title: Photography and the law

text: There has been a controversy among Filipino photographers and establishment managements. On June 12, 2013, Philippine Independence Day, pro-photography group, Bawal Mag-Shoot dito, launched at the Freedom to Shoot Day protest at Rizal Park. The group protested for their right to take photos of historical and public places, especially in Luneta and Intramuros. The park management imposed a fee for D-SLR photographers to shoot images for commercial purposes but it was also reported that security guards also charge 500 pesos to shoot photos even for non-commercial purposes, an act which the advocacy group branded as "extortion". The group also claimed that there is discrimination against Filipino photographers and claimed that the management is lenient on foreign photographers. There is no official policy on taking photographs of historical places and the group has called legislators to create a law on the matter.


title: Photography and the law

text: The Department of Tourism, in their November 15, 2011 press release, clarified that everyone is permitted to take photographs at Rizal Park and Intramuros for personal or souvenir purposes. The department stated that prior permission from the National Parks Development Committee (NPDC, for Rizal Park) or the Intramuros Administration (for Intramuros) is needed for shoots of commercial nature, "to ensure that the well-being of the photographers are taken care of, as well as make certain that everything goes smoothly during the shoot."


title: Photography and the law

text: The NPDC issued rules in 2018 aimed at regulating photography and videography at both Rizal and Paco Parks, after an incident wherein filmmaker Chris Cahilig and boy band were intercepted by the personnel of Rizal Park for failing to secure permission from NPDC before doing a video session. While casual snapshots for personal or souvenir purposes through mobile phones and simple cameras are tolerated, prior permission is required for photography and videography of the parks for commercial, professional, reporting, interviewing, and special occasion purposes, as well as sessions that may cause disruption at the parks. Additionally, consent from the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) is necessary for shoots involving both the Rizal Monument and the Philippine Flag. Cahilig reacted to the policy, calling it "anti-tourism" and "backward".


title: Photography and the law

text: In South Africa photographing people in public is legal. Reproducing and selling photographs of people is legal for editorial and limited fair use commercial purposes. There exists no case law to define what the limits on commercial use are. Civil law requires the consent of any identifiable persons for advertorial and promotional purposes. Property, including animals, do not enjoy any special consideration.


title: Photography and the law

text: During the media coverage of the Nkandla controversy it emerged that there exists a law, the National Key Points Act, 1980, prohibiting the photographing of any "national key points." National key points are buildings or structures that serve a strategic or military purpose. Though it wasn't revealed what these are as part of state secrecy it was claimed that the presidential residence is one of them and should thus not be shown in media. Subsequent court action resulted in it being ruled that a list of all key points be made public. Although not currently or previously enforced the law is still in effect even after calls for it to be repealed as a relic of apartheid-era secrecy legislation.


title: Photography and the law

text: Taking pictures or recording police officers is legal, what is a serious offence to share or publish those images if:


title: Photography and the law

text: If none of the 3 mentioned cases apply, it is only legal to share those images if the faces, voices and any identity signs are removed.


title: Photography and the law

text: Travelers who wish to take any photographs must obtain a photography permit from the Ministry of Interior, Department of Aliens (Sudan) or Ministry of Information (South Sudan).


title: Goblin (band)

text: Goblin (also Back to the Goblin, New Goblin, Goblin Rebirth, the Goblin Keys, the Goblins and Claudio Simonetti's Goblin) is an Italian progressive rock band known for their film scores. They frequently collaborate with Dario Argento, most notably creating the scores for "Profondo Rosso" in 1975 and "Suspiria" in 1977. Because their collaborator Dario Argento specializes in creating horror, suspense and slasher/giallo genre movies, scores made by Goblin in these movies often had eerie and ominous tones. CD re-releases of their scores have performed well, especially in Germany and Japan. Goblin returned with a series of live concerts in Europe in 2009 and in North America in 2013.


title: Goblin (band)

text: Initially recording as Cherry Five (they had done some live shows as Oliver), their early work spawned one eponymous progressive rock record, and they were then called in to compose the score for "Profondo Rosso". The band changed their name to Goblin, rewriting most of the score, originally written by Giorgio Gaslini including the famous main theme. The 1975 soundtrack album was a huge hit. After a reshuffle in their line-up, they put out an instrumental progressive rock album "Roller", before working with Argento again for 1977's "Suspiria". Other film scores and a concept album ("Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark") followed, then the score for the European version of George A. Romero's 1978 "Dawn of the Dead". In both this and "Suspiria"<nowiki>'s</nowiki> opening title sequences, they are credited as "The Goblins with Dario Argento". Tracks 1, 2 and 7 from the European version are also in the American version of the film.


title: Goblin (band)

text: Despite their success, membership continued to be a revolving door. The remaining members continued to work on further scores, and there was a partial reunification of three of the four band members for Argento's "Tenebrae" (1982), credited to the three band members, but not as Goblin. The last collaboration with Argento took place in 2001, with the film "Sleepless".


title: Goblin (band)

text: Between 1972 and 1973, Claudio Simonetti (keyboards) and Massimo Morante (guitars), aided by Fabio Pignatelli (bass guitar) and Walter Martino (drums), recorded some demo tapes using the name Oliver.


title: Goblin (band)

text: On a trip to London, while looking for contacts, the band bumped into Eddie Offord (then producer of Yes); after listening to a demo tape, the tycoon producer expressed interest and asked them to move to England. By then, Fabio Pignatelli had become a steady member, and the band found a regular drummer, Carlo Bordini, and an English lead vocalist (Clive Haynes). After many months of rehearsing, they returned to London while Offord was on tour with Yes in the US; after many performances and various attempts at striking deals with record houses, they were forced to go back to Italy, due to lack of funds.


title: Goblin (band)

text: Back home, they signed with Cinevox, and Clive Haynes was replaced by Tony Tartarini who had previously recorded with L'Uovo Di Colombo under the name Toni Gionta. The band's name was changed to Cherry Five by the label, and according to Claudio Simonetti for no apparent reason, as the members themselves had intended to continue as "Oliver." Whatever debate about the band's name there may have existed, their first LP was titled "Cherry Five". Cinevox Records was active mainly in soundtrack publishing. Due to the band's peculiar sound, the band was frequently called to perform and arrange famous musicians' compositions. This helped them better understand the world of soundtracks and the particular techniques required. Their final act as Cherry Five was to drop new drummer Carlo Bordini and bring back Walter Martino on drums.


title: Goblin (band)

text: At the beginning of 1975, the band began a cooperation with Giorgio Gaslini on the "Profondo rosso" film project. The band replaced Martino (who went on to join the band Libra) with Agostino Marangolo (of the band Flea on the Honey/Flea/Etna) during this period. Martino recorded on all but two cuts of "Profondo rosso".


title: Goblin (band)

text: By chance, after three or four days of recording, Gaslini left the film after a conflict with Dario Argento, so Argento decided to try the band's hand at composing, giving them one night to write a score, and one day to record it. To distinguish this new release from their first LP which was just about to be marketed, the band changed their name again, this time to Goblin. Their success exceeded all expectations: more than one million copies sold, enjoying 52 weeks on the Italian hit charts and ranking first in both the singles and LP categories. It launched a highly successful period for the band, which came to an end in 1978 when the band split after the recording of Dario Argento's cut of George Romero's "Zombi" (also known as "Dawn of the Dead"). (On the score for the European version of the soundtrack, they were credited as "The Goblins.")


title: Goblin (band)

text: In 1976, they collaborated with Willy Brezza to compose the score to "Perché si uccidono" (the film was released in the US as "Percy is Killed", but this was a mis-translation and there is no character even called Percy in the film). For the only time, Goblin used the name Il Reale Impero Britannico due to the controversial subject matter of the movie (drug abuse and addiction). Willy Brezza wrote the original score, and the remaining tracks were written by the band together with Fabio Frizzi. The following year they scored the Italian crime film "The Heroin Busters" ("La via della droga"), directed by Enzo G. Castellari, and starring Fabio Testi and David Hemmings.


title: Goblin (band)

text: Between 1978 and 1979, the band's core musicians recruited many new members consecutively. Fabio Pignatelli, Agostino Marangolo, his brother Antonio Marangolo (a saxophonist who contributed to several albums) and nephew Carlo Pennisi (a session man who often played in place of Massimo Morante when he was absent) all worked together from 1980 to 1982 in the band, Flea on the Honey, which managed to record several LPs. Pignatelli took part in all the recordings, with Agostino Marangolo ranking lead for number of performances. The remaining members continued to work on further scores, and there was a partial reunification for Argento's "Tenebrae" (1982) (although each member of the band was credited separately, not as Goblin). Over time, it was three of the "founding fathers" (Pignatelli, Simonetti and Morante), plus Marongolo, who became synonymous with the name Goblin.


title: Goblin (band)

text: After 22 years of hiatus, in 2000, the group reformed to score the Dario Argento thriller "Non ho sonno" ("Sleepless"). The score was a great success and showed the group could still make great music, much to their fans' delight. The group were scheduled to perform in Tarrytown, New York for the infamous Cult-Con, but failed to appear. Simonetti did however appear at the show and informed fans that old wounds resurfaced during their brief reunion. With his horror theme tribute band, Daemonia (formed by Titta Tani, Bruno Previtali, Federico Amorosi, and Simonetti himself), he performed a nine-song set from the films of Dario Argento, and Goblin later officially disbanded.


title: Goblin (band)

text: Nevertheless, in 2005, with the release of Giovanni Aloisio's official Goblin biography and the opening of their official website, Morante and Pignatelli reformed the group once again and with Marangolo and Guarini recorded the album "BackToTheGoblin2005" under the independent label BackToTheFudda. The album was available only through the official site and was not distributed in regular stores. It is also available on iTunes.


title: Goblin (band)

text: In 2009, Goblin, now Back To The Goblin, made their first live concert appearance in 32 years. Keyboardist Aidan Zammit has joined the band for their live performances. Excluding Simonetti, this is basically the "classic" line-up, with Maurizio Guarini contributing keyboard work to most of their original albums, playing on "Roller", "Chi?", "Suspiria", "Buio Omega, Patrick, Contamination, St. Helens, Notturno, Volo, BackToTheGoblin" and more. The five members (Morante, Guarini, Pignatelli, Marangolo, and Aidan Zammit) performed a few concerts around Europe in 2009:


title: Goblin (band)

text: In December 2009, Back to the Goblin once again announced their dissolution due to internal conflict. The remaining scheduled concerts into 2010 were then canceled.


title: Goblin (band)

text: New Goblin were scheduled to perform at Unsound Festival Kraków on 23 October 2010, consisting of Claudio Simonetti in the line-up, as well as Morante, Guarini, Bruno Previtali and Titta Tani. Essentially, it was three members of the classic lineup and two members of Simonetti's other band, Daemonia (Previtali and Tani being the bassist and drummer, respectively, of that band).


title: Goblin (band)

text: Yet another incarnation of the band, formed in December 2010 and called Goblin Rebirth, includes former Goblin members Fabio Pignatelli and Agostino Marangolo plus Giacomo Anselmi on guitars, Aidan Zammit and Danilo Cherni on keyboards.


title: Goblin (band)

text: In 2011, the monumental 450-page book, "Goblin sette note in rosso" ("Goblin seven notes in red") was released, written by Fabio Capuzzo. It traces the full history of Goblin from 1973 to 2011 with a detailed analysis of all the albums and movies with music performed by Goblin (including all the works as session musicians). It also details full biographies, exclusive interviews and contains discographies and filmographies of the Italian composers who created scores for police, "giallo" and horror movies, and information about all the Italian rock bands with a role in movie soundtracks.


title: Goblin (band)

text: In 2011/2012, New Goblin (Morante, Guarini, Simonetti, Previtali and Tani) had activity around the world, including Japan (twice), Australia (twice) and New Zealand.


title: Goblin (band)

text: In April 2012, Claudio Simonetti and now-Greater Toronto based Maurizio Guarini performed with drummer Bob Scott and guitarist Chris Gartner, in Shock Stock 2012 on 14 April 2012 as The Goblin Keys.


title: Goblin (band)

text: On 24 June 2013, the New Goblin line-up announced their first-ever North American tour and under their original banner, Goblin, played 17 dates in October 2013, with Secret Chiefs 3 as the opening act.


title: Goblin (band)

text: Simonetti has since formed another incarnation of the band called Claudio Simonetti's Goblin, which features him and the other members of his horror film theme cover group Daemonia. In February 2014 they began touring and playing complete scores live during screenings of the films "Deep Red", "Suspiria" and "Dawn of the Dead". In April 2014, the band was slated to tour, performing the score to "Dawn of the Dead" live throughout North America, but in July the tour was canceled. In June 2014 Claudio Simonetti's Goblin released an album titled "The Murder Collection", consisting of new versions of some of Goblin and Simonetti's most well-known compositions.


title: Goblin (band)

text: Goblin returned for a second US tour leg in December 2013 with Simonetti, Bruno Previtali and Titta Tani being replaced by original members Fabio Pignatelli and Agostino Marangolo and additional keyboard player Aidan Zammit. The reunited band played 13 dates mostly in Midwest US.


title: Goblin (band)

text: In April and May 2014, Goblin returned in US for the third time. Aidan Zammit was replaced by Steve Moore of the band Zombi and Goblin played nine dates throughout the southern United States.


title: Goblin (band)

text: In October 2014, Massimo Morante, Maurizio Guarini, Fabio Pignatelli and Agostino Marangolo announced that, as Goblin, they released an album of new material titled "Four of a Kind" and started a crowdfunding campaign through the website pledgemusic.com to help complete it.


title: Goblin (band)

text: In June 2015, Goblin Rebirth released their self-titled debut album and did various live appearances.


title: Goblin (band)

text: Also in 2015, Cherry Five reformed with original members Carlo Bordini and Tony Tartarini along with new members Ludovico Piccinini (guitars), Gianluca De Rossi (keyboards) and Pino Sallusti (bass) and released an album titled "Il Pozzo dei Giganti". On 3 April 2017. bassist Pino Sallusti died.


title: Goblin (band)

text: In early 2017, Goblin (Morante, Guarini, Pignatelli, Marangolo with Aidan Zammit) resumed live performance with three concerts in Europe: Sweden, Norway and Greece.


title: Goblin (band)

text: From 26 October 2017 through 12 November, Goblin toured North America on their 'Sound of Fear' tour with 13 dates in US and 2 in Canada.


title: Goblin (band)

text: In October 2017, the US publishing house Ajna published Fabio Capuzzo’s "Goblin Seven Notes in Red", the full revised and updated English version of the Italian book "Goblin sette note in rosso".


title: Goblin (band)

text: In May 2018, Goblin appeared on the debut full-length Princess album with a new song called "God Save the Goblin" (Pignatelli/Wolf/Guarini/Morante/Marangolo) plus a couple of featuring (one by Fabio Pignatelli and another by Tony Tartarini).


title: Goblin (band)

text: Claudio Simonetti's Goblin actively toured Europe and North America from 2019 - 2022 with a break for COVID


title: Goblin (band)

text: AllMusic's review of Goblin's soundtrack for "Deep Red" describes the score as "an ambitious affair that blends jazz, prog rock, and heavy metal into an effective and totally distinctive style" and the track "Deep Shadows" as "a frenetic slice of King Crimson-style jazz-rock".


title: Goblin (band)

text: Influences cited by Goblin include Yes, Genesis, King Crimson, Gentle Giant and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. The band Zombi was influenced by Goblin. The band Opeth included an instrumental titled "Goblin" on their eleventh album, "Pale Communion", in tribute to the band.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Sirius Satellite Radio was a satellite radio (SDARS) and online radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Holdings.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Sirius was officially launched on July 1, 2002. It now provides 69 streams (channels) of music and 65 streams of sports, news, and entertainment to its subscribers. Music streams on Sirius carry a wide variety of genres broadcasting 24 hours daily, commercial-free, and uncensored. A subset of Sirius music channels is included as part of the Dish Network satellite television service. Sirius channels are identified by Nielsen Audio with the label "SR" (e.g. "SR120", "SR9", "SR17").


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Its business model is to provide pay-for-service radio, analogous to the business model for premium cable television. Music channels are presented without advertising, while its talk channels, such as Howard Stern's Howard 100 and Howard 101 and Jason Ellis' Faction talk 103, carry commercials. Because all channels are free from FCC content regulation, songs are played unedited for language; talk programs may also feature explicit content if they wish. Subscriptions are prepaid and range in price from US$14.99 monthly (US$9.99 for each additional receiver) to US$699.99 for lifetime (of the receiver equipment). There is a US$15 activation fee for every radio activated. Sirius announced it had achieved its first positive cash flow quarter for the period ending December 2006.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Sirius launched its radio service in four states on February 14, 2002, expanding service to the rest of the contiguous U.S. by July of that year. On October 16, 2006, Sirius announced that it would be launching Sirius Internet Radio, with 78 of its 135 channels being available worldwide on the internet to any of its subscribers with a valid user name and password.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: On July 29, 2008, Sirius formally completed its merger with former competitor XM Satellite Radio. The combined company began operating under the name Sirius XM Satellite Radio. On November 12, 2008, Sirius and XM began broadcasting with their new, combined channel lineups. On January 13, 2011, Sirius Satellite Radio was dissolved as a separate entity and merged into Sirius XM Radio, Inc.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Sirius was founded by Martine Rothblatt, who served as the new company's Chairman of the Board. Co-founder David Margolese served as Chief Executive Officer and Robert Briskman served as President and Chief Operating Officer. In 1990, Rothblatt founded Satellite CD Radio, Inc. in Washington, DC. The company was the first to petition the FCC to assign unused frequencies for satellite radio broadcast, which "provoked a furor among owners of both large and small [terrestrial] radio stations." Rothblatt had previously helped create the PanAmSat international satellite television system, and helped launch and served as CEO of the Geostar satellite navigation system. In April 1992, she resigned as chairman and CEO of Sirius in order to start a medical research foundation, focused on finding a cure for her daughter's illness. Former NASA engineer Robert Briskman, who designed the company's satellite technology, was then appointed Chairman and CEO.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Six months later, in November 1992, Rogers Wireless co-founder David Margolese, who had provided financial backing for the venture, acquired control of the company and succeeded Briskman. Margolese renamed the company CD Radio, and spent the next five years lobbying the FCC to allow satellite radio to be deployed, and the following five years raising $1.6 billion, which was used to build and launch three satellites into elliptical orbit from Kazakhstan in July 2000. The company successfully bid $83.3 million to purchase their satellite radio license. In 1997, after Margolese had obtained regulatory clearance and "effectively created the industry," the FCC also sold a license to XM Satellite Radio, which followed Sirius's example.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: In November 1999, Marketing chief Ira Bahr convinced Margolese to again change the name of the company, this time to Sirius Satellite Radio, in order to avoid association with the soon-to-be-outdated CD technology. It had secured installation deals with automakers including Chrysler, Ford and BMW. Sirius launched the initial phase of its service in four cities, with the first receiver sold at Cowboy Maloney's in Jackson, MS on February 14, 2002, expanding to the rest of the contiguous United States on July 1, 2002. In 2001 Margolese stepped down as CEO, remaining as chairman until November 2003, with Sirius issuing a statement thanking him "for his great vision, leadership and dedication in creating both Sirius and the satellite radio industry."


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: The first confirmed music transmission from satellite to radio receiver for Sirius was September 1, 2000 in NYC at the current HQ of SiriusXM. Ten employees were present during the first music transmission. One being current Lawrence J. Simon Current VP Business and Ground Ops (Former B2B board member for NASCAR, Director of labs for Lockheed Martin and Grumman), Paul De Lia, Current Senior Advisor for BCG ( Former CTO for L3-Harris).


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Joe Clayton, former CEO of Global Crossing, followed as CEO from November 2001 until November 2004. He remained chairman until July 2008. Mel Karmazin, former president of Viacom, became CEO in November 2004 and remained in that position through the merger in December 2012.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: On February 19, 2007, Sirius announced a merger deal with competitor XM Satellite Radio. If the pending merger received government approval, which was required because of antitrust considerations, it would combine the two services into a single satellite radio network in the United States and would be named Sirius/XM Radio.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: On March 24, 2008, the U.S. Department of Justice approved the merger of Sirius and XM. Approval from the FCC cleared on July 25, 2008. Conditions of the merger included allowing any third-party company to make satellite radio devices; producing new radios that can receive both XM and Sirius channels within one year; allowing consumers to choose which channels they would like to have; freezing subscription rates for three years; setting aside 8% of its channels for noncommercial programmers; and paying $19.7 million in fines for past rule violations.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: According to a Spring 2007 Arbitron report, the five channels most listened to on Sirius based on their Average Quarterly Hour (AQH) Share were Howard 100, Howard 101, The Highway (56), Sirius Hits 1, and Octane (37).


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: On October 6, 2004, Sirius announced that it had signed a five-year, US$100 million per year agreement with Howard Stern to move his radio show, The Howard Stern Show, to Sirius starting on January 9, 2006. Stern said his move was forced by the stringent regulations of the FCC whose enforcement was intensified following the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy. In the wake of the announcement of his pending departure, Stern complained that Infinity Broadcasting was making his departure more acrimonious than was necessary. The deal, which gave Sirius exclusive rights to Stern's radio show, also gave Stern the right to build three full-time programming channels. His audience had grown almost tenfold by the end of his second year on Sirius, from fewer than 700,000 subscribers to 6 million (see graph on the right). Stern now has two channels operating on Sirius, but still retains the right to a third.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Sirius/XM's channels carried an array of programming that covered Music, News/Talk, Sports, and Entertainment. Sirius had deals with entertainers and personalities for broadcast streams. Besides Stern, Sirius had deals with Martha Stewart, E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt, Jimmy Buffett, and Eminem to executive-produce streams or channels on Sirius. Van Zandt created two stations for Sirius: the "Underground Garage", dedicated to garage rock, and "Outlaw Country" with its focus on alternative country music.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: The majority of the company's programming was self-produced exclusively for Sirius. However, there were some shows—especially in the Talk genre—that were originally created for terrestrial radio, but then aired on conventional radio and on Sirius/XM simultaneously; one example was the "Eternal Word Television Network".


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Sirius also broadcast sports content. It had exclusive satellite radio broadcasting rights to all NFL, CFL and NBA games. In December 2005, Sirius announced a multi-year deal with the NBA. The agreement also created a 24-hour NBA Radio Channel. Sirius aired Full Court Press, an all-NBA show. On November 12, 2008, NBA games switched to XM and were replaced by Sporting News Radio. NHL games were shared with XM for the 2005–2006 season, and in 2007 Sirius/XM gained exclusive rights to NHL games. Sirius also had full NASCAR coverage, including a weekly show hosted by now-retired driver Tony Stewart. In 2009, Sirius/XM was the first to carry live coverage of the 24-hour road race from Le Mans.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Sirius/XM also had the rights to a number of major college sports teams, including teams in the Big East, Big Ten and Southeastern Conferences, as well as The University of Notre Dame. Beginning in 2005, Sirius also had exclusive radio rights to cover the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. In August 2004, Sirius launched "Sirius NFL Radio", a 24-hour radio stream for covering the NFL.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Sirius also had the only national Horse racing talk show, "At the Races", hosted by noted racing handicapper, Steve Byk.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: "The Hardcore Poker Show", hosted by Rob Pizzo and Chris Tessaro, was the only syndicated poker talk show in North America.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Sirius also broadcast select Premier League matches. On September 27, 2006 Sirius announced a deal to add UEFA Champions League soccer to their lineup. Sirius had exclusive radio rights to broadcast the ESPN television feed of the Euro 2008 championships. Sirius also aired a soccer talk show called "The Football Show" with former Metrostars GM Charlie Stillitano and former International Italian star Giorgio Chinaglia. On Saturdays and Sundays during premier league season, Sirius aired Radio "606", a classic radio call-in show from the UK discussing all of the days top matches.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: After the merger between Sirius and XM was completed, Major League Baseball games remained exclusive to XM Radio as a result of an arrangement dispute between MLB and Sirius XM, which prevented Sirius subscribers from listening to games. However, on August 19, 2013, Sirius XM reached an agreement with MLB allowing all customers with both Sirius and XM receivers to hear the games with a premium subscription.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: In August 2003, Sirius partnered with Clearwater, Florida-based Applied Media Technologies Corporation, a provider of telephone "on hold" messaging. AMTC provides Sirius service in a package branded as "Sirius Music for Business". For US$29.95 per month, AMTC provides all of Sirius' streams of commercial-free music, and pays all performance royalties to ASCAP, Broadcast Music Incorporated, and SESAC, so that business owners may legally play Sirius' music in their establishments.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Unlike the music services Muzak / DMX Music or Music Choice, the SiriusXM for Business service uses the same channels and SDARS delivery platform as the consumer Sirius service. The SDARS delivery platform, on the other hand, is more reliable than any of the other services in that it is not subject to satellite dish rain fade. The highly elliptical orbit of the Sirius satellite constellation can pose difficulties for the reliable delivery of the signal to stationary antennas in certain parts of the country. To eliminate this potential problem, Sirius launched a new geostationary satellite, FM-5, to improve service to non-mobile customers such as those of SiriusXM for Business. The service can also be accessed online using Sirius' online streaming technology, allowing any business with a broadband Internet connection to overcome any potential reception issues. Additionally, Sirius applied for repeaters in Hawaii and Alaska and has already been granted authority for 20 repeaters covering the island of Puerto Rico by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: In March 2007, Sirius announced the availability of its first video service called "Backseat TV". In August 2007, the company revealed details of the first receiver, the SCV1, was originally offered exclusively through Chrysler OEM factory units. The service includes streaming video from three "family" television channels: Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Cartoon Network Mobile. There is a single screen (or a dual screen option in the Chrysler Town and Country and Dodge Grand Caravan) for back seat passengers to watch while front seat passengers have the option of simultaneously listening to any normal Sirius radio channel. The service is reported to cost an additional US$6.99 per month on top of the standard Sirius subscription price. The MSRP of the factory installed units is US$470 and the aftermarket unit has an MSRP of US$299.99. Both were made available in the fourth quarter of 2007. As of 1 January 2016 the service has been discontinued.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: In June 2005, Sirius signed an agreement with BBC Radio 1 in the UK to rebroadcast the station to an American audience. In August 2011, Sirius dropped BBC Radio 1, but a week later they announced that the channel would return online.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Sirius also had exclusive satellite radio rights to National Public Radio, carrying two separate streams. The Sirius NPR NOW programming didn't include the popular programs All Things Considered and Morning Edition.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: With the launch of Sirius Canada in December 2005, American listeners gained five Canadian-produced stations including CBC Radio One, CBC Radio Three and Iceberg Radio, and "Première Plus", Énergie2, and "Bande à part" for French listeners. Iceberg Radio is programmed by Standard Broadcasting, which also provides a number of additional channels exclusive to Canada; the other four come from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. After a delay and outcry from Canadian subscribers, Sirius Canada added Howard Stern's Channel 100 to their lineup in early 2006. Channel 101, Stern's other channel (featuring Bubba the Love Sponge, Scott Ferrall, and other personalities), were made available in late June 2006.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Talk radio content recently added onto Sirius Satellite Radio include the ABC News and Talk channel 143 (since having ceased operations), including live feeds of Sean Hannity and Larry Elder's syndicated radio shows, Patriot Talk channel 125 (which includes Michael Reagan's syndicated radio show) and Fox News Talk channel 145 (which includes syndicated radio hosts such as Alan Colmes and John Gibson).


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: On March 14, 2006, Sirius added Cosmo Radio, Playboy Radio, and returned the audio simulcast of the Fox News Channel TV feed, which was previously removed during a contract dispute. The service also added Fox's satellite talk radio channel, Fox News Talk.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: In April 2003, Sirius launched Sirius OutQ, the first-ever 24/7 talk channel designed for the LGBT audience. Personalities associated with the channel include Frank DeCaro, Michelangelo Signorile, Derek Hartley, and Romaine Patterson.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: In addition to the audio programming, the Sirius broadcast stream also carries a "Data Services" channel that is utilized by capable receivers and graphical display hardware. Some of the data services offered are traffic speed and flow, marine weather, and fuel prices to name just a few. Examples of capable hardware are the Raymarine SR100 Satellite Weather receiver and the Alpine NVE-N872A Satellite Traffic Ready navigation system.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: The Sirius signal is separated into three carriers, one each for the two satellites, and the third for the terrestrial repeater network where available. Sirius receivers decode all three 4 MHz carrier signals at once to achieve signal diversity. This is in contrast to XM which uses six carriers and decodes three 2 MHz carriers to economize on receiver power consumption and complexity at the cost of channel-changing speed. There is an intentional four-second delay between the two satellite carrier signals. This enables the receiver to maintain a large buffer of the audio stream, which, along with forward error correction, helps keep the audio playing in the event that the signal is temporarily lost, such as when driving under an overpass or otherwise losing line-of-sight of any of the satellites or ground repeater stations.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: A third, separate signal is uplinked to the AMC-6 Ku-band satellite and received by satellite dishes for the ground repeater network. This third signal is broadcast on a third segment of the signal.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: The technology for Sirius Satellite Radio receivers as well as some of the uplink equipment, and the studio encoder, originated at Bell Labs in the late 1990s and subsequent years. The studio encoder was a result of Bell Labs' efforts in statistical multiplexing of perceptual audio coded signals, a cousin of the MP3 standards. The waveform design for the terrestrial and satellite signals, as well as the early prototype receivers, were implemented in an FPGA logic and tested in the field to verify the performance of the receivers. This work was contracted by Sirius to Lucent Technologies, at the time a spinoff of AT&T. Early prototypes were followed by a number of generations of ASIC custom designed chipsets, supplied at first by Agere Systems and later supplied by Agere Systems and their competitor STMicroelectronics.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Three signals from three different sources (satellite, satellite, and terrestrial) are therefore combined in the receiver as radio signals, (not as audio signals). The three signals need to be combined constructively (avoiding situations where bad signals pollute good signals) in the receiver before being decoded. Heavy error correction is applied to the signals. All three signals contain the same audio content on all the channels that the receiver can receive, with the exception of one audio program waveform being transmitted ahead of the other two by approximately four seconds. With this time skew, the signals, once realigned, need to see an 8-second obstruction of overpass fade in order to lose audio content. This increases the robustness of the signal delivery in most driving conditions.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: In order to recover meaningful signal and error-free audio from a signal impaired by interference and fading, the receiver uses concatenated Reed-Solomon block coding and Forward Error Correction encoding and decoding (codec). This technique was proven in the early days of satellite modems in the late 1970s. Linkabit, then run by Irwin Jacobs prior to his involvement with Qualcomm, offered such a codec for rack mounting in satellite earth stations. The Sirius signal uses more robust error correction on control channels than on the audio content, trading off error correction and bandwidth differently for separate categories of bits in the signal waveform.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: The terrestrial carrier is an OFDM QPSK signal, and cousin to WiMax and LTE, with the particular feature that more than one transmitter operates on the same frequency, forming a single frequency network. A number of transmitters can be placed around a city to create coverage that is less subject to fading than if a single transmitter were used. The satellite signal is QPSK. Both satellite and terrestrial signals have hierarchical modulation superposed on the original signal, a measure created to add bandwidth at a small expense in the satellite link budget for decoding the core audio content.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: This architecture has worked remarkably well in avoiding drop out of audio signal when driving under highway overpasses, and when scintillating (very deep and frequent losses in signal strength caused by radio fading from trees) conditions exist. Since Sirius and XM separately entered the market with incompatible waveforms on the satellite, one would logically conclude that the merged company will eventually evolve the signal format again to take advantage of their size, but this is a speculative statement. The use of a satellite and terrestrial combined service has been adopted by the DVB-SH standard, and companies such as ICO communications who cooperated with Alcatel-Lucent on system design and field trials. ONDAS, a Madrid-based company, also adopted this pioneering system architecture.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: The receiver is designed to mitigate and retain signal quality in hostile signal conditions and the relatively weak signal levels from distant satellites. Because the satellites are not all geostationary they appear and disappear over the horizon. Terrestrial signals are present only in major cities to augment the satellite signals.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Approximately five chipset versions were built by Agere and approximately 4 versions were built by STMicroelectronics after the initial prototypes, although all of the early receivers included an Agere chipset known as Northstar. This platform enjoyed the highest volume of chipsets to date, representing the bulk of total production from 2002 to 2010. As of 2010, most of the chipsets are produced by STMicroelectronics.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: At the heart of a Sirius receiver is a custom application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chip called the "Baseband Integrated Circuit" currently the STA240, which is produced by STMicroelectronics. The chip contains embedded ARM7TDMI and ARM946E-S microprocessors synthesized from IP cores. Every baseband has a unique Electronic Serial Number (or Sirius ID). Another major section of a Sirius receiver is the tuner. The tuner is also a custom ASIC, the STA210. The tuner connects to the antenna, and receives the incoming satellite and terrestrial signals at 2.315 GHz and downconverts them to intermediate frequency signals at around 75 MHz. The strength of the signals is approximately −50dBm in clear-sky conditions. The IF signals are fed to the STA240, which are digitized, demodulated, error-corrected, de-interleaved, and decrypted using specialized circuits on the chip. The baseband processor utilizes a 16MB SDRAM memory to buffer four seconds of one of the satellite signals in order to bring it into time coincidence with the other for Maximal-ratio combining. On newer receivers with a "pause" feature, a dual-port PSRAM is employed to store up to 60 minutes of the selected channel. The baseband processor outputs digital audio over a Serial Peripheral Interface, which is fed to a D/A converter to produce the analog audio signal. The front-end of a Sirius receiver is called the "head unit", required to display descriptive text (such as the category, channel, artist, and song name) and provide controls to the user. This is implemented by the third-party designers of Sirius-ready receivers, using a microprocessor of their choice.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Sirius offers car radios and home entertainment systems, as well as car and home kits for portable use. The Sirius receiver includes the antenna module and the receiver module. The antenna module picks up signals from the ground repeaters or the satellite, amplifies the signal and filters out any interference. The signal is then passed on to the receiver module. Inside the receiver module is a chipset consisting of eight chips. The chipset converts the signals from 2.3 gigahertz (GHz) to a lower intermediate frequency. Sirius also offers an adapter that allows conventional car radios to receive satellite signals.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Sirius broadcasts using 12.5 MHz of the S band between 2320 and 2332.5 MHz. Audio channels are digitally compressed using a proprietary variant of Lucent's Perceptual Audio Coder compression algorithm and encrypted with a proprietary conditional access system. Sirius has announced that they intend to implement hierarchical modulation technology to economize on bandwidth up to 25%.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Each receiver must be connected to an external antenna, which is included with the receiver. Antenna placement is crucial to receiving a clear signal. In some locations users have experienced difficulty receiving the Sirius programming because the signal is not consistently strong. For the best reception, antennas should be placed such that they have an unobstructed view of the sky (preferably on rooftops without overhanging eaves or trees). If this is not an option, the antenna should be placed on an exterior wall. When placing on an exterior wall, the antenna should be mounted to a wall which faces the southern continental United States in order to minimize the likelihood of the building itself blocking the signal.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Sirius' satellites are named Radiosat because there is already a fleet of satellites named Sirius, launched by Sweden's NSAB (Nordiska Satellitaktiebolaget, or Nordic Satellite AB, and known today as SES Sirius) and used for general telecommunications and satellite television throughout Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: The current primary uplink facility for Sirius, which was formerly used as the uplink site for Western Union's Westar fleet of communication satellites from the early 1970s to the late 1980s, is located in Glenwood, New Jersey. The original facility was located on the roof of the building housing the Sirius studios in Rockefeller Center in New York City but has since been decommissioned.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Sirius' spacecraft Radiosat 1 through Radiosat 4 were manufactured by Space Systems/Loral. The first three of the series were orbited in 2000 by Proton K Block-DM3 launch vehicles, with the final three-satellite constellation completed on November 30, 2000. Radiosat 4, built as a ground spare for the now-decommissioned elliptical mission, was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in October 2012. It is on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. The satellites are based on the Space Systems/Loral 1300 platform. Before the elliptical satellites were decommissioned, all three satellites broadcast directly to the consumer's receiver, but due to the highly elliptical orbit only two of them broadcast at any given time. Today the satellites are located in the southern sky in the United States.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Satellites Radiosat 1 through Radiosat 3, now decommissioned, fly in geosynchronous (not geostationary) Tundra orbits. Like the geostationary orbit, the tundra orbit has a period of 23 hours, 56 minutes (one sidereal day). Unlike the geostationary orbit, the tundra orbit is elliptical, not circular, and is inclined with respect to the equator rather than orbiting directly over it. The eccentric orbit ensures that each satellite spends about 16 hours of each day high over the continental United States. At least one satellite is always visible, with another often visible as well. The orbit's high inclination places apogee just west of Hudson Bay in Canada, providing a much higher elevation angle for most of the country than is possible from a geostationary orbit. This was intended to reduce blockage from tall buildings in urban areas, allowing a much smaller terrestrial repeater network than does sister network XM, which uses geostationary orbits. This system has since been decommissioned in favor of newer geostationary satellites located at 96.0° and 116.15° that support both the Sirius and XM platforms.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: On June 8, 2006, Space Systems/Loral announced that it was awarded a contract for the fifth Sirius spacecraft. The new spacecraft features a nine-meter unfurlable reflector. The first four Sirius spacecraft used more traditional parabolic reflectors. The new satellite has been designed for geostationary orbit, unlike the other satellites in the constellation; the different orbit has the stated purpose of allowing for more consistent reception for fixed location users (many subscribers have reported having to regularly reposition their antennas for optimal reception). Radiosat 5 (FM-5) is in a geostationary orbit at 96.0° West. It was launched June 30, 2009, and announced to be in service as of September 9, 2009.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: On October 14, 2010, the XM-5 satellite was launched aboard an International Launch Services (ILS) Proton vehicle. It was placed into a geostationary orbit at 85.2° West to serve the eastern half of the United States. It is named XM-5 because it serves as an in-orbit spare that can replace both the Sirius Radiosat satellites and the XM satellites. The satellite was manufactured by Space Systems/Loral and was fully operational on December 3, 2010.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: On February 29, 2008, the launch service provider International Launch Services (ILS) announced a contract which includes a launch of the SIRIUS FM-6 satellite on a Proton Briz M launch vehicle. The launch planned for March 6, 2012, was canceled due to concerns with a design defect in the solar panel deployment. The Radiosat 6 (FM-6) satellite was launched on October 25, 2013, and was put in a geostationary orbit at 116.15° West which services the western half of the United States.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: , Sirius receivers were available for various new Audi, BMW, Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, Jaguar, Jeep, Land Rover, Lexus, Lincoln, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mercury, MINI, Mitsubishi, Scion, Toyota (except Corolla), Porsche, Volkswagen, and Volvo vehicles, and the service plans on adding availability for portable use. Subaru offers Sirius on the Forester and Impreza. Starting in 2006, all Rolls-Royce vehicles sold in the United States came with a Sirius radio and lifetime subscription as standard equipment. Sirius had an exclusive contract for VW and Audi vehicles from 2007 through 2012, and with Kia Motors from 2008 through 2014, with an optional extension to 2017. Beginning in the 2007 model year, Bentley vehicles have had Sirius as an option, and it became standard equipment in several models beginning in 2008. Porsche switched to XM Satellite Radio on their vehicles beginning with the 2007 model year. Currently, only Toyota (including its Lexus and Scion divisions) and Subaru offer both Sirius and XM contracts (however both companies usually equip vehicles with XM).


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Sirius also makes several receivers for aftermarket installations such as the Sportster4, Starmate Replay, Sirius S50 with a built-in 1GB MP3 player, and the Sirius One. Radios from Sirius include:


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: For an additional fee, Sirius subscribers are also able to access all of the proprietary music channels and most of the talk stations via streaming media through Sirius.com. A standard 64 kbit/s and "Premium" 128 kbit/s feed are available.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Alternatives to the browser-based player are available such as a Yahoo! Widget (designed to look like a miniature Sportster model receiver), and SIRIUS Internet Radio Player (based on Windows Media Player and available as a plug-in or standalone application). Both alternatives have gained popularity with streaming listeners, and offer artist and track name information updated in real time, which is an improvement from the online Sirius player.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Recently, SiriusXMStream has come available as a replacement to uSirius. It offers a server capability to stream Sirius and XM programming to game consoles and mobile phones as an alternative to the iPhone And Blackberry app.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: NiceMac LLC, creator of the StarPlayr and StarLightXM product lines have created clients for Mac, PC, Windows Mobile and iPhone. The company merged with Millard Software and released a private beta of uSirius StarPlayr, a Sirius XM iPhone client, but on March 8th, 2009 the beta was discontinued. Early 2019, StarPlayrX, an accessible and open source Swift version was released to Apple's App Store.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: CatPig Studios Inc. has also released Radium for Mac, a general-purpose internet radio player that supports XM and Sirius. In early 2010, Rogue Amoeba software released Pulsar, a standalone Sirius-XM player for Mac OS X.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: In addition to being available through Sirius.com, Howard Stern's website offers a Java application that streams the two Stern-themed channels. The site also states that Stern-specific video and audio clips would be made available at a later date.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Sirius XM has developed a software application for use on the Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices that allows its subscribers and users of those devices to listen to its programming. The application was released and available for download on the evening of June 17, 2009. The Sirius XM app is available at the iTunes App Store. Also integrated into the app is a "click to buy" function where if a user clicks any song title playing on Sirius XM they are given the option to be taken to the iTunes Music Store where they can purchase the track or album. Due to the terms of a new contract, the Howard Stern channels were added on Tuesday, December 21.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Sirius XM has developed a streaming app for the Android Smartphone platform. This app is available free of charge in the market, and requires an additional US$3.49/mo to subscribe to. The app features all of the content available on a standard Sirius receiver.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: Sirius XM has also developed an application for use on certain 3G-enabled Rim BlackBerry smartphones. Much like its Apple counterpart, it features a restricted 120-channel lineup featuring most of the music channels and selected talk programming. As with the Apple app, some select programming, including MLB Play-by-Play, NFL Play-by-Play, SIRIUS NASCAR Radio are not available on the Blackberry. Shortly after signing a new contract, Howard Stern began promoting the mobile app, and his content was added to the mobile offerings.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: In November 2004, a partnership between Sirius, Standard Broadcasting and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation filed an application with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to introduce Sirius in Canada. The application was approved on June 16, 2005. The decision was appealed to the Canadian federal cabinet by a number of broadcasting, labour, and arts and culture organizations, including the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, CHUM Limited, and the National Campus and Community Radio Association. The groups objected to Sirius’ approach to and reduced levels of Canadian content and French-language programming, along with the exclusion of Canadian non-commercial broadcasting. After a lengthy debate, the cabinet rejected the appeals on September 9, 2005. Sirius Canada was officially launched December 1, 2005.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: In 2006 it offered a lifetime plan to subscribers that for a $549 fee it would unlock the top tier channels for unlimited use on any Sirius device, including the Internet and phone. However, the company currently only offers at maximum, a three-year subscription.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: In September 2009, The Federal Communications Commission agreed to Sirius XM's request for a special temporary authority to operate 20 terrestrial repeaters for the satellite radio service in Puerto Rico.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: The commission did so over the objections of the Puerto Rico Radio Broadcasters Association (Asociación de Radiodifusores de Puerto Rico), who said the approval expands the Sirius XM reach outside its authorized coverage area and would allow Sirius XM to compete with terrestrial broadcasters for listeners.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: After receiving communications by public officials in opposition to the broadcasters, such as Puerto Rico Secretary of State Kenneth McClintock, in rejecting those arguments, the commission said Sirius XM's footprint already covers the island but the signal is weak and blocked by tall buildings and foliage. As for the impact on competition, the FCC said it has considered these arguments before and "declined to find that" satellite radio would harm local broadcasters.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: The Sirius full terrestrial coverage is available in select sites in the cities of San Juan, Carolina, Bayamón, Cataño, Caguas and Ponce. In the rest of Puerto Rico, coverage is provided by Sirius' constellation of satellites.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: In October 2006, Sirius announced that it was launching a new service named Sirius Internet Radio (SIR) that offered approximately 75 of the 135 Sirius channels worldwide to people other than subscribers to its satellite radio service. Prior to this, Sirius subscribers who had a satellite radio were also able to access many of the Sirius channels via the Internet, using a special password, but the service operated at 32 kbit/s and was only available to those who purchased a satellite radio receiver. Sirius Internet Radio is an Internet-only subscription, allowing worldwide listeners to listen to the content without having to purchase a satellite radio receiver, the internet subscription can also be heard on Wi-Fi-enabled Internet radio for consumer and business purposes such as those designed by Grace Digital. The service also expands the number of channels that are available to Sirius Stiletto 100 users via Wi-Fi.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: As of February 11, 2009, Sirius XM had $3.25 billion in total debt and had until February 17, 2009, to repay $175 million in bonds held by EchoStar. EchoStar has been buying Sirius XM's debt since an unsuccessful December 2008 takeover bid. Shares of Sirius XM had been trading for less than $1 from September 10, 2008, until February 2010.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: The company announced in early February 2009 that it may file for bankruptcy "as early as" Tuesday, February 17, 2009.


title: Sirius Satellite Radio

text: On February 17, 2009, Sirius entered into an investment agreement with Liberty Media Corporation. Sirius received $550 million to pay maturing debt in exchange for 40% of its convertible preferred stock.


title: Suitcase nuclear device

text: A suitcase nuclear device (also suitcase nuke, suitcase bomb, backpack nuke, snuke, mini-nuke, and pocket nuke) is a tactical nuclear weapon that is portable enough that it could use a suitcase as its delivery method.


title: Suitcase nuclear device

text: Both the United States and the Soviet Union developed nuclear weapons small enough to be portable in specially-designed backpacks during the 1950s and 1960s.


title: Suitcase nuclear device

text: Neither the United States nor the Soviet Union have ever made public the existence or development of weapons small enough to fit into a normal-sized suitcase or briefcase. The W48 however, does fit the criteria of small, easily disguised, and portable. Its explosive yield was extremely small for a nuclear weapon.


title: Suitcase nuclear device

text: In the mid-1970s, debate shifted from the possibility of developing such a device for the military to concerns over its possible use in nuclear terrorism. The concept became a staple of the spy thriller genre in the later Cold War era.


title: Suitcase nuclear device

text: The term "suitcase (nuclear/atomic) bomb" was introduced during the 1950s with the prospect of reducing the size of the smallest tactical nuclear weapons even further, albeit purely as a "figure of speech" for miniaturization, not necessarily for the delivery in actual suitcases.


title: Suitcase nuclear device

text: The value of portable nuclear weapons lies in their ability to be easily smuggled across borders, transported by means widely available, and placed as close to the target as possible. In nuclear weapon design, there is a trade-off in small weapons designs between weight and compact size. Extremely small (as small as diameter and long) linear implosion type weapons, which might conceivably fit in a large briefcase or typical suitcase, have been tested, but the lightest of those are nearly and had a maximum yield of only 0.19 kiloton (the Swift nuclear device, tested in Operation Redwing's Yuma test on May 27, 1956). The largest yield of a relatively compact linear implosion device was under 2 kilotons for the cancelled (or never deployed but apparently tested) US W82-1 artillery shell design, with yield under 2 kilotons for a artillery shell in diameter and long.


title: Suitcase nuclear device

text: The existence and whereabouts of Soviet suitcase nuclear bombs became an increasing subject of debate following the disarray that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. Namely, major concerns regarding the new government’s overall security and control of its nuclear stockpile came into question on 30 May 1997 when an American congressional delegation sent to Russia met with General Aleksandr Lebed, former Secretary of the Russian Security Council. During the meeting, Lebed mentioned the possibility that several suitcase portable nuclear bombs had gone missing. More specifically, according to an investigation Lebed led during his time as acting secretary, it was concluded that 84 of these devices were unaccounted for. Lebed would make several press releases and television interviews regarding the matter later in the year.


title: Suitcase nuclear device

text: Among these releases, Lebed in an interview with CBS newsmagazine "Sixty Minutes" on 7 September 1997 claimed that the Russian military had lost track of more than a hundred out of a total of 250 "suitcase-sized nuclear bombs". Lebed stated that these devices were made to look like suitcases, and that he had learned of their existence only a few years earlier. Russia's Federal Agency on Atomic Energy on 10 September rejected Lebed's claims as baseless.


title: Suitcase nuclear device

text: Despite the Russian government’s rejection of Lebed’s claims however, the resulting public interest from Lebed's television appearances would eventually provoke a congressional hearing held between 1-2 October 1997 intended on discussing "Nuclear Terrorism and Countermeasures." Chief among these talks was the matter of Russian suitcase portable nuclear bombs and the circulating rumors of these weapons proliferating in the wild.


title: Suitcase nuclear device

text: Although absent from the hearing himself, Lebed's interviews were frequently cited as a cause for concern throughout the duration of this hearing, particularly the 84 missing devices and their apparent capacity to kill 100,000 people each. Present in the witness panel to help corroborate Lebed's claims however was the former Russian Security Council environmental advisor Alexei Yablokov who also served as chairman of the Environmental Security Commission and was highly regarded by his peers in the Russian Federation Academy of Scientists at the time. These experiences proved vital in his testimony to come.


title: Suitcase nuclear device

text: Yablokov himself made a television interview on NTV shortly after Lebed, and also drafted a letter to Novaya Gazeta affirming both the existence of suitcase nukes and the possibility that some may in fact be missing. Yablokov also clarified that these devices existed as far back as the 1970s. In these communications, Yablokov claimed to have met with many of the researchers who had a hand in developing suitcase nukes. Moreover, his main contention regarding Moscow’s denial was that these devices were never listed on any inventory list to begin with due to their highly sensitive nature, particularly as a result of their supposed use by the USSR’s KGB with targets ranging from the United States to various NATO countries in eastern Europe. Thus, the confirmation of these weapons’ existence in addition to the security and inventory of these weapons would ultimately produce misleading results.


title: Suitcase nuclear device

text: During the hearing itself, Yablokov would maintain his position that KGB nuclear weapon caches continue to exist in operation independent of the recently defunct USSR Ministry of Defense, providing further insight as to why the Russian government and witnesses’ claims contradicted so greatly. Moreover, Yablokov further clarified his source of information, which up until this point remained ambiguous, citing communications between scientists working at the Krasnoyarsk-26, Tomsk-7, Chelialinsk-65, and Penza-19 nuclear installations located across Russia. Granted to relevancy of the perceived threat of these suitcase nuclear bombs was reconsidered as Yablokov explained that if these weapons were developed in the 1970s, then the warheads would have needed to be replaced twice at that point, a possibility he could not guarantee.


title: Suitcase nuclear device

text: Stanislav Lunev, the highest-ranking GRU defector, claimed that such Russian-made devices exist and described them in more detail. The devices, "identified as RA-115s (or RA-115-01s for submersible weapons)" weigh from fifty to sixty pounds. They can last for many years if wired to an electric source. In case there is a loss of power, there is a battery backup. If the battery runs low, the weapon has a transmitter that sends a coded message either by satellite or directly to a GRU post at a Russian embassy or consulate. According to Lunev, the number of "missing" nuclear devices (as found by General Lebed) "is almost identical to the number of strategic targets upon which those bombs would be used."


title: Suitcase nuclear device

text: Lunev suggested that suitcase nukes might be already deployed by the GRU operatives on US soil to assassinate US leaders in the event of war. He alleged that arms caches were hidden by the KGB on many countries. They were booby-trapped with "Lightning" explosive devices. One such cache, identified by Vasili Mitrokhin, exploded when Swiss authorities sprayed it with a high pressure water gun in a wooded area near Bern. Several others caches were removed successfully. Lunev said that he had personally looked for hiding places for weapons caches in the Shenandoah Valley area and that "it is surprisingly easy to smuggle nuclear weapons into the US" either across the Mexican border or using a small transport missile that can slip undetected when launched from a Russian airplane. US Congressman Curt Weldon supported claims by Lunev but noted that Lunev had "exaggerated things" according to the FBI. Searches of the areas identified by Lunev have been conducted, "but law-enforcement officials have never found such weapons caches, with or without portable nuclear weapons."


title: Suitcase nuclear device

text: The existence of such weapons and their potential usefulness, yield and lethality after a prolonged period of years remains controversial.


title: Suitcase nuclear device

text: The lightest nuclear warhead ever acknowledged to have been manufactured by the U.S. is the W54, which was used in both the Davy Crockett 120 mm recoilless rifle-launched warhead and the backpack-carried version called the Mk-54 SADM (Special Atomic Demolition Munition). The bare warhead package was an cylinder that weighed .


title: Suitcase nuclear device

text: The W48 nuclear shell is in diameter and long and weighs . It represents the smallest diameter complete, self-contained physics package to be fielded and had a yield of . Nuclear weapons designer Ted Taylor has alleged that a diameter shell with a mass of is theoretically possible.


title: Suitcase nuclear device

text: Former Under-Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Michael G. Vickers has claimed that he, along with other Green Berets special forces troops, practiced infiltrating Warsaw Pact countries with backpack-sized nuclear weapons, with a mission to "detonate a portable nuclear bomb." These were known as Green Light Teams.


title: Suitcase nuclear device

text: In 1994, the United States Congress passed "The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1994", preventing the government from developing nuclear weapons with a yield of less than 5 kilotons, thereby making the official development of these weapons in the US unlawful. This law was repealed in the "National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004".


title: Suitcase nuclear device

text: Allegations were made in the 1990s that Israel had developed suitcase nuclear bombs during the 1970s.


title: Ladbroke Grove

text: Ladbroke Grove () is an area and a road in West London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, passing through Kensal Green and Notting Hill, running north–south between Harrow Road and Holland Park Avenue.


title: Ladbroke Grove

text: It is also a name given to the immediate surrounding areas of Notting Hill, Latimer Road, Kensal Green and Westbourne Park straddling the W10 and W11 postal districts although parts of the wider area cover parts of NW10. Ladbroke Grove tube station is located on the road, at the point where it is crossed by the Westway.


title: Ladbroke Grove

text: Ladbroke Grove is the nearest tube station to Portobello Road Market. The adjacent bridge and nearby section of the Westway were regenerated in 2007 in a partnership including Urban Eye, Transport for London and London Underground. It is the main road on the route of the annual Notting Hill Carnival. The northern end between the Harrow Road and Kensal House is located in Kensal Green, the middle section between Barlby Road and the A40 flyover is in North Kensington with the southern end between Lancaster road and Holland Park Avenue situated in Notting Hill.


title: Ladbroke Grove

text: The area and the street are named after James Weller Ladbroke, who developed the Ladbroke Estate in the 1840s. It was originally a predominantly rural area on the western edges of London. Construction at the southern end by Holland Park Avenue began in the 1830s, but the road was not fully developed to Harrow Road until the 1870s.


title: Ladbroke Grove

text: Hablot Knight Browne, the cartoonist who illustrated Charles Dickens' novels as "Phiz", lived at No. 99 in 1872–80.


title: Ladbroke Grove

text: The church of St John the Evangelist was constructed in 1845 on the site of the Hippodrome on the Ladbroke Estate, which had closed four years earlier.


title: Ladbroke Grove

text: The Anglican church of St Michael and All Angels in the road was designed by James Edmeston and built in the Romanesque style in 1871. The funds were provided by J. E.Gray, the father of the first vicar, the Reverend Edward Ker Gray: the foundation stone was laid on 1 November 1870 by a cousin of the Grays, John Mowbray. The church became fashionable with members of the Royal Family. The Duke of Edinburgh played the violin in the church orchestra. The vicarage was built in 1876, with the foundation stone being laid by the Duchess of Teck. The Lady Chapel was opened by the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh in 1882. However, in 1886, the Reverend Gray moved to the Curzon Street Chapel and St Michael's became less fashionable.


title: Ladbroke Grove

text: The Serbian Orthodox Church of St Sava is on Lancaster Road, just off Ladbroke Grove. The church building was originally built in 1903 as the Anglican church of St Columba; in 1952 it was re-consecrated as Saint Sava's, to serve a growing community of post-war refugees. It was the venue for the baptism of Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia, son of Peter II, in 1945, and his second marriage in 1985. Princess Maria Tatiana, daughter of Prince Andrew of Yugoslavia, was baptised there in 1957. In 2013, it was the venue for the memorial service of Princess Margarita of Baden.


title: Ladbroke Grove

text: The former church of Christ Church, Telford Road was opened in 1881, and closed in 1940 when the parish merged with St Michaels. The church building was demolished.


title: Ladbroke Grove

text: Ladbroke Grove was a centre of the British counterculture in the 1960s. The area was blacklisted for development following 1958 Notting Hill race riots, and consequently found favour with individuals who distrusted authority, moving into unmodernised Victorian properties along the road. The space rock band Hawkwind were formed here in 1969, and eventually bonded and worked with fantasy author Michael Moorcock who was then a resident. Moorcock's work often contain references to Ladbroke Grove, the location being the headquarters of his fictional characters Jerry Cornelius and Colonel Pyat. The Deviants (formerly the Social Deviants) and Pink Fairies were musical groups out of the Ladbroke Grove UK underground movement, from which a number of bands would emerge, influenced by anarchistic singer/writer Mick Farren. Punk group The Clash also formed locally in 1976; frontman Joe Strummer squatted around Ladbroke Grove before joining the group. The "Roughler" magazine emerged in the 1980s and 1990s to chronicle the antics of the more Bohemian residents, including the legendary Portobello Pantos.


title: Ladbroke Grove

text: Ladbroke Grove features as the scene of Van Morrison's 1968 song "Slim Slow Slider" from "Astral Weeks", and is mentioned in the 1970s pop hit "One Man Band" by Leo Sayer. The Pulp song "I Spy", from the album "Different Class", features the line "your Ladbroke Grove looks turn me on". The Blur songs "Fool's Day" and "Lonesome Street" also feature Ladbroke Grove in their lyrics. As does the song "Joel" by The Boo Radleys, with the line, "I've found myself in Ladbroke Grove" from the album "Wake Up!". The Slits song "Ping Pong Affair" from the album "Cut", also features Ladbroke Grove in its lyrics. "LDN" by Lily Allen mentions Ladbroke Grove in an overdubbed chorus of London placenames. Killing Joke have released an EP (In Excelsis) that features two mixes of a song called "Ghost Of Ladbroke Grove". The UK rapper AJ Tracey's hit "Ladbroke Grove" is named after the road which he is from; it peaked at number 3 on the UK singles chart. Mahdi made his first music video in Ladbroke Grove. The posthumous music video of the Lil Peep release "4 Gold Chains" is set at 121 Ladbroke Grove.


title: Ladbroke Grove

text: In 1977, a brief encounter between musicians Phil Collins and Steve Hackett on Ladbroke Grove finalised the latter's departure from the progressive rock band Genesis.


title: Ladbroke Grove

text: From the 2010s to today Ladbroke Grove has been home to some of the most prominent grime and drill artists, such as AJ Tracey and Digga D.


title: Ladbroke Grove

text: Ladbroke Grove tube station is located halfway along the road, and is served by the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines. The Westway, part of a main road from Central London to Oxford crosses in the same location, though there is no junction. The road also has bridges over the Great Western Main Line from London Paddington station, and the Grand Union Canal.


title: Ladbroke Grove

text: At a site just to the east of the Old Oak Common site, Kensington and Chelsea Council has been pushing for a station at Kensal off Ladbroke Grove and Canal Way, as a turn-back facility will have to be built in the area anyway. Siting it at Kensal Green, rather than next to Paddington itself, would provide a new station to regenerate the area. Boris Johnson stated that a station would be added if it did not increase Crossrail's overall cost; in response, Kensington and Chelsea Council agreed to underwrite the projected £33 million cost of a Crossrail station. TfL is conducting a feasibility study on the station and the project is backed by National Grid, retailers Sainsbury's and Cath Kidston, and Jenny Jones (Green Party member of the London Assembly). The plans were resurrected by Johnson in 2016.


title: Ladbroke Grove

text: On 5 October 1999, two trains on the Great Western Main Line near Ladbroke Grove crashed into each other at a combined speed of over , leading to the diesel fuel of one of the trains igniting and setting fire to both. Thirty one people died and over 400 were injured, including severe burns. The cause of the crash was determined to be lack of suitable visibility of signals. The crash, combined with further major incidents at Hatfield and Potters Bar, shook confidence in the British rail network.


title: Liam Brady

text: William Brady (born 13 February 1956) is an Irish former footballer. He found success both in England with Arsenal, where he won an FA Cup in 1979, and in Italy with Juventus, winning two Serie A titles. Brady was capped 72 times for the Ireland national team.


title: Liam Brady

text: Brady was a talented attacking midfielder renowned for his left foot and elegant technical skills such as his high-quality passing, vision, and close control, which made him an excellent playmaker.


title: Liam Brady

text: Brady went on to manage Celtic and Brighton and Hove Albion, and was the assistant manager of the Republic of Ireland from 2008 to 2010. He also held the post of Head of Youth Development at Arsenal from 1996 to 2013, and has been a frequent television pundit with RTÉ Sport.


title: Liam Brady

text: Brady was born and raised in Dublin in a footballing family, with both his great uncle Frank Brady Sr. and older brother Ray Brady winning senior international caps. Of his other brothers, Frank won the FAI Cup with Shamrock Rovers in 1968 and made two appearances in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, while Pat played with Millwall and Queens Park Rangers. Liam attended St. Aidan's C.B.S., leaving before his Intermediate Certificate. He alleged at the time that he had been expelled for missing a school Gaelic football match to play a schoolboy soccer international; the school denied this.


title: Liam Brady

text: Brady started his career at Arsenal, moving to London to join the side on schoolboy forms in 1971, at the age of 15. He turned professional on his 17th birthday in 1973, and made his debut on 6 October 1973 against Birmingham City as a substitute for Jeff Blockley, and put in an assured performance. However his next match, in a North London derby against Tottenham Hotspur, Brady had a poor match, and Arsenal manager Bertie Mee decided from then on to use the young Irishman sparingly for the time being. Brady ended the 1973–74 season with 13 appearances (four of them as substitute) to his name. While at Arsenal, and particularly early in his career, Brady was nicknamed "Chippy", not for his ability to chip the ball but for his fondness for fish and chips.


title: Liam Brady

text: In 1974–75 Brady was a first-team regular at Arsenal, and shone as a rare light in a side that hovered close to relegation for a couple of seasons in the mid-1970s. With the appointment of Terry Neill as manager and the return of Don Howe as coach, Brady found his best form. His passing provided the ammunition for Arsenal's front men such as Malcolm Macdonald and Frank Stapleton, and Arsenal reached three FA Cup finals in a row between 1978 and 1980. Arsenal won only the middle of the three, against Manchester United in the 1979 final, with Brady starting the move that ended in Alan Sunderland's famous last-minute winner.


title: Liam Brady

text: Brady was at the peak of his Arsenal form by now, as shown by one of his best goals for Arsenal; having dispossessed Peter Taylor he flighted a looped curled shot from the edge of the penalty area into the top corner, in a 5–0 win against Tottenham Hotspur on 23 December 1978. During this time he was voted the club's player of the year three times, and chosen as the PFA Players' Player of the Year in 1979. Being from Ireland, he was the first foreign player to win the award.


title: Liam Brady

text: He was the most talented player in what was then a promising young Arsenal side, which was looking to consistently challenge for honours such as the Division One title. Despite this, by the 1979–80 season rumour was rife that Brady would be leaving the club in search of a fresh challenge.


title: Liam Brady

text: That season, Arsenal reached the Cup Winners' Cup final (losing to Valencia on penalties), having beaten Juventus 2–1 over two legs in the semi-finals. Brady's performance in the tie impressed the Italian giants and in the 1980 close season they signed him for just over £500,000, becoming the first foreign player to sign for the club since the Italian borders were re-opened for foreign transfers in 1980. He is remembered as one of Arsenal's all-time greats, playing 307 matches for the Gunners, scoring 59 goals and setting up many more.


title: Liam Brady

text: Brady spent two seasons with Juventus, wearing the number 10 shirt, and picking up two Italian Championship medals, in 1981 and 1982; Brady scored the only goal (a penalty) in the 1–0 win against Catanzaro that won the 1982 title. After the arrival of Michel Platini in summer 1982, Brady moved to Sampdoria, and went on to play for Internazionale (1984–1986) and Ascoli (1986–1987), before returning to London in March 1987, for a transfer fee of £100,000, to play for West Ham United, where he scored 10 goals in 119 games in all competitions. He was a member of the side relegated from the First Division in 1989 and played one season in the Second Division before finally retiring as a player in 1990. His last game came on 5 May 1990, a 4–0 home win against Wolverhampton Wanderers, a game in which he scored.


title: Liam Brady

text: Brady made his debut for Ireland on 30 October 1974, in a 3–0 win against the Soviet Union at Dalymount Park in a European Championship qualifier.


title: Liam Brady

text: Due to a suspension accrued before Euro 88 he was not eligible to play within the tournament. During qualification for Italia 90 Brady retired from the international game. As Ireland got to the World Cup he declared himself available to play once again. However, Jack Charlton went on to declare that only those who played in the qualifiers would make the trip to Italy.


title: Liam Brady

text: He won 72 international caps for the Republic of Ireland with 70 within the starting line-up, scoring 9 goals.


title: Liam Brady

text: After retiring from playing in 1990, he managed Celtic between 1991 and 1993, and then Brighton & Hove Albion between 1993 and 1995. Neither spell was particularly successful, and at both clubs Brady's tenure was overshadowed by the respective clubs' financial problems. At Celtic, Brady failed to win a single trophy in his two-year tenure, and included a 5–2 defeat on aggregate by Neuchâtel Xamax in the 1991–92 UEFA Cup, one of the club's worst European defeats in their history.


title: Liam Brady

text: Brady had no greater success with Brighton, departing following a disagreement over the way the club was being run; he later led an unsuccessful bid by a consortium to buy the club. He remains involved with the new owners, having appeared at fans forums as a representative as recently as 2005.


title: Liam Brady

text: He rejoined Arsenal in July 1996, as Head of Youth Development and Academy Director. Although he was linked to the manager's post after the departure of Bruce Rioch, Brady stated he was not interested in the role and Arsène Wenger eventually took up the post. Under Brady, Arsenal's youth sides won the 1998 FA Premier Youth League, the FA Premier Academy League U17 title in 2000 and the FA Premier Academy League U19 title in 2002. Under his watch they also lifted the 2009 and 2010 FA Premier Academy League U18 titles, together with the FA Youth Cup in 2000, 2001 and 2009.


title: Liam Brady

text: Brady was one of dozens of former managers linked to the Republic of Ireland manager's job after the sacking of Steve Staunton in 2007. Instead, he became an assistant to new manager Giovanni Trapattoni alongside former Juventus teammate Marco Tardelli in 2008, while continuing to work as Director of the Arsenal Youth Academy. He stepped down from the Republic of Ireland post in April 2010 when his contract expired. He stated he would have gladly stayed on with Ireland were it not for his Arsenal commitments.


title: Liam Brady

text: On 30 January 2013, Arsenal announced that Brady would leave his role as Director of the Arsenal Youth Academy in May 2014.


title: Liam Brady

text: Brady first worked as a pundit for the BBC at the 1990 and 1994 World Cups before transferring for the 1998 tournament to RTÉ Sport, joining what became a longrunning studio team with fellow pundits Johnny Giles and Eamon Dunphy and presenter Bill O'Herlihy, parodied by the "Après Match" sketches in which Brady was portrayed by Barry Murphy. Brady has remained an RTÉ panellist recently appearing on coverage of the 2018 World Cup and UEFA Euro 2020.


title: Liam Brady

text: Brady was involved in an Irish anti-drugs campaign in the early 1990s, called "give drugs the boot", encouraging young boys to play sport as a healthy pastime.


title: Hal Rogers

text: Harold Dallas Rogers (born December 31, 1937) is an American lawyer and politician serving his 21st term as the U.S. representative for , having served since 1981. He is a member of the Republican Party. Upon Don Young's death in 2022, Rogers became the dean of the House of Representatives.


title: Hal Rogers

text: Rogers was born in Barrier, Kentucky. After attending Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, he earned a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws from the University of Kentucky. Rogers served in the Kentucky Army National Guard and North Carolina Army National Guard.


title: Hal Rogers

text: As a lawyer Rogers was in private practice and was elected to serve as commonwealth's attorney for Pulaski and Rockcastle counties in Kentucky, an office he held from 1969 to his election to Congress in 1980.


title: Hal Rogers

text: Rogers was the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor of Kentucky in 1979. He was on the ballot with former Governor Louie B. Nunn. He lost to Democratic nominee John Y. Brown Jr. 59%-41%. The following year, Rogers won election to Congress.


title: Hal Rogers

text: In 1980, incumbent Republican U.S. Congressman Tim Lee Carter of Kentucky's 5th congressional district decided to retire. Rogers won the Republican primary with a plurality of 23 percent. The losing candidates included the 1971 gubernatorial nominee, Tom Emberton. He won the general election with 67% of the vote. He has won reelection with at least 65% of the vote since then, except in 1992, when he defeated Democratic State Senator John Doug Hays 55%-45%.


title: Hal Rogers

text: Rogers is the longest-serving Kentucky Republican ever elected to federal office. He represents one of the few ancestrally Republican districts south of the Ohio River. South-central Kentucky, historically the heart of the district, is very similar demographically to East Tennessee. Its voters identified with the Republicans after the Civil War and have supported the GOP ever since. Rogers served as a delegate to nine Republican National Conventions from 1976 to 2008.


title: Hal Rogers

text: The Center for Rural Development, a 501c(3) nonprofit organization established in Somerset, Kentucky, in March 1996, was Rogers's idea.


title: Hal Rogers

text: In 2001 the City of Williamsburg, Kentucky named their new water park and miniature golf facility the Hal Rogers Family Entertainment Center as a "thank-you for the federal money he has brought back to Whitley County, the City of Williamsburg, and the other 40 counties he represents".


title: Hal Rogers

text: On the House/Senate conference decision to bolster the Department of Commerce and support the Clinton Administration priorities, President Clinton remarked, "I commend the congressional leadership, Senator Ernest Hollings, Senator Pete Domenici, Congressman Neal Smith, and Congressman Harold Rogers, for their foresight and support in revitalizing this country through these programs. It is a dramatic step forward for the United States toward a solid economic future."


title: Hal Rogers

text: Kentucky state biographer Amy Witherbee commented: "Rogers's multiple roles on the Appropriations Committee have honed his skills as a bipartisan negotiator, and his economically challenged district often prompts him to stray from hard-line conservative stances. Although voting with his party against raising environmental standards on sports utility vehicles and against a controversial amendment that would have prohibited oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Rogers has been the creator and leading proponent of large environmental protection and clean-up programs throughout the Appalachian region... [His] reluctance to involve the federal government in local issues has not deterred him from supporting a multitude of economic development programs aimed at creating new job bases in economically disadvantaged areas, and particularly in Appalachia. In 1993, Rogers was one of only three Republicans to vote for then-President Bill Clinton's economic stimulus package. In March 2003, Rogers's ability to work through the bipartisan tangles of the Appropriations Committee won him the chairmanship on the subcommittee designated to control funding for the new Department of Homeland Security."


title: Hal Rogers

text: Ready evidence is found on March 20, 2008, when the invitation to testify in support of environmental legislation by Democratic House Majority Leader Rocky Adkins, and, on the same day, a rare invitation to speak from the Senate floor was afforded by Republican Senate Majority Leader Senator David L. Williams of Cumberland County as part of the Senate's unanimously passed bipartisan resolution honoring Rogers for his service.


title: Hal Rogers

text: Rogers called a bill to reduce funding for law enforcement "the result of this new Republican majority's commitment to bring about real change in the way Washington spends the people's money".


title: Hal Rogers

text: In 2011 Rogers voted for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, which included a controversial provision that allowed the government and the military to indefinitely detain American citizens and others without trial.


title: Hal Rogers

text: Rogers, along with all other Senate and House Republicans, voted against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.


title: Hal Rogers

text: Rogers has been widely criticized by both liberal and conservative pundits for his priorities when it comes to national security. "National Review" called him "a national disgrace" and "Rolling Stone" named him one of America's "Ten Worst Congressmen", calling him "Bin Laden's Best Friend" for steering federal homeland security money away from large cities to his home district, which critics claim is one of the least likely terrorist targets in America because of its lack of any notable monuments or population centers. In 2007 Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington named Rogers to its list of the Most Corrupt Members of Congress.


title: Hal Rogers

text: On May 14, 2006, the "New York Times" reported that Rogers had used his legislative position, as chairman of the House subcommittee that controls the Homeland Security budget, to create "jobs in his home district and profits for companies that are donors to his political causes".


title: Hal Rogers

text: The "Lexington Herald-Leader" in 2005 called Rogers the "Prince of Pork". The "Times" article reported that Rogers had inserted language ("existing government card issuance centers") into appropriations bills that effectively pushed the federal government into testingat a cost of $4millionolder, inappropriate technology for a new fraud-resistant green card for permanent legal immigrants, at a production plant in Corbin, Kentucky, within Rogers's district. The study concluded that the smart card approach was far superior. The "New York Times" found that Rogers had received about $100,000 in contributions from parties with at least some ties to the identification card effort.


title: Hal Rogers

text: In response to these critics, Rogers said, "It should surprise no one that this article from "Rolling Stone" regarding my activity in connection with the Transportation Worker Identity Card (TWIC) is grossly incorrect, and highly slanderous ... A true and honest analysis would reveal that my sole interest in TWIC is simply to protect America's seaports, airports, and other transportation facilities from terrorist penetration. To purport that my actions have compromised national security in an effort to bring jobs to Kentucky or for personal gain is an absolute lie."


title: Hal Rogers

text: After Iran objected to the interim deployment of an Afloat Forward Staging Base to counter their threats to close the Persian Gulf, Rogers cut the funding for the project.


title: Hal Rogers

text: Rogers faced some criticism after he reportedly poked his colleague and Congressional Black Caucus Chair Joyce Beatty in the back and told her to "kiss my ass" after she asked him to put on a mask, as required on the United States Capitol subway system where the incident occurred. Rogers soon issued an apology to Beatty.


title: Hal Rogers

text: On June 12, 2013, the White House threatened to veto the MilCon/VA spending bill because Republicans did not agree with the Senate's number of $1.058trillion intended for military operations and research, after the MilCon/VA bill received 421 bipartisan votes in House. "We're marking up to $967billion, the top line under current law," said Rogers, as chairman of United States House Committee on Appropriations.


title: Hal Rogers

text: On January 15, 2013, Rogers introduced H.R. 298, officially titled "To direct the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a special resource study to evaluate the significance of the Mill Springs Battlefield located in Pulaski and Wayne Counties, Kentucky, and the feasibility of its inclusion in the National Park System, and for other purposes". The bill would direct the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a special resource study to evaluate the significance of the Mill Springs Battlefield in Kentucky (relating to the Battle of Mill Springs fought on January 19, 1862, in Pulaski and Wayne Counties during the Civil War) and the feasibility of its inclusion in the National Park System (NPS). Rogers said, "the Battle of Mill Springs is a source of great pride and interest to the people I serve." Rogers argued that the Battlefield was a "jewel" and would be "an excellent addition to the National Park Service".


title: Hal Rogers

text: On March 5, 2014, Rogers introduced the To provide for the costs of loan guarantees for Ukraine (H.R. 4152; 113th Congress) into the House. The bill would provide loan guarantees to Ukraine of up to $1billion, part of the American response to the 2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine. The bill passed in the House on March 6, 2014.


title: Hal Rogers

text: In 2014 Rogers's committee called for cuts in the National Nuclear Security Administration budget that cast doubt on the Navy's ability to provide an Ohio Replacement Submarine class.


title: Hal Rogers

text: On July 29, 2014, Rogers introduced the Making supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2014 (H.R. 5230; 113th Congress), a bill that would provide supplemental FY2014 appropriations to several federal agencies for expenses related to the rise in unaccompanied alien children and alien adults accompanied by an alien minor at the southwest border. The bill would also change the procedures for screening and processing unaccompanied alien children who arrive at the border from certain countries. The bill would provide $659million in supplemental funding. Rogers urged members to pass the bill, arguing that "more and more immigrants will continue to flood across the border if you fail to act" because resources were running out.


title: Hal Rogers

text: Rogers is in favor of dismantling the Home Affordable Modification Program. He opposed the GM and Chrysler bailout in 2009. He opposes regulating the subprime mortgage industry. He supports a balanced budget amendment.


title: Hal Rogers

text: In 2018, Rogers co-sponsored a bill to "strengthen school safety and security", which required a two-thirds vote for passage, given it was brought up under an expedited process. The House voted 407-10 to approve the bill, which would "provide $50million a year for a new federal grant program to train students, teachers and law enforcement on how to spot and report signs of gun violence". Named STOP (Students, Teachers, and Officers Preventing) School Violence Act, it would "develop anonymous telephone and online systems where people could report threats of violence". At the same time, it would authorize $25 million for schools to improve and harden their security, such as installing new locks, lights, metal detectors and panic buttons. A separate spending bill would be required to provide money for the grant program.


title: Hal Rogers

text: Rogers supports expanding the juvenile justice system, including renovating and hiring additional prosecutors. Rogers supports the death penalty.


title: Hal Rogers

text: Rogers supports efforts to make the English language the official language of the US. He supports building a fence along the Mexico-US border.


title: Hal Rogers

text: In July 2018, while serving temporarily as chair of the House Rules committee, Rogers rejected requests to increase federal funding for election security. The U.S. intelligence community had concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 election and that it was continuing to interfere in election systems as of July 2018.


title: Hal Rogers

text: Rogers is anti-abortion. He has a 100 percent rating from the National Right to Life Committee and a zero percent rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America for his abortion-related voting record. He is in favor of banning federal funding from supporting organizations that provide abortions, as well as federal health insurance covering abortions, unless the pregnancy is the result of rape, incest, or threatens the mother's life. He opposes embryonic stem cell research. He opposes human cloning.


title: Hal Rogers

text: Rogers has a "D" rating from NORML for his voting history regarding cannabis-related causes. Rogers opposes veterans having access to medical marijuana if recommended by their Veterans Health Administration doctor and if it is legal for medicinal purposes in their state of residence.


title: Hal Rogers

text: Rogers has a 28 percent rating from the NAACP for his civil rights voting record. He opposes affirmative action.


title: Hal Rogers

text: Rogers has a 92 percent rating from the Christian Coalition for his socially conservative voting record. He has a zero percent rating from the Human Rights Campaign regarding his voting record on LGBT rights. Rogers opposes same-sex marriage. He opposes prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation. He opposes single people and same-sex couples being allowed to adopt children. Rogers opposes classifying crimes motivated by the victim's sexual orientation as hate crimes.


title: Hal Rogers

text: Rogers had three children with his first wife, Shirley Rogers. She died of cancer in 1995. Rogers remarried. His wife is named Cynthia.