title: USS Lexington (CV-16)

text: Chosen as the flagship for Task Group 58.2 (TG 58.2) on 11 December, she struck at the airfields of Luzon and Formosa during the first nine days of January 1945, encountering little enemy opposition. The task force then entered the South China Sea to strike enemy shipping and air installations. Strikes were flown against Saipan, Camranh Bay in then Indochina, Hong Kong, the Pescadores, and Formosa. Task force planes sank four merchant ships and four escorts in one convoy and destroyed at least 12 in another, at Camranh Bay on 12 January. Leaving the China Sea on 20 January, "Lexington" sailed north to strike Formosa again on 21 January and Okinawa again on 22 January.


title: USS Lexington (CV-16)

text: After replenishing at Ulithi, TG 58.2 sailed on 10 February to hit airfields near Tokyo on 16 February 1945, and on 17 February to minimize opposition to the Iwo Jima landings on 19 February. "Lexington" flew close support for the assaulting troops from 19 to 22 February, then sailed for further strikes against the Japanese home islands and the Nansei Shoto before heading for overhaul at Puget Sound.


title: USS Lexington (CV-16)

text: "Lexington" was combat-bound again on 22 May, sailing via Alameda and Pearl Harbor for San Pedro Bay, Leyte, where she joined Rear Admiral Thomas L. Sprague's task force for the final round of air strikes which battered the Japanese home islands from July-15 August, when the last strike was ordered to jettison its bombs and return to "Lexington" on receiving word of the Japanese surrender. During this period, she had launched attacks on Honshū and Hokkaidō airfields, and Yokosuka and Kure naval bases to destroy the remnants of the Japanese fleet. In the actions at Kure, F4U-1D Corsairs of VBF94 flying off the Lexington, sank the hybrid battleship/aircraft carrier "Ise". Flying against heavy enemy fire, squadron commander Lester Wall Jr. dropped a 1000lb bomb down her stack, exploding her boilers and breaking her keel in a conflagration matching that of the destruction of the Arizona at Pearl Harbor four years earlier. The Lt. Cmdr. and several men in his squadron were awarded the Navy Cross for this action. She had also flown bombing attacks on industrial targets in the Tokyo area.


title: USS Lexington (CV-16)

text: After hostilities ended, her aircraft continued to fly air patrols over Japan. The previously mentioned Lt.Cmdr. Wall first located and then led in supply drops to prisoner-of-war camps on Honshū that had been abandoned by the Japanese. He was subsequently awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for this mission. In December, she was used to ferry home servicemen in what was known as Operation Magic Carpet, arriving in San Francisco on 16 December.


title: USS Lexington (CV-16)

text: "Lexington" was decommissioned at Bremerton, Washington, on 23 April 1947, and entered the National Defense Reserve Fleet. While in reserve, she was designated attack carrier CVA-16 on 1 October 1952. In September 1953, "Lexington" entered the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. She received the "Essex"-class SCB-27C and SCB-125 conversions in one refit, being then able to operate the most modern jet aircraft. The most visible distinguishing features were an angled flight deck, steam catapults, a new island, and the hurricane bow.


title: USS Lexington (CV-16)

text: "Lexington" was recommissioned on 15 August 1955, Captain A. S. Heyward Jr. in command. Assigned to San Diego as her home port, she operated off California until May 1956, sailing then for a six-month deployment with the 7th Fleet. She based on Yokosuka for exercises, maneuvers, and search and rescue missions off the coast of China, and called at major Far Eastern ports until returning San Diego on 20 December. She next trained Air Group 12, which deployed with her on the next 7th Fleet deployment. Arriving Yokosuka on 1 June 1957, "Lexington" embarked Rear Admiral H. D. Riley, Commander Carrier Division 1, and sailed as his flagship until returning San Diego on 17 October.


title: USS Lexington (CV-16)

text: Following overhaul at Bremerton, her refresher training was interrupted by the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis; on 14 July 1958, she was ordered to embark Air Group 21 at San Francisco and sail to reinforce the 7th Fleet off Taiwan, arriving on station on 7 August and returning San Diego on 19 December. Now the first carrier whose planes were armed with AGM-12 Bullpup guided missiles, "Lexington" left San Francisco on 26 April 1959 for another tour of duty with the 7th Fleet. She was on standby alert during the Laotian crisis of late August and September. Following this, she exercised with British naval forces before returning to San Diego, arriving on 2 December. In early 1960, she underwent an overhaul at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.


title: USS Lexington (CV-16)

text: "Lexington"s next Far Eastern tour began late in 1960, and was extended well into 1961 by renewed tension in Laos. Returning to west coast operations, she was ordered in January 1962 to prepare to relieve as aviation training carrier in the Gulf of Mexico, and she was redesignated CVS-16 on 1 October 1962. However, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, she resumed duty as an attack carrier, and she did not relieve "Antietam" until 29 December 1962 at Pensacola, Florida.


title: USS Lexington (CV-16)

text: Into 1969, "Lexington" operated out of her home port, Pensacola, as well as Corpus Christi qualifying student aviators and maintaining the high state of training of both active-duty and reserve naval aviators. Her work became of increasing significance as she prepared the men vital to the Navy and Marine Corps operations over Vietnam, where naval aviation played a major role. "Lexington" marked her 200,000th arrested landing on 17 October 1967, was redesignated CVT-16 on 1 January 1969 and was redesignated again as AVT-16 on 1 July 1978. She continued as a training carrier for the next 22 years until she was relieved by "Forrestal", and "Lexington" was decommissioned and struck on 8 November 1991.


title: USS Lexington (CV-16)

text: On 18 August 1980, "Lexington" became the first aircraft carrier in United States naval history to have women stationed aboard as crew members.


title: USS Lexington (CV-16)

text: On 29 October 1989, a student naval aviator lost control of his T-2 training aircraft after an aborted attempt to land on "Lexington"s flight deck. The aircraft inverted and hit the island with its left wing, killing four crew members (including the pilot of the plane who had begun an ejection sequence) and one civilian maintenance worker and injuring seventeen. The island suffered no major damage, and fires from the burning fuel were extinguished within 15 minutes.


title: USS Lexington (CV-16)

text: "Lexington" was the final "Essex"-class carrier in commission, after had been decommissioned in 1976.


title: USS Lexington (CV-16)

text: On 26 November 1991, the US Navy turned the "Lexington" over to the City of Corpus Christi. On 15 June 1992, the ship was donated as a museum and now operates as the "USS "Lexington" Museum on the Bay" at 2914 North Shoreline Boulevard, Corpus Christi, Texas. A MEGAtheater (similar to IMAX) was added in the forward aircraft elevator space. "Lexington" was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2003. The ship is carefully maintained, and areas of the ship previously off-limits are becoming open to the public every few years. One of the most recent examples of this is the catapult room.


title: USS Lexington (CV-16)

text: The ship's World War II-era gun battery is also being partially restored using guns salvaged from scrapped ships. Most notable among these are 5"/38 DP gun turrets saved from the scrapping of the heavy cruiser . They have been mounted in the approximate locations where similar mounts once existed as part of the ship's original World War II-era fit. After the coast guard cutter "Dauntless"' overhaul, her 3"/50cal gun was put on display onboard the "Lexington".


title: USS Lexington (CV-16)

text: The National Naval Aviation Museum, at Naval Air Station Pensacola, has a small carrier deck mock-up, whose flight deck is constructed from deck boards salvaged from "Lexington".


title: USS Lexington (CV-16)

text: In 1975 and 1987, "Lexington", with the blessing and cooperation of the Navy, served as a filming location at sea. The films were the feature movie "Midway" and the TV miniseries "War and Remembrance". In both cases, she was altered to the extent possible to resemble other vessels, (for "War and Remembrance") and (for "Midway") by adding antiaircraft cannons and operating World War II-vintage Navy aircraft. "Lexington" was also used (though tied up to her pier) for filming of the 2001 film "Pearl Harbor", where she was altered to resemble a Japanese carrier, as well as .


title: USS Lexington (CV-16)

text: In July 2007, the popular TV show "Ghost Hunters" filmed aboard the USS "Lexington", looking for evidence of ghosts, and in December 2009, she was the subject of an episode of "Ghost Lab", on the Discovery Channel.


title: USS Lexington (CV-16)

text: In 2014, Pepsi used the ship to film a commercial in preparation for the 2015 Super Bowl. The commercial, titled "Operation Halftime," featured country-music singer, Blake Shelton, performing for veterans and their families.


title: USS Lexington (CV-16)

text: The crew of "Lexington" received the Presidential Unit Citation for heroism in action against enemy Japanese forces, 11 battle stars for major engagements during World War II service, and other awards.


title: Howie Long

text: Howard Matthew Moses Long (born January 6, 1960) is an American sports analyst and former professional football player. He played in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons as a defensive end, spending his entire career with the Raiders franchise in Oakland and Los Angeles. Selected by the Raiders in the second round of the 1981 NFL Draft, Long received eight Pro Bowl and three first-team All-Pro selections while helping the team win a Super Bowl title in Super Bowl XVIII over the Washington Redskins. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000.


title: Howie Long

text: After retiring, Long pursued a career in acting and broadcasting and serves as a studio analyst for Fox Sports' NFL coverage.


title: Howie Long

text: Born in Somerville, Massachusetts, Long was raised in Charlestown, Boston, primarily by his uncles and maternal grandmother.


title: Howie Long

text: He attended Milford High School in Milford, MA, and is a member of the Milford Hall of Fame. Long was an all-around athlete, playing football (lettered three years and was named to the Scholastic Coach All-America team as a senior, although he had never played football until age 15), basketball (lettered three years as a forward), and track (lettered three years, competing in the shot put, discus, and javelin). Long also set state records in the shot put and discus.


title: Howie Long

text: Long played college football at Villanova University near Philadelphia and earned a degree in communications. A four-year letterman for the Wildcats, he was selected to play in the Blue–Gray Football Classic and was named the MVP in 1980. As a freshman, Long started every game and had 99 tackles. As a sophomore in 1978, Long led Villanova in sacks with five and recorded 78 tackles. The next season, Long sustained a thigh injury, missed three games, and ended the season with 46 tackles. As a senior in 1980, Long again led the Wildcats with four sacks and had 84 tackles. He began as a tight end but was moved to the defensive line, playing mostly nose guard his first two seasons. After moving to defensive end, he earned All-East honors and was honorable mention All-American in his senior year. Long also boxed at Villanova and was the Northern Collegiate Heavyweight Boxing Champion.


title: Howie Long

text: Selected in the second round of the 1981 NFL Draft by the Oakland Raiders, Long would play 13 seasons for the club, wearing the number 75. On the Raiders defensive line, Long earned eight Pro Bowl selections.


title: Howie Long

text: He had high aspirations early in his career. He told" Football Digest" in 1986 that he wanted "Financial security, and I want to be in the Hall of Fame. That's my goal. And I'd like to win a few more Super Bowls." Along the way, he was also named first-team All-Pro three times (in 1983, '84, and '85) and second-team All-Pro twice (in 1986 and 1989). He was selected by John Madden to the All-Madden teams in 1984 and 1985 and was named to the 10th Anniversary All-Madden team in 1994.


title: Howie Long

text: Long was voted the NFL Alumni Defensive Lineman of the Year and the NFLPA AFC Defensive Lineman of the Year in 1985. He capped off a stellar 1985 season earning the George Halas Trophy for having been voted the NEA's co-NFL Defensive Player of the Year (along with Andre Tippett). He was also named the Seagrams' Seven Crown NFL Defensive Player of the year. The following year, Long was voted the Miller Lite NFL Defensive Lineman of the Year. Both those awards were taken by polls of NFL players. In 1986, Long was voted to his fourth consecutive Pro Bowl and was key in helping the Raiders record 63 sacks and being the number one defense in the AFC. From 1983 to 1986 the Raiders defense recorded 249 sacks, which tied with the Chicago Bears for tops in the NFL over that span.


title: Howie Long

text: Long collected 91 sacks during his career (7 are not official, as sacks were not an official statistic during his rookie year). His career high was in 1983 with 13 sacks, including a career-high five against the Washington Redskins on October 2, 1983. He also intercepted two passes and recovered 10 fumbles during his 13-year career. At the time of his retirement, he was the last player still with the team who had been a Raider before the franchise moved to Los Angeles. He won the Super Bowl XVIII title as the left defensive end with the Raiders (1983 season), beating the Washington Redskins, as he outplayed the opposing offensive tackle, George Starke; the vaunted Washington running game led by John Riggins had only 90 yards in 32 rush attempts.


title: Howie Long

text: Long's signature defensive move was the "rip," which employed a quick, uppercut-like motion designed to break an opposing blocker's grip.


title: Howie Long

text: Pro Football Weekly (PFW) named Long as one of the ends on its All-time 3–4 defensive front, along with Lee Roy Selmon, Curley Culp, Lawrence Taylor, Andre Tippett, Randy Gradishar, and Harry Carson. PFW based its "Ultimate 3–4" team on the vote of over 40 former NFL players, coaches, and scouts.


title: Howie Long

text: After his retirement from the NFL following the 1993 season, Long pursued an acting career, focused mainly on action films—including "Firestorm", a 1998 feature in which he starred. He also appeared as a co-star in the suspense movie "Broken Arrow", alongside star John Travolta. He played a minor role in the movie "3000 Miles to Graceland" alongside Kevin Costner, Kurt Russell and Courteney Cox. In "That Thing You Do!", Long appears as Mr. White's (Tom Hanks) "partner" Lloyd in the extended cut of the movie, released on DVD in 2007. Long's part was entirely cut from the theatrical release.


title: Howie Long

text: Long also made numerous cameo appearances on TV shows and commercials. Long was a spokesman for Radio Shack, making commercials with actress Teri Hatcher. He has also been featured in many other national commercials and advertising campaigns including those of Coors Light, Nike, Campbell's Chunky Soup, Hanes, Frito Lay, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Nabisco, Kraft, the Bud Bowl campaign, Honda, and currently for Chevrolet.


title: Howie Long

text: In March 1986, Long told "Inside Sports": "When I'm finished playing, I'd like to stay in touch with football, through broadcasting. I'm qualified to give a certain perspective and I'm articulate enough to handle it."


title: Howie Long

text: After his retirement, Long began as a studio analyst for the Fox Network's NFL coverage, where he often plays the "straight man" to the comic antics of co-host Terry Bradshaw, as well as writing a column for Foxsports.com. In addition, he hosts an annual award show on Fox, "Howie Long's Tough Guys", which honors the NFL players whom he deems the toughest and gives "the toughest" a Chevrolet truck. Long won a Sports Emmy Award in 1997 as "Outstanding Sports Personality/Analyst".


title: Howie Long

text: Long is also the author of "Football for Dummies", a book to help average fans understand the basics of professional football; it is part of the "For Dummies" series by Wiley Publishing. He is an alumnus of, and volunteers his time for, the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. He was named Walter Camp Man of the Year in 2001 by the Walter Camp Foundation.


title: Howie Long

text: After his football career, Long became known for his use of a popular stock sound effect in the movie "Broken Arrow". During his death scene, the sound effect is used, which became known as the Howie scream.


title: Howie Long

text: Long met Diane Addonizio during his freshman year at Villanova; they married in 1982, and they have three sons. The eldest, Chris, is a retired defensive end, who played for the St. Louis Rams, New England Patriots, and Philadelphia Eagles. The middle son, Kyle, is a guard who played for the Chicago Bears, and played one season for the Kansas City Chiefs after signing with them in March 2021. His youngest, Howie Jr., works in player personnel for the Raiders. Long is a Roman Catholic.


title: The Blob

text: The Blob is a 1958 American science fiction horror film directed by Irvin Yeaworth, and written by Kay Linaker and Theodore Simonson. It stars Steve McQueen (in his first feature film leading role) and Aneta Corsaut and co-stars Earl Rowe and Olin Howland. It was distributed by Paramount Pictures as a double feature with "I Married a Monster from Outer Space".


title: The Blob

text: The film concerns a carnivorous amoeboidal alien that crashes to Earth from outer space inside a meteorite, landing near the small communities of Phoenixville and Downingtown, Pennsylvania. It envelops living beings, growing larger, becoming redder in color, and more aggressive, eventually becoming larger than a building.


title: The Blob

text: In a small Pennsylvania town in July 1957, teenager Steve Andrews and his girlfriend Jane Martin kiss at a lovers' lane when they see a meteorite crash beyond the next hill. Steve goes looking for it but Barney, an old man living nearby, finds it first. When he pokes the meteorite with a stick, it breaks open and a small jelly-like globule blob inside attaches itself to his hand. In pain and unable to scrape or shake it loose, Barney runs onto the road, where he is nearly struck by Steve's car. Steve and Jane take him to Doctor Hallen.


title: The Blob

text: Doctor Hallen anesthetizes the man and sends Steve and Jane back to locate the impact site and gather information. Hallen decides he must amputate the man's arm since it is being phagocytosed. Before he can, the Blob completely absorbs Barney, then Hallen's nurse Kate, and finally the doctor himself, growing redder and larger with each victim. Steve and Jane return in time for Steve to witness the doctor trying to escape through the window with the Blob covering him. They go to the police station and return with Lieutenant Dave Barton and Sergeant Jim Bert, but they find no sign of the Blob or its victims. The skeptical Bert dismisses Steve's story as a prank. Steve and Jane are taken home by their parents, but they later sneak out.


title: The Blob

text: The Blob absorbs a mechanic at a repair shop. During a midnight screening of "Daughter of Horror" at the Colonial Theater, Steve recruits Tony and his friends to warn people about the Blob. When Steve notices that his father's grocery store is unlocked, he and Jane go inside to investigate. The janitor is nowhere to be seen. The couple is quickly cornered by the Blob and they seek refuge in the walk-in freezer. The Blob oozes in under the door but quickly retreats. Steve and Jane gather their friends and set off the town's fire and air-raid alarms. The responding townspeople and police still refuse to believe them. The Blob enters the Colonial Theater and envelopes the projectionist, then oozes into the auditorium. Steve is finally vindicated when screaming people flee the theater in panic.


title: The Blob

text: Steve, Jane and her kid brother Danny are trapped in a diner, along with the owner and a waitress, as the Blob—now enormous from the people it has consumed—engulfs the diner. Dave taps into the diner's telephone with his police radio and warns those in the diner to shelter in the cellar before the police bring down a live power line onto the Blob.


title: The Blob

text: Dave and Bert plan to electrocute the Blob by felling an overhead high-voltage power line. It discharges a massive electrical current into the blob, which is unaffected, but the diner underneath it is set ablaze. When the diner owner uses a carbon dioxide extinguisher on the approaching fire inside, Steve notices that the Blob recoils. Steve remembers it also retreated from the freezer and realizes it cannot tolerate cold temperatures. Shouting in hopes of being picked up on the open phone line, Steve tells Dave about the Blob's vulnerability to cold. The firemen have a limited supply of fire extinguishers. Jane's father, high school principal Henry Martin, leads Steve's friends to break into the school to retrieve its extinguishers. When they return, a brigade of fire extinguisher-armed students, firemen and police drive the Blob away from the diner, freeing the five trapped there, and surround and freeze the creature.


title: The Blob

text: Dave requests authorities send an Air Force heavy-lift cargo aircraft to transport the frozen Blob to the Arctic. Dave realizes that the cold will stop the Blob but not kill it, “as long as the Arctic stays cold”. Parachutes bearing the Blob on a pallet lower it onto an Arctic ice field with the superimposed words "The End" morphing into a question mark.


title: The Blob

text: The film was Jack Harris' first production, and was reportedly inspired by a discovery of star jelly in Pennsylvania in 1950. It was originally titled "The Molten Meteor" until producers overheard screenwriter Kay Linaker refer to the film's monster as "the blob". Other sources give a different account, saying that the film went through a number of title changes (the monster was called "the mass" in the shooting script) before the makers settled on "The Glob". After hearing that cartoonist Walt Kelly had used "The Glob" as a title for his Pogo children's book, they mistakenly believed that they couldn't use that title, so they changed it to "The Blob". Though the budget was set at $120,000 it ended up costing only $110,000.


title: The Blob

text: The film was the second feature directed by Irvin Yeaworth. Filmed in and around Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, principal photography took place at Valley Forge Studios. Several scenes were filmed in the towns of Chester Springs, Downingtown, Phoenixville, and Royersford, including the basement of a local restaurant which is today named Downingtown Diner. For the diner scene, a photograph of the building was put on a gyroscopically operated table onto which cameras had been mounted. The table was shaken and the Blob rolled off. When the film negative was printed in reverse, it appeared to be oozing over the building. "The Blob" was filmed in color and projected at a 1.85 ratio.


title: The Blob

text: Twenty-eight-year-old Steve McQueen received $3,000 for his starring role. He turned down an offer for a smaller up-front fee in return for a 10% percent share of profits, thinking that the film would never make money; he needed his signing fee immediately to pay for food and rent. However, "The Blob" ended up a hit, grossing $4 million at the box office.


title: The Blob

text: The film's tongue-in-cheek title song, The Blob [Columbia 42150A], was written by Burt Bacharach and Mack David. It became a nationwide hit in the U.S., peaking at #33 on the "Billboard" chart on November 9, 1958. It was recorded by a studio group who adopted the name the Five Blobs. (The vocals are all by singer Bernie Knee, overdubbing himself.) It's commonly misbelieved that Bacharach wrote the song with his famous songwriting partner, Hal David, but David's brother Mack wrote the lyrics.


title: The Blob

text: "The Blob"'s background score was by Ralph Carmichael, who, like Yeaworth, had worked on television specials for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association; it was supervised by the director's wife, Jean Yeaworth. It was one of only a few film scores Carmichael wrote. He composed different opening music for the film—a piece called "Violence", intended to start the film on a serious, frightening note. However, the director chose to replace it with the novelty song "The Blob", to encourage audiences to view it as campy fun, and the song has contributed to the film's enduring popularity. The original score and title song were both included on the soundtrack album, which was re-released in 2008 on the Monstrous Movie Music soundtrack label.


title: The Blob

text: Paramount acquired "The Blob" for $300,000 from Jack Harris and spent another $300,000 promoting it. According to Tim Dirks, it was one of a wave of "cheap teen movies" for the drive-in market—"exploitative, cheap fare created especially for [young people] in a newly-established teen/drive-in genre."


title: The Blob

text: Harris eventually bought the rights back from Paramount and Allied Artists Pictures Corporation reissued it as a double feature with his and Yeaworth's "Dinosaurus!" in 1964.


title: The Blob

text: "The Blob" has been released as part of the Criterion Collection on three formats: LaserDisc (1988), DVD (2000) and Blu-ray (2013). The DVD and Blu-ray feature new cover art by Michael Koelsch. The film, together with "Son of Blob", was released on DVD in Australia by Umbrella Entertainment in September 2011. The DVD is compatible with all region codes and has special features including audio commentaries with Jack H. Harris, Bruce Eder, Irvin Yeaworth, and Robert Fields. In November 2016, Umbrella released a 2-disc Blu-ray, "The Blob Collection", featuring the 1988 version of "The Blob" and the 1958 version of "Son of Blob". Disc two also includes the Criterion Collection's opening identification, although the release was distributed by Umbrella Entertainment with no mention of Criterion on the disc sleeve.


title: The Blob

text: When "The Blob" premiered as the B film on a double feature with "I Married a Monster from Outer Space", it was quickly moved up to be the main feature. Audiences liked it, but critics were not as kind. "The New York Times" highlighted some of its problems and identified some positives, although Steve McQueen's debut was not one of them. On director Irvin Yeaworth's work, they wrote: "Unfortunately, his picture talks itself to death, even with the blob nibbling away at everybody in sight. And most of his trick effects, under the direction of Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr., look pretty phony. On the credit side, the camera very snugly frames the small town background—a store, a church spire, several homes and a theatre. The color is quite good (the blob rolls around in at least a dozen horrible-looking flavors, including raspberry). The acting is pretty terrible itself, there is not a single becomingly familiar face in the cast, headed by young Steven McQueen and Aneta Corseaut".


title: The Blob

text: "Variety" had a similar reaction, seeing McQueen as the star, gamely "giving the old college try" but that the "... star performers, however, are the DeLuxe color camerawork of Thomas Spalding and Barton Sloane’s special effects".


title: The Blob

text: In a discussion with biologist Richard Dawkins, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson stated that among all Hollywood aliens, which were usually disappointing, "The Blob" was his favorite from a scientific perspective.


title: The Blob

text: The film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 66% approval rating based on 32 reviews, with an average rating of 6.27/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "In spite of its chortle-worthy premise and dated special effects, "The Blob" remains a prime example of how satisfying cheesy B-movie monster thrills can be".


title: The Blob

text: "Beware! The Blob", a sequel directed by Larry Hagman, was released in 1972. The same creature from the original—this time starting as a small specimen unearthed by a bulldozer crew in the Arctic—is brought back to suburban Los Angeles, where it escapes. Presented as a "horror/comedy," the film was also released under the title "Son of Blob" in 1972. As this was Hagman's first feature film as director, home video releases used the tagline "The Movie That J.R. Shot", a play on "Who shot J.R.?", the famous catchphrase about the near-demise of the character Hagman played in the television series "Dallas".


title: The Blob

text: In August 2009, it was revealed that musician-turned-director Rob Zombie was working on another remake, but he later left the project. He was replaced by Simon West as director in January 2015. It was announced that the film would be produced by Richard Saperstein and Brian Witten, with the producer of the original film, Jack H. Harris, as executive producer. Harris died in 2017, and there have been no updates as of 2022.


title: The Blob

text: The opening scene of the 1988 horror-comedy "Killer Klowns from Outer Space" closely parallels that of "The Blob". Both movies also have a decent cop named Dave who does not believe the young people, and a crabby older cop who seems to have a grudge against young citizens.


title: The Blob

text: The film "Monsters vs. Aliens" had characters based on classic 1950s movie monsters including B.O.B. (Benzoate Ostylezene Bicarbonate), an amoeboid creature.


title: The Blob

text: The Carpenter version of The Thing (1982 movie) had a virtually identical shot of a body lying under a blanket on a gurney, where the blanket moves. This matches the scene in the doctor's office with the old man under the blanket.


title: The Blob

text: In the "Hotel Transylvania" franchise, one of Dracula's friends is a huge, indestructible green amoeboid creature called Blobby, who is able to absorb and regurgitate anything in his path.


title: The Blob

text: In computing, a blob is a collection of binary data stored as a single entity. Blobs are typically images, audio or other multimedia objects, though sometimes executable code is stored as a blob. Blobs were originally just big amorphous chunks of data invented by Jim Starkey at DEC, who describes them as "the thing that ate Cincinnati, Cleveland, or whatever" from "the 1958 Steve McQueen movie", referring to "The Blob".


title: The Blob

text: Since 2000, the town of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, one of the filming locations, has held an annual Blobfest, including a reenactment of the scene where moviegoers run screaming from the town's Colonial Theatre, which has been restored. Chef's Diner in Downingtown has also been restored, and is open for business for photographs of the basement on weekday mornings only.


title: The Blob

text: The Blob itself was made from silicone, with increasing amounts of red vegetable dye added as it "absorbed" people. In 1965, it was bought by film collector Wes Shank, who has written a book about the making of "The Blob".


title: The Blob

text: According to Jeff Sharlet in his book "The Family", "The Blob" was "about the creeping horrors of communism" defeated only "by freezing it—the Cold War writ small and literal". Rudy Nelson, one of the film's scriptwriters, has denied many of Sharlet's assertions, saying "What on earth can Sharlet say about the movie that will fill 23 pages—especially when what he thinks he knows is all wrong"?


title: The Blob

text: In 1997, film historians Kim R. Holston and Tom Winchester noted that "The Blob" was "filmed in southeastern Pennsylvania at Valley Forge Studios, (and) this very famous piece of pop culture is a model of a decent movie on a small budget".


title: The Blob

text: The trailer for "The Blob" is seen during the drive-in scene in the 1978 film adaptation of the musical "Grease".


title: The Blob

text: The 2011 "SpongeBob SquarePants" episode "The Krabby Patty that Ate Bikini Bottom" is a direct parody of this movie (and its remake).


title: The Blob

text: The poster for "The Blob" was briefly shown in Steven Spielberg's 2017 film "The Post" starring Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep.


title: Journalism

text: Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (professional or not), the methods of gathering information, and the organizing literary styles. Journalistic media include print, television, radio, Internet, and, in the past, newsreels.


title: Journalism

text: The appropriate role for journalism varies from countries to country, as do perceptions of the profession, and the resulting status. In some nations, the news media are controlled by government and are not independent. In others, news media are independent of the government and operate as private industry. In addition, countries may have differing implementations of laws handling the freedom of speech, freedom of the press as well as slander and libel cases.


title: Journalism

text: The proliferation of the Internet and smartphones has brought significant changes to the media landscape since the turn of the 21st century. This has created a shift in the consumption of print media channels, as people increasingly consume news through e-readers, smartphones, and other personal electronic devices, as opposed to the more traditional formats of newspapers, magazines, or television news channels. News organizations are challenged to fully monetize their digital wing, as well as improvise on the context in which they publish in print. Newspapers have seen print revenues sink at a faster pace than the rate of growth for digital revenues.


title: Journalism

text: Journalistic conventions vary by country. In the United States, journalism is produced by media organizations or by individuals. Bloggers are often regarded as journalists. The Federal Trade Commission requires that bloggers who write about products received as promotional gifts, disclose that they received the products for free. This is intended to eliminate conflicts of interest and protect consumers.


title: Journalism

text: In the US, many credible news organizations are incorporated entities, have an editorial board, and exhibit separate editorial and advertising departments. Many credible news organizations, or their employees, often belong to and abide by the ethics of professional organizations such as the American Society of News Editors, the Society of Professional Journalists, Investigative Reporters & Editors, Inc., or the Online News Association. Many news organizations also have their own codes of ethics that guide journalists' professional publications. For instance, "The New York Times" code of standards and ethics is considered particularly rigorous.


title: Journalism

text: When crafting news stories, regardless of the medium, fairness and bias are issues of concern to journalists. Some stories are intended to represent the author's own opinion; others are more neutral or feature balanced points-of-view. In a traditional print newspaper and its online version, information is organized into sections. This makes clear the distinction between content based on fact and on opinion. In other media, many of these distinctions break down. Readers should pay careful attention to headings and other design elements to ensure that they understand the journalist's intent. Opinion pieces are generally written by regular columnists or appear in a section titled "Op-ed", these reflect a journalist's own opinions and ideology. While feature stories, breaking news, and hard news stories typically make efforts to remove opinion from the copy.


title: Journalism

text: According to Robert McChesney, healthy journalism in a democratic country must provide an opinion of people in power and who wish to be in power, must include a range of opinions and must regard the informational needs of all people.


title: Journalism

text: Many debates centre on whether journalists are "supposed" to be "objective" and "neutral"; arguments include the fact that journalists produce news out of and as part of a particular social context, and that they are guided by professional codes of ethics and do their best to represent all legitimate points of view. Additionally, the ability to render a subject's complex and fluid narrative with sufficient accuracy is sometimes challenged by the time available to spend with subjects, the affordances or constraints of the medium used to tell the story, and the evolving nature of people's identities.


title: Journalism

text: There are several forms of journalism with diverse audiences. Journalism is said to serve the role of a "fourth estate", acting as a watchdog on the workings of the government. A single publication (such as a newspaper) contains many forms of journalism, each of which may be presented in different formats. Each section of a newspaper, magazine, or website may cater to a different audience.


title: Journalism

text: The rise of social media has drastically changed the nature of journalistic reporting, giving rise to so-called citizen journalists. In a 2014 study of journalists in the United States, 40% of participants claimed they rely on social media as a source, with over 20% depending on microblogs to collect facts. From this, the conclusion can be drawn that breaking news nowadays often stems from user-generated content, including videos and pictures posted online in social media. However, though 69.2% of the surveyed journalists agreed that social media allowed them to connect to their audience, only 30% thought it had a positive influence on news credibility. In addition to this, a recent study done by Pew Research Center shows that eight-in-ten Americans are getting their news from digital devices.


title: Journalism

text: Consequently, this has resulted in arguments to reconsider journalism as a process distributed among many authors, including the socially mediating public, rather than as individual products and articles written by dedicated journalists.


title: Journalism

text: Because of these changes, the credibility ratings of news outlets has reached an all-time low. A 2014 study revealed that only 22% of Americans reported a "great deal" or "quite a lot of confidence" in either television news or newspapers.


title: Journalism

text: "Fake news" is also deliberately untruthful information, which can often spread quickly on social media or by means of fake news websites. News cannot be regarded as "fake", but disinformation rather.


title: Journalism

text: It is often published to intentionally mislead readers to ultimately benefit a cause, organization or an individual. A glaring example was the proliferation of fake news in social media during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Conspiracy theories, hoaxes, and lies have been circulated under the guise of news reports to benefit specific candidates. One example is a fabricated report of Hillary Clinton's email which was published by a non-existent newspaper called The Denver Guardian. Many critics blamed Facebook for the spread of such material. Its news feed algorithm, in particular, was identified by Vox as the platform where the social media giant exercise billions of editorial decisions every day. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and TikTok are distributors of disinformation or "fake news". Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, has acknowledged the company's role in this problem: in a testimony before a combined Senate Judiciary and Commerce committee hearing on 20 April 2018, he said:It's clear now that we didn't do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm as well. That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy.Readers can often evaluate credibility of news by examining the credibility of the underlying news organization.


title: Journalism

text: The phrase was popularized and used by Donald Trump during his presidential campaign to discredit what he perceived as negative news coverage of his candidacy and then the presidency.


title: Journalism

text: In some countries, including Turkey, Egypt, India, Bangladesh, Iran, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Cote d’Ivoire, Montenegro, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, and Somalia journalists have been threatened or arrested for allegedly spreading fake news about the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Journalism

text: While publications reporting the news to the general public in a standardized fashion only began to appear in the 17th century and later, governments as early as Han dynasty China made use of regularly published news bulletins. Similar publications were established in the Republic of Venice in the 16th century. These bulletins, however, were intended only for government officials, and thus were not journalistic news publications in the modern sense of the term.


title: Journalism

text: As mass-printing technologies like the printing press spread, newspapers were established to provide increasingly literate audiences with the news. The first references to privately owned newspaper publishers in China date to the late Ming dynasty in 1582. Johann Carolus's "Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien", published in 1605 in Strasbourg, is often recognized as the first newspaper in Europe.


title: Journalism

text: Freedom of the press was formally established in Great Britain in 1695, with Alan Rusbridger, former editor of "The Guardian", stating: "licensing of the press in Britain was abolished in 1695. Remember how the freedoms won here became a model for much of the rest of the world, and be conscious how the world still watches us to see how we protect those freedoms." The first successful English daily, the "Daily Courant", was published from 1702 to 1735. While journalistic enterprises were started as private ventures in some regions, such as the Holy Roman Empire and the British Empire, other countries such as France and Prussia kept tighter control of the press, treating it primarily as an outlet for government propaganda and subjecting it to uniform censorship. Other governments, such as the Russian Empire, were even more distrusting of the journalistic press and effectively banned journalistic publications until the mid-19th century. As newspaper publication became a more and more established practice, publishers would increase publication to a weekly or daily rate. Newspapers were more heavily concentrated in cities that were centres of trade, such as Amsterdam, London, and Berlin. The first newspapers in Latin America would be established in the mid-to-late 19th century.


title: Journalism

text: Newspapers played a significant role in mobilizing popular support in favor of the liberal revolutions of the late 18th and 19th centuries. In the American Colonies, newspapers motivated people to revolt against British rule by publishing grievances against the British crown and republishing pamphlets by revolutionaries such as Thomas Paine, while loyalist publications motivated support against the American Revolution. News publications in the United States would remain proudly and publicly partisan throughout the 19th century. In France, political newspapers sprang up during the French Revolution, with "L'Ami du peuple", edited by Jean-Paul Marat, playing a particularly famous role in arguing for the rights of the revolutionary lower classes. Napoleon would reintroduce strict censorship laws in 1800, but after his reign print publications would flourish and play an important role in political culture. As part of the Revolutions of 1848, radical liberal publications such as the "Rheinische Zeitung, Pesti Hírlap," and "Morgenbladet" would motivate people toward deposing the aristocratic governments of Central Europe. Other liberal publications played a more moderate role: "The Russian Bulletin" praised Alexander II of Russia's liberal reforms in the late 19th century, and supported increased political and economic freedoms for peasants as well as the establishment of a parliamentary system in Russia. Farther to the left, socialist and communist newspapers had wide followings in France, Russia and Germany despite being outlawed by the government.


title: Journalism

text: Journalism in China before 1910 primarily served the international community. The "overthrow of the old imperial regime in 1911" produced a surge in Chinese nationalism, an end to censorship, and a demand for professional, nation-wide journalism. All the major cities launched such efforts. By the late 1920s, however, there was a much greater emphasis on advertising and expanding circulation, and much less interest in the sort of advocacy journalism that had inspired the revolutionaries.


title: Journalism

text: The Parisian newspapers were largely stagnant after the "First World War"; circulation inched up to six million a day from five million in 1910. The major postwar success story was "Paris Soir"; which lacked any political agenda and was dedicated to providing a mix of sensational reporting to aid circulation, and serious articles to build prestige. By 1939 its circulation was over 1.7 million, double that of its nearest rival the tabloid "Le Petit Parisien." In addition to its daily paper "Paris Soir" sponsored a highly successful women's magazine "Marie-Claire." Another magazine "Match" was modeled after the photojournalism of the American magazine "Life."


title: Journalism

text: By 1900 popular journalism in Britain aimed at the largest possible audience, including the working class, had proven a success and made its profits through advertising. Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe (1865–1922), "More than anyone... shaped the modern press. Developments he introduced or harnessed remain central: broad contents, exploitation of advertising revenue to subsidize prices, aggressive marketing, subordinate regional markets, independence from party control. His "Daily Mail" held the world record for daily circulation until his death. Prime Minister Lord Salisbury quipped it was "written by office boys for office boys".


title: Journalism

text: Described as "the scoop of the century", as a rookie journalist for "The Daily Telegraph" in 1939 Clare Hollingworth was the first to report the outbreak of World War II. While travelling from Poland to Germany, she spotted and reported German forces massed on the Polish border; "The Daily Telegraph" headline read: "1,000 tanks massed on Polish border "; three days later she was the first to report the German invasion of Poland.


title: Journalism

text: During World War II, George Orwell worked as a journalist at "The Observer" for seven years, and its editor David Astor gave a copy of Orwell’s essay "Politics and the English Language"—a critique of vague, slovenly language—to every new recruit. In 2003, literary editor at the newspaper Robert McCrum wrote, "Even now, it is quoted in our style book".


title: Journalism

text: The first newspaper of India, "Hicky's Bengal Gazette", was published on 29 January 1780. This first effort at journalism enjoyed only a short stint yet it was a momentous development, as it gave birth to modern journalism in India. Following Hicky's efforts which had to be shut down just within two years of circulation, several English newspapers started publication in the aftermath. Most of them enjoyed a circulation figure of about 400 and were weeklies giving personal news items and classified advertisements about a variety of products. Later on, in the 1800s, English newspapers were started by Indian publishers with English-speaking Indians as the target audience. During that era vast differences in language was a major problem in facilitating smooth communication among the people of the country. This is because they hardly knew the languages prevalent in other parts of this vast land. However, English became a "lingua franca" across the country. Notable among this breed is the one named 'Bengal Gazette' started by Gangadhar Bhattacharyya in 1816.


title: Journalism

text: The late 19th and early 20th century in the United States saw the advent of media empires controlled by the likes of William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. Realizing that they could expand their audience by abandoning politically polarized content, thus making more money off of advertising, American newspapers began to abandon their partisan politics in favor of less political reporting starting around 1900. Newspapers of this era embraced sensationalized reporting and larger headline typefaces and layouts, a style that would become dubbed "yellow journalism". Newspaper publishing became much more heavily professionalized in this era, and issues of writing quality and workroom discipline saw vast improvement. This era saw the establishment of freedom of the press as a legal norm, as President Theodore Roosevelt tried and failed to sue newspapers for reporting corruption in his handling of the purchase of the Panama Canal. Still, critics note that although government's ability to suppress journalistic speech is heavily limited, the concentration of newspaper (and general media) ownership in the hands of a small number of private business owners leads to other biases in reporting and media self-censorship that benefits the interests of corporations and the government.


title: Journalism

text: The rampant discrimination and segregation against African-Americans led to the founding their own daily and weekly newspapers, especially in large cities. While the first Black newspapers in America were established in the early 19th century, in the 20th century these newspapers truly flourished in major cities, with publishers playing a major role in politics and business affairs. Representative leaders included Robert Sengstacke Abbott (1870–1940), publisher of the Chicago Defender; John Mitchell, Jr. (1863–1929), editor of the "Richmond Planet" and president of the National Afro-American Press Association; Anthony Overton (1865–1946), publisher of the Chicago Bee, and Robert Lee Vann (1879–1940), the publisher and editor of the Pittsburgh Courier.


title: Journalism

text: Although it is not completely necessary to have attended college to be a journalist, over the past few years it has become more common to attend. With this becoming more popular, jobs are starting to require a degree to be hired. The first school of Journalism opened as part of the University of Missouri in 1908. In the History Of Journalism page, it goes into depth on how journalism has evolved into what it is today. As of right now, there are a couple different routes one can take if interested in journalism. If one wanting to expand their skills as a journalist, there are many college courses and workshops one can take. If going the full college route, the average time is takes to graduate with a journalism degree is 4 years.


title: Journalism

text: The top 5 ranked journalism schools in the US for the school year of 2022 are: 1. Washington and Lee University. 2. Northwestern University. 3. Georgetown University. 4. Columbia University in the City of New York. 5. University of Wisconsin - Madison.


title: Journalism

text: In the 1920s in the United States, as newspapers dropped their blatant partisanship in search of new subscribers, political analyst Walter Lippmann and philosopher John Dewey debated the role of journalism in a democracy. Their differing philosophies still characterize an ongoing debate about the role of journalism in society. Lippmann's views prevailed for decades, helping to bolster the Progressives' confidence in decision-making by experts, with the general public standing by. Lippmann argued that high-powered journalism was wasted on ordinary citizens, but was of genuine value to an elite class of administrators and experts. Dewey, on the other hand, believed not only that the public was capable of understanding the issues created or responded to by the elite, but also that it was in the public forum that decisions should be made after discussion and debate. When issues were thoroughly vetted, then the best ideas would bubble to the surface. The danger of demagoguery and false news did not trouble Dewey. His faith in popular democracy has been implemented in various degrees, and is now known as "community journalism". The 1920s debate has been endlessly repeated across the globe, as journalists wrestle with their roles.


title: Journalism

text: Radio broadcasting increased in popularity starting in the 1920s, becoming widespread in the 1930s. While most radio programming was oriented toward music, sports, and entertainment, radio also broadcast speeches and occasional news programming. Radio reached the peak of its importance during World War II, as radio and newsreels were major sources of up-to-date information on the ongoing war. In the Soviet Union, radio would be heavily utilized by the state to broadcast political speeches by leadership. These broadcasts would very rarely have any additional editorial content or analysis, setting them apart from modern news reporting. The radio would however soon be eclipsed by broadcast television starting in the 1950s.


title: Journalism

text: Starting in the 1940s, United States broadcast television channels would air 10-to-15-minute segments of news programming one or two times per evening. The era of live-TV news coverage would begin in the 1960s with the assassination of John F. Kennedy, broadcast and reported to live on a variety of nationally syndicated television channels. During the 60s and 70s, television channels would begin adding regular morning or midday news shows. Starting in 1980 with the establishment of CNN, news channels began providing 24-hour news coverage, a format which persists through today.


title: Journalism

text: The role and status of journalism, as well as mass media, has undergone changes over the last two decades, together with the advancement of digital technology and publication of news on the Internet. This has created a shift in the consumption of print media channels, as people increasingly consume news through e-readers, smartphones, and other electronic devices. News organizations are challenged to fully monetize their digital wing, as well as improvise on the context in which they publish in print. Newspapers have seen print revenues sink at a faster pace than the rate of growth for digital revenues.


title: Journalism

text: Notably, in the American media landscape, newsrooms have reduced their staff and coverage as traditional media channels, such as television, grappling with declining audiences. For example, between 2007 and 2012, CNN edited its story packages into nearly half of their original time length.


title: Journalism

text: The compactness in coverage has been linked to broad audience attrition. According to the Pew Research Center, the circulation for U.S. newspapers has fallen sharply in the 21st century. The digital era also introduced journalism whose development is done by ordinary citizens, with the rise of citizen journalism being possible through the Internet. Using video camera-equipped smartphones, active citizens are now enabled to record footage of news events and upload them onto channels like YouTube (which is often discovered and used by mainstream news media outlets). News from a variety of online sources, like blogs and other social media, results in a wider choice of official and unofficial sources, rather than only traditional media organizations.


title: Journalism

text: A worldwide sample of 27,500 journalists in 67 countries in 2012-2016 produced the following profile:


title: Journalism

text: While various existing codes have some differences, most share common elements including the principles of – truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, impartiality, fairness and public accountability – as these apply to the acquisition of newsworthy information and its subsequent dissemination to the public.


title: Journalism

text: Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel propose several guidelines for journalists in their book "The Elements of Journalism".


title: Journalism

text: Their view is that journalism's first loyalty is to the citizenry and that journalists are thus obliged to tell the truth and must serve as an independent monitor of powerful individuals and institutions within society. In this view, the essence of journalism is to provide citizens with reliable information through the discipline of verification.


title: Journalism

text: Some journalistic Codes of Ethics, notably the European ones, also include a concern with discriminatory references in news based on race, religion, sexual orientation, and physical or mental disabilities. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe approved in 1993 Resolution 1003 on the Ethics of Journalism which recommends journalists to respect the presumption of innocence, in particular in cases that are still "sub judice".


title: Journalism

text: In the UK, all newspapers are bound by the Code of Practice of the Independent Press Standards Organisation. This includes points like respecting people's privacy and ensuring accuracy. However, the Media Standards Trust has criticized the PCC, claiming it needs to be radically changed to secure the public trust of newspapers.


title: Journalism

text: This is in stark contrast to the media climate prior to the 20th century, where the media market was dominated by smaller newspapers and pamphleteers who usually had an overt and often radical agenda, with no presumption of balance or objectivity.


title: Journalism

text: Because of the pressure on journalists to report news promptly and before their competitors, factual errors occur more frequently than in writing produced and edited under less time pressure. Thus a typical issue of a major daily newspaper may contain several corrections of articles published the previous day. Perhaps the most famous journalistic mistake caused by time pressure was the Dewey Defeats Truman edition of the Chicago Daily Tribune, based on early election returns that failed to anticipate the actual result of the 1948 US presidential election.


title: Journalism

text: There are over 242 codes of ethics in journalism that vary across various regions of the world. The codes of ethics are created through an interaction of different groups of people such as the public and journalists themselves. Most of the codes of ethics serve as a representation of the economic and political beliefs of the society where the code was written. Despite the fact that there are a variety of codes of ethics, some of the core elements present in all codes are: remaining objective, providing the truth, and being honest.


title: Journalism

text: Journalism does not have a universal code of conduct; individuals are not legally obliged to follow a certain set of rules like a doctor or a lawyer does. There have been discussions for creating a universal code of conduct in journalism. One suggestion centers on having three claims for credibility, justifiable consequence, and the claim of humanity. Within the claim of credibility, journalists are expected to provide the public with reliable and trustworthy information, and allowing the public to question the nature of the information and its acquisition. The second claim of justifiable consequences centers on weighing the benefits and detriments of a potentially harmful story and acting accordingly. An example of justifiable consequence is exposing a professional with dubious practices; on the other hand, acting within justifiable consequence means writing compassionately about a family in mourning. The third claim is the claim of humanity which states that journalists are writing for a global population and therefore must serve everyone globally in their work, avoiding smaller loyalties to country, city, etc.


title: Journalism

text: Governments have widely varying policies and practices towards journalists, which control what they can research and write, and what press organizations can publish. Some governments guarantee the freedom of the press; while other nations severely restrict what journalists can research or publish.


title: Journalism

text: Journalists in many nations have some privileges that members of the general public do not, including better access to public events, crime scenes and press conferences, and to extended interviews with public officials, celebrities and others in the public eye.


title: Journalism

text: Journalists who elect to cover conflicts, whether wars between nations or insurgencies within nations, often give up any expectation of protection by government, if not giving up their rights to protection from the government. Journalists who are captured or detained during a conflict are expected to be treated as civilians and to be released to their national government. Many governments around the world target journalists for intimidation, harassment, and violence because of the nature of their work.


title: Journalism

text: Journalists' interaction with sources sometimes involves confidentiality, an extension of freedom of the press giving journalists a legal protection to keep the identity of a confidential informant private even when demanded by police or prosecutors; withholding their sources can land journalists in contempt of court, or in jail.


title: Journalism

text: In the United States, there is no right to protect sources in a federal court. However, federal courts will refuse to force journalists to reveal their sources, unless the information the court seeks is highly relevant to the case and there's no other way to get it. State courts provide varying degrees of such protection. Journalists who refuse to testify even when ordered to can be found in contempt of court and fined or jailed. On the journalistic side of keeping sources confidential, there is also a risk to the journalist's credibility because there can be no actual confirmation of whether the information is valid. As such it is highly discouraged for journalists to have confidential sources


title: Welfare

text: Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance programs which provide support only to those who have previously contributed (e.g. most pension systems), as opposed to "social assistance" programs which provide support on the basis of need alone (e.g. most disability benefits). The International Labour Organization defines social security as covering support for those in old age, support for the maintenance of children, medical treatment, parental and sick leave, unemployment and disability benefits, and support for sufferers of occupational injury.


title: Welfare

text: More broadly, welfare may also encompass efforts to provide a basic level of well-being through free or subsidized "social services" such as healthcare, education, infrastructure, vocational training, and public housing. In a welfare state, the state assumes responsibility for the health, education, infrastructure and welfare of society, providing a range of social services such as those described.


title: Welfare

text: Some historians view systems of codified almsgiving, like the "zakat" policy of the seventh century (634 CE) Rashidun caliph Umar, as early examples of universal government welfare. The first welfare state was Imperial Germany (1871–1918), where the Bismarck government introduced social security in 1889. In the early 20th century, the United Kingdom introduced social security around 1913, and adopted the welfare state with the National Insurance Act 1946, during the Attlee government (1945–51). In the countries of western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, social welfare is mainly provided by the government out of the national tax revenues, and to a lesser extent by non-government organizations (NGOs), and charities (social and religious). A right to social security and an adequate standard of living is asserted in Articles 22 and 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.


title: Welfare

text: In the Roman Empire, the first emperor Augustus provided the "Cura Annonae" or grain dole for citizens who could not afford to buy food every month. Social welfare was enlarged by the Emperor Trajan. Trajan's program brought acclaim from many, including Pliny the Younger. The Song dynasty government (960 CE) supported multiple programs which could be classified as social welfare, including the establishment of retirement homes, public clinics, and paupers' graveyards. According to economist Robert Henry Nelson, "The medieval Roman Catholic Church operated a far-reaching and comprehensive welfare system for the poor..." From the 14th century onward the governments of the Italian city-states began to partner with the church to provide welfare and education to the lower classes. In later Protestant European nations such as the Dutch Republic welfare was managed by local guilds until the abolition of the guild system in the early 19th century. In the free imperial cities of the Holy Roman Empire the city governments in cities like Nuremberg could take control of the collection and distribution of public welfare.


title: Welfare

text: The seventh century caliph Umar implemented a form of "zakat", one of the Five Pillars of Islam, as a codified universal social security tax. Traditionally estimated at 2.5% of an individual's assets, government "zakat" funds were distributed to various groups of Muslims, including impoverished people and those in severe debt. The collection of "zakat" increased during the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates, though the "zakat" system was frequently inefficient and corrupt; Islamic jurists often instructed Muslims to distribute money to the needy directly instead to maximize its impact.


title: Welfare

text: Likewise, in Jewish tradition, charity (represented by tzedakah) is a matter of religious obligation rather than benevolence. Contemporary charity is regarded as a continuation of the Biblical Maaser Ani, or poor-tithe, as well as Biblical practices, such as permitting the poor to glean the corners of a field and harvest during the Shmita (Sabbatical year).


title: Welfare

text: There is relatively little statistical data on transfer payments before the High Middle Ages. In the medieval period and until the Industrial Revolution, the function of welfare payments in Europe was achieved through private giving or charity, through numerous confraternities and activities of different religious orders. Early welfare programs in Europe included the English Poor Law of 1601, which gave parishes the responsibility for providing welfare payments to the poor. This system was substantially modified by the 19th-century Poor Law Amendment Act, which introduced the system of workhouses.


title: Welfare

text: It was predominantly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that an organized system of state welfare provision was introduced in many countries. Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of Germany, introduced one of the first welfare systems for the working classes. In Great Britain the Liberal government of Henry Campbell-Bannerman and David Lloyd George introduced the National Insurance system in 1911, a system later expanded by Clement Attlee.


title: Welfare

text: Modern welfare states include Germany, France, the Netherlands, as well as the Nordic countries, such as Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland which employ a system known as the Nordic model. Esping-Andersen classified the most developed welfare state systems into three categories; Social Democratic, Conservative, and Liberal.


title: Welfare

text: A report published by the ILO in 2014 estimated that only 27% of the world's population has access to comprehensive social security. The World Bank's 2019 World Development Report argues that the traditional payroll-based model of many kinds of social insurance are "increasingly challenged by working arrangements outside standard employment contracts".


title: Welfare

text: Welfare can take a variety of forms, such as monetary payments, subsidies and vouchers, or housing assistance. Welfare systems differ from country to country, but welfare is commonly provided to individuals who are unemployed, those with illness or disability, the elderly, those with dependent children, and veterans. Programs may have a variety of conditions for a person to receive welfare:


title: Welfare

text: In developing countries, formal social security arrangements are often absent for the vast majority of the working population, in part due to reliance on the informal economy. Additionally, the state's capacity to reach people may be limited because of its limited infrastructure and resources. In this context, "social protection" is often referred to instead of social security, encompassing a broader set of means, such as labour market intervention and local community-based programs, to alleviate poverty and provide security against things like unemployment.


title: Welfare

text: Prior to 1900 in Australia, charitable assistance from benevolent societies, sometimes with financial contributions from the authorities, was the primary means of relief for people not able to support themselves. The 1890s economic depression and the rise of the trade unions and the Labor parties during this period led to a movement for welfare reform.


title: Welfare

text: In 1900, the states of New South Wales and Victoria enacted legislation introducing non-contributory pensions for those aged 65 and over. Queensland legislated a similar system in 1907 before the Australian labor Commonwealth government led by Andrew Fisher introduced a national aged pension under the Invalid and Old-Aged Pensions Act 1908. A national invalid disability pension was started in 1910, and a national maternity allowance was introduced in 1912.


title: Welfare

text: During the Second World War, Australia under a labor government created a welfare state by enacting national schemes for: child endowment in 1941 (superseding the 1927 New South Wales scheme); a widows' pension in 1942 (superseding the New South Wales 1926 scheme); a wife's allowance in 1943; additional allowances for the children of pensioners in 1943; and unemployment, sickness, and special benefits in 1945 (superseding the Queensland 1923 scheme).


title: Welfare

text: Canada has a welfare state in the European tradition; however, it is not referred to as "welfare", but rather as "social programs". In Canada, "welfare" usually refers specifically to direct payments to poor individuals (as in the American usage) and not to healthcare and education spending (as in the European usage).


title: Welfare

text: The Canadian social safety net covers a broad spectrum of programs, and because Canada is a federation, many are run by the provinces. Canada has a wide range of government transfer payments to individuals, which totaled $145billion in 2006. Only social programs that direct funds to individuals are included in that cost; programs such as medicare and public education are additional costs.


title: Welfare

text: Generally speaking, before the Great Depression, most social services were provided by religious charities and other private groups. Changing government policy between the 1930s and 1960s saw the emergence of a welfare state, similar to many Western European countries. Most programs from that era are still in use, although many were scaled back during the 1990s as government priorities shifted towards reducing debt and deficits.


title: Welfare

text: Social welfare in Czech Republic is outlined in a series of social policies, as is the tradition in Europe. Their goal is primarily preventing, but also mitigating social situations individuals may find themselves in through their lives. The social welfare is provided through social (including pension) insurance, sick insurance (not to be confused with health insurance), public policy related to unemployment and low income benefits, which are financed through the government budget, and health insurance, which is financed through an array of insurance companies. Therefore, the social welfare program is usually separated into three categories: health insurance, social insurance and social benefits support.


title: Welfare

text: Social insurance is a type of statutory insurance that provides citizens for a future unforeseen social event, such as unemployment or disability that would prevent an individual from working, but also planned retirement. Social insurance is therefore compulsory for all self-employed individuals, employees and employers operating in the Czech Republic and gets deducted from a salary in a similar manner to taxes. This insurance serves to finance unemployment support, disability benefits and covers a part of an employer's salary in cases of long-term illness that obstructs them from participating in the workforce.


title: Welfare

text: The sickness insurance system is intended for gainfully employed individuals who, in cases of short-term social events, are provided with health insurance benefits. These are provided through financial benefits. Sickness insurance participants are employees and self-employed individuals. Employees are compulsorily covered by sickness insurance, unlike the self-employed, whose sickness insurance is voluntary (and there is no penalisation for opting out of the insurance). It is calculated through a series of reductions of an assessment base. Employees' sickness insurance provides 4 types of sickness benefits: benefits for caring for a family member, pregnancy and maternity allowance, maternity allowance. It is standard to go on paid maternity leave in the Czech Republic, which ordinarily lasts 28 weeks. This period is prolonged to 37 weeks in the case of twins. Furthermore, there are special circumstances, such as the birth of a disabled child, when this period is extended even more. The beginning of maternity leave is usually 6 weeks before expected due date, and after maternity leave, it is possible to request further parental leave, which is optional and can be performed by either parent, regardless of gender. Parental leave lasts up to four years, depending on individual preferences.


title: Welfare

text: Pension insurance is part of social insurance, in addition to sickness insurance and serves as a contribution to the state employment policy. It is a premium for old age retirement, disability retirement or benefits in the event of the death of the primary provider in a household. Participation in pension insurance is mandatory for economically active individuals. For those on various forms of benefits, or currently registered as a care provider, this insurance is provided by the state. The basic pension insurance provides, in time old-age pension (includes regular, proportional, early and other variants of old-age pension), disability benefits, widower's and orphan's pension. Pension insurance is applied for at the District Social Security Administration in the applicant's place of permanent residence. They can apply in person or by proxy, on the basis of a notarized power of attorney. The amount of the pension consists of two component - the basic acreage and the percentage acreage.


title: Welfare

text: Another form of pension is the disability pension. This is provided to individuals that are unable to participate in the workforce to the same degree as their able-bodied counterparts, due to their disability contributing to the decline of their ability to work (be it partially or entirely). There is a distinction between disability pension for individuals with first, second and third degree disability. The amount of the pension depends on the rate of decline of the person's ability to work, with the categories being divided between the first degree (a decrease of 35-49%), the second degree (a decrease of 50-69%), and the third degree (a decrease of 70% and above).


title: Welfare

text: Furthermore, there is a so-called widow's / widower's pension. Provided to widowed individuals from the Czech pension system, its aim is to compensate households for losing income that they would in this situation be lacking. The widowed individual is entitled to a pension from a deceased person who has received an old-age or disability pension or has fulfilled the statutory condition on the required insurance period at the date of death. The amount of the assessment is 10% of the average wage and the amount of the percentage assessment is 50% of the percentage of the old-age or disability pension to which the deceased was entitled at the time of their death.


title: Welfare

text: Danish welfare is handled by the state through a series of policies (and the like) that seeks to provide welfare services to citizens, hence the term welfare state. This refers not only to social benefits, but also tax-funded education, public child care, medical care, etc. A number of these services are not provided by the state directly, but administered by municipalities, regions or private providers through outsourcing. This sometimes gives a source of tension between the state and municipalities, as there is not always consistency between the promises of welfare provided by the state (i.e. parliament) and local perception of what it would cost to fulfill these promises.


title: Welfare

text: Estonia does have a welfare state that provides a range of social services and financial assistance to its citizens. The Estonian welfare state is a liberal welfare state, which means that it provides a minimal safety net for citizens in need and places a greater emphasis on individual responsibility and self-sufficiency. The Estonian welfare state provides a range of services, including universal healthcare, free education, and a comprehensive system of social security. It also provides financial assistance to citizens in need through programs such as unemployment benefits, housing assistance, and social assistance for low-income families. The Estonian welfare state is funded through a mix of taxation and public spending, and it relies on a strong social security system to provide support to citizens in need. However, compared to other welfare states, it has relatively low levels of social spending and may rely more on private sector solutions to address social welfare issues.


title: Welfare

text: The Finnish Nordic model welfare state is based on the principles of social equality and the belief that all citizens should have access to the same basic rights and opportunities. It provides a range of services, including universal healthcare, free education, and a comprehensive system of social security. It also provides financial assistance to citizens in need through programs such as unemployment benefits, housing assistance, and social assistance for low-income families. The Finnish welfare state relies on a strong social security system to provide support to citizens in need. It also places a strong emphasis on promoting social cohesion and reducing income inequality, and it has a relatively high level of social spending compared to other countries.


title: Welfare

text: The Central Government of India's social programmes and welfare expenditures are a substantial portion of the official budget, and state and local governments play roles in developing and implementing social security policies. Additional welfare measure systems are also uniquely operated by various state governments. The government uses the unique identity number (Aadhar) that every Indian possesses to distribute welfare measures in India. As of 2020, the government's expenditure on social programme and welfare (direct cash transfers, financial inclusion, benefits, health and other insurances, subsidies, free school meals, rural employment guarantee), was approximately fourteen lakh crore rupees ($192billion), which was 7.3% of gross domestic product (GDP).


title: Welfare

text: Solidarity is a strong value of the French Social Protection system. The first article of the French Code of Social Security describes the principle of solidarity. Solidarity is commonly comprehended in relations of similar work, shared responsibility and common risks. Existing solidarities in France caused the expansion of health and social security.


title: Welfare

text: The welfare state has a long tradition in Germany dating back to the industrial revolution. Due to the pressure of the workers' movement in the late 19th century, Reichskanzler Otto von Bismarck introduced the first rudimentary state social insurance scheme. Under Adolf Hitler, the National Socialist Program stated "We demand an expansion on a large scale of old age welfare." Today, the social protection of all its citizens is considered a central pillar of German national policy. 27.6 percent of Germany's GDP is channeled into an all-embracing system of health, pension, accident, longterm care and unemployment insurance, compared to 16.2 percent in the US. In addition, there are tax-financed services such as child benefits ("Kindergeld", beginning at €192 per month for the first and second child, €198 for the third and €223 for each child thereafter, until they attain 25 years or receive their first professional qualification), and basic provisions for those unable to work or anyone with an income below the poverty line.


title: Welfare

text: Since 2005, reception of full unemployment pay (60–67% of the previous net salary) has been restricted to 12 months in general and 18 months for those over 55. This is now followed by (usually much lower) "Arbeitslosengeld II (ALG II)" or "Sozialhilfe", which is independent of previous employment (Hartz IV concept).


title: Welfare

text: , under ALG II, single adults receive up to €449 per month plus the cost of 'adequate' housing. ALG II can also be paid partially to employed persons to supplement a low work income.


title: Welfare

text: The Italian welfare state's foundations were laid along the lines of the corporatist-conservative model, or of its Mediterranean variant. Later, in the 1960s and 1970s, increases in public spending and a major focus on universality brought it on the same path as social-democratic systems. In 1978, a universalistic welfare model was introduced in Italy, offering a number of universal and free services such as a National Health Fund.


title: Welfare

text: Social welfare, assistance for the ill or otherwise disabled and for the old, has long been provided in Japan by both the government and private companies. Beginning in the 1920s, the government enacted a series of welfare programs, based mainly on European models, to provide medical care and financial support. During the postwar period, a comprehensive system of social security was gradually established.


title: Welfare

text: The 1980s marked a change in the structure of Latin American social protection programs. Social protection embraces three major areas: social insurance, financed by workers and employers; social assistance to the population's poorest, financed by the state; and labor market regulations to protect worker rights. Although diverse, recent Latin American social policy has tended to concentrate on social assistance.


title: Welfare

text: The 1980s, had a significant effect on social protection policies. Prior to the 1980s, most Latin American countries focused on social insurance policies involving formal sector workers, assuming that the informal sector would disappear with economic development. The economic crisis of the 1980s and the liberalization of the labor market led to a growing informal sector and a rapid increase in poverty and inequality. Latin American countries did not have the institutions and funds to properly handle such a crisis, both due to the structure of the social security system, and to the previously implemented structural adjustment policies (SAPs) that had decreased the size of the state.


title: Welfare

text: New Welfare programs have integrated the multidimensional, social risk management, and capabilities approaches into poverty alleviation. They focus on income transfers and service provisions while aiming to alleviate both long- and short-term poverty through, among other things, education, health, security, and housing. Unlike previous programs that targeted the working class, new programs have successfully focused on locating and targeting the very poorest.


title: Welfare

text: The impacts of social assistance programs vary between countries, and many programs have yet to be fully evaluated. According to Barrientos and Santibanez, the programs have been more successful in increasing investment in human capital than in bringing households above the poverty line. Challenges still exist, including the extreme inequality levels and the mass scale of poverty; locating a financial basis for programs; and deciding on exit strategies or on the long-term establishment of programs.


title: Welfare

text: The economic crisis of the 1980s led to a shift in social policies, as understandings of poverty and social programs evolved (24). New, mostly short-term programs emerged. These include:


title: Welfare

text: New Zealand is often regarded as having one of the first comprehensive welfare systems in the world. During the 1890s a Liberal government adopted many social programmes to help the poor who had suffered from a long economic depression in the 1880s. One of the most far reaching was the passing of tax legislation that made it difficult for wealthy sheep farmers to hold onto their large land holdings. This and the invention of refrigeration led to a farming revolution where many sheep farms were broken up and sold to become smaller dairy farms. This enabled thousands of new farmers to buy land and develop a new and vigorous industry that has become the backbone of New Zealand's economy to this day. This liberal tradition flourished with increased enfranchisement for indigenous Maori in the 1880s and women. Pensions for the elderly, the poor and war casualties followed, with State-run schools, hospitals and subsidized medical and dental care. By 1960, New Zealand was able to afford one of the best-developed and most comprehensive welfare systems in the world, supported by a well-developed and stable economy.


title: Welfare

text: Norway has a strong welfare state that provides a range of social services and financial assistance to its citizens. The Norwegian welfare state is based on the principles of social democracy, which means that it has a strong focus on reducing income inequality and promoting social cohesion. The Norwegian welfare state provides a range of services, including universal healthcare, free education, and a comprehensive system of social security. It also provides financial assistance to citizens in need through programs such as unemployment benefits, housing assistance, and social assistance for low-income families.


title: Welfare

text: In Philippines, social welfare is divided into two. The first one is called Social Security System (SSS) and the other one is called Government Service Insurance System (GSIS). Social Security System or SSS is a social insurance program for workers in private sector. Individuals who are self-employed or not working can also apply to be protected under SSS programme. SSS provide benefits for unemployment, death, funeral, maternity leave, disabilities and many more. Members of SSS who experienced accident or death due to work activity, can also claim for double compensation under the Employees' Compensation (EC) programme. SSS also allows its members to apply for salary loans, based on their monthly salary and calamity loan, if their place is declared as "state of calamity" by the government. SSS also have two voluntary saving programs, PESO Fund and Flexi Fund to help prepare their members with a stable income for retirement. Government servants are protected under the Government Service Insurance System or GSIS. Just like SSS, GSIS also provide their members with retirement benefits, life insurance and employee compensation.


title: Welfare

text: The Polish welfare state provides a range of services, including universal healthcare, free education, and a comprehensive system of social security. It also provides financial assistance to citizens in need through programs such as unemployment benefits, housing assistance, and social assistance for low-income families. It has undergone significant changes in recent years, including the implementation of structural reforms and the introduction of market-oriented policies, which have had an impact on the level and quality of social services provided.


title: Welfare

text: Sri Lanka has a long history of social programmes dating back to its ancient times, deep-rooted in the island's Buddhist culture. Modern social welfare legislation dates back to the Donoughmore Constitution.


title: Welfare

text: Social welfare in Sweden is made up of several organizations and systems dealing with welfare. It is mostly funded by taxes, and executed by the public sector on all levels of government as well as private organizations. It can be separated into three parts falling under three different ministries; social welfare, falling under the responsibility of Ministry of Health and Social Affairs; education, under the responsibility of the Ministry of Education and Research and labor market, under the responsibility of Ministry of Employment.


title: Welfare

text: Government pension payments are financed through an 18.5% pension tax on all taxed incomes in the country, which comes partly from a tax category called a public pension fee (7% on gross income), and 30% of a tax category called employer fees on salaries (which is 33% on a netted income). Since January 2001, the 18.5% is divided in two parts: 16% goes to current payments, and 2.5% goes into individual retirement accounts, which were introduced in 2001. Money saved and invested in government funds, and IRAs for future pension costs, are roughly five times annual government pension expenses (725/150).


title: Welfare

text: Viewing Swedish welfare more broadly, it emerges as highly rated in many standard international comparisons of welfare or well-being (e.g. World Economic Forum 2020). However, some Nordic-based welfare and gender researchers have argued that such assessments, based on conventional welfare/well-being criteria, may to some extent over-privilege Sweden (and other Nordic countries) in terms of, for instance, gender and racial equality. For example, they suggest that if one takes a broader perspective on well-being incorporating issues associated with bodily integrity or bodily citizenship (Pringle 2011), then some major forms of men's domination and/or white privilege can be seen to still stubbornly persist in the Nordic countries, e.g. business, violence to women, sexual violence to children, the military, academia and religion (Hearn and Pringle 2006; Hearn et al. 2018; Pringle 2016).


title: Welfare

text: The United Kingdom has a long history of welfare, notably including the English Poor laws which date back to 1536. After various reforms to the program, which involved workhouses, it was eventually abolished and replaced with a modern system by laws such as the National Assistance Act 1948.


title: Welfare

text: In more recent times, comparing the Cameron–Clegg coalition's austerity measures with the Opposition's, the "Financial Times" commentator Martin Wolf commented that the "big shift from Labour... is the cuts in welfare benefits." The government's austerity programme, which involves reduction in government policy, has been linked to a rise in food banks. A study published in the "British Medical Journal" in 2015 found that each one percentage point increase in the rate of Jobseeker's Allowance claimants sanctioned was associated with a 0.09 percentage point rise in food bank use. The austerity programme has faced opposition from disability rights groups for disproportionately affecting disabled people. The "bedroom tax" is an austerity measure that has attracted particular criticism, with activists arguing that two-thirds of council houses affected by the policy are occupied with a person with a disability.


title: Welfare

text: In the United States, depending on the context, the term "welfare" can be used to refer to means-tested cash benefits, especially the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program and its successor, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grants, or it can be used to refer to all means-tested programs that help individuals or families meet basic needs, including, for example, health care through Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits and food and nutrition programs (SNAP). It can also include social insurance programs such as unemployment insurance, Social Security, and Medicare.


title: Welfare

text: AFDC (originally called Aid to Dependent Children) was created during the Great Depression to alleviate the burden of poverty for families with children and allow widowed mothers to maintain their households. The New Deal employment program such as the Works Progress Administration primarily served men. Prior to the New Deal, anti-poverty programs were primarily operated by private charities or state or local governments; however, these programs were overwhelmed by the depth of need during the Depression. The United States has no national program of cash assistance for non-disabled poor individuals who are not raising children.


title: Welfare

text: Until early in the year 1965, the news media conveyed the idea that only whites lived in poverty, but then Blacks were presented more often than Whites in this plight. Some of the influences on this shift may have been the civil rights movement and urban riots from the mid 60s. Welfare had by then shifted from being a White issue to being a Black issue and during this time frame the war on poverty had already begun. Subsequently, news media portrayed stereotypes of Blacks as lazy and undeserving and as welfare queens. These shifts in media presentation didn't necessarily reflect a decrease in the percentage of the population living in poverty.


title: Welfare

text: In 1996, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act changed the structure of Welfare payments and added new criteria to states that received Welfare funding. After reforms that President Clinton said would "end Welfare as we know it", amounts from the federal government were given out in a flat rate per state based on population. Each state must meet certain criteria to ensure recipients are being encouraged to work themselves out of Welfare. The new program is called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). It encourages states to require some sort of employment search in exchange for providing funds to individuals, and imposes a five-year lifetime limit on cash assistance. In FY 2010, 31.8% of TANF families were white, 31.9% were African-American, and 30.0% were Hispanic.


title: Welfare

text: According to the U.S. Census Bureau data released 13 September 2011, the nation's poverty rate rose to 15.1% (46.2 million) in 2010, up from 14.3% (approximately 43.6 million) in 2009 and to its highest level since 1993. In 2008, 13.2% (39.8 million) Americans lived in relative poverty.


title: Welfare

text: In a 2011 op-ed in "Forbes", Peter Ferrara stated that, "The best estimate of the cost of the 185 federal means tested Welfare programs for 2010 for the federal government alone is nearly $700billion, up a third since 2008, according to the Heritage Foundation. Counting state spending, total Welfare spending for 2010 reached nearly $900billion, up nearly one-fourth since 2008 (24.3%)." California, with 12% of the U.S. population, has one-third of the nation's welfare recipients.


title: Welfare

text: In FY 2011, federal spending on means-tested welfare, plus state contributions to federal programs, reached $927billion per year. Roughly half went to families with children, most of which are headed by a single parent.


title: Welfare

text: The United States has also typically relied on charitable giving through non-profit agencies and fundraising instead of direct monetary assistance from the government itself. According to Giving USA, Americans gave $358.38billion to charity in 2014. This is rewarded by the United States government through tax credits for individuals and companies that are not typically seen in other countries. Since these per capita charity sums are much higher than in all other countries, this means that private people and companies have a strong say in how social assistance is carried out. This means that public funds in the form of unpaid taxes are distributed according to less professional, less objective, and less unbiased criteria than in all other countries.


title: Welfare

text: The welfare-to-work intervention programme is unlikely to have any impacts on the mental and physical health of lone parents and children. Even when the employment and income rates were higher in this group of people, the poverty rate was high which could lead to persistently high rates of depression whether they were in the programme or not.


title: Welfare

text: Conditionalities are sometimes criticized as being paternalistic and unnecessary, and research in different contexts shows enforcing conditionalities can result in additional burdens for recipients and social service providers.


title: Welfare

text: A 2008 study by welfare economist and Brown University Professor Allan M. Feldman suggests that welfare can achieve both competitive equilibrium and Pareto efficiency in the market, although different points of Pareto efficiency are more fair to some than others.


title: Jürgen Prochnow

text: Jürgen Prochnow ( ; born 10 June 1941) is a German-American actor. His international breakthrough was his portrayal of the good-hearted and sympathetic U-boat Captain "Der Alte" ("Old Man") in the 1981 war film "Das Boot".