title: Chris Licht

text: While Licht was executive producer of "CBS This Morning", the series won a Peabody Award and three Emmy Awards (one Daytime Emmy Award and two News & Documentary Emmy Awards). As "CBS This Morning"'s executive producer, he was co-nominated for three Emmy Awards in 2015: one for Outstanding Investigative Journalism in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast, one for Outstanding Feature Story in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast, and one for Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast. The following year, the series won an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Journalism in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast for a story on fraud at compounding pharmacies, which he co-executive produced with Steve Capus.


title: Chris Licht

text: On April 28, 2010, Licht suffered a near-fatal cerebral hemorrhage while driving in Washington, D.C. He later wrote a book about the resulting experience, "What I Learned When I Almost Died: How a Maniac TV Producer Put Down His BlackBerry and Started to Live His Life", which was published in 2011. Joe Biden, the then vice-president and a survivor of an aneurysm himself, cold-called Dr. Vivek Deshmukh, a highly recommended neurosurgeon, to care for Licht.


title: Chris Licht

text: As of 2017, he lived in Manhattan with his wife, Jenny Blanco and their two sons. Jenny worked at CNN for several years as a producer for Anderson Cooper and then as a director of talent recruiting and development. Licht began dating her while they both were on assignment at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens and they married in April 2006 at the L'Auberge Del Mar, in Del Mar, California.


title: Joanna David

text: Joanna David (born Joanna Elizabeth Hacking; 17 January 1947) is an English actress, best known for her television work.


title: Joanna David

text: In 1971, she began a relationship with Edward Fox, with whom she has two children: Emilia (born 1974) and Frederick "Freddie" (born 1989). They married in 2004.


title: Joanna David

text: Her first major television role was as Elinor Dashwood in the BBC's 1971 dramatisation of "Sense and Sensibility" followed a year later by "War and Peace", in which she played Sonya. David also appeared in the TV series "The Last of the Mohicans" (BBC), and in two episodes of "Colditz", ("Missing, Presumed Dead" and "Odd Man In", 1972) as Cathy Carter, the wife of Flt. Lt. Simon Carter (played by David McCallum).


title: Joanna David

text: In 1975, she played Theo Dane in the BBC's television adaptation of "Ballet Shoes" by Noel Streatfeild. 32 years later in 2007, her daughter, Emilia Fox, starred in a new adaptation of the same book.


title: Joanna David

text: In 1978, David appeared in the mini series "Lillie" as Jeanne Marie, the daughter of Lillie Langtry. The following year, she played the heroine of Daphne du Maurier's "Rebecca", opposite Jeremy Brett in the BBC miniseries of the same name. In 1985 she appeared as Dolly in "Anna Karenina". In 1987, she acted in the "Agatha Christie's Miss Marple" episode, "4:50 from Paddington", as Emma Crackenthorpe.


title: Joanna David

text: In 1990, she appeared as a contestant on "Cluedo", facing off against her future husband and fellow actor Edward Fox.


title: Joanna David

text: In 2005, she appeared in two episodes of "Bleak House", playing Mrs. Bayham Badger, alongside Gillian Anderson, Charles Dance, Alun Armstrong and Warren Clarke. Mr. Bayham Badger was played by Richard Griffiths.


title: Joanna David

text: David's many other television appearances have included "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", "Miss Marple", "Foyle's War", "Rumpole of the Bailey", "Inspector Morse", "Midsomer Murders", "The Darling Buds of May" and, in 2004, "Rosemary & Thyme" in an episode entitled "Orpheus in the Undergrowth". More recent appearances include the BBC comedy series "Never Better", "Mutual Friends", and "Death in Paradise" (2014, series 3, episode 8).


title: Joanna David

text: She gradually moved on to more mature parts and appeared as Mrs. Gardiner in the acclaimed 1995 BBC TV series of "Pride and Prejudice", in which her daughter Emilia Fox had her first major television role as Georgiana Darcy. In 1998, she appeared in the "Midsomer Murders" episode "Written in Blood" as Amy Lyddiard. In 2009, she appeared in Alan Ayckbourn's "Woman in Mind".


title: Joanna David

text: Her film appearances have included roles in "The Smashing Bird I Used to Know" (1969), the horror short "Sleepwalker" (1984), "Comrades" (1986), "Secret Friends" (1991), "Rogue Trader" (1999), "Cotton Mary" (1999), "The Soul Keeper" (2002, as the mother of her real-life daughter Emilia) and "These Foolish Things" (2006). She played Mother Julian in the "Midsomer Murders" episode, "Sacred Trust" (2011). In 2013, she appeared in "Downton Abbey" as Duchess of Yeovil in two episodes and also in the "Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple" episode, "Greenshaw’s Folly", as Grace Ritchie. She appeared in the "Murderous Marriage" episode of "Agatha Raisin" as Lady Derrington in 2016.


title: Joanna David

text: David is a trustee of the National Brain Appeal, the charity dedicated to the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London. David underwent brain surgery in 1993 to correct a congenital Arnold–Chiari malformation.


title: Joanna David

text: In January 2013, David became a patron of Pancreatic Cancer Action, a charity focussed on raising the awareness of pancreatic cancer. David's friend Angharad Rees died from the illness in 2012.


title: Camelidae

text: Camelids are members of the biological family Camelidae, the only currently living family in the suborder Tylopoda. The seven extant members of this group are: dromedary camels, Bactrian camels, wild Bactrian camels, llamas, alpacas, vicuñas, and guanacos. Camelids are even-toed ungulates classified in the order Cetartiodactyla, along with species like whales, pigs, deer, cattle, and antelopes.


title: Camelidae

text: Camelids are large, strictly herbivorous animals with slender necks and long legs. They differ from ruminants in a number of ways. Their dentition show traces of vestigial central incisors in the incisive bone, and the third incisors have developed into canine-like tusks. Camelids also have true canine teeth and tusk-like premolars, which are separated from the molars by a gap. The musculature of the hind limbs differs from those of other ungulates in that the legs are attached to the body only at the top of the thigh, rather than attached by skin and muscle from the knee upwards. Because of this, camelids have to lie down by resting on their knees with their legs tucked underneath their bodies. They have three-chambered stomachs, rather than four-chambered ones; their upper lips are split in two, with each part separately mobile; and, uniquely among mammals, their red blood cells are elliptical. They also have a unique type of antibodies, which lack the light chain, in addition to the normal antibodies found in other mammals. These so-called heavy-chain antibodies are being used to develop single-domain antibodies with potential pharmaceutical applications.


title: Camelidae

text: Camelids do not have hooves; rather, they have two-toed feet with toenails and soft foot pads (Tylopoda is Greek for "padded foot"). Most of the weight of the animal rests on these tough, leathery sole pads. The South American camelids have adapted to the steep and rocky terrain by adjusting the pads on their toes to maintain grip. The surface area of Camels foot pads can increase with increasing velocity in order to reduce pressure on the feet and larger members of the camelid species will usually have larger pad area to help distribute weight across the foot. Many fossil camelids were unguligrade and probably hooved, in contrast to all living species.


title: Camelidae

text: Camelids are behaviorally similar in many ways, including their walking gait, in which both legs on the same side are moved simultaneously. While running, camelids engage a unique "running pace gait" in which limbs on the same side move in the same pattern they walk, with both left legs moving and then both right, this ensures that the fore and hind limb will not collide while in fast motion. During this motion there is a moment where all four limbs are off the ground at the same time. Consequently, camelids large enough for human beings to ride have a typical swaying motion.


title: Camelidae

text: The three Afro-Asian camel species have developed extensive adaptations to their lives in harsh, near-waterless environments. Wild populations of the Bactrian camel are even able to drink brackish water, and some herds live in nuclear test areas.


title: Camelidae

text: Camelids are unusual in that their modern distribution is almost the inverse of their area of origin. Camelids first appeared very early in the evolution of the even-toed ungulates, around 50 to 40 million years ago during the middle Eocene, in present-day North America. Among the earliest camelids was the rabbit-sized "Protylopus", which still had four toes on each foot. By the late Eocene, around 35 million years ago, camelids such as "Poebrotherium" had lost the two lateral toes, and were about the size of a modern goat.


title: Camelidae

text: The family diversified and prospered, but remained confined to the North American continent until only about two to three million years ago, when representatives arrived in Asia, and (as part of the Great American Interchange that followed the formation of the Isthmus of Panama) South America. A high arctic camel from this time period has been documented in the far northern reaches of Canada.


title: Camelidae

text: The original camelids of North America remained common until the quite recent geological past, but then disappeared, possibly as a result of hunting or habitat alterations by the earliest human settlers, and possibly as a result of changing environmental conditions after the last ice age, or a combination of these factors. Three species groups survived: the dromedary of northern Africa and southwest Asia; the Bactrian camel of central Asia; and the South American group, which has now diverged into a range of forms that are closely related, but usually classified as four species: llamas, alpacas, guanacos, and vicuñas. Camelids were domesticated by early Andean peoples, and remain in use today.


title: Camelidae

text: Fossil camelids show a wider variety than their modern counterparts. One North American genus, "Titanotylopus", stood 3.5 m at the shoulder, compared with about 2 m for the largest modern camelids. Other extinct camelids included small, gazelle-like animals, such as "Stenomylus". Finally, a number of very tall, giraffe-like camelids were adapted to feeding on leaves from high trees, including such genera as "Aepycamelus" and "Oxydactylus".


title: Camelidae

text: Whether the wild Bactrian camel ("Camelus ferus") is in fact a distinct species or a subspecies ("Camelus bactrianus ferus") is still debated. The divergence date is 0.7 million years ago, long before the start of domestication.


title: Poonam Bajwa

text: Poonam Bajwa is an Indian actress and model who appears in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films. She made her acting debut in 2005 with the Telugu film "Modati Cinema", after that she was featured in more Telugu film, such as "Boss" (2006). Her debut Tamil movie was "Seval" (2008).


title: Poonam Bajwa

text: A Punjabi by birth, she was born in Bombay to Amarjit Singh Bajwa, a Naval Officer and Jayalakshmi Bajwa. She has a younger sister, Deepika Bajwa. She was crowned Miss Pune in 2005, after which she started modeling part-time while studying. When she went to Hyderabad for a ramp show, the director of "Modati Cinema" spotted her and asked her if she was interested in films. She had finished her 12th then and had a five-month gap before college and hence agreed to star in his film, despite excelling in academics. She pursued a degree in English Literature from Symbiosis International University, Pune.


title: Poonam Bajwa

text: In October 2020 Bajwa took to Instagram to announce she is in a relationship with director Suneel Reddy.


title: Poonam Bajwa

text: She made her acting debut in the 2005 Telugu film "Modati Cinema", following which she appeared in several Telugu films, including "Boss" opposite Nagarjuna and Bhaskar's "Parugu". She debuted in Tamil in 2008 with the Hari-directed masala film "Seval" and subsequently starred in "Thenavattu" and "Kacheri Arambam", both co-starring Jeeva, and "Drohi" and "Thambikottai". She acted in "China Town", a Malayalam movie.


title: Body proportions

text: While there is significant variation in anatomical proportions between people, certain body proportions have become canonical in figurative art. The study of body proportions, as part of the study of artistic anatomy, explores the relation of the elements of the human body to each other and to the whole. These ratios are used in depictions of the human figure and may become part of an artistic canon of body proportion within a culture. Academic art of the nineteenth century demanded close adherence to these reference metrics and some artists in the early twentieth century rejected those constraints and consciously mutated them.


title: Body proportions

text: It is usually important in figure drawing to draw the human figure in proportion. Though there are subtle differences between individuals, human proportions fit within a fairly standard range though artists have historically tried to create idealised standards that have varied considerably over time, according to era and region. In modern figure drawing, the basic unit of measurement is the 'head', which is the distance from the top of the head to the chin. This unit of measurement is credited to the Greek sculptor Polykleitos (fifth century BCE) and has long been used by artists to establish the proportions of the human figure. Ancient Egyptian art used a canon of proportion based on the "fist", measured across the knuckles, with 18 fists from the ground to the hairline on the forehead. This canon was already established by the Narmer Palette from about the 31st century BC, and remained in use until at least the conquest by Alexander the Great some 3,000 years later.


title: Body proportions

text: There are a number of important distances between reference points that an artist may measure and will observe: These are the distance from floor to the patella; from the patella to the front iliac crest; the distance across the stomach between the iliac crests; the distances (which may differ according to pose) from the iliac crests to the suprasternal notch between the clavicles; and the distance from the notch to the bases of the ears (which again may differ according to the pose).


title: Body proportions

text: Some teachers deprecate mechanistic measurements and strongly advise the artist to learn to estimate proportion by eye alone.


title: Body proportions

text: Many text books of artistic anatomy advise that the head height be used as a yardstick for other lengths in the body: their ratios to it provide a consistent and credible structure. Although the average person is 7 heads tall, the custom in Classical Greece (since Lysippos) and Renaissance art was to set the figure as eight heads tall: "the eight-heads-length figure seems by far the best; it gives dignity to the figure and also seems to be the most convenient." The half-way mark is a line between the outer hip bones, just above the pubic arch.


title: Body proportions

text: The earliest known representations of female figures date from 23,000 to 25,000 years ago. Models of the human head (such as the Venus of Brassempouy) are rare in Paleolithic art: most are like the Venus of Willendorf bodies with vestigial head and limbs, noted for their very high waist:hip ratio of 1:1 or more. It may be that the artists' "depictions of corpulent, middle-aged females were not 'Venuses' in any conventional sense. They may, instead, have symbolized the hope for survival and longevity, within well-nourished and reproductively successful communities."


title: Body proportions

text: The ancient Greek sculptor Polykleitos (c.450–420 BCE), known for his ideally proportioned bronze "Doryphoros", wrote an influential "Canon" (now lost) describing the proportions to be followed in sculpture. The "Canon" applies the basic mathematical concepts of Greek geometry, such as the ratio, proportion, and "symmetria" (Greek for "harmonious proportions") creating a system capable of describing the human form through a series of continuous geometric progressions. Polykleitos may have used the distal phalanx of the little finger as the basic module for determining the proportions of the human body, scaling this length up repeatedly by to obtain the ideal size of the other phalanges, the hand, forearm, and upper arm in turn.


title: Body proportions

text: Leonardo da Vinci believed that the ideal human proportions were determined by the harmonious proportions that he believed governed the universe, such that the ideal man would fit cleanly into a circle as depicted in his famed drawing of "Vitruvian Man" (c. 1492), as described in a book by Vitruvius. Leonardo's commentary is about relative body proportions with comparisons of hand, foot, and other feature's lengths to other body parts more than to actual measurements.


title: Body proportions

text: It has been suggested that the ideal human figure has its navel at the golden ratio (formula_1, about 1.618), dividing the body in the ratio of 0.618 to 0.382 (soles of feet to navel:navel to top of head) ( is formula_1-1, about 0.618) and da Vinci's Vitruvian Man is cited as evidence. In reality, the navel of the Vitruvian Man divides the figure at 0.604 and nothing in the accompanying text mentions the golden ratio.


title: Body proportions

text: In his conjectural reconstruction of the Canon of Polykleitos, art historian Richard Tobin determined (about 1.4142) to be the important ratio between elements that the classical Greek sculptor had used.


title: Steubenville High School rape case

text: The Steubenville High School rape occurred in Steubenville, Ohio on the night of August11, 2012, when a high school girl, incapacitated by alcohol, was publicly and repeatedly sexually assaulted by her peers, several of whom documented the acts on social media. The victim was transported, undressed, photographed, and sexually assaulted. She was also penetrated vaginally by other students' fingers (digital penetration), an act defined as rape under Ohio law.


title: Steubenville High School rape case

text: The callous attitude of the assailants was documented on Facebook, Twitter, text messages, and cell phone recordings of the acts. The crime and ensuing legal proceedings generated considerable controversy and galvanized a national conversation about rape and rape culture. Two students and high school football players, Ma'lik Richmond and Trent Mays, both 16 at the time of the crime, were convicted in juvenile court for the rape of a minor. Additionally, three other adults have been indicted for obstructing the investigation into the rape, while Steubenville's superintendent of schools was charged with hindering the investigation into a rape that took place earlier in 2012.


title: Steubenville High School rape case

text: In the early morning hours of August12, 2012, two high school football players, Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond, used their fingers to rape a 16-year-old girl from Weirton, West Virginia.


title: Steubenville High School rape case

text: In the days following the rapes, according to "The New York Times", Mays "seemed to try to orchestrate a cover-up, telling a friend, 'Just say she came to your house and passed out and pleading with the victim not to press charges.


title: Steubenville High School rape case

text: Ohio investigators confiscated and analyzed 15cellphones and two tablets, collecting hundreds of text messages from dozens of students, and interviewed almost 60people, including students, coaches, school officials and parents.


title: Steubenville High School rape case

text: The victim testified in court that she had no memory of the six-hour period in which the digital rape occurred, except for a brief time at the second location in which she was vomiting on the street. She said she woke up the next morning naked in a basement living room with Mays, Richmond and another teenage boy, missing her underwear, flip-flops, phone and earrings.


title: Steubenville High School rape case

text: The evidence presented in court mainly consisted of hundreds of text messages and cellphone pictures that had been taken by more than a dozen people at the parties and afterwards traded with other students and posted to social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, and which were described by the judge as "profane and ugly".


title: Steubenville High School rape case

text: In a photograph posted on Instagram by Steubenville High football player Cody Saltsman, the victim was shown looking unresponsive, being carried by two teenage boys by her wrists and ankles. Former Steubenville Student Michael Nodianos, responded with a fictional monologue of the event, tweeted "Some people deserve to be peed on", which was retweeted later by several people, including Mays. In a 12-minute video later posted to YouTube, Nodianos and others talk about what they think is going to happen with Jane Doe, with Nodianos joking that "they raped her quicker than Mike Tyson raped that one girl" and "They peed on her. That's how you know she's dead, because someone pissed on her". While he did not sexually assault the victim himself, Nodianos, a scholarship student at Ohio State at the time news of the rape broke, received numerous threats for his comments, as did his family in Steubenville, and subsequently dropped out of school. In one text, Mays described the victim as "like a dead body" and "deader than Caylee Anthony" and in another he told the victim that a photo of her lying naked in a basement had been taken by him. In a text message to a friend afterwards, he said "I shoulda raped her now that everybody thinks I did", but "she wasn't awake enough".


title: Steubenville High School rape case

text: On March17, 2013, Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond were convicted of digital rape after the trial judge found they had used their fingers to digitally penetrate the victim's vagina and that it was impossible for the incapacitated girl to have given consent.


title: Steubenville High School rape case

text: The case garnered nationwide attention after it was prominently covered in "The New York Times", in part for the role of social media in its development. Several individuals publicized the event using Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and text messages. Video and photo evidence reveal that the girl was sexually assaulted over the course of several hours. The video and photo evidence showed her to be unconscious. Some members of the community blamed the girl for her own rape and blamed her for casting a negative light on the football team and town.


title: Steubenville High School rape case

text: Criticism has also been placed upon media outlets themselves, especially CNN. During the course of the delinquent verdict on March17, 2013, CNN's Poppy Harlow stated that it was "incredibly difficult, even for an outsider like me, to watch what happened as these two young men that had such promising futures, star football players, very good students, literally watched as they believed their lives fell apart ... when that sentence came down, [Ma'lik] collapsed in the arms of his attorney. ... He said to him, 'My life is over. No one is going to want me now. Candy Crowley and Paul Callan were also criticized for their lack of focus on the victim and their sympathy for the rapists.


title: Steubenville High School rape case

text: In early broadcasts on March17, 2013, CNN, Fox News and MSNBC aired unedited footage that revealed the first name of the rape victim during one of the students' post-conviction statements after the guilty disposition was announced. This practice is against the Associated Press guidelines for coverage. These media outlets redacted the name in subsequent broadcasts. Her first name also appeared temporarily in documents leaked by Anonymous.


title: Steubenville High School rape case

text: Congressman Bill Johnson of Ohio's 6th congressional district, which includes Steubenville, issued a statement on January 7, 2013. In the statement, Johnson said, "As the father of two daughters and grandfather of four granddaughters, had something like what is being alleged here have happened to one of my loved ones, I would be demanding justice to the fullest extent of the law". He stated he was in contact with State Attorney General Mike DeWine about the incident, and was confident that the state and local authorities were competently handling the case. On March17, after the verdict he stated: "This has been a tragic ordeal. Lives have been forever changed because of the reprehensible acts committed by the young men involved. Now that they've been held accountable in court, I'm hopeful that the Steubenville community will begin the difficult process of healing".


title: Steubenville High School rape case

text: On December24, 2012, following national newspaper coverage, the hacker collective Anonymous and other hackers threatened to reveal the names of other unindicted alleged participants. In December 2012, KnightSec, an offshoot of Anonymous, hacked an unaffiliated website, posting a demand for an apology by school officials and local authorities, who had allegedly covered up the incident in order to protect the athletes and school's program. KnightSec followed up their December hack on January1, 2013, posting a video featuring the "self-proclaimed 'rape crew' from the night of the attack, making jokes about what had happened". There are allegations that more people participated in the incident. One of the hackers was later indicted under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Deric Lostutter, who donned a Guy Fawkes mask and was interviewed by CNN, was later raided by the FBI with a warrant targeting his involvement in the hacking of a site, even though somebody else acknowledged being responsible for the hacking.


title: Steubenville High School rape case

text: "Saltsman v. Goddard" concerned an effort by the parents of Cody Saltsman, a teenage boy from Steubenville, to stop blogger Alexandria Goddard's website from publishing allegedly defamatory posts about their son. The parents sued Goddard and a dozen anonymous posters in October 2012; a legal blogger labeled it a SLAPP suit. The lawsuit asked for an injunction against the blogger, a public apology stating that the boy was not involved in the rape and $25,000 in damages. The ACLU became involved on behalf of Goddard and the anonymous posters. Most of the specific statements outlined in the Saltsman's lawsuit did not rise to the level of defamation as alleged. The majority of local anonymous posters named in the lawsuit via their online nametag perceived this lawsuit as merely an avenue to learn their identity. The case was dismissed with prejudice in December 2012 after Goddard agreed to post a statement that the boy was remorseful about his role in the aftermath of the Steubenville High School rape case.


title: Steubenville High School rape case

text: On March17, 2013, Judge Thomas Lipps tried Mays and Richmond as juveniles and adjudicated them "delinquent beyond reasonable doubt", the juvenile equivalent of a guilty verdict. Each defendant received a mandated minimum sentence, with the possibility of remaining in juvenile detention until age 21. The judge set a minimum sentence of one year for Richmond, who was found guilty of penetrating the girl while she was unconscious. Mays, who was found guilty of penetrating the girl while she was unconscious and disseminating pornographic pictures of her, was given a minimum sentence of two years. Because the girl was a minor, Mays was charged with and convicted of the dissemination of child pornography, which is the reason for his additional year in juvenile detention. Initially, it was reported that whether or not Mays and Richmond will be added to the sex offender registry depends on a future hearing to evaluate their behavior once they have turned 21. However, both were classified "Tier II" (medium) offenders. Ma'lik Richmond was released from detention on January5, 2014. Trent Mays was released in January 2015.


title: Steubenville High School rape case

text: The nature of the case led to accusations that coaches and school officials knew about the rape and failed to report it. For example, several texts entered into evidence during the trial implied that Steubenville head coach Reno Saccoccia was trying to cover for the players, which led to nationwide outrage after he received a new contract as the district's administrative services director. In response, shortly after the sentences were handed down, then Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced he would empanel a special grand jury to determine whether other crimes were committed—specifically, whether coaches and other school officials failed to report the rape even though Ohio law makes them mandated reporters.


title: Steubenville High School rape case

text: The panel began meeting in April 2013. On October8, 2013, the grand jury returned the first indictment of an adult in the case. William Rhinaman, the IT director for Steubenville City Schools, was charged with one count each of tampering with evidence, obstruction of justice, obstruction of a public official and grand jury perjury. In February 2015, Rhinaman, under a deal reached with prosecutors, pleaded guilty to one count of obstructing official business. He was sentenced to 90days in jail, 80days of which were suspended provided he completes one year of community control.


title: Steubenville High School rape case

text: On November25, 2013, DeWine announced a second round of indictments. Another alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl occurring in April 2012 had come to light, leading to grand jury charges. The highest-profile indictment in relation to this earlier alleged rape was that of Steubenville City Schools superintendent Michael McVey, who was charged with obstructing justice, tampering with evidence, obstructing official business and falsification. In 2015, McVey agreed to resign from his post in exchange for not facing charges, never seek employment in Steubenville education again and avoid contact with anyone involved in the investigation or case. Three other adults were also indicted. An elementary school principal and a strength coach were charged with failing to report possible child abuse. Charges against the principal were unrelated to the August rape case and were dismissed before the case went to trial. A former volunteer coach faces several misdemeanor charges, including making false statements and contributing to underage alcohol consumption. Other school employees were reinstated after an investigation into the indictments.


title: Steubenville High School rape case

text: The song "Plato's Tripartite" performed by Canadian metal band Protest the Hero from their album Volition was written directly referencing this case, providing a sarcastic commentary on how the media and public twisted their sympathy to those who performed the rape, and ostracized the victim instead.


title: Steubenville High School rape case

text: Los Angeles-based artist Andrea Bowers exhibited an art installation with the tweets the football players sent out the night of the rape at Pomona College Museum of Art January21 to April13, 2014, and Pitzer College Art Galleries from January21 to March28, 2014 in Claremont, California. Bowers grew up in a small town in Ohio with values similar to those in Steubenville, where, she says, "most of the young men were never told 'No' and were culturally given the right to do whatever they wanted", something that she feels "needs to change". She attended the trial to do the research necessary for the artwork.


title: Steubenville High School rape case

text: Brad Pitt and partners PlanB Entertainment production company bought the rights of the "Rolling Stone" article about Deric Lostutter's involvement in the case.


title: Steubenville High School rape case

text: "Roll Red Roll" is an 80-minute documentary movie about the rape. It is directed by Nancy Schwartzman, and edited by Christopher White. The film provides a "public example of the breadth of rape culture". A companion book of the same title, co-authored by Schwartzman and Nora Zelevansky, was published by Hachette Book Group in 2022.


title: Cláudio Taffarel

text: Cláudio André Mergen Taffarel (; born 8 May 1966) is a Brazilian retired footballer who played as a goalkeeper, and is the goalkeeping coach of English Premier League club Liverpool and the Brazil national team. During an 18-year career he played professionally for five different clubs in both Brazil and Europe. He began his senior career in 1985 with Brazilian side Internacional, whereas his latter clubs were Parma, Reggiana, Atlético Mineiro, and Galatasaray; he ended his career in 2003, after a second spell with Italian team Parma.


title: Cláudio Taffarel

text: The recipient of more than 100 caps for Brazil, Taffarel helped the national team win the 1994 World Cup, also appearing in eight other major international tournaments over the course of one full decade, most notably helping Brazil to a second place in the 1998 World Cup, and two Copa América titles in 1989 and 1997; he also won a silver medal at the 1988 Summer Olympic Games.


title: Cláudio Taffarel

text: Born in Santa Rosa, Rio Grande do Sul from Italian Brazilians ancestry, Taffarel began his career playing for Internacional but only appeared in 14 Série A games during his five-year spell, being however awarded the Golden Ball award for the 1988 season. In 1990, he moved abroad and joined Parma in Italy, a club which had been freshly promoted to Serie A for the first time in its history; according to a 2003 article by Andrea Schianchi of "La Gazzetta dello Sport", Taffarel's move to Parma was also carried out for commercial reasons, as at the time, Calisto Tanzi, the then–owner of Parmalat – the company that owned the club –, was looking to have the Brazilian goalkeeper become the face of the corporation's new advertising campaign following its recent expansion into Brazil. Taffarel became the first non–Italian goalkeeper to play in Serie A, and proceeded to appear in all 34 league games in the following campaign under manager Nevio Scala, as the Emilia-Romagna side finished in sixth position and qualified to the UEFA Cup. He won the Coppa Italia in 1992 and the Cup Winners' Cup in 1993 during his first spell with the club, although following a series of unconvincing performances, and the regulations at the time that only allowed three non–Italian players in the team's starting XI (with Faustino Asprilla, Tomas Brolin, and Georges Grün usually being selected to start by Scala), he was relegated to the bench over the course of the next two seasons, initially behind Marco Ballotta and later Luca Bucci.


title: Cláudio Taffarel

text: In 1993, Taffarel, now only a back-up at Parma, signed for fellow Serie A team Reggiana, where he was first-choice throughout the following season in a narrow escape from relegation. However, he was subsequently dropped from the first team in 1994, and remained without a professional club in the run up to and following that year's World Cup in the United States, playing instead at amateur level with his local church team, and even featuring as a centre-forward on occasion. Afterwards, he returned to his home country in 1995 and played three years with Atlético Mineiro.


title: Cláudio Taffarel

text: On 24 June 1998, when still appearing for "Seleçao" at 1998 FIFA World Cup tournament in France, Taffarel signed a two-year deal with Galatasaray at Disneyland Paris. Galatasaray paid a transfer fee of around $1.5 million to his former club Atlético Mineiro. At Galatasaray, he has won six major trophies during his three-year stint, most notably two Süper Lig titles and the 1999–2000 UEFA Cup and 2000 UEFA Super Cup; in the final of the latter competition – a 4–1 penalty shootout victory over Arsenal following a 0–0 draw after 120 minutes – he was chosen as Man of the match. He closed out his career with former club Parma, joining the team in 2001; he mainly featured as a second-choice keeper behind Sébastien Frey during his second spell with the club, but started in both legs of the 2002 Coppa Italia Final, which saw Parma triumph over the newly crowned Serie A champions, Juventus. He retired in 2003, after one-and-a-half seasons with the club, at the age of 37, and after having refused an offer from Empoli: his car broke while he was going to sign the contract, which he later described as a "sign of God".


title: Cláudio Taffarel

text: Taffarel made his debut for Brazil on 7 July 1988 in the Australia Bicentenary Gold Cup, playing all four games and conceding two goals as his team won the tournament. He was also in goal for the following year's Copa América, which Brazil also won (during his ten-year international career, he appeared in five editions of the latter tournament, winning the title for a second time in 1997, and collecting runners-up medals in 1991 and 1995). At the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, he won a silver medal, saving three penalties against West Germany in the semi-finals of the tournament: one in regulation time, and two in Brazil's successful shoot-out. He was also a member of the Brazilian team that took part at the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy, where Brazil were eliminated in the round of 16 following a 1–0 defeat to rivals and defending champions Argentina, with Taffarel conceding only two goals in total throughout the tournament.


title: Cláudio Taffarel

text: Taffarel was the starter for the nation during the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States, only allowing one goal in the first round and two in the knock-out phases, excluding two penalty kicks in the final shootout victory against Italy. Four years later, in France, he helped his national team to a second consecutive World Cup final, which proved to be his final international appearance; on this occasion, however, Brazil lost out 3–0 to the hosts. In the run-up to the final, Taffarel had notably saved two penalties in the team's 4–2 shootout victory over the Netherlands in the semi-finals. He was also a member of the Brazilian side that finished in third place at the 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup.


title: Cláudio Taffarel

text: In total, Taffarel played 101 times with the "Seleção", making him Brazil's most capped goalkeeper of all time, and one of the few Brazilian players to have made at least 100 caps for the national side. Upon his retirement in 2003, coach Carlos Alberto Parreira offered to arrange a farewell match but the player refused, stating that he was not interested in such fanfare; he did return to play alongside Romário in late 2004 against Mexico, to commemorate the 1994 World Cup victory at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.


title: Cláudio Taffarel

text: Regarded as one of the greatest Brazilian goalkeepers of all time, Taffarel was known to be a rational, effective, and generally consistent keeper, with good fundamental goalkeeping technique, who favoured an efficient rather than spectacular playing style. His main attributes were his explosive reflexes, positional sense, and calm composure in goal, as well as his penalty-stopping abilities; due to the muscle power in his legs that he developed while playing beach volleyball in his youth, he was known for his surprising spring and elevation from a standstill position, despite his modest stature, which gave him significant hang time and aided him in stopping penalties. Furthermore, he was known to be quick when coming off his line, and was also highly regarded for his flair and skill with the ball at his feet, having played as a forward in his youth. Due to his lack of height, however, as well as his poor handling and decision-making, he struggled at times when dealing with crosses, and was not particularly confident or decisive when coming off his line to catch high balls; as such, critical reception of Taffarel was often divided throughout his career. While he drew praise from the Brazilian fans and media for his decisive performances with the Brazilian national team, which even earned him the nickname "Saint Taffarel" in the Brazilian media, he also drew criticism at times from Italian pundits over the mental aspect of his game, and his lack of development during his time in Serie A, which made him unreliable and prone to technical errors on occasion, despite his shot-stopping ability and generally high-quality gameplay, as well as his capacity to produce excellent saves. Moreover, his struggles to cope with his nerves are thought to have impeded him from succeeding consistently at the highest level with top European clubs throughout his career, despite his success and reputation. Ahead of the 1998 FIFA World Cup Final, Mike Penner of the "Los Angeles Times" speculated that Taffarel, and the goalkeeping position more broadly, was the "weak link" of an otherwise world class Brazilian national side, due to the lack of top goalkeepers in Brazilian football at the time; indeed, prior to the tournament, "Reuters" had dismissed Taffarel as: "One of around a dozen goalkeepers in Brazil of roughly the same standard."


title: Cláudio Taffarel

text: Taffarel and his former Atlético Mineiro teammate Paulo Roberto started up a player agency, with the focus mainly on promising youngsters.


title: Cláudio Taffarel

text: During the 1998 World Cup, when the Brazilian national team was training at Trois-Sapins stadium in Ozoir-la-Ferrière, a suburb southeast of Paris, the town's mayor proposed renaming the stadium after him.


title: Cláudio Taffarel

text: In 2004, Taffarel rejoined Galatasaray as goalkeeper coach – under former teammate Gheorghe Hagi – returning to the club for the 2011–12 season, again with Fatih Terim as manager. Taffarel had two short spells as interim manager before leaving the Turkish side in 2019.


title: Cláudio Taffarel

text: He currently works as a goalkeeper coach for both Liverpool, having joined in 2021, and the Brazilian national team, having taken up the role in 2014.


title: Cláudio Taffarel

text: Taffarel is a born-again Christian who has actively shared his faith in numerous venues. He was a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes since 1988, and has 17 children, 15 of them adopted.


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: The Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) is a program initiated by Marine Corps Systems Command to procure an amphibious assault vehicle for the United States Marine Corps to supplement and ultimately replace the aging Assault Amphibious Vehicle (AAV). The program replaces the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) program canceled in 2011. Originally a plan to develop a high-water-speed vehicle, the program has expanded into a multi-phased approach to procure and develop several types of amphibious-capable vehicles to address near and long-term requirements.


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: The competition for the final project ended in 2018 which saw the birth of an eight-wheel drive armoured fighting vehicle based on the Italian Iveco SuperAV produced by BAE Systems and Iveco starting in 2020 with 36 units and from 2021 with 80 vehicles per year for five years.


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: The ACV should have countermeasures able to contend with a full range of direct fire, indirect fire and land mine threats. Visible and thermal signature reduction technologies will also be used. Modular protection can be applied as necessary.


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: The vehicle must have the capability to transition from water to ground operations without tactical pause. It must be able to maneuver with the M1A1 Abrams in a mechanized task force. It must have the capability to destroy combat vehicles similar to itself. Weapons must have sufficient range to engage targets from a standoff distance. Weapons will apply precision fire from a stabilized system. It must provide direct fire support for dismounted infantry in an attack. The Marine Corps identified speed on water as a top requirement, even at the cost of troop carrying capacity.


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: The ACV must be able to self-deploy from an amphibious assault ship at least 12 miles from shore with 17 Marines aboard. It has to be able to travel 8 knots or faster through seas with waves up to three feet. The vehicle was to be operational between 2020 and 2022, with 573 vehicles planned to be procured.


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: Given the budget environment and the technological challenges involved, the ACV program was split into two separate phases. The first phase is for immediate upgrade to existing equipment types while testing and trying out new concepts. The second phase is to develop then field a single, "ultimate" vehicle using new technology and the lessons learned operating the improved vehicles to replace the equipment from the first phase.


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: The first phase, will consist of several hundred commercial off-the-shelf wheeled armored vehicles each costing $3–$4.5 million. It will rely on connectors to get it from ship-to-shore, like the Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) and Joint High Speed Vessel. Relying on connectors to bring the vehicle to a beach allows the sea base to be located 100 miles from enemy threats. The less ambitious Phase 1 ACV will be fielded in the interim, while research and development will commence to refine the features of the Phase 2 ACV.


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: Phase 1.1, the first increment of Phase 1 of procurement, will buy wheeled personnel carriers. Phase 1.2, the second increment of Phase 1, will include mission-role variants like command-and-control, logistics and weapons variants; these iterations may reintroduce tracks or stay wheeled. ACV 1.1 vehicles will be an operational and commercially available design that is "good enough" to operate. Its water performance will be comparable to the AAV and will have survivability attributes of a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle, including high-ground clearance and a V-shaped hull, with the ability to drive with a wheel blown off. For the second lot buy (1.2), engineering and design changes will be made to meet roughly half of desired amphibious vehicle fleet size requirements.


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: The ACV 1.1 is to carry 10–13 Marines, have a swim capability similar to the AAV and have equal or greater mobility to the M1 Abrams tank. Although tracks are traditionally considered better for all-terrain mobility, the Marines believe wheeled vehicle technology has advanced enough to enhance survivability and mobility in a 35-ton-class platform; the Marine Personnel Carrier technology demonstrator used "in-line" drive technology that enabled all four wheels on each side to pull together much like the way a track does. This demonstrated ability when combined with a higher ground clearance and central tire inflation system, substantially closes the maneuverability gap for wheeled vehicles and results in equal or better maneuverability than the M1A1 and better performance over the AAV, both of which are tracked.


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: Improved technology used to inform requirements to build ACV 1.2 vehicles will later be applied to delivered 1.1 versions to upgrade them to 1.2 standard. Each ACV 1.1 vehicle will have a 3-man crew and two vehicles will carry a reinforced rifle squad. Armament will consist of an M2 .50-caliber machine gun in a remote weapons station, with the potential to install a stabilized dual-mount M2/Mark 19 grenade launcher turret. Potential water speeds are for a ship-to-shore capability at 8 knots.


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: The second phase is the original high-water-speed effort to develop a vehicle capable of self-deployment from ships and travel at speeds of 13–15 knots on water, each costing $12–$14 million. This last phase of ACV procurement would be purchasing a high-water-speed vehicle, but only if technologies make it achievable without sacrificing armor and weapons.


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: A Request For Information (RFI) was issued to industry on 17 February 2011. The document outlined expected requirements and asked industry for informal design proposals and program methodology feedback. Responses were due by 22 April 2011. An industry day was held on 6 April 2011.


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: In August 2012, General Dynamics was awarded an ACV Hull Survivability Demonstrator contract for the design, fabrication and test support of a full-scale hull to demonstrate crew-protection technologies. In November 2012, they conducted simulated mine-blast tests on their ACV ballistic hull design, successfully meeting mine-blast survivability requirements. Work concluded by May 2013 and will be used to refine requirements for effective protection against under-vehicle threats.


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: In April 2013, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarded a $1 million prize to a team in the Fast Adaptable Next-Generation Ground Vehicle (FANG) contest. The team beat out 1,000 other competitors to submit their design for a drivetrain for the ACV. The FANG initiative was to demonstrate a way to procure working systems better than the current defense acquisition process, which frequently leads to delays and cost overruns. The Marines are in charge of the ACV program, so there was no guarantee that the DARPA-crowdsourced mobility drivetrain would result in a vehicle bought by the Corps.


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: At a roundtable discussion on 26 June 2013, Marine Corps General Jim Amos told the media that the program was still being pursued and that a Request For Proposals (RFP) would be issued in early 2014. The Corps has secured and saved a "moderate amount" of money for early development. With the previous EFV cancelled from cost overruns, the Marines are being cautious to identify trade-offs between requirements and cost for the platform. Amos noted that they were working with contractors to see which type of vehicle would meet requirements without proving too costly.


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: In January 2013, the ACV team was created and tasked to evaluate the feasibility of building an affordable, survivable amphibious high water speed vehicle. The team includes representatives from over six Department of Defense commands. Their initial requirements and engineering analysis evaluated 198 requirements for the platform. From July 9–11, 2013, 25 Marines gathered at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia for a Warfighter Requirements Workshop to review the team's capabilities analysis and determine the value of various capabilities. 30 requirements with cost and weight implications were considered "tradable," including armament and armor protection. Safety and design-specific capabilities, like transportability (fitting on an amphibious ship) were considered non-tradable. The point of the workshop was to get input from fleet Marines about what capabilities they wanted to prioritize with current financial pressures. Over the next month, the team ordered the preferences and applied actual cost and weight data to determine feasibility recommendations for Marine Corps leaders by the fall.


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: In March 2015, the Marines revealed that the separate ACV 1.1 and 1.2 increments may be merged into a single vehicle. Given that the winner of phase 1.1 will likely be awarded the 1.2 contract, industry is already planning to make their submissions meet the later requirements early. The main differences between the phases is the 1.2's greater self-deploying capability and more seating capacity. Merging the two phases to meet higher requirements earlier could speed up the acquisition timeline and drive down price, since the quantities for both would be bought in bulk. The Marines released the final RFP for ACV 1.1 on 26 March 2015.


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: In July 2015, Lockheed Martin revealed it had ended its association with Finnish company Patria on their previous collaborative Havoc offering for the program. Lockheed unveiled their new ACV offering in September 2015.


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: In October 2017 deputy Marine commandant Lt. Gen. Brian Beaudreault stated "We have to find a solution to getting Marines to shore, from over the horizon, at something greater than seven knots (8 mph)," the swimming speed of the existing Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAV) and its Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) replacement. Continuing, he said "we must find a high-water-speed vehicle on the surface. We must."


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: The Deputy Commandant's statements seemly contradict the phased approach to having a non-self deploying vehicle in the ACV 1.1 and then a fully amphibious vehicle in ACV 1.2. The question remains if the Marines are still interested in procuring a high speed connector vehicle after merging ACV 1.1 and 1.2.


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: In May 2018 a former Marine officer, Jeff Groom, published an article concerning the ACV. Both BAE System's and SAIC's ACV 1.1 test vehicles could self-deploy and swim from a ship in contradiction to General Dunford's testimony in March 2015. However, there is apparently no longer a need for speed on water as both test vehicles move through the water at 7 knots using traditional water propellers, the same speed as the legacy 1970s AAV. The article questioned the acquisition decision of a vehicle that swims at the same speed as the vehicle it replaces, carries fewer troops and is more expensive.


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: On 24 November 2015, the Marines selected the BAE Systems and Iveco with Iveco SuperAV vehicle and the SAIC Terrex vehicle to move on to the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase of the ACV 1.1 program, beating out the vehicles from Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Advanced Defense Vehicle Systems. The Marine Corps valued swim operations, land operations, carrying capability and force protection equally in the selection process, but the two winners were chosen for emphasis focused on amphibious swim capability since the ACV is "fundamentally an amphibious vehicle". Each company was awarded a contract to build 16 vehicles by late 2016, 13 initially and three more when funding becomes available, with testing beginning in early 2017 and lasting one year. A winner is planned to be selected in 2018 to build 204 vehicles, with the first entering service in 2020 and all delivered by 2023.


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: In June 2018, the BAE design was selected, with an initial order of 30 ACVs. In June 2019, BAE Systems and Iveco were awarded a contract to develop Command and 30mm gun armed variants.


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: On 15 October 2020, Iveco announced that the first fleet of 18 ACVs had been delivered to a platoon of Marines after five years of testing development.


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: On 10 December 2020, the Marine Corps and BAE Systems announced the commencement of full-rate production, with an initial batch of 36, expected to grow to 72 in early 2021 with an option for 80 vehicles per year thereafter. The subcontract for the ACV's remote turret went to Kongsberg Defence Systems with the Protector RT20.


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: A January 2021 report from the Department of Defense's Director of Operational Test & Evaluation (DOT&E) pointed to several problems with the ACV, including cramped quarters, difficult egress and frequent breakdown.


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: The U.S. Marine Corps awarded BAE Systems a $88 million contract to build multiple ACV-30 Production Representative Test Vehicles (PRTVs) in August 2022.


title: Amphibious Combat Vehicle

text: The variants include the Squad Maneuver/Fighting Vehicle, Command and Control Vehicle, Recovery and Maintenance Vehicle, and a variant with a 30mm cannon: Oto Melara Hitfist OWS.


title: Top 14

text: The Top 14 () is a professional rugby union club competition that is played in France. Created in 1892, the Top 14 is at the top of the national league system operated by the French National Rugby League, also known by its French initialism of LNR. There is promotion and relegation between the Top 14 and the next level down, the Rugby Pro D2. The fourteen best rugby teams in France participate in the competition, hence the name Top 14. The competition was previously known as the Top 16.


title: Top 14

text: The league is one of the three major professional leagues in Europe (along with the English Premiership and the United Rugby Championship, which brings together top clubs from Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Italy and South Africa), from which the most successful European teams go forward to compete in the European Rugby Champions Cup, the pan-European championship which replaced the Heineken Cup after the 2013–14 season.


title: Top 14

text: The first ever final took place in 1892, between two Paris-based sides, Stade Français and Racing Club de France, which were the only teams playing the competition that year, with the latter becoming the inaugural champions. Since then, the competition has been held on an annual basis, except from 1915 to 1919—because of World War I—and from 1940 to 1942—because of World War II. Each year, the winning team is presented with the Bouclier de Brennus, a famous trophy awarded from 1892. Toulouse is the most successful club in the competition with 21 titles.


title: Top 14

text: The first competition was held in 1892, as a one-off Championship game between the Racing Club de France and Stade Français. The Racing Club defeated Stade Français by four points to three to win the first ever title, though the "stadistes" got their revenge the following year in a repeat of the final. The match official for that first final was Pierre de Coubertin. Stade Français would go on to win a number of titles thereafter. The 1897 and 1898 series were awarded on a points system after a round-robin. Although the competition was called the French Championship, entry was confined to Parisian clubs. The 1899 season was the first to include non-Parisian clubs. The final, which was also played outside of Paris, in Le Bouscat (a suburb of the city of Bordeaux), was won by Stade Bordelais (from Bordeaux).


title: Top 14

text: For the following decade the Championship final would usually end up being contested by the Racing Club, Stade Français and Stade Bordelais, with Stade Bordelais winning five titles during this period. At this time the final was usually held in various stadia around Paris with the exception of 1903 and 1909, when it was held in Toulouse, as SOE Toulouse and Stade Toulousain were finalists respectively. The competition was then won by a number of different clubs before World War I, with teams like FC Lyon, Stade Toulousain, Aviron Bayonnais and USA Perpignan claiming their first titles.


title: Top 14

text: Due to WWI, operations were suspended for a number of years. In its place, a competition known as the Coupe de l'Espérance was held, which involved mostly young boys who had not been drafted. The competition was held four times, but is not normally considered a full championship. The normal competition returned for the 1920 season, and Stadoceste Tarbais became the first post-war champions, defeating the Racing Club de France in the final. During the 1920s Stade Toulousain initiated its now famous rugby history, winning five Championships during the decade (Stade's very first feat took place in 1912 when they were crowned champions without losing a single game throughout the season: the team was nicknamed "la Vierge Rouge" — "the Red Virgin"). USA Perpignan also won two championships (their 1925 final victory was actually a second match, as a previous final had ended in a nil-all draw).


title: Top 14

text: During the 1930s the Championship final was held only in Bordeaux or Toulouse. The 1930 Championship final, won by Agen over US Quillan, was the first to go into extra time. It would also see Toulon and Lyon OU win their first championship games. During the latter part of the decade, RC Narbonne, CS Vienne and Perpignan all won titles, and Biarritz Olympique were champions in both 1935 and 1939.


title: Top 14

text: After WWII the Championship final returned to Paris, and was played at Parc des Princes for the next four seasons. The competition during the 1940s was won by a number of different teams, though Castres won in 1949, and then again in 1950. FC Lourdes would become a dominant club during the 1950s, winning five Championships, and another in 1960.


title: Top 14

text: SU Agen would go on to win three titles during the 1960s. Lourdes were also the champions of the 1968 season, but due to the May 1968 events, the final was played three weeks behind normal schedule. At the end of regulation time the score was tied at 6–6, and then 9–9 after extra time. Lourdes were declared champions because they had scored two tries to Toulon's none and also because there was no time to schedule a third final as the French national team were about to leave on a tour to New Zealand and South Africa.


title: Top 14

text: Although Béziers won their first Championship in the 1961 season, it would be the 1970s which would see a golden era for the club, as they would win ten Championships between 1971 and 1984, as well as being runners-up in 1976. Also in the mid 1970s, after being held in Toulouse, Lyon and Bordeaux in recent years, the Championship final was taken to Parc des Princes, Paris, on a permanent basis. During the rest of the 1980s, Toulouse were the dominant team, winning the Championship in 1985, 1986 and 1989. Toulon won in 1987 (and were runners-up in 1985 and 1989), and Agen won in 1988 (and were runners-up in 1984 and 1986).


title: Top 14

text: The first match of the 1990s went into extra time, as the Racing Club de France defeated Agen, winning their first Championship since 1959. Bègles, Toulon, Castres and Toulouse would win the following finals. The 1990s also saw the game of rugby union go professional following the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa. This also led to the establishment of the European Heineken Cup. Including their 1994 victory, Toulouse won four championships in succession. For the 1998 season, the final was moved to Stade de France, the newly constructed national stadium. The final, played in front of 78,000, saw Stade Français win their first Championship since 1908.


title: Top 14

text: The competition saw an enormous rise in popularity in 2005–06, with attendance rising to an average of 9,600, up by 25% from 2004–05, and numerous sellouts. On 15 October 2005, Stade Français drew a crowd of 79,502 at Stade de France for their home match against Toulouse; this broke the previous French attendance record for a regular-season league match in "any" sport (including football) by over 20,000. That record was broken on 4 March 2006, when Stade Français drew 79,604 to a rematch of the 2004–05 final against Biarritz at Stade de France. It was broken again on 14 October 2006 with 79,619 as the same two opponents met, and a fourth time on 27 January 2007, with 79,741 for another Stade Français-Toulouse match.


title: Top 14

text: In 2011, Canal+ indicated that evening matches were being watched by between 800,000 and 850,000 viewers while afternoon matches were watched by around 700,000 viewers.


title: Top 14

text: In August 2016, LNR released a strategic plan outlining its vision for French rugby through the 2023 Rugby World Cup. The plan includes significant changes to the top levels of the league system, although the changes were more dramatic for Pro D2 than for the Top 14. Changes affecting the Top 14 are:


title: Top 14

text: On 13 March 2017, the Top 14 was rocked by the announcement that Racing 92 and Stade Français planned to merge into a single club effective with the 2017–18 season. Stade Français players soon voted almost unanimously to go on strike over the proposed merger, and within days LNR held an emergency meeting to discuss the Paris clubs' plans. The clubs announced on 19 March that the planned merger had collapsed.


title: Top 14

text: The 1993 French Rugby Union Championship was won by Castres who beat Grenoble 14-11 in the final, in a match decided by an irregular try accorded by the referee.


title: Top 14

text: A try of Olivier Brouzet was denied to Grenoble and the decisive try by Gary Whetton was awarded by the referee, Daniel Salles, when in fact the defender Franck Hueber from Grenoble touched down the ball first in his try zone. This error gave the title to Castres.


title: Top 14

text: Over recent years, the Top 14 has seen the economic strength of its clubs rise significantly. Aided by high attendance, large television rights contracts, public subsidies and the rise of the euro exchange rate, Top 14 clubs have seen their overall spending budget increase significantly. In 2011–2012, four clubs had a budget over 20 million euros: Toulouse (33), Clermont (24), Racing Métro [now Racing 92] (22), Stade Francais (21).


title: Top 14

text: The average salary of players in the Top 14 was estimated to have risen, in 2010, to $153,700 (compared to $123,000 in the English Premiership). The wealth of the Top 14 clubs has led them to attract a large number of international players, and to build teams with more strength in depth (in 2011, Top 14 clubs could have as many as 45 players, compared to 33 for Leicester Tigers, 2010 Premiership winner).


title: Top 14

text: Two recent changes in regulation threatened to limit this economic growth. First, the French government repealed the law known as DIC ("Droit à l'Image Collectif") on 1 July 2010. This law had allowed all member clubs in French professional sports organisations to treat 30% of each player's salary as image rights. This portion of player salaries was thus exempt from France's high payroll and social insurance taxes.


title: Top 14

text: Second, to control the growth of club spending, the LNR introduced a salary cap in the Top 14 in the 2010–11 season. Under the provisions of the cap, team payrolls were limited to €8 million. This is in addition to an existing requirement that wage bills be no more than 50% of a team's turnover. However, the €8 million cap was 5% greater than the highest official wage bill in the 2009–10 Top 14, and was well above the English Premiership's then-current £4 million cap. For the 2011–2012 season, the LNR raised the salary cap to €8.7 million. Since then, the cap has risen still further, to €10 million starting in 2013–14 and continuing through 2015–16. Additionally, the cap now excludes youth players whose salaries are no more than €50,000.


title: Top 14

text: At the same time as LNR announced the salary cap, it also announced new rules requiring a minimum percentage of French players on club rosters. Players qualifying under these rules, referred to in French as JIFF ("joueurs issus des filières de formation", loosely translated as "academy-trained players"), must have been registered with the FFR for at least five years before turning 23, or have spent three seasons in an FFR-approved training centre before turning 21. Original plans were to require 50% JIFFs in 2010–11, but protests from leading clubs led to a reduction to 40% for that season. Initially, the 50% quota was to be met in 2011–12, and 60% in 2012–13, but a compromise with the clubs saw no change to the limit until 2013–14, at which time it increased to 55%. Additionally, effective in 2015–16, LNR was allowed to fine clubs that did not have a minimum of 12 JIFFs in their matchday squads. These regulations, however, do not consider eligibility to play for the French national team. For example, although the Armitage brothers (Delon, Steffon and Guy) all represented England internationally, they qualified as JIFF because of their tenure in Nice's youth setup. On the other hand, recent France international Jérôme Thion, despite being a native and lifelong resident of France, did not qualify because he switched from basketball to rugby too late in his youth.


title: Top 14

text: While the most visible critics of the change in policy were wealthy club owners such as Mourad Boudjellal of Toulon and Max Guazzini of Stade Français, concern had been growing in French rugby circles that some smaller clubs might fold completely. Bourgoin only avoided a bankruptcy filing in 2009 by players agreeing to large wage cuts, and Brive, whose 2009–10 wage bill was €7.2 million, announced that they would cut their budget by 40% for the 2010–11 season. Following the 2009–10 season, Bourgoin were denied a professional licence by LNR due to their ongoing financial issues, but the French Rugby Federation (FFR) reversed this decision on Bourgoin's appeal. Montauban were relegated at the end of the same season after filing for bankruptcy.


title: Top 14

text: By the 2012–13 season, the internationalization of the Top 14 had reached such a state that Irish rugby journalist Ian Moriarty, who has had considerable experience covering the French game, asked the rhetorical question, "Has there ever been such a large disconnect between France's club teams and the international side they are supposed to serve?" He cited the following statistics from that season to make his point:


title: Top 14

text: While the JIFF policy worked on one level—the number of foreign players recruited into the Top 14 went from 61 for 2011–12 to 34 for 2014–15—clubs quickly found a way around the rules. Many clubs dispatched scouts to identify top teenage prospects in other countries, and then enrolled them in their academies to start the JIFF qualification process. For example, the 59 players in the 2015–16 Clermont youth squad included 17 from nine countries outside of France. A more fundamental problem was identified in 2015 by Laurent Labit, at the time backs coach of the club now known as Racing 92. In an interview with British rugby journalist Gavin Mortimer, Labit pointed out that France has no organized team sport in its educational system at the primary level—children must join an outside club in order to play sports. Only at age 15 do youths have the opportunity to attend special sporting schools, but places in such institutions are limited. In turn, this means that most young French players are technically well behind their counterparts in many other countries, most notably Commonwealth members and Ireland.


title: Top 14

text: The Top 14 is contested by fourteen professional rugby union clubs throughout France. The domestic season runs from August through to June. Every club contests 26 games during the regular season – over 26 rounds of competition. For many years, the season was split into two-halves for scheduling purposes, with both halves scheduled in the same order, with the team at home in the first half of the season on the road in the second. However, this strict order has since been abandoned, although the season is still loosely divided into halves. Throughout the August–June competition there are breaks during the season, as there are also European club fixtures (from 2014–15, Champions Cup and Challenge Cup) that are played during the rugby season, as well as the Six Nations Championship, in which many top French players are involved, as well as a few players from the other European powers. The schedule may be adjusted somewhat in World Cup years; this was especially true in the 2007–08 season, which ran up against the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France. That season, the Top 14 played on all of the Six Nations weekends and on some of the Heineken Cup weekends.


title: Top 14

text: The Top 14 is organized by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR), which runs the professional rugby leagues within France (Top 14 and Rugby Pro D2). There is a promotion and relegation system between the Top 14 and Pro D2. Starting with the 2017-18 season, only the lowest-placed club in the table after the regular season is automatically relegated to Pro D2. The playoff champion of Pro D2 is automatically promoted, while the next-to-last Top 14 club and the playoff runner-up of Pro D2 play each other to determine which club will be in Top 14, and which will be in Pro D2 the following season. Starting with the 2009–10 season, the Top 14 knock-out stages consist of three rounds. The teams finishing third through to sixth in the table play quarter-finals, hosted by the No. 3 and No. 4 teams. The winners then face the top two seeds in the semi-finals, whose winners then meet in the final at the Stade de France (although the 2016 final was instead held at the Camp Nou in Barcelona, Spain due to a scheduling conflict with France's hosting of UEFA Euro 2016). In previous seasons, only the top four teams qualified for semi-finals. Unlike many other major rugby competitions (such as the Gallagher Premiership, Mitre 10 Cup, Currie Cup, and from 2009–10 the Celtic League/Pro12), the Top 14 has traditionally held its semi-finals at neutral sites.


title: Top 14

text: Regardless of the playoff format, the top six teams had qualified for the following season's Heineken Cup in the final years of that competition, and since 2013–14 a minimum of six teams qualify for the European Rugby Champions Cup. Before the 2009–10 season, the seventh-place team also qualified if a French club advanced farther in that season's Heineken Cup than any team from England or Italy. While the European qualification system was changed for 2009–10, the normal contingent of six Top 14 teams in the Heineken Cup did not change. The default number of French teams in the Champions Cup has remained at six, but the method for a seventh French team to qualify has changed from performance in the previous European season to a post-season playoff. For the inaugural Champions Cup in 2014–15, this playoff involved the seventh-place teams from both England and the Top 14; in future years, the same two sides will be joined by one Pro12 side.


title: Top 14

text: Previously in the first phase of the then-Top 16, the teams were divided into two pools of eight. This was followed by a second phase, in which the eight highest-ranked teams played for semi-final spots and the bottom eight teams battled against relegation. In 2004–05, the top division consisted of a single pool of 16 teams, with the top four teams advancing to a knockout playoff at the end of the season to determine the champion. From 2005–06 through 2008–09, the top division was run with a single pool of 14 teams, again with a season-ending four-team playoff. The single pool was retained for 2009–10, but the playoffs were expanded to six teams.


title: Top 14

text: The LNR uses a slightly different bonus points system from that used in most other major domestic competitions. Instead of a bonus point being awarded for scoring 4 tries in a match, regardless of the match result, a bonus point is awarded to a winning team that scores 3 tries more than its opponent. This system makes two scenarios that can be seen in the standard system impossible:


title: Top 14

text: For 2014–15, LNR further tweaked its bonus point system. The margin of defeat that allows the losing team to earn a bonus point was reduced from 7 points to 5.


title: Top 14

text: The Top 14 serves as the qualification route for French clubs in European club competition. Starting with the 2014–15 season, Top 14 teams compete in the new European club rugby competitions—the European Rugby Champions Cup and European Rugby Challenge Cup. The Champions Cup and Challenge Cup replaced the previous European competitions, the Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup.


title: Top 14

text: Under the new structure, the top six teams on the Top 14 table qualify directly for the following season's Champions Cup. The seventh-placed team advances to a play-off for another Champions Cup place. In 2013–14, the play-off involved said Top 14 club and the seventh-placed club in the English Premiership. Initially, plans were for the play-off in subsequent years to also include two sides from Pro12 in the Celtic nations and Italy. Due to fixture clashes with the Top 14 season, the play-off that followed the 2014–15 season involved only one Pro12 side. Because the start of the 2015–16 European season ran up against the 2015 Rugby World Cup, the play-off was completely scrapped for that season, with the final Champions Cup place for 2016–17 instead awarded to the winner of the 2016 Challenge Cup.


title: Top 14

text: In the Heineken Cup era, a minimum of six French clubs qualified for the Heineken Cup, with the possibility of a seventh depending on the performance of French clubs in the previous season's Heineken Cup and Challenge Cup.


title: Top 14

text: All Top 14 clubs that do not qualify for the Champions Cup automatically qualify for the Challenge Cup. This means that all Top 14 clubs will participate in European competition during a given season.


title: Top 14

text: The French clubs have had success in the European competitions. The inaugural Heineken Cup, held in the 1995–96 season, was won by Toulouse, which would eventually claim three more championships (2003, 2005 and 2010). It was not until the fifth championship game that there was no French team in the final. There have also been five occasions where the final was an all-French affair. The first three were all won by Toulouse (against Perpignan in 2003, Stade Français in 2005, and Biarritz in 2010); the other two were victories by Toulon over Clermont in 2013 and 2015.


title: Top 14

text: In addition to the French success in the Heineken Cup and Champions Cup, the clubs in the lower European competitions have achieved similar results. The first four finals of the European Challenge Cup (1997–2000) were all-French affairs. Since then, however, only four French clubs (Clermont in 2007, Biarritz in 2012, Montpellier in 2016, and Stade Français in 2017) have won this competition, and French clubs in general have had less success; the revised Top 16/Top 14 format has required them to pay more attention to league games in order to avoid relegation. The now defunct European Shield, a repechage tournament for clubs knocked out in the first round of the Challenge Cup that was played for three seasons in 2003–05, was won by a French team each time.


title: Top 14

text: Since the 2008-09 season, the Top 14 regular season and playoff quarter-finals and playoff semi-finals have been televised by Canal+. Between the 2008-09 season and the 2010-11 season, France Télévisions televised the playoff final, but since the 2011-12 season they and Canal+ jointly televised the playoff final.


title: Top 14

text: "The scores in green are links to the account of each final on the site of the professional league (LNR). In French. "


title: Mary Elizabeth McGlynn

text: Mary Elizabeth McGlynn Blum (born October 16, 1966) is an American voice actress, ADR director and singer best known for her involvement in music production in multiple games from the "Silent Hill" series, and her extensive English-language dubbing of various anime, animated films, and video games, including the critically acclaimed English adaptation of the television series "Cowboy Bebop".


title: Mary Elizabeth McGlynn

text: McGlynn's voice roles in anime include Lieutenant Matilda in the 1981 film "Mobile Suit Gundam I", Motoko Kusanagi from "", Kurenai Yuhi, Mei Terumi, Katsuyu and Koharu Utatane from the "Naruto" series, Cornelia li Britannia from "Code Geass" and the most recent role of Queen Metalia on "Sailor Moon Crystal". She also does voice acting in video games such as Maria and Mary Shepherd-Sunderland in the HD collection version of "Silent Hill 2" and Nina Williams from the "Tekken" series. She also works in cartoons as she voiced Dr. Maheswaran in "Steven Universe" and voice directed "". McGlynn also contributed to the "Silent Hill" movie adaptation and "Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME". She has also had several movie roles. From 2015 to 2017, she was also a guest star for a "Dungeons and Dragons" web series titled "Critical Role" (15 Episodes).


title: Mary Elizabeth McGlynn

text: McGlynn won the 2007 American Anime Award for Best Actress for her role as Major Motoko Kusanagi in "". She won a Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA) award in 2008 for Best Director for her work on "Naruto".


title: Mary Elizabeth McGlynn

text: McGlynn was married to actor Daran Norris, but divorced him in 2012. She is currently married to voice actor Steve Blum. She has an identical twin sister named Melissa.


title: Tom Daschle

text: Thomas Andrew Daschle ( ; born December 9, 1947) is an American politician and lobbyist who served as a United States senator from South Dakota from 1987 to 2005. A member of the Democratic Party, he became U.S. Senate Minority Leader in 1995 and later the Majority Leader in 2001.


title: Tom Daschle

text: After leaving the United States Air Force, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1978 and served four terms. In 1986, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, becoming Minority Leader in 1995 and Majority Leader in 2001, becoming the highest-ranking elected official in South Dakota history.


title: Tom Daschle

text: In 2004, he was defeated for reelection in a remarkable upset. Later, he took a position as a policy advisor with a lobbying firm, became a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, and co-authored a book advocating universal health care.


title: Tom Daschle

text: Daschle was an early supporter of Barack Obama's presidential candidacy, and was nominated by President-elect Obama for the position of Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services after the 2008 election. However, Daschle withdrew his name on February 3, 2009, amid a growing controversy over his failure to properly report and pay income taxes. He is currently working for The Daschle Group, a Public Policy Advisory of Baker Donelson, a large law firm and lobbying group.


title: Tom Daschle

text: Daschle was born in Aberdeen, South Dakota, the son of Elizabeth B. (née Meier) and Sebastian C. Daschle, both of German descent. His paternal grandparents were Volga Germans. He grew up in a working-class Roman Catholic family, the eldest of four brothers.


title: Tom Daschle

text: He became the first person in his family to graduate from college when he earned a B.A. from the Department of Political Science at South Dakota State University in 1969. While attending South Dakota State University, Daschle became a brother of Alpha Phi Omega. From 1969 to 1972, Daschle served in the United States Air Force as an intelligence officer with the Strategic Air Command.


title: Tom Daschle

text: In 1978 Daschle was elected to the United States House of Representatives at the age of 31, winning the race by a margin of 139 votes, following a recount, out of more than 129,000 votes cast. Daschle served four terms in the House of Representatives and quickly became a part of the Democratic leadership.


title: Tom Daschle

text: Although Daschle was not seeking the Vice-Presidency, he received 10 (0.30%) delegate votes for Vice President of the United States at the 1980 Democratic National Convention. Several others also received protest votes, but incumbent Vice President Walter Mondale was nevertheless renominated easily.


title: Tom Daschle

text: In 1986, Daschle was elected to the U.S. Senate in a close victory over incumbent Republican James Abdnor. In his first year, he was appointed to the Finance Committee.


title: Tom Daschle

text: In 1994, he was chosen by his colleagues to succeed the retiring Senator George Mitchell as Democratic minority leader. In the history of the Senate, only Lyndon B. Johnson had served fewer years before being elected to lead his party. In addition to the minority leader's post, Daschle served as a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. South Dakotans reelected Daschle to the Senate by overwhelming margins in 1998.


title: Tom Daschle

text: At various points in his career, he served on the Veterans Affairs, Indian Affairs, Finance, and Ethics Committees.


title: Tom Daschle

text: When the 107th Congress commenced on January 3, 2001, the Senate was evenly divided—that is, there were 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans. Outgoing Vice President Al Gore acted in his constitutional capacity as ex officio President of the Senate, and used his tie-breaking vote to give the Democrats the majority in that chamber. For the next two weeks, Daschle served as Senate Majority Leader.


title: Tom Daschle

text: Upon the commencement of the Bush administration on January 20, 2001, Dick Cheney became president of the senate, thereby returning Democrats to the minority in that body; Daschle reverted to the position of Senate Minority Leader. However, on June 6, 2001, Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont announced that he was leaving the Senate Republican caucus to become an independent and to caucus with Democrats; this once again returned control of the body to the Democrats and Daschle again became majority leader.


title: Tom Daschle

text: Democratic losses in the November 2002 elections returned the party to the minority in the senate in January 2003, and Daschle once more reverted to being minority leader.


title: Tom Daschle

text: Daschle recounted his senate experiences from 2001 to 2003 in his first book, "Like No Other Time: The 107th Congress and the Two Years That Changed America Forever", published in 2003. With Charles Robbins, he has also written the book "The U.S. Senate", part of the "Fundamentals of American Government" series.


title: Tom Daschle

text: In October 2001, while he was the Senate Majority Leader, Daschle's office received a letter containing anthrax, becoming a target of the 2001 anthrax attacks. Some of his staffers were confirmed to have been exposed, as well as several of Senator Russ Feingold's staffers and Capitol police officers. His suite at the Hart Senate Office Building was the focus of an intensive cleanup led by the Environmental Protection Agency.


title: Tom Daschle

text: Daschle has a mixed voting record on abortion-related issues, which led the pro-choice organization NARAL to give him a 50% vote rating.


title: Tom Daschle

text: In 1999 and 2003, Daschle voted in favor of the ban on partial-birth abortion, and supported legislation making it a crime to harm an unborn child when someone attacks a pregnant woman. (Investigators into the 2001 anthrax attacks, which included Senator Daschle's Capitol Hill office, suspect that alleged anthrax mailer Bruce Ivins may have chosen to target Daschle over his views on abortion, although Ivins's lawyer disputed this alleged motive.)


title: Tom Daschle

text: In 2003, Roman Catholic Bishop Robert Carlson reportedly wrote to Daschle, criticizing his stance on abortion as conflicting with Roman Catholic teaching, and stating that Daschle should no longer identify himself as a Catholic.


title: Tom Daschle

text: In the 2004 Senate election, John Thune defeated Daschle by 4,508 votes, 50.6% to 49.4%. It was the first time that a Senate party leader had lost a bid for reelection since 1952, when Barry Goldwater defeated Ernest McFarland in Arizona. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist visited South Dakota to campaign for Thune, breaking an unwritten tradition that a leader of one party would not actively campaign for the defeat of the other.


title: Tom Daschle

text: Throughout the campaign, Thune, along with Frist, President George W. Bush, and Vice President Cheney, frequently accused Daschle of being the "chief obstructionist" of Bush's agenda and charged him with using filibusters to unjustly block confirmation of several of Bush's nominees. The Republican candidate also drove home his strong support for the war. In a nationally televised debate on NBC's "Meet the Press", Thune accused Daschle of "emboldening the enemy" in his skepticism of the Iraq War.


title: Tom Daschle

text: When the race began in early 2004, Daschle led by 7% in January and February. By May, his lead was just 2% and summer polls showed a varying number of trends: Daschle or Thune led by no more than 2%, but some polls showed a tie. Throughout September, Daschle led Thune by margins of 2–5% while during the entire month of October into the November 2 election, most polls showed that Thune and Daschle were dead even, usually tied 49–49 among likely voters. Some polls showed either Thune or Daschle leading by extremely slim margins.


title: Tom Daschle

text: Following his reelection defeat, Daschle took a position with the lobbying arm of the K Street law firm Alston & Bird. Because he was prohibited by law from lobbying for one year after leaving the Senate, he instead worked as a "special policy adviser" for the firm.


title: Tom Daschle

text: Alston & Bird's healthcare clients include CVS Caremark, the National Association for Home Care and Hospice, Abbott Laboratories, and HealthSouth. The firm was paid $5.8 million between January and September 2008 to represent companies and associations before Congress and the executive branch, with 60% of that money coming from the healthcare industry. Daschle was recruited by the former Republican Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole. Daschle's salary from Alston & Bird for the year 2008 was reportedly $2 million.


title: Tom Daschle

text: Daschle was also a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. In addition, he served as National Co-Chair of ONE Vote ‘08, along with former senator Bill Frist. He and former senators George Mitchell, Bob Dole, and Howard Baker formed the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), dedicated to finding bipartisan solutions for policy disputes. Daschle is also a co-chair of BPC's Health Project.


title: Tom Daschle

text: In 2003, Daschle received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member Senator Bill Frist.


title: Tom Daschle

text: In May 2005, South Dakota State University, Daschle's alma mater, conferred upon him an honorary doctorate for public service. In May 2011, Daschle was further honored with an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by Northern State University in his hometown of Aberdeen.


title: Tom Daschle

text: In late September 2005, Daschle caught the attention of the media by reactivating his political action committee, changing its name from DASHPAC to New Leadership for America PAC and procuring a speaking slot at the Iowa Democratic Party's annual Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner. He continued to keep a relatively high-profile among Democratic interest groups. These moves were interpreted by the media as an exploration of a potential 2008 Presidential candidacy. On December 2, 2006, he announced he would not run for president in 2008.


title: Tom Daschle

text: In an appearance on "Meet the Press" on February 12, 2006, Daschle endorsed a controversial warrantless surveillance program conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA), explaining that he had been briefed on the program while he was the Democratic leader in the Senate.


title: Tom Daschle

text: In addition, Senator Daschle is a member of the board of trustees for the Richard C. Blum Center for Developing Economies at the University of California, Berkeley. The center is focused on finding solutions to address the crisis of extreme poverty and disease in the developing world.


title: Tom Daschle

text: Tom Daschle is a Member of the Global Leadership Foundation, an organization which works to support democratic leadership, prevent and resolve conflict through mediation and promote good governance in the form of democratic institutions, open markets, human rights and the rule of law. It does so by making available, discreetly and in confidence, the experience of former leaders to today's national leaders. It is a not-for-profit organization composed of former heads of government, senior governmental and international organization officials who work closely with heads of Government on governance-related issues of concern to them.


title: Tom Daschle

text: Daschle also served as vice chair of the board of directors of National Democratic Institute for International Affairs.


title: Tom Daschle

text: Daschle is the co-chair of the national advisory board at the National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD). The institute was created at the University of Arizona after the 2011 shooting of former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords that killed six people and wounded 13 others.


title: Tom Daschle

text: In 2019, Daschle was named to the advisory board of Northern Swan Holdings Inc., a cannabis investment firm. Said Daschle: "I believe it is imperative to loosen the restrictions on cannabis so we can research its properties and fully understand how patients can benefit from its medicinal use." In 2020, Daschle endorsed Constitutional Amendment A, a ballot initiative to legalize cannabis for recreational use in South Dakota. In a 2021 op-ed, Daschle co-wrote an op-ed for The Hill criticizing proposed cuts to pandemic preparedness programs, describing them as "unthinkable" in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Tom Daschle

text: On February 21, 2007, the Associated Press reported that Daschle, after ruling out a presidential bid of his own in December 2006, had thrown his support behind Senator Barack Obama of Illinois for the 2008 presidential election, saying that Obama "personifies the future of Democratic leadership in our country."


title: Tom Daschle

text: In January 2005, having suggested that Obama take on some of his staffers, Daschle exited the Senate just as Obama entered. These included Daschle's outgoing chief-of-staff Pete Rouse who helped to create a two-year plan in the Senate that would fast-track Obama for the presidential nomination. Daschle himself told Obama in 2006 that "windows of opportunity for running for the presidency close quickly. And that he should not assume, if he passes up this window, that there will be another."


title: Tom Daschle

text: During the 2008 presidential campaign, Daschle served as a key advisor to Obama and one of the national co-chairs for Obama's campaign. On June 3, 2008, Obama lost to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary in Daschle's home state of South Dakota, although that night Obama clinched his party's nomination anyway.


title: Tom Daschle

text: Two days later, sources indicated Daschle "is interested in universal health care and might relish serving as HHS secretary." In the general election campaign, Daschle continued to consult Obama, campaign for him across swing states, and advise his campaign organization until Obama was ultimately elected the 44th President of the United States on November 4, 2008.


title: Tom Daschle

text: On November 19, 2008, the press reported that Daschle had accepted Obama's offer to be nominated for Health and Human Services Secretary. His selection was announced at a news conference with Obama on December 11, 2008.


title: Tom Daschle

text: Some organizations objected to Daschle's selection, arguing that his work at Alston & Bird was tantamount to lobbying and therefore his selection violated Obama's promise to keep special interests out of the White House. According to Ellen Miller, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, Daschle technically complies with the transition rules against lobbyists but "many power brokers never register as lobbyists, but they are every bit as powerful." Stephanie Cutter, a spokeswoman for the Obama transition, responded that Daschle's work "does not represent a bar to his service in the transition" since "he was not a lobbyist, and he will recuse himself from any work that presents a conflict of interest." Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, praised Daschle on his nomination to Secretary of Health and Human Services for his "deep commitment to securing high-quality, affordable health care for everyone in our nation."


title: Tom Daschle

text: When Daschle was officially nominated for his Cabinet position on January 20, 2009, confirmation by the Senate was required. The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee held a confirmation hearing for Daschle on January 8, 2009. A second Senate committee, the Finance Committee, also traditionally reviews HHS Secretary nominees; the committee discussed his nomination behind closed doors on February 2, 2009.


title: Tom Daschle

text: On January 30, 2009, it was reported that Daschle's friendship and business partnership with businessman Leo Hindery could cause problems for Daschle's Senate confirmation. Daschle has been a paid consultant and advisor to Hindery's InterMedia Partners since 2005, during which time he received from Hindery access to a limousine and chauffeur. Daschle reportedly did not declare this service on his annual tax forms as required by law. A spokeswoman for Daschle said that he "simply and probably naively" considered the use of the car and driver "a generous offer" from Hindery, "a longtime friend." Daschle told the Senate Finance Committee that in June 2008—just as he was letting the press know he would like to be HHS secretary in an Obama administration—that "something made him think that the car service might be taxable" and he began seeking to remedy the situation.


title: Tom Daschle

text: Daschle reportedly also did not pay taxes on an additional $83,333 that he earned as a consultant to InterMedia Partners in 2007; this was discovered by Senator Daschle's accountant in December 2008. According to ABC News, Daschle also took tax deductions for $14,963 in donations that he made between 2005 and 2007 to charitable organizations that did not meet the requirements for being tax deductible.


title: Tom Daschle

text: The former senator paid the three years of owed taxes and interest—an amount totaling $140,167—in January 2009, but still reportedly owed "Medicare taxes equal to 2.9 percent" of the value of the car service he received, amounting to "thousands of dollars in additional unpaid taxes."


title: Tom Daschle

text: On February 3, 2009, Daschle withdrew his nomination, saying that he did not wish to be a "distraction" to the Obama agenda.