title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: Black-body radiation diffuses thermal energy throughout a substance as the photons are absorbed by neighboring atoms, transferring momentum in the process. Black-body photons also easily escape from a substance and can be absorbed by the ambient environment; kinetic energy is lost in the process.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: As established by the Stefan–Boltzmann law, the intensity of black-body radiation increases as the fourth power of absolute temperature. Thus, a black-body at 824 K (just short of glowing dull red) emits "60 times" the radiant power as it does at 296 K (room temperature). This is why one can so easily feel the radiant heat from hot objects at a distance. At higher temperatures, such as those found in an incandescent lamp, black-body radiation can be the principal mechanism by which thermal energy escapes a system.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: The kinetic energy of particle motion is just one contributor to the total thermal energy in a substance; another is "phase transitions", which are the potential energy of molecular bonds that can form in a substance as it cools (such as during condensing and freezing). The thermal energy required for a phase transition is called "latent heat". This phenomenon may more easily be grasped by considering it in the reverse direction: latent heat is the energy required to "break" chemical bonds (such as during evaporation and melting). Almost everyone is familiar with the effects of phase transitions; for instance, steam at 100 °C can cause severe burns much faster than the 100 °C air from a hair dryer. This occurs because a large amount of latent heat is liberated as steam condenses into liquid water on the skin.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: Even though thermal energy is liberated or absorbed during phase transitions, pure chemical elements, compounds, and eutectic alloys "exhibit no temperature change whatsoever" while they undergo them (see "Fig. 7", below right). Consider one particular type of phase transition: melting. When a solid is melting, crystal lattice chemical bonds are being broken apart; the substance is transitioning from what is known as a "more ordered state" to a "less ordered state". In "Fig. 7", the melting of ice is shown within the lower left box heading from blue to green.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: At one specific thermodynamic point, the melting point (which is 0 °C across a wide pressure range in the case of water), all the atoms or molecules are, on average, at the maximum energy threshold their chemical bonds can withstand without breaking away from the lattice. Chemical bonds are all-or-nothing forces: they either hold fast, or break; there is no in-between state. Consequently, when a substance is at its melting point, every joule of added thermal energy only breaks the bonds of a specific quantity of its atoms or molecules, converting them into a liquid of precisely the same temperature; no kinetic energy is added to translational motion (which is what gives substances their temperature). The effect is rather like popcorn: at a certain temperature, additional thermal energy can't make the kernels any hotter until the transition (popping) is complete. If the process is reversed (as in the freezing of a liquid), thermal energy must be removed from a substance.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: As stated above, the thermal energy required for a phase transition is called "latent heat". In the specific cases of melting and freezing, it's called "enthalpy of fusion" or "heat of fusion". If the molecular bonds in a crystal lattice are strong, the heat of fusion can be relatively great, typically in the range of 6 to 30 kJ per mole for water and most of the metallic elements. If the substance is one of the monatomic gases, (which have little tendency to form molecular bonds) the heat of fusion is more modest, ranging from 0.021 to 2.3 kJ per mole. Relatively speaking, phase transitions can be truly energetic events. To completely melt ice at 0 °C into water at 0 °C, one must add roughly 80 times the thermal energy as is required to increase the temperature of the same mass of liquid water by one degree Celsius. The metals' ratios are even greater, typically in the range of 400 to 1200 times. And the phase transition of boiling is much more energetic than freezing. For instance, the energy required to completely boil or vaporize water (what is known as "enthalpy of vaporization") is roughly "540 times" that required for a one-degree increase.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: Water's sizable enthalpy of vaporization is why one's skin can be burned so quickly as steam condenses on it (heading from red to green in "Fig. 7" above); water vapors (gas phase) are liquefied on the skin with releasing a large amount of energy (enthalpy) to the environment including the skin, resulting in skin damage. In the opposite direction, this is why one's skin feels cool as liquid water on it evaporates (a process that occurs at a sub-ambient wet-bulb temperature that is dependent on relative humidity); the water evaporation on the skin takes a large amount of energy from the environment including the skin, reducing the skin temperature. Water's highly energetic enthalpy of vaporization is also an important factor underlying why "solar pool covers" (floating, insulated blankets that cover swimming pools when the pools are not in use) are so effective at reducing heating costs: they prevent evaporation. (In other words, taking energy from water when it is evaporated is limited.) For instance, the evaporation of just 20 mm of water from a 1.29-meter-deep pool chills its water 8.4 degrees Celsius (15.1 °F).


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: The total energy of all translational and internal particle motions, including that of conduction electrons, plus the potential energy of phase changes, plus zero-point energy of a substance comprise the "internal energy" of it.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: As a substance cools, different forms of internal energy and their related effects simultaneously decrease in magnitude: the latent heat of available phase transitions is liberated as a substance changes from a less ordered state to a more ordered state; the translational motions of atoms and molecules diminish (their kinetic energy or temperature decreases); the internal motions of molecules diminish (their internal energy or temperature decreases); conduction electrons (if the substance is an electrical conductor) travel "somewhat" slower; and black-body radiation's peak emittance wavelength increases (the photons' energy decreases). When particles of a substance are as close as possible to complete rest and retain only ZPE (Zero Point Energy)-induced quantum mechanical motion, the substance is at the temperature of absolute zero ("T" = 0).


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: Note that whereas absolute zero is the point of zero thermodynamic temperature and is also the point at which the particle constituents of matter have minimal motion, absolute zero is not necessarily the point at which a substance contains zero internal energy; one must be very precise with what one means by "internal energy". Often, all the phase changes that "can" occur in a substance, "will" have occurred by the time it reaches absolute zero. However, this is not always the case. Notably, "T" = 0 helium remains liquid at room pressure ("Fig. 9" at right) and must be under a pressure of at least to crystallize. This is because helium's heat of fusion (the energy required to melt helium ice) is so low (only 21 joules per mole) that the motion-inducing effect of zero-point energy is sufficient to prevent it from freezing at lower pressures.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: A further complication is that many solids change their crystal structure to more compact arrangements at extremely high pressures (up to millions of bars, or hundreds of gigapascals). These are known as "solid–solid phase transitions" wherein latent heat is liberated as a crystal lattice changes to a more thermodynamically favorable, compact one.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: The above complexities make for rather cumbersome blanket statements regarding the internal energy in "T" = 0 substances. Regardless of pressure though, what "can" be said is that at absolute zero, all solids with a lowest-energy crystal lattice such those with a "closest-packed arrangement" (see "Fig. 8", above left) contain minimal internal energy, retaining only that due to the ever-present background of zero-point energy. One can also say that for a given substance at constant pressure, absolute zero is the point of lowest "enthalpy" (a measure of work potential that takes internal energy, pressure, and volume into consideration). Lastly, it is always true to say that all "T" = 0 substances contain zero kinetic thermal energy.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: Thermodynamic temperature is useful not only for scientists, it can also be useful for lay-people in many disciplines involving gases. By expressing variables in absolute terms and applying Gay-Lussac's law of temperature/pressure proportionality, solutions to everyday problems are straightforward; for instance, calculating how a temperature change affects the pressure inside an automobile tire. If the tire has a cold pressure of 200 kPa, then its absolute pressure is 300 kPa. Room temperature ("cold" in tire terms) is 296 K. If the tire temperature is 20 °C hotter (20 kelvins), the solution is calculated as  = 6.8% greater thermodynamic temperature "and" absolute pressure; that is, an absolute pressure of 320 kPa, which is a of 220 kPa.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: The thermodynamic temperature is closely linked to the ideal gas law and its consequences. It can be linked also to the second law of thermodynamics. The thermodynamic temperature can be shown to have special properties, and in particular can be seen to be uniquely defined (up to some constant multiplicative factor) by considering the efficiency of idealized heat engines. Thus the "ratio" "T"/"T" of two temperatures "T" and "T" is the same in all absolute scales.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: Strictly speaking, the temperature of a system is well-defined only if it is at thermal equilibrium. From a microscopic viewpoint, a material is at thermal equilibrium if the quantity of heat between its individual particles cancel out. There are many possible scales of temperature, derived from a variety of observations of physical phenomena.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: Loosely stated, temperature differences dictate the direction of heat between two systems such that their combined energy is maximally distributed among their lowest possible states. We call this distribution "entropy". To better understand the relationship between temperature and entropy, consider the relationship between heat, work and temperature illustrated in the Carnot heat engine. The engine converts heat into work by directing a temperature gradient between a higher temperature heat source, "T", and a lower temperature heat sink, "T", through a gas filled piston. The work done per cycle is equal in magnitude to net heat taken up, which is sum of the heat "q" taken up by the engine from the high-temperature source, plus the waste heat given off by the engine, "q" < 0. The efficiency of the engine is the work divided by the heat put into the system orformula_3where formula_4 is the work done per cycle. Thus the efficiency depends only on |"q"| / |"q"|.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: Carnot's theorem states that all reversible engines operating between the same heat reservoirs are equally efficient. Thus, any reversible heat engine operating between temperatures "T" and "T" must have the same efficiency, that is to say, the efficiency is the function of only temperatures


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: In addition, a reversible heat engine operating between a pair of thermal reservoirs at temperatures "T" and "T" must have the same efficiency as one consisting of two cycles, one between "T" and another (intermediate) temperature "T", and the second between "T" and"T". If this were not the case, then energy (in the form of "q") will be wasted or gained, resulting in different overall efficiencies every time a cycle is split into component cycles; clearly a cycle can be composed of any number of smaller cycles as an engine design choice, and any reversible engine between the same reservoir at "T" and "T" must be equally efficient regardless of the engine design.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: If we choose engines such that work done by the one cycle engine and the two cycle engine are same, then the efficiency of each heat engine is written as the below.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: Here, the engine 1 is the one cycle engine, and the engines 2 and 3 make the two cycle engine where there is the intermediate reservoir at "T". We also have used the fact that the heat formula_9 passes through the intermediate thermal reservoir at formula_10 without losing its energy. (I.e., formula_9 is not lost during its passage through the reservoir at formula_10.) This fact can be proved by the following.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: In order to have the consistency in the last equation, the heat formula_9 flown from the engine 2 to the intermediate reservoir must be equal to the heat formula_15 flown out from the reservoir to the engine 3.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: But since the first function is "NOT" a function of "T", the product of the final two functions "MUST" result in the removal of "T" as a variable. The only way is therefore to define the function as follows:


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: I.e. the ratio of heat exchanged is a function of the respective temperatures at which they occur. We can choose any monotonic function for our formula_20; it is a matter of convenience and convention that we choose formula_21. Choosing then "one" fixed reference temperature (i.e. triple point of water), we establish the thermodynamic temperature scale.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: Such a definition coincides with that of the ideal gas derivation; also it is this "definition" of the thermodynamic temperature that enables us to represent the Carnot efficiency in terms of "T" and "T", and hence derive that the (complete) Carnot cycle is isentropic:


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: Substituting this back into our first formula for efficiency yields a relationship in terms of temperature:


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: Note that for the efficiency is 100% and that efficiency becomes greater than 100% for , which is unrealistic. Subtracting 1 from the right hand side of the Equation (4) and the middle portion gives formula_24 and thus


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: The generalization of this equation is the Clausius theorem, which proposes the existence of a state function formula_26 (i.e., a function which depends only on the state of the system, not on how it reached that state) defined (up to an additive constant) by


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: where the subscript "rev" indicates heat transfer in a reversible process. The function formula_26 is the entropy of the system, mentioned previously, and the change of formula_26 around any cycle is zero (as is necessary for any state function). The Equation 5 can be rearranged to get an alternative definition for temperature in terms of entropy and heat (to avoid a logic loop, we should first define entropy through statistical mechanics):


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: For a constant-volume system (so no mechanical work formula_30) in which the entropy formula_26 is a function formula_32 of its internal energy formula_33, formula_34 and the thermodynamic temperature formula_35 is therefore given by


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: so that the reciprocal of the thermodynamic temperature is the rate of change of entropy with respect to the internal energy at the constant volume.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: 1702–1703: Guillaume Amontons (1663–1705) published two papers that may be used to credit him as being the first researcher to deduce the existence of a fundamental (thermodynamic) temperature scale featuring an absolute zero. He made the discovery while endeavoring to improve upon the air thermometers in use at the time. His J-tube thermometers comprised a mercury column that was supported by a fixed mass of air entrapped within the sensing portion of the thermometer. In thermodynamic terms, his thermometers relied upon the volume / temperature relationship of gas under constant pressure. His measurements of the boiling point of water and the melting point of ice showed that regardless of the mass of air trapped inside his thermometers or the weight of mercury the air was supporting, the reduction in air volume at the ice point was always the same ratio. This observation led him to posit that a sufficient reduction in temperature would reduce the air volume to zero. In fact, his calculations projected that absolute zero was equivalent to −240 °C—only 33.15 degrees short of the true value of −273.15 °C. Amonton's discovery of a one-to-one relationship between absolute temperature and absolute pressure was rediscovered a century later and popularized within the scientific community by Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac. Today, this principle of thermodynamics is commonly known as "Gay-Lussac's law" but is also known as "Amonton's law".


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: 1742: Anders Celsius (1701–1744) created a "backwards" version of the modern Celsius temperature scale. In Celsius's original scale, zero represented the boiling point of water and 100 represented the melting point of ice. In his paper "Observations of two persistent degrees on a thermometer", he recounted his experiments showing that ice's melting point was effectively unaffected by pressure. He also determined with remarkable precision how water's boiling point varied as a function of atmospheric pressure. He proposed that zero on his temperature scale (water's boiling point) would be calibrated at the mean barometric pressure at mean sea level.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: 1744: Coincident with the death of Anders Celsius, the famous botanist Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) effectively reversed Celsius's scale upon receipt of his first thermometer featuring a scale where zero represented the melting point of ice and 100 represented water's boiling point. The custom-made "linnaeus-thermometer", for use in his greenhouses, was made by Daniel Ekström, Sweden's leading maker of scientific instruments at the time. For the next 204 years, the scientific and thermometry communities worldwide referred to this scale as the "centigrade scale". Temperatures on the centigrade scale were often reported simply as "degrees" or, when greater specificity was desired, "degrees centigrade". The symbol for temperature values on this scale was °C (in several formats over the years). Because the term "centigrade" was also the French-language name for a unit of angular measurement (one-hundredth of a right angle) and had a similar connotation in other languages, the term "centesimal degree" was used when very precise, unambiguous language was required by international standards bodies such as the International Bureau of Weights and Measures ("Bureau international des poids et mesures") (BIPM). The 9th CGPM (General Conference on Weights and Measures ("Conférence générale des poids et mesures") and the CIPM (International Committee for Weights and Measures ("Comité international des poids et mesures") formally adopted "degree Celsius" (symbol: °C) in 1948.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: 1777: In his book "Pyrometrie" (Berlin: Haude & Spener, 1779) completed four months before his death, Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728–1777), sometimes incorrectly referred to as Joseph Lambert, proposed an absolute temperature scale based on the pressure/temperature relationship of a fixed volume of gas. This is distinct from the volume/temperature relationship of gas under constant pressure that Guillaume Amontons discovered 75 years earlier. Lambert stated that absolute zero was the point where a simple straight-line extrapolation reached zero gas pressure and was equal to −270 °C.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: Circa 1787: Notwithstanding the work of Guillaume Amontons 85 years earlier, Jacques Alexandre César Charles (1746–1823) is often credited with discovering, but not publishing, that the volume of a gas under constant pressure is proportional to its absolute temperature. The formula he created was .


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: 1802: Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (1778–1850) published work (acknowledging the unpublished lab notes of Jacques Charles fifteen years earlier) describing how the volume of gas under constant pressure changes linearly with its absolute (thermodynamic) temperature. This behavior is called Charles's Law and is one of the gas laws. His are the first known formulas to use the number "273" for the expansion coefficient of gas relative to the melting point of ice (indicating that absolute zero was equivalent to −273 °C).


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: 1848: William Thomson, (1824–1907) also known as Lord Kelvin, wrote in his paper, "On an Absolute Thermometric Scale", of the need for a scale whereby "infinite cold" (absolute zero) was the scale's zero point, and which used the degree Celsius for its unit increment. Like Gay-Lussac, Thomson calculated that absolute zero was equivalent to −273 °C on the air thermometers of the time. This absolute scale is known today as the kelvin thermodynamic temperature scale. It's noteworthy that Thomson's value of "−273" was actually derived from 0.00366, which was the accepted expansion coefficient of gas per degree Celsius relative to the ice point. The inverse of −0.00366 expressed to five significant digits is −273.22 °C which is remarkably close to the true value of −273.15 °C.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: 1859: Macquorn Rankine (1820–1872) proposed a thermodynamic temperature scale similar to William Thomson's but which used the degree Fahrenheit for its unit increment. This absolute scale is known today as the Rankine thermodynamic temperature scale.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: 1877–1884: Ludwig Boltzmann (1844–1906) made major contributions to thermodynamics through an understanding of the role that particle kinetics and black body radiation played. His name is now attached to several of the formulas used today in thermodynamics.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: Circa 1930s: Gas thermometry experiments carefully calibrated to the melting point of ice and boiling point of water showed that absolute zero was equivalent to −273.15 °C.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: 1948: Resolution 3 of the 9th CGPM (Conférence Générale des Poids et Mesures, also known as the General Conference on Weights and Measures) fixed the triple point of water at precisely 0.01 °C. At this time, the triple point still had no formal definition for its equivalent kelvin value, which the resolution declared "will be fixed at a later date". The implication is that "if" the value of absolute zero measured in the 1930s was truly −273.15 °C, then the triple point of water (0.01 °C) was equivalent to 273.16 K. Additionally, both the CIPM (Comité international des poids et mesures, also known as the International Committee for Weights and Measures) and the CGPM formally adopted the name "Celsius" for the "degree Celsius" and the "Celsius temperature scale".


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: 1954: Resolution 3 of the 10th CGPM gave the kelvin scale its modern definition by choosing the triple point of water as its upper defining point (with no change to absolute zero being the null point) and assigning it a temperature of precisely 273.16 kelvins (what was actually written 273.16 "degrees Kelvin" at the time). This, in combination with Resolution 3 of the 9th CGPM, had the effect of defining absolute zero as being precisely zero kelvins and −273.15 °C.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: 1967/1968: Resolution 3 of the 13th CGPM renamed the unit increment of thermodynamic temperature "kelvin", symbol K, replacing "degree absolute", symbol °K. Further, feeling it useful to more explicitly define the magnitude of the unit increment, the 13th CGPM also decided in Resolution 4 that "The kelvin, unit of thermodynamic temperature, is the fraction 1/273.16 of the thermodynamic temperature of the triple point of water".


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: 2005: The CIPM (Comité International des Poids et Mesures, also known as the International Committee for Weights and Measures) affirmed that for the purposes of delineating the temperature of the triple point of water, the definition of the kelvin thermodynamic temperature scale would refer to water having an isotopic composition defined as being precisely equal to the nominal specification of Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water.


title: Thermodynamic temperature

text: 2019: In November 2018, the 26th General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) changed the definition of the Kelvin by fixing the Boltzmann constant to when expressed in the unit J/K. This change (and other changes in the definition of SI units) was made effective on the 144th anniversary of the Metre Convention, 20 May 2019.


title: Sex shop

text: A sex shop is a retailer that sells products related to adult sexual or erotic entertainment, such as sex toys, lingerie, pornography, and other related products.


title: Sex shop

text: An early precursor of the modern sex shop was a chain of stores set up in the 1920s by Léon Vidal of Diana Slip fame, in Paris. His shops sold erotic books, photographs and lingerie.


title: Sex shop

text: Supposedly the world's first "official" sex shop was opened in 1962 by Beate Uhse AG in Flensburg, West Germany, and sex shops can now be found in many countries and online. Sex shops are part of the sex industry. In most jurisdictions, sex shops are regulated by law, with access not legally permitted to minors, the age depending on local law. Some jurisdictions prohibit sex shops and the merchandise they sell. In some jurisdictions that permit it, they may also show pornographic movies in private video booths, or have private striptease or peep shows. Also an adult movie theater may be attached. There are also many online sex shops selling a variety of adult content such as sex toys, pornographic magazines, pornographic films and fetish wear etc. These types of shop are often favoured by the consumer as they have less overheads and can be perused within the comfort of the home. Their discreetness is also appealing to some.


title: Sex shop

text: Sex shops may also be an called adult shop, erotic shop, adult entertainment store, or adult book store. In some jurisdictions, polite euphemisms are used such as "marital aid store" or "adult novelties store".


title: Sex shop

text: Sex shops have operated in Australia since the 1960s, first in the urban areas of Sydney, notably Kings Cross. The development of sex shops in the country was assisted by the legalisation of the import of pornographic magazines in 1971, the appearance of mass-produced battery-powered vibrators in the 1970s and the arrival of X-rated videos in the 1980s. The popularity of Internet pornography in the 2000s resulted in a drop in sex shop sales, some store closures and diversification into non-sex-related adult goods.


title: Sex shop

text: Sex shops in Australia are regulated by state laws and are subject to local planning controls. While laws differ between states, licensees must abide by strict conditions that commonly require premises to be at least 200 metres from schools and churches. Windows are often required to be blacked out and admission restricted to over 18s, with offences prosecuted by police under section 578E of the Crimes Act.


title: Sex shop

text: In the state of New South Wales (NSW) sex shops cannot trade at street level and are required to trade either above or below ground. Under NSW law, non-contraceptive sex products can be sold only in shops that have been granted a restricted premise licence by local councils. Nevertheless, by 2013 a number of NSW lingerie stores had begun selling adult toys and books in shopping malls without being granted a licence.


title: Sex shop

text: Mainland China's first sex shop opened in Beijing in 1993 and by 2013 there were over 2,000 sex shops in the city. Most of their products were made in China.


title: Sex shop

text: The first sex shop in North America was called The Garden. It was opened in October 1971 by Ivor Sargent on Crescent Street in downtown Montreal, Quebec. The Garden combined the concepts used by Beate Uhse in Germany and Ann Summers in the UK. The store's opening attracted long lines of shoppers. The Palm Beach Post commented: "Like the chicken or the egg controversy, no one is really sure which came first-the sex boutique or the so-called sexual revolution".


title: Sex shop

text: There are no specific laws against using or buying sex toys at any particular age, but there are laws restricting the purchase of pornography. Although the age of consent is 16 in Canada, an age of 18+ is required to purchase or view pornography. Most sex shops sell adult videos, which means that most sex toys are on sale only to adults.


title: Sex shop

text: The first Hungarian sex shop opened on 15 November 1989, before the regime change, at 14 Károly Boulevard in Budapest, under the name Intim Center, which still exists today. "The first Hungarian sex shop opened in Budapest. It is called the Intim Center and is an Austro-Hungarian enterprise selling fake clothes, porn cassettes, inflatable and obedient pederasty toys." At that time, the three T-categories were so suddenly moved from the forbidden to the tolerated that even the press of the time reported the administrative uncertainties surrounding the sex shop in this way:


title: Sex shop

text: "A sex shop called Intim Center opened in Budapest, at 14 Tanács Boulevard. You can buy everything from videotapes to dildo. And it's legal! Or so we were led to believe, as the opening of the shop was reported with great acclaim in the main newspapers. But now, according to the Esti Hírlap, it turns out that there are no licences involved. A staff member of the newspaper called the Ministry of Culture and was told that the shop does not have the right to sell the malachagas that are on the shelves. The matter is being investigated, but the shop will not be closed for the time being."


title: Sex shop

text: The first sex shop in Italy was opened in 1972 in Milan by Angela Masia and her husband Ercole Sabbatini. This was the first "official" sex shop. Since then more sex shops have opened, mostly in Rome. In 2018 the city of Pistoia in Tuscany banned the opening of new sex shops in the city's history centre.


title: Sex shop

text: The first sex shops in the Netherlands were opened in the early 1970s, by entrepreneurs like Beate Uhse and Lasse Braun. The world's first Muslim-aimed online sex shop called El Asira opened in the Netherlands in 2010. It had 70,000 hits to the website in the first four days of operation.


title: Sex shop

text: Sex shops are extremely rare in Singapore. A few had been opened by 2005, but only about 1–2 currently exist. These shops mainly sell lingerie and various sex toys. Their goods can be seen through a store window.


title: Sex shop

text: After Nelson Mandela backed the anti-discrimination law that legalised sex toys, "Adult World" was established in 1994 as South Africa's first sex shop. Adult World came to operate a total of 52 shops within South Africa and 15 shops in Australia. Many religious Christian communities believed that the use of these adult lifestyle centres would lead to higher crime rates and attempted to organise mass demonstrations at their opening to force the closure of Adult World.


title: Sex shop

text: In July 1998, Adult World opened their largest adult lifestyle shop in Parow, Cape Town which they named "Adult World Warehouse". The adult movie star Christi Lake attended the opening of the shop, where a protest march of over 500 people brought traffic to a standstill. During the next couple of days the protesters held placards which proclaimed "Real men don't need pornography" and "Protect our people from banned pornography". When the shop was opened, it was found that 70% of the customer base were women who wished to learn more about adult lifestyle products.


title: Sex shop

text: As Adult World grew more popular, a focus on the development of adult shops within Australia took place.


title: Sex shop

text: Almost all licensed adult stores in the UK are forbidden from having their wares in open shop windows under the Indecent Displays Act 1981, which means often the shop fronts are boarded up or covered in posters. A warning sign must be clearly shown at the entrance to the store, and no sex articles (for example, pornography or sex toys) should be visible from the street. However, lingerie, non-offensive covers of adult material, etc. may be shown depending on the licence conditions of the local authority. The Video Recordings Act 1984 introduced the R18-rated classification for videos that are only available in licensed sex shops. No customer can be under 18 years old.


title: Sex shop

text: In London, few boroughs that have licensed sex shops. In the district of Soho within the City of Westminster a handful of sex shops were opened by Carl Slack in the early 1960s, and by the mid-1970s the number had grown to 59. Some had nominally "secret" backrooms selling hardcore photographs and novels, including Olympia Press editions.


title: Sex shop

text: By the 1980s, purges of corrupt police officers, along with new and tighter licensing controls by the City of Westminster, led to a crackdown on illegal premises in Soho. In the early 1990s, London's Hackney council sought to shut down Sh! Women's Erotic Emporium, because they did not have a licence. Sh! took the council to court and consequently won the right to remain open, as there were no sufficient reasons for the closure. In 2003, the Ann Summers chain of lingerie and sex toy shops won the right to advertise for shop assistants in Job Centres, which was originally banned under restrictions on what advertising could be carried out by the sex industry. In 2007, a Northern Ireland sex shop was denied a licence by the Belfast City Council. The shop appealed and won, but this was overturned by the House of Lords.


title: Sex shop

text: The licensing or closing of unlicensed sex shops, along with cultural changes such as the substantial relaxation of general censorship and the ready availability of non-commercial sex, and the availability of sexual material online, have reduced the red-light district of Soho to just a small area. The borough has 15 licensed sex shops and several remaining unlicensed ones. Islington and Camden each have multiple sex shops; the former also has three pornographic cinemas.


title: Sex shop

text: In the United States, a series of Supreme Court decisions in the 1960s (based on the First Amendment to the United States Constitution) generally legalized sex shops, while still allowing states and local jurisdictions to limit them through zoning. Zoning regulations often caused shops to be located either on the outskirts of town, or clumped into a single area, creating a type of red light district of adult stores and businesses. Into the 1980s, nearly all American sex shops were oriented to an almost entirely male clientele. Many included adult video arcades, and nearly all were designed so that their customers could not be seen from the street: they lacked windows, and the doors often involved an L-shaped turn so that people on the street could not see in. In addition, during the late 1980s and early 1990s, stores that also had theaters or arcades were sometimes closed by government order, citing the spread of AIDS as the motive.


title: Sex shop

text: On the one hand, there are stores resembling the UK's Ann Summers, tending toward "softer" product lines. On the other hand, there are stores that evolved specifically out of a sex-positive culture, such as San Francisco's Good Vibrations and Xandria. The latter class of stores tend to be very consciously community-oriented businesses, sponsoring lecture series and being actively involved in sex-related health issues, etc.


title: Briga Heelan

text: Briga Heelan (pronunciation ) (born April 2, 1987) is an American actress and comedian. She is known for her work on the sitcoms "Cougar Town", "Ground Floor", "Undateable", "Love", "Great News", and "B Positive".


title: Briga Heelan

text: Heelan was born in Andover, Massachusetts, the daughter of actress and Lowell Public Schools teacher Kimball Heelan and playwright Kevin Heelan. She has a brother named Conor. Heelan's father, as well as being a dramatist, has been a faculty member at Phillips Andover Academy since 1983.


title: Briga Heelan

text: Heelan attended Walnut Hill School for the Arts and studied for a year at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, before transferring to the University of Southern California. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2009. At graduation, Heelan received the James B. Pendleton Award for outstanding contributions to the USC School of Dramatic Arts.


title: Briga Heelan

text: Heelan intended to focus on musical theatre. She met her "Ground Floor" co-star, Skylar Astin, at a musical theatre convention.


title: Briga Heelan

text: Heelan's break-out TV role was on "Cougar Town." She was credited as a recurring character on "Undateable", appearing in three episodes plus the pilot. She was able to shoot both Bill Lawrence-helmed "Ground Floor" and "Undateable" simultaneously because both comedies are multi-camera, which require fewer production days than single-camera shows. She also guest starred in the first episode of Season 10 of "Curb Your Enthusiasm".


title: Briga Heelan

text: Regarding Heelan's role in "Ground Floor", TV critic Alan Sepinwall said Heelan is "simply terrific as Jenny: warm and quirky while always feeling like a strong and independent character". The "Los Angeles Times" said Heelan "makes "Ground Floor" watchable", describing her as "remarkably alive and in the moment; she makes real all that she touches. I could easily recommend tuning in just to watch her work and hereby do."


title: Briga Heelan

text: On her unusual name, she said, "It's an Irish name. In fact, my last name was O'Heelahan back in the day. And Briga, I read somewhere, is some pagan Celtic goddess, which sounds great, so I really like saying that. But I was named after my grandmother's best friend, who was Irish and came from Dublin."


title: Briga Heelan

text: On October 16, 2014, Heelan became engaged to her "Ground Floor" co-star Rene Gube. They were married on May 8, 2015. On October 31, 2016, they announced they were expecting their first child, a daughter, due in March 2017. Heelan gave birth to their daughter Bennet Alejandra Gube on March 23, 2017.


title: 2020–21 Scottish Premiership

text: The 2020–21 Scottish Premiership was the eighth season of the Scottish Premiership, the highest division of Scottish football (the 124th edition overall of the top national league competition, not including one cancelled due to World War II). The fixtures were published on 6 July 2020, with the season beginning on 1 August, following Scottish Government approval due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland.


title: 2020–21 Scottish Premiership

text: Twelve teams contested the league: Aberdeen, Celtic, Dundee United, Hamilton Academical, Hibernian, Kilmarnock, Livingston, Motherwell, Rangers, Ross County, St Johnstone and St Mirren. Celtic were the defending champions, seeking a record-breaking tenth successive title.


title: 2020–21 Scottish Premiership

text: On 7 March, Rangers clinched the title (their first in the Premiership, and 55th Scottish championship overall including one shared) after Celtic drew 0–0 away to Dundee United with 6 games remaining. This is the earliest date the Premiership has been won, with Rangers also completing an unbeaten league season on 15 May 2021 after a 4–0 win against Aberdeen.


title: 2020–21 Scottish Premiership

text: In the initial phase of the season, the 12 teams play a round-robin tournament whereby each team plays each one of the other teams three times. After 33 games, the league splits into two sections of six teams, with each team playing each other in that section. The league attempts to balance the fixture list so that teams in the same section play each other twice at home and twice away, but sometimes this is impossible. A total of 228 matches were played, with 38 matches played by each team.


title: 2020–21 Scottish Premiership

text: After the 12 Premiership clubs were given permission to restart full-contact training by the Scottish Government from 29 June 2020, it was announced that an Aberdeen player had tested positive for COVID-19 two days later. The identity of the player was not disclosed but the club said that he was asymptomatic and self-isolating.


title: 2020–21 Scottish Premiership

text: Nine days prior to the start of the season on 1 August, it was reported on 23 July that seven members of St Mirren's coaching staff had tested positive. As a result, a pre-season friendly between St Mirren and St Johnstone on 25 July was cancelled and Hamilton Academical, who had played St Mirren in a friendly on 18 July, confirmed that all of their players and coaching staff had subsequently tested negative. The following day, St Mirren announced that after the seven positive tests were retested, only one came back as positive with the other six negative.


title: 2020–21 Scottish Premiership

text: On the opening day of the season Rangers defeated Aberdeen 1–0 at Pittodrie Stadium and after the game, eight members of the Aberdeen squad went out to a pub in the city. Later in the week, the pub was linked to an outbreak of COVID-19 in Aberdeen which led to a lockdown of the city. Two of the group subsequently tested positive for COVID-19 and the eight players were put into self-isolation. Initially, the Scottish Government said Aberdeen's match against St Johnstone, scheduled for 8 August, wouldn't be affected by the lockdown of the city but the match was postponed after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was "pretty furious" about the situation. Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes was critical of the group of players - namely Bruce Anderson, Craig Bryson, Sam Cosgrove, Michael Devlin, Jonny Hayes, Matty Kennedy, Dylan McGeouch and Scott McKenna - who apologised for a "huge error of judgement".


title: 2020–21 Scottish Premiership

text: The following weekend, defending champions Celtic drew 1–1 with Kilmarnock at Rugby Park on 9 August. Defender Boli Bolingoli was in the Celtic match squad and came off the bench during the match, but was found to have travelled back from Spain a few days earlier – at that time, a 14-day quarantine was required for anyone travelling to Scotland from that country. Celtic manager Neil Lennon said Bolingoli "went rogue" and the club were unaware of his actions before it came to light on 10 August. Kilmarnock manager Alex Dyer revealed that Celtic had apologised for the situation. Bolingoli (who tested negative for the virus) was subsequently fined £480 by the police for his breach of quarantine rules.


title: 2020–21 Scottish Premiership

text: First Minister Nicola Sturgeon warned Scottish football clubs, players and authorities that the breaches of COVID-19 protocols set up to allow football to resume in Scotland had resulted in her giving the game a "yellow card" and that further breaches could lead to a pause in the football season. Aberdeen and Celtic's matches against Hamilton Academical and St Mirren respectively on 12 August were postponed as a result of the two incidents, as well as the Celtic vs. Aberdeen match on 15 August.


title: 2020–21 Scottish Premiership

text: The Scottish Football Association (SFA) and Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) introduced new rules following the breaches of COVID-19 rules which meant Bolingoli and the "Aberdeen eight" were charged by both governing bodies. An SFA hearing was held on 28 August which resulted in a three-match ban with a further two-match ban suspended for Bolingoli. The "Aberdeen eight" were each given a three-match suspended ban. The suspended bans would be triggered if a player was again charged with "bringing the game into disrepute" before 28 February 2021.


title: 2020–21 Scottish Premiership

text: Three fixtures (Kilmarnock v Motherwell, St Mirren v Motherwell and St Mirren v Hamilton) during the autumn were postponed after Kilmarnock and St Mirren told the SPFL that they could not fulfil them as scheduled due to COVID-19 outbreaks. The SPFL initially awarded 3–0 victories to their opponents; but that decision was overturned after an appeal to the Scottish Football Association.


title: 2020–21 Scottish Premiership

text: The table lists the positions of teams after each week of matches. To preserve chronological evolvements, any postponed matches are not included in the round at which they were originally scheduled, but added to the full round they were played immediately afterwards. For example, if a match is scheduled for round 13, but then postponed and played between rounds 16 and 17, it is added to the standings for round 16.


title: 2020–21 Scottish Premiership

text: After 33 matches, the league splits into two sections of six teams i.e. the top six and the bottom six, with the teams playing every other team in their section once (either at home or away). The exact matches are determined by the position of the teams in the league table at the time of the split.


title: 2020–21 Scottish Premiership

text: Games are mostly being played behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Limited attendance is allowed at some grounds with strict conditions under the Scottish Government Tier system, dependent on the club's geographical location.


title: 2020–21 Scottish Premiership

text: The quarter-finals were contested between the third and fourth placed teams in the Scottish Championship. The winners advanced to the semi-finals to face the second placed team in the Championship, and the winners of that tie advanced to the final to play-off against the 11th placed team in the Premiership, with the winners securing a place in the 2021–22 Scottish Premiership.


title: 2020–21 Scottish Premiership

text: Sky Sports has exclusive rights to the Scottish Premiership regular league season and can show up to 48 matches, whilst also broadcasting the play-off final with BBC Scotland showing the quarter-final & semi-final. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, clubs can stream matches (not broadcast on Sky) to fans on a pay-per-view or "virtual season ticket" basis, whilst capacities in stadia are limited due to social distancing restrictions.


title: 2020–21 Scottish Premiership

text: Select Premiership matches, along with the matches in the promotion/relegation playoffs, are shown in the United States on ESPN+, as part of a deal that allows ESPN+ to broadcast matches from Scottish leagues.


title: 2020–21 Scottish Premiership

text: From the start of this season, highlights are shown on both Saturdays and Sundays on BBC Scotland's flagship Sportscene programme. Sky Sports also show highlights.


title: 2020–21 Scottish Premiership

text: Gaelic-language channel BBC Alba has rights to broadcast repeats in full of 38 Saturday 3pm matches "as live" at 5.30pm.


title: 2020–21 Scottish Premiership

text: The SPFL also uploads the goals from every Premiership match onto its YouTube channel - available from 6pm on a Sunday for UK and Ireland viewers and 10pm on a Saturday for those worldwide.


title: Ed Rendell

text: Edward Gene Rendell (; born January 5, 1944) is an American lawyer, prosecutor, politician, and author. He served as the 45th Governor of Pennsylvania from 2003 to 2011, as chair of the national Democratic Party, and as the 96th Mayor of Philadelphia from 1992 to 2000.


title: Ed Rendell

text: Born in New York City to a Jewish family from Russia, Rendell moved to Philadelphia for college, completing his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and J.D. from Villanova University School of Law. He was elected District Attorney of Philadelphia for two terms from 1978 to 1986. He developed a reputation for being tough on crime, fueling a run for Governor of Pennsylvania in 1986, which Rendell lost in the primary.


title: Ed Rendell

text: Elected Mayor of Philadelphia in 1991, he inherited a $250 million deficit and the lowest credit rating of any major city in the country. As mayor, he balanced Philadelphia's budget and generated a budget surplus while cutting business and wage taxes and dramatically improving services to Philadelphia neighborhoods. "The New York Times" stated that Philadelphia under Rendell "has made one of the most stunning turnarounds in recent urban history." Nicknamed "America's Mayor" by Al Gore, Rendell served as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee during the 2000 presidential election.


title: Ed Rendell

text: In 2002, Rendell was elected Governor of Pennsylvania. He was a member of the Democratic Governors Association Executive Committee and served as the Chairman of the National Governors Association. He was reelected in a landslide in 2006. He left office in 2011 due to term limits, and released a book, "A Nation of Wusses: How America's Leaders Lost the Guts to Make Us Great" the following year. A Philadelphia Eagles fan, Rendell is also a football analyst on NBC Sports Philadelphia's Eagles Postgame Live, hosted by Michael Barkann.


title: Ed Rendell

text: Ed Rendell was born on January 5, 1944 in New York City, the son of Emma ("née" Sloat) and Jesse T. Rendell. His parents were Jewish, and all four of his grandparents were immigrants from Russia. He attended Riverdale Country School before the University of Pennsylvania, where he joined the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity in 1962 and earned a BA degree in 1965. In 1968, he earned a JD at Villanova University School of Law. He served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve from 1968 to 1974.


title: Ed Rendell

text: Rendell was elected district attorney of Philadelphia in 1977, becoming the youngest DA in history, after he defeated the incumbent Democratic district attorney, Emmett Fitzpatrick, in the primary election. Rendell ran a campaign that emphasized that he was new to politics and so was not tainted by its corruption.


title: Ed Rendell

text: As district attorney, Rendell reportedly had a mean temper while doing his job. Once, he yelled in the governor's face for releasing a certain prisoner. It has been said that Rendell would even punch walls or throw furniture when he became upset. In 1980, Rendell received 28 delegate votes for Vice President at the Democratic National Convention, although he was not a candidate. He served two terms as DA before leaving in 1986 to run for Governor of Pennsylvania. He was defeated in the Democratic gubernatorial primary by Bob Casey, Sr.


title: Ed Rendell

text: In 1982, during his second term, Rendell presided over the controversial prosecution of Mumia Abu-Jamal, resulting in a death sentence that was overturned in 2011. The 1985 bombing of the Black religious community MOVE by the Philadelphia police also occurred during Rendell's tenure and killed 6 adults plus 5 children and caused a fire that left hundreds of neighbors homeless.


title: Ed Rendell

text: In 1987, Rendell ran for the Democratic nomination against the incumbent mayor, Wilson Goode and lost. Rendell ran successfully four years later, in 1991. His opponent was to be Democrat-turned-Republican former Philadelphia Mayor, Frank Rizzo. Rizzo, however, died in the summer of 1991; in November 1991, Rendell won by more than a 2-1 margin against Joseph M. Egan, Jr., Rizzo's replacement on the Republican ticket.


title: Ed Rendell

text: As mayor, Rendell inherited massive fiscal problems. The state legislature established a fiscal oversight board to monitor the City of Philadelphia's fiscal issues. During his career as mayor, Rendell cut a $250 million deficit, balanced Philadelphia's budget and oversaw five consecutive years of budget surpluses, reduced business and wage taxes for four consecutive years, implemented new revenue-generating initiatives, and dramatically improved services to Philadelphia neighborhoods. He was given the nickname "Philadelphia's Renaissance or Revival" because of how well he did with the budget. He also appointed Philadelphia's first ever Latino deputy mayors, Benjamin Ramos and Manuel Ortiz. Rendell's cost-cutting policies brought him strong opposition from labor unions; however, he was re-elected in 1995, defeating Republican Joe Rocks with 80% of the vote.


title: Ed Rendell

text: Rendell's first term as mayor was chronicled in a best-selling book "A Prayer for the City" by journalist Buzz Bissinger. The author was given practically unlimited access to the Mayor during that term. "The New York Times" called Rendell's job as mayor "the most stunning turnaround in recent urban history" due to his determination, inspiration, ambition, and his energy.


title: Ed Rendell

text: In 1996, Rendell signed an executive order, 2-96, which allowed same-sex couples of Philadelphia health benefits.


title: Ed Rendell

text: To date, Rendell is the last Philadelphia Mayor to not have previously served as member of Philadelphia City Council.


title: Ed Rendell

text: When he announced his intent to run for the Democratic Nomination for Governor of Pennsylvania, he did so without the backing of the state party. The Pennsylvania Democratic Party threw their support behind Bob Casey Jr., son of recently deceased former Governor Bob Casey Sr., whom the party saw as a more electable candidate against the liberal Rendell. In a bitter primary, Rendell won the nomination by winning only 10 out of 67 counties: Philadelphia; its suburbs: Bucks, Chester, Montgomery, and Delaware; its exurbs: Berks, Lancaster, Lehigh, and Northampton; and Centre County, the home of Penn State University.


title: Ed Rendell

text: In the November 2002 gubernatorial election, he defeated Republican State Attorney General Mike Fisher 53% to 44%. Rendell won not only Philadelphia County, which is heavily Democratic, but also traditionally Republican suburbs of Philadelphia, largely due to his popularity as mayor of Philadelphia. These traditionally Republican voters who backed Rendell were called "Rendellicans" in other parts of the state and were a key part of the success of his campaign.


title: Ed Rendell

text: In a 2002 PoliticsPA feature story designating politicians with yearbook superlatives, he was named the "Most Likely to Succeed." His campaign website was described as having "cutting edge in design for a political site."


title: Ed Rendell

text: The first piece of legislation Rendell initiated was "The Plan for a New Pennsylvania". The Plan proposed using slot machine revenue to reduce taxes by $1 billion and included $687 million in increased education funding. The plan was to be paid for with a proposed income tax increase from 2.80% to 3.75% plus increased taxes on utilities and beer. The governor's plan passed but with a smaller tax increase to only 3.07% and increased education funding of $224 million. The final budget deal included additional taxes on cigarettes and utilities.


title: Ed Rendell

text: Later that year, the Rendell administration passed a prescription drug plan that covered older Pennsylvanians. In his first year, Rendell created the Office of Management and Productivity with the goal of cutting $1 billion in administrative expenses by the end of his first term. One of the most widely touted successes from Rendell's productivity initiative was strategic sourcing in which he overhauled the Commonwealth's antiquated procurement system, leading to $180 million in annual savings and a quadrupling of Pennsylvania's minority- and women- owned business participation rate.


title: Ed Rendell

text: Rendell proposed that the 8 cents per gallon tax on beer be raised to 25 cents per gallon. Brewery D.G. Yuengling & Son spokesman, David Casinelli, was a critic of the tax. Casinelli expressed his view on the tax increase proposal by saying, "it seems like every time the state needs money, they come to alcohol or tobacco, and, frankly, it's not fair."


title: Ed Rendell

text: In 2004, Rendell persuaded the Pennsylvania General Assembly to pass measures to legalize and tax slot machine parlors, with the revenues from these measures to be used to reduce property taxes. Prior to this legislation, the only legal forms of gambling in Pennsylvania were horse racing and the state-run lottery. Rendell has been criticized by many opponents of legalized gambling.


title: Ed Rendell

text: In a compromise with the legislature, Rendell accepted a provision requiring that tax reductions only occur in areas where local school boards voted to accept the funding. Act 72 funding, as it came to be known, was accepted by only one fifth of Pennsylvania's school districts.


title: Ed Rendell

text: Following Act 72, Rendell and the Pennsylvania legislature looked at other proposals to reduce property taxes, a key component of his 2002 campaign. The governor said he was willing to consider legislation that changes Act 72, and legislative proposals were made to force school districts to accept the money. Other proposed legislation would have required the issue to be voted on in each district as a ballot question, rather than decided by school boards. Property tax relief and Act 72 were issues of great controversy and have been subject to political gridlock, and it was unclear when changes would be made.


title: Ed Rendell

text: In April 2004, Rendell confirmed reports that his State Trooper chauffeurs regularly exceeded posted speed limits, and he claimed to be surprised to learn that they sometimes drove him at speeds in excess of 100 mph. He said that he initiated an investigation into the matter. Subsequently, in August 2004, the State Police announced a new policy that State Troopers would no longer be allowed to exceed the speed limit, except in emergencies. However, in 2007, following news that Governor Corzine of NJ was in an accident in a State Trooper-driven vehicle that was traveling in excess of 90 mph, Rendell was quoted as saying "I've told my troopers that I don't want them exceeding 80 unless they need to pass or unless there's some real exigent circumstance." At the time, the highest speed limit in Pennsylvania was 65 mph, and the current 70 mph limit was instituted in 2014 through legislation signed by Rendell's successor.


title: Ed Rendell

text: In early 2005, Rendell made statements that seemed to support President George W. Bush's Social Security privatization proposal. Rendell addressed this issue in later speeches, saying that he opposes social security privatization, and that his previous comments were meant to show admiration for President Bush for taking on a politically risky subject. Nevertheless, Rendell's initial statements cost him support among Democrats who are against Social Security privatization.


title: Ed Rendell

text: In the early morning hours of July 7, 2005, Ed Rendell signed a bill into law that increased pay for state lawmakers, judges, and top executive-branch officials. The vote took place at 2 am without public review or commentary. On November 16, 2005, Rendell signed a repeal of the pay raise after a near unanimous vote for repeal.


title: Ed Rendell

text: Rendell won re-election on November 7, 2006, defeating Lynn Swann, a former professional football player for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Rendell took 60% of the vote, or 2,470,517 votes, to Swann's 40%, or 1,622,135 votes.


title: Ed Rendell

text: He was sworn into his second term as governor of Pennsylvania on January 16, 2007. During his re-election campaign, Rendell was instrumental in the successful Senate candidacy of Bob Casey, Jr. who had run against him for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2002.


title: Ed Rendell

text: He was sworn in as governor of Pennsylvania on January 16, 2007. In 2007, as a residual effect of the potent political power the pay raise issue had in central and western Pennsylvania, Rendell stepped up criticism of the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) and its executive salaries and expenses, following published newspaper reports, in an effort to leverage PHEAA's profits from federal student loan revenues to help finance the Commonwealth's need-based state grant program for undergraduate post-secondary education (both for grants and for the administration of the program).


title: Ed Rendell

text: PHEAA, however, was not directly under the control of the Governor. The agency was created as an independent state agency in the 1960s by the Pennsylvania General Assembly to provide state funded scholarships. It eventually took on student loan servicing arrangements which generated non-public revenues which then were used, in part, to dramatically increase executive salaries. The PHEAA board is composed primarily of members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and Senate.


title: Ed Rendell

text: In July 2007, Rendell ordered a state government shutdown following a dispute with the state legislature over legislative initiatives related to the state budget. Approximately 25,000 state workers were furloughed. The shutdown was resolved within eight days.


title: Ed Rendell

text: Governor Rendell, a capital punishment supporter, has signed 78 execution warrants during his term, but none of them were enforced due to stays.


title: Ed Rendell

text: In 2008, Rendell backed the effort to proceed with the Delaware River Deepening Project. The project was planned to have been carried out by the Delaware River Port Authority. The Delaware River Port Authority board from New Jersey decided that they no longer wanted to be associated with the project. Rendell then attempted to force New Jersey to back the project by exercising his Delaware River Port Authority board chairman power.


title: Ed Rendell

text: In December 2008, Rendell received criticism for stating that Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano was "perfect" for the role of Secretary of Homeland Security because, "...for that job, you have to have no life. Janet has no family. Perfect. She can devote, literally, 19, 20 hours a day to it."


title: Ed Rendell

text: Rendell drew some criticism following a late January 2009 preview of his budget proposal that would eliminate 100 budget line items, including programs such as the Pennsylvania Governor's Schools of Excellence and Drug Abuse Resistance Education ("D.A.R.E."). These program cuts are part of Rendell's proposal to cut state expenditures to a level 1 percent below the 2002-2003 budget in response to an expected 2.3 billion dollar budget shortfall. As a result of stress caused by the budget crisis, Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo resigned.


title: Ed Rendell

text: Rendell called for reinstating the Federal Assault Weapons Ban in the wake of a shootout in Pittsburgh.


title: Ed Rendell

text: Although adding tolls to Interstate highways was not an element of his 2006 re-election campaign, Rendell introduced a plan in 2007, following his re-election, to add tolls to Route 80, which crosses the entire state from New Jersey to Ohio. This resulted in a complicated, multi-year battle fought at both the state and Federal level. The Federal Highway Administration rejected the plan for tolls on Route 80 in 2007, again in 2008, and again for the final time in 2010. Although the decision was made by an agency of the Executive branch, a bi-partisan group of Pennsylvania's members of the U.S. House of Representatives were on the record against tolling Route 80.


title: Ed Rendell

text: Rendell was a potential candidate to serve as Senator John Kerry's running mate in the 2004 presidential campaign.


title: Ed Rendell

text: Rendell's popularity, particularly in the suburban ring of counties around Philadelphia, was a key to Kerry's victory in Pennsylvania, one of the most hotly contested swing states in the 2004 presidential election.


title: Ed Rendell

text: On January 24, 2008, Rendell announced his endorsement of Senator Clinton in the latter's race for the White House. He stated that, "[Hillary] really cares about moving this country forward. She also has the best health-care plan for America."


title: Ed Rendell

text: As one of Hillary Clinton's staunchest supporters, Rendell argued that many media outlets' coverage of her campaign were biased. On March 31, 2008 he congratulated Fox News on what he considered to be the best campaign coverage. Addressing "Fox & Friends" host Steve Doocy, Rendell said, "I think during this entire primary coverage, starting in Iowa and up to the present, Fox has done the fairest job, has remained the most objective of all the cable networks ... You actually have done a very balanced job of reporting the news, and some of the other stations are just caught up with Senator Obama, who is a great guy, but Senator Obama can do no wrong, and Senator Clinton can do no right."


title: Ed Rendell

text: Rendell reached out to various Pennsylvania mayors in order to get them to speak out in support of Clinton. He assisted her with establishing her messages. Some superdelegates maintained a neutral stance prior to the Pennsylvania primary as a result of Rendell talking them into remaining neutral until the Pennsylvania primary was over. Clinton also benefited from televised endorsement ads Rendell made on her behalf.


title: Ed Rendell

text: After Clinton dropped out of the race, Rendell endorsed Senator Barack Obama in June 2008 and made several campaign appearances on his behalf.


title: Ed Rendell

text: Rendell was term-limited for the election of 2010. He was succeeded by Republican Tom Corbett on January 18, 2011. Following the end of his career as governor of Pennsylvania, Rendell returned to his former law firm, the Philadelphia-based Ballard Spahr.


title: Ed Rendell

text: In January 2011, he accepted a position as an on-air political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, and the following month took up a position as Senior Advisor at boutique investment bank Greenhill & Co.


title: Ed Rendell

text: In April 2011, Rendell joined Element Partners, a Philadelphia-based cleantech investment firm, as an Operating Partner.


title: Ed Rendell

text: Also in 2011, Rendell reportedly acted as a go-between for Range Resources Corp, an oil and gas exploration and production company, and then United States EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, regarding a Texas water contamination case; and has been a vocal proponent of shale gas extraction as part of a United States energy strategy. Rendell is a faculty member of the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania, and chair of Team Pennsylvania Foundation.


title: Ed Rendell

text: In 2016, Rendell admitted that during his term as Governor of Pennsylvania, he underperformed when he dealt with the growing popularity of shale gas in Pennsylvania. Rendell stated, "I made a mistake in the rush to get the economic part of fracking delivered to Pennsylvania" saying that he should have been more concerned with the effect shale gas has on Pennsylvania's environment and not with how Pennsylvania could benefit financially from shale gas.


title: Ed Rendell

text: Marjorie Rendell is a Federal judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit who was appointed by President Bill Clinton. They married on July 10, 1971 and have one son, Jesse.


title: Ed Rendell

text: Ed and Marjorie Rendell announced their separation shortly after he left office in 2011. They filed for divorce in September 2016.


title: Ed Rendell

text: Rendell acknowledged that he has dealt with Parkinson's disease for over three years in a press conference at the University of Pennsylvania hospital in June 2018.


title: Ed Rendell

text: He also has had a few movie cameos. During his tenure as Mayor of Philadelphia, he appeared in the 1993 film Philadelphia as himself. He also played the Philadelphia Mayor in the 2015 film The Benefactor and the 2019 film In the Shadow of the Moon (Although out of office in real life this time for both of these movies).


title: Ed Rendell

text: Rendell is a Philadelphia Eagles fan and part of the panel on the NBC Sports Philadelphia show Eagles Postgame Live, which airs after every Eagles regular and post-season game. Rendell was among the crowd in attendance for Bounty Bowl II in 1989, in which the unruly fans threw snow and ice at the field; Rendell wagered (and lost) $20 expecting that a fellow fan could not throw a snowball from the stands of the stadium to the field. He even made a friendly wager on the outcome of Super Bowl XXXIX, promising to wear a New England Patriots jersey and sing the National Anthem at a Philadelphia 76ers/Boston Celtics game if the Eagles lost, which they did.


title: Ed Rendell

text: He would lose similar friendly wagers with the Governor of New York, David Paterson, in supporting the Philadelphia Phillies on their quest to defend their championship against the New York Yankees in and again with Governor of Illinois, Pat Quinn, in supporting the Philadelphia Flyers in the quest to win the 2010 Stanley Cup Finals against the Chicago Blackhawks. In 2006, he won a bet with the Governor of Washington, Christine Gregoire in supporting the Pittsburgh Steelers in their quest to win Super Bowl XL over the Seattle Seahawks 21–10.


title: Ed Rendell

text: As a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Rendell frequently supports the Penn basketball team and can be seen at games at the Palestra. He has also assisted in finding new corporate sponsorship for Philadelphia International Championship, a 21-year-old Philadelphia bicycle race.


title: Ed Rendell

text: Also a Philadelphia Phillies fan, he spoke at a memorial service for Hall of Fame announcer Harry Kalas at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on April 18, 2009.


title: Ed Rendell

text: On December 26, 2010, the Philadelphia Eagles home game against the visiting Minnesota Vikings was postponed before any snow had fallen due to an impending blizzard in Philadelphia. Rendell said of the postponement, "My biggest beef is that this is part of what's happened in this country. We've become a nation of wusses. The Chinese are kicking our butt in everything. If this was in China do you think the Chinese would have called off the game? People would have been marching down to the stadium, they would have walked and they would have been doing calculus on the way down." As a result, the grounds crew piled snow on his reserved seat the following game, and topped it with a sign that said "This seat reserved for non-wusses".


title: Carson Strong

text: Carson Brown Strong (born September 14, 1999) is an American football quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL). He was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Philadelphia Eagles in . He played college football at Nevada.


title: Carson Strong

text: Strong was born on September 14, 1999, in Vacaville, California. He later attended Will C. Wood High School, where he passed for 2,732 yards and 26 touchdowns as a junior. He did not play his senior season due to a knee injury. In June 2017, Strong announced his commitment to play college football at the University of Nevada, Reno. Nevada was Strong's only FBS offer despite being a three-star recruit.


title: Carson Strong

text: Strong made his debut at Nevada against Portland State in August 2018, where he rushed for 4 yards in the 72–19 win. He would go on to redshirt his first year at Nevada. Strong was named the starting quarterback for the 2019 season. In 10 starts, he completed 237 of 374 passes for 2,335 yards with 11 touchdowns and seven interceptions.


title: Carson Strong

text: He returned as a starter in 2020. Despite a shortened season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Strong and the Wolf Pack would finish with a 7–2 record and win against Tulane in the 2020 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. With 9 starts, Strong completed 249 of 355 passes for 2,858 passing yards, 27 touchdowns and 4 interceptions and he won the Mountain West Conference Offensive Player of the Year award in 2020.


title: Carson Strong

text: In 2021, Strong led the Wolf Pack to an 8–4 record in his best season at Nevada. Strong completed 366 of 522 passes for 4,175 passing yards, 36 touchdowns and 8 interceptions as Strong would win the Mountain West Conference Offensive Player of the Year award again and becoming the fifth player in conference history to win the award in back-to-back years. On December 14, 2021, Strong announced his intention to opt-out of the 2021 Quick Lane Bowl and to declare for the 2022 NFL Draft.


title: Carson Strong

text: On April 30, 2022, Strong signed an undrafted free-agent deal with the Philadelphia Eagles. It included a $20,000 signing bonus and $300,000 base guarantee. He was released on August 30.


title: Mohamed Elyounoussi

text: Mohamed Amine Elyounoussi (born 4 August 1994), nicknamed Moi (), is a professional footballer who plays as a forward or winger for Premier League club Southampton and the Norway national team.


title: Mohamed Elyounoussi

text: Elyounoussi was born in Al Hoceima, Morocco and moved to Sarpsborg in Norway at a young age, where he started his professional career.


title: Mohamed Elyounoussi

text: He made his debut in Tippeligaen when he came on as a sub in Sarpsborg 08's match against Odd Grenland on 8 May 2011.


title: Mohamed Elyounoussi

text: On 15 March 2014, Elyounoussi moved to fellow Tippeligaen side Molde FK. During his first season with Molde FK he played in every league match and was the club's top scorer with 13 goals. With the club, Elyounoussi won both Tippeligaen and the Norwegian Cup in his first season, which meant that Molde won the double for the first time in the club's history. He scored four goals in the 2014 Norwegian Cup, of which one was scored in the final against Odd. Elyounoussi scored a total of 17 goals in all competitions in the 2014 season and became Molde's top goalscorer.


title: Mohamed Elyounoussi

text: In 2015, Elyounoussi scored three goals in the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League, all in the group stage. He scored twice against Celtic and once against Fenerbahçe and helped the team advance to the Round of 16 where they lost 1–3 on aggregate against Sevilla.


title: Mohamed Elyounoussi

text: On 6 July 2016, Elyounoussi moved to Swiss Super League side FC Basel on a four-year contract. He joined Basel's first team for their 2016–17 season under head coach Urs Fischer. After playing in four test games he made his domestic league debut on 24 July in the 3–0 home win at the St. Jakob-Park against Sion. He scored his first goal for his new club just one week later on 31 July during the away game against Vaduz. It was the third Basler goal of the game and they won 5–1. Elyounoussi scored a hat trick for Basel on 4 February 2017 during the home game against Lugano. These were the first three goals and were scored during the first 36 minutes of the game that Basel won 4–0. Under trainer Urs Fischer, Elyounoussi won the Swiss Super League championship at the end of the 2016–17 season. For the club this was the eighth title in a row and their 20th championship title in total. They also won the Swiss Cup for the twelfth time, which meant they had won the double for the sixth time in the club's history.


title: Mohamed Elyounoussi

text: He stayed with the club for two season and durung this time Elyounoussi played a total of 102 games for Basel scoring a total of 27 goals. 65 of these games were in the Swiss Super League, eight in the Swiss Cup, 11 in the Champions League and 18 were friendly games. He scored 21 goals in the domestic league, two in the Champions League and the other four were scored during the test games.


title: Mohamed Elyounoussi

text: On 29 June 2018, Elyounoussi was signed by Southampton for a reported fee of £16 million, signing a five-year contract.


title: Mohamed Elyounoussi

text: On 30 August 2019, Elyounoussi joined Celtic on loan until the end of the season. On 30 June 2020, the loan was extended for a further season.


title: Mohamed Elyounoussi

text: On 25 August 2021, he scored a hat-trick in an emphatic 8–0 win over League Two side Newport County in the second round of the EFL Cup. It was the biggest away win in Southampton's 135-year history and matched their biggest post-war win. On 28 August 2021, Elyounoussi scored his first Premier League goal for Southampton in their 2–2 draw with Newcastle.


title: Mohamed Elyounoussi

text: In November 2013, he was called up to the senior Norwegian national team for their January 2014 international matches in Abu Dhabi. He made his debut there against Poland on 18 January 2014, replacing Erik Huseklepp in the 33rd minute of a 3–0 defeat. He scored his first goal for Norway on 13 June 2017 against Sweden. He scored his first hat-trick for Norway on 5 October 2017 against San Marino.


title: Mohamed Elyounoussi

text: His cousin, Tarik Elyounoussi, is also a Norwegian international footballer who plays for the Japanese side, Shonan Bellmare.


title: Mohamed Elyounoussi

text: Elyounoussi's father used to own a pizza parlour in Norway, where Mohamed worked while living in his hometown.


title: Individual retirement account

text: An individual retirement account (IRA) in the United States is a form of pension provided by many financial institutions that provides tax advantages for retirement savings. It is a trust that holds investment assets purchased with a taxpayer's earned income for the taxpayer's eventual benefit in old age. An individual retirement account is a type of individual retirement arrangement as described in IRS Publication 590, "Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs)". Other arrangements include employer-established benefit trusts and individual retirement annuities, by which a taxpayer purchases an annuity contract or an endowment contract from a life insurance company.


title: Individual retirement account

text: Conduit IRAs have fallen in use due to 2001 legislation that allowed for direct transfers between qualified plans without an intermediate IRA, but plan administrators may choose to accept transfers only from conduit IRAs. Transferring funds from a qualified plan to a conduit IRA preserves certain tax and asset protection advantages that apply to the qualified plan.


title: Individual retirement account

text: A self-directed IRA is considered the same by the tax code, but refers to IRAs where the custodian allows the investor wider flexibility in choosing investments, typically including alternative investments. Some examples of these alternative investments are: real estate, private mortgages, private company stock, oil and gas limited partnerships, precious metals, horses, and intellectual property. While the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) has placed a few restrictions on what can be invested in, the IRA custodian may impose additional restrictions on what assets they will custody. Self-directed IRA custodians, or IRA custodians who specialize in alternative investments, are better equipped to handle transactions involving alternative investments.


title: Individual retirement account

text: Some IRA custodians and some investment funds specialize in socially responsible investing, sometimes using public environmental, social and corporate governance ratings.


title: Individual retirement account

text: Starting with the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA), many of the restrictions of what type of funds could be rolled into an IRA and what type of plans IRA funds could be rolled into were significantly relaxed. Additional legislation since 2001 has further relaxed restrictions. Essentially, most retirement plans can be rolled into an IRA after meeting certain criteria, and most retirement plans can accept funds from an IRA. An example of an exception is a non-governmental 457 plan which cannot be rolled into anything but another non-governmental 457 plan.


title: Individual retirement account

text: The tax treatment of the above types of IRAs (except for Roth IRAs) are very similar, particularly for rules regarding distributions. SEP IRAs and SIMPLE IRAs also have additional rules similar to those for qualified plans governing how contributions can and must be made and what employees are qualified to participate.


title: Individual retirement account

text: Individual retirement arrangements were introduced in 1974 with the enactment of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Taxpayers could contribute up to fifteen percent of their annual income or $1,500, whichever is less, each year and reduce their taxable income by the amount of their contributions. The contributions could be invested in a special United States bond paying six percent interest, annuities that begin paying upon reaching age 59, or a trust maintained by a bank or an insurance company.


title: Individual retirement account

text: Initially, ERISA restricted IRAs to workers who were not covered by a qualified employment-based retirement plan. In 1981, the Economic Recovery Tax Act (ERTA) allowed all working taxpayers under the age of 70 to contribute to an IRA, regardless of their coverage under a qualified plan. It also raised the maximum annual contribution to $2,000 and allowed participants to contribute $250 on behalf of a nonworking spouse.


title: Individual retirement account

text: The Tax Reform Act of 1986 phased out the deduction for IRA contributions among workers covered by an employment-based retirement plan who earned more than $35,000 if single or over $50,000 if married filing jointly. Other taxpayers could still make nondeductible contributions to an IRA.


title: Individual retirement account

text: The maximum amount allowed as an IRA contribution was $1,500 from 1975 to 1981, $2,000 from 1982 to 2001, $3,000 from 2002 to 2004, $4,000 from 2005 to 2007, $5,000 from 2008 to 2012, $5,500 from 2013 to 2018, and $6,000 from 2019 to 2021. Beginning in 2002, those over 50 years old could make an additional contribution of up to $1,000 called a "catch-up contribution".


title: Individual retirement account

text: Once money is inside an IRA, the IRA owner can direct the custodian to use the cash to purchase most types of publicly traded securities (traditional investments), and non-publicly traded securities (alternative investments). Specific assets such as collectibles (e.g., art, baseball cards, and rare coins) and life insurance cannot be held in an IRA. The U.S. Internal Revenue Code (IRC) only outlines what is not allowed in an IRA. Some assets are allowed according to the IRC, but the custodians may add additional restrictions for accounts held in their custody. For example, the IRC allows an IRA to own a piece of rental property, but certain custodians may not allow this to be held in their custody.


title: Individual retirement account

text: While there are only a few restrictions on what can be invested inside an IRA, some restrictions pertain to actions which would create a prohibited transaction with those investments. For example, an IRA can own a piece of rental real estate, but the IRA owner cannot receive or provide any immediate benefit from/to this real estate investment. An example of such benefit would be the use of the real estate as the owner's personal residence, allowing a parent to live in the property, or allowing the IRA account owner to fix a leaky toilet. The IRS specifically states that custodians may impose their own policies above the rules imposed by the IRS. Neither custodians nor administrators can provide advice.


title: Individual retirement account

text: Many IRA custodians limit available investments to traditional brokerage accounts such as stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Investments in an asset class such as real estate would only be permitted in an IRA if the real estate is held indirectly via a security such as a publicly traded or non-traded real estate investment trust (REIT). Self-directed IRA custodians/administrators can allow real estate and other non-traditional assets held in forms other than a REIT, such as a piece of rental property, raw land, or fishing rights.


title: Individual retirement account

text: Publicly traded securities such as options, futures or other derivatives are allowed in IRAs, but certain custodians or brokers may restrict their use. For example, some options brokers allow their IRA accounts to hold stock options, but others do not. Using certain derivatives or investments that involve leverage may be allowed by the IRC, it may also cause the IRA to pay taxes under the rules of Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT). Self-directed IRAs which hold alternative investments such as real estate, horses, or intellectual property, can involve more complexity than IRAs which only hold stocks or mutual funds.


title: Individual retirement account

text: An IRA may borrow or loan money but any such loan must not be personally guaranteed by the owner of the IRA. Any loan on assets in the IRA would be required to be a non-recourse loan. The loan could not be personally secured by the IRA account owner, or the IRA itself. It can only be secured by the asset in question. The owner of the IRA may not pledge the IRA as security against an outside debt.


title: Individual retirement account

text: Although funds can be distributed from an IRA at any time, there are limited circumstances when money can be distributed or withdrawn from the account without penalties. Unless an exception applies, money can typically be withdrawn penalty-free as taxable income from an IRA once the owner reaches age 59 years and 6 months. Also, non-Roth owners must begin taking distributions of at least the calculated minimum amounts by April 1 of the year after reaching age 72. If the required minimum distribution (RMD) is not taken the penalty is 50% of the amount that should have been taken. The amount that must be taken is calculated based on a factor taken from the appropriate IRS table and is based on the life expectancy of the owner and possibly his or her spouse as beneficiary if applicable. Withdrawals are taxable unless paid to a charity after age 72; this cutoff has changed over time. Payments to charities are called Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCD).


title: Individual retirement account

text: At the death of the owner, distributions must continue and if there is a designated beneficiary, distributions can be based on the life expectancy of the beneficiary.


title: Individual retirement account

text: Each exception has detailed rules that must be followed to be exempt from penalties. This group of penalty exemptions are popularly known as hardship withdrawals. The exceptions include:


title: Individual retirement account

text: There are a number of other important details that govern different situations. For Roth IRAs with only contributed funds the basis can be withdrawn before age 59 without penalty (or tax) on a first in first out basis, and a penalty would apply only on any growth (the taxable amount) that was taken out before 59 where an exception didn't apply. Amounts converted from a traditional to a Roth IRA must stay in the account for a minimum of 5 years to avoid having a penalty on withdrawal of basis unless one of the above exceptions applies.


title: Individual retirement account

text: If the contribution to the IRA was nondeductible or the IRA owner chose not to claim a deduction for the contribution, distributions of those nondeductible amounts are tax and penalty free.


title: Individual retirement account

text: In the case of "Rousey v. Jacoway", the United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously on April 4, 2005, that under section 522(d)(10)(E) of the United States Bankruptcy Code (), a debtor in bankruptcy can exempt his or her IRA, up to the amount necessary for retirement, from the bankruptcy estate. The Court indicated that because rights to withdrawals are based on age, IRAs should receive the same protection as other retirement plans. Thirty-four states already had laws effectively allowing an individual to exempt an IRA in bankruptcy, but the Supreme Court decision allows federal protection for IRAs.


title: Individual retirement account

text: The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 expanded the protection for IRAs. Certain IRAs (rollovers from SEP or Simple IRAs, Roth IRAs, individual IRAs) are exempt up to at least $1,000,000 (adjusted periodically for inflation) without having to show necessity for retirement. The law provides that "such amount may be increased if the interests of justice so require." Other IRAs (rollovers from most employer sponsored retirement plans (401(k)s, etc.) and non-rollover SEP and SIMPLE IRAs) are entirely exempt.


title: Individual retirement account

text: The 2005 BAPCPA also increased the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation insurance limit for IRA deposits at banks.


title: Individual retirement account

text: The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has ruled that if an IRA engages in a "prohibited transaction" under Internal Revenue Code sections 408(e)(2) and 4975(c)(1), the assets in the IRA will no longer qualify for bankruptcy protection.


title: Individual retirement account

text: With respect to inherited IRAs, the United States Supreme Court ruled, in the case of "Clark v. Rameker" in June 2014, that funds in an inherited IRA do not qualify as "retirement funds" within the meaning of the federal bankruptcy exemption statute, 11 U.S.C. section 522(b)(3)(C).


title: Individual retirement account

text: There are several options of protecting an IRA: (1) roll it over into a qualified plan like a 401(k), (2) take a distribution, pay the tax and protect the proceeds along with the other liquid assets, or (3) rely on the state law exemption for IRAs. For example, the California exemption statute provides that IRAs and self-employed plans' assets "are exempt only to the extent necessary to provide for the support of the judgment debtor when the judgment debtor retires and for the support of the spouse and dependents of the judgment debtor, taking into account all resources that are likely to be available for the support of the judgment debtor when the judgment debtor retires". What is reasonably necessary is determined on a case-by-case basis, and the courts will take into account other funds and income streams available to the beneficiary of the plan. Debtors who are skilled, well-educated, and have time left until retirement are usually afforded little protection under the California statute as the courts presume that such debtors will be able to provide for retirement.


title: Individual retirement account

text: Many states have laws that prohibit judgments from lawsuits to be satisfied by seizure of IRA assets. For example, IRAs are protected up to $500,000 in Nevada from Writs of Execution. However, this type of protection does not usually exist in the case of divorce, failure to pay taxes, deeds of trust, and fraud.


title: Individual retirement account

text: In accordance with the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, IRAs are protected from creditors during bankruptcy up to $1,000,000 (the act requires the IRS to adjust this limit for inflation every three years; the most recent adjustment was $1,362,800 in 2019). An exception is that inherited IRAs do not qualify for an exemption from the bankruptcy estate and thus federal law does not protect them from creditors in bankruptcy. Some state laws, however, may protect inherited IRAs from creditors in bankruptcy.


title: Individual retirement account

text: An IRA owner may not borrow money from the IRA except for a 60-day period in a calendar year. Any borrowing in excess of 60 days in a calendar year disqualifies the IRA from special tax treatment. An IRA may incur debt or borrow money secured by its assets, but the IRA owner may not guarantee or secure the loan personally. An example of this is a real estate purchase within a self-directed IRA along with a non-recourse mortgage.


title: Individual retirement account

text: Income from debt-financed property in an IRA may generate unrelated business taxable income in the IRA.


title: Individual retirement account

text: The rules regarding IRA rollovers and transfers allow the IRA owner to perform an "indirect rollover" to another IRA. An indirect rollover can be used to temporarily "borrow" money from the IRA, once in a twelve-month period. The money must be placed in an IRA arrangement within 60 days, or the transaction will be deemed an early withdrawal (subject to the appropriate withdrawal taxes and penalties) and may not be replaced.


title: Individual retirement account

text: Double taxation still occurs within these tax-sheltered investment arrangements. For example, foreign dividends may be taxed at their point of origin, and the IRS does not recognize this tax as a creditable deduction. There is some controversy over whether this violates tax treaties, such as the "Convention Between Canada and the United States of America With Respect to Taxes on Income and on Capital".


title: Individual retirement account

text: If the IRA owner dies, different rules are applied depending on who inherits the IRA (spouse, other beneficiary, multiple beneficiaries, and so on).


title: Individual retirement account

text: In case of non-spouse inherited IRAs, the beneficiary cannot choose to treat the IRA as his or her own, but the following options are available:


title: Individual retirement account

text: In case of multiple beneficiaries the distribution amounts are based on the oldest beneficiary's age. Alternatively, multiple beneficiaries can split the inherited IRA into separate accounts, in which case the rules will apply separately to each separate account.


title: Individual retirement account

text: Detailed statistics on IRAs have been collected by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, in its EBRI IRA Database (Center for Research on IRAs), and various analyses performed. An overview is given in . Some highlights from the 2008 data follow:


title: Individual retirement account

text: The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report on IRAs in November 2014. This report gives the GAO's estimate on the number of taxpayers with IRAs as well as the estimated account balances. Here are some highlights from the report:


title: Individual retirement account

text: While the average (mean) and median IRA individual balance in 2008 were approximately $70,000 and $20,000 respectively, higher balances are not rare. 6.3% of individuals had total balances of $250,000 or more (about 12.5 times the median), and in rare cases, individuals own IRAs with very substantial balances, in some cases $100 million or above (about 5,000 times the median individual balance). This can occur when IRA owners invest in shares of private companies, and the share value subsequently rises substantially.


title: Individual retirement account

text: In November 2014, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report that stated there were an estimated 314 taxpayers with IRA account balances of greater than $25,000,000. Also that there are an estimate of 791 taxpayers with IRA account balances between $10,000,000 and $25,000,000. The purpose of this report was to study individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and the account valuations. There were concerns raised about whether the tax incentives encourage new or additional saving. Congress is reexamining retirement tax incentives as part of tax reform. GAO was asked to measure IRA balances and assess IRS enforcement of IRA laws.


title: Individual retirement account

text: The Joint Committee on Taxation reported that as of the end of 2019, there were 28,615 taxpayers with traditional and Roth IRA assets in excess of $5 million and an aggregate value totaling almost $280 billion. An investigative report in 2021 highlighted Peter Thiel, who built a Roth IRA worth $5 billion by investing in startups on terms unavailable to most taxpayers. The owners of such high-value IRAs constituted less than one tenth of a percent of the more than 65 million IRA owners at the end of 2018, and policy proposals have been advanced to limit such accumulation.


title: Individual retirement account

text: According to a 2015 study done by the National Institute on Retirement Security, titled "The Continuing Retirement Savings Crisis", 45% of working Americans do not own any retirement account assets, whether in an employer-based 401(k) type plan or an IRA. Furthermore, the typical working household has virtually no retirement savings - the median retirement account balance is $2,500 for all working-age households and $14,500 for near-retirement households. In 2020, half of American adults had less than $6,500 in the combination of their IRAs and defined contribution plans, such as 401(k).


title: Individual retirement account

text: While inflation-adjusted stock market values generally rose from 1978 to 1997, in March 2013, they were lower than during the period 1998 through 2007. This has caused IRAs to perform substantially more poorly than expected when current retirees were investing the bulk of their savings in them. In 2010, Duncan Black wrote in an opinion column in USA Today that the median household retirement account balance for workers aged 55 to 64 was $120,000, which "will provide only a trivial supplement to Social Security", but a third of households had no retirement savings at all.


title: The Reason (Hoobastank song)

text: "The Reason" is a song by American rock band Hoobastank. Released on January 26, 2004, as the second single from their second studio album of the same name, the power ballad is Hoobastank's most commercially successful single, peaking at number two on the US "Billboard" Hot 100—behind Usher's "Burn"—and number one on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart. In 2005, it was nominated for two categories at the 47th Grammy Awards: Song of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Internationally, "The Reason" reached number one in Italy and peaked within the top 10 in ten other countries.