title: Copyright infringement

text: Some countries distinguish corporate piracy from private use, which is tolerated as a welfare service. This is the leading reason developing countries refuse to accept or respect copyright laws. Traian Băsescu, the president of Romania, stated that "piracy helped the young generation discover computers. It set off the development of the IT industry in Romania."


title: Precocious puberty

text: In medicine, precocious puberty is puberty occurring at an unusually early age. In most cases, the process is normal in every aspect except the unusually early age and simply represents a variation of normal development. In a minority of children with precocious puberty, the early development is triggered by a disease such as a tumor or injury of the brain. Even when there is no disease, unusually early puberty can have adverse effects on social behavior and psychological development, can reduce adult height potential, and may shift some lifelong health risks. Central precocious puberty can be treated by suppressing the pituitary hormones that induce sex steroid production. The opposite condition is delayed puberty.


title: Precocious puberty

text: The term is used with several slightly different meanings that are usually apparent from the context. In its broadest sense, and often simplified as early puberty, "precocious puberty" sometimes refers to any physical sex hormone effect, due to any cause, occurring earlier than the usual age, especially when it is being considered as a medical problem. Stricter definitions of "precocity" may refer only to central puberty starting before a statistically specified age based on percentile in the population (e.g., 2.5 standard deviations below the population mean), on expert recommendations of ages at which there is more than a negligible chance of discovering an abnormal cause, or based on opinion as to the age at which early puberty may have adverse effects. A common definition for medical purposes is onset before 8 years in girls or 9 years in boys.


title: Precocious puberty

text: Early pubic hair, breast, or genital development may result from natural early maturation or from several other conditions.


title: Precocious puberty

text: If the cause can be traced to the hypothalamus or pituitary, the cause is considered central. Other names for this type are "complete" or "true precocious" puberty.


title: Precocious puberty

text: Central precocious puberty can also be caused by brain tumors, infection (most commonly tuberculous meningitis, especially in developing countries), trauma, hydrocephalus, and Angelman syndrome. Precocious puberty is associated with advancement in bone age, which leads to early fusion of epiphyses, thus resulting in reduced final height and short stature.


title: Precocious puberty

text: Adrenocortical oncocytomas are rare with mostly benign and nonfunctioning tumors. There have been only three cases of functioning adrenocortical oncocytoma that have been reported up until 2013. Children with adrenocortical oncocytomas will present with "premature pubarche, clitoromegaly, and increased serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate and testosterone" which are some of the presentations associated with precocious puberty.


title: Precocious puberty

text: Precocious puberty in girls begins before the age of 8. The youngest mother on record is Lina Medina, who gave birth at the age of either 5 years, 7 months and 17 days or 6 years 5 months as mentioned in another report.


title: Precocious puberty

text: "Central precocious puberty (CPP) was reported in some patients with suprasellar arachnoid cysts (SAC), and SCFE (slipped capital femoral epiphysis) occurs in patients with CPP because of rapid growth and changes of growth hormone secretion."


title: Precocious puberty

text: Secondary sexual development induced by sex steroids from other abnormal sources is referred to as "peripheral precocious puberty" or "precocious pseudopuberty." It typically presents as a severe form of disease with children. Symptoms are usually as a sequelae from adrenal hyperplasia (because of 21-hydroxylase deficiency or 11-beta hydroxylase deficiency, the former being more common), which includes but is not limited to hypertension, hypotension, electrolyte abnormalities, ambiguous genitalia in females, signs of virilization in females. Blood tests will typically reveal high level of androgens with low levels of cortisol.


title: Precocious puberty

text: Generally, patients with precocious puberty develop phenotypically appropriate secondary sexual characteristics. This is called "isosexual" precocity.


title: Precocious puberty

text: In some cases, a patient may develop characteristics of the opposite sex. For example, a male may develop breasts and other feminine characteristics, while a female may develop a deepened voice and facial hair. This is called "heterosexual" or "contrasexual" precocity. It is very rare in comparison to isosexual precocity and is usually the result of unusual circumstances. As an example, children with a very rare genetic condition called aromatase excess syndrome – in which exceptionally high circulating levels of estrogen are present – usually develop precocious puberty. Males and females are hyper-feminized by the syndrome. The "opposite" case would be the hyper-masculinisation of both male and female patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency, in which there is an excess of androgens. Thus, in the aromatase excess syndrome the precocious puberty is isosexual in females and heterosexual in males, whilst in the CAH it's isosexual in males and heterosexual in females.


title: Precocious puberty

text: Although the causes of early puberty are still somewhat unclear, girls who have a high-fat diet and are not physically active or are obese are more likely to physically mature earlier. "Obese girls, defined as at least 10 kilograms (22 pounds) overweight, had an 80 percent chance of developing breasts before their ninth birthday and starting menstruation before age 12 – the western average for menstruation is about 12.7 years." In addition to diet and exercise habits, exposure to chemicals that mimic estrogen (known as xenoestrogens) is another possible cause of early puberty in girls. Bisphenol A, a xenoestrogen found in hard plastics, has been shown to affect sexual development. "Factors other than obesity, however, perhaps genetic and/or environmental ones, are needed to explain the higher prevalence of early puberty in black versus white girls." While more girls are increasingly entering puberty at younger ages, new research indicates that some boys are actually starting later (delayed puberty). "Increasing rates of obese and overweight children in the United States may be contributing to a later onset of puberty in boys, say researchers at the University of Michigan Health System."


title: Precocious puberty

text: High levels of beta-hCG in serum and cerebrospinal fluid observed in a 9-year-old boy suggest a pineal gland tumor. The tumor is called a "chorionic gonadotropin secreting pineal tumor". Radiotherapy and chemotherapy reduced tumor and beta-hCG levels normalized.


title: Precocious puberty

text: In a study using neonatal melatonin on rats, results suggest that elevated melatonin could be responsible for some cases of early puberty.


title: Precocious puberty

text: Familial cases of idiopathic central precocious puberty (ICPP) have been reported, leading researchers to believe there are specific genetic modulators of ICPP. Mutations in genes such as LIN28, and LEP and LEPR, which encode leptin and the leptin receptor, have been associated with precocious puberty. The association between LIN28 and puberty timing was validated experimentally in vivo, when it was found that mice with ectopic over-expression of LIN28 show an extended period of pre-pubertal growth and a significant delay in puberty onset.


title: Precocious puberty

text: Mutations in the kisspeptin (KISS1) and its receptor, KISS1R (also known as GPR54), involved in GnRH secretion and puberty onset, are also thought to be the cause for ICPP However, this is still a controversial area of research, and some investigators found no association of mutations in the LIN28 and KISS1/KISS1R genes to be the common cause underlying ICPP.


title: Precocious puberty

text: The gene MKRN3, which is a maternally imprinted gene, was first cloned by Jong et al. in 1999. MKRN3 was originally named Zinc finger protein 127. It is located on human chromosome 15 on the long arm in the Prader-Willi syndrome critical region2, and has since been identified as a cause of premature sexual development or CPP. The identification of mutations in MKRN3 leading to sporadic cases of CPP has been a significant contribution to better understanding the mechanism of puberty. MKRN3 appears to act as a "brake" on the central hypothalamic-pituitary access. Thus, loss of function mutations of the protein allow early activation of the GnRH pathway and cause phenotypic CPP. Patients with a MKRN3 mutation all display the classic signs of CCP including early breast and testes development, increased bone aging and elevated hormone levels of GnRH and LH.


title: Precocious puberty

text: Studies indicate that breast development in girls and the appearance of pubic hair in both girls and boys are starting earlier than in previous generations. As a result, "early puberty" in children as young as 9 and 10 is no longer considered abnormal, particularly with girls. Although it is not considered as abnormal, it may be upsetting to parents and can be harmful to children who mature physically at a time when they are immature mentally.


title: Precocious puberty

text: No age reliably separates normal from abnormal processes in children, but the following age thresholds for evaluation are thought to minimize the risk of missing a significant medical problem:


title: Precocious puberty

text: Medical evaluation is sometimes necessary to recognize the few children with serious conditions from the majority who have entered puberty early but are still medically normal. Early sexual development warrants evaluation because it may:


title: Precocious puberty

text: One possible treatment is with anastrozole. GnRH agonists, including histrelin, triptorelin, or leuprorelin, are other possible treatments. Non-continuous use of GnRH agonists stimulates the pituitary gland to release follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH).


title: Precocious puberty

text: Early puberty is posited to put girls at higher risk of sexual abuse; however, a causal relationship is, as yet, inconclusive. Early puberty also puts girls at a higher risk for teasing or bullying, mental health disorders and short stature as adults. Girls as young as 8 are increasingly starting to menstruate, develop breasts and grow pubic and underarm hair; these "biological milestones" typically occurred only at 13 or older in the past. African-American girls are especially prone to early puberty.


title: Precocious puberty

text: Though boys face fewer problems from early puberty than girls do, early puberty is not always positive for boys. Early sexual maturation in boys can be accompanied by increased aggressiveness due to the surge of pubertal hormones. Because they appear older than their peers, pubescent boys may face increased social pressure to conform to adult norms; society may view them as more emotionally advanced, although their cognitive and social development may lag behind their physical development. Studies have shown that early-maturing boys are more likely to be sexually active and are more likely to participate in risky behaviors.


title: Precocious puberty

text: "Pubertas praecox" is the Latin term used by physicians from the 1790s onward. Various hypotheses and inferences on pubertal (menstrual, procreative) timing are attested since ancient times, which, well into early modernity were explained on the basis of temperamental, humoral and Jungian "complexional" causes, or general or local "plethora" (blood excess). Endocrinological (hormonal) theories and discoveries are a twentieth-century development.


title: The Flintstones (film)

text: The Flintstones (also known as The Flintstones Movie or The Flintstones: The Live-Action Movie in the working title) is a 1994 American family comedy film directed by Brian Levant and written by Tom S. Parker, Jim Jennewein, and Steven E. de Souza based on the 1960–1966 animated television series of the same name. The film stars John Goodman as Fred Flintstone, Rick Moranis as Barney Rubble, Elizabeth Perkins as Wilma Flintstone and Rosie O'Donnell as Betty Rubble, along with Kyle MacLachlan as a villainous executive-vice president of Fred's company, Halle Berry as his seductive secretary, and Elizabeth Taylor (in her final theatrical film appearance), as Pearl Slaghoople, Wilma's mother. The B-52's (as The BC-52's in the film) performed their version of the cartoon's theme song.


title: The Flintstones (film)

text: The film, shot in California, was theatrically released on May 27, 1994, and earned almost $342 million worldwide against a $46 million budget, making it a huge box office success, despite earning mixed reviews from critics. Audiences and fans praised its faithfulness to its source material, visual effects, costume design, art direction, and performances (particularly Goodman as Fred), but criticized the storyline, tone (which they deemed too mature for family audiences) and casting choices on O'Donnell and Taylor. A tie-in promotion with McDonald's was made to promote the film. The movie was originally acquired by New Line Cinema, but then sold to Universal Pictures.


title: The Flintstones (film)

text: In prehistoric suburban Bedrock, Slate & Co.'s new vice-president Cliff Vandercave and secretary Sharon Stone discuss their plan to swindle the company of its vast fortune, pin the theft on an employee, and flee. Fred Flintstone loans his best friend and neighbor Barney Rubble money so that he and his wife Betty can adopt a little boy named Bamm-Bamm, who can only pronounce his own name. Though initially hard to control because of his super strength, Bamm-Bamm eventually warms up to his new family and befriends Fred’s daughter Pebbles. Despite his mother-in-law Pearl Slaghoople's objections, Fred's wife Wilma remains supportive of his decision to loan the Rubbles money.


title: The Flintstones (film)

text: Cliff holds an aptitude test with the worker with the highest mark becoming the company's new vice president. Barney gets the highest score but switches his paper with Fred, whom he knows will fail. Fred receives the promotion, complete with executive perks such as a luxurious office and Stone appointed as his secretary. To test Fred’s willingness to follow orders, Cliff asks him to dismiss Barney who, with Fred's test paper, has the lowest score in the company. Though Fred is unwilling to fire him, Cliff warns him that he will fire both of them. Fred reluctantly accepts, but continues to help Barney support his family, even inviting the Rubbles to live with them so that they can rent out their house. However, Fred's job and newfound wealth eventually hinder his relationships with Wilma and the Rubbles. Cliff eventually tricks Fred into dismissing the other workers, over the objections of his office Dictabird. Later, Barney confronts Fred after seeing worker riots on the news and, after revealing that he switched tests with Fred, moves out with Betty. Wilma and Pebbles also leave for Pearl's house, leaving Fred behind.


title: The Flintstones (film)

text: Fred goes to the quarry, discovers Cliff's plan, and tries getting Mr. Slate to fire Cliff. However, having manipulated the events to make it look as if Fred stole the money, Cliff has reported the theft to the police. Fred flees, but a manhunt ensues by both the police and the fired workers. Wilma and Betty see this on the news and break into Slate & Co. to get the Dictabird, the only witness who can clear Fred's name, unaware that Cliff saw them from his office window. As a disguised Fred enters the workers' cave, he is discovered and the workers try hanging him. When Barney shows up as a sno-cone truck driver, the workers also try to hang him as well when he admits his role in the events. Fred and Barney reconcile before Wilma, Betty and the Dictabird save them and Wilma tells the workers that Fred was framed by Cliff.


title: The Flintstones (film)

text: When the Flintstones and Rubbles return home, they find it burglarized with Dino and Pearl tied up and Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm gone. The group finds a note from Cliff saying that he will trade the children for the Dictabird. Fred and Barney confront Cliff at the quarry, where Cliff has tied Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm to a huge machine. Though they hand him the Dictabird, Cliff activates the machine to stall them. Barney rescues the children while Fred destroys the machine. The Dictabird escapes from Cliff and lures him back to the quarry, where Stone incapacitates him, having had a change of heart after learning of Cliff's plan to betray her. The police, Wilma, Betty, and Mr. Slate arrive and Cliff attempts to escape, but he is petrified by a substance falling from the machine.


title: The Flintstones (film)

text: Fred and the Dictabird tell the police of Cliff's actions and all charges against Fred are dropped. Impressed with the substance that Fred inadvertently created by destroying the machine, Mr. Slate dubs the substance "concrete" in honor of his daughter Concretia and declares the stone age over. Mr. Slate asks for the workers to be rehired and makes plans to produce the concrete with Fred leading its division. Having experienced the negatives of wealth and status, Fred declines the offer and asks that the workers be given two weeks paid leave as part of their salary, preferring to return to his old life. In a homage to the original series, at the end the Flintstones drive home from watching the movie; Fred tries to eat a restaurant order of "ribs" which literally turns the car over on its side; at home Fred tries to put the cat out but ends up locked outside; he screams for Wilma to let him back in.


title: The Flintstones (film)

text: In 1985, producers Keith Barish and Joel Silver bought the rights for a live-action feature film version of "The Flintstones" and commissioned Steven E. de Souza to write a script with Richard Donner hired to direct. De Souza's script submitted in September 1987 was eventually rejected and in October 1989 a new script by Daniel and Joshua Goldin was submitted. Peter Martin Wortmann and Robert Conte submitted another draft in March 1990 before Mitch Markowitz was hired to write a script. Said to be a cross of "The Grapes of Wrath", Markowitz commented that "I don't even remember it that well, but Fred and Barney leave their town during a terrible depression and go across the country, or whatever that damn prehistoric thing is, looking for jobs. They wind up in trailer parks trying to keep their families together. They exhibit moments of heroism and poignancy". Markowitz's version was apparently too sentimental for director Donner, who disliked it. A further draft was then submitted and revised by Jeffrey Reno and Ron Osbourne in 1991 and 1992. Eventually, the rights were bought by Amblin Entertainment and Steven Spielberg who, after working with Goodman on "Always", was determined to cast him in the lead as Fred. Brian Levant was hired as director, knowing he was the right person because of his love for the original series. They knew he was an avid fan of the series because of his Flintstones items collection and the knowledge he had from the series.


title: The Flintstones (film)

text: When Levant was hired, all previous scripts were thrown out. In May 1992, Michael J. Wilson submitted a four-page story that became the basis for the film. This was turned into a script by Jim Jennewein and Tom S. Parker. A meeting of Levant, Bruce Cohen, Jason Hoffs and Kate Barker gave notes to Gary Ross, who produced another draft. Levant then recruited what he called an "all-star writing team" which consisted of his writer friends from television shows such as "Family Ties", "Night Court", and "Happy Days". Levant described as "a sitcom on steroids, just trying to improve it". The writers, dubbed the Flintstone Eight, were Al Aidekman, Cindy Begel, Lloyd Garver, David Silverman, Stephen Sustarsic, Nancy Steen, Neil Thompson plus Levant. The group wrote a new draft but four more round table sessions ensued, each of which was attended by new talent, including Rob Dames, Lenny Ripps, Fred Fox Jr., Dava Savel, Lon Diamond, David Richardson, Roy Teicher, Richard Gurman, Michael J. Digaetano and Ruth Bennett. Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel worked on it next with Levant, taking home a reported $100,000 for just two days work. Rick Moranis was also present at Levant's roundtables, and later described the film as "one of those scripts that had about 18 writers". Levant made eight more revisions before finally registering a shooting script on August 7, 1993. Of the 35 writers, the Flintstone Eight were submitted for arbitration by the Writers Guild of America plus Wilson for story credit; however, credit was given to the first script by De Souza and to Jennewein and Parker for their drafts.


title: The Flintstones (film)

text: The effects for Dino, the Dictabird and other prehistoric creatures were provided by Jim Henson's Creature Shop while most of the film's CGI effects were provided by Industrial Light & Magic after Levant was impressed by their work on the dinosaurs in "Jurassic Park" (another Universal/Amblin production released the previous year).


title: The Flintstones (film)

text: John Candy, Jim Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, and Chevy Chase were all considered for the role of Fred Flintstone. The last four actors were all deemed too skinny and a fat suit was deemed too inappropriate to be used. Goodman felt he was "sandbagged" into the role of Flintstone years earlier at the table read for the film "Always", when Steven Spielberg announced: "Ladies and Gentlemen, I'd like to say something before we start: I've found my Fred Flintstone". Goodman said it was "not a role I was looking forward to doing" but said the experience was "fun". Had Goodman turned the role down, the film would not have been made. Geena Davis, Faith Ford, and Catherine O'Hara were all considered for the role of Wilma, but Elizabeth Perkins eventually won the role. Danny DeVito was the original first choice for Barney, but he turned down the role as he felt he was too gruff to do the character properly and reportedly suggested Rick Moranis for the role. DeVito was also considered for Fred Flintstone. Although Janine Turner was considered, Rosie O'Donnell won the role of Betty Rubble with her impersonation of the cartoon character's signature giggle. Both Tracey Ullman and Daphne Zuniga were also considered for the role. Sharon Stone was to play Miss Stone, but turned it down because of scheduling conflicts. The role was also offered to Nicole Kidman. Both Audrey Meadows and Elizabeth Montgomery were considered for the role of Pearl Slaghoople.


title: The Flintstones (film)

text: Principal photography began on May 17, 1993, and wrapped on August 20, 1993. Parts of the film were shot at Glen Canyon in Utah as well as Los Angeles County, California. Sets that resembled a complete street from Bedrock were constructed adjacent to Vasquez Rocks in California. Before being totally demolished, visitors could tour the location.


title: The Flintstones (film)

text: Despite the negative reviews, "The Flintstones" was a box office success, grossing $130,531,208 domestically, including the $37,182,745 it made during its 4-day Memorial Day opening weekend in 1994 (a then-record gross for the Memorial Day weekend). It performed even better internationally, making another $211,100,000 internationally, for a total of $341,631,208 worldwide, more than seven times its $46 million budget. Along with "Lethal Weapon 3", the film also had the biggest May opening weekend until it was taken by "Twister" in 1996. In the United Kingdom, it had the second highest opening week at the time behind "Jurassic Park", with a gross of $8.7 million. In Mexico it had a record opening with $4.9 million in four days. In Australia, it grossed $2 million in its opening weekend, also the second highest at the time behind "Jurassic Park". In Italy, it grossed $4.8 million in its first six days, again the second biggest opener in Italy at the time behind "Jurassic Park". It set opening records in Hungary and Poland. It went on to gross over $15 million in Italy, $35 million in Germany and $31 million in the United Kingdom. It did not perform well in France or South Korea.


title: The Flintstones (film)

text: On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 38 out of 100, which indicates "generally unfavorable reviews", based on 15 reviews. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B+" on scale of A+ to F.


title: The Flintstones (film)

text: On "Siskel & Ebert & the Movies", Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" and his colleague Gene Siskel of the "Chicago Tribune" gave the film two thumbs down. Ebert gave it 2.5 stars out of 4 in his newspaper review, and Siskel gave it 1.5 stars out of 4 in his newspaper review. They both mentioned that its main storylines (embezzlement, mother-in-law problems, office politics and extra-marital affairs) were storylines for adult films, and ones that children would not be able to understand.


title: The Flintstones (film)

text: Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote that the film never had much potential and "has been carefully designed to be as bright and insubstantial as a child’s toy balloon". Comparing the film to "The Addams Family", he called both films "clever, lively and ultimately wearying pieces of showy Hollywood machinery" that favor visuals over writing.


title: The Flintstones (film)

text: Caryn James of "The New York Times" wrote that Goodman "goes a long way toward carrying "The Flintstones" over a script that is essentially a bunch of rock jokes and puns stretched to feature-film length", but James also said the film is too faithful to its 1960s source material and lacks modern pop culture references.


title: The Flintstones (film)

text: Todd McCarthy of "Variety" said that "with all manner of friendly beasts, a superenergetic John Goodman and a colorful supporting cast inhabiting a Bedrock that resembles a Stone Age version of Steven Spielberg suburbia, this live-action translation of the perennial cartoon favorite is a fine popcorn picture for small fry, and perfectly inoffensive for adults".


title: The Flintstones (film)

text: Michael Wilmington of the "Chicago Tribune" wrote that the film resembled "a mountain of production, a rock of a cast, [and] a pebble of thought".


title: The Flintstones (film)

text: A few reviews were positive, including one from Richard Schickel of "Time", who said that "nothing has been lost—or worse, inflated out of proportion" in the adaptation. He said it "doesn't feel overcalculated, over-produced or overthought".


title: The Flintstones (film)

text: In a 1997 interview, Joseph Barbera, co-founder of Hanna-Barbera Productions and co-creator of "The Flintstones", stated that, although he was impressed by the film's visuals, he felt the story "wasn't as good as I could have made it".


title: The Flintstones (film)

text: O'Donnell won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress for her performance in this film. The film also won Worst Screenplay and was nominated for two others: Taylor as Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress (the second performance in the film nominated for this award) and for the film as Worst Remake or Sequel. At the 1994 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, the film was nominated for Worst Resurrection of a TV Show and Worst Actress for O'Donnell. The film also received four Saturn Award nominations, including Best Fantasy Film, Best Costume Design and Best Supporting Actress for O'Donnell's and Berry's performances.


title: The Flintstones (film)

text: McDonald's marketed a number of Flintstones promotions for the film, including the return of the McRib sandwich and the "Grand Poobah Meal" combo with it, a line of premium glass mugs, and toys based on characters and locations from the film. In the commercials and released items for the Flintstones promotion, McDonald's was renamed "RocDonald's" with stone age imagery, similarly to other businesses and proper names in the Flintstones franchise. The week the film was released, MTV aired a block of "The Grind" with Eric Nies at the film's Bedrock set with dancers in cave outfits performing to hit music at the time from Ace of Base, Was (Not Was), Warren G and Nate Dogg while Eric asked the dancers themed trivia questions from the show and encouraged the viewers to purchase the film's soundtrack. "", a video game based on the film, was developed by Ocean software and released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy and Mega Drive/Genesis (Sega Channel exclusive) in 1995. In the United Kingdom, Tetley promoted TV commercials with audio from the film, including mugs starring characters from the film. "Jurassic Park", the name of another movie, was also seen briefly as a park in the film.


title: The Flintstones (film)

text: The film was released on VHS and LaserDisc on November 8, 1994, and later on DVD on March 16, 1999. It was released on Blu-ray on August 19, 2014.


title: The Flintstones (film)

text: A video game based on the film was released for the Game Boy, Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Channel in both 1994 and 1995 respectively, developed by Ocean Software (SNES), Twilight (GB), Hi-Tech (SC) and published by Ocean Software. In the game, the player takes control of Fred Flintstone and has to rescue Wilma, Barney, Pebbles and Bam-Bam from Cliff Vandercave.


title: The Flintstones (film)

text: A Sega Genesis version developed by Foley Hi-Tech and published by Ocean Software was also planned, but was later canceled and was released on the Sega Channel instead.


title: The Flintstones (film)

text: A prequel, "The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas", was released in 2000. The original main cast did not reprise their roles of the characters, though O'Donnell provided the voice of an octopus who gave massages to younger versions of Wilma and Betty. Irwin Keyes returned as Joe Rockhead, the only cast member to reprise his role from the first film. Like the first film, it received negative reviews, but unlike the original film, it was not a box office success.


title: 47 Meters Down

text: 47 Meters Down is a 2017 survival horror film directed by Johannes Roberts, written by Roberts and Ernest Riera, and starring Claire Holt and Mandy Moore. The plot follows two sisters who are invited to cage dive while on holiday in Mexico. When the winch system holding the cage breaks and the cage plummets to the ocean floor with the two girls trapped inside, they must find a way to escape, with their air supplies running low and great white sharks stalking nearby.


title: 47 Meters Down

text: The film was released in the United States on 16 June 2017, and in the United Kingdom on 26 July 2017. It grossed $62 million worldwide against a budget of about $5 million.


title: 47 Meters Down

text: A sequel, titled "," was released on August 16, 2019. The two films have grossed over $100 million worldwide.


title: 47 Meters Down

text: Sisters Lisa (Mandy Moore) and Kate (Claire Holt) are on vacation in Mexico after Lisa's boyfriend recently broke up with her. They decide to go watch sharks from a diving cage with two local men. At the docks, Lisa is wary of the boat and its owner, Captain Taylor (Matthew Modine). Kate has had one lesson in diving, but Lisa has never dived. They lie to Taylor and tell him that they are both experienced divers. Unbeknownst to everyone, the winch supporting the cage is insecure.


title: 47 Meters Down

text: Taylor sends Lisa and Kate down, with masks that allow them to talk to him on the surface and to each other. They are soon surrounded by great white sharks, but the winch boom breaks free and the cage sinks to the ocean floor 47 metres down and out of communication range with the boat. Kate swims up seven meters to resume communication with Taylor, who tells her that Javier (Chris J. Johnson) will be coming down with a spare winch cable to attach to the cage. He advises them to stay in the cage because the sharks are close by. Both women are running out of air but soon see a flashlight in the distance. With Kate low on air from the previous swim, Lisa swims out to get Javier's attention. A shark tries to attack her but she avoids it.


title: 47 Meters Down

text: Lisa becomes disoriented about her position. Javier attempts to usher her back towards safety but he is killed by a great white shark. Lisa takes his spear gun and the winch cable and swims back to the cage. The spare cable is attached but it snaps and the cage sinks back down, landing on Lisa's leg and pinning her. Kate tells Taylor they are low on air and Lisa is trapped. He sends air tanks down and tells them the coast guard is an hour out. He also warns that the second tank may cause nitrogen narcosis, which can lead to hallucinations. Kate finds three flares to signal the coast guard. As she returns to the cage, she is attacked and (presumably) devoured by a great white shark. Lisa uses the spear from the spear gun to pull a tank toward her and dons it, getting more air.


title: 47 Meters Down

text: Kate is injured and her blood is attracting more sharks. Lisa uses her BCD to lift up the cage, freeing her leg, and she swims to Kate. Due to the nature of Kate's wounds, the sisters decide to swim to the surface, using one of the flares to scare off the sharks. At the 20-meter mark, Taylor reminds them they must wait five minutes to decompress and avoid the bends. Kate accidentally drops the second flare and lights the third, discovering that they are surrounded by sharks.


title: 47 Meters Down

text: As the third flare goes out, Taylor yells for them to drop their gear and make a break for the surface, and they swim as fast as they can. One of the sharks bites Lisa's leg but she escapes. Both women make it to the boat but Lisa is attacked again. She sticks her fingers in the shark's eye and it releases her. The men pull the sisters onto the boat, saving them, and start patching up their wounds when they see that the shark has bitten off half of Lisa's leg.


title: 47 Meters Down

text: It is revealed that Lisa has been hallucinating all this time due to nitrogen narcosis and that she is still at the bottom of the ocean with her leg pinned under the cage, with Kate gone. As Coast Guard divers arrive to rescue her and carry her to the surface, Lisa begins coming out of her hallucination, calling out to Kate. When Lisa looks around for Kate, she realizes that her sister is not present and begins crying, remembering that Kate was killed by the great white shark.


title: 47 Meters Down

text: Principal photography took place in the Dominican Republic, and Pinewood Indomina Studios, Dominican Republic in July 2015, and concluded the following month. Additional photography took place in January 2016.


title: 47 Meters Down

text: Original distributor Dimension Films had initially set a North American DVD and VOD release date for 2 August 2016. However, on 25 July 2016, "Variety" reported that Dimension had sold the rights to Entertainment Studios. Entertainment Studios cancelled the 2 August home release and instead committed to a theatrical release in the United States in summer 2017. The working title for the film was "47 Meters Down", which Dimension had changed to "In the Deep" for their home release, but upon acquiring the film Entertainment Studios reverted to the original title. Dimension had already sent out screeners and shipped DVDs to retailers before the deal took place. The DVDs, under the title "In the Deep", were recalled. However, several retailers broke the street date, and a handful of physical copies were sold and have since turned up on eBay as collectors' items.


title: 47 Meters Down

text: The film was released theatrically in the United Kingdom on 26 July 2017 & United States on 16 June 2017, and spent about $30 million on prints and advertising.


title: 47 Meters Down

text: "47 Meters Down" grossed $44.3 million in the United States and Canada and $17.4 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $61.7 million, against a production budget of $5.5 million.


title: 47 Meters Down

text: In North America, "47 Meters Down" was released alongside "All Eyez on Me", "Rough Night" and "Cars 3", and was initially projected to gross around $5 million from 2,300 theatres in its opening weekend. It made $4.5 million on its first day (including $735,000 from Thursday night previews), increasing weekend estimates to $11 million. It went on to debut to $11.5 million, finishing 5th at the box office. In its second weekend, the film dropped 34%, grossing $7.4 million and finishing 4th at the box office. It was the second highest-grossing indie film of 2017.


title: 47 Meters Down

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, ""47 Meters Down" doesn't take its terrifying premise quite as far as it should, but its toothy antagonists still offer a few thrills for less demanding genre enthusiasts." On Metacritic the film has a weighed average score of 52 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it a 55% overall positive score.


title: 47 Meters Down

text: Joe Leydon of "Variety" wrote: "Director Johannes Roberts' mostly underwater thriller is a compact and sturdily crafted B-movie that generates enough scares and suspense to qualify as — well, maybe not a pleasant surprise, but a reasonably entertaining one."


title: 47 Meters Down

text: On 8 September 2017, it was announced that production studio, The Fyzz Facility, is working on a sequel titled "48 Meters Down", in which Roberts, Riera, and Harris & Lane will return as director/writer, co-writer, and producers, respectively. The sequel is set in Mexico and centers around a group of young women who decide to explore some hidden underwater ruins located off-the-beaten trail. None of the cast from the previous film returns in the sequel. The new cast members are John Corbett, Nia Long, Sophie Nelisse, Corinne Foxx, Sistine Stallone, Brianne Tju, Davi Santos, Khylin Rhambo and Brec Bassinger. "" was released August 16, 2019.


title: Horton Hears a Who! (film)

text: Horton Hears a Who! (also known as Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! or simply Horton) is a 2008 American computer animated adventure comedy film based on the 1954 book of the same name by Dr. Seuss, produced by Blue Sky Studios and distributed by 20th Century Fox. Directed by Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino in their directorial debuts, the film's screenplay was written by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, and features the voices of Jim Carrey and Steve Carell as Horton the Elephant and Mayor Ned McDodd, respectively, alongside Carol Burnett, Will Arnett, Seth Rogen, Dan Fogler, Isla Fisher, Jonah Hill, and Amy Poehler. John Powell composed the film's musical score. It is the fourth screen adaptation of the book following the 1970 Chuck Jones television special, the 1987 Soviet animated short, and the 1992 Russian animated short.


title: Horton Hears a Who! (film)

text: The film was released theatrically on March 14, 2008 to generally positive reviews, and grossed $299 million on a budget of $85 million. "Horton Hears a Who!" was the third Dr. Seuss feature film adaptation, the first adaptation to be fully animated using CGI technology, and the second Dr. Seuss film starring Jim Carrey after "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (2000).


title: Horton Hears a Who! (film)

text: In the Jungle of Nool, Horton the Elephant, the jungle’s eccentric teacher, hears a tiny yelp coming from a floating dust speck and gives chase to it before placing it on top of a pink flower. Horton finds out the speck harbors the city of Whoville and its inhabitants, the Whos, led by Mayor Ned McDodd, whose family includes his wife Sally, 96 daughters whose names all begin with the letter H, and one young son named JoJo. Despite being the oldest child and next in line for the mayoral position, JoJo does not want to be the next mayor, and he does not talk because he is so scared of disappointing his father. Once Horton begins carrying the speck with him, the city starts experiencing strange phenomena (earthquakes and changes in the weather), and the Mayor finds his attempts to caution Whoville challenged by the Town Council, led by the opportunistic yet condescending Chairman.


title: Horton Hears a Who! (film)

text: After he makes contact with Horton, the Mayor finds out from local scientist Dr. Mary Lou LaRue that Whoville will be destroyed if Horton does not find a "safer, more stable home". With the help of his best friend Morton the mouse, Horton decides to place the speck atop Mt. Nool, the safest place in the jungle. The head of the jungle, the Sour Kangaroo, who refuses to believe that the Whos exist, demands numerous times that Horton give up the speck for overshadowing her authority, but Horton refuses. Also taking force toward Horton are the Wickersham Brothers, a group of monkeys who like to cause havoc around the jungle. Eventually, the Kangaroo enlists a sinister but idiotic vulture named Vlad Vladikoff to get rid of the speck by force. He initially only agrees to do it in exchange for the Kangaroo's son Rudy, but when she threatens to hire the Wickersham Brothers to do it as she will probably change her mind, he eventually decides to do it for free.


title: Horton Hears a Who! (film)

text: Vlad does many attempts to steal the flower, but Horton outruns him. In a last attempt to steal it, Vlad manages to steal the flower away from Horton and drops it into a massive field of identical pink flowers causing an large tremor in Whoville. After unsuccessfully picking 2,999,999 flowers, Horton eventually recovers the flower (exactly the 3,000,000th flower), also revealing himself to the rest of Whoville. The Kangaroo eventually finds out that Horton still has the speck, fires Vlad, and rallies the jungle community into arresting Horton, preying on their fears that their own children will become chaotic delinquents under his influence.


title: Horton Hears a Who! (film)

text: Upon cornering him, the Kangaroo offers Horton a final chance to renounce Whoville's existence. Horton refuses, and despite the heartfelt speech that he gives, the Kangaroo orders the animals to rope and cage him, and to have the speck and Whoville destroyed by dropping it in a pot of beezlenut oil. The Mayor enlists all of his people to make noise, so that all the animals will find out they're really there, assisted by JoJo's "Symphonophone", an invention which creates a huge musical contribution and reveals that JoJo's "true" passion is music, but still fails to penetrate the surface of the speck.


title: Horton Hears a Who! (film)

text: The Kangaroo snatches the flower from the captured Horton and prepares to drop it into the pot. Meanwhile, JoJo grabs the horn that was used to project Horton's voice, runs up the highest tower, and screams his first word, breaking through the sound barrier just seconds before the speck hits the oil. Rudy grabs the flower and proclaims he hears it, and the other animals of Nool notice that they hear it too. Despite his mother's objections, Rudy returns the flower to the released Horton, while the animals, realizing the truth about the Whos' existence, turn on the Kangaroo for deceiving them. While being praised for his integrity by his neighbors, Horton forgives the devastated and regretful Kangaroo, who befriends him with a makeshift umbrella for Whoville. The film ends with the Whos and the animals of Nool gathering to recite the chorus from "Can't Fight This Feeling" by REO Speedwagon, and it is revealed that the Jungle of Nool (and Earth as a whole) is just one speck, like Whoville, among numerous others, floating in space.


title: Horton Hears a Who! (film)

text: After the critical and commercial failure of "The Cat in the Hat" 2003 film, Dr. Seuss' widow, Audrey Geisel, was so unhappy with the film, so she then decided not to allow any more live-action feature films based on his work. In March 2005, as Blue Sky Studios was completing "Robots", the studio and 20th Century Fox Animation president Chris Meledandri asked Geisel about getting the adaptation rights for "Horton Hears a Who!". The art director for "Robots", Steve Martino, along with story consultant and additional scene director Jimmy Hayward, created a model of protagonist Horton and some animation tests to showcase their design ideas to Geisel, who eventually agreed on "a seven-figure deal" for both the book and its predecessor "Horton Hatches the Egg". Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio were then hired to write the script, to be directed by Hayward and Martino with a set release date of 2008.


title: Horton Hears a Who! (film)

text: Geisel was credited as a supervising producer and watched production up close, and also gave the directors full access to her late husband's archives, including his original sketches, 3-D sculptures, work done for the film "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T." (1953), and even memos Dr. Seuss traded with Chuck Jones during the production of the Grinch TV special. For references in doing the character animation, along with footage of the voice actors performing their lines, the Blue Sky animators recorded themselves performing the script in an "acting room" to see what of their body language could translate well into the film.


title: Horton Hears a Who! (film)

text: To make Horton different from and look different compared to the mammoths Blue Sky worked with in the "Ice Age" series, he would at times able to stand and walk upright on two legs making him somewhat bipedal, in a way that made him look like "a fat man in an elephant suit". While the design had a major difference from the original book, with a bigger mouth to allow for wider facial expressions like those of Jim Carrey, as the directors noticed Horton's design in the book varied according to his emotion, the 3D wireframe tried to allow for the same effects.


title: Horton Hears a Who! (film)

text: The original score for the film's soundtrack album was composed by John Powell. A soundtrack consisting of the film's score was released on March 25, 2008 by Varèse Sarabande. Near the end of the picture, the cast comes together and sings the song "Can't Fight This Feeling" by REO Speedwagon.


title: Horton Hears a Who! (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes of reviews were positive, with an average rating of . The site's consensus reads, ""Horton Hears A Who!" is both whimsical and heartwarming, and is the rare Dr. Seuss adaptation that stays true to the spirit of the source material." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 71 out of 100 based on 31 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film version an "A−" grade on an "A+" to "F" scale.


title: Horton Hears a Who! (film)

text: Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter called it "A delight, brimming with colorful, elastic characters and bountiful wit."


title: Horton Hears a Who! (film)

text: John Anderson of Variety wrote: "The real stars of the movie are the animators, who imbue even the overgrowth in Horton's jungle with a certain floppy Seuss-ishness."


title: Horton Hears a Who! (film)

text: "Horton Hears a Who!" grossed a total of $299.5 million on an $85 million budget. $154.5 million came from the United States and Canada, and $145 million from other territories.


title: Horton Hears a Who! (film)

text: In its opening weekend, the film grossed $45 million in 3,954 theaters, averaging $11,384 per theater in the United States and Canada, and ranking #1 at the box office. The film also had the strongest opening for a film starring Jim Carrey since "Bruce Almighty", with the same applying to his costar in both films, Steve Carell.


title: Horton Hears a Who! (film)

text: The film previously had the fourth-largest opening weekend in March, behind "Ice Age", "" and "300", and as of September 2012, it ranks on the 15th place. In the United States and Canada, "Horton Hears a Who!" was also the #1 film its second weekend of release, grossing $25 million over the Easter frame, in 3,961 theaters and averaging $6,208 per venue. It dropped to #2 in its third weekend grossing $17.8 million in 3,826 theaters and averaging $4,637 per venue. At the international box office it remained at #1 in its third week.


title: Horton Hears a Who! (film)

text: "Horton Hears a Who!", like other Dr. Seuss creations, contains layered subtexts and messages. A major theme regards learning about universal values between vastly different places and people, as shown by the quote "A person's a person, no matter how small". This is employed on many levels: primarily with Horton and the Mayor of Whoville making contact and championing each other to the point where everyone around them eventually learns the truth about the speck that Whoville resides on; but also with the Mayor and Sour Kangaroo's relationships with their respective sons, Horton and the Mayor being challenged by Sour Kangaroo and the Chairman, the fickle herd mentality of the jungle community (save Horton's students and Morton) and Horton still forgiving Sour Kangaroo, and the ending shot of all of the worlds being specks in space.


title: Horton Hears a Who! (film)

text: "Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!" was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 9, 2008. Three versions of the DVD are available: a single-disc edition, a 2-disc special edition, and a gift set packaged with a Horton plush. All three versions included the "Ice Age" short film "Surviving Sid".


title: Horton Hears a Who! (film)

text: In the United States, the film earned $77,630,768 from DVD sales and $180,434 from Blu-ray sales for a total of $77,811,202 in video sales.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: John Dennis Hastert (; born January 2, 1942) is an American former politician and convicted felon who represented from 1987 to 2007 and served as the 51st speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1999 to 2007. The longest-serving Republican Speaker of the House in history, Hastert resigned and began work as a lobbyist after the Democrats gained a majority in the chamber in 2007.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: From 1965 to 1981, Hastert was a high school teacher and coach at Yorkville High School in Yorkville, Illinois. He lost a 1980 bid for the Illinois House of Representatives, but ran again and won a seat in 1981. He was first elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1986, and was re-elected every two years until he retired in 2007. Hastert rose through the Republican ranks in the House, becoming chief deputy whip in 1995 and Speaker in 1999. As Speaker of the House, Hastert supported the George W. Bush administration's foreign and domestic policies. After Democrats took control of the House in 2007 following the 2006 elections, Hastert declined to seek the position of minority leader, resigned his House seat, and became a lobbyist at the firm of Dickstein Shapiro.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: In May 2015, Hastert was indicted on federal charges of structuring bank withdrawals to evade bank reporting requirements and making false statements to federal investigators. Federal prosecutors said that the funds withdrawn by Hastert were used as hush money to conceal his past sexual misconduct. In October 2015, Hastert entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors. Under the agreement, Hastert pleaded guilty to the structuring charge (a felony); the charge of making false statements was dropped. In court submissions filed in April 2016, federal prosecutors alleged that Hastert had molested at least four boys as young as 14 years of age during his time as a high school wrestling coach. At a sentencing hearing, Hastert admitted that he had sexually abused boys whom he had coached. Referring to Hastert as a "serial child molester", a federal judge imposed a sentence of 15 months in prison, two years' supervised release, and a $250,000 fine. Hastert was imprisoned in 2016 and was released 13 months later. He became the highest-ranking elected official in U.S. history to serve a prison sentence.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Hastert was born on January 2, 1942, in Aurora, Illinois, the eldest of two sons of Naomi (née Nussle) and Jack Hastert. Hastert is of Luxembourgish and Norwegian descent on his father's side, and of German descent on his mother's.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Hastert grew up in a rural Illinois farming community. His middle-class family owned a farm supply business and a family farm; Hastert bagged and hauled feed and performed farm chores. As a young man, Hastert also worked shifts in the family's Plainfield restaurant, The Clock Tower, where he was a fry cook. Hastert became a born-again Christian as a teenager, during his sophomore year of high school. Hastert attended Oswego High School, where he was a star wrestler and football player.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Hastert briefly attended North Central College, but later transferred to Wheaton College, a Christian liberal arts college. Jim Parnalee, Hastert's roommate at North Central who transferred with him to Wheaton, was a Marine Corps Reserve member who in 1965 became the school's first student to be killed in Vietnam. Hastert continued to visit Parnalee's family each year in Michigan. Because of a wrestling injury, Hastert never served in the military. In 1964, Hastert graduated from Wheaton with a B.A. in economics. In 1967, he received his M.S. in philosophy of education from Northern Illinois University (NIU). In his first year of graduate school, Hastert spent three months in Japan as part of the People to People Student Ambassador Program. One of Hastert's fellow group members was Tony Podesta (then the president of the Young Democrats at University of Illinois at Chicago Circle).


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Hastert was employed by Yorkville Community Unit School District 115 for 16 years, from 1965 to 1981. Hastert began working there, at age 23, while still attending NIU. Throughout that time, Hastert worked as a teacher at Yorkville High School (teaching government, history, economics, and sociology), where he also served as a football and wrestling coach. Hastert led the school's wrestling team to the 1976 state title and was later named Illinois Coach of the Year. According to federal prosecutors, during the time that he coached wrestling, Hastert sexually abused at least four of his students.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Hastert was a Boy Scout volunteer with Explorer Post 540 of Yorkville for 17 years, during his time as a schoolteacher and coach. Hastert reportedly traveled with the Explorers on trips to the Grand Canyon, the Bahamas, Minnesota, and the Green River in Utah.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Hastert considered applying to become an assistant principal at the school, but then decided to enter politics, although at the time "he knew nothing about politics." Hastert approached Phyllis Oldenburg, a Republican operative in Kendall County, seeking advice on running for a seat in the Illinois Legislature.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Hastert lost a 1980 Republican primary for the Illinois House of Representatives, but showed a talent for campaigning, and after the election, volunteered for an influential state senator, John E. Grotberg. In the summer of 1980, however, State Representative Al Schoeberiein had become terminally ill, and local Republican party officials selected Hastert as the successor over two major rivals, lawyer Tom Johnson of West Chicago and Mayor Richard Verbic of Elgin. The first round of balloting resulted in a tie, but Hastert was chosen after Grotberg interceded on Hastert's behalf. Hastert, fellow Republican Suzanne Deuchler and Democratic incumbent Lawrence Murphy were elected that year.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Hastert served three terms in the state House. He served on the Appropriations Committee. According to a 1999 "Chicago Tribune" profile, in the state House "Hastert quickly staked out a place on the far right of the political spectrum, once earning a place on the 'Moral Majority Honor Roll.' Yet, he also displayed yeoman-like work habits and an ability to put aside partisanship." He gained a reputation as a dealmaker and party leader known for "asking his colleagues to write their spending requests on a notepad so he could carry them into negotiating sessions" and holding early-morning pre-meetings to organize talking points. One of his first moves in the House was to help block passage of the Equal Rights Amendment; the state House Speaker George Ryan appointed Hastert to a committee that worked to prevent the ERA from coming to the House floor. In the state House, Hastert opposed bills barring discrimination against gays; supported (unsuccessfully) proposals to raise the driving age to 18; and voted for a mandatory seat belt law, although he later voted to repeal it.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: In 1986, at the urging of Governor James R. Thompson, Hastert developed a plan to deregulate Illinois utility companies. Under the plan developed by Hastert and Republican staffers, property and gross-receipts taxes that utilities paid would be eliminated and replaced with a "state service tax" that service-industry businesses (ranging from insurers to funeral homes) would pay. Critics of the plan said that it was too favorable to utility companies, and the proposal was not adopted.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Meanwhile, Hastert's political mentor Grotberg had been elected to Congress as the representative from Illinois's 14th district, but was diagnosed with cancer in 1986, and was unable to run for a second term. Hastert was nominated to replace him; in the general election in November 1986, he defeated Democratic candidate Mary Lou Kearns, the Kane County coroner, in a relatively close race.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Hastert was then reelected in his Fox Valley-centered district several times, by wider margins, aided by his role in redistricting following the 1990 Census.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Following the House banking scandal, which broke in 1992, it was revealed that Hastert had bounced 44 checks during the period under investigation. A Justice Department special counsel said there was no reason to believe Hastert had committed any crime in overdrawing his accounts.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: As a protégé of House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel, Hastert rose through the Republican ranks in the House, and in 1995 (after the Republicans gained control of the House and Newt Gingrich became Speaker), Hastert became chief deputy whip. Michel appointed Hastert to the Republicans' health care task force, where Hastert became a "prominent voice" in helping defeat the Clinton health care plan of 1993.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Hastert developed a close relationship with Tom DeLay, the House majority whip, and was widely seen as DeLay's deputy. Hastert and DeLay first worked together in 1989, on Edward Madigan's unsuccessful race against Gingrich for minority whip. Hastert later managed DeLay's successful campaign to become whip. In September 1998, the two added an extra $250,000 to the Defense Department appropriations bill for "pharmacokinetics research" which paid for an Army experiment with nicotine chewing gum manufactured by the Amurol Confections Company in Yorkville, in Hastert's district. On the House floor, Democratic Representative Peter DeFazio criticized the insertion of the provision; Hastert defended it. Hastert played "good cop" to DeLay's "bad cop."


title: Dennis Hastert

text: On the eve of his elevation to Speaker, Hastert was described as "deeply conservative at heart" by the Associated Press. The AP reported: "He is an evangelical Christian who opposes abortion and advocates lower taxes, a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution and the death penalty. He spearheaded the GOP's fight against using sampling techniques to take the next census. Such groups as the National Right to Life Committee, the Christian Coalition, the Chamber of Commerce and the National Rifle Association all gave his voting record perfect scores of 100. The American Conservative Union gave him an 88. Meanwhile, the liberal Americans for Democratic Action, the American Civil Liberties Union and labor organizations such as the AFL–CIO and the Teamsters each gave Hastert zero points. The League of Conservation Voters rated him a 13."


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Hastert criticized the Clinton administration's plans to conduct the 2000 Census using sampling techniques. Hastert was a supporter of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and in 1993 voted to approve the trade pact. He was a gun rights supporter who voted against the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act and Federal Assault Weapons Ban.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Hastert was the "House Republicans' leader on anti-narcotics efforts" and was a strong supporter of the War on Drugs. In this role, he campaigned to bar needle-exchange programs from receiving federal funds, and criticized the Clinton administration for what he believed was insufficient funding for drug interdiction efforts.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: In redistricting following the 2000 census, Hastert brokered a deal with Democratic Representative William Lipinski, also from Illinois, that "protected the reelection prospects of almost every Illinois incumbent." The deal easily passed the divided Illinois Legislature.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Hastert served on the following House committees and in the following House positions. (This list does not include subcommittee assignments or positions within the Republican Conference).


title: Dennis Hastert

text: In the aftermath of the 1998 midterm elections, where the GOP lost five House seats and failed to make a net gain of seats in the Senate, House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia stepped down from the speakership and declined to take his seat for an 11th term. In mid-December, Representative Robert L. Livingston of Louisiana—the former chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and the Speaker-designate—stated in a dramatic surprise announcement on the House floor that he would not become Speaker, following widely publicized revelations of his extramarital affairs.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Although he reportedly had no warning of Livingston's decision to step aside, Hastert "began lobbying on the House floor within moments" of Livingston's announcement, and by the afternoon of that day had secured the public backing of the House Republican leadership, including Gingrich, DeLay (who was "viewed as too partisan to step into the role of Speaker") and Dick Armey (who was "viewed as too weak" and was damaged by party infighting). On that day, Hastert was endorsed by about 100 Republican representatives, ranging from conservatives such as Steve Largent to moderates such as Mike Castle, for the speakership. Representative Christopher Cox of California, viewed as a potential rival, decided by evening not to challenge Hastert for the speakership. Hastert became known as "the Accidental Speaker."


title: Dennis Hastert

text: In accepting the position, Hastert broke the tradition that the new speaker deliver his first address from the speaker's chair, instead delivering his seventeen-minute acceptance speech from the floor. Hastert adopted a conciliatory tone and pledged to work for bipartisanship, saying that: "Solutions to problems cannot be found in a pool of bitterness."


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Nevertheless, in November 2004, Hastert instituted what became known as the Hastert Rule (or "majority of the majority" rule), which was an informal, self-imposed political practice of allowing the House to vote on only those bills that were supported by the majority of its Republican members. The practice received criticism as an unduly partisan measure both at the time it was adopted and in the subsequent years. The same year, the Hastert aide who coined the phrase also stated that the structure was not workable. In any case, a number of bills subsequently passed the House without the support of a majority of the majority party in the House, as shown by a list compiled by "The New York Times". In 2013, after leaving office, Hastert disowned the policy, saying that "there is no Hastert Rule" and that the "rule" was more of a principle that the majority party should follow its own policies.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Congressional expert Norm Ornstein writes that Hastert "blew up" the House's "regular order," which is "a mix of rules and norms that allows debate, deliberation, and amendments in committees and on the House floor, that incorporates and does not shut out the minority (even if it still loses most of the time), that takes bills that pass both houses to a conference committee to reconcile differences, [and] that allows time for members and staff to read, digest, and analyze bills." Ornstein commented that "no speaker did more to relegate the regular order to the sidelines than Hastert. ... The House is a very partisan institution, with rules structured to give even tiny majorities enormous leverage. But Hastert took those realities to a new and more tribalized, partisan plane." Despite this shift, Hastert was widely seen as "affable" and low-key; he did not seek the limelight, "become a regular on Sunday talk shows or anything close to a household word or figure," or "openly exhibit the kind of snarling or mean partisan demeanor that made Tom DeLay such a mark of hatred for Democrats."


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Hastert adopted a much lower profile in the media than conventional wisdom would suggest for a Speaker. This led to accusations that he was only a figurehead for DeLay. In 2005, DeLay was indicted by a Texas grand jury on charges of campaign-finance violations. DeLay stepped down as majority leader and was replaced in that post by Roy Blunt; DeLay resigned from Congress the following year.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Throughout his term, Hastert was a strong supporter of the George W. Bush administration's foreign and domestic policies. Hastert was described as a Bush loyalist who worked closely with the White House to shepherd Bush's agenda through Congress, The two frequently praised each other, expressed mutual respect, and had a close working relationship, even during the controversy over Representative Mark Foley sending sexually explicit text messages to teenage male pages. Hastert even provided Vice President Dick Cheney office space inside the House in the United States Capitol. In 2003, Hastert and Bush met privately at the White House about twice a month to discuss congressional developments.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Earmarks—line-item projects inserted into appropriations bills at the request of individual members, and often referred to as "pork-barrel" spending—"exploded under [Hastert's] leadership," growing from $12 billion in 1999 (at the beginning of Hastert's term) to an all-time high of $29 billion in 2006 (Hastert's last year as speaker). Hastert himself made earmarks a personal trademark; from 1999 to May 2005, Hastert obtained $24 million in federal earmarked grant funds to groups and institutions in Aurora, Illinois, Hastert's birthplace and his district's largest city.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: In March 1999, soon after Hastert's elevation to the speakership, the "Washington Post", in a front-page story, reported that Hastert "has begun offering industry lobbyists the kind of deal they like: private audiences where, for a price, they can voice their views on what kind of agenda the 106th Congress should pursue." Hastert's style and extensive fundraising led Common Cause to critique the "pay-to-play system" in Congress.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Hastert was known as a frequent critic of Bill Clinton, and immediately upon assuming the speakership, he "played a lead role" in the impeachment of the president. Nevertheless, Hastert and the Clinton administration did work together on several initiatives, including the New Markets Tax Credit Program and Plan Colombia.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: In 2000, Hastert announced he would support an Armenian genocide resolution. Analysts noted that at the time there was a tight congressional race in California, in which the large Armenian community might be important in favor of the Republican incumbent. The resolution, vehemently opposed by Turkey, had passed the Human Rights Subcommittee of the House and the International Relations Committee but Hastert, although first supporting it, withdrew the resolution on the eve of the full House vote. He explained this by saying that he had received a letter from Clinton asking him to withdraw it, because it would harm U.S. interests. Even though there is no evidence that a payment was made, an official at the Turkish Consulate is said to have claimed in one recording, that was translated by Sibel Edmonds, that the price for Hastert to withdraw the Armenian genocide resolution would have been at least $500,000.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: "Hastert and the senior Republican leadership in the House were able to maintain party discipline to a great degree", which allowed them to regularly enact legislation, despite a narrow majority (less than 12 seats) in the 106th and 107th Congresses. Hastert was a strong supporter of the Iraq War Resolution and the ensuing 2003 invasion of Iraq and the Iraq War. Hastert stated in the House in October 2002 that he believed there was "a direct connection between Iraq and al-Qaeda" and that the U.S. should "do all that we can to disarm Saddam Hussein's regime before they provide al-Qaeda with weapons of mass destruction." In a February 2003 interview with the "Chicago Tribune", Hastert "launched into a lengthy and passionate denunciation" of France's resistance to the Iraq war and stated that he wanted to go "nose-to-nose" with the country. In 2006, Hastert visited Iraq at Bush's request and supported a supplemental Iraq War spending bill.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: As Speaker, Hastert shepherded the USA Patriot Act in October 2001 to passage in the House on a 357–66 vote. In a 2011 interview, Hastert claimed credit for its passage over the misgivings of many members. Fourteen years later, federal prosecutors used the Patriot Act's expansion of currency transaction reporting requirements to indict Hastert on federal charges.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: As speaker, Hastert also oversaw the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, a major education bill; the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 legislation; and the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which reorganized the government and created the Department of Homeland Security. Although Hastert was successful in implementing Bush policy priorities, during his tenure the House also "regularly passed conservative bills only to have them blocked in the more moderate Senate." One such bill was an energy bill, backed by the Bush administration, which would have authorized drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; this provision was killed in the Senate.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Hastert opposed the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain-Feingold), the landmark campaign finance reform law. In 2001, during the debate on the bill, Hastert criticized Republican Senator John McCain, the bill's cosponsor, saying that McCain had "bullied" House Republicans by sending them letters in support of his campaign-finance reform proposals. Hastert called the legislation "the worst thing that ever happened to Congress" and expressed the view that there were "constitutional flaws" in the legislation. Supporters of campaign-finance reform circumvented Hastert by means of a discharge petition, a seldom-used procedural mechanism in which a measure may be brought to a floor vote (over the objections of the speaker) if an absolute majority of Representatives sign a petition in support of doing so. The discharge petition was not successfully used again until 2015.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: In 2004, Hastert again feuded with McCain amid conflict between the House and the Senate over the 2005 budget. After "McCain gave a speech excoriating both political parties for refusing to sacrifice their tax cutting and spending agendas in wartime," Hastert publicly questioned McCain's "credentials as a Republican and suggested that the decorated Vietnam War veteran did not understand the meaning of sacrifice."


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Hastert was key to the passage in November 2003 of key Medicare legislation which created Medicare Part D, a prescription-drug benefit. Hastert's push to pass the legislation—culminating in a three-hour House vote in which the Speaker, "an imposing former wrestling coach, was literally leaning on recalcitrant lawmakers to win their support"—raised the Speaker's profile and contributed to a shift of his image from amiable and low-key to more forceful. The extension of the vote for hours and the arm-twisting of members brought condemnation of Hastert from Democrats, with House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer saying: "They are corrupting the practices of the House." The bill passed on a narrow vote of 220 to 215.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: In 2004, Hoyer called upon Hastert to initiate a House Ethics Committee investigation into statements by Representative Nick Smith, a Republican of Michigan, who stated that groups and lawmakers had offered support for his son's campaign for Congress in exchange for Smith's support of the Medicare bill. In October 2004, the House Ethics Committee admonished DeLay for pressuring Smith on the Medicare prescription-drug bill, but stated that DeLay did not break the law or House ethics rules. Hastert issued a statement supporting DeLay, but the admonishment was viewed as harming DeLay's chances of succeeding Hastert as Speaker.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: On October 27, 2005, Hastert became the first Speaker to author a blog. On "Speaker's Journal" on his official U.S. House website, Hastert wrote in his first post: "This is Denny Hastert and welcome to my blog. This is new to me. I can't say I'm much of a techie. I guess you could say my office is teaching the old guy new tricks. But I'm excited. This is the future. And it is a new way for us to get our message out."


title: Dennis Hastert

text: On June 1, 2006, Hastert became the longest-serving Republican Speaker of the House in history, surpassing the record previously held by fellow Illinoisan Joseph Gurney Cannon, who held the post from November 1903 to March 1911.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: In 2005, following Hurricane Katrina, Hastert told an Illinois newspaper that "It looks like a lot of that place [referring to New Orleans] could be bulldozed" and stated that spending billions of dollars to rebuild the devastated city "doesn't make sense to me." The remarks enraged Governor Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana, who stated that Hastert's comments were "absolutely unthinkable for a leader in his position" and demanded an immediate apology. Former President Bill Clinton, responding to the remarks, stated that had they been in the same place when the remarks were made, "I'm afraid I would have assaulted him." After the remarks caused a furor, Hastert issued a statement saying he was not "advocating that the city be abandoned or relocated" and later issued another statement saying that "Our prayers and sympathies continue to be with the victims of Hurricane Katrina." Hastert was also criticized for being absent from the Capitol during the approval of a $10.5 billion Katrina relief plan; Hastert was in Indiana attending a colleague's fundraiser and an antique car auction. Hastert later said that he donated the proceeds from one of the antique cars he sold at the auction to hurricane relief efforts.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: When the United States House Committee on Ethics recommended a series of reprimands against Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Hastert fired committee Chairman Joel Hefley, (R-CO), as well as committee members Kenny Hulshof, (R-MO) and Steve LaTourette, (R-OH). After DeLay's associates were indicted, Hastert enacted a new rule allowing DeLay to keep the majority leadership even if DeLay himself was indicted.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: A September 2005 article in "Vanity Fair" revealed that during her work, former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds had heard Turkish wiretap targets boast of covert relations with Hastert. The article states, "the targets reportedly discussed giving Hastert tens of thousands of dollars in surreptitious payments in exchange for political favors and information." A spokesman for Hastert later denied the claims, relating them to the Jennifer Aniston-Brad Pitt breakup. Following his congressional career, Hastert received a $35,000 per month contract lobbying on behalf of Turkey.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: In December 2006, the House Ethics Committee determined that Hastert and other congressional leaders were "willfully ignorant" in responding to early warnings of the Mark Foley congressional page scandal, but did not violate any House rules. In a committee statement, Kirk Fordham, who was Foley's chief of staff until 2005, said that he had alerted Scott B. Palmer, Hastert's chief of staff, to Foley's inappropriate advances toward congressional pages in 2002 or 2003, asking congressional leadership to intervene. Then-House Majority Leader John Boehner and National Republican Congressional Committee chair Thomas M. Reynolds stated that they told Hastert about Foley's conduct in spring 2005. A Hastert spokesman stated that "what Kirk Fordham said did not happen." Hastert also stated that he could not recall conversations with Boehner and Reynolds, and that he did not learn of Foley's conduct until late September 2006, when the affair became public.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: In 2006, Hastert became embroiled in controversy over his championing of a $207 million earmark (inserted in the ) for the Prairie Parkway, a proposed expressway running through his district. The Sunlight Foundation accused Hastert of failing to disclose that the construction of the highway would benefit a land investment that Hastert and his wife made in nearby land in 2004 and 2005. Hastert took an unusually active role advancing the bill, even though it was opposed by a majority of area residents and by the Illinois Department of Transportation. When he became frustrated by negotiations with White House staff, Hastert began working on the bill directly with President Bush. After passage, Bush traveled to Hastert's district for the law's signing ceremony.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Four months later Hastert sold the land for a 500% profit. Hastert's net worth went from $300,000 to at least $6.2 million. Hastert received five-eighths of the proceeds of the sale of the land, turning a $1.8 million profit in under two years. Hastert's ownership interest in the tract was not a public record because the land was held by a blind land trust, Little Rock Trust No. 225. There were three partners in the trust: Hastert, Thomas Klatt, and Dallas Ingemunson. However, public documents only named Ingemunson, who was the Kendall County Republican Party chairman and Hastert's personal attorney and longtime friend. Hastert denied any wrongdoing. In October 2006, Norman Ornstein and Scott Lilly wrote that the Prairie Parkway affair was "worse than FoleyGate" and called for Hastert's resignation.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: In 2012, after Hastert had departed from Congress, the highway project was killed after federal regulators retracted the 2008 approval of an environmental impact statement for the project and agreed to an Illinois Department of Transportation request to redirect the funds for other projects. Environmentalists, who opposed the project, celebrated its cancellation.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: In 2006, Hastert (along with then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi) criticized an FBI search of Representative William J. Jefferson's Capitol Hill office in connection with a corruption investigation. Hastert issued a lengthy statement saying that the raid violated the separation of powers, and later complained directly to President Bush about the matter.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Before the 2006 elections, Hastert expressed his intent to seek reelection as Speaker if the Republicans maintained control of the House. Hastert was reelected for an eleventh term to his seat in the House with nearly 60 percent of the vote, but that year the Republicans lost control of both the Senate and the House to the Democrats following a wave of voter discontent with the Iraq War, the Federal response to Hurricane Katrina, and a series of scandals among congressional Republicans. The day after the November election, Hastert announced he would not seek to become minority leader when the 110th Congress convened in January 2007. Later that month, John Boehner of Ohio defeated Mike Pence of Indiana in a 168–27 vote of the House Republican Conference election to become minority leader for the 110th Congress. The House Democratic Caucus unanimously selected House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to be Speaker (succeeding Hastert) for the 110th Congress.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: In October 2007, following months of rumors that Hastert would not serve out his term, the Capitol Hill newspaper "Roll Call" reported that Hastert had decided to resign from the House before the end of the year, triggering a special election.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: On November 15, 2007, Hastert delivered a farewell speech on the House floor, emphasizing the need for civility in politics; Hastert's speech was followed by remarks from Pelosi praising Hastert's service. On November 26, 2007, Hastert submitted his resignation.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Financial disclosure documents indicate that Hastert made a fortune from land deals during his time in Congress. Hastert entered Congress in 1987 with a net worth of no more than $270,000. At the time, his most valuable asset was a 104-acre farm in southern Illinois (which his wife had inherited), worth between $50,000 and $100,000. When Hastert left Congress twenty years later, he reported a significantly increased net worth, variously reported as between $4 million and $17 million and between $3.1 million and $11.3 million. Much of this increase in net worth was the result of various real-estate investments during Hastert's time in Congress (including the controversial land deal several miles from the proposed Prairie Parkway site). At the time Hastert left Congress, much of his net worth remained tied up in real-estate holdings.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: State Senator Chris Lauzen, Geneva Mayor Kevin Burns, and wealthy dairy businessman Jim Oberweis all entered the campaign for the Republican nomination to succeed Hastert. In December 2007, Hastert endorsed Oberweis in the primary, and Burns withdrew from the race. In the contentious February 2008 primary election, Oberweis was chosen as the Republican nominee, and Fermilab scientist Bill Foster was selected as the Democratic nominee. In the special election in March 2008 to fill the rest of Hastert's unexpired term, Foster won a surprise victory over Oberweis. In a rematch in the November 2008 elections for a full two-year term, Foster again defeated Oberweis.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: In May 2008, six months after resigning from Congress, the Washington, D.C.-based law firm and lobbying firm Dickstein Shapiro announced that Hastert was joining the firm as a senior adviser. Hastert waited until the legally required "cooling-off period" had passed in order to register as a lobbyist. Over the next several years, Hastert earned millions of dollars lobbying his former congressional colleagues on a range of issues, mostly involving congressional appropriations.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: According to Foreign Agents Registration Act filings, Hastert represented foreign governments, including the government of Luxembourg and government of Turkey. During parts of 2009, Hastert also lobbied on behalf of Oak Brook, Illinois-based real estate developer CenterPoint Properties, lobbying for the placement of a major Army Reserve transportation facility. Hastert also represented Lorillard Tobacco Co., which paid Dickstein Shapiro almost $8 million from 2011 to 2014 to lobby on behalf of candy-flavored tobacco and electronic cigarettes; Hastert "was the most prominent member of the lobbying team" on these efforts. In 2013 and 2014, Hastert lobbied on climate change issues on behalf of Peabody Energy, the world's largest private-sector coal company; in 2015, Hastert "switched sides" and lobbied for Fuels America, the ethanol industry group. In the second half of 2011, Hastert monitored legislation on GPS on behalf of LightSquared, which paid Dickstein Shapiro $200,000 for lobbying services.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Hastert also lobbied on behalf of FirstLine Transportation Security, Inc. (which sought congressional review of Transportation Security Administration procurement); Naperville, Illinois-based lighting technology company PolyBrite International; the American College of Rheumatology (on annual labor and health spending bill); the San Diego, California-based for-profit education company Bridgepoint Education; REX American Resources Corp.; The ServiceMaster Co.; and the Secure ID Coalition.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: In 2014, Hastert's firm Dickstein Shapiro and the lobbying firm of former House majority leader-turned lobbyist Dick Gephardt split a $1.4 million annual lobbying contract with the government of Turkey. In April 2013, Hastert and Gephardt traveled with eight members of Congress to Turkey, with all expenses paid by the Turkish government. While members of Congress are generally prohibited from corporate-funded travel abroad with lobbyists (a rule enacted after the Abramoff scandal), the law permits lobbyists to plan and attend trips overseas if paid for by foreign countries. Hastert defended the trip, saying that he had "meticulously" followed the rules and that the involvement of himself and Gephardt "allowed those members of Congress who were there to have a fuller experience." A "National Journal" investigation highlighted the trip as an example of loopholes creating a situation in which "lobbyists who can't legally buy a lawmaker a sandwich can still escort members on trips all around the world."


title: Dennis Hastert

text: In March 2015, Hastert along with his associate (accompanied by several lobbyist associates, including former Representative William D. Delahunt of Massachusetts) took advantage of his privilege as a former lawmaker to be present in the Senate Reception Room near the Senate chamber, "lingering" and "bantering with senators and other passersby" during a vote on whether to retain the fuel standard mandating the blending of ethanol and other alternative fuels with gasoline, as advocated by Hastert's client Fuels America (the ethanol industry trade group). Hastert and Delahunt were criticized by watchdog groups who "questioned whether Hastert was violating" these rules, but "allies of Hastert and Delahunt said they made a point of not lobbying lawmakers in the Senate Reception Room, but that they and members of their team used the lobby area as a temporary base, where they could greet lawmakers while they were holding meetings in private rooms."


title: Dennis Hastert

text: The day the 2015 indictment was unsealed, Hastert resigned his lobbyist position at Dickstein Shapiro, and his biography was removed from the firm's website.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: In addition to his lobbyist job, Hastert established his own consultancy, Hastert & Associates. In 2008, Hastert also joined the board of directors of Chicago-based futures exchange company CME Group (which had been formed from the merger of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Chicago Board of Trade), where he earned more than 205,000 in total compensation in 2014. On May 29, 2015, following his indictment, Hastert resigned from the board, effective immediately.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: A controversy arose in 2009 regarding Hastert's receipt of federal funds while a lobbyist. Under a 1975 federal law, Hastert, as a former House Speaker, was entitled to a public allowance (about $40,000 a month) for a five-year period to allow him to maintain an office. Hastert accepted the funds, which went toward office space in far-west suburban


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Yorkville, Illinois; salaries for three staffers (secretary Lisa Post and administrative assistants Bryan Harbin and Tom Jarman, each paid an annual salary of more than $100,000 over 2½ years); lease payments on a 2008 GMC Yukon sport utility vehicle; a satellite TV subscription; office equipment; and legal fees. Jarman later left the office, and Harbin's salary was cut substantially. Hastert's government-funded office closed in late 2012, at the end of the maximum five years for which public funds were provided. The total amount of public funds spent on Hastert's post-speakership office was nearly $1.9 million (not including federal benefits such as health care to which the employees were entitled), of which the majority (about $1.45 million) went toward staff salaries.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: The federally funded benefits were legally required to be completely separate from Hastert's simultaneous lobbying activities for Dickstein Shapiro. The arrangement was criticized as "really concerning" by Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, because the exact nature of the two roles was not transparent. A Hastert spokesman stated that the two offices were completely separate. In 2012, however, a "Chicago Tribune" investigation found that "a secretary in the ex-speaker's government office used email to coordinate some of his private business meetings and travel, and conducted research on one proposed venture" and that "a suburban Chicago businessman who was involved in the business ventures with Hastert said he met with Hastert at least three times in the government office to discuss the projects." Hastert denied that he had engaged in any improper conduct.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: In 2013, Hastert's former business partner J. David John filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for the Northern District of Illinois, alleging that Hastert misappropriated federal funds for his post-speakership office in Yorkville for personal use, including private lobbying and business projects. This suit was filed under the "qui tam" provision of the False Claims Act (FCA), an anti-fraud statute that allows a private party to pursue a case on behalf of the federal government. In the suit, John asserts that he told the FBI in 2011 that "he had knowledge that Hastert was using federally funded offices, staff, office supplies and vehicles for personal business ventures." John, a businessman from the Chicago suburb of Burr Ridge, Illinois, also said that he traveled with Hastert and collaborated with him on "a planned Grand Prix racetrack in Southern California and sports events to be organized in the Middle East" as well as other projects. Hastert denies any wrongdoing. The allegations about the use of the former speakers' officer first drew the attention of federal investigators in 2013, leading to the federal indictment in 2015.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: In April 2017, Judge Kocoras dismissed the suit, finding that John did not qualify as a "whistleblower" under the FCA. John's attorney said that an appeal was possible. The dismissal "did not turn on whether Hastert actually misused the speaker's office, but rather whether John met a prerequisite for [a False Claims Act] suit: that he brought the allegations to the government's attention before anyone else and before they were made public." Kocoras held that John had falsely claimed that he had told the FBI about possible misuse of federal resources by Hastert.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: After retiring from Congress, Hastert made occasional public appearances on political programs. He also made some endorsements of political candidates; in the 2012 Republican presidential primaries, he endorsed Mitt Romney instead of his predecessor as Speaker, Newt Gingrich.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: According to a 2017 interview with the two special agents leading the investigations—one each from the FBI and the IRS Criminal Investigation Division—"Hastert had been on the FBI's radar as early as November 2012—even before the FBI and IRS began investigating the suspicious cash withdrawals that were Hastert's downfall." The inquiry was first prompted by allegations that Hastert had used his taxpayer-funded Office of the Former Speaker to further his private business ventures, something that Hastert was never charged with. In 2013, the FBI and IRS began investigating Hastert's cash withdrawals, and in early 2015 they had learned about the "hush money" agreement between "Individual A" and Hastert. In a December 8, 2014 interview, Hastert lied to the federal agents about the purpose of the withdrawals, leading to his federal prosecution.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: On May 28, 2015, a seven-page indictment of Hastert by a federal grand jury was unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: The indictment charged Hastert with unlawfully structuring the withdrawal of $952,000 in cash in order to evade the requirement that banks report cash transactions over 10,000 (Title 31, United States Code, Section 5324(a)(3)), and making false statements to the FBI about the purpose of his withdrawals (Title 18, United States Code, Section 1001(a)(2)). The indictment alleges that Hastert agreed to make payments of $3.5 million to an unnamed subject (identified in the indictment only as an "Individual A" from Yorkville, Illinois, who was known to Hastert for "most of Individual A's life"). The indictment stated that the payments were to "compensate for and conceal [Hastert's] prior misconduct." Federal authorities began investigating his withdrawals in 2013. In late 2014, after being questioned about the withdrawals, Hastert said that he did not trust banks; shortly afterward, Hastert changed his story, saying that he "was the victim of extortion by Individual A for false molestation accusations."


title: Dennis Hastert

text: The indictment itself did not specify the exact nature of the "past misconduct" referred to. The U.S. Attorney's Office limited details in the indictment of Hastert, in part because of a request from Hastert's attorneys.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: On May 29, Hastert was released on his own recognizance on a preliminary bail of $4,500 set by a magistrate judge.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: In June "The New York Times" reported that Hastert had approached a business associate, J. David John, in 2010, to look for a financial adviser to come up with an annuity plan that would "generate a substantial cash payout each year." This request was the same year that prosecutors say he agreed to start paying hush money to the person he allegedly committed misconduct against. John told the "Times" that "I did not think much about it at the time, but looking back at it, it does seem strange. He just said he needed to generate some cash."


title: Dennis Hastert

text: On May 29, 2015, after Hastert had been indicted for illicitly structuring financial transactions, two people briefed on the evidence from the case stated that "Individual A"—the man to whom Hastert was making payments—had been sexually abused by Hastert during Hastert's time as a teacher and coach at Yorkville High School, and that Hastert had paid $1.7 million out of a total $3.5 million in promised payment. On the same day, the "Los Angeles Times" reported that investigators had spoken with another former student who made similar allegations that corroborated what the first student said. Hastert admitted to committing sexual abuse during sentencing on the structuring charge.


title: Dennis Hastert

text: On June 5, 2015, ABC News' "Good Morning America" aired an interview with Jolene Reinboldt Burdge, the sister of Steve Reinboldt, who was the student equipment manager of the wrestling team at Yorkville High School when Hastert was the wrestling coach. Hastert also ran an Explorers group of which Steve Reinboldt was a member, and led the group on a diving trip to the Bahamas. In the interview, Burdge stated that in 1979 (eight years after Reinboldt's high school graduation in 1971), her brother had told her that he had been sexually abused by Hastert throughout his four years of high school. Burdge said that she was "stunned" by this news and that her brother said that he had never told anyone before, because he did not think he would be believed. A message from Hastert appears in Steve Reinboldt's 1970 high school yearbook. In the interview, Burdge said that she believes the abuse stopped when her brother moved away after graduation. Jolene said that Hastert "damaged Steve I think more than any of us will ever know."


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Reinboldt died of an AIDS-related illness in 1995. Hastert attended his viewing, which angered Burdge; she said:


title: Dennis Hastert

text: Following Reinboldt's death, around the time that the Mark Foley scandal broke in 2006, Burdge unsuccessfully attempted to bring the charges against Hastert to light; she contacted ABC News and the Associated Press on an off-the-record basis, and also contacted some advocacy groups. ABC News and the AP could not corroborate Burdge's allegation at the time, and Hastert denied the accusation to ABC News at the time, so the claim was not published.