title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: Investigative reporter Jeff Sharlet wrote a book, "", as well as an article in "Harper's" magazine, describing his experience while serving as an intern in the Fellowship. Sharlet did intensive research in the Fellowship's archives before they were closed to the public. He also spent a month in 2002 living in a Fellowship house near Washington, and wrote a magazine article describing his experiences. According to his 2008 book, their theology is an "elite fundamentalism" that fetishizes political power and wealth, consistently opposes labor movements in the US and abroad, and teaches that laissez-faire economic policy is "God's will." He opines that their theological teaching of instant forgiveness has been useful to powerful men, providing them a convenient excuse for misdeeds or crimes and allowing them to avoid accepting responsibility or accountability for their actions. Sharlet's book was endorsed by several commentators, including Frank Schaeffer, once a leading figure of the Christian right, who called Sharlet's book a "must read... disturbing tour de force," and Brian McLaren, one of "Time"s "25 most influential evangelicals" in the U.S., who said: "Jeff Sharlet [is] a confessed non-evangelical whom top evangelical organizations might be wise to hire—and quick—as a consultant." Lisa Miller, who writes a column on religion at "Newsweek", called his book "alarmist" and says it paints a "creepy, even cultish picture" of the young, lower-ranking members of the Fellowship.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: Jeff Sharlet stated in an NBC Nightly News report that when he was an intern with the Fellowship "we were being taught the leadership lessons of Hitler, Lenin and Mao" and that Hitler's genocide "wasn't really an issue for them, it was the strength that he emulated." He opined that the Fellowship fetishizes power by comparing Jesus to "Lenin, Ho Chi Minh, Bin Laden" as examples of leaders who change the world through the strength of the covenants they had forged with their 'brothers'". In his book "The Family", Sharlet said Fellowship leader Doug Coe preached a leadership model and a personal commitment to Jesus Christ comparable to the blind devotion that Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Pol Pot demanded from their followers.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: In the same series, Coe also compared Jesus's teachings to the Red Guard during the Chinese Cultural Revolution:


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: David Kuo, a former White House aide to George W. Bush, said that Coe is using Hitler as a metaphor for commitment. The NBC report said "a close friend of Coe told NBC News that he invokes Hitler to show the power of small groups—for good and bad. And, the friend said, most of the time he talks about Jesus."


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: [Fellowship members] share a vow of silence about Fellowship activities. Oddly, it is categorized under US law as a church rather than a political lobbying organization, so financial sources and budget expenditures remain unknown. Coe and others cite biblical admonitions against public displays of good works, insisting they would not be able to tackle their diplomatically sensitive missions if they drew public attention. Members, including congressmen, invoke this secrecy rule when refusing to discuss just about every aspect of the Fellowship and their involvement in it.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: The Fellowship has long been a secretive organization. The Reverend Rob Schenck, who leads a Bible study on the Hill inspired by C Street, wrote that "all ministries in Washington need to protect the confidence of those we minister to, and I'm sure that's a primary motive for C Street's low profile." But he added, "I think The Fellowship has been just a tad bit too clandestine."


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: Prominent political figures have insisted that confidentiality and privacy are essential to the Fellowship's operation. In 1985, President Ronald Reagan said about the Fellowship, "I wish I could say more about it, but it's working precisely because it is private." At the 1990 National Prayer Breakfast, President George H. W. Bush praised Douglas Coe for what he described as "quiet diplomacy, I wouldn't say secret diplomacy." In 2009, Chris Halverson, son of Fellowship co-founder Richard C. Halverson, said that a culture of pastoral confidentiality is essential to the ministry: "If you talked about it, you would destroy that fellowship."


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: In the 1960s, the Fellowship began distributing to involved members of Congress notes that stated that "the group, as such, never takes any formal action, but individuals who participate in the group through their initiative have made possible the activities mentioned."


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: In 1974, after several Watergate conspirators had joined the Fellowship, a "Los Angeles Times" columnist discouraged further inquiries into Washington's "underground prayer movement", i.e. the Fellowship: "They genuinely avoid publicity... they shun it."


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: In 1975, a member of the Fellowship's inner circle wrote to the group's chief South African operative, that their political initiatives


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: ... have always been misunderstood by 'outsiders.' As a result of very bitter experiences, therefore, we have learned never to commit to paper any discussions or negotiations that are taking place. There is no such thing as a 'confidential' memorandum, and leakage always seems to occur. Thus, I would urge you not to put on paper "anything" relating to any of the work that you are doing... [unless] you know the recipient well enough to put at the top of the page 'PLEASE DESTROY AFTER READING.'


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: In 2002, Coe denied that the Fellowship Foundation owns the National Prayer Breakfast. Jennifer Thornett, a Fellowship employee, said that "there is no such thing as the Fellowship".


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: On January 5, 2010, Fellowship member Bob Hunter gave an interview on national television in which he stated:


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: But I do agree with you, that The Fellowship is too secret. We don't have a Web site. We don't have – we have a lot of good ministers, 200 ministers doing good works that nobody knows about. I think that's wrong, and there's a debate going on among a lot of people about whether and how we should change that.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: Fellowship Foundation is best known for the National Prayer Breakfast, held each year on the first Thursday of February in Washington, D.C. First held in 1953, the event is now attended by over 3,400 guests including dignitaries from many nations. The President of the United States typically makes an address at the breakfast, following the main speaker's keynote address. The event is hosted by a 24-member committee of members of Congress. Democrats and Republicans serve on the organizing committee, and chairmanship alternates each year between the House and the Senate.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: At the National Prayer Breakfast, the president usually arrives an hour early and meets with eight to ten heads of state, usually of small nations, and guests chosen by the Fellowship.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: G. Philip Hughes, the executive secretary for the National Security Council in the George H.W. Bush administration, said, "Doug Coe or someone who worked with him would call and say, 'So and so would like to have a word with the president. Do you think you could arrange something?'" However, Coe has said that the Fellowship does not help foreign dignitaries gain access to U.S. officials. "We never make any commitment, ever, to arrange special meetings with the president, vice president or secretary of State," Coe said. "We would never do it."


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: At the 2001 Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearings for State Department officials, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), whose wife was on the board of the Fellowship, lamented that the State Department had blocked then-President Bush from meeting with four foreign heads of state (Rwanda, Macedonia, Congo and Slovakia) at the NPB that year. Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) said of Nelson's complaint: "I'm not sure a head of state ought to be able to wander over here for the prayer breakfast and, in effect, compel the president of the United States to meet with him as a consequence... Getting these meetings with the president is a process that's usually very carefully vetted and worked up. Now sort of this back door has sort of evolved."


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: "It [the NPB] totally circumvents the State Department and the usual vetting within the administration that such a meeting would require," an anonymous government informant told sociologist D. Michael Lindsay. "If Doug Coe can get you some face time with the President of the United States, then you will take his call and seek his friendship. That's power."


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: A primary activity of the Fellowship is to develop small support groups for politicians, including senators and members of Congress, Executive Branch officials, military officers, foreign leaders and dignitaries, businesspersons, and other influential individuals. Prayer groups have met in the White House, the Pentagon and at the Department of Defense. By the early 1970s, prayer groups, breakfasts, and luncheons, including those sponsored by International Christian Leadership (ICL), had become commonplace in the Pentagon.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: J. Edwin Orr, an advisor to Billy Graham and friend of Abraham Vereide, helped shape the prayer breakfast movement that grew out of ICL.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: Doug Burleigh is a key figure in the organization and has links with organizers and spoken at the Russian prayer breakfast beside Alexander Torshin. Burleigh stated in 2017 that "a breakthrough in relations between Russia and the US is about to occur". Maria Butina, who has admitted to working as an undeclared Kremlin agent, helped arrange for five Russians chosen by a top official to attend the 2017 National Prayer Breakfast which she also attended before she was indicted and imprisoned. Butina's main contact in Russia was Alexander Torshin. Over 50 Russians attended the 2018 National Prayer Breakfast, including leading members of Putin's government. Doug Burleigh was interviewed by the FBI because of his relationship with Maria Butina.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: The Fellowship was a behind-the-scenes player at the Camp David Accords in 1978, working with President Jimmy Carter to issue a worldwide call to prayer with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Carter hosted Coe and former senator Harold E. Hughes, the president of the Fellowship Foundation, for a luncheon at the White House on September 26, 1978. Six weeks later, the President and the First Lady traveled by Marine helicopter to Cedar Point Farm, Hughes' home on Maryland's Eastern Shore, where he placed a telephone call to Menachem Begin.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: Author Jeff Sharlet has criticized the fellowship's influence on US foreign policy. He argues that Coe and the "networking" (or formation of prayer cells) between foreign dictators and US politicians, defense contractors, and industry leaders has facilitated military aid for repressive foreign regimes. Regarding his relationships with foreign dictators, Coe said in 2007, "I never invite them. They come to me. And I do what Jesus did: I don't turn my back to any one. You know, the Bible is full of mass murderers."


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: The "Los Angeles Times" examined the Fellowship Foundation's ministry records and archives (before they were sealed), as well as documents obtained from several presidential libraries and found that the Fellowship Foundation had extraordinary access and significant influence over U.S. foreign affairs for the last 75 years.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: The Fellowship has funded the travel expenses of members of Congress to various hot spots throughout the globe, including Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Al.) to Darfur, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Ok.) to Lebanon, Rep. Aderholt to The Balkans, and Reps John Carter (R-Tex.) and Joseph Pitts (R.-Pa.) to Belarus.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: In 2002, Reps. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), Tony P. Hall (D-Ohio) and Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan on a fact-finding congressional trip, meeting with the leaders of both Muslim countries. According to Pitts, "The first thing we did when we met with [Afghan] President Karzai and [then Pakistan] President Musharraf was to say, 'We're here officially representing the Congress; we'll report back to the speaker, our leaders, our committees, our government. But we're here also because we're best friends... We're members of the same prayer group'".


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: Coe has been dispatched to foreign governments with the blessing of Congressional representatives and has helped arrange meetings overseas for U.S. officials and members of Congress. In 1979, for instance, he messaged the Saudi Arabian Minister of Commerce and asked him to meet with a Defense Department official who was visiting Riyadh, the capital.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: The Fellowship has brought controversial international figures to Washington to meet with U.S. officials. Among them are former Salvadoran Gen. Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, who in 2002 was found liable by a civil jury in Florida for the torture of thousands of civilians in the 1980s. He was invited to the 1984 prayer breakfast, along with Gen. Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, then head of the Honduran armed forces who was linked to a death squad and the Central Intelligence Agency.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: Coe was quoted in a rare interview regarding the Fellowship's associations with despots as explaining, "The people that are involved in this association of people around the world are the worst and the best, some are total despots. Some are totally religious. You can find what you want to find."


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: Coe also has claimed that the Fellowship does not help foreign dignitaries gain access to U.S. officials. "We never make any commitment, ever, to arrange special meetings with the president, vice president or secretary of State", Coe said. "We would never do it". The LA Times found that "the archives tell another story".


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: In January 1991, Fellowship associate and financial supporter Michael Timmis met President Pierre Buyoya of Burundi on behalf of the Fellowship, then flew to Kenya with Arthur (Gene) Dewey, the former second-in-command at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and Sam Owen, then living in Nairobi. Timmis wrote that he had obtained permission to fly over Tanzanian air space, even though the U.S. Department of State had ordered American citizens to stay clear of Tanzania.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: The Fellowship has promoted reconciliation between the warring leaders of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, and Rwanda. In 2001, the Fellowship helped arrange a secret meeting at The Cedars between Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila and Rwandan President Paul Kagame – one of the first discreet meetings between the two African leaders that led to a peace accord in July 2002.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: In 1994 at the National Prayer Breakfast, the Fellowship helped to persuade South African Zulu chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi not to engage in a civil war with Nelson Mandela.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: According to Jeff Sharlet, Senator Sam Brownback (R.-Kan.) is a Fellowship member who leads a secret "cell" of leading U.S. Senators and representatives to influence U.S. foreign policy. Sharlet reports that the group has stamped much of U.S. foreign policy through a group of senators and affiliated religious organizations forming the "Values Action Team" or "VAT". One victory for the group was Brownback's North Korea Human Rights Act, which establishes a confrontational stance toward North Korea and shifts funds for humanitarian aid from the UN to Christian organizations.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: The Fellowship is behind an international project called Youth Corps, a network of Christian youth groups that attract teenagers, and only later steer them to Jesus. The Youth Corps web site does not mention an affiliation to the Fellowship or religion. A non-public, internal Fellowship document, "Regional Reports, January 3, 2002," lists some of the nations where Youth Corps programs are in operation: Russia; Ukraine; Romania; India; Pakistan; Uganda; Nepal; Bhutan; Ecuador; Honduras; Peru.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: Fellowship funds have gone to an orphanage in India, a program in Uganda that provides schooling, and a development group in Peru.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: In a November 2009 NPR interview, Sharlet alleged that Ugandan Fellowship associates David Bahati and Nsaba Buturo were behind the recent proposed bill in Uganda that called for the death penalty for gays. Bahati cited a conversation with Fellowship members in 2008 as having inspired the legislation.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: Sharlet reveals that David Bahati, the Ugandan legislator backing the bill, reportedly first floated the idea of executing gays during The Family's Uganda National Prayer Breakfast in 2008. Sharlet described Bahati as a "rising star" in the Fellowship who has attended the National Prayer Breakfast in the United States and, until the news over the gay execution law broke, was scheduled to attend the 2010 U.S. National Prayer Breakfast.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: Fellowship member Bob Hunter gave an interview to NPR in December 2009 in which he acknowledged Bahati's connection but argued that no American associates support the bill. President Barack Obama, in his address to the Fellowship at their National Prayer Breakfast in early 2010, directly criticized the Uganda legislation targeting gay people for execution. In calling for a renewed emphasis on faith and civility, Obama stated, "We may disagree about gay marriage, but surely we can agree that it is unconscionable to target gays and lesbians for who they are — whether it's here in the United States or, as Hillary [Clinton] mentioned, more extremely in odious laws that are being proposed most recently in Uganda."


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: In 2009, the Fellowship received media attention in connection with three Republican politicians who reportedly engaged in extra-marital affairs. Two of them, Senator John Ensign, chairman of the Republican Policy Committee in the Senate and the fourth-ranking member in his party's Senate leadership, and South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, immediate past chair of the Republican Governors Association and U.S. Representative from 1995 to 2001, were considering running for president in 2012. The affairs of Ensign and then-Congressman Chip Pickering, R-Miss., took place while they were living at the C Street Center.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: Ensign, a Fellowship member and longtime resident of the C Street Center, admitted in June 2009 to an extra-marital affair with Cindy Hampton. Hampton was Ensign's campaign treasurer and the wife of his co-chief of staff, longtime friend and fellow worshipper Doug Hampton.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: "The Washington Post" reported that the C Street House "pulsed with backstage intrigue, in the days and months before the Sanford and Ensign scandals" and that residents tried to talk each politician into ending his philandering. An emotional meeting was reportedly held to discuss "forgiveness" between Hampton, the husband of Ensign's mistress, and Senator Tom Coburn. Coburn, with Timothy and David Coe, leaders of the Fellowship, attempted to intervene to end Ensign's affair in February 2008 by meeting with Hampton and convincing Ensign to write a letter to Hampton's wife breaking off the affair. Ensign was chaperoned by Coburn and other members from C Street, where Ensign lives with Coburn, to post the letter. Ensign called Hampton's wife hours later to tell her to ignore the letter and flew out to spend the weekend with her in Nevada.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: Doug Hampton said he was not directly advised by the Fellowship to cover up Ensign's affair with his wife, but instead to "be cool". After losing his job with Ensign and losing a subsequent lobbying job, Hampton has said that he was in financial distress and reached out to Coburn—a C Street resident—in an effort to reach an agreement with Ensign. Coburn has denied negotiating a deal, but has stated that he "had worked to 'bring two families to a closure of a very painful episode'". Hampton has expressed the belief that his friends at C Street abandoned him by choosing to close ranks around Ensign, and that for them, the episode was "[more] about preserving John [Ensign], preserving the Republican party...preserving C Street" than about doing the right thing.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: Ensign's efforts to cover up his affair were investigated by the Senate Ethics Committee and the Department of Justice.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, who served as a Congressman from 1995 to 2001, admitted in June 2009 to having an extramarital affair and said he had sought counseling at the C Street Center during the months before the news broke. Sanford "was a frequent visitor to the home for prayer meetings and meals during his time in Congress".


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: Chip Pickering was a U.S. Representative from Mississippi from 1997 to 2008. In 2009, his wife filed suit against Elizabeth Creekmore Byrd, his former college sweetheart and alleged mistress. Mrs. Pickering alleged that her husband restarted his relationship with Byrd while he was "a United States congressman prior to and while living in the well-known C Street Complex in Washington, D.C."


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: The Fellowship runs a $1.8 million three-story brick mansion in Washington D.C. known as "C Street." It is the former convent for nearby St. Peter's Church. It is located a short distance from the United States Capitol. The structure has 12 bedrooms, nine bathrooms, five living rooms, four dining rooms, three offices, a kitchen, and a small "chapel".


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: C Street has been the subject of controversy over its claimed tax status as a church, the ownership of the property and its connection to the Fellowship, and the reportedly subsidized benefits the facility provides to members of Congress.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: Fellowship Foundation purchased a large old house in 1978 in the Woodmont neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia, called ‘The Doubleday Mansion’. Now called ‘The Cedars’, it was called 'Hillcrest Farm' under Frye-Vanderbilt ownership, 'Four Winds' while owned by Howard Hughes, and the 'TWA House' by the press when a TWA executive used it to lobby for control of international airline routes. The 70-acre home, located less than 3 miles from the White House and which also has quarters for volunteers, a detached two-story garage and a gardener's cottage, is zoned as a worship and teaching center. The home is used as a center for Bible studies, counseling, hymn sings, life mentoring, prayer groups, prayer breakfasts, luncheons, dinners, and hospitality receptions for international reconciliation and conflict resolution initiatives. The home was once surrounded by cedar trees and so was renamed Cedars. It is a historic landmark house and is situated adjacent to a commemorative recreational county park, once the homestead of writer C. F. Henry.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: Coe has described Cedars as a place "committed to the care of the underprivileged, even though it looks very wealthy." He noted that people might say, "Why don't you sell a chandelier and help poor people?" Answering his own question, Coe said, "The people who come here have tremendous influence over kids." Private documents indicate that Cedars was purchased so that "people throughout the world who carry heavy responsibilities could meet in Washington to think together, plan together and pray together about personal and public problems and opportunities." Cedars is host to dozens of prayer breakfasts, luncheons and dinners for ambassadors, congressional representatives, foreign religious leaders and many others.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: In March 1990, Youth With A Mission (YWAM; organization which also previously owned the C Street Center) purchased a nearby property located at 2200 24th Street North for $580,000. The property was used as another gathering place for bible study. Ownership of 2200 24th Street was transferred to the C Street Center on May 6, 1992, and again to the Fellowship Foundation on October 25, 2002. This house had been owned by Timothy Coe, who sold the property to his father, Douglas Coe on November 30, 1989, for $580,000.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: A second property, located at 2224 24th Street North and assessed at $916,000, is used as a men's mentoring ministry, known as a navigator house. The property was purchased by Jerome A. Lewis and Co. in 1986, and sold to the Wilberforce Foundation in 1987. In 2007, the Wilberforce Foundation transferred it to the Fellowship Foundation for $1 million. Lewis is a trustee emeritus of the Trinity Forum and the former chairman and chief executive officer of Petro-Lewis Corporation.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: Douglas Coe once owned a lot at 2560 North 23rd Road, which he sold to Ohio Congressman Tony P. Hall (D-OH) and his wife on September 22, 1987, for $100,000. Upon leaving Congress in 2002, Hall donated some of his excess campaign funds including $20,000 to the Fellowship Foundation on September 4, 2002, $1,500 to the Wilberforce Foundation, and $1,000 to the Jonathan Coe Memorial of Annapolis, Maryland during the 2001 campaign cycle.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: The residence located at 2244 24th Street North, assessed at $1,458,800, is owned by Merle Morgan, whose wife, Edita, is on the board of the Cedars. It also is identified as the offices of the greeting card firm of Morgan Bros. Corp. (d/b/a Capitol Publishing).


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: LeRoy Rooker, the one-time treasurer of Cedars and former director of the Family Policy Compliance Office at the U.S. Department of Education, and his wife own 2222 24th Street North.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: According to White House records from 1978, President Jimmy Carter traveled to Cedar Point Farm, Maryland, by Marine helicopter on November 12, 1978, to attend a Fellowship prayer and discussion group. President Carter placed a call to Menachem Begin while at Cedar Point Farm. The White House records reflect that Cedar Point Farm was owned by Harold Hughes, a former senator from Iowa and the president of the Fellowship Foundation. Cedar Point Farm was later used by the Wilberforce Foundation.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: The Fellowship Foundation, which since 1935 has conducted no public fundraising programs, relies totally on private donations. In 2007, the group received nearly $16.8 million to support the 400 ministries. Among the Fellowship's key supporters are billionaire investor Paul N. Temple, a former executive of Esso (Exxon) and the founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences and the Three Swallows Foundation. Between 1998 and 2007, Three Swallows made grants totaling $1,777,650 to the International Foundation, including


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: Another supporter, Jerome (Jerry) A. Lewis, established Denver-based Downing Street Foundation to provide support to three organizations: the Fellowship Foundation, Denver Leadership Foundation, and Young Life. Between 1999 and 2007, Downing Street Foundation donated at least $756,000 to the Family, in addition to allowing the group to use its "retreat center."


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: Madelynn Winstead, a Downing Street Foundation director, was paid $21,600 by the Fellowship Foundation as managing director of the retreat center.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: The Kingdom Fund (Kingdom Oil Christian Foundation t/a Twin Cities Christian Foundation) also provides support to the Family and World Vision.


title: The Fellowship (Christian organization)

text: The Fellowship Foundation earns more than $1,000,000 annually through its sponsorship of the National Prayer Breakfast.


title: Stock photography

text: Stock photography is the supply of photographs which are often licensed for specific uses. The stock photo industry, which began to gain hold in the 1920s, has established models including traditional macrostock photography, midstock photography, and microstock photography. Conventional stock agencies charge from several hundred to several thousand US dollars per image, while microstock photography may sell for around US$25 cents. Professional stock photographers traditionally place their images with one or more stock agencies on a contractual basis, while stock agencies may accept the high-quality photos of amateur photographers through online submission.


title: Stock photography

text: Themes for stock photos are diverse, although Megan Garber of "The Atlantic" wrote in 2012 that "one of the more wacky/wondrous elements of stock photos is the manner in which, as a genre, they've developed a unifying editorial sensibility. To see a stock image is... to "know" you're seeing a stock image." Historically notable traditional stock photo agencies have included RobertStock, the Bettman Archive in New York, and the Hulton Archive in the United Kingdom, among many others. In the 1990s companies such as Photodisc in Seattle, Washington, began selling CD ROMs with packs of images, pioneering the royalty-free licensing system at a time when Rights Managed licensing was the norm in the stock industry. There was a great amount of consolidation among stock photo agencies between 1990 and the mid-2000s, particularly through Corbis and Getty Images. The early microstock company iStockphoto was founded in May 2000, followed by companies such as Dreamstime, fotoLibra, Can Stock Photo, 123RF, Shutterstock, and Fotolia.


title: Stock photography

text: Newspapers and magazines were first able to reproduce photographs instead of line art in the mid-1880s with the invention of the half-tone and its use on a printing press. Initially starting with staff photographers, independent free-lance photographers eventually took over. One of the first examples of a stock photo was circa 1920 when American photographer H. Armstrong Roberts ensured that the people photographed in "Group in Front of Tri-Motor Airplane" all signed model releases. This allowed the photograph and others like it to be commercially viable. In an effort to save the cost of hiring photographers for commission-based photo shoots, publishers and advertisers began to consider stock photos as a less risky alternative. One of the first major stock photography libraries was founded in 1920 by H. Armstrong Roberts.


title: Stock photography

text: The Bettmann Archive in New York is an example of an early traditional stock agency, with the company delivering photos upon 24-hour request to magazines such as "Look" and "Life". Founded in 1936 by Otto Bettmann, a German curator who emigrated to the United States in 1935, the Bettman Archive began with Bettmann's personal collection of 15,000 images which he brought with him in suitcases when he escaped from Nazi Germany. He actively expanded his collection by placing ads in magazines for stills and photos. A different early pioneer with the stock industry was photographer Tony Stone, whose portfolio of mountain scenes proved popular with chocolate advertisers. Stone's stock library eventually reached 20,000 images, each selected for its likelihood to sell multiple copies.


title: Stock photography

text: Known as a stock resource for newspapers and magazines, the Hulton Archive started as the photographic archive of "Picture Post". As the archive expanded through World War II, it became clear that its vast collection of photographs and negatives were becoming an important historical documentary resource. In 1945, Sir Edward Hulton set up the Hulton Press Library as a semi-independent operation and commissioned Charles Gibbs-Smith of the Victoria and Albert Museum to catalogue the entire archive using a system of keywords and classifications. The Gibbs-Smith system claims to be the world's first indexing system for pictures, and it was eventually adopted by the British Museum collections.


title: Stock photography

text: By the 1980s, stock photography had become a specialty in its own right, with the stock industry advancing quickly. As photo libraries transitioned from physical archives to servers in the mid-1990s, "stock libraries" were increasingly called "stock agencies". The archives also began to rely increasingly on keywords for sorting and retrieving photographs. In 1991 Photodisc in Seattle, Washington, began selling CD ROMs with packs of images. Unlike their competitors, Photodisc licensed the image packs as Royalty Free. In contrast to the Rights Managed system, royalty free allowed the purchaser of a CD ROM to use the images as many times as they liked without paying further fees.


title: Stock photography

text: There was a great amount of consolidation among stock photo agencies between 1990 and the mid-2000s, with Corbis notably acquiring the massive Bettmann Archive in 1995. After Photodisc went online in 1995, in September 1997, PhotoDisc agreed to combine with London-based Getty Communications to form the Seattle-based Getty Images. In 1996, the Hulton Picture Collection was bought by Getty Images for £8.6 million.


title: Stock photography

text: Alamy (registered as Alamy Limited) is a privately owned stock photography agency launched in 1999. Alamy maintains an online archive of over one hundred million still images, illustrations and hundreds of thousands of videos contributed by agencies and independent photographers or collected from news archives, museums and national collections. Its suppliers include both professional and amateur photographers, stock agencies, news archives, museums and national collections. Its clients are from the photography, publishing and advertising industries and the general public.


title: Stock photography

text: The early microstock company iStockphoto was founded in May 2000. Originally a free stock imagery website, it transitioned into its current micropayment model in 2001. iStockphoto co-founders Bruce Livingstone and Brianna Wettlaufer then went on to start Stocksy United in 2013. Helping pioneer the subscription-based model of stock photography, Shutterstock was founded in 2003 with a monthly subscription fee. Online since 2000 as a royalty-free stock photography website, in 2004 Dreamstime was founded as new microstock agency. Other stock agencies with new business models around this time included fotoLibra, which opened to the public in 2005, and Can Stock Photo, which debuted in 2004. By 2007 Dreamstime was competing with iStockphoto, Fotolia and Shutterstock, all expanded into major microstock companies. In March 2013 microstock company Depositphotos launched Clashot, a service that allows smartphone users to instantly upload photos to the photobank from their devices, followed by Fotolia, that launched the very similar Fotolia Instant later that year.


title: Stock photography

text: Between the 1990s and the mid-2000s, Bill Gates' Corbis Images and Getty Images combined purchased more than 40 stock photo agencies. iStockphoto, or iStock.com, was acquired by Getty in 2006. In February 2009, Jupitermedia Corporation sold their online stock images division, Jupiterimages, to Getty Images for $96 million in cash, including the sites stock.xchng and StockXpert. In 2005, Scoopt started a photo news agency for citizen journalism enabling the public to upload and sell breaking news images taken with cameraphones. In 2007 Scoopt was purchased by Getty Images, which closed it in 2009. In 2012 Shutterstock became the first microstock agency to complete an initial public offering, with the company's shares reaching a $2.5 billion market value by late 2013. The stock photo company Fotolia announced that it would be acquired by Adobe for $800 million on December 11, 2014.


title: Stock photography

text: Stock photography refers to the supply of photographs, which are often licensed for specific uses such as magazine publishing or pamphlet-making. According to "The New York Times", as of 2005 "most" book cover designers prefer stock photography agencies over photographers in efforts to save costs. Publishers can then purchase photographs on an exclusive or non-exclusive basis.


title: Stock photography

text: According to "The New York Times", conventional stock agencies charge from several hundred to several thousand American dollars per image, and "base fees on the published size of an image, circulation and other factors." Microstock photos may sell for as little as US$0.25. Professional stock photographers traditionally place their images with one or more stock agencies on a contractual basis, with a defined commission basis and specified contract term. The industry standard is purportedly 30 to 50 percent to the photographer, although at the start of the stock photography industry, fees were typically cut half and half between the agency and artist. Other stock agencies may accept the high-quality photos of amateur photographers through online submission.


title: Stock photography

text: Some online photo websites have created unique software to search for fitting stock photos, for example searching for complicated keyword combinations, color, shapes, and "moods". Other search engines may seek to quantify the best photos by looking for elements as diverse as "bright lights", "evidence of emotional connections between people", and the tilt of faces.


title: Stock photography

text: Traditional stock photo agencies have large catalogues that may include press archives and works by notable photographers such as Bert Hardy, Bill Brandt, Weegee and Ernst Haas. More recent trends in microstock photography include "lifestyle" photographs of people "at work and play", food, sports, and fashion. Other stock photo themes may include stereotypes, expressing common emotions and gesticulations, pets, and images related to travel and tourism.


title: Stock photography

text: In the early 1990s, the stock industry focused on "conceptual images", which could encapsulate themes such as "global communication, success, and teamwork". After the consolidation of many stock photo agencies in the 1990s and early 2000s, new companies began focusing on "niche collections" including "medical, science, minorities, gay and lesbian lifestyles, aviation, maps, panoramas, historical, sports, and celebrity homes". Opined Megan Garber of "The Atlantic" in 2012, "one of the more wacky/wondrous elements of stock photos is the manner in which, as a genre, they've developed a unifying editorial sensibility. To see a stock image is, Potter Stewart-style, to "know" you're seeing a stock image. And while stock images' stockiness may be in part due to the common visual tropes that give them their easy, cheesy impact - prettiness, preciousness, pose-iness - there's part of it that's more ephemeral, too. Though they have little in common, shots of a German Shepherd typing on a laptop and a man contemplating the sunset can both be, in their special way, stocky."


title: Stock photography

text: In relation to photography and graphics, public domain (PD) means the image is free to use without purchasing a license, and can be used for commercial or personal purposes. Works in the public domain are those whose exclusive intellectual property rights have expired, have been forfeited, or are inapplicable.


title: Stock photography

text: In photography and the illustration industry, royalty-free (RF) refers to a copyright license where the user has the right to use the picture without many restrictions based on one-time payment to the licensor. The user can, therefore, use the image in several projects without having to purchase any additional licenses. RF licenses cannot be given on an exclusive basis. In stock photography, RF is one of the common licenses sometimes contrasted with Rights Managed licenses and often employed in subscription-based or microstock photography business models.


title: Stock photography

text: Rights Managed (RM) in the stock photo industry (sometimes called "licensed images") refers to a copyright license which, if purchased by a user, allows the one-time use of the photo as specified by the license. If the user wants to use the photo for other uses an additional license needs to be purchased. RM licenses can be given on a non-exclusive or exclusive basis. In stock photography RM is one of the two common license types together with royalty-free, subscription and microstock photography being business models often confused as separate license types (both use the royalty-free license type).


title: Rudy Tomjanovich

text: Rudolph Tomjanovich Jr. (born November 24, 1948) is an American former professional basketball player and coach who is a consultant for the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association (NBA). His professional playing career, which lasted between 1970 and 1981, was entirely spent with the San Diego / Houston Rockets. Tomjanovich was a 5-time NBA All-Star forward; four consecutive times between 1974 and 1977, and again in 1979. He also made the playoffs five times: in 1975, 1977, and consecutively between 1979 and 1981.


title: Rudy Tomjanovich

text: On December 9, 1977, during a game between the Rockets and the Los Angeles Lakers, Tomjanovich was the victim of a life-threatening punch to his face brought upon him by Lakers power forward Kermit Washington. This ended his season after 23 games; after fully recovering, Tomjanovich played in the NBA for three more seasons.


title: Rudy Tomjanovich

text: After about eight years of being an assistant coach, Tomjanovich was promoted to head coach of the Rockets from 1992 to 2003, including when the Rockets won two consecutive NBA championships in 1994 and 1995. Tomjanovich coached Team USA to the gold medal in men's basketball at the 2000 Summer Olympics. He also coached the Los Angeles Lakers during part of the 2004–05 NBA season. He was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame on May 16, 2021.


title: Rudy Tomjanovich

text: Tomjanovich was born in Hamtramck, Michigan, the son of Catherine (Modich) and Rudy Tomjanovich. He is of Croatian descent. He attended high school in Hamtramck and later the University of Michigan (1967–1970). He was a high school teammate of ABA player John Brisker.


title: Rudy Tomjanovich

text: In college, Tomjanovich set Michigan Wolverines men's basketball career rebounding records that continue to stand. In 1968 he earned second team All-Big Ten honors, which he followed with first-team honors in 1969 and 1970. During 1970 he was also an All-American.


title: Rudy Tomjanovich

text: Tomjanovich was selected in the 1970 NBA draft as the second overall pick by the San Diego Rockets (the franchise relocated to Houston in 1971), for whom he would play the entirety of his NBA career. He was also drafted in both 1970 and 1974 by the Utah Stars of the ABA. In his eleven years in the NBA, Tomjanovich had a scoring average of 17.4 points and a rebounding average of 8.1, earning five All-Star Game selections in the process (1974–1977, 1979). He is the fourth-leading scorer in Rockets history behind James Harden and Hall of Famers Calvin Murphy and Hakeem Olajuwon. Because his last name was so long, the back of Tomjanovich's jerseys would read "RUDY T.", rather than his 11 character name.


title: Rudy Tomjanovich

text: The Rockets retired Tomjanovich's #45 jersey upon the conclusion of his playing career. His collegiate jersey, also #45, was retired by the University of Michigan in 2003.


title: Rudy Tomjanovich

text: During a game on December 9, 1977, Tomjanovich was punched by Kermit Washington of the Los Angeles Lakers after Tomjanovich ran to stop a fight at center court. The blow shattered Tomjanovich's face and inflicted life-threatening head and spinal injuries, leaving him sidelined for five months. He eventually made a full recovery and was selected for the NBA All-Star Game the following 1978–79 season. The incident and its aftermath are recounted in the John Feinstein book "The Punch: One Night, Two Lives, and the Fight That Changed Basketball Forever", as well as in Tomjanovich's 1997 autobiography "A Rocket at Heart: My Life and My Team".


title: Rudy Tomjanovich

text: Tomjanovich was well known for his instinctive managerial style and intensity on the bench. Always self-deprecating, he nonetheless heaped tremendous pressure on himself and his assistants to be prepared for each game, several times being hospitalized for exhaustion. After winning back-to-back titles, Tomjanovich deflected much of the praise and eschewed the "genius" label assigned to other champion coaches like Chuck Daly and Phil Jackson. His hands-off, easy-going manner with his players gave him a reputation as a "players coach", and as such veteran players were eager to play on his teams. Among the stars who requested and were granted trades to Houston during his tenure were Clyde Drexler, Charles Barkley, and Scottie Pippen.


title: Rudy Tomjanovich

text: In 1998, Tomjanovich volunteered to coach the U.S. men's senior basketball team at the FIBA World Championship in Greece. Despite the absence of NBA players due to contract negotiations, Tomjanovich guided the hastily assembled group of CBA and college players to the bronze medal. In light of his outstanding service in coaching at the 1998 Worlds and his stellar professional resume, Tomjanovich was tabbed to coach the U.S. men's senior team at the Games of the XXVII Olympiad in Sydney, Australia. The U.S. Team won the gold medal with an 8–0 record. On February 15, 2006, Tomjanovich was named director of scouting for USA Men's Basketball.


title: Rudy Tomjanovich

text: Tomjanovich retired in 1981 and became a scout for two years before being named an assistant coach in 1983. He served as an assistant under Bill Fitch and Don Chaney.


title: Rudy Tomjanovich

text: Tomjanovich was named the Rockets' interim head coach in February 1992 after Chaney's resignation. After nearly leading the Rockets to a playoff berth, he was then given the job on a permanent basis.


title: Rudy Tomjanovich

text: In his first full season on the job (1992–93), Tomjanovich guided the Rockets to the Midwest Division title, making him the first head coach to ever take his team from the lottery to a division crown during his first full season. Building on this success, Tomjanovich led the team to back-to-back NBA championships in 1994 and 1995; additionally, the Rockets were the only team other than the Chicago Bulls to win multiple championships during the 1990s, with their titles being bookended by the Bulls' two runs of three consecutive titles each. On the playoff run to their second title, the Rockets became the lowest seed (sixth) to win one, and the only team in history to defeat the teams with the four best regular-season records in the playoffs. It was on the floor of The Summit after they captured their second title that Tomjanovich proclaimed, "Don't ever underestimate the heart of a champion!"


title: Rudy Tomjanovich

text: In his 11-plus season tenure as Rockets head coach, he posted a 503–397 (.559) regular-season record and a 51–39 (.567) playoff mark. His career wins and winning percentage are Rockets franchise records. After the 1998-99 season, the Rockets would not make the playoffs for the rest of his coaching tenure, and would consistently finish in the division cellar; Tomjanovich left the team after the 2002–03 season when he was diagnosed with bladder cancer (from which he has since made a full recovery), ending a 33-year association with the Rockets franchise—including its first 32 years in Houston—as a player, assistant coach and head coach.


title: Rudy Tomjanovich

text: In 2004, Tomjanovich signed a five-year, $30 million contract to replace Phil Jackson as coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. He resigned after 43 games, citing mental and physical exhaustion unrelated to his past bout with bladder cancer. The Lakers paid him a $10 million settlement, leading to speculation that the Lakers had instead terminated his contract. Tomjanovich stayed with the Lakers as a consultant.


title: Rudy Tomjanovich

text: In 1970, Tomjanovich married Sophie Migas, a former cheerleader. They have two daughters and one son. He currently resides in Austin, Texas.


title: Rudy Tomjanovich

text: Tomjanovich has participated with the Texas Children's Cancer Center to help raise funds for cancer research. He has also helped promote a deadbolt called the "Ultimate Lock" and CieAura health care products.


title: Gawker

text: Gawker is an American blog founded by Nick Denton and Elizabeth Spiers and based in New York City focusing on celebrities and the media industry. According to SimilarWeb, the site had over 23 million visits per month as of 2015. Founded in 2003, "Gawker" was the flagship blog for Denton's Gawker Media. Gawker Media also managed other blogs such as "Jezebel", "io9", "Deadspin" and "Kotaku".


title: Gawker

text: "Gawker" came under scrutiny for posting videos, communications and other content that violated copyrights or the privacy of its owners, or was illegally obtained. "Gawker" publication of a sex tape featuring Hulk Hogan led Hogan to sue the company for invasion of privacy. Hogan received financial support from billionaire investor Peter Thiel, who had been outed by Gawker against his wishes. On June 10, 2016, "Gawker" filed for bankruptcy after being ordered to pay Hogan $140 million in damages. On August 18, 2016, Gawker Media announced that its namesake blog would be ceasing operations the following week. Its other websites were unaffected, and continued to be run by Univision. Founder Nick Denton created the site's final post on August 22, 2016.


title: Gawker

text: On July 12, 2018, Bryan Goldberg, owner of "Bustle" and "Elite Daily", purchased "Gawker.com" in a bankruptcy auction for less than $1.5 million. Gawker relaunched under the Bustle Digital Group on July 28, 2021, with Leah Finnegan as editor.


title: Gawker

text: "Gawker" was founded by journalist Nick Denton in 2002, after he left the "Financial Times". It was originally edited by Elizabeth Spiers. "Gawker"'s official launch was in December 2002. When Spiers left "Gawker", she was replaced by Choire Sicha, a former art dealer. Sicha was employed in this position until August 2004, at which point he was replaced by Jessica Coen, and she became editorial director of Gawker Media. Sicha left for the "New York Observer" six months after his promotion.


title: Gawker

text: Later, in 2005, the editor position was split between two co-editors, and Coen was joined by guest editors from a variety of New York City-based blogs; Matt Haber was engaged as co-editor for several months, and Jesse Oxfeld joined for longer. In July 2006, Oxfeld's contract was not renewed, and Alex Balk was installed. Chris Mohney, formerly of Gridskipper, Gawker Media's travel blog, was hired for the newly created position of managing editor.


title: Gawker

text: On September 28, 2006, Coen announced in a post on "Gawker" that she would be leaving the site to become deputy online editor at "Vanity Fair". Balk shared responsibility for the "Gawker" site with co-editor Emily Gould. Associate editor Maggie Shnayerson also began writing for the site; she replaced Doree Shafrir, who left in September 2007 for the "New York Observer".


title: Gawker

text: In February 2007, Sicha returned from his position at the "New York Observer", and replaced Mohney as the managing editor. On September 21, 2007, "Gawker" announced Balk's departure to edit "Radar Magazine"'s website; he was replaced by Alex Pareene of "Wonkette".


title: Gawker

text: The literary journal "n+1" published a long piece on the history and future of "Gawker", concluding that, "You could say that as Gawker Media grew, from "Gawker"'s success, "Gawker" outlived the conditions for its existence".


title: Gawker

text: In 2008, weekend editor Ian Spiegelman quit Gawker because Denton fired his friend Sheila McClear without cause. He made that clear in several comments on the site at the time, also denouncing what he said was its practice of hiring full-time employees as independent contractors in order to avoid paying taxes and employment benefits.


title: Gawker

text: On October 3, 2008, "Gawker" announced that 19 staff members were being laid off in response to expected economic hardships in the coming months. Most came from sites with low ad revenue.


title: Gawker

text: On November 12, 2008, the company announced selling the popular blog site Consumerist and the folding of Valleywag, with managing editor Owen Thomas being demoted to a columnist on "Gawker", and the rest of the staff being laid off. Some members and staff writers complained that owner Nick Denton was looking to sell out all of the "Gawker" sites while they were still profitable.


title: Gawker

text: In December 2009, Denton was nominated for "Media Entrepreneur of the Decade" by "Adweek," and "Gawker" was named "Blog of the Decade" by the advertising trade. Brian Morrissey of "Adweek" said ""Gawker" remains the epitome of blogging: provocative, brash, and wildly entertaining".


title: Gawker

text: In February 2010, Denton announced that "Gawker" was acquiring the "people directory" site CityFile.com, and was hiring that site's editor and publisher, Remy Stern, as the new editor-in-chief of "Gawker". Gabriel Snyder, who had been editor-in-chief for the previous 18 months and had greatly increased the site's readership, released a memo saying he was being let go from the job.


title: Gawker

text: In December 2011, A. J. Daulerio, former editor-in-chief of "Gawker" Media sports site Deadspin, replaced Remy Stern as editor-in-chief at "Gawker". The company replaced several other editors, contributing editors, and authors; others left. Richard Lawson went to the "Atlantic Wire," a blog of the magazine, "The Atlantic Monthly".


title: Gawker

text: In 2012, the website changed its focus away from editorial content and toward what its new editor-in-chief A. J. Daulerio called "traffic whoring" and "SEO bomb throws". In January 2013 Daulerio reportedly asked for more responsibility over other Gawker Media properties, but after a short time was pushed out by publisher Denton. Daulerio was replaced as editor-in-chief by longtime "Gawker" writer John Cook.


title: Gawker

text: In March 2014, Max Read became the "Gawker"'s editor-in-chief. In April 2014, using internet slang was banned per new writing style guidelines.


title: Gawker

text: In June 2015, "Gawker" editorial staff voted to unionize. Employees joined the Writers Guild of America. Approximately three-fourths of employees eligible to vote voted in favor of the decision. "Gawker" staff announced the vote on May 28, 2015.


title: Gawker

text: Following the decision to delete a controversial story in July 2015 , Read and "Gawker" Media executive editor Tommy Craggs resigned in protest. Leah Beckmann, the site's then deputy editor, took over as interim editor in chief. She was replaced in October 2015 by Alex Pareene.


title: Gawker

text: On August 18, 2016, "Gawker" announced that it would be shutting down following the company's acquisition by Univision Communications. Its other six websites were unaffected and continue to operate under Univision.


title: Gawker

text: "Gawker"'s article archive remains online following its shutdown, and its employees were transferred to the other six websites or elsewhere in Univision.


title: Gawker

text: On July 12, 2018, Bryan Goldberg, owner of Bustle and Elite Daily, purchased "Gawker.com" in a bankruptcy auction for less than $1.5 million.


title: Gawker

text: On January 16, 2019, it was announced Carson Griffith, Ben Barna, Maya Kosoff and Anna Breslaw were joining the staff of the new Gawker. However, on January 23, 2019, Kosoff and Breslaw announced they were quitting the site over offensive workplace comments made by Griffith. "We're disappointed it ended this way, but we can't continue to work under someone who is antithetical to our sensibility and journalistic ethics, or for an employer [CEO Bryan Goldberg] who refuses to listen to the women who work for him when it's inconvenient," Kosoff and Breslaw said in a statement.


title: Gawker

text: In March 2019, Dan Peres was announced as the site's editor-in-chief. However, in August 2019, Peres, Griffith and the rest of the staff tasked with relaunching the site were laid off. "We are postponing the "Gawker" relaunch," a BDG spokesperson said. "For now, we are focusing company resources and efforts on our most recent acquisitions, Mic, The Outline, Nylon and Inverse."


title: Gawker

text: On February 27, 2020, it was announced Carson Griffith is suing "The Daily Beast", the site's editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman, and writer Maxwell Tani, over a "defamatory and untruthful" article that contains allegations of offensive workplace comments from former "Gawker" writers Maya Kosoff and Anna Breslaw. “[Maxwell] Tani never approached Ms. Griffith for comment about any of these statements prior to publication,” the lawsuit, which was filed in New York County Supreme Court on January 23, 2020, reads. “It is clear this article, which has destroyed Ms. Griffith's life, was never fact-checked or thoroughly reported by Mr. Tani or his editor Mr. Shachtman and no one is being held accountable for it." On March 24, 2021, a New York judge denied a motion by The Daily Beast, Noah Shachtman and Maxwell Tani to dismiss Carson Griffith's defamation lawsuit. "This Court finds that Plaintiff has sufficiently pled a cause of action for defamation," Justice Phillip Hom wrote in the ruling. "In accordance with the foregoing, the motion is denied in all respects. Defendants shall serve and file their answer within 30 days from today."


title: Gawker

text: In April 2021, it was reported that Gawker would relaunch with former Gawker writer Leah Finnegan tapped as editor-in-chief. Finnegan has said, of the tone of the relaunched site, that "[...] current laws of civility mean that no, it can’t be exactly what it once was." The site relaunched on July 28, 2021.


title: Gawker

text: "Gawker" usually published more than 20 posts daily during the week, sometimes reaching 30 posts a day, with limited publishing on the weekends. The site also published content from its sister sites. "Gawker"'s content consisted of celebrity and media industry gossip, critiques of mainstream news outlets, and New York-centric stories. The stories generally came from anonymous tips from media employees, found mistakes and faux pas in news stories caught by readers and other blogs, and original reporting.


title: Gawker

text: On July 3, 2006, when publisher Nick Denton replaced Jesse Oxfeld with Alex Balk, Oxfeld claimed it was an attempt to make the blog more mainstream and less media-focused, ending a tradition of heavy media coverage at "Gawker".


title: Gawker

text: Denton announced in a staff memo in November 2015 that the site was switching from covering New York and the media world to focus primarily on politics.


title: Gawker

text: On October 4, 2012, Daulerio posted a short clip of Hulk Hogan and Heather Clem, the estranged wife of radio personality Todd Alan Clem, having sex. Hogan sent "Gawker" a cease-and-desist order to take the video down, but Denton refused. Denton cited the First Amendment and argued that the accompanying commentary had news value. Judge Pamela Campbell issued an injunction ordering "Gawker" to take down the clip. In April 2013, "Gawker" wrote, "A judge told us to take down our Hulk Hogan sex tape post. We won't." It also stated that "we are refusing to comply" with the order of the circuit court judge.


title: Gawker

text: "Gawker"'s actions have been criticized as hypocritical since they heavily criticized other media outlets and websites for publishing hacked nude pictures of celebrities.


title: Gawker

text: Hogan filed a lawsuit against "Gawker" and Denton for violating his privacy, asking for $100 million in damages; the trial was slated for July 2015. The cost of the lawsuit was partly funded by Peter Thiel, whom "Gawker" had previously outed in 2007. In January 2016, Gawker Media received its first outside investment by selling a minority stake to Columbus Nova Technology Partners. Denton stated that the deal was reached in part to bolster its financial position in response to the Hogan case.


title: Gawker

text: In March 2016, Hulk Hogan was awarded $140 million in damages by a Florida jury in an invasion of privacy case over "Gawker"'s publication of a sex tape: on March 18, Hogan was awarded $55 million for economic harm and $60 million for emotional distress; on March 21, 2016, the jury awarded Hogan a further $25 million in punitive damages. On November 2, "Gawker" reached a $31 million settlement with Hogan.


title: Gawker

text: In 2007, "Gawker" published an article by Owen Thomas allegedly outing Silicon Valley venture capitalist Peter Thiel as gay, although Thomas contends the article did not constitute outing since Thiel's sexuality had been "known to a wide circle" in the Bay Area. This together with a series of articles about his friends and others that he said "ruined people's lives for no reason" motivated Thiel to fund lawsuits against "Gawker" by people complaining that their privacy had been invaded, including Hulk Hogan.


title: Gawker

text: On July 16, 2015, "Gawker" reporter Jordan Sargent posted a story about a gay porn star's alleged text correspondence with a married executive from a competing media company, Condé Nast. The article claimed Condé Nast CFO David Geithner had planned to go to Chicago to meet a male escort, and pay him $2,500 for sex. The article also claimed that after the escort requested Geithner settle the escort's housing dispute, he cancelled the meetup, and the escort went to "Gawker" to publicize the alleged incident. The post sparked heavy criticism for outing the executive, both within and outside "Gawker". Denton removed the story the next day, after Gawker Media's managing partnership voted 4–2 to remove the post—marking the first time the website had "removed a significant news story for any reason other than factual error or legal settlement." On July 20, 2015, "Gawker" Media executive editor Tommy Craggs and "Gawker.com" editor-in-chief Max Read posted their resignations from the company, citing the lack of transparency by and independence from the company's management over the post's removal, rather than the concerns over the post's issues and received criticism, as the cause. Denton offered staff who disagreed with the actions a buyout option, which was accepted by staff including features editor Leah Finnegan and senior editor and writer Caity Weaver. Denton defended the story's writer, Sargent, who remained in his job.


title: Gawker

text: According to "The Daily Beast", "a source familiar with the situation said "Gawker" ultimately paid the subject of the offending article a tidy undisclosed sum in order to avoid another lawsuit." Gawker Media President and General Counsel Heather Dietrick declined to confirm or deny there was a settlement.


title: Gawker

text: On June 10, 2016, Gawker Media and its associated subsidiaries Gawker Sales, Gawker Entertainment, Gawker Technology and Blogwire filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Southern District of New York, following the loss of the Hogan lawsuit. CNBC also reported that Gawker Media would be put up for auction following the bankruptcy filing.


title: Gawker

text: On August 18, 2016, Gawker Media announced that its flagship blog, gawker.com, would be ceasing operations the following week. Univision continues to operate Gawker Media's six other websites - "Deadspin", "Gizmodo", "Jalopnik", "Jezebel", "Kotaku "and "Lifehacker". On August 22, 2016, Nick Denton wrote the final article for "Gawker", titled "How Things Work".


title: Gawker

text: On March 14, 2006, "Gawker" launched Gawker Stalker Maps, a mashup of the site's Gawker Stalker feature and Google Maps. After this, Gawker Stalker—originally a weekly roundup of celebrity sightings in New York City submitted by Gawker readers—was frequently updated, and the sightings are displayed on a map. The feature sparked criticism from celebrities and publicists for encouraging stalking. Actor and director George Clooney's representative Stan Rosenfeld described Gawker Stalker as "a dangerous thing". Jessica Coen said that the map is harmless, that "Gawker" readers are "for the most part, a very educated, well-meaning bunch", and that "if there is someone really intending to do a celebrity harm, there are much better ways to go about doing that than looking at the Gawker Stalker".


title: Gawker

text: On April 6, 2007, Emily Gould appeared on an edition of "Larry King Live" hosted by talk show host Jimmy Kimmel during a panel discussion titled "Paparazzi: Do They Go Too Far?" and was asked about the Gawker Stalker. Kimmel accused the site of potentially assisting real stalkers, adding that Gould and her website could ultimately be responsible for someone's death. Kimmel continued to claim a lack of veracity in "Gawker" published stories, and the potential for libel it presents. At the end of the exchange Gould said that she didn't "think it was OK" for websites to publish false information, after which Kimmel said she should "check your website then."


title: Gawker

text: On January 15, 2008, "Gawker" mirrored the Scientology video featuring Tom Cruise from the recently removed posting on YouTube. They soon posted a copyright infringement notice written by lawyers for Scientology. By July 2009, the video had not been removed and no lawsuit was filed.


title: Gawker

text: On September 17, 2008, in reporting that pranksters associated with 4chan had hacked the personal e-mail account of Alaska Governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, "Gawker" published screenshots of the emails, photos, and address list obtained by the hackers. While accessing personal e-mail accounts without authorization constitutes a federal crime, current DOJ interpretation of this statute following the decision in "Theofel v. Farey-Jones" is that perpetrators may be prosecuted only for reading "unopened" emails. FBI Spokesman Eric Gonzalez in Anchorage, Alaska, confirmed that an investigation was underway.


title: Gawker

text: On October 28, 2010, "Gawker" posted an anonymous post entitled "I Had a One-Night Stand with Christine O'Donnell". The piece discussed an alleged sexual encounter with O'Donnell, the Republican nominee in the 2010 Senate special election in Delaware. However, according to the writer, O'Donnell only slept naked with the anonymous writer and did not have sex with him. The National Organization for Women condemned the piece as "slut-shaming". NOW's president, Terry O'Neill, stated, "It operates as public sexual harassment. And like all sexual harassment, it targets not only O'Donnell, but all women contemplating stepping into the public sphere." "Salon's" Justin Elliott criticized the "ad hominem" nature of the article, tweeting "Today, we are all Christine O'Donnell." "Gawker.com" reportedly paid in the "low four figures" for the story. Denton defended it, praising its "brilliant packaging".


title: Gawker

text: In February 2011, "Gawker" posted an email exchange between United States Congressman Chris Lee and a woman he had met through a personal ad on Craigslist. The emails included the married Lee describing himself as a divorced lobbyist and a photo of him posing shirtless. Lee resigned his Congressional seat within hours of "Gawker"'s story.


title: Gawker

text: On December 11, 2010, "Gawker" and "Gizmodo" were hacked by a group named Gnosis. The hackers gained root access to the Linux-based servers, access to the source code, access to "Gawker"'s custom CMS, databases (including writer and user passwords), Google Apps, and real-time chat logs from "Gawker"'s Campfire instance, in addition to the Twitter accounts of Nick Denton and Gizmodo. The hacker group stated that they went after "Gawker" for their "outright arrogance" and for a previous feud between "Gawker" and 4chan. "Gawker" asked all its users to change their passwords and posted an advisory notice as well.


title: Gawker

text: The following day, a database dump of user credentials, chat logs, and source code of the "Gawker" website was made available on The Pirate Bay, among other BitTorrent trackers.


title: Gawker

text: On October 12, 2012, Adrian Chen posted an article identifying Reddit moderator Violentacrez as Michael Brutsch. In the days prior to publication of the story, Reddit's main politics channel, r/politics, and a number of other forums on the site banned "Gawker" links from their page; at one point, "Gawker" was banned from all of Reddit. Multiple commentators from "Wired," "CNET" and "The Next Web" questioned the morality behind Brutsch's doxing, and began a debate over whether the exposé encouraged online vigilantism.


title: Gawker

text: "Gawker" was sued by three former interns in 2013 for failing to pay them for producing revenue-generating content. As of February 2016, the case was still ongoing.


title: Canadian Prairies

text: The Canadian Prairies (usually referred to as simply the Prairies in Canada) is a region in Western Canada. It includes the Canadian portion of the Great Plains and the Prairie Provinces, namely Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. These provinces are partially covered by grasslands, plains, and lowlands, mostly in the southern regions. The northernmost reaches of the Canadian Prairies are less dense in population, marked by forests and more variable topography. If the region is defined to include areas only covered by prairie land, the corresponding region is known as the Interior Plains. Physical or ecological aspects of the Canadian Prairies extend to northeastern British Columbia, but that area is not included in political use of the term.


title: Canadian Prairies

text: The prairies in Canada are a temperate grassland and shrubland biome within the prairie ecoregion of Canada that consists of northern mixed grasslands in Alberta, Saskatchewan, southern Manitoba, as well as northern short grasslands in southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan. The Prairies Ecozone of Canada includes the northern tall grasslands in southern Manitoba and Aspen parkland, which covers central Alberta, central Saskatchewan, and southern Manitoba. The Prairie starts from north of Edmonton and it covers the three provinces in a southward-slanting line east to the Manitoba-Minnesota border. Alberta has the most land classified as prairie, while Manitoba has the least, as the boreal forest begins more southerly in Manitoba than in Alberta.


title: Canadian Prairies

text: The core climate of the Canadian prairie region is defined as a semi-arid climate and is often based upon the Köppen climate classification system. This type of classification encompasses five main climate types, with several categoric subtypes based on the precipitation pattern of the region. The majority of the prairie provinces experience snowy, fully humid continental climates with cool summers, also known as class Dfc on the Köppen climate scale. The southernmost regions of the prairies tend to experience fully humid continental climates with warm summers, Dfb. A trifling section surrounding the Alberta-Saskatchewan border has been classified as Bsk, semi-cold and arid climate.


title: Canadian Prairies

text: Precipitation events in the Canadian prairies are very important to study as these locations make up 80% of the country's agricultural production. On average, 454 mm of precipitation falls on the prairies each year. Out of the three prairie provinces, Saskatchewan obtains the least amount of precipitation annually (395 mm), with Manitoba receiving the most at 486 mm. Most rainfall typically happens in the summer months such as June and July. With the high humidity of the prairies, tornadoes are likely to occur—marking central Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba as high probability areas. Approximately 72% of tornadoes in Canada are seen across the prairies due to the capability of summer thunderstorm precipitation to mechanically mix with the air adjacent to the relatively flat surface of the region.


title: Canadian Prairies

text: Although the Prairie Provinces region is named for the prairies located within Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, the physical geography of the three provinces is quite diverse, consisting of portions of the Canadian Shield, the Western Cordillera and the Canadian Interior Plains. The plains comprise both prairies and forests while, with the exception of freshwater along the Hudson Bay, the shield is predominantly forested.


title: Canadian Prairies

text: Three main grassland types occur in the Canadian prairies: tallgrass prairie, mixed grass prairie, and fescue prairie (or using the WWF terminology, northern tall grasslands, northern mixed grasslands, and northern short grasslands). Each has a unique geographic distribution and characteristic mix of plant species. All but a fraction of one per cent of the tallgrass prairie has been converted to cropland. What remains occurs on the plain centred in the Red River Valley in Manitoba. Mixed prairie is more common and is part of the dry interior plains that extend from Canada south to the U.S. state of Texas.


title: Canadian Prairies

text: More than half of the remaining native grassland in the Canadian prairies is mixed. Though widespread in southern Saskatchewan and southeastern Alberta, because of extensive cattle grazing, it is estimated that only 24% of the original mixed prairie grassland remains. Fescue prairie occurs in the moister regions, occupying the northern extent of the prairies in central and southwestern Alberta and west-central Saskatchewan.


title: Canadian Prairies

text: The southwestern Canadian prairies, supporting brown and black soil types, are semi-arid and highly prone to frequent and severe droughts.


title: Canadian Prairies

text: The zones around the cities of Regina and immediately east of Calgary are also very dry. Most heavy precipitation quickly dissipates by the time it passes Cheadle on its way heading east. In an average year, southern Saskatchewan receives between of precipitation, with the majority falling between April and June. Frost from October to April (and sometimes even early May) limits the growing season for certain crops.


title: Canadian Prairies

text: The eastern section of the Canadian prairies in Manitoba is well watered with several large lakes such as Lake Winnipeg and several large rivers. The area also gets reasonable amounts of precipitation. The middle sections of Alberta and Saskatchewan are also wetter than the south and have better farmland, despite having a shorter frost-free season. The areas around Edmonton and Saskatoon are especially notable as good farmland. Both lie in the northern area of the Palliser's Triangle, and are within aspen parkland a transitional prairie ecozone.


title: Canadian Prairies

text: Further north, the area becomes too cold for most agriculture besides wild rice operations and sheep raising, and it is dominated by boreal forest. The Peace Region in northwestern Alberta is an exception, however. It lies north of the 55th Parallel and is warm and dry enough to support extensive farming. Aspen parkland covers the area; The long daylight hours in this region during the summer are an asset despite having an even shorter growing season than central Alberta. In fact, agriculture plays a major economic role in the Peace Region.


title: Canadian Prairies

text: In the Canada 2011 Census, the Canadian prairie provinces had a population of 5,886,906, consisting of 3,645,257 in Alberta, 1,208,268 in Manitoba, and 1,033,381 in Saskatchewan, up 8.9% from 5,406,908 in 2006. The three provinces have a combined area of , consisting of in Alberta, in Manitoba, and in Saskatchewan.


title: Canadian Prairies

text: Some of the prairie region of Canada has seen rapid growth from a boom in oil production since the mid-20th century.


title: Canadian Prairies

text: According to StatsCanada, the prairie provinces had a population of 5,886,906 in 2011. In 2016, the population had grown by 14.6% to 6,748,280.


title: Canadian Prairies

text: In the mid 20th century, the economy of the prairies exploded, due to the oil boom, and introduced a growth of jobs. The primary industries are agriculture and services. Agriculture consisting of livestock (cattle and sheep), cultivating crops (oats, canola, wheat, barley), and production of oil. Due to the production of oil, the service industry expanded in order to provide for the employees of the oil companies extracting the oil. In the 1950s-1970s, the explosion of oil production increased the worth of Alberta and allowing it to become the "nations richest province" and Canada one of the top petroleum exporters in the world. Edmonton and Calgary drew in a larger population with the increase in jobs in the energy field, which causes the jobs supporting this field to grow as well. It was through the steady economic growth that followed this explosion that the prairies region began to switch from an agriculture-based job sector to one with services included.


title: Canadian Prairies

text: In 2014, the global market for oil fell and led to a recession, impacting the economy dramatically. Alberta still has an oil dominant economy even as the traditional oil wells dry up, there are oil sands further north (i.e. Fort McMurray) that continue to provide jobs to extract, drill and refine the oil. Saskatchewan, in particular, in the early 20th century grew economically due to the Canadian agricultural boom and produce large crops of wheat. It is said to have a "one-crop economy" due to such dependency on this crop alone, but after 1945 the economy took another turn with technological advancements that allowed for the discovery of uranium, oil, and potash.


title: Canadian Prairies

text: The Prairies are distinguished from the rest of Canada by cultural and political traits. The oldest influence on Prairie culture are the First Nations, who have inhabited this region for millennia. This region has the highest proportion of Indigenous people in Canada, outside of the "territories." The first Europeans to see the Prairies were fur traders and explorers from eastern Canada (mainly present-day Quebec) and Great Britain via Hudson Bay. They gave rise to the Métis, working class "children of the fur trade." During their settlement by Europeans, the prairies were settled in distinct ethnic block settlements giving areas distinctively Ukrainian, German, French, or Scandinavian Canadian cultures.


title: Canadian Prairies

text: Some areas also developed cultures around their main economic activity. For example, southern Alberta is renowned for its cowboy culture, which developed when real open range ranching was practiced in the 1880s. Canada's first rodeo, the Raymond Stampede, was established in 1902. These influences are also evident in the music of Canada's Prairie Provinces. This can be attributed partially to the massive influx of American settlers who began to migrate to Alberta (and to a lesser extent, Saskatchewan) in the late 1880s because of the lack of available land in the United States.


title: Canadian Prairies

text: The Prairie Provinces have given rise to the "prairie protest" movements, such as the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919, the first general strike in Canadian history. These political movements (both of the left and right) tend to feed off of well established feelings of Western alienation, and each one represents a distinct challenge to the perceived Central Canadian elite.


title: Canadian Prairies

text: The Prairies continue to have a wide range of political representation. While the Conservative Party of Canada has widespread support throughout the region, the New Democratic Party holds seats at the provincial level in all three provinces, as well as holding seats at the federal level in Alberta and Manitoba. The Liberal Party of Canada presently hold four federal seats in Winnipeg, while the Manitoba Liberal Party holds three seats in Manitoba.


title: Jay Adams

text: Jay J. Adams (February 3, 1961 – August 15, 2014) was an American skateboarder who, as a teen, was the youngest member of the Zephyr Competition Skateboarding Team (Z-Boys). His spontaneous freestyle skateboarding style, inspired by ocean surfing, helped innovate and popularize modern skateboarding. His aggressive vertical tricks make him one of skateboarding's most influential stylists. Adams died of a heart attack on August 15, 2014.


title: Jay Adams

text: Jay Adams was born in a part of Venice, California. He was the only child of Robert Adams and Philaine Romero, and grew up with his mother and his stepfather, Kent Sherwood. He began skating and surfing at the age of four. Sherwood worked at Dave Sweet's Surf Shop under Pacific Ocean Park, where Adams was introduced to skateboarding. Adams' skateboarding was greatly influenced by Larry Bertlemann, a professional surfer known for dragging his hands along the waves as he rode them.


title: Jay Adams

text: In 1974 at age 13, Adams became the youngest member to join the Santa Monica-based Zephyr surf team, known to locals as Dogtown, representing Jeff Ho Surfboards and Zephyr Productions. Fellow Z-Boy Tony Alva said of Adams, "Some kids are born and raised on graham crackers and milk; he was born and raised on surfing and skateboarding."


title: Jay Adams

text: The Z-Boys became a skate team when they heard about the Bahne-Cadillac Del Mar Nationals in 1975. Adams was the first member to enter the competition, held in Del Mar, California, taking second place in the Junior Men's Freestyle. His explosive energy and low, bold, surf-like moves characterized the style of the Z-Boys and contrasted with the traditional style of the era, which was still based around gymnastic-style tricks formulated in the 1960s. Adams' ability to turn near-disasters into never-before-seen feats of style and agility was termed "an athletic stream-of-consciousness" by the 2001 documentary about the team, "Dogtown and Z-Boys".


title: Jay Adams

text: Much of Adams' and the rest of the Zephyr team's fame is due to photo-journalist and writer Craig Stecyk's "Dogtown Chronicles" in the 1975 relaunch of "Skateboarder Magazine". The series of magazine articles chronicled the adventures of the Z-Boys, who rode empty swimming pools in Southern California over a two-year period, laying the foundation for vertical skateboarding. The international reach of Stecyk's Dogtown articles and skateboard-industry sponsorship led to skateboarding becoming a viable profession. By age 15, Adams was one of the first skateboarders shown "catching air" (time spent in the air after launching) above the edge of a swimming pool.


title: Jay Adams

text: The Zephyr team broke up shortly after the Del Mar Nationals. Half the team formed a new team under Adams' stepfather Kent Sherwood, who made the Zephyr boards. Sherwood and Adams created the brand and team EZ-RYDER, which changed its name to Z-Flex six months later. Adams was the face of the brand.


title: Jay Adams

text: During his skateboarding career, Adams was sponsored by Hurley, Nixon, Osiris Shoes, Z-Flex, Tracker Trucks, Vercelli Surfboards, Carver Racks, Abec 11 wheels and Black Flys. Along with Jef Hartsel, Adams would go on to revive EZ-RYDER as EZ Ryder Originalz, custom designing and testing their handcrafted equipment.<ref name="EZ Ryder Originalz - HISTORY / INFO"></ref> He collaborated with Z-Flex, designing boards in the Z-Flex range, most notably the Z-Flex Jay Adams Cruiser Skateboard.


title: Jay Adams

text: According to former Z-Boys teammate Stacy Peralta, Adams "is probably not the greatest skater of all time, but I can say without fear of being wrong that he is clearly the archetype of modern-day skateboarding."


title: Jay Adams

text: Adams is featured prominently in the 2001 Peralta-directed documentary "Dogtown and Z-Boys". "Los Angeles Times" critic Kenneth Turan noted his contribution to the film: ""Dogtown" is at its dramatic best with mini-profiles of its two biggest names, Adams and Tony Alva. The Adams segment especially, which shows the most naturally gifted of the Z-Boys regretful about the bad choices he made in his life, provides the kind of thoughtful introspection this film could have used a lot more of." The documentary won awards at Sundance and an Independent Spirit Award.


title: Jay Adams

text: Adams was portrayed by Emile Hirsch in the 2005 dramatized feature-film account of the Z-Boys origins, "Lords of Dogtown", written by Peralta and directed by Catherine Hardwicke. He was also featured in Joshua Pomer's 2010 surf documentary "The Westsiders".


title: Jay Adams

text: Adams spent time in prisons as he struggled with drug addiction. In 1982, he was convicted of assault following a fight he instigated in Los Angeles which led to the death of Dan Bradbury. Adams served six months in prison for the assault.


title: Jay Adams

text: In the late 1990s, after the murder of his brother, and the death of his mother, father, and grandmother all in the same year, he began using heroin. He was serving two-and-a-half years on drug charges in Hawaii during the production of "Dogtown and Z-Boys" and was released in 2002. The movie brought Adams back into the limelight and led to endorsement deals for him.


title: Jay Adams

text: As of 2005, Adams was drug-free and spoke to children at local schools about his past struggles. Nonetheless, in November 2005, he was arrested and sentenced to four years, after being caught on a wiretap acting as a go-between for a buyer and seller of crystal methamphetamine. He was released to a halfway house on July 8, 2008, for the remainder of his sentence. He completed his probation in January 2014.


title: Jay Adams

text: Adams' first wife was Alisha Adams, with whom he had a daughter, Venice. He also has a son, Seven, with ex-girlfriend Samantha Baglioni.


title: Jay Adams

text: Adams married Tracy Adams in 2011. They most recently resided in San Clemente, California, where Adams was an active member at a local church.


title: Jay Adams

text: Adams died of a heart attack on August 15, 2014. A memorial funeral service was held in honor of Adams at Venice Beach, California, on August 30, 2014. Surfers and skateboarders from across the country showed their respect by taking part in a traditional Hawaiian-style paddle-out tribute. A memorial skate session was held for Adams at the Venice Beach Skatepark by fellow skateboarders Tony Alva and Christian Hosoi.


title: Jay Adams

text: Two Venice-area murals commemorate Adams. One is on the building site of the original Zephyr Skate Shop in Santa Monica. The other is on the surface of Venice Skatepark's bowl, featuring Adams alongside fellow Dogtown skater, the late Shogo Kubo.


title: Saponin

text: Saponins (Latin "sapon", soap + "-in", one of), also selectively referred to as triterpene glycosides, are bitter-tasting usually toxic plant-derived organic chemicals that have a foamy quality when agitated in water. They are widely distributed but found particularly in soapwort (genus Saponaria), a flowering plant, the soapbark tree ("Quillaja saponaria") and soybeans ("Glycine max" L.). They are used in soaps, medicinals, fire extinguishers, speciously as dietary supplements, for synthesis of steroids, and in carbonated beverages (the head on a mug of root beer). Structurally, they are glycosides, sugars bonded to another organic molecule, usually a steroid or triterpene, a steroid building block.


title: Saponin

text: Some examples of these chemicals are glycyrrhizin, licorice flavoring; and quillaia (alt. quillaja), a bark extract used in beverages.


title: Saponin

text: The saponins are a subclass of terpenoids, the largest class of plant extracts. The amphipathic nature of saponins gives them activity as surfactants with potential ability to interact with cell membrane components, such as cholesterol and phospholipids, possibly making saponins useful for development of cosmetics and drugs. Saponins have also been used as adjuvants in development of vaccines, such as Quil A, an extract from the bark of "Quillaja saponaria". This makes them of interest for possible use in subunit vaccines and vaccines directed against intracellular pathogens. In their use as adjuvants for manufacturing vaccines, toxicity associated with sterol complexation remains a concern.


title: Saponin

text: While saponins are promoted commercially as dietary supplements and are used in traditional medicine, there is no high-quality clinical evidence that they have any beneficial effect on human health. Quillaja is toxic when consumed in large amounts, involving possible liver damage, gastric pain, diarrhea, or other adverse effects.


title: Saponin

text: Saponins are used for their effects on ammonia emissions in animal feeding. In the United States, researchers are exploring the use of saponins derived from plants to control invasive worm species, including the jumping worm.


title: Saponin

text: Saponins have hypolipidemic properties as they reduce cholesterol and low density lipoprotein levels and may be helpful in the treatment of dyslipidemia.


title: Saponin

text: Saponins exhibit cytotoxic effect on cancer cells through induction of apoptosis. They also have chemotherapeutic properties as they have mechanisms that control protein expression linked to cell cycle, cancer progression and metastasis.


title: Saponin

text: The antidiabetic effects of saponins have been extensively reported, with saponins being identified as an antidiabetic principle from medicinal plants. Several mechanisms have been proposed for the antidiabetic properties of saponins which include, activation of Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors gamma (PPARγ), activation of Glucose transporter type 4 (Glut4), Activation of adiponectin expression, Activation of PI3K/Akt Pathway, increase in expression of adipsin and activation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK).


title: Saponin

text: The principal historical use of these plants was boiling down to make soap. "Saponaria officinalis" is most suited for this procedure, but other related species also work. The greatest concentration of saponin occurs during flowering, with the most saponin found in the woody stems and roots, but the leaves also contain some.


title: Saponin

text: Saponins have historically been plant-derived, but they have also been isolated from marine organisms such as sea cucumber. They derive their name from the soapwort plant (genus "Saponaria", family Caryophyllaceae), the root of which was used historically as a soap. Saponins are also found in the botanical family Sapindaceae, including its defining genus "Sapindus" (soapberry or soapnut) and the horse chestnut, and in the closely related families Aceraceae (maples) and Hippocastanaceae. It is also found heavily in "Gynostemma pentaphyllum" (Cucurbitaceae) in a form called gypenosides, and ginseng or red ginseng ("Panax", Araliaceae) in a form called ginsenosides. Saponins are also found in the unripe fruit of "Manilkara zapota" (also known as sapodillas), resulting in highly astringent properties. "Nerium oleander" (Apocynaceae), also known as White Oleander, is a source of the potent cardiac toxin oleandrin. Within these families, this class of chemical compounds is found in various parts of the plant: leaves, stems, roots, bulbs, blossom and fruit. Commercial formulations of plant-derived saponins, e.g., from the soap bark tree, "Quillaja saponaria", and those from other sources are available via controlled manufacturing processes, which make them of use as chemical and biomedical reagents. Soyasaponins are a group of structurally complex oleanane-type triterpenoid saponins that include soyasapogenol (aglycone) and oligosaccharide moieties biosynthesized on soybean tissues. Soyasaponins were previously associated to plant-microbe interactions from root exudates and abiotic stresses, as nutritional deficiency.


title: Saponin

text: In plants, saponins may serve as anti-feedants, and to protect the plant against microbes and fungi. Some plant saponins (e.g. from oat and spinach) may enhance nutrient absorption and aid in animal digestion. However, saponins are often bitter to taste, and so can reduce plant palatability (e.g., in livestock feeds), or even imbue them with life-threatening animal toxicity. Some saponins are toxic to cold-blooded organisms and insects at particular concentrations. Further research is needed to define the roles of these natural products in their host organisms, which have been described as "poorly understood" to date.


title: Saponin

text: Most saponins, which readily dissolve in water, are poisonous to fish. Therefore, in ethnobotany, they are known for their use by indigenous people in obtaining aquatic food sources. Since prehistoric times, cultures throughout the world have used fish-killing plants, typically containing saponins, for fishing.


title: Saponin

text: Many of California's Native American tribes traditionally used soaproot, (genus "Chlorogalum") and/or the root of various yucca species, which contain saponin, as a fish poison. They would pulverize the roots, mix with water to generate a foam, then put the suds into a stream. This would kill or incapacitate the fish, which could be gathered easily from the surface of the water. Among the tribes using this technique were the Lassik, the Luiseño, and the Mattole.


title: Saponin

text: The vast heterogeneity of structures underlying this class of compounds makes generalizations difficult; they're a subclass of terpenoids, oxygenated derivatives of terpene hydrocarbons. Terpenes in turn are formally made up of five-carbon isoprene units. (The alternate steroid base is a terpene missing a few carbon atoms.) Derivatives are formed by substituting other groups for some of the hydrogen atoms of the base structure. In the case of most saponins, one of these substituents is a sugar, so the compound is a glycoside of the base molecule.


title: Saponin

text: More specifically, the lipophilic base structure of a saponin can be a triterpene, a steroid (such as spirostanol or furostanol) or a steroidal alkaloid (in which nitrogen atoms replace one or more carbon atoms). Alternatively, the base structure may be an acyclic carbon chain rather than the ring structure typical of steroids. One or two (rarely three) hydrophilic monosaccharide (simple sugar) units bind to the base structure via their hydroxyl (OH) groups. In some cases other substituents are present, such as carbon chains bearing hydroxyl or carboxyl groups. Such chain structures may be 1-11 carbon atoms long, but are usually 2–5 carbons long; the carbon chains themselves may be branched or unbranched.


title: Saponin

text: The most commonly encountered sugars are monosaccharides like glucose and galactose, though a wide variety of sugars occurs naturally. Other kinds of molecules such as organic acids may also attach to the base, by forming esters via their carboxyl (COOH) groups. Of particular note among these are sugar acids such as glucuronic acid and galacturonic acid, which are oxidized forms of glucose and galactose.


title: Mohamed Bouazizi

text: Tarek el-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi (; 29 March 1984 – 4 January 2011) was a street vendor who set himself on fire on 17 December 2010 in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, which became a catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution and the wider Arab Spring against autocratic regimes. His self-immolation was in response to the confiscation of his wares and the harassment and humiliation inflicted on him by a municipal official and her aides.


title: Mohamed Bouazizi

text: Simmering public anger and sporadic violence intensified following Bouazizi's death, leading the then-president of Tunisia, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to step down on 14 January 2011, after 23 years in power. The success of the Tunisian protests inspired protests in several other Arab countries, plus several non-Arab countries. The protests included several men who emulated Bouazizi's act of self-immolation, in an attempt to bring an end to their own autocratic governments. Those men and Bouazizi were hailed by "New York Times" commentators as "heroic martyrs of a new North African and Middle Eastern revolution".


title: Mohamed Bouazizi

text: In 2011, Bouazizi was posthumously awarded the Sakharov Prize jointly along with four others for his and their contributions to "historic changes in the Arab world". The Tunisian government honored him with a postage stamp. "The Times" of the United Kingdom named Bouazizi as "Person of 2011", "The Jerusalem Post"'s Amotz Asa-El named him "Person of the Jewish Year 5771" and "The Protester" was named "Time" 2011 Person of the Year.