title: Charlotte FC

text: Charlotte FC plays at Bank of America Stadium, a 74,867-seat stadium that is also home to the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League; the Panthers are also owned by Tepper. For most matches, the club only uses the lower bowl and club sections of the stadium, capping capacity at 38,000 seats. For major matches, such as the 2022 home opener, the club expands the stadium to full capacity by opening the upper bowl.


title: Charlotte FC

text: A renovation to accommodate the club began in March 2021 and was completed in early 2022, adding dedicated locker rooms and training rooms for soccer, a player tunnel at midfield, and a larger concourse area. It cost $50 million to construct, with funding from Tepper Sports and the city government. A dedicated section for supporters' groups is located behind the goal on the east side of the stadium. The stadium's grass surface was replaced with FieldTurf in 2021 due to the additional wear expected from hosting MLS matches.


title: Charlotte FC

text: In February 2021, Charlotte FC announced that it would be the first MLS team to use personal seat licenses to reserve season tickets in most sections; the cost of seat licenses for the inaugural season was set at $550 per seat and would not be transferable to a potential new stadium. The announcement, along with high season ticket prices for the inaugural season, was met with backlash from fans.


title: Charlotte FC

text: The team's headquarters and practice facilities were initially planned to be located on the former site of the Eastland Mall, a city-owned property. In October 2020, the planned Eastland Mall facility was cancelled due to a reduction in financial incentives offered by the city government, including a tax reimbursement. The Eastland site was instead proposed as the home of the Charlotte FC Elite Academy, which would occupy for youth soccer and other public sportsfields. Charlotte FC's headquarters were replaced with a building in the Uptown neighborhood, while the team would train at Sportsplex at Matthews until a permanent facility is built.


title: Charlotte FC

text: A new plan for the club's headquarters and training facility was announced in August 2022 for a site in southeastern Charlotte. The campus, planned to open in early 2023, will include of space and four turf fields. for Charlotte FC, the reserve team, and academy teams.


title: Charlotte FC

text: In April 2021, Charlotte FC announced its first local television partnership with the Cox Media Group. Most English broadcasts aired on WAXN-TV, with the remainder on WSOC-TV. The two stations fronted a network covering 11 markets in North and South Carolina. The Spanish broadcast was exclusive to Telemundo Charlotte. Raycom Sports handled local production and syndication for the Charlotte FC television network. The English television broadcasting team consisted of play-by-play announcer Eric Krakauer, formerly of BeIN Sports; and color commentator Lloyd Sam, a former MLS player. The Spanish team consisted of play-by-play announcer Jamie Moreno and color analyst Antonio Ramos. Matches broadcast locally are also streamed on the club's website for viewers in most of North and South Carolina.


title: Charlotte FC

text: In January 2022, Charlotte FC announced a radio partnership with Radio One's Charlotte cluster. Most English-language radio broadcasts air on WFNZ-FM, with the remainder on sister station WBT. They front a network of seven stations in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. The English radio commentators for Charlotte FC matches are play-by-play announcer Will Palaszczuk and color analyst Jessica Charman. Radio broadcasts in Spanish are carried on WOLS and syndicated by Norsan Media to 11 stations in the Carolinas.


title: Charlotte FC

text: Starting in 2023, Apple TV will have a 10-year exclusive rights to all MLS broadcast games online, which includes Charlotte FC in both English and Spanish.


title: Charlotte FC

text: Charlotte FC is owned by David Tepper, a billionaire manager and businessman who bought the National Football League's Carolina Panthers in 2018. Tepper is the wealthiest owner in both the NFL and MLS, with an estimated net worth of $12 billion. Zoran Krneta, a professional scout, was hired as the club's sporting director in December 2019. Former Carolina Dynamo head coach Marc Nicholls was named the club's technical director in January 2020 and directed the youth academy system until his departure two years later, prior to the inaugural season. Miguel Ángel Ramírez, formerly manager of Brazil's Sport Club Internacional, was hired as the team's first head coach in July 2021.


title: Charlotte FC

text: On May 31, the club announced that Ramírez had been fired. Assistant coach Christian Lattanzio was named interim head coach for the remainder of the season.


title: Charlotte FC

text: Charlotte FC has five officially recognized supporters groups seated in the east end at Bank of America Stadium. The largest, Mint City Collective, was launched in June 2019 to support the MLS expansion bid. It was founded by several members of the Roaring Riot, a Panthers fan club, and has 2,000 members . The remaining recognized groups are Southbound and Crown, the Uptown Ultras, Carolina Hooliganz, and Blue Furia, a Latin American supporters' group. Other supporters clubs include the Queen's Firm, founded in 2017, and the QC Royals, founded in 2015 to support other minor league teams.


title: Charlotte FC

text: Starting with the inaugural season, a local celebrity is "crowned" as the "monarch" of the match. The first "Match Coronation" featured former Panthers player Steve Smith Sr. After every home win, the man of the match is crowned by the supporters section. Prior to first kick, fans in the supporters' section lock arms and perform the "Poznan" (a Polish supporters' dance) to the Faruko song "Pepas." The club's semi-official mascot is Sir Minty, an anthropomorphic soccer ball that wears a crown, cape, and an oversized silver chain with an "M" medallion.


title: Armaan Malik

text: Armaan Malik (born 22 July 1995) is an Indian singer, songwriter, record producer, voice-over, performer, dancer and actor. He is known for his singing in multiple languages, including Hindi, Telugu, English, Bengali, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Punjabi, Urdu and Malayalam. In 2006, he took part in Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L'il Champs but was eliminated after finishing in 8th position.


title: Armaan Malik

text: He is the brother of music composer Amaal Mallik. Previously represented by Universal Music India and T-Series, he is now represented by Warner Music India and Arista Records. His first on-screen appearance was in the film "Kaccha Limboo" in 2011.


title: Armaan Malik

text: Malik started singing at the age of 4. He competed on Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L'il Champs in 2006, eventually finishing 8th. Later he learnt Indian classical music for 10 years. Malik made his debut as a child singer in Bollywood in 2007 with "Bum Bum Bole" in "Taare Zameen Par", under the musical direction of the Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy.


title: Armaan Malik

text: Malik has dubbed for "My Name Is Khan" for the English boy and also lent voice for the character Salim in the radio version of "Slumdog Millionaire" for BBC Radio 1. In 2014, he made his debut as a playback singer singing "Tumko Toh Aana Hi Tha" in the Hindi-language movie "Jai Ho". The movie featured two more songs, "Love You Till The End (House Mix)" and the title track, "Jai Ho" also sung by him. Apart from singing, Malik and his music composer brother Amaal Mallik also featured in the beginning of "Jai Ho" in the song "Love You Till The End". In the same year, he sang "Naina" with Sona Mohapatra for the film "Khoobsurat" and "Auliya" for "Ungli".


title: Armaan Malik

text: In 2015, he sang "Main Hoon Hero Tera" for "Hero", "Kwahishein" for "Calendar Girls" and "Tumhe Aapna Banane Ka" for "Hate Story 3" which his brother Amaal Malik composed. The latter one he sang with Neeti Mohan. He also sang another song for "Hate Story 3" titled "Wajah Tum Ho" under Baman's composition. He sang "Yaar Indha Muyalkutti" by D Imaan. He also sang a single "Main Rahoon Ya Na Rahoon" under Amaal's composition. He was awarded Filmfare R. D. Burman Award for New Music Talent in that year.


title: Armaan Malik

text: In 2016, Malik sang for the films "Mastizaade", "Sanam Re", "Kapoor & Sons", "Azhar", "Do Lafzon Ki Kahani" and "Sab Tera" with Shraddha Kapoor for "Baaghi" under Amaal's composition. He sang "Foolishq" with Shreya Ghoshal for "Ki & Ka", he worked with Jeet Gannguli for the song "Mujhko Barsaat Bana Lo" for "Junooniyat" and also sang his first Bengali song "Dhitang Dhitang" for "Love Express" under Jeet's composition. He was the lead singer of the film "". He sang four songs for Hindi soundtrack and three songs for Tamil soundtrack of that film under Amaal's composition. He sang "Sau Asmaan" with Neeti Mohan for "Baar Baar Dekho" and "Ishaara" for "Force 2" under Amaal's composition. He sang "Tum Jo Mille" for "Saansein", "Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas Reprise" and "Dil Mein Chupa Lunga Remake" for "Wajah Tum Ho". The latter one was composed by Meet Bros and the last two songs, he sang with Tulsi Kumar. He sang a single "Pyaar Manga Hain Remake" with Neeti Mohan. He also sang the title track of "Star Paarivar Awards 2016" with Palak Muchhal and Meet Bros under Meet Bros composition.


title: Armaan Malik

text: In 2019, he lent his voice for two songs including "Jab Se Mera Dil" with "Palak Muchhal" for the movie "Amavas", "Dil Me Ho Tum" for the movie "Why Cheat India", "Kyun Rabba" for the movie "Badla". Malik also got featured as a coach on the Indian version of the reality show "The Voice" becoming the youngest Indian singer to be a coach on the show. He sang "Chale Aana" in "De De Pyaar De" composed by Amaal and written by Kunaal Verma. The song was well received by the audience in general. Malik voiced the titular character in the Hindi-dubbed version of Disney's "Aladdin", a live action remake of the 1992 movie, "Aladdin".


title: Armaan Malik

text: Malik has also voiced Mena Massoud as Aladdin, in the Hindi version of the American musical fantasy "Aladdin". In addition, he has also sung the songs in Hindi for the film "The Lion King". He also sang for the film "Kabir Singh", under the composer Vishal Mishra for the song "Pehla Pyaar". In same year, he sang two songs for "Yeh Saali Aashiqui", one for films like Article 15, Pranaam, "Pati Patni Aur Woh" and Hindi soundtrack of "Pailwaan".


title: Armaan Malik

text: Malik signed with Arista Records on 12 March 2020, under which he released his first English-language single, "Control" on 20 March of the same year. "Control" won the Best Indian Act at the 2020 MTV Europe Music Awards, and was later certified platinum in India.


title: Armaan Malik

text: In 2020, Malik became the first artist to hit No. 1 on the Top Triller Global Billboard charts twice. Just a few weeks later, he released his second English single, "How Many," which celebrates his heritage by using an Indian tabla on the beat. He said it was "quite daunting to re-introduce" himself to the global music industry as he started making songs in English, and believes that more Indian artists will push themselves to worldwide success in the future.


title: Armaan Malik

text: In 2020, he sang one song for Hindi soundtrack of "Darbar", "" and "Khuda Haafiz". In 2021, he lent his voice for one track of "Saina", "Koi Jaane Na", "99 Songs", "Bell Bottom", "Thalaivii," "Bhoot Police and Velle."


title: Armaan Malik

text: He was featured on the A. R. Rahman single "Meri Pukaar Suno", released in June 2021, which was sung by an ensemble that included K.S.Chithra, Sadhana Sargam, Shreya Ghoshal , Asees Kaur, Shaasha Tirupati and Alka Yagnik.


title: Armaan Malik

text: In September 2021, Malik teamed up with Daboo Malik, Amaal Mallik and Kunaal Vermaa for his new single "Barsaat".


title: Armaan Malik

text: In 2022, Malik teamed up with Arista Records for his new English single "You". He lent his voice for films like "Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2", "Major", "Ardh". He released his Hindi single "Nakhrey Nakhrey" and "Rehna Tere Paas". He was also featured on a remix of the Ed Sheeran song 2step (song), which released on June 7, 2022. Malik won the Best India Act at the 2022 MTV Europe Music Awards for his single, "You".


title: Chicken as food

text: Chicken is the most common type of poultry in the world. Owing to the relative ease and low cost of raising chickens—in comparison to mammals such as cattle or hogs—chicken meat (commonly called just "chicken") and chicken eggs have become prevalent in numerous cuisines.


title: Chicken as food

text: Chicken can be prepared in a vast range of ways, including baking, grilling, barbecuing, frying, and boiling. Since the latter half of the 20th century, prepared chicken has become a staple of fast food. Chicken is sometimes cited as being more healthful than red meat, with lower concentrations of cholesterol and saturated fat.


title: Chicken as food

text: The poultry farming industry that accounts for chicken production takes on a range of forms across different parts of the world. In developed countries, chickens are typically subject to intensive farming methods while less-developed areas raise chickens using more traditional farming techniques. The United Nations estimates there to be 19 billion chickens on Earth today, making them outnumber humans more than two to one.


title: Chicken as food

text: The modern chicken is a descendant of red junglefowl hybrids along with the grey junglefowl first raised thousands of years ago in the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent.


title: Chicken as food

text: Chicken as a meat has been depicted in Babylonian carvings from around 600 BC. Chicken was one of the most common meats available in the Middle Ages. For thousands of years, a number of different kinds of chicken have been eaten across most of the Eastern hemisphere, including capons, pullets, and hens. It was one of the basic ingredients in "blancmange", a stew usually consisting of chicken and fried onions cooked in milk and seasoned with spices and sugar.


title: Chicken as food

text: In the United States in the 1800s, chicken was more expensive than other meats and it was "sought by the rich because [it is] so costly as to be an uncommon dish." Chicken consumption in the U.S. increased during World War II due to a shortage of beef and pork. In Europe, consumption of chicken overtook that of beef and veal in 1996, linked to consumer awareness of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease).


title: Chicken as food

text: Modern varieties of chicken such as the Cornish Cross, are bred specifically for meat production, with an emphasis placed on the ratio of feed to meat produced by the animal. The most common breeds of chicken consumed in the U.S. are Cornish and White Rock.


title: Chicken as food

text: Chickens raised specifically for food are called broilers. In the U.S., broilers are typically butchered at a young age. Modern Cornish Cross hybrids, for example, are butchered as early as 8 weeks for fryers and 12 weeks for roasting birds.


title: Chicken as food

text: Capons (castrated cocks) produce more and fattier meat. For this reason, they are considered a delicacy and were particularly popular in the Middle Ages.


title: Chicken as food

text: Chicken meat contains about two to three times as much polyunsaturated fat as most types of red meat when measured as weight percentage.


title: Chicken as food

text: Chicken generally includes low fat in the meat itself (castrated roosters excluded). The fat is highly concentrated on the skin. A 100g serving of baked chicken breast contains 4 grams of fat and 31 grams of protein, compared to 10 grams of fat and 27 grams of protein for the same portion of broiled, lean skirt steak.


title: Chicken as food

text: In factory farming, chickens are routinely administered with the feed additive Roxarsone, an organoarsenic compound which partially decomposes into inorganic arsenic compounded in the flesh of chickens, and in their feces, which are often used as a fertilizer. The compound is used to control stomach pathogens and promote growth. In a 2013 sample conducted by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health of chicken meat from poultry producers that did not prohibit roxarsone, 70% of the samples in the US had levels which exceeded the safety limits as set by the FDA. The FDA has since revised its stance on safe limits to inorganic arsenic in animal feed by stating that "any new animal drug that contributes to the overall inorganic arsenic burden is of potential concern".


title: Chicken as food

text: Information obtained by the Canadian Integrated Program for Antimicrobial Resistance (CIPARS) "strongly indicates that cephalosporin resistance in humans is moving in lockstep with the use of the drug in poultry production". According to the Canadian Medical Association Journal, the unapproved antibiotic ceftiofur is routinely injected into eggs in Quebec and Ontario to discourage infection of hatchlings. Although the data are contested by the industry, antibiotic resistance in humans appears to be directly related to the antibiotic's use in eggs.


title: Chicken as food

text: A recent study by the Translational Genomics Research Institute showed that nearly half (47%) of the meat and poultry in US grocery stores was contaminated with "S. aureus", with more than half (52%) of those bacteria resistant to antibiotics. Furthermore, as per the FDA, more than 25% of retail chicken is resistant to 5 or more different classes of antibiotic treatment drugs in the United States. An estimated 90–100% of conventional chicken contains, at least, one form of antibiotic resistance microorganism, while organic chicken has been found to have a lower incidence at 84%.


title: Chicken as food

text: In random surveys of chicken products across the United States in 2012, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine found 48% of samples to contain fecal matter. On most commercial chicken farms, the chickens spend their entire life standing in, lying on, and living in their own manure, which is somewhat mixed in with the bedding material (e.g., sawdust, wood shavings, chopped straw, etc.).


title: Chicken as food

text: During shipping from the concentrated animal feeding operation farm to the abattoir, the chickens are usually placed inside shipping crates that usually have slatted floors. Those crates are then piled 5 to 10 rows high on the transport truck to the abattoir. During shipment, the chickens tend to defecate, and that chicken manure tends to sit inside the crowded cages, contaminating the feathers and skin of the chickens, or rains down upon the chickens and crates on the lower levels of the transport truck. By the time the truck gets to the abattoir, most chickens have had their skin and feathers contaminated with feces.


title: Chicken as food

text: There is also fecal matter in the intestines. While the slaughter process removes the feathers and intestines, only visible fecal matter is removed. The high speed automated processes at the abattoir are not designed to remove this fecal contamination on the feather and skin. The high speed processing equipment tend to spray the contamination around to the birds going down the processing line, and the equipment on the line itself. At one or more points on most abattoirs, chemical sprays and baths (e.g., bleach, acids, peroxides, etc.) are used to partially rinse off or kill this bacterial contamination. Unfortunately, the fecal contamination, once it has occurred, especially in the various membranes between the skin and muscle, is impossible to completely remove.


title: Chicken as food

text: In the United Kingdom, juvenile chickens of less than 28 days of age at slaughter are marketed as poussin. Mature chicken is sold as small, medium or large.


title: Chicken as food

text: In the United States, whole mature chickens are marketed as fryers, broilers, and roasters. Fryers are the smallest size (2.5-4 lbs dressed for sale), and the most common, as chicken reach this size quickly (about 7 weeks). Broilers are larger than fryers. Roasters, or roasting hens, are the largest chickens commonly sold (3–5 months and 6-8 lbs) and are typically more expensive. Even larger and older chickens are called stewing chickens but these are no longer usually found commercially. The names reflect the most appropriate cooking method for the surface area to volume ratio. As the size increases, the volume (which determines how much heat must enter the bird for it to be cooked) increases faster than the surface area (which determines how fast heat can enter the bird). For a fast method of cooking, such as frying, a small bird is appropriate: frying a large piece of chicken results in the inside being undercooked when the outside is ready.


title: Chicken as food

text: Chicken is also sold broken down into pieces. Such pieces usually come from smaller birds that would qualify as fryers if sold whole. Pieces may include quarters, or fourths of the chicken. A chicken is typically cut into two leg quarters and two breast quarters. Each quarter contains two of the commonly available pieces of chicken. A leg quarter contains the thigh, drumstick and a portion of the back; a leg has the back portion removed. A breast quarter contains the breast, wing and portion of the back; a breast has the back portion and wing removed. Pieces may be sold in packages of all of the same pieces, or in combination packages. Whole chicken cut up refers to either the entire bird cut into 8 individual pieces. (8-piece cut); or sometimes without the back. A 9-piece cut (usually for fast food restaurants) has the tip of the breast cut off before splitting. Pick of the chicken, or similar titles, refers to a package with only some of the chicken pieces, typically the breasts, thighs, and legs without wings or back. Thighs and breasts are sold boneless or skinless. Chicken livers and gizzards are commonly available packaged separately. Other parts of the chicken, such as the neck, feet, combs, etc. are not widely available except in countries where they are in demand, or in cities that cater to ethnic groups who favor these parts.


title: Chicken as food

text: Worldwide, there are many fast food restaurant chains that sell exclusively or primarily poultry products including KFC (global), Red Rooster (Australia), Hector Chicken (Belgium) and CFC (Indonesia). Most of the products on the menus in such eateries are fried or breaded and are served with french fries.


title: Chicken as food

text: Raw chicken may contain "Salmonella". The safe minimum cooking temperature recommended by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services is to prevent foodborne illness because of bacteria and parasites. However, in Japan raw chicken is sometimes consumed in a dish called , which is sliced raw chicken served in sashimi style. Another preparation is which is lightly seared on the outsides while the inside remains raw.


title: Chicken as food

text: Chicken can be cooked in many ways. It can be made into sausages, skewered, put in salads, traditionally grilled or by using electric grill, breaded and deep-fried, or used in various curries. There is significant variation in cooking methods amongst cultures. Historically common methods include roasting, baking, broasting, and frying. Western cuisine frequently has chicken prepared by deep frying for fast foods such as fried chicken, chicken nuggets, chicken lollipops or Buffalo wings. They are also often grilled for salads or tacos.


title: Chicken as food

text: Chickens often come with labels such as "roaster", which suggest a method of cooking based on the type of chicken. While these labels are only suggestions, ones labeled for stew often do not do well when cooked with other methods.


title: Chicken as food

text: Some chicken breast cuts and processed chicken breast products include the moniker "with rib meat". This is a misnomer, as it refers to the small piece of white meat that overlays the scapula, removed along with the breast meat. The breast is cut from the chicken and sold as a solid cut, while the leftover breast and true rib meat is stripped from the bone through mechanical separation for use in chicken franks, for example. Breast meat is often sliced thinly and marketed as chicken slices, an easy filling for sandwiches. Often, the tenderloin (pectoralis minor) is marketed separately from the breast (pectoralis major). In the US, "tenders" can be either tenderloins or strips cut from the breast. In the UK the strips of pectoralis minor are called "chicken mini-fillets".


title: Chicken as food

text: Chicken bones are hazardous to health as they tend to break into sharp splinters when eaten, but they can be simmered with vegetables and herbs for hours or even days to make chicken stock.


title: Chicken as food

text: In Asian countries it is possible to buy bones alone as they are very popular for making chicken soups, which are said to be healthy. In Australia the rib cages and backs of chickens after the other cuts have been removed are frequently sold cheaply in supermarket delicatessen sections as either "chicken frames" or "chicken carcasses" and are purchased for soup or stock purposes.


title: Chicken as food

text: Raw chicken maintains its quality longer than fresh in the freezer, as moisture is lost during cooking. There is little change in nutrient value of chicken during freezer storage. For optimal quality, however, a maximum storage time in the freezer of 12 months is recommended for uncooked whole chicken, 9 months for uncooked chicken parts, 3 to 4 months for uncooked chicken giblets, and 4 months for cooked chicken. Freezing does not usually cause color changes in poultry, but the bones and the meat near them can become dark. This bone darkening results when pigment seeps through the porous bones of young poultry into the surrounding tissues when the poultry meat is frozen and thawed.


title: Chicken as food

text: It is safe to freeze chicken directly in its original packaging, but this type of wrap is permeable to air and quality may diminish over time. Therefore, for prolonged storage, it is recommended to overwrap these packages. It is recommended to freeze unopened vacuum packages as is. If a package has accidentally been torn or has opened while food is in the freezer, the food is still safe to use, but it is still recommended to overwrap or rewrap it. Chicken should be away from other foods, so if they begin to thaw, their juices will not drip onto other foods. If previously frozen chicken is purchased at a retail store, it can be refrozen if it has been handled properly.


title: Chicken as food

text: Bacteria survives but does not grow in freezing temperatures. However, if frozen cooked foods are not defrosted properly and are not reheated to temperatures that kill bacteria, chances of getting a foodborne illness greatly increase.


title: Pretzel

text: A pretzel (), from German pronunciation, standard ( and French / Alsatian: "Bretzel") is a type of baked bread made from dough that is commonly shaped into a knot. The traditional pretzel shape is a distinctive symmetrical form, with the ends of a long strip of dough intertwined and then twisted back onto itself in a particular way (a pretzel loop or pretzel bow). Today, pretzels come in a wide range of shapes.


title: Pretzel

text: Salt is the most common seasoning, or topping, for pretzels, complementing the washing soda or lye treatment that gives pretzels their traditional skin and flavor acquired through the Maillard reaction. Other seasonings are mustard, cheeses, sugar, chocolate, cinnamon, sweet glazing, seeds, and nuts. Varieties of pretzels include soft pretzels, which should be eaten shortly after preparation, and hard-baked pretzels, which have a long shelf life.


title: Pretzel

text: There are numerous accounts regarding the origin of pretzels, as well as the origin of the name; most assume that they have Christian backgrounds and were invented by European monks. According to legend, as cited by several sources, including "The History of Science and Technology", by Bryan Bunch and Alexander Hellemans, in 610 AD "... [a]n Italian monk invents pretzels as a reward to children who learn their prayers. He calls the strips of baked dough, folded to resemble arms crossing the chest, 'pretiola' ('little reward[s]')". Another source locates the invention in a monastery in southern France. In Germany, there are stories that pretzels were the invention of desperate bakers held hostage by local dignitaries.


title: Pretzel

text: The German name ""Brezel"" may derive also from Latin "bracellus" (a medieval term for 'bracelet'), or "bracchiola" ('little arms').


title: Pretzel

text: The pretzel has been in use as an emblem of bakers and formerly their guilds in southern German areas since at least the 12th century. A 12th century illustration of the banquet of Queen Esther and King Ahasuerus in the "Hortus deliciarum" from the Alsace region (today France) may contain the earliest depiction of a pretzel.


title: Pretzel

text: Within the Christian Church, pretzels were regarded as having religious significance for both ingredients and shape. Pretzels made with a simple recipe using only flour and water could be eaten during Lent when Christians were forbidden to eat eggs, lard, or dairy products such as milk and butter (cf. Daniel Fast). As time passed, pretzels became associated with both Lent and Easter. Pretzels were hidden on Easter morning just as eggs are hidden today, and are particularly associated with Lent, fasting and prayers before Easter.


title: Pretzel

text: Like the holes in the hubs of round Finnish flat bread, ruisreikäleipä, which let them be hung on poles suspended just below the kitchen ceiling, the loops in pretzels may have served a practical purpose: bakers could hang them on sticks, for instance, projecting upwards from a central column, as shown in a painting by Job Berckheyde (1630–93) from around 1681.


title: Pretzel

text: Pretzel baking has most firmly taken root in the region of Franconia and adjoining Upper German-speaking areas, and pretzels have been an integral part of German baking traditions for centuries. Lye pretzels are popular in southern Germany, Alsace, Austria, and German-speaking Switzerland as a variety of bread, a side dish or a snack, and come in many local varieties. Examples for pretzel names in various Upper-German dialects are "Breze", "Brezn", "Bretzel", "Brezzl", "Brezgen", "Bretzga", "Bretzet", "Bretschl", "Kringel", "Silserli," and "Sülzerli". Baked for consumption on the same day, they are sold in every bakery and in special booths or stands in downtown streets. Often, they are sliced horizontally, buttered, and sold as "Butterbrezel", or come with slices of cold meats or cheese. Butter-filled pretzels are also commonly sold under this name. Sesame, poppy, sunflower, pumpkin, or caraway seeds, melted cheese, and bacon bits are other popular toppings. Some bakeries offer pretzels made of different flours, such as whole wheat, rye or spelt.


title: Pretzel

text: In Bavaria, lye pretzels accompany a main dish, such as Weisswurst sausage. The same dough and baking procedure with lye and salt is used to make other kinds of "lye pastry" ("Laugengebäck"): lye rolls, buns, croissants, and even loaves ("Laugenbrötchen", "Laugenstangen", "Laugencroissants", "Laugenbrot"). Yet, in some parts of Bavaria, especially in lower Bavaria, unglazed "white" pretzels, sprinkled with salt and caraway seeds are still popular. Basically, with the same ingredients, lye pretzels come in numerous local varieties. Sizes are usually similar; the main differences are the thickness of the dough, the content of fat and the degree of baking. Typical Swabian pretzels, for example, have very thin "arms" and a "fat belly" with a split, and a higher fat content. The thicker part makes it easier to slice them for the use of sandwiches. In Bavarian pretzels, the arms are left thicker so they do not bake to a crisp and contain very little fat. Oversized pretzels are often sold at fairs or beer festivals.


title: Pretzel

text: The pretzel shape is used for a variety of sweet pastries made of different types of dough (flaky, brittle, soft, crispy) with a variety of toppings (icing, nuts, seeds, cinnamon). Around Christmas, they can be made of soft gingerbread ("Lebkuchen") with chocolate coating. In southern Germany and adjoining German-speaking areas, pretzels have retained their original religious meanings and are still used in various traditions and festivals. In some areas, on 1 January, people give each other lightly sweetened yeast pretzels for good luck and good fortune. These "New Year's pretzels" are made in different sizes and can have a width of and more. Sometimes children visit their godparents to fetch their New Years pretzel. On 1 May, love-struck boys used to paint a pretzel on the doors of the adored. On the other hand, an upside-down pretzel would have been a sign of disgrace. Especially Catholic areas, such as Austria, Bavaria, or some parts of Swabia, the "Palm pretzel" is made for Palm Sunday celebrations. Sizes can range from up to and they can weigh up to . An old tradition on Palm Sunday dating back to 1533 is the outdoor pretzel market ("Brezgenmarkt") in the Hungerbrunnen Valley near Heldenfingen.


title: Pretzel

text: In the Rhineland region, sweet pretzels are made with pudding-filled loops (pudding pretzels). On Laetare Sunday in Luxembourg, the fourth Sunday in Lent, there is a festival called "Pretzel Sunday". Boys give their girlfriends pretzels or cakes in pretzel form. The size symbolizes how much he likes her. In return, if a girl wants to increase his attention, she will give him a decorated egg on Easter. The pretzel custom is reversed on Pretzel Sunday during leap years. This custom also still exists in some areas of the Swabian Alb. On the same occasion in Rhenish Hesse and the Palatinate, people have parades carrying big pretzels mounted on colourful decorated poles.


title: Pretzel

text: During Lent in Biberach, "Lent pretzels" are popular. These are briefly boiled in water before baking and then sprinkled with salt. Schloss Burg is renowned for a 200-year-old specialty, the "Burger pretzel". Its texture and flavour resemble rusk or zwieback. A local story says that the recipe came from a grateful Napoleonic soldier in 1795, whose wounds were treated by a baker's family in the little town of Burg. The cultural importance of the pretzel for Burg is expressed by a monument in honour of the pretzel bakers, and by an 18 km hiking trail nearby called "Pretzel Hiking Trail".


title: Pretzel

text: A variety typical for Upper Franconia is the "anise pretzel". The town of Weidenberg celebrates the "Pretzel weeks" during the carnival season when anise flavored pretzels are served with special dishes such as cooked meat with horseradish or roast.


title: Pretzel

text: In the city of Lübeck, the 500-year-old guild of boatmen on the Stecknitz Canal call their annual meetings in January "Kringelhöge" (Pretzelfun). The elaborate affair, with about 200 participants, is celebrated as a breakfast with beer and includes Mass in the Lübeck Cathedral and a presentation of songs by a children's choir. In earlier times, the children were very poor, coming from an orphanage, and each received a "Kringel" (pretzel) as a reward. Hence, the name "Pretzelfun" was adopted, because this gift was considered a highlight. Today, the children come from schools, but they still get the pretzels.


title: Pretzel

text: The city of Osnabrück celebrates the anniversary of the Peace of Westphalia (1648) and organizes an annual hobby horse race for grade-four children. On finishing the race, they are presented with a sweet pretzel. In heraldry, the city seal of Nörten dates from around 1550 and depicts two facing lions holding a pretzel at the center.


title: Pretzel

text: The lye pretzel is the theme for a number of festivals in Germany. The city of Speyer prides itself to be the "pretzel town", and around the second weekend of July, from Friday to Tuesday, it holds an annual funfair and festival called ""Brezelfest"", which is the largest beer festival in the Upper Rhine region, and attracts around 300,000 visitors. The festival includes a parade with over 100 bands, floats, and clubs participating from the whole region, and 22,000 pretzels are thrown among the crowds. On the market square of Speyer, there is a fountain with a statue of a boy selling pretzels. The pretzel booths on the main street are permanently installed and were specially designed when the whole downtown area was redone for the 2000th anniversary. One-day pretzel fests and markets in other German towns are in Kirchhellen, a borough of Bottrop, or in Kornwestheim. In 2003 and 2004, "Peace Pretzels" were baked for a UNICEF charity event and other charity purposes in Munich. Instead of the typical pretzel loop, they were made in the similar shape of a peace symbol.


title: Pretzel

text: In the late 18th century, southern German and Swiss German immigrants introduced the pretzel to North America. The immigrants became known as the Pennsylvania Dutch, and in time, many handmade pretzel bakeries populated the central Pennsylvania countryside, and the pretzel's popularity spread.


title: Pretzel

text: In the 20th century, soft pretzels became popular in other regions of the United States. Cities such as Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York became renowned for their soft pretzels. The key to success was the introduction of the new mass production methods of the industrialized age, which increased the availability and quantity, and the opening up of multiple points of distribution at schools, convenience and grocery stores, and entertainment venues such as movie theaters, arenas, concert halls, and sport stadiums. Prior to that, street vendors used to sell pretzels on street corners in wooden glass-enclosed cases.


title: Pretzel

text: In particular, the S-shaped soft pretzel, often served with brown mustard, became very popular in Philadelphia and was established as a part of Philadelphia's cuisine for snacking at school, work, or home, and considered by most to be a quick meal. The average Philadelphian today consumes about twelve times as many pretzels as the national average. Southeastern Pennsylvania, with its large population of German background, is considered the birthplace of the American pretzel industry, and many pretzel bakers are still located in the area. Pennsylvania produces 80% of the nation's pretzels. In Altoona, Pennsylvania, the Benzel's pretzel company calls them "bretzels", both for the alliteration and as a nod to their German heritage.


title: Pretzel

text: The annual United States pretzel industry is worth over $1.2 billion. The average American consumes about of pretzels per year. The privately run "Pretzel Museum" opened in Philadelphia in 1993, but is now defunct. In 2003, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell declared 26 April "National Pretzel Day" to acknowledge the importance of the pretzel to the state's history and economy. Philly Pretzel Factory stores offer a free pretzel to each customer on this day.


title: Pretzel

text: Hard pretzels originated in the United States, where, in 1850, the Sturgis bakery in Lititz, Pennsylvania, became the first commercial hard pretzel bakery. Snack food hard pretzels are made in the form of loops, braids, letters, little pretzels, or sticks around thick and long; they have become a popular snack in many countries around the world. A thicker variety of sticks can be thick; in the U. S. these are called Bavarian pretzels or pretzel rods. Unlike the soft pretzels, these were durable when kept in an airtight environment and marketable in a variety of convenience stores. Large-scale production began in the first half of the 1900s, more so during 1930 to 1950. A prime example was in 1949, when highly innovative American Machine and Foundry Co., of New York City, developed the "pretzel bender": a new automatic crispy-styled baked pretzel-twisting machine that rolled and tied them at the rate of 50 a minute—more than twice as fast as skilled hand twisters could make them—and conveyed them through the baking and salting process.


title: Pretzel

text: In Europe, snack-food pretzels are usually sprinkled with salt, but also with sesame seed, poppy seed, or cheese. In the U.S., they come in many varieties of flavors and coatings, such as yogurt, chocolate, strawberry, mustard, cinnamon sugar, cheese and others, and chocolate-covered hard pretzels are popular around Christmas time and given as gifts. The variety of shapes and sizes became a contest of imagination in the marketing of the pretzels taste. During the 1900s, people in Philadelphia would use the small slender pretzel stick as a common accompaniment to ice cream or would crumble pretzels as a topping. This combination of cold sweet and salty taste was very popular for many years. Eventually, this led to the development of an ice cream cone tasting like a pretzel. More recently Mars, Incorporated manufactures M&M's with a small spherical pretzel covered in milk chocolate and candy coated in all of the standard M&M's colors, called "Pretzel M&M's". Soft pretzels are frequently sold in shopping malls, with notable chains including Auntie Anne's and Pretzelmaker/Pretzel Time.


title: Pretzel

text: Freeport, Illinois, which sits about 100 miles outside of Chicago, is another city known for its rich pretzel history. In 1869, a German immigrant named John Billerbeck established the first Billerbeck Bakery which was known for selling German style pretzels to complement the large number of breweries that existed in Freeport during this time. Prohibition eventually shut down the breweries which led to the decline of pretzel sales in Freeport, but the city never lost its pretzel pride. For more than 100 years, Freeport has been known as "Pretzel City, USA." Their high school athletic mascot is the Pretzel and the football stadium has been appropriately named "Pretzel Field." In 2003, local citizens launched Freeport's first Pretzel Festival which is a large community event where residents get together to celebrate the city's pretzel history. Contestants are chosen to be crowned Pretzel Prince and Princess and a festival mascot by the name of "Pretzel Bill" (stemming from the Billerbeck Bakery name) dresses as a 6-foot tall walking talking pretzel who hands out pretzels from floats and takes photos with the local festival goers.


title: Pretzel

text: Although not as popular as among German speakers and Americans, the looped pretzel is known in other European countries and in other countries around the world, including many European countries. The Dutch favor sweet variants. In Romania, the pretzel is known as a variety of "covrigi;" it is a very popular fast food in urban areas and also popular as a holiday gift.


title: Pretzel

text: The pretzel has become an element in popular culture, both as a food staple, and its unique knotted twist shape which has inspired ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images, and other phenomena. Although historically, the pretzel has influenced culture, it has recently been heavily influenced by mass media.


title: Pretzel

text: Landscape architecture and sculpture memorialized the strong identity that the city of Philadelphia had with pretzel cuisine of local bakers and popularity in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Recreation Department renamed in 2004 a facility formerly identified as Manayunk Park, located on the 4300 block of Silverwood Street as "Pretzel Park." The re-designed park includes pretzel-like looped pathways and a public art statue in the shape of a pretzel sculpted by Warren C. Holzman. The municipal government of the City of Freeport, Illinois, also known as "Pretzel City USA", have also adopted a pretzel logo as their trademark.


title: Pretzel

text: The "pretzel" bikini bathing suit design, a variant of the sling swimsuit, emerged in the early 1990s, produced by Spandex. It is a haltered maillot that crisscrosses the front and fastens to the waistline. Made from Lycra, these bikinis became most popular on the beaches of Europe, including Saint-Tropez, Marbella, Mykonos, and Ibiza.


title: Pretzel

text: A circulating internet video shows a press conference of US president George W. Bush from January 2002, in which he recalls choking on a pretzel: "When you're eating pretzels, chew before you swallow. Listen to your mother."


title: Leon Bridges

text: Todd Michael "Leon" Bridges (born July 13, 1989) is an American soul singer, songwriter and record producer. He is best known for his 2015 song "Coming Home", which received regular airplay and was also a Top 10 Most Viral Track on Spotify. Bridges' debut album, also titled "Coming Home," was released on June 23, 2015, on Columbia Records and subsequently nominated for Best R&B Album at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards.


title: Leon Bridges

text: Bridges learned to play the guitar by playing simple chords to accompany his lyrics. While working at Del Frisco's Grille in Fort Worth, he played countless open-mics until he was signed by Columbia Records in December 2014. It was his song "Lisa Sawyer", about his mother's conversion, that first defined his style.


title: Leon Bridges

text: Bridges began writing and performing 1950s and '60s-style soul music that was described by Austin 360 as "a transmission straight from the heart." He began to attract followers, and his break into the music industry has been attributed to meeting guitarist Austin Jenkins and Joshua Block of White Denim. It was Bridges' performance of "Coming Home" that caught the attention of the two. Bridges worked on his first few tracks with Jenkins and Block as producers. They recorded an album with vintage equipment, using local musicians affiliated with White Denim. Bridges released two demo songs on Soundcloud in late 2014. "Coming Home" received airplay from local radio stations including KKXT. It attracted the attention from several record labels with Bridges eventually signing with Columbia Records in December 2014.


title: Leon Bridges

text: Bridges began his first national tour in January 2015, playing shows in Texas as well as playing support for Sharon Van Etten in New York City. His first official single, "Coming Home", was released on Columbia Records in February 2015. The song continued the success of the demo version and became a Top 10 Most Viral Track on Spotify the same month as its release. Bridges toured with Jenkins and Block until they resumed work with White Denim. He also played at the Sundance Film Festival and played at the SXSW festival in 2015.


title: Leon Bridges

text: His debut album was released in the summer of 2015 and has been referred to as a 2015 "Album to Look Forward to From Texans" by "The New York Times". Bridges made the cover of "Fort Worth, Texas" magazine in May 2015 for his vocal accomplishments and his distinctive retro style. "Coming Home" is featured in an Apple iPhone 6 commercial. Bridges made his first appearance in the UK as an artist in May when he sold out the London Village Underground. He went on to announce four July dates, ending with a gig at Shepherd's Bush Empire on September 28. "Coming Home" was nominated for Best R&B Album at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards.


title: Leon Bridges

text: Aside from his own shows, Bridges also supported Pharrell Williams at the Apple Music Festival on September 26. While opening at the intimate Roundhouse, he was able to perform songs such as "River", "Better Man" and "Lisa Sawyer" from his debut album "Coming Home". Bridges was the featured musical guest on "Saturday Night Live" on December 5, 2015. He performed "Smooth Sailin'" with a full backup band and sang "River" with only backup singers and organ, accompanying himself on guitar.


title: Leon Bridges

text: Bridges also participated in Macklemore & Ryan Lewis's song "Kevin", which was released on the duo's second full-length album.


title: Leon Bridges

text: On February 24, 2016, Bridges performed in Washington, D.C., as part of the series "In Performance at the White House" for President and Michelle Obama. He performed a song by Ray Charles as well as one of his own songs.


title: Leon Bridges

text: On April 8, 2016, Bridges was the live artist featured on BBC Radio London Robert Elms show. Elms interviewed Bridges briefly, and played track 8, "Pull Away", from the "Coming Home" album. Bridges was set up to play live with Colin O'Brien. Together they performed a live version of "River". The live track was so well received it was played again as "live track of the week" on the Elms Saturday show on April 9, and again on April 11 during a program segment on the best-ever live performances on the Robert Elms show.


title: Leon Bridges

text: In 2017 "River" received further recognition in the first season of the HBO series "Big Little Lies". It was later included on the soundtrack for the show.


title: Leon Bridges

text: In 2018, his song "Better Man" was featured in the film "". He was the opening act on the South American and Mexican legs of Harry Styles' first solo tour. Bridges' second album "Good Thing" was released on May 4, 2018. He had a cameo appearance in Damien Chazelle's film "First Man", playing singer Gil Scott-Heron. Bridges and Gary Clark Jr. appeared together on the song "Gone Away" from rapper Bun B's album "Return of the Trill", with Bridges singing the hook and Clark on lead guitar. On May 18, Bridges performed "Beyond" from the album "Good Thing" on an episode of the BBC series "The Graham Norton Show".


title: Leon Bridges

text: In December 2019, Houston, Texas-based trio Khruangbin announced a collaboration and tour with Leon Bridges and released a single titled "Texas Sun" on December 6, 2019. The collaborative EP of the same name was released in February 2020.


title: Leon Bridges

text: On June 8, 2020, Bridges and Terrace Martin released a single titled "Sweeter" in response to the murder of George Floyd on May 25.


title: Leon Bridges

text: Bridges's style is primarily soul, but resembling 1960s rhythm and blues. "The Wall Street Journal" described him as a "throwback to '60s-soul a la Otis Redding and Sam Cooke." Bridges performs in vintage clothing; "Fort Worth Weekly" described him as someone whose "music sounds like he looks."


title: Charlie Baker

text: Charles Duane Baker Jr. (born November 13, 1956) is an American politician and businessman serving as the 72nd governor of Massachusetts since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, Baker was a cabinet official under two governors of Massachusetts and served ten years as CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.


title: Charlie Baker

text: Baker grew up in Needham, Massachusetts, earned a BA from Harvard University in 1979, and later obtained an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. In 1991, he became Massachusetts Undersecretary of Health and Human Services under Governor Bill Weld. In 1992, he was appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services of Massachusetts. He later served as Secretary of Administration and Finance under Weld and his successor, Paul Cellucci.


title: Charlie Baker

text: After working in government for eight years, Baker left to become CEO of Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates and later Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, a nonprofit health benefits company. During this time he served three years as a selectman of Swampscott and considered a run for Massachusetts governor in 2006. He stepped down in July 2009 to run for governor on a platform of fiscal conservatism and cultural liberalism. He was unopposed in the Republican primary but lost the 2010 general election to Democratic incumbent Deval Patrick.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In 2014, Baker ran for governor again and narrowly defeated Democratic nominee Martha Coakley. In 2018, he was reelected handily over Democratic challenger Jay Gonzalez with 67% of the vote, the largest vote share in a Massachusetts gubernatorial election since 1994. Nonpartisan polls consistently list him among the nation's most popular governors. In December 2021, Baker announced that he would not seek reelection in 2022.


title: Charlie Baker

text: As of 2022, Baker and Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito are Massachusetts's only Republican statewide elected officials. On December 15, 2022, Baker was named as Mark Emmert's successor as president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. He is scheduled to assume the role on March 1, 2023.


title: Charlie Baker

text: Baker was born on November 13, 1956, in Elmira, New York. Of English ancestry, his family has been in what is now the northeastern United States since the Colonial era. He is the fourth generation in the family to bear the forename Charles.


title: Charlie Baker

text: His great-grandfather Charles D. Baker (1846–1934) was an assistant United States attorney in New York, who served several years in the New York State Assembly. His grandfather Charles D. Baker Jr. (c. 1890–1971) was a prominent politician in Newburyport, Massachusetts.


title: Charlie Baker

text: His father, Charles Duane Baker (born 1928), a Harvard graduate, was a buyer for the Westinghouse Electric Corporation. His mother, Alice Elizabeth "Betty" (née Ghormley) (1932–2016), remained at home.


title: Charlie Baker

text: Baker grew up with two younger brothers, Jonathan and Alex, in Needham, Massachusetts, before moving to Rockport. He grew up playing football, hockey, and baseball; he has described his childhood as "pretty all-American."


title: Charlie Baker

text: Baker's father was a conservative Republican and his mother a liberal Democrat; the family was often drawn into political arguments at the dinner table. In 1965 his father became vice president of Harbridge House, a Boston management consulting firm.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In 1969, the Bakers moved to Washington, D.C., where the elder Baker was named deputy undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation in the Nixon Administration, becoming the department's assistant secretary for policy and international affairs the next year, and in both capacities serving under Secretary of Transportation and former Massachusetts Governor John Volpe. His father also served as undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the Reagan Administration under U.S. Representative Margaret Heckler.


title: Charlie Baker

text: The Bakers returned to Needham in 1971, where Baker attended Needham High School. He served on the student council, played basketball, and joined DeMolay International, a youth fraternity organization. In a Bay State Conference championship basketball game, a ball he inbounded with two seconds left on the clock was tipped away by a player from Dedham High School, causing Needham to lose by one point. Baker graduated from Needham High School in 1975, alongside future Governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy.


title: Charlie Baker

text: Baker attended Harvard College and graduated in 1979 with a Bachelor of Arts in English, where, by his own admission, he was a C-student-turned-B-student. He later said he went to Harvard "because of the brand" and wrote, "With a few exceptions... those four years are ones I would rather forget." While at Harvard, Baker played on the JV basketball team. He then attended Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, where he received an MBA. After graduating, Baker served as corporate communications director for the Massachusetts High Technology Council.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In the late 1980s, Baker was hired as codirector of the newly founded Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based libertarian think tank. Lovett C. "Pete" Peters, the institute's founder, later recommended him to Bill Weld, the incoming Republican Governor of Massachusetts. Weld took office in January 1991 and hired him as Undersecretary of Health and Human Services.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In cutting back state programs and social services, Baker caused controversy from early on. However, some government officials called him an "innovator" and "one of the big stars among the secretariats and the agencies." Baker was promoted to Secretary of Health and Human Services in November 1992, and was later made Secretary of Administration and Finance, a position he continued to hold after Weld resigned in 1997 and Paul Cellucci took over as acting governor. In mid-1998, Cellucci offered him the lieutenant governor spot on the ticket, but Baker declined.


title: Charlie Baker

text: As Secretary of Administration and Finance, Baker was a main architect of the Big Dig financing plan. In 1997 the federal government was planning to cut funding for the Big Dig by $300 million per year. The state set up a trust and sold Grant Anticipation Notes (GANs) to investors. The notes were secured by promising future federal highway funds. As federal highway dollars are awarded to Massachusetts, the money is used to pay off the GANs.


title: Charlie Baker

text: According to a 2007 blue-ribbon panel, the cost overruns of the Big Dig, combined with Baker's plan for financing them, ultimately left the state transportation system underfunded by $1 billion a year. Baker defended his plan as responsible, effective, and based on previous government officials' good-faith assurances that the Big Dig would be built on time and on budget. However, as he was developing the plan, Baker had also had to take into account that Governor Cellucci was dead-set against any new taxes or fees. Former State Transportation Secretary James J. Kerasiotes, the public face of the Big Dig, praised Baker's work on the financing and said, "We were caught in a confluence of events," adding that "Charlie had a job to do, and he did his job and he did it well."


title: Charlie Baker

text: In September 1998, Baker left state government and became CEO of Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, a New England–based physicians' group. In May 1999, he was named president and CEO of Harvard Vanguard's parent company, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, a non-profit health benefits organization. The company had lost $58 million in 1998, and it was predicted to lose over $90 million in 1999. Baker responded by cutting the workforce by 90 people, increasing premiums, establishing new contracts with Massachusetts physicians, reassessing the company's financial structure, and outsourcing its information technology. During his tenure as CEO, the company had 24 profitable quarters in a row and earned recognition from the National Committee for Quality Assurance as its choice for America's Best Health Plan for five consecutive years.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In mid-2007, Baker was invited to join the board of trustees of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Because of his role in the insurance business, the appointment caused controversy, but he and the hospital's CEO, Paul F. Levy, denied any conflict of interest.


title: Charlie Baker

text: Baker ran for the board of selectmen of Swampscott, Massachusetts, in 2004, and won by a "landslide." While on the board, he was noted for a businesslike approach to local issues; his fellow selectmen described him as "low-key" and budget-oriented. After serving three years, he chose not to run for reelection in 2007.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In mid-2005, there were indications that Governor Mitt Romney would not seek reelection in 2006. Baker was widely considered a top contender for the Republican nomination. Analysts wrote that he was unlikely to defeat Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, who had already announced her candidacy. Healey was the 2–1 favorite among Republican voters in a "Boston Globe" poll and had much stronger financial backing. Furthermore, ethics guidelines at Harvard Pilgrim prevented Baker from carrying out any political fundraising while he held an executive position. After giving the idea "serious consideration", in August 2005 he announced that he would not run, citing the burden it would be on his family and the difficulty of campaigning against Healey.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In late 2006, Baker was named to a Budget and Finance working group for incoming Governor Deval Patrick's transition committee. In 2008, he joined the Public Advisory Board of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics (NHIOP) at Saint Anselm College.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In 2009 Baker was again rumored to be a contender for the Massachusetts gubernatorial election. Former Governor Weld strongly encouraged him to run, calling him "the heart and soul of the Weld–Cellucci administration." On July 8, 2009, Baker announced his candidacy, and on July 17 he stepped down from his position at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. His campaign formally began on January 30, 2010. His opponents were Democratic incumbent Deval Patrick, Green-Rainbow candidate Jill Stein, and an independent, state treasurer and Receiver General Tim Cahill. For his running mate, Baker chose Senate minority leader Richard R. Tisei. At the state Republican Convention on April 17, 2010, Baker won the Republican nomination over former Independent candidate Christy Mihos with 89% of the delegate vote, thus avoiding a primary fight with Mihos.


title: Charlie Baker

text: Baker ran as a social liberal (in favor of gay marriage and abortion rights) and a fiscal conservative, stressing job creation as his primary focus. He reinforced his socially liberal position by selecting as his running mate Richard Tisei, an openly gay Republican who had supported same-sex marriage legalization efforts in Massachusetts. Baker's campaign centered on "Baker's Dozen," a plan outlining 13 areas of state government reform, which included consolidation of government, welfare reform, and restructuring of public employee pension and retirement benefits that Baker claimed would lower state expenditures by over $1 billion. A former member of the Massachusetts Board of Education, Baker advocated more charter, magnet, and alternative schools. Believing that education is a "civil right," he also aimed to close the educational achievement gap among underprivileged and minority students. At a town hall meeting in Chilmark, Massachusetts, on Martha's Vineyard, Baker voiced his opposition to the proposed Cape Wind project supported by Governor Patrick.


title: Charlie Baker

text: Baker ran against Patrick in an atmosphere of voter discontent, with a slow economy and high unemployment, which he used to his advantage during the campaign. Patrick, facing low approval ratings, criticized Baker for his role in the Big Dig financing plan, and for raising health premiums while head of Harvard Pilgrim. Despite an anti-incumbent mood among voters, Baker lost the November 2 general election with 42% of the vote to Patrick's 48%. "We fought the good fight," said Baker in his concession speech. "We have no cause to hang our heads and will be stronger for having fought this one."


title: Charlie Baker

text: After the 2010 election, Baker was named an executive in residence at General Catalyst Partners and a member of the board of directors at the Tremont Credit Union.


title: Charlie Baker

text: On September 4, 2013, Baker announced that he would run for governor again in 2014 when incumbent governor Deval Patrick retired. On November 25, 2013, Mark Fisher, a businessman and Tea Party member announced that he would run against Baker in the Republican primary. In December 2013, Baker chose as his running mate Karyn Polito, a former opponent of same-sex marriage who had come to support marriage equality.


title: Charlie Baker

text: At the Republican State Convention on March 22, 2014, Baker received 2,095 votes (82.708%) and Fisher 374 (14.765%). There were 64 blank votes (2.527%). The threshold for making the ballot is 15% and the party announced that Baker had thus received the nomination without the need for a primary election. But Fisher argued that according to the Convention Rules, blank votes are not counted for the purposes of determining the winner and that he thus received 15.148%, enough to make the ballot. He sued the Massachusetts Republican State Committee and was certified for the primary ballot after a lengthy battle. In the September 9 primary election, Baker defeated Fisher with 74% of the vote.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In July 2014, Democrats criticized Baker for refusing to say whether he supported a provision in the new gun control law that gave police chiefs discretion to deny firearms identification cards, which are required to purchase shotguns and rifles. He later said in a debate that he would have signed the gun control bill as it was signed by Governor Patrick.


title: Charlie Baker

text: On October 27, 2014, "The Boston Globe" announced that it was endorsing Baker, the first time in 20 years that the paper had supported a Republican candidate for governor. "One needn't agree with every last one of Baker's views to conclude that, at this time, the Republican nominee would provide the best counterpoint to the instincts of an overwhelmingly Democratic Legislature," the endorsement reads. The newspaper also supported Baker because it claimed he would be the better candidate to "consolidate" Patrick's legacy on reforms tied to education, health care and public transportation.


title: Charlie Baker

text: On October 29, 2014, controversy arose over a story that Baker told the previous night about a fisherman and his two sons in New Bedford. In the following days, "The Boston Globe" and "The Standard-Times" were unable to find the fisherman. A professor from Northeastern University claimed the story, which Baker claims occurred in 2009, could have been a false memory. Democratic nominee Martha Coakley seized on the moment to attack Baker, and visited New Bedford to meet with fishing industry leaders.


title: Charlie Baker

text: After polls closed on election night, preliminary results showed that Baker had won the election. Later in the morning, Coakley conceded. The final election tally showed Baker with 48.5% of the vote to Coakley's 46.6%.


title: Charlie Baker

text: Heading into the 2018 election, Baker had been consistently rated as one of the most popular governors in the country.


title: Charlie Baker

text: He was challenged in the Republican primary by Scott Lively, an evangelical pastor, who received enough votes at the state convention to qualify for ballot access. However, Baker easily fended off this challenge, receiving nearly 70% of the vote in the Republican primary on September 4, 2018. Lively filed a lawsuit against Baker and the state Republican Party alleging they violated neutrality rules during the campaign. Superior Court Judge Susan Sullivan dismissed all claims brought by Lively on June 25, 2019.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In the general election, Baker faced Jay Gonzalez, a private health insurance executive who also served under Governor Deval Patrick as Secretary of Administration and Finance of Massachusetts. Gonzalez suffered from low name recognition throughout the campaign and polls indicated that Baker would receive a majority of the vote from registered Democrats in the state. Baker was reelected in a landslide with 67% of the vote and the highest vote total in the history of Massachusetts gubernatorial elections. This was also the best performance by a Massachusetts Republican governor since Bill Weld's reelection in 1994.


title: Charlie Baker

text: Baker was inaugurated on January 8, 2015, as the 72nd governor of Massachusetts at the Massachusetts State House in Boston. Baker was inaugurated for his second term on January 3, 2019. He is considered a liberal or moderate Republican and has been a frequent critic of former President Donald Trump. He supported the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump that began in September 2019. After the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol, Baker called for Trump to be removed from office.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In July 2016, the market research firm Gravis Marketing conducting a poll on ballot questions and state politics for Jobs First, a conservative political action committee, found Baker having a two-thirds favorability rating.


title: Charlie Baker

text: A January 2018 WBUR/MassINC poll gave Baker a 74% approval rating, making him the most popular governor in the United States.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In January 2015, Baker, in the first executive order of his administration, enacted into law a Community Compact Cabinet chaired by Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito to enable the governor's office to work more directly with municipal government leaders. In July 2015, Baker announced $26 million in community development block grants to 65 municipalities for housing, infrastructure improvements, childcare vouchers, and other services. In August 2015, Baker's administration announced the formation of the Seaport Economic Council to advise the administration in supporting the state's maritime economy. In December 2015, Baker filed legislation to modernize municipal finance in the state through a series of regulatory reforms. In January 2016, Baker announced the first award in the inaugural round of the state's Urban Agenda Grant Program in Roxbury, and the following day, Baker's administration announced the rest of the program's inaugural round of grants.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In February 2016, Baker, along with Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, announced a redevelopment public–private partnership between the state and city governments with Veolia. In June 2016, Baker announced $28 million in community development block grants to 57 municipalities in the state to pursue economic development projects and support the needs of low- and moderate-income residents. In August 2016, Baker signed into law the municipal finance modernization bill he proposed the previous December. In January 2017, Baker's administration announced $8.8 million in Community Compact Cabinet grants in their state budget proposal for fiscal year 2018, and the following March, Baker's administration announced $850,000 in a second round of Community Compact Cabinet grants to 38 municipalities and eight school districts for efficiency and regionalization efforts. In May 2017, Baker's administration announced $6 million in tax credits to 48 community development corporations in the state to improve economic opportunities for low- and moderate-income households and communities, and the following month, announced $1.8 million in grants from the state's Site Readiness Fund Program to increase the number of development-ready sites in the state for local development.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In July 2017, Baker announced $30.5 million in community development block grants to 58 municipalities in the state to respond to specific housing, community, and economic development projects that support low- and moderate-income residents. In September 2017, Baker signed the 300th Community Compact agreement with the town of Swampscott, and the following month, Baker's administration announced $343,000 in Collaborative Workspace Program grants to seven organizations in Western Massachusetts. In November 2017, Baker's administration announced the second round of grants from the state's Urban Agenda Grant Program. In January 2018, Baker's administration announced $2 million in Community Compact Cabinet grants to 92 municipalities and eight school districts for efficiency and regionalization. In May 2018, Lieutenant Governor Polito signed the 350th and 351st Community Compact agreements with Wilbraham and Boston.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In March 2015, as part of his budget proposal for fiscal year 2016, Baker proposed eliminating the state's film industry tax credit to pay for an expansion of the state's earned income tax credit, and later in the same month, Baker's administration announced that the state had approved a tax credits package to support an expansion project by Amazon.com into Fall River and Freetown. Also in March 2015, Baker signed an executive order initiating a comprehensive review of all regulations enforced by the state government. In July 2015, as part of a compromise for the 2016 fiscal year state budget, the state legislature eliminated a corporate tax deduction instead of eliminating the state's film industry tax credit to pay for the earned income tax credit increase.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In January 2016, General Electric announced that it was moving its corporate headquarters to the South Boston Seaport District following $120 million in grants and other programs offered by Baker's administration and $25 million in property tax relief offered by Boston Mayor Marty Walsh. Later in the same month, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development released jobs estimates showing that the state had gained 7,100 jobs during the previous month and that during 2015 the state had seen the highest levels of jobs growth since 2000. Also in January 2016, Baker proposed a five-year, $918 million economic development bill that he would sign into law the following August. In April 2016, Baker credited expansion of Logan International Airport to include more international flights with General Electric's decision to move their corporate headquarters to Boston the previous January.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In December 2016, the state Labor and Workforce Development Office released jobs estimates showing that the state unemployment rate had fallen to 2.9%, and Baker's administration undertook an economic development mission in Israel. During the mission, Baker signed an agreement with Israeli Chief Scientist Avi Hasson to foster research and development cooperation between the Massachusetts and Israeli governments, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative and an Israeli non-profit organization signed a cybersecurity agreement, and Baker met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In the same month, Baker's administration also announced $950,000 in grants to 23 organizations as part of the state's Collaborative Workspace Program. In his 2017 State of the Commonwealth Address the following January, Baker stated that the ongoing regulatory reform review he initiated by executive order in March 2015 had "reviewed, updated and eliminated thousands of pages of outdated and obsolete state regulations."


title: Charlie Baker

text: In March 2017, the state Labor and Workforce Development Office released jobs estimates showing that while the state economy had added an additional 13,000 jobs the previous January, the state unemployment rate had increased from 3.1 to 3.2%. The following May, and following further jobs estimates from the state Labor and Workforce Development Office showing that the state unemployment had increased further to 3.6%, Baker attributed the increases to a "slow growth economy" but stated he "[does not] tend to make decisions about the long term based on a month or two's worth of data." In the same month, Baker's administration announced 10 pilot grants totaling $330,000 to eight business districts in the state to foster small business growth.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In August 2017, Baker's Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Jay Ash reported that the state was in "active discussions" with the ownership of the Pawtucket Red Sox about moving the team to Worcester or Springfield. The following month, Baker, along with Massachusetts U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, Massachusetts U.S. Representative Stephen F. Lynch, as well as officials from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the International Longshoremen's Association, the Massachusetts Port Authority, and other local elected officials, announced the beginning of a $350 million dredging project to expand Boston Harbor to accommodate larger ships. Later that month, Baker announced that Massachusetts would bid for Amazon.com's second headquarters. In October 2017, Baker stated that offering Amazon only a single proposed location within Massachusetts for their second headquarters "would be a huge mistake" and that "I think the best thing we can do with respect to Amazon is to give them what I would describe as a menu of options," and Baker wrote an open letter of support for the Boston bid.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In January 2018, the state Labor and Workforce Development Office released jobs estimates showing that the state unemployment rate was at 3.5%, Baker's Housing and Economic Development Secretary stated that a potential move by the Pawtucket Red Sox to Massachusetts was "still very much in play," and following Amazon's announcement of its shortlist for potential second headquarters sites that included Boston, Baker, along with Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, stated that it was "too early" to discuss tax incentives for the Amazon second headquarters bid. The following month, Baker stated that in order to attract Amazon to Massachusetts that "I would expect that if we were to do something... it would probably be more of a standalone thing than something we would do as part of a general economic development bill," adding that "Amazon is very different than sort of the traditional economic development bill."


title: Charlie Baker

text: Also in February 2018, Baker welcomed an announcement by the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company that it was going to add 1,500 jobs to its Springfield headquarters and build a second $300 million location with 500 jobs in the South Boston Seaport District. In March 2018, the Associated Industries of Massachusetts released its business confidence index showing that employer confidence in the state had hit a 17-year high, and Baker filed a $610 million economic development bill. In April 2018, Baker submitted a request to the U.S. Treasury Department that 138 census tracts in Massachusetts be designated as "opportunity zones" under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. The following month, the U.S. Treasury Department approved all 138 opportunity zone designations Baker requested the previous month, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis released data showing that the Massachusetts real GDP had increased 2.6% in 2017, the 11th-highest growth rate in the United States and the highest growth rate in the Northeastern or Midwestern United States.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In June 2018, addressing concerns about the effects of retaliatory tariffs imposed by the Canadian government in response to protectionist tariffs implemented by the Trump Administration, Baker stated "I've talked to plenty of employers and companies here in the commonwealth that are worried about the lack of clarity associated with that relationship at this point in time" and noted that Canada is New England's biggest trading partner. In August 2018, Baker returned a credit reporting bill to the state legislature with amendments, and in the same month, Boston Red Sox Chairman Tom Werner announced that the Pawtucket Red Sox would be moving to Worcester with the Worcester City Council approving a $100 million stadium financing package the following month. In December 2018, Baker's administration announced that Housing and Economic Development Secretary Jay Ash would be stepping down from the position and that he would be succeeded by his assistant secretary Mike Kennealy, and in the same month, the state's Labor and Workforce Development Office announced that the state unemployment rate had fallen to 3.4%, three-tenths of a point lower than the national unemployment rate.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In January 2015, Baker's administration announced estimates indicating that the state had a $765 million budget deficit for fiscal year 2015. The following month, Baker announced a proposal to close the deficit, which was passed by both houses of the state legislature in the same month. Also in February 2015, Baker announced a tax amnesty program for fiscal year 2016 that would generate $100 million in revenue. In March 2015, Baker announced a $38 billion state budget proposal for fiscal year 2016, which Baker signed into law the following July along with an expansion of the state earned income tax credit. In November 2015, Baker signed into law a $326 million supplemental spending bill for the remainder of fiscal year 2015, and the following month, Baker's administration announced that the state income tax would fall to 5.1% effective January1 of the following year.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In January 2016, Baker announced $50 million in midyear cuts to reduce a $320 million shortfall in the state budget for fiscal year 2016, and in the same month, Baker submitted a $39.6 billion state budget proposal for fiscal year 2017 to the state legislature. In February 2016, Baker filed a $170 million midyear supplemental spending bill for fiscal year 2016. In June 2016, with the fiscal year ending that month, the Massachusetts state budget had a year-end shortfall of more than $300 million, the state's general fund budget rose by 6.1 percent, and Baker stated his opposition to implementing a "millionaire's tax." In July 2016, Baker signed into law a $38.9 billion state budget for fiscal year 2017, and Baker announced his support for a proposal to extend the state hotel tax to short-term rentals (such as Airbnb), but then retracted that support when revenue estimates for the tax fell shorter than the costs of expanding the state's earned income tax credit.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In August 2016, Baker's administration announced that the state income tax would not fall for the following year, and the following October, Baker's administration proposed $294 million in midyear budget cuts. In December 2016, Baker stated that he would be opposed to across-the-board tax increases for the state budget in fiscal year 2018, and Baker also unilaterally made $98 million in midyear cuts to the state budget, including some of the $230 million in budget items Baker had vetoed the previous July that the state legislature overrode. The midyear cuts prompted criticism and opposition from State House of Representatives Speaker Robert DeLeo, State Senate President Stan Rosenberg, and State Senate Ways and Means Committee Chair Karen Spilka.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In January 2017, Baker proposed a $40.5 billion state budget for fiscal year 2018, and in his 2017 State of the Commonwealth Address, Baker reiterated his opposition to broad-based tax increases for the 2018 state budget. In March 2017, legislative hearings began to review Baker's budget proposal, and with tax revenues coming in 9.1 percent lower than expected the previous month, the likelihood of overturning Baker's midyear budget cuts from the previous December became unlikely, and Speaker DeLeo stated that reversing those midyear cuts would be "very difficult." In June 2017, S&P Global Ratings downgraded the Massachusetts state government's credit rating to its third tier, citing the state government's failure to replenish its budget shortfall reserves as stipulated by the state's own fiscal policies. After missing the June 30 deadline to pass a state budget, in July 2017, both houses of the state legislature approved a $40.2 billion compromise state budget for fiscal year 2018, and Baker signed it into law 10 days later.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In August 2017, Baker filed legislation to renew the state's sales tax holiday weekend, and the following month, the Massachusetts House of Representatives overrode Baker's vetoes of $275 million in spending from the 2018 state budget. In January 2018, Baker proposed a $40.9 billion state budget for fiscal year 2019. In June 2018, Baker signed into law a "grand bargain" bill that created a permanent sales tax holiday weekend and increased the state's payroll tax to fund a new paid family and medical leave program, and the state finished the 2018 fiscal year with a $1 billion budget surplus. The following month, Baker signed into law a $41.2 billion state budget for the 2019 fiscal year, and the state legislature overrode all but one of Baker's spending vetoes.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In August 2018, Baker returned a bill creating a tax and regulatory structure for short-term rentals (such as Airbnb) with an amendment creating an exemption for rentals fewer than 14 days. In October 2018, Baker signed into law a $541 million supplemental budget bill for fiscal year 2018 that included a $220 million deposit into the state's budget shortfall reserves, bringing the reserves up to $2 billion and double their balance from when Baker took office. In December 2018, Baker's administration announced that the state income tax would fall to 5.05% effective January1 of the following year, the state's Administration and Finance Secretary announced that the state estimated tax revenue growth to increase 2.7% for the upcoming fiscal year, and Baker signed into law a compromise bill applying the state hotel tax to short-term rentals with the exemption amendment Baker had proposed the previous August.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In July 2015, Baker's veto of $5.17 million in funding for the state's Office of Travel and Tourism was overridden by the state legislature. A month after Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Wynn Resorts CEO Steve Wynn came to an agreement to resolve a legal dispute over traffic concerns created by Wynn's casino project in neighboring Everett, in February 2016, Baker mediated a dispute between Wynn Resorts and Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone over traffic and environmental concerns created by the same project. In July 2016, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection granted Wynn Resorts the permit necessary to begin construction, which Wynn Resorts did the following month. In January 2017, Baker proposed appropriating $3 million in grants to local tourism councils in his 2018 fiscal year state budget proposal, half of what the state legislature had appropriated in the previous fiscal year and that Baker had reduced to $3 million in midyear budget cuts.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In May 2017, Baker's administration announced $9.3 million in grant making funds for the Massachusetts Cultural Council that provides grants for culturally and historically significant sites. The previous July, Baker vetoed a $7.7 million earmark for the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which was overridden by the state legislature. In September 2017, Baker, in response to questions about whether he would support allowing the Massachusetts Lottery to conduct sales online, stated that it would depend on "how it would work and what the consequences would be for retailers and others here in the Commonwealth," but that "there are now a number of states that have run online lotteries for a while and we have real-life experience in other states."


title: Charlie Baker

text: After multiple sexual harassment and assault allegations were made against Steve Wynn in January 2018, Baker's office released a statement saying that Baker was "deeply disturbed by these allegations" and that Baker's administration "has a zero tolerance policy for sexual harassment and expects the Commonwealth's employers to create a safe work environment for all employees where reporting harassment of any kind is encouraged and properly addressed." Baker also publicly welcomed an investigation reviewing the Wynn Everett project by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, and Baker stated that the Republican Governors Association (RGA) should return any donations from Wynn given since the previous election cycle and should not accept any money from Wynn in the future.


title: Charlie Baker

text: After Wynn resigned as CEO of Wynn Resorts the following month, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission concluded that Wynn Resorts was not in violation of the state's gaming or campaign finance laws when Wynn Resorts made a donation to the RGA (which in turn donated that money to a political action committee that supported Baker's 2014 election campaign), and Baker stated that requiring the removal of Wynn's name from the company's casino project in Everett should be considered by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. In March 2018, Wynn Resorts reportedly considered selling the Everett casino to MGM Resorts International, and the following month, Wynn Resorts changed the name of the Everett casino to Encore Boston Harbor.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In May 2018, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in the "Murphy v. NCAA" case, Baker stated that Massachusetts should look into legalizing sports betting. In June 2018, Baker toured the MGM Springfield casino nearing completion, and the Massachusetts Gaming Commission approved a proposal to allow the MGM Springfield casino to serve alcoholic beverages until 4a.m. In January 2019, Baker announced that he planned to file legislation to permit Massachusetts residents to wager on professional sports, including online-only sports pool operators, stating "Expanding Massachusetts' developing gaming industry to include wagering on professional sports is an opportunity for Massachusetts to invest in local aid while remaining competitive with many other states pursuing similar regulations."


title: Charlie Baker

text: In October 2015, Baker announced a strategy to leverage unused or underutilized state land for economic development and market-rate or affordable housing. In May 2016, Baker announced that his administration would devote $1.1 billion to the development and preservation of affordable and workforce housing over the subsequent five years in the state's capital budget, and Baker also started a $100 million fund for creating workforce housing through MassHousing. In August 2016, Baker announced $90 million in subsidies and tax credits to 26 affordable housing development projects in the state. In December 2016, Baker's administration announced that the state government had sold or leased 22 pieces of state-owned property over the preceding 14 months that would create 1,500 units of new housing, 100,000 square feet of new commercial space, and that would generate $413 million in revenue for the state.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In March 2017, Baker's administration awarded $20 million to seven affordable housing developments to create 177 units of supportive housing, and the following month, Baker's administration filed a $1.3 billion housing bond bill to continue the state's support of affordable housing projects as well as provide funds for the maintenance and improvement of public housing in the state. In August 2017, Baker's administration awarded $72 million in housing subsidies and announced $28 million in state and federal tax credits to 25 affordable housing projects across the state to create, preserve, or rehabilitate nearly 2,000 units of housing. In December 2017, Baker's administration announced a $10 million initiative and zoning reform legislation to create 135,000 new housing units in the state by 2025, and the following month, Baker testified before the state legislature in support of the zoning reform.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In March 2018, Baker received an award from the Greater Boston affiliate of Habitat for Humanity for his administration's policies to create more affordable housing in the state. In May 2018, Baker's administration announced the designation of 67 municipalities in the state as "housing choice communities" in partnership with MassHousing, and Baker signed into law a $1.8 billion affordable housing bill. In July 2018, Baker announced $57 million in subsidies and tax credits to 19 affordable rental housing projects in the state. In November 2018, Baker stated that he would support raising the state's Registry of Deeds fee associated with funding the state's Community Preservation Trust Fund so that each town participating in the state's affordable housing program under the Community Preservation Act will each receive at least a 50 percent matching funds rate from the state. In December 2018, Baker's administration announced that Housing and Economic Development Secretary Jay Ash would be stepping down from the position and that he would be succeeded by his assistant secretary Mike Kennealy.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In February 2015, Baker issued an executive order creating a Workforce Skills Cabinet to formulate a strategy to address the state's workforce skills gap, and the following month, Baker issued a second executive order establishing a task force to formulate a plan to address chronic unemployment among specific target populations. In July 2015, Baker signed into law an $11.5 million budget for the state's YouthWorks summer jobs program for low-income youths between the ages of 14 and 21. In November 2015, Baker announced the first round of initiatives developed by the Workforce Skills Cabinet he formed the previous February. The following month, Baker signed into law a bill forming a state Workforce Development Board, announced $9.2 million in job-training grants, and along with the Massachusetts congressional delegation, wrote an open letter to President Obama to request federal matching funds for workplace safety programs for commercial fishermen.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In January 2016, Baker, following the recommendations of the task force he formed the previous March, announced a $5 million appropriation to his 2017 fiscal year budget proposal to address chronically high unemployment in specific populations, and the following month, Baker announced $9.3 million in capital grants to 35 high schools, community colleges, and vocational training providers to purchase workforce skills training equipment for vocational-technical education. In April 2016, Baker's administration announced $20 million in job creation tax incentives to 28 life science companies in the state and awarded $2 million in grants to 14 regional competitive workforce partnerships for job training for in-demand occupations. The following month, Baker's administration finalized an agreement with 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East for MassHealth to pay personal care attendants $15 per hour, and Baker filed legislation to cap annual accrual of sick leave by state government employees to 1,000 hours.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In July 2016, Baker instituted a hiring freeze in the state executive branch and vetoed prohibitions on the administration from increasing state employees' contributions to their health insurance from the 2017 fiscal year budget. In September 2016, Baker's administration announced a $12 million round of capital grants for workforce skills development equipment to Massachusetts high schools, community colleges, and community-based nonprofits, as well as $1.45 million in grants for the state's advanced manufacturing training program. In December 2016, Baker announced that the state would follow-up on reports of toxic levels of lead dust at National Guard armories, and 900 state employees opted into the state's voluntary buyout program, which saved the state $12 million in fiscal year 2017.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In January 2017, Baker vetoed a pay raise for state legislators, statewide constitutional officers, and judicial officials, which was overridden by the state legislature the following month. In March 2017, Baker's administration announced $11.8 million in capital grants to 32 educational institutions in Massachusetts for workforce skills development, and Baker's administration also announced the consolidation of the state's Division of Professional Licensure (DPL) and Department of Public Safety, forming an Office of Public Safety and Inspections within the Division of Professional Licensure. The following month, Baker's administration announced a regional planning initiative launched by the administration's Workforce Skills Cabinet aimed at reducing the state's workforce skills gap, and Baker's administration awarded an additional $19 million in job creation tax incentives to 22 life science companies in the state.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In June 2017, Baker's administration announced $2.2 million in grants to ten high schools to purchase vocational training equipment, and Baker's administration also announced, along with the Jewish Vocational Service and Social Finance, the launch of a pay-for-success initiative to improve the employment and educational opportunities of Greater Boston residents with limited English proficiency. In September 2017, in response to questions about raising the state minimum wage to $15 per hour, Baker stated that he would "like to know more about what the impact of the [previous minimum wage increase to $11] has been" before supporting a further increase, and the following month, Baker's administration announced $11.9 million in workforce training fund grants to 121 companies in the state, as well as $9.5 million in workforce skills capital grants to 32 educational institutions in the state.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In November 2017, Baker signed into law a bill creating a registry for home care workers. The following month, Baker's administration launched an advanced manufacturing program for adult students at 10 vocational high schools in the state and Baker proposed a pay increase for active duty soldiers and airmen in the Massachusetts National Guard. In January 2018, Baker defended a decision by the state's Group Insurance Commission to change the health insurance plans of the state's public employees, but urged the commission to better communicate its decisions to its members and later acknowledged that the changes to the plans were "flawed." In March 2018, Baker signed into law a bill extending OSHA safety standards to municipal workplaces in the state, and Baker defended the hiring practices of the Massachusetts Department of Revenue.


title: Charlie Baker

text: In April 2018, Baker stated that he wanted the state legislature to address economic policy issues such as the state minimum wage and paid family leave rather than those issues being resolved by ballot initiatives. In June 2018, Baker signed into law a "grand bargain" bill that will incrementally increase the state minimum wage to $15 per hour and the tipped minimum wage to $6.75 per hour by 2023, eliminated the state's requirement for time-and-a-half pay for retail workers on Sundays and holidays, and created a new paid family and medical leave program. In the same month, Baker's administration announced an additional $10.9 million in workforce skills capital grants to 33 educational institutions in the state and $20 million in job creation tax incentives to 23 life science companies in the state. In July 2018, Baker signed into law a bill to provide paid leave to firefighters with work-related cancer. The following month, Baker's administration announced that it would unify the state's 29 career centers and 16 workforce boards under the single brand name of "MassHire."