title: The Parallax View

text: In Seattle, Washington, television journalist Lee Carter witnesses the assassination of presidential candidate Charles Carroll atop the Space Needle. A waiter armed with a revolver is pursued and falls to his death while a second waiter, also armed, leaves the scene unnoticed. A committee decides the killing was the work of a lone assassin. Three years later, Carter visits her former boyfriend, an anti-authoritarian Oregon newspaper reporter named Joe Frady, claiming others must have been behind the assassination as six of the witnesses to the killing have since died and she fears she will be next. Frady does not take her seriously; however, Carter is soon found dead of a drug overdose.


title: The Parallax View

text: Guilty over disregarding Carter's pleas, Frady visits the small town of Salmontail to probe the recent death of Judge Arthur Bridges, also a witness. After engaging in a bar fight with a local deputy, Frady attracts the attention of Salmontail's sheriff L. D. Wicker, who offers to take Frady to the spot where Bridges drowned. When they arrive at the dam, however, Wicker pulls his gun on Frady while the floodgates are opening, plotting to have him drown the same way Bridges did. Frady manages to escape, while Wicker drowns. Frady commandeers Wicker's squad car, and at the sheriff's house he uncovers Parallax Corporation documents that reveal that the organization recruits political assassins.


title: The Parallax View

text: Frady tries to convince his skeptical newspaper editor Bill Rintels he is on to a big story, connecting the dots of witnesses of assassinations who have died, but Rintels refuses to support his efforts. Undaunted, Frady seeks out a local psychology professor who assesses the Parallax Corporation's personality test taken from Wicker's desk, and deems it to be likely a profiling exam to identify psychopaths.


title: The Parallax View

text: Austin Tucker, the paranoid aide to the assassinated Carroll and last remaining witness, agrees to meet Frady on his boat, while anxiously revealing there have been two attempts on his life since Carroll's assassination. Shortly after Tucker shows photos to Frady of the second waiter, who was the actual gunman, a bomb explodes on board, killing Tucker and his assistant. Frady survives by diving overboard but is believed to be dead. Later that night, Frady slips into the newspaper's offices and informs Rintels of his belief that he has uncovered an organization that recruits assassins, and wants the public to believe he is dead so he can apply to the Parallax Corporation under an assumed identity.


title: The Parallax View

text: Days later, Jack Younger, a Parallax official, pays Frady a visit to let him know he is, based on his preliminary application, the kind of man Parallax is interested in. Frady is accepted for training in the Parallax Corporation's division of Human Engineering in Los Angeles, where he watches a montage that associates positive images with negative actions.


title: The Parallax View

text: While leaving the Parallax's offices, Frady recognizes one of the Parallax operatives from a photo Tucker showed him, as the second waiter from Carroll's assassination. He watches the assassin retrieve a case from a car, drive to an airport, and check it as stowed baggage on a passenger jet. Frady boards the plane and notices a senator aboard, but cannot find the assassin, who is actually watching the jet's takeoff from the airport's roof. Frady writes a warning that there is a bomb on board on a napkin and slips it onto the drink service cart. The warning is found and the jet returns to Los Angeles. Passengers are evacuated moments before the bomb explodes.


title: The Parallax View

text: Returning to his apartment, Frady is confronted by Younger about not being the man whose identity he has been using. Frady 'confesses' he is actually yet another man who had been trying to hide that he was a registered sex offender, and Younger agrees to validate this new identity. Later, at the newspaper office, Rintels listens to a secretly recorded tape of the conversation between Frady and Younger, then places it in an envelope with other such tapes. Rintels is poisoned by the senator's killer and bomb-planter, and the tapes disappear.


title: The Parallax View

text: Frady goes to the Parallax offices to see Younger, and is told he is not there, but then sees him leaving the building. He follows the operative to the dress rehearsal for a political rally for Senator George Hammond and hides in the auditorium's catwalks to observe Parallax agents, who are posing as security personnel. Frady attempts to follow one of the men back to the auditorium, but finds he had been locked in the catwalk area. As Hammond drives a golf cart across the auditorium floor, an unseen sniper fatally shoots him, causing pandemonium below.


title: The Parallax View

text: Frady realizes too late he has been set up as a scapegoat and attempts to flee across the catwalks, but is spotted by the police who are now in the auditorium below. As Frady runs to the reopened exit door from the catwalks, a shadowy agent (implied to be the same Parallax assassin whom the audience and Frady have seen throughout the film) steps through, killing Frady with a shotgun. Six months later, a committee that investigated Carroll's death reports that Frady, acting alone, killed Hammond out of paranoia and misguided patriotism.


title: The Parallax View

text: The film is based on a novel by Loren Singer. While the novel followed witnesses of John F. Kennedy's assassination who were killed, the screenplay shifted the victim to a fictional politician closely resembling Robert F. Kennedy. Robert Towne did an uncredited rewrite on the screenplay.


title: The Parallax View

text: Most of the images used in the assassin training montage were of anonymous figures or important historical figures, featuring among others Richard Nixon, Adolf Hitler, Pope John XXIII, and Lee Harvey Oswald (in the picture taken moments after his shooting). The montage also uses a drawing by Jack Kirby of the Marvel Comics character Thor. It juxtaposes the concepts of LOVE, MOTHER, FATHER, HOME, ENEMY, and ME. The montage "captures the confusion of post-Kennedy America" by demonstrating the decay of values and longstanding traditions.


title: The Parallax View

text: It has been compared to the brainwashing scene in the 1971 Stanley Kubrick film "A Clockwork Orange".


title: The Parallax View

text: At the time of its release, "The Parallax View" received mixed reactions from critics. Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars. While Beatty offered a good performance Ebert said the actor was not called upon to exercise his full talents, and Ebert also noted similarities to the 1973 film "Executive Action", but said "Parallax" was "a better use of similar material, however, because it tries to entertain instead of staying behind to argue." In his review for "The New York Times", Vincent Canby wrote, "Neither Mr. Pakula nor his screenwriters, David Giler and Lorenzo Semple, Jr., display the wit that Alfred Hitchcock might have used to give the tale importance transcending immediate plausibility. The moviemakers have, instead, treated their central idea so soberly that they sabotage credulity." Joseph Kanon of "The Atlantic" found the film's subject pertinent: "what gives the movie its real force is the way its menace keeps absorbing material from contemporary life."


title: The Parallax View

text: "Time" magazine's Richard Schickel wrote, "We would probably be better off rethinking—or better yet, not thinking about—the whole dismal business, if only to put an end to ugly and dramatically unsatisfying products like "The Parallax View"."


title: The Parallax View

text: In 2006, "Entertainment Weekly" critic Chris Nashawaty wrote, ""The Parallax View" is a mother of a thriller... and Beatty, always an underrated actor thanks (or no thanks) to his off-screen rep as a Hollywood lothario, gives a hell of a performance in a career that's been full of them."


title: The Parallax View

text: The motion picture won the Critics Award at the Avoriaz Film Festival (France) and was nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture. Gordon Willis won the Award for Best Cinematography from the National Society of Film Critics (USA).


title: The Parallax View

text: The film's reception has been more positive in recent years. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 88% based on reviews from 40 critics. The site's consensus states ""The Parallax View" blends deft direction from Alan J. Pakula and a charismatic Warren Beatty performance to create a paranoid political thriller that stands with the genre's best." On Metacritic the film has a score of 65% based on reviews from 12 critics.


title: The Parallax View

text: Reviewing films depicting political assassination conspiracies for "The Guardian", director Alex Cox labelled the film the "best JFK conspiracy movie". Film critic Matt Zoller Seitz has called the film, "a damn near perfect movie".


title: Joan Severance

text: Severance was born in Houston, Texas, the daughter of Martha and John C. Severance. Her father was an IBM systems manager who had to move frequently around the world. "By the time I was 11," said Severance, "we'd lived in 12 different places." Her family and she also lived in Libya, but in 1967 had to flee the country because of the Six-Day War. They left the Middle East and returned to the United States, settling in Houston.


title: Joan Severance

text: Severance attended Westbury High School, and at age 15, started modeling to make money for college. Although she hoped to become a veterinarian, she could not afford the cost of tuition. After appearing in the "Miss Houston" beauty contest, she was discovered by Alan Martin, a local photographer in Houston, who introduced her to John Casablancas. Casablancas signed her up with the Elite modeling agency and sent her on assignment to Paris. During this time, she met her future husband, model Eric Milan.


title: Joan Severance

text: During her time in Paris, she posed for "Sportswear International", "Vogue Paris", and others. Upon her return to the United States, Severance became one of America's top models, filming over 40 commercials, and earning $7,500 per day. She has also modeled for Versace, Chanel, and Armani.


title: Joan Severance

text: Severance was also on the covers of the January 1990 and November 1992 issues of "Playboy" magazine, both featuring her in a nude pictorial. More recently, at age 52, she appeared in a six-page editorial along with an interview in the Spring/Summer 2011 issue of "Genlux" magazine.


title: Joan Severance

text: In 1986, Severance began auditioning for acting bits at the urging of her friend Robin Leach. She made her debut in a small role in the first "Lethal Weapon" film in 1987. She usually takes the "femme fatale" roles in low-budget horror and murder-mystery movies including "Lake Consequence" (1990), "Bird on a Wire" (1993), "Criminal Passion" (1994), and "Payback" (1995). She was featured alongside Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder in the 1989 comedy "See No Evil, Hear No Evil", and as Hulk Hogan's love interest, Samantha N. Moore, in the wrestling film "No Holds Barred" (1989). She had leading roles in Roger Corman's "Black Scorpion" (1995). She starred in and co-produced the sequels "" (1997) and "The Last Seduction II" (1999).


title: Joan Severance

text: Her most extensive role was a villainess for an eleven-episode story arc of the TV series "Wiseguy"; she played Susan Profitt, half of a brother/sister crime team (the other half was played by Kevin Spacey) to great acclaim. Their partnership was reprised in "See No Evil, Hear No Evil". In the early 1990s, Severance appeared as Samantha "Sam" Dooley, the Martian Belle, in two training videos for Virtual World Entertainment alongside other actors such as Cheech Marin, "Weird Al" Yankovic, R. Lee Ermey, and Judge Reinhold. From 1998 to 1999, Severance played Security Chief Camille Hunter on the Aaron Spelling television series "" on UPN.


title: Joan Severance

text: In 2006, Severance appeared in My Network TV telenovela "Wicked Wicked Games". She was also in shows such as "" and "One Tree Hill". In 2013, she was in "". In 2014, she was on "Celebrity Wife Swap" with Robin Leach.


title: Joan Severance

text: Severance married fellow model Eric Milan in 1977. They separated amicably in 1984. According to Severance, they "just grew apart". Severance was diagnosed with vitiligo when she was eight years old; the primary area affected by the disease is her eyes.


title: Lovejoy

text: Lovejoy is a British television comedy-drama mystery series, based on the novels by John Grant under the pen name Jonathan Gash. The show, which ran to 71 episodes over six series, was originally broadcast on BBC1 between 10 January 1986 and 4 December 1994, although there was a five-year gap between the first and second series. It was adapted for television by Ian La Frenais.


title: Lovejoy

text: The series concerns the adventures of the eponymous Lovejoy, a roguish antiques dealer based in East Anglia filmed around Long Melford. Within the trade, he has a reputation as a "divvy", a person with almost unnatural powers of recognising exceptional items as well as distinguishing genuine antiques from fakes or forgeries.


title: Lovejoy

text: The series was notable for its style and pace. Lovejoy would frequently break the fourth wall, revealing his thoughts and motives by addressing the audience directly. The first series was shown on BBC1 in the first half of 1986. It concluded with a two-part special.


title: Lovejoy

text: Despite the first series being a moderate ratings success, "Lovejoy" was not brought back until January 1991. The original four cast members returned for the next two series between 1991 and 1992. With the start of the fourth series in 1993, Malcolm Tierney reprised his first series role as Charlie Gimbert.


title: Lovejoy

text: During the fifth series, several cast changes were made. Phyllis Logan left the show in the second episode and Chris Jury departed in the sixth episode, although both characters returned for the sixth series finale. Two new regular characters were added: Lovejoy's new apprentice, Beth Taylor, and Charlotte Cavendish, who ran a local antiques auction house.


title: Lovejoy

text: The sixth and final series of ten episodes was broadcast between October and December 1994. Two ninety-minute "Lovejoy" specials for Christmas were shown in 1992 and 1993. The theme tune used in the opening and end credits, as well as the incidental music for each episode, was composed by Denis King.


title: Lovejoy

text: In the United States, the series was first broadcast on the A&E Network. It was marketed as "The Lovejoy Mysteries" on VHS in the United States. The DVD release of the entire series has returned to the title of "Lovejoy".


title: Death by misadventure

text: In the United Kingdom, death by misadventure is the recorded manner of death for an accidental death, caused by a risk taken voluntarily.


title: Death by misadventure

text: Misadventure in English law, as recorded by coroners and on death certificates and associated documents, is one that is primarily attributed to an accident that occurred due to a risk that was taken voluntarily. In contrast, when a cause of death is listed as an accident rather than a misadventure, this implies no unreasonable willful risk.


title: Death by misadventure

text: "Misadventure may be the right conclusion when a death arises from some deliberate human act which unexpectedly and unintentionally goes wrong."


title: Death by misadventure

text: Legally defined "manner of death": a way by which an actual "cause of death" (trauma, exposure, etc.) was allowed to occur. For example, a death caused by an illicit drug overdose may be ruled a death by misadventure, as the user took the risk of drug usage voluntarily. Misadventure is a form of unnatural death, a category that also includes accidental death, suicide, and homicide.


title: Death by misadventure

text: In the case of "R v Wolverhampton Coroner", it was held that the coroner must establish death by misadventure on the balance of probabilities or commonly known as "more likely than not". This is opposed to beyond reasonable doubt, which is used elsewhere.


title: Paul Benedict

text: Paul Benedict (September 17, 1938 – December 1, 2008) was an American actor who made numerous appearances in television and films, beginning in 1965. He was known for his roles as The Number Painter on the PBS children's show "Sesame Street" and as the English neighbor Harry Bentley on the CBS sitcom "The Jeffersons".


title: Paul Benedict

text: Benedict was born in Silver City, New Mexico, the son of Alma Marie (née Loring), a journalist, and Mitchell M. Benedict, a doctor, and grew up in Massachusetts, where he graduated from Boston College High School and Suffolk University. Benedict served a tour of duty in the United States Marine Corps. His oversized jaw and large nose were partially attributed to acromegaly; he was first diagnosed with it by an endocrinologist who saw Benedict in a theatrical production.


title: Paul Benedict

text: Norman Lear cast Benedict as a Zen Buddhist in "Cold Turkey", which was completed in late fall 1969 but not released until February 1971. Benedict would go on to work with Lear in the coming years on various television projects.


title: Paul Benedict

text: Benedict was best known for his role as Harry Bentley on the television series "The Jeffersons". He played this role from the series' inception in 1975 until 1981, and then returned in 1983 and remained until the end of the series in 1985. His character was a well-mannered Englishman who lived in the apartment next door to George and Louise Jefferson. He worked at the United Nations as a translator and was a bachelor. He was liked by all of the characters on the show except George Jefferson, who found him annoying, but they eventually became friends as the show progressed. Harry was also known for telling boring, pointless stories about his past, particularly about his childhood and relatives in England.


title: Paul Benedict

text: Benedict played the recurring character The Number Painter on the long-running children's PBS show "Sesame Street".


title: Paul Benedict

text: Benedict played the father of a fugitive teen runaway in the 1971 film "Taking Off", which was Miloš Forman’s first American film. In the same year he had a small role as a food vendor in "They Might Be Giants", starring George C. Scott. Perhaps his best-known movie role from that period was that of Reverend Lindquist in Sydney Pollack's 1972 film "Jeremiah Johnson", starring Robert Redford.


title: Paul Benedict

text: In the 1974 film "The Front Page", Benedict appeared as Plunkett, the emissary of the governor. In Dino De Laurentiis' "Mandingo" (1975), he played a slave trader opposite James Mason and Perry King. In the movie "The Goodbye Girl" (1977) starring Richard Dreyfuss and Marsha Mason, Benedict played the stage director of a production of "Richard III" in which Richard III was to be portrayed as a stereotypical gay man. He was the patiently eccentric butler in Dr. Necessiter's Gothic-castle apartment in "The Man With Two Brains" (1983), and had a short scene in the mockumentary "This Is Spinal Tap" (1984), playing Tucker Smitty Brown, the awkward desk clerk who checks in the band. Called a "twisted old fruit" by the band's manager Ian, he replies, "I'm just as God made me, sir."


title: Paul Benedict

text: In 1988, Benedict played Fairchild, Dudley Moore's butler in the movie "", the sequel to the hit 1981 film "Arthur". That same year, in the film "Cocktail", he portrayed a condescending business college professor. In the 1990 film "The Freshman", he played a similar role, this time an NYU film school professor. In 1991, he starred in "The Addams Family" as the grouchy judge George Womack. He also made an appearance as the incorrectly assumed title character in the 1996 film "Waiting for Guffman", another mockumentary involving many of the same writers and actors as "This Is Spinal Tap". He also played Fay's father in the story of Rumpelstiltskin in the "Between the Lions" episode "Hay Day". He also appeared on the TV show a Different World, season 4 episode 8 as Mr. Ludlow.


title: Paul Benedict

text: Benedict appeared in a 1998 "Seinfeld" episode as a magazine editor with "The New Yorker" who was questioned by Elaine about a cartoon in the magazine. His final television appearance was a guest spot on "The Drew Carey Show" in 2002.


title: Paul Benedict

text: Following his graduation from Suffolk University in his hometown of Boston, Benedict began acting at the Theatre Company of Boston and performed with Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino.


title: Paul Benedict

text: In addition to his varied film and television roles, Benedict was an accomplished theater actor, having appeared on Broadway multiple times, notably in Eugene O'Neill's two-character play "Hughie" in 1996 (performing with Al Pacino) at the Circle in the Square Theater, and more recently in "The Music Man" in 2000–2001. He appeared Off-Broadway in 1986 in Terrence McNally's "It's Only a Play". He had directed a production of the work Off-off-Broadway several years before.


title: Paul Benedict

text: In 2007, Benedict performed as "Hirst" in Harold Pinter's "No Man's Land" at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts.


title: Paul Benedict

text: Benedict directed Frank D. Gilroy's "Any Given Day" on Broadway. Off-Broadway, he directed the original production of Terrence McNally's "Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune", and Kathy Najimy's and Mo Gaffney's "The Kathy and Mo Show", which won an Obie Award.


title: Paul Benedict

text: On December 1, 2008, Benedict was found dead of a brain hemorrhage at his home in Aquinnah, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. He was 70 years old.


title: Paul Benedict

text: Benedict was awarded a posthumous Elliot Norton Award by the Boston Theater Critics Association in 2009.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: Angelo "Quack Quack" Ruggiero Sr. (; July 29, 1940 – December 4, 1989) was a member of the Gambino crime family and a friend of John Gotti's. Once Gotti became leader of the family he made Ruggiero a caporegime. Although he showed little organizing or money making ability, anyone questioning Ruggiero's suitability for a top position in the hierarchy did so at their peril; the FBI regarded Ruggiero as an unpredictable psychopath not amenable to confrontational tactics. While Gotti was held in pretrial detention for a state case that he eventually beat, Ruggiero served as his contact with the crime family, until the impulsive capo got himself thrown in jail beside Gotti by cursing and arguing with the judge during a hearing. This blunder lost Ruggiero any chance he had of becoming Gotti's underboss.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: Ruggiero's father was a first-generation immigrant from Naples, Italy who was not involved in organized crime. Ruggiero's mother was Emma Campasano. Ruggiero's brothers were Gambino associate Salvatore Ruggiero Sr., John Ruggiero (born June 9, 1946), and Francis A. "Little Frankie" Ruggiero (born c.a. 1964). Ruggiero's nephew is mob associate Salvatore Ruggiero Jr. Ruggiero's cousins include Gambino underboss Aniello Dellacroce, and Sean and Shannon Connelly. Ruggiero is also a distant relative of John Gotti's, through Gotti's and Dellacroce's shared mistress, Shannon Connelly.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: Angelo Salvatore Ruggiero Sr. was born at Lutheran Hospital and raised in the East New York section of Brooklyn. A high school dropout, Ruggiero grew up with future Gambino boss John Gotti and underboss Sammy Gravano. In the 1950s, Ruggiero was arrested for street fighting, public intoxication, car theft, bookmaking, possession of an illegal firearm, and burglary. Several of his recorded arrests as a juvenile delinquent were in the company of John Gotti. In 1966, Ruggiero and Gotti were arrested for attempting to steal a cement mixer truck.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: On May 22, 1973, Ruggiero, Gotti, and a Gambino gunman, Ralph Galione, killed mobster James McBratney in a Staten Island bar. McBratney had recently tried to kidnap a Gambino loanshark for ransom, and the Gambino family leadership wanted him dead. The plan was to lure McBratney out of the bar before shooting him, but McBratney refused to cooperate, and the gunmen shot him there. Gotti and Ruggiero were later convicted of manslaughter and sent to prison. In July 1977, both men were released on parole. Soon after their release, Ruggiero and Gotti were inducted into the Gambino family as made men in a ceremony officiated by the family boss Paul Castellano, consigliere Joseph N. Gallo, and underboss Dellacroce. It is suggested by law enforcement that Dellacroce's role as underboss and fondness for John Gotti and his nephew were the reasons they were promoted to "made men".


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: From 1977 to 1984, to satisfy his parole conditions, Ruggiero took a no-show job as a salesman for Arc Plumbing and Heating Corporation, which was owned by Gambino associates Anthony and Caesar Gurino. After his brother Salvatore became a wanted fugitive, Ruggiero and Gene Gotti kept in touch by calling Salvatore "just about every night from various public phone booths."


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: Ruggiero was involved in the 1973 murder of James McBratney, with Gotti and Ralph Galione. Ruggiero also participated in the 1985 slaying of Gambino leader Paul Castellano. Finally, Ruggiero was suspected in the 1980 disappearance of John Favara, a neighbor of Gotti's who had killed Gotti's 12-year-old son Frank in a car accident.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: Ruggiero was later the subject of a government undercover investigation. Mobster turned government informant Wilfred Johnson provided investigators with the layout of Ruggerio's home so that they could install four bugs and wire taps. Investigators monitored Ruggiero's activities in narcotics. Investigators later recorded conversations between Ruggiero and Gene Gotti that implicated the two men in Castellano's murder.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: Ruggiero's uncle, Aniello Dellacroce, was an original supporter of Gambino boss Albert Anastasia's who became underboss under Anastasia's successor, Carlo Gambino. Before Gambino died, he named Paul Castellano as boss with Dellacroce remaining as underboss. Although Dellacroce was unhappy with Gambino's decision, he supported Castellano in the name of family unity.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: Although Dellacroce helped Ruggiero during his early years with the family, many observers felt that Dellacroce was actually much closer to Gotti. Dellacroce's relationship with Ruggiero was tested when Peter Tambone, a Ruggiero associate, was arrested for narcotics trafficking. Dellacroce made it clear that he would kill Ruggiero, Gotti, or anyone else he discovered dealing in narcotics. To save Tambone's life, Ruggiero instructed Tambone to claim that he was never involved with the heroin, only the laundering of the drug money.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: I don't think if he lived (Dellacroce), he would've let Angelo get murdered. He would have probably put him on a shelf somewhere and appease Paul that way. If he let Paul kill him, there would have been a war. I think he felt, Paul's the boss, so let's 'fess up, this is the truth, this is what happened, here are the tapes. Then, if Paul followed up and said, "Well, I want him dead", Neil would have fought tooth and nail to save him. And if he couldn't, who knows what the fuck would've happened?


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: I don't think John (Gotti) gave a fuck about Angelo or the tapes. I think he was looking to create a situation to capitalize on our other grievances about Paul. There was tension between Aniello Dellacroce and his followers and Paul Castellano, and Frank DeCicco enjoyed their mutual respect. But when Ruggiero tried to convince DeCicco that Dellacroce had real disputes against Castellano, he did not believe him. To Ruggiero's unhappiness, DeCicco said that as far as he was concerned, his uncle was a faithful underboss to Paul Castellano. Angelo would also listen to his uncle's protege and childhood friend, John Gotti, insult Dellacroce about his "La Cosa Nostra bullshit".


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: When Dellacroce was dying, Ruggiero was a constant visitor to his bedside until his death on December 2, 1985.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: Following the diagnosis of his uncle's terminal cancer, Paul Castellano issued an even stronger edict on narcotics, ruling that any member of the family made after 1962 was strictly prohibited from any involvement in narcotics under pain of death. He followed up by pressuring the American Mafia Commission to issue a firm Mafia-wide ban that would also carry an instant death penalty. This new edict was aimed directly at John Gotti, Ruggiero, and Dellacroce, whom Castellano began to suspect had been secretly sanctioning (and profiting from) Gotti's narcotics operation. Castellano hoped that these and a number of other politically motivated moves in the crime family would break the sudden, ambitious ascent of Ruggiero and John Gotti.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: Ruggiero frequently complained about the lack of money that he was earning through his illicit criminal enterprises. Authorities later commented that, judging by appearances, however, both Ruggiero and John Gotti seemed blithely unconcerned by a second consequence of the Ravenite Social Club wire tapping operation, a grand jury subpoena calling forth Ruggiero, John Gotti, and ten other habitués of the Ravenite to discuss certain aspects of organized crime, as revealed by the successful Operation Acorn.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: Gambino crime family capo John Carneglia often complained about Ruggiero to fellow criminals stating, "Dial any seven numbers, and there's a fifty-fifty chance that Angelo will answer the phone." Every other Sunday, Ruggiero drove to Castellano's house in Todt Hill, Staten Island to report to Castellano about the activities of the Bergin crew and the profits he could expect from the crew's hijacking and gambling operations. At home, Ruggiero would complain about Castellano's high-handed manner. He sneered that Castellano was a "milk drinker" and a "pansy". He put down Castellano's two sons, who were running Dial Poultry, as "the chicken men", and called business advisers that Castellano had around him as "the Jew club." He referred to Thomas Gambino, who oversaw the family's interests in the garment center as a "sissy dressmaker". He also conjured up images of Castellano and Bilotti spending evenings together at Todt Hill, "whacking off."


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: On December 16, 1985, only two weeks after Dellacroce's death, Castellano and his new underboss Thomas Bilotti were murdered outside Sparks Steak House in Manhattan. John Gotti now assumed the role of Gambino family boss.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: Given John Gotti's new position as Gambino crime family boss in 1985, Gotti no longer handled the actual specifics of contract killings and assigned the job to Ruggiero.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: Ruggiero frequently insulted Gotti behind his back, which was recorded on FBI wiretaps. He considered Gotti a "sick motherfucker" whose "fucking mouth goes a mile a minute." He also complained that Gotti was always "abusing" and "talking about people", and was "wrong on a lot of things." Even so, he spoke of a love for Gotti, whom he equated to a "brother".


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: Ruggiero was considered John Gotti's biggest ego booster among his close associates, despite the behind-the-back barbs. He later became a father figure to John Gotti Jr., who considered him an "uncle" although they were not related by marriage or blood.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: Although the Ruggiero and Gotti families have close, long-lasting ties, when Peter Gotti and Gotti Jr. were promoted to boss of the Gambino crime family, Ruggiero's son, Angelo Ruggiero Jr., and nephew, Salvatore Ruggiero Jr., were not promoted to the ranks of made men, as Ruggiero's uncle Dellacroce had done for Junior's father, John Gotti. This might be due to the legal troubles Angelo Ruggiero Sr. brought upon John Gotti and the Gambino crime family after having his house tapped by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Department of Justice.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: For reasons which have never been made entirely clear, mob associate Wilfred Johnson hated Ruggiero. Out of all the members of the Bergin crew he seemed most intent as an informant on hurting Ruggiero, whom he referred to as "that fat fuck". However, Johnson pointedly did not include John Gotti in his discussion of the Bergin narcotics operation, insisting to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that he didn't know too much about that subject. The FBI suspected this was a lie, but Johnson nevertheless provided them with precise sketches of the interior of the Ruggiero home in Cedarhurst, New York, accompanied by recommendations on the best places to plant a wire transmitter. When the bug was planted in 1982, the FBI was provided with what is now considered by many in law enforcement to be one of the most remarkable oral histories ever recorded on the progress of a major criminal conspiracy.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: Ruggiero later helped murder Gambino crime family street soldier Anthony Plate, with John Gotti and Wilfred Johnson, for his uncle Dellacroce in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: Citing Wilfred Johnson, James Cardinali, Mark Reiter, and George Yudzevich, FBI informants, the FBI's "Gambino Squad" in Queens, New York, received permission from the United States Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., to seek a wiretap order on Ruggiero's home phone, which was granted November 9, 1981. They were investigating loansharking and illegal gambling, but soon turned their attention towards the trafficking of heroin. The tapped telephone in Ruggiero's home was listed in his daughter Princess Ruggiero's name. It was singled out because he had told informants it was "safe". They said that Ruggiero, only a few months after the Bergin wiretapping from Queens officials, was openly discussing on the phone the loansharking and gambling rackets that he, John Gotti, and Gene Gotti operated.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: In its initial request to wiretap the telephone, the FBI listed Peter Gotti and Richard Gotti as loanshark collectors, and stated that Ruggiero was a "known murderer who would, without question, seek physical retribution and possibly murder a shylock victim who is unable to pay his debts." Somehow Ruggiero found out that agents had been listening to him and went into hiding. The affidavit caused panic and deception within the Dellacroce–Gotti faction regime and the Paul Castellano loyalists in the Gambino crime family, whose titular boss had imposed a death penalty on family members engaged in drug dealing.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: Somehow, sometime in late June 1985, the Bergin crew finally demonstrated it could get accurate information. Ruggiero obtained a pasted-together version of the last of the FBI's six Ruggiero electronic-surveillance affidavits. The notes told him that FBI Agent John Conroy was not all he cracked himself up to be and that attorney Michael Coiro was not wired into the Eastern District as he imagined. Critically, the FBI working papers confirmed the depth of the probe and the fact that it was supported by a three-bug invasion of Ruggiero's home. Sources advised Ruggiero became scared to death because he had been lying systematically to Paul Castellano and his uncle Aniello Dellacroce, insofar as he had constantly told them that he had not been dealing in drugs by himself, but merely cleaning up loose ends of his brother Salvatore's narcotics operation.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: On December 1, 1984, the Ruggiero wiretap was removed because he moved from Howard Beach, Queens to Cedarhurst, New York, to a house he was having renovated. Ruggiero told informants it was a good move for him and that the FBI would not know where he lived. In fact, pen registers at the Our Friends Social Club had disclosed several calls to his home in Cedarhurst, and FBI agents were watching on the day Ruggiero moved in. The agents had increased physical surveillance of Ruggiero and John Gotti, suspecting they might be dealing drugs. Despite Ruggiero's growing uneasiness and his efforts to discuss matters in code, evidence of narcotics trafficking began to grow around him mostly from his tape recorded telephone conversations with drug traffickers Alphonse Sisca and Arnold Squitieri.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: On April 17, 1984, Ruggiero met with Jack Conroy. Conroy was an associate who said he had a source who worked at the telephone company, which is notified when phones are being legally tapped, and he could find out who authorized the taps. A week later, he told Ruggiero this would cost $800- $1,000 for his telephone company source and $200 each for his partner and him. Ruggiero agreed.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: In a few days, Conroy delivered a bill of goods. He said the taps were legal because of a March 18 federal court order in the Southern District of New York, which is Manhattan and the Bronx. This invention caused Ruggiero to speculate that he was only peripherally involved in an investigation aimed at someone else. Just in case, however, he told Conroy, who had just suckered Ruggiero out of $1,000, that he would get some other telephone numbers for him to check. No problem, Conroy told Ruggiero. Jack Conroy was really an undercover FBI agent who was posing as a telephone repairman.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: Ruggiero at the time the indictments were being prepared seemed to not be worried about the outcome of the trial. He spent $40,000 on remodeling his home in Cedarhurst and was overheard saying, "the bugs in this house were a bunch of bullshit, and nothing is coming." His confidence later seemed ridiculous, even to his confederates.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: After Castellano was arrested for racketeering and other crimes, he learned for the first time that his home had been bugged by the FBI, and that the Ruggiero tapes were the legal basis for it. Castellano went to Ruggiero's uncle, Aniello Dellacroce, and demanded he give over the tapes. Dellacroce tried to placate Castellano, saying that there were many personally embarrassing moments on the tapes that Ruggiero did not want anyone to hear. He said that he wanted the tapes not to justify murdering him, but for his lawyers who were trying to suppress the introduction of his own tapes in the upcoming 1985 Mafia Commission Trial. In ensuing sessions between Ruggiero, Gotti and Dellacroce, Ruggiero remained adamant about not giving up the tapes. He accused his uncle of betrayal for even entertaining the thought. He told his lawyers he would kill them if they gave up the tapes.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: Sammy Gravano stated, "I didn't know till later that the bug on him gave the government the OK, the right legally, to bug Paul (Paul Castellano)'s house. It was Angie's big mouth. I mean, he's caught on tape all over the fucking place. His tapes, the tape with Gerry Lang (Gennaro Langella) and Donnie Shacks (Dominick Martomorano). You name it and Angie's on tape. And always talking about stuff that he ain't supposed to be even mentioning to anybody. We find out about the tapes on Angie when he was arrested. And they eventually would become a major fucking problem. Ultimately, people would say these tapes and what was on them probably led to Paul's downfall. But what really led to it was also a lot of things he was doing that people in the family were against, and when the time came, when it came down the wire, this was why me and Frank DeCicco and the other guys went along with it. Right then though, Angie's tapes had nothing to do with me whatsoever. I was never at Angie's house. I'm not on any of his tapes in any way, shape or form. That was all Angie's problem. John Gotti's problem. And Paul's."


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: In June 1986 Ruggiero successfully arranged the murder of Gambino crime family capo, Robert DiBernardo. Ruggiero started talking subversively about DiBernardo. Sammy Gravano later said,


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: After the botched murder of Lucchese crime family mobster Anthony Casso, who was a "soldier" at the time, Casso openly called Ruggiero an "idiot". Insulted, Ruggiero decided to have Casso murdered, a task entrusted to Michael Paradiso, one of John Gotti's oldest friends. Paradiso, in turn, assigned the actual task of killing to three hoodlums, including a Staten Island thug named James Hydell, a nephew of Gambino crime family capo Daniel Marino. Hydell shot Casso five times, but failed to kill him, a mistake that proved costly: kidnapped by Stephen Caracappa and Louis Eppolito, Hydell was hideously tortured by Anthony Casso for twelve hours, then killed, all as a warning to Ruggiero.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: The incident further rattled Gotti's faith in Ruggiero's abilities as a capo, and created a major managerial problem: as family boss, Gotti was being ushered into the great riches of the upper-level rackets, ones that required captains with some intelligence and business sense who could help him run the organization. Ruggiero proved to have none of these attributes. After the attempted shooting of Anthony Casso, John Gotti Jr. later stated that Ruggiero was placed on the "shelf" for ordering the attack. Despite orders from his father, John Jr. continued his friendship with his father's old friend and spoke to him regularly.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: After Ruggiero was notified of his brother, Salvatore's death in a plane crash, he, along with Gene Gotti and John Carneglia, went to Salvatore's hideout in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, searching for a yet-to-be-sold shipment of heroin and cash. A few months earlier however, hoping to catch up with his elusive brother and to gain evidence to indict John Gotti, the FBI's Gambino Squad had thoroughly wired Ruggiero's home. Not only was his telephone line bugged, but microphones were placed in his kitchen, den and dining room. Federal agents were able to record Ruggiero's attorney Micheal Coiro, offering condolences to Ruggiero on the death of his brother, and then saying, "Gene found the heroin." The talk of heroin in the wake of Salvatore's death and the connection to a Gotti family relative seized the attention of the investigating FBI agents. The investigation into Ruggiero suddenly held promise in leading to indictments of major family operatives.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: Ruggiero was known as a constant chatter-box, given his nick name "quack quack", providing a running commentary on everything going on around him. Everyone who visited him had to endure endless gossip, complaints and general indiscretions. The death of his brother Salvatore hit Ruggiero hard, and he was often overheard on FBI wiretaps in his Cedarhurst, New York, home wistfully speaking of his brother to Gerlando Sciascia and Joseph LoPresti, his two drug trafficking partners. Unlike his brother Salvatore who became a multi-millionaire from his successful large scale drug trafficking operation, Ruggiero would never rise above a wealthy street-level mobster. He later told Joseph LoPresti, "You know I lost my brother. I said to myself: "I'll have to get drunk". I had two vodkas ... I went in my room, I closed the door and I cried..." The bugs also overheard Angelo saying how difficult it was accepting his brother's death because the body was in "fuckin pieces." He added: "If he would have been shot in the head and [they] found him in the streets- that's part of our life, I could accept that.".


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: From jail, Gotti ordered the murder of Robert DiBernardo by Gravano; both DiBernardo and Ruggiero had been vying to succeed DeCicco as underboss until Ruggiero accused DiBernardo of challenging Gotti's leadership. When Ruggiero, also under indictment, had his bail revoked for his abrasive behavior in preliminary hearings, a frustrated Gotti instead promoted Armone to underboss.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: After the first heroin trafficking case against Ruggiero, Gene Gotti and John Carneglia ended in a mistrial, because of jury tampering, Ruggiero remained in federal detention, his bail still revoked, for the second trial. This also resulted in a mistrial, again for suspected jury tampering. For the third trial, in 1989, Ruggiero was finally released on bail and served as a defendant in the case. He had terminal lung cancer. Later, his drug trafficking partners Gene Gotti and John Carneglia were both convicted and sentenced to 50 years. Sammy Gravano then heard that John wanted to have Ruggiero murdered for allowing himself to be recorded by the FBI. Gravano convinced Gotti that because Ruggiero was dying of cancer that it was not even worth it to carry out the execution. Instead, John stripped Ruggiero of his rank as caporegime of the Bergin crew and severed him from all criminal activities.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: After turning state's evidence to avoid prosecution, former underboss Gravano reported that during the last months of Ruggiero's life both he and Gene Gotti urged John to visit his near death childhood friend. Gotti refused to see his once loyal soldier and friend because he was still angry over Ruggiero's criminal activities being recorded on wire taps.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: On Monday, December 4, 1989, Angelo Ruggiero died of cancer in Howard Beach, Queens, at the age of 49 years.


title: Angelo Ruggiero

text: His son and namesake, Angelo Ruggiero Jr., and Ruggiero Sr.'s, paternal nephew Salvatore Ruggiero Jr. would later follow their fathers into an organized crime "career". Angelo Jr. was convicted of grand larceny in May, 1998, and sent to prison for one to three years.


title: Hugh O'Brian

text: Hugh O'Brian (born Hugh Charles Krampe; April 19, 1925 – September 5, 2016) was an American actor and humanitarian, best known for his starring roles in the ABC Western television series "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" (1955–1961) and the NBC action television series "Search" (1972–1973). His notable films included the adaptation of Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians" (1965); he also had a notable supporting role in John Wayne's last film, "The Shootist" (1976).


title: Hugh O'Brian

text: He created the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership Foundation, a nonprofit youth leadership-development program for high-school scholars. It has sponsored more than 500,000 students since O'Brian founded the program in 1958, following an extended visit with physician and theologian Albert Schweitzer.


title: Hugh O'Brian

text: O'Brian was born Hugh Charles Krampe in Rochester, New York, the son of Hugh John Krampe, who served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps, and Edith Lillian (née Marks) Krampe. Mr. O’Brian once described his father as “one of the toughest men I ever knew”; this inspired his interest in the military.


title: Hugh O'Brian

text: O'Brian moved with his parents to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, around 1930, when he was about five years old. His father had become an executive with the Armstrong Cork Company, which was headquartered in Lancaster. The Krampe family lived at the Stevens House Hotel temporarily before moving to the newly developed School Lane Hills houses in the city's West End. O'Brian attended Lancaster city elementary schools. The Krampes resided in Lancaster for about four years before they moved to Chicago, where his father had another position with the Armstrong Cork Company. Years later, in 1963, Hugh O'Brian was awarded the key to the city by Lancaster Mayor George Coe.


title: Hugh O'Brian

text: After the move to the Chicago area, Krampe and his family lived in Winnetka, Illinois, where he attended New Trier High School. He transferred to the Kemper Military School (now defunct) in Boonville, Missouri, where he lettered in football, basketball, wrestling, and track.


title: Hugh O'Brian

text: After one semester at the University of Cincinnati, Krampe dropped out to enlist in the Marine Corps during World War II. At 17, he became the youngest Marine drill instructor on record.


title: Hugh O'Brian

text: After World War II ended, Krampe planned to become a lawyer and had been accepted at Yale University for the fall of 1947. Before that, he lived in Hollywood, where he was dating an actress. He attended her rehearsals of the Somerset Maugham play "Home and Beauty." When the lead actor failed to show up, director Ida Lupino asked him to read the lines. He got the role and the play received a tremendous review, then received a contract offer from an agent.


title: Hugh O'Brian

text: Krampe changed his name after the program incorrectly listed him as "Hugh Krape". He later said, "I decided right then I didn't want to go through life being known as Huge Krape, so I decided to take my mother's family name, O'Brien, but they misspelled it as 'O'Brian' and I just decided to stay with that."


title: Hugh O'Brian

text: Lupino signed him to "Never Fear", a film she was directing. O'Brian gained a contract with Universal Pictures.


title: Hugh O'Brian

text: He was chosen to portray legendary lawman Wyatt Earp on the ABC Western series "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp", which debuted in 1955. To help develop his character, O'Brian bought Stuart N. Lake's book "". He also developed a relationship with Lake, who was a consultant on the show for the first two years. The series, alongside "Gunsmoke" and "Cheyenne", which debuted the same year, spearheaded the "adult Western" television genre, with the emphasis on character development rather than moral sermonizing. It soon became one of the top-rated shows on television. During its six-year run, "Wyatt Earp" consistently placed in the top 10 in the United States. Decades later, he reprised the role in two episodes of the television series "Guns of Paradise" (1990), the television movie "" (1991), and the independent film "" (1994), the latter mixing new footage and colorized archival sequences from the original series.


title: Hugh O'Brian

text: O'Brian appeared regularly on other programs in the 1950s and 1960s, including "The Nat King Cole Show", "The Jackie Gleason Show", "The Ed Sullivan Show", and "The Dinah Shore Chevy Show", all in 1957. He was seen in Jack Palance's ABC circus drama "The Greatest Show on Earth". He also appeared as a 'guest attorney' in the 1963 "Perry Mason" episode "The Case of the Two-Faced Turn-a-bout" when its star, Raymond Burr, was sidelined for a spell after minor emergency surgery. He served as guest host on episodes of "The Hollywood Palace" in 1964 and the rock music series "Shindig!" in 1965. He was a guest celebrity panelist on the CBS primetime programs "Password" and "What's My Line?" and served as a mystery guest on three occasions on the latter series.


title: Hugh O'Brian

text: In 1971, he filmed a television pilot titled "Probe", playing a high-tech (for the times) agent for a company that specialized in recovering valuable items. The pilot spawned a series for O'Brian named "Search", which ran one season (1972–1973). In 1999 and 2000, he co-starred with Dick Van Patten, Deborah Winters, Richard Roundtree, and Richard Anderson in the miniseries "Y2K - World in Crisis".


title: Hugh O'Brian

text: The actor appeared in a number of films, among them "Rocketship X-M" (1950), "The Lawless Breed" (1953), "There's No Business Like Show Business" (1954), "White Feather" (1955), "Come Fly with Me" (1963), "Love Has Many Faces" (1965), "In Harm's Way" (1965), "Ten Little Indians" (1965), and "Ambush Bay" (1966).


title: Hugh O'Brian

text: While onstage, Elvis Presley introduced O'Brian from the audience at a performance at the Las Vegas Hilton, as captured in the imported live CD release "April Fool's Dinner". O'Brian was a featured actor in the 1977 two-hour premiere of the television series "Fantasy Island". He played the last character whom John Wayne ever killed on the screen in Wayne's final movie, "The Shootist" (1976). O'Brian appeared in fight scenes with a Bruce Lee lookalike in Lee's last – partially completed – film, the controversial "Game of Death". O'Brian recreated his Wyatt Earp role for three 1990s projects: "Guns of Paradise" (1990) and "The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw" (1991), with fellow actor Gene Barry doing likewise as lawman Bat Masterson for each, as well as the independent film "Wyatt Earp: Return to Tombstone" (1994). He also had a cameo as the father of Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the comedy "Twins" (1988).


title: Hugh O'Brian

text: On June 25, 2006, at age 81, O'Brian married his girlfriend of 18 years, Virginia Barber (born "circa" 1952); it was his first and only marriage. The ceremony was held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park with the Rev. Robert Schuller officiating. Barber, who had been married once previously, is a teacher by profession and the couple spent their honeymoon studying philosophy at Oxford University. O'Brian stated that he believed, "an active mind is as important as an active body." O'Brian had one son, Hugh Donald Krampe, by a relationship with photographer Adina Etkes. O'Brian died at his home in Beverly Hills, California, on September 5, 2016, at the age of 91. Three individuals have since come forward claiming O'Brian was their father.


title: Hugh O'Brian

text: O'Brian dedicated much of his life to the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership Foundation (HOBY), a nonprofit youth leadership-development program for high-school scholars. HOBY sponsors 10,000 high school sophomores annually through its over 70 leadership programs in all 50 states and 20 countries. Since its inception in 1958, over 500,000 young people have participated in HOBY-related programs.


title: Hugh O'Brian

text: One high-school sophomore from every high school in the United States, referred to as an "ambassador", is welcome to attend a state or regional HOBY seminar. From each of those seminars, students (number based on population) are offered the opportunity to attend the World Leadership Congress. In 2008, over 500 ambassadors attended from all 50 states and 20 countries. The concept for HOBY was inspired in 1958 by a nine-day visit O'Brian had with famed humanitarian Dr. Albert Schweitzer in Africa. Dr. Schweitzer believed, "the most important thing in education is to teach young people to think for themselves."


title: Hugh O'Brian

text: For his contribution to the television industry, Hugh O'Brian has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6613½ Hollywood Blvd. In 1992, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.


title: Corn smut

text: Corn smut is a plant disease caused by the pathogenic fungus Ustilago maydis that causes smut on maize and teosinte. The fungus forms galls on all above-ground parts of corn species. It is edible, and is known in Mexico as the delicacy huitlacoche; which is eaten, usually as a filling, in quesadillas and other tortilla-based foods, and in soups.


title: Corn smut

text: In Mexico, corn smut is known as "huitlacoche" (, sometimes spelled "cuitlacoche"). This word entered Spanish in Mexico from Classical Nahuatl, though the Nahuatl words from which huitlacoche is derived are debated. In modern Nahuatl, the word for "huitlacoche" is "cuitlacochin" (), and some sources deem "cuitlacochi" to be the classical form.


title: Corn smut

text: Some sources wrongly give the etymology as coming from the Nahuatl words "cuitlatl" ("excrement" or "rear-end", actually meaning "excrescence") and "cochtli" ("sleeping", from "cochi" "to sleep"), thus giving a combined mismeaning of "sleeping/hibernating excrement", but actually meaning "sleeping excrescence", referring to the fact that the fungus grows in between the corns and impedes them from developing, thus they remain "sleeping".


title: Corn smut

text: A second group of sources deem the word to mean "raven's excrement". These sources appear to be combining the word "cuitlacoche" for "thrasher" with "cuitla", meaning "excrement", actually meaning "excrescence". However, the avian meaning of "cuitlacoche" derives from the Nahuatl word "song" "cuīcatl" , itself from the verb "to sing" "cuīca" . This root then clashes with this reconstruction's second claim that the segment "cuitla-" comes from "cuitla" ("excrement").


title: Corn smut

text: One source derives the meaning as "corn excrescence", using "cuītla" again and "maize" "tlaōlli" . This requires the linguistically unlikely evolution of "tlaōlli" "maize" into "tlacoche".


title: Corn smut

text: "U. maydis" is the best known and studied of the Ustilaginomycetes, a sub class of basidiomycota, and so is often used as the exemplar species when talking about its entire class.


title: Corn smut

text: The fungus infects all parts of the host plant by invading the ovaries of its host. The infection causes the corn kernels to swell up into tumor-like galls, whose tissues, texture, and developmental pattern are mushroom-like. The galls grow to 4 to 5 inches in diameter. These galls are made up of hypertrophied cells of the infected plant, along with resulting fungal threads, and blue-black spores. These dark-colored spores give the cob a burned, scorched appearance; this is the origin of the generic name "Ustilago", from the Latin word "ustilare" (to burn).


title: Corn smut

text: When grown in the lab on very simple media, it behaves like baker's yeast, forming single cells called sporidia. These cells multiply by budding off daughter cells. When two compatible sporidia meet on the surface of the plant, they switch to a different mode of growth. First, they produce one or another pheromone, and begin producing one or the other type of pheromone receptor - this depends on mating type "a" or "b", as determined by alleles at two unlinked mating loci. If this signalling is successful they then send out conjugation tubes to find each other, after which they fuse and make a hypha to enter the maize plant. Hyphae growing in the plant are dikaryotic; they possess two haploid nuclei per hyphal compartment. In contrast to sporidia, the dikaryotic phase of "U. maydis" requires infection of the plant to grow and differentiate, and cannot be maintained in the laboratory.


title: Corn smut

text: Proliferation of the fungus inside the plant leads to disease symptoms such as chlorosis, anthocyanin formation, reduced growth, and the appearance of tumors harboring the developing teliospores.These teliospores help to overwinter the pathogen into the next season. They survive in the soil.


title: Corn smut

text: Mature tumors release spores that rain and wind then disperse. Under appropriate conditions, a metabasidium is formed in which meiosis occurs. Resulting haploid nuclei migrate into elongated single cells. These cells detach from the metabasidium to become the sporidia, thus completing the life cycle.


title: Corn smut

text: Plants have evolved efficient defense systems against pathogenic microbes. A rapid plant defense reaction after pathogen attack is the oxidative burst, which involves the production of reactive oxygen species at the site of the attempted invasion. As a pathogen, "U. maydis" can respond to such an oxidative burst by an oxidative stress response, regulated by gene YAP1. This response protects "U. maydis" from the host attack, and is necessary for the pathogen’s virulence. Furthermore, "U. maydis" has a well-established recombinational DNA repair system. This repair system involves a homolog of Rad51 that has a very similar sequence and size to its mammalian counterparts. This system also involves a protein, Rec2 that is more distantly related to Rad51, and Brh2 protein that is a streamlined version of the mammalian Breast Cancer 2 (BRCA2) protein. When any of these proteins is inactivated, sensitivity of "U. maydis" to DNA damaging agents is increased. Also mitotic recombination becomes deficient, mutation frequency increases and meiosis fails to complete. These observations suggest that recombinational repair during mitosis and meiosis in "U. maydis" may assist the pathogen in surviving DNA damage arising from the host’s oxidative defensive response to infection, as well as from other DNA damaging agents.


title: Corn smut

text: There are many ways to control and manage corn smut; however, corn smut cannot be controlled by any common fungicide at this time, as Ustilago maydis infects individual corn kernels instead of infecting the entire cob, like head smut. Some beneficial ways to contain corn smut include resistant corn plants, crop rotation, and avoiding mechanical injury to the plant. A mechanical injury can cause the corn to become easily accessible to Ustilago maydis, enhancing infection. Additionally, clearing the planting area of debris can help control corn smut, as the teliospores from corn smut overwinter in debris. This is not the best practice, though, because corn smut can also overwinter in the soil; crop rotation is recommended. Lastly, as excess nitrogen in the soil augments infection rate, using fertilizer with low nitrogen levels, or just limiting the amount of nitrogen in the soil proves to be another way to control corn smut.


title: Corn smut

text: Although not all the conditions that favor growth of Ustilago maydis are known, there are certain environments where corn smut seems to thrive, depending on both abiotic and biotic factors. Hot and dry weather during pollination followed by a heavy rainy season appear to improve the pathogenicity of corn smut. Furthermore, excess manure (and therefore nitrogen) in the soil also increases pathogenicity. Not only do these abiotic factors increase infectability, they also increase disease spread. High winds and heavy rain also increase disease spread as the spores of corn smut can be more easily transmitted. Other biotic factors largely have to do with the extent by which humans interact with the corn and corn smut. If corn debris is not cleared at the end of the season, the spores can overwinter in the corn fragments and live to infect another generation. Finally, humans wounding the corn (with shears or other tools of the like) present the opportunity for corn smut to easily enter the plant.


title: Corn smut

text: The yeast-like growth of "U. maydis" makes it an appealing model organism for research, although its relevance in nature is unknown. The fungus is exceptionally well-suited for genetic modification. This allows researchers to study the interaction between the fungus and its host with relative ease. The availability of the entire genome is another advantage of this fungus as model organism.


title: Corn smut

text: "U. maydis" is not only used to study plant disease, but it also is used to study plant genetics. In 1996, a study on "U. maydis" genetics led to the discovery of synthesis-dependent strand annealing, a method of homologous recombination used in DNA repair. Other studies in the fungus have also investigated the role of the cytoskeleton in polarized growth. It is largely due to work with "U. maydis" that the function of the breast-cancer gene BRCA2 is now known.


title: Corn smut

text: The fungus is mostly studied as model organism for host pathogen interaction and delivery of effectors protein


title: Corn smut

text: "Ustilago maydis" is able to produce a broad range of valuable chemicals such as ustilagic acid, itaconic acid, malic acid, and hydroxyparaconic acid. With this ability it is gaining more and more relevance for industrial applications.


title: Corn smut

text: The fungus has had difficulty entering into the American and European diets as most farmers see it as blight, despite attempts by government and high-profile chefs to introduce it. In the mid-1990s, due to demand created by high-end restaurants, Pennsylvania and Florida farms were allowed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to intentionally infect corn with "huitlacoche". Most observers consider the program to have had little impact, although the initiative is still in progress. The cursory show of interest is significant because the USDA has spent a considerable amount of time and money trying to eradicate corn smut in the United States. Moreover, in 1989, the James Beard Foundation held a high-profile "huitlacoche" dinner, prepared by Josefina Howard, chef at Rosa Mexicano restaurant. This dinner tried to get Americans to eat more of it by renaming it the Mexican truffle and it is often compared to truffles in food articles describing its taste and texture.


title: Corn smut

text: Native Americans of the American Southwest, including the Zuni people, have used corn smut in an attempt to induce labor. It has similar medicinal effects to ergot, but weaker, due to the presence of the chemical ustilagine.


title: Corn smut

text: A simple Mexican-style succotash can be made from chorizo, onions, garlic, serrano peppers, "huitlacoche", and shrimp with "salsa taquera". The mild, earthy flavors of the "huitlacoche" blend nicely with the fats of the chorizo and bond to mellow out the heat from the peppers and salsa.


title: Corn smut

text: Another Maya favorite on the Riviera Maya (Cancun to Tulum) is to add "huitlacoche" to omelettes. Once again, its earthy flavors bond with the fats that cook the eggs to mellow the flavors into a truffle-like taste.


title: Corn smut

text: The blueish color transforms into the recognizable black color only with heat. Any dish with "huitlacoche" must include a slow simmer of the fungus until it becomes black, which also removes most of the starch of the corn, and what is left is a black oily paste.


title: Corn smut

text: In Mexico, "huitlacoche" is mostly consumed fresh and can be purchased at restaurants or street or farmer's markets throughout the country and, to a much lesser extent, can also be purchased as a canned good in some markets and via the internet. Farmers in the countryside spread the spores around intentionally to create more of the fungus. In some parts of the country, they call the fungus "hongo de maiz", i.e. "maize fungus".


title: Corn smut

text: When corn smut grows on a corn cob, it changes the nutritional worth of the corn it affects. Corn smut contains much more protein than regular corn does. The amino acid lysine, of which corn contains very little, abounds in corn smut.


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: The Oshkosh M1070 is a U.S. Army tank transporter tractor unit. In current service in A0, A1, and M1300 configurations, the M1070 is coupled to a DRS Technologies M1000 semi-trailer. The primary purpose of this combination for the U.S. Army is the transport of the M1 Abrams tank. The M1300, covered in a separate sub-section, is a U.S. Army Europe-specific derivative designed to be road legal within Europe and operates with a different trailer.


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: The M1070 is also used to transport, deploy, and evacuate armored personnel carriers, self-propelled artillery, armored bulldozers and other heavy vehicles and equipment of all types.


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: Export sales of A0 and A1 variants have been made, and derivatives of the M1070 have been produced or are available, these including the M1070F<ref name="Heavy Equipment Transporter System (UK) - HETS M1070F/M1070E1"></ref> and the Global HET.


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: To meet a U.S. Army requirement for the transport of the M1 Abrams main battle tank (MBT) Oshkosh Truck Corporation (now Oshkosh Defense) proposed the M1070. A contract for 1044 M1070 was placed, with production commencing in July 1992. The contract included an option for 522 additional units.


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: The final U.S. Army contract for the original A0 version called for 195 vehicles. These were delivered between March 2001 and March 2003. U.S. Army deliveries of A0 versions totalled 2,488. In total, and including export orders, just under 2,900 M1070A0 were manufactured by Oshkosh.


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: Following an initial two separate contracts awarded in 2004, Oshkosh Truck overhauled service-worn M1070s. Reset to original build standard and with zero miles/zero hours and a full one-year warranty, cost to the U.S. Department of Defense per vehicle was about 75% of that of new build vehicles. In total, 1,009 A0 HETs were Reset and returned to service.


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: The M1070E1 model was developed in the mid-1990s in conjunction with the U.S. Army as a possible Technology Insertion Programme (TIP) for the M1070. Evaluation took place and a report was submitted. No orders were placed.


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: In March 2008 Oshkosh Defense the award of a single source contract valued at more than $11 million (for Phase 1) from the U.S. Army to begin engineering and initial production of the next-generation of HET. Phase II involved production verification testing, and Oshkosh announced in July 2009 that it had received a $9.4 million contract modification to begin durability and performance testing of the HET A1 at Yuma Proving Ground.


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: Oshkosh announced in October 2010 its first delivery order for the M1070A1 HET. This delivery order was valued at over $440 million and called for more than 1,000 vehicles, with the first vehicles rolling out in December 2010. M1070A1 fielding commenced in 2011. Production concluded in August 2014, with new vehicle production totalling 1,591. While it was believed the U.S. Army would have liked to continue HET A1 production through fiscal year 2017, no awards were made and in July 2016 the US Army announced that it wished to use FY16 funds to start an engineering study into an E-HET that would replace the current M1070A1 and M1000 semi-trailer.


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: In March 2017 it was announced that Oshkosh had been awarded a $15,080,369 foreign military sales (Jordan and Oman) contract for M1070A1 Heavy Equipment Transporters, with associated testing, spare parts, and training. Estimated completion date for the award is December 31, 2018. Solicitation W56HZV-17-R-0021 released in February 2017 and with responses due by 3 April 2017 will result in a firm-fixed-price contract for 46 M1070A1 for Egypt.<ref name="EGYPT FMS HET/HEMTT"></ref>


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: In July 2017, and following a report to congress in June 2017 under solicitation number W56HZV-17-R-0167, the US Army released a Sources Sought Market Survey regarding the Heavy Equipment Transporter Urban Survivability Kit (HUSK). In May 2013 an Acquisition Decision Memorandum authorised the US Army to develop and acquire armoured replaceable cabs for the M1070A1, this leading to the HUSK. Survivability features of the HUSK were to include energy attenuating seats, a floating floor, blast-mitigating floor mats, and an automatic fire extinguishing system. HUSK armour and survivability testing occurred at Aberdeen Proving Ground during 2016 and a decision regarding government contract or contract with industry for the production award was then anticipated during FY 2018. As of late 2020 the HUSK was being produced by Rock Island Arsenal-Joint Manufacturing & Technology Center; numbers involved had not been disclosed.


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: The three-year Family of Heavy Tactical Vehicles (FHTV) 4 contract extension awarded to Oshkosh by the U.S. Army in May 2021 technically allows for the provision of new and Recapitalized M1070 HETs alongside HEMTTs, and PLS trucks and trailers.


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: The M1300 is a M1070A1 revised for use within Europe by the U.S. Army. The need for the M1300 formally emerged after the U.S. Army Europe (USAREUR) issued an Operational Needs Statement (ONS) for the M1300-supplied transport capability, which Army headquarters had validated in April 2017. From that month through September 2017, the Product Manager for Heavy Tactical Vehicle developed multiple courses of actions that included the development and procurement of a new tractor; leasing tractors outside the US; or ‘enhancing’ the current M1070A1 HET tractor fleet. In December 2017 the Army Requirements Oversight Council validated the requirement, and in January 2018 the service directed the procurement of 170 capability enhanced M1070A1 HET tractors, these referred to as ‘rebaselined’ and designated M1300.


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: The M1300 requirement was driven by a need to transport heavier loads within Europe, while complying with European Union (EU) standards. Projected payloads for the M1300 and semi-trailer were stated to be a minimum of 82 tonnes and up to 90 tonnes (74,389 to 81,647 kg), and to achieve this the tractor required some weight redistribution from the front axle and a new multi-axle semi-trailer. Oshkosh began working on the M1300 tractor in April 2018 and was scheduled to continue through April 2020.


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: As Oshkosh is the sole developer of the M1070A1 and owns the technical data package (TDP), it was (according to the Army) the only source possessing the requisite knowledge, facilities, tooling, and expertise to perform the capability enhancements required. Any other source, through a competitive procurement, to reverse engineer, test and evaluate and then commence initial delivery would require a minimum of 27 months, therefore missing the timeline directive of the ONS. In May 2019 Oshkosh announced that the US Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) had awarded the company and partner, Broshuis BV, a contract to produce semitrailers for the M1300. The contract, initially awarded at USD13.3 million, has a maximum value of USD109.8 million and calls for 170 semitrailers to be delivered between fiscal years (FYs) 2020 and 2021. The US Army’s selection came after two prototypes successfully completed a three-month test and evaluation phase at Aberdeen Test Centre in Maryland, US.


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: The Enhanced Heavy Equipment Transporter System (EHETS) is considered the replacement for the M1070/M1070A1/M1300 in U.S. Army service. The U.S. Army announced in July 2016 that it wished to use FY 2016 funds to start an engineering study into an EHET that would replace the M1070A1 and M1000 semi-trailers. This study had previously been slated to commence in FY 2017. The intent was that the EHETS would comprise a tractor and semi-trailer to transport, recover, and evacuate a +80 tonne (72,575 kg) combat loaded M1 Abrams and associated M88 recovery system, which was anticipated to weigh more than 84,000 kg. The M1070A1 and M1000 are technically unable to transport such loads.


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: Under Solicitation Number W56HZV-18-R-0190, the U.S. Army issued a Sources Sought notice for EHETS on 4 September 2018. Under Solicitation Number W56HZV-18-R-0190, the US Army on 13 September 2018 announced an EHETS Industry Day to be held on 10–11 October 2018. On 3 April 2020 the US Army under notice ID PANDTA-20-P-0000-007236 announced an EHETS contract opportunity Request for Information (RfI) as a Special Notice. The purpose of the RfI is to assess the marketplace availability and industry capabilities for providing an EHETS Trailer. The proposed EHETS Trailer solution is to be a trailer capable of transporting a payload of both 85 tonnes and 82 tonnes while meeting European Highway Axle Restrictions for road permits. The army is interested in contracting directly with trailer manufacturers as the prime contractor.


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: As of November 2020 the US Army stated that it was working towards a future solicitation and intended to move forward with additional EHETS procurement beginning in FY 2022. The M1300/M1302 procurement for Europe covered in the previous sub-section will fulfill a portion of the overall EHETS procurement.


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: The layout of the M1070 is conventional. The fully enclosed cab seats the driver, one crewman and up to four passengers. The original cab complied with the U.S. Army's Long Term Armor Strategy (LTAS) requirements of an A- and B-kit armoring philosophy. For the M1070A1, a May 2013 Acquisition Decision Memorandum authorised the US Army to develop and acquire armoured replaceable cabs for the M1070A1, this leading to the HUSK. As of late 2020 the HUSK was being produced by Rock Island Arsenal-Joint Manufacturing & Technology Center; numbers involved had not been disclosed.


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: Chassis of the M1070 is 356 × 89 × 9.5 mm C-section (channel frame) constructed from SAE 1027 modified, heat-treated carbon manganese steel with a minimum yield strength of 758 MPa. This mounts a 3.5 inch fully floating Holland fifth wheel and three winches, two dp Manufacturing 55K 24,947 kg capacity hydraulic winches with 51.8 m of 25 mm cable each, and a single dp Manufacturing 3GN 1,360 kg capacity auxiliary winch with 91.4 m of 6 mm cable.


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: The original M1070 is powered by a Detroit Diesel 8V-92TA 12.06-liter diesel engine developing 500 hp at 2100 rpm and 1993 Nm torque at 1200 rpm. This is coupled to an Allison CLT-754 five-speed automatic transmission and Oshkosh 55000 two-speed transfer case. The M1070A1 is powered by a Caterpillar C-18 six-cylinder diesel developing 700 hp, this coupled to an uprated Allison 4800SP seven-speed automatic transmission and Oshkosh 30000 single-speed transfer case.


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: On the A0 model the front Rockwell steer-drive axle has Hendrickson parabolic taper leaf springs. The rear tridem unit is sprung by Hendrickson-Turner air suspension. The rearmost axle is a steer-drive unit. All axles are Rockwell SVI 5MR hub-reduction with differential locks. Steering is power-assisted, and has an auxiliary pump should the main pump fail. Mechanical linkage also provides operator control in event of hydraulic oil pressure loss. Rockwell (now AxleTech) S-cam drum brakes are fitted. A CM Automotive central tire inflation system (CTIS) is fitted, this having four predetermined terrain settings (Highway, Cross-Country, Mud & Snow, Emergency) that enable the operator to adjust tire pressure and lock-up to suit the terrain being crossed. A Run Flat mode checks tire pressures regularly and inflates as needed to compensate for leak(s).


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: The A1 model features uprated AxleTech 5000 Series axles, an anti-lock braking system with traction control and a Dana central tire inflation system. Armor mode increases tire pressures to compensate for the added weight of the B-kit armor. The operator can manually increase or decrease differential locking based on conditions.


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: The trailer used with the M1070A0 and M1070A1 is the M1000. The M1000 was originally developed as a private venture by Southwest Mobile Systems (later Systems & Electronics Inc (SEI), now DRS Technologies) as a response to a possible U.S. Army requirement for transporting M1 and M1A1 MBTs. A production order for 1,066 M1000 units was placed by the U.S. Army in 1989. By July 2009 more than 2600 M1000 trailers had been ordered.


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: The M1000 has 40 wheels (215/75R 17.5 tires) across five axle lines, these with two half-width axles per line. Each axle has hydraulic pendular suspension providing a 254 mm stroke with lateral oscillation accommodating surface undulations. A hydraulic suspension system is also provided on the pivoting gooseneck to equalise fifth wheel loads. Weight of the M1000 is 22,882 kg. Payload according to the U.S. Army is 63,560 kg, although the manufacturer quotes 80,000 kg at reduced speeds. Overall length is 15.8 m, deck length is 10.58 m; deck width is 3.05 m, 3.66 m for a wide deck version.


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: The M1070F replaced the Scammell Commander as the British army tank transporter in 2001. Before the development of the M1070A1 for the U.S. Army, the more powerful M1070E model was developed as a possible Technology Insertion Programme (TIP) for the M1070A0 fleet. The M1070E1 was offered to meet the British Army's requirement for a tank transporter but was not selected. The vehicle selected by the British Army is the 1070F model, a much-revised M1070E1. The UK fleet, which when delivered was made up of 92 tractor trucks, 89 King GTS 100/7 semi-trailers, and three Tru-Hitch recovery systems, were delivered as part of a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) award to FASTTRAX in 2001 that included staff to operate the vehicles as Sponsored Reserves. The contract award included a 28-system option that was not exercised. It was disclosed in late-2009 that Broshuis of Holland had been selected to supply 20 heavy-duty 45,000 kg payload full-width two-axle trailers for use with the 1070F in Afghanistan.


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: The Oshkosh 1070F shares a common chassis and axle set-up with the M1070A0 model, but the cab and all major driveline components have been substantially revised to meet both performance and legislative requirements. The driveline is similar to that fitted to the M1070A1 and consists of a Caterpillar C-18 diesel engine developing 700 hp, this coupled to an Allison HD 4076P automatic transmission and TC-561 torque converter, coupled to an Oshkosh 30000 single-speed transfer case.


title: Oshkosh M1070

text: Oshkosh Defense unveiled the Global HET in 2008. The Global HET is similar in many ways to the M1070A1, the main design difference being configuration. The Global HET has three axles, the M1070A1 has four. Oshkosh disclosed an initial order from Al Jaber Group of the UAE for around 20 Global HET in February 2011. Global HET was selected to meet a requirement for a tractor unit to be used in conjunction with 70,000 kg semi-trailers mounting the locally developed Jobaria Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS).


title: Zuzana Čaputová

text: Zuzana Čaputová, (; Strapáková; born 21 June 1973) is a Slovak politician, lawyer and environmental activist. She is the fifth president of Slovakia, a position she has held since 15 June 2019. Čaputová is the first woman to hold the presidency, as well as the youngest president in the history of Slovakia, elected at the age of 45.


title: Zuzana Čaputová

text: Čaputová first became known by prevailing in a decade-long struggle against the situating of a toxic landfill in her hometown of Pezinok. For this, Čaputová was awarded the 2016 Goldman Environmental Prize. She won the 2019 Slovak presidential election with 58% of the vote in the run-off.


title: Zuzana Čaputová

text: Zuzana Strapáková was born into a working-class family in Bratislava. She grew up in the nearby town of Pezinok, in what was Czechoslovakia for the first two decades of her life. She has described her upbringing as having occurred within "an open-minded house".


title: Zuzana Čaputová

text: She studied at the Comenius University Faculty of Law in Bratislava, graduating in 1996. Between 1998 and 1999 she completed the training cycle "General Management – Management of Change" and in 1999 the ARK – Mediation course, accredited by the Ministry of Education of Slovakia.


title: Zuzana Čaputová

text: After concluding her education, Čaputová worked in the local government of Pezinok, first as an assistant in the legal department, and later as a deputy to the town mayor.


title: Zuzana Čaputová

text: She later moved into the non-profit sector at the Open Society Foundations, where she handled public administration and the issue of abused and exploited children. Subsequently, she worked as a project manager at the civic association EQ Klub on local community development.


title: Zuzana Čaputová

text: Between 2001 and 2017, Čaputová worked with "Via Iuris", a civic organization, as a lawyer (since 2010), and with Greenpeace on campaign planning. In Pezinok, for more than ten years, she was at the forefront of a public campaign against the authorization of another landfill that would aggravate pollution of the soil, air, and water in the city and its surrounding areas. The fight against the landfill culminated in 2013, when the Supreme Court of Slovakia ruled that the new landfill was illegal and violated environmental norms.


title: Zuzana Čaputová

text: Čaputová has run her own law firm and authored and co-authored several publications. She is a fellow of the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (ELAW), a network of environmental lawyers and jurists.


title: Zuzana Čaputová

text: In December 2017, Čaputová announced her entry into the emerging political party Progressive Slovakia, and in January 2018, she was elected as a Vice-Chairwoman at the party's first congress, aiding 's efforts to assure the representation of a credible socially-liberal alternative to the conservative status quo in Slovakia.


title: Zuzana Čaputová

text: As a co-founding member of Progressive Slovakia, a non-parliamentary socially liberal and progressive party, she served as its Deputy Chair until March 2019, when she resigned due to her presidential candidacy. Čaputová was the party's candidate in the 2019 Slovak presidential election and proceeded to be elected president in the second round, after receiving over 58% of the vote and beating her opponent Vice President of the European Commission Maroš Šefčovič, an independent who was supported by the long-dominant Smer–SD party.


title: Zuzana Čaputová

text: In a press conference held on 29 March 2018, Čaputová announced her bid for the Slovak presidency in the 2019 presidential race as the candidate of Progressive Slovakia. Robert Mistrík, another strong contender, withdrew from the race and endorsed her on 26 February 2019. She said she had felt compelled to run for the Presidency after the murder of the investigative journalist Ján Kuciak.


title: Zuzana Čaputová

text: Čaputová won the first round of the election on 16 March 2019, with 40.57% of the vote. She then defeated her second-place opponent, Maroš Šefčovič, by around 58% to 42% in the second run-off round on 30 March 2019. The second-round turnout of just 41.79% was the lowest for any round of voting in that type of election in Slovakia. The number of votes with which Čaputová was elected to office was also the lowest for any directly elected Slovak president to date. Her presidential inauguration took place on 15 June 2019 during a special session of the National Council in Bratislava.


title: Zuzana Čaputová

text: She was rated as the most trusted politician in the country in both 2020 and 2021, with 83% and 58% of citizens polled saying they saw her as trustworthy, respectively. A December 2019 poll in the neighboring Czech Republic showed that she had a higher approval rating there (54% approval, 18% disapproval) than incumbent President Miloš Zeman (46% approval, 50% disapproval).


title: Zuzana Čaputová

text: However, Čaputová's popularity has been declining. A poll in late May 2022 reported that only 15% of voters would "certainly" vote for her in the next presidential election, which is scheduled for April 2024.


title: Zuzana Čaputová

text: On her campaign website, Čaputová says that "justice in Slovakia does not always apply equally to everyone". In keeping with her statements during the campaign, she plans to introduce changes to Slovakia's police and judicial system. She campaigned for the police force to be an independent institution without political influence, headed by an impartial professional with proven service. She further claims that it is necessary to transform the prosecutor's office into a publicly managed institution.


title: Zuzana Čaputová

text: Čaputová is an environmental campaigner who has been compared to American activist Erin Brockovich. Climate change mitigation is one of her highest priorities, and for that reason she is ending subsidies for coal and other fossil fuels. Čaputová has promised to phase out coal mining and power generation by 2023, and brought her nation into the Powering Past Coal Alliance.


title: Zuzana Čaputová

text: Čaputová holds that environmental protection should include stopping illegal deforestation and that 5% of the most environmentally valuable territory should remain as a strictly protected zone.


title: Zuzana Čaputová

text: Čaputová has stated that she supports registered partnerships for same-sex couples, and educating the general public on these relationships. In a discussion organized by "SME", she lectured on the possibility of adoption by gay couples: "I prefer the child to have a biological mother and a biological father. If he were to grow up in institutional care, I think he'd be better off with two loving beings, even if they were of the same sex."


title: Zuzana Čaputová

text: Čaputová supports maintaining the "status quo" regarding abortion and reproductive rights, saying: "If there is an extreme situation and the dilemma is between deciding whether to adopt a legal norm that will intrude upon the personal lives of citizens or leave it to women's responsibility and their personal choice, I choose the responsibility of a woman."


title: Zuzana Čaputová

text: For her strong and resolute leadership regarding the Pezinok landfill affair, Čaputová was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2016. Laureates of this prize are selected by an international jury and experts from around the world who have distinguished themselves for having a lasting and significant impact on environmental protection. The Goldman award was delivered to Čaputová in San Francisco. Her long and eventually triumphant struggle has been compared to that of the American Erin Brockovich. The text of the prize states that she was awarded for her "relentless campaigning against the opening of a landfill in the town of Pezinok, which, if opened, would further aggravate potential health hazards and would contribute to urban pollution""." In recognition of her efforts for the European democracy, Čaputová was awarded the European Prize for Political Culture in August 2019.


title: Zuzana Čaputová

text: In 2020, she was ranked No. 83 in "Forbes" list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women. In 2021, she was ranked at No. 86.


title: Marie Leszczyńska

text: Maria Karolina Zofia Felicja Leszczyńska (; ; 23 June 1703 – 24 June 1768), also known as Marie Leczinska, was Queen of France as the wife of King Louis XV from their marriage on 4 September 1725 until her death in 1768. The daughter of Stanisław Leszczyński, the deposed King of Poland, and Catherine Opalińska, her 42-years and 9 months service was the longest of any queen in French history. A devout Roman Catholic throughout her life, Marie was popular among the French people for her numerous charitable works and introduced many Polish customs to the royal court at Versailles. She was the grandmother of Louis XVI, Louis XVIII and Charles X of France.


title: Marie Leszczyńska

text: Born as a member of the House of Leszczyński, Maria Karolina Zofia Felicja Leszczyńska (Wieniawa) was the second daughter of Stanislaus I Leszczyński and his wife, Countess Catherine Opalińska. She had an elder sister, Anna Leszczyńska, who died of pneumonia in 1717.


title: Marie Leszczyńska

text: Maria's early life was troubled by her father's political misfortune. Ironically, the hopeless political career of King Stanislaus was eventually the reason why his daughter Maria was chosen as the bride of King Louis XV of France. Devoid of political connections, his daughter was viewed by the French as being free from the burden of international alliances.


title: Marie Leszczyńska

text: She was born in Trzebnica in Lower Silesia, the year before her father was made King of Poland by Charles XII of Sweden, who had invaded the country in 1704. In 1709, her father was deposed when the Swedish army lost the military upper hand in Poland, and the family was granted refuge by Charles XII in the Swedish city of Kristianstad in Scania. During the escape, Marie was separated from the rest of her family; she was later found with her nurse hiding in a crib in a stable, although another version claims it was actually a cave in an old mineshaft. In Sweden, the family was welcomed by the queen dowager Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp and became popular members of society life on the estates of the nobility around Kristianstad. In 1712, they made an official visit to Medevi, the spa of the Queen Dowager. During this period in her life, Marie began speaking Swedish with a Scanian accent. As Queen of France, she was known to welcome Swedish ambassadors to France with the phrase "Welcome, Dearest Heart!" in Swedish.


title: Marie Leszczyńska

text: In 1714, Charles XII gave them permission to live in his fiefdom of Zweibrücken in the Holy Roman Empire, where they were supported by the income of Zweibrücken: they lived there until the death of Charles XII in 1718. Zweibrücken then passed to a cousin of his. These lands were parallel to the confiscated Polish properties of Stanislaus. Stanislaus appealed to the Regent of France, the Duke of Orléans, and the Duke of Lorraine for help, with the Queen of Sweden acting as his mediator.


title: Marie Leszczyńska

text: In 1718, with the support of the Duke of Lorraine, the family was allowed to settle in Wissembourg in the province of Alsace, which had been annexed by France, a place suggested by Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, a nephew of Louis XIV and Regent of the Kingdom of France during Louis XV's minority. The family lived a modest life in a large town house at the expense of the French Regent.


title: Marie Leszczyńska

text: Their lifestyle in Wissembourg was regarded as very below standard for a royal at that time; they lived in a small house, and could not pay the salary of their small retinue from which a few "served as an apology for a guard of honour", and the jewels of the former Queen Catherine were reportedly held as security by a moneylender.


title: Marie Leszczyńska

text: While her mother Catherine and grandmother Anna Leszczyńska reportedly suffered from a certain degree of bitterness over their exile and loss of position which worsened their relationship with Stanislaus, whom they occasionally blamed for their exile, Marie was close to her father and spent a lot of time conversing with him, though she was evidently of a more rational nature as she "possessed the gift of suffering in silence and of never wearying others with her troubles" and was said to have developed "a profound and intense piety", which gave "to her youthful mind the maturity of a woman who no longer demands happiness".


title: Marie Leszczyńska

text: Marie was not described as a beauty; instead her characteristics in the marriage market were stated as those of being pleasant, well-educated, and graceful in manner and movement. In 1720, she was suggested as a bride to Louis Henri de Bourbon, Prince of Condé (who preferred to be known as the Duke of Bourbon, rather than Prince of Condé), but her intended mother-in-law Louise Françoise de Bourbon refused to give her consent. The cavalry regiment provided by the Regent for the family's protection included the officer Marquis de Courtanvaux, who fell in love with Marie and asked the Regent to make him a duke so that he might ask for her hand, but the Regent refused and because of his low rank the marriage was impossible. Louis George, Margrave of Baden-Baden and the third Prince of Baden were suggested, but these suggestions came to nothing because of her insufficient dowry. Stanislaus unsuccessfully tried to arrange a marriage for her with the Count of Charolais, brother of the Duke of Bourbon. In 1724, Count d'Argensson proposed she marry the new Duke of Orléans, but her intended mother-in-law Françoise Marie de Bourbon wished for a dynastic match with political advantage.


title: Marie Leszczyńska

text: In 1723, the Duke of Bourbon had become the Regent of France during the minority of Louis XV. The Regent was dominated by his lover, Madame de Prie. There were lengthy negotiations for a marriage between Marie and the now widowed Duke of Bourbon: Madame de Prie favored the match, as she did not perceive the reputedly unattractive Marie as a threat to her. The marriage negotiations, however, were soon overshadowed when marriage to King Louis XV, then aged fifteen, was given priority. That year, he fell ill and, fearing the consequences of the unmarried King dying without an heir, the Duc suggested getting him married as soon as possible. He was already engaged to Infanta Mariana Victoria of Spain, who had been brought to France as his future wife some years earlier, but as she was only five years old there would be no issue for many years With the king sick, it was feared he might die without an heir and that the throne would pass to the Orléans line. This was an undesirable prospect for the Duke of Bourbon, who preferred that the throne should pass to the Spanish line rather than to the Orléans line. Louis XV's engagement was broken off and the Infanta was sent back to Spain, to the chagrin of the Spanish. The Duke of Bourbon and Madame de Prie began negotiations for the immediate marriage of the King to Marie.


title: Marie Leszczyńska

text: Marie was on a list of 99 eligible European princesses to marry the young King. She was not the first choice on the list. She had been placed there initially because she was a Catholic princess and therefore fulfilled the minimum criteria, but was removed early on when the list was reduced from 99 to 17 for being too poor. However, when the list of 17 was further reduced to four, the preferred choices presented numerous problems. Anne and Amelia of Great Britain, who were considered with the understanding that they would convert to the Catholic faith upon marriage, were favored by the Duke of Bourbon and Madame de Prie because it was supported by their political financiers, the firm of Paris Brothers Joseph Paris Duverney. Cardinal Fleury easily prevented the British match because of religious reasons. The last two were the sisters of the Duke of Bourbon, Henriette-Louise and Élisabeth-Alexandrine, whom the King himself refused to marry because of the disapproval of Cardinal Fleury. Cardinal Fleury himself favored a match with Princess Charlotte of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg, which was supported by the maternal grandfather of Louis XV, The King of Sardinia through his spy the Princess of Carignan, Maria Vittoria of Savoy.