title: Harlem

text: The most significant shifts in the racial composition of Central Harlem between 2000 and 2010 were the White population's increase by 402% (9,067), the Hispanic / Latino population's increase by 43% (7,982), and the Black population's decrease by 11% (9,544). While the growth of the Hispanic / Latino was predominantly in Central Harlem North, the decrease in the Black population was slightly greater in Central Harlem South, and the drastic increase in the White population was split evenly across the two census tabulation areas. Meanwhile, the Asian population grew by 211% (1,927) but remained a small minority, and the small population of all other races increased by 4% (142).


title: Harlem

text: The entirety of Community District 10, which comprises Central Harlem, had 116,345 inhabitants as of NYC Health's 2018 Community Health Profile, with an average life expectancy of 76.2 years. This is lower than the median life expectancy of 81.2 for all New York City neighborhoods. Most inhabitants are children and middle-aged adults: 21% are between the ages of 0–17, while 35% are between 25 and 44, and 24% between 45 and 64. The ratio of college-aged and elderly residents was lower, at 10% and 11% respectively.


title: Harlem

text: As of 2017, the median household income in Community District 10 was $49,059. In 2018, an estimated 21% of Community District 10 residents lived in poverty, compared to 14% in all of Manhattan and 20% in all of New York City. Around 12% of residents were unemployed, compared to 7% in Manhattan and 9% in New York City. Rent burden, or the percentage of residents who have difficulty paying their rent, is 48% in Community District 10, compared to the boroughwide and citywide rates of 45% and 51% respectively. Based on this calculation, , Community District 10 is considered to be gentrifying: according to the Community Health Profile, the district was low-income in 1990 and has seen above-median rent growth up to 2010.


title: Harlem

text: In 2010, the population of West Harlem was 110,193. West Harlem, consisting of Manhattanville and Hamilton Heights, is predominately Hispanic / Latino, while African Americans make up about a quarter of the West Harlem population.


title: Harlem

text: In 2010, the population of East Harlem was 120,000. East Harlem originally formed as a predominantly Italian American neighborhood. The area began its transition from Italian Harlem to Spanish Harlem when Puerto Rican migration began after World War II, though in recent decades, many Dominican, Mexican and Salvadoran immigrants have also settled in East Harlem. East Harlem is now predominantly Hispanic / Latino, with a significant African-American presence.


title: Harlem

text: In the 2020 census, Harlem's demographics were broken up into North Harlem, South Harlem, Hamilton Heights, West Harlem, and Morningside Heights. North Harlem had 40,000+ Black residents being the largest concentration of the black population of the Harlem area, 20,000 to 29,999 Hispanic residents, 5,000 to 9,999 White residents, and less than 5000 Asian residents. South Harlem had 20,000 to 29,999 Black residents, 5,000 to 9,999 Hispanic residents, 10,000 to 19,999 White residents, and fewer than 5,000 Asian residents. Hamilton Heights had 10,000 to 19,999 Black residents, 20,000 to 29,999 Hispanic residents being the largest population group in this section, 5,000 to 9,999 White residents, and fewer than 5,000 Asian residents. West Harlem had an equal number of Black and Hispanic residents with each of their population at 5,000 to 9,999 residents and each the White and Asian population were fewer than 5,000 residents. Morningside Heights had and equal amount of Black and Hispanic residents with each of their population at 5,000 to 9,999 residents, 10,000 to 19,999 White residents, and 5,000 to 9,999 Asian residents; the only section of Harlem to have a significant concentration of Asian residents.


title: Harlem

text: Central Harlem is patrolled by two precincts of the New York City Police Department (NYPD). Central Harlem North is covered by the 32nd Precinct, located at 250 West 135th Street, while Central Harlem South is patrolled by the 28th Precinct, located at 2271–2289 Eighth Avenue.


title: Harlem

text: The 28th Precinct has a lower crime rate than it did in the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 72.2% between 1990 and 2021. The precinct reported 2 murders, 9 rapes, 172 robberies, 245 felony assaults, 153 burglaries, 384 grand larcenies, and 52 grand larcenies auto in 2021. Of the five major violent felonies (murder, rape, felony assault, robbery, and burglary), the 28th Precinct had a rate of 1,125 crimes per 100,000 residents in 2019, compared to the boroughwide average of 632 crimes per 100,000 and the citywide average of 572 crimes per 100,000.


title: Harlem

text: The crime rate in the 32nd Precinct has also decreased since the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 71.4% between 1990 and 2021. The precinct reported 16 murders, 18 rapes, 183 robberies, 519 felony assaults, 168 burglaries, 320 grand larcenies, and 54 grand larcenies auto in 2021. Of the five major violent felonies (murder, rape, felony assault, robbery, and burglary), the 32nd Precinct had a rate of 1,042 crimes per 100,000 residents in 2019, compared to the boroughwide average of 632 crimes per 100,000 and the citywide average of 572 crimes per 100,000.


title: Harlem

text: , Community District 10 has a non-fatal assault hospitalization rate of 116 per 100,000 people, compared to the boroughwide rate of 49 per 100,000 and the citywide rate of 59 per 100,000. Its incarceration rate is 1,347 per 100,000 people, the second-highest in the city, compared to the boroughwide rate of 407 per 100,000 and the citywide rate of 425 per 100,000.


title: Harlem

text: In the early 20th century, Harlem was a stronghold of the Sicilian Mafia, other Italian organized crime groups, and later the Italian-American Mafia. As the ethnic composition of the neighborhood changed, black criminals began to organize themselves similarly. However, rather than compete with the established mobs, gangs concentrated on the "policy racket", also called the numbers game, or "bolita" in East Harlem. This was a gambling scheme similar to a lottery that could be played, illegally, from countless locations around Harlem. According to Francis Ianni, "By 1925 there were thirty black policy banks in Harlem, several of them large enough to collect bets in an area of twenty city blocks and across three or four avenues."


title: Harlem

text: By the early 1950s, the total money at play amounted to billions of dollars, and the police force had been thoroughly corrupted by bribes from numbers bosses. These bosses became financial powerhouses, providing capital for loans for those who could not qualify for them from traditional financial institutions, and investing in legitimate businesses and real estate. One of the powerful early numbers bosses was a woman, Madame Stephanie St. Clair, who fought gun battles with mobster Dutch Schultz over control of the lucrative trade.


title: Harlem

text: The popularity of playing the numbers waned with the introduction of the state lottery, which is legal but has lower payouts and has taxes collected on winnings. The practice continues on a smaller scale among those who prefer the numbers tradition or who prefer to trust their local numbers bank to the state.


title: Harlem

text: Statistics from 1940 show about 100 murders per year in Harlem, "but rape is very rare". By 1950, many whites had left Harlem and by 1960, much of the black middle class had departed. At the same time, control of organized crime shifted from Italian syndicates to local black, Puerto Rican, and Cuban groups that were somewhat less formally organized. At the time of the 1964 riots, the drug addiction rate in Harlem was ten times higher than the New York City average, and twelve times higher than the United States as a whole. Of the 30,000 drug addicts then estimated to live in New York City, 15,000 to 20,000 lived in Harlem. Property crime was pervasive, and the murder rate was six times higher than New York's average. Half of the children in Harlem grew up with one parent, or none, and lack of supervision contributed to juvenile delinquency; between 1953 and 1962, the crime rate among young people increased throughout New York City, but was consistently 50% higher in Harlem than in New York City as a whole.


title: Harlem

text: Injecting heroin grew in popularity in Harlem through the 1950s and 1960s, though the use of this drug then leveled off. In the 1980s, use of crack cocaine became widespread, which produced collateral crime as addicts stole to finance their purchasing of additional drugs, and as dealers fought for the right to sell in particular regions, or over deals gone bad.


title: Harlem

text: With the end of the "crack wars" in the mid-1990s, and with the initiation of aggressive policing under mayors David Dinkins and his successor Rudy Giuliani, crime in Harlem plummeted. Compared to in 1981, when 6,500 robberies were reported in Harlem, reports of robberies dropped to 4,800 in 1990; to 1,700 in 2000; and to 1,100 in 2010. Within the 28th and 32nd precincts, there have been similar changes in all categories of crimes tracked by the NYPD.


title: Harlem

text: Despite reductions versus historic highs, Harlem continues to have a high rate of violent crime and one of the highest rates of violent crime in New York City. This crime is largely correlated with high concentrations of poverty. Illicit activities such as theft, robbery, drug trafficking, prostitution are prevalent. Criminal organizations like street gangs are responsible for many of the murders and shootings in the neighborhood.


title: Harlem

text: There are many gangs in Harlem, often based in housing projects; when one gang member is killed by another gang, revenge violence erupts which can last for years. In addition, the East Harlem Purple Gang of the 1970s, which operated in East Harlem and surroundings, was an Italian American group of hitmen and heroin dealers.


title: Harlem

text: Harlem and its gangsters have a strong link to hip hop, rap and R&B culture in the United States, and many successful rappers in the music industry came from gangs in Harlem. Gangster rap, which has its origins in the late 1980s, often has lyrics that are "misogynistic or that glamorize violence", glamorizing guns, drugs and easy women in Harlem and New York City.


title: Harlem

text: Five additional firehouses are located in West and East Harlem. West Harlem contains Engine Company 47 and Engine Company 80/Ladder Company 23, while East Harlem contains Engine Company 35/Ladder Company 14/Battalion 12, Engine Company 53/Ladder Company 43, and Engine Company 91.


title: Harlem

text: , preterm births and births to teenage mothers are more common in Central Harlem than in other places citywide. In Central Harlem, there were 103 preterm births per 1,000 live births (compared to 87 per 1,000 citywide), and 23 births to teenage mothers per 1,000 live births (compared to 19.3 per 1,000 citywide), though the teenage birth rate is based on a small sample size. Central Harlem has a low population of residents who are uninsured. In 2018, this population of uninsured residents was estimated to be 8%, less than the citywide rate of 12%.


title: Harlem

text: The concentration of fine particulate matter, the deadliest type of air pollutant, in Central Harlem is , slightly more than the city average. Ten percent of Central Harlem residents are smokers, which is less than the city average of 14% of residents being smokers. In Central Harlem, 34% of residents are obese, 12% are diabetic, and 35% have high blood pressure, the highest rates in the city—compared to the citywide averages of 24%, 11%, and 28% respectively. In addition, 21% of children are obese, compared to the citywide average of 20%.


title: Harlem

text: Eighty-four percent of residents eat some fruits and vegetables every day, which is less than the city's average of 87%. In 2018, 79% of residents described their health as "good," "very good," or "excellent," more than the city's average of 78%. For every supermarket in Central Harlem, there are 11 bodegas.


title: Harlem

text: The population health of Central Harlem is closely linked to influential social factors on health, also known as social determinants of health, and the impact of structural racism on the neighborhood. The impact of discriminatory policies such as redlining have contributed to residents' bearing worse health outcomes in comparison to the average New York city resident. This applies to life expectancy, poverty rates, environmental neighborhood health, housing quality, and childhood and adult asthma rates. Additionally, the health of Central Harlem residents are linked to their experience of racism. Public health and scientific research studies have found evidence that experiencing racism creates and exacerbates chronic stress that can contribute to major causes of death, particularly for African-American and Hispanic populations in the United States, like cardiovascular diseases.


title: Harlem

text: Certain health disparities between Central Harlem and the rest of New York City can be attributed to 'avoidable causes' such as substandard housing quality, poverty, and law enforcement violence – all of which are issues identified by the American Public Health Association as key social determinants of health. These deaths that can be attributed to avoidable causes are known as "avertable deaths" of "excess mortality'"in public health.


title: Harlem

text: Access to affordable housing and employment opportunities with fair wages and benefits are closely associated with good health. Public health leaders have shown that inadequate housing qualities is linked to poor health. As Central Harlem also bears the effects of racial segregation, public health researchers claim that racial segregation is also linked to substandard housing and exposure to pollutants and toxins. These associations have been documented to increase individual risk of chronic diseases and adverse birth outcomes. Historical income segregation via redlining also positions residents to be more exposed to risks that contribute to adverse mental health status, inadequate access to healthy foods, asthma triggers, and lead exposure.


title: Harlem

text: Asthma is more common in children and adults in Central Harlem, compared to other New York City neighborhoods. The factors that can increase risk of childhood and adult asthma are associated with substandard housing conditions. Substandard housing conditions are water leaks, cracks and holes, inadequate heating, presence of mice or rats, peeling paint and can include the presence of mold, moisture, dust mites. In 2014, Central Harlem tracked worse in regards to home maintenance conditions, compared to the average rates Manhattan and New York City. Twenty percent of homes had cracks or holes; 21% had leaks and 19% had three or more maintenance deficiencies.


title: Harlem

text: Adequate housing is defined as housing that is free from heating breakdowns, cracks, holes, peeling paint and other defects. Housing conditions in Central Harlem reveal that only 37% of its renter-occupied homes were adequately maintained by landlords in 2014. Meanwhile, 25% of Central Harlem households and 27% of adults reported seeing cockroaches (a potential trigger for asthma), a rate higher than the city average. Neighborhood conditions are also indicators of population: in 2014, Central Harlem had 32 per 100,000 people hospitalized due to pedestrian injuries, higher than Manhattan's and the city's average.


title: Harlem

text: The environment also factors into the health of the people of Central Harlem with the neighborhood being found to have levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) at 7.9 micrograms per cubic meter compared to all of NYC at 7.5 micrograms per cubic meter. Poorer neighborhoods have some of the highest levels of air pollution in the city. Adults with asthma emergencies experiencing high rates of poverty visit the emergency department at rates nearly 5 times higher than those neighborhoods with lower levels of poverty. Nearly 3 in 4 deaths related to PM2.5 occurs in adults 65 years or older. The attribution of premature adult mortality rate to exposure of PM2.5 experiencing 77.4-117.7 deaths per 100,000 people.


title: Harlem

text: Additionally, poverty levels can indicate one's risk of vulnerability to asthma. In 2016, Central Harlem saw 565 children aged 5–17 years old per 10,000 residents visiting emergency departments for Asthma emergencies, over twice both Manhattan's and the citywide rates. The rate of childhood asthma hospitalization in 2016 was more than twice that of Manhattan and New York City, with 62 hospitalizations per 10,000 residents. Rates of adult hospitalization due to asthma in Central Harlem trends higher in comparison to other neighborhoods. In 2016, 270 adults per 10,000 residents visited the emergency department due to asthma, close to three times the average rates of both Manhattan and New York City.


title: Harlem

text: Health outcomes for men have generally been worse than those of women. Infant mortality was 124 per thousand in 1928, meaning that 12.4% of infants would die. By 1940, infant mortality in Harlem was 5%, and the death rate from disease generally was twice that of the rest of New York. Tuberculosis was the main killer, and four times as prevalent among Harlem citizens than among the rest of New York's population.


title: Harlem

text: A 1990 study of life expectancy of teenagers in Harlem reported that 15-year-old girls in Harlem had a 65% chance of surviving to the age of 65, about the same as women in Pakistan. Fifteen-year-old men in Harlem, on the other hand, had a 37% chance of surviving to 65, about the same as men in Angola; for men, the survival rate beyond the age of 40 was lower in Harlem than Bangladesh. Infectious diseases and diseases of the circulatory system were to blame, with a variety of contributing factors, including consumption of the deep-fried foods traditional to the South, which may contribute to heart disease.


title: Harlem

text: Harlem is located within five primary ZIP Codes. From south to north they are 10026 (from 110th to 120th Streets), 10027 (from 120th to 133rd Streets), 10037 (east of Lenox Avenue and north of 130th Street), 10030 (west of Lenox Avenue from 133rd to 145th Streets) and 10039 (from 145th to 155th Streets). Harlem also includes parts of ZIP Codes 10031, 10032, and 10035. The United States Postal Service operates five post offices in Harlem:


title: Harlem

text: Central Harlem generally has a similar rate of college-educated residents to the rest of the city . While 42% of residents age 25 and older have a college education or higher, 19% have less than a high school education and 39% are high school graduates or have some college education. By contrast, 64% of Manhattan residents and 43% of city residents have a college education or higher. The percentage of Central Harlem students excelling in math rose from 21% in 2000 to 48% in 2011, and reading achievement increased from 29% to 37% during the same time period.


title: Harlem

text: Central Harlem's rate of elementary school student absenteeism is higher than the rest of New York City. In Central Harlem, 25% of elementary school students missed twenty or more days per school year, more than the citywide average of 20%. Additionally, 64% of high school students in Central Harlem graduate on time, less than the citywide average of 75%.


title: Harlem

text: The New York City Department of Education operates the following public elementary schools in Central Harlem:


title: Harlem

text: Harlem has a high rate of charter school enrollment: a fifth of students were enrolled in charter schools in 2010. By 2017, that proportion had increased to 36%, about the same that attended their zoned public schools. Another 20% of Harlem students were enrolled in public schools elsewhere.


title: Harlem

text: The CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, New York College of Podiatric Medicine, City College of New York, and Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, in addition to a branch of College of New Rochelle, are all located in Harlem. The Morningside Heights and Manhattanville campuses of Columbia University are located just west of Harlem.


title: Harlem

text: The New York Public Library (NYPL) operates four circulating branches and one research branch in Harlem, as well as several others in adjacent neighborhoods.


title: Harlem

text: Other nearby branches include the 125th Street and Aguilar branches in East Harlem; the Morningside Heights branch in Morningside Heights; and the George Bruce and Hamilton Grange branches in western Harlem.


title: Harlem

text: The Harlem River separates the Bronx and Manhattan, necessitating several spans between the two New York City boroughs. Five free bridges connect Harlem and the Bronx: the Willis Avenue Bridge (for northbound traffic only), Third Avenue Bridge (for southbound traffic only), Madison Avenue Bridge, 145th Street Bridge, and Macombs Dam Bridge. In East Harlem, the Wards Island Bridge, also known as the 103rd Street Footbridge, connects Manhattan with Wards Island. The Triborough Bridge is a complex of three separate bridges that offers connections between Queens, East Harlem, and the Bronx.


title: Harlem

text: Public transportation service is provided by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. This includes the New York City Subway and MTA Regional Bus Operations. Some Bronx local routes also serve Manhattan, providing customers with access between both boroughs. Metro-North Railroad has a commuter rail station at Harlem–125th Street, serving trains to the Lower Hudson Valley and Connecticut.


title: Harlem

text: Phase 2 of the Second Avenue Subway is also planned to serve East Harlem, with stops at 106th Street, 116th Street, and Harlem–125th Street.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: The Terri Schiavo case was a series of court and legislative actions in the United States from 1998 to 2005, regarding the care of Theresa Marie Schiavo (née Schindler) (; December 3, 1963 – March 31, 2005), a woman in an irreversible persistent vegetative state. Schiavo's husband and legal guardian argued that Schiavo would not have wanted prolonged artificial life support without the prospect of recovery, and in 1998 elected to remove her feeding tube. Schiavo's parents disputed her husband's assertions and challenged Schiavo's medical diagnosis, arguing in favor of continuing artificial nutrition and hydration. The highly publicized and prolonged series of legal challenges presented by her parents, which ultimately involved state and federal politicians up to the level of President George W. Bush, caused a seven-year (1998 to 2005) delay before Schiavo's feeding tube was ultimately removed.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: On February 25, 1990, at age 26, Schiavo went into cardiac arrest at her home in St. Petersburg, Florida. She was successfully resuscitated, but had massive brain damage due to lack of oxygen to her brain and was left comatose. After two and a half months without improvement, her diagnosis was changed to that of a persistent vegetative state. For the next two years, doctors attempted occupational therapy, speech therapy, physical therapy and other experimental therapy, hoping to return her to a state of awareness, without success. In 1998, Schiavo's husband Michael Schiavo petitioned the Sixth Circuit Court of Florida to remove her feeding tube pursuant to Florida law. He was opposed by Terri's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler. The court determined that Schiavo would not have wished to continue life-prolonging measures, and on April 24, 2001, her feeding tube was removed for the first time, only to be reinserted several days later. On February 25, 2005, a Pinellas County judge again ordered the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. Several appeals and federal government intervention followed, which included Bush returning to Washington, D.C., to sign legislation moving the case to the federal courts. After appeals through the federal court system that upheld the original decision to remove the feeding tube, staff at the Pinellas Park hospice facility disconnected the feeding tube on March 18, 2005, and Schiavo died on March 31, 2005.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: The Schiavo case involved 14 appeals and numerous legal motions, petitions, and hearings in the Florida courts; five suits in federal district court; extensive political intervention at the levels of the Florida state legislature, Governor Jeb Bush, the U.S. Congress, and President George W. Bush; and four denials of "certiorari" from the Supreme Court of the United States. The case also spurred highly visible activism from the United States anti-abortion movement, the right-to-die movement, and disability rights groups. Since Schiavo's death, both her husband and her family have written books on their sides of the case, and both have also been involved in activism over related issues.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: Terri Schiavo was born Theresa Marie Schindler to Mary (born 1941) and Robert Schindler (1937–2009) on December 3, 1963, in Lower Moreland Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. She attended Bucks County Community College, where she met Michael Schiavo in 1982. The two began dating and were married on November 10, 1984. They moved to Florida in 1986, following Terri's parents. Michael worked as a restaurant manager, while Terri took up a bookkeeping job with an insurance company.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: In the early morning of February 25, 1990, Terri Schiavo collapsed in a hallway of her St. Petersburg, Florida, apartment. Firefighters and paramedics, arriving in response to her husband Michael's 9-1-1 call, found her face-down and unconscious. She was not breathing and had no pulse. They attempted to resuscitate her and she was transported to the Humana Northside Hospital. Paramedics had her intubated and ventilated.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: The cause of Terri Schiavo's collapse was determined to be cardiac arrest. Her medical chart contained a note that "she apparently has been trying to keep her weight down with dieting by herself, drinking liquids most of the time during the day and drinking about 10–15 glasses of iced tea." Upon admission to the hospital, she was noted as suffering from hypokalemia (low potassium levels): her serum potassium level was an abnormally low 2.0 mEq/L (the normal range for adults is 3.5–5.0 mEq/L). Her sodium and calcium levels were normal. Electrolyte imbalance is often caused by drinking excessive fluids, and a serious consequence of hypokalemia can be heart rhythm abnormalities, including sudden arrhythmia death syndrome. Schiavo was eventually switched from being fed by a nasogastric feeding tube to a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) feeding tube.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: Dr. Garcia J. DeSousa, board-certified neurologist in St. Petersburg, Florida, who previously treated Terri Schiavo, cared for her during her initial admission to Humana Northside; both he and Victor Gambone, an internist and Schiavo family physician, independently made the diagnosis of persistent vegetative state (PVS) within approximately one year after her sudden cardiac arrest.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: From 1990 to 1993, Michael Schiavo and the Schindlers (Terri Schiavo's parents) enjoyed an amicable relationship, with the Schindlers allowing Michael to live rent-free in their condominium for several months.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: In November 1990, Michael Schiavo took Terri to the University of California, San Francisco, for experimental nerve stimulation with a thalamic stimulator. The treatment took several months and was unsuccessful. He returned to Florida with her in January 1991 and admitted her as an inpatient to the Mediplex Rehabilitation Center in Bradenton, Florida. On July 19, 1991, Terri Schiavo was transferred to the Sabal Palms Skilled Care Facility, where she received neurological testing and regular speech and occupational therapy until 1994. In mid-1993, Michael Schiavo requested a do not resuscitate order for her after she contracted a urinary tract infection.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: In 1992, Michael filed a malpractice suit against Terri's gynecologist on the basis that he failed to diagnose bulimia as the cause of her infertility. Terri had gone to the doctor because she had stopped menstruating but the doctor had failed to take her medical history into account which might have revealed an eating disorder. During the case, one of Terri's friends testified that she knew Schiavo was bulimic. In November 1992, Michael won the case and was awarded $6.8 million by the jury, later reduced to $2 million as Terri was found partly at fault for her condition. After attorneys' fees and other expenses, Michael received $300,000 and $750,000 was put in a trust fund for Terri's medical care. According to Michael, in early 2003 the Schindlers demanded that he share the malpractice money with them.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: On June 18, 1990, the court appointed Michael Schiavo as Terri Schiavo's legal guardian; this appointment was not disputed by the Schindlers at the time. In May 1998, Michael Schiavo filed a petition to remove Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, which her parents opposed. Richard Pearse was appointed by the court as a second guardian "ad litem" (GAL), and on December 29, 1998, reported "Dr. Jeffrey Karp's opinion of the ward's condition and prognosis is substantially shared among those physicians who have recently been involved in her treatment." Pearse concluded from Karp's and Vincent Gambone's diagnosis of "Persistent Vegetative State" that Schiavo was legally in a persistent vegetative state as defined by Florida Statutes, Title XLIV, Chapter 765, §101(12). This includes the "absence of voluntary action" and an "inability to communicate or interact purposefully".


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: Pearse found that there was no possibility of improvement but that Michael Schiavo's decisions might have been influenced by the potential to inherit what remained of Terri Schiavo's estate as long as he remained married to her. Due to a lack of a living will and questions regarding Michael's credibility, Pearse recommended denying his petition to remove her feeding tube. Pearse reported that the issue of conflict of interest applied to the Schindlers as well since, had Michael divorced Terri as they wanted him to, they would have inherited the remainder of Terri Schiavo's estate upon her death.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: Given the lack of a living will, a trial was held before Pinellas County Judge George Greer during the week of January 24, 2000, to determine what Terri Schiavo's wishes would have been regarding life-prolonging procedures. Michael Schiavo was represented by attorney George Felos, who had won a landmark right-to-die case before the Florida Supreme Court in 1990.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: The trial included testimony from eighteen witnesses regarding her medical condition and her end-of-life wishes. Michael Schiavo claimed that his wife would not want to be kept on a machine where her chance for recovery was minuscule. According to Abstract Appeal Trial Order, her parents "claimed that Terri was a devout Roman Catholic who would not wish to violate the Church's teachings on euthanasia by refusing nutrition and hydration." Judge Greer issued his order granting the petition for authorization to discontinue artificial life support for Terri Schiavo in February 2000. In this decision, the court found that Terri Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state and that she had made reliable oral declarations that she would have wanted the feeding tube removed. This decision was upheld by the Florida Second District Court of Appeal (2nd DCA) and came to be known by the court as "Schiavo I" in its later rulings.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: In March 2000, the Schindlers filed a motion to permit assisted feeding of Terri, which is not considered a life-prolonging procedure under Florida law. Since clinical records indicated that Terri Schiavo was not responsive to swallowing tests and required a feeding tube, Judge Greer ruled that she was not capable of orally ingesting sufficient nutrition and hydration to sustain life, and denied the request. The Medical Examiner in his postmortem report was more definitive and reaffirmed that Schiavo could not have swallowed.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: In 2000, the Schindlers again challenged Michael Schiavo's guardianship. The Schindlers suggested that he was wasting the assets within the guardianship account by transferring Terri Schiavo to a Pinellas Park, Florida, hospice "after it was clear that she was not 'terminal' within Medicare guidelines" for hospices. By this time, while still legally married to Terri Schiavo, Michael Schiavo was in a relationship with Jodi Centonze, and had fathered their first child. He said he chose not to divorce his wife and relinquish guardianship because he wanted to ensure her final wishes (not to be kept alive in a PVS) were carried out. The court denied the motion to remove the guardian, allowing that the evidence was not sufficient and in some instances, not relevant. It set April 24, 2001, as the date on which the tube was to be removed.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: In April 2001, the Schindlers filed a motion for relief from judgment citing new evidence of Terri Schiavo's wishes. Judge Greer denied the motion as untimely under Rule 1.540(b)(5) of the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure. The Second District Court of Appeal upheld Greer's decision but remanded the issue in order to give the Schindlers an opportunity to file a new motion. On April 24, 2001, Terri's feeding tube was removed for the first time. The Schindlers filed a civil suit against Michael Schiavo alleging perjury, which was assigned to another court. The judge, Frank Quesada, issued an injunction against the removal of feeding tube until this was settled. The feeding tube was reinserted on April 26, 2001. On appeal by Michael Schiavo, the Second District Court of Appeal reversed Judge Quesada's order. In the same time frame, Michael Schiavo filed a motion to enforce the mandate of the guardianship court (that the feeding tube be removed). The Second District Court of Appeal denied the motion. These three decisions, all published in a single order by Florida's Second District Court of Appeal, came to be known by the court as "Schiavo II" in its later rulings.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: On August 10, 2001, on remand from the Florida Second District Court of Appeal, Judge Greer heard a motion from the Schindlers claiming that new medical treatment could restore sufficient cognitive ability such that Terri Schiavo herself would be able to decide to continue life-prolonging measures. The court also heard motions from the Schindlers to remove the guardian (Michael Schiavo) and to require Judge Greer to recuse himself. Judge Greer denied the motions and the Schindlers appealed to the Second District Court of Appeals. On October 17, 2001, the Court of Appeal affirmed the denials of the motions to remove and recuse. The Court of Appeals acknowledged that their opinion misled the trial court, and they remanded the question of Terri Schiavo's wishes back to the trial court and required an evidentiary hearing to be held. The court specified that five board certified neurologists were to testify. The Schindlers were allowed to choose two doctors to present findings at an evidentiary hearing while Schiavo could introduce two rebuttal experts. Finally, the trial court itself would appoint a new independent physician to examine and evaluate Terri Schiavo's condition. (These decisions, all published in a single order by the Florida Second District Court of Appeal, came to be known by the court as "Schiavo III" in its later rulings.) In October 2002, on remand by the Second District Court of Appeal, an evidentiary hearing was held in Judge Greer's court to determine whether new therapy treatments could help Terri Schiavo restore any cognitive function. In preparation for the trial, a new computed axial tomography scan (CAT scan) was performed, which showed severe cerebral atrophy. An EEG showed no measurable brain activity. The five physicians chosen were William Maxfield, a radiologist, and four neurologists: William Hammesfahr, Ronald Cranford, Melvin Greer and Peter Bambakidis.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: The five doctors examined Terri Schiavo's medical records, brain scans, the videos, and Terri herself. Cranford, Greer, and Bambakidis testified that Terri Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state (PVS). Drs. Maxfield and Hammesfahr testified that she was in a minimally conscious state. As part of the court-ordered medical exam, six hours of video of Terri Schiavo were taped and filed at the Pinellas County courthouse. The tape included Terri Schiavo with her mother and neurologist William Hammesfahr. The entire tape was viewed by Judge Greer, who wrote, Terri "clearly does not consistently respond to her mother". From that six hours of video, the Schindlers and their supporters produced six video clips intended to support their case, totaling less than six minutes, and released those clips to public websites. Judge Greer ruled that Terri Schiavo was in a PVS, and was beyond hope of significant improvement. The trial court order was particularly critical of Hammesfahr's testimony, which claimed positive results in similar cases by use of vasodilation therapy, the success of which is unsupported in the medical literature. This ruling was later affirmed by Florida's Second District Court of Appeal, which stated that "this court has closely examined all of the evidence in the record", and "we have ... carefully observed the video tapes in their entirety." The court concluded that "if we were called upon to review the guardianship court's decision "de novo", we would still affirm it." This decision by the Second District Court of Appeals came to be known as "Schiavo IV" in later rulings.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: Around the start of 2003, the Schindlers began to create more publicity by lobbying for their case to keep their daughter alive. On September 11, 2003, the Schindlers petitioned the court to forestall removal of the feeding tube in order to provide for "eight weeks' therapy". Accompanying the petition were four affidavits from members of the Schindler family and one from Dr. Alexander T. Gimon. At the hearing, the Schindlers' counsel read into the record additional affidavits from three speech professionals and two nurses. In particular, nurse Carla Sauer Iyer asserted that she was able to feed Terri Schiavo orally but that Michael characterized any such interaction as "therapy" and ordered her not to do so. Iyer claimed in her affidavit that her initial training in 1996 consisted solely of the instruction, "Do what Michael Schiavo tells you or you're terminated," and that standing orders were not to contact the Schindler family, but that she "would call them anyway".


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: On September 17, 2003, Judge George Greer denied the petition, and wrote that "the Petition is an attempt by Mr. and Mrs. Schindler to re-litigate the entire case. It is not even a veiled or disguised attempt. The exhibits relied upon by them, clearly demonstrate this to be true." Regarding (Nurse) Iyer's statements, Greer wrote that they were "incredible to say the least" and that "Ms. Iyer details what amounts to a 15-month cover-up from April 1995 through July 1996, which include the staff of Palm Garden of Largo Convalescent Center, the Guardian of the Person, the guardian "ad litem", the medical professionals, the police and, believe it or not, Mr. and Mrs. Schindler ... It is impossible to believe that Mr. and Mrs. Schindler would not have subpoenaed Ms. Iyer for the January 2000 evidentiary hearing had Iyer contacted them in 1996 as her affidavit alleges."


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: On October 15, 2003, Schiavo's feeding tube was removed. Within a week, when the Schindlers' final appeal was exhausted, State Rep. Frank Attkisson and the Florida Legislature passed "Terri's Law" in an emergency session giving Governor Jeb Bush the authority to intervene in the case. Governor Bush immediately ordered the feeding tube reinserted. Governor Bush sent the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) to remove Schiavo from the hospice. She was taken to Morton Plant Rehabilitation Hospital in Clearwater, where her feeding tube was surgically reinserted. She was then returned to the hospice. Part of the legislation required the appointment of a guardian "ad litem" (GAL), Jay Wolfson, to "deduce and represent the best wishes and best interests" of Schiavo, and report them to Governor Bush. Wolfson's report did not change Michael's role as her legal guardian and did not otherwise obstruct him legally.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: Michael Schiavo opposed the Governor's intervention in Schiavo's case, and was represented, in part, by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). At the same time, Robert and Mary Schindler, her parents, attempted to intervene and participate in the "Terri's Law" case but were denied by Judge W. Douglas Baird, a Circuit Judge in the Florida Sixth Circuit. They appealed, and, on February 13, 2004, the Florida Second District Court of Appeal (Second District Court of Appeals) ordered Baird to hold further hearings on the issue. On March 17, 2004, Baird denied the Schindlers the right to intervene a second time. The Schindlers, represented by the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), appealed the right to participate in the "Terri's Law" case, with the court scheduling an oral argument date for June 14. The Schindlers' other attorney, Pat Anderson, was concurrently challenging Michael Schiavo's right to be her guardian, and, on June 16, 2004, she made a petition for writ of "quo warranto".


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: On May 5, 2004, Baird found "Terri's Law" unconstitutional, and struck it down. Bush appealed this order to the Second District Court of Appeals, but on May 12, 2004, the court issued an "Order Relinquishing Case for Entry of Final Judgment and Order to Show Cause Why this Proceeding Should Not be Certified to the Supreme Court As Requiring Immediate Resolution". The Second District Court of Appeals, in sending it directly to the Florida Supreme Court, invoked "pass through" jurisdiction.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: On February 23, 2005, the Schindlers filed a motion for relief from judgment pending medical evaluations. The Schindlers wanted Schiavo to be tested with an fMRI and given a swallowing therapy called VitalStim. The motion was accompanied by thirty-three affidavits from doctors in several specialties, speech-language pathologists and therapists, and a few neuropsychologists, all urging that new tests be undertaken. Patricia Fields Anderson, the Schindler family attorney, still held out hope "that Terri might be able to take nourishment orally, despite past findings that she is incapable". Judge Greer formally denied the motion and ordered the "removal of nutrition and hydration from the ward" and set the time and date for the removal of the feeding tube as "1:00 p.m. on Friday, March 18, 2005".


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: On February 28, 2005, the Schindlers filed a motion, asking for permission to attempt to provide Schiavo with "Food and Water by Natural Means". This second motion asked for permission to "attempt to feed" Schiavo by mouth. Judge Greer denied the second motion on March 8, saying "it has become clear that the second motion is part and parcel of the previous motion on medical evaluations. The same declarations are being used for both motions and the motion appears to be an alternative pleading to the previous motion. Both are asking for an experimental procedure." The following day, Greer denied the first motion as well, citing that an affiant doctor for Michael cautioned that fMRI was an experimental procedure that should be conducted in an academic setting, because Schiavo had already undergone swallowing tests and failed, and because VitalStim had only been performed on patients who were not in a PVS. Greer noted that "most of the doctor affidavits submitted are based on their understanding of Schiavo's condition from news reports or video clips they have seen. Many are obviously not aware of the medical exams undertaken for the 2002 trial."


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: Following Greer's order on March 18, 2005, to remove the feeding tube, Republicans in the United States Congress subpoenaed both Michael and Terri Schiavo to testify at a congressional hearing. Greer told congressional attorneys, "I have had no cogent reason why the (congressional) committee should intervene." He also stated that last-minute action by Congress does not invalidate years of court rulings.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: President George W. Bush and Congressional Republicans anticipated Greer's adverse ruling well before it was delivered and worked on a daily basis to find an alternative means of overturning the legal process by utilizing the authority of the United States Congress. On March 20, 2005, the Senate, by unanimous consent, passed their version of a relief bill; since the vote was taken by voice vote, there was no official tally of those voting in favor and those opposed. Soon after Senate approval, the House of Representatives passed an identical version of the bill S.686, which came to be called the "Palm Sunday Compromise" and transferred jurisdiction of the Schiavo case to the federal courts. The bill passed the House on March 21, 2005, at 12:41 a.m. (UTC−5). Bush flew to Washington, D.C. from his vacation in Texas in order to sign the bill into law at 1:11 a.m.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: While the bill had been proposed by Republican Senators Rick Santorum and Mel Martínez, it also had the support of Democratic Senator Tom Harkin due to disability rights concerns in the Schiavo case. Harkin had worked with disability rights groups for years and co-authored the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. American disability rights groups traditionally tend to ally themselves with Democrats and the political left; however, in the Schiavo case, they joined pro-life organizations in opposing the removal of her feeding tube and supporting the Palm Sunday Compromise. According to Marilyn Golden, Harkin's support was necessary for passage of the bill, as any voice opposition by Democrats would have delayed it.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: As in the state courts, all of the Schindlers' federal petitions and appeals were denied, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to grant "certiorari", effectively ending the Schindlers' judicial options. At the same time, the so-called Schiavo memo surfaced, causing a political firestorm. The memo was written by Brian Darling, the legal counsel to Florida Republican senator Mel Martinez. It suggested the Schiavo case offered "a great political issue" that would appeal to the party's base (core supporters) and could be used against Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat from Florida, because he had refused to co-sponsor the bill. Nelson easily won re-election in 2006.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: Republican majority leader and physician Bill Frist opposed the removal of her feeding tube and in a speech delivered on the Senate floor, challenged the diagnosis of Schiavo's physicians of Schiavo being in a persistent vegetative state (PVS): "I question it based on a review of the video footage which I spent an hour or so looking at last night in my office." After her death, the autopsy showed signs of long-term and irreversible damage to her brain consistent with PVS. Frist defended his actions after the autopsy.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: On March 24, 2005, Judge Greer denied a petition for intervention by the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) and signed an order forbidding the department from "taking possession of Theresa Marie Schiavo or removing her" from the hospice and directed "each and every and singular sheriff of the state of Florida" to enforce his order. The order was appealed to the Second District Court of Appeals the following day, which resulted in an automatic stay under state law. While the stay was in effect, Florida Department of Law Enforcement personnel prepared to take custody of Terri Schiavo and transfer her to a local hospital for reinsertion of the feeding tube. Once Greer was made aware of the stay, he ordered it lifted and all parties stood down. Governor Bush decided to obey the court order despite enormous pressure from the political right. If Bush (or the Florida Legislature) had ignored Greer's order by attempting to remove her from the hospice, a confrontation between the Pinellas Park Police Department and the FDLE agents could have ensued. In jest, one official said local police discussed "whether we had enough officers to hold off the National Guard."


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: Schiavo's body was taken to the Office of the District 6 Medical Examiner for Pinellas and Pasco counties, based in Largo, Florida. The autopsy was conducted on April 1, 2005, and revealed extensive brain damage. The manner of death was certified as "undetermined." The autopsy was led by Chief Medical Examiner Jon R. Thogmartin. In addition to consultation with a neuropathologist (Stephen J. Nelson), Thogmartin also arranged for specialized cardiac and genetic examinations to be made. The official autopsy report was released on June 15, 2005. In addition to studying Terri Schiavo's remains, Thogmartin scoured court, medical and other records and interviewed her family members, doctors and other relevant parties. Examination of Schiavo's nervous system by neuropathologist Stephen J. Nelson, revealed extensive injury. The brain itself weighed only , only half the weight expected for a female of her age, height, and weight, due to the loss of a massive number of neurons. Microscopic examination revealed extensive damage to nearly all brain regions, including the cerebral cortex, the thalamus, the basal ganglia, the hippocampus, the cerebellum, and the midbrain. The neuropathologic changes in her brain were precisely of the type seen in patients who enter a PVS following cardiac arrest. Throughout the cerebral cortex, the large pyramidal neurons that comprise some 70% of cortical cells – critical to the functioning of the cortex – were completely lost. The pattern of damage to the cortex, with injury tending to worsen from the front of the cortex to the back, was also typical. There was marked damage to important relay circuits deep in the brain (the thalamus) – another common pathologic finding in cases of PVS. The damage was, in the words of Thogmartin, "irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons."


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: The cardiac pathologist who studied Schiavo's heart found it and the coronary vessels to be healthy, which excludes the possibility that her initial collapse was the result of myocardial infarction, although there was a localized area of healed inflammation (opening the possibility of myocarditis). Thogmartin found that "there was no proof that Terri Schiavo ever had an eating disorder such as bulimia." Regarding the possibility of strangulation or domestic violence as a cause of Schiavo's initial collapse, the report states: "No trauma was noted on any of the numerous physical exams or radiographs performed on Mrs. Schiavo on the day of, in the days after, or in the months after her initial collapse. Indeed, within an hour of her initial hospital admission, radiographic examination of her cervical spine was negative. Specifically, external signs of strangulation including cutaneous or deep neck injury, facial/conjunctival petechiae, and other blunt trauma were not observed or recorded during her initial hospital admission. Autopsy examination of her neck structures 15 years after her initial collapse did not detect any signs of remote trauma, but, with such a delay, the exam was unlikely to show any residual neck findings."


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: Regarding the cause and manner of Schiavo's death, Thogmartin wrote, "Mrs. Schiavo suffered severe anoxic brain injury. The cause of which cannot be determined with reasonable medical certainty. The manner of death will therefore be certified as undetermined."


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: Schiavo's body was cremated. Her parents offered a memorial Mass for her at the Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church in Gulfport on April 5, 2005. Father Frank Pavone, the founder of the Priests for Life anti-abortion organization, delivered the main homily.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: On June 20, 2005, the cremated remains of Terri Schiavo were buried. The Schindlers' attorney stated that the family was notified by fax only after the memorial service; by then, the family had already started getting calls from reporters. The ashes were interred at Sylvan Abbey Memorial Park in Clearwater, Florida.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: The Schiavo case has been compared to the Karen Ann Quinlan case and Nancy Cruzan case, two landmark right-to-die cases. Quinlan entered a persistent vegetative state in 1975, and her family was allowed to remove her from a ventilator in 1976 after a ruling by the New Jersey Supreme Court based on her right of privacy. She died of pneumonia in 1985. Cruzan was diagnosed with PVS in 1983 and her legal case reached the Supreme Court, which ruled that "clear and convincing evidence" of her wishes to die under such circumstances was needed. Cruzan's family did not have enough evidence of that, but later produced more. She died after being removed from life support in 1990.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: The "Terri Schiavo case" actually refers to a series of cases. It differed from the Quinlan and Cruzan cases by involving settled law rather than breaking new legal ground on the right-to-die issue. In 2006, Shepherd said that it was "unclear" whether the Schiavo case represents a landmark decision. The Schiavo case instead involved a dispute between family members over what Schiavo's wishes would have been for such a situation. According to medical ethicist Matthew Stonecipher, "The movement to challenge the decisions made for Terri Schiavo threatened to destabilize end-of-life law that had developed over the last quarter of the 20th century, principally through the cases of Karen Ann Quinlan and Nancy Cruzan." The outcome of the Schiavo case was also in part determined by a 1990 Florida case, "Guardianship of Estelle Browning". In that case, George Felos, the attorney for Michael Schiavo in the Schiavo case, represented a Browning relative. Felos successfully argued before the Florida Supreme Court that Browning's feeding tube should be removed. The elderly Browning had expressed, in a living will, her wish not to be kept alive by any artificial means, including receiving food and water "by a gastric tube or intravenously." At that time, it was common to remove people from ventilators, but the law in Florida was not clear on removing them from feeding tubes. In a landmark ruling, the Florida Supreme Court decided that Browning had "the constitutional right to choose or refuse medical treatment, and that right extends to all relevant decisions concerning one's health."


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: During the years of legal proceedings, disability rights groups and activists closely monitored and involved themselves in the case. In March 2003, twelve disability rights groups, led by Not Dead Yet, along with four other "amici" filed an "amicus curiae" brief in which they opposed the removal of Schiavo's feeding tube. They also used the Schiavo case to advocate for federal review in cases where third parties decide to withdraw life support from patients unable to give consent.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: They argued that persistent vegetative state is frequently misdiagnosed, and that the reasons for withdrawal of life support from a patient should be scrutinized since even family member surrogates can have conflicts of interest. The Palm Sunday Compromise granted the federal review they sought, but it was limited to only the Schiavo case.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: The seven-year case generated a great deal of public attention and activism. There was extensive media coverage and both sides courted public opinion. In 2000, the Schindlers created the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation to garner support. During the weeks when Schiavo's feeding tube was removed in 2005, activists kept up an around-the-clock vigil outside her hospice. The protests were described as loud but non-violent. There were dozens of arrests, with most being for crossing a police line with water for Schiavo.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: Two polls conducted shortly after Schiavo's feeding tube was removed for the final time in 2005 showed that a large majority of Americans believed that Michael Schiavo should have had the authority to make decisions on behalf of his wife and that the U.S. Congress overstepped its bounds with its intervention in the case.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: Since Terri Schiavo's death in March 2005, her family and Michael Schiavo have clashed a number of times. Each side has also worked to promote their own causes related to the case. In April 2005, the families disagreed over Schiavo's burial. The Schindlers had wanted her body to be buried in Florida, while Michael Schiavo said at the time that he would cremate her body and then have her ashes buried in her home state of Pennsylvania. In June 2005, however, Schiavo's ashes were buried in Florida instead. The words "I kept my promise" were included on the marker, referring to his promise to follow what he said was her wish not to be kept alive artificially. The statement angered the Schindlers.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: In December 2005, Michael Schiavo created a political action committee, TerriPAC. It was formed to raise money to support right-to-die candidates and oppose candidates who had voted for government involvement in the Schiavo case. In 2007, TerriPAC paid a $1,350 fine to the Federal Election Commission for failing to file complete and timely records. Schiavo shut down the PAC later that year.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: The Schindlers continued operation of the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation, with a new goal of helping individuals in situations similar to Terri's. In April 2010, Michael Schiavo charged that the Schindlers were improperly using Terri's name, as he held the rights to it, and that the family was using the foundation in order to make money. A Florida television station looked at the foundation's tax records and found that for 2008, it paid 64% of the $91,568 it raised in salaries to Terri's father, Robert Schindler Sr., her sister, Suzanne Vitadamo, and her brother, Robert Schindler Jr. Their attorney said the foundation does its work effectively and that the high percentage for salaries was due to the small amount of money the foundation raises. He also said that the Schindlers had the right to use Terri's name as she is a public figure. The foundation had been fined $1,000 shortly before Schiavo's death for failing to file timely paperwork. In September 2010, the Schindlers renamed the organization the "Terri Schiavo Life and Hope Network".


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: In 2006, both Michael Schiavo and the Schindlers released books telling their sides of the story. Schiavo's was called "Terri: The Truth", while the Schindlers' was titled "A Life that Matters: The Legacy of Terri Schiavo – A Lesson for Us All".


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: Despite the extended emotion-laden legal struggle, the case broke no new legal ground: it remains settled law that the spouse is the next of kin in decisions where the patient is incompetent. However, it is now more generally recognized that the next of kin's decisions should be carried out in a timely fashion, even on matters of life and death. The case has raised public awareness of the value of having an advance medical directive.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: At the ten-year anniversary of Schiavo's death, several news sources offered retrospectives on the case, some still attempting to explain how this particular case became so notable.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: During the Terri Schiavo case in March 2005, a talking points memo on the controversy was written by Brian Darling, the legal counsel to Republican Senator Mel Martinez of Florida. The memo suggested the Schiavo case offered "a great political issue" that would appeal to the party's base (core supporters) and could be used against Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat from Florida who was up for reelection in 2006, because he had refused to co-sponsor the bill which came to be known as the Palm Sunday Compromise. Bill Nelson was nevertheless reelected as Senator on November 7, 2006 with 60% of the vote.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: Martinez stated that he had not read the memo before he inadvertently passed it to Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, a Democratic supporter of the Palm Sunday Compromise legislation which gave federal courts jurisdiction to review the Terri Schiavo case. Then it became public knowledge.


title: Terri Schiavo case

text: After the existence of the memo was reported by ABC News and "The Washington Post", Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist denounced the memo and asserted that the Republican Party's interest in the case was solely based on moral grounds. Darling remained silent about his authorship of the memo as commentators from the conservative magazine "Weekly Standard" and other publications questioned its authenticity. The source of the memo had not been disclosed by either ABC News or "The Washington Post". "The Washington Post" says that it neither implied that the memo originated from a Republican source nor that it was circulated by Republicans, though it did in fact make these assertions when it published the story by reporters Mike Allen and Manuel Roig-Franzia on its wire service on March 19, 2005. The authorship claim was removed before publication of the print version on March 20, 2005. On April 6, 2005, Darling admitted to writing the memo, and resigned his position as legal counsel to Senator Martinez.


title: Being the Ricardos

text: Being the Ricardos is a 2021 American biographical drama film written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, about the relationship between "I Love Lucy" stars Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem star as Ball and Arnaz, while J. K. Simmons, Nina Arianda, Tony Hale, Alia Shawkat, Jake Lacy, and Clark Gregg are featured in supporting roles.


title: Being the Ricardos

text: It received a limited theatrical release by Amazon Studios in the United States on December 10, 2021, prior to streaming worldwide on Prime Video on December 21, 2021. The film received generally positive reviews from critics who praised the performances of the cast, particularly those of Kidman and Bardem. The film received three nominations at the 94th Academy Awards: Best Actor for Bardem, Best Actress for Kidman and Best Supporting Actor for Simmons. It also received three nominations at the 79th Golden Globe Awards including Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for Bardem and Best Screenplay for Sorkin, with Kidman winning Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama.


title: Being the Ricardos

text: The film is told from three perspectives: “present-day” interviews with "I Love Lucy"'s lead writers Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, and Bob Carroll Jr.; flashbacks throughout Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s relationship; and preparations for filming an episode of the show in 1953.


title: Being the Ricardos

text: In 1939, Ball is an actress contracted to RKO Pictures, earning the moniker "Queen of the B-Movies." Cast in the failed comedy "Too Many Girls", she falls in love with her costar, Cuban singer Arnaz. He assures her of her talent as a physical comedian, and she confides her dream of simply making a home with someone. They marry and buy a house in Hollywood, but struggle to spend time together, with Arnaz busy fronting his Desi Arnaz Orchestra while Ball continues her film career with little success.


title: Being the Ricardos

text: After serving in World War II, Arnaz resumes touring with his orchestra, and Ball lands a starring role in 1942's "The Big Street". She meets with RKO President Charles Koerner, expecting to become an established star like Rita Hayworth and Judy Holliday. Instead, he terminates her contract, largely due to her age, and suggests she use her voice for radio. In 1948, she is cast in the radio show "My Favorite Husband", which becomes a massive success.


title: Being the Ricardos

text: CBS suggests turning "My Favorite Husband" into a television show, sponsored by cigarette company Philip Morris. Hoping to bring her and Arnaz closer together, Ball agrees on the condition that he plays her on-screen husband; the executives initially refuse to have an “all-American” star with a Cuban husband, but are forced to concede. By 1953, the show is renamed "I Love Lucy" and becomes a smash hit with nearly 60 million viewers each week.


title: Being the Ricardos

text: Ball and Arnaz produce the show in Los Angeles through their company Desilu Productions, with a three-camera system designed by Arnaz allowing East Coast viewers to watch live without static, while accommodating a studio audience. Dealing with friction between her costars William Frawley, who is often drunk, and Vivian Vance, who resents Ball’s attempts to make her less attractive, Ball clashes with the directors and writers over her exacting demands.


title: Being the Ricardos

text: Walter Winchell’s radio program claims to have evidence of Ball’s Communist ties, alarming "I Love Lucy"’s crew that their show will be shut down. Ball admits to registering with the party when she was young and influenced by a relative, and Arnaz frustrates her by announcing that she innocently marked the wrong box. They inform the writers she is pregnant with their second child, planning to integrate this into future episodes, but executives refuse to allow even the word “pregnant” on the air.


title: Being the Ricardos

text: Ball confronts her husband for often staying out late, but he proves that a tabloid photo of him with another woman was taken months ago. After Frawley suggests that Arnaz’s behavior stems from feeling emasculated by Ball taking over many of the show’s business and creative decisions, she asks Oppenheimer, the official showrunner, to help save her marriage. Instead of offering him a producer credit, Oppenheimer assures Arnaz he has top billing as the "I" in "I Love Lucy", but he rejects the patronizing gesture. Arnaz reaches out to the head of Philip Morris directly, securing permission to introduce Ball’s pregnancy into the show.


title: Being the Ricardos

text: The night of filming a new episode, a newspaper article declares Ball a Communist, though she was cleared during an HUAC hearing. Arnaz addresses the studio audience about the accusations and takes a live call with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who confirms that Lucy was cleared of all charges. Celebrating backstage, Ball confronts Arnaz with a lipstick-stained handkerchief, which he claims is hers, but she shows him another handkerchief with her own lipstick, and he finally admits to his infidelity.


title: Being the Ricardos

text: As filming begins, Ball momentarily loses her concentration, triggered by Arnaz's catchphrase — “Lucy, I’m home”. An epilogue reveals that Ball filed for divorce after the taping of their last show in 1960.


title: Being the Ricardos

text: The project was first announced in September 2015, with Cate Blanchett announced to star as Lucille Ball and Aaron Sorkin writing the screenplay. The film would be acquired by Amazon Studios in August 2017.


title: Being the Ricardos

text: Production was originally given a tax credit to film in California in November 2019, and producers were revealed to be meeting with directors in January 2020. However, by January 2021, Blanchett had dropped out of the project, with Nicole Kidman in negotiations to replace her and Javier Bardem in negotiations to portray Desi Arnaz. Sorkin, having enjoyed the experience of directing "The Trial of the Chicago 7", had elected to serve as director himself. The casting of Kidman was met with some controversy on social media, to which Lucie Arnaz spoke out in defense of Kidman's casting. In February, J. K. Simmons and Nina Arianda were cast to portray William Frawley and Vivian Vance respectively.


title: Being the Ricardos

text: Filming began on March 29, 2021, in Los Angeles, with Tony Hale, Alia Shawkat, Jake Lacy, and Clark Gregg added to the cast. The production canceled filming at Chateau Marmont due to backlash against the establishment. In September 2021, Sorkin stated that the film was in post-production. The set design was led by Emmy-nominated set decorator Ellen Brill and Production Designer Jon Hutman.


title: Being the Ricardos

text: The film premiered in New York City on December 7, 2021. The film was released in a limited release exclusively in the United States on December 10, 2021, prior to streaming globally on Prime Video on December 21, 2021.


title: Being the Ricardos

text: Though Amazon does not publicly release box office grosses, the film made an estimated $150,000 from 450 theaters on its first day, and a total of $450,000 in its opening weekend.


title: Being the Ricardos

text: The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 67% based on 265 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The website's critics consensus reads: ""Being the Ricardos" can't hope to truly capture its subjects' brilliant star power, but Nicole Kidman has a ball with Aaron Sorkin's spitfire dialogue." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 60 out of 100, based on 51 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Being the Ricardos

text: Richard Roeper of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film a three and a half out of four stars, and pointed out how, despite unfavorable reactions in response to the casting of Kidman and Bardem in the lead roles, "Bardem does a solid job of capturing Arnaz' charismatic stage presence, business acumen and duplicitous ways with the ladies, while Kidman is outstanding at reminding us there were two Lucys [...] It’s not an impersonation so much as it is a fully realized characterization." Mark Feeney from "The Boston Globe" mentioned that Kidman gets "the smokiness of Ball's voice. And in the black-and-white that's used for scenes from the sitcom the physical resemblance is uncanny. It's Kidman playing one Lucy as that Lucy plays another", and mentioned how, although Bardem doesn't physically resemble his character much, "that's not a problem, since what Bardem does convey, and it matters a lot more, is Arnaz's babalu gusto and coiled-spring alertness." Lindsey Bahr of the "Associated Press" stated that "while no one is going to mistake either Kidman or Bardem for either of their real-life counterparts, they were hired to be actors, not mimics and do a terrific job bringing to life the spirit of their characters off-camera lives, illustrating a full, complex, adult relationship."


title: Being the Ricardos

text: Stephanie Zacharek from "Time" mentioned how "Kidman makes a fine Lucille Ball in many ways", such as when "capturing Ball's smarts", and continued on by saying that "Bardem is terrific as Arnaz, finding complexities in the man that we might not have known were there." David Rooney of "The Hollywood Reporter" stated that "the performances of Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem as golden-age TV’s best-loved couple can’t be faulted", describing Bardem's performance as "oozing charisma" and showing "a roguish charm and a shrewd mind" as Arnaz. He also reiterated that despite Kidman not physically resembling Ball, "she plays the laser-focused professionalism and self-preservation with stirring conviction, and she nails the dual on- and off-camera personae in her movements, and above all, in vocal distinctions between the raspy heavy smoker in the writers’ room and the squawking comic on TV."


title: Being the Ricardos

text: Reception of the casting of a European actor (Bardem) to play a Cuban-American character (Arnaz) was quite a bit more negative, with reporter Laura Bradley noting that "Hollywood has a well-established history of hiring Spanish actors to play characters from the countries the Spaniards colonized." Director Sorkin defended the casting decision by saying that "having an actor who was born in Spain playing a character who was born in Cuba was not demeaning. And it wasn't just the casting consultant who agreed, Lucy and Desi's Cuban-American daughter didn't have a problem with it. So, I'm very comfortable with it." A Cuban-American critic noted wryly that "a Spaniard portraying a Santiaguero was gonna be an uneasy pill to swallow for that most clannish of people known as Cubans. Everyone in Hialeah was probably having a fit." Additionally, as a sign of the Hollywood view of Cubans, some Spanish-language media accused the film of having Bardem "darken" his skin to appear "more Cuban", when in fact Arnaz was lighter-skinned than Bardem. It was also pointed out that it was the second time that Bardem has been cast to portray a Cuban (the first being a film about Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas). A major newspaper in Spain accused Bardem of "cultural appropriation" while also noting that Arnaz was "a direct descendant of families from Spain." On the other side of the casting controversy, a separate major Spanish newspaper endorsed the casting of Bardem as Arnaz, noting that Arnaz had "more in common with Bardem [lineage to Spain] than with any other Hispanic [non Spaniard] actor."


title: Being the Ricardos

text: Additionally, it was also pointed out that one of the key principal tenets of the film - the point that in 1953 Arnaz had personal issues with Communism because his family had been "kicked out of Cuba because of Communism" - was incorrect, as the much later Cuban Communist Revolution did not take over the island until 1959 and the Arnaz family had migrated to the United States in 1933 as a result of the "Revolt of the Sergeants", not the Castro Revolution.


title: Socotra

text: Socotra or Soqotra (; ; ) is an island of the Republic of Yemen in the Indian Ocean, under the "de facto" control of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council, a secessionist participant in Yemen’s ongoing civil war. Lying between the Guardafui Channel and the Arabian Sea and near major shipping routes, Socotra is the largest of the four islands in the Socotra archipelago. Since 2013, the archipelago has constituted the Socotra Governorate.


title: Socotra

text: The island of Socotra represents around 95% of the landmass of the Socotra archipelago. It lies south of the Arabian Peninsula, but is considered to be part of Africa. The island is isolated and home to a high number of endemic species. Up to a third of its plant life is endemic. It has been described as "the most alien-looking place on Earth." The island measures in length and in width. In 2008 Socotra was recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.


title: Socotra

text: In 2018, the United Arab Emirates invaded Socotra and relieved Yemeni government soldiers of their duties.


title: Socotra

text: Socotra is a Greek name that is derived from the name of a South Arabian tribe mentioned in Sabaic and Ḥaḑramitic inscriptions as Dhū-Śakūrid (S³krd).


title: Socotra

text: There was initially an Oldowan lithic culture in Socotra. Oldowan stone tools were found in the area around Hadibo by V.A. Zhukov, a member of the Russian Complex Expedition in 2008.


title: Socotra

text: Socotra appears as "Dioskouridou" (Διοσκουρίδου νῆσος), meaning "the island of the Dioscuri", in the "Periplus of the Erythraean Sea", a first-century AD Greek navigation aid. A recent discovery of texts in several languages, including a wooden tablet in Palmyrene dated to the third century AD, indicate the diverse origins of those who used Socotra as a trading base in antiquity.


title: Socotra

text: In 2001, a group of Belgian speleologists of the Socotra Karst Project investigated a cave on the island of Socotra. There, they came across a large number of inscriptions, drawings and archaeological objects. Further investigation showed that these had been left by sailors who visited the island between the first century BC and the sixth century AD. Most of the texts are written in the Indian Brāhmī script; there are also inscriptions in South Arabian, Ethiopic, Greek, Palmyrene and Bactrian scripts and languages. This corpus of nearly 250 texts and drawings constitutes one of the main sources for the investigation of Indian Ocean trade networks in that time period.


title: Socotra

text: A local tradition, based on the third-century apocryphal Acts of Thomas, holds that the inhabitants were converted to Christianity by Thomas the Apostle in AD 52. In 880, an Ethiopian expeditionary force conquered the island and an Oriental Orthodox bishop was consecrated. The Ethiopians were later dislodged by a large armada sent by Imam Al-Salt bin Malik of Oman. In the tenth century, the Arab geographer Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdani stated that, in his time, most of the inhabitants were Christian. Socotra is also mentioned in "The Travels of Marco Polo"; Marco Polo did not pass anywhere near the island, but recorded a report that "the inhabitants are baptised Christians and have an 'archbishop'" who, it is further explained, "has nothing to do with the Pope in Rome, but is subject to an archbishop who lives at Baghdad." They were Eastern Christians but also practised ancient magic rituals despite the warnings of their archbishop.


title: Socotra

text: In 1507, a Portuguese fleet commanded by Tristão da Cunha with Afonso de Albuquerque landed at the then capital of Suq and captured the port after a stiff battle. Their objective was to set a base in a strategic place on the route to India and to liberate the presumed friendly Christians from Islamic rule. The architect Tomás Fernandes started to build a fortress at Suq, the "Forte de São Miguel de Socotorá". The lack of a proper harbour for wintering led to the loss of many moored Portuguese ships, the most important of which was the "Santo António" galleon under the command of captain Manuel Pais da Veiga. The infertility of the land led to famine and sickness in the garrison, and the Portuguese abandoned the island in 1511.


title: Socotra

text: The Mahra sultans took control of Socotra in 1511, and the inhabitants were converted to Islam during their rule. In 1737, however, Captain de la Garde-Jazier, commander of a French naval expedition heading for Mocha, was surprised to find Christian tribes living in the interior of Socotra during a five-week stopover on the island. He reported in a letter home that the tribesmen, "due to lack of missionaries, had only retained a faint knowledge of Christianity."


title: Socotra

text: In 1834, the East India Company stationed a garrison on Socotra, in the expectation that the Mahra sultan of Qishn and Socotra, who resided at Qishn on the mainland, would accept an offer to sell the island. The lack of good anchorages proved to be as much a problem for the British as the Portuguese, and there was nowhere for a coaling station to be used by the new steamship line on the Suez-Bombay route. Faced with the unexpected firm refusal of the sultan to sell, the British left in 1835. After the capture of Aden by the British in 1839, they lost all interest in acquiring Socotra.


title: Socotra

text: In January 1876, in exchange for a payment of 3,000 thalers and a yearly subsidy, the sultan pledged "himself, his heirs and successors, never to cede, to sell, to mortgage, or otherwise give for occupation, save to the British Government, the Island of Socotra or any of its dependencies." Additionally, he pledged to assist any European vessel that wrecked on the island and protect the crew, the passengers and the cargo, in exchange for a suitable reward. In April 1886, the British government, concerned about reports that the German navy had been visiting various ports in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean to secure a naval base, decided to conclude a protectorate treaty with the sultan in which he promised this time to "refrain from entering into any correspondence, agreement, or treaty with any foreign nation or power, except with the knowledge and sanction of the British Government", and give immediate notice to the British Resident at Aden of any attempt by another power to interfere with Socotra and its dependencies. Apart from those obligations, this preemptive protectorate treaty, designed above all to seal off Socotra against competition from other colonial powers, left the sultan in control of the island. In 1897, the P&O ship "Aden" sank after being wrecked on a reef near Socotra, with the loss of 78 lives. As some of the cargo had been plundered by islanders, the sultan was reminded of his obligations under the agreement of 1876.


title: Socotra

text: From 17 December 1896 until 12 February 1897, the British explorers Theodore and Mabel Bent visited the island, following on from the botanical visits of Bayley Balfour and Schweinfurth in the early 1880s. They were accompanied by a young Englishman, Ernest Bennett.


title: Socotra

text: In October 1967, in the wake of the departure of the British from Aden and southern Arabia, the Mahra Sultanate, as well as the other states of the former Aden Protectorate, were abolished. On 30 November of the same year, Socotra became part of South Yemen. The attitude of the South Yemeni government to the Soviet Union enabled the Soviet Navy to use the archipelago as a supply and supporting base for its operations in the Indian Ocean from 1971 to the late 1980s.


title: Socotra

text: In 2015, cyclone Chapala and cyclone Megh struck Socotra, causing severe damage to the island's infrastructure, homes, roads, and power. Due to the collective impacts of Chapala and Megh, various Gulf Cooperation Council states sent 43 planes with supplies to the island by 19 November. The United Arab Emirates sent a ship and a plane, carrying 500 tons of food, 10 tons of blankets and tents, and 1,200 barrels of food.


title: Socotra

text: In 2016 the United Arab Emirates increased supplies delivered to Socotra, which had been largely abandoned and forgotten during the ongoing conflict. In October 2016, the 31st cargo aircraft landed in Socotra Airport containing two tons of aid. At that time, the UAE also established a military base on the island as part of the Saudi-led intervention.


title: Socotra

text: In 2017, some Yemeni political factions accused the United Arab Emirates of looting, claiming that Emirati forces had ravaged the flora of the island.


title: Socotra

text: On January 29, 2018, the local Southern Transitional Council leadership on the archipelago declared their support for the STC during Hadi infighting in and around Aden.


title: Socotra

text: On April 30, 2018, the United Arab Emirates, as part of the ongoing Saudi-led intervention in Yemen, landed troops on the island and took control of Socotra Airport and seaport. On May 14, 2018, Saudi troops were also deployed on the island and a deal was brokered between the United Arab Emirates and Yemen for a joint military training exercise and the return of administrative control of Socotra airport and seaport under Yemeni control.


title: Socotra

text: In May 2019, the Yemeni government accused the United Arab Emirates of landing around 100 separatist troops in Socotra, which the UAE denied, deepening a rift between the two nominal allies in Yemen's civil war.


title: Socotra

text: In February 2020, a regiment of the Yemeni Army stationed in Socotra rebelled and pledged allegiance to the UAE-backed separatist Southern Transitional Council in Socotra, renouncing the UN-backed government of Hadi. The Southern Transitional Council seized control of the island in June 2020.


title: Socotra

text: On 2 March 2021, the UAE deployed military officials to the island. Around the same time, the Emirates also sent a ship carrying ammunition to the militias in Socotra. Confirming the information, an adviser to Yemeni Information Minister Muammar Al-Iryani, Mukhtar Al-Rahbi said it was a set up of military escalation in the region.


title: Socotra

text: Socotra is one of the most isolated landforms on Earth of continental origin (i.e. not of volcanic origin). The archipelago was once part of the supercontinent of Gondwana and detached during the Miocene epoch, in the same set of rifting events that opened the Gulf of Aden to its northwest.


title: Socotra

text: The archipelago consists of the main island of Socotra (), the three smaller islands of Abd al Kuri, Samhah and Darsa, as well as small rock outcrops like Ka'l Fir'awn and Sābūnīyah that are uninhabitable by humans but important for seabirds.


title: Socotra

text: The main island has three geographical terrains: the narrow coastal plains, a limestone plateau with karst topography and the Hajhir Mountains. The mountains rise to . The island is about long and north to south.


title: Socotra

text: The climate of Socotra is classified in the Köppen climate classification as "BWh" and "BSh", meaning a hot desert climate bordering on a semi-desert climate with a mean annual temperature over . Yearly rainfall is light but is fairly spread throughout the year. Due to orographic lift provided by the interior mountains, especially during the northeast monsoon from October to December, the highest inland areas can average as much as per year and can receive over in a month during November and December. The southwest monsoon season from June to September brings strong winds and high seas. For many centuries, the sailors of Gujarat called the maritime route near Socotra as “Sikotro Sinh”, meaning the lion of Socotra, that constantly roars—referring to the high seas near Socotra.


title: Socotra

text: In an extremely unusual occurrence, the normally arid western side of Socotra received more than of rain from Cyclone Chapala in November 2015. Cyclones don't affect the island that much, but in 2015 Cyclone Megh became the strongest, and only, major Cyclone to strike the island directly.


title: Socotra

text: Socotra is considered the jewel of biodiversity in the Arabian Sea. In the 1990s, a team of United Nations biologists conducted a survey of the archipelago's flora and fauna. They counted nearly 700 endemic species, found nowhere else on earth; only New Zealand, Hawaii, New Caledonia, and the Galápagos Islands have more impressive numbers.


title: Socotra

text: The long geological isolation of the Socotra archipelago and its fierce heat and drought have combined to create a unique and spectacular endemic flora. Botanical field surveys led by the Centre for Middle Eastern Plants, part of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, indicate that 307 out of the 825 (37%) plant species on Socotra are endemic, i.e., they are found nowhere else on Earth. The entire flora of the Socotra Archipelago has been assessed for the IUCN Red List, with three Critically Endangered and 27 Endangered plant species recognised in 2004.


title: Socotra

text: One of the most striking of Socotra's plants is the dragon's blood tree ("Dracaena cinnabari"), which is a strange-looking, umbrella-shaped tree. Its red sap was thought to be the dragon's blood of the ancients, sought after as a dye, and today used as paint and varnish. Also important in ancient times were Socotra's various endemic aloes, used medicinally, and for cosmetics. Other endemic plants include the giant succulent tree "Dorstenia gigas"; the cucumber tree, "Dendrosicyos socotranus"; the rare Socotran pomegranate ("Punica protopunica"), "Aloe perryi", and "Boswellia socotrana".


title: Socotra

text: The island group also has a rich fauna, including several endemic species of birds, such as the Socotra starling ("Onychognathus frater"), the Socotra sunbird ("Nectarinia balfouri"), Socotra bunting ("Emberiza socotrana"), Socotra cisticola ("Cisticola haesitatus"), Socotra sparrow ("Passer insularis"), Socotra golden-winged grosbeak ("Rhynchostruthus socotranus"), and a species in a monotypic genus, the Socotra warbler ("Incana incana"). Many of the bird species are endangered by predation by non-native feral cats. With only one endemic mammal, six endemic bird species and no amphibians, reptiles constitute the most relevant Socotran vertebrate fauna with 31 species. If one excludes the two recently introduced species, "Hemidactylus robustus" and "Hemidactylus flaviviridis", all native species are endemic. There is a very high level of endemism at both species (29 of 31, 94%) and genus levels (5 of 12, 42%). At the species level, endemicity may be even higher, as phylogenetic studies have uncovered substantial hidden diversity. The reptile species include skinks, legless lizards, and one species of chameleon, "Chamaeleo monachus". There are many endemic invertebrates, including several spiders (such as the Socotra Island Blue Baboon tarantula "Monocentropus balfouri") and three species of freshwater crabs in the Potamidae ("Socotra pseudocardisoma" and two species in "Socotrapotamon").


title: Socotra

text: As with many isolated island systems, bats are the only mammals native to Socotra. The Socotran pipistrelle ("Hypsugo lanzai") is the only species of bat, and mammal in general, thought to be endemic to the island. In contrast, the coral reefs of Socotra are diverse, with many endemic species. Socotra is also one of the homes of the brush-footed butterfly "Bicyclus anynana."


title: Socotra

text: Over the two thousand years of human settlement on the islands, the environment has slowly but continuously changed, and, according to Jonathan Kingdon, "the animals and plants that remain represent a degraded fraction of what once existed." The First century A.D "Periplus of the Erythraean Sea" states that the island had crocodiles and large lizards, and the present reptilian fauna appears to be greatly diminished since that time. Until a few centuries ago, there were rivers and wetlands on the island, greater stocks of the endemic trees, and abundant pasture. The Portuguese recorded the presence of water buffaloes in the early 17th century. Now there are sand gullies in place of rivers, and many native plants survive only where there is greater moisture or protection from roaming livestock. The remaining Socotran fauna is greatly threatened by goats and other introduced species.


title: Socotra

text: As a result of the 2015 Yemen civil war in mainland Yemen, Socotra became economically isolated, and fuel gas prices spiked, causing residents to turn to wood for heat. In December 2018, UAE sent cooking gas to Socotra residents to curb deforestation caused by the cutting down of trees for fuel.


title: Socotra

text: The island was recognised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a world natural heritage site in July 2008. The European Union has supported such a move, calling on both UNESCO and the International Organisation of Protecting Environment to classify the island archipelago among the major environmental heritages.


title: Socotra

text: Most of the inhabitants are indigenous Soqotri people from Al-Mahrah tribe, who are of Southern Arabian descent from Al Mahrah Governorate, and are said to be especially closely related with the Qara and Mahra groups of Southern Arabia. Some of the inhabitants are African, descending from former slaves who settled on the island.


title: Socotra

text: Almost all inhabitants of Socotra, numbering about 50,000, live on the main island of the archipelago. The principal city, Hadibu (with a population of 8,545 at the census of 2004); the second largest town, Qalansiyah (population 3,862); and Qād̨ub (population 929) are all located on the north coast of the island of Socotra. Only about 450 people live on 'Abd-al-Kūrī and 100 on Samha; the island of Darsa and the islets of the archipelago are uninhabited.


title: Socotra

text: The island is home to the Semitic language Soqotri, which is related to such other Modern South Arabian languages on the Arabian mainland as Mehri, Harsusi, Bathari, Shehri, and Hobyot, which became the subject of European academic study in the nineteenth century.


title: Socotra

text: There is an ancient tradition of poetry and a poetry competition is held annually on the island. The first attested Socotran poet is thought to be the ninth-century Fatima al-Suqutriyya, a popular figure in Socotran culture.


title: Socotra

text: The islanders followed indigenous religions until 52 AD, when, according to local beliefs, Thomas the Apostle was shipwrecked there on his way to evangelize India. He then supposedly constructed a church out of his ship's wreckage and baptized many Socotrans. After this, Christianity became the main religion of the island. They followed Nestorius, the Archbishop of Constantinople, who was later excommunicated for heresies. The Socotrans remained loyal to his teachings and joined the Assyrian church. During the tenth century, Arab geographer Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdani recorded during his visits that most of the islanders were Christian. Explorer Marco Polo wrote in his travelogue:


title: Socotra

text: I give you my word that the people of this island are the most expert enchanters in the world. It is true that the archbishop does not approve of these enchantments and rebukes them for the practice. But this has no effect, because they say that their forefathers did these things of old.


title: Socotra

text: Christianity in Socotra went into decline when the Mahra sultanate took power in the 16th century, and the populace had become mostly Muslim by the time the Portuguese arrived later that century. An 1884 edition of "Nature", a science journal, writes that the disappearance of Christian churches and monuments can be accounted for by a Wahhabi excursion to the island in 1800. Today the only remnants of Christianity are some cross engravings from the first century AD, a few Christian tombs, and some church ruins.


title: Socotra

text: The majority of male residents on Socotra are reported to be in the J* subclade of Y-DNA haplogroup J. Several of the female lineages, notably those in mtDNA haplogroup N, are unique to the island.


title: Socotra

text: In 2013, however, the archipelago was removed from the Hadramaut Governorate and created a governorate (Socotra Governorate) in its own right, consisting of the two above-mentioned districts.


title: Socotra

text: The primary occupations of the people of Socotra have traditionally been fishing, bee keeping, animal husbandry, and the cultivation of dates.


title: Socotra

text: Monsoons long made the archipelago inaccessible from June to September each year. In July 1999, however, a new airport opened Socotra to the outside world all year round. There was regular service to and from Aden and Sana'a until the start of the civil war in 2015. All scheduled commercial flights made a technical stop at Riyan-Mukalla Airport. Socotra Airport is located about west of the main city, Hadibu, and close to the third-largest town in the archipelago, Qād̨ub. Diesel generators make electricity widely available in Socotra. A paved road runs along the north shore from Qulansiyah to Hadibu and then to the DiHamri area; and another paved road, from the northern coast to the south through the Dixsam Plateau.


title: Socotra

text: According to 2012 and 2014 sources analysed by the American Enterprise Institute's Critical Threats Project, a Yemeni naval infantry brigade was stationed on Socotra at the time in a small barracks.


title: Socotra

text: Some residents raise cattle and goats. The chief export products of the island are dates, ghee, tobacco, and fish.


title: Socotra

text: At the end of the 1990s, a United Nations Development Program was launched to provide a close survey of the island of Socotra. The project called Socotra Governance and Biodiversity Project have listed following goals from 2009:


title: Socotra

text: In February 2014, "The Economist" magazine reported that Socotra was being considered as a possible site for the Yemeni jihadist rehabilitation program.


title: Socotra

text: Public transport on Socotra is limited to a few minibuses; car hire usually means hiring a 4WD car and a driver.


title: Socotra

text: Transport is a delicate matter on Socotra as road construction is considered locally to be detrimental to the island and its ecosystem. In particular, damage has occurred via chemical pollution from road construction while new roads have resulted in habitat fragmentation.


title: Socotra

text: The only port on Socotra is east of Hadibu. Ships connect the port with the Yemeni coastal city of Mukalla. According to information from the ports, the journey takes 2–3 days and the service is used mostly for cargo. The United Arab Emirates funded the modernization of the port on Socotra.


title: Socotra

text: Iranian companies were noted by a 2003 US diplomatic cable to have completed several projects in Yemen, including building the Socotra airport strip. After cyclones hit Socotra in November 2015, the Emirates Red Crescent set up a lighting system and built a fence in the airport.


title: Socotra

text: Yemenia and Felix Airways flew from Socotra Airport to Sana'a and Aden via Riyan Airport. As of March 2015, due to ongoing civil war involving Saudi Arabia's Air Force, all flights to and from Socotra have been cancelled.


title: Socotra

text: However, during the deployment of Emirati troops and aid to the Island, multiple flight connections were made between Abu Dhabi and Hadibu as part of Emirati effort to provide Socotra residents with access to free healthcare and provide work opportunities.