham Parade are lined with many independent and chain restaurants, while there is a concentration of chain restaurants on John Street and Albert Street.


title: Harrogate

text: There are many fine examples of architecture about the town. The only Grade I listed building in Harrogate is St Wilfrid, Duchy Road, which was designed by the architect Temple Lushington Moore and is often considered to be his masterpiece. Another main landmark is the Royal Hall theatre, a Grade II listed building designed by Frank Matcham. As the only surviving Kursaal in Britain, the Royal Hall is an important national heritage building. Restoration work was completed in 2007, and the hall was reopened on 22 January 2008, by the Prince of Wales. In Station Parade stands the Jubilee Memorial, commemorating Queen Victoria's golden jubilee of 1887.


title: Harrogate

text: The Royal Pump Room houses Europe's strongest sulphur well, but is now a museum showcasing the town's spa history.


title: Harrogate

text: Two military installations are located to the west of Harrogate, the Army Foundation College and RAF Menwith Hill, an electronic monitoring station. There used to be a Royal Air Force supply depot and logistics centre on St George's Road in the south-west of the town, but this closed down in 1994. During the Second World War, RAF Harrogate was also used as a training establishment for medical staff and recruit training for the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.


title: Harrogate

text: Bettys are Tea Rooms established in 1919 owned by Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate – the same company that market Yorkshire Tea. Bettys has a second tea room at the RHS Harlow Carr Gardens.


title: Harrogate

text: The Mercer Art Gallery is home to Harrogate district's art collection which consists of some 2,000 works of art, mainly from the 19th and 20th centuries. The collection includes works by William Powell Frith, Atkinson Grimshaw, Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Dame Laura Knight and Alan Davie.


title: Harrogate

text: The Montpellier Quarter is the centre of the town's nightlife, which is mainly centred on the renovated Royal Baths development.


title: Harrogate

text: The Valley Gardens, in Low Harrogate, is the town's main park and covers much of the area originally known as 'Bogs Field', where a number of springs were discovered. The Valley Gardens (locals use the definite article) has an ice-cream parlour, children's play area with outdoor paddling pool, a skate park, frisbee golf, crazy golf and mini golf. The Sun Pavilion at the northern edge of the park can be privately hired for weddings. Tennis courts and a bowling green are in the west of the park. The Friends Of Valley Gardens group was formed in 2009 to support the park. It works in partnership with Harrogate Borough Council to guide the park's development.


title: Harrogate

text: The Stray is an area of open parkland in the centre of the town. It was created in 1778 to link most of Harrogate's springs in one protected area by an act of Parliament which fixed its area as , and even now when part is removed, e.g. due to road widening, it must be replaced elsewhere. During the Victorian period, there was a racecourse for horses there.


title: Harrogate

text: RHS Harlow Carr gardens, on the western edge of Harrogate, are award-winning themed gardens and are the Royal Horticultural Society's main presence and representative in the North of England.


title: Harrogate

text: Crescent Gardens is a small open area in central Harrogate surrounded by some of the town's main tourist attractions including the Royal Pump Room, Royal Baths and Royal Hall, as well as the Harrogate Council Offices. Hall M of the Harrogate International Centre fronts onto Crescent Gardens.


title: Harrogate

text: The town has several smaller parks and gardens, including The Softpot Garden at Grove House, the Jubilee Gardens and Victoria Gardens on the eastern side of central Harrogate.


title: Harrogate

text: On 11 January 1900, Harrogate Grand Opera House, now Harrogate Theatre opened with a charity gala in aid of British soldiers fighting the Boer War in South Africa followed on 13 January 1900 by J Tully's pantomime "Dick Whittington'.


title: Harrogate

text: In 1966, the Harrogate Festival of Arts & Science was established, now known as the Harrogate International Festivals and the North of England's leading arts festival, incorporating a number of festivals within the portfolio including the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival & Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, Raworths Harrogate Literature Festival, Harrogate Music Festival and a number of year-round events within the portfolio.


title: Harrogate

text: Harrogate won the 2003 and 2016 Britain in Bloom in the category of 'Large Town' and the European Entente Florale in 2004 reprising its win in the first Entente Florale in 1977. Harrogate was a gold medal winner of Europe in Bloom in 2004. In 2005, a Channel 4 TV show listed Harrogate as the UK's third best place to live. In 2006 it came fourth in the same league; the programme claimed that it placed lower due to "a slight dip in exam results", although presenter Phil Spencer noted that it was his personal favourite.


title: Harrogate

text: The town is also home to an underground music scene that has produced heavy metal and punk rock groups including Workshed, Acid Reign and Blood Youth. It is also home to Bombed Out records, an independent record label, who has signed groups such as Fig 4.0.


title: Harrogate

text: On 5 July 2014, Harrogate served as the finish line of the first stage of the Tour de France. The event attracted record crowds to the town centre and was televised to a global audience. British cyclist Mark Cavendish was forced to exit the race when he crashed a few metres from the finish line and suffered a dislocated shoulder. The town has since been the focal point for finishing stages of the Tour de Yorkshire in 2017. Each event of the 2019 UCI Road World Championships finished in the town, although the entire historic county of Yorkshire was the official host.


title: Harrogate

text: Harrogate Town AFC play at Wetherby Road. The club competes in League Two, the fourth tier of English football, following promotion to the English Football League, which came via victory in the 2019–20 National League Play-offs. They have a historical rivalry with Harrogate Railway Athletic F.C., of the Northern Counties East Football League, located at Station View.


title: Harrogate

text: Harrogate RUFC is a North Premier team and formerly based at The County Ground, Claro Road but relocated to Rudding Lane to the South side of the town.


title: Harrogate

text: Harrogate Cricket Club is to be the home of Yorkshire Women cricket team. Until 1995 the town hosted one Yorkshire county game per year at the St George's Road cricket ground. Since 2022, the ground has been sponsored by Kirbys Solicitors. In 2008, a fire destroyed the historic old pavilion at the ground but it has since been re-built with a modern pavilion, bar, function room and changing rooms.


title: Harrogate

text: Bilton Cricket Club, off Bilton Lane provides opportunities for players of all ages to play in Local League Cricket, Bilton Cricket Club have a good natured rivalry with Harrogate Cricket Club with Bilton defeating Harrogate at St Georges Road in the Black Sheep Trophy of 2006.


title: Harrogate

text: Accord to designer Thomas Heatherwick, the Olympic Cauldron for the 2012 London Olympics was built in a ‘Bond Gadget Workshop’ in Harrogate.


title: Harrogate

text: Harrogate Harriers run from Harrogate Squash & Fitness Centre on Hookstone Drive and Nidd Valley Road Runners share the premises of Harrogate Hockey Club. Harrogate District Swimming Club is an amateur level swimming club that has had teams compete at National level. Rock climbing is a sport in and around Harrogate, indoors at the Harrogate Climbing Centre and at Almscliffe Crag and Brimham Rocks.


title: Harrogate

text: The town is served by four railway stations on the Harrogate Line; , , and . All are served by Northern Trains services from to , while London North Eastern Railway operates a two-hourly service to London King's Cross.


title: Harrogate

text: The Ripon line was closed to passengers on 6 March 1967 and to freight on 5 September 1969 as part of the wider Beeching Axe, despite a vigorous campaign by local campaigners, including the city's MP. Today much of the route of the line through the city is now a relief road and although the former station still stands, it is now surrounded by a new housing development. The issue remains a significant one in local politics and there are movements wanting to restore the line. Reports suggest the reopening of a line between and would be economically viable, costing £40 million and could initially attract 1,200 passengers a day, rising to 2,700. Campaigners call on MPs to restore Ripon railway link.


title: Harrogate

text: Buses are every 15 minutes between Harrogate, Ripon and Leeds (via Harewood, Moortown and Chapel Allerton) on route 36, which run more frequently at peak time and overnight on Fridays and Saturdays between Leeds and Harrogate. The 7 route runs to Leeds via Wetherby, Boston Spa and Seacroft as well as other parts of semi-rural Leeds. There are services to Otley, Bradford, Knaresborough and Pateley Bridge.


title: Harrogate

text: Road transport to Leeds is via the A61 (north and central Leeds), A658 (north-west Leeds/Leeds Bradford Airport) and A661 (for north-east Leeds). The A61 continues northwards to Ripon, while the A658 connects to Bradford after passing through north-west Leeds. The A658 also forms the Harrogate Bypass that skirts the south and east of the town, joining the A59 linking York and the A1(M) to the east and Skipton to the west with Harrogate.


title: Harrogate

text: Harrogate bus station is in the town centre. It is managed by Harrogate Bus Company, the main operator.


title: Harrogate

text: In 2018, all bus routes which operated within Harrogate and did not venture to other towns became served by electric buses. These buses charge on stands 1–3 at Harrogate bus station. The scheme is part funded by the government's Low Emission Bus Scheme.


title: Harrogate

text: The nearest airport is Leeds Bradford, 10 miles (16 km) to the south-west, to which there are bus services on route A2, and train services on the Harrogate Line to , one of the closest stations. Teesside and Doncaster Sheffield are next nearest to the town while Manchester Airport is accessible by rail via .


title: Harrogate

text: Harrogate has a non-civilian airport of its own at RAF Linton-on-Ouse, which carries the IATA code HRT for Harrogate.


title: Harrogate

text: Harrogate High School was rebuilt under a governmental scheme in mid-2017. It is also home to many private schools in the town centre and others in the surrounding areas, such as Queen Ethelbuga's.


title: Harrogate

text: In 2012, Harrogate had the highest concentration of drink-drivers in the UK. A March 2013 survey from the British property website Rightmove ranked Harrogate as the "happiest place" to live in the United Kingdom; the same result was seen in 2014 and 2015. In 2014, Harrogate District Hospital had the best cancer care of any hospital in England.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: Richard Michael Daley (born April 24, 1942) is an American politician who served as the 54th mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1989 to 2011. Daley was elected mayor in 1989 and was reelected five times until declining to run for a seventh term. At 22 years, his was the longest tenure in Chicago mayoral history, surpassing the 21-year stay of his father, Richard J. Daley.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: As Mayor, Daley took over the Chicago Public Schools, developed tourism, oversaw the construction of Millennium Park, increased environmental efforts and the rapid development of the city's central business district downtown and adjacent near North, near South and near West sides. He also approved expansion of city workers' benefits to their partners regardless of gender, and advocated for gun control.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: Daley received criticism when family, personal friends, and political allies disproportionately benefited from city contracting. He took office in a city with regular annual budget surpluses and left the city with massive structural deficits. His budgets ran up the largest deficits in Chicago history. A national leader in privatization, he temporarily reduced budgetary shortfalls by leasing and selling public assets to private corporations, but this practice removed future sources of revenue, contributing to the city's near insolvency at the end of his tenure. Police brutality was a recurring issue during his mayorship.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: Richard M. Daley is the fourth of seven children and eldest son of Richard J. and Eleanor Daley, who later became Mayor and First Lady of Chicago in 1955. Born on April 24, 1942, he grew up in Bridgeport, an historically Irish-American neighborhood located on Chicago's South Side. Daley is a brother of William M. Daley, former White House Chief of Staff and former United States Secretary of Commerce under President Bill Clinton; John P. Daley, a commissioner on the Cook County Board of Commissioners and chairman of the Board's Finance Committee; and Michael Daley, an attorney with Daley & Georges, a law firm founded by their father Richard J. Daley, that specializes in zoning law and is often hired by developers to help get zoning changes through city hall. Daley was married to Margaret "Maggie" Corbett until her death on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 2011 after a decade-long battle with metastatic breast cancer, which had spread to her bones and liver. Maggie Daley Park in the Chicago Loop commemorates her, and her nonprofit After School Matters continues to serve Chicago's young people. They have four children: Nora, Patrick, Elizabeth and Kevin, all born at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago. Their second son, Kevin, died at age two of complications from spina bifida in 1981. He was raised Roman Catholic.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: Daley graduated from De La Salle Institute high school in Chicago and obtained his bachelor's degree from DePaul University in 1964, having transferred from Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island after two years. In 1962, at age 19, home on Christmas break, Daley was ticketed for running a stop sign at Huron and Rush, and the "Chicago Sun-Times" headline was "Mayor's Son Gets Ticket, Uses No Clout," with a subhead reading "Quiet Boy."


title: Richard M. Daley

text: Sources conflict on Daley's military record. The only book-length biography of Daley makes no mention of military service. A 1995 profile in the "Chicago Sun-Times" stated that Daley served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve from 1961 to 1967, while a 1996 profile in "People Magazine" cited 1960 to 1964. A civilian website for Marines and their families found no military record for Daley.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: Daley earned a Juris Doctor degree from DePaul University. He passed the Illinois Bar Examination on his third try. Daley later reflected, "I flunked the bar exam twice. I had to keep studying harder and harder and harder. I passed it the third time." Daley never tried a case.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: Daley was elected to his first office as a delegate to the 1969 Illinois Constitutional Convention, which created the current Constitution of Illinois (adopted after voters approved it in a 1970 special election). According to journalist Rick Perlstein, in June 1972, Daley led a mob on behalf of his father's Democratic Party regulars against pro-McGovern reformers meeting in a church in Illinois' Fifth Congressional District. The action was unsuccessful and the reformers' slate (which included Rev. Jesse Jackson) replaced the Daley slate at the Democratic National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: After his father died in 1976, Daley succeeded his father as the 11th Ward Democratic committeeman, a party post, until succeeded in the post by his brother John P. Daley in 1980. With John P. Daley holding the post from 1980 to the present, a Daley has held the post of 11th Ward Committeeman for 60 years.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: After Edward Nihill stepped down, Daley, with the support of the Democratic political organization, was elected to the Illinois Senate, serving from 1972 to 1980. State Senator Daley rarely spoke to reporters and didn't hold a news conference for six years. Daley chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee. Daley was named one of Illinois' ten worst state legislators by "Chicago Magazine" "for arrogance, for sharklike qualities, for living off his father's name, and for pulling puppet strings attached to some of the worst members of the Senate." He was considered "too shrewd to be one of the worst, but he controls so many of the worst senators that he belongs on the list to represent all of them." After the Spring 1975 state legislative session, Chicago Democrat Dawn Clark Netsch, who served with Daley as Illinois Constitutional Convention delegates and as State Senators, blamed "dirty little Richie" for frustrating her good government legislative agenda in the state legislature.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: In 1980, Daley challenged incumbent Republican Bernard Carey for Cook County State's Attorney. Democratic Mayor Jane Byrne endorsed Alderman Edward M. Burke in the Democratic primary, and after Daley prevailed in the primary, endorsed Carey in the general election. Daley prevailed and served from 1981 to 1989. His election over Carey saw him win by merely sixteen thousand votes, one of the narrowest wins for the Cook County State's Attorney election.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: In February 1982, Andrew Wilson was arrested for the murder of two Chicago police officers. Wilson was taken to Area 2 detective headquarters on the South Side for interrogation under Chicago Police Detective Jon Burge. Dr. John Raba, Medical Director of Cermak Health Services, the prison hospital in the Cook County Hospital system, examined Wilson, determined Wilson had been tortured, and complained in writing to then Chicago Police Superintendent Richard J. Brzeczek:


title: Richard M. Daley

text: I examined Mr. Andrew Wilson on February 15 & 16, 1982. He had multiple bruises, swellings and abrasions on his face and head. His right eye was battered and had a superficial laceration. Andrew Wilson had several linear blisters on his right thigh, right cheek and anterior chest which were consistent with radiator burns. He stated he'd been cuffed to a radiator and pushed into it. He also stated that electrical shocks had been administered to his gums, lips and genitals. All these injuries occurred prior to his arrival at the Jail. There must be a thorough investigation of this alleged brutality.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: Brzeczek forwarded the letter to State's Attorney Daley. Daley never replied, and charges were never brought against any officers. Daley's prosecutors convicted Wilson and his brother Jackie of murder, and Andrew Wilson was sentenced to death. On April 2, 1987, the Illinois Supreme Court overturned the convictions, ruling that Wilson was forced to confess involuntarily after being beaten by police.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: In November 1982, Daley announced his first campaign for mayor. The candidates in the three-way Democratic primary, which included incumbent Mayor Jane Byrne, a former protégée of his father, and Congressman Harold Washington, held a series of four televised debates. Daley finished third. Many of Richard J.'s political allies blamed Richard M. for splitting the white vote, enabling Washington to become Chicago's first black mayor.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: On November 25, 1987, Mayor Washington died in office of a heart attack. On December 2, 1987, the Chicago City Council appointed Alderman Eugene Sawyer as mayor until a special election for the remaining two years of the term could be held in 1989. Daley announced his candidacy on December 6, 1988, saying


title: Richard M. Daley

text: Let's face it: we have a problem in Chicago. The name-calling and politics at City Hall are keeping us from tackling the real issues ... I may not be the best speaker in town, but I know how to run a government and how to bring people together.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: Rahm Emanuel worked for the Daley campaign as a fundraiser, David Axelrod as campaign strategist, William Daley as chief strategist, and Forrest Claypool as a campaign aide. Among four Daley campaign appearances on a Sunday shortly before the primary was a rally of Polish Highlanders at 4808 S. Archer Ave. In a videotaped television newscast, it appeared that Daley said, "You want a white mayor to sit down with everybody." Sawyer said he was "shocked." Daley explained, "It was my standard stump speech. I'm not maybe the best speaker in town, but I have never used the word [white]." That Friday, the campaign watchdog group CONDUCT censured Daley and commended Sawyer for his "rejection of racially inflammatory comments."


title: Richard M. Daley

text: Daley defeated Sawyer in the primary. In the 1989 general election, Daley faced Republican candidate Edward Vrdolyak, a former Democratic alderman who had opposed Mayor Washington, and Alderman Timothy C. Evans, the candidate of the newly created Harold Washington Party. After winning the general election on April 4, 1989, Daley was inaugurated as Mayor of Chicago on April 24, 1989, his 47th birthday, at a ceremony in Orchestra Hall.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: Daley presided over the most docile City Council since his father. One of the new mayor's first acts was to appropriate the City Council's power to approve city contracts, a right aldermen exercised under former Mayors Washington and Sawyer. Daley's first budget proposal, the 1990 budget, included $3 billion in spending, $50 million more than 1989, featured a $25 million reduction in the property tax levy, extended Mayor Sawyer's hiring freeze, piloted recycling, and privatized the city's tow truck fleet. Daley became the first Chicago Mayor to lead Chicago's Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade, at the 20th annual parade on Sunday, June 26, 1989. On August 22, 1990, Daley told reporters that "people are getting hurt in drive-by shoot-a-longs." In December 1990, Amnesty International issued a report "Allegations of Police Torture in Chicago, Illinois" calling for a full inquiry into allegations that some Chicago police officers tortured criminal suspects between 1972 and 1984.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: On April 2, 1991, Daley was reelected to a second term (his first full, four-year term), with 70.7% of the vote, over African American civil rights attorney and Appellate Judge R. Eugene Pincham. Questioned about the city's rising homicide rate on September 10, 1991, Daley said "The more killing and homicides you have, the more havoc it prevents."


title: Richard M. Daley

text: On the weekend of March 1–2, 1992, Daley and his wife arranged for 16-year-old son Patrick to stay with relatives while they attended a family event in New York. Patrick told the relatives he was staying with friends, drove his father's new sports utility vehicle to the Daley second home in Grand Beach, Michigan and threw a party Saturday night without parental consent or adult supervision. Someone asked two Filipino and two white youths to leave, racial epithets were exchanged, and a fistfight broke out. Patrick retrieved Richard J. Daley's shotgun from the house and gave it to his cousin, who was aged 17. A youth was seriously injured when a juvenile struck him in the head with a baseball bat. On Monday a sobbing Mayor Daley read a statement at a City Hall press conference, pausing repeatedly as he tried to maintain his composure,


title: Richard M. Daley

text: I am very disappointed, as any parent would be, after his son held a party in their home while his parents were away. I am more deeply distressed for the welfare of the young man who was injured in this fight.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: Patrick pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of furnishing alcohol to minors and disturbing the peace and was sentenced to six months' probation, 50 hours of community service in Grand Beach, fined $1,950 and ordered to pay restitution to his parents for property damage. His cousin pleaded guilty to aiming a firearm without malice and was fined $1,235. Sixteen other youths were charged with juvenile and adult offenses. The injured youth recovered.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: Daley took control of the Chicago Public School system in 1995 and appointed Paul Vallas. When Vallas left the post to run for governor, Daley chose the relatively obscure Arne Duncan, who later became the U.S. Secretary of Education under Barack Obama, to lead the district. On March 19, 1997, the Chicago City Council adopted the Domestic Partners Ordinance, which made employee benefits available to same-sex partners of City employees. Daley said it was an issue of fairness.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: The first major public corruption scandal of Daley's tenure as mayor involved the circumstances of the resignation of his City Council floor leader, Alderman Patrick Huels, in October 1997. Daley, Huels, and another close friend Michael Tadin grew up within two blocks on S. Emerald Avenue in Bridgeport. Huels attended De La Salle Institute, the same high school attended by Daley, his father, and Michael Bilandic. Huels worked for the city's Public Works Department as a laborer and tree trimmer, then as an administrative assistant in the Environment Department, and then as a City Council investigator. He answered phones for the 11th Ward Democratic organization, and was its secretary for several years. When Mayor Richard J. Daley died, 11th Ward Alderman Bilandic was named acting mayor, and Huels, then 26, replaced Bilandic as alderman. Huels chaired the council's Transportation Committee and became Mayor Richard M. Daley's floor leader. In the summer of 2007, in reaction to ongoing indictments and convictions of aldermen, Daley and Huels shepherded a package of ethics reforms through city council. Huels owned a security firm, SDI Security, Inc. along with his wife and his brother, a Chicago police lieutenant. In the mid-1990s, the firm had about 390 full-time employees and was grossing $7 million a year. Huels was president and a director, and Council Finance Committee Chairman Alderman Edward M. Burke (14th) was secretary. Huels and Burke authorized $633,971 in legal consulting fees from their respective Council committees to attorney Michael A. Pedicone, a long-time officer of SDI. In March 1995 the Internal Revenue Service placed a lien on SDI for $326,951 and in June 1996 for $997,382 for failing to pay payroll taxes, including money withheld from its employees' pay checks.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: In 1970, after high school, Tadin went to work for Marina Cartage; within a decade, he owned the company, and over the next 15 years expanded it from 20 trucks to 150. Between 1992 and 1997, the city paid Marina Cartage and another Tadin company $49 million for supplying the city with snow removal and other heavy equipment and operators. Tadin earned millions of dollars by buying land cheaply, then leasing or selling it to the city. Marina Cartage used Huels' SDI Security services since 1992. In 1995, with Huels' support, the City Council approved a tax reduction which halved the assessment on a new $4.5 million headquarters and trucking terminal for Marina Cartage at 4450 S. Morgan in Huels' ward, a tax savings of as much as $80,000 per year. In 1996, with Huels' support, the City Council approved a $1.1 million direct grant for the construction of the facility. Weeks later, Tadin created a new company which was used to originate a $1.25 million bailout loan to SDI. Daley said Huels "did the right thing resigning" and claimed no knowledge of Huels' business dealings. "I don't get into people's private lives. I am not into that," Daley said. Daley announced an executive order and new ethics legislation, saying:


title: Richard M. Daley

text: The goal of this executive order is to help address questions about favoritism in city contracting by preventing conflicts of interest, or even the appearance of such conflicts. ... There should be a level playing field, where no one has an advantage—or a disadvantage—in obtaining city contracts, simply because they know me or anyone else in government. ... Under the steps I'm taking today and recommending to the City Council, the public can easily learn everything there is to know about a city contract: who is involved, who will benefit and whether the city is paying a fair price. I and every other city official must be prepared to defend every contract on its merits.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: On February 23, 1999, Daley won reelection to a fourth term with 68.9 percent of the vote over challenger U.S. Congressman Bobby Rush. In August 1999, prompted by police excessive-force incidents in Chicago, New York and other cities, the U.S. affiliate of Amnesty International issued a report "Race, Rights & Brutality: Portraits of Abuse in the USA," that called on federal officials to better document excessive-force cases and to pursue prosecutions of the officers involved. In October 1999, the organization issued a report "Summary of Amnesty International's concerns on police abuse in Chicago" which expressed concerns including improper interrogation tactics, excessive force, shootings of unarmed suspects, and the detention and interrogation of children.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: The Duff family formed a janitorial services company, Windy City Maintenance Inc., one month after Daley's inauguration. Bruce DuMont, president of the Museum of Broadcast Communications, said that Daley recommended that Dumont's wife Kathy Osterman, then director of the Mayor's Office of Special Events, award city contracts to Duff family companies. Daley denied steering contracts to the Duffs, and said he would "look into" the allegations, while stopping short of promising to do so, saying "I don't promise. That's the wrong word to use. You know ... promising, promising. We do look into it, yes." In September 2003, a federal investigation led to indictments of Patricia Green Duff, her sons John M. Duff and James Duff, and others on charges they won nearly $100 million in city contracts through the city's set-aside program by misrepresenting their companies as women- and minority-owned. John M. Duff pleaded guilty to 33 counts of racketeering, fraud and other charges on January 10, 2004. A 1978 state law designed by Illinois Democrats gave the Mayor the power to appoint to fill vacancies in the City Council rather than holding special elections, and by 2002 more than a third of the council's 50 aldermen were initially appointed by Daley. The Council became even more of a rubber stamp than in Richard J. Daley's terms. In the 18 months from January 12, 2000 to June 6, 2001, only 13 votes in the council were divided, less than one a month. 32 aldermen supported the mayor 90-100% of the time and another 14 80-89% of the time.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: On February 26, 2003, Daley took 78.5% of the vote to prevail over challenger Reverend Paul Jakes Jr. Daley endorsed same-sex marriage, saying on February 18, 2004, he would have "no problem" with Cook County issuing marriage licenses to gay couples. "Time" magazine in its April 25, 2005 issue named Daley as the best out of five mayors of large cities in the United States, and characterized Daley as having "imperial" style and power. In May 2006, in Geneva, Switzerland the United Nations Committee Against Torture released a report which noted the "limited investigation and lack of prosecution" into allegations of torture in Areas 2 and 3 of the Chicago Police Department and called on American authorities to "promptly, thoroughly and impartially" investigate the allegations, and provide the committee with more information. Daley was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 2006 as a Friend of the Community.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: A long-standing agreement between the city and state required the city to maintain and operate Meigs Field, a small, downtown, lakefront airport on Northerly Island used by general aviation aircraft and helicopters, until 2011 or turn it over to the state. On September 12, 1996, the City Council approved Daley's plan to convert the airport into a park, and the state began planning to take over operation of the airport. Fresh off a 2003 re-election mandate, one of Daley's first major acts was ordering the demolition of Meigs Field. On Sunday, March 30, 2003, shortly before midnight, transport trucks carrying construction equipment moved onto Meigs with Chicago Police escort. By early Monday morning, city crews excavated six large X's into the only runway. The city's 50 aldermen, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Homeland Security were not consulted on the plan. The demolition of the runway trapped planes. In the days following, many of those aircraft were able to take off using the taxiway.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: "To do this any other way would have been needlessly contentious," Daley explained at a news conference Monday morning. Daley argued that the airport was a threat to Chicago's high-rise cityscape and its high-profile skyscrapers, such as the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Center. Daley criticized the Federal Aviation Administration, saying "Now, think of that; Mickey and Minnie have it. I mean, I can't believe that. They get it first before we get it?", referring to the post-9/11 air space restrictions in place over Orlando, Florida. "The signature act of Richard Daley's 22 years in office was the midnight bulldozing of Meigs Field," according to "Chicago Tribune" columnist Eric Zorn. "He ruined Meigs because he wanted to, because he could," "Chicago Tribune" columnist John Kass wrote of Daley. "The issue is Daley's increasingly authoritarian style that brooks no disagreements, legal challenges, negotiations, compromise or any of that messy give-and-take normally associated with democratic government," the "Chicago Tribune" editorialized. The Federal Aviation Administration cited the city for failure to comply with federal law requiring thirty-day advance notice to the FAA of plans for an airport closure. The city was fined $33,000, the maximum allowable. The city paid the fine and repaid $1 million in misspent federal airport development grants. Daley defended his actions by claiming that the airport was abandoned, in spite of the fact that the Chicago Fire Department had several helicopters based on the field at the time, in addition to the dozens of private aircraft left stranded.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: The $40 million-a-year Hired Truck program was the biggest scandal of Daley's first 15 years as mayor. The Hired Truck Program hired private truck companies to do city work. A six-month investigation by the "Chicago Sun-Times" resulted in a three-day series of articles in January 2004 that revealed some participating companies were being paid for doing little or no work, had American Mafia connections or were tied to city employees, or paid bribes to get into the program. Between 1996 and 2004, companies in the Hired Truck Program gave more than $800,000 in campaign contributions to various politicians, including Daley, House Speaker Michael Madigan, and Governor Rod Blagojevich; Daley received at least $108,575 and his brother John Daley and his ward organization more than $47,500.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: Mark Gyrion, Daley's second cousin, was a superintendent of garages for the city's Water Management Department, and among his duties was deciding when City-owned trucks should be sold for scrap. Gyrion's mother-in-law's firm, Jacz Transportation, participated in the Hired Truck Program, receiving about $1 million between 1998 and 2004. Jacz Transportation bought a truck three days after the city sold it to a Franklin Park dealership and then leased it back to the city. Gyrion was accused of failing to disclose his mother-in-law's role in the Hired Truck Program and the transfer of the truck. Gyrion was fired and Jacz Transportation was one of 13 truck companies suspended from the Hired Truck program. About 35% of the 70 firms in the program were suspended or referred to the city's Inspector General. The program was overhauled in 2004, and phased out in 2005.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: On July 5, 2006, Robert Sorich, formally, director of the Mayor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and, informally, Daley's patronage chief, and Timothy McCarthy, Sorich's aide, were each convicted on two counts of mail fraud connected to rigging blue-collar city jobs and promotions. Sorich's best friend, former Streets and Sanitation official Patrick Slattery was convicted of one count of mail fraud. A former Streets and Sanitation managing deputy commissioner was found guilty of lying to federal agents about political hiring. Sorich, McCarthy and Slattery lived in the Bridgeport neighborhood in 11th Ward, the Daley family's home neighborhood and ward. "I've never known them to be anything but hard working, and I feel for them at this difficult time," Daley said. "It is fair criticism to say I should have exercised greater oversight to ensure that every worker the city hired, regardless of who recommended them, was qualified and that proper procedures were always followed," Daley admitted a few days later. Weeks later, David Axelrod, a Democratic political consultant whose clients included Daley, defended patronage in an op-ed in the "Chicago Tribune".


title: Richard M. Daley

text: Mayor Daley's son Patrick R. Daley was an MBA student at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business working as an unpaid intern at Cardinal Growth, a Chicago venture capital firm, when he profited from two Cardinal Growth ventures formed to win city contracts while concealing his role. Patrick's cousin, and Mayor Daley's nephew, is Robert G. Vanecko. In June 2003, Patrick and Vanecko formed a Delaware company, MSS Investors LLC, and invested $65,000 each. MSS Investors LLC in turn purchased a 5% stake in Municipal Sewer Services, a Cardinal Growth venture. Patrick and Vanecko failed to disclose their ownership stake in Municipal Sewer Services as required by city ethics ordinances. Brunt Brothers Transfer Inc. was one of the largest black-owned contractors in the Hired Truck program. Municipal Sewer Services partnered with Brunt Brothers Transfer Inc. in their bid for City sewer-inspection contracts. Five months after Patrick and Vanecko became owners, Municipal Sewer Services' city contract was extended by $3 million, the first of two no-bid contract extensions, totaled an additional 23 months and $4 million. Patrick and Vanecko cashed out their initial investment after about a year as the federal investigation into the Hired Truck program advanced. Patrick and Vanecko got a $13,114 "tax distribution" in December 2004. Patrick, then 29 and a recent University of Chicago MBA graduate, enlisted in the US Army. The day after the Mayor's son's and nephew's hidden involvement in the city contract was disclosed by the "Chicago Sun-Times", Daley spoke at a Chicago police recruit graduation ceremony, then left for Fort Bragg, North Carolina to see his son deployed. Before departing, Mayor Daley read a statement to reporters, his voice cracking, fighting back tears,


title: Richard M. Daley

text: I did not know about [Patrick's] involvement in this company. As an adult, he made that decision. It was a lapse in judgement for him to get involved with this company. I wish he hadn't done it. I know the expectations for elected officials, their families, are very high—rightfully so—especially for me. ... Patrick is a very good son. I love him. Maggie and I are very proud of him. I hope you respect I have nothing more to say on this.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: Mayor Daley also said he didn't know if there were other city contracts involving the younger Daley. The city's Inspector General and federal authorities began investigations in December 2007. Patrick and Vanecko hired criminal defense attorneys. Municipal Sewer Services LLC folded in April 2008. In January 2011, Anthony Duffy, the president of Municipal Sewer Services, was charged with three counts of mail fraud in conjunction with minority-contracting and Jesse Brunt and his company, Brunt Brothers Transfer Inc., were indicted on three counts of mail fraud. Patrick and Vanecko were not charged.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: In 2005, Concourse Communications, another Cardinal Growth venture, signed a city contract for airport Wi-Fi service at city-owned O'Hare and Midway airports. For years, the Daley administration maintained that Patrick had no financial stake in the deal. Concourse disclosed its investors to the city, as required, but Patrick was not reported. Patrick lined up investors for Concourse. On June 27, 2006, nine months after Concourse signed the contract, Concourse was sold at a 33% profit to Boingo Wireless Inc. for $45 million. On June 30, 2006, Patrick received the first of five payments totaling $708,999. On December 3, 2007, shortly after Patrick received the last of those payments, Mayor Daley's press secretary, Jacquelyn Heard said Patrick Daley "has no financial interest with the Wi-Fi contract at O'Hare." The "Chicago Sun-Times" editorialized, "... the conflict of interest was blatant."


title: Richard M. Daley

text: In 2003, an operating company included over 80 investors, including some of Mayor Daley's friends and neighbors won, under controversial circumstances, a lucrative contract to operate the Park Grill, the only restaurant in the new Millennium Park. In 2005 Daley criticized the deal, saying that the city wanted to renegotiate the pact. The "Chicago Sun-Times" dubbed the Park Grill the "Clout Cafe" and included the contract award process in a year-end review of 2005 Daley administration scandals. The contract was never renegotiated, and after Daley announced he would not seek a seventh term, the owners of the Park Grill sought to sell. Deposed in August 2013 in Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration's lawsuit to renegotiate the contract, former Mayor Daley responded "I don't recall" 139 times.


title: Richard M. Daley

text: In January 2006, Skyway Concession Company, a joint venture between the Australian Macquarie Infrastructure Group and Spanish Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte S.A., paid the City $1.83 billion for rights to operate the Chicago Skyway and collect tolls for 99 years. The deal was the first of its kind in the U.S. In December 2006, Morgan Stanley paid Chicago $563 million for a 99-year lease of the city's parking garages. "I'm the one who started talking about leasing public assets. No other city has done this in America," Daley recalled in 2009. Pulitzer Prize-winning commentator George F. Will wrote of the deals in "The Washington Post",


title: Richard M. Daley

text: Unfortunately, Daley's theory—that it can be better to get a sum X immediately, rather than getting over many years a sum Y that is substantially larger than X—assumes something that cannot be assumed. It assumes that governments will prudently husband sudden surges of revenue from the lease or sale of assets.