title: Cultural imperialism

text: The analysis of cultural imperialism carried out by Edward Said drew principally from a study of the British Empire. According to Danilo Raponi, the cultural imperialism of the British in the 19th century had a much wider effect than only in the British Empire. He writes, "To paraphrase Said, I see cultural imperialism as a complex cultural hegemony of a country, Great Britain, that in the 19th century had no rivals in terms of its ability to project its power across the world and to influence the cultural, political and commercial affairs of most countries. It is the 'cultural hegemony' of a country whose power to export the most fundamental ideas and concepts at the basis of its understanding of 'civilisation' knew practically no bounds." In this, for example, Raponi includes Italy.


title: Cultural imperialism

text: The New Cambridge Modern History writes about the cultural imperialism of Napoleonic France. Napoleon used the Institut de France "as an instrument for transmuting French universalism into cultural imperialism." Members of the Institute (who included Napoleon), descended upon Egypt in 1798. "Upon arrival they organised themselves into an Institute of Cairo. The Rosetta Stone is their most famous find. The science of Egyptology is their legacy."


title: Cultural imperialism

text: After the First World War, Germans were worried about the extent of French influence in the annexed Rhineland, with the French occupation of the Ruhr Valley in 1923. An early use of the term appeared in an essay by Paul Ruhlmann (as "Peter Hartmann") at that date, entitled "French Cultural Imperialism on the Rhine".


title: Cultural imperialism

text: Keeping in line with the trends of international imperialistic endeavours, the expansion of Canadian and American territory in the 19th century saw cultural imperialism employed as a means of control over indigenous populations. This, when used in conjunction of more traditional forms of ethnic cleansing and genocide in the United States, saw devastating, lasting effects on indigenous communities.


title: Cultural imperialism

text: In 2017 Canada celebrated its 150-year anniversary of the confederating of three British colonies. As Catherine Murton Stoehr points out in "Origins", a publication organised by the history departments of Ohio State University and Miami University, the occasion came with remembrance of Canada's treatment of First Nations people.


title: Cultural imperialism

text: Numerous policies focused on indigenous persons came into effect shortly thereafter. Most notable is the use of residential schools across Canada as a means to remove indigenous persons from their culture and instill in them the beliefs and values of the majorised colonial hegemony. The policies of these schools, as described by Ward Churchill in his book "Kill the Indian, Save the Man", were to forcefully assimilate students who were often removed with force from their families. These schools forbid students from using their native languages and participating in their own cultural practices.


title: Cultural imperialism

text: Residential schools were largely run by Christian churches, operating in conjunction with Christian missions with minimal government oversight.


title: Cultural imperialism

text: The book, "Stolen Lives: The Indigenous peoples of Canada and the Indian Residentials Schools", describes this form of operation:


title: Cultural imperialism

text: In a "The New York Times" op-ed, Gabrielle Scrimshaw describes her grandparents being forced to send her mother to one of these schools or risk imprisonment. After hiding her mother on "school pick up day" so as to avoid sending their daughter to institutions whose abuse was well known at the time (mid-20th century). Scrimshaw's mother was left with limited options for further education she says and is today illiterate as a result.


title: Cultural imperialism

text: Scrimshaw explains "Seven generations of my ancestors went through these schools. Each new family member enrolled meant a compounding of abuse and a steady loss of identity, culture and hope. My mother was the last generation. the experience left her broken, and like so many, she turned to substances to numb these pains."


title: Cultural imperialism

text: A report, republished by CBC News, estimates nearly 6,000 children died in the care of these schools.


title: Cultural imperialism

text: The colonisation of native peoples in North America remains active today despite the closing of the majority of residential schools. This form of cultural imperialism continues in the use of Native Americans as mascots for schools and athletic teams. Jason Edward Black, a professor and chair in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, describes how the use of Native Americans as mascots furthers the colonial attitudes of the 18th and 19th centuries.


title: Cultural imperialism

text: In "Deciphering Pocahontas", Kent Ono and Derek Buescher wrote: "Euro-American culture has made a habit of appropriating, and redefining what is 'distinctive' and constitutive of Native Americans."


title: Cultural imperialism

text: "Cultural imperialism" has also been used in connection with the expansion of German influence under the Nazis in the middle of the twentieth century. Alan Steinweis and Daniel Rogers note that even before the Nazis came to power, "Already in the Weimar Republic, German academic specialists on eastern Europe had contributed through their publications and teaching to the legitimization of German territorial revanchism and cultural imperialism. These scholars operated primarily in the disciplines of history, economics, geography, and literature."


title: Cultural imperialism

text: In the area of music, Michael Kater writes that during the WWII German occupation of France, Hans Rosbaud, a German conductor based by the Nazi regime in Strasbourg, became "at least nominally, a servant of Nazi cultural imperialism directed against the French."


title: Cultural imperialism

text: In Italy during the war, Germany pursued "a European cultural front that gravitates around German culture". The Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels set up the European Union of Writers, "one of Goebbels's most ambitious projects for Nazi cultural hegemony. Presumably a means of gathering authors from Germany, Italy, and the occupied countries to plan the literary life of the new Europe, the union soon emerged as a vehicle of German cultural imperialism."


title: Cultural imperialism

text: For other parts of Europe, Robert Gerwarth, writing about cultural imperialism and Reinhard Heydrich, states that the "Nazis' Germanization project was based on a historically unprecedented programme of racial stock-taking, theft, expulsion and murder." Also, "The full integration of the [Czech] Protectorate into this New Order required the complete Germanization of the Protectorate's cultural life and the eradication of indigenous Czech and Jewish culture."


title: Cultural imperialism

text: The actions by Nazi Germany reflect on the notion of race and culture playing a significant role in imperialism. The idea that there is a distinction between the Germans and the Jews has created the illusion of Germans believing they were superior to the Jewish inferiors, the notion of us/them and self/others.


title: Cultural imperialism

text: Cultural imperialism manifests in the Western world in the form legal system to include commodification and marketing of indigenous resources (example medicinal, spiritual or artistic) and genetic resources (example human DNA).


title: Cultural imperialism

text: The terms "McDonaldization", "Disneyization" and "Cocacolonization" have been coined to describe the spread of Western cultural influence.


title: Cultural imperialism

text: There are many countries affected by the US and their pop-culture. For example, the film industry in Nigeria referred to as "Nollywood" being the second largest as it produces more films annually than the United States, their films are shown across Africa. Another term that describes the spread of Western cultural influence is it is when American culture is promoted through Hollywood films which can culturally affect the viewers of Hollywood films.


title: Spinothalamic tract

text: The spinothalamic tract is a part of the anterolateral system or the ventrolateral system, a sensory pathway to the thalamus. From the ventral posterolateral nucleus in the thalamus, sensory information is relayed upward to the somatosensory cortex of the postcentral gyrus.


title: Spinothalamic tract

text: The spinothalamic tract consists of two adjacent pathways: anterior and lateral. The anterior spinothalamic tract carries information about crude touch. The lateral spinothalamic tract conveys pain and temperature.


title: Spinothalamic tract

text: In the spinal cord, the spinothalamic tract has somatotopic organization. This is the segmental organization of its cervical, thoracic, lumbar, and sacral components, which is arranged from most medial to most lateral respectively.


title: Spinothalamic tract

text: The pathway crosses over (decussates) at the level of the spinal cord, rather than in the brainstem like the dorsal column-medial lemniscus pathway and lateral corticospinal tract. It is one of the three tracts which make up the anterolateral system.


title: Spinothalamic tract

text: The spinothalamic tract, like the dorsal column-medial lemniscus pathway, uses three neurons to convey sensory information from the periphery to conscious level at the cerebral cortex.


title: Spinothalamic tract

text: Pseudounipolar neurons in the dorsal root ganglion have axons that lead from the skin into the dorsal spinal cord where they ascend or descend one or two vertebral levels via Lissauer's tract and then synapse with secondary neurons in either the substantia gelatinosa of Rolando or the nucleus proprius. These secondary neurons are called "tract cells".


title: Spinothalamic tract

text: The axons of the tract cells cross over (decussate) to the other side of the spinal cord via the anterior white commissure, and to the anterolateral corner of the spinal cord (hence the spinothalamic tract being part of the anterolateral system). Decussation usually occurs 1-2 spinal nerve segments above the point of entry. The axons travel up the length of the spinal cord into the brainstem, specifically the rostral ventromedial medulla.


title: Spinothalamic tract

text: Traveling up the brainstem, the tract moves dorsally. The neurons ultimately synapse with third-order neurons in several nuclei of the thalamus—including the medial dorsal, ventral posterior lateral, and ventral posterior medial nuclei. From there, signals go to the cingulate cortex, the primary somatosensory cortex, and insular cortex respectively.


title: Spinothalamic tract

text: The anterior spinothalamic tract, (Latin: "tractus spinothalamicus anterior") or ventral spinothalamic fasciculus situated in the marginal part of the anterior funiculus and intermingled more or less with the vestibulospinal tract, is derived from cells in the posterior column or intermediate gray matter of the opposite side. Aβ fibres carry sensory information pertaining to crude touch from the skin. After entering the spinal cord the first order neurons synapse (in the nucleus proprius), and the second order neurons decussate via the anterior white commissure. These second order neurons ascend synapsing in the VPL of the thalamus. Incoming first order neurons can ascend or descend via the Lissauer tract.


title: Spinothalamic tract

text: This is a somewhat doubtful fasciculus and its fibers are supposed to end in the thalamus and to conduct certain of the touch impulses. More specifically, its fibers convey crude touch information to the VPL (ventral posterolateral nucleus) part of the thalamus.


title: Spinothalamic tract

text: The fibers of the anterior spinothalamic tract conduct information about pressure and crude touch (protopathic). The fine touch (epicritic) is conducted by fibers of the medial lemniscus. The medial lemniscus is formed by the axons of the neurons of the gracilis and cuneatus nuclei of the medulla oblongata which receive information about light touch, vibration and conscient proprioception from the gracilis and cuneatus fasciculus of the spinal cord. This fasciculus receive the axons of the first order neuron which is located in the dorsal root ganglion that receives afferent fibers from receptors in the skin, muscles and joints.


title: Spinothalamic tract

text: The lateral spinothalamic tract (or lateral spinothalamic fasciculus), is a bundle of afferent nerve fibers ascending through the white matter of the spinal cord, in the spinothalamic tract, carrying sensory information to the brain. It carries pain, and temperature sensory information (protopathic sensation) to the thalamus. It is composed primarily of fast-conducting, sparsely myelinated A delta fibers and slow-conducting, unmyelinated C fibers. These are secondary sensory neurons which have already synapsed with the primary sensory neurons of the peripheral nervous system in the posterior horn of the spinal cord (one of the three grey columns).


title: Spinothalamic tract

text: Together with the anterior spinothalamic tract, the lateral spinothalamic tract is sometimes termed the "secondary sensory fasciculus" or "spinal lemniscus".


title: Spinothalamic tract

text: The neurons of the lateral spinothalamic tract originate in the spinal dorsal root ganglia. They project peripheral processes to the tissues in the form of free nerve endings which are sensitive to molecules indicative of cell damage. The central processes enter the spinal cord in an area at the back of the posterior horn known as the posterolateral tract. Here, the processes ascend approximately two levels before synapsing on second-order neurons. These secondary neurons are situated in the posterior horn, specifically in the Rexed laminae regions I, IV, V and VI. Region II is primarily composed of Golgi II interneurons, which are primarily for the modulation of pain, and largely project to secondary neurons in regions I and V. Secondary neurons from regions I and V decussate across the anterior white commissure and ascend in the (now contralateral) lateral spinothalamic tract. These fibers will ascend through the brainstem, including the medulla oblongata, pons and midbrain, as the spinal lemniscus until synapsing in the ventroposteriorlateral (VPL) nucleus of the thalamus. The third order neurons in the thalamus will then project through the internal capsule and corona radiata to various regions of the cortex, primarily the main somatosensory cortex, Brodmann areas 3, 1, and 2.


title: Spinothalamic tract

text: The types of sensory information means that the sensation is accompanied by a compulsion to act. For instance, an itch is accompanied by a need to scratch, and a painful stimulus makes us want to withdraw from the pain.


title: Spinothalamic tract

text: In the nervous system, the anterolateral system is an ascending pathway that conveys pain, temperature (protopathic sensation), and crude touch from the periphery to the brain. It comprises three main pathways:


title: Spinothalamic tract

text: In contrast to the axons of second-order neurons in dorsal column-medial lemniscus pathway, the axons of second-order neurons in the spinothalamic tracts cross at every segmental level in the spinal cord. This fact aids in determining whether a lesion is in the brain or the spinal cord. With lesions in the brain stem or higher, deficits of pain perception, touch sensation, and proprioception are all contralateral to the lesion. With spinal cord lesions, however, the deficit in pain perception is contralateral to the lesion, whereas the other deficits are ipsilateral. See Brown-Séquard syndrome.


title: Spinothalamic tract

text: Unilateral lesions usually cause contralateral anaesthesia (loss of pain and temperature). Anaesthesia will normally begin 1-2 segments below the level of lesion, due to the sensory fibers being carried by dorsal-lateral tract of Lissauer up several levels upon entry into the spinal cord, and will affect all caudal body areas. This is clinically tested by using pin pricks.


title: Sad!

text: "Sad!" (stylized in all-caps) is a song by American rapper and singer XXXTentacion from his second studio album, "?" (2018). It was released as the lead single from the album on March 2, 2018. The track was produced by John Cunningham, and written by XXXTentacion. The song is XXXTentacion's highest charting in the United States, peaking at number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100 following his death on June 18, 2018. The song has also amassed more than 1.8 billion streams on Spotify, being one of the most streamed songs on the platform. The song remains X's biggest and arguably most popular hit song to date.


title: Sad!

text: The song discusses X's experiences with depression and romantic turmoil, as well as his personal regrets about his past.


title: Sad!

text: A music video for the song was released on June 28, via his YouTube channel. On August 13, 2021, the single was certified Diamond by the RIAA in the US, The song has since come to be regarded as XXXTentacion's signature song.


title: Sad!

text: XXXTentacion began working with the producer for "SAD!", John Cunningham, in January 2018 after a preview of an acoustic song was uploaded to X's Instagram page showing Cunningham playing the guitar whilst X sung. On January 11, 2018, X uploaded a gaming video to his YouTube channel showing him playing the popular video game, "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds". The intro to the video was a preview for "SAD!" and X further previewed the song a month later in a video on February 4, 2018, using it for his intro, after speculation the song was titled "SAD n Low" following a mass amount of snippets uploaded to YouTube. X went on to preview the song one more time in a YouTube video before its official release a few days later.


title: Sad!

text: On March 1, 2018, X announced he was releasing two songs from his upcoming album "?", saying on Instagram "Dropping two songs from my album tonight at 12:00 am est, play them more times than you can count." "SAD!" was released on March 2, 2018, on Spotify, Deezer, iTunes/Apple Music and Tidal alongside "Changes".


title: Sad!

text: "HotNewHipHop" compared "SAD!" to the singles on X's debut album, "17" due to its emo hip hop aesthetic, saying "Once again, the young Floridian is veering into emo territory — with a lo-fi synth string loop and crisp percussion, the melodic ballad showcases X's ear for melody." XXL noted how the "upbeat instrumental" varied from the lyrics that shown XXX "struggling with depression and suicide over an ex-lover." "Rap-Up" also pointed out the "emo-melodies" that surround the track and spoke on the theme of suicidal thoughts over an ill-fated romance. The song has also amassed more than 1.5 billion streams on Spotify, being one of the most streamed songs on the platform.


title: Sad!

text: On May 10, 2018, "Billboard" reported that the song was removed from Spotify playlists after their newly enacted hate "hateful conduct policy" came into effect. Six days after the playlist removal, the song's streams dropped 17 percent per day in the United States on average. The decision to remove X's music from curated playlists was later reversed after Top Dawg Entertainment CEO Anthony Tiffith and rapper Kendrick Lamar threatened to remove their music from the service if X's music was not reinstated.


title: Sad!

text: In the United States, "SAD!" debuted at number 17 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in the week beginning March 12, 2018, becoming XXXTentacion's highest debuting and highest-charting song in the country, gaining 66 million streams in 12 days. The song later rose to number seven, making "SAD!" XXXTentacion's first top ten entry in the US.


title: Sad!

text: In the United Kingdom, "SAD!" was at number 33 by the midweek, becoming X's highest-charting song in the country next to "Jocelyn Flores", which peaked at 39, and his second top 40 entry. The song officially debuted at number 26, becoming XXXTentacion's first top 30 hit in the country. "SAD!" reached the top 10 in Sweden, Australia, and New Zealand. It also reached the top 20 in Ireland, and the top 40 in Norway.


title: Sad!

text: "SAD!" broke numerous commercial performance records following XXXTentacion's death. It amassed 10.4 million streams on Spotify on June 19, 2018, breaking the single-day record for streams on the platform.


title: Sad!

text: It jumped from number 52 to number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100 on the week beginning June 25, 2018. This made him the first act to earn a posthumous Hot 100 number-one single as a lead artist since The Notorious B.I.G. with "Mo Money Mo Problems" in 1997, and overall, the ninth artist to have topped the chart posthumously. "SAD!" official audio reached one billion YouTube views on January 14, 2021.


title: Sad!

text: The music video for Onfroy's "SAD!" premiered one day after his memorial service at the BB&T Center on June 28, 2018. The video was written and "creative directed" by Onfroy himself, and directed by JMP. In the video, an older X attends the funeral of his younger self, which has his older split dye yellow-black hair, the same hairstyle that was present in X's famous mugshot after being arrested on domestic violence charges. When X approaches the casket to look at his younger self, the younger X suddenly returns to life. The two begin fighting in the church and out in the alley. Before, during, and after the fight, a dark hooded figure speaks to X, asking various questions and advocating for a way of thinking centered on love rather than hate and for X to realize that his biggest enemy in his life has been himself. X defeats his younger self and leaves him lying on the ground in a completely white location. A piece of paper appears on the screen that reads, "People change, things change, and so did I." The video concludes with the words "LONG LIVE PRINCE X". The video has over 153 million views across YouTube as of January 2022. The audio has over 1.1 Billion views as of January 2022, making it his most popular YouTube video.


title: Streets of Rage

text: Streets of Rage is a series of side-scrolling beat 'em up video games, centering on the efforts of several ex-police vigilantes trying to rid a fictional, large American city from a crime syndicate that has corrupted its local government. The first three games in the franchise were developed and published by Sega for the Sega Genesis in the early 1990s and have since been ported and re-released on various platforms. In 2011, a free to download fan version entitled "Streets of Rage Remake", which combined all three games plus the American and Japanese versions together, along with featuring some unique exclusives to the game was released by Bomber Games (stylized as BoMbErGaMeS). SEGA's legal team immediately issued a cease and desist on this, thus putting a stop to any future releases of the fangame. A fourth entry was released in 2020.


title: Streets of Rage

text: The games were well-received and have been re-released many times both on compilations and as standalone games. The electronic dance music soundtracks of the games, scored primarily by Yuzo Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima, have also received praise.


title: Streets of Rage

text: Three games in the series were released between 1991 and 1994. The first entry, "Streets of Rage", introduced the four main characters, three young former police officers known as Axel, Blaze and Adam and Mr. X, an evil mastermind. It is the only game in the series to feature a "Shinobi"-style special attack that defeats all non-boss enemies on-screen. "Streets of Rage" was supported by Sega's Mega Drive/Genesis, Master System and Game Gear consoles.


title: Streets of Rage

text: The second entry in the series, "Streets of Rage 2", had new music (influenced by early '90s club music) from series composer Yuzo Koshiro and newcomer composer Motohiro Kawashima, more defined graphics and a larger selection of moves. It also introduced two new characters: Eddie "Skate" Hunter, and Max Thunder (or Sammy "Skate" Hunter and Max Hatchett in some regions). Like the original title, "Streets of Rage 2" was playable on Sega's Genesis, Master System, and Game Gear.


title: Streets of Rage

text: The third entry to the "Streets of Rage" series, "Streets of Rage 3", was less well-received than its predecessors; despite some enhancements, it was seen as very similar to "Streets of Rage 2". This entry added a more complex storyline told using cutscenes. The Western version featured increased difficulty, with other elements altered or censored from the Japanese release. The music, again composed by Koshiro and Kawashima, was also criticized for being radically different from the music from the first two games. Unlike the two preceding games, "Streets of Rage 3" was available only on the Genesis.


title: Streets of Rage

text: Although it was one of the most popular Sega franchises in the 1990s, no new official "Streets of Rage" games were released for over 25 years after "Streets of Rage 3", excluding rereleases of the first three games via various Sega game compilations.


title: Streets of Rage

text: Sega is reported to have attempted to bring the series to the Saturn, and early in the production cycle for Sega's Dreamcast a demo tentatively titled "Streets of Rage 4" was made by Ancient. It showed a character similar to Axel fighting a group of enemies. Neither the Saturn nor the Dreamcast game, however, came to fruition. Backbone Entertainment later pitched a new "Streets of Rage" game to Sega, but this project also failed to proceed.


title: Streets of Rage

text: Numerous unofficial fan-made projects and remakes have been developed, including "Beats of Rage" and "Streets of Rage Remake".


title: Streets of Rage

text: The 2015 crossover game "Project X Zone 2" featured Axel Stone as a playable character, along with the Mr. X-possessed Robot Axel as a boss character. This marked the first new appearance of "Streets of Rage" characters in over 20 years.


title: Streets of Rage

text: The first new entry in the series since the Genesis, "Streets of Rage 4", was announced in 2018 and released in 2020, taking place ten years after the events of "Streets of Rage 3". The game was developed by Lizardcube, Guard Crush Games, and Dotemu, who previously released the of "".


title: Streets of Rage

text: A spin-off minigame based on the "Yakuza" series, "Streets of Kamurocho", was released as part of Sega's 60th anniversary celebration. It was developed by Empty Clip Studios and was only available for Windows via Steam on October 17–19, 2020.


title: Streets of Rage

text: Three six-part comic strip series based upon the games appeared in "Sonic the Comic" in the early 1990s (along with several other adaptations of popular Sega franchises). The first two of these were written by Mark Millar, while the third (and a Poster Mag story) was written by Nigel Kitching. These three stories are an alternate continuity from the games and do not feature Adam. A graphic novel compilation of the original four-part "Streets of Rage" strip was released as a book titled "Streets of Rage: Bad City Fighters" in the UK in 1994.


title: Streets of Rage

text: The first story, entitled simply "Streets of Rage", involved Axel, Blaze, and Max quitting the highly corrupt police force in order to do more good as vigilantes, taking down Max's ex-partner; the crime lord and martial artist Hawk. The next serial, "Skates' Story", introduced Skates, delinquent stepson of Murphy, a friend of Axel and his team and one of the few honest cops left on the force, who was unwillingly drawn into joining Axel's group after his stepfather was killed by Mr. X. The third and final story, "The Only Game In Town", involved the Syndicate unleashing an army of street gangs. The Poster Mag story "The Facts of Life" features Axel, Blaze, Skate, and Max.


title: Streets of Rage

text: The game's soundtrack was acclaimed, with several soundtrack albums being released. The soundtracks were composed by Yuzo Koshiro. Another musician, Motohiro Kawashima, helped on the second, providing a few tracks, and making almost half of the tracks for the third. Three soundtrack CDs were released in all, each of which now sell for high prices at auction and in Japanese markets.


title: Streets of Rage

text: The soundtracks mainly consist of, often experimental, chiptune-based electronic dance music, encompassing electronic genres such as electro, house, techno, hardcore, jungle, ambient, breakbeat, gabber, noise, and trance. The music was produced using the Yamaha FM-synth sound chips of the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis video game console (YM2612) and NEC PC-88 computer (YM2608), along with Koshiro's own audio programming language "Music Love," a modified version of the PC-88's Music Macro Language (MML).


title: Streets of Rage

text: The soundtracks have been critically acclaimed. They are considered ahead of their time, and as some of the best video game music of all time. "Streets of Rage 2" (1992) in particular is considered revolutionary for its "blend of swaggering house synths," "dirty" electro-funk and "trancey electronic textures that would feel as comfortable in a nightclub as a video game." "Streets of Rage 3" is also considered ahead of its time, for its automatically generated randomized sequences, experimental hardcore "fast-beat techno like jungle" sounds, and trance music elements. The series' soundtracks have influenced a range of chiptune, electronica, grime and dubstep musicians through to the present day, including artists such as Ikonika, BT, Labrinth, Martyn, Joker, Darkstar, Childish Gambino, and Danger.


title: Streets of Rage

text: A "Streets of Rage 2" novella (published together with a "" novella) was written by Mat Yeo in 1993. It is just 35 pages long, based on the second game in the series, and was given away free with copies of "Sega Force" magazine in the United Kingdom.


title: Streets of Rage

text: A feature film and television series based on the series was announced in 2016. The film will be written by Derek Kolstad and produced by dj2 Entertainment and Escape Artists. Lionsgate acquired the rights to the film in November 2022.


title: Michael Welch (actor)

text: Michael Alan Welch (born July 25, 1987) is an American actor. He is best known for the role of Luke Girardi on the television series "Joan of Arcadia" and for the role of Mike Newton in the films "Twilight", "", "" and "".


title: Michael Welch (actor)

text: Welch was born in Los Angeles, California. His father is Protestant and his mother Jewish, and he identifies as Jewish.


title: Michael Welch (actor)

text: Welch is known for his role as the popular Mike Newton in "The Twilight Saga" film series. Although he auditioned for the part of Edward Cullen, he was cast in the role of Mike Newton. He's also well known for his role as Luke Girardi in the television series "Joan of Arcadia", which ran for two seasons (2003–05).


title: Michael Welch (actor)

text: Welch was cast in the series "Z Nation" on Syfy, which began airing in the fall of 2014. He also appeared in the 2014 film "Boy Meets Girl", a romantic comedy which received many awards at LGBT film festivals in the U.S. and internationally.


title: Michael Welch (actor)

text: Welch is the recipient of two Young Artist Awards. His first was for his performance in the film "" at the age of 10. The second was for his work as Luke Girardi on "Joan of Arcadia".


title: Michael Welch (actor)

text: Welch married Marissa Lefton in 2008. The couple separated in 2011, and jointly filed for divorce in California on February 14, 2013. He married model Samantha Maggio in 2016. Welch has two children.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: The political status of Puerto Rico is that of an unincorporated territory of the United States. As such, the island of Puerto Rico is neither a sovereign nation nor a U.S. state. Because of that ambiguity, the territory, as a polity, lacks certain rights but enjoys certain benefits that other polities have or lack. For instance, in contrast to U.S. states, Puerto Rico residents cannot vote in U.S. presidential elections nor can they elect their own senators and representatives to the U.S. Congress. On the other hand, in contrast to U.S. states, only some residents of Puerto Rico are subject to federal income taxes. The political status of the island thus stems from how different Puerto Rico is politically from sovereign nations and from U.S. states.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: The status of the island is the result of various political activities within both the United States and Puerto Rican governments. The United Nations removed it from the list of non-self-governing territories in 1953, but it remains subject to the Territorial Clause of the U.S. Constitution. According to the Insular Cases, Puerto Rico is "a territory appurtenant and belonging to the United States, but not a part of the United States within the revenue clauses of the Constitution".


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: American and Puerto Rican political activities regarding the status question have revolved around three sets of initiatives: presidential executive orders, bills in the U.S. Congress, and referendums held in Puerto Rico. U.S. Presidents have issued three executive orders on the subject, and Congress has considered four major bills on Puerto Rico's political status. Puerto Rican status referendums have been held four times to determine the desired political status of Puerto Rico in relation to the United States of America. None of them have been binding on U.S. Congress.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Internationally, several organizations have called for the U.S. government to expedite the process to allow self-determination in Puerto Rico while considering Puerto Rico a Caribbean nation with its own national identity. For instance, the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization has called for the United States "to allow the Puerto Rican people to take decisions in a sovereign manner, and to address their urgent economic and social needs, including unemployment, marginalization, insolvency and poverty."


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: The United States acquired the islands of Puerto Rico in 1898 after the Spanish–American War, and the archipelago has been under U.S. sovereignty since. In 1950, Congress enacted legislation (P.L. 81-600) authorizing Puerto Rico to hold a constitutional convention and in 1952, the people of Puerto Rico ratified a constitution establishing a republican form of government for the island. After being approved by Congress and the President in July 1952 and thus given force under federal law (P.L. 82-447), the new constitution went into effect on July 25, 1952.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Puerto Ricans have been U.S. citizens since 1917. After the promulgation of the Commonwealth constitution in 1952, the government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico presented its voters with plebiscites regarding the political status of its body politic in 1967, 1993, and 1998. An additional referendum held in 1991 sought to amend the relationship through an amendment to the Puerto Rican constitution. Each time, the results favored retaining the current status over the possible independence of Puerto Rico and statehood alternatives.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: As a result of Puerto Rico's status as a U.S. territory, the citizens of Puerto Rico do not have any voting representation in the U.S. Federal government. Instead of outright representation through Senators and House Representatives, Puerto Rico has one non-voting Resident Commissioner in the House of Representatives. Furthermore, Puerto Rico is not represented in the Electoral College, and thus U.S. citizens resident there are unable to vote in U.S. presidential elections. Citizens of Puerto Rico can vote in the Republican and Democratic primary elections.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Although Puerto Rico presently has a certain amount of local autonomy, according to the U.S. Constitution ultimate governance of the island is retained by both the U.S. Congress and President.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Thus, results of plebiscites, whether or not authorized by Congress, while they reflect public sentiment, and thus bear some impact, can be ignored by Congress. Ultimately, the results of Puerto Rican plebiscites are opinions, although congressional resolutions have expressed support for following the will of the Puerto Rican people.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: The definition of the term "commonwealth" as per current U.S. State Department policy (as codified in the department's Foreign Affairs Manual) reads: "The term 'Commonwealth' does not describe or provide for any specific political status or relationship. It has, for example, been applied to both states and territories. When used in connection with areas under U.S. sovereignty that are not states, the term broadly describes an area that is self-governing under a constitution of its adoption and whose right of self-government will not be unilaterally withdrawn by Congress."


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Juan R. Torruella, a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (which has jurisdiction over the Federal Court for the District of Puerto Rico), states that the use of the term "commonwealth" is a label that "can deceive and obscure the true nature of things". He states that Puerto Rico is obviously not a state, and that "neither Puerto Rico's status nor its relationship with the U.S. supports any legitimate claim that a British type of 'commonwealth' exists between Puerto Rico and the United States".


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Then U.S. Secretary of the Interior Oscar L. Chapman, under whose Department resided responsibility of Puerto Rican affairs, clarified the new commonwealth label by stating, "The bill (to permit Puerto Rico to write its own constitution) merely authorizes the people of Puerto Rico to adopt their own constitution and to organize a local government. ... The bill under consideration would not change Puerto Rico's political, social, and economic relationship to the United States."


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: It has been said that "any inquiry into Puerto Rico's status must begin with the Constitution of the United States, as well as various Supreme Court and lower court decisions".


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Almost immediately after Puerto Rico was ceded to the United States, Puerto Rico's political status was defined by a series of landmark decisions made by the U.S. Supreme Court in what are collectively known as "The Insular Cases". From 1901 to 1905, the Supreme Court held that the Constitution extended "ex proprio vigore" to the territories. However, the Court in these cases also established the doctrine of territorial incorporation. Under the same, the Constitution only applied fully in incorporated territories such as Alaska and Hawaii, whereas it only applied partially in the new unincorporated territories of Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines. Although other cases followed, strictly speaking the Insular Cases are the original six opinions issued concerning acquired territories as a result of the Treaty of Paris (1898). The six cases were:


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Other authorities, such as José Trías Monge, state that the list also includes these additional two cases:


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: The Supreme Court later made other rulings. For example, in "Balzac v. Porto Rico", 258 U.S. 298, 305 (1922), explained the distinction between an incorporated and a non-incorporated territory. Juan R. Torruella restated it this way, "an unincorporated territory is a territory as to which, when acquired by the United States, no clear intention was expressed that it would eventually be incorporated into the Union as a State".


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Since the Insular Cases had established that only those rights in the U.S. Bill of Rights that are determined to be "fundamental" are applicable in unincorporated territories, the implications of "Balzac v. Porto Rico" have been enormous. For example:


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: In a brief concurrence in the United States Supreme Court judgment of "Torres v. Puerto Rico", , Supreme Court Justice Brennan, argued that any implicit limits from the Insular Cases on the basic rights granted by the Constitution (including especially the Bill of Rights) were anachronistic in the 1970s.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Puerto Rico's current political status limits the autonomy of the Puerto Rican government. For example, the Island's government is not fully autonomous, and a degree of federal presence in the Island is commonplace, including a branch of the United States Federal District Court.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: People born in Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens by birth, but that citizenship is protected only by an Act of the US Congress rather than by the U.S. Constitution, with the implication that the U.S. Congress can unilaterally revoke the American citizenship of those born there, either individually or collectively. Puerto Ricans are also covered by a group of "fundamental civil rights" but, because Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory, they are not covered by the full Bill of Rights. All residents must pay federal taxes but, for a variety of reasons, only some pay federal income taxes.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Puerto Ricans lack a voting representative in the U.S. Congress, but they do have a Resident Commissioner who has a voice in Congress (but no vote other than committee-level voting). Puerto Ricans must also serve in the United States military whenever it is compulsory in the mainland United States, with the same duties and obligations as U.S. citizens residing in the 50 states.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Puerto Rico's main political issue is the territory's relationship with the United States. A United States territory since 1898, and known as ""Estado Libre Asociado"" (Free Associated State) or as commonwealth since 1952, Puerto Rico today is torn by profound ideological rifts, as represented by its political parties, which stand for three distinct future political scenarios: the status quo (commonwealth), statehood, and independence. The Popular Democratic Party (PPD) seeks to maintain or improve the current status toward becoming a more sovereign territory of the United States, the New Progressive Party (PNP) seeks to fully incorporate Puerto Rico as a U.S. state, and the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) seeks national independence.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: When asked, in non-binding plebiscites, to choose between independence, statehood, or continuation of the status quo with enhanced powers, as proposed by the PPD, Puerto Ricans have voted to remain a commonwealth. In the penultimate plebiscite in 1998, Puerto Ricans voted for "none of the above" by a slight majority. While 50.3% of them voted for the status quo, it has been asserted that "the oldest strategy for governing recalcitrant subjects—divide and conquer—was subtly at work."


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: The issue is debated and is on the agenda of all the political parties and civil society groups. Several pro-commonwealth leaders within the PPD are proposing an Associated Republic or Free Association similar to that of the former U.S. territories of the Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands or Palau.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: In general, three main alternatives were presented to Puerto Rican voters in status plebiscites: full independence, maintenance or enhancement of the current commonwealth status, and U.S. statehood. The exact expectations for each of these status formulas are a matter of debate by a given position's adherents and detractors. Puerto Ricans have proposed positions that modify the alternatives above: indemnified independence with phased-out U.S. subsidy, expanded political but not fiscal autonomy, statehood with a gradual phasing out of industrial federal tax incentives.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: In 1967 and 1993, Commonwealth (the name listed for current territorial status) won. In another plebiscite held on November 6, 2012, 54% of respondents voted to reject the current status under the territorial clause of the U.S. Constitution. In a second question, 61% favored statehood as the preferred alternative; however, when blank ballots were counted, statehood support dropped to 45%. Another referendum was held on June 11, 2017, in which voters had three options: "Statehood", "Free Association/Independence" or "Current Territorial Status". While 97% of voters chose "Statehood", turnout was only 23% (the lowest in history) due to a boycott from pro-Independence and pro-Commonwealth supporters. The latest referendum was held on November 3, 2020, during the general election. The voters were asked, “Should Puerto Rico be admitted immediately into the Union as State?”. The “Yes” option received 52.52% of the vote. The “No” option received 47.48% and turnout was at 54.72%.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: In the 2012 Puerto Rican status referendum, 54.0% of voters indicated "No" to maintaining the current political status. A full 61.1% of voters chose statehood, 33.3% chose free association, and 5.6% chose independence. Because there were almost 500,000 blank ballots, creating confusion as to the voters' true desire, Congress decided to ignore the vote. The 2014 budget bill included $2.5 million in funding for a future vote on Puerto Rico's political status.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: The previous plebiscites provided voters with three options: remain a Commonwealth, Statehood and Independence/Free Association. The Puerto Rican status referendum, 2017 was to offer only two options: Statehood and Independence/Free Association. If the majority favor Independence/Free Association, a second vote will be held to determine the preference: full independence as a nation or associated free state status with independence but with a "free and voluntary political association" between Puerto Rico and the United States. The specifics of the association agreement would be detailed in the Compact of Free Association that would be negotiated between the U.S. and Puerto Rico. That document might cover topics such as the role of the U.S. military in Puerto Rico, the use of the U.S. currency, free trade between the two entities, and whether Puerto Ricans would be U.S. citizens.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Former governor Ricardo Rosselló was strongly in favor of statehood to help develop the economy and help to "solve our 500-year-old colonial dilemma ... Colonialism is not an option ... It’s a civil rights issue ... 3.5 million citizens seeking an absolute democracy," he told the news media.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Statehood might be useful as a means of dealing with the financial crisis, since it would allow for bankruptcy and the relevant protection. According to the Government Development Bank, this might be the only solution to the debt crisis. Congress has the power to vote to allow Chapter 9 protection without the need for statehood, but in late 2015 there was very little support in the House for this concept. Other benefits to statehood include increased disability benefits and Medicaid funding, the right to vote in presidential elections and the higher (federal) minimum wage.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: At approximately the same time as the referendum, Puerto Rico's legislators are also expected to vote on a bill that would allow the Governor to draft a state constitution and hold elections to choose senators and representatives to the federal Congress. Regardless of the outcome of the votes, Congress will be the body to make the final decision on the status of Puerto Rico.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Various U.S. presidents have signed executive orders to help define, study, and generate activity regarding the political status of Puerto Rico. Three major orders were the 2005, 2007, and 2011 executive orders to establish the President's Task Force on Puerto Rico's Status.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: The Territories Clause of the United States Constitution () allows for Congress to "dispose of" Puerto Rico and allow it to become independent of the U.S. (in the same way as the Philippines did in 1945) or, under the authority of the Admissions Clause (Art. IV, Sec. 3, cl. 1) for it to be admitted as a state of the United States (with a vote of Congress in the same way that Alaska and Hawaii were admitted in 1958 and 1959 respectively).


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: It has been asserted that, since Congress must approve of any political status change for Puerto Rico, congressional agreement to the options [on a ballot], "prior" to a plebiscite would save the people of Puerto Rico the grief of an emotionally draining and politically divisive vote that might result in a status not acceptable to Congress. Former Resident Commissioner and Former Governor Carlos Romero Barceló echoed this sentiment when he recalled, at a 1997 congressional hearing, that both "[Representatives] Young and Miller were clear in stating [in their March 3, 1997, letter to the presidents of the three political parties in Puerto Rico] that there was no purpose in presenting the people of Puerto Rico a status definition which does not represent an option that the Congress will be willing to ratify should it be approved in a plebiscite."


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: A catalyst for the legislative activity taking place in Congress was the release in December 2005 of the presidential task force's report. Per "United States v. Sanchez", 992 F.2d 1143, 1152–53 (11th Cir. 1993), "Congress continues to be the ultimate source of power [over Puerto Rico] pursuant to the Territory Clause of the Constitution". (quoting "United States v. Andino", 831 F.2d 1164, 1176 (1st Cir. 1987) (Torruella, J., concurring), cert. denied, 486 U.S. 1034 (1988)), cert. denied, 510 U.S. 11 10 (1994).9 An Act of Congress is therefore ultimately required to modify the current political status of Puerto Rico.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: On June 9, 2016, a 6–2 majority of the United States Supreme Court determined in the case of "Puerto Rico v. Sanchez Valle", that Puerto Rico is a territory and lacks sovereignty. The opinion of the court stated: "Back of the Puerto Rican people and their Constitution, the 'ultimate' source of prosecutorial power remains the U. S. Congress, just as back of a city’s charter lies a state government."


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: The United Nations has intervened in the past to evaluate the legitimacy of Puerto Rico's political status, to ensure that the island's government structure complies with the standards of self-government that constitute the basic tenets of the United Nations Charter, its covenants, and its principles of international law. Some authorities, such as Trias Monge, argue that Puerto Rico "clearly does not meet the decolonization standards set by the United Nations in 1960".


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: During its 8th session, the United Nations General Assembly recognized Puerto Rico's self-government on November 27, 1953, with Resolution 748 (VIII). (UN Resolution "748 (VIII)", adopted on November 27, 1953, during its 459th Plenary Meeting.) This removed Puerto Rico's classification as a non-self-governing territory (under article 73(e) of the Charter of the United Nations). The resolution passed, garnering a favorable vote from some 40% of the General Assembly, with over 60% abstaining or voting against it (20 to 16, plus 18 abstentions). Today, however, the UN "still debates whether Puerto Rico is a colony" or not.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: However, Puerto Rico's political status is still debated in many international forums, possibly in part because of the circumstances surrounding the vote: "Under United States pressure, General Assembly Resolution 748 passed—though only narrowly and with many countries abstaining. The debate over Resolution 748 prompted the United Nations to agree on governing arrangements that would provide full self-government to non-self-governing territories: in United States terms, these arrangements were statehood, independence, and free association. Yet, under international law, a freely associated state is "a sovereign nation in a joint governing arrangement with another nation that either nation can unilaterally end."" Though the subject continues to be debated in many forums it is clear that (1) the current territorial status has not satisfied Puerto Rican political leaders, and (2) that despite the divergent views that Puerto Ricans have with respect to their preferred political status, 'all factions agree on the need to end the present undemocratic arrangement whereby Puerto Rico is subject to the laws of Congress but cannot vote in it.'


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: The list of factors for determining when a colony has achieved a full measure of self-government appears in Resolution 1541 (XV) of the General Assembly of the United Nations, 15 UN GAOR Supplement (No. 16) at 29, UN Document A/4684 (1960).


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: The General Assembly did not apply its full list of criteria to Puerto Rico for determining whether or not self-governing status had been achieved. The UN's Committee on Non-Self-Governing States recently unanimously agreed to ask the General Assembly to take up the issue of Puerto Rico. In June 2007, the Puerto Rico Senate approved a Concurrent Resolution urging the UN General Assembly to discuss Puerto Rico's case.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Starting in 1971, "Cuba introduced annual resolutions on the issue in the UN's Decolonization Committee but the United States has blocked General Assembly action and stopped cooperating with the Decolonization Committee. On August 23, 1973, the United States vigorously opposed that members of Puerto Rico's independence movement be allowed to speak at the UN. The U.S. position has not been that Puerto Rico is not a territory; rather, the U.S. position of record, based on General Assembly Resolution 748, is that the Decolonization Committee lacks jurisdiction, that the matter is one for the United States and Puerto Rico to resolve, and that Puerto Rico has not sought a new status."


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: In 1972, the UN set a precedent when, after approving Puerto Rico's association with the United States in 1953 as sufficient evidence to remove PR from the list of Colonized Countries, the United Nations reopened the matter in 1972 and it is still under review. "Failure [of the United States] to include independence as an option and harassment of [Puerto Rican] pro-independence organizations were reasons for the United Nations' recent reconsideration of the status of Puerto Rico".


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Since 1972, the Decolonization Committee has called for Puerto Rico's decolonization and for the United States to recognize the island's right to self-determination and independence. Most recently, the Decolonization Committee called for the General Assembly to review the political status of Puerto Rico, a power reserved by the 1953 resolution.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: In 1993, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit stated that Congress may unilaterally repeal the Puerto Rican Constitution or the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950 and replace them with any rules or regulations of its choice. In a 1996 report on a Puerto Rico status political bill, the U.S. House Committee on Resources stated, "Puerto Rico's current status does not meet the criteria for any of the options for full self-government under Resolution 1541" (the three established forms of full self-government being stated in the report as (1) national independence, (2) free association based on separate sovereignty, or (3) full integration with another nation on the basis of equality). The report concluded that Puerto Rico "remains an unincorporated territory and does not have the status of 'free association' with the United States as that status is defined under United States law or international practice", and that the establishment of local self-government with the consent of the people can be unilaterally revoked by the U.S. Congress. The application of the U.S. Constitution applies partially to Puerto Rico by the Insular Cases.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Since 1953, the UN has been considering the political status of Puerto Rico and how to assist it in achieving "independence" or "decolonization". In 1978, the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization determined that a "colonial relationship" existed between the U.S. and Puerto Rico.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: The United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization has often referred to Puerto Rico as a nation in its reports, because, internationally, the people of Puerto Rico are often considered to be a Caribbean nation with their own national identity.<ref name="United Nations. General Assembly. Special Committee on the Situation With Regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples 1971 https://books.google.com/books?id=4nEyLDpKZjMC&pg=PA10 10–11"></ref> In a June 2016 report, the Special Committee called for the United States to expedite the process to allow self-determination in Puerto Rico. The group called on the United States to expedite a process that would allow the people of Puerto Rico to exercise fully their right to self-determination and independence. ... [and] allow the Puerto Rican people to take decisions in a sovereign manner and to address their urgent economic and social needs, including unemployment, marginalization, insolvency and poverty".


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Though politically associated with the United States, Puerto Rico is considered by many other nations to have its own distinct national identity. Internationally, it has been reported that "the Fourteenth Ministerial Conference of the Movement of Non-aligned Nations...reaffirms that Puerto Rican people constitute a Latin American and Caribbean nation."


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Although Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States classified as a commonwealth, many Puerto Ricans consider it to be a country in and of itself. In their book on American expansionism titled "The Louisiana Purchase and American Expansion, 1803–1898", Sanford Levinson and Bartholomew H. Sparrow also determined that "Most Puerto Ricans consider themselves a distinct national group." They also observed that both Americans and Puerto Ricans see themselves as separate cultures—"even separate nationalities".


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: At the local level, it has been observed that Puerto Ricans "consider themselves a territorially distinct national unit, a nation defined by its cultural distinctiveness". In recent plebiscites Puerto Ricans have not expressed themselves in favor of a political status with the intention of becoming a sovereign state, but the idea that Puerto Rico is a separate social, political and cultural entity from the United States has been repeatedly expressed.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Both major United States political parties (Democratic and Republican) have expressed their support for the U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico to exercise their right to self-determination, with the Republican Party platform explicitly mentioning support for statehood and the Democratic Party platform expressing explicitly broader support for right to self-determination.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: The U.S.–Puerto Rico relationship is a matter of debate. Some contend that the current political status of Puerto Rico, perhaps with enhancements, remains a viable option. Others argue that commonwealth status is or should be only a temporary fix to be resolved in favor of other solutions considered permanent, non-colonial, and non-territorial. Some contend that if independence is achieved, the close relationship with the United States could be continued through compact negotiations with the federal government. One element apparently shared by all discussants is that the people of Puerto Rico seek to attain full, democratic representation, notably through voting rights on national legislation to which they are subject.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Controversy exists surrounding the "real" political status of Puerto Rico, with some calling it a colony and others disagreeing. Some (especially independentistas and statehooders) claim Puerto Rico is still a colony despite the UN's removing Puerto Rico from its list of non self-governing countries in 1953. Others (notably those who vote for the current commonwealth status option) argue that Puerto Rico is not a colony because the UN has not revoked its resolution after 55 years.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Some authors have called Puerto Rico "the world's oldest colony". (2001) Former chief justice of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court José Trías Monge wrote a book that referred to it as the "oldest colony in the world". Those who argue that Puerto Rico is still a colony insist that despite the UN resolution, Puerto Rico remains what some call a "post-colonial colony". Defenders of this point of view argue that Puerto Rico has less self-determination than before the U.S. invasion—it no longer has its own Puerto Rican citizenship, free maritime control, nor congressional representation as it did in the Spanish Cortes. Trías Monge argues that just prior to the U.S. invasion, Puerto Rico enjoyed greater freedom and rights in certain areas:


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Those who claim Puerto Rico is not a colony will say that in its 8th session, the United Nations General Assembly recognized Puerto Rico's self-government on November 27, 1953, with Resolution 748. This side points out that such recognition removed Puerto Rico's classification as a non-self-governing territory (under article 73(e) of the Charter of the United Nations). They add that the Resolution has not been revoked even though Puerto Rico's political status is still debated in many international forums.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Those who claim Puerto Rico is still a colony argue that Puerto Rico was vested with the commonwealth status by the U.S. Congress to give the appearance of self-government but that genuine decolonization never occurred. These supporters claim that the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1947 allowed the U.S. to continue its colonial policy of Puerto Rico in a post-colonial world. They see the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950 (P.L. 600) as a gimmick to maintain the colonial status of PR "The U.S. Congress, however, carefully preserved its exclusive right to [unilaterally] alter the political status of Puerto Rico. Some saw the commonwealth as at best as temporary arrangement or at worst as a relic of the old colonial past." They also point to the fact that no change in the political status of Puerto Rico is possible unless authorized by the U.S. Congress as proof of the real current status. Rivera Ramos argues that the "deepest question pertains to the source of rights and the source of authority to govern...In the case of [unincorporated] territories, the rights deemed to apply to their people, as well as those denied them, have their source in a constitution they have not approved nor have the power to amend".


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Luis Muñoz Marín and other leaders of the Puerto Rican Popular Democratic Party heve asserted that Puerto Rico is no longer a colony, contending that the advent of the Commonwealth brought about a new, quasi-autonomous structure within the U.S. federal system, putting an end to its territorial status.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Those claiming it is still a colony point to Congress legislating for Puerto Rico, and to bills where text such as those authorizing plebiscites in Puerto Rico (example "to conduct a second plebiscite between the options of (1) independence, (2) national sovereignty in association with the United States, and (3) U.S. statehood. The three options in the plebiscite also correspond to the options that the United Nations has identified as the options for decolonizing a territory." (HR 2499, section 2(c) ) clearly include content to satisfy the United Nations demand for decolonizing a territory. In addition to judicial decisions like the 1993 U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit decision, which stated that Congress may unilaterally repeal the Puerto Rican Constitution or the Puerto Rican Federal Relations Act and replace them with any rules or regulations of its choice.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Some claim that granting of U.S. citizenship on Puerto Ricans on March 2, 1917 was devised by the United States in order to further reiterate its hold of Puerto Rico as a possession while others claim that it was a serious attempt to pave the way for statehood.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Former chief of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court José Trías Monge insists that statehood was never intended for the island and that, unlike Alaska and Hawaii, which Congress deemed incorporated territories and slated for annexation to the Union from the start, Puerto Rico was kept "unincorporated" specifically to avoid offering it statehood. And Myriam Marquez has stated that Puerto Ricans "fear that statehood would strip the people of their national identity, of their distinct culture and language". Ayala and Bernabe add that the "purpose of the inclusion of U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans in the Jones Act of 1917 was an attempt by Congress to block independence and perpetuate Puerto Rico in its colonial status". Proponents of the citizenship clause in the Jones Act argue that "the extension of citizenship did not constitute a promise of statehood but rather an attempt to exclude any consideration of independence".


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: The preamble of the Commonwealth constitution approved by the people of Puerto Rico in 1952 in part reads: "We consider as determining factors in our life our citizenship of the United States of America and our aspiration continually to enrich our democratic heritage in the individual and collective enjoyment of its rights and privileges;


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: For the island's pro-statehood movement, the concession of U.S. citizenship has been seen, ever since, as the key that would eventually guarantee statehood for the island, as soon as the people of Puerto Rico demanded equality in citizenship.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: As former Puerto Rico House of Representatives Speaker Miguel A. García Méndez subsequently declared, "For an American citizen, there cannot be another political goal other than equality with his or her fellow American citizens. To seek other solutions – to repudiate equality – is to repudiate the natural destiny of American citizenship."


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: However, as early as 1912, President William Howard Taft had already said that there was no connection between the extension of citizenship to Puerto Ricans and the prospect of admission of Puerto Rico into the American Union. "I believe the demand for citizenship is just, and amply earned by the sustained loyalty on the part of the inhabitants of the island. But it should be remembered that the demand must be entirely dissociated from any thought of statehood". President Taft's views in 1912 became a Supreme Court opinion when, in 1922, as Chief Justice, Taft wrote the opinion on Balzac, the last of the so-called Insular Cases.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Thus, in the end, U.S. citizenship has had multiple meanings for Puerto Ricans. For some it is a welcome link to the United States, regardless of the political status of the territory. For others, it has been nothing more than an imposed identity by an imperial power. Still others regard it as a useful asset that provides access to certain rights and tangible benefits and opportunities. And there are those that cherish it as a constituent element of their self-image and identity.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Statehood supporters contend that Puerto Rico cannot become a fully independent republic because there will be economic chaos due to insufficient natural resources, especially food.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: According to educational scientists Francesco Cordasco and Eugene Bucchioni, in their 1973 work "The Puerto Rican Experience: a Sociological Sourcebook", the belief that Puerto Rico cannot survive on its own results from teachings since grade school. "Puerto Ricans here and in Puerto Rico are taught three things: Puerto Rico is small and the U.S. is big, Puerto Rico is poor and the U.S. is rich, Puerto Rico is weak and the U.S. is strong." This theory of non-sustainability is not new; it has been held by various groups at least since the 1930s.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Commonwealth partisans argue that Puerto Rico cannot afford statehood, that post-war economic growth in Puerto Rico was the result of special treatment via exemption from Federal corporate taxes. Statehooders respond that such tax exemptions primarily benefit the large industrialists and not the population as a whole since low income Puerto Ricans would not pay taxes.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: An example given by Angel Collado Schwarz, who believes the Island has the potential of supporting itself, is Singapore, an island nation approximately 1/14th the size of Puerto Rico with a drastically higher level of population density and fewer natural resources, but has a per capita income much greater than Puerto Rico.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Far-left independence activist Juan Mari Brás stated, "Only through a great unified movement looking beyond political and ideological differences, can the prevalent fears of hunger and persecution be overcome for the eventual liberation of Puerto Rico, breaking through domination by the greatest imperialist power of our age."


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: After the invasion by the United States in 1898, the Americans made English the official language. In 1991 under the pro-Commonwealth PPD administration of Rafael Hernández Colón Spanish was declared the only official language in the Island. Then, in 1993, under the pro-statehood PNP administration of Pedro Rosselló, the law was reversed, and English was again reinstated as an official language alongside Spanish. In a 1993 survey by the Ateneo Puertorriqueño, a leading cultural institution in Puerto Rico, 93 percent of respondents indicated that they would not relinquish Spanish as their language if Puerto Rico ever became a state of the American Union, even if the United States required English as the only official language of the Island.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: In a First Circuit Court of Appeals case "Igartúa v. United States", two of three members of the three-judge panel that dismissed the appeal on procedural grounds suggested in separate opinions that, in an "en banc" reconsideration, the United States could be required to extend full voting representation to the United States citizens in Puerto Rico if (1) the "en banc" Court determines that, contrary to current Circuit precedent, the Constitution does not prohibit extending such rights "under another source of law", (2) that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which, at Article 25, states that "[e]very citizen shall have the right and the opportunity...[t]o vote and to be elected at genuine and periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage", is self-executing.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: More Puerto Ricans live stateside in the U.S. than in Puerto Rico. A 2009 report by the Pew Hispanic Center indicates that, as of 2007, 4.1 million Puerto Ricans lived in the mainland versus 3.9 million living in the Island. Since the 1967 referendum, there have been demands that stateside Puerto Ricans be allowed to vote in these plebiscites on the political status of Puerto Rico. Since the 1990s, the role of stateside Puerto Ricans in advocating for Puerto Rico in Washington, D.C., on issues such as the Navy's removal from Vieques and others has increased, especially given that there have been three voting members of the U.S. Congress who are stateside Puerto Ricans (two from New York City and one from Chicago), in contrast to Puerto Rico's single Resident Commissioner in the U.S. Congress with no vote.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: Between February 24-March 6, 2006, the National Institute for Latino Policy conducted an opinion survey over the Internet of a broad cross-section of stateside Puerto Rican community leaders and activists across the United States. The survey had a total of 574 respondents, including 88 non-Puerto Rican members of the Institute's national network of community leaders.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: The views of the 484 Puerto Ricans in the survey found broad support among them for the holding of a plebiscite on the future political status of Puerto Rico. While 73% were in favor of such a vote, they were split on the options to be voted upon. Those supporting the 2005 proposal made by the White House Task Force on Puerto Rico's Status that the vote be ultimately limited to the options of statehood versus independence made up 31% of the total respondents. 43% supported including the commonwealth option in the proposed plebiscite.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: In a 1991 Gallup Poll more than 60% of Americans said they would support independence or statehood if a majority of Puerto Ricans voted for either.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: A 1998 Gallup Poll asked Americans: "Do you personally think Puerto Rico: Should become a completely independent nation; should remain a territory of the United States, or, should be admitted to the United States as the fifty-first state?"


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: In a 2007 Opinion Dynamics/Fox News poll, 46% of Americans preferred Puerto Rico continue to be a U.S. territory, 30% believed it should be a state, 11% believed it should be an independent nation, and 13% didn't know.


title: Political status of Puerto Rico

text: In a 2016 Economist/YouGov poll, 29% supported statehood, 25% believed Puerto Rico should retain its present status, 20% believed it should be an independent nation, and 26% were not sure. However, only 43% knew that a person born in Puerto Rico is an American citizen, with 41% believing that person would be a Puerto Rican citizen, and 15% not sure.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: Neil Shaka Hislop CM (born 22 February 1969) is a retired footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Born in England, he played for them at under-21 level before representing Trinidad and Tobago at senior international level.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: The majority of his career was spent in the top division in England where he was a part of the Newcastle United team which finished second in the Premier League for two successive seasons under Kevin Keegan's first tenure. Before this, he played for Reading where he was on the losing side in the 1st Division play-offs despite finishing second overall (the only occasion on which second place was not an automatic promotion position). He later played for West Ham United on two occasions (receiving an FA Cup Runner-up medal during his second term in 2006) and also for Portsmouth (where he won the 1st Division in 2002/03).


title: Shaka Hislop

text: Hislop was eligible to play for both England and Trinidad and Tobago. He initially played for the England U-21 team and was on the bench for a full International against Chile, but in the end opted to play for Trinidad and Tobago. A dispute with the national team ruled him out of contention for several years, but he returned to play and starred in the country's first ever World Cup appearance in 2006.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: Hislop is now working for sports news and broadcasting service ESPN where he is most often seen as a commentator on ESPN FC. He had also briefly worked as a goalkeeping coach for the football team at Quinnipiac University.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: At an early age, Hislop wanted to be a striker, but was thrust in goal as he was the tallest player on his team. He eventually grew to just under 6'5" in height. After graduating from St. Mary's College in Trinidad, Hislop earned a scholarship to play college soccer at Howard University in the United States and led his team to the NCAA Final as a freshman starter. He graduated from Howard with honours with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. During this time, he interned at NASA.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: Shortly after graduating, Hislop was spotted by a scout from Reading at a friendly indoor match against Aston Villa of the Premier League. He went on to sign professional forms with Reading for the 1992–93 season and remained there for two more years. While there, he established himself as a firm fan favourite after an uncertain start, twice earning the club's "Player of the Year" award. He was instrumental in Reading's rise from the third tier of English football to the brink of the Premier League, where he narrowly missed out on promotion following a 4–3 defeat to Bolton Wanderers in the 1995 play-off final, and was voted the club's Player of the Season in 1994–95. Hislop was one of many Reading players to move that summer of 1995, signing with Newcastle United for £1.575m. In a poll to compile the Royals' greatest-ever XI, Hislop was voted the best goalkeeper with 46.7% of the vote ahead of Steve Death and Marcus Hahnemann. He was also voted joint third along with Death in a poll to decide the club's 'Player of the Millennium'.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: Hislop's first season at Newcastle United was spent battling with incumbent goalkeeper Pavel Srníček for the starting role. After starting strongly and being the starter through until December, Hislop suffered an injury that allowed Srníček to regain the starting role that he held for the remainder of the season as Newcastle blew a 12-point lead in January to finish the season in second place.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: In 1996–97, Hislop remained on the bench, having to watch Srníček tend the nets until approximately the same time the previous season. A perceived dip in form and a number of mistakes from Srníček allowed Hislop to take the starting role back again and he made only his second league start of the year in a 7–1 defeat of Tottenham Hotspur. Hislop successfully retained the starting position as Newcastle pipped Arsenal and Liverpool to second place on goal difference at the end of the season.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: Hislop's role further came under threat when new manager Kenny Dalglish opted to purchase a former player of his own from Blackburn Rovers. Dalglish brought in Shay Given, costing £1.5 million, and a season-long battle for the number one spot ensued between the two goalkeepers. Given initially started the season, but after a string of defeats and five games without a win, Dalglish went back to Hislop in November and he stayed there until an injury in February allowed Given back into the frame. With his contract running out, and having not yet managed to play a full season at Newcastle, Hislop chose to leave on a free transfer.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: West Ham United had operated a "goalkeeper by committee" approach the previous season, seeing first Luděk Mikloško, then Craig Forrest, then Bernard Lama hold the starting role. With Mikloško now with Queens Park Rangers and with the team being unable to secure Lama beyond his three-month loan, Harry Redknapp snapped up Hislop and installed him as first choice goalkeeper.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: In 1998–99, Hislop's first season saw him provide excellent service to the team, culminating in winning the "Hammer of the Year" award at the first attempt. His following season seemed to be following suit until he broke his leg in a match against Bradford City. The game saw young Stephen Bywater make his league debut in a 5–4 victory, but signalled the end of Hislop's season.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: Hislop returned the following year in 2000–01 but in a tumultuous season, he saw his manager fired, and two of the club's most promising players in Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard sold on. His performances were strong in an unsettled team. However, new manager Glenn Roeder purchased the unsettled David James from Aston Villa, who had publicly fallen foul of his manager John Gregory. The deal was seen as a coup for West Ham, though it resigned Hislop to the bench for what was seen to be his final season with the club as James (a year younger) was intended to be the obvious long-term option.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: However, before the 2001–02 season could even start, James tore his knee ligaments on England-duty after a collision with Martin Keown. The injury ruled James out for the first three months of the season. Hislop instantly stepped back into his starting role and kept five clean sheets in his 12 appearances that year for the club (though he also featured in the back to back drubbings from Everton 5–0 and Blackburn Rovers 7–1. However, James reclaimed the starting role, and on 1 July 2002, Hislop left the club on a free transfer.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: Hislop joined Portsmouth after Harry Redknapp joined Portsmouth as their new manager. He quickly asserted himself as the starter in the side that won the Division 1, ensuring automatic promotion to the Premier League. In recognition of his exploits for the season he was named in the First Division's 'Team of the Year' and remained first choice for the next two seasons in the Premiership, despite competition from Harald Wapenaar and later, Jamie Ashdown. In January 2005, following the replacement of Redknapp as manager, his replacement Velimir Zajec signed Greek international Konstantinos Chalkias and Hislop faced more competition for a place on the team.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: Following the appointment of a new manager Alain Perrin, Hislop failed to regain his starting place in favour of ex-Liverpool keeper Sander Westerveld, and when his contract expired in June 2005, he was released by the club.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: On 29 July 2005, Hislop rejoined West Ham as experienced cover along with Jimmy Walker for new signing Roy Carroll, allowing Stephen Bywater to go out on loan. Carroll started strongly but a back injury saw Hislop make occasional appearances through the season until Christmas. In January, Carroll's injury forced him to the physio's table once again, and Hislop stepped back into the fold as the starter (rotating with Walker). He featured in every FA Cup game as the team made its way to the final against Liverpool, keeping seven clean sheets in 27 appearances. The FA Cup Final finished 3–3 after a late equaliser from Steven Gerrard in the 91st minute. Hislop saving Sami Hyypiä's penalty was not enough for his team as Liverpool won the game 3–1 on penalty kicks after Anton Ferdinand missed the final West Ham spot kick of the day.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: On 5 July 2006, Hislop signed for Major League Soccer team FC Dallas in the United States. After suffering a back injury, Hislop left FC Dallas and retired from professional football in August 2007.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: Hislop was a youth international for Trinidad and Tobago. He had played in three games for Trinidad and Tobago before 1989.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: In 1992, he was called up to the Trinidad national football team but was an unused substitute in three games. In May 1995, he said that he would prefer to play for England as he was born and raised there, and the standard of competition was higher.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: Hislop was called up for England against Chile at Wembley Stadium in February 1998. A month later, at the age of 29, he was one of three over-age players selected to play for the England U-21 side against Switzerland.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: Eventually, Hislop chose to represent Trinidad and Tobago at the senior level. He played a total of 26 times for the Twin Island nation, also captaining the team in five matches.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: Hislop had announced his retirement from international football in 2004, citing the long journeys between England and the Caribbean as a factor, but returned to the national team to aid them in the 2006 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers at the request of the Trinidad and Tobago national team management. In 2005, he was part of the Trinidad and Tobago side that qualified for the 2006 World Cup with a victory over Bahrain. The draw for the World Cup placed them in Group B alongside Sweden, Paraguay and England. On 10 June 2006, Hislop played in the Trinidad and Tobago national team's first ever World Cup match, a 0–0 draw against Sweden, replacing Kelvin Jack who suffered a calf injury in the warm-up. Writing in "The Times", he would call the occasion 'the proudest day of his career'.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: On 17 March 2009, Hislop signed a contract to be an assistant coach while primarily working with the goalkeepers of the Quinnipiac University football team. After a brief period he resigned as coach due to his media commitments with ESPN.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: In 2008, Hislop began a weekly blog covering Major League Soccer for the British newspaper "The Guardian's" website. He currently works as a commentator on ESPN FC TV and in addition to commentary he has also interviewed several major footballing figures, including his former club manager Harry Redknapp after his move from Portsmouth to Tottenham Hotspur, USA international goalkeeper Kasey Keller, and Portuguese manager José Mourinho after he led Chelsea to the Premier League title in 2015.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: Hislop married his wife, Desha, in 1995. He is the cousin of American sprint athlete Natasha Hastings. He has 5 children.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: In April 2005, Hislop was named the inaugural winner of the PFA Special Merit Award for his services to football. He has been a pioneer of football's 'Show Racism The Red Card' Campaign. He was also inducted into Howard University's Athletic Hall of Fame, only the fifth Association Football player to be so honoured.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: Following the Trinidad and Tobago national team's inspirational performance in the World Cup, Hislop and his teammates were awarded the Chaconia Medal in gold, the second highest national award for Trinidad and Tobago. He is entitled to add the 'CM' suffix to his name, as and when desired.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: In 2007, Hislop received the Alexander B. Chapman Award from the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee for outstanding contribution to sport and the promotion of Olympic ideals. He is a member of the Professional Footballer's Association's Roll of Honour, joining Pelé with the distinction of being the only two non-British members.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: On 10 July 2008, Hislop became the first member of the Trinidad and Tobago World Cup squad to be inducted into his country's Sporting Hall of Fame.


title: Shaka Hislop

text: It was announced on 23 February 2022 that He was to be awarded the Freedom of the City of Newcastle upon Tyne.


title: Grace Potter

text: Grace Evelyn Potter (born June 20, 1983) is an American singer-songwriter and musician who formed Grace Potter and the Nocturnals in 2002. Potter released her debut solo record "Original Soul" on 2004 via Grace Potter Music. Potter and her band parted ways in 2015, just before the release of her solo album, "Midnight". Her latest album, "Daylight", was released in 2019. In 2011, Potter and Higher Ground founded Grand Point North music festival in Burlington, Vermont. The music festival celebrates local acts, promotes area businesses and has attracted national performing artists, including Kenny Chesney, Jackson Browne, The Avett Brothers, Trey Anastasio, Nathaniel Rateliff, The Flaming Lips, Trampled By Turtles, Gov't Mule, and more.


title: Grace Potter

text: Since the formation of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Potter has gained notability as a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and actress.


title: Grace Potter

text: As an actress, Potter appeared in an episode of "One Tree Hill", performing her original song "Apologies." In 2010, Potter re-recorded "Something That I Want" with altered lyrics for the end credits to Disney's animated feature "Tangled". The following year, Potter was the voice of Carol in Disney's "", for which she also wrote and recorded "Naughty, Naughty Children (Better Start Actin' Nice)." Potter made guest appearances on ABC's The Chew in 2012 and 2015. In 2015, Potter performed The Star-Spangled Banner during Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots' season opener. On January 25, 2016, Conan O'Brien aired an hour-long special episode of Conan (talk show) on TBS that chronicled a trip the comedian made to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar; he was joined by First Lady Michelle Obama with Potter as his musical guest.


title: Grace Potter

text: Potter has developed a successful working relationship with country music star Kenny Chesney; their duets have climbed the country music charts and received critical acclaim. Potter earned her first Grammy nomination for Best Country Duo/Group Performance for "You And Tequila" with Chesney. The pair has performed together live numerous times, and their collaboration on the song "Wild Child" off of Chesney's album "The Big Revival" garnered award nominations from the Academy of Country Music, CMT Music and the Country Music Association. Chesney appeared at Potter's Grand Point North music festival in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2018.


title: Grace Potter

text: Potter has also enjoyed a fruitful relationship with The Flaming Lips. In 2012, she joined the band during their show at The Lyric in Oxford, Mississippi, which was part of their attempt to break the Guinness World Record for Most Concerts Played in different cities in a 24-hour period. That same year, Potter and The Flaming Lips collaborated on a recording of "My Mechanical Friend" (which she also wrote) for the companion soundtrack to Disney and Tim Burton's film Frankenweenie. In 2014, she contributed to their cover of The Beatles' "Good Morning Good Morning" for their "With a Little Help from My Fwends" album. The Flaming Lips performed during Potter's Grand Point North music festival in 2015.


title: Grace Potter

text: Potter's second solo album, "Midnight", was released on August 14, 2015, on Hollywood Records. "Midnight" was recorded and mixed at Barefoot Studios in Hollywood with producer Eric Valentine, who has worked with artists ranging from Queens of the Stone Age to Nickel Creek. The core studio band consisted of Potter and Valentine along with Matt Burr on drums and percussion. Members of Potter's band The Nocturnals – Scott Tournet, Benny Yurco and bassist Michael Libramento – played guitar, while friends such as Rayland Baxter, Audra Mae, Noelle Scaggs of Fitz and the Tantrums, Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips, and Nick Oliveri of Queens of the Stone Age played various instruments. Potter cites an eclectic array of musical influences for "Midnight"s unique sound, including Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, David Bowie, Blondie and Beck.


title: Grace Potter

text: The seeds for "Midnight" were planted in Vermont during the fall of 2013. Potter explains the evolution of the record: I had been messing around for a few weeks with making really wacked-out home demos – lots of sounds, beats and melodies that I had never tried before. It was a dark, stormy, moody day and I could hear the thunder in the distance – these big ominous clouds were rolling in fast. There was something about that threat of inclement weather beyond my control that just made me vibrate with anticipation and adrenaline, so I channeled it into this heavy boogie song—it goes right for the throat and says 'Own your existence on earth, because who knows what's gonna happen next.' That solitary moment guided everything that followed.


title: Grace Potter

text: Potter's third solo album, "Daylight," was released on October 25, 2019, on Fantasy Records. Eric Valentine produced "Daylight," and added guest musicians Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of Lucius, and Benmont Tench. The "Daylight Tour" began on January 8, 2020. During the global pandemic caused by COVID-19. Potter launched the weekly Twilight streaming series, taping a special episode on the set of the original "Star Trek".


title: Grace Potter

text: Potter's version of the Stealer's Wheel song "Stuck in the Middle with You" was used as the theme song for the Netflix series "Grace and Frankie" (2015–2020).


title: Grace Potter

text: Potter and her husband, record producer Eric Valentine, had a baby boy, Sagan Potter Valentine on January 12, 2018. Potter had previously been married to Nocturnals bandmate Matt Burr, on May 11, 2013. Upon their divorce, Burr departed from the Nocturnals.


title: Grace Potter

text: Throughout her career, Potter has championed the Alzheimer's Association in honor of her paternal grandfather's battle with Alzheimer's disease. She frequently participates in the "Night At Sardi's" annual fundraiser in Los Angeles.


title: Ta Ra Rum Pum

text: Ta Ra Rum Pum is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language sports drama film directed by Siddharth Anand from a screenplay penned by Habib Faisal. It stars Saif Ali Khan, Rani Mukerji, Angelina Idnani, Ali Haji and Javed Jaffrey in lead roles. In the film, newly-successful professional racer Rajveer "RV" Singh (Khan) success and tribulations within the U.S. stock car racing scene, supported by his pianist-wife Radhika "Shona" Bannerjee (Mukerji).


title: Ta Ra Rum Pum

text: "Ta Ra Rum Pum" draws inspiration from the films "Days of Thunder" (1990), "" and "The Pursuit of Happyness" (both 2006), and marks Khan and Mukerji's second collaboration, after "Hum Tum" (2004), which was co-written by Anand. The film marks the second collaboration between Anand and Khan, after "Salaam Namaste" (2005). Principal photography began in May 2006 and lasted until that June, with the filming locations including the Milwaukee Mile, the Rockingham Speedway, and on set in Mumbai.


title: Ta Ra Rum Pum

text: "Ta Ra Rum Pum" theatrically released in India by Yash Raj Films on April 27, 2007. The film emerged as a moderate commercial success, grossing worldwide, thus becoming the tenth highest grossing Hindi film of 2007. It received mixed reviews from critics upon release, with praise for its setting, and Khan and Mukherji's performances, but criticism for its screenplay, length and pacing.


title: Ta Ra Rum Pum

text: Rajveer "RV" Singh, a happy-go-lucky race track pit crew member and aspiring racer, lands a professional stock car racing contract with the Speeding Saddles, a struggling racing team, after illegally speeding a New York City taxi owned by the team manager and his eventual agent, Harry.


title: Ta Ra Rum Pum

text: RV soon becomes a successful racer, and later marries Radhika "Shona" Shekar Rai Bannerjee, a pianist and music major at Columbia University, despite the disapproval of Radhika's father, businessman Shubho Shekhar, due to the pair's lack of academic degrees and conventional employment. After the wedding, Shona leaves her career to care for their two children, Priya "Princess" Singh and Rajveer "Champ" Singh Jr., as RV and Speeding Saddles become the sport's most acclaimed.


title: Ta Ra Rum Pum

text: Eight years later, during a race, rival racer Rusty Finkelstein crashes into RV's car, severely injuring and hospitalizing him. RV returns to the sport a year later but finishes last in each race owing to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from his accident. Exasperated, the team owner Billy Bhatia fires RV and replaces him with Rusty.


title: Ta Ra Rum Pum

text: After the couple fails to get alternative employment (including a failed attempt by RV to create a breakaway team with Harry), their house is foreclosed, and most of their possessions, including Shona's wedding ring, are auctioned off to pay creditors. With only about $2,000 left to their name, the family moves into a one-bedroom apartment on the outskirts of the city.


title: Ta Ra Rum Pum

text: Determined to keep their children at their private school, Shona and RV take several odd jobs; RV attempts to abandon the family dog, Bruno, to ease the burden on them. Bruno is returned by Harry, who offers RV his taxi license; he rejects it due to Harry's continued employment with the Speeding Saddles but eventually accepts it. Shona later gets a job as an events pianist and runs into Shubho, who offers the family assistance, but she rejects it after he insults RV. Princess overhears RV and Shona fighting and learns of their financial trouble. She tells Champ and the pair decide to secretly save their lunch money to help their parents. This results in Champ eating waste food from the garbage.


title: Ta Ra Rum Pum

text: RV gets a passenger who asks for a speedy airport arrival; using it as a chance to test his racing skills, RV initially does well but falters after suffering flashbacks of his accident. In a last-ditch attempt to pay their school fees (and throw a birthday party for Champ), RV lies to his friends and fellow cab drivers saying Princess has pneumonia, prompting them to pool a fund for her medical expenses.