title: Don Messick

text: In outer-space cartoons, Don Messick created noises and sounds for weird space creatures and aliens. His Ranger Smith voice was often heard as various space villains. His narrator voice was given to Vapor Man, Dr. Benton Quest, the Perilous Paper Doll Man, and Multi Man.


title: Don Messick

text: In 1969, he was cast as the cowardly canine Scooby-Doo on "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!". He voiced him through all of the various versions of "Scooby-Doo": on television in numerous formats from 1969 until his retirement, including television films, and a number of commercials, as well. In 1970, he voiced Sebastian on "Josie and the Pussycats", and reprised the role in its spin-off "Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space" two years later, as well as voicing the new alien character, Bleep. From 1980 to 1988, he voiced Scooby's nephew, Scrappy-Doo, having taken over the role originated by Lennie Weinrib in 1979; he continued to voice Scooby-Doo when "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" came along from 1988 to 1991.


title: Don Messick

text: In "Hong Kong Phooey", he was the voice of Spot the Cat, a faithful sidekick that was the one who foiled the villain's plans, though he let the clueless title character take the glory. In 1977, he voiced Balin and a few incidental characters in the first animated adaptation of "The Hobbit" by J. R. R. Tolkien.


title: Don Messick

text: By the 1970s, the popularity of "Yogi Bear" led to several spin-off TV series and television movies featuring the character. Messick reprised his roles of Boo-Boo and Ranger Smith from the 1970s until 1994 on "Yogi's Gang", "Laff-a-Lympics", "Yogi's Treasure Hunt", and "The New Yogi Bear Show".


title: Don Messick

text: He played Papa Smurf on "The Smurfs" from 1981 to 1989 and Ratchet (the Autobot doctor), Gears, and Constructicon Scavenger on "The Transformers". In 1985, new episodes of "The Jetsons" were produced and Messick returned as Astro, RUDI, Mac, and Uniblab, a pesky robot that worked for Mr. Spacely.


title: Don Messick

text: He also starred in the Masters of the Universe Golden Book video as He-Man. In 1985, he voiced Louie and Snichey in "The Pound Puppies" TV special, in 1988, he had an uncredited role as the Pimp of the Year pageant announcer on "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka", and he returned to his role of Benton Quest on "The New Adventures of Jonny Quest" (1986–1987).


title: Don Messick

text: Messick also played a live-action role on the MTM Enterprises sitcom "Duck Factory", playing a cartoon voice actor named Wally Wooster. In one episode, frequent collaborator Frank Welker guest-starred as a rival voice artist angling for his job. Don Messick said of his character on the show: "Wally was never quite sure whether he was Wally or Dippy Duck".


title: Don Messick

text: From 1990 to 1995, he voiced Hamton J. Pig in Amblin's "Tiny Toon Adventures" and its spin-offs. Around that time, he also returned as the voice of Droopy for "Tom & Jerry Kids" and "Droopy, Master Detective". On the 1995 "Freakazoid!" episode "Toby Danger/Doomsday Bet", a spoof of "Jonny Quest", he played Dr. Vernon Danger, a parody of his own Dr. Benton Quest.


title: Don Messick

text: At a charity speaking engagement in London, shortly before his death, he performed many of his characters, except Scooby-Doo. He claimed that giving up smoking had robbed him of the rasp in the voice that he needed to voice him.


title: Don Messick

text: In late September 1996, Messick retired from acting after he suffered a stroke at a recording session at Hanna-Barbera.


title: Don Messick

text: On October 12, 1996, he had a "retirement party" at his favorite Chinese restaurant (Joseph Barbera personally sent a limo to Messick and his wife, and the two were chauffeured). Many of his friends and peers during his career who had come to pay tribute to him included Henry Corden, Casey Kasem, Lucille Bliss, Maurice LaMarche, Gregg Berger, Neil Ross, June Foray, Sharon Mack, Greg Burson, Walker Edmiston, Marvin Kaplan, Gary Owens, Howard Morris, Teresa Ganzel, Jean Vander Pyl, and Myrtis Martin Butler (Daws' widow).


title: Don Messick

text: Messick married Helen McHugh on October 10, 1949, and they remained married until Messick's death on October 24, 1997.


title: Don Messick

text: Don Messick suffered a second stroke and died on October 24, 1997, in Salinas, California. He was 71 years old.


title: Don Messick

text: Since Messick's death in 1997, Hadley Kay, Scott Innes, Neil Fanning, and Frank Welker have all voiced the role of Scooby-Doo. In 1998, "Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island" was dedicated to his memory. In 2011, Jonathan Winters (who voiced Grandpa Smurf in the television series) became Messick's successor as the voice of Papa Smurf in "The Smurfs" and its 2013 sequel. Winters died after finishing his voice work on the latter film. In 2000, Billy West also became one of Messick's successors as the new voice of Muttley in the 2000 Dreamcast video game, the 2017 reboot of Wacky Races, and in the Scooby-Doo theatrical animated film "Scoob!" which featured archive recordings of Messick for Muttley’s laugh and a place named after him called “Messick Mountain”


title: Impeachment

text: Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements.


title: Impeachment

text: In Europe and Latin America, impeachment tends to be confined to ministerial officials as the unique nature of their positions may place ministers beyond the reach of the law to prosecute, or their misconduct is not codified into law as an offense except through the unique expectations of their high office. Both "peers and commoners" have been subject to the process, however. From 1990 to 2020, there have been at least 272 impeachment charges against 132 different heads of state in 63 countries. Most democracies (with the notable exception of the United States) involve the courts (often a national constitutional court) in some way.


title: Impeachment

text: In Latin America, which includes almost 40% of the world's presidential systems, ten presidents from six countries were removed from office by their national legislatures via impeachments or declarations of incapacity between 1978 and 2019.


title: Impeachment

text: National legislations differ regarding both the consequences and definition of impeachment, but the intent is nearly always to expeditiously vacate the office. In most nations the process begins in the lower house of a bicameral assembly who bring charges of misconduct, then the upper house administers an impeachment trial and sentencing. Most commonly, an official is considered impeached after the house votes to accept the charges, and impeachment itself does not remove the official from office.


title: Impeachment

text: Because impeachment involves a departure from the normal constitutional procedures by which individuals achieve high office (election, ratification, or appointment) and because it generally requires a supermajority, they are usually reserved for those deemed to have committed serious abuses of their office. In the United States, for example, impeachment at the federal level is limited to those who may have committed "Treason, Bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors"—the latter phrase referring to offenses against the government or the constitution, grave abuses of power, violations of the public trust, or other political crimes, even if not indictable criminal offenses. Under the United States Constitution, the House of Representatives has the sole power of impeachments while the Senate has the sole power to try impeachments ("i.e.", to acquit or convict); the validity of an impeachment trial is a political question that is nonjusticiable ("i.e."., is not reviewable by the courts). In the United States, impeachment is a remedial rather than penal process, intended to "effectively 'maintain constitutional government' by removing individuals unfit for office"; persons subject to impeachment and removal remain "liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law."


title: Impeachment

text: Impeachment is provided for in the constitutional laws of many countries including Brazil, France, India, Ireland, the Philippines, Russia, South Korea, and the United States. It is distinct from the motion of no confidence procedure available in some countries whereby a motion of censure can be used to remove a government and its ministers from office. Such a procedure is not applicable in countries with presidential forms of government like the United States.


title: Impeachment

text: The word "impeachment" likely derives from Old French "empeechier" from Latin word "impedīre" expressing the idea of catching or ensnaring by the 'foot' ("pes, pedis"), and has analogues in the modern French verb "empêcher" (to prevent) and the modern English "impede". Medieval popular etymology also associated it (wrongly) with derivations from the Latin "impetere" (to attack).


title: Impeachment

text: The process was first used by the English "Good Parliament" against William Latimer, 4th Baron Latimer in the second half of the 14th century. Following the English example, the constitutions of Virginia (1776), Massachusetts (1780) and other states thereafter adopted the impeachment mechanism, but they restricted the punishment to removal of the official from office.


title: Impeachment

text: In West Africa, Kings of the Ashanti Empire who violated any of the oaths taken during their enstoolment were destooled by Kingmakers. For instance, if a king punished citizens arbitrarily or was exposed to be corrupt, he would be destooled. Destoolment entailed Kingmakers removing the sandals of the king and bumping his buttocks on the ground three times. Once destooled from office, his sanctity and thus reverence were lost, as he cannot exercise any powers he had as king; this includes Chief administrator, Judge, and Military Commander. The now previous king is disposed of the Stool, swords and other regalia which symbolize his office and authority. He also loses the position as custodian of the land. However, despite being destooled from office, the king remains a member of the Royal Family from which he was elected.


title: Impeachment

text: In Brazil, as in most other Latin American countries, "impeachment" refers to the definitive removal from office. The president of Brazil may be provisionally removed from office by the Chamber of Deputies and then tried and definitely removed from office by the Federal Senate. The Brazilian Constitution requires that two-thirds of the Deputies vote in favor of the opening of the impeachment process of the President and that two-thirds of the Senators vote for impeachment. State governors and municipal mayors can also be impeached by the respective legislative bodies. Article 2 of Law no. 1.079, from 10 April 1950, or "The Law of Impeachment", states that "The crimes defined in this law, even when simply attempted, are subject to the penalty of loss of office, with disqualification for up to five years for the exercise of any public function, to be imposed by the Federal Senate in proceedings against the President of the Republic, Ministers of State, Ministers of the Supreme Federal Tribunal, or the Attorney General."


title: Impeachment

text: Initiation: An accusation of a responsibility crime against the President may be brought by any Brazilian citizen however the President of the Chamber of Deputies holds prerogative to accept the charge, which if accepted will be read at the next session and reported to the President of the Republic.


title: Impeachment

text: Extraordinary Committee: An extraordinary committee is elected with member representation from each political party proportional to that party's membership. The President is then allowed ten parliamentary sessions for defense, which lead to two legislative sessions to form a rapporteur's legal opinion as to if impeachment proceedings will or will not be sent for a trial in the Senate. The rapporteur's opinion is voted on in the Committee; and on a simple majority it may be accepted. Failing that, the Committee adopts an opinion produced by the majority. For example, if the rapporteur's opinion is that no impeachment is warranted, and the Committee vote fails to accept it, then the Committee adopts the opinion to proceed with impeachment. Likewise, if the rapporteur's opinion is to proceed with impeachment, but it fails to achieve majority in the Committee, then the Committee adopts the opinion not to impeach. If the vote succeeds, then the rapporteur's opinion is adopted.


title: Impeachment

text: Chamber of Deputies: The Chamber issues a call-out vote to accept the opinion of the Committee, requiring a supermajority of two thirds in favor of an impeachment opinion (or a supermajority of two thirds against a dismissal opinion) of the Committee, in order to authorize the Senate impeachment proceedings. The President is suspended (provisionally removed) from office as soon as the Senate receives and accepts from the Chamber of Deputies the impeachment charges and decides to proceed with a trial.


title: Impeachment

text: The Senate: The process in the Senate had been historically lacking in procedural guidance until 1992, when the Senate published in the Official Diary of the Union the step-by-step procedure of the Senate's impeachment process, which involves the formation of another special committee and closely resembles the lower house process, with time constraints imposed on the steps taken. The committee's opinion must be presented within 10 days, after which it is put to a call-out vote at the next session. The vote must proceed within a single session; the vote on President Rousseff took over 20 hours. A simple majority vote in the Senate begins formal deliberation on the complaint, immediately suspends the President from office, installs the Vice President as acting president, and begins a 20-day period for written defense as well as up to 180-days for the trial. In the event the trial proceeds slowly and exceeds 180 days, the Brazilian Constitution determines that the President is entitled to return and stay provisionally in office until the trial comes to its decision.


title: Impeachment

text: Senate plenary deliberation: The committee interrogates the accused or their counsel, from which they have a right to abstain, and also a probative session which guarantees the accused rights to contradiction, or "audiatur et altera pars," allowing access to the courts and due process of law under Article 5 of the constitution. The accused has 15 days to present written arguments in defense and answer to the evidence gathered, and then the committee shall issue an opinion on the merits within ten days. The entire package is published for each senator before a single plenary session issues a call-out vote, which shall proceed to trial on a simple majority and close the case otherwise.


title: Impeachment

text: Senate trial: A hearing for the complainant and the accused convenes within 48 hours of notification from deliberation, from which a trial is scheduled by the president of the Supreme Court no less than ten days after the hearing. The senators sit as judges, while witnesses are interrogated and cross-examined; all questions must be presented to the president of the Supreme Court, who, as prescribed in the Constitution, presides over the trial. The president of the Supreme Court allots time for debate and rebuttal, after which time the parties leave the chamber and the senators deliberate on the indictment. The President of the Supreme Court reads the summary of the grounds, the charges, the defense and the evidence to the Senate. The senators in turn issue their judgement. On conviction by a supermajority of two thirds, the president of the Supreme Court pronounces the sentence and the accused is immediately notified. If there is no supermajority for conviction, the accused is acquitted.


title: Impeachment

text: Upon conviction, the officeholder has his or her political rights revoked for eight years, which bars them from running for any office during that time.


title: Impeachment

text: Fernando Collor de Mello, the 32nd President of Brazil, resigned in 1992 amidst impeachment proceedings. Despite his resignation, the Senate nonetheless voted to convict him and bar him from holding any office for eight years, due to evidence of bribery and misappropriation.


title: Impeachment

text: In 2016, the Chamber of Deputies initiated an impeachment case against President Dilma Rousseff on allegations of budgetary mismanagement, a crime of responsibility under the Constitution. On 12 May 2016, after 20 hours of deliberation, the admissibility of the accusation was approved by the Senate with 55 votes in favor and 22 against (an absolute majority would have been sufficient for this step) and Vice President Michel Temer was notified to assume the duties of the President pending trial. On August 31, 61 senators voted in favor of impeachment and 20 voted against it, thus achieving the majority needed for Rousseff's definitive removal. A vote to disqualify her for five years was taken and failed (in spite of the Constitution not separating disqualification from removal) having less than two thirds in favor.


title: Impeachment

text: The process of impeaching the president of Croatia can be initiated by a two-thirds majority vote in favor in the Sabor and is thereafter referred to the Constitutional Court, which must accept such a proposal with a two-thirds majority vote in favor in order for the president to be removed from office. This has never occurred in the history of the Republic of Croatia. In case of a successful impeachment motion a president's constitutional term of five years would be terminated and an election called within 60 days of the vacancy occurring. During the period of vacancy the presidential powers and duties would be carried out by the speaker of the Croatian Parliament in his/her capacity as Acting President of the Republic.


title: Impeachment

text: In 2013, the constitution was changed. Since 2013, the process can be started by at least three-fifths of present senators, and must be approved by at least three-fifths of all members of the Chamber of Deputies within three months. Also, the President can be impeached for high treason (newly defined in the Constitution) or any serious infringement of the Constitution.


title: Impeachment

text: The process starts in the Senate of the Czech Republic which has the right to only impeach the president. After the approval by the Chamber of Deputies, the case is passed to the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic, which has to decide the verdict against the president. If the Court finds the President guilty, then the President is removed from office and is permanently barred from being elected President of the Czech Republic again.


title: Impeachment

text: No Czech president has ever been impeached, though members of the Senate sought to impeach President Václav Klaus in 2013. This case was dismissed by the court, which reasoned that his mandate had expired. The Senate also proposed to impeach president Miloš Zeman in 2019 but the Chamber of Deputies did not vote on the issue in time and thus the case did not even proceed to the Court.


title: Impeachment

text: In Denmark the possibility for current and former ministers being impeached was established with the Danish Constitution of 1849. Unlike many other countries Denmark does not have a Constitutional Court who would normally handle these types of cases. Instead Denmark has a special Court of Impeachment (In Danish: Rigsretten) which is called upon every time a current and former minister have been impeached. The role of the Impeachment Court is to process and deliver judgments against current and former ministers who are accused of unlawful conduct in office. The legal content of ministerial responsibility is laid down in the Ministerial Accountability Act which has its background in section 13 of the Danish Constitution, according to which the ministers' accountability is determined in more detail by law. In Denmark the normal practice in terms of impeachment cases is that it needs to be brought up in the Danish Parliament (Folketing) first for debate between the different members and parties in the parliament. After the debate the members of the Danish Parliament vote on whether a current or former minister needs to be impeached. If there is a majority in the Danish Parliament for an impeachment case against a current or former minister, an Impeachment Court is called into session. In Denmark the Impeachment Court consists of up to 15 Supreme Court judges and 15 parliament members appointed by the Danish Parliament. The members of the Impeachment Court in Denmark serve a six-year term in this position.


title: Impeachment

text: In 1995 the former Minister of Justice Erik Ninn-Hansen from the Conservative People's Party was impeached in connection with the Tamil Case. The case was centered around the illegal processing of family reunification applications. From September 1987 to January 1989 applications for family reunification of Tamil refugees from civil war-torn Sri Lanka were put on hold in violation of Danish and International law. On 22 June 1995, Ninn-Hansen was found guilty of violating paragraph five subsection one of the Danish Ministerial Responsibility Act which says: A minister is punished if he intentionally or through gross negligence neglects the duties incumbent on him under the constitution or legislation in general or according to the nature of his post. A majority of the judges in that impeachment case voted for former Minister of Justice Erik Ninn-Hansen to receive a suspended sentence of four months with one year of probation. The reason why the sentence was made suspended was especially in relation to Ninn-Hansen's personal circumstances, in particular, his health and age - Ninn-Hansen was 73 years old when the sentence was handed down. After the verdict, Ninn-Hansen complained to the European Court of Human Rights and complained, among other things, that the Court of Impeachment was not impartial. The European Court of Human Rights dismissed the complaint on 18 May 1999. As a direct result and consequence of this case, the Conservative-led government and Prime Minister at that time Poul Schlüter was forced to step down from power.


title: Impeachment

text: In February 2021 the former Minister for Immigration and Integration Inger Støjberg at that time member of the Danish Liberal Party Venstre was impeached when it was discovered that she had possibly against both Danish and International law tried to separate couples in refugee centres in Denmark, as the wives of the couples were under legal age. According to a commission report Inger Støjberg had also lied in the Danish Parliament and failed to report relevant details to the Parliamentary Ombudsman The decision to initiate an impeachment case was adopted by the Danish Parliament with a 141–30 vote and decision (In Denmark 90 members of the parliament need to vote for impeachment before it can be implemented). On 13 December 2021 former Minister for Immigration and Integration Inger Støjberg was convicted by the special Court of Impeachment of separating asylum seeker families illegally according to Danish and international law and sentenced to 60 days in prison. The majority of the judges in the special Court of Impeachment (25 out of 26 judges) found that it had been proven that Inger Støjberg on 10 February 2016 decided that an accommodation scheme should apply without the possibility of exceptions, so that all asylum-seeking spouses and cohabiting couples where one was a minor aged 15–17, had to be separated and accommodated separately in separate asylum centers. On 21 December, a majority in the Folketing voted that the sentence means that she is no longer worthy of sitting in the Folketing and she therefore immediately lost her seat.


title: Impeachment

text: In France the comparable procedure is called "destitution". The president of France can be impeached by the French Parliament for willfully violating the Constitution or the national laws. The process of impeachment is written in the 68th article of the French Constitution. A group of senators or a group of members of the National Assembly can begin the process. Then, both the National Assembly and the Senate must acknowledge the impeachment. After the upper and lower houses' agreement, they unite to form the High Court. Finally, the High Court must decide to declare the impeachment of the president of France—or not.


title: Impeachment

text: The federal president of Germany can be impeached both by the Bundestag and by the Bundesrat for willfully violating federal law. Once the Bundestag or the Bundesrat impeaches the president, the Federal Constitutional Court decides whether the President is guilty as charged and, if this is the case, whether to remove him or her from office. The Federal Constitutional Court also has the power to remove federal judges from office for willfully violating core principles of the federal constitution or a state constitution. The impeachment procedure is regulated in Article 61 of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.


title: Impeachment

text: There is no formal impeachment process for the chancellor of Germany, however the Bundestag can replace the chancellor at any time by voting for a new chancellor (constructive vote of no confidence, Article 67 of the Basic Law).


title: Impeachment

text: There has never been an impeachment against the President so far. Constructive votes of no confidence against the chancellor occurred in 1972 and 1982, with only the second one being successful.


title: Impeachment

text: The chief executive of Hong Kong can be impeached by the Legislative Council. A motion for investigation, initiated jointly by at least one-fourth of all the legislators charging the Chief Executive with "serious breach of law or dereliction of duty" and refusing to resign, shall first be passed by the council. An independent investigation committee, chaired by the chief justice of the Court of Final Appeal, will then carry out the investigation and report back to the council. If the Council find the evidence sufficient to substantiate the charges, it may pass a motion of impeachment by a two-thirds majority.


title: Impeachment

text: However, the Legislative Council does not have the power to actually remove the chief executive from office, as the chief executive is appointed by the Central People's Government (State Council of China). The council can only report the result to the Central People's Government for its decision.


title: Impeachment

text: Article 13 of Hungary's Fundamental Law (constitution) provides for the process of impeaching and removing the president. The president enjoys immunity from criminal prosecution while in office, but may be charged with crimes committed during his term afterwards. Should the president violate the constitution while discharging his duties or commit a willful criminal offense, he may be removed from office. Removal proceedings may be proposed by the concurring recommendation of one-fifth of the 199 members of the country's unicameral Parliament. Parliament votes on the proposal by secret ballot, and if two thirds of all representatives agree, the president is impeached. Once impeached, the president's powers are suspended, and the Constitutional Court decides whether or not the President should be removed from office.


title: Impeachment

text: The president and judges, including the chief justice of the supreme court and high courts, can be impeached by the parliament before the expiry of the term for violation of the Constitution. Other than impeachment, no other penalty can be given to a president in position for the violation of the Constitution under of the constitution. However a president after his/her term/removal can be punished for his already proven unlawful activity under disrespecting the constitution, etc. No president has faced impeachment proceedings. Hence, the provisions for impeachment have never been tested. The sitting president cannot be charged and needs to step down in order for that to happen.


title: Impeachment

text: In the Republic of Ireland formal impeachment applies only to the Irish president. Article 12 of the Irish Constitution provides that, unless judged to be "permanently incapacitated" by the Supreme Court, the president can be removed from office only by the houses of the Oireachtas (parliament) and only for the commission of "stated misbehaviour". Either house of the Oireachtas may impeach the president, but only by a resolution approved by a majority of at least two thirds of its total number of members; and a house may not consider a proposal for impeachment unless requested to do so by at least thirty of its number.


title: Impeachment

text: Where one house impeaches the president, the remaining house either investigates the charge or commissions another body or committee to do so. The investigating house can remove the president if it decides, by at least a two-thirds majority of its members, both that the president is guilty of the charge and that the charge is sufficiently serious as to warrant the president's removal. To date no impeachment of an Irish president has ever taken place. The president holds a largely ceremonial office, the dignity of which is considered important, so it is likely that a president would resign from office long before undergoing formal conviction or impeachment.


title: Impeachment

text: In Italy, according to Article 90 of the Constitution, the President of Italy can be impeached through a majority vote of the Parliament in joint session for high treason and for attempting to overthrow the Constitution. If impeached, the president of the Republic is then tried by the Constitutional Court integrated with sixteen citizens older than forty chosen by lot from a list compiled by the Parliament every nine years.


title: Impeachment

text: Italian press and political forces made use of the term "impeachment" for the attempt by some members of parliamentary opposition to initiate the procedure provided for in Article 90 against Presidents Francesco Cossiga (1991), Giorgio Napolitano (2014) and Sergio Mattarella (2018).


title: Impeachment

text: By Article 78 of the Constitution of Japan, judges can be impeached. The voting method is specified by laws. The National Diet has two organs, namely () and (), which is established by Article 64 of the Constitution. The former has a role similar to prosecutor and the latter is analogous to Court. Seven judges were removed by them.


title: Impeachment

text: Members of the Liechtenstein Government can be impeached before the State Court for breaches of the Constitution or of other laws. As a hereditary monarchy the Sovereign Prince cannot be impeached as he "is not subject to the jurisdiction of the courts and does not have legal responsibility". The same is true of any member of the Princely House who exercises the function of head of state should the Prince be temporarily prevented or in preparation for the Succession.


title: Impeachment

text: In the Republic of Lithuania, the president may be impeached by a three-fifths majority in the Seimas. President Rolandas Paksas was removed from office by impeachment on 6 April 2004 after the Constitutional Court of Lithuania found him guilty of having violated his oath and the constitution. He was the first European head of state to have been impeached.


title: Impeachment

text: Members of government, representatives of the national assembly (Stortinget) and Supreme Court judges can be impeached for criminal offenses tied to their duties and committed in office, according to the Constitution of 1814, §§ 86 and 87. The procedural rules were modeled after the U.S. rules and are quite similar to them. Impeachment has been used eight times since 1814, last in 1927. Many argue that impeachment has fallen into desuetude. In cases of impeachment, an appointed court (Riksrett) takes effect.


title: Impeachment

text: Impeachment in the Philippines follows procedures similar to the United States. Under Sections2 and 3, Article XI, Constitution of the Philippines, the House of Representatives of the Philippines has the exclusive power to initiate all cases of impeachment against the president, vice president, members of the Supreme Court, members of the Constitutional Commissions (Commission on Elections, Civil Service Commission and the Commission on Audit), and the ombudsman. When a third of its membership has endorsed article(s) of impeachment, it is then transmitted to the Senate of the Philippines which tries and decide, as impeachment tribunal, the impeachment case.


title: Impeachment

text: A main difference from U.S. proceedings however is that only one third of House members are required to approve the motion to impeach the president (as opposed to a simple majority of those present and voting in their U.S. counterpart). In the Senate, selected members of the House of Representatives act as the prosecutors and the senators act as judges with the Senate president presiding over the proceedings (the chief justice jointly presides with the Senate president if the president is on trial). Like the United States, to convict the official in question requires that a minimum of two thirds (i.e. 16 of 24 members) of all the members of the Senate vote in favor of conviction. If an impeachment attempt is unsuccessful or the official is acquitted, no new cases can be filed against that impeachable official for at least one full year.


title: Impeachment

text: President Joseph Estrada was the first official impeached by the House in 2000, but the trial ended prematurely due to outrage over a vote to open an envelope where that motion was narrowly defeated by his allies. Estrada was deposed days later during the 2001 EDSA Revolution.


title: Impeachment

text: In 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008, impeachment complaints were filed against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, but none of the cases reached the required endorsement of of the members for transmittal to, and trial by, the Senate.


title: Impeachment

text: In March 2011, the House of Representatives impeached Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, becoming the second person to be impeached. In April, Gutierrez resigned prior to the Senate's convening as an impeachment court.


title: Impeachment

text: In December 2011, in what was described as "blitzkrieg fashion", 188 of the 285 members of the House of Representatives voted to transmit the 56-page articles of impeachment against Supreme Court chief justice Renato Corona in his impeachment.


title: Impeachment

text: To date, three officials had been successfully impeached by the House of Representatives, and two were not convicted. The latter, Chief Justice Renato C. Corona, was convicted on 29 May 2012, by the Senate under Article II of the Articles of Impeachment (for betraying public trust), with 20–3 votes from the Senator Judges.


title: Impeachment

text: The first impeachment process against Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, then the incumbent President of Peru since 2016, was initiated by the Congress of Peru on 15 December 2017. According to Luis Galarreta, the President of the Congress, the whole process of impeachment could have taken as little as a week to complete. This event was part of the second stage of the political crisis generated by the confrontation between the Government of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and the Congress, in which the opposition Popular Force has an absolute majority. The impeachment request was rejected by the congress on 21 December 2017, for failing to obtain sufficient votes for the deposition.


title: Impeachment

text: The president can be impeached by Parliament and is then suspended. A referendum then follows to determine whether the suspended President should be removed from office. President Traian Băsescu was impeached twice by the Parliament: in 2007 and then again in July 2012. A referendum was held on 19 May 2007 and a large majority of the electorate voted against removing the president from office. For the most recent suspension a referendum was held on July 29, 2012; the results were heavily against the president, but the referendum was invalidated due to low turnout.


title: Impeachment

text: In 1999, members of the State Duma of Russia, led by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, unsuccessfully attempted to impeach President Boris Yeltsin on charges relating to his role in the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis and launching the First Chechen War (1995–96); efforts to launch impeachment proceedings failed.


title: Impeachment

text: The Constitution of Singapore allows the impeachment of a sitting president on charges of treason, violation of the Constitution, corruption, or attempting to mislead the Presidential Elections Committee for the purpose of demonstrating eligibility to be elected as president. The prime minister or at least one-quarter of all members of Parliament (MPs) can pass an impeachment motion, which can succeed only if at least half of all MPs (excluding nominated members) vote in favor, whereupon the chief justice of the Supreme Court will appoint a tribunal to investigate allegations against the president. If the tribunal finds the president guilty, or otherwise declares that the president is "permanently incapable of discharging the functions of his office by reason of mental or physical infirmity", Parliament will hold a vote on a resolution to remove the president from office, which requires a three-quarters majority to succeed. No president has ever been removed from office in this fashion.


title: Impeachment

text: When the Union of South Africa was established in 1910, the only officials who could be impeached (though the term itself was not used) were the chief justice and judges of the Supreme Court of South Africa. The scope was broadened when the country became a republic in 1961, to include the state president. It was further broadened in 1981 to include the new office of vice state president; and in 1994 to include the executive deputy presidents, the public protector and the Auditor-General. Since 1997, members of certain commissions established by the Constitution can also be impeached. The grounds for impeachment, and the procedures to be followed, have changed several times over the years.


title: Impeachment

text: According to the Article 65(1) of Constitution of South Korea, President, Prime Minister, members of the State Council, heads of Executive Ministries, Justices of the Constitutional Court, judges, members of the National Election Commission, the Chairperson and members of the Board of Audit and Inspection can be impeached by the National Assembly when they violated the Constitution or other statutory duties. By article 65(2) of the Constitution, proposal of impeachment needs simple majority of votes among quorum of one-thirds of the National Assembly. However, exceptionally, impeachment on President of South Korea needs simple majority of votes among quorum of two-thirds of the National Assembly. When impeachment proposal is passed in the National Assembly, it is finally reviewed under jurisdiction the Constitutional Court of Korea, according to article 111(1) of the Constitution. During review of impeachment in the Constitutional Court, the impeached is suspended from exercising power by article 65(3) of the Constitution.


title: Impeachment

text: Two presidents have been impeached since the establishing of the Republic of Korea in 1948. Roh Moo-hyun in 2004 was impeached by the National Assembly but was overturned by the Constitutional Court. Park Geun-hye in 2016 was impeached by the National Assembly, and the impeachment was confirmed by the Constitutional Court on March 10, 2017.


title: Impeachment

text: In February 2021, Judge Lim Seong-geun of the Busan High Court was impeached by the National Assembly for meddling in politically sensitive trials, the first ever impeachment of a judge in Korean history. Unlike presidential impeachments, only


title: Impeachment

text: a simple majority is required to impeach. Judge Lim's term expired before the Constitutional Court could render a verdict, leading the court to dismiss the case.


title: Impeachment

text: In Turkey, according to the Constitution, the Grand National Assembly may initiate an investigation of the president, the vice president or any member of the Cabinet upon the proposal of simple majority of its total members, and within a period less than a month, the approval of three-fifths of the total members. The investigation would be carried out by a commission of fifteen members of the Assembly, each nominated by the political parties in proportion to their representation therein. The commission would submit its report indicating the outcome of the investigation to the speaker within two months. If the investigation is not completed within this period, the commission's time may be renewed for another month. Within ten days of its submission to the speaker, the report would be distributed to all members of the Assembly, and ten days after its distribution, the report would be discussed on the floor. Upon the approval of two thirds of the total number of the Assembly by secret vote, the person or persons, about whom the investigation was conducted, may be tried before the Constitutional Court. The trial would be finalized within three months, and if not, a one-time additional period of three months shall be granted.


title: Impeachment

text: The president, about whom an investigation has been initiated, may not call for an election. The president, who is convicted by the Court, would be removed from office.


title: Impeachment

text: The provision of this article shall also apply to the offenses for which the president allegedly worked during his term of office.


title: Impeachment

text: During the crisis which started in November 2013, the increasing political stress of the face-down between the protestors occupying Independence Square in Kyiv and the State Security forces under the control of President Yanukovych led to deadly armed force being used on the protestors. Following the negotiated return of Kyiv's City Hall on 16 February 2014, occupied by the protesters since November 2013, the security forces thought they could also retake "Maidan", Independence Square. The ensuing fighting from 17 through 21 February 2014 resulted in a considerable number of deaths and a more generalised alienation of the population, and the withdrawal of President Yanukovych to his support area in the East of Ukraine.


title: Impeachment

text: In the wake of the president's departure, Parliament convened on 22 February; it reinstated the 2004 Constitution, which reduced presidential authority, and voted impeachment of President Yanukovych as "de facto" recognition of his departure from office as President of an integrated Ukraine. The president riposted that Parliament's acts were illegal as they could pass into law only by presidential signature.


title: Impeachment

text: In the United Kingdom, in principle, anybody may be prosecuted and tried by the two Houses of Parliament for any crime. The first recorded impeachment is that of William Latimer, 4th Baron Latimer during the Good Parliament of 1376. The latest was that of Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville which started in 1805 and which ended with his acquittal in June 1806. Over the centuries, the procedure has been supplemented by other forms of oversight including select committees, confidence motions, and judicial review, while the privilege of peers to trial only in the House of Lords was abolished in 1948 (see ), and thus impeachment, which has not kept up with modern norms of democracy or procedural fairness, is generally considered obsolete.


title: Impeachment

text: In the federal system, the Article One of the United States Constitution provides that the House of Representatives has the "sole Power of Impeachment" and the Senate has "the sole Power to try all Impeachments". Article Two provides that "The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors." In the United States, impeachment is the first of two stages; an official may be impeached by a majority vote of the House, but conviction and removal from office in the Senate requires "the concurrence of two thirds of the members present". Impeachment is analogous to an indictment.


title: Impeachment

text: According to the House practice manual, "Impeachment is a constitutional remedy to address serious offenses against the system of government. It is the first step in a remedial process—that of removal from public office and possible disqualification from holding further office. The purpose of impeachment is not punishment; rather, its function is primarily to maintain constitutional government." Impeachment may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements. The Constitution provides that "Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law." It is generally accepted that "a former President may be prosecuted for crimes of which he was acquitted by the Senate".


title: Impeachment

text: The U.S. House of Representatives has impeached an official 21 times since 1789: four times for presidents, 15 times for federal judges, once for a Cabinet secretary, and once for a senator. Of the 21, the Senate voted to remove 8 (all federal judges) from office. The four impeachments of presidents were: Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998, and Donald Trump in 2019 and again in 2021. All four impeachments were followed by acquittal in the Senate. An impeachment process was also commenced against Richard Nixon, but he resigned in 1974 to avoid likely removal from office.


title: Impeachment

text: Almost all state constitutions set forth parallel impeachment procedures for state governments, allowing the state legislature to impeach officials of the state government. From 1789 through 2008, 14 governors have been impeached (including two who were impeached twice), of whom seven governors were convicted.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: Wichita Falls ( ) is a city in and the seat of government of Wichita County, Texas, United States. It is the principal city of the Wichita Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay, and Wichita counties. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 104,553, making it the 38th-most populous city in Texas. In addition, its central business district is 5 miles (8 km) from Sheppard Air Force Base, which is home to the Air Force's largest technical training wing and the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training program, the world's only multinationally staffed and managed flying training program chartered to produce combat pilots for both USAF and NATO.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: The city is home to the Newby-McMahon Building (otherwise known as the "world's littlest skyscraper"), constructed downtown in 1919 and featured in Robert Ripley's "Ripley's Believe It or Not!".


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: The Choctaw Native Americans settled the area in the early 1800s from their native Mississippi area once Americans negotiated to relocate them after the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. The treaty was signed and proclaimed in 1830-1831. As late as 1841, a large Indian settlement was present in the area that is now the city of Wichita Falls.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: American settlers arrived in the 1860s, mainly as cattle ranchers. The city was named Wichita Falls on September 27, 1876, as the Wichita River runs through the area and there was a waterfall in the river’s course in 1876. Just ten years later in 1886, a flood destroyed the original waterfall on the Wichita River for which the city was named. After nearly 100 years of visitors wanting to visit the no longer existing falls, the city built an artificial waterfall beside the river in Lucy Park. The recreated falls are high and recirculate at 3,500 gallons per minute. They are visible to south-bound traffic on Interstate 44.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: On the day the city was named in 1876, a sale of town lots was held at what is now the corner of Seventh and Ohio Streets – the birthplace of the city. The Fort Worth & Denver City Railway arrived in September 1882, the same year the city became the county seat of Wichita County. The city grew westwards from the original FW&DC train depot which was located at the northwest corner of Seventh Street and the FW&DC. This area is now referred to as the Depot Square Historic District, which has been declared a Texas Historic Landmark.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: The early history of Wichita Falls well into the 20th century also rests on the work of two entrepreneurs, Joseph A. Kemp and his brother-in-law, Frank Kell. Kemp and Kell were pioneers in food processing and retailing, flour milling, railroads, cattle, banking, and oil.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: Downtown Wichita Falls was the city's main shopping area for many years. Those shops lost ground to the creation of new shopping centers throughout the city beginning with Parker Square in 1953 and other similar developments during the 1960s and 1970s, culminating with the opening of Sikes Senter Mall in 1974. The city has been seeking funding to rebuild and restore the downtown area since 2010.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: Wichita Falls was once home to offices of several oil companies and related industries, along with oil refineries operated by the Continental Oil Company (now ConocoPhillips) until 1952 and Panhandle Oil Company American Petrofina) until 1965. Both firms continued to use a portion of their former refineries as gasoline/oil terminal facilities for many years.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: A devastating tornado hit the north and northwest portions of Wichita Falls along with Sheppard Air Force Base during the afternoon of April 3, 1964 (later referred to as "Black Friday"). As the first violent tornado on record to hit the Wichita Falls area, it left seven dead and more than 100 injured. Additionally, the tornado caused roughly $15 million in property damage with about 225 homes destroyed and another 250 damaged. It was rated F5, the highest rating on the Fujita scale, but it is overshadowed by the 1979 tornado.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: An F4 tornado struck the heavily populated southern sections of Wichita Falls in the late afternoon on Tuesday, April 10, 1979 (known as "Terrible Tuesday"). It was part of an outbreak that produced 30 tornadoes around the region. Despite having nearly an hour's advance warning that severe weather was imminent, 42 people were killed (including 25 in vehicles) and 1,800 were injured because it arrived just as many people were driving home from work. It left 20,000 people homeless and caused $400 million in damage, a U.S. record not topped by an individual tornado until the F5 Moore–Oklahoma City tornado of May 3, 1999.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: Wichita Falls is about south of the border with Oklahoma, northwest of Fort Worth, and southwest of Oklahoma City. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which are land and (0.03%) is covered by water.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: Wichita Falls experiences a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification "Cfa"), featuring long, very hot and humid summers, and cool winters. The city has some of the highest summer daily maximum temperatures in the entire U.S. outside of the Desert Southwest. Temperatures have hit as early as March 27 and as late as October 17, but more typically reach that level on 28 days annually, with 102 days of or higher annually; the average window for the latter mark is April 9–October 10. However, 59 to 60 nights of freezing lows occur, and an average of 4.8 days where the high does not rise above freezing. The monthly daily average temperature ranges from in January to in July. The record low temperature is on January 4, 1947. The highest recorded temperature is on June 28, 1980. Snowfall is sporadic and averages per season, while rainfall is typically greatest in early summer.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: From 2010 through 2013 Wichita Falls, along with a large portion of the south-central US, experienced a persistent drought. In September 2011, Wichita Falls became the first Texas city to have 100 days of or higher within one year. On every day from June 22 to August 12, the temperature reached 100 °F or higher, and from May 27 to September 3, the temperature reached 90 °F or higher. In addition, the all-time warm daily minimum of was set on July 26, and June, July, and August of that year were all the hottest on record.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: During the 2015 Texas–Oklahoma floods, Wichita Falls broke its all-time record for the wettest month, with 17.00 inches of rain recorded in May 2015.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: As of the 2020 United States census, there were 102,316 people, 37,297 households, and 23,087 families residing in the city.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: As of the census of 2000, 104,197 people, 37,970 households, and 24,984 families resided in the city. The population density was . The 41,916 housing units averaged . The racial makeup of the city was 75.1% White, 12.4% African American, 0.9% Native American, 2.2% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 6.4% from other races, and 3.0% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 14.0% of the population.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: Of the 37,970 households, 33.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.7% were married couples living together, 12.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.2% were not families. About 28.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.46, and the average family size was 3.04.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: In the city, the population was distributed as 24.7% under the age of 18, 15.2% from 18 to 24, 29.3% from 25 to 44, 18.6% from 45 to 64, and 12.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females, there were 106.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 106.7 males.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: The median income for a household in the city was $32,554, and for a family was $39,911. Males had a median income of $27,609 versus $21,877 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,761. About 10.8% of families and 13.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17.7% of those under age 18 and 10.3% of those age 65 or over.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: Wichita Falls is part of a bi-state media market that also includes the nearby, smaller city of Lawton, Oklahoma. According to Nielsen Media Research estimates for the 2016–17 season, the market – which encompasses ten counties in western north Texas and six counties in southwestern Oklahoma, has 152,950 households with at least one television set, making it the 148th-largest television market in the United States; the market also has an average of 120,200 radio listeners ages 12 and over, making it the 250th largest radio market in the nation.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: KERA-TV out of Dallas–Fort Worth serves as the default PBS member station for Wichita Falls via a translator station on UHF channel 44.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: Lucy Park is a park with a log cabin, duck pond, swimming pool, playground, frisbee golf course, and picnic areas. It has multiple paved walkways suitable for walking, running, biking, or rollerskating, including a river walk that goes to a recreation of the original falls for which the city was named (the original falls were destroyed in a 19th-century flood; the new falls were built in response to numerous tourist requests to visit the "Wichita Falls"). It is one of 37 parks throughout the city. The parks range in size from small neighborhood facilities to the 258 acres of Weeks Park featuring the Champions Course at Weeks Park, an 18-hole golf course. In addition, an off-leash dog park is within Lake Wichita Park and a skatepark adjacent to the city's softball complex. Also, unpaved trails for off-road biking and hiking are available.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: Wichita Falls is the home of the annual Hotter'N Hell Hundred, the largest single day century bicycle ride in the United States and one of the largest races in the world. The race started as a way for the city to celebrate its centennial in 1982. The race takes place over a weekend in August, and there are multiple events for people to participate in.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: In 2014, the Wichita Falls Nighthawks, an indoor football team, joined the Indoor Football League but suspended operations after the 2017 season.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: The city has also been home to a number of semi-professional, developmental, and minor league sports teams, including the Wichita Falls Drillers, a semi-pro football team that has won numerous league titles and a national championship; Wichita Falls Kings (formerly known as Wichita Falls Razorbacks), the professional basketball team Wichita Falls Texans of the Continental Basketball Association; Wichita Falls Fever in the Lone Star Soccer Alliance (1989–92); the Wichita Falls Spudders baseball team in the Texas League; the Wichita Falls Wildcats (formerly the Wichita Falls Rustlers) of the North American Hockey League, an American Tier II junior hockey league; and the Wichita Falls Roughnecks (formerly the Graham Roughnecks) of the Texas Collegiate League. The Dallas Cowboys held training camp in Wichita Falls during the late 1990s. However, the sustainability of minor or rookie league sports franchises in the Wichita Falls region have a questionable future.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: The Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame relocated to Wichita Falls from Amsterdam, New York, in November 2015.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: The mayor of Wichita Falls is Stephen Santellana, who was elected in 2016 and reelected in 2018. Mayors are elected on a nonpartisan ballot.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: Wichita Falls is located in the 69th district of the Texas House of Representatives. Lanham Lyne, a Republican, represented the district from 2011 to 2013; he was the mayor of Wichita Falls from 2005 to 2010. When Lyne declined to seek a second term in 2012, voters chose another Republican, James Frank. Wichita Falls is located in the 30th district of the Texas Senate. Craig Estes, a Republican, had held the senate seat since 2001, until Pat Fallon won election in 2018. Wichita Falls is part of Texas's 13th congressional district for the U.S. House of Representatives. Ronny Jackson, a Republican, has held this seat since 2021. The 13th District is considered the most conservative district in the country, according to the Cook Political Report 2018.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: The Texas Department of Criminal Justice James V. Allred Unit is located in Wichita Falls, northwest of downtown Wichita Falls. The prison is named for former Governor James V. Allred, a Democrat and a native of Bowie, Texas, who lived early in his career in Wichita Falls. The United States Postal Service operates the Wichita Falls Post Office, the Morningside Post Office, the Bridge Creek Post Office, and the Sheppard Air Force Base Post Office.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: Public primary and secondary education is covered by the following school districts: Wichita Falls Independent School District, City View Independent School District, Burkburnett Independent School District, and Iowa Park Consolidated Independent School District. Several private and parochial schools operate in the city, as does an active home-school community. Many of the local elementary schools participate in the Head Start program for preschool-aged children.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: Two schools in the Wichita Falls ISD participate in the International Baccalaureate programs. Hirschi High School offers the IB Diploma Programme, and G.H. Kirby Junior High School for the Middle Years Programme. Other public high schools are Wichita Falls High School and S. H. Rider High School (Wichita Falls ISD) and City View High School (City View ISD).


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: By 1879 the first school was established. The first public school was a log cabin structure established in the 1880s; in 1885 it was replaced with a former courthouse. Wichita Falls High School opened in 1890. That year a school district was created, but problems with the law allowing its establishment meant it was dissolved in 1894 and the city provided schooling until the second establishment of a school district in 1900. In 1908 the Texas Legislature issued a charter for WFISD.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: Wichita Falls is home to Midwestern State University, an accredited four-year college in the Texas Tech University System and the only independent liberal arts college in Texas offering both bachelor's and master's degrees.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: Vernon College is the designated community college for all of Wichita County. A local branch nearby offers two-year degrees, certificate programs, and workforce development programs


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: Wayland Baptist University, offering both bachelor's and master's degrees, has its main branch located in Plainview, Texas.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: Wichita Falls is the western terminus for Interstate 44. U.S. Highways leading to or through Wichita Falls include 287, 277, 281, and 82. State Highway 240 ends at Wichita Falls and State Highway 79 runs through it. Wichita Falls has one of the largest freeway mileages for a city of its size as a result of a 1954 bond issue approved by city and county voters to purchase rights-of-way for several expressway routes through the city and county, the first of which was opened in the year 1958 as an alignment of U.S. 287 from Eighth Street at Broad and Holliday Streets northwestward across the Wichita River and bisecting Lucy and Scotland Parks to the Old Iowa Park Road, the original U.S. 287 alignment. That was followed by other expressway links including U.S. 82–287 east to Henrietta (completed in the year 1968), U.S. 281 south toward Jacksboro (completed 1969), U.S. 287 northwest to Iowa Park and Electra (opened 1962), Interstate 44 north to Burkburnett and the Red River (opened 1964), and Interstate 44 from Old Iowa Park Road to U.S. 287/Spur 325 interchange on the city's north side along with Spur 325 from I-44/U.S. 287 to the main gate of Sheppard Air Force Base (both completed as a single project in 1960). However, cross-country traffic for many years had to contend with several ground-level intersections and traffic lights over Holliday and Broad Streets near the downtown area for about 13 blocks between connecting expressway links until a new elevated freeway running overhead was completed in 2001.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: Efforts to create an additional freeway along the path of Kell Boulevard for U.S. 82–277 began in 1967 with the acquisition of right-of-way that included a former railroad right-of-way and the first project including construction of the present frontage roads completed in 1977, followed by freeway lanes, overpasses, and on/off ramps in 1989 from just east of Brook Avenue west to Kemp Boulevard; similar projects west from Kemp to Barnett Road in 2001 followed by Barnett Road west past FM 369 in 2010 to tie in which a project now underway to transform U.S. 277 into a continuous four-lane expressway between Wichita Falls and Abilene.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: The city operates a bus system, Falls Ride, which runs on an hourly schedule with seven routes (except on Sundays, when only one route is in operation).


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: Greyhound Lines provides intercity bus service to other locations served by Greyhound via its new terminal at the Wichita Falls Travel Center located at Fourth and Scott in downtown. Skylark Van Service shuttles passengers to and from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on several runs during the day all week long.


title: Wichita Falls, Texas

text: The Wichita Falls Municipal Airport is served by American Eagle, with four flights daily to the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The Kickapoo Downtown Airport and the Wichita Valley Airport serve smaller, private planes.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: The Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) is the elite tactical unit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The HRT was formed to provide a full-time federal law enforcement tactical capability to respond to major terrorist incidents throughout the United States. Today, the HRT performs a number of tactical law enforcement and national security functions in high-risk environments and conditions and has deployed overseas, including with military Joint Special Operations Command units.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: The HRT, along with the Crisis Negotiation Unit (CNU), the SWAT Operations Unit that manages the field office SWAT program, and the Tactical Helicopter Unit (THU), comprise the Tactical Section of the FBI's Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG). The Hostage Rescue Team was founded in 1982 by Danny Coulson, former Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI, and completed its final certification exercise in October 1983. It was originally composed of 50 operators, later increased to over 140.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: The HRT was originally conceived during the late 1970s and was set up after FBI director William H. Webster witnessed a demonstration by the U.S. Army's Delta Force. When Webster reviewed the equipment used by the Delta Force and noticed there were no handcuffs, he inquired about it. An operator replied, "We put two rounds in their forehead. The dead don't need handcuffs." The HRT was originally to be an augmented SWAT and counter-terrorist team, capable of handling extraordinary hostage situations, large-scale counter-terrorist operations, situations involving nuclear or biological agents, or operations that local law enforcement or the regional FBI field office were not trained or equipped to handle. Final approval for the HRT was given in early 1982, and formal planning began in March that year. The initial HRT selection course was held in June 1982 and consisted of three groups of 30 candidates each. Most candidates were experienced SWAT team members. Of this group, 50 candidates were selected to continue to more advanced training.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: The final touches were added to the facilities just before Thanksgiving 1982 and, after a short holiday break, the team began its initial training program. After receiving tactical SWAT instruction, each individual was given expertise to research, such as explosives and door breaching tactics. Each operator also served as a liaison to one of the existing elite counter-terrorism teams from around the world.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: As part of their liaison duties, the men attended training exercises held by their assigned counter-terrorism unit and shared their experiences with the team. The team spent most of January 1983 honing their shooting and tactical skills at Quantico, and then traveled to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in February for a month of training and instruction with Delta Force. The team returned to Quantico for further training. It became operational in August 1983.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: The team's final certification exercise, code-named Operation Equus Red, was held in October 1983 at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. During the exercise, the HRT, a local SWAT team, and a United States Department of Energy Nuclear Emergency Search Team (NEST) were tasked with assaulting a terrorist stronghold. The "terrorist" group was also believed to be in possession of a simulated nuclear device, which was at a separate location and had to be recovered or neutralized. After the NEST aircraft confirmed the location of the device, HRT operators infiltrated the terrorist safe house, secured the device, and managed to "kill" the terrorist involved in approximately 30 seconds. The FBI's senior leadership viewed the exercise as a complete success and granted final approval for the team to become fully operational.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: Upon completion of the certification exercise, the HRT began to expand its capabilities by sending small teams of operators out for more specialized training courses. Approximately a dozen operators visited Naval Amphibious Base Coronado to receive combat diver, maritime operations, and tactics (such as visit, board, search, and seizure—VBSS) training from the United States Navy SEALs. Other team members conducted helicopter operations and aerial insertion training with the US Army's Task Force 160. Every operator also received 80 hours of medical training. The HRT traveled to Camp Peary, near Williamsburg, Virginia, for counter-terrorism training courses to develop skills in breaching barricades, running roadblocks, and defensive driving.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: Over time, HRT operators studied with the U.S. military, along with local, federal, and foreign tactical teams, and attended private courses to learn more about air assault tactics, rappelling, close quarters combat, chemical agents, terrorist psychology, surveillance methods, sniping/counter-sniping, communications and more. Tactics learned during training were shared with the team. Eventually, for close quarter battle training, the HRT decided to make things more realistic on advice from SEAL Team Six (later known as the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group or DEVGRU) commander Richard Marcinko, and the HRT introduced blood bags and wax bullets. The wax bullets were used for team-versus-team drills.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: The HRT became part of the Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG) upon its formation in 1994, due to the need to consolidate the assets necessary to respond to a critical incident in one group. Since being added to CIRG, HRT has been used to conduct law enforcement operations and counterterrorism operations globally, often deploying with military special operations forces and intelligence units.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: The HRT's equipment and tactics are the most advanced of the FBI's 56 SWAT teams and the 14 enhanced SWAT teams. The HRT's capabilities are distinguished because the HRT operators (assault and sniper teams) serve full-time and train daily.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: The HRT has the ability "to deploy within four hours, with part or all of its personnel and resources, to any location within the United States or its territories". The unit is able to operate in a variety of environments (chemical, extreme cold, night and low-light, or rural environments). The HRT's tactical teams have the ability to fast-rope, a technique in which the team rapidly descends a rope from the side of a helicopter. This technique is useful for deploying troops into an area where a helicopter cannot touch down. Even more advanced capabilities are possessed by the HRT, including High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) parachute operations, to name just one. The HRT's capabilities include advanced ground tactics, advanced maritime operations, and advanced tactical aviation operations.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: The HRT, as a whole, possesses enhanced capabilities in the maritime domain, including advanced "breaching" capabilities (the ability to circumvent locked doors aboard a ship) and ship-boarding capabilities. The HRT has vessels that are outfitted for maritime assaults, most of which have been upgraded since 2004.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: HRT also has a specialized maritime team with additional maritime capabilities including subsurface diving, closed-circuit diving (scuba gear that does not emit bubbles), and combat swimming. All operators on the maritime team are military trained in closed-circuit diving and combat swimming. In addition, an operator of the maritime assault team element is qualified to pilot and operate a freighter.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: The HRT's Tactical Aviation Unit is staffed by FBI special agents. The Tactical Helicopter Unit, a sub-unit of the Tactical Aviation Unit, contains a variety of specially modified helicopters. These include military converted tactical Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks and tactically enhanced Bell 412s and Bell 407s. Unlike the military, whose aircraft are not always in the same location as their tactical operators, the HRT's Tactical Helicopter Unit is in the vicinity of HRT central command. The HRT's tactical aviators are required to fly daily.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: The primary roles of the HRT are hostage rescue and counter-terrorism. Secondary roles of the HRT include:


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: To a lesser extent, the HRT may deploy teams or individual operators to act as snipers, or to provide protective service details for certain high-profile federal witnesses or dignitaries. Teams provide support for missions overseas and support Joint Terrorism Task Forces. Teams at home and abroad perform typical law enforcement activities, such as making arrests, processing scenes for evidence recovery, and testifying in court.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: The HRT has provided traditional law enforcement during hurricane relief operations, tactical surveys, and special events such as the Olympic Games, presidential inaugurations, and political conventions.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: Prospective HRT operators are selected based upon their background and experience, as well as their demonstrated performance during the HRT selection course. The rigorous two-week selection process includes long-distance runs, forced marches, obstacle courses, and other tests of physical and mental stamina. Throughout the entire selection process, candidates are evaluated on their ability to think under pressure and to perform whilst physically exhausted. After a six-month initial training period known as "New Operator Training School" ("NOTS"), they are headquartered at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. Both the selection course and NOTS are near mirror images of the 1st SFOD-D ("Delta Force") selection and training courses, with some minor adjustments for mission differences.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: Experienced HRT operators assigned to observer/sniper teams are sent to the United States Marine Corps Scout Sniper Basic Course. After successfully completing the course, they receive further instruction from HRT snipers. Maritime HRT operators are sent to a variety of maritime special operations courses, including Phase II of U.S. Navy BUD/S at Naval Amphibious Base, Coronado, California.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: When not operationally deployed, the HRT conducts full-time training for its members at various locations throughout the country. Two to three hours each day are set aside for physical training, a defensive tactics session, and combative training. One day a week is devoted to maintaining either perishable skills (such as fast roping, breaching, and photography) or specialized skills (such as mobile assaults, manhunt and rural operations), maritime operations, helicopter operations, parachuting, weapons of mass destruction training (provided by the United States Department of Energy), and cold weather operations. Three days are spent honing sniping or close quarters combat skills on the various training ranges available to the team. Biweekly, one day is allotted for gear maintenance. Discretionary time to be used by team leaders is built into the schedule. During a routine week of training, it is not unusual for HRT operators to fire thousands of rounds to keep their shooting skills honed. Every 12 to 18 months, the HRT also participates in at least one major combined exercise that may involve a variety of governmental entities, such as the FBI and the Departments of Defense, State, Energy, and Homeland Security.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: Three teams rotate through three 120-day cycles: training, operations, and support. During the training cycle, the team refreshes its skills and takes part in exercises, attends other courses, or trains with foreign and domestic units. During the operations cycle, the team is available for deployment (domestic or foreign). During the support cycle, the team works on special projects, maintains the HRT's equipment, and conducts research.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: The HRT is known to conduct joint training exercises and participate in exchange programs with some U.S. military units such as the Army's Combat Applications Group (otherwise known as 1st SFOD-D or Delta Force) or the Navy's DEVGRU (SEAL Team Six). The HRT routinely trains with other federal tactical teams such as the DEA's FAST Team, the United States Border Patrol's BORTAC unit or the United States Capitol Police's CERT. Occasionally the HRT trains with the French GIGN, British SAS and SBS, Irish ERU, Australia’s SRG, German GSG 9, Italy’s GIS and other international units as well as assist in the formation of corresponding units within the NATO framework such as the Hellenic Coast Guard "Special Missions Echelons" ("ΚΕΑ" ΛΣ/ΕΛ.ΑΚΤ.). In addition to the HRT's own facilities, the HRT routinely uses private and 1st SFOD-D Delta Force shoot houses and ranges. The HRT has also been known to train at Camp Peary and Harvey Point.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: Since its inception, the HRT has been involved in many of the FBI's most high-profile cases, executing numerous operations involving domestic militant groups, terrorists, and violent criminals. The first test of the team's capabilities came in the summer of 1984 when the team deployed to Los Angeles as part of the security buildup prior to the 1984 Summer Olympic Games.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: Some cases have brought the HRT heavy media attention. The HRT came under increased public and Congressional scrutiny, along with federal law enforcement in general, due to what some saw as heavy-handed tactics used at Waco and Ruby Ridge.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: On the other hand, the HRT has been involved in over 200 successful missions, both in the US and abroad. Many of these operations have received little or no attention from the world press, such as the unit's combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: Some higher-profile cases include the Waco siege; the Ruby Ridge standoff; the capture of the suspected masterminds of the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Africa; the rescue following the 2013 abduction of a five-year-old boy in Alabama; the rescue of prison guards at Talladega, Alabama, and St. Martinville, Louisiana; an arrest in Watertown, Massachusetts related to the manhunt for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of two perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombing of April 15; the 2013 rescue of Hannah Anderson; the 2014 rescue of kidnap victim Frank Arthur Janssen; the capture of Eric Frein, the sole suspect in the 2014 Pennsylvania State Police barracks attack; the protection of the 2016 Republican National Convention and the 2016 Democratic National Convention; the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge; and the rescue of three hostages in the 2022 Colleyville synagogue hostage crisis.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: The HRT has suffered four known fatalities, all training related. The first was James K. McAllister, who died during a fast rope training exercise in 1986. The second known fatality was Gregory J. Rahoi, who died in a live fire exercise in 2006.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: In May 2005, an FBI HRT McDonnell Douglas 530 helicopter crashed while conducting a fast rope exercise. Crew members sustained injuries, but none were life-threatening.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: On May 17, 2013, HRT suffered two fatalities, Christopher Lorek and Stephen Shaw, involving a helicopter while training off the coast of Virginia Beach.


title: Hostage Rescue Team

text: The HRT's helicopters are operated by their Tactical Helicopter Unit. The HRT can also make use of aircraft belonging to the Critical Incident Response Group's Aviation Special Operations Unit.


title: Doug Bradley

text: Douglas William Bradley (born 7 September 1954) is an English actor and author, best known for his role as the lead Cenobite "Pinhead" in the "Hellraiser" film series and for narration on various Cradle of Filth albums. He is also starring in the upcoming animated film "Dagon: Troll World Chronicles" as the forest monster Goeyre Heddagh.


title: Doug Bradley

text: Bradley is best known for playing the role of Pinhead, the lead Cenobite, in the first eight "Hellraiser" films, as well as Captain Elliot Spencer in two of the films, "" (1988) and "" (1992). He is one of only six actors to play the same horror character at least six consecutive times, the others being Christopher Lee (who portrayed Count Dracula), Robert Englund (who portrayed Freddy Krueger), Warwick Davis (who portrayed the Leprechaun), Brad Dourif (who portrayed Chucky) and Tobin Bell (who portrayed John Kramer/"Jigsaw"). Due to his eventual skill at application and removal of the Pinhead appliances and costume, he has been credited in some of the "Hellraiser" films as an assistant make-up artist named Bill Bradley, using his middle name.


title: Doug Bradley

text: Bradley appeared as a gym teacher in an advertisement for Direct Line insurance in the UK. He has performed narrations on several songs by Cradle of Filth, an English extreme metal band. The first was 2000's "Her Ghost in the Fog", as well as "Death Magick for Adepts" and "Tortured Soul Asylum", from the album "Midian". However, he could not appear in the music video and was replaced by actor David McEwen.


title: Doug Bradley

text: Bradley also appeared on "Swansong for a Raven" and "Satyriasis" from the band's 2004 album, "Nymphetamine". In 2006, he lent his narrations to "Rise of the Pentagram" and "Tonight in Flames" from the album "Thornography". Continuing in this vein, Bradley has contributed guest vocals to Cradle of Filth's 2008 album "Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder", on all songs except "Tragic Kingdom". He returned for their 2021 album, "Existence" "is" "Futile", on the songs "Sisters of the Mist" and "Suffer Our Dominian".


title: Doug Bradley

text: Bradley has appeared in many short horror films, such as "Red Lines" and "On Edge". He is a member of the UK animation company Renga Media, makers of the independent "Dominator" films and shorts, dividing job roles between producer and voice actor. He voiced the Loc-Nar in the short animated crossover "Heavy Metal vs. Dominator", in which characters from the "Dominator" universe meet and fight with characters from the film "Heavy Metal 2000".


title: Doug Bradley

text: After his roles in the "Hellraiser" films and the 1990 horror film "Nightbreed", 2006 saw Bradley star in "" and 2008 saw Bradley once again returning to Clive Barker's cinematic universe by way of a featured appearance in "Book of Blood". He had a small guest star appearance in the 2008 black comic horror "The Cottage". In 2010, he starred in the Anglo-Spanish horror film "Exorcismus", and he joined the Nazi zombie horror "The 4th Reich" in March 2010.


title: Doug Bradley

text: In 2011, he played a man called the Doctor in the British film noir "Jack Falls". In June 2011, it was announced that Bradley would be providing a voice-over for an independent film called "Lucifer's Unholy Desire", as well as performing in the film "The Reverend". In 2012, he played "Maynard" in the fifth film of the "Wrong Turn" series, "". In 2013, he performed in the indie film "Scream Park".


title: Doug Bradley

text: Bradley voiced the Sith Emperor for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game "", based in the "Star Wars" universe.


title: Doug Bradley

text: In 2018, Bradley joined Blackcraft Wrestling as “The Preacher”, a cult leader who acts as a General Manager type figure to the promotion.


title: Doug Bradley

text: In 2020, he created a YouTube channel on which he reads books and poems out loud. He returned on Cradle of Filth's 2021 album "Existence Is Futile", providing narration for the track "Suffer Our Dominion" and the bonus track "Sisters of the Mist".


title: Doug Bradley

text: In 2022 Bradley voiced the character Goayre Heddagh alongside actor Tim Curry in the animated horror film Dagon Troll World Chronicles.


title: Doug Bradley

text: Bradley is the author of "Sacred Monsters: Behind the Mask of the Horror Actor", which explores the history of masks in society and their applications in horror films.


title: Doug Bradley

text: Bradley is a longtime close friend of novelist Clive Barker, the two having met when they attended secondary school. He has worked with Barker in various projects since the early 1970s, most notably "Hellraiser", which is adapted from Barker's novella "The Hellbound Heart". He lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is married to Steph Sciullo.


title: The Threepenny Opera

text: The Threepenny Opera ( ) is a "play with music" by Bertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay's 18th-century English ballad opera, "The Beggar's Opera", and four ballads by François Villon, with music by Kurt Weill. Although there is debate as to how much, if any, Hauptmann might have contributed to the text, Brecht is usually listed as sole author.


title: The Threepenny Opera

text: The work offers a socialist critique of the capitalist world. It opened on 31 August 1928 at Berlin's Theater am Schiffbauerdamm.


title: The Threepenny Opera

text: Songs from "The Threepenny Opera" have been widely covered and become standards, most notably "" ("The Ballad of Mack the Knife") and "" ("Pirate Jenny").


title: The Threepenny Opera

text: In the winter of 1927–28, Elizabeth Hauptmann, Brecht's lover at the time, received a copy of Gay's play from friends in England and, fascinated by the female characters and its critique of the condition of the London poor, began translating it into German. Brecht at first took little interest in her translation project, but in April 1928 he attempted to interest the impresario in a play he was writing called "Fleischhacker", which he had, in fact, already promised to another producer. Aufricht was seeking a production to launch his new theatre company at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin, but was not impressed by the sound of "Fleischhacker". Brecht immediately proposed a translation of "The Beggar's Opera" instead, claiming that he himself had been translating it. He delivered Hauptmann's translation to Aufricht, who immediately signed a contract for it.


title: The Threepenny Opera

text: Brecht's major addition to Hauptmann's text was the addition of four songs by the French poet François Villon. Rather than translate the French himself, he used (uncredited) the translations by (), the same source he had been using since his earliest plays.


title: The Threepenny Opera

text: The first act of both works begins with the same melody ("Peachum's Morning Chorale"/"An Old Woman Clothed In Gray"), but that is the only material Weill borrowed from the melodies Johann Christoph Pepusch arranged for "The Beggar's Opera". The title "Die Dreigroschenoper" was determined only a week before the opening; it had been previously announced as simply "The Beggar's Opera" (in English), with the subtitle "Die Luden-Oper" ("The Pimp's Opera").


title: The Threepenny Opera

text: Writing in 1929, Weill made the political and artistic intents of the work clear:With the "Dreigroschenoper" we reach a public which either did not know us at all or thought us incapable of captivating listeners [...] Opera was founded as an aristocratic form of art [...] If the framework of opera is unable to withstand the impact of the age, then this framework must be destroyed...In the "Dreigroschenoper", reconstruction was possible insofar as here we had a chance of starting from scratch. Weill claimed at the time that "music cannot further the action of the play or create its background", but achieves its proper value when it interrupts the action at the right moments."


title: The Threepenny Opera

text: Weill's score shows the influence of jazz and German dance music of the time. The orchestration involves a small ensemble with a good deal of doubling-up on instruments (in the original performances, for example, some 7 players covered a total of 23 instrumental parts, though modern performances typically use a few more players).


title: The Threepenny Opera

text: "The Threepenny Opera" was first performed at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in 1928 on a set designed by Caspar Neher. Despite an initially poor reception, it became a great success, playing 400 times in the next two years. The performance was a springboard for one of the best known interpreters of Brecht and Weill's work, Lotte Lenya, who was married to Weill. Ironically the production became a great favourite of Berlin's "smart set" – Count Harry Kessler recorded in his diary meeting at the performance an ambassador and a director of the Dresdner Bank (and their wives), and concluded "One simply has to have been there."


title: The Threepenny Opera

text: Critics did not fail to notice that Brecht had included the four Villon songs translated by Ammer. Brecht responded by saying that he had "a fundamental laxity in questions of literary property."


title: The Threepenny Opera

text: By 1933, when Weill and Brecht were forced to leave Germany by the Nazi seizure of power, the play had been translated into 18 languages and performed more than 10,000 times on European stages.


title: The Threepenny Opera

text: In the United Kingdom, the first fully staged performance was given on 9 February 1956, under Berthold Goldschmidt, although there had been a concert performance in 1933, and a semi-staged performance on 28 July 1938. In between, on 8 February 1935 Edward Clark conducted the first British broadcast of the work. It received scathing reviews from Ernest Newman and other critics. But the most savage criticism came from Weill himself, who described it privately as "the worst performance imaginable … the whole thing was completely misunderstood". But his criticisms seem to have been for the concept of the piece as a Germanised version of "The Beggar's Opera", rather than for Clark's conducting of it, of which Weill made no mention.


title: The Threepenny Opera

text: America was introduced to the work by the film version of G. W. Pabst, which opened in New York in 1931.


title: The Threepenny Opera

text: The first American production, adapted into English by Gifford Cochran and Jerrold Krimsky and staged by Francesco von Mendelssohn, featured Robert Chisholm as Macheath. It opened on Broadway at the Empire Theatre, on April 13, 1933, and closed after 12 performances. Mixed reviews praised the music but slammed the production, with the critic Gilbert Gabriel calling it "a dreary enigma".


title: The Threepenny Opera

text: A French version produced by Gaston Baty and written by Ninon Steinhof and André Mauprey was presented in October 1930 at the Théâtre Montparnasse in Paris. It was rendered as '; (', or "four pennies" being the idiomatically equivalent French expression for "Threepenny").


title: The Threepenny Opera

text: In 1930 the work was premiered in Moscow at the Kamerny Theatre, directed by Alexander Tairov. It was the only one of Brecht's works to be performed in Russia during his lifetime. "Izvestia" disapproved: "It is high time that our theatres ceased playing homage to petit-bourgeois bad taste and instead turned to more relevant themes."


title: The Threepenny Opera

text: The first Italian production, titled "L'opera da tre soldi" and directed by Giorgio Strehler, premiered at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan on 27 February 1956 in the presence of Bertolt Brecht. The cast included: Tino Carraro (Mackie), Mario Carotenuto (Peachum), (Polly), Milly (Jenny), (Chief of Police). The conductor was Bruno Maderna. Set designs were by Luciano Damiani and Teo Otto; costume design by Ezio Frigerio.


title: The Threepenny Opera

text: The first Hungarian performance of the play was at the Comedy Theatre of Budapest (Vígszínház), on 6 September 1930. It was titled "A koldus operája", which is a reference to Gay's original opera. The play was translated by Jenő Heltai, who mixed Weill and Pepusch' s music, and also Brecht and Gay's texts too. The director was Ernő Szabolcs, the cast included: Pál Jávor (Mackie), Franciska Gaal (Polly), Gerő Mály (Peachum), Ella Gombaszögi (Mrs. Peachum).


title: The Threepenny Opera

text: Macheath ("Mackie," or "Mack the Knife") marries Polly Peachum. This displeases her father, who controls the beggars of London, and he endeavours to have Macheath hanged. His attempts are hindered by the fact that the Chief of Police, Tiger Brown, is Macheath's old army comrade. Still, Peachum exerts his influence and eventually gets Macheath arrested and sentenced to hang. Macheath escapes this fate via a "deus ex machina" moments before the execution when, in an unrestrained parody of a happy ending, a messenger from the Queen arrives to pardon Macheath and grant him the title of Baron. The details of the original 1928 text have often been substantially modified in later productions.


title: The Threepenny Opera

text: A draft narration by Brecht for a concert performance begins: "You are about to hear an opera for beggars. Since this opera was intended to be as splendid as only beggars can imagine, and yet cheap enough for beggars to be able to watch, it is called the "Threepenny Opera"."


title: The Threepenny Opera

text: A street singer entertains the crowd with the illustrated murder ballad or Bänkelsang, titled "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer" ("Ballad of Mack the Knife"). As the song concludes, a well-dressed man leaves the crowd and crosses the stage. This is Macheath, alias "Mack the Knife".


title: The Threepenny Opera

text: The story begins in the shop of Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum, the boss of London's beggars, who outfits and trains the beggars in return for a slice of their takings from begging. In the first scene, the extent of Peachum's iniquity is immediately exposed. Filch, a new beggar, is obliged to bribe his way into the profession and agree to pay over to Peachum 50 percent of whatever he made; the previous day he had been severely beaten up for begging within the area of jurisdiction of Peachum's protection racket.


title: The Threepenny Opera

text: After finishing with the new man, Peachum becomes aware that his grown daughter Polly did not return home the previous night. Peachum, who sees his daughter as his own private property, concludes that she has become involved with Macheath. This does not suit Peachum at all, and he becomes determined to thwart this relationship and destroy Macheath.


title: The Threepenny Opera

text: The scene shifts to an empty stable where Macheath himself is preparing to marry Polly once his gang has stolen and brought all the necessary food and furnishings. No vows are exchanged, but Polly is satisfied, and everyone sits down to a banquet. Since none of the gang members can provide fitting entertainment, Polly gets up and sings "Seeräuberjenny", a revenge fantasy in which she is a scullery maid turning pirate queen to order the execution of her bosses and customers. The gang becomes nervous when the Chief of Police, Tiger Brown, arrives, but it's all part of the act; Brown had served with Mack in England's colonial wars and had intervened on numerous occasions to prevent the arrest of Macheath over the years. The old friends duet in the "Kanonen-Song" ("Cannon Song" or "Army Song"). In the next scene, Polly returns home and defiantly announces that she has married Macheath by singing the "Barbarasong" ("Barbara Song"). She stands fast against her parents' anger, but she inadvertently reveals Brown's connections to Macheath which they subsequently use to their advantage.


title: The Threepenny Opera

text: Polly warns Macheath that her father will try to have him arrested. He is finally convinced that Peachum has enough influence to do it and makes arrangements to leave London, explaining the details of his bandit "business" to Polly so she can manage it in his absence. Before he leaves town, he stops at his favorite brothel, where he sees his ex-lover, Jenny. They sing the "Zuhälterballade" ("Pimp's Ballad", one of the Villon songs translated by Ammer) about their days together, but Macheath doesn't know Mrs Peachum has bribed Jenny to turn him in. Despite Brown's apologies, there's nothing he can do, and Macheath is dragged away to jail. After he sings the "Ballade vom angenehmen Leben" ("Ballad of the Pleasant Life"), another Villon/Ammer song, another girlfriend, Lucy (Brown's daughter) and Polly show up at the same time, setting the stage for a nasty argument that builds to the "Eifersuchtsduett" ("Jealousy Duet"). After Polly leaves, Lucy engineers Macheath's escape. When Mr Peachum finds out, he confronts Brown and threatens him, telling him that he will unleash all of his beggars during Queen Victoria's coronation parade, ruining the ceremony and costing Brown his job.


title: The Threepenny Opera

text: Jenny comes to the Peachums' shop to demand her money for the betrayal of Macheath, which Mrs Peachum refuses to pay. Jenny reveals that Macheath is at Suky Tawdry's house. When Brown arrives, determined to arrest Peachum and the beggars, he is horrified to learn that the beggars are already in position and only Mr Peachum can stop them. To placate Peachum, Brown's only option is to arrest Macheath and have him executed. In the next scene, Macheath is back in jail and desperately trying to raise a sufficient bribe to get out again, even as the gallows are being assembled.