title: Dan Markel

text: On September 16, 2016, ABC News aired "In-Laws and Outlaws", on a "20/20" episode on the investigation into the murder.


title: Dan Markel

text: On October 1, 2016, police arrested Katherine Magbanua; she too was charged with murder. On October 4, 2016, Luis Rivera pled guilty to the charge of murder as part of a plea bargain in which he was sentenced to 19 years in prison, which would run concurrently with another sentence he was already serving. In his confession, Rivera claimed that Sigfredo Garcia had recruited Rivera to take part in the killing of Markel and that Katherine Magbanua was "the woman in the middle doing everything". Rivera also claimed that he did not know the names of the people who had hired Garcia and Magbanua but that the reason for the killing was "because the lady wants her two kids back. She wants full custody of the kids."


title: Dan Markel

text: The Adelsons deny any involvement; according to a statement issued by their lawyers, including Charlie's close friend Michael D. Weinstein, son of Wendi's godfather Peter Weinstein, "none of the Adelsons — Wendi, her brother Charlie, or their parents Donna and Harvey — had anything to do with Dan [Markel]'s murder."


title: Dan Markel

text: The trials for Katherine Magbanua and Sigfredo Garcia were combined, and took place in October 2019. In the trial, prosecutors claimed that Charlie Adelson had arranged to pay Magbanua, Rivera and Garcia $100,000 to murder Markel so that Wendi Adelson could get full custody of Markel's and Wendi Adelson's two sons. At trial, Magbanua denied involvement but claimed that the case presented by the prosecutors led her to believe Adelson was "involved" in the murders. For his part, Garcia claimed that Rivera had carried out the killing alone. On October 11, a jury found Sigfredo Garcia guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy in the 2014 killing of Dan Markel. On October 15, the jury sentenced Garcia to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder charge, plus thirty years for conspiracy.


title: Dan Markel

text: The jury was unable to reach a verdict on Katherine Magbanua, though two sources with knowledge of the vote confirmed it was 10-2 for conviction. Magbanua remained in jail, charged as a co-conspirator.


title: Dan Markel

text: Charlie Adelson was arrested on April 21, 2022, and was charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and solicitation to commit murder. Wendi and Donna Adelson were also named as co-conspirators. Wendi's TV comments during her interrogation immediately after the murder can be reconciled with Donna's TV comment in code 2 years later on a wiretap.


title: Dan Markel

text: After several delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Katherine Magbanua's retrial began May 16, 2022. On May 27, 2022, Magbanua was found guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation to commit murder. She was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the first-degree murder, 30 years for the conspiracy, and an additional 30 years for the solicitation.


title: Dan Markel

text: On November 16, 2022, a request was made for Katherine Magbanua to be handed over to the Leon Country Sherrif so she can be transported to the Leon County State Attorney's Office for a proffer in relation to Charlie Adelson's trial. Adelson and Magbanua were dating at the time of the murder.


title: Dan Markel

text: Following the 2016 arrests, Wendi Adelson cut off contact between Markel's parents and their grandsons. She also took the step of changing her sons' last names from Markel to Adelson, claiming it was for their safety. Florida's grandparent visitation laws are among the most restrictive in the nation, leaving the Markels with no way to even petition a court for a ruling on whether they can be granted contact with their grandsons. The Florida Legislature considered a bill in the 2020 legislative session, SB 1886 sponsored by Sen. Jeff Brandes, that would create an additional set of conditions in which grandparents would be granted standing to access courts. Wendi Adelson's attorney denounced the bill as an "absolute outrage." The proposed legislation is informally known as the Markel Act.


title: Dan Markel

text: In 2022, the Markel Act passed both chambers of the legislature, and was signed into law by the Governor.


title: Dan Markel

text: Markel married Wendi Jill Adelson in February 2006. They had two sons, one born in 2009 and one in 2010. The couple separated in 2012. Their divorce became final in 2013.


title: The Daily Caller

text: The Daily Caller is a right-wing news and opinion website based in Washington, D.C. It was founded by now-Fox News host Tucker Carlson and political pundit Neil Patel in 2010. Launched as a "conservative answer to "The Huffington Post"", "The Daily Caller" quadrupled its audience and became profitable by 2012, surpassing several rival websites by 2013. In 2020, the site was described by "The New York Times" as having been "a pioneer in online conservative journalism". "The Daily Caller" is a member of the White House press pool.


title: The Daily Caller

text: "The Daily Caller" has published false stories on multiple occasions, and declined to correct them when they were shown to be untrue. The website publishes articles that dispute the scientific consensus on climate change. Prior to June 2017, the website had also published several articles by Jason Kessler, who was fired when discovered to be a white supremacist. The website has responded to challenges to these stories in various ways, in some cases defending their claims, and in others expressing regret for story headlines or content; and on at least one occasion, when pointed out by other news outlets, the website has repudiated a past article writer due to their support of extremist views.


title: The Daily Caller

text: In June 2020, Carlson left the site, with Patel buying out Carlson's stake to become majority owner. Foster Friess, a major conservative donor also known for being an investment manager, remained a partial owner until his death in 2021.


title: The Daily Caller

text: "The Daily Caller" was founded by Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel. After raising $3 million in funding from businessman Foster Friess, the website was launched on January 11, 2010. The organization began with a reporting staff of 21 in its Washington office. It was launched as a "conservative answer to "The Huffington Post"", similarly featuring sections in broad range of subjects beyond politics. When "The Daily Caller" launched in 2010, it became the third Washington DC based news site besides Talking Points Memo and "Politico".


title: The Daily Caller

text: In a 2010 interview with the "Columbia Journalism Review", Tucker Carlson described "The Daily Caller"s prospective audience as "[p]eople who are distrustful of conventional news organizations". Carlson said "the coverage of the Tea Party blows me away by its stupidity. The assumption of almost everyone I know who covers politics for the networks or daily newspapers is: they're all birthers, they're all crazy, they're upset about fluoride in the water, probably racist. And those assumptions have prevented good journalism from taking place".


title: The Daily Caller

text: By late 2012, the site had quadrupled its page view and total audience and had become profitable without ever buying an advertisement for itself.


title: The Daily Caller

text: Vince Coglianese replaced Carlson as editor-in-chief in 2016 when the "Tucker Carlson Tonight" show began on Fox. Carlson departed the site in June 2020 to increase his focus on his new show. Patel brought in Omeed Malik, a Muslim American Democrat, as a new partner. Malik is a former senior hedge fund managing director for the Bank of America who abruptly resigned in 2018 after being accused of "inappropriate sexual conduct", and filed a $100 million arbitration case through FINRA against Bank of America, asserting that the accusation was part of a discrimination effort based on his Muslim background, receiving an eight-figure settlement in July of the same year. "The Daily Caller" became a minority-owned and -run company thereafter. Friess remained a partial owner until his death in 2021.


title: The Daily Caller

text: In 2020, "The New York Times" noted that "several former Daily Caller reporters occupy prominent roles in Washington journalism", specifically noting CNN White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins and "Daily Mail" reporter David Martosko.


title: The Daily Caller

text: When it first launched in January 2010, Mercedes Bunz, writing for "The Guardian", said "The Daily Caller" was "setting itself up to be the conservative answer to "The Huffington Post"". According to Bunz, a year before the website launched, Carlson promoted it as "a new political website leaning more to the right than "Politico" and "TalkingPointsMemo"". However, at launch, he wrote a letter to readers that said it was not going to be a right-wing site. "We're not going to suck up to people in power, the way so many have", Carlson declared. During a January 2010 interview with "Politico", Carlson said "The Daily Caller" was not going to be tied to his personal political ideologies and that he wanted it to be "breaking stories of importance". In a "Washington Post" article about "The Daily Caller"s launch, Howard Kurtz wrote, "[Carlson's] partner is Neil Patel, a former Dick Cheney aide. His opinion editor is Moira Bagley, who spent 2008 as the Republican National Committee's press secretary. And his $3 million in funding comes from Wyoming financier Foster Friess, a big-time GOP donor. But Carlson insists this won't be a right-wing site". Kurtz quoted Carlson as saying, "We're not enforcing any kind of ideological orthodoxy on anyone". In an interview with "The New York Times", Carlson said that the vast majority of traditional reporting comes from a liberal point of view and called "The Daily Caller"s reporting "the balance against the rest of the conventional press". In a 2012 "Washingtonian" article, Tom Bartlett said Carlson and Patel developed "The Daily Caller" as "a conservative news site in the mold of the liberal "Huffington Post" but with more firearms coverage and fewer nipple-slip slide shows".


title: The Daily Caller

text: In 2019, the "Columbia Journalism Review" described "The Daily Caller" as "right wing", a description also used by "Business Insider," Snopes, and Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. According to "The Guardian" in April 2019, "The Daily Caller" was known for its pro-Trump content. In 2020, Austrian social scientist Christian Fuchs of the University of Westminster described "The Daily Caller" as an alt-right website. A 2021 "Politico" article, however, described "The Daily Caller" as being "mainstream right" in its positioning, as opposed to more "conspiratorial fringe" outlets such as One America News Network.


title: The Daily Caller

text: According to the 2018 book, "Network Propaganda: Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics", written by Harvard University scholars Yochai Benkler, Robert Faris and Hal Roberts, "The Daily Caller" fails to follow journalistic norms in its reporting. According to the "Encyclopædia Britannica", "The Daily Caller" "descended into extremism and sensationalism, publishing unsupported and frequently vulgar attacks on Democratic leaders, false criticisms of liberal causes, and popular conspiracy theories. The site also became known for its promotion of racist and sexist stereotypes".


title: The Daily Caller

text: Some scientific studies have identified "The Daily Caller" as a fake news website. In an October 2018 Simmons Research survey of 38 news organizations, "The Daily Caller" was ranked the least-trusted news organization by Americans, underneath "Breitbart News", the Daily Kos, the "Palmer Report", Occupy Democrats and "InfoWars".


title: The Daily Caller

text: In 2019, "The Daily Caller", along with One America News Network and "The Gateway Pundit", were categorized as unreliable sources of information by the Wikipedia community, with the consensus being that "The Daily Caller" "publishes false or fabricated information".


title: The Daily Caller

text: In 2011, "The Daily Caller" was the first news outlet to disseminate a video by conservative provocateur James O'Keefe which purportedly showed an NPR fundraiser deriding Republicans. The video was later proven to have been misleadingly edited.


title: The Daily Caller

text: In February 2012, "The Daily Caller" published an "investigative series" of articles co-authored by Carlson, purporting to be an insiders' exposé of Media Matters for America (MMfA), a liberal watchdog group that monitors and scrutinizes conservative media outlets, and its founder David Brock. Citing "current and former" MMfA employees, "friends" of Brock's and a "prominent liberal", the article characterized MMfA as having "an atmosphere of tension and paranoia" and portrayed Brock as "erratic, unstable and disturbing", who "struggles with mental illness", in fear of "right-wing assassins", a regular cocaine user and would "close [local bars] and party till six in the morning". Reuters media critic and libertarian Jack Shafer criticized "The Daily Caller" piece as "anonymously sourced crap", adding ""Daily Caller" is attacking Media Matters with bad journalism and lame propaganda". Shafer said that he had "never thought much of Media Matters' style of watchdogging or Brock's journalism".


title: The Daily Caller

text: In 2012, "The Daily Caller" reporter Neil Munro interrupted President Barack Obama during one of his press conferences, while Obama was giving remarks. Obama said, "The next time I prefer you let me finish my statements before you ask a question". Cutting off Munro's reply, Obama said, "I didn't ask for an argument." Munro's interruption of remarks by the president was widely considered a startling breach of etiquette. Editor-in-chief Tucker Carlson defended Munro's heckling, saying "As a general matter, reporters are there to ask [questions]" and that he was "proud" of Munro.


title: The Daily Caller

text: Munro later said in a statement that his intention was to ask questions after the president made his remarks, but he claimed to have misjudged when the president was closing. "I timed the question believing the president was closing his remarks, because naturally I have no intention of interrupting the President of the United States. I know he rarely takes questions before walking away from the podium. When I asked the question as he finished his speech, he turned his back on the many reporters, and walked away while I and at least one other reporter asked questions".


title: The Daily Caller

text: In November 2012, "The Daily Caller" posted interviews with two women claiming that New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez had paid them for sex while he was a guest of a campaign donor. The allegation came five days before the 2012 New Jersey senate election. News organizations such as ABC News, which had also interviewed the women, "The New York Times", and the "New York Post" declined to publish the allegations, viewing them as unsubstantiated and lacking credibility. Subsequently, one of the women who accused Menendez stated that she had been paid to falsely implicate the senator and had never met him. Menendez's office described the allegations as "manufactured" by a right-wing blog as a politically motivated smear.


title: The Daily Caller

text: A few weeks later, police in the Dominican Republic announced that three women had claimed they were paid $300–425 each to lie about having had sex with Menendez, and alleged that the women had been paid to lie about Menendez by an individual claiming to work for "The Daily Caller". The website denied this allegation, stating: "At no point did any money change hands between "The Daily Caller" and any sources or individuals connected with this investigation". Describing what it saw as the unraveling of "The Daily Caller" "scoop", the Poynter Institute wrote: ""The Daily Caller" stands by its reports, though apparently doesn't feel the need to "prove its allegations right".


title: The Daily Caller

text: In August 2018, "The Daily Caller" ran a story without evidence alleging that a Chinese-owned company had hacked then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email server and successfully obtained nearly all of her emails. "The Daily Caller" cited only, "two sources briefed on the matter". President Trump retweeted the allegations made in "The Daily Caller"s unsubstantiated reporting. The FBI has stated that there is no evidence to support the story.


title: The Daily Caller

text: In February 2017 "Politico" and "BuzzFeed" reported Capitol Police accused five IT staffers for Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives of trying to steal House computer equipment and violating House security policies. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was one of several House members who did not terminate the suspected staffers after the criminal complaints. In July 2017, one of the accused staffers, Imran Awan, was arrested for making a false statement on a bank loan application. After his arrest, Wasserman Schultz's office fired Awan.


title: The Daily Caller

text: "The Daily Caller" pushed conspiracy theories about Awan, seeking to tie Awan to many alleged criminal activities, including unauthorized access to government servers. The reporter behind the coverage of Awan told Fox News that the affair was "straight out of James Bond". An 18-month investigation by federal prosecutors found no evidence of wrongdoing in Awan's work in the House and no support for the conspiracy theories about Awan. In the announcement of the conclusion of the investigation, investigators rebuked a litany of right-wing conspiracy theories about Awan.


title: The Daily Caller

text: In January 2019, "The Daily Caller" published a story with the misleading headline, "Here's The Photo Some Described as a Nude Selfie of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez". The photo was not of Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, and Ocasio-Cortez condemned "The Daily Caller"'s action as "completely disgusting behavior". "The Daily Caller" apologized for the headline and changed it. "The Daily Caller" said that the content of the story was not unlike stories published by "Vice" and "The Huffington Post". "Vice" had in fact published an article debunking the claim that the photo was of Ocasio-Cortez.


title: The Daily Caller

text: "The Daily Caller" has published articles that dispute the scientific consensus on climate change. According to "Science" magazine, "The Daily Caller"s "climate reporting focuses on doubt and highlights data that suggests climate concerns from the world’s leading science agencies and organizations are incorrect".


title: The Daily Caller

text: In 2017, "The Daily Caller" published a story falsely claiming that a "peer-reviewed study" by "two scientists and a veteran statistician" found that recent years have not been the warmest ever. The alleged "study" was a PDF file on a WordPress blog, and was neither peer-reviewed nor published in a scientific journal. Also in 2017, "The Daily Caller" uncritically published a bogus "Daily Mail" story which claimed that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) manipulated data to make climate change appear worse; at the same time, legitimate news outlets debunked the "Daily Mail" story, as did Media Matters. Also in 2017, "The Daily Caller" published a story claiming that a study found no evidence of accelerating temperatures over a 23-year period, which climate scientists described as a misleading story. In 2016, "The Daily Caller" published a story claiming that climate scientist Michael Mann (director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University) had asserted that data are unnecessary to measure climate change; Mann described the story as "egregiously false". In 2015, "The Daily Caller" wrote that NOAA "fiddle[d]" with data when the agency published a report concluding that there was no global warming hiatus.


title: The Daily Caller

text: In 2011, the "Daily Caller" published a false story claiming that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was going to spend $21 billion per year to hire 230,000 staff to regulate greenhouse gas emissions; at the time, the EPA had 17,000 staff and a total budget of $8.7 billion. The story went viral in right-wing media, and Republican politicians repeated the story. Other news outlets noted that the story was false, but "The Daily Caller" stood by the story. "Adweek" reported that the decision of David Martosko, executive editor at "The Daily Caller", to stand by the story caused dismay among some the website's staff, who believed the decision undermined the credibility of the outlet.


title: The Daily Caller

text: In 2018, after a National Climate Assessment report about the impact of climate change in the United States was released by the Trump administration (which had been in the works for several years, stretching into the Obama presidency), Trump's EPA dismissed the report's findings. Trump's EPA falsely claimed that the Obama administration had pushed the authors of the report to focus on the worst-case scenario. In doing so, the EPA cited a "Daily Caller" story. FactCheck.org found that there was no evidence for the claims made in "The Daily Caller"'s story, finding that the report focused both on lower and higher scenarios, and much of the report looked at climate change impacts that had already occurred. FactCheck.org noted that the report underwent multiple reviews, both internally and externally, and that the report was available for public review for a period of three months. "The Daily Caller" cited as evidence for its claims a memo that allegedly showed that the Obama administration pushed the authors of the report to include worst-case scenarios; FactCheck.org noted the memo "does not show that the Obama administration pushed for certain scenarios".


title: The Daily Caller

text: Scott Greer was deputy editor and contributor at "The Daily Caller". After his departure in June 2018, it was revealed that he published articles espousing white nationalist, racist anti-black and antisemitic views under a pseudonym in white supremacist publications. In September 2018, "The Atlantic" reported that Greer between 2014 and 2018, had written pieces under a pseudonym "Michael McGregor" in the white supremacist publication "Radix Journal" from 2014 to 2015. In articles for "Radix Journal", Greer expressed white nationalist views, as well as racist anti-black and antisemitic views. In his emails and messages, he exchanged anti-Christian and antisemitic comments, with colleagues including Richard Spencer. After being confronted with his past white supremacist writings, Greer resigned from any affiliation with "The Daily Caller". In 2017 it was revealed that Scott Greer had ties to members of the white nationalist movement, including friendships with Devin Saucier, assistant to Jared Taylor of "American Renaissance", and anti-immigrant activist Marcus Epstein of VDARE, who had pled guilty to assaulting an African American woman two years prior to the beginning of his relationship with Greer. Greer had later deleted parts of his Facebook page, but is seen photographed with white nationalists such as Spencer, Tim Dionisopoulos, the Wolves of Vinland, and also appears wearing clothes belonging to the group Youth for Western Civilization. "The Daily Caller" itself subsequently stated about why he had not been fired in 2017: "We had two choices: Fire a young man because of some photos taken of him at metal shows in college, or take his word. We chose to trust him. Now, if what you allege is accurate, we know that trust was a mistake, we know he lied to us. We won't publish him, anyone in these circles, or anyone who thinks like them. People who associate with these losers have no business writing for our company".


title: The Daily Caller

text: Prior to June 2017, "The Daily Caller" had published freelance articles by Jason Kessler, a white supremacist who organized the Unite the Right rally in August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. That rally took place while Kessler was suspended from the "The Daily Caller", after "ProPublica" had found that an article he had written for "The Daily Caller" about a previous torchlight rally in Charlottesville in May 2017 had not disclosed that he made a speech at the event praising fascist and racist groups. After the suspension, "Daily Caller" executive editor Paul Conner defended Kessler's article as accurate. "The Daily Caller" deleted all of Kessler's articles from its website in August 2017 after the Unite the Right rally, which he had organized with Spencer and others, turned into deadly violence.


title: The Daily Caller

text: Until 2017, the website had also published pieces by Peter Brimelow, founder of the white supremacist website VDARE, and by David Hilton, an anti-Semite who has pushed conspiracy theories that Israel was behind the 9/11 attacks. In his articles for "The Daily Caller", Hilton promoted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about George Soros, as well as conspiracy theories about "Cultural Marxism".


title: The Daily Caller

text: The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) reported in 2017 that "The Daily Caller" had a "white nationalist problem", citing contributions by Kessler, Brimelow, Greer, and Ilana Mercer, whose writing on supposed racially motivated crime in South Africa was also published on the white nationalist website "American Renaissance" the same day it appeared in "The Daily Caller". The SPLC retracted a claim about a "Daily Caller" reporter, Richard Pollock, stating that except for speaking at a 2017 event of the H.L. Mencken Club, considered a white nationalist group, "there is no evidence to suggest Mr. Pollock is otherwise a white nationalist"; in 2018, according to the SPLC, Pollock cancelled his scheduled attendance at the same group's event.


title: The Daily Caller

text: In March 2015, "The Daily Caller" columnist Mickey Kaus quit after editor Tucker Carlson refused to run a column critical of Fox News coverage of the immigration policy debate. Carlson, who works for Fox News, reportedly did not want "The Daily Caller" publishing criticism of a firm that employed him.


title: The Daily Caller

text: According to a study by Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, "The Daily Caller" was among the most popular right-wing news sites during the 2016 United States presidential election. The study also found that "The Daily Caller" provided "amplification and legitimation" for "the most extreme conspiracy sites", such as "Truthfeed", "InfoWars", "The Gateway Pundit" and "Conservative Treehouse". "The Daily Caller" also "employed anti-immigrant narratives that echoed sentiments from the alt-right and white nationalists but without the explicitly racist and pro-segregation language".


title: The Daily Caller

text: In one of its most frequently shared stories, "The Daily Caller" falsely asserted that Morocco's King Mohammed VI flew Bill Clinton on a private jet, and that this had been omitted from the Clinton Foundation's tax disclosures. "The Daily Caller" also made the "utterly unsubstantiated and unsourced claim" that Hillary Clinton instructed Environmental Protection Agency head Lisa Jackson "to try to shut down Mosaic Fertilizer, described as America's largest phosphate mining company, in exchange for a $15 million donation to the Clinton Foundation from King Mohammed VI of Morocco, ostensibly to benefit Morocco's state-owned phosphate company".


title: The Daily Caller

text: In January 2017, "The Daily Caller" posted a video which encouraged violence against protesters. The footage showed a car driving into demonstrators, with the headline "Here's A Reel of Cars Plowing Through Protesters Trying to Block the Road". The video clip was set to a cover of the Ludacris song "Move Bitch". The video clip drew attention in August 2017 after a white supremacist murdered one counter-protestor and injured 35 more by intentionally driving a car into them at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. After the video attracted attention, "The Daily Caller" deleted it from its website.


title: The Daily Caller

text: "The Daily Caller" was the first news outlet to report on Stefan Halper, a confidential FBI source, and his interactions with Trump campaign advisors Carter Page and George Papadopoulos. Papadopoulos later pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about campaign matters. Page became the subject of surveillance warrants issued by the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court regarding contacts with Russian intelligence officials. Other news outlets confirmed Halper's identity but did not report his identity because US intelligence officials warned that it would endanger him and his contacts.


title: The Daily Caller

text: In June 2020, attorneys for the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associates secretly paid writers to promote AML Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency endorsed by Abramoff. The description of one article alleged to be part of the scheme matched a piece by Derek Hunter, a writer and podcast host for "The Daily Caller." Hunter resigned from "The Daily Caller" while denying that he had been paid illicitly for any articles.


title: The Daily Caller

text: During "The Daily Caller"'s coverage of protests in Louisville, Kentucky related to the shooting of Breonna Taylor and subsequent verdict on the police involved, two of their reporters were arrested and held overnight. Co-founder Patel threatened to take legal action against the Louisville Metro Police Department, citing freedom of the press.


title: The Daily Caller

text: According to Callum Borchers of "The Washington Post", "The Daily Caller" has "a peculiar business structure that enables it to increase revenue while reducing its tax obligation". The organization, a for-profit company, does this by relying on its charity arm, "The Daily Caller" News Foundation, to create the majority of its news content.


title: The Daily Caller

text: Lisa Graves of the Center for Media and Democracy argues, "It's a huge rip-off for taxpayers if "The Daily Caller" News Foundation is receiving revenue that it doesn't pay taxes on, to produce stories that are used by the for-profit enterprise, which then makes money on the stories through ads". Benjamin M. Leff of American University writes, "But the fact that it also provides its content to other publishers for free is evidence that it is not operated for the private benefit of the for-profit, even if the for-profit is the dominant user of its content".


title: The Daily Caller

text: "The Daily Caller" is in the White House rotating press pool and has full-time reporters on Capitol Hill.


title: The Daily Caller

text: Contributors to "The Daily Caller" have included economist Larry Kudlow, Congressman Mark Sanford, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, former US Senate Candidate and Judge Jeanine Pirro, sculptor Robert Mihaly, diplomat Alan Keyes, political commentator Ann Coulter, and the NRA-ILA.


title: The Daily Caller

text: "The Daily Caller" hosts "The Mirror", a blog written by former FishbowlDC editor and "The Hill" columnist Betsy Rothstein. "The Mirror" covers media in Washington D.C., news related to journalism organizations, as well as political and media related gossip. The tagline is, "Reflections of a self-obsessed city".


title: The Daily Caller

text: Billionaire and businessman Charles Koch has made charitable donations to the Daily Caller News Foundation.


title: The Daily Caller

text: In 2017, "The Daily Caller" launched a for-profit subsidiary fact-checking website called Check Your Fact. In 2018, the site was approved by Poynter Institute's International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) to become a fact-checking partner of Facebook in 2019. The website is editorially independent of "The Daily Caller" and has its own staff.


title: Corrective rape

text: Corrective rape, also called curative rape, as well as homophobic rape, is a hate crime in which one or more people are raped because of their perceived sexual orientation such as homosexuality or bisexuality. The common intended consequence of the rape, as claimed by the perpetrator, is to turn the person heterosexual.


title: Corrective rape

text: The term "corrective rape" was coined in South Africa after well-known cases of corrective rapes of lesbian women such as Eudy Simelane (who was also murdered in the same attack) and Zoliswa Nkonyana became public. Popularisation of the term has raised awareness and encouraged LGBT+ people in countries across the world to come forward with their own stories of being raped as punishment for or in an attempt to change their sexual orientation or gender identity. Although some countries have laws protecting LGBT+ people, corrective rape is often overlooked.


title: Corrective rape

text: Corrective rape is the use of rape against people who do not conform to perceived social norms regarding human sexuality or gender roles. The goal is to punish perceived abnormal behavior and reinforce societal norms. The crime was first identified in South Africa, where it is sometimes supervised by members of the woman's family or local community. One of the earliest known mentions of the term is by South African feminist activist Bernedette Muthien during an August 2001 interview by Human Rights Watch in Cape Town:


title: Corrective rape

text: Lesbians are particularly targeted for gang rape. African lesbians are more likely to be raped as lesbians in the townships. To what extent are coloured lesbians also targeted for rape because of their sexual orientation? There are no statistics for this, and I don't know what percent of coloured lesbians are targeted for corrective rape action. Growing up, I never heard that lesbians were targeted in this way and so I want to know when that started happening. Gangsterism has always existed in the townships, so you can't attribute it to that. I don't know why black lesbians are targeted more, either. I'd like to know how many women are being raped by brothers, fathers, etc., in coloured townships. Why is no one studying this? Has it just been under-reported, not studied, or what?


title: Corrective rape

text: The United Nations UNAIDS 2015 Terminology Guidelines suggests that the term "corrective rape" should no longer be used, as it gives off the perception that something needs to be fixed. The guidelines propose that the term "homophobic rape" should be used instead. The words "so-called 'curative' or 'corrective' rape" were mentioned in 2011 in the first UN report on discrimination and violence against LGBT+ people. A 2013 global study on HIV/AIDS suggested the term "lesphobic rape" to emphasize the fact that lesbians constitute the overwhelming majority of victims of this phenomenon. Others have emphasized that gay men, transgender, asexual and intersex people can also be victims of corrective rape for similar reasons.


title: Corrective rape

text: Corrective rape is a hate crime. A 2000 study suggested an atmosphere supportive of hate crimes against gay men and lesbians, reactions to hate crimes by the broader community, and responses by police and justice systems contribute to corrective rape.


title: Corrective rape

text: Some people believe corrective rape can "fix" people who do not conform to gender norms or who are not heterosexual. ActionAid reports that survivors remember being told that they were being taught a lesson. Some perpetrators of the hate crime are impelled by a sense of misogyny and chauvinism. Personal experiences have included female victims being told they were "being shown what they were missing" while male victims have related gang rape accounts "where the objective was to make the experience of being sexually receptive so violent and frightening that the victim would fear potential homosexual experiences afterward".


title: Corrective rape

text: Some sources argue that many cases of corrective rape are caused by drawing moral conclusions from the nature–nurture debate. Despite the scientific community concluding that sexual orientation is the result of biology and environment, many people do not believe that homosexuality (or other forms of non-heterosexuality) has a genetic basis and instead believe it is only the result of one's environment. Because of this, some of these people believe sexual orientation can be changed or, as they see it, fixed.


title: Corrective rape

text: Intersectionality is "intersecting" social identities and related systems of oppression, domination, or discrimination. In South Africa, black lesbians may face homophobia, sexism, racism, and classism. Research in 2008 by Triangle, a gay rights group, revealed that black lesbians were twice as afraid of sexual assault as white lesbians. Taking into account race and sexuality together is essential when examining corrective rape, as both subjects cross into each other and influence each other heavily.


title: Corrective rape

text: Intersectionality plays a major role in corrective rape cases. Sexuality and gender especially, define the social and political rank of victims. Many are ostracized, and other abusive measures are taken in order to "cure" individuals of their sexuality.


title: Corrective rape

text: Corrective rape and other accompanying acts of violence can result in physical and psychological trauma, mutilation, unwanted pregnancy, and may contribute to suicide. Corrective rape is a major contributor to HIV infection in South African lesbians. In South Africa, approximately 10% of lesbians are HIV positive, with corrective rape being the most likely cause. HIV in South Africa is an epidemic, and due to homophobia, there is a lack of education about sexually transmitted diseases among lesbians. Homophobic laws and discrimination in South Africa contribute to the poor quality of health care for minorities.


title: Corrective rape

text: The psychological effects of corrective rape on victims can be detrimental. Many victims in countries such as South Africa and India where corrective rape is most prevalent suffer from a strong sense of insecurity and disempowerment due to strong homophobia in their communities. This homophobia can lead to both physical and psychological violence. There have been at least 30 lesbians who have been murdered in South Africa in the last 15 years because of their sexual orientation. However, violence against the LGBTQ community in South Africa is seldom reported. Many survivors of corrective rape suffer from triple discrimination for being women, black, and homosexual. This is especially true in South African townships, where corrective rape is common for lesbian women. Corrective rape victims may suffer from depression, anxiety, and/or post-traumatic stress disorder. Due to racial and sexual discrimination in health care, victims must often deal with these issues on their own.


title: Corrective rape

text: Again, in countries like Nigeria where the Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act, 2013 (SSMPA) "prohibits a marriage contract or civil union entered into between persons of the same sex...", lesbian, gay, and transgender people who are raped and targeted do not have the protection of the police and cannot report rape crimes done to them, as the police are likely to legitimize the abuse. Reports of corrective rape are cloaked in "stigma" and "embarrassment" so they remain largely underreported. Apart from this being a violation of the fundamental right to protection as stated in the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act 2015, this sexual discrimination poses a threat to the general health of homosexual people who are victims of rape as they also fear the intolerance and disregard from medical providers, leaving them susceptible to STIs and HIV.


title: Corrective rape

text: Corrective rape has been reported in countries across the world including Ecuador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Peru, South Africa, Thailand, Uganda, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Zimbabwe.


title: Corrective rape

text: Children in India have been speaking out about how their parents are sanctioning the child's sexuality by using "corrective rape therapy" (same as corrective rape). Corrective rape in India typically happens in order to protect the family name, to avoid shaming from religious communities, and to prevent abnormal perception by the surrounding community. In India, there is a general discomfort with discussing homosexuality, even if an individual identifies as homosexual. This discomfort comes from the overall negative attitude towards homosexuality and the fact is that individuals in India who identify as homosexual are victimized at a higher rate. There is also a high level of negativity towards the trans community in India. Religious commitments tend to be very strong in traditional cultures and this is where much of the tension and poor perception came from. According to statistics from the Crisis Intervention Team of LGBT Collective in Telangana, India, there have been 15 reported instances of corrective rape that have been reported in the last five years. In general, there has been a 902 percent increase in reported rapes in India from 1971 to 2012; however, it is estimated that 90% of sex crimes in the country go unreported.


title: Corrective rape

text: Amnesty International has received reports of violence against lesbians in Jamaica, including rape and other forms of sexual violence. Lesbians reportedly have been attacked on the grounds of mannish physical appearance or other visible signs of sexuality. Some reports of abduction and rape come from inner-city communities, where local non-governmental organizations have expressed concerns about high incidences of violence against women.


title: Corrective rape

text: In Nigeria, lesbians are the major victims of corrective rape and this has roots in patriarchy. To many Nigerians, it is incomprehensible that women may seek relationships with people other than men.


title: Corrective rape

text: In South Africa, women have less sexual and economic power than men. One of the factors associated with this inequality is strict gender roles, which has led to one of the highest rates of violence against women in the world. The South African government conducted a survey in 2009 on sexual assault. One in four men admit to engaging in sexual activity with a woman who did not consent and nearly half of these men admitted to raping more than once. It is also estimated that a woman is raped every 26 seconds in South Africa. Corrective rape is used as a punishment for people who are gay or do not fit traditional gender roles (usually women), where often they are verbally abused before the rape. The perpetrator may claim to be teaching the women a lesson on how to be a "real woman". Because women have less control over their economic situation, which creates economic vulnerability, they have less control over their own sexual activities. Poor black women who live in townships are more likely to become victims of corrective violence, and gay women are more likely to be isolated with little support, which increases their chances of being targeted.


title: Corrective rape

text: The South African Constitution states that no person shall be discriminated against based on his or her gender, race, or sexual orientation. The Equality Act of 2000 specifically bans hate crimes, crimes in which people are targeted because of one or more aspects of their identity. Although this technically includes crimes based on sexual orientation, in practice such cases are not brought to trial. Crimes based on sexual orientation are not expressly recognized in South Africa; corrective rape reports are not separated from general rape reports. In December 2009, there had been 31 recorded murders of lesbians in South Africa since 1998, but only one had resulted in a conviction.


title: Corrective rape

text: The reason for this discrepancy between the law and practice is a result of heteronormativity and homophobia in South Africa. Heteronormativity can be defined as "the institutions, structures of understanding, and practical orientations that make heterosexuality not only seem coherent—that is organised as a sexuality—but also privileged". Some historians believe the heteronormativity in South Africa can be attributed to the nation's postcolonial years of racism, and it appears that today many South Africans are recommitted to their traditional heritage. Black South African lesbians are not included in this social construction, and this leads back to the concept of intersectionality. Black lesbians in South Africa are not only excluded because of their sexual orientation but also because of their ethnicity. As displayed in the media, most homosexuality is displayed as white, leaving black lesbians in South African even more marginalized. In South Africa, homosexuality is regarded as "un-African" by some. In 2004, the Human Science Research Council found that 78% of the respondents thought of homosexuality as unacceptable. According to Human Rights Watch, in the last 20 years, attitudes toward homosexuality have become worse in South Africa.


title: Corrective rape

text: Corrective rape is on the rise in South Africa. More than 10 lesbians are raped weekly to correct their sexual preferences, as estimated by Luleki Sizwe, a South African nonprofit. It is estimated that at least 500 lesbians become victims of corrective rape every year and that 86% of black lesbians in the Western Cape live in fear of being sexually assaulted, as reported by the Triangle Project in 2008. Yet victims of corrective rape are less likely to report it because of the negative social view of homosexuality. Under-reporting is high for sexually violent crimes, thus the number of corrective rapes are likely higher than what is reported.


title: Corrective rape

text: Although it is thought to be uncommon, men also become victims of corrective rape. A study conducted by OUT LGBT Well-being and the University of South Africa Centre for Applied Psychology (UCAP) showed that "the percentage of black gay men who said they have experienced corrective rape matched that of the black lesbians who partook in the study". However, not all men admit to being victims of corrective rape.


title: Corrective rape

text: One South African man stated, "Lesbians get raped and killed because it is accepted by our community and by our culture." Kekelesto explained that her experience as "where men try to turn you into a real African woman" and that she was being taught how to be a black woman.


title: Corrective rape

text: Galip Asvat, a successful hair salon business owner, is a gay man born in Klerksdorp. He moved to Hillbrow, which was a haven for the LGBT community, in the early 2000s. One early morning in 2007, Asvat was ambushed and raped by three men in his apartment building. On his attack, he said, "They thought I was a woman, and when they found out I was a man, that's when they became even more violent." His beating was brutal and the gang of men nearly cut off his genitals.


title: Corrective rape

text: Sizakele Sigasa, a lesbian activist living in Soweto, and her partner Salome Masooa were raped, tortured, and murdered in July 2007. South African lesbian-gay rights organizations, including the umbrella-group Joint Working Group, said the attack was driven by lesbophobia. Two other rape/murders of lesbians occurred in South Africa earlier in Summer 2007: Simangele Nhlapo, member of an HIV-positive support group was raped and murdered in June, along with her two-year-old daughter; and Madoe Mafubedu, age 16, was raped and stabbed to death.


title: Corrective rape

text: On 28 April 2008, 31-year-old soccer player Eudy Simelane was abducted, gang-raped and killed in KwaThema, her hometown near Johannesburg. Simelane was a star of the South Africa's acclaimed Banyana Banyana national female football squad, an avid equality rights campaigner, and one of the first women to live openly as a lesbian in KwaThema.


title: Corrective rape

text: In 2013, two writers from South African men's magazine "FHM" were fired as a result of corrective rape jokes they made on Facebook. After a disciplinary hearing on Friday, 19 July 2013, "FHM" dismissed both men from their positions, calling their comments "entirely unacceptable".


title: Corrective rape

text: South Africa is a signatory of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which obligates states to remove discriminatory barriers from the full and free exercise of rights by women. The convention's duty to modify the conduct of private citizens to ensure equality for women covers attitudes that include the inferiority of women and stereotyped gender roles, which arguably encompass the animus toward gay women that motivates many men to commit corrective rape. 66% of South Africa women said they did not report their attack because they would not be taken seriously. Of these, 25% said they feared exposing their sexual orientation to the police and 22% said they were afraid of being abused by the police.


title: Corrective rape

text: In August 2011, the Department of Justice established a National Task Team (NTT) to address the issue of hate crimes against LGBT people. In April 2014, then Minister of Justice Jeff Radebe launched a National Intervention Strategy for the LGBTI Sector developed by the NTT to address sex-based violence and gender-based violence against members of the community. The NTT has established a rapid response team to attend to unsolved criminal cases as a matter of urgency and produced an information pamphlet with frequently asked questions about LGBTI persons. Radebe stated that the Department of Justice acknowledged the need for a specific legal framework for hate crimes and that the matter would be subjected to public debate.


title: Corrective rape

text: In March 2011, there was an article published that stated that there are about 10 new cases of corrective rape a week in Cape Town. Cape Town, South Africa, specifically has 2.5 million people and since 2011, the prevalence of corrective rape has only increased.


title: Corrective rape

text: According to gay-rights organization Triangle, the practice of "corrective rape" is widespread in South Africa. Research released in 2008 by Triangle, revealed that 86% of black lesbians from the Western Cape said they lived in fear of sexual assault.


title: Corrective rape

text: Five cases in which the victims were lesbians or transgender males were reported in Uganda between June and November 2011.


title: Corrective rape

text: In the United States, Brandon Teena (1972–1993) is a well-known victim of corrective rape (and thereafter murder) for being a trans man. The book "All She Wanted" (1996) and the two films "The Brandon Teena Story" (1998) and "Boys Don't Cry" (1999) were about him.


title: Corrective rape

text: A U.S. State Department report on Zimbabwe states, "In response to social pressure, some families reportedly subjected their LGBT members to corrective rape and forced marriages to encourage heterosexual conduct. Such crimes were rarely reported to police. Women, in particular, were subjected to rape by male family members."


title: Corrective rape

text: Following the publication of an earlier report with similar wording, Zimbabwean journalist Angus Shaw said that lesbian women are raped by men to make them enjoy heterosexual acts and gay men are raped by women to remove their sexual orientation tendencies.


title: Corrective rape

text: Child sponsorship charity ActionAid has published an article discussing corrective rape, and see ending violence against women as a pivotal part of their mission. The group joined with 26 gay and women's rights and community groups, to organize a campaign focused on South Africa but also aimed at the international community, to raise awareness of the issues. The campaign was dedicated to raising awareness about the rape and murder of two lesbian women in a Johannesburg township and called for sexual orientation to be specifically recognised as grounds for protection by police and justice systems.


title: Corrective rape

text: Ndumie Funda, a South African Social Justice Activist, started her work to end corrective rape by launching a social campaign on Change.org in hopes to have the South African Government recognize hate crimes committed due to biases against sexual orientation and provide protection for victims. This particular petition ended up gathering almost 200 thousand signatures from individuals making up over 175 countries, forcing the government to recognize this issue. The government agreed to meet Funda and in 2014 South Africa passed its first law against hate crimes.


title: Alaska Permanent Fund

text: The Alaska Permanent Fund (APF) is a constitutionally established permanent fund managed by a state-owned corporation, the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation (APFC). It was established in Alaska in 1976 by Article 9, Section 15 of the Alaska State Constitution under Governor Jay Hammond and Attorney General Avrum Gross. From February 1976 until April 1980, the Department of Revenue Treasury Division managed the state's Permanent Fund assets, until, in 1980, the Alaska State Legislature created the APFC.


title: Alaska Permanent Fund

text: As of 2019, the fund was worth approximately $64 billion that has been funded by oil revenues and has paid out an average of approximately $1,600 annually per resident (adjusted to 2019 dollars). The main use for the fund's revenue has been to pay out the Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD), which many authors portray as the only example of a basic income in practice.


title: Alaska Permanent Fund

text: Shortly after the oil from Alaska's North Slope began flowing to market through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, the Permanent Fund was created by an amendment to the Alaska Constitution. It was designed to be an investment where at least 25% of the oil money would be put into a dedicated fund for future generations, who would no longer have oil as a resource. This does not mean the fund is solely funded by oil revenue. The Fund includes neither property taxes on oil company property nor income tax from oil corporations, so the minimum 25% deposit is closer to 11% if those sources were also considered. The Alaska Permanent Fund sets aside a certain share of oil revenues to continue benefiting current and all future generations of Alaskans. Many citizens also believed that the legislature too quickly and too inefficiently spent the $900 million bonus the state got in 1969 after leasing out the oil fields. This belief spurred a desire to put some oil revenues out of direct political control.


title: Alaska Permanent Fund

text: The Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation manages the assets of both the Permanent Fund and other state investments, but spending Fund income is up to the Legislature. The corporation is to manage for maximum prudent return, and not—as some Alaskans at first wanted—as a development bank for in-state projects. The Fund grew from an initial investment of $734,000 in 1977 to approximately $53.7 billion as of July 9, 2015. Some growth was due to good management, some to inflationary re-investment, and some via legislative decisions to deposit extra income during boom years. Each year, the fund's realized earnings are split between inflation-proofing, operating expenses, and the annual Permanent Fund Dividend.


title: Alaska Permanent Fund

text: The fund is a member of the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds and has therefore signed up to the Santiago Principles on best practice in managing sovereign wealth funds. The Fund's current chief investment officer is Marcus Frampton.


title: Alaska Permanent Fund

text: The Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation is a government instrumentality of the State of Alaska created to manage and invest the assets of the Alaska Permanent Fund and other funds designated by law.


title: Alaska Permanent Fund

text: The Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) is a dividend paid to Alaska residents that have lived within the state for a full calendar year (January 1 – December 31), and intend to remain an Alaska resident indefinitely. This means if residency is taken on January 2, the "calendar year" wouldn't start until next January 1.


title: Alaska Permanent Fund

text: The amount of each payment is based upon a five-year average of the Permanent Fund's performance and varies widely depending on the stock market and many other factors. The PFD is calculated by the following steps:


title: Alaska Permanent Fund

text: The lowest individual dividend payout was $331.29 in 1984 and the highest was $2,072 in 2015. However, in 2008 Governor Sarah Palin signed Senate Bill 4002 that used revenues generated from the state's natural resources and provided a one-time special payment of $1,200 to every Alaskan eligible for the PFD.


title: Alaska Permanent Fund

text: Although the principal or corpus of the fund is constitutionally protected, income earned by the fund, like nearly all state income, is constitutionally defined as general fund money.


title: Alaska Permanent Fund

text: The first dividend plan would have paid Alaskans $50 for each year of residency up to 20 years, but the U.S. Supreme Court in disapproved the $50 per year formula as an invidious distinction burdening interstate travel. As a result, each qualified resident now receives the same annual amount, regardless of age or years of residency.


title: Alaska Permanent Fund

text: Payments from the fund are subject to federal income tax. Alaska has no state income tax, but part-year residents who leave the state may be taxed on them by their new state of residence.


title: Alaska Permanent Fund

text: The PFD is a Basic Income in the form of a resource dividend. Some researchers argue, "It has helped Alaska attain the highest economic equality of any state in the United States... And, seemingly unnoticed, it has provided unconditional cash assistance to needy Alaskans at a time when most states have scaled back aid and increased conditionality."


title: Alaska Permanent Fund

text: The Constitutional Budget Reserve (CBR) is a companion fund to the Permanent Fund which was established in 1991 to ease problems from the variability of oil revenue, which vary depending upon the price of oil in the market. Deposits into the CBR consist of settlements of back taxes and other revenues owed to the state. Draws from the CBR into the general fund require a 3/4 vote of each house of the legislature and must be repaid. To date, the general fund has amassed a debt of approximately $4 billion to the CBR to maintain a stable level of public spending.


title: Alaska Permanent Fund

text: The size of the debt owed to the CBR has raised doubts over repayment. The CBR is based on the assumption that the general fund deficit will remain constant over time (allowing paybacks to balance draws). Believing this to be mistaken, critics allege the state uses resources from the CBR to avoid reducing the budget, acknowledging debt, or increasing taxes. According to them, falling oil revenues and growing spending requirements will leave paybacks consistently lower than draws, causing the CBR to fail.


title: Alaska Permanent Fund

text: Former state senator Dave Donley (R-Anchorage) recognized that the high vote requirement to spend CBR money (¾ of each house) had a perverse and unintended consequence. The high vote requirement was meant to ensure that draws from the CBR would be rare, but in fact such draws are common. Donley explained that the high vote requirement really empowers the minority party (in the 2000–07 era, the Democratic Party), who can then get what they want in a Christmas tree bill (presents for everyone, both majority and minority) in exchange for their votes (which minority votes would not be needed with the usual 51% voting rule). Donley thus explains why both parties can and do use the higher voting rule requirement to more frequently spend from the CBR.


title: Alaska Permanent Fund

text: While the Permanent Fund generally generated large surpluses even after payment of the Dividend [PFD], the state general fund operated at a substantial deficit. However, the consolidated account of both General and Permanent Funds usually shows a surplus. The Funds' ultimate uses were never clearly spelled out at its inception, leaving no current consensus over what role Fund earning should play in the current and expected state budget shortfalls. However, some people argue that the original intent was to fund state government after the temporary oil riches ceased, while others note that the Fund's intent changed from its 1976 origin when in 1982 the Dividend program began. Public opinion strongly favors the Dividend program. Indeed, in 1999, with oil prices going as low as $9 per barrel and Alaska's oil consultant Daniel Yergin forecasting low prices "for the foreseeable future", the State put an advisory vote before Alaskans, asking if government could spend "some" part of Permanent Fund earning for government purposes. Gov. Knowles, Lt. Gov. Ulmer, and many other elected officials urged a "yes" vote. Campaign spending greatly favored the "yes" side. Despite this, the public voted "no" by nearly 84%. (Oil prices rose dramatically, starting about two weeks after Yergin's prediction, to above $60 per barrel, though the quantity produced continues to fall.) Perceived support of the dividend program is so universally strong that it ensures the dividend's continuity and the protection of the Fund's principal, since any measure characterized as negatively impacting dividend payouts represents a loss to the entire populace. That is, legislators willing to appropriate the Fund's annual earnings are constrained by the high political costs of any measures leading to a decrease in the public's dividend.


title: Alaska Permanent Fund

text: In 2000, the APFC Board of Trustees proposed changing the Permanent Fund's management system to a Percent of Market Value (PoMV) approach which would require an amendment to the state constitution. The PoMV proposal would limit withdrawals to five percent of the fund's value each year, to be spent at the discretion of the Legislature. Currently the Legislature has authority to appropriate all of the fund's realized earnings. Tentative, unapproved proposals indicate that half of this five percent withdrawal would go to the dividend and half to government spending—but POMV died in the Legislature because most there saw POMV as unambiguously tied to such politically unpopular spending proposals. Most Alaskans (84% in 1999) disapprove of allowing the government to tamper with the fund, especially if that means government might spend Fund income.


title: Alaska Permanent Fund

text: Again in 2015–2017, a POMV approach was considered. The market price for North Slope oil fell from an average $107.57 per barrel in FY2014 to $50.05 per barrel in FY2017. This price shift caused an 80 percent decline in state revenue and resulted in a multibillion-dollar budget gap. Both bodies of the legislature have passed a bill that provides for an annual draw of 5.25% of the average balance of the Permanent Fund (average of the first 5 of the last six years). Since the formula is based on an average, rather than a single year, the effective draw is only about 4.2%—enough to preserve the real value of the fund considering that the fund has returned close to 9% annually. The legislature carefully vetted this percentage over the course of two sessions and has come to a consensus. This draw is projected to produce $2.7 billion in FY2019 and grow with the balance of the Permanent Fund. The major point of disagreement, however, is the size of the dividend: The House of Representatives version of the bill uses 5.25% draw for government (33% for Dividends and 67% for government services) and an additional 0.25% draw for Permanent Fund inflation proofing. This produces $2.7 billion ($1.8 billion for government use, net of a $900.9 million dividend—about $1,250.00 per Alaskan—growing with the value of the fund). The Senate version of the bill uses the same 5.25% draw as the House, but directs only 25% of the draw to dividends. This produces the same $2.7 billion but government services receive $2.0 billion while the dividend receives just under $700 million—about $1,000.00 per person—growing with the value of the fund.


title: Alaska Permanent Fund

text: Oil revenues are forecast (by the state Department of Revenue) to remain stagnant through FY2027, and traditional budget reserves may be empty by FY2019 but with a Permanent Fund value in excess of $60.0 billion, the budget gap can be reduced significantly. Since this POMV proposal does not close the gap entirely, members of the legislature are considering a tax bill as well.


title: Alaska Permanent Fund

text: A 2018 paper found that the Alaska Permanent Fund "dividend had no effect on employment, and increased part-time work by 1.8 percentage points (17 percent)... our results suggest that a universal and permanent cash transfer does not significantly decrease aggregate employment."


title: Alaska Permanent Fund

text: A 2019 study found "a 14% increase in substance-abuse incidents the day after the [Alaska Permanent Fund] payment and a 10% increase over the following four weeks. This is partially offset by a 8% decrease in property crime, with no changes in violent crimes. On an annual basis, however, changes in criminal activity from the payment are small. Estimated costs comprise a very small portion of the total payment, suggesting that crime-related concerns of a universal cash transfer program may be unwarranted."


title: Erik Larson (author)

text: Erik Larson (born January 3, 1954) is an American journalist and author of mostly nonfiction books. He has written a number of bestsellers, including "The Devil in the White City" (2003), about the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and a series of murders by H. H. Holmes that were committed in the city around the time of the Fair. "The Devil in the White City" won the 2004 Edgar Award in the Best Fact Crime category, among other awards. Larson released his first fiction novel, in audiobook format only, titled "No One Goes Alone" on September 28, 2021.


title: Erik Larson (author)

text: Larson was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Freeport, Long Island, New York. He studied Russian history at the University of Pennsylvania and graduated "summa cum laude" in 1976. After a year off, he attended the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, graduating in 1978. He was inspired to go into journalism after seeing the movie "All the President's Men".


title: Erik Larson (author)

text: Larson's first newspaper job was with the "Bucks County Courier Times" in Levittown, Pennsylvania, where he wrote about murder, witches, environmental poisons, and other "equally pleasant" things. He later became a features writer for "The Wall Street Journal" and "Time", where he is still a contributing writer. His magazine stories have appeared in "The New Yorker", "The Atlantic Monthly", "Harper's", and other publications.


title: Erik Larson (author)

text: Larson has written a number of books, mostly historical nonfiction. In a 2016 interview with the "Knoxville Mercury", Larson stated he does all of his own research, asking, "why should I let anybody else have that fun?" He also rejected the idea of trying to imagine or take factual liberties with scenes and conversations from the past, stating that in his work, "anything that appears in quote is something that came from a historical document." He included among his literary inspirations David McCullough, Barbara Tuchman, David Halberstam, and Walter Lord. Larson's 2006 book "Thunderstruck" intersperses the story of Hawley Harvey Crippen with that of Guglielmo Marconi and the invention of radio.


title: Erik Larson (author)

text: Larson has taught non-fiction writing at San Francisco State University, the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, and the University of Oregon, and he has spoken to audiences across the United States.


title: Erik Larson (author)

text: Larson has lived in Philadelphia; Bristol, Pennsylvania; San Francisco; and Baltimore. He and his wife have three daughters. They reside in New York City and maintain a home in Seattle, Washington.


title: Quite a Ride

text: "Quite a Ride" is the fifth episode of the fourth season of the AMC television series "Better Call Saul", a spin-off series of "Breaking Bad". The episode aired on September 3, 2018, on AMC in the United States. Outside of the United States, the episode premiered on the streaming service Netflix in several countries.


title: Quite a Ride

text: In a flashforward to 2010, Saul Goodman and Francesca Liddy frantically clear out his office, and she agrees to be at a telephone booth on November 12 at 3 p.m. to receive a call. He gives her money and an attorney's business card and tells her that if she needs help she should say "Jimmy" sent her. As she leaves, Saul claims the last few years have been "quite a ride", then calls Ed Galbraith for a new identity.


title: Quite a Ride

text: In 2003, Jimmy sells pay-as-you-go phones to a customer who saw his "privacy sold here" sign. He then starts selling prepaid phones on the street, but the venture proves unsuccessful when he is mugged by three teenagers. Kim Wexler tends to his wounds while Jimmy is concerned that he did not realize the teenagers' intent because he was not thinking clearly. He promises to call the psychiatrist Kim recommended, but the next day he returns to CC Mobile and removes the storefront sign.


title: Quite a Ride

text: Mike Ehrmantraut escorts engineers through the laundry to evaluate it as a site for Gus Fring's planned underground meth lab. One glibly asserts he can easily do the job but is turned away by Gus, who has been listening in from a nearby room. Another, Werner Ziegler, impresses Gus by forthrightly expressing his concerns about the risk, calling it difficult but not impossible. Gus offers him the job of planning and overseeing the lab's construction.


title: Quite a Ride

text: As Kim thrives in the environment of her "pro bono" criminal defense work, Paige Novick calls from Mesa Verde and insists they need her help immediately to fix recently filed paperwork, but Kim sees her criminal defense cases through before responding. Upon reaching Mesa Verde, Paige informs her that the bank's legal staff had to drop everything and fix the problem, and reminds her that when she became Mesa Verde's outside counsel, she promised that the bank would be her sole focus. Kim apologizes and promises it will not happen again.


title: Quite a Ride

text: Jimmy meets Howard Hamlin in the courthouse restroom and sees that he appears harried. Jimmy offers the phone number of the psychiatrist Kim recommended, but Howard claims he is already going to therapy, so Jimmy flushes the number down the toilet. Jimmy meets with his probation officer and states his intent to resume practicing law once his one-year suspension is over.


title: Quite a Ride

text: This is the first episode of "Better Call Saul" to include scenes that take place during the "Breaking Bad" series narrative, using the set for Saul Goodman's law offices. Among the possessions that Saul extracts from the wall are passports and a shoebox of video tapes of the Saul Goodman television commercials, which according to Bob Odenkirk, are the same tapes seen in the flash-forward to Saul's new identity "Gene" in the pilot episode. Portions of the episode were shot at the Dog House, a real drive-up diner in Albuquerque and previously used as Jesse Pinkman's hangout during "Breaking Bad". The song "Street Life" by Randy Crawford is played during the montage in which Jimmy sells mobile phones on the street.


title: Quite a Ride

text: According to writer Thomas Schnauz, the writers did not have an established plan related to the planned phone call in the flashforward scene. It was later referenced in the sixth season episode "Breaking Bad", which was written by Schnauz. Schnauz says the call was not mentioned in the scripts when they broke out from the writers room, but added later by Peter Gould and "Quite a Ride" writer Ann Cherkis. Like "Breaking Bad" and unlike the rest of "Better Call Saul", the opening flashforward was shot on non-digital film camera.


title: Quite a Ride

text: "Quite a Ride" received critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, it had a 100% "certified fresh" rating with an average of 9.62 out of 10 from 15 reviews. The site's consensus reads, "Saul goes full "Breaking Bad" in an exciting, emotional episode that proves 'Quite a Ride'."


title: Quite a Ride

text: "Quite a Ride" was watched by 1.53 million viewers on its first broadcast, earning a 0.4 ratings for viewers between 18 and 49.


title: Valiant (film)

text: Valiant is a 2005 computer-animated comedy film produced by Vanguard Animation, Ealing Studios and Odyssey Entertainment, and released by Entertainment Film Distributors in the United Kingdom on March 25, 2005, and by Walt Disney Pictures in the United States on August 19, 2005. Set in May of the year 1944, it tells the story of a group of war pigeons during World War II. The film is based on a story by George Webster, and inspired by true stories of hundreds of pigeons that helped the soldiers in the war.


title: Valiant (film)

text: In May 1944, five years after the declaration of World War II, three Royal Homing Pigeon Service war pigeons are flying across the English Channel with the White Cliffs of Dover in sight, carrying vital messages to Great Britain. Despite the poor weather conditions the pigeons have nearly reached their destination. They are, however, suddenly ambushed and attacked by a Nazi German enemy peregrine falcon named General Von Talon; two of the pigeons are instantly killed, yet the third, Mercury, is taken as a prisoner of war.


title: Valiant (film)

text: Elsewhere, a small wood pigeon named Valiant is watching an Allied forces propaganda film in his local bar (an overturned rowing boat) in West Nestington. He is best friends with Felix, an old seagull with a peg leg and the local barman. Wing Commander Gutsy, a war hero, flies into the bar, informing everyone that signups are scheduled the next day in Trafalgar Square, London. Valiant flies off to London, bidding his mother and Felix goodbye. In London, Valiant meets an unhygienic slacker pigeon named Bugsy, who is being hunted by two magpie thugs, after having tricked them at a shell game. In order to escape the thugs, he signs up with Valiant.


title: Valiant (film)

text: The recruits, Valiant, Bugsy, Lofty, an intellectual red pigeon, and Toughwood and Tailfeather, two muscular but dim-witted twin brothers, form Royal Homing Pigeon Service Squad F, and are sent to a recruit training facility. Under the command of Sergeant Monty, who declares that he will toughen them up for the RHPS, the training begins. Meanwhile, Von Talon and his henchmen, Cufflingk and Underlingk, try numerous attempts to discover the message's departure location. However, Mercury refuses to tell, despite the tortures inflicted upon him, such as irritating him with yodeling music and injecting him with truth serum, before Mercury accidentally reveals the location: Saint-Pierre.


title: Valiant (film)

text: Valiant develops a crush on Victoria, the camp's nursing dove. Eventually, Gutsy arrives and tells the Sergeant that the recruits need to leave the next morning, despite their training being vastly incomplete. Bugsy, however, decides not to go on the "highly dangerous" mission and flees the camp that night. Next morning Valiant and the others prepare to leave, and start to board a Handley Page Halifax bound for occupied France, but not before Bugsy shows up at the last second. The journey quickly becomes dangerous, as the plane is caught in an anti-aircraft attack. Their plane sustains heavy damage and the pigeons soon have to bail out, in boxes equipped with parachutes. The pigeons are dropped from the plane; however, a technical malfunction causes Gutsy's box to fail to deploy. The plane crash-lands nearby, but then explodes, presumably killing Gutsy.


title: Valiant (film)

text: In France, the pigeons meet Charles de Girl and Rollo, two mice from the French Resistance, Mouse Division, who lead them to Saint-Pierre, where they receive the message they have been ordered to deliver. They soon come under attack by Von Talon's henchmen, resulting in Bugsy and the message being captured. Von Talon takes the message from Bugsy and decides to lock him up and kill him later, planning to personally deliver the message to Der Fuehrer himself. Valiant and the troops follow Bugsy to the falcon's bunker, where they discover that Gutsy has survived the plane crash. Valiant takes advantage of his small size and sneaks into the bunker through the gun barrel, retrieves the message, and frees Bugsy and Mercury. Unfortunately, the falcons witness the escape and give chase. As Gutsy, Bugsy, Mercury, Toughwood, Tailfeather and Lofty fight off Cufflingk and Underlingk, Valiant flies to London to deliver the message, followed by Von Talon.


title: Valiant (film)

text: After a climactic chase, Valiant hides until he is caught by Von Talon. With the help of Felix and the resident pigeons, Valiant outwits Von Talon by getting a giant hook caught on his medals, leaving him to be beaten by the water wheel. Valiant delivers the message, and upon its arrival in the war room, a change of plans is made; the Allied fleet will land in Normandy. After receiving the Dickin Medal, Squad F returns to the local bar in West Nestington, where Valiant reunites and shares a romantic kiss with Victoria. A message is then displayed commending the animals that saved thousands of lives during World War II.


title: Valiant (film)

text: "Valiant" takes the Second World War as its backdrop, and thus the film has various factual references to World War II. McGregor himself called it "a good old-fashioned war movie." The film's use of World War II imagery is apparent throughout; for instance, the villainous characters in the film hold obvious links to the Nazis, although Nazism is never specifically mentioned, nor are Nazi symbols ever overtly visually depicted – edited symbols are, however, discreetly inserted. For example, General Von Talon wears a large Reichsadler badge that depicts the German eagle, taken from the coat of arms of Germany. Yet this version, unlike the Hoheitszeichen (Nazi Germany's national insignia), has the eagle grasping two bones, whereas the Hoheitszeichen depicts the eagle clutching a swastika. Furthermore, the film's primary antagonist, Von Talon, holds specific links to Adolf Hitler. For example, Von Talon states whilst holding Mercury as a prisoner of war that he would not eat Mercury, as he is a vegetarian, a direct reference to Adolf Hitler's vegetarianism.


title: Valiant (film)

text: 179 modelers, animators, shaders, texturers began work on "Valiant" at Ealing Studios, west London. "Valiant" was the second computer-animated film to be made in the United Kingdom, after "The Magic Roundabout". John H. Williams of Vanguard Animation stated "we knew a lot of European animators who had worked at Pixar, Disney and DreamWorks, and were interested in going back to Europe. We thought it would be important to be the first company to produce a CGI feature fully made in Europe with a major studio attached." Williams stated this before he knew about The Magic Roundabout. He also explained the attraction to making the film in Britain, saying "It would have been $3 million cheaper to make in LA but we had $10-12 million in tax and co-production money that we were able to attract because we made it here." Additionally, the bonus of locating to Britain was that the UK Film Council offered "Valiant" a record-breaking £2.6 million grant. "Valiant"s budget of $35,000,000 is considered low in comparison to other CGI productions, with films which Williams had previously worked on, such as "Shrek 2" having a budget of $150,000,000.


title: Valiant (film)

text: Gary Chapman made his directorial debut with "Valiant". Initially hired for character and production design during project development, and ultimately hired to direct the film after extensive work with story development, writers, and producers. Chapman was subsequently storyboard artist, designing characters for the Vanguard Animation movie "Space Chimps".


title: Valiant (film)

text: The film, on a tight budget and with a relatively small group of animators, was created in 106 weeks, in what "The Times" described as "a piece of guerrilla film-making" in comparison to the other CGI animated films created by major studios. At least 5 computer animators worked together for every scene of the 76-minute film, working on effects such as color, movement and shading. As a result of the low number of animators, some critics called the film's animation "amateurish-looking". However, other reviewers stated that the film was "nicely animated".


title: Valiant (film)

text: Tom Jacomb, line producer for Vanguard Animation, stated that the biggest difficulties whilst making the film was the detail required for the birds' feathers. He stated that "most — no, all — our problems were feathers", and described them as a "misery in computer animation". Director Gary Chapman insisted that each bird must look distinctive, and as a result, the pigeons came in various colors, including beige, blue, yellow, red and grey. He also requested that each bird be dressed in clothing, and clothing accessories appear throughout the film on characters, usually hats, belts, and military medals and, in the case of the villainous Von Talon, a black leather cape. However, before Valiant, Bugsy, Lofty Thaddeus Worthington, Tailfeather, Toughwood complete their military training, they appear entirely clothes-free, equipped with no military regalia.


title: Valiant (film)

text: In December 2003, Ewan McGregor joined the cast along with Ben Kingsley, Jim Broadbent, Rupert Everett, Hugh Laurie, John Hurt and Ricky Gervais. In April 2004, John Cleese and Tim Curry joined in. Olivia Williams joined in the cast. Kingsley and Everett weren't heard in the film, Everett was likely busy filming on Shrek 2.


title: Valiant (film)

text: "Valiant" received mixed reviews from critics. The film received a 32% "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 114 reviews with an average rating of 5/10. The site's consensus reads ""Valiant" has a good collection of voice talents, but the story is strictly by-the-numbers." On Metacritic, the film has a 45 out of 100 based on 27 critic reviews indicating "mixed or average reviews". The film grossed $19,478,106 in the U.S. and $42,268,782 internationally, which puts it at a worldwide total of $61,746,888. Although it wasn't a box office flop, the film held the record for lowest box office of a CGI animated film, until this record was later beaten in 2006 by "Doogal", the American re-dubbed version of "The Magic Roundabout".


title: Valiant (film)

text: The musical score was composed by George Fenton and mostly performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The orchestral music is in keeping with the military theme of the film, such as through "March of the R.H.P.S.", performed by The Central Band of the Royal Air Force. Tracks were recorded at AIR Recording Studios and at Angel Recording Studios in London and at Right Track Studios, New York. The only track not composed by Fenton is "Shoo Shoo Baby", performed by R&B girl group Mis-Teeq; originally sung by the popular American wartime group, the Andrews Sisters. Although "Shoo Shoo Baby" was the only track on the album containing lyrics, it was not the only lyrical track used in the film – "Non, je ne regrette rien" by Édith Piaf is played in one scene in the film, despite it being recorded in 1960, 16 years after 1944, when the film was set.


title: Sonic weapon

text: Sonic and ultrasonic weapons (USW) are weapons of various types that use sound to injure or incapacitate an opponent. Some sonic weapons make a focused beam of sound or of ultrasound; others produce an area field of sound. military and police forces make some limited use of sonic weapons.


title: Sonic weapon

text: Extremely high-power sound waves can disrupt or destroy the eardrums of a target and cause severe pain or disorientation. This is usually sufficient to incapacitate a person. Less powerful sound waves can cause humans to experience nausea or discomfort.


title: Sonic weapon

text: The possibility of a device that produces frequency that causes vibration of the eyeballs—and therefore distortion of vision—was suggested by paranormal researcher Vic Tandy in the 1990s while attempting to demystify a "haunting" in his laboratory in Coventry. This "spook" was characterised by a feeling of unease and vague glimpses of a grey apparition. Some detective work implicated a newly-installed extractor fan, found by Tandy, that was generating infrasound of 18.9 Hz, 0.3 Hz, and 9 Hz.


title: Sonic weapon

text: A long-range acoustic device (LRAD) produces a 30 degree cone of audible sound in frequencies within the human hearing spectrum (20 Hz – 20 kHz). An LRAD was used by the crew of the cruise ship "Seabourn Spirit" in 2005 to deter pirates who chased and attacked the ship. More commonly this device and others of similar design have been used to disperse protesters and rioters in crowd control efforts. A similar system is called a "magnetic acoustic device". The Mosquito sonic devices have been used in the United Kingdom to deter teenagers from lingering around shops in target areas. The device works by emitting an ultra-high frequency blast (around 19–20 kHz) that teenagers or people under approximately 20 are susceptible to and find uncomfortable. Age-related hearing loss apparently prevents the ultra-high pitch sound from causing a nuisance to those in their late twenties and above, though this is wholly dependent on a young person's past exposure to high sound pressure levels. In 2020 and 2021, Greek authorities used long-range sound cannons to deter migrants on the Turkish border.


title: Sonic weapon

text: High-amplitude sound of a specific pattern at a frequency close to the sensitivity peak of human hearing (2–3 kHz) is used as a burglar deterrent.


title: Sonic weapon

text: Some police forces have used sound cannons against protesters, for example during the 2009 G20 Pittsburgh summit, the 2014 Ferguson unrest, and the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protest in North Dakota, among others.


title: Sonic weapon

text: It has been reported that "sonic attacks" may have taken place in the American embassy in Cuba in 2016 and 2017 ("Havana syndrome"), leading to health problems, including hearing loss, in US and Canadian government employees at the US and Canadian embassies in Havana. However, more recent reports hypothesize microwave energy as the cause.


title: Sonic weapon

text: It has also been reported that China has developed the first hand-held portable sonic gun to target protestors.


title: Sonic weapon

text: Studies have found that exposure to high intensity ultrasound at frequencies from 700 kHz to 3.6 MHz can cause lung and intestinal damage in mice. Heart rate patterns following vibroacoustic stimulation has resulted in serious negative consequences such as atrial flutter and bradycardia.


title: Sonic weapon

text: The extra-aural (unrelated to hearing) bioeffects on various internal organs and the central nervous system included auditory shifts, vibrotactile sensitivity change, muscle contraction, cardiovascular function change, central nervous system effects, vestibular (inner ear) effects, and chest wall/lung tissue effects. Researchers found that low-frequency sonar exposure could result in significant cavitations, hypothermia, and tissue shearing. No follow up experiments were recommended. Tests performed on mice show the threshold for both lung and liver damage occurs at about 184 dB. Damage increases rapidly as intensity is increased. The American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) has stated that there have been no proven biological effects associated with an unfocused sound beam with intensities below 100 mW/cm² SPTA or focused sound beams below an intensity level of 1 mW/cm² SPTA.


title: Sonic weapon

text: Noise-induced neurologic disturbances in scuba divers exposed to continuous low-frequency tones for durations longer than 15 minutes has involved in some cases the development of immediate and long-term problems affecting brain tissue. The symptoms resembled those of individuals who had suffered minor head injuries. One theory for a causal mechanism is that the prolonged sound exposure resulted in enough mechanical strain to brain tissue to induce an encephalopathy. Divers and aquatic mammals may also suffer lung and sinus injuries from high intensity, low-frequency sound. This is due to the ease with which low-frequency sound passes from water into a body, but not into any pockets of gas in the body, which reflect the sound due to mismatched acoustic impedance.


title: Dick Morris

text: Richard Samuel Morris (born November 28, 1948) is an American political author and commentator who previously worked as a pollster, political campaign consultant, and general political consultant.


title: Dick Morris

text: A friend and advisor to Bill Clinton during his time as Governor of Arkansas and since his 1978 run, Morris became a political adviser to the White House after Clinton was elected president in 1992. Morris encouraged Clinton to pursue Third Way policies of triangulation that combined traditional Republican and Democratic proposals, rhetoric, and issues so as to achieve maximum political gain and popularity. He worked as a Republican strategist before joining the Clinton administration, where he helped Clinton recover from the Republican Revolution by advising him to adopt more moderate policies. The president consulted Morris in secret beginning in 1994. Clinton's communications director George Stephanopoulos has said, "Over the course of the first nine months of 1995, no single person had more power over the president." Morris went on to become campaign manager of Clinton's successful 1996 bid for re-election as president, but his tenure on that political campaign was cut short two months before the election, when it was revealed that he had not only solicited a prostitute but also allowed her to listen in on conversations with the President.


title: Dick Morris

text: Morris now writes a weekly column for the "New York Post" that is carried nationwide, and contributes columns and blogs to both the print and online versions of "The Hill". He is also president of Vote.com. By 2005, Morris had emerged as a harsh critic of the Clintons and wrote several books that criticize them, including "Rewriting History", a rebuttal to then-U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton's "Living History".


title: Dick Morris

text: Morris was the strategist for Republican Christy Mihos's campaign in the 2010 Massachusetts gubernatorial election, and supported Mitt Romney in 2012, predicting that he would achieve a landslide victory. Blogger Andrew Sullivan has named an annual award after Morris, given for "stunningly wrong political, social and cultural predictions". He has appeared in the past on Fox News for political commentary, especially appearing on "The O'Reilly Factor" and "Hannity". After the 2012 presidential election, Morris did not appear on Fox News for three months, and the network ultimately opted not to renew his contract.


title: Dick Morris

text: Morris was born in New York City, New York, the son of writer Terry Lesser Morris, an early proponent of confessional human interest stories, and attorney Eugene J. Morris. He attended Stuyvesant High School in New York City, where he was active on the debate team. He managed Jerrold Nadler's campaign for class president; Nadler has since gone on to represent New York in the House of Representatives. Morris was also involved in the first campaign of Richard Gottfried for New York State Assembly in 1970. Morris graduated from Stuyvesant in 1964, then attended Columbia University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, graduating in 1967. At Columbia, he roomed with Nadler.


title: Dick Morris

text: Morris first worked with Bill and Hillary Clinton during Bill Clinton's successful 1978 bid for Governor of Arkansas. Morris did not have a role in Clinton's successful 1992 presidential campaign, which instead was headed by David Wilhelm, James Carville, George Stephanopoulos, and Paul Begala. After the 1994 midterm elections, in which Republicans took control of both houses of the United States Congress and gained considerable power in the states, Clinton once again sought Morris' help to prepare for the 1996 presidential election.


title: Dick Morris

text: In his writings, Morris "recounts the First Lady’s numerous kindnesses to his aging (and of course Jewish) parents."


title: Dick Morris

text: On August 29, 1996, Morris resigned from the Clinton campaign after tabloid reports stated that he had been involved with a prostitute, Sherry Rowlands, as reported by "The Washington Post". A New York tabloid newspaper, the "Star", had obtained and published a set of photographs allegedly of Morris and the woman on a Washington, D.C., hotel balcony. News of the impending publication broke during the third day of the 1996 Democratic Convention. The "Electronic Telegraph" reported unverified claims that in order to impress Rowlands, Morris invited her to listen in on his conversations with President Clinton. It was reported that Rowlands worked for $200 an hour and that after he solicited her for sex, Morris gave Rowlands access to President Clinton's campaign speeches before they were delivered and also let her hear the President's voice during a telephone conservation. According to Rowlands, Morris had a fondness for sucking toes. It was also alleged he had an out-of-wedlock child from an affair with a Texas woman.


title: Dick Morris

text: Morris resigned on the same day that Bill Clinton spoke and accepted the nomination at the Democratic National Convention. In his resignation statement, he said that "while I served I sought to avoid the limelight because I did not want to become the message. Now, I resign so I will not become the issue." In his response, President Clinton praised Morris as a "friend", and publicly thanked him for his years of service. Privately, several of Clinton's aides were furious that in his resignation statement Morris credited himself with helping the President "come back from being buried in a landslide" and that Morris ended by comparing himself to Robert F. Kennedy.


title: Dick Morris

text: Morris was featured on two consecutive covers of "Time" magazine. The September 2, 1996 issue, which was released before the prostitute story broke, featured Morris as "The Man Who Has Clinton's Ear". The following week, the cover featured Morris and his wife, Eileen McGann, and the headline read "The Morris Mess: After the Fall".


title: Dick Morris

text: Montgomery Blair Sibley wrote a book "Why Just Her" in defence of the ""Washington Madam"", Debra Jeane Palfrey. In it, he wrote that Morris was a client of Palfrey's escort agency, and the first individual he (Sibley) planned to call in Palfrey's defence.


title: Dick Morris

text: In his 1997 book, "Behind the Oval Office", Morris wrote that, following an argument in the Arkansas Governor's Mansion in May 1990, he strode toward the exit and was tackled by Clinton. In 2003, Morris further stated that Clinton cocked his arm back to throw a punch, but Hillary Clinton pulled her husband off Morris. In both versions of the story, she consoled Morris and apologized to him, stating that Bill behaved as such only with those he cared for most. According to Morris, she did this to keep him quiet about the incident. He says the incident was the reason for denying Bill Clinton's request to work on the 1992 campaign.


title: Dick Morris

text: Morris has become a vocal and regular critic of the Clintons since his departure, in particular Hillary Rodham Clinton and her bid for the presidency. Morris has written extensively about the Clintons (see below) and also contributed to "", a documentary about Rodham Clinton when she was still a 2008 Presidential candidate. Later, after Bill Clinton's comments about the similarities between Barack Obama's popularity and that of presidential candidate Jesse Jackson in 1988, Morris put out an article on his blog that asserted that this was Clinton's way of injecting race into the political campaign.


title: Dick Morris

text: As of August 2009, Morris lends his name and assistance to the League of American Voters, an advocacy group for seniors to defeat the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. He has been described as "America's most ruthless political consultant" in the BBC documentary "Century of the Self", which chronicled how he brought lifestyle marketing to politics for the first time.


title: Dick Morris

text: Morris has consulted for candidates in other countries of the western hemisphere, including the campaigns of Fernando de la Rua for President of Argentina (1999), Jorge Batlle for President of Uruguay (1999), Vicente Fox for President of Mexico (2000), and Raphael Trotman for President of Guyana (2006).


title: Dick Morris

text: Morris and his wife, Eileen McGann, are behind www.vote.com, a site intended to register non-scientific political public opinion on various issues.


title: Dick Morris

text: Morris worked as a strategist for Christy Mihos, who sought the Republican nomination to run for Governor of Massachusetts in 2010 against incumbent Deval Patrick overseeing strategy, polling, and advertising. At the Republican state convention, Mihos lost to Charlie Baker by 89 percent to 11 percent; by failing to reach 15 percent, Mihos did not qualify for a primary against Baker.