title: Allen West (politician)

text: West entered active duty on November 1, 1983, at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where he completed the Field Artillery Officer's Basic Course (FAOBC). He then proceeded to airborne training at Fort Benning, Georgia, where he received his Parachutist Badge. His first assignment was as an airborne infantry fire support officer and platoon leader, as well as battalion training officer for the 4th BCT(Battalion Combat Team), 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, SETAF (Southern European Task Force) under the command of LTC Thomas R. Needham at Caserma Ederle in Vicenza, Italy. In 1987, West was promoted to captain and attended the Field Artillery Officer's Advanced Course. Following graduation, West took command of B Battery, 6th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. He served as the battalion task force fire support officer for 2d Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment. As a member of the 1st Infantry Division he deployed for Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm.


title: Allen West (politician)

text: After returning from Kuwait, West served as an Army ROTC instructor at Kansas State University from 1991 to 1994, becoming the U.S. Army ROTC Instructor of the Year in 1993. In January 1995 he was assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division Support Command as the assistant operations/combat plans officer. West was promoted to major before he attended the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in 1997. Upon completion, he became the operations officer for the 18th Field Artillery Brigade before being assigned as executive officer of 1st Battalion, 377th Field Artillery Regiment. Afterward, West served as an Army exchange officer at the II Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune from 1999 to 2002 and was promoted to lieutenant colonel.


title: Allen West (politician)

text: The culminating assignment of West's career was his assumption of command of the 2d Battalion, 20th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Infantry Division on June 6, 2002. During the Iraq War in 2003, he deployed with his battalion until he was relieved of command by the Army following a use-of-force incident concerning an Iraqi policeman. At his Article 32 hearing, West admitted violating Army rules by holding the policeman captive, punching him in the face, conducting a mock execution and by dry-firing an unloaded pistol held against the Iraqi's head. West was subsequently allowed to retire in 2004.


title: Allen West (politician)

text: West's awards and decorations include the Bronze Star; Meritorious Service Medal (two Oak Leaf Clusters); Army Commendation Medal (three Oak Leaf Clusters, one Valor Device); Army Achievement Medal (one Oak Leaf Cluster); Valorous Unit Award; Air Assault Badge; and the Master Parachutist Badge.


title: Allen West (politician)

text: While serving in Taji, Iraq, West received information from an intelligence specialist about a plot to ambush his unit. The alleged plot involved Yahya Jhodri Hamoodi, an Iraqi police officer. West had his men detain Hamoodi. Soldiers testified that in the process of detaining Hamoodi, he appeared to reach for his weapon and needed to be subdued. Hamoodi was beaten by four soldiers from the 2/20th Field Artillery Battalion on the head and body. West then fired his pistol near Hamoodi's head, after which Hamoodi provided West with names and information, which Hamoodi later described as "meaningless information induced by fear and pain". At least one of these suspects was arrested as a result, but no plans for attacks or weapons were found. West said "At the time I had to base my decision on the intelligence I received. It's possible that I was wrong about Mr. Hamoodi."


title: Allen West (politician)

text: West was charged with violating Articles 128 (assault) and 134 (general article) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. During a hearing held as part of an Article 32 investigation in November 2003, West stated, "I know the method I used was not right, but I wanted to take care of my soldiers." The charges were ultimately referred to an Article 15 proceeding rather than court-martial, at which West was fined $5,000. West accepted the judgment and retired with full benefits as a lieutenant colonel in the summer of 2004. Asked if he would act differently under similar circumstances, West testified, "If it's about the lives of my soldiers at stake, I'd go through hell with a gasoline can." At his hearing, West said that there were no ambushes against American forces in Taji until he was relieved of his leadership post a month later. After West's retirement he received more than 2,000 letters and e-mails offering him moral support. A letter supporting West was signed by 95 members of the U.S. Congress and sent to the Secretary of the Army.


title: Allen West (politician)

text: On August 29, 2019, West was sworn into the Texas State Guard. The ceremony took place at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas as part of the festivities of a Texas Rangers–Seattle Mariners baseball game. As per the policies of the Texas Military Department, West retained the same rank he held while in federal military service, lieutenant colonel.


title: Allen West (politician)

text: After retiring from the Army, West and his family moved to Florida. He taught U.S. history and coached track and field at Deerfield Beach High School for a year. He then spent two years working for Military Professional Resources Inc. (MPRI), a private military company. While with MPRI, West was positioned in Kandahar, Afghanistan. In that capacity, he was an adviser to the Afghan National Army.


title: Allen West (politician)

text: In 2006, 25-year incumbent Republican E. Clay Shaw, Jr. was defeated by Democrat Ron Klein in Florida's 22nd Congressional District. The district was located in Broward and Palm Beach counties, and included parts of Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton and Palm Beach. Allen West entered politics in 2008 to regain the lost House seat, challenging freshman incumbent Klein. West received the Republican nomination without opposition. However, he lost to Klein by a margin of 9.4% of the votes. The official results were Klein with 169,041 votes (54.7%), and West with 140,104 votes (45.3%).


title: Allen West (politician)

text: West ran in a rematch with Klein. He spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 20, 2010, and was endorsed by former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. West was one of 32 African-American Republican candidates for Congress in 2010. He said he supported the Tea Party movement and rejected the notion that the movement was motivated by racism, saying the accusation was a creation of liberal critics and the news media. He was described as a "tea party star" became a member of the congressional Tea Party Caucus in February 2011.


title: Allen West (politician)

text: In September 2010, the Florida Democratic Party produced a flyer that contained West's unredacted Social Security number. While the party called it an "oversight" and offered to pay for identity theft protection, West harshly condemned the flyer for exposing his family to identity theft.


title: Allen West (politician)

text: West defeated Klein by a margin of 8.8%. Along with newly elected South Carolina Representative Tim Scott, he was one of the first African-American Republicans in Congress since J.C. Watts retired in 2003. West raised $5.4 million for his campaign, while his incumbent opponent raised $2.5 million. According to West, "...over 97 percent of our donations have come from individual contributions."


title: Allen West (politician)

text: West raised more than $1.5 million in the 2011 second quarter to support his 2012 reelection bid. The "National Journal"s Cook Political Report in 2011 named West one of the top 10 Republicans most vulnerable to redistricting in 2012.


title: Allen West (politician)

text: Redistricting made the 22nd, which already had a modest Democratic lean, even more Democratic. West faced the prospect of running against West Palm Beach mayor Lois Frankel in the general election. On February 1, 2012, West announced that he would run for reelection in the neighboring 18th District. That district had previously been the 16th, represented by fellow Republican Tom Rooney. However, Rooney opted to seek reelection in the newly created 17th District, a move that was considered likely to dramatically improve West's chances of reelection, although it was still a competitive race.


title: Allen West (politician)

text: In the new district, West received a primary challenge from Martin County Sheriff Robert Crowder. West did not debate Crowder and said "debating an uninformed opponent would waste voters' time". Incumbent West defeated Crowder in a landslide, receiving 74.4% of the vote.


title: Allen West (politician)

text: His general election opponent was Democrat Patrick Murphy, a political newcomer and a Republican until 2011. The campaign featured several negative ads, including one released by American Sunrise PAC that was extremely critical of West's policies and depicted him in violent cartoon action against several individuals. West issued a statement condemning the ad, stating that it "plays on stereotypes" with the goal of diverting Americans from more pressing matters at hand such as high unemployment. He claimed the ad was released by the family of his opponent. The campaign manager of his opponent, said the ad was from a third party and therefore held no liability for it. After primary opponent Crowder endorsed Murphy, a spokesman of the West campaign said "Crowder is a Democrat and a sore loser. I'm shocked he waited this long. Perhaps Crowder hopes to continue cozying up to local Democrats so he can be their nominee against Allen West in 2014."


title: Allen West (politician)

text: Initial vote counts showed Murphy defeating West by a narrow margin of 2,000 votes. West did not concede, citing irregularities in St. Lucie County where some early ballots may have been counted twice. Florida state election officials unofficially certified Murphy as the winner. A partial recount of early ballots cast between November 1 and 3, 2012, in St. Lucie County slightly decreased the margin separating the candidates, and the West campaign sought further recounts. West said that if the final results show a loss, he would not cling to his title as a member of Congress, but wanted to ensure a fair election was carried out, raising the potential of a protracted legal battle. As of the November 18 state deadline, the St. Lucie County election officials had not completed a recount of all of the early ballots, and so the previously submitted vote count which showed Murphy as the winner by 2,146 votes was submitted to the state election officials. The West campaign conceded the election on November 20, 2012. Meanwhile, Frankel went on to victory in the 22nd.


title: Allen West (politician)

text: West's rhetoric won him both support and condemnation from differing groups along the American political spectrum. Members of the conservative movement viewed him as a "torch bearer" and "conservative icon", with Sarah Palin and Ted Nugent both suggesting him for vice president, and Glenn Beck supporting him for president. In January 2013, U.S. Representatives Paul Broun (R-Georgia) and Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) both voted for West as Speaker of the House, even though he was no longer a member of Congress. Some of his statements include calling President Barack Obama "an abject failure", ordering both pro-Palestinian demonstrators and the views of "chicken men" Democrats to "get the hell out" of the United States, opining that drivers with Obama bumper stickers are "a threat to the gene pool", and pronouncing that African American Democrats are trying to keep African Americans "on the plantation", while casting himself as the "modern-day Harriet Tubman" ferrying them to rescue. In a critical summation of West's style, the liberal magazine "Mother Jones" opined that "[for West] every sentence is a proxy war in the larger struggle between patriots and the 'people in this world that just have to have their butts kicked'".


title: Allen West (politician)

text: In January 2011, West joined House Foreign Affairs Committee chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) in condemning the official flying of a Palestine Liberation Organization flag in Washington D.C. West said that the raising of the flag is "an attempt to legitimize an organization with a known history of terrorist actions". In February, West described Michael Ledeen as one of his "foreign policy heroes", and implored his followers to read Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals" to "understand what they're up against". Other authors West has cited in helping him shape his worldview include philosopher John Stuart Mill and Union Army General William Tecumseh Sherman.


title: Allen West (politician)

text: On June 2, 2011, Allen West wrote a letter to President Obama urging him to grant clemency to Jonathan Pollard. Mr. West wrote, "After serving 26 years behind bars, Jonathan Pollard's health is deteriorating, as is his wife's. If we can consent to the release by the British of the Lockerbie bomber back to Libya due to health concerns, how can we justify keeping Mr. Pollard behind bars when his crimes were clearly not as serious as a terrorist who murdered hundreds of Americans?" Pollard was released on November 20, 2015, in accordance with federal guidelines in place at the time of his sentencing. Anne Pollard, his ex-wife, said "No one helped him. No government reduced his sentence by even one day."


title: Allen West (politician)

text: West attempted to cast his work overseas in historical terms, theorizing that America is following in the footsteps of Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours, or the 300 Spartan Hoplites at the Battle of Thermopylae, in defending Western civilization against Muslim threats from the Middle East. In speaking on what he believed to be Islam's proclivity for violence, West remarked that "Something happened when Mohammed enacted the Hijra and he left Mecca and he went out to Medina, it became violence." Because of this view, in February 2011, West cited the threat of "radical Islamic terrorists" as his motivation for voting to extend provisions of the Patriot Act; He voted against another extension in May 2011. When asked during an interview with "The Shalom Show" how he would work with others "like Keith Ellison, who supports Islam", West stated that Ellison, a Minnesota representative and practicing Muslim, represents the "antithesis of the principles upon which this country was established". West later argued that his initial comment was misconstrued. He said the comments were "not about his Islamic faith, but about his continued support of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)". In a Boynton Beach Town Hall meeting, West told the Miami leader of CAIR that "I will always defend your right to practice a free religion under the First Amendment, but what you must understand, if I am speaking the truth, I am not going to stop speaking the truth. The truth is not subjective." West has been on the Advisory Board of the International Free Press Society, a key component of the international counter-jihad network.


title: Allen West (politician)

text: On July 19, 2011, West sent an email to Democratic representative and Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz in response to comments directed at him in a speech the congresswoman made on the floor of the House of Representatives after West had departed the chamber. West's email, which he copied to members of House Democratic and Republican leadership, characterized Wasserman as "the most vile, unprofessional, and despicable member of the US House of Representatives", said that she was "not a lady" and asked that she focus, instead, on her own congressional district. This is a long-standing dispute that West says "dates back to the disgusting protest you ordered at my campaign headquarters, October 2010 in Deerfield Beach".


title: Allen West (politician)

text: At a town hall meeting in Palm City, Florida on April 11, 2012, West was asked by a man in the audience, "What percentage of the American legislature do you think are card carrying Marxists or International Socialists?" West responded that "there's about 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party that are members of the Communist Party." When asked to name them, he replied "It's called the Congressional Progressive Caucus."


title: Allen West (politician)

text: When West joined the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) on January 5, 2011, he became the first Republican to join the CBC since former Congressman Gary Franks of Connecticut retired in 1997.


title: Allen West (politician)

text: In January 2013, West was hired as a full-time director of programming for Next Generation.TV, part of PJ Media; in mid-September 2013 his role changed to a twice-a-month contributor. On May 16, 2013, Fox News announced it had hired West as a contributor to offer political commentary during the network's daytime and prime time shows.


title: Allen West (politician)

text: Following the Charleston church shooting in June 2015, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley called for the Confederate Battle flag to be removed from a memorial outside the state capital. West referred to the debate over the flag as a "manufactured crisis" invented by liberals to distract from black-on-black violence.


title: Allen West (politician)

text: In September 2015, West was nominated to the Sunset Advisory Commission, which oversees the need for Texas state agencies, as the Texas Senate's appointed public member.


title: Allen West (politician)

text: West is a Life and Endowment Member of the National Rifle Association (NRA). In May 2016, he announced that he had been elected as a member of the NRA Board of Directors for a three-year term.


title: Allen West (politician)

text: On December 9, 2016, West's official Facebook page posted that Trump had selected James Mattis as Secretary of Defense to exterminate Muslims. Michele Hickford, the editor-in-chief of West's website, removed the post, apologized to readers, claimed she did not post it, took responsibility as editor-in-chief, and stated West had no part in the post.


title: Allen West (politician)

text: West was an Executive Director of the National Center for Policy Analysis, a free-market public policy research organization, from July 2016 until it ceased operations in mid-2017.


title: Allen West (politician)

text: In July 2019, West announced that he would run for Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, challenging the incumbent chair, James Dickey. Among the issues he ran on, West stated he wanted to "strengthen our families," "stand up for life," and secure the U.S.–Mexico border. He also stated that House Speaker Dennis Bonnen should resign. West was endorsed by former state party chairs Tom Mechler and Cathie Adams and former vice-chair David Barton. He was elected chair in the early morning hours of July 20, 2020. The chairman position was voted on at the Texas state Republican convention, where West won 22 of the Texas’s 31 Senate district caucuses, with Dickey winning only 9 of the caucuses.


title: Allen West (politician)

text: Shortly after West's election the party adopted the slogan "We are the storm", a phrase also used by believers in the QAnon conspiracy theory, which West characterized as a quotation from a poem which he declined to identify. On December 11, 2020, after the Supreme Court of the United States rejected Texas' attempt to invalidate election results from four states, West said "Perhaps law-abiding states should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the Constitution." Some observers interpreted this as an encouragement of secession from the United States.


title: Allen West (politician)

text: On July 4, 2021, West announced he would challenge incumbent Greg Abbott for the Republican nomination for Governor of Texas in 2022. West was defeated in the Republican primary on March 1, 2022.


title: Allen West (politician)

text: West married Angela M. Graham on December 24, 1989. She holds a Ph.D. in education from Kansas State University, and received a gubernatorial appointment to the board of trustees of Florida Atlantic University. They have two daughters. West and his family moved to Garland, Texas after he became CEO of the Dallas-based National Center for Policy Analysis in January 2015. He is a Christian.


title: Allen West (politician)

text: West is a certified master scuba diver, motorcycle enthusiast, and honorary member of the Blue Knights International Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club. He was a co-host for Troopathon 2013.


title: Allen West (politician)

text: On May 23, 2020, while participating in a protest against lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, West was involved in a motorcycle crash just outside Waco, Texas. He was airlifted to the hospital, and his social media team announced he was in "stable condition."


title: Allen West (politician)

text: On August 20, 2021, West’s wife Angela West was arrested for DWI with her grandchild in the vehicle. George R. Milner released a statement that the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office will not file charges against Angela after "thoroughly" reviewing all evidence. He added that the toxicology report proved there was no alcohol in her blood, as well as no drugs in her system. The district attorney’s office confirmed the charge has been dropped, releasing the following statement: "This office rejected the case after reviewing the toxicology results which showed conclusively that there were no drugs or alcohol in Ms. West’s system at the time of the drawing of her blood."


title: Allen West (politician)

text: In October 2021, West was diagnosed with COVID-19 with an x-ray showing pneumonia, and self-treated with Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, which do not have a proven track record of success in treating Covid-19. West, who was not vaccinated against COVID-19, was hospitalized and received monoclonal antibody injections. He was subsequently released from hospital and continued to criticize COVID-19 vaccination programs.


title: System administrator

text: A system administrator, or sysadmin, or admin is a person who is responsible for the upkeep, configuration, and reliable operation of computer systems, especially multi-user computers, such as servers. The system administrator seeks to ensure that the uptime, performance, resources, and security of the computers they manage meet the needs of the users, without exceeding a set budget when doing so.


title: System administrator

text: To meet these needs, a system administrator may acquire, install, or upgrade computer components and software; provide routine automation; maintain security policies; troubleshoot; train or supervise staff; or offer technical support for projects.


title: System administrator

text: Many organizations staff offer jobs related to system administration. In a larger company, these may all be separate positions within a computer support or Information Services (IS) department. In a smaller group they may be shared by a few sysadmins, or even a single person.


title: System administrator

text: Most employers require a bachelor's degree in a related field, such as computer science, information technology, electronics engineering, or computer engineering. Some schools also offer undergraduate degrees and graduate programs in system administration.


title: System administrator

text: In addition, because of the practical nature of system administration and the easy availability of open-source server software, many system administrators enter the field self-taught.


title: System administrator

text: Generally, a prospective employee will be required to have experience with the computer systems they are expected to manage. In most cases, candidates are expected to possess industry certifications such as the Microsoft MCSA, MCSE, MCITP, Red Hat RHCE, Novell CNA, CNE, Cisco CCNA or CompTIA's A+ or Network+, Sun Certified SCNA, Linux Professional Institute, Linux Foundation Certified Engineer or Linux Foundation Certified System Administrator, among others.


title: System administrator

text: Sometimes, almost exclusively in smaller sites, the role of system administrator may be given to a skilled user in addition to or in replacement of his or her duties.


title: System administrator

text: The "subject matter" of system administration includes computer systems and the ways people use them in an organization. This entails a knowledge of operating systems and applications, as well as hardware and software troubleshooting, but also knowledge of the purposes for which people in the organization use the computers.


title: System administrator

text: Perhaps the most important skill for a system administrator is problem solving—frequently under various sorts of constraints and stress. The sysadmin is on call when a computer system goes down or malfunctions, and must be able to quickly and correctly diagnose what is wrong and how best to fix it. They may also need to have teamwork and communication skills; as well as being able to install and configure hardware and software.


title: System administrator

text: Sysadmins must understand the behavior of software in order to deploy it and to troubleshoot problems, and generally know several programming languages used for scripting or automation of routine tasks. A typical sysadmin's role is not to design or write new application software but when they are responsible for automating system or application configuration with various configuration management tools, the lines somewhat blur. Depending on the sysadmin's role and skillset they may be expected to understand equivalent key/core concepts a software engineer understands. That said, system administrators are not software engineers or developers, in the job title sense.


title: System administrator

text: Particularly when dealing with Internet-facing or business-critical systems, a sysadmin must have a strong grasp of computer security. This includes not merely deploying software patches, but also preventing break-ins and other security problems with preventive measures. In some organizations, computer security administration is a separate role responsible for overall security and the upkeep of firewalls and intrusion detection systems, but all sysadmins are generally responsible for the security of computer systems.


title: System administrator

text: In larger organizations, some of the tasks above may be divided among different system administrators or members of different organizational groups. For example, a dedicated individual(s) may apply all system upgrades, a Quality Assurance (QA) team may perform testing and validation, and one or more technical writers may be responsible for all technical documentation written for a company. System administrators, in larger organizations, tend not to be systems architects, systems engineers, or systems designers.


title: System administrator

text: In smaller organizations, the system administrator might also act as technical support, database administrator, network administrator, storage (SAN) administrator or application analyst.


title: Lap dance

text: A lap dance (or contact dance) is a type of erotic dance performance offered in some strip clubs in which the dancer typically has body contact with a seated patron. Lap dancing is different from table dancing, in which the dancer is close to a seated patron, but without body contact. With lap dancing, the dancer may be nude, topless or scantily dressed, depending on the laws of the jurisdiction and the club's policies. With full-contact lap dances, the stripper may engage in non-penetrative sexual contact with the patron, such as "grinding" or "twerking" their body against the patron. Variant terms include couch dance, which is a lap dance where the customer is seated on a couch. In some places, a "block session" of lap dances (usually half an hour to an hour) can be booked in a "champagne room" or "VIP room", which is a private room usually located in the back of a club. In many clubs, the duration of a lap dance is measured by the length of the song being played by the club's DJ. Charges for lap dances vary significantly.


title: Lap dance

text: Depending on the local jurisdiction and community standards, lap dances can involve touching of the dancer by the patron, touching the patron by the dancer, neither, or both. In some clubs, any touching by the patron is forbidden. On the other hand, absent any oversight by the club, various levels of contact may be negotiable between the participants. Clubs vary widely with regard to whether they enforce their rules or turn a blind eye to any violations.


title: Lap dance

text: There is some debate as to whether lap dancing is entertainment or a type of sex work. Critics of lap dancing allege that some club owners, by installing dark private booths and charging dancers steep stage fees, are covertly condoning and encouraging the sale of sexual acts between customers and dancers. This can be a concern if, as for instance in the United Kingdom, the club has a public entertainment licence rather than a sex establishment licence, and in jurisdictions where brothels are illegal. According to the UK paper "The Guardian", "Research shows that the majority of women become lap-dancers through poverty and lack of choice."


title: Lap dance

text: Lap dancing clubs are a later development of earlier strip clubs, where strippers danced on stage and were paid a wage. In the 1970s, New York's Melody Theater introduced audience participation and called it "Mardi Gras". The Melody Theater became the Harmony Theater and operated in two locations in Manhattan for over 20 years until it was closed down in 1998.


title: Lap dance

text: Also during the 1970s, adult film makers Jim and Artie Mitchell had been running an adult movie house, called the O'Farrell Theatre, in San Francisco to feature their films. But in the second half of the '70s, with the invention of the videocassette recorder and a proliferation of video cassette rental stores, the demand for adult movie theaters began to plummet. Realizing that they needed a new business model for their building, the Mitchell brothers sent manager Vince Stanich around the country to explore customer-contact shows in sex clubs. After Stanich reported back, the Mitchell brothers responded in 1977 by opening three new rooms at their O'Farrell Theatre featuring customer-contact shows: The Ultra Room, The Kopenhagen, and New York Live. The Kopenhagen's shows were performed by a pair of naked women in a small room with about twenty men. However the club's most profitable new venue was New York Live, which was a cabaret-style strip club act with women dancing three song sets upon a stage, while usually being totally nude for the final song.


title: Lap dance

text: Most of the strippers who were not dancing were sitting naked on customers' laps for tips. The amount of tipping rapidly increased and was then marketed as a "lap dance", and its popularity caused lines of men to regularly appear outside the theater's doors. The Mitchells hired new dancers as fast as they could to keep up with demand, and had created another sex-show innovation which gained them international notoriety and generated more money than their film business.


title: Lap dance

text: Later in 2004, a San Francisco District Attorney's decision to drop prostitution charges against lap dancers in the city changed the sexual culture of San Francisco and "has the potential to influence the policies of other cities".


title: Lap dance

text: In some areas of the U.S. and Canada, local authorities began cracking down on lap dancing after reports that some clubs allowed customers to engage in sexual intercourse or other sexual activity with dancers during lap dance sessions. Various strip clubs have wide-ranging rules on how customers should interact with strippers.


title: Lap dance

text: In 1973, an upmarket Vancouver bar called "Gary Taylor's Show Lounge" employed showgirls and strippers as waitresses who gave a free dance with every drink. The club was raided by the police under the guise of obscenity legislation, but, in 1974, Judge Jack McGivern ruled that dancer nudity was not obscene, which started a trend of nude dancing in bars. No contact between dancers and patrons was allowed at the club, but Gary Taylor's had a boxing ring where the girls performed revealing acrobatics after stripping off and then earned tips. Americans from Washington state made the trip to the club from the United States, which at the time had stricter laws.


title: Lap dance

text: In a landmark ruling regarding the 1994 case of Pat Mara and Allan East (the owner and manager of Cheaters Tavern), Judge E. Gordon Hachborn legally defined lap dancing and ruled that it did not contravene Canadian public decency statutes. A number of conflicting judgements were issued in the years that followed, including decisions to close certain bars in which sex acts took place on the floor of the club and other rulings in which patrons were allowed to touch the dancers, as long as an actual sex act did not take place.


title: Lap dance

text: In 1999, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that a typical lap dance did not constitute an "obscene" act within the meaning of the Criminal Code. The Crown did not argue that lap dances constituted "prostitution", and therefore the court did not address the possible issue that the typical lap dance may contravene one or more anti-prostitution laws. This led to the displacement of strip clubs and table dancing clubs in Canada by lap dancing clubs.


title: Lap dance

text: In 2005, two Supreme Court of Canada rulings (R. v. Labaye and R. v. Kouri) decriminalized private sex clubs in Canada.


title: Lap dance

text: On 20 December 2013, (in Bedford v. Canada) the Supreme Court of Canada found the laws prohibiting brothels, public communication for the purpose of prostitution, and living on the profits of prostitution to be unconstitutional. The ruling gave the Canadian parliament twelve months to rewrite Canada's prostitution laws; in the meantime, existing anti-prostitution laws continued to be enforced. Current laws on prostitution in Canada, introduced in 2014, make it illegal to purchase sexual services (including lap dancing) but legal to sell them.


title: Lap dance

text: In the early 2000s, lap dancing expanded rapidly in the Republic of Ireland, building on an existing strip pub industry. A number of lap-dancing clubs were opened in Dublin, including one by the English nightclub owner Peter Stringfellow. Lap-dancing clubs were also opened across the country. Many of Ireland's lap-dancing clubs have subsequently closed as a result of the worsened economic climate and changes to Ireland's licensing laws in 2008. Reputational issues have also played a part in the decline of Ireland's lap-dancing clubs.


title: Lap dance

text: Police raids took place on Irish lap-dancing clubs in 2003 in search of criminal activity as part of Operation Quest. Efforts to distance Irish lap dancing from the sex industry were hampered by the UK's decision in 2010 to classify its lap dancing clubs as sex establishments. Ireland's lap-dancing clubs became viewed as more expensive than their rivals overseas and more restricted in terms of the entertainment on offer. By 2012 there were five or six clubs operating in Dublin, one in Galway and one in Cork. Most lap-dancing clubs in Ireland operate a no-touching rule, and typically do not charge dancers a "house fee" to perform, instead taking a proportion of the dancer's earnings.


title: Lap dance

text: Some jurisdictions in the United States outlaw lap dances and enforce a minimum distance between dancer and patron. In Seattle, one such minimum distance ordinance was overturned by public referendum in November 2006.


title: Lap dance

text: Also in 2006, concerned about reports of sexual assault and illegal stage fees, San Francisco's Commission on the Status of Women recommended a ban on private rooms and booths at adult clubs in the city. However, a majority of dancers at the Commission's meetings and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors' meetings protested against these efforts, fearing for their income and claiming that these rooms were safer than other venues. As a result, the Commission's proposed ban was not adopted by the city.


title: Lap dance

text: In February 2010, the Detroit City Council voted to ban lap dances in VIP rooms. However, across from Detroit in Windsor, Ontario in Canada, lap dancing remained legal, even where alcohol was served, and sex clubs were also legal in Windsor.


title: Lap dance

text: In 2012, the New York Court of Appeals ruled that lap dances were not an art form and are subject to sales tax.


title: Lap dance

text: The first lap dancing club in the UK was opened in 1995. During the 2000s the lap dancing industry grew quickly, with the Licensing Act 2003 as the only legislation in England and Wales regulating lap dancing clubs. The Lap Dancing Association (LDA), a trade association for the UK lap dancing industry, was formed in 2006 and officially launched in 2008. It operated a code of practice for its members. According to a BBC report, as of November 2008, the association represented roughly one-third of the industry's clubs. Members included "For Your Eyes Only", "Spearmint Rhino", "Bandit Queen" and "Candy Bar". In 2008, clubs were being opened at a rate of about one per week.


title: Lap dance

text: In April 2008 the LDA proposed that its code of conduct should become legally enforceable by local authorities as part of their licensing function. The association submitted a memorandum to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee in November 2008 when the latter was reviewing the Licensing Act 2003. The association said that there was no sexual activity offered for sale in their clubs, and that to classify them as part of the sex industry would stigmatise performers. Simon Warr, who ran the clubs Platinum Lace and For Your Eyes Only and who was the president of the LDA In 2009, gave oral evidence to the committee, describing lap dancing as "not sexually stimulating". Three MPs undertook a fact-finding visit to a London lap dancing club at the invitation of the LDA. The association opposed the provisions of the subsequent Policing and Crime Act 2009 which reclassified lap-dancing clubs in England and Wales as "sexual entertainment venues" instead of "entertainment venues", introduced a licensing system for clubs and allowed local authorities to decide the number and location of lap-dancing clubs in their area. Chris Knight, vice-chairman of the LDA, said that the cost of the additional licence required to run a lap dancing club from 2010 could affect many businesses and questioned the right of local authorities to make licensing decisions on "emotive and moralistic grounds".


title: Lap dance

text: In 2009, the total number of clubs had reached its peak of 310 (approximately twice the number in 2003), and the number of lap-dancers was estimated at 10,000. Lap-dancing clubs had opened in big cities, small towns, and out-of-town business parks. The figures plateaued during the subsequent weaker economic climate and had hardly changed by 2012. At that point, the amount of money a lap-dancer earned in an average shift was £230 (down from around £280 in 2011), and the industry was valued at around £300 million. However, some clubs, particularly in London, charged a house fee for the dancers to perform and had an increased number of dancers, which reduced an individual dancer's earnings.


title: Lap dance

text: Between 2010 and 2015, there were approximately forty-five refusals of licences for sexual entertainment venues in England and Wales, mainly on the grounds that the locality was unsuitable. The legislation provides for no right of appeal against such refusals, except on the grounds that committees have not followed correct procedure. The number of refusals, together with the costs of licence application, means that there have been few new businesses opened since 2010, with the overall number of clubs declining over time as a number of local authorities implemented a "nil limit" for new clubs.


title: Lap dance

text: In February 2014, Fiona Mactaggart (MP for Slough) asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Iain Duncan Smith, if he would "make it his policy not to offer job subsidies for employing teenagers as auxiliary workers in adult entertainment establishments". Her question related to employers in the adult entertainment industry being offered an incentive of over £2,000 from the Department for Work and Pensions for every unemployed young person (aged 18–24) that they hired. Esther McVey, the Minister of State for Employment, stated that: "The Welfare Reform Act 2012 ensured that vacancies which involve performing sexual activities were banned from being advertised on Government websites and a distinction was made in law to differentiate between performers and ancillary workers."


title: Lap dance

text: In 2005 Tom McCabe MSP set up the Adult Entertainment Working Group, an advisory body within the Scottish Government, to investigate the legislative issues involved in a proposed lap dancing ban in Scotland. At that time, lap dancing clubs in Scotland were licensed under Section 41 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982, which covers general entertainment licenses, and licences in Scotland could not be refused on the basis of the nature of the entertainment in itself. The working group, headed by Linda Costelloe Baker, consisted of academics, lawyers and politicians, and had a working period from April 2005 until April 2006. It commissioned the market research organisation Ipsos MORI to examine the public's attitudes towards adult entertainment, completed site visits and took evidence from a variety of witnesses. Respondents to the group's consultation included the Church of Scotland. The group reported to Scottish ministers on 25 April 2006.


title: Lap dance

text: The group concluded that lap dancing venues are a form of "commercial sexual exploitation...which encompasses pornography, internet sex chat rooms, sex phone lines, escort services, prostitution, trafficking for prostitution, peep shows, lap dancing, pole dancing, table dancing and stripping". It recommended reviewing the licensing of lap dancing venues and proposed national guidelines to prevent performers from touching or being touched by customers, ensuring that activities are visible at all times, and introducing a minimum age of 18 for everyone involved. A prominent voice of opposition to a lap dancing ban was exotic dancer Veronica Deneuve who set out to try to involve the stripping community in the discussion to inform such legislation. The International Union of Sex Workers said that the "recommendations are flawed and would be extremely detrimental to workers and operators in the industry".


title: Lap dance

text: The Scottish Government accepted a number of the recommendations, but it rejected the idea that licensing boards should be able to determine whether full nudity is appropriate in given locales. It also rejected the idea of a compulsory one-metre no-touching zone between dancer and customer, suggesting that this would be unenforceable. It did, however, propose to enable licensing boards to consider nude dance venues as a separate class of venue. No legislation directly followed the group's report. However, the report informed the statement of licensing policy of many licensing boards across Scotland on the introduction of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005.


title: Lap dance

text: In 2013 the Scottish Government and carried out a consultation on the regulation of "sexual entertainment venues". This, in combination with the AEWG's 2006 report, paved the way for the Scottish Parliament to introduce licensing reform for lap dancing as part of the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015. This came into effect in 2016 and requires local authorities in Scotland to set out individual policies with regard to the licensing of lap dancing clubs.


title: Lap dance

text: Northern Ireland's first lap dancing club was opened by Donegal businessman Jerome Brennan, who already owned lap dancing clubs in Dundalk and Limerick in the Republic of Ireland, mainly using dancers from Russia and the Baltic states. In 2002 Brennan opened the Movie Star Cafe, a lap dancing club in Belfast, with dancers from Belfast and England. The Belfast club was officially opened as a restaurant to circumvent Northern Ireland's licensing laws. The opening of the club was opposed by Rev. David McIlveen, a minister in the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, and the club was often picketed by protesters from the church and women's groups. In 2003 councillors from Belfast City Council expressed their intention to refuse the renewal of the club's licence, and the club closed in November 2003 with debts of over £300,000. Brennan's nightclub in Dundalk remained open.


title: Lap dance

text: A few years later Northern Ireland businessman Lawrence John organised lap dancing at a Hooters bar, followed by a clandestine lap dancing club in Belfast in 2007. It was the subject of a report on the BBC Northern Ireland TV programme Spotlight in 2008 alleging that simulated lesbian sex shows took place on the premises.


title: Lap dance

text: The economic position of lap dancers, as employees of the clubs, has also changed. Over time, most strip clubs have stopped paying wages to the dancers. Stage dancing became a showcase to advertise the bodies of the dancers, whose money came from the tips or standard charges, depending on the club, that the patrons gave them for lap dancing. In the majority of clubs, dancers are simply charged a percentage of their nightly takings. However, the latest development in many countries, including Great Britain, the United States and Canada, is that many clubs charge dancers a "stage fee" or "tip-out", which is an amount that a dancer needs to pay a club (usually in advance) in order to work on a given night, per shift. The lapdancers are expected to tip the "house mothers" (women who work in a strip club to support and assist the dancers) and DJs.


title: Lap dance

text: Given that dancers are basically paying for the privilege to be at a club, some clubs allow as many dancers as possible to appear on any given night, increasing competition among the dancers. Also, the vast majority of clubs will not waive this charge if a night happens to be slow. Consequently, the dancer either leaves her shift without any profit or builds a debt to the club.


title: Lap dance

text: Concerns raised by lapdancers include patrons stalking them, exposing their penis, ejaculating in their pants, attempting to have sex with the dancers without their consent, or committing sexual assault.


title: Lap dance

text: Some lapdance clubs have CCTV cameras in the "champagne rooms" for the safety of the dancers. Dancer Mary Jane says that when a lapdancer wishes to have paid sexual activities with a client, she tips the management, waitresses, and DJ to "turn a blind eye" to these sexual activities.


title: Lap dance

text: In the U.S., most clubs treat dancers as independent contractors, thereby avoiding the need to pay minimum wages, overtime pay, income taxes and other benefits required by law. This status has repeatedly been challenged by some dancers. While labor commissions and the courts have, for the most part, ruled that exotic dancers are employees and deserving of reimbursement for back pay and stage fees, some court decisions have decided that an exotic dancer can be classified as an independent contractor. In June 2006, in "Tracy Buel v. Chowder House (dba The Hungry I)" an appellate court of California's first district ruled that dancer Tracy Buel, also known as "Daisy Anarchy", was correctly classified as an independent contractor and that "Buel shall pay defendants’ costs on appeal". A publication called the California Employment Law Letter described the case as follows: "The dancer based her suit on the fact that she was an employee of the nightclub rather than an independent contractor. The appellate court, however, after applying a 10-factor test, upheld the jury's verdict in favor of the nightclub and its owners and found that the evidence weighed in favor of classifying the dancer as an independent contractor rather than an employee."


title: Lap dance

text: A UK study on lap dancing found that the overwhelming majority of those surveyed were satisfied with their work, because they got to choose their own hours, got paid instantly, got more money than in other available jobs, and had the opportunity to combine "fun and work" (e.g., socializing with other dancers and patrons). At the same time, the same study revealed various disadvantages to lap dancing work, such as: the women never knew how much they would earn each week; the women had to try to keep their job secret from friends and family; the women had to face some rude and abusive customers. As well, while most felt safe, almost half of the dancers had faced frequent verbal harassment and unwanted touching from patrons. Another issue raised by the dancers was their lack of labour rights in the workplace and the high overhead costs – house fees (or stage fees), commissions, fines (whether paid directly to the club's management or not), and tipping out (or paying a portion of their income) to DJs and bouncers.


title: Lap dance

text: The UK paper "The Guardian" gave a darker portrait of lap dancing in an article partly based on an interview with a former stripper. It stated that "[r]esearch shows that the majority of women become lap-dancers through poverty and lack of choice," and that "academic research has linked lap-dancing to trafficking, prostitution and an increase in male sexual violence against both the women who work in the clubs and those who live and work in their vicinity." For example, a "recent conference in Ireland highlighted the use of lap-dance clubs by human traffickers as a tool for grooming women into prostitution; the clubs also normalise the idea of paying for sexual services." "[R]esearch on strip clubs in the US found that all dancers had suffered verbal harassment and physical and sexual abuse while at work; all had been propositioned for prostitution; and three-quarters had been stalked by men associated with the club."


title: Lap dance

text: Critics of lap dancing choose to describe it as a type of "sex work", because, in their opinion, "it is difficult to discern between the performance of erotic dance and prostitution." However, others contend that it is a misnomer to call a "lap dancer" a "sex worker", because no sexual act is technically performed during a typical lap dance. Club owners in the UK argue that lap dancing should not be labelled as sex work. On the other hand, one lapdancer, Mary Jane, told a reporter that she and other lapdancers negotiate “extras" (nicknamed the "secret menu") with clients, such as a "hand job" (male masturbation) or sexual intercourse, for additional payment.


title: Lap dance

text: In 2007, based on statistics from eighteen dancers over a period of 60 days, it was noted that female lap dancers earned the highest tips around the time of ovulation, during the most fertile period of their menstrual cycle and the lowest tips during menstruation; the average difference in earning between those two times amounted to about $30 per hour. Women on the pill earned overall less than those not on the pill. The results were interpreted as evidence of estrus in humans: females apparently advertise their fertility status to males in some manner. This finding earned its authors the 2008 Ig Nobel Prize (a parody of the Nobel Prize given for unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research) in Economics.


title: Lap dance

text: Establishments that offer lap dancing, and the lap dancers themselves, are sometimes rated regarding "mileage." It refers to the amount of contact between dancer and patron during the performance. Every jurisdiction has its own laws regarding such contact, but enforcement of these laws is sporadic. Ultimately, it comes down to what the club and the dancer will allow.


title: Lap dance

text: Nevada, and especially Las Vegas, have established very lenient laws regarding what contact is allowed during a lap dance. Patrons may legally touch the dancer anywhere she will permit, excluding the genitals. This has led to a pricing strategy in some all-nude strip clubs, in which a standard lap dance is considered to be just topless with no contact, but can be upgraded to include full nudity or touching with additional payment.


title: Soweto uprising

text: The Soweto uprising (or Soweto riots) was a series of demonstrations and protests led by black school children in South Africa that began on the morning of 16 June 1976.


title: Soweto uprising

text: Students from various schools began to protest in the streets of Soweto in response to the introduction of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in black schools. It is estimated that 20,000 students took part in the protests. They were met with fierce police brutality and many were shot and killed. The number of pupils killed in the uprising is usually estimated as 176, but some sources estimate as many as 700 fatalities. In remembrance of these events, 16 June is now a public holiday in South Africa, named Youth Day.


title: Soweto uprising

text: Black South African high school students in Soweto protested the "Afrikaans Medium Decree" of 1974, which forced all black schools to use Afrikaans and English in equal terms as languages of instruction. The association of Afrikaans with apartheid prompted black South Africans to prefer English. Even the Bantustan regimes chose English and an indigenous African language as official languages. In addition, English was gaining prominence as the language most often used in commerce and industry. The 1974 decree was intended to force the reverse of the decline of Afrikaans among black Africans. The Afrikaner-dominated government used the clause of the 1909 Union of South Africa Act that recognised only English and Dutch, the latter being replaced by Afrikaans in 1925, as official languages as its pretext. All schools had to provide instruction in both Afrikaans and English as languages, but white South African students learned other subjects in their home language.


title: Soweto uprising

text: The Regional Director of Bantu Education (Northern Transvaal Region), J.G. Erasmus, told Circuit Inspectors and Principals of Schools that from 1 January 1975, Afrikaans had to be used for mathematics, arithmetic, and social studies from standard five (7th grade), according to the Afrikaans Medium Decree. English would be the medium of instruction for general science and practical subjects (homecraft, needlework, woodwork, metalwork, art, agricultural science). Indigenous languages would be used only for religious instruction, music, and physical culture.


title: Soweto uprising

text: The decree was resented deeply by the black population. Desmond Tutu, the bishop of Lesotho and later Dean of Johannesburg, stated that Afrikaans was "the language of the oppressor." Also, teacher organizations, such as the African Teachers Association of South Africa, objected to the decree.


title: Soweto uprising

text: Punt Janson, the Deputy Minister of Bantu Education, was quoted as saying: "A Black man may be trained to work on a farm or in a factory. He may work for an employer who is either English-speaking or Afrikaans-speaking and the man who has to give him instructions may be either English-speaking or Afrikaans-speaking. Why should we now start quarrelling about the medium of instruction among the Black people as well?... No, I have not consulted them and I am not going to consult them. I have consulted the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa..."


title: Soweto uprising

text: A change in language of instruction forced the students to focus on understanding the language, instead of the subject material. That made critical analysis of the content difficult and discouraged critical thinking.


title: Soweto uprising

text: The resentment grew until 30 April 1976, when children at Orlando West Junior School in Soweto went on strike and refused to go to school. Their rebellion then spread to many other schools in Soweto. Black South African students protested because they believed that they deserved to be treated and taught like white South Africans. Also, very few people in Soweto spoke Afrikaans. A student from Morris Isaacson High School, Teboho "Tsietsi" Mashinini, proposed a meeting on 13 June 1976 to discuss what should be done. Students formed an Action Committee, later known as the Soweto Students' Representative Council, which organised a mass rally for 16 June to make themselves heard.


title: Soweto uprising

text: On the morning of 16 June 1976, between 10,000 and 20,000 black students walked from their schools to Orlando Stadium for a rally to protest having to learn in Afrikaans in school. Many students who later participated in the protest arrived at schools that morning without prior knowledge of the protest but agreed to become involved. The protest was planned by the Soweto Students' Representative Council's (SSRC) Action Committee, with support from the wider Black Consciousness Movement. Teachers in Soweto also supported the march after the Action Committee emphasized good discipline and peaceful actions.


title: Soweto uprising

text: Tsietsi Mashinini led students from Morris Isaacson High School to join up with others who walked from Naledi High School. The students began the march, only to find out that police had barricaded the road along their intended route. The leader of the action committee asked the crowd not to provoke the police, and the march continued on another route and eventually ended up near Orlando High School. The crowd of between 3,000 and 10,000 students made its way towards the area of the school. Students sang and waved placards with slogans such as, "Down with Afrikaans", "Viva Azania" and "If we must do Afrikaans, Vorster must do Zulu".


title: Soweto uprising

text: The police set their trained dog on the protesters, who responded by killing it. The police then began to shoot directly at the children.


title: Soweto uprising

text: Among the first students to be shot dead were the 15-year-old Hastings Ndlovu and the 12-year-old Hector Pieterson, who were shot at Orlando West High School. The photographer Sam Nzima took a photograph of a dying Hector Pieterson as he was carried away by Mbuyisa Makhubo and accompanied by his sister, Antoinette Peterson , which became the symbol of the Soweto uprising. The police attacks on the demonstrators continued, and 23 people died on the first day in Soweto. Among them was Dr. Melville Edelstein, who had devoted his life to social welfare among blacks. He was stoned to death by the mob and left with a sign around his neck proclaiming, "Beware Afrikaans is the most dangerous drug for our future".


title: Soweto uprising

text: The violence escalated, as bottle stores and beer halls, seen as outposts of the apartheid government, were targeted, as were the official outposts of the state. The violence had abated by nightfall. Police vans and armoured vehicles patrolled the streets throughout the night.


title: Soweto uprising

text: Emergency clinics were swamped with injured and bloody children. The police requested for the hospital to provide a list of all victims with bullet wounds to prosecute them for rioting. The hospital administrator passed the request to the doctors, but the doctors refused to create the list. Doctors recorded bullet wounds as abscesses.


title: Soweto uprising

text: The 1,500 heavily-armed police officers deployed to Soweto on 17 June carried weapons, including automatic rifles, stun guns, and carbines. They drove around in armoured vehicles with helicopters monitoring the area from the sky. The South African Army was also ordered on standby as a tactical measure to show military force. Crowd control methods used by South African police at the time included mainly dispersement techniques.


title: Soweto uprising

text: The number of people who died is usually given as 176, with estimates up to 700. The original government figure claimed only 23 students were killed; and the number of wounded was estimated to be over 1,000 people. Black students also killed two white people during the uprising, one of them Dr. Edelstein.


title: Soweto uprising

text: The clashes occurred while the South African government was being forced to "transform" apartheid in international eyes towards a more "benign" form. In October 1976, Transkei, the first Bantustan, was proclaimed "independent" by the government. That attempt to showcase supposed South African "commitment" to self-determination backfired, however, since Transkei was internationally derided as a puppet state.


title: Soweto uprising

text: For the government, the uprising marked the most fundamental challenge yet to apartheid. The economic and political instability that it caused was heightened by the strengthening international boycott. It would be 14 years before Nelson Mandela was released, but the state could never restore the relative peace and social stability of the early 1970s, as black resistance grew.


title: Soweto uprising

text: Many white South Africans were outraged at the government's actions in Soweto. The day after the massacre, about 400 white students from the University of the Witwatersrand marched through Johannesburg's city centre in protest of the killing of children. Black workers went on strike as well and joined them as the campaign progressed. Riots also broke out in the black townships of other cities in South Africa.


title: Soweto uprising

text: Student organisations directed the energy and anger of the youth toward political resistance. Students in Thembisa organised a successful and nonviolent solidarity march, but a similar protest held in Kagiso led to police stopping a group of participants, forcing them to retreat, and killing at least five people while reinforcements were awaited. The violence died down only on 18 June. The University of Zululand's records and administration buildings were set ablaze, and 33 people died in incidents in Port Elizabeth in August. In Cape Town, 92 people died between August and September.


title: Soweto uprising

text: The continued clashes in Soweto caused economic instability. The South African rand devalued fast, and the government was plunged into a crisis.


title: Soweto uprising

text: The African National Congress printed and distributed leaflets with the slogan "Free Mandela, Hang Vorster". It immediately linked the language issue to its revolutionary heritage and programme and helped to establish its leading role. (See Baruch Hirson's "Year of Fire, Year of Ash", for a discussion of the ANC's ability to channel and direct the popular anger.")


title: Soweto uprising

text: The Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum opened in Soweto in 2002, not far from the spot that the 12 year-old Hector was shot on the 16 June 1976.


title: Soweto uprising

text: The UN Security Council passed Resolution 392, which strongly condemned the incident and the apartheid government.


title: Soweto uprising

text: A week after the uprising began, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the United States Secretary of State met South African State President, Vorster in West Germany to discuss the situation in Rhodesia, but the Soweto uprising did not feature in the discussions. Kissinger and Vorster met again in Pretoria in September 1976, with students in Soweto and elsewhere protesting his visit and being fired on by police.


title: Soweto uprising

text: On the night of 26 August 1986, the police opened fire on a demonstration in the White City locale. They killed between 20 and 25 people, possibly more, and wounded over 60. The South African government officially claimed that 11 people had died but later raised the figure to 12. The South African Information Bureau claimed that police opened fire on two occasions, one after a grenade had been tossed at police and wounded four policemen. Residents said that the fighting started when local officials sought to evict tenants who had been refusing to pay their rents for two months as part of a mass boycott. Security forces were said to have initially used tear gas to disperse crowds. Later, a resident telephoned a reporter to say, "The police are shooting left and right. They just shot an old man. They are shooting at everyone, everything".


title: Soweto uprising

text: The UDF leader Frank Chicane described the police actions "as if entering enemy territory, with guns blazing." Minister of Information Louis Nel later came under fire for stating at a press conference, "Let there be no misunderstanding regarding the real issue at stake. It is not the rental issue, it is not the presence of security forces in black residential areas, it is not certain remembrance days, it is not school programs. The violent overthrow of the South African state is the issue."


title: Soweto uprising

text: As retaliation, a black town councilor was killed the following day, hacked to death by a mob. On September 4, police filled a stadium with tear gas to stop a mass funeral for a number of the victims, swept through Soweto and broke up other services being held, including one at Regina Mundi Roman Catholic, where tear gas canisters were thrown into a bus containing mourners. A service at Avalon Cemetery at which thousands were reported to have gathered was also dispersed with tear gas and armored vehicles. Tear gas was also reported to have been dropped from helicopters on processions and crowds.


title: Soweto uprising

text: Images of the riots spread all over the world and shocked millions. The photograph of Hector Pieterson's dead body, as captured by the photojournalist Sam Nzima, caused outrage and brought down international condemnation on the apartheid government.


title: Soweto uprising

text: The Soweto riots were depicted in the 1987 film by the director Richard Attenborough, "Cry Freedom" and in the 1992 musical film "Sarafina!" and the musical production of the same name by Mbongeni Ngema. The riots also inspired the novel "A Dry White Season" by Andre Brink and a 1989 movie of the same title.


title: Soweto uprising

text: The uprising also featured in the 2003 film "Stander" about the notorious bank robber and former police captain Andre Stander. The lyrics of the song "Soweto Blues" by Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba describe the Soweto Uprising and the children's part in it.


title: Soweto uprising

text: In June 1996, the Ulwazi Educational Radio Project of Johannesburg compiled an hour-long radio documentary 20 years after the uprising portraying the events of 16 June entirely from the perspective of people living in Soweto at the time. Many of the students who planned or joined the uprising, as well as other witnesses, took part, including the photographer Peter Magubane, the reporter Sophie Tema and Tim Wilson, the white doctor who pronounced Pieterson dead in Baragwanath Hospital. The programme was broadcast on SABC and on a number of local radio stations throughout South Africa. The following year, BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service broadcast a revised version containing fresh interviews, "The Day Apartheid Died".


title: Soweto uprising

text: The programme was runner-up at the 1998 European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) TV & Radio Awards and also at the 1998 Media Awards of the One World International Broadcasting Trust, and was highly commended at the 1998 Prix Italia radio awards. In May 1999, it was rebroadcast by BBC Radio 4 as "The Death of Apartheid" with a fresh introduction that provided added historical context for a British audience by Anthony Sampson, a former editor of "Drum" magazine and the author of the authorised biography (1999) of Nelson Mandela. Sampson linked extracts from the BBC Sound Archive that charted the long struggle against apartheid from the Sharpeville massacre of 1960 to the riots of 1976 and the murder of Steve Biko until Mandela's release from prison in 1990 and the future president's speech in which he acknowledged the debt owed by all black South Africans to the students who had given their lives in Soweto on 16 June 1976.


title: Merrill (company)

text: Merrill (officially Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated), previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investment banking arm, both firms engage in prime brokerage and broker-dealer activities. The firm is headquartered in New York City, and once occupied the entire 34 stories of 250 Vesey Street, part of the Brookfield Place complex in Manhattan. Merrill employs over 14,000 financial analysts and manages $2.3 trillion in client assets. The company also operates Merrill Edge, an electronic trading platform.


title: Merrill (company)

text: Prior to 2009, the company was publicly owned and traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Merrill Lynch & Co. agreed to be acquired by Bank of America on September 14, 2008, at the height of the financial crisis of 2007–2008, the same weekend that Lehman Brothers was allowed to fail. The acquisition was completed in January 2009 and Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. was merged into Bank of America Corporation in October 2018, with certain Bank of America subsidiaries continuing to carry the Merrill Lynch name, including the broker-dealer Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith. In 2019, Bank of America rebranded the unit to "Merrill".


title: Merrill (company)

text: Merrill Lynch rose to prominence on the strength of its network of financial advisors, sometimes referred to as the "thundering herd", that allowed it to place securities it underwrote directly. In contrast, many established Wall Street firms, such as Morgan Stanley, relied on groups of independent brokers for placement of the securities they underwrote. It was once known as the "Catholic" firm of Wall Street and most of its executives were Irish Catholics.


title: Merrill (company)

text: The company was founded on January 6, 1914, when Charles E. Merrill opened Charles E. Merrill & Co. for business at 7 Wall Street in New York City. A few months later, Merrill's friend, Edmund C. Lynch, joined him, and in 1915 the name was officially changed to "Merrill, Lynch & Co." At that time, the firm's name included a comma between "Merrill" and "Lynch", which was dropped in 1938. In 1916, Winthrop H. Smith joined the firm.


title: Merrill (company)

text: In 1921, the company purchased Pathé Exchange, which later became RKO Pictures. In 1926, the firm acquired a controlling interest in Safeway Inc., transforming the small grocery store into the country's third-largest grocery store chain by the early 1930s.


title: Merrill (company)

text: In 1930, Charles E. Merrill led the firm through a major restructuring, spinning-off the company's retail brokerage business to E. A. Pierce & Co. to focus on investment banking. Along with the business, Merrill also transferred the bulk of its employees, including Edmund C. Lynch and Winthrop H. Smith. Charles Merrill received a minority interest in E.A. Pierce in the transaction. Throughout the 1930s, E.A. Pierce remained the largest brokerage in the U.S. The firm, led by Edward A. Pierce, Edmund Lynch and Winthrop Smith proved to be one of the most innovative in the industry, introducing IBM machines into the business's record keeping. Additionally, by 1938, E.A. Pierce controlled the largest wire network with a private network of over 23,000 miles of telegraph wires. These wires were typically used for orders.


title: Merrill (company)

text: Despite its strong position in the market, E.A. Pierce was struggling financially in the 1930s and was thinly capitalized. Following the death of Edmund C. Lynch in 1938, Winthrop Smith began discussions with Charles E. Merrill, who owned a minority interest in E.A. Pierce about a possible merger of the two firms. On April 1, 1940, Merrill Lynch, merged with Edward A. Pierce's E. A. Pierce & Co. and Cassatt & Co., a Philadelphia-based brokerage firm in which both Merrill Lynch and E.A. Pierce held an interest. and was briefly known as "Merrill Lynch, E. A. Pierce, and Cassatt." The company became the first on Wall Street to publish an annual fiscal report in 1941.


title: Merrill (company)

text: In 1941, Merrill Lynch, E. A. Pierce, and Cassatt merged with Fenner & Beane, a New Orleans-based investment bank and commodities company. Throughout the 1930s, Fenner & Beane was consistently the second largest securities firm in the U.S. The combined firm, which became the clear leader in securities brokerage in the U.S., was renamed "Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Beane."


title: Merrill (company)

text: In 1952, the company formed Merrill Lynch & Co. as a holding company and officially incorporated after nearly half a century as a partnership. On December 31, 1957, "The New York Times" referred to that name as "a sonorous bit of Americana" and said, "After sixteen years of popularizing [it], Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner, and Beane is going to change it—and thereby honor the man who has been largely responsible for making the name of a brokerage house part of an American saga," Winthrop H. Smith, who had been running the company since 1940. The merger made the company the largest securities firm in the world, with offices in more than 98 cities and membership on 28 exchanges. At the start of the firm's fiscal year on March 1, 1958, the firm's name became "Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith" and the company became a member of the New York Stock Exchange.


title: Merrill (company)

text: In 1964, Merrill Lynch acquired C. J. Devine & Co., the leading dealer in U.S. Government Securities. The merger came together due to the death of Christopher J. Devine in May 1963. The C. J. Devine & Co. partners, referred to as "The Devine Boys", formed Merrill Lynch Government Securities Inc., giving the firm a strong presence in the government securities market. The Government Securities business brought Merrill Lynch the needed leverage to establish many of the unique money market products and government bond mutual fund products, responsible for much of the firm's growth in the 1970s and 1980s.


title: Merrill (company)

text: In June 1971, the company became a public company via an initial public offering, a year after the New York Stock Exchange allowed member firms to become publicly-owned. It was a multinational corporation with over US$1.8 trillion in client assets operating in more than 40 countries around the world.


title: Merrill (company)

text: In 1977, the company introduced its Cash management account (CMA), which enabled customers to transfer all their cash into a money market fund, and included check-writing capabilities and a credit card.


title: Merrill (company)

text: In 1978, it significantly buttressed its securities underwriting business by acquiring White Weld & Co., a small but prestigious old-line investment bank.


title: Merrill (company)

text: In the late 1990s, Maxim Shashenkov (), who was in charge of Alfa-Bank's Alfa Securities Ltd, London, of the Alfa Group of companies, was formerly Vice President for Russia of the London branch of Merrill Lynch.


title: Merrill (company)

text: In June 1998, Merrill Lynch re-entered the Canadian investment business with its purchase of Midland Walwyn Inc. At the time, Canada was the seventh-largest market for personal investment.


title: Merrill (company)

text: In 2003, Merrill Lynch became the second-largest shareholder of Japanese animation studio TMS Entertainment. In a report to the Finance Ministry, the Merrill Lynch group said it had acquired a 7.54% stake in TMS by purchasing 3.33 million shares. Merrill Lynch purchased the stake purely for investment purposes and had no intention of acquiring control of the firm's management.


title: Merrill (company)

text: In November 2007, Merrill Lynch announced it would write-down $8.4 billion in losses associated with the subprime mortgage crisis, and terminated E. Stanley O'Neal as its chief executive. O'Neal had earlier approached Wachovia for a merger, without prior Board approval, but the talks ended after O'Neal's dismissal. Merrill Lynch named John Thain as its new CEO that month. In his first days at work in December 2007, Thain made changes in Merrill Lynch's top management, announcing that he would bring in former New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) colleagues such as Nelson Chai as CFO and Margaret D. Tutwiler as head of communications. Later that month, the firm announced it would sell its commercial finance business to General Electric, and would sell shares of its stock to Temasek Holdings, a Singapore government investment group, in an effort to raise capital. The deal raised more than $6 billion.


title: Merrill (company)

text: In July 2008, Thain announced $4.9 billion fourth-quarter losses for the company from defaults and bad investments in the ongoing mortgage crisis. In one year between July 2007 and July 2008, Merrill Lynch lost $19.2 billion, or $52 million daily. The company's stock price had also declined significantly during that time. Two weeks later, the company announced the sale of select hedge funds and securities in an effort to reduce their exposure to mortgage-related investments. Temasek Holdings agreed to purchase the funds and increase its investment in the company by $3.4 billion.


title: Merrill (company)

text: Then-New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo threatened to sue Merrill Lynch in August 2008 over its misrepresentation of the risk on mortgage-backed securities. A week earlier, Merrill Lynch had offered to buy back $12 billion in auction-rate debt and said it was surprised by the lawsuit. Three days later, the company froze hiring and revealed that it had charged almost $30 billion in losses to its subsidiary in the United Kingdom, exempting them from taxes in that country. On August 22, 2008, CEO John Thain announced an agreement with the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth to buy back all auction-rate securities from customers with less than $100 million in deposit with the firm, beginning in October 2008 and expanding in January 2009. On September 5, 2008 Goldman Sachs downgraded Merrill Lynch's stock to "conviction sell" and warned of further losses at the company. Bloomberg reported in September 2008 that Merrill Lynch had lost $51.8 billion on mortgage-backed securities as part of the subprime mortgage crisis.


title: Merrill (company)

text: Merrill Lynch, like many other banks, became heavily involved in the mortgage-based collateralized debt obligation (CDO) market in the early 2000s. According to an article in "Credit" magazine, Merrill's rise to be the leader of the CDO market began in 2003 when Christopher Ricciardi brought his CDO team from Credit Suisse First Boston to Merrill.


title: Merrill (company)

text: To provide a ready supply of mortgages for the CDOs, Merrill purchased First Franklin Financial Corp., one of the largest subprime lenders in the country, in December 2006. Between 2006 and 2007, Merrill was "lead underwriter" on 136 CDOs worth $93 billion. By the end of 2007, the value of these CDOs was collapsing, but Merrill had held onto portions of them, creating billions of dollars in losses for the company. In mid-2008, Merrill sold a group of CDOs that had once been valued at $30.6 billion to Lone Star Funds for $1.7 billion in cash and a $5.1 billion loan.


title: Merrill (company)

text: In April 2009, bond insurance company MBIA sued Merrill Lynch for fraud and five other violations. These were related to the credit default swap "insurance" contracts Merrill had bought from MBIA on four of Merrill's mortgage-based collateralized debt obligations. These were the "ML-Series" CDOs, Broderick CDO 2, Highridge ABS CDO I, Broderick CDO 3, and Newbury Street CDO. MBIA claimed, among other things, that Merrill defrauded MBIA about the quality of these CDOs, and that it was using the complicated nature of these particular CDOs (CDOs squared and cubed) to hide the problems it knew about in the securities that the CDOs were based on. However, in 2010 Justice Bernard Fried disallowed all but one of the charges: the claim by MBIA that Merrill had committed breach of contract by promising the CDOs were worthy of an AAA rating when, it alleges, in reality, they weren't. When the CDOs lost value, MBIA wound up owing Merrill a large amount of money. Merrill disputed MBIA's claims.


title: Merrill (company)

text: In 2009, Rabobank sued Merrill over a CDO named Norma. Rabobank later claimed that its case against Merrill was very similar to the SEC's fraud charges against Goldman Sachs and its Abacaus CDOs. Rabobank alleged that a hedge fund named Magnetar Capital had chosen assets to go into Norma, and allegedly bet against them, but that Merrill had not informed Rabobank of this fact. Instead, Rabobank alleges that Merrill told it that NIR Group was selecting the assets. When the CDO value tanked, Rabobank was left owing Merrill a large amount of money. Merrill disputed the arguments of Rabobank, with a spokesman claiming "The two matters are unrelated and the claims today are not only unfounded but weren't included in the Rabobank lawsuit filed nearly a year ago".


title: Merrill (company)

text: Significant losses were attributed to the drop in value of its large and unhedged mortgage portfolio in the form of collateralized debt obligations. Trading partners' loss of confidence in Merrill Lynch's solvency and ability to refinance money market obligations ultimately led to its sale. During the week of September 8, 2008, Lehman Brothers came under severe liquidity pressures, with its survival in question. If Lehman Brothers failed, investors were afraid that the contagion could spread to the other surviving investment banks. On Sunday, September 14, 2008, Bank of America announced it was in talks to purchase Merrill Lynch for $38.25 billion in stock. Later that day, Merrill Lynch was sold to Bank of America for 0.8595 shares of Bank of America common stock for each Merrill Lynch common share, or about US$50 billion or $29 per share. This price represented a 70.1% premium over the September 12 closing price or a 38% premium over Merrill's book value of $21 a share, but a discount of 61% from its September 2007 price.


title: Merrill (company)

text: Congressional testimony by Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis, as well as internal emails released by the House Oversight Committee, indicated that the merger was transacted under pressure from federal officials, who said that they would otherwise seek the replacement of Bank of America's management as a condition of any government assistance. In March 2009, it was reported that in 2008, Merrill Lynch received billions of dollars from its insurance arrangements with AIG, including $6.8 billion from funds provided by the United States government to bail out AIG.


title: Merrill (company)

text: After merging Merrill Lynch into its businesses, Bank of America continued to operate Merrill Lynch for its wealth management services and integrated Merrill Lynch's investment bank into the newly formed BofA Securities.


title: Merrill (company)

text: In February 2019, Bank of America announced the division was to be rebranded from "Merrill Lynch" to "Merrill".


title: Merrill (company)

text: In 1998, Merrill Lynch paid Orange County, California $400 million to settle accusations that it sold inappropriate and risky investments to former county treasurer Robert Citron. Citron lost $1.69 billion, which forced the county to file for bankruptcy in December 1994. The county sued a dozen or more securities companies, advisors and accountants, but Merrill settled without admitting liability, paying $400 million of a total $600 million recovered by the county.


title: Merrill (company)

text: In 2002, Merrill Lynch agreed to pay out $100 million for publishing misleading research. As part of the agreement with the New York attorney general and other state securities regulators, Merrill Lynch agreed to increase research disclosure and work to decouple research from investment banking.


title: Merrill (company)

text: Between 1999 and 2001, during the dot-com bubble, Henry Blodget, a well-known analyst at Merrill Lynch, gave assessments about stocks in private emails that conflicted with what he publicly published via Merrill. In 2003, he was charged with civil securities fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He settled without admitting or denying the allegations and was subsequently barred from the securities industry for life. He paid a $2 million fine and $2 million disgorgement.


title: Merrill (company)

text: In 2004, convictions of Merrill executives marked the only instance in the Enron investigation where the government criminally charged any officials from the banks and securities firms that allegedly helped Enron execute its accounting scandals. The case revolved around a 1999 transaction involving Merrill, Enron and the sale of some electricity-producing barges off the coast of Nigeria. The charges alleged that the 1999 sale of an interest in Nigerian power barge by an Enron entity to Merrill Lynch was a sham that allowed Enron to illegally book about $12 million in pretax profit, when in fact there was no real sale and no real profit. Four former Merrill top executives and two former midlevel Enron officials faced conspiracy and fraud charges. The Merrill Lynch executives were convicted, but, unusually, all three of those that appealed subsequently had their charges overturned by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans who called the conspiracy and wire fraud charges "flawed." The Justice Department decided not to retry the case after the reversal of the verdict. Merrill reached its own settlement, firing bankers and agreeing to the outside oversight of its structured-finance transactions. It also settled civil fraud charges brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, without admitting or denying fault.


title: Merrill (company)

text: On June 26, 2007, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) brought suit against Merrill Lynch, alleging the firm discriminated against Dr. Majid Borumand because of his Iranian nationality and Islamic religion, with "reckless disregard" for his protected civil rights. The EEOC lawsuit maintained that violations by the company were intentional and committed with malice. In another case concerning mistreatment of another Iranian employee by Merrill Lynch, on July 20, 2007, a National Association of Securities Dealers arbitration panel ordered the company to pay Fariborz Zojaji, a former Iranian employee, $1.6 million for being fired due to his Persian ethnicity. Merrill Lynch was criticized by both the National Iranian American Council, and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.


title: Merrill (company)

text: On August 13, 2008, a New Jersey appeals court rendered a ruling against Merrill Lynch in a lawsuit filed by Darren Kwiatkowski, a gay employee who was called a “stupid fag” by another employee.


title: Merrill (company)

text: In August 2013, the company agreed to pay $160 million to settle a class action racism lawsuit brought by a longtime U.S. employee in 2005. At the time the lawsuit was filed, 2% of the brokers at the company were black, despite a 30-year-old consent decree it had signed with the EEOC that required the company to increase its proportion of black brokers to 6.5%, and despite the fact that in 25 states, the company did not have a single black broker. The funds were available to all black brokers and trainees at the firm since May 2001, estimated to be 700–1,200 people. During the case, Merrill's black CEO, Stanley O'Neal, said that black brokers may have a harder time getting business for the company since most of its clients were white.


title: Merrill (company)

text: In March 2005, Merrill Lynch paid a $10 million civil penalty to settle allegations of improper activities at the firm's Fort Lee, New Jersey office. Three financial advisors, and a fourth who was involved to a lesser degree, placed 12,457 trades for Millennium Partners, a client, in at least 521 mutual funds and 63 mutual fund sub-accounts of at least 40 variable annuities. Millennium made profits in over half of the funds and fund sub-accounts. In those funds where Millennium made profits, its gains totalled about $60 million. Merrill Lynch failed to reasonably supervise these financial advisers, whose market timing siphoned short-term profits out of mutual funds and harmed long-term investors.


title: Merrill (company)

text: In 2008, Merrill Lynch arranged for payment $3.6 billion in bonuses, one-third of the money received from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, for performance that year in what appeared to be "special timing," despite reported losses of $27 billion the same year.


title: Merrill (company)

text: In 2010, a Merrill Lynch trader in London who mismarked positions he had on behalf of the bank by $100 million to cover up his losses was banned by the United Kingdom's Financial Services Authority (FSA) from working in the securities industry in the UK for at least five years.


title: Merrill (company)

text: On 19 June 2018, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Merrill Lynch of misleading brokerage customers about trading venues between 2008 and 2013. Merrill Lynch admitted wrongdoing and agreed to pay a $42 million penalty.


title: Merrill (company)

text: On 22 March 2019, Merrill Lynch agreed to pay more than $8 million to settle charges of improper handling of pre-released American depositary receipts under investigation of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Merrill Lynch neither admitted nor denied the investigation findings but agreed to pay disgorgement of more than $4.4 million in ill-gotten gains plus $724,000 in prejudgment interest and an additional penalty of $2.89 million.


title: Hulkling

text: Emperor Hulkling (Dorrek VIII, also known as Theodore Rufus "Teddy" Kaplan-Altman) is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character has been depicted as a member of the Young Avengers, a team of superheroes in the Marvel Universe. Hulkling's character is patterned on the Hulk, with shapeshifting abilities that go far beyond the ability to mimic the Hulk, and superhuman strength. He is known for his relationship with fellow Young Avenger Wiccan, notable for being one of the highest-profile gay relationships in comics.


title: Hulkling

text: Hulkling was created by writer Allan Heinberg and artist Jim Cheung and first was in "Young Avengers" #1 (April 2005) along with other teenage heroes patterned after founding Avengers members.


title: Hulkling

text: Hulkling was originally planned to be a female character. According to Tom Brevoort, "Originally, Allan pitched Hulkling as a female character using her shape-changing abilities to pose as a man. I suspect this was as close as Allan felt he could get to depicting an openly gay relationship in a Marvel comic. But as we got underway... he started to have second thoughts and approached me about maintaining Hulkling and Wiccan as two involved male characters".


title: Hulkling

text: He was also featured in "" and appeared in the "Civil War" crossover event. Hulkling then appeared in the 2013 "Young Avengers" series by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, and appeared with Wiccan in "New Avengers" as part of All-New All-Different Marvel.


title: Hulkling

text: Most recently, Hulkling has been a key player in "Empyre", Marvel's summer 2020 crossover event. A one-shot, "Lords of Empyre: Emperor Hulkling", written by Chip Zdarsky and queer author Anthony Oliveira, fills in some of the backstory of how Hulkling was called on to become emperor and his relationship with Wiccan.


title: Hulkling

text: In April 2021, Hulkling and Wiccan became members of the Guardians of the Galaxy, beginning with "Guardians of the Galaxy" #13 by Al Ewing, Juan Frigeri, and Brett Booth.


title: Hulkling

text: In his first appearance, little is revealed about Hulkling except for the fact he is raised by a single mother. All this changes when the shapeshifting extraterrestrial known as the Super-Skrull appears, stating that Teddy is a Skrull. The Super-Skrull is surprised to learn that Teddy has super strength and wonders "perhaps the rumors about his father are true." The Super Skrull follows the Young Avengers to Wiccan's house, where Teddy's mother is waiting for him. The Super-Skrull releases a device designed to turn Teddy into his true form in an attempt to prove his Skrull heritage. While the device does not change Teddy's physical appearance, Ms. Altman, who is also caught in the device's beam, turns into a Skrull. When the Super-Skrull accuses her of being a traitor to her race, she responds by saying that the Empress ordered her to protect Teddy, even from the likes of the Super-Skrull, pulling out a gun. The Super-Skrull responds by killing her, though it was unintentional.


title: Hulkling

text: The Super-Skrull reveals that years ago during the Kree-Skrull War, he kidnapped Captain Mar-Vell, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch, presenting them to the Skrull Emperor Dorrek VII. Though the heroes later escaped, the Emperor's daughter Princess Anelle conceived a child with Mar-Vell. At birth, the child was marked for death by Dorrek VII. His chambermaid smuggled him to Earth and raised him as Teddy.


title: Hulkling

text: The Super-Skrull reveals that his intention is to bring Teddy back to the Empire so that he may unify his people. Kree soldiers arrive to take Teddy as one of their own. A battle erupts between the Kree and the Skrull. Teddy ends the conflict by surrendering himself. It is settled that Teddy will spend half an Earth-year with the Kree and the other half with the Skrull, at which time he will declare his ultimate allegiance. The "Teddy" that left Earth is actually the Super-Skrull in disguise. The real Teddy remains on Earth.


title: Hulkling

text: Along with the rest of his team, Hulkling sides with Secret Avengers against the Superhuman Registration Act during the "Civil War" storyline. He plays a pivotal role in Captain America's plan for the final confrontation with Iron Man's forces, impersonating Yellowjacket in order to free the imprisoned heroes of Prison 42.


title: Hulkling

text: Hulkling contacts the mysteriously revived Captain Marvel to confront him about his identity as Mar-Vell's son. Mar-Vell confirms the Super Skrull's story concerning Teddy's origins and that he could be Teddy's father, though he was unaware of Teddy's existence because he and the Skrull Princess Anelle never saw each other again. Mar-Vell comforts a frustrated Teddy, who is upset at Mar-Vell's intention to return to the past, expressing an interest in spending more time with him before he dies. Later, Teddy asserts that he never saw Mar-Vell alive again.


title: Hulkling

text: Teddy exhibits frustration with being essentially orphaned during the events of "Family Matters" and his hopes of establishing a father-son relationship with Mar-Vell, his last remaining parent. Later storylines reveal that the "revived" Captain Marvel that Teddy met was a Skrull imposter named Khn'nr, intended by Skrull scientists to impersonate the original Kree soldier. Due to some misprogramming, the Skrull actually believed himself to be Mar-Vell.


title: Hulkling

text: In the "Children's Crusade: Young Avengers One Shot" a future version of Teddy is shown to have taken up the mantle of Captain Marvel wearing a version of his father's classic costume with the white and green coloring of his original Kree uniform.


title: Hulkling

text: The Young Avengers confront a group of rampaging super-powered Skrulls. He tries to use his Skrull heritage to calm them but is instead battered down with energy blasts. It was revealed that Veranke and a few higher up in position of the invasion have specifically ordered Teddy's death, without informing the soldiers of his royal heritage, for fear that it could confuse and divide the loyalties of their soldiers. Teddy is saved from execution at the last second by Xavin. With the aid of Xavin, Speed and Wiccan, Hulkling survives an attack by X'iv, a Skrull assassin with the powers of Daredevil, Elektra, and Cloak and Dagger.


title: Hulkling

text: Later a Skrull reveals to Hulkling, Wiccan, and Hawkeye that taking over the Earth was the last chance they had since all their planets have been destroyed.


title: Hulkling

text: Hulkling is featured in the "Original Sins" mini-series as part of the "Original Sin" storyline. With his friends Marvel Boy (Noh-Varr) and Prodigy (David Alleyne), Hulkling tries to save innocent people from being overwhelmed by cosmic secrets that are driving them insane.


title: Hulkling

text: As part of the "All-New, All-Different Marvel" event, Hulkling (alongside Wiccan) became a member of Sunspot's New Avengers. Eventually, a small group of Kree–Skrull hybrids arrive on Earth and kidnap Teddy so that he can assume his position as king and unite the two warring alien races. Teddy gains the sword of the prior king and uses it to defeat ghost wizard Moridun but announces that he has commitments to protect Earth and will return to fulfill his destiny if and when he is ready. Later, he manages to rescue Billy who was taken over by Moridun by convincing him to fight.