title: Ultimates

text: The Ultimates is a superhero comic book series published by Marvel Comics and created by writer Mark Millar and artist Bryan Hitch, which first started publication from "The Ultimates" #1 (March 2002), as part of the company's Ultimate Marvel imprint. The series is a modernized re-imagining of Marvel's long-running Avengers comic-book franchise, centering around an elite military task-force of super-humans and special agents organized by the U.S. government, known as the Ultimates, to combat growing threats, both of human and non-human origin, to the country and in turn, the world, as they slowly learn to work together and form a family-like bond with each other, despite their differing natures and personalities.


title: Ultimates

text: The first volume of the "Ultimates", written by Millar and illustrated by Hitch, was published in limited series format and ran for thirteen issues with production delays from March 2002 until April 2004. Hitch described the alternative-reality reimagining as one where, "You have to approach it as though nothing has happened before and tell the story fresh from the start... We had to get to the core of who these people were and build outwards, so Cap [Captain America] was a soldier, Thor is either a nut case or a messiah ... Banner [the Hulk] an insecure genius, and [superspy Nick] Fury the king of cool".


title: Ultimates

text: A second series, also by Millar and Hitch and with similar production delays, was released as "Ultimates 2" and ran 13 issues (Dec. 2004 – May 2007).


title: Ultimates

text: In a 2004 interview, Millar outlined the difference between the "Ultimates" and the Avengers: "The idea behind The Avengers is that the Marvel Universe's biggest players all get together and fight all the biggest supervillains they can't defeat individually, whereas "Ultimates 2" is an exploration of what happens when a bunch of ordinary people are turned into super-soldiers and being groomed to fight the real-life war on terror."


title: Ultimates

text: This was followed by the one-shot "Ultimate Saga" (Nov. 2007), a condensed retelling, by writers C. B. Cebulski and Mindy Owens and artist Travis Charest, of the events of "Ultimates" and "Ultimates 2". A third series, "Ultimates 3" (Dec 2007 – Sept 2008) was written by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by Joe Madureira.


title: Ultimates

text: Mark Millar returned to the Ultimates with a series of shorter miniseries, beginning in 2009 with "", which ran from August 2009 until July 2011.


title: Ultimates

text: General Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. establishes a strike force of government-sponsored superhumans which includes Steve Rogers (Captain America); scientist couple Henry and Janet Pym (Giant-Man and the Wasp); Bruce Banner (the Hulk) and Tony Stark (Iron Man). Together, they are based at the S.H.I.E.L.D facility the Triskelion. When Banner injects himself with the super-soldier serum and goes on a bloody rampage as the Hulk, he is eventually stopped by the other superhumans with the aid of Thor. The team then join forces with the mutants Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch and agents Hawkeye and Black Widow against the alien shape-shifters the Chitauri, who are defeated.


title: Ultimates

text: A year later public opinion has turned against the team when it is discovered that Bruce Banner is in fact the Hulk and was responsible for hundreds of deaths. The team is undermined further when Thor is accused of being an escaped mental patient and is incarcerated. This is the doing of his brother Loki, who also facilitates the creation of a new team of anti-American multi-nationals called the Liberators. With the aid of the Black Widow – who betrays the team to the Liberators – the Ultimates are captured, but eventually escape and battle the Liberators to the death. With the aid of Asgardian warriors, the Ultimates defeat both Loki and the Liberators. Seeing how having the Ultimates working with the United States government "policing" the world would produce similar results to their battle against the Liberators, the team decided to leave S.H.I.E.L.D. and to continue to work as an independent team instead.


title: Ultimates

text: Hank Pym is under house arrest at Ultimates Mansion. One of Pym's Ultron robots drugs him and leaks a sex tape of Stark and the Black Widow to the internet. These distract from the robot's fatal shooting of the Scarlet Witch. Magneto abducts Wanda's corpse and retreats to the Savage Land, where he is confronted by the Ultimates. Pym and Wasp discover the truth about the Ultron robot, which has adopted the identity of Yellowjacket and uses the Ultimates' DNA to create a series of android duplicates. Although the true Ultimates destroy their android counterparts and Yellowjacket, Quicksilver is apparently killed by Hawkeye. The Wasp then invites Pym to return to the Ultimates, and he accepts. The mastermind behind the robot's plot is revealed to be Doctor Doom.


title: Ultimates

text: The Ultimate Defenders, suddenly with superpowers, steal Thor's hammer from Valkyrie. Hela agrees to release Thor in exchange for a son. Loki arrives in Central Park with an army of monsters.


title: Ultimates

text: Writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Esad Ribić relaunched the Ultimates with a different lineup consisting of Nick Fury, Iron Man, Thor, Spider-Woman and others.


title: Ultimates

text: Following the conclusion of the miniseries "Cataclysm" and under the Ultimate Marvel NOW! banner, coinciding with the Marvel Universe All-New Marvel NOW! launch, writer Michel Fiffe and artist Amilcar Pinna brought together a new team, including Spider-Man, the new Black Widow who was formerly Spider-Woman, Kitty Pryde, Bombshell, and Cloak and Dagger. The book ran for 12 issues.


title: Ultimates

text: "All-New Ultimates" has been collected in two trade paperbacks; Volume One is titled "Power for Power", collecting issues #1–6; while Volume Two is titled "No Gods, No Masters", collecting issues #7-#12.


title: Ultimates

text: When the Maker collaborated with the High Evolutionary to destroy the Superflow that kept the different universes separate in order to merge them into one reality, the Ultimates members Captain America, Iron Man, Giant-Man, Wasp, and Hulk were revived where they were to help Eternity fight the First Firmament. When Earth-616's version of the Ultimates arrived on Counter-Earth to confront Maker about his actions, he ordered the Earth-1610 Ultimates to attack. As both versions of Ultimates concluded that there is no reason to fight each other, Maker killed the Earth-1610 Captain America for disobeying his orders. Upon Maker being defeated, both Ultimates helped Eternity to defeat the First Firmament. Afterwards, the Earth-1610 Ultimates left to pursue Maker.


title: Ultimates

text: As part of the "All-New, All-Different Marvel" branding, the Prime earth version of the Ultimates make their debut where they deal with cosmic threats before they can affect Earth.


title: Ultimates

text: Overall, the "Ultimates" series has been generally well-received by critics and readers, with the first two volumes being praised for the surprisingly mature themes and concepts, the more humanly flawed and layered characterizations of the original "Avengers" members, Millar's storytelling and writing, Hitch's photo-realistic and cinematic-styled artwork, the modernized, grittier and realistic, yet simultaneously engaging and intriguing re-imagining of the classic "Avengers" mythos and the political relevance of the first two volumes, while some criticism was leveled at the somewhat unnecessarily adult-oriented, mature and cynical tone and direction of the series, with the third volume: "The Ultimates 3" being met with a mostly negative reception, compared to the positive response received by the first two volumes, for the aforementioned reasons. The first volume of "Ultimates" #1 ranked fourth among the top 300 comics sold for February 2002, based on Diamond Publisher's indexes, with the next three issues ranked second, second, and third, respectively.


title: Ultimates

text: Popmatters.com praised Mark Millar's writing in the opening eight issues, stating the writer "is able to walk a very fine line of keeping the story measured yet entertaining". Comics Bulletin, in a review of the "Homeland Security" story arc, states the artwork is "visual magnificence" yet is concerned about the dark writing of the characters stripped of their "super-heroic nobility" and was "disheartened by the book’s tone and cynicism". Shakingthrough.net gave "Homeland Security" a 4.2 out of 5.0 stating it is an "engaging read, filled with intriguing and amusing modern takes on classic Marvel characters" whilst praising Bryan Hitch's artwork by saying it is "amazing, gorgeous artwork, which continues to set the standard for cinematic photo-realism."


title: Ultimates

text: "Ultimates 2" #1 ranked second among the top 300 comics sold for December 2004, with the next three issues ranked second, fourth and sixth, respectively.


title: Ultimates

text: Reviewing "Ultimates 2", Curledup.com praised Millar's writing of the classic heroes and the "inclusion of current-day politics" improves the storyline. Comics Bulletin reviewed the final issue #13 but found it anticlimactic with the issue degenerating to a "slug fest". The artwork was praised with the reviewer stating that Bryan Hitch's "artwork has definitely been one of the main elements that will make this series memorable." Denofgeek.com praised the artwork, with "Bryan Hitch doing some of the best work of his career", but was critical of Millar's writing stating it had "no substance".


title: Ultimates

text: "Ultimates 3" #1 ranked first in December 2007's Top 300 comics with preorder sales of 131,401, Issue #2 ranked number seven with 105,070 preorders. Issue three ranked better than its predecessor, falling at number five, but had a smaller number of preorders, totaling at 97,210.


title: Ultimates

text: Reviewing "Ultimates 3", IGN called the book a "reasonably decent experience" although the issue "falters on its own merits", only to later state while reviewing the third issue that "Behind the theatrics and swagger, there's just nothing there to draw me in. These are the characters that I used to enjoy in name only, hollow shells of what they used to be." Alvaro's Comic Boards' review was even harsher, remarking that "Ultimates 3" "has somehow managed to entirely miss what made the Ultimates something other than alternative universe Avengers" and adding "this was the worst comic I've read all year".


title: Ultimates

text: 2011's "Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates" received highly positive reactions upon its debut. Chad Nevett from Comic Book Resources wrote that "the comic is exciting and sets up a large story that, right now, seems like it could easily end with the destruction of the team. A first issue that starts with its foot on the gas is exactly what’s called for", while IGN gave the first issue 8/10.


title: Joseph Lombardo

text: Joseph Patrick Lombardo (born Giuseppe Lombardi; January 1, 1929 – October 19, 2019), also known as "Joey the Clown", was an American mobster and a high-ranking member of the Chicago Outfit crime organization. He was alleged to be the "Consigliere" of the Outfit.


title: Joseph Lombardo

text: Lombardo was born on January 1, 1929, in Chicago, one of 11 children to Italian immigrants from Bari, Mike Lombardi, a butcher, and Carmela Lombardi. Lombardo, a high school dropout, at some point changed the final letter of his last name. He joined the Outfit in the 1950s.


title: Joseph Lombardo

text: Lombardo began his Outfit career as a jewel thief and as a juice loan collector. In 1963, Lombardo was arrested and charged with kidnapping and loan sharking, but was acquitted after a factory worker who had owed $2,000 and who was behind on his payments could not positively identify Lombardo. The acquittal was Lombardo's 11th in 11 arrests. Lombardo, who by the late 1960s was referred to as an "up-and-comer" in the Chicago Outfit along with Angelo J. LaPietra (known as "The Hook"), would take over the Outfit's operations in Las Vegas in 1971.


title: Joseph Lombardo

text: On December 15, 1982, Lombardo was convicted, along with Teamsters Union President Roy Williams and insurance executive Allen Dorfman, with bribery of Nevada Senator Howard Cannon in order to get a trucking deregulation bill blocked. Lombardo was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his role in the bribe conspiracy. In 1986, Lombardo was convicted of skimming over $2 million in proceeds in several Strip casinos (including the Stardust Resort & Casino), and was sentenced to another 10 years in prison. Lombardo was released on November 13, 1992, after serving only 10 years in prison.


title: Joseph Lombardo

text: Following his release, Lombardo took the unusual step of taking out a small classified ad in the "Chicago Tribune" that read: "I never took a secret oath, with guns and daggers, pricked my finger, drew blood or burned paper to join a criminal organization. If anyone hears my name used in connection with any criminal activity, please notify the FBI, local police, and my parole officer, Ron Kumke."


title: Joseph Lombardo

text: In 2003, Chicago newspapers began reporting that federal investigators were looking into solving old mob murders. In 2003, the FBI swabbed Lombardo for DNA. Federal authorities also notified Lombardo during the probe that his life might be in danger. On April 25, 2005, Lombardo, along with 13 other defendants was indicted as part of the federal government's Operation Family Secrets investigation, which lifted the veil on 18 killings since the 1970s that federal investigators had attributed to the Outfit. Lombardo was indicted for his role in at least one murder, as well as for running a racket based on illegal gambling, loan sharking and murder. As federal agents rounded up the 14 defendants on April 25, 2005, they realized that Lombardo had disappeared, who became a fugitive after they issued a federal arrest warrant.


title: Joseph Lombardo

text: While Lombardo's whereabouts were unknown, he wrote letters to his lawyer, Rick Halprin—but directed toward the judge in the trial—in which he claimed to be innocent, requested a $50,000 recognizance bond, offered to take a lie detector test, and asked to be tried separately from the other defendants in the Family Secrets case—all requests that U.S. District Judge James Zagel denied. The first letter from Lombardo surfaced on May 4, 2005, was four pages long and riddled with spelling and grammatical errors. "I am no part of enterprise or ("sic")... Have no part in the poker machines, extorcinate loans, gambling and what ever else the indictment says," the letter read. "About the 18 murders in the indictment, I want you to know that I was not privy before the murders, during the murders, and after the murders, and to this present writing to you." Lombardo also told Zagel in the letter, "I want you to know that I am not a violent man in anyway shape or form. I do not own or have any weapons of any kind. If the F.B.I. should find me I will come peacefully and no resistence ("sic") at all." Lombardo also asked Zagel "If you have any ideas or suggestion of what I should do, notify my lawyer he could reach me by the media." In August and September 2005, Lombardo sent more letters to his attorney, indicating that he had been following local news coverage of a state hearing involving allegations that the mayor of Rosemont, Illinois, Donald Stephens, had met with several members of the Chicago Outfit. In response, Halprin quipped of his still-at-large client's newspaper-reading habit: "I doubt that he has a home subscription."


title: Joseph Lombardo

text: The FBI then offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to Lombardo's capture. On January 13, 2006, after over eight months at large, a bearded, unkempt Lombardo, was captured by FBI agents outside the Elmwood Park, Illinois home of his longtime friend Dominic Calarco. Federal agents had been tipped off to Lombardo's whereabouts after Lombardo had visited dead Outfit mobster Tony Spilotro's dentist brother, Patrick Spilotro, for an abscessed tooth. He was carrying $3,000 at the time of the arrest. At his arraignment, Lombardo pleaded "not guilty". He also revealed that he had atherosclerosis and had not seen a doctor while he was at large because "I was – what do they call it? I was unavailable", prompting laughter in the courtroom.


title: Joseph Lombardo

text: During the trial, which was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mitchell Mars, T. Markus Funk, and John Scully, Lombardo took the stand in his own defense, denying any involvement in the Daniel Seifert murder and claiming to have been at a police station at the time of the slaying, reporting the disappearance of his wallet. Federal prosecutors, however, noted Lombardo's fingerprint on the title application for a car used in the murder of Seifert. In addition, prosecutors pointed out that employees of an electronics store identified Lombardo as the purchaser of a police scanner used in Seifert's murder. Seifert was murdered in Bensenville, Illinois on September 27, 1974, in execution-style, and federal prosecutors say it was committed in front of Seifert's wife, who was holding her young son in her arms.


title: Joseph Lombardo

text: On September 10, 2007, Lombardo was convicted of racketeering, extortion, loan sharking and murder. On September 27, 2007, the same jury found Lombardo guilty of the 1974 Seifert murder.


title: Joseph Lombardo

text: On February 2, 2009, Zagel sentenced Lombardo, seated in a wheelchair, to life in prison for the convictions. Lombardo had continually professed his innocence, telling the court, "Now I suppose the court is going to send me to a life in prison for something I did not do." He also said he was sorry for the suffering of the Seifert family but added, "I did not kill Danny Seifert." Zagel had told Lombardo, "Mr. Lombardo, you are not like the toxic creature I've seen forming in one of your co-defendants," referring to Frank Calabrese, Sr., whom Zagel had sentenced to life in prison the previous week, but after Lombardo had insisted his innocence, Zagel also said, "The worst things you have done are terrible and I see no regret in you."


title: Joseph Lombardo

text: In September 2006, while in federal lockup at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago, Lombardo had a heart attack and was brought to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was diagnosed as having had a minor heart attack; he was put into an operating room where he underwent surgery, to have a stent installed—his fourth stent procedure. It was also reported he suffered from throat cancer and that his gallbladder had been removed.


title: Joseph Lombardo

text: He served his sentence at ADX Florence supermax prison, where he died on October 19, 2019, at the age of 90.


title: Joseph Lombardo

text: Lombardo earned the nickname "The Clown" from his joking demeanor and for his various antics, including grinning wide for mug shots and for departing a 1981 court appearance at the federal courts building in Chicago holding a "Chicago Sun-Times" newspaper in front of his face with a hole cut out so he could see. In 2005, Halprin spoke to the "Chicago Tribune" about his client's nickname, saying "[T]hat's a name he doesn't relish, and neither do I. The guy I know is not a clown."


title: Joseph Lombardo

text: Lombardo married Marion Nigro in a Catholic ceremony in 1951. They had two children. Lombardo lived in the same modest condominium building on West Ohio Street, on the Near West Side of Chicago, from the time he was married until he became a fugitive in 2005.


title: Joseph Lombardo

text: Lombardo and his wife, Marion, reportedly divorced in 1991, but Lombardo continued to reside in the same condominium building, moving after his divorce to a basement unit. In 2006, federal prosecutors alleged that Lombardo's divorce was a sham to hide money. "If you think it's a sham divorce, investigate it", Lombardo's attorney Rick Halprin told reporters on February 9, 2006.


title: Joseph Lombardo

text: Prosecutors said Marion Lombardo appeared to have sold three parcels in Florida held by the MJJ Trust for more than $4.5 million in 2003. They said there is a May 1992 dissolution of marriage record but that it appears the Lombardos lived together until the latest indictment. They said two warranty deeds recording the sale of the Florida property referred to Marion Lombardo as "a married woman". Lombardo's lawyer had stated that the assets had been placed in an "irrevocable trust" for Lombardo's family.


title: Boyd Gaines

text: Boyd Payne Gaines (born May 11, 1953) is an American actor. During his career, he has won four Tony Awards and three Drama Desk Awards. Gaines is best known for playing Mark Royer on "One Day at a Time" (1981-1984).


title: Boyd Gaines

text: He was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to James and Ida Gaines. His early theatre training began at the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, California, where his talent and rich baritone voice were showcased in leading roles in plays, musicals, and opera. He attended the Juilliard School as a member of the Drama Division's "Group 8" (1975–1979).


title: Boyd Gaines

text: Gaines has appeared in a number of films and television shows, including "Fame", "Frasier", "L.A. Law", "Law & Order", and "Piece of Cake", but his most notable television role was as Mark Royer, who married Valerie Bertinelli's Barbara Cooper on TV's "One Day at a Time". Gaines appeared in the final three seasons of the show. He also portrayed Coach Brackett in the 1981 movie "Porky's", Lt. Ring in the 1986 film "Heartbreak Ridge" and Jason in "The Sure Thing" (1985).


title: Boyd Gaines

text: He has appeared on the Broadway stage, in both musicals and plays, for which he has won four Tony Awards. His first Broadway play was "The Heidi Chronicles" in 1989. He has appeared in the musicals "She Loves Me" (1993), "Company" (1995), and "Contact" (2000). Other plays have included the 2010 revival of "Driving Miss Daisy", "The Columnist" (2012), and the Broadway revival of "An Enemy of the People" in 2012. He appeared in the 2008 revival of "Gypsy" as Herbie, and won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.


title: Boyd Gaines

text: He has appeared Off-Broadway, starting in 1978 with "Spring Awakening" and recently "The Grand Manner" by A. R. Gurney at Lincoln Center in 2010.


title: Boyd Gaines

text: In regional theatre, Gaines appeared in "Our Town" at the George Street Playhouse, New Jersey, in April 2014.


title: Boyd Gaines

text: Gaines was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play in 2007, for "Journey's End", making him the first actor to be nominated in each of the four Tony categories for which an actor is eligible. Only two male and three female performers have been nominated for all four Tony performance awards, the others being Raúl Esparza, Angela Lansbury, Jan Maxwell, and Audra McDonald. Gaines was the first performer to be nominated for each of Best Featured Actor in a Play in 1989 for "The Heidi Chronicles", Best Actor in a Musical in 1994 for "She Loves Me", Best Featured Actor in a Musical in 2000 for "Contact" and again in 2008 for "Gypsy", and Best Actor in a Play in 2007 for "Journey's End". Gaines won in three of the categories (and four of the five nominations), missing only for the performance in "Journey's End". His four wins are for "The Heidi Chronicles", "She Loves Me", "Contact", and "Gypsy".


title: Flipping

text: Flipping is a term used to describe purchasing a revenue-generating asset and quickly reselling (or "flipping") it for profit.


title: Flipping

text: Within the real estate industry, the term is used by investors to describe the process of buying, rehabbing, and selling properties for profit. In 2017, 207,088 houses or condos were flipped in the US, an 11-year high.


title: Flipping

text: In the United Kingdom, "flipping" is used to describe a technique whereby Members of Parliament were found to be switching their second home between several houses, which had the effect of allowing them to maximize their taxpayer funded allowances.


title: Flipping

text: Wholesalers make a profit by signing a contract to purchase a property from a seller and then entering into an agreement with a third party to sell their role of buyer in the contract to an end buyer. All rights to the original purchase contract are assigned to the new buyer and the new buyer pays an "assignment fee" to the wholesaler in order to gain all rights to purchase the property at the original purchase price. The original purchase contract usually has an "inspection period" which allows the original buyer to back out of the contract and not close on it if they do not find a buyer to assign their contract to. Many wholesalers have no intention of actually purchasing the property and simply use wholesaling as a tool to locate properties for other investors.


title: Flipping

text: In many cases, if another buyer is not found before the end of the inspection period, the wholesaler cancels the original purchase contract (through its cancellation clause) and gets back the deposit. Wholesaling requires little or no money to be secured in escrow, and in most cases, the wholesaler never intends to actually purchase the property. The practice of wholesaling is often advertised as "no money down and no risk" by many real estate coaching companies and infomercials since the actual deposit can be as little as $10 and often even the deposit can be returned if the wholesaler cancels the contract before the end of the inspection period.


title: Flipping

text: Some people are of the opinion that wholesaling is fraudulent misrepresentation since the wholesaler does not actually intend to close on the property themselves. However, in the United States wholesaling is perfectly legal and most real estate contracts allow the buyer an inspection period and any amount of deposit that buyer and seller agree to. Wholesaling in property is no different from wholesaling in any other industry.


title: Flipping

text: In a successful transaction the seller is often unaware that original buyer is not purchasing the property. In some cases, wholesalers actually purchase the property for cash and then resell the property to their end buyer in a second closing. This practice is considered more costly since the buyer is paying closing costs to purchase the property and to resell the property. However many people consider double closing to be more ethical. In cases where there are substantial profits from reselling it often makes sense for the wholesaler to pay for two closing costs (double closing) to avoid requesting a large assignment fee from their buyer.


title: Flipping

text: A cash home buyer is a person or company who can buy a property without a mortgage or loan. A cash home buyer will pay cash for a house. Cash home buyers are a specific type of real estate investor or real estate entrepreneur (see real estate investing). When they purchase a house money (cash) is transferred directly from them to the seller. This transfer typically goes through a third-party title company. These companies provide protection to both the seller and buyer in the transaction which includes providing title insurance. Cash buyers specialize in buying property fast. Typically they advertise that they will buy the house fast, as-is, and pay all fees and commissions. Cash home buyers can be divided into local cash home buyers, regional, and national companies.


title: Flipping

text: To find a legitimate cash home buyer one can use a search engine, using search keywords such as "we buy houses", "sell my house fast", "stop foreclosure" "cash home buyers" or "sell my house for cash". Sellers should complete due diligence before selecting a buyer.


title: Flipping

text: Cash home buyers are different from real estate agents. However, a cash home buyer may also be a real estate agent. Cash home buyers may also refer to themselves as real estate consultants or real estate developers. Cash home buyers are often called cash house buyers.


title: Flipping

text: A cash home buyer will often be referred to as a real estate consultant. Various real estate investors or real estate entrepreneurs may also refer to themselves as real estate consultants.


title: Flipping

text: A real estate wholesaler sells the purchase contract/purchase agreement to a third party. Therefore a wholesaler does not buy the property. This is not to be confused with a cash home buyer despite the process being very similar. A cash home buyer will sign a purchase contract and close on the property. In other words, cash home buyers sign contracts to buy houses and close on them. Wholesalers sign contracts to buy houses, assign the contract to someone else, and therefore do not buy houses.


title: Flipping

text: It is not uncommon for a property to be assigned multiple times and for a few wholesalers to make money in a transaction from the seller to the end buyer. The original wholesaler enters into a contract to purchase a property and then assigns or sells their rights to that contract to another investor. That investor then assigns their rights to said contract to a third investor and so forth. In many cases wholesalers work together ensuring that all parties get paid on a transaction. This practice is often frowned upon in the real estate community since it seems unethical or illegal. In practice there is nothing illegal about wholesaling or assigning rights to a purchase contract even if it is multiple times. It is important to understand that the reason there is an opportunity to wholesale is because the original seller is selling the property for substantially less than market value. This usually occurs when either the property or the seller is in distress. Examples of distress could be a property damaged by fire, flood, hurricane or a homeowner that is facing foreclosure and is about to lose their home and is selling it for substantially less than fair market value. The practice of buying real estate at substantially below market value is called Distressed Real Estate Investing or Wholesale Real Estate Investing hence the term "wholesaler".


title: Flipping

text: Profits from flipping real estate come from either buying low and selling high (often in a rapidly rising market), or buying a house that needs repair and fixing it up before reselling it for a profit ("fix and flip").


title: Flipping

text: Under the "fix and flip" scenario, an investor or flipper will purchase a property at a discount price. The discount may be because of:


title: Flipping

text: The investor will then perform necessary renovations and repairs, and attempt to make a profit by selling the house quickly at a higher price. The "fix and flip" scenario is profitable to investors because the average homebuyer lacks the time and funds to repairs and renovations, so they look for a property that is ready to move into. Also, most traditional mortgage lenders require the home to be habitable with no significant repairs.


title: Flipping

text: In the UK, Members of Parliament with constituencies outside of London are given an allowance to maintain an extra home in London allowing them to live closer to the Houses of Parliament during the working week. Certain costs for this second home can be claimed and are thus partly funded by the taxpayer. MPs can nominate any of their other properties as the second home, which has tax advantages for not being their primary residence and can lead to additional allowances.


title: Flipping

text: "Flipping" occurs when the nominated second and primary dwellings are frequently changed, particularly during the parliamentary recess. The dwelling may in fact be rented out for profit but still receive the allowances.


title: Flipping

text: In some circumstances, MPs can simultaneously declare one home to be both their primary residence (for tax purposes) and their second residence (for expenses purposes).


title: Flipping

text: The practice ended on 15 May 2009 following publication of the Disclosure of expenses of Members of the United Kingdom Parliament after a public scandal.


title: Flipping

text: Similar to real estate flipping, car flipping is the process of buying automobiles at a low price and reselling them at a higher price for profit. A car flipper will identify reasonably priced vehicles that can be sold at a higher price after reconditioning and marketing to a larger market.


title: Flipping

text: In the United States, car flipping can be a hobby for car enthusiasts, or a primary business in the form of state licensed car dealers. Flipping cars is legal if the vehicles are titled in the person's name or processed through a state licensed dealership. Many states have laws and regulation limiting the number of vehicles a person can flip within each year unless they are a dealer or associate. This number varies from state to state, from 2 to 10. Car flipping has a larger market and requires less investment than flipping real estate.


title: Flipping

text: Just like real estate flipping and car flipping, all consumer products can be flipped. Product flipping entails buying products at a low price and selling it at a higher price for profit. Products can be new or used items. Many times, product flippers buy products at dollar stores, thrift stores, garage sales and estate auctions and resell them at a higher price on online marketplaces or locally.


title: Flipping

text: Compared to real estate flipping and car flipping, product flipping requires much lower capital to get started and thus sellers take on much less risk. Due to lower profit margins, product flippers often employ various tricks that other kinds of flippers do not have to worry about. These tricks include utilizing coupons and cash back rebates as well as finding creative ways of saving on shipping.


title: Flipping

text: Common products that are flipped for profit are clothes, mobile phone, books, and coins. Other less common products that are flipped are digital in nature such as Bitcoin, websites and gaming accounts.


title: Flipping

text: A spate of flipping often creates an economic bubble which then bursts, such as during the Florida land boom of the 1920s.


title: Flipping

text: In the 2000s, relaxed federal borrowing standards (including subprime lending that allowed a borrower to purchase a home with little or no money down) may have led directly to a boom in demand for houses. Because it was easy to borrow, many investors bought homes as property speculation with no intent to live in them. Since the demand outstripped the supply, prices rose, giving a short-term profit. This resulted in an inflationary spiral until the bubble burst in 2008 and borrowing standards became stricter, leaving the housing market to bottom out.


title: Flipping

text: Flipping was so popular in the United States that many DIY television programs like A&E Network's "Flip This House" detailed the process.


title: Flipping

text: Flipping becomes less desirable when interest rates are high and so demand is lower. The resulting lack of sales, and major price cuts, results in a flood of properties on the market at one time, resulting in an excess of supply to demand.


title: Flipping

text: "Rational" flipping can encourage a rejuvenation and restoration of a previously decrepit neighborhood, a process known as gentrification, which increases property values but can cause a population shift.


title: Flipping

text: Under the broken windows theory, an unkempt house or area attracts a criminal element, which drives out those making a responsible living, which allows for more criminal element, and so on in a spiral. Restoration creates jobs, particularly in construction, and generates more sales (and sales taxes) for local vendors and suppliers. The renovated homes attract new populations and businesses to a region, encouraging more economic development; their higher assessed values brings more property tax revenue to local governments, allowing for more improvements and more policing.


title: Flipping

text: When flipping occurs frequently in a community, the total cost of ownership can rise substantially, eventually forcing current residents to relocate, specifically poorer young and old people. On a small scale, flippers can cause distress and disturbance to their immediate neighbors by performing lengthy renovations. Flippers often have no interest in neighborhood integration, which may cause tension with long-term residents.


title: Flipping

text: During the real estate bubble of the 2000s, flipping and gentrification were both linked to the mass migration of people to California, where high real estate prices and ample jobs attracted wealth seekers. In response, many native Californians were forced to migrate to the less expensive areas of states such as Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Oregon and Washington. This migration of Californians caused further gentrification in the areas that they had moved to in large numbers. Areas such as Phoenix, Arizona, and Las Vegas Valley became much more expensive, although property prices dropped significantly after 2006.


title: Flipping

text: In 2020 the emphasis on house flipping shifted to the Midwest, where Greater Cleveland became one of the most lucrative places in the country to own rentals and flip homes. A typical project in the area, as in other areas in the Great Lakes region, pays back twice the cost of the purchased structure. Investors from California have been steered by advisors from the Sun Belt to northeastern Ohio. In 2019 the median flip home was bought for $60,000 and sold for $124,000. 100% margins were also endemic to Akron, Ohio; Pittsburgh; and South Bend, Indiana.


title: Flipping

text: After a renovation, the house itself will be in better condition and last longer, and can be sold at a higher price, thus increasing its property tax assessed value, plus increased sales for goods and services related to property improvement and the related increase in sales taxes. Neighbors can also benefit by having more attractive homes in the neighborhood, thereby increasing the value of their own homes.


title: Flipping

text: In 2006, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development created regulations regarding predatory flipping within Federal Housing Administration (FHA) single-family mortgage insurance. The time requirement for owning a property was greater than 90 days between purchase and sale dates to qualify for FHA-insured mortgage financing. This requirement was greatly relaxed in January 2010, and the 90-day holding period was all but eliminated.


title: Flipping

text: Flipping can sometimes also be a criminal scheme. Illegal property flipping is a fraud whereby recently acquired property is resold for a considerable profit with an artificially inflated value, typically in order to defraud a lender into lending more than the true value of the property or defraud a buyer into paying a higher price than should be necessary. The property is quickly resold after making few, or only cosmetic, improvements. Illegal property flipping often involves collusion between a real estate appraiser, a mortgage originator and a closing agent. The cooperation of a real estate appraiser is necessary to get a false, artificially inflated, appraisal report. The buyer may or may not be aware of the situation. This type of fraud is one of the most costly for lenders.


title: Flipping

text: Renovating distressed or abandoned properties was sometimes linked to malicious and unscrupulous acts in the post housing bubble era. As a result, "flipping" was frequently used both as a descriptive term for schemes involving market manipulation or other illegal conduct and as a derogatory term for legal real estate investing strategies that are perceived by some to be unethical or socially destructive. The term has a more positive connotation these days with the popularity of television shows like "Flip or Flop" and "Flip That House."


title: Flipping

text: In the United States, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) governs real estate appraisal and Fannie Mae, oversees the secondary residential mortgage loan market. Both have practices to detect illegal flipping schemes.


title: Flipping

text: The term "flip" is also used in relation to certain types of scams, known as "money flip" or "cash flip". In such a scam, the scammer instructs the intended victim to send a certain amount of money, usually via wire transfer, with the promise they can quickly "flip" the money for a larger amount, typically about ten times as much. After the victim has wired the money, the scammer simply keeps the money, cutting off all further contact.


title: Flipping

text: In July 2012, business network CNBC green-lit several pilots for reality television series focusing on house flipping.


title: Flame tank

text: A flame tank is a type of tank equipped with a flamethrower, most commonly used to supplement combined arms attacks against fortifications, confined spaces, or other obstacles. The type only reached significant use in the Second World War, during which the United States, Soviet Union, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom (including members of the British Commonwealth) all produced flamethrower-equipped tanks.


title: Flame tank

text: A number of production methods were used. The flamethrowers used were either modified versions of existing infantry flame weapons (Flammpanzer I and II) or specially designed (Flammpanzer III). They were mounted externally (Flammpanzer II), replaced existing machine gun mounts, or replaced the tank's main armament (Flammpanzer III). Fuel for the flame weapon was either carried inside the tank, in armoured external storage, or in some cases in a special trailer behind the tank (Churchill Crocodile).


title: Flame tank

text: In comparison to man-portable flamethrowers, flame tanks carried much more fuel, and could fire longer-ranged bursts. Due to their ability to get in range of enemy positions in comparative safety, they were invaluable for rooting out heavy infantry fortifications. For example, as the main guns of US tanks were largely unsuccessful in penetrating the thick bunkers created by the Japanese defenders on islands such as Tarawa or Iwo Jima, flame throwing tanks were used instead while infantrymen provided the necessary security during their deployment. On Iwo Jima the marines learned that conventional firearms were relatively ineffective against the Japanese defenders and effectively used flamethrowers and grenades to flush out Japanese troops in the tunnels. One of the technological innovations of the battle, the eight Sherman M4A3R3 medium tanks equipped with flamethrowers ("Ronson" or "Zippo" tanks), proved very effective at clearing Japanese positions. The Shermans were difficult to disable, such that defenders were often compelled to assault them in the open, where they would face the full firepower of marine rifle and machine gun fire.


title: Flame tank

text: The maximum range of a flamethrower was typically less than 150 metres. Because of this limitation, the flamethrower was virtually useless on an open battlefield. However, they proved a potent psychological weapon against fortified troops. In many instances, troops surrendered or fled upon seeing a flame tank fire ranging shots, rather than risk being burned alive.


title: Flame tank

text: Experience of combat use of flamethrower tanks was mixed. German flamethrower variants of the Panzer II and Panzer III were both discontinued due to unsatisfactory performance and converted into assault guns or tank destroyers. The Panzer IV was never converted into a flame variant, despite having been configured for many other roles.


title: Flame tank

text: The mixed results were in part due to the development of infantry anti-tank weapons. At the start of the Second World War most infantry units had weapons with some effectiveness against armoured targets at ranges of thirty to fifty meters, like anti-tank rifles. Towards the end of the war, more powerful anti-tank weapons such as the bazooka, Panzerschreck, and PIAT were introduced which were fatal to tanks at ranges longer than the tank's flamethrower could reach.


title: Flame tank

text: British Churchill Crocodiles supported the U.S. Army in the summer of 1944 during the fight over the Normandy hedgerows or the "Bocage country" and used a squadron during the fighting at the Battle for Brest, notably aiding in the defeat of a Fallschirmjäger garrison at the siege of Montbarey fortress on 16 September 1944. The US Army received a smaller American designed flamethrower mounted upon the M4 Sherman tank during the same month of September 1944, assigned to the US Army's 70th Tank Battalion, the flamethrowing tanks went into action on 18 September 1944, where it was found that the weapons had a very short range as compared to the British "Crocodiles", and consequently were not very popular amongst US troops.


title: Flame tank

text: The Canadian and Dutch armies became two of the most active users of the Wasp variant of the universal carrier equipped with a flamethrower. While fighting in Europe, the Wasp was found to be extremely effective in prying German soldiers from their defenses. Indeed, the mechanical flamethrowers, although not impressive by themselves, struck horror into the minds of German troops, who feared them more than any other conventional weapon. Canadian troops used them during the Battle of the Scheldt.


title: Flame tank

text: In contrast to man-portable flamethrowers that were vulnerable to bullets and shrapnel making them extremely dangerous to their operators, flame tanks were extremely difficult to catch on fire or explode unless hit with an armor piercing round or explosive reaching the ammunition and engine fuel inside the tank's main hull. Tanks such as the Churchill Crocodile, which towed the flamethrower liquid container behind the actual tank, held no greater risk of fire than standard tanks. Although the towed container itself could be easily targeted, the tank and its crew remained well protected. The armored trailer and armored coupling of the Churchill Crocodile could be jettisoned from inside the tank if necessary.


title: Flame tank

text: Crews of flame tanks were not necessarily more vulnerable than those in the standard version of the tank (a Churchill Crocodile flame tank being more or less as vulnerable to anti-tank weapons as the standard Churchill), but the crews of flamethrowing tanks were often treated differently should they be captured alive by German troops. Due to the perceived inhumanity of the weapon itself, captured crews of such tanks were often treated much less humanely than crews of regular tanks. Instances of flametankers being executed by German troops upon capture were not uncommon. Subsequently, British tank crews received sixpence a day extra "danger money" due to the threat of arbitrary execution. Flame tanks also suffered from the fact, along with flamethrower-armed troops, that all enemy within range would usually open up on them due to the fear of the weapon.


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: Beyond the Sea is a 2004 American biographical musical drama film based on the life of singer-actor Bobby Darin. Starring in the lead role and using his own singing voice for the musical numbers, Kevin Spacey co-wrote, directed, and co-produced the film, which takes its title from Darin's song of the same name.


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: "Beyond the Sea" depicts Darin's rise to success in both the music and film industry during the 1950s and 1960s as well as his marriage to Sandra Dee, portrayed by Kate Bosworth.


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: As early as 1986, Barry Levinson intended to direct a film based on the life of Darin, and he began pre-production on the project in early 1997. When he eventually vacated the director's position, Spacey, along with Darin's son Dodd, acquired the film rights.


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: Filming for "Beyond the Sea" took place from November 2003 to January 2004. It was released in December 2004 to mixed reviews from critics and bombed at the box office. Dodd Darin, Sandra Dee and former Darin manager Steve Blauner responded with enthusiastic feedback to Spacey's work on the film. Despite a number of negative reviews, some critics praised Spacey's performance, largely because of his decision to use his own singing voice. He received a Golden Globe nomination.


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: Rather than providing a straightforward biography, the film weaves fantasy sequences with scenes containing somewhat fictionalized accounts of events in Darin's life, and throughout it, the adult singer interacts with his younger self. It chronicles his determination to rise from his working-class roots as Walden Robert Cassotto, a frail boy from The Bronx plagued by multiple bouts of rheumatic fever, who becomes a singer more famous than Frank Sinatra. To achieve that goal, he forms a band and struggles to find gigs at any nightclub that will hire him.


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: His agent gets Darin a recording contract with Atlantic Records, where the singer enjoys teen idol success with "Splish Splash". Not wanting to limit his appeal to rock and roll audiences, he changes his niche to big band singing and recording major hits, such as "Mack the Knife". To capitalize on his popularity with teenage and young adult audiences, Darin is cast in "Come September" opposite Sandra Dee. He falls in love with the 18-year-old actress; determined to marry her, he romantically seduces and enchants her with songs like "Beyond the Sea" and "Dream Lover".They elope, angering her mother. Darin finally realizes his own mother's dream when he is signed to appear at the famed Copacabana nightclub in Manhattan.


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: As success takes him on the road and away from home, Dee begins to drink heavily, and the couple fights frequently. Eventually, they separate and later reconcile. She gives birth to a son, Dodd. To his actress wife's chagrin, Darin is nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as a shell shocked soldier in "Captain Newman, M.D."


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: In the late 1960s, Darin becomes involved in the campaign to elect Robert F. Kennedy for President and contemplates a political career of his own. His sister Nina, knowing his past will be investigated closely if Bobby opts to enter the political arena, shocks him with the news his beloved mother actually was his grandmother and that he is Nina's illegitimate child, the son of a father she cannot identify.


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: Devastated, Darin becomes a recluse living in a trailer on the Big Sur coast in California. He finds himself out of step with changing music trends, and when he tries to adapt by incorporating folk music and protest songs into his repertoire, he finds himself rejected by the audience that once embraced him. Undaunted, he stages a show, complete with a gospel choir, at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, and against all odds, it is a huge success.


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: However, his triumph is short-lived. Suffering from blood poisoning following surgery to repair his mechanical heart valve, Darin is rushed to the hospital, where he dies at the age of 37. Following his death, he meets the younger counterpart of himself once again, and the two duet with "As Long as I'm Singing".


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: Cathy Moriarty-Gentile and Vanessa Redgrave were originally cast in "Beyond the Sea", but both actresses dropped out for unspecified reasons.


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: Beginning in 1986, Barry Levinson intended to produce and direct a biopic based on the life of Darin with funding from his own production company, Baltimore Pictures. With writer Lewis Colick, Levinson pitched the idea to Warner Bros. Pictures, who agreed to co-finance "The Bobby Darin Story" and cover distribution duties. Producer Arthur Friedman, a fan of Darin's work, began to laboriously negotiate for crucial music licensing rights with Darin's ex-wife, Sandra Dee; his son, Dodd; and former manager Steve Blauner. Colick wrote the first draft in 1987 before Warner Bros. and Levinson commissioned rewrites from Paul Attanasio and Paul Schrader. Their scripts, which kept "The Bobby Darin Story" title, concentrated on Sandra Dee's alcoholism and childhood molestation by her stepfather. David Gershenson, Darin's longtime friend, publicist and manager, joined the project as a historical consultant. Tom Cruise was reportedly under consideration to portray Darin.


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: Meanwhile, in May 1994, Warner Bros. optioned Dodd Darin's book, "Dream Lovers" (). James Toback and Lorenzo Carcaterra were hired to rewrite Attanasio's "The Bobby Darin Story", which they retitled "Dreamer" in an attempt to incorporate the information present in Dodd Darin's "Dream Lovers". Toback's script heavily focused on Darin's childhood rheumatic fever and lifelong struggle with heart disease. It also followed the previous Attanasio and Schrader scripts. Carcaterra's detailed research included Darin's music records, home videos, early television clips, authorized and unauthorized biographies, newspaper articles and magazine interviews. "I decided to meet with a lot of real-life people associated with Bobby Darin until [Levinson] said it was taking the focus off of Bobby," Carcaterra explained. As a result, some of the writer's favorite scenes, including a Las Vegas confrontation with Elvis Presley, were omitted from his third and final draft, which came in at a lengthy 164 pages.


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: Beginning in 1994, Kevin Spacey first offered his services to portray Bobby Darin, but the filmmakers believed the actor was too old. Around then, Spacey coincidentally performed the cover version of Darin's "That Old Black Magic" for the soundtrack of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil". The actor explained that after 1994, "at least three times a year, my manager would call over to Warner Bros. and say, 'Hey, what's happening with that Bobby Darin movie? You guys ever going to make it?'"


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: With filming to originally begin in late 1997, pre-production for "Dreamer" was commencing, and Levinson began to discuss the film with various actors, including Johnny Depp as Bobby Darin, Drew Barrymore as Sandra Dee, Bette Midler as Darin's birth mother Nina and Bruno Kirby as Nina's husband/Darin's right-hand man, Charlie Mafia. Levinson eventually vacated the director's position in favor of "Liberty Heights" (1999); because he was unable to get "Dreamer" into production, Warner Bros. lost the music licensing rights, which reverted to the Darin estate.


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: In March 1999, Dick Clark Productions announced their teaming with Dodd Darin on a biopic, with collaboration from producer Arthur Friedman, who had been developing both "The Bobby Darin Story" and "Dreamer" with Levinson at Warner Bros. since 1986. Shortly afterwards, Spacey was in discussions with Dodd Darin to star in the lead role. Spacey was able to acquire the film rights from Warner Bros. in early 2000. With the help of Dodd Darin, the actor also received exclusive music rights for no charge. With his Academy Award-winning performance in "American Beauty" (1999), Paramount Pictures became interested in distributing/financing "Beyond the Sea". The deal fell apart when Paramount told Spacey that he was too old for the role and instead wanted Leonardo DiCaprio. Beginning in October 2000, Spacey took vocal training lessons from Darin collaborator Roger Kellaway to give an accurate portrayal of the singer.


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: Spacey also kept close relations with the Darin family as a means to know he would treat the film "with respect." He sent letters to that effect to Sandra Dee and son Dodd. Steve Blauner (who is portrayed by John Goodman in the film) also served as a historical consultant. Dodd originally considered Spacey's plan to sing his father's material a sacrilege but eventually fell into sync with Spacey's deeply empathetic approach to Darin's life.


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: Tom Epperson, who had struck up a friendship with Spacey while writing an early screenplay draft of "The Shipping News", was hired to write a new draft for "Beyond the Sea". Epperson's script included Darin's penchant for orgies after his divorce with Sandra Dee. Spacey, finding the Epperson script to be overtly dark and morbid, began to rewrite "Beyond the Sea", incorporating info from the 1987 Lewis Colick script. Spacey acknowledged he portrayed Darin too sympathetically and decided not to depict the darker side of Darin's life centrally. "The other scripts made Bobby [Darin] a rather unlikable figure," he explained. "I was not interested in making a conventional biopic, as you can see from the results. I was interested in making an exuberant celebration of an entertainer in a way that would be uplifting for an audience."


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: By making the biopic, Dodd Darin and Spacey acknowledged the similar career experiences between Darin and Spacey. "A lot of people doubted my dad's abilities, and Kevin's had doubters and naysayers," Dodd commented. "But both [men] were willing to take risks, and both were very resilient. My dad would always try new things. You could never pin him down. Kevin's career is similar." David Evanier, author of "Roman Candle: The Life of Bobby Darin" (), said "You can put Kevin's obsessiveness about getting the film made right up there with Bobby's obsessiveness. He's also the ideal person to play Bobby. He has an uncanny physical resemblance to him, and he also has Bobby's intensity and dark side. Also, there's the connection with his mother. Bobby's mother's belief in him sent him soaring. Kevin's mother wanted him to make this film. Kevin sees the film as an act of devotion to his mother."


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: "I think the movie is about mothers and sons," Spacey said, referring to Darin's relationship with his mother Polly and sister Nina. Spacey's mother, Kathleen Fowler, died of brain cancer just before production started, as such, the film is dedicated in her memory, with the text "for Mom", being displayed before the credits. "I made the movie for all mothers, but especially for my mother. She introduced me to Bobby Darin. When she got very ill in 2002, I stopped everything and took care of her. We constantly played Bobby Darin records, and I'd let her listen to the tracks I was recording. I'm glad she passed knowing this was the movie I was going to make." After his award-winning performances in "The Usual Suspects" and "American Beauty", Spacey "chose to move away from dark, sarcastic characters, and instead play damaged but good-hearted men" in films like "Pay It Forward", "K-PAX" and "The Shipping News". The actor was criticized for his career move; Spacey acknowledged the similarities when Darin integrated folk music and protest songs.


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: In February 2003, it was announced that production for "Beyond the Sea" was becoming fast tracked with Spacey as lead actor, co-writer, producer and director, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) agreed to cover distribution duties in North America. In August, with principal photography to begin in just weeks, MGM dropped out as distributor and main financier over scheduling conflicts. To accumulate financing of the film's $25 million budget, which came from foreign production companies, Spacey performed six songs at the November 2003 American Film Market. Lions Gate Entertainment quickly picked up the distribution duties, and Spacey found enough investors from England and Germany to continue moving forward on production.


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: In addition, Spacey declined to be paid for his work as actor, director, co-writer, and producer on "Beyond the Sea". A portion of the $25 million budget came from his own Trigger Street Productions. Producer Arthur Friedman, who had shepherded the biopic since 1987, commented that he and Spacey experienced creative differences during pre-production. Friedman remarked that he was not involved with "Beyond the Sea" once production began in Germany. Filming was originally set to begin in June 2003 before it was pushed to November 7, 2003, lasting until late January 2004. Eighty percent of "Beyond the Sea" was shot using sound stages at Babelsberg Studios in Germany and Pinewood Studios in England. Lulworth Cove, Dorset, South West England doubled for Darin's setting of reclusiveness in Big Sur, California. In an attempt to convincingly portray Darin, particularly during the early stages of the singer's life depicted in the film, Spacey hired prosthetic makeup designer Peter King from "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy.


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: To promote "Beyond the Sea", Spacey and Phil Ramone devised a 12-city United States concert tour titled "An Evening Celebrating the Music of Bobby Darin", which consisted of Spacey performing with a 19-piece band. "It's me singing Bobby and talking about Bobby and talking a little bit about the movie," Spacey explained in June 2004. Spacey dressed in costumes from the movie for the tour, which started in San Francisco and traveled through Los Angeles, New York City, Boston, Chicago, Miami and Atlantic City before ending in the Wayne Newton Theatre at the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas. Spacey's performance at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on December 11, 2004 received a standing ovation. Dodd Darin commented, "It was said about my dad that he had some big brass ones. To do a film about my dad is one thing, but it's another thing to go out and attempt to work a nightclub. Kevin's got a lot of courage. I think he sounds good." The film was shown and promoted at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2004.


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: Beginning in October 2004, the Writers Guild of America, West conducted arbitration to determine writing credit for the scripts that had been written since Barry Levinson, who developed the film at Warner Bros. in 1987, left the project. Lewis Colick, James Toback and Tom Epperson disassociated themselves for credit by the WGA. The Guild justified credit to Colick, who wrote the first draft of "The Bobby Darin Story" in 1987, and Kevin Spacey. Actor-writer Jeffrey Meek believed he deserved credit; he was paid $85,000 of a promised $125,000 to settle his claim.


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: Spacey said Meek was "not a hired writer" on "Beyond the Sea". "He turned in a draft, but it was a draft based on earlier material based on my own screenplays," Spacey said. Meek said he was hired by producer Harvey Friedman, a friend who helped connect him with Spacey, and whom supports his claim to have produced 12 drafts, including one that was reported by "Variety" to have been greenlighted by MGM in early 2003. "He bought my material and then acted like I didn't exist," Meek explained. "I'm not saying I'm Rembrandt, but it's like someone buying a painting and then scratching the name off of it and putting their own there."


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: "Beyond the Sea" received mixed reviews from critics. Based on 147 reviews collected by "Rotten Tomatoes", 42% of the critics gave the film a positive review, with an average score of 5.2/10. Its consensus states "Kevin Spacey's bio of singer Bobby Darin is either a fearless piece of showmanship or an embarrassing vanity project, according to critics." "Metacritic" calculated a weighted average score of 46/100, based on 35 reviews.


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: Sandra Dee, Dodd Darin, Jimmy Scalia and Steve Blauner responded enthusiastically to Spacey's work on the film. Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" felt that Spacey looked too old to portray Darin convincingly and called the film "one of the most embarrassing spectacles of 2004" and "jaw-droppingly awful, a misbegotten and ill-conceived vanity project." Desson Thomson from "The Washington Post" praised the actor's work, but also felt Spacey did not convincingly portray Darin in his early music career. Internet reviewer James Berardinelli found the storyline to be overtly clichéd, but added, "Despite the choppy narrative and inappropriate casting of Spacey, "Beyond the Sea" managed to keep me entertained."


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: Roger Ebert gave a largely positive review, stating, "Kevin Spacey believes he was born to play Bobby Darin. I believe he was born to play more interesting characters... In his own best work, Spacey has achieved genius; he is better as an actor than Darin ever was as a singer." Stephen Holden of "The New York Times" felt that "with "Beyond the Sea", Spacey crawls back from his doomed quest to be a Tom Hanks-like everyman to his niche on the underbelly of Hollywood's pantheon. The movie's a mess, and at 45, Spacey is far too old to play Darin. Yet the star captures his desperation, his braggadocio, and yes, his magnetism." Peter Travers, writing in "Rolling Stone" magazine, believed Spacey could not prevent "the movie from groaning under the weight of biopic clichés. But the actor forges a bond with his subject that rights all wrongs. Doing his own singing (an uncanny imitation), Spacey is a marvel."


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: The film opened in limited release in the United States on December 17, 2004 and went into wider release on December 29. It grossed $6,318,709 in the US and $2,128,906 in international markets for a total worldwide box office of $8,447,615. It was declared a box office bomb because it did not make back its $25 million budget.


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: Spacey was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy but lost to Jamie Foxx for "Ray". He and Phil Ramone were also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media, but lost to the producers of "Ray".


title: Beyond the Sea (2004 film)

text: On June 7, 2005, the film was released on DVD in widescreen anamorphic format for Region 1 markets. It features two Dolby Digital English audio tracks (one in 2.0 Stereo and the other in 5.1 Surround Sound), director's commentary by Spacey, and a making-of featurette.


title: Yugoslav dinar

text: The dinar (Cyrillic script: динар) was the currency of the three Yugoslav states: the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (formerly the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes), the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia between 1918 and 2003. The dinar was subdivided into 100 "para" (Cyrillic script: пара).


title: Yugoslav dinar

text: In the early 1990s, economic mismanagement made the government bankrupt and forced it to take money from the savings of the country's citizens. This caused severe and prolonged hyperinflation, which has been described as the worst in history. Large amounts of money were printed, with coins becoming redundant and inflation rates reaching over one billion per cent per year. This hyperinflation caused five revaluations between 1990 and 1994; in total there were eight distinct dinari. Six of the eight have been given distinguishing names and separate ISO 4217 codes. The highest denomination banknote was 500 billion dinars, which became worthless a fortnight after it was printed.


title: Yugoslav dinar

text: Until 1918, the dinar was the currency of Serbia. It then became the currency of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, circulating alongside the krone in Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, with 1 dinar = 4 kronen. The first coins and banknotes bearing the name of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes were issued in 1920, until which time Serbian coins and banknotes circulated. In 1929, the name of the country changed to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and this was reflected on the currency.


title: Yugoslav dinar

text: In 1931, an exchange rate of 56.4 dinara to the U.S. dollar was set, which changed to 44 dinara in 1933. In 1937, a tourist exchange rate of 250 dinara to the British pound was established.


title: Yugoslav dinar

text: In 1941, Yugoslavia was invaded and split up, with the dinar remaining currency in Nedić's Serbia as Serbian dinar). The kuna was introduced in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (Independent State of Croatia) at par with the dinar, whilst the Bulgarian lev, Italian lira and German Reichsmark circulated in those part of Yugoslavia occupied by these countries.


title: Yugoslav dinar

text: In 1945, as Yugoslavia began to be reconstituted, the Yugoslav dinar replaced the Serbian dinar, Independent State of Croatia kuna and other occupation currencies, with the rates of exchanged being 1 Yugoslav dinar = 20 Serbian dinara = 40 kuna.


title: Yugoslav dinar

text: Yugoslavia was a founding member of the International Monetary Fund. At the time, other Communist countries avoided signing up to it. The dinar was initially pegged to the US dollar at a rate of 50 dinars to the dollar. By 1955, the peg had been depreciated to 300 dinars to the dollar, but this was only applicable to a limited number of transactions. For the vast majority of transactions, a system of multiple exchange rates with differing levels of government intervention applied. Depending on the transaction the system offered over 200 different exchange rates ranging from 600 or so dinars to the dollar to over 1,150. This multiple exchange rate system was abolished in 1961 and replaced with a single pegged rate of 750 dinars to the dollar.


title: Yugoslav dinar

text: The revalued currency was initially pegged to the US dollar at a rate of 12.50 dinars to the dollar. In late 1971, this was revised to 17 dinars to the dollar. Following the Nixon Shock, Yugoslavia adopted a market exchange rate system. A foreign exchange market was established in Belgrade in which only banks could participate; this set the exchange rates for the entire country. This allowed the dinar to float (or perhaps more accurately, sink) more or less freely. Under this system, the exchange rate reached about 29 dinars to the dollar in 1981, 127 dinars to the dollar by 1984, and 457 dinars to the dollar by 1987.


title: Yugoslav dinar

text: Yugoslavia's chronic inflation was poorly managed. Between 1971 and 1991, Yugoslavia's annualized inflation was 76 percent. Only Brazil and Zaire had higher levels of inflation.


title: Yugoslav dinar

text: The second revaluation took place on 1 January 1990, at a ratio of 10,000 to 1. During this period, the constituent republics began to leave the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Four of the six republics declared independence and issued their own currencies shortly after. This was the last dinar that bore the coat of arms and the name of the "Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia" in multiple languages.


title: Yugoslav dinar

text: Serbian enclaves in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in occupied territories in Croatia also issued currencies in dinar, equivalent to and revalued together with the Yugoslav dinar. These were the Krajina dinar and the Republika Srpska dinar.


title: Yugoslav dinar

text: The third revaluation took place on 1 July 1992, at a ratio of 10 to 1. Hyperinflation in the country began during this currency's period of circulation. This dinar was issued in the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which consisted of the remaining republics of Serbia and Montenegro. People started to use foreign hard currency, such as Deutschmarks, to mitigate some of the problems of hyperinflation. (This federation split in 2006 and Montenegro currently uses the Euro as its currency, though it does not mint it.)


title: Yugoslav dinar

text: Yugoslavia re-denominated the dinar for the fourth time on 1 October 1993, at a ratio of 1 million to 1. This did not mitigate the hyperinflation, and the 1993 dinar (ISO 4217 code: YUO) lasted for only three months.


title: Yugoslav dinar

text: Coinage became redundant. The 1993 dinar had the largest denomination out of all incarnations of Yugoslavian currency: the banknote, featuring Jovan Jovanović Zmaj had a face value of 500 billion () dinara (right). Wages became worthless; if paid in cash, workers had to rush out and spend their wages before they lost their value overnight. Many businesses started to pay wages in goods instead, and a simple barter system developed. Businesses with good connections to politicians could still get access to hard currency. Some shops, instead of rewriting their prices several times a day, started pricing goods in "bods" (points), often equivalent to hard currency such as one Deutschmark. The winter of 1993 was particularly hard for pensioners; if a monthly pension was spent immediately, it was still barely enough to buy three litres of milk. Many people relied on connections to friends and family abroad (who could provide hard currency) or in the countryside (who could grow food).


title: Yugoslav dinar

text: Yugoslavia re-denominated the dinar for the fifth time on 1 January 1994, at a ratio of 1 billion () to 1.


title: Yugoslav dinar

text: The 1994 dinar (ISO 4217 code: YUG) was the shortest-lived out of all incarnations of Yugoslavian currency, as hyperinflation continued to intensify, and only one coin (1 dinar) was issued for it. Towards the end of the 1994 dinar, the National Bank overprinted and reissued 10 million dinara banknotes from the 1992 dinar (right).


title: Yugoslav dinar

text: On 24 January 1994, the "novi dinar" (nominative plural: "novi dinari", Cyrillic script: нови динар, нови динари; genitive plural: "novih dinara", Cyrillic: нових динара; novi means new) was introduced. This was not a revaluation of the dinar. Instead, the novi dinar was pegged at par to the Deutsche Mark. On the day of the introduction of the novi dinar, the exchange rate of the previous dinar to the Deutsche Mark, and, hence, to the novi dinar, was approximately 1 DM = 13 million dinara. Despite not being pegged to the newest currency, the previous dinar did not fall further in value, remaining at about 12 million "1994" dinar to the novi dinar. The overall impact of the hyperinflation was that 1 novi dinar equalled approximately 1.2 third (hard) dinara from before 1990, 1.2 Federation dinara, or 2.4 pre-war dinara. The "novi" portion of the name was abandoned in 2000.


title: Yugoslav dinar

text: In 2003, as Yugoslavia became the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, the Yugoslav dinar in the constituent Republic of Serbia was replaced by the Serbian dinar (CSD) at par.


title: Yugoslav dinar

text: On 6 November 1999, Montenegro decided that, besides the Yugoslav dinar, the Deutsche Mark would also be an official currency. On 13 November 2000, the dinar was dropped in Montenegro and the Deutsche Mark (by that time defined in terms of the euro) became the only currency there. Deutsche Mark ceased to be a legal tender in Germany and was physically replaced by the euro on January 1, 2002, which is also when Montenegro unilaterally adopted the euro. In 2003, after the creation of Serbia and Montenegro, the dinar, by then only used in Serbia, was replaced by the Serbian dinar. In practice, introduction of Serbian dinar functioned as a name change with preservation of the at par value and essentially the same design solution except for the inscription. Old banknotes remained in official use in parallel with the new ones until January 1, 2007, while the National Bank of Serbia provided exchange of the old banknotes services until the end of 2012.


title: Yugoslav dinar

text: In 1920, the first coins were minted in the name of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. They were zinc 5 and 10 para and nickel-bronze 25 para. These were followed, in 1925, by nickel-bronze 50 para, 1 and 2 dinara. From 1931, coins were minted in the name of Yugoslavia, starting with silver 10 and 20 dinara, followed by silver 50 dinara in 1932. In 1938, aluminium-bronze 50 para, 1 and 2 dinara, nickel 10 dinara and reduced size, silver 20 and 50 dinara were introduced. These were the last coins issued before the Second World War.


title: Yugoslav dinar

text: In 1945, zinc 50 para, 1, 2 and 5 dinara were introduced, followed in 1953 by aluminium coins for the same denominations. In 1955, aluminium-bronze 10, 20 and 50 dinara were added.


title: Yugoslav dinar

text: In 1966, brass 5, 10, 20 and 50 para, and cupro-nickel 1 dinar coins (dated 1965) were introduced. In 1971, nickel-brass 2 and 5 dinara were introduced, followed by cupro-nickel 10 dinara in 1976. Production of 5, 10 and 20 para coins ceased in 1981, with bronze 25 and 50 para being introduced the following year. Nickel-brass 20, 50 and 100 dinara were introduced in 1985 and production of all coins less than 10 dinara stopped the next year. In 1988, brass 10, 20, 50 and 100 dinara were introduced. These four coins were issued until 1989.


title: Yugoslav dinar

text: In 1990, coins for 10, 20 and 50 para, 1, 2 and 5 dinara were introduced. The highest two denominations were minted in small numbers in 1992, the other denominations having ceased production in 1991.


title: Yugoslav dinar

text: Coins were issued for this currency in 1992 in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10 and 50 dinara. The 1, 2 and 5 dinara were bronze, whilst the 10 and 50 dinara were nickel-brass. The coins bore the state title "Yugoslavia" (Jugoslavija in the Latin alphabet and Југославија in Cyrillic) in its simplest form without any modifier.


title: Yugoslav dinar

text: Coins were issued in 1993 in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10 and 50 dinara struck in nickel-brass, and 100 dinara struck in brass. Brass 500 dinara coins were also struck but not issued, most being remelted. The design of these coins was similar to that of coins of the fifth dinar, except that the sixth dinar coins bore the state title "FR Yugoslavia" (SR Jugoslavija in Latin and СР Југославија in Cyrillic).


title: Yugoslav dinar

text: In 1994, brass 1 and 5 para, and nickel-brass 10 and 50 para, and 1 novi dinar were introduced. In 2000 the word novi was dropped from the currency and new, brass 50 para, 1, 2 and 5 dinara coins were introduced.


title: Thomas Kean

text: Thomas Howard Kean ( ; born April 21, 1935) is an American businessman, academic administrator and politician. A member of the Republican Party, Kean served as the 48th governor of New Jersey from 1982 to 1990. Following his tenure as governor, Kean served as the president of Drew University for 15 years, retiring in 2005.


title: Thomas Kean

text: In 2002, Kean was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as chairman of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, widely known as the 9/11 Commission. In this position, Kean led the commission's investigation into the causes of the September 11 attacks in order to provide to prevent recommendations to prevent future terrorist attacks. Kean is the father of politician and representative-elect Thomas Kean Jr.


title: Thomas Kean

text: Kean was born in New York City to a long line of New Jersey politicians and family of Dutch Americans. His mother was Elizabeth (née Howard) and his father, Robert Kean, was a U.S. Representative. His grandfather Hamilton Fish Kean and great-uncle John Kean both served as U.S. Senators. His second great-uncle was Hamilton Fish, a U.S. Senator, Governor of New York, and the 26th U.S. Secretary of State. Kean's relative, William Livingston, was a delegate to the Continental Congress and the first Governor of New Jersey. His mother is also of partial Irish descent as a descendant of John Neilson.


title: Thomas Kean

text: Kean was initially educated at The Potomac School in McLean, Virginia. When he reached the fourth grade, he entered St. Albans School. In 1946, at the age of eleven, his parents then enrolled him at St. Mark's School in Southborough, Massachusetts, the alma mater of his father and two older brothers.


title: Thomas Kean

text: After graduating from St. Mark's, he attended Princeton University and graduated with a B.A. in history in 1957 after completing a senior thesis titled "Niemcewicz (The Biography of a Polish Patriot, 1756-1842, Including His Impressions of America, 1797-1807)." While at Princeton, Kean participated in the American Whig-Cliosophic Society. After working on his father's unsuccessful senatorial campaign, and as a history teacher for three years at St. Mark's School, Kean attended Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City and earned his M.A. in history.


title: Thomas Kean

text: Kean met Deborah Bye at a party in Manhattan and the couple began dating in October 1966. Bye and Kean married at the Old Drawyers Church in Odessa, Delaware, on June 3, 1967. Kean was a longtime resident of Livingston, New Jersey, where he moved to in 1967 during his first campaign for office.


title: Thomas Kean

text: Originally a teacher of history and government, Kean was elected, in 1967, as a moderate Republican to the New Jersey General Assembly. He ran with Philip Kaltenbacher, a Short Hills Republican who had served as an aide to Assemblyman Irwin Kimmelman in 1964 through 1966. (Kimmelman would later serve as Attorney General in Kean's administration.) In the Republican primary, Kean and Kaltenbacher defeated Donald Fitz Maurice, Vivian Tompkins Lange, the sister of former U.S. Attorney William F. Tompkins, and Joseph Shanahan.


title: Thomas Kean

text: At the start of the Assembly session in 1972, Democratic leadership had wanted to name S. Howard Woodson of Trenton as Speaker, until Assemblyman David Friedland made a deal as one of four Democrats who voted to give the minority Republicans control of the General Assembly, electing Kean as Assembly Speaker. Woodson would have been the Assembly's first African American Speaker, and charges of racism were leveled by fellow Democrats against Friedland. In the next Assembly, in 1974, the Democrats united behind Woodson for Speaker; Kean then became the minority leader of the Assembly. In 1973, he briefly served as acting New Jersey governor. In 1974, Kean ran for New Jersey's 5th congressional district, but lost the Republican primary to Millicent Fenwick by 0.32%.


title: Thomas Kean

text: During the 1976 presidential campaign, Kean served as Gerald Ford's campaign manager for the state of New Jersey.


title: Thomas Kean

text: In 1977, Kean ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for the governor of New Jersey. Although he spent most of his career as a political moderate, in this race Kean ran to the right of New Jersey Senate Minority Leader Raymond Bateman. Kean was unable to obtain the endorsement of many county Republican chairmen, or Gerald Ford, despite having served as his campaign director for the state of New Jersey the previous year. Bateman defeated Kean and won the nomination, though Bateman went on to lose the general election to Brendan Byrne.


title: Thomas Kean

text: After the election, Governor Byrne appointed Kean as a commissioner on the board of the New Jersey Highway Authority. Kean also worked as a political commentator on New Jersey public television.


title: Thomas Kean

text: Kean fared better four years later, in 1981, when he again ran for governor. Kean made campaign promises to foster job creation, clean up toxic waste sites, reduce crime, and to preserve home rule. He also received the endorsement of Gerald Ford his second time running for governor.


title: Thomas Kean

text: Kean defeated Democratic Representative Jim Florio in the closest election in New Jersey gubernatorial election history; Kean won by 1,797 votes. The election was controversial due to the involvement of the Republican National Committee, who appointed a Ballot Security Task Force that allegedly intimidated voters. One of his strategists for the Kean campaign in 1981 was Roger J. Stone, a self-proclaimed "GOP hitman."


title: Thomas Kean

text: Kean proved hugely popular in office. In striking contrast to his slim 1981 victory, he won re-election in 1985 with the largest margin of victory ever recorded for a gubernatorial race in New Jersey, defeating Peter Shapiro, then Essex County Executive, 70%–29%. Kean won every municipality in the state except Audubon Park and Chesilhurst in Camden County and Roosevelt in Monmouth County. His coattails were long enough for the Republicans to take control of the General Assembly, flipping it from a 44–36 Democratic majority to a 50–30 Republican majority.


title: Thomas Kean

text: In 1988, reflecting his stature as an up-and-coming leader of the Republican Party's moderate wing, Kean delivered the keynote speech at the 1988 Republican National Convention in New Orleans. The same year, he also authored a book, "The Politics of Inclusion", published by Free Press, which urged political cooperation among historically divided interest groups and politicians.


title: Thomas Kean

text: Limited to two consecutive terms as governor by the New Jersey State Constitution, Kean left office in January 1990 as one of the most popular political figures in New Jersey political history. Former New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Doug Forrester, New Jersey Congressman Bob Franks, and other leading New Jersey and national Republican figures began their political and public policy careers in his state administration. He was succeeded by James Florio, who won a landslide victory in November 1989.


title: Thomas Kean

text: In the aftermath of Governor Kean's gubernatorial tenure, the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University New Brunswick's Center on the American Governor, established the Thomas H. Kean Archive.


title: Thomas Kean

text: While governor, Kean served on the President's Education Policy Advisory Committee and chaired the Education Commission of the States and the National Governor's Association Task Force on Teaching."


title: Thomas Kean

text: Kean gained a degree of national recognition as the spokesperson for a New Jersey tourism commercial, in which he recited the state's tourism motto: "New Jersey and You: Perfect Together." The campaign, which was revived in 1998 by Governor Christine Todd Whitman, capped a long-term, multibillion-dollar effort to restore New Jersey's shoreline as an environmentally sustainable cornerstone in the state's tourism industry.


title: Thomas Kean

text: One unique facet of Kean's leadership was his advocacy for the arts. Leaders in the arts community praised the Governor for his work. This work culminated in the creation of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, a highly successful cultural and entertainment center in Newark. Although its creation required roughly $200 million in funding, Kean believed that the cultural center had the power to revitalize the city, making the risk worth it. The Governor also believed that improving the city would strengthen the state as a whole. Kean has remained involved in advocacy for the arts years after his time as governor, criticizing recent state-level funding cuts for being too quick to do away with arts spending.


title: Thomas Kean

text: Kean's inclusive practice of government remains central to his legacy. This legacy found expression in his urban policies and outreach to traditional Democratic constituencies, his aggressive divestment of public retirement funds from South Africa, embrace of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as an opportunity to raise awareness of race on a statewide basis, and his successful primary sponsorship of the bill that established the Educational Opportunity Fund. This fund appropriated $2 million for direct student aid and support programs for low-income students who demonstrated academic capability but lack sufficient preparation for college. It continues to serve disadvantaged New Jersey students nearly 50 years later. The fund's longevity is indicative of Kean's long-term outlook and the overall strength of his legislation.


title: Thomas Kean

text: Following the end of his second Gubernatorial term, Kean was named President of Drew University, a small liberal arts university in Madison, New Jersey. Kean's considerable standing as a popular former governor of the state was helpful as he undertook an upgrading of the university's campus and academic programs by stressing the primacy of teaching, the creative use of technology in the liberal arts, and the importance of international education. During Kean's presidency, applications to Drew increased by more than 40 percent; the endowment nearly tripled; and more than $60 million was committed to construction of new buildings and renovation of residence halls and other older buildings. Kean was extremely popular among the student body; he would frequently eat lunch unannounced with students in the dining hall, and was a regular spectator at Drew sporting events. Kean served as Drew's president until 2005, teaching a highly selective political science seminar.


title: Thomas Kean

text: While leading Drew University, Kean also continued to expand his role as a national political leader, forging close working relationships with the administrations of George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton (with whom he had worked closely in the National Governors Association) and George W. Bush, who saw Kean as an important national political ally.


title: Thomas Kean

text: Former Heritage Foundation foreign policy analyst Michael Johns and other national policy and political leaders were recruited by Kean to support and help administer his growing involvement in a broad range of national policy initiatives in the fields of education, environmental, low-income housing, foreign policy and other issues. As governor, Kean had some degree of national recognition as the spokesperson for a New Jersey tourism commercial, in which he cited the state's tourism motto: "New Jersey and You: Perfect Together." With Johns' support, Kean also quickly established foreign policy and national security credentials following his governorship that ultimately proved important in his gaining appointment by President George W. Bush to head the 9/11 Commission.


title: Thomas Kean

text: Beginning in 1990, Kean for the first time began expressing views on foreign policy and national security matters, views that generally mirrored those of the Republican Party. In a December 15, 1991, speech to The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., Kean endorsed the free trade initiatives under way by the administration of then-President George H. W. Bush. He also advocated continued U.S. aid to anti-communist resistance forces in Afghanistan, Angola, and to those engaged in supporting democratic change in the former Soviet Union. "To those supporting the Afghan resistance," Kean told the Heritage Foundation audience in 1991, "I say, carry on."


title: Thomas Kean

text: Kean quickly was appointed to the boards of several important foreign policy bodies, including the U.S. government-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which was heavily engaged in supporting democracy-building programs in former Eastern bloc and other nations around the world, and a Presidential advisory commission on a post-Castro Cuba, chaired by former U.S. Presidential Republican candidate Steve Forbes.


title: Thomas Kean

text: Several years later, in 1997, Kean was appointed as an advisory board member of President Clinton's One America Initiative. He also serves as an advisory board member for the Partnership for a Secure America.


title: Thomas Kean

text: Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States by al-Qaeda, political pressure grew for an independent commission to independently investigate why the attacks were not prevented by U.S. national security organizations, including the Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, National Security Agency and others, and to provide recommendations for preventing future terrorist attacks.


title: Thomas Kean

text: The commission reassembled in Washington on July 22, 2014, for the tenth anniversary of the issuance of its report. It assessed how well the government is performing given such terrorist threats and make recommendations for changes moving forward.


title: Thomas Kean

text: Kean served as a co-chair of the National Security Preparedness Group (NSPG) at the Bipartisan Policy Center.


title: Thomas Kean

text: Bush initially selected former Nixon's Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger to head the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11 Commission). But on December 13, 2002, Kissinger resigned as the commission's chairman, under pressure because of potential conflicts with his global business consultancy.


title: Thomas Kean

text: Noting Kean's post-gubernatorial foreign policy involvement and his reputation as a consensus-oriented political leader, Bush nominated Kean to succeed Kissinger in leading the important and politically sensitive Commission. The commission is widely considered the most important independent U.S. government commission since the Warren Commission, which was charged with investigating the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and perhaps the most important in American history given its mammoth responsibility for investigating the causes of the first foreign attack on the U.S. mainland since the War of 1812, and recommending steps to defend the U.S. from future attacks. Kean's appointment to head the commission, and later the work and final report of the commission, drew substantial global attention.


title: Thomas Kean

text: Just as some had criticized Kissinger's nomination, Kean's leadership of the commission also drew some criticism. Some alleged that Kean did not have the depth of foreign policy and national security expertise needed to manage an investigation so integral to the future of American national security. Supporters of Kean in the Bush administration and elsewhere, however, countered that Kean's work since 1990 as a board member of the National Endowment for Democracy, the post-Castro Cuba Commission and his foreign policy and national security commentary and analysis following his governorship established adequate national security and foreign policy credentials for him to assume such a critically important assignment.


title: Thomas Kean

text: In December 2003, Kean said that the September 11 attacks could have been prevented, stating: "As you read the report, you're going to have a pretty clear idea what wasn't done and what should have been done. This was not something that had to happen."


title: Thomas Kean

text: On April 4, 2004, Kean again stated that the September 11 attacks could have been prevented, saying that the United States government should have acted sooner to dismantle al-Qaeda and responded more quickly to other terrorist threats. "When we actually saw bin Laden on the ground, using the Predator or other means, did we have...actionable intelligence? Should we have sent a cruise missile into a site where he was at that point? I think those early opportunities are clear. We had him. We saw him. I think maybe we could have done something about it."


title: Thomas Kean

text: On July 22, 2004, the Commission issued its final report, the "9/11 Commission Report", which concluded that the CIA and the FBI had ill-served President Bush and the American people in failing to predict or prevent the September 11 attacks, which the report concluded was preventable.


title: Thomas Kean

text: On August 15, 2006, a book by Kean and 9/11 Commission Vice Chairman Lee H. Hamilton, titled "Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission", was released regarding the September 11 attacks and the September 11 Commission.


title: Thomas Kean

text: In the book, Kean and Hamilton write that the 9/11 Commission was so frustrated with repeated misstatements by The Pentagon and Federal Aviation Administration that it considered an investigation into possible deception by these government bodies concerning their response to the attacks.


title: Thomas Kean

text: Kean served as a paid consultant and spokesman for the ABC miniseries "The Path to 9/11", which aired nationally and without commercial interruption on September 10, 2006. On September 11, the second part of the miniseries aired, also without commercial interruption, with the exception of a 20-minute break at 9 pm ET, when President Bush addressed the nation on the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.


title: Thomas Kean

text: While not technically considered a documentary by ABC, prior to its airing, the series drew criticism for misrepresenting facts leading up the September 11 attacks. Many former high-ranking Clinton administration officials, including Clinton himself, and other scholars, publicly questioned the accuracy of the miniseries and asked that it not be aired. Former secretary of state Madeleine Albright called the miniseries' portrayal of her "false and defamatory." Former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen Barbara Bodine also strongly criticized her character's portrayal, complaining in the "Los Angeles Times" about the "mythmakers" who created the film, calling the project "false."


title: Thomas Kean

text: On July 4, 2007, the terrorist group al-Qaeda publicly released a video, featuring its Deputy Chief Ayman al-Zawahri urging all Muslims to unite in a holy war against the U.S. in Iraq and elsewhere. The 95-minute video was discovered and released by U.S. intelligence sources and, in addition to al-Zawahri's comments, prominently featured video excerpts of Kean citing al-Qaeda as one of the most formidable security threats that the U.S. has ever confronted, presumably with the intention of bolstering the morale of al-Qaeda supporters through Kean's citation of the magnitude of the movement's strength and threat. Comments by Kean cited on the video include a reference to the fact that al-Qaeda remains as strong in 2007 as it was before the September 11, 2001, attacks.


title: Thomas Kean

text: The video also appeared to validate that al-Qaeda was closely monitoring U.S. political developments, especially including the work of the September 11 Commission, which Kean chaired. It also suggested that al-Qaeda intended to focus not just on engaging the West in Iraq, but also in other countries. "As for the second half of the long-term plan," al-Zawahri says on the video, "it consists of hurrying to the fields of Jihad like Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia for Jihadi preparation and training."