title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: Shortly before 10:00 p.m., police were called to investigate McDonald at 4100 South Pulaski Road, responding to reports that he was carrying a knife and breaking into vehicles in a trucking yard at 41st Street and Kildare Avenue. When officers confronted McDonald, he used a knife with a blade to slice the tire on a patrol vehicle and damage its windshield. McDonald walked away from police after numerous verbal instructions from officers to drop the knife, at which point responding officers requested Taser backup, according to radio recordings released December 30, 2015, to "Politico" and NBC Chicago in response to Illinois Freedom of Information Act requests.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: Video of the murder shows that Van Dyke was advancing on McDonald, while McDonald was walking away from Van Dyke when the first shot was fired. The first shot hit McDonald, who spun and fell to the ground. As McDonald lay on the ground, still holding the knife, Van Dyke fired more shots into him. In total, Van Dyke fired 16 shots at McDonald in 14–15 seconds, expending the maximum capacity of his 9 mm semi-automatic firearm. Van Dyke was on the scene for less than 30 seconds before opening fire, and began shooting approximately six seconds after exiting his car. The first responding officer said that he did not see the need to use force, and none of the approximately eight other officers on the scene fired their weapons.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: The initial police portrayals of the incident, consisting of about 400 pages of typed and handwritten reports, prompted police supervisors to rule the case a justifiable homicide and within the bounds of the department's use of force guidelines. The reports did not say how many times McDonald was shot, and said that McDonald was acting "crazed" and lunged at officers after refusing to drop his knife. Michael D. Robbins, one of the attorneys representing the McDonald estate, said his initial thoughts were that, "I didn't think there was a case if he had lunged at a police officer", adding, "The police narrative, without exception, is that the use of force is justified and necessary, which it sometimes is."


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: One police report described that McDonald "raised the knife across chest" and pointed it at Van Dyke. Van Dyke told investigators that he feared McDonald would rush him with the knife or throw it at him, and he also recalled a 2012 Police Department bulletin warning about a knife that was also capable of firing a bullet, as well as throwing knives and also spring-loaded knives capable of propelling the blade. One report noted that McDonald's knife, "was in the open position", but when announcing charges against Van Dyke, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said that the knife was found folded at the scene.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: According to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office's autopsy report, which was revealed by journalist Jamie Kalven through a public records request, McDonald was shot in his neck, chest, back, both arms, right leg, and had a graze wound on his left scalp. Nine of the 16 shots hit McDonald's back, and he was shot as he lay on the ground. His death was ruled a homicide.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: Five police videos of the murder are known to exist, including the view from a camera mounted in the marked police SUV that Van Dyke was riding in as he and his partner responded to the scene. The videos show that at least eight police vehicles responded to the scene, but no video has been released from the other three vehicles. Chicago police officers are required to make sure that their video systems are working properly, and that they should "submit a ticket if they are unable to download digitally recorded data." There were no repair tickets requested by any of the three vehicles missing video on the scene that night.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: When video footage was initially released, it did not contain audio, although Chicago Police dashboard cameras should automatically record audio when the video recording is activated. According to a CPD video, "The in-car camera system automatically engages both the audio and the video recording when the vehicles' emergency roof lights are activated" and each vehicle has a front and rear camera and microphone. City officials initially blamed a technical problem. It was later revealed that the audio recording equipment in officer Van Dyke's vehicle had been "intentionally damaged", according to records from police technicians. Another car's audio was disabled, as the microphones were in the glove compartment, with the batteries inserted backwards. For another, a mobile start-up recorder was corrupted, and a third was processing other video at the time. The "Sun-Times" published that a sergeant reported officers throwing their microphones on the roof of the Jefferson Park police station to the Internal Police Review Authority, a month and a half before the release of the Laquan McDonald dashcam video in an apparent protest against being recorded. Fraternal Order of Police president Dean Angelo defended officers in an interview, saying that operator error could be any number of accidents, adding, "Things always trickle downhill so it winds up the responsibility of the beat officer—God forbid it's the responsibility of the agency."


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: There was also a security camera at a nearby Burger King restaurant that possibly captured the shooting, but during the time of the shooting, there is a gap of 86 minutes in the recording. The manager of the restaurant said that on the night of the shooting, five Chicago police officers gained access to the video and passwords on the equipment, and that by the time the Independent Police Review Authority requested to view the footage the next day, it had been erased. The "Tribune" later obtained footage showing a Chicago police employee working on the restaurant's computers after the shooting. However, according to FBI sources, the video taken from the Burger King surveillance camera was not altered, and there were gaps throughout the surveillance video, because the system at Burger King was a "mess".


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: Attorneys for the estate of Laquan McDonald entered into negotiations with the City of Chicago to settle claims arising out of his murder. The Chicago City Council approved a $5 million settlement to McDonald's family on April 15, 2015, although the family had not yet filed a wrongful death lawsuit. Emails from the mayor's office surrounding the case later revealed the settlement deal was finalized the day after the Mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, secured his second term by a run-off election. Part of the settlement agreement required that the video be sealed until investigations were completed, which could have delayed the release of the video for years. Aldermen were not shown the dash-cam video before approving the settlement, although city Corporation Counsel Stephen Patton said that the existence of the video influenced the council's decision to settle before a lawsuit, and details about the video were given to the Finance Committee during a hearing. The decision took only "5 seconds out of a two hour, 45 minute meeting" to approve. Dick Simpson, a UIC political scientist and former Chicago alderman, said "It's odd, not only in this case, but maybe in others, that there isn't more debate on the floor, because that's where the public gets informed."


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: Reporters noted inconsistencies between the narrative police told reporters, the autopsy, and an anonymous eyewitness account before the video was publicly released. A whistle-blower expressed concern over the handling of the McDonald shooting a few weeks after the shooting, revealing "that there was a video and that it was horrific", to journalist Jamie Kalven and attorney Craig Futterman. The pair issued a statement calling on Chicago police to release the dash-cam video of the incident. The city of Chicago denied at least 15 requests for its release.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: Brandon Smith, a freelance journalist, and William Calloway, a community activist, filed a request for the video under the Freedom of Information Act in May 2015. When the request was denied, Smith filed a lawsuit against the City of Chicago in Cook County Circuit Court. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan sent a letter to the Police Department the day before a court hearing, stating that they cannot withhold the video. She said that they had not substantiated their claim that releasing the video would interfere with an ongoing investigation or jeopardize a fair trial if any officer was charged. On November 19, Cook County Judge Franklin Valderrama denied the city's request for a stay, ordering the video to be released to the public no later than November 25. The city did not appeal the judge's decision. On November 24, after a press conference, the video was released that showed an officer fatally shooting McDonald.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: A criminal investigation also began weeks after the shooting, when the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) forwarded the case to the state's attorney's office and the FBI. The U.S. attorney's office confirmed on April 13, 2015, that they had been conducting a federal criminal investigation of the McDonald case in conjunction with the state attorney's office, after contradictions were found between the initial police report and the dash-cam video. The police report said that McDonald had lunged at an officer, but the video footage showed that McDonald made no lunges. The video does show that McDonald was swinging the knife in his right hand in a wide, but aimless manner as he walked down the street, and also appears to show that McDonald turns slightly to look briefly at Van Dyke and another officer who are pointing guns at him, but that he continues to walk away from both officers at the moment Van Dyke opens fire on him.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: On December 2, 2015, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan asked the U.S. Justice Department to launch a separate civil rights investigation of Chicago police tactics. DOJ enlarged the scope of their investigation based on early findings, issuing a report in January 2017. (See later section on this).


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: On November 24, 2015, the same day the video was released, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez announced that Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder, and Van Dyke turned himself in to authorities. He was initially held without bail at Cook County Jail for six days. Crowd funding website GoFundMe shut down a page that was set up to raise funds for his legal defense shortly after it had raised just over $10,000. On November 30, Van Dyke was granted bail, set at $1,500,000. He posted $150,000—ten percent of the bail—and was released from jail.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: On December 16, Van Dyke was indicted by a grand jury on six counts of first-degree murder and one count of official misconduct. The six counts of first-degree murder were:


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: On December 29, 2015, Van Dyke pleaded not guilty to the charges. Van Dyke's attorney, Daniel Herbert, said that his client fears for his life. Protesters yelled at him and called him names as he approached the courthouse for his arraignment. Van Dyke had a history of complaints in his police career but was cleared in most cases. After the arraignment, Herbert said he was looking for evidence to clear his client's name.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: On January 29, 2016, Herbert accused Chicago's mayor of tainting possible jurors, as he considered an effort to move the trial outside of Cook county:It's been dozens and dozens of comments where [Rahm Emanuel] essentially indicted my client. He's characterized my client's actions as being heinous without even seeing the videotape. So when the mayor of the city in which the pool of jurors is drawn from has taken such an adamant stance, it makes it extremely difficult for us to get a juror in here who is not predisposed to a finding of guilt.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: If convicted of first-degree murder, Van Dyke would have faced a prison sentence of 20 years to life. The case marked the first time in nearly 35 years that a Chicago police officer had been charged with first-degree murder for an on-duty fatality.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: On March 23, 2017, the charges against Van Dyke were six counts of first degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery, one for each shot fired at Laquan McDonald. Jury selection began on September 5, 2018, and the trial commenced on September 17.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: On October 5, 2018, Van Dyke was found guilty of second degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm, but was acquitted of official misconduct.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: On January 18, 2019, Van Dyke was sentenced to 81 months (almost 7 years) in prison for the second-degree murder conviction alone instead of the other more serious charges, which was contrary to Illinois Supreme Court precedent.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed a request with the Illinois Supreme Court to vacate Van Dyke's sentence for second-degree murder and impose a sentence on each of the 16 aggravated battery counts. A majority of Illinois Supreme Court Justices voted to deny this request without a hearing or explanation. Two of the justices authored dissenting opinions, stating the decision of the sentencing judge had been unlawful.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: The Illinois Department of Corrections refused to disclose the state prison where Van Dyke was initially incarcerated to serve his sentence, citing safety reasons. He was transferred on February 5, 2019, to the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut. During his first week at this facility, he was assaulted by other inmates while in the general population. Sometime after the assault, he was transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution, Otisville, New York. In November 2019, he was moved from the Otisville federal prison to a state prison outside Illinois.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: On February 3, 2022, Van Dyke was released from prison after serving 39 months of his 81-month sentence. He was eligible to be released early due to good behavior in prison. He was subsequently on mandatory supervised release, i.e. parole.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: On June 27, 2017, three current or former Chicago police officers were charged with conspiracy, official misconduct, and obstruction of justice connected with a coverup of the shooting. Those charged were David March, the lead detective in this case, Joseph Walsh, Van Dyke's partner on the night of the shooting, and Thomas Gaffney. Their bench trial began on November 27, 2018, and a verdict was expected by January 15, 2019. On January 17, 2019, Cook County Judge Domenica Stephenson found them not guilty of the charges.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: After the release of the video on November 24, 2015, a few hundred people blocked the intersection of Roosevelt and Michigan avenues in protest. On November 25, 2015, more protests were held. On the second night of protest, marchers tore off lights from a public Christmas tree in Daley Plaza and multiple marchers were arrested.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: On Friday, November 27, a major day for Christmas shopping in the U.S., a group of protesters chanted "sixteen shots" and other slogans while marching on Michigan Avenue, the city of Chicago's central shopping district. This caused some businesses to shut their doors and the police closed Michigan Avenue, a six-lane street.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: A 16-hour sit-in at the Cook County building on December 3, 2015, proceeded after Alvarez refused to resign on December 2. Protests erupted in the Loop after Mayor Emanuel called a special council meeting to apologize for his slow reaction to fix problems within the Chicago police department. On December 24, a month after the video had been published, protests disrupting Christmas-season shopping were again held on Michigan Avenue. Protesters also stood in the alley behind Emanuel's home the last three days in a row in December, promising to continue for 13 more days—to symbolize the 16 shots McDonald took from police—in an effort to force Emanuel to resign. On New Year's Eve, protesters temporarily took over parts of City Hall and a Hyatt hotel lobby, chanting "Rahm gotta go."


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: Over 100 African-American pastors boycotted the 30-year tradition of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Interfaith Breakfast, hosted by Chicago's mayor Rahm Emanuel. The breakfast was attended by Rev. Matthew Ross, who interrupted the proceedings when he stood up and began to chant "16 shots and a cover-up" during a musical performance. The day after Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, about 200 Black Youth Project 100 Chicago Chapter members, dressed in black T-shirts with the words "Fund Black Futures" written across them, blocked the entrance of the Chicago Patrolmen's Federal Credit Union in an effort to protest the Fraternal Order of Police's advocacy of the Chicago police department. City officials continue to deal with the aftermath of the McDonald shooting and are working to change the long-standing policy of keeping police shooting video under wraps. Protesters chanted "16 shots and a cover-up!" as Officer Van Dyke walked into court for a status hearing on January 29, 2016.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: Laquan McDonald protesters hijacked a rally to support Apple's decision to fight back in the FBI–Apple encryption dispute in front of the Apple store on Michigan Avenue on February 24, 2016. Protesters started chants against Alvarez and Emanuel, but the crowd dispersed after several in the crowd got into a shoving match with police.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: A rally started at State and Jackson consisting of "less than 50 people" on March 2, 2016, to mark 500 days since the shooting of Laquan McDonald. Other protesters were arrested for blocking the flow of traffic on Adams near Michigan Avenue.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: On November 25, 2015, Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders released a statement sending condolences to McDonald's family and criticizing the Emanuel administration and Chicago's police force.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: On November 29, 2015, Jabari Dean, a student at the University of Illinois at Chicago, posted an online threat to kill 16 unspecified white males — one for every shot fired at McDonald, plus any white police officers who might intervene — at the university. The university announced that classes would be cancelled the next day. The same day, the FBI arrested Dean, who was charged with "transmitting in interstate commerce communications containing a threat to injure the person of another." Federal prosecutors stated they did not believe Dean had the means to carry out the attack he had threatened. The federal charge was later dropped against Dean.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: Chance the Rapper referred to the shooting on "Saturday Night Live" on December 12, 2015. He would refer to the shooting again on his second appearance on the show with Kanye West on February 13, 2016.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: On December 1, 2015, Rahm Emanuel created the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force, led by then-President of the Chicago Police Board Lori Lightfoot, "to review the system of accountability, oversight and training that is currently in place for Chicago's police officers." The Task Force's final report, published April 13, 2016, found racism and systemic failures in the city's police force, validating complaints made for years by African-American residents.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: Emanuel fired the head of the Chicago Police Department, Superintendent Garry McCarthy on December 1, 2015, under political pressure from protesters. McCarthy knew of the dash-cam video a few weeks after the shooting and stripped Officer Van Dyke of his police powers. Due to the IPRA investigation under way, McCarthy could not fire the officer, nor discipline him or put him on a "no pay" status. McCarthy refused to resign, so Emanuel fired him.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez was criticized by political challengers and others for the delay in the release of the dash-cam video, which she viewed weeks after the shooting, and the long wait to charge Van Dyke for McDonald's death. This took more than a year and was completed only hours before the court-ordered release of the video. She faced a difficult primary election in March 2016. Calls for her resignation came from within her own party, including Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: As of December 2, 2015, Alvarez had refused to resign, which prompted a 16-hour sit-in by protesters at the Cook County building on December 3, 2015. Alvarez said she had been cooperating with the FBI investigation since November 2014, and asked her critics why she would call in the FBI if she was attempting a cover-up. She also defended Mayor Rahm Emanuel's comments that it would be premature to release the dash-cam video in light of the investigation, saying it "was in the best interest of the investigation". Kim Foxx, a former prosecutor running against Alvarez with support by Jesse Jackson and other civil rights leaders, disagrees:


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: By waiting so long to press charges in this case, State's Attorney Alvarez has done the McDonald family and the entire criminal justice system a heinous disservice. She waited until her hand was forced by intense political and media pressure surrounding the release of this painful video. She waited even after City Hall was prepared to pay the McDonald family $5 million in damages.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: In the 2016 election for Cook County State's Attorney, Alvarez was the subject of an activist campaign (sometimes referred to as "#ByeAnita") that criticized her for her handling of the Lacquan McDonald and Rekia Boyd cases, along with her broader role in the criminal justice system. Alvarez lost her bid for reelection in the March 2016 primary, earning 29 percent of the votes. Challenger Kim Foxx, who ran on a platform of criminal justice reform, won with 58 percent of the votes, and went on to win the general election.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: McDonald's killing occurred four months before Emanuel faced a difficult campaign for reelection in February 2015. (He failed to win the majority and was elected by 56 percent in a runoff election—the first in Chicago's history— against Jesús "Chuy" García). The delayed timing of release of the video, the Chicago City Council's awarding the family $5 million within weeks of McDonald's death, and Emanuel firing Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, prompted some commentators to accuse the city of cover-up.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: Just imagine [if] Mayor Emanuel had released the video in, say, November [2014]—without being forced to by a lawsuit... But of course, he didn't do the right thing. He buried the video. He allowed officials to mislead the public. He hid the tapes because most likely he [...] assumed it would hurt his reelection campaign. Thus he not only did the immoral thing, he did the politically stupid thing. Cook County state's attorney Anita Alvarez probably would've quickly responded with an indictment—just like she did earlier this week, when the tape actually was released. I mean, it's really hard to look at that tape and not call for an indictment. If the mayor had done that, he wouldn't be the villain in this sordid story. He'd be the hero. Or at least the guy who finally, for once in his life, did the right thing.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: Emanuel subsequently created the Task Force on Police Accountability to review current training and oversight for Chicago's police officers. He also maintained he never saw the dash-cam video until it was publicly released and would not resign. Emanuel's image received a blow when U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang accused city attorney Jordan Marsh, an attorney who handled cases in the office that represents the city in police misconduct lawsuits, of hiding evidence in a fatal police shooting.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: There was no legal mechanism to force Emanuel's resignation. State representative La Shawn K. Ford filed House Bill 4356 to set up the mechanism for a recall election, but it was not passed. Illinois Republican governor Bruce Rauner said he would sign such a bill.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: On December 1, 2015, the city announced that there was a video of a fatal police shooting that took place on October 12, 2014. Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez's office investigated possible criminal charges against Officer George Hernandez (whose name was revealed on December 7), who shot Ronald Johnson III in the back during a foot chase. The officer opened fire seconds after arriving on the scene, when Johnson was moving away from police. Johnson was allegedly a known gang member and also allegedly armed; a gun was recovered at the scene. The attorney for Johnson's family contends police planted the weapon. The city fought to keep the video of the incident secret so as not to jeopardize the officer's right to a fair trial should he be indicted. As in the McDonald case, the video lacks audio. The city released the video on December 7 due to pressure for transparency prompted by the McDonald case. No charges have been filed against Hernandez.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: On December 30, 2015, Emanuel announced sweeping reforms within the police department, including new police training for handling tense situations and equipping every officer with a Taser, to be used to control suspects. All officers were to be equipped and trained by June 2016. Officers at the McDonald scene were waiting for a Taser to arrive before Van Dyke shot the suspect. At that time, 21.5 percent of officers had been trained to use a Taser.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: Dean Angelo, president of the Chicago chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, said on the subject: "I know there are people on the job for 9 or 10 years who have not been trained. I can't say they have all requested training, but I am sure some have. It's very hard to get the proper training as a Chicago police officer and that's something that has been going on for a very long time. There is certainly a percentage of my members who believe that the Chicago Police Department doesn't offer the same level of training, or the same opportunities to obtain training, as many other police departments in the country. I think the general attitude is that's just 'Welcome to the Chicago Police Department.'"


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: On December 31, 2015, 3,085 pages of emails split across seven PDFs regarding the McDonald case and other police-related matters were obtained under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. The timing of the release (on New Year's Eve) has been described by reporters as "strategic". The exchanges show that the mayor's staff had been communicating with both the IPRA and the office of the Cook County state attorney since the October 2014 shooting. They document fact-gathering and news-monitoring, to crafting a unified "message" on how to respond to media inquiries regarding the McDonald shooting. The emails included several highly redacted speech drafts to use if the video was released, prepared nearly a year before the release of the dash-cam video, which Emanuel's top aides knew existed. The emails also cover the topics of discrepancies between the police reports and dash-cam video, the lack of audio on the dash-cam videos (which senior mayoral adviser David Spielfogel noted: "The number of malfunctions seems a bit odd."), express exasperation with statements made by the IPRA, note the missing Burger King footage, and reports on protests and social media activity—all of which is highly redacted.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: The media characterized the emails as calling into question the "independence" of the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA), an agency approved by Chicago City Hall in 2007 to investigate allegations of police misconduct and made up entirely of civilian members. Aides to the mayor have responded that the communications were routine and did not interfere with the IPRA's investigation.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: Scott Ando, the former head of the IPRA who was fired by Emanuel in December, concurred that the mayor's office never interfered in the agency's investigations. He said: "We were generally asked to clear every messaging or release to the press ... I really think if I'd been allowed to be more responsive to the questions that were posed, it would have cleared the air a lot sooner." Adam Collins, a spokesperson for the mayor, has defended the mayor's office to the media, saying, "The mayor's office obviously does not direct investigations, nor are any employees involved in those investigations."


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: In a May 26 email to Janey Rountree, Deputy Chief of Staff for Public Safety, Collins wrote: "Against my recommendation, IPRA has already provided this response that was a little antagonistic. I've asked that they follow up with this as well to soften and reinforce their message." The emails also reveal communication from the mayor's office with influential religious leaders Reverend Jesse Jackson and Father Michael Pfleger, asking them to soften their critical remarks on the case and explain the city could not fire Officer Van Dyke due to the IPRA investigation.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: Several persons, including "Streetsblog Chicago" reporter Steven Vance, Chicago Teachers Union member Luke Carman, and Twitter user "natalie solidarity", and others, collaborated on an effort to catalog the documents for easier access by readers.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: In January 2016, CNN submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for emails regarding the McDonald case from Van Dyke, his partner, and other police officers. CNN requested emails from both official CPD email accounts and personal email accounts. However, after CNN appealed to the Public Access Counselor, CPD officials revealed that they had not attempted to look through the officers' personal email accounts, arguing that personal emails are not public records subject to disclosure.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: In August that year, Attorney General Lisa Madigan ruled that emails on personal accounts that pertain to public business must be disclosed to the public. Her ruling was a binding opinion, requiring CPD to search the officers' email accounts and comply with the decision within 35 days. CPD appealed the ruling in court, and lost in September 2017. Ultimately, CNN never received the emails that it had requested. Each of the officers, individually or through their attorneys, either refused to provide emails, ignored the request, or denied having any relevant emails.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: In May 2016, CNN revealed documents of a 2005 incident, in which Van Dyke had written a police report without speaking to any of the personnel or witnesses at the scene of another police shooting. Records of the investigation indicated that Van Dyke had also inappropriately thrown out the original documents pertaining to the case.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: On August 16, 2016, inspector Joseph Ferguson recommended that 10 officers be fired, followed up by Superintendent Eddie T. Johnson's recommendation on August 18, that 7 police officers be fired for false or misleading statements made about the incident.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: DOJ announced the completion of their investigation and issued a "scathing report" in early January 2017, noting problems in a police culture of excessive violence, especially against minorities; and lack of training and oversight. DOJ and the city have a preliminary agreement to undertake broad reforms for improvement, with the goal of increasing the safety of both citizens and officers. It noted the department's improvements, such as training in de-escalation to avoid use of force, issuance of Tasers, officers wearing body cameras, and the reshaping of a police oversight body.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: Also in January 2017, the city and DOJ signed "an agreement in principle to work together, with community input, to create a federal court-enforceable consent decree addressing the deficiencies uncovered during the investigation. An independent monitor, who has yet to be chosen, will oversee compliance."


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: In February 2017, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions signaled that the Trump administration would "pull back" on federal civil rights probes of local police departments. He would not commit to enforcing the consent decree signed by Chicago and the Department of Justice.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: In June 2017, Mayor Emanuel backed off his commitment to enter a court-enforced agreement with the federal government. He said that an independent monitor selected by the city could work with the Justice Department to pursue police reforms without court oversight. Later that month, a group of civil rights organizations filed a federal lawsuit seeking court enforcement of police reforms. Also in June, Toni Preckwinkle, the president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, and Jesús "Chuy" García, another member of the Cook County Board, advocated for judicial oversight, as did Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson. In August 2017, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a lawsuit in federal court requesting that a judge oversee police reform in Chicago.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: In July 2018, Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel and Illinois attorney general Lisa Madigan announced a proposed court settlement that was the first draft of a consent decree that would eventually serve as a court-enforced mandate governing reforms of the Chicago Police Department.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: "16 Shots" is a documentary film about the shooting of Laquan McDonald and the subsequent police cover-up. It was directed by Richard Rowley, and produced by Jacqueline Soohen and Jamie Kalven. Originally titled "The Blue Wall", it premiered on May 1, 2018, at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto.


title: Murder of Laquan McDonald

text: Rowley subsequently updated the film to include later events, and re-titled it "16 Shots". The revised documentary premiered on June 14, 2019, on the Showtime network.


title: Childrens Hospital

text: Childrens Hospital (originally titled Children's Hospital as webisodes) is an American black comedy television series and web series that parodies the medical drama genre, created by and starring actor/comedian Rob Corddry. The series began on the web on TheWB.com with ten episodes, roughly five minutes in length, all of which premiered on December 8, 2008. Adult Swim picked up the rights to the show in 2009 and began airing episodes in 2010.


title: Childrens Hospital

text: The storyline centers on the staff of Childrens Hospital, a children's hospital named after Dr. Arthur Childrens. The hospital sporadically (and usually without reason) is mentioned as being located within Brazil despite making virtually no effort to conceal that the series is shot in Los Angeles, California, except for the fifth season, which was set at an American military base in Japan. Corddry is part of an ensemble cast portraying the hospital's doctors, which also includes Lake Bell, Erinn Hayes, Rob Huebel, Ken Marino and Megan Mullally. Henry Winkler and Malin Åkerman joined the cast starting with the second season as a hospital administrator and a doctor, respectively. Zandy Hartig and Brian Huskey recurred throughout the show's run, but were credited with the main cast for the fifth season.


title: Childrens Hospital

text: "Childrens Hospital" is a product of TheWB.com. Its webisodes are about 4–5 minutes long, each narrated by mainly Dr. Cat Black (Lake Bell) in Season 1, and by Dr. Valerie Flame (Malin Åkerman) in Season 2. The show mocks such medical dramas as "St. Elsewhere", "House", "Grey's Anatomy", "General Hospital", "Private Practice", "Chicago Hope", "ER", "Scrubs", and "Holby City".


title: Childrens Hospital

text: Though Comedy Central made a competing offer, the show was picked up by Adult Swim after Corddry decided the comedy style was not suited for the half-hour format Comedy Central wanted. Adult Swim offered half-hour or fifteen-minute time slots, and Corddry chose the latter. The original season one webisodes began airing on Adult Swim on July 11, 2010, in groups of two with a new faux-commercial in between the groupings of two webisodes. The channel then debuted the newly produced season two episodes which began airing on August 22, 2010.


title: Childrens Hospital

text: On September 1, 2010, "Childrens Hospital" began airing on the Canadian television channel G4. In Winter 2013, the show was picked up by Much. In Australia "Childrens Hospital" premiered on cable on Comedy Channel on January 26, 2011, and on ABC's free-to-air channel ABC2 during May–June 2013. The series began airing repeats on American cable channel TBS beginning October 20, 2014.


title: Childrens Hospital

text: The series occasionally presents fictional "behind-the-scenes" episodes, supposedly chronicling the production of the series. These episodes portray "Childrens Hospital" as a long-running medical drama and typically feature interviews with the self-absorbed, eccentric cast members (also fictional characters). The first such episodes were presented as clips from a fictional "60 Minutes"-style newsmagazine entitled "Newsreaders", which was later spun off into its own Adult Swim series. These fictional cast members have stories of their own:


title: Childrens Hospital

text: During the first three seasons, portions of the show were filmed in North Hollywood Medical Center, the same former hospital used for filming "Scrubs" and several other movies and television programs, until its demolition in 2011. As a parody of the live episode "Ambush" of "ER", the season two finale (aired November 7, 2010) was promoted as a live broadcast.


title: Childrens Hospital

text: Despite the low ratings compared to other cable television series, "Childrens Hospital" still has received its highest ratings to date on its midnight (Eastern Time) slot. On Friday, September 3, 2010, it pulled in 525,000 viewers while the next Sunday yielded 551,000 (in the 18–34 demographic).


title: Childrens Hospital

text: The mock television advertisements presented with the Adult Swim broadcasts of "Childrens Hospital" season one tied into future Adult Swim programs. A commercial for a crime procedural parody led to the show "" ("National Terrorism Strike Force: San Diego: Sport Utility Vehicle"), which ran from 2011 to 2013. Similarly, a commercial featuring Chris Elliott promoting a fictional health drink called "Nutricai" turned out to be a tie-in with an episode of the upcoming series "Eagleheart", one episode of which featured Elliott's character joining a multi-level marketing business selling the product.


title: Childrens Hospital

text: Some episode of "Childrens Hospital" featured a fictional TV show called "Newsreaders," a parody of the CBS show "60 Minutes;" this led to "Newsreaders" being picked up as its own show on Adult Swim, premiering in January 2013. Former "Daily Show" co-executive producer Jim Margolis served as showrunner, developing the series with "Childrens Hospital" creators Wain, Corddry, and Jonathan Stern.


title: Childrens Hospital

text: In 2011, Corddry stated that the cast and creative team of "Childrens Hospital" were working on doing a movie together, separate from "Childrens Hospital", with a different story and characters.


title: Childrens Hospital

text: In 2017, Corddry announced that a spin-off series of "Childrens Hospital" was in development: a global mystery/thriller structured around a season-long serial narrative. The new series is to feature a number of the original cast, and share the comedic tone of "Childrens Hospital", but will be unlike "Childrens" in most other respects. In February 2019, Netflix announced a ten-episode order for the half-hour scripted series "Medical Police", starring Hayes and Huebel, with Åkerman, Bell, Corddry and Marino in recurring roles. The series premiered on January 10, 2020.


title: Billy Cranston

text: Billy Cranston is a fictional character in the Power Rangers universe. He is the Blue Ranger in the series "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers," and was portrayed by actor David Yost. Billy is the only original Power Ranger to remain for the entire "MMPR" series, and is the second longest-serving Ranger overall behind Tommy Oliver. Until his departure, he was considered the brains of the Power Rangers team, creating many gadgets with which to solve problems that not even Zordon foresaw, and he even invented the first team's wrist-worn communication devices.


title: Billy Cranston

text: Billy was one of the five "teenagers with attitude" selected by Zordon to become the original Power Rangers, along with Jason Lee Scott, Zack Taylor, Trini Kwan and Kimberly Hart. Billy became the Blue Power Ranger and was given both the Triceratops Power Coin and the Triceratops Dinozord.


title: Billy Cranston

text: Billy began the series as the stereotypical "nerd." The other Rangers, especially Trini, defended him loyally, but Billy later evolved to become a stronger individual. He was one of the top members of Angel Grove High's science club and often helped its younger members with their experiments. One such example was with Willy, a young boy he helped to create a virtual reality simulator for a Science Fair. In the episode "High Five," Billy created not only the wrist communicators the Power Rangers used, but also the interface that allowed the devices a remote access to the Command Center's teleportation unit.


title: Billy Cranston

text: It was revealed that, due to an experience in his youth when he was bitten by a fish during an experiment involving whirlpools, Billy developed icthyophobia: fear of fish. This fear would affect him well into his teens, and Rita would use a spell to exacerbate this fear. When he is the last Ranger left able to contend with the Goo Fish monster, Billy overcomes the spell and then, after helping to free his friends and defeat the monster, completely overcomes the fear itself on a fishing trip with Ernie, the owner of the Youth Center.


title: Billy Cranston

text: Each of Billy's teammates have a unique skill to offer the team and, in Billy's case, it was his vast intelligence. He sought out to improve himself physically, and the audience would see him transition over time from the suspenders-wearing "brain" to a confident, hyper-intelligent athlete with appreciable fighting skills, thanks in great part to Trini's Uncle Howard. Jason and later Tommy helped graduate Billy to the red belt level in karate.


title: Billy Cranston

text: Billy's intelligence would help the Rangers save the world on many occasions. When the Command Center was damaged, Zordon lost and Alpha incapacitated, it was his invention, a car called the RADBUG, that allowed the Rangers to travel to the Command Center. He performed a wide array of tasks, ranging from creating the method for which the Rangers would use initially to infiltrate Rita's Dark Dimension, to disarming the lock-out mechanism for Alpha's activated self-destruct, and many other achievements. Though Billy did manage to attract girls earlier in his "nerd-like" persona, it was after he began his journey toward self-improvement that he would garner more attention from romantic interests, even more so than the other members of the team.


title: Billy Cranston

text: Billy is accepted into the Young Scientists of America program. In Season 2, he befriends Zack's cousin Curtis when he becomes the newest student at Angel Grove High. Curtis' musical interests, particularly in playing the trumpet, sparks Billy's interest into the rhythmic patterns of jazz music.


title: Billy Cranston

text: Later in Season 2, a time-traveling Kimberly would recruit Billy's ancestor, also named "William Cranston," in the 1880s to become the first Blue Ranger when she assembled and took command of the Wild West Ranger team in a battle against Goldar and several other time traveling foes. Also in Season 2, Billy commands the Unicorn Thunderzord.


title: Billy Cranston

text: In season 3, Billy gained new powers from Ninjor, who gave him the Wolf Power Coin, and became the Blue Ninja Ranger.


title: Billy Cranston

text: The Rangers are de-aged by a time reversal spell performed by Rita Repulsa's father, Master Vile. Billy devised a plan to restore the Rangers' ages using a machine that ran off the power coins. Billy restored himself, but Rita and Goldar stole the machine, and Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa destroyed all six Ninja Power Coins. With his Wolf Ninja Coin destroyed and his Triceratops Power Coin damaged beyond use, Billy's role changed. He no longer fought as a Power Ranger, but rather acted solely in an advisory and supporting role. Indeed, Billy was the only Ranger in this period still to be acted out by his regular actor – the others had been replaced temporarily by child actors after Master Vile had used the Orb of Doom to revert time by approximately ten years. Billy acted in this period as a liaison between the Aquitian Rangers and Earth. It was the cure for Billy's reverse-aging that eventually served as the plot device by which he was removed from the show. When "Power Rangers Zeo" began, Billy officially retired from active Ranger service as the six-man team now only had the five segments of the Zeo Crystal as a power source for each member of the team, allowing Tanya to take his place while he continued his supporting role by creating and maintaining most of the weaponry, gadgets and Zords the Zeo Rangers would use.


title: Billy Cranston

text: The writers left the choice open as to whether or not Billy would become a Zeo Ranger, with him musing at the start of "Zeo" that he could always assume the Zeo power in an emergency. He graduated earlier than the rest of the team in "Graduation Blues," and then left Earth for a brief period to address problems on the planet Aquitar. In "Mr. Billy's Wild Ride," he returns to Earth, although he is attacked by the machine empire along the way.


title: Billy Cranston

text: Before the Gold Ranger's identity was revealed as Trey of Triforia, the writers left several red herrings to mislead the viewers into believing that the Gold Ranger was Billy since he was never around when the Gold Ranger was around. When Trey of Triforia returned to Triforia on sabbatical to try to unify his three selves, Billy was selected to assume the Gold Ranger's powers. However, the negative proton energy that his body had absorbed in the Command Center's explosion prevented him from taking the powers. Instead Jason Lee Scott, the former Red Ranger, received the powers.


title: Billy Cranston

text: Billy was last seen in two of the final "Zeo" episodes suffering from accelerated aging, a side effect from the regenerator he used to restore his proper age. To counter this, he traveled to Aquitar for a cure from their Eternal Falls (analogous to the Fountain of Youth), which would restore his real age; after that he opted to remain there with Cestria, a female Aquitian with whom he had fallen in love.


title: Billy Cranston

text: During the final episode of "Power Rangers Super Megaforce" - "Legendary Battle" - Billy participates in the eponymous battle as the Blue Mighty Morphin Power Ranger alongside other past and present Power Rangers. Yost does not reprise the role for this morphed appearance.


title: Billy Cranston

text: Billy makes another morphed appearance as the Blue Mighty Morphin Power Ranger for a second season episode of "Power Rangers Beast Morphers" - "Grid Connection". The episode saw Austin St. John reprise the role of Jason Lee Scott, the Red Mighty Morphin Power Ranger. Jason summons the other four core Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and the Dino Thunder rangers to join him and the Dino Charge rangers in battling a resurrected Goldar Maximus. Again, Yost did not return; Billy has no dialogue and remains morphed throughout the appearance.


title: Billy Cranston

text: For Hasbro PulseCon 2022, David Yost announced he would reprise the role of Billy to mark the 30th anniversary of the "Power Rangers" franchise. It is not yet known if this will be an episode of upcoming third season of Power Rangers Dino Fury (retitled "Power Rangers Cosmic Fury") or a different "Power Rangers" production.


title: Billy Cranston

text: Yost reprises the role of Billy for "", released in 1995, which sees the Power Rangers losing their powers after an encounter with the new villain Ivan Ooze (Paul Freeman). The Rangers go on a quest to restore their powers and save Zordon's life in the process. The events of the movie are non-canon to the television series, where a similar scenario plays out (minus Ivan Ooze) in the "Ninja Quest" saga near the start of the third season.


title: Billy Cranston

text: William "Billy" Cranston appears in the 2017 reboot, played by actor RJ Cyler. In this version, he is autistic unlike in the TV series. At the start of the film, he is the archetypal nerd who is targeted by bullies. When Jason defends Billy from a bully during detention, Billy thanks Jason by deactivating his ankle monitor. The two then sneak off to an abandoned mine where Billy used to go with his deceased father. Eventually, along with Kimberly, Trini, and Zack, they come across the Power Coins and discover their destinies as the new Power Rangers. Initially, Billy expresses the most enthusiasm over being a Ranger, being the first to morph when he breaks up a fight between Jason and Zack, albeit accidentally. He is killed by Rita after she forces him to reveal the location of the Zeo Crystal, but Zordon sacrifices a chance to restore his own body to bring Billy back to life. When they morph for the first time and take the zords into battle, Billy initially accidentally 'drives' his zord backwards before turning it around in time for the final confrontation with Goldar.


title: Billy Cranston

text: Kimberly is the main character in this comic book mini series published by Boom! Studios. The series is a modern remake but also serves as a continuation from Kimberly's exit in the third season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Kimberly needs to rescue a French town under siege from Goldar and she seeks help from Zordon. She asks for the other rangers to aid her but is told they are off on another planet fighting Lord Zedd which explains Billy's absence. Zordon temporarily makes Kimberly the pink Power Ranger again by using the Sword of Light to activate the latent pink energy within her. Kimberly later shares this power with a civilian called Serge, making him the blue Mighty Morphin Power Ranger in place of Billy.


title: Billy Cranston

text: In "Power/Rangers" Billy Cranston (played by Yves Bright), in this much darker reimagining, in this timeline the Machine Empire defeats the Power Rangers and destroys the Megazord in battle, Earth's governments negotiate a truce with the Machine Empire and the Power Rangers are disbanded. Billy became an openly-gay trillionaire who ended up buying Lockheed Martin and was found dead of an apparent suicide.


title: Billy Cranston

text: In "Power Rangers Turbo", the fifth season of the series (and later in a few episodes of "Power Rangers in Space"), a mysterious Power Ranger with the ability to become invisible showed up and became an ally for the Turbo Rangers, who nicknamed him Phantom Ranger. His identity was never revealed, but Judd Lynn, executive producer of "Turbo" and "Space", revealed that if he had to give the character an origin now, he would have made him a past Ranger and fixed on Billy as a potential, but stressed that this was only a brainstorm after the fact.


title: Billy Cranston

text: David Yost has stated he had walked off the show a few episodes prior to his character's departure, due to repeated and ongoing homophobic slurs by the creators, producers, directors, and writers of the series, which is why he does not appear in them. However, producer Scott Page-Pagter has denied these statements, claiming Yost left over a salary dispute and had conflicts with members of the crew. As a result, stock footage of Yost was used for his departure and the character was voiced by someone else (In broadcasting Billy's departing message to his friends, it was mentioned they were having trouble with the signal). He was also the last of the original Power Ranger team to leave the show, although his former teammate Jason had returned as the Gold Ranger at that time.


title: Billy Cranston

text: It was widely believed that Billy's surname came from Bryan Cranston, who did voice work for "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers", and would later portray Zordon in the 2017 film. Bryan Cranston was told this and it was later confirmed to him from an unknown source. However, in recent years, promotional material for an attempted Bioman adaptation by Haim Saban, from 1984, revealed that the surname was decided on long before Cranston became involved with the series.


title: WWWW-FM

text: WWWW-FM ("W4 Country"), is a country music radio station based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, broadcasting on 102.9 MHz. Owned by Cumulus Media, WWWW-FM has a transmitter at its studios off of South Wagner Road to the northwest of downtown Ann Arbor.


title: WWWW-FM

text: The 102.9 frequency began operations in or on March 1, 1962 as WOIA and is co-owned with WOIB in Saline, Michigan. Originally, WOIA and WOIB simulcast a middle of the road music format with some Top 40 music played on weekends. The format changed to full-time Top 40 in 1967. WOIA personalities during this time included John Records Landecker, later to become a legend in Chicago radio, and Art Vuolo Jr., later to become known as "Radio's Best Friend."


title: WWWW-FM

text: In 1970, the stations became WNRS AM/WNRZ FM "Ann Arbor's Winners." The "Winners" airstaff included a young Arthur Penhallow, who later became a fixture at WRIF in Detroit for nearly 40 years; at WNRS/WNRZ, his air name was "Cicero Grimes." "Winners" took advantage of Ann Arbor's status as a breakout market for songs that later went on to success in the Detroit market, proclaiming: "Winners Plays... Detroit Watches."


title: WWWW-FM

text: The WNRS/WNRZ format remained Top 40 at first, but the two stations soon separated programming, with WNRS adopting a country format and WNRZ becoming a full-time 24-hour free-form progressive rock station. Former WABX personalities Jerry Goodwin and Ann Christ worked at WNRZ in 1972, and John Sinclair also hosted a Sunday-evening show. The station built up a loyal following in Ann Arbor's "hippie" community, but was financially unsuccessful, leading then-owner Thomas Boodell to change the station to a simulcast of WNRS's country programming and change the locks at the station to keep the former progressive-rock hosts out of the studio. After a petition to restore the progressive programming generated 10,000 signatures, Boodell threw progressive-rock listeners a bone by reinstating progressive rock on the station nightly from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. This split format continued until November 1974, when the station became again temporarily a full-time simulcast of WNRS as preparations were made for the stations' sale to Rochester, New York-based Community Music Services and the FM station's facilities were upgraded.


title: WWWW-FM

text: WNRZ-FM was a pioneer in the many radio aspects of the industry, most notably improvements to the quadraphonic FM stereo system invented in 1969 by Louis Dorren and improved upon by station chief engineer Brian Brown. The station participated in the National Quadraphonic Radio Committee field trials for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). WNRZ-FM was actually the first FM station to transmit program audio in quadraphonic sound. Brown also designed and built one of the first combination audio equalizer/compressors, which was used to enhance the poor audio quality of the Collins (now Rockwell Collins) AM radio transmitter at WNRZ. A second device was installed to process the quadraphonic FM program audio. These units literally caused the audio to "leap out" of the radio, according to industry pundits.


title: WWWW-FM

text: Community Music Services took over control of WNRZ in December 1974 and four months later, after a brief stunting period proclaiming "Something BIG is coming to 103 FM," changed the station's format back to progressive rock music (this time, however, without free-form elements and with an approved station playlist) under the new call letters WIQB, with a call sign which designated the number "103" (the letters I-Q-B were chosen because of their resemblance to the numbers 1-0-3). The first record played on the new "W-103" was "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by the Rolling Stones. WIQB heavily promoted its quadraphonic sound, identifying on-air as "QuadRock 103" during the 1970s. (Meanwhile, 1290 AM has since been through a multitude of format changes and is now WLBY, a business-talk station). In 1979, the progressive rock radio's personality lineup consisted of John Christian, Randy Z, Jim Dulzo, Chuck Horn and others.


title: WWWW-FM

text: As the 1980s dawned, WIQB, under new owner Ernie Winn, modified its format from progressive rock to a Top 40/album rock mixture. During the '80s, Rock 103 was usually the highest-rated local station in the Ann Arbor market (jingles of the period touted the fact they were "Ann Arbor's Number One!"). In 1987, the station boosted power to 50,000 watts, dramatically increasing its coverage area to the west (toward Jackson) and north (toward Fenton), although the station's eastward signal remained impeded by 102.7 FM in Mount Clemens (then WKSG).


title: WWWW-FM

text: The station went through numerous ownership changes from 1974 onward. During the mid-1990s, WIQB became an adult album alternative station under the ownership of Arbor Radio, LP. In late 1997, Cumulus Broadcasting took control of the station and switched WIQB's format to active rock. As an active rock station, Rock 103, then owned by Cumulus Broadcasting, subsequently crashed in the ratings and was regularly defeated in its own market by Detroit's WRIF. The station was an afterthought of then-GM Ray Nelson, who along with the sales managers proceeded to change the format to country.


title: WWWW-FM

text: The WWWW calls were originally used for 106.7 FM (and later 1130 AM) in Detroit, Michigan. Many Detroit-area radio listeners of the 1970s remember WWWW-FM as a rock station with a slightly progressive bent, and one which would offer unique programming, such as the "All-Night Album Replay," wherein several full rock LPs would be played consecutively during a given evening. Print advertising for the station occasionally featured images of Godzilla, the mythical character seen in the Toho-produced Japanese series of feature films. That format would not extend into the 1980s, however. The change to the country format (nicknamed "W4 Country") alienated many former listeners, as reflected in initial ratings changes, and soon acquired an entirely new audience, though a rare few individuals (such as on-air personality Chuck Santoni, who is now at WSAQ-FM in Port Huron) remained with the station. In reality, the station maintained its country format much longer than the previous rock format. In October 2000 "Alice 106.7" finally changed their call letters to "WLLC-FM" (not to be confused with yet another previous Detroit FM rock station, WLLZ-FM (98.7, now known as WDZH and not to be confused with the current WLLZ on 106.7), as later emphasized when the call letters were spoken) and the "WWWW" call letters were moved to 102.9 FM in Ann Arbor to relaunch "W4 Country" on September 29, 2000.


title: WWWW-FM

text: The new "W4 Country" soon became a ratings success in Ann Arbor. Arbitron often rates WWWW-FM as the top-rated music station in the market 12+; it is usually second place overall, behind only Detroit's WJR. Among local stations in Ann Arbor/Washtenaw County, W4 is the highest-rated commercial station, although it has been reported that if non-commercial stations were counted, NPR station WUOM would come out on top.


title: WWWW-FM

text: W4's signal into metropolitan Detroit is impeded by WDKL in Mount Clemens in Macomb County, but it still frequently shows up toward the bottom of the Detroit ratings. W4's signal is much stronger toward the south, west and north of Ann Arbor, and the station gets a listenable signal as far away as Flint, Lansing, and Toledo


title: WWWW-FM

text: On July 24, 2006, the call letters for 102.9 FM in Ann Arbor were temporarily changed to WFOR-FM (there is a CBS-owned TV station in Miami, Florida with the WFOR call letters), as Clear Channel moved the "WWWW" call letters to the 1310 AM facility in Detroit. One week later, on July 31, 102.9 switched to WWWW-FM, different in only the "-FM" suffix. On September 15, 2006, the WDTW call letters returned to 1310 AM, and WDTW-FM would change its callsign to WLLZ in 2019.


title: WWWW-FM

text: This sequences of moves of the WWWW call letters were likely due to a swap of the Clear Channel Ann Arbor cluster to Cumulus Broadcasting, which was still pending in late December 2007.


title: WWWW-FM

text: WWWW has been used as the call letters of fictional and satirical radio stations in media from time to time:


title: PBS NewsHour

text: PBS NewsHour is an American evening television news program broadcast on over 350 PBS member stations. It airs seven nights a week, and is known for its in-depth coverage of issues and current events.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: Anchored by Judy Woodruff, the program's weekday broadcasts run for one hour and are produced by WETA-TV in Washington, D.C. From August 5, 2013, to November 11, 2016, Woodruff and then-co-anchor Gwen Ifill were the first and only all-female anchor team on a national nightly news program on American broadcast television. On Saturdays and Sundays, PBS distributes a 30-minute edition of the program, PBS News Weekend, anchored by Geoff Bennett; originally produced in New York City by WNET, production of the weekend broadcasts transferred to WETA in April 2022.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: The "PBS NewsHour" originates from WETA's studio facilities in Arlington County, Virginia; news updates inserted into the weekday broadcasts targeted for the Western United States, online, and late-night viewers originate from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. Additional production facilities for the program are based in San Francisco and Denver. The program is a collaboration between WETA-TV, WNET, and fellow PBS member stations KQED in San Francisco, KETC in St. Louis and WTTW in Chicago.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: In September 1981, production of the program was taken over by MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, a partnership between Robert MacNeil, Jim Lehrer, and Gannett; the latter sold its stake in the production company in 1986. John C. Malone's Liberty Media bought a 67% controlling equity stake in MacNeil/Lehrer Productions in 1994, but MacNeil and Lehrer retained editorial control. In 2014, "MacNeil/Lehrer Productions", owned by MacNeil, Lehrer, and Liberty Media announced its donation, as "NewsHour Productions LLC", to WETA-TV as a nonprofit subsidiary.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: In 1973, Robert MacNeil (a former NBC News correspondent and then-moderator of PBS's "Washington Week in Review") and Jim Lehrer teamed up to cover the United States Senate's Watergate hearings for PBS. They earned an Emmy Award for their unprecedented gavel-to-gavel coverage.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: This recognition led to the creation of "The Robert MacNeil Report", a half-hour local news program on WNET, which debuted on October 20, 1975; each episode of the program covered a single issue in depth. On December 1, 1975, the program began to air on PBS stations nationwide. It was renamed "The MacNeil/Lehrer Report" on September 6, 1976. Most editions employed a two-anchor, two-city format, with MacNeil based in New York City and Lehrer at WETA's studios in Arlington, Virginia. Charlayne Hunter-Gault joined the series as correspondent in 1978, serving as substitute host for MacNeil and Lehrer whenever either had the night off. She became the series’ national correspondent in 1983.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: Having decided to start competing with the nightly news programs on ABC, CBS and NBC instead of complementing them, the program expanded to one hour on September 5, 1983, incorporating other changes, such as the introduction of "documentary reportage from the field"; it became known at that time as "The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour". Lester Crystal was its founding executive producer. MacNeil/Lehrer Productions twice planned to launch late-night newscasts in 1995 and 1999; in both instances, the proposed expansions—which, respectively, were to have involved production and newsgathering partnerships with Wall Street Journal Television and "The New York Times"—were canceled mid-development.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: MacNeil retired from the program on October 20, 1995, leaving Lehrer as the sole anchor. (Hunter-Gault left in June 1997.) Accordingly, the program was renamed "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" on October 23. On January 16, 1996, "The NewsHour" announced the creation of its official website at PBS Online. "The NewsHour" won a Peabody Award in 2003 for the feature report "Jobless Recovery: Non-Working Numbers". On May 17, 1999, "The NewsHour" adopted a new graphics package, but refreshed the music from 1983. On October 4, 1999, Gwen Ifill joined "The NewsHour" team as a new correspondent. She was a female anchor of a national nightly news program on broadcast television. Effective January 17, 2000, "The NewsHour" added "America Online Keyword: PBS" to its ending screen for a three-year agreement through April 22, 2003. For only the website, the program took effect on April 23, 2003. On March 3, 2003, the program added dates from the 1999 graphics in the beginning. On November 17, 2003, "The NewsHour" added music in the beginning with dates.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: On May 17, 2006, the program underwent its first major change in presentation in years, adopting a new graphics package and a reorchestrated version of its theme music (originally composed by Bernard Hoffer). On December 17, 2007, the "NewsHour" became the second nightly broadcast network newscast to begin broadcasting in high definition (after "NBC Nightly News" on March 26, 2007), with broadcasts in a letterboxed format for viewers with standard-definition television sets watching via either cable or satellite television. The program also introduced a new set and converted its graphics package to HD.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: On May 11, 2009, PBS announced that the program would be revamped on December 7 of that year under a revised title, the "PBS NewsHour". In addition to increased integration between the "NewsHour" website and nightly broadcast, the updated production returned to a two-anchor format. Lehrer described the overhaul as the first phase in his move toward retirement.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: On September 27, 2010, "PBS NewsHour" was presented with the Chairman's Award at the 31st News & Documentary Emmy Awards, with MacNeil, Lehrer, Crystal, and former executive producer Linda Winslow receiving the award on the show's behalf.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: Lehrer formally ended his tenure as a regular anchor of the program on June 6, 2011. He continued to occasionally anchor on Fridays, when he usually led the political analysis segment with Mark Shields and David Brooks, until December 30, 2011.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: On August 6, 2013, Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff were named co-anchors and co-managing editors of the "NewsHour". They shared anchor duties on the Monday through Thursday editions, with Woodruff anchoring solo on Fridays due to Ifill's duties as host of the political discussion program "Washington Week," which was also produced Friday evenings.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: For much of its history, the "PBS NewsHour" aired only Monday through Friday, but in March 2013, plans to expand the program to include Saturday and Sunday editions were under development. Weekend editions of the "NewsHour" premiered on September 7, 2013, with Hari Sreenivasan serving as anchor. Although they aired for a half-hour, the weekend broadcasts were branded "PBS NewsHour Weekend" for the duration of WNET’s involvement with the program. From the weekend broadcasts' debut until the March 27, 2022 edition, the Saturday and Sunday editions originated from the Tisch/WNET Studios at Lincoln Center in Manhattan, as opposed to the program's main production facilities at the Arlington, Virginia, studios of WETA-TV.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: MacNeil/Lehrer Productions announced in a letter to the show's staffers on October 8, 2013, that it had offered to transfer ownership in the "PBS NewsHour" to WETA. In the letter, Lehrer and MacNeil cited their reduced involvement with the program's production since their departures from anchoring, as well as "the probability of increasing our fundraising abilities." WETA's board of trustees approved the transfer on June 17, 2014, and it took effect on July 1. At that time, NewsHour Productions, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of WETA, took over production of the program. WETA also acquired MacNeil/Lehrer Productions' archives, documentaries, and projects, though not the company's name. "PBS NewsHour Weekend" was not affected by the ownership transfer and continued to be produced by WNET.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: On July 20, 2015, the "PBS NewsHour" introduced an overhauled visual appearance for its weekday broadcasts, debuting a new minimalist set designed by Eric Siegel and George Allison that heavily incorporates PBS's longtime "Everyman" logo. The program also introduced a new graphics package by Troika Design Group and original theme music by Edd Kalehoff, which incorporates a reorchestration of the nine-note "Question and Answer" musical signature that has been featured in the program's theme since its premiere in 1975 and a musical signature originally incorporated into the Kalehoff-composed theme for the "Nightly Business Report" used from 2002 to 2010. "PBS NewsHour Weekend" retained its original graphics package and the theme music by David Cebert until August 29, 2015, when it transitioned to the same theme music and a reworked version of the graphics package used for the weekday broadcasts.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: Ifill took brief breaks from her "NewsHour" anchor duties in the late spring and in November 2016 (and was also absent from the program's presidential election coverage on November 8), as she had been undergoing treatment for advanced stage breast and endometrial cancer. After her death was announced on November 14, 2016, that evening's edition of the "PBS NewsHour" was dedicated to Ifill and her influence on journalism, featuring tributes from Woodruff, Sreenivasan, former colleagues and program contributors (news content was relegated to the standard news summary, which aired during the second half-hour). Although the program initially featured guest anchors on some editions between January and March 2017, Woodruff effectively now serves as sole anchor.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: In 2018, "The Plastic Problem" aired, which then went on to win a Peabody Award, presented at the 2019 awards ceremony.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: On October 14, 2019, "PBS NewsHour" launched ""PBS NewsHour" West", a Western United States bureau at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix. Anchored by Stephanie Sy, the bureau produces its own news summary with up-to-date information on events that develop after the original broadcast. A version of the program with this summary is shown to viewers in the Western United States and to online and East Coast viewers watching re-broadcasts.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: On April 2, 2022, WETA assumed production responsibilities for the "NewsHour"s Saturday and Sunday editions, which concurrently began originating from the studio at the station’s Washington facility used for the weekday broadcasts. The broadcasts were retitled "PBS News Weekend", omitting ""NewsHour"" in view of their shorter duration. NewsHour Productions transferred production of the weekend broadcasts from WNET in a move to streamline the program's production and news-gathering resources, allowing the weekday and weekend "NewsHour" broadcasts to have the same pool of correspondents and to share resources with "Washington Week" (which is also produced by WETA-TV). Coinciding with the move, the weekend editions began carrying feature segments covering culture and the arts. Sreenivasan (who remains a New York-based correspondent for the weekday broadcasts and serves as a contributor for the PBS news discussion program "Amanpour & Company") was replaced as weekend anchor by NBC News and MSNBC correspondent Geoff Bennett.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: On May 13, 2022, Woodruff announced to "NewsHour" staffers that she would step down as anchor at the end of the year, though she intends to continue reporting longer pieces for the program while doing projects and specials for WETA through the 2024 United States presidential election at the earliest. Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett will reportedly be Woodruff's successors.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: The program is notable for being shown on public television. There are no interruptions for advertisements (though like most public television programs, there are "corporate image" advertisements at the beginning and end of each broadcast, as well as barker interruptions asking viewers to donate to their local PBS member station or member network during locally produced pledge drives, which are replaced by encore presentations of a select story segment from the past year for stations that not holding a drive during that time).


title: PBS NewsHour

text: The program has a more deliberate pace than the news broadcasts of the commercial networks it competes against, allowing for deeper detail in its story packages and feature segments. At the start of the program, the lead story is covered in depth, followed by a news summary that lasts roughly between six and eight minutes, briefly explaining many of the top national and international news headlines; international stories often include excerpts of reports filed by ITN correspondents. This is usually followed by three or four longer news segments, typically running six to twelve minutes, which explore a few of the events mentioned in the headline segment in depth and include discussions with experts, newsmakers, and/or commentators. The program formerly included a reflective essay on a regular basis, but these have been curtailed in recent years; since Woodruff and Ifill became anchors, these essays have mainly aired as part of the end-of-show segment "Brief, but Spectacular".


title: PBS NewsHour

text: On Fridays, the program features political analysis and discussion between two regular contributors, one from each of the Republican Party and Democratic parties, and one host from among the senior correspondents. Since January 2021, the usual participants have been "Washington Post" columnist Jonathan Capehart and "The New York Times" columnist David Brooks. Analysts who fill in when Capehart or Brooks are absent have included David Gergen, Thomas Oliphant, Rich Lowry, William Kristol, Ramesh Ponnuru, Ruth Marcus, Michael Gerson, David Corn and E. J. Dionne. On Mondays, a similar segment, "Politics Monday", features analysis and discussion of political issues with contributors Amy Walter, national editor of "The Cook Political Report", and Tamara Keith, Washington, D.C. correspondent for NPR.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: The program's senior correspondents are Woodruff and Jeffrey Brown (Arts, Culture & Society). Essayists have included Anne Taylor Fleming, Richard Rodriguez, Clarence Page and Roger Rosenblatt. Correspondents have been Tom Bearden, Betty Ann Bowser, Susan Dentzer, Elizabeth Farnsworth, Kwame Holman, Spencer Michels, Fred de Sam Lazaro, the economics correspondent Paul Solman ("Making Sen$e"), Malcolm Brabant and others.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: Lehrer and Ifill were frequent moderators of U.S. political debates. By November 2008, Lehrer had moderated more than ten debates between major U.S. presidential candidates. In 2008, Ifill moderated a debate between U.S. vice presidential candidates Joe Biden and Sarah Palin; in 2004, she moderated a debate between candidates Dick Cheney and John Edwards.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: On March 31, 2003, after the U.S.–led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the "PBS NewsHour" began what it called its "Honor Roll", a short segment displaying in silence the picture, name, rank, and hometown of U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq. On January 4, 2006, military personnel killed in Afghanistan were added to the segment. According to Nielsen ratings at the program's website, 2.7 million people watch the program each night, and 8 million watch in the course of a week. "PBS NewsHour" aired the final honor roll segment on August 30, 2021, after the end of War in Afghanistan.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: The "PBS NewsHour" is broadcast on more than 350 PBS member stations and member networks, making it available to 99% of the viewing public, and audio from the program is broadcast by some NPR radio stations. It is also rebroadcast twice daily in late night via American Public Television's World digital subchannel service. Broadcasts of the "PBS NewsHour" are also made available worldwide via satellites operated by various agencies such as the Voice of America.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: A limited number of PBS member stations and regional member networks do not clear the "PBS NewsHour" on their schedules due to existing carriage on a "primary" PBS member station, a pool mainly confined to "secondary" stations (most of which participate in the service's Program Differentiation Plan) that share certain media markets with a "primary" member outlet. These include the NJ PBS network in New Jersey (as WNET, which co-manages NJ PBS and WLIW, carries the program in the New York City area, the latter airing the program live, while WHYY-TV does so in the Philadelphia market); KVCR-DT in San Bernardino, California; KCET in Los Angeles (KOCE-TV in Huntington Beach, which shares ownership with KCET through parent Public Media Group of Southern California and is the primary PBS member in the region, serves as the program's carrier in the Los Angeles market); and WYIN in Gary, Indiana (WTTW, the primary PBS station for the Chicago DMA that includes WYIN's Northwest Indiana service area, serves as the program's carrier in the Chicago market). In Boston, WGBH-TV airs the program live each weeknight (with a simulcast online), while its secondary station WGBX rebroadcasts the weekday editions later the same evening, and the weekend editions live; a similar case exists in New York City but in reverse, where WLIW airs the weekday and weekend editions of the "PBS NewsHour" live while WNET airs them on a tape delay (delayed by one hour on weekday editions and by a half-hour on weekends). KQED in San Francisco airs the program each weeknight in simulcast with its radio sister at 3:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. Eastern Time), in addition to airing the Western Edition on television at 6:00 p.m. PT. Unusually for many years, the secondary station of Milwaukee PBS, WMVT, carried the program as part of an early-evening news block with the "Nightly Business Report" (which was the lead-in to "NewsHour" on many member stations until that program ceased production in December 2019), and half-hour international newscasts from Deutsche Welle and BBC World News, due to an expanded schedule of PBS Kids and local-interest programming on WMVS; this has since been rectified with the launch of the all-hours PBS Kids subchannel network.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: Archives of shows broadcast after February 7, 2000, are available in several streaming media formats (including full-motion video) at the program's website. The show is available to overseas military personnel on the American Forces Network. Audio from select segments is also released in podcast form, available through several feeds on the PBS NewsHour's subscriptions page with link to a FeedBurner website (for free mp3 download) and through podcast services such as Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and among others.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: The "PBS NewsHour" is streamed live on the program's YouTube channel at 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time each weeknight, with the Western edition also streaming live at 9:00 p.m. ET (6:00 p.m. Pacific Time). "PBS News Weekend" is also streamed on the YouTube channel live Saturdays and Sundays at 5:00 p.m. ET. Full episodes are available later on the "PBS NewsHour" YouTube channel and on the program's dedicated page on PBS's website.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: The "NewsHour" was also livestreamed on Ustream until IBM Watson Media discontinued free livesteraming on the platform on September 17, 2018. The "NewsHour" has also provided livestreaming of special events, most notably streaming the January 2017 inauguration of Donald Trump on the program's Twitter account.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: On December 4, 2009, when introducing the new "PBS NewsHour" format, Lehrer read a list of guidelines for what he called "MacNeil/Lehrer journalism":


title: PBS NewsHour

text: In 1992, radio broadcaster David Barsamian called the "NewsHour" "stenographers to power", accusing them and other news media of having a pro-establishment bias.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: "PBS NewsHour" has received generally positive reviews from television critics and parents of young children. Patrick Kevin Day of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote, "Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff are making history on PBS." David Leonard and Micah Schwalb of "The Denver Post" wrote, "One of the most trusted news programs on television." Phil Owen of "TheWrap" wrote, "The least partisan analysis." Tim Surette of "TV Guide" wrote, "The calm and credible information we need."


title: PBS NewsHour

text: In 2003, UCLA political scientist Tim Groseclose and Missouri economist Jeff Milyo evaluated various media programs based on "think tank" citations to map liberal versus conservative media slants and published a study alleging liberal media bias in general. Based on their research, "PBS NewsHour" is the most centrist news program on television and the closest to a truly objective stance. However, their methodology has been questioned.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: In October 2006 the media criticism group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) accused the "PBS NewsHour" of lacking balance, diversity, and viewpoints of the general public, and for presenting corporate viewpoints. FAIR found that the "PBS NewsHour"s guest list from October 2005 to March 2006 had Republicans outnumbering Democrats 2–1, and minorities accounting for 15 percent of U.S.-based sources. FAIR also protested in 1995 when Liberty Media purchased a majority of the program, citing Liberty's majority owner, John Malone, for his "Machiavellian business tactics" and right-wing sentiments.


title: PBS NewsHour

text: She also accused FAIR of counting sound bites as interviews, thereby skewing their numbers toward the political party holding a majority (at the time of FAIR's report, Republican Party).


title: PBS NewsHour

text: The "PBS NewsHour" partnered with NPR for the broadcast of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions of 2016, in a strategy to prepare for the election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.


title: Transylvania University

text: Transylvania University is a private university in Lexington, Kentucky. It was founded in 1780 and was the first university in Kentucky. It offers 46 major programs, as well as dual-degree engineering programs, and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Its medical program graduated 8,000 physicians by 1859.


title: Transylvania University

text: Transylvania's name, meaning "across the woods" in Latin, stems from the university's founding in the heavily forested region of western Virginia known as the Transylvania Colony, which existed briefly between 1775 and 1776 in south and western Kentucky.


title: Transylvania University

text: Transylvania is the alma mater of two U.S. vice presidents, two U.S. Supreme Court justices, 50 U.S. senators, 101 U.S. representatives, 36 U.S. governors, 34 U.S. ambassadors, and the Confederate president, making it a large producer of U.S. statesmen.


title: Transylvania University

text: Transylvania was the first college west of the Allegheny Mountains, and was named for the Colony of Transylvania, Latin for 'across the woods', which aimed to educate good citizens. Thomas Jefferson was governor of Virginia when the Virginia Assembly chartered Transylvania Seminary in 1780, before Kentucky was separated out as its own state. Its first sponsor was the Christ Church Cathedral's (Episcopal Church) rector, the Reverend Moore, although the school later became affiliated with the Presbyterian Church. Originally situated in a log cabin in Boyle County, Kentucky, the school moved to Lexington in 1789. The first site in Lexington was a single building in what is now the historic Gratz Park.


title: Transylvania University

text: By 1799, the institution was called Transylvania University. By 1818, a new main building was constructed for students' classes. That building burned down in 1829, and the school was moved to its present location north of Third Street. Old Morrison, the only campus building at the time, was constructed 1830–34, under the supervision of Henry Clay, who both taught law and was a member of Transylvania's Board. After 1818, the university included a medical school, a law school, a divinity school, and a college of arts and sciences.


title: Transylvania University

text: An institution that aided in the development of today's Transylvania University was Bacon College of Georgetown – named after Sir Francis Bacon – which would, for a brief time, be known as Kentucky University. This school was not affiliated with the modern University of Kentucky. Founded by Disciples of Christ churches in Kentucky, Bacon College operated from 1837 to 1851. It was also distinct from nearby Georgetown College, a Disciples of Christ-supported institution. Bacon College closed due to lack of funding, but seven years later, in 1858, when the school had secured significant financial backing, Bacon College's charter was amended to establish Kentucky University, and it was moved to donated land in Harrodsburg. This school closed in 1860 and its Harrodsburg building burned in 1864. By mutual agreement and an act of the state legislature the college was merged with Transylvania University in 1865.


title: Transylvania University

text: From these early years, Transylvania has dominated academe in the bluegrass region, and was the sought-out destination for the children of the South's political leadership, military families, and business elite. It attracted many politically ambitious young men including Stephen F. Austin, the founder of Texas.


title: Transylvania University

text: Following the American Civil War, Kentucky University was hit by a major fire, and both it and Transylvania University were left in dire financial condition. In 1865, both institutions secured permission to merge. The new institution used Transylvania's campus in Lexington while perpetuating the Kentucky University name. The university was reorganized into several new colleges, including the Agricultural and Mechanical College (A&M) of Kentucky, publicly chartered as a department of Kentucky University as a land-grant institution under the Morrill Act. However, due to questions regarding having a federally funded land-grant college controlled by a religious body, the A&M college was spun off in 1878 as an independent, state-run institution. The A&M of Kentucky soon developed into one of the state's flagship public universities, the University of Kentucky. Kentucky University's College of the Bible, which traced its roots to Bacon College's Department of Hebrew Literature, received a separate charter in 1878. Kentucky University's seminary eventually became a separate institution, but remained housed on the same campus until 1950. It later changed its name to the Lexington Theological Seminary. In 1903, Hamilton College, a Lexington-based women's college founded in 1869, merged into Kentucky University.


title: Transylvania University

text: Due to confusion between Kentucky University and its daughter institution, the University of Kentucky, the institution was renamed "Transylvania University" in 1908.


title: Transylvania University

text: In 1988, Transylvania University experienced an infringement on the institution's trademark when Hallmark Cards began selling "Transylvania University" T-shirts. The product, developed for the Halloween season, was intended to be a novelty item purporting to be college wear from the fictional Count Dracula's "alma mater". When contacted by Transylvania University, Hallmark admitted that they were not aware of the Kentucky-based institution and recalled all unsold product immediately.


title: Transylvania University

text: The university is located on a urban campus about four blocks from the center of the city of Lexington, Kentucky. It has 24 buildings, 3 athletic fields, 3 dining areas, and a National Historic Landmark. The campus is divided by North Broadway: to the East stand the academic buildings of the university; to the West, most of the residential buildings.


title: Transylvania University

text: The academic side of campus lies to the East of North Broadway, one of the major streets in Lexington. Old Morrison is the main [[academic administration|administration]] building for the university. Designed by pioneer Kentucky architect [[Gideon Shryock]] and erected in 1833 under the supervision of [[Henry Clay]] (then professor of law at Transylvania), Old Morrison is the central image on the city seal of Lexington. It houses the offices of financial aid, accounting, the registrar, the president, the dean, communications, the Center for Academic and Professional Enrichment, and more. The building also holds the tomb of [[Constantine Rafinesque]], professor of natural science at the university from 1819 to 1826, and Sauveur Francois Bonfils, who taught at the university from 1842 to 1849 (a native of France, he apparently was forced to flee because of political discord). During the Civil War, Old Morrison served as a hospital for Union and Confederate soldiers. It was gutted by fire in 1969 but was renovated and reopened in 1971. It was designated a [[National Historic Landmark]] in 1965, in recognition of the university's status as the oldest west of the Allegheny Mountains.


title: Transylvania University

text: Beside Old Morrison, the Carpenter Academic Center houses the faculties of [[English studies|English]], [[philosophy]], [[history]], [[political science]], [[foreign language]]s, and [[classics]], as well as offices for professors. The center, formerly known as Haupt Humanities, was renovated during the 2017–2018 academic year; the renovation updated classrooms and faculty offices, added student gathering spaces, and integrated new technologies. Carpenter Academic Center was reopened in May 2018.


title: Transylvania University

text: Behind the Carpenter Academic Center is Alumni Plaza, opened in 2015 as an outdoor classroom and social gathering area. Also on the academic side of campus, a state-of-the-art student indoor athletic facility, called the Clive M. Beck Center, was completed and opened in 2003; it is a location for men's and women's athletics and holds student fitness equipment.


title: Transylvania University

text: The Mitchell Fine Arts Center is the home of the music program, providing offices and classrooms for both drama and music programs. It contains a large concert hall, a small theater, a recital hall, the Morlan Gallery, the music technology classroom, and office of information technology. The Morlan Gallery in the center is the location for six or seven art exhibitions every year during the academic calendar, primarily as a gallery of contemporary art, including Appalachian Folk art, Chinese art, contemporary African art, sculptural installations, and performance and video pieces. The gallery offers guided tours and lectures for school groups, civic clubs, and senior-citizen organizations.


title: Transylvania University

text: The Cowgill Center for Business, Economics, and Education holds classrooms for these subjects and offices for professors. It features a high-tech multimedia classroom, a specialized classroom for training education majors, a computer lab, lecture halls, seminar rooms, study areas, faculty offices, and the Monroe Moosnick Medical and Science Museum. The L.A. Brown Science Center houses classrooms, laboratories and offices for the natural sciences, computer science and mathematics programs. A state-of-the-art nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer is available to enhance students' academic and research experience.


title: Transylvania University

text: Originally completed in 1952 and dedicated by President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], the main library building was renovated and enlarged in 1985; it was re-dedicated by then Vice President [[George H. W. Bush]] as the Douglas Gay Jr. and Frances Carrick Thomas Library. The Special Collections of the library houses a manuscript collection with letters, diaries, and documents of notable historical figures associated with the university including [[Henry Clay]], [[Jefferson Davis]], Robert Peter, [[John Wesley Hunt]], [[Daniel Drake]], and [[Horace Holley (1781–1827)|Horace Holley]]. The rare books section houses a collection of books relating to the history of horses and natural history, as well as a collection of pre-1800 medical books. The books belonging to the [[medical school|Transylvania Medical Department]], which closed in 1859, are now kept in special collections. The library was the setting for the film "[[American Animals]]", which told how four twenty-year-old students stole and attempted to sell some of the rare books.


title: Transylvania University

text: The basement of the library was renovated and became the Dugi Academic Center for Excellence in 2013 and the first floor was renovated in 2015.


title: Transylvania University

text: The Glenn Building was constructed as a multi-purpose building in 2005 and houses a coffee shop, Gratz Perk, the admissions offices, and expansion space for the library. It was named in honor of James F. Glenn, a former Board of Trustees member who donated $1.1 million for its construction. It utilizes an environmentally friendly geothermal heating and air conditioning system and several mature trees near the site were preserved during construction.


title: Transylvania University

text: The western half of the campus contains most of the residential parts of campus. Dalton-Voigt Hall opened in Fall 2015 and houses first-year students. This $7 million 144-bed facility offers suite-style living and common spaces for studying and activities. Jefferson Davis Hall and Henry Clay Hall were demolished in June 2015 to make space for construction of Kincaid Hall and Bassett Hall, which are similar to Dalton-Voigt and opened in January 2017.


title: Transylvania University

text: Thomson Hall was opened in the fall of 2008. It received [[Energy Star]] rating in 2009. It features 31 suite style living-units which include study areas, living rooms, kitchenettes, bathrooms, and bedrooms. The building is three stories tall, has of space, and cost $5.5 million.


title: Transylvania University

text: Thomson Hall was built to be an environmentally friendly building and it exceeds state insulating value requirements by 28 percent. It has geothermal heating and energy, low flow shower heads, a total energy recovery wheel on outside ventilation, fifty percent recycled material in the parking lot surface, and energy saving lighting.


title: Transylvania University

text: Dalton-Voigt, Thomson, Kincaid, and Bassett Halls all surround Back Circle, a central outdoor field where students are able to socialize, play sports, or do homework.


title: Transylvania University

text: The other residence spaces on campus are Poole Residence Center and Rosenthal Apartment Complex. Poole houses first-year students in large, suite-style rooms. Rosenthal houses upperclass students in an outdoor apartment style. .


title: Transylvania University

text: The newly built and renovated William T. Young Campus Center opened in the fall of 2020. It is a 97,710-square-foot building—61,400 square feet of new construction and 36,310 square feet of renovated space. Replacing Forrer Hall, the structure offers two dining locations, an athletic workout facility, competition-sized swimming pool, and numerous meeting spaces of all sizes and uses. It also houses the health and wellness center, student life offices, and the bookstore.


title: Transylvania University

text: The Campus Center was dedicated in October 2021 where [[William T. Young|William T. Young, Sr.]], whom the original Campus Center was named for, and William T. Young, Jr. were recognized for their many contributions to the university over the years. Both served time as chairman of the Board of the Trustees at Transylvania. To commemorate the contributions of the family, portraits of both Youngs adorn a wall of the new Center.