title: Phage therapy

text: As with antibiotic therapy and other methods of countering bacterial infections, endotoxins are released by the bacteria as they are destroyed within the patient (Jarisch–Herxheimer reaction). This can cause symptoms of fever; in extreme cases toxic shock (a problem also seen with antibiotics) is possible. Janakiraman Ramachandran argues that this complication can be avoided in those types of infection where this reaction is likely to occur by using genetically engineered bacteriophages which have had their gene responsible for producing endolysin removed. Without this gene, the host bacterium still dies but remains intact because the lysis is disabled. On the other hand, this modification stops the exponential growth of phages, so one administered phage means at most one dead bacterial cell. Eventually these dead cells are consumed by the normal house-cleaning duties of the phagocytes, which utilize enzymes to break down the whole bacterium and its contents into harmless proteins, polysaccharides and lipids.


title: Phage therapy

text: Temperate (or Lysogenic) bacteriophages are not generally used therapeutically, as this group can act as a way for bacteria to exchange DNA; this can help spread antibiotic resistance or even, theoretically, make the bacteria pathogenic (see Cholera). Carl Merril claimed that harmless strains of corynebacterium may have been converted into "C. diphtheriae" that "probably killed a third of all Europeans who came to North America in the seventeenth century". Fortunately, many phages seem to be lytic only with negligible probability of becoming lysogenic.


title: Phage therapy

text: Approval of phage therapy for use in humans has not been given in Western countries with a few exceptions. In the United States, Washington and Oregon law allows naturopathic physicians to use any therapy that is legal any place in the world on an experimental basis, and in Texas phages are considered natural substances and can be used in addition to (but not as a replacement for) traditional therapy (they have been used routinely in a wound care clinic in Lubbock, TX, since 2006).


title: Phage therapy

text: In 2013, "the 20th biennial Evergreen International Phage Meeting ... conference drew 170 participants from 35 countries, including leaders of companies and institutes involved with human phage therapies from France, Australia, Georgia, Poland and the United States."


title: Phage therapy

text: Since its inception in 1923, and until the 1980s, the Eliava Institute in Georgia has produced tons of therapeutic phage preparations, for the Red Army as well as for the civil sector, which led to the registration of phages for oral and topical applications as an over-the-counter product in pharmacies in several Member States of the former Soviet Union. Today, the phage production center and the pharmacy of the Eliava Institute manufacture and deliver several commercial phage preparations under a license from the Georgian government. The Ludwik Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy in Wrocław has produced numerous phage formulations for phage therapy in different hospitals in Poland, and for many decades.


title: Phage therapy

text: In France, phage therapy disappeared officially with the withdrawal of the Vidal dictionary (France's official drug directory) in 1978. The last phage preparation, produced by l'Institut du Bactériophage, was an ointment against skin infections. Phage therapy research ceased at about the same time in France, with the closure of the bacteriophage department at the Pasteur Institute. However, Professor J.-F. Vieu had collected several hundreds of phages potentially usable against staphylococci and digestive infections and the Pasteur Institutes of Paris and Lyon continued to provide these phages for medical use. As such, some hospital physicians continued to practice compassionate phage therapy until the 1990s when production eventually died out.


title: Phage therapy

text: On their rediscovery, at the end the 1990s, phage preparations were logically classified as medicines, i.e. "medicinal products" in the EU or "drugs" in the US. However, the pharmaceutical legislation that had been implemented since their disappearance from Western medicine was mainly designed to cater for industrially-made pharmaceuticals, devoid of any customization and intended for large-scale distribution, and it was not deemed necessary to provide phage-specific requirements or concessions. Today's phage therapy products need to comply with the entire battery of medicinal product licensing requirements: manufacturing according to GMP, preclinical studies, phase I, II and III clinical trials and marketing authorization. Technically, industrially produced predefined phage preparations could make it through the conventional pharmaceutical processes, minding some adaptations. However, phage specificity and resistance issues are likely to cause that these defined preparations will have a relatively short useful lifespan. In addition, it appeared that the pharmaceutical industry, the stakeholder which is foreseen to develop and market industrially-made medicines, is currently not considering phage therapy products. Yet, a handful of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) picked up the gauntlet, with the help of risk capital and/or public funding. The reality today is that decades after the renewed interest in the Western world, not one defined therapeutic phage product has made it to the EU or US markets, despite the fact that clinicians are under increasing pressure to use phages in the emergency treatment of multidrug-resistant bacterial infections.


title: Phage therapy

text: According to some, therapeutic phages should be prepared individually and kept in large phage banks, ready to be used, upon testing for effectiveness against the patient's bacterial pathogen(s). Intermediary or combined (industrially-made as well as precision phage preparations) approaches could be appropriate. However, it turns out to be difficult to reconcile the classical phage therapy concepts, which are based on the timely adaptation of phage preparations, with the current Western pharmaceutical R&D and marketing models. The repeated calls for a specific regulatory framework have not been heeded by the European policymakers, who appear to be resistant to change in this regard. A phage therapy framework based on the Biological Master File (BMF) concept has been proposed as a (European) solution to the regulatory issues, but the European regulation did not allow for an extension of this concept to biologically active substances such as phages.


title: Phage therapy

text: Meanwhile, responsible representatives from the medical, academic and regulatory communities have established some (temporary) national solutions. For instance, phage applications have been performed in Europe under the umbrella of Article 37 (Unproven Interventions in Clinical Practice) of the Helsinki Declaration. To enable the application of phage therapy after Poland had joined the EU in 2004, the Ludwik Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy in Wrocław opened its own Phage Therapy Unit (PTU). Phage therapy performed at the PTU is considered an "Experimental Treatment", covered by the adapted Act of 5 December 1996 on the Medical Profession (Polish Law Gazette, 2011, No. 277 item 1634) and Article 37 of the Declaration of Helsinki. Similarly, in the last few years, a number of phage therapy interventions have been performed in the US under the FDA's emergency Investigational New Drug (eIND) protocol.


title: Phage therapy

text: Some patients have been treated with phages under the umbrella of "compassionate use", which is a treatment option that allows a physician to use a not yet authorized medicine in desperate cases. Under strict conditions, medicines under development can be made available for use in patients for whom no satisfactory authorized therapies are available, and who cannot participate in clinical trials. In principle, this approach can only be applied to products for which earlier study results have demonstrated efficacy and safety, but have not yet been approved. Much like Article 37 of the Helsinki Declaration, the compassionate use treatment option can only be applied when the phages are expected to help in life-threatening or chronic and/or seriously debilitating diseases that are not treatable with formally approved products.


title: Phage therapy

text: In France, l'Agence Nationale de Sécurité du Médicament et des produits de santé (ANSM), the French medicine agency, has organized a specific committee "Comité Scientifique Spécialisé Temporaire (CSST)" for phage therapy, which consists of experts in various fields. Their task is to evaluate and guide each phage therapy requests that ends up at the ANSM. Phage therapy requests are discussed together with the treating physicians and a consensus advice is sent to the ANSM, which will grant permission or not. Between 2006 and 2018, 15 patients have been treated in France (11 healed) using this pathway.


title: Phage therapy

text: In Belgium, in 2016 and in response to a number of parliamentary questions, the Minister of Social Affairs and Health acknowledged that it is indeed not evident to treat phages as industrially-made drugs and therefore she proposed to investigate if the magistral preparation pathway could offer a solution. Magistral preparations (compounding pharmacies in the US) are not subjected to certain constraints such as GMP compliance and marketing authorization. As the "magistral preparation framework" was created to allow for adapted patient treatments and/or to use medicines for which there is no commercial interest, it seemed a suitable framework for precision phage therapy concepts. Magistral preparations are medicines prepared in a pharmacy in accordance with a medical prescription for an individual patient. They are made by a pharmacist (or under his/her supervision) from their constituent ingredients, according to the technical and scientific standards of pharmaceutical technology. Phage Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) to be included in magistral preparations must meet the requirements of a monograph, which describes their production and quality control testing. They must be accompanied by a certificate of analysis, issued by a "Belgian Approved Laboratory (BAL)", which has been granted an accreditation to perform batch release testing of medicinal products. Since 2019, phages are delivered in the form of magistral preparations to nominal patients in Belgium.


title: Phage therapy

text: Dozens of patients have been treated thanks to the above-mentioned national solutions. No safety issues were reported and most targeted infections seemed to have been resolved, but the diversity of these "desperate" phage therapy cases, in terms of clinical indications, involved bacterial pathogens, phage products, and treatment and sampling protocols, make it impossible to unambiguously demonstrate that the positive clinical outcomes were due to phages and the lack of control populations.


title: Phage therapy

text: It is time to find a broader solution to the phage therapy regulatory issues. Medicine agencies, such as the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are urged to build on the initiatives that were developed by some national regulatory authorities. Policymakers need to be convinced to open the door for a broad and fast (interim) solution with reduced stringency until the present-day pharmaceutical requirements can be fulfilled, which may require many years. Phage banks containing large amounts of well-characterized (e.g. host range, annotated genome map) and safe phages need to be set up. Physicians must be aware of the existence and content of these banks.


title: Phage therapy

text: Phage therapy has been a relevant mode of treatment in animals for decades. Phage therapy has been proposed as a method of treating bacterial infections in the veterinary medical field in response to the rampant use of antibiotics. Such studies investigated the applications of phage therapy in livestock species as well as companion animals. Brigham Young University has been researching the use of phage therapy to treat American foulbrood in honeybees. Phage therapy is also being investigated for potential applications in aquaculture.


title: Phage therapy

text: Phage therapy has been heavily studied for bacterial spot of stonefruit, caused by "Xanthomonas pruni" (syn. "X. campestris" pv. "pruni", syn. "X. arboricola" pv. "pruni") in "Prunus". Some treatments have been very successful.


title: Phage therapy

text: Greg Bear's 2002 novel "Vitals" features phage therapy, based on Soviet research, used to transfer genetic material.


title: Phage therapy

text: The 2012 collection of military history essays about the changing role of women in warfare, "Women in War – from home front to front line" includes a chapter featuring phage therapy: "Chapter 17: Women who thawed the Cold War".


title: Phage therapy

text: Steffanie A. Strathdee's book "The Perfect Predator: An Epidemiologist's Journey to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug", co-written with her husband Thomas Patterson, was published by Hachette Book Group in 2019. It describes Dr. Strathdee's ultimately successful attempt to introduce phage therapy as a life-saving treatment for her husband, critically ill with a completely antibiotic-resistant "Acinetobacter baumannii" infection following severe pancreatitis.


title: Triangle of Death (Iraq)

text: The Triangle of Death is a name given to a region south of Baghdad during the 2003–2011 occupation of Iraq by the U.S. and allied forces which saw major combat activity and sectarian violence from early 2003 into the fall of 2007.


title: Triangle of Death (Iraq)

text: The "Triangle of Death" (not to be confused with the much larger Sunni Triangle further north) lies between Baghdad and Al Hillah, is inhabited by one million mostly Sunni civilians, and contains several large towns in the Mahmudiya District including Yusufiyah, Mahmoudiyah, Iskandariyah, Latifiyah and Jurf Al Sakhar and hundreds of rural villages. The major terrain feature of the Triangle of Death is the Euphrates River, which borders the Triangle to the southwest. The terrain is mostly farmland, but is sliced by many irrigation ditches. These farms are usually small, being maintained by the families that own the land. The weather is generally consistent with the rest of Iraq, with the exception of increased humidity due to the area's proximity to the Euphrates River and irrigation canals used for farming.


title: Triangle of Death (Iraq)

text: Musayyib is home to the Musayyib Power Plant, which was a frequent target of insurgent attacks due to its infrastructure importance. The power plant would be capable of supplying between one quarter and one third of Iraq's electricity demands if it were fully operational. In October 2006, it was at roughly 33% of its maximum potential output. Because of the indirect fire attacks on the facility, and the kidnapping of American soldiers to the area, U.S. forces occupied Patrol Base Dragon (previously known as FOB Chosin) on the grounds of the power plant. Attacks diminished due to increased security in 2007 and with an overall increase in the security situation of Babil Governorate in 2008, the facility was closed as a U.S. base.


title: Triangle of Death (Iraq)

text: Analysts generally attributed this area's high level of violence to the tension from the majority Sunni population, the Saddam Hussein-era military industrial complex in the area (such as the al-Quds General Company for Mechanical Industries, the al-Musayyib Ammunition Depot, and the Al Qa'qaa Munitions Facility), the lack of economic alternatives to joining the insurgency, and the near-endless supply of munitions that were stored throughout the area (in part due to the looting of the munitions facilities after the fall of Hussein's government).


title: Triangle of Death (Iraq)

text: After the fall of the Ba'athist government, the area's population suffered from unemployment. One city in the north of Babil Governorate, Al Hillah, was a frequent target of insurgent attacks. On 28 February 2005, al Hillah saw the deadliest suicide bombing in the Iraq War until that point, when 125 Iraqis were killed. At 9:30 in the morning, a suicide bomber struck a crowd of recruits for police and other government jobs waiting outside for their physicals. Casualties were also suffered at a nearby vegetable market. Other suicide attacks occurred in al Hillah on 30 May 2005 (20 killed), 30 May 2006 (12 killed), and 30 August 2006 (12 killed). On 16 July 2005, the town of Musayyib was attacked in a suicide bombing in one of the most savage attacks of the war until that point, when an insurgent detonated his explosive belt in a crowded marketplace beside a fuel truck containing cooking gas, exploding the truck and killing 98 Iraqis.


title: Triangle of Death (Iraq)

text: The Triangle of Death often saw catastrophic attacks like these due to the proximity to both Baghdad and Fallujah-Ramadi area, where suicide bombers usually met before heading to their intended targets. The Triangle of Death also was used as the staging area for attacks in Baghdad, specifically the 24 October 2005 attack on the Palestine Hotel. The Triangle of Death saw several deadly sectarian attacks during the 2007 Ashura processions.


title: Triangle of Death (Iraq)

text: Even though most insurgent attacks in the Triangle of Death were against Iraqi civilian and Iraqi government forces, U.S. forces were also the target of many attacks.


title: Triangle of Death (Iraq)

text: On June 16, 2006, one American soldier (SPC David J. Babineau) was killed and two other soldiers (PFC Thomas L. Tucker and PV2 Kristian Menchaca) were kidnapped near the Jurf Al Sakhar Bridge (located on the Euphrates River in southwestern Yusufiyah) after their Humvee was attacked. Their remains were found four days later, on the side of a canal road near Patrol Base Swamp in Shakaria (approximately 10 kilometers northeast from where they were ambushed). The bodies were discovered by SFC Jason Beaton, of 3rd Platoon, B Company, 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment (101st Airborne Division). The report from the U.S. Army Graves Registration team indicated that the bodies had been dismembered, mutilated, burned and beheaded, as well as rigged with an IED between one of the victim's legs.


title: Triangle of Death (Iraq)

text: On May 12, 2007, members of Delta Company, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment (of the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division) were attacked with IED, rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire while operating in the vicinity of the Qarghouli tribe region of Yusufiyah. The ambush left five soldiers dead and three missing. The body of one of these missing soldiers, PFC Joseph Anzack, was found in the Euphrates River in Musayyib by members of D Company, 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment (Airborne) and members of the local Iraq police force. The other two missing soldiers, SGT Alex Jimenez and PFC Byron Fouty, remained missing for over a year until their remains were discovered by soldiers from 3rd platoon, A Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment "Cotton Bailers By God" west of the town of Jurf Al Sakhar.


title: Triangle of Death (Iraq)

text: Numerous units were stationed in the Triangle of Death from 2003. Initial deployments began with occupation of small towns and roads, sometimes in individual houses and temporarily abandoned schools, but later expanded to extensive troop commitments and culminated in 2007 with multiple brigades incurring 15-month deployments under the command of Multi-National Division-Central headed by 3rd Infantry Division Headquarters. Attacks dropped dramatically from the spring through fall of 2007 following the activation of Multi-National Division-Central and an increase in operational tempo following the kidnapping of soldiers from 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division, near Yusifiyah in May 2007. Another contributing factor to the decline in violence was the implementation of "concerned citizen" groups in the region conducting their own patrols of several tribal areas.


title: Triangle of Death (Iraq)

text: The towns and villages of the Triangle of Death are under the control of the Iraqi Government following many battles to regain control over the area of which Operation Ashura was the most significant.


title: Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar)

text: Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) is separatist political party led by Simranjit Singh Mann, it is a splinter group of the Shiromani Akali Dal. Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) was formed on the 1st of May 1994.


title: Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar)

text: The party's most significant success was in the 1989 Indian general elections when they won 6 out of the 13 seats in Punjab. The party espouses the ideology of Punjabiyat and Sikh nationalism. Moreover, the party won the parliamentary seat of Sangrur in 1999 and the 2022 Sangrur (by-elections). Upon winning the seat in 2022, Simranjit Singh Mann gave credit to Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. Also, Mann emphasized his priority will be to "work with the Punjab government" to "raise the poor economic condition of Sangrur including the condition of farmers under debt".


title: Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar)

text: Akali politics in post-colonial India have organized around advancing and protecting Sikh political and cultural interests and Punjabi language. By 1973, the Akali's adopted the Anandpur Sahib Resolution a document which advanced a desire for increasing regional autonomy within India's centralized structure of governance, as well as various socio political conerens.


title: Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar)

text: From 1975 to 1977, the president of India, Indira Gandhi would institute a state of emergency suspending elections and civil liberties. During the early phases of the emergency, Akali and Sikh parties would meet in Amritsar to resist the "fascist tendency of the Congress". The Akali Dal would launch the "Campaign to Save Democracy". However, the period would see widespread human rights abuses including the mass detention of dissidents and opposition; forced sterilizations; constitutional modifications; demolition of homes and displacement of people and suspension of the press.


title: Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar)

text: Following the end of the emergency from 1977 to 1984, the Akali Dal would be re-elected in Punjab and constitute the main opposition to the Indira Gandhi-led Congress government. The period would see an increase in Punjabi nationalism. The party would continue to organize around the adoption of the Anandpur Sahib Resolution. The central government would treat the Anandpur Sahib Resolution as a secessionist document, eventually culminating in Operation Blue Star, an invasion of Harmindar Sahib on June 1, 1984. The operation would result in mass civilian casualties and precipitate an insurgency in Punjab for the formation of Khalistan. The Khalistan movement would be brutally suppressed by the central Indian state leading to mass human rights violations including extrajudicial executions, torture, and mass detention.


title: Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar)

text: On May 1, 1994, the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) would split from the traditional Shiromani Akali Dal. While there are overlaps in ideology between the two parties, the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) remains more radical than its predecessor. The party continues to advocate for the formation of Khalistan and increasing the autonomy of the state of Punjab. Moreover, the party continues to advocate for the Anandpur Sahib Resolution which proposed several religious, economic and political aims for the state of Punjab. The party opposes the Sutlej Yamuna Link canal noting the canal violates the state's riparian water rights and will accelerate ongoing desertification. The party has also been critical of extrajudicial killings, torture and genocide of Sikhs by governmental authorities in the 1980-90s.


title: Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar)

text: In short, the Anandpur Sahib Resolution aimed to: reiterate the separateness of the Sikh tradition from Hinduism; increase the devolution of power from the central government to the states, to provide states with more autonomy; eradicate poverty and starvation through increased production and a more equitable distribution of wealth and also the establishment of a just social order sans exploitation of any kind; remove discrimination on the basis of caste, creed or any other ground; and combat disease and ill health by reducing the use of intoxicants and provision of full facilities for the growth of physical well-being.


title: Parmalee

text: Parmalee is an American country music band consisting of brothers Matt Thomas (lead vocals, guitar) and Scott Thomas (drums), along with their cousin Barry Knox (bass) and Josh McSwain (guitar), who is a best friend since childhood. They are signed to the Stoney Creek division of BBR Music Group and have released three studio albums: "Feels Like Carolina," "27861," and "For You". The band has made eight entries on the "Billboard" Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts, with three number one singles on the latter: "Carolina" in 2013, "Just the Way", a collaboration with Blanco Brown, in 2021, and "Take My Name" in 2022. Two more singles have reached the Top 10: "Close Your Eyes" (No. 4, 2014) and "Already Callin' You Mine" (No. 10, 2015).


title: Parmalee

text: Prior to the formation of Parmalee, Matt and Scott performed with their father in a group entitled Jerry Thomas and the Thomas Brothers Band. When their father retired, they wanted to continue playing music so they started Parmalee, consisting of Matt and Scott Thomas, Josh McSwain, and Barry Knox. Their first EP was titled "Daylight". The band drew attention from producer David Bendeth of RCA. Bendeth invited them to record three songs at Water Music Studios in Hoboken, New Jersey, which led to a publishing deal with Los Angeles-based Windswept Publishing. Then came an invitation from Bendeth to record the remainder of the 12 songs that comprise the band's full-length debut album, "Inside". Following the release, Parmalee spent nearly 2 years touring and promoting their album.


title: Parmalee

text: Parmalee also released a live acoustic album entitled "Unplugged" and a documentary-style DVD, "Inside Live". In 2006, they went to Los Angeles to begin recording with producer Stevo Bruno. They split their time between touring the East Coast and recording in California. They recorded the majority of the tracks in Los Angeles (Nikki Sixx, bassist of Mötley Crüe, collaborated with Parmalee on several tracks, both writing and producing), then travelled to Nashville to write, produce, and mix the remainder of the record with producer Kevin Beamish. Parmalee released the EP "Complicated" in 2008.


title: Parmalee

text: In 2010, the band were victims of an attempted robbery. They had just finished playing at The Money, a bar in Rock Hill, South Carolina, on September 21, and were in their RV when Dytavis Hinton and Demorrio Burris entered the vehicle with a handgun demanding money. Drummer Scott Thomas came out from the back of the bus with his own gun and told them to leave. According to the band, Burris opened fire and a gunfight erupted. Thomas was shot in the leg, stomach, and chest. Burris was killed and Hinton wounded in the lower half of his body. Both wounded men were transported to the Carolinas Medical Center. Thomas remained in critical condition after the gunshot wound and was hospitalized in Charlotte, North Carolina, for 35 days, ten of which he spent in a coma. Hinton pleaded guilty to attempted murder, burglary, attempted armed robbery, and criminal conspiracy; he was sentenced to 20 years in prison with no chance of parole. By May 2011, Thomas was well enough to get behind a drum kit for the first time and the band finally performed their promised label showcase.


title: Parmalee

text: While in Nashville, Parmalee met David Fanning from New Voice Entertainment at Sound Stage Studios. Alongside him the band recorded their hit "Musta Had a Good Time" in the back of their RV. The song led to both their production and record deals.


title: Parmalee

text: The inspiration for "Musta Had a Good Time" came right from their own lives. When the band formed, they all moved into the same house and parties happened almost every night. Scott clarifies: "I can say the car wasn't in the pool. My friend drove his truck into a small creek. That actually happened. We had to get a tractor to pull it out." And when they shot the video, another party broke out until the owner of the house where the video was being shot asked them to leave. The band got kicked out of their own video shoot. "'Musta Had a Good Time' describes that one epic party that all of us have either been to -- or hope to go to -- at some point in our lives," says Matt. "It's that one party that becomes a legend in a small town. The response that we get from fans when we play this song live is crazy -- the fans know all the words and everyone's dancing, and it becomes a party on stage and in the crowd. We're finding out that there's a lot of people out there who really like to have a good time."


title: Parmalee

text: In June 2012, the band was featured as a Billboard "Bubbling Under" artist. A live performance video for the song debuted on AOL's TheBoot.com in July 2012 and the music video debuted in August 2012.


title: Parmalee

text: They were featured as Clear Channel's NEW! Artist to Watch (Country) and the song was picked as one of CountryMusicIsLove.com's Top 15 Songs of Summer. "Taste of Country" gave the single two stars out of five.


title: Parmalee

text: Their second Stoney Creek single, "Carolina", was released to country radio on February 4, 2013. It reached number 1 on the Country Airplay chart in December 2013. The band's first album on the label, "Feels Like Carolina", was released on December 10, 2013. "Close Your Eyes" and "Already Callin' You Mine" were issued as the album's third and fourth singles, and both were top 10 hits on Country Airplay. "Roots" was released in late 2016 and served as the lead-off single to their second studio album on Stoney Creek, "27861", which was released July 21, 2017. It and "Sunday Morning" were minor top 40 hits for the band.


title: Parmalee

text: Parmalee's "Day Drinkin'" was featured second in Twisted Tea's two-part commercial series, "Unwind With a Twist". The commercial aired on February 16, 2019, during the Daytona 500.


title: Parmalee

text: The band's next BBR single was 2020's "Just the Way", a collaboration with trap artist Blanco Brown. In March 2021, this became both the band's and Brown's second number-one single.


title: Prince Michael of Prussia

text: Michael Prince of Prussia (Wilhelm Heinrich Michael Louis Ferdinand Friedrich Franz Wladimir; 22 March 1940 – 3 April 2014) was a member of the Hohenzollern dynasty which ruled Germany until the end of World War I. His great-grandfather Wilhelm II was the German Emperor and King of Prussia until 1918. Although Kaiser Wilhelm died in exile and his family was stripped of much of its wealth and recognition of its rank and titles by the German Republic, Michael spent nearly all of his life in Germany.


title: Prince Michael of Prussia

text: Michael was the second son of Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia, and Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of Russia. Both of his parents lived their early years as members of ruling imperial families that were deposed before they reached adulthood, leaving them to adjust to life in straitened circumstances, in exile or under surveillance, and sometimes in flight from their ancestral nations. The Kaiser lived in the Netherlands under banishment from Germany when Michael was born. However, by the time Michael was ten years old, both his great-grandfather and grandfather had died, leaving his father as the Hohenzollern "pater familias", whom German monarchists recognized as their rightful emperor and king. Michael was born in Berlin, but grew up in Bremen. He studied in Freiburg and worked later for several multinational corporations. He also wrote several history books.


title: Prince Michael of Prussia

text: Having made the decision to contract a non-dynastic marriage, he submitted to his father (then head of the family) a renunciation on behalf of himself and his future descendants to the family's claim to the defunct thrones of Imperial Germany and Royal Prussia, executed at Bremen on 29 August 1966. On 23 September 1966, he married in Düsseldorf Roman Catholic commoner Jutta Jörn (born in Gießen, 27 January 1943), an administrative assistant. The couple had two daughters together prior to divorcing on 18 March 1982.


title: Prince Michael of Prussia

text: On 23 June 1982, he married secondly in Bad Soden am Taunus, again non-dynastically, to Roman Catholic commoner Brigitte Dallwitz-Wegner (born in Kitzbühel, Austria, 17 September 1939 – 14 October 2016), granddaughter of German aeronautical engineer Richard Wegner von Dallwitz (1873–1945), also known as "Richard von Dallwitz-Wegner". The couple had no children.


title: Prince Michael of Prussia

text: Along with his elder brother, Michael eventually repudiated the implications of his renunciation claiming, in a lawsuit against his nephew Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia, that the forfeiture of an equal share with his siblings in the family's remaining fortune, the bulk of which had been placed in a trust for William II's heir, was discriminatory.


title: Prince Michael of Prussia

text: Michael was the godfather of Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia. He died on 3 April 2014, aged 74. Two years later, his widow, Brigitte, died by suicide.


title: Wealth tax

text: A wealth tax (also called a capital tax or equity tax) is a tax on an entity's holdings of assets. This includes the total value of personal assets, including cash, bank deposits, real estate, assets in insurance and pension plans, ownership of unincorporated businesses, financial securities, and personal trusts (a one-off levy on wealth is a capital levy). Typically, liabilities (primarily mortgages and other loans) are deducted from an individual's wealth, hence it is sometimes called a net wealth tax.


title: Wealth tax

text: Of 36 OECD countries, five had a personal wealth tax in 2017 (in 1990 there were 12 countries). One of its goals is to reduce the accumulation of wealth by individuals.


title: Wealth tax

text: Critics note that a wealth tax can have the unintended consequence of wealthy entrepreneurs and businesspeople leaving the country and moving their wealth to a more tax friendly nation. It can also serve as a disincentive for entrepreneurs that wish to create wealth in the nation that implements this tax.


title: Wealth tax

text: require declaration of the taxpayer's balance sheet (assets and liabilities), and from that ask for a tax on net worth (assets minus liabilities), as a percentage of the net worth, or a percentage of the net worth exceeding a certain level. Wealth taxes can be limited to natural persons or they can be extended to also cover legal persons such as corporations. In 1990, about a dozen European countries had a wealth tax, but by 2019, all but three had eliminated the tax because of the difficulties and costs associated with both design and enforcement. Belgium, Norway, Spain, and Switzerland are the countries that raised revenue from net wealth taxes on individuals in 2019 with net wealth taxes accounting for 1.1% of overall tax revenues in Norway, 0.55% in Spain, and 3.6% in Switzerland for 2017.


title: Wealth tax

text: According to an OECD study on wealth taxes, it is "difficult to firmly argue that wealth taxes would have negative effects on entrepreneurship. The magnitude of the effects of wealth taxes on entrepreneurship is also unclear".


title: Wealth tax

text: A 2022 study found that wealth taxes are most likely to be implemented in the aftermath of major economic recessions.


title: Wealth tax

text: Ancient Athens had a wealth tax called eisphora (see symmoria), and a wealth registry consisting of self-assessments (τίμημα), limited to the wealthiest. The registry was not very accurate.


title: Wealth tax

text: Iceland had a wealth tax until 2006 and a temporary wealth tax reintroduced in 2010 for four years. The tax was levied at a rate of 1.5% on net assets exceeding 75,000,000 kr for individuals and 100,000,000 kr for married couples.


title: Wealth tax

text: Similar to Iceland, Denmark taxed household income above a certain exemption threshold, which was about the 98th percentile of the wealth distribution, until 1997. A dozen OECD countries imposed similar taxes until the 1990s, but the Danish wealth tax was the highest of its kind. Until the late 1980s, the marginal tax rate on wealth was 2.2 percent, leading to a very high rate on the return on wealth. After minimizing the tax for some years, the Danish government eventually abolished the tax altogether in 1997.


title: Wealth tax

text: Some other European countries have discontinued this kind of tax in recent years: Germany (1997), Finland (2006), Luxembourg (2006) and Sweden (2007).


title: Wealth tax

text: In the United Kingdom and other countries, property (real estate) is often a person's main asset, and has been taxed – for example, the window tax of 1696, the rates, to some extent the Council Tax.


title: Wealth tax

text: Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders included a billionaire wealth tax in their campaign platforms during the 2020 United States Presidential Election. A February, 2020, poll found 67% of registered American voters supported a wealth tax on billionaires to reduce inequality, with support at 85% of Democrats, 66% of independent voters, and 47% of Republicans. While commentators have raised concerns:


title: Wealth tax

text: In France, the left candidate at the presidential election of 2022, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, proposed to tax the wealth income as the labour income. Also he wanted to increase inheritance tax on the highest estates by accounting for all gifts and inheritances received throughout life and create a maximum inheritance of 12 million euros (i.e. 100 times the median net wealth).


title: Wealth tax

text: In order to bridge the wealth gap between rich and poor in Germany, the Social Democratic Party of Germany called for a nationwide wealth tax to be reintroduced in 2019. According to the proposed tax reform, wealthy households would be required to pay an extra tax between 1% and 1.5%. A single household would need to pay 1% of their net worth on every euro surpassing €2 Million and married couple would have to pay for every euro surpassing €4 Million. A married household with a combined net worth of €4.2 Million would have to pay an annual wealth tax of €2,000. The proposition was eventually vetoed by the CDU/CSU and therefore never again considered.


title: Wealth tax

text: In 2014, French economist Thomas Piketty published a widely discussed book entitled "Capital in the Twenty-First Century" that starts with the observation that economic inequality is increasing and proposes wealth taxes as a countermeasure. The central thesis of the book is that inequality is not an accident, but rather a feature of capitalism, and can only be reversed through state interventionism. The book thus argues that unless capitalism is reformed, the very democratic order will be threatened. At the core of this thesis is the notion that when the rate of return on capital () is greater than the rate of economic growth () over the long term, the result is the concentration of wealth, and this unequal distribution of wealth causes social and economic instability. Piketty proposes a global system of progressive wealth taxes to help reduce inequality and avoid the trend towards a vast majority of wealth coming under the control of a tiny minority. This analysis was hailed as a major and important work by some economists. Other economists have challenged Piketty's proposals and interpretations.


title: Wealth tax

text: In 2017, when introducing the fiscal reform of the solidarity wealth tax, the government of the French president E. Macron used the first argument of capital flight. The other argument stated by the comity of evaluation of reforms on wealth fiscalism was that the previous wealth tax was not enough progressive for the top 0.1% wealthier.


title: Wealth tax

text: The “IFI” as the “ISF” are wealth tax thus they concerned high earners. A big part of people paying this tax are in the ninth decile of income distribution and the “IFI” represents one over two household in the wealthiest 0.01%. Therefore, in the general tax system, the “IFI” contributes, as did the ISF, to make the tax system more progressive. But this progressivity has limits: “the IFI represents on average 0.1% of income around the ninth decile and 1.2% of income of 0.1% of very well-off households in 2018. While the income tax rate under the ISF was stable overall, within the top 0.1% of income, the income tax rate under of the IFI declines for the wealthiest and falls to 0.6% for the top 0.01%.”


title: Wealth tax

text: Broadly, this reform largely benefits to the 0.1% wealthier and did not make this wealth tax more progressive as it was supposed to be. In fact, it reduced the number of accountable people of wealth tax leaving the country but in term of investment, the gains of this reforms has been traduced in an increasing of dividend on capital earnings (37.4 billion from non-financial society had been paid) and not on direct investment on corporate (see “Capital flight”). In average and from different studies, those fiscal reforms benefited more to top-wealthier households. For Ben Jelloul and al. (2019), the reforms benefit for the top 1% more wealthier household with +5.5 point of disposable revenue. For Madec and al. (2019) it had affected on the top 2% of the wealthier households and for Pasquier and Sicsic (2019), the 5% of the top distribution perceived 57% of the gain of the fiscal reform.


title: Wealth tax

text: Revenue from a wealth tax scheme depends largely on the presence of net wealth and wealth inequality within the target country. Revenue depends on the plan that is in place, but it generally can be modeled as formula_1, where t represents the tax rate and w is the amount of wealth affected by that tax rate. Many plans include tax brackets, where a certain portion of the individual's wealth will be taxed at a given rate and any wealth beyond that amount will be taxed at a different rate.


title: Wealth tax

text: A small number of countries have been using wealth tax regimes for some time. Revenues earned from wealth tax schemes vary by country from 0.98% of GDP in Switzerland to 0.22% in France, for example. 2020 United States presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren claimed a wealth tax plan could generate 1.4% of GDP in revenue for the United States.


title: Wealth tax

text: According to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the revenues generated from wealth taxes account for about 0.46% of all tax revenue on average in 2018 for companies which have wealth tax schemes in place. However this varies from country to country, the highest would be that of Luxembourg where it accounted for 7.18% of total tax revenue in 2018, the lowest would be Germany where it accounted for 0.03% of total tax revenue in 2018.


title: Wealth tax

text: Estimates for a wealth tax's potential revenue in the United States vary. Several Democratic presidential candidates in the 2020 election have proposed wealth tax plans. Elizabeth Warren, for example, has proposed a wealth tax of 2% on net wealth above and 6% above . The conservative-leaning nonprofit Tax Foundation estimates revenue generated by Senator Warren's proposal would total around over the next 10 years. Separate estimates from campaign advisors and economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman put the revenue at about 1% of GDP per year, in alignment with USD revenue estimates. These estimates put Senator Warren's tax plan revenues at about in 2020. The sum of United States tax revenues in 2018 were in 2018, meaning the tax collected by this plan would be equal to 4% of current tax revenues. Additionally, the Tax Foundation estimates 2020 presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders' wealth tax plan would collect between 2020 and 2029.


title: Wealth tax

text: Previous proposals for a wealth tax in the United States had already existed. Senator Huey Long of Louisiana proposed a wealth tax as part of his Share Our Wealth movement in 1934. Eileen Myles proposed a net assets tax in her presidential campaign in 1992, as did Donald Trump during his presidential campaign in 2000.


title: Wealth tax

text: A net wealth tax may also be designed to be revenue-neutral if it is used to broaden the tax base, stabilize the economy, and reduce individual income and other taxes.


title: Wealth tax

text: A wealth tax serves as a negative reinforcer ("use it or lose it"), which incentivizes the productive use of assets (rather than letting assets accumulate without being used). According to University of Pennsylvania Law School professors David Shakow and Reed Shuldiner, "a wealth tax also taxes capital that is not productively employed. Thus, a wealth tax can be viewed as a tax on potential income from capital." Net wealth taxes can complement rather than replace gift taxes, capital gains taxes, and inheritance taxes to increase administrability and the effectiveness of enforcement efforts.


title: Wealth tax

text: In their article, "Investment Effects of Wealth Taxes Under Uncertainty and Irreversibility," Rainer Niemann and Caren Sureth-Sloane found that the effects of wealth taxation on investment mainly depends upon the tax method employed and the broadness of the wealth threshold for taxation. Niemann and Sureth-Sloane found that, "Broadening the wealth tax base tends to accelerate investment during high interest rate periods." Caren Sureth and Ralf Maiterth concluded that wealth tax revenues from entrepreneurs may decrease in the long term and the revenue from a wealth tax may be negative if the wealth taxation thresholds are too low.


title: Wealth tax

text: Saez and Zucman are two economists that worked on the "Ultra-Millionaire Tax" proposed by Senator Elizabeth Warren. In their paper, "Progressive Wealth Taxation," they assert that a potential wealth tax in the United States needs necessary parameters to limit detrimental effects on investment. One parameter is a high wealth threshold to limit direct taxation on small business and entrepreneurship. The academic literature on the effects of wealth taxation on investment incentives are inconclusive in the United States; Saez and Zucman assert there are three reasons wealth taxes in European countries are weak comparisons to the United States when analyzing potential effects on investment. First, they claim tax competition between European countries allows for individuals to avoid taxation by allocating assets to a different country. Reallocating assets to avoid taxation is more difficult in the United States because tax filings apply equally to United States citizens no matter the country of current residence. Second, low exemption thresholds caused liquidity problems for some individuals who were on the lower end of wealth taxation thresholds. Third, they contend European wealth taxes need modernization and improved methods for systematic information gathering.


title: Wealth tax

text: Further proponents for a wealth tax claim it could have positive effects on investment in the United States. Some extremely wealthy people use their assets in unproductive ways. For example, an entrepreneur could generate much higher returns (though could conversely lose much more capital operating on leverage) than a wealthy individual with a conservative investment such as United States Treasury Bonds.


title: Wealth tax

text: A wealth tax could lead to negative effects on investment, saving, and economic growth. In the article, "Economic effects of wealth taxation," Kyle Pomerleau states, "A wealth tax, even levied at an apparently low annual rate, places a significant burden on saving." The degree of this impact on savings and investments is reliant on the openness of the United States economy. A wealth tax would shrink national saving and increase foreign ownership of assets. The potential decrease in national savings leads to a decrease in capital stock. An estimate from the Penn Wharton Budget Model indicates that if the revenue from the wealth tax proposed by Elizabeth Warren were used to finance non-productive government spending, GDP would decrease by 2.1 percent by 2050, capital stock would decrease by 6.5 percent, and wages would decrease by 2.3 percent. Some opponents also point out that redistribution through a wealth tax is an inherently counterintuitive way to foster economic growth. Richard Epstein, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, contents, "The classical liberal approach wants to simplify taxation and reduce regulation to spur growth. Plain old growth is a much better social tonic that the toxic Warren Wealth Tax."


title: Wealth tax

text: Unlike property taxes that fall on the full value of a property, a net wealth tax only taxes equity (value above debt). This could benefit those with mortgages, student loans, automobile loans, consumer loans, etc.


title: Wealth tax

text: There are many arguments against the implementation of a wealth tax, including claims that a wealth tax would be unconstitutional (in the United States), that property would be too hard to value, and that wealth taxes would reduce the rate of innovation.


title: Wealth tax

text: A 2006 article in "The Washington Post" titled "Old Money, New Money Flee France and Its Wealth Tax" pointed out some of the harm caused by France's wealth tax. The article gave examples of how the tax caused capital flight, brain drain, loss of jobs, and, ultimately, a net loss in tax revenue. Among other things, the article stated, "Éric Pichet, author of a French tax guide, estimates the wealth tax earns the government about a year but has cost the country more than in capital flight since 1998."


title: Wealth tax

text: In fact the wealth tax named "Impôt sur les Grandes Fortunes" (IGF) ["tax on great wealth"] had been created in 1980, then suppressed in 1986 before finally being reintroduced in 1988 under the name “Impôt de Solidarité sur la Fortune” (ISF) ["solidarity tax on wealth"]. In 1999 a new higher tax category was added which increased the money collected from 0.09% of GDP in 1990 to 0.16% in 2004.


title: Wealth tax

text: For example, in 2003, 370 ISF’s accountables people left France and it continued to grow year by year except between 2010 and 2011 when the tax threshold has been raised and accountable people were discarded from it. This capital flight only decrease after 2015 and in 2017 when the French government announced that it will suppress this tax. After the reforms implementation, there were only 163 departures of wealth tax people in 2018


title: Wealth tax

text: The capital flight was one of the argument to reforms the wealth tax. After 2017, in the financial law of 2018, the new wealth tax was introduced with other tax reforms. The fiscal reform thus included a unique forfeit tax on saving, combined with the replacement of ISF by the IFI “Impôt sur la Fortune Immobilière” (IFI) which reduce the wealth tax to real-estate propriety only and finally a decrease of the corporate tax. This argument of capital flight takes its roots on an economic theory, the runoff theory. By decreasing the wealth tax, the wealth households are supposed to come back inside the country to invest and thus raised the GDP growth which will have effect on all the population by reducing unemployment and boost the economy. In France, the fiscal reform did not have the expected effects of runoff. In fact, the capital flight due to wealth tax household leaving only represented 0.3% and 0.5% of the total amount of money collected by the solidarity tax on wealth, between 2004 and 2015. On the other hand, this decrease of the wealth tax represented an income loss of 2.9 billion for the state


title: Wealth tax

text: In term of investment, there were fewer invest in real-estate from people accountable of wealth tax. However, this movement could be explained more by the increase in household income, the low level of interest rates on mortgage loans and the general dynamics of the real estate market than by a sale, on the part of wealthy households, of property subject to the IFI for the benefit of investments in transferable securities, therefore the result in investment on corporate are not significant. Moreover, the fiscal reform on wealth tax had an insignificant level at the macroeconomic level for the corporate funds. For example, in 2020 for the non-financial society, the part of listed and non-listed share has been lower from the average of the previous period 2001-2019. It is also hard to measure the effect on corporate investment because of the Covid-19 crises which caused a shut-down of the economy in 2020.


title: Wealth tax

text: In 2012, the "Wall Street Journal" wrote that: "the wealth tax has a fatal flaw: valuation. It has been estimated that 62% of the wealth of the top 1% is "non-financial" – i.e., vehicles, real estate, and (most importantly) private business. Private businesses account for nearly 40% of their wealth and are the largest single category." A particular issue for small business owners is that they cannot accurately value their private business until it is sold. Furthermore, business owners could easily make their businesses look much less valuable than they really are, through accounting, valuations and assumptions about the future. "Even the rich don't know exactly what they're worth in any given moment."


title: Wealth tax

text: Examples of such fraud and malfeasance were revealed in 2013, when French budget minister Jérôme Cahuzac was discovered shifting financial assets into Swiss bank accounts in order to avoid the wealth tax. After further investigation, a French finance ministry official said, "A number of government officials minimised their wealth, by negligence or with intent, but without exceeding 5–10 per cent of their real worth ... however, there are some who have deliberately tried to deceive the authorities." Yet again, in October 2014, France's Finance chairman and President of the National Assembly, Gilles Carrez, was found to have avoided paying the French wealth tax (ISF) for three years by applying a 30 percent tax allowance on one of his homes. However, he had previously converted the home into an SCI, a private, limited company to be used for rental purposes. The 30 percent allowance does not apply to SCI holdings. Once this was revealed, Carrez declared, "if the tax authorities think that I should pay the wealth tax, I won't argue." Carrez is one of more than 60 French parliamentarians battling with the tax offices over 'dodgy' asset declarations.


title: Wealth tax

text: Moreover, this problem of wealth devaluation is undermined by the administration itself. For example, in France in 1999, the government introduced the notion of “the measured application of the tax law”. But this application of the law is mostly reserved for the self-declared tax, like the wealth tax. Its mean that if there is a fraud in the declaration, there will be no sanction if the household concerned correct his mistake, even if it might have been done in purpose.


title: Wealth tax

text: This flexibility granted to self-declared taxes is indeed unequal. In fact the other tax that concerned most of the households, like income taxes, can’t be self-declared and this fraud flexibility benefits only to the richer household. More broadly, this self-declaration tax has developed what the sociologist Alexis Spire called “tax law domestication”, which enable richest part of the population to employed fiscal specialist to optimize their declaration and minimize the amount of the wealth tax. Once again those opportunity of optimization, as the flexibility in sanctions are unequally distributed in the tax spectrum and thus in the different part of the population.


title: Wealth tax

text: Opponents of wealth taxes have argued that there is "an undercurrent of envy in the campaign against extremes of wealth." Two Yale University/London School of Economics studies (2006, 2008) on relative income yielded results asserting that 50 percent of the public would prefer to earn less money, as long as they earned as much or more than their neighbor.


title: Wealth tax

text: Many analysts and scholars assert that since wealth taxes are a form of direct asset collection, as well as double-taxation, they are antithetical to personal freedom and individual liberty. They further contend that free nations should have no business helping themselves arbitrarily to the personal belongings of any group of its citizens. Further, these opponents may say wealth taxes place the authority of the government ahead of the rights of the individual, and ultimately undermine the concept of personal sovereignty. "The Daily Telegraph" editor Allister Heath critically described wealth taxes as Marxian in concept and ethically destructive to the values of democracies, "Taxing already acquired property drastically alters the relationship between citizen and state: we become leaseholders, rather than freeholders, with accumulated taxes over long periods of time eventually "returning" our wealth to the state. It breaches a key principle that has made this country great: the gradual expansion of property ownership and the democratisation of wealth."


title: Wealth tax

text: In 2004, a study by the Institut de l'enterprise investigated why several European countries were eliminating wealth taxes and made the following observations: 1. Wealth taxes contributed to capital drain, promoting the flight of capital as well as discouraging investors from coming in. 2. Wealth taxes had high management cost and relatively low returns. 3. Wealth taxes distorted resource allocation, particularly involving certain exemptions and unequal valuation of assets. In its summary, the institute found that the "wealth taxes were not as equitable as they appeared".


title: Wealth tax

text: In a 2011 study, the London School of Economics examined wealth taxes that were being considered by the Labour party in the United Kingdom between 1974 and 1976 but were ultimately abandoned. The findings of the study revealed that the British evaluated similar programs in other countries and determined that the Spanish wealth tax may have contributed to a banking crisis and the French wealth tax had been undergoing review by its government for being unpopular and overly complex. As efforts progressed, concerns were developing over the practicality and implementation of wealth taxes as well as worry that they would undermine confidence in the British economy. Eventually, plans were dropped. Former British Chancellor Denis Healey concluded that attempting to implement wealth taxes was a mistake, "We had committed ourselves to a Wealth Tax: but in five years I found it impossible to draft one which would yield enough revenue to be worth the administrative cost and political hassle." The conclusion of the study stated that there were lingering questions, such as the impacts on personal saving and small business investment, consequences of capital flight, complexity of implementation, and ability to raise predicted revenues that must be adequately addressed before further consideration of wealth taxes.


title: Wealth tax

text: In part because a wealth tax has never been implemented in the United States, there is no legal consensus about its constitutionality. As evidenced below, much scholarly debate on the topic hinges on whether or not such a tax is understood to be a "direct tax," per Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution, which requires that the burden of "direct taxes" be apportioned across the states by their population.


title: Wealth tax

text: Barry L. Isaacs interprets current case law in the United States to hold that a wealth tax is a direct tax under Article 1, Section 9. Given the extreme difficulty of apportioning a wealth tax by state population, the implementation of a wealth tax in the United States would require either a constitutional amendment or the overturning of current case law. Unlike federal wealth taxes, states and localities are not bound by Article 1, Section 9, which is why they are able to levy taxes on real estate.


title: Wealth tax

text: Other legal scholars have argued that a wealth tax does not represent a direct tax and that such a tax could be implemented in the United States without a constitutional amendment. In a lengthy essay from 2018, authors in the "Indiana Journal of Law" argued that "... the belief that the U.S. Constitution effectively makes a national wealth tax impossible ... is wrong." The authors noted that in the 1796 Supreme Court decision for "Hylton v. United States", Supreme Court justices who had personally taken part in the creation of the U.S. Constitution "unanimously rejected a challenge to the constitutionality of an annual tax on carriages, a tax akin to a national wealth tax in that it taxed a luxury property." However, Alexander Hamilton, who supported the carriage tax, told the Supreme Court that it was constitutional because it was an "excise tax", not a direct tax. Hamilton's brief defines direct taxes as "Capitation or poll taxes, taxes on lands and buildings, general assessments, whether on the whole property of individuals or on their whole real or personal estate" which would include the wealth tax. Tax scholars have repeatedly noted that the critical difference between income taxes and wealth taxes, the realization requirement, is a matter of administrative convenience, not a constitutional requirement.


title: Wealth tax

text: To prevent capital flight, proponents of wealth taxes have argued for the implementation of a one-time exit tax on high net worth individuals who renounce their citizenship and leave the country. An additional constitutional objection to such a tax could be raised on the grounds that it violates the takings clause of the Fifth Amendment, which prohibits the federal government from taking private property for public use without just compensation.


title: Wealth tax

text: The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany in Karlsruhe found that wealth taxes "would need to be confiscatory in order to bring about any real redistribution". In addition, the court held that the sum of wealth tax and income tax should not be greater than half of a taxpayer's income. "The tax thus gives rise to a dilemma: either it is ineffective in fighting inequalities, or it is confiscatory – and it is for that reason that the Germans chose to eliminate it." Thus, finding such wealth taxes unconstitutional in 1995. In 2006, the Constitutional Court revised this decision on the so-called "Halbteilungsgrundsatz", stating that "From the property guarantee of the Basic Law, no generally binding absolute upper limit of taxation in the vicinity of a half division can be derived."


title: Terminal degree

text: A terminal degree is a college degree that is the highest level college degree that can be achieved and awarded in a specific academic or professional field. In other cases, it is a degree that is awarded when a candidate completes a certain amount of coursework but cannot continue to doctoral studies. For certain professions and research grants, a terminal degree is a minimum eligibility requirement.


title: Terminal degree

text: An earned academic (or research) doctorate such as a Ph.D., Ed.D. or D.B.A. is considered the terminal degree in most academic fields, as well as the most advanced degree possible, advancing the boundaries of human knowledge through research and dissertation defense, in the United States. However, professional doctorates may be considered terminal degrees within the professional degree track, even though they are prerequisites for research degrees, for example, Doctor of Medicine (MD) or Juris Doctor (JD) in the United States. The phrase "terminal degree" is used heavily in the United States, but is used less in other countries. The term is not generally used in the United Kingdom or Canada, for example, and its exact meaning varies somewhat between those areas and disciplines in which the term is used. In some countries there are degrees which are more advanced than the PhD, such as the higher doctorates in the United Kingdom and Russia, and the habilitation degree awarded in Germany and Austria.


title: Terminal degree

text: Not all terminal degrees are doctorates. For example, in professional practice fields there are often terminal master-level degrees, some which are called doctorates e.g. MEng (Master of Engineering), MLArch standing for Master Landscape Architect or BEng for Engineers, MB (Bachelor of Medicine (UK)). Architecture was a discipline where the M.Arch was considered terminal as a professionally oriented degree, but a Doctor of Architecture (D.Arch) that is recognized by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) establishes the doctoral level as the highest level of "professional degree" in architecture in the United States. For the same discipline of Architecture, the "Laurea di Dottore" is the terminal degree in Italy. Interior design and Interior Architecture have terminal master-level degrees such as MID, MA, MS interior design education. Most non-doctoral degrees are not terminal in academic terms, with the exception of the Master of Fine Arts (MFA), an academically recognized terminal degree given to practitioners in the fine arts and performing arts. The Master of Business Administration is also considered a terminal professional degree.


title: Terminal degree

text: In academic fields, the typical terminal degree is that of Doctor of Philosophy, although others also exist. The first phase of the Ph.D. consists of coursework in the student's field of study and requires one to three years to complete. This is often followed by a preliminary or comprehensive examination and/or a series of cumulative examinations, in which the emphasis is on breadth rather than depth of knowledge. Finally, another two to four years is usually required for the composition of a substantial and original contribution to human knowledge embodied in a written dissertation that in the social sciences and humanities is typically 250 to 450 pages in length. Dissertations generally consist of (i) a comprehensive literature review, (ii) an outline of methodology, and (iii) several chapters of scientific, social, historical, philosophical, or literary analysis. Typically, upon completion, the candidate undergoes an oral examination, sometimes public, by his or her supervisory committee with expertise in the given discipline.


title: Terminal degree

text: A professional degree is a degree that is required, often by law as in the case of medical and other clinical professions, that must be earned first before the holder of the degree can practice in the profession. A speech-language pathologist, for example, must hold a master's degree in communicative disorders: speech-language pathology in order to practice. However, an actor does not need a degree to act, even though there are degrees for acting available. In some fields, especially those linked to a profession (such as medicine, law or teaching), a distinction is to be drawn between a professional degree, an advanced degree and terminal degree. A first professional degree is generally required by law or custom to practice the profession without limitation. An advanced professional degree provides further training in a specialized area of the profession. A first professional degree is an academic degree designed to prepare the holder for a particular career or profession, fields in which scholarly research and academic activity are not the profession, but rather the practice of the profession. In many cases such as law, medicine and teaching, the first professional degree is also terminal, usually because no further advanced degree is required for practice in that field, even though more advanced academic degrees may exist.


title: Middletown, Ohio

text: Middletown is a city located in Butler and Warren counties in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio, about 35 miles (47 km) north of Cincinnati. The population as of the 2020 census was 50,987. It is part of the Cincinnati metropolitan area.


title: Middletown, Ohio

text: Formerly in Lemon, Turtlecreek, and Franklin townships, Middletown was incorporated by the Ohio General Assembly on February 11, 1833, and became a city in 1886. The city was the home of AK Steel Holding Corporation (formerly Armco), a major steel works founded in 1900. Although offices were moved to nearby West Chester Township in 2007, the AK Steel factory is still in Middletown. Middletown is also home to Hook Field Municipal Airport (airport code MWO), which was formerly served by commercial airlines but is currently only for general aviation. A regional campus of Miami University is located in Middletown. In 1957, Middletown was designated as an All-America City.


title: Middletown, Ohio

text: The city's name is believed to have been given by its founder, Stephen Vail, but questions remain unanswered as to why. One local historian stated that the city received its name because Vail had come from Middletown, New Jersey. Another writer believed that the city was named Middletown because it was the midway point of navigation on the Great Miami River, which was then considered a navigable stream. Another theory is credited to the city being roughly halfway between Dayton and Cincinnati. Vail centered the city in Fractional Section 28 of Town 2, Range 4 North. One of the first settlers in Middletown was Daniel Doty, who migrated there from New Jersey in the late 18th century.


title: Middletown, Ohio

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water.


title: Middletown, Ohio

text: Middletown adjoins the Great Miami River. Middletown also borders the cities of Franklin, Monroe, Trenton, and Liberty and Madison Townships.


title: Middletown, Ohio

text: As of the census of 2020, there were 50,987 people in 20,057 households in the city. The population density was . The racial makeup of the city was 81.3% White, 11.2% African American, 0.0% Native American, 0.7% Asian, 0.1 % Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander and 5.3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.1% of the population.


title: Middletown, Ohio

text: There were 20,057 households with an average 2.39 people living in each, 81% of whom had lived in the same house for at least 1 year. 85% of residents were high school graduates, and 15.6% had received Bachelor's degrees or higher. 6.2% of residents were under the age of 6, 22.5% of residents were under the age of 18, and 17.2% were over the age of 65. The gender makeup of the city was 52.3% female and 47.7% male. The percentage of persons under 65 with a disability was 16.8%.


title: Middletown, Ohio

text: The median household income was $42,290, and the annual per capita income average was $24,184. Approximately 22.5% of persons were below the poverty line. The average travel time to work was 23.1 minutes. 59.2% of residents worked in the civilian labor force, 54.5% of whom were female.


title: Middletown, Ohio

text: As of the census of 2010, there were 48,694 people, 20,238 households, and 12,505 families living in the city. The population density was . There were 23,296 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 83.3% White, 11.7% African American, 0.2% Native American, 0.5% Asian, 1.6% from other races, and 2.7% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.8% of the population.


title: Middletown, Ohio

text: There were 20,238 households, of which 31.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.9% were married couples living together, 18.1% had a female householder with no husband present, 5.8% had a male householder with no wife present, and 38.2% were non-families. 31.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.38 and the average family size was 2.97.


title: Middletown, Ohio

text: The median age in the city was 38.3 years. 24.3% of residents were under the age of 18; 9% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 24.7% were from 25 to 44; 27.1% were from 45 to 64; and 14.9% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 47.5% male and 52.5% female.


title: Middletown, Ohio

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 51,605 people, 21,469 households, and 13,933 families living in the city. The population density was 2,011.4 people per square mile (776.5/km). There were 23,144 housing units at an average density of 902.1 per square mile (348.2/km). The racial makeup of the city was 86.98% White, 10.59% African American, 0.25% Native American, 0.37% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.36% from other races, and 1.42% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.89% of the population.


title: Middletown, Ohio

text: There were 21,469 households, out of which 29.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.9% were married couples living together, 14.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.1% were non-families. 29.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.38 and the average family size was 2.94.


title: Middletown, Ohio

text: In the city, the population was spread out, with 25.0% under the age of 18, 9.3% from 18 to 24, 29.2% from 25 to 44, 21.6% from 45 to 64, and 14.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.3 males.


title: Middletown, Ohio

text: The median income for a household in the city was $36,215, and the median income for a family was $43,867. Males had a median income of $35,705 versus $23,865 for females. The per capita income for the city was $19,773. About 9.2% of families and 12.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 18.4% of those under age 18 and 9.4% of those age 65 or over.


title: Middletown, Ohio

text: Ohio State Route 4 runs north-south through Middletown. Ohio State Route 73 and Ohio State Route 122 run east-west through the city. Ohio Route 122 accesses Interstate 75 running to the east of Middletown.


title: Middletown, Ohio

text: Middletown had multiple railroad stations serving the different railroads running through the city, Baltimore and Ohio, Erie Railroad, New York Central (earlier, the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway) and Pennsylvania Railroad. The last passenger trains were the Baltimore and Ohio's "Cincinnatian" and Penn Central's Cincinnati-Columbus train, both ending in 1971.


title: Middletown, Ohio

text: J. D. Vance describes his life in Middletown in "Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis" (2016). His family had moved there from Jackson, Kentucky and became caught in the problems of industrial restructuring and loss of jobs.


title: Middletown, Ohio

text: Bristol Palin wrote negatively about a 2008 visit to Middletown in her autobiography "Not Afraid of Life: My Journey So Far" (2017).


title: Middletown, Ohio

text: Kimmy Schmidt from the eponymous Netflix show falsely claims she is from Middletown, Ohio, in Season 1, Episode 3. Xanthippe looks it up on her phone, expecting Kimmy has made the place up, but is irritated to find that such a place exists.


title: Middletown, Ohio

text: Middletown, Ohio is the home town of James Donovan Halliday, the creator of the OASIS in Ready Player One.


title: Shibden Hall

text: Shibden Hall is a Grade II* listed historic house located in a public park at Shibden, West Yorkshire, England. The building has been extensively modified from its original design by generations of residents, although its Tudor half-timbered frontage remains its most recognisable feature.


title: Shibden Hall

text: One of its most notable residents was Anne Lister who inherited the hall from a relative. Lister has been described as being the "first modern lesbian" due to her "love... [of] the fairer sex" that she documented in her diaries.


title: Shibden Hall

text: The hall dates back to around 1420, when it was recorded as being inhabited by one William Otes. Prior to 1619, the estate was owned by the Savile and Waterhouse families. The three families' armorial symbols are recorded in a stone-mullioned 20-light window at the hall.


title: Shibden Hall

text: For more than 300 years (c. 1615–1926) the Shibden estate was in the hands of the Lister family, wealthy mill-owners and cloth merchants, the most famous resident being Anne Lister (1791–1840), who became sole owner of the hall after the death of her aunt. She commissioned York architect John Harper and landscape gardener Samuel Gray in 1830 to make extensive improvements to the house and grounds. A gothic tower was added to the building for use as a library and the major features of the park created, including terraced gardens, rock gardens, cascades and a boating lake. A "Paisley shawl" garden designed for the terrace by Joshua Major was added in the 1850s. After Anne Lister's death in 1840 in the Caucasus, the estate passed to her partner, Ann Walker, who died in 1854. Possession then returned to the Lister family, who donated it to Halifax Corporation in 1933. In 1934 the Corporation opened it as a museum. The estate became a public park in 1926 and the hall a museum in 1934.


title: Shibden Hall

text: The property has been a Grade II* listed building since 3 November 1954. The park and gardens were restored between 2007 and 2008 with almost £3.9 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund and £1.2 million from Calderdale Council. The gardens were listed Grade II on 27 June 2000.


title: Shibden Hall

text: The hall is currently open to the public, the "West Yorkshire Folk Museum" being housed in an adjoining barn and farm buildings. The hall has a variety of restored workshops, including a brewery, a basket-weaving shop, a tannery, a stable and an extensive collection of horse-drawn carriages. The park also contains a dry stone walling exhibition, children's play area and miniature steam railway.


title: Shibden Hall

text: The hall has been used for filming the movie "Peterloo", and the 2019 and 2022 BBC/HBO television series "Gentleman Jack" about its former owner Anne Lister. As a result of the television series, watched by almost six million people each week, the hall saw a trebling of visitors, leading Calderdale Council to plan an extension of the opening times.


title: Shibden Hall

text: The oak-panelled music room contains a square piano, dated 1769, by John Pohlman, one of his oldest. The piano has never been restored, although the oak stand is not original.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: Lakewood Township is the most populous township in Ocean County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. A rapidly growing community as of the 2020 U.S. census, the township had a total population of 135,158 representing an increase of 41,415 (+45.5%) from the 92,843 counted in the 2010 census. The township ranked as the fifth-most-populous municipality in the state in 2020, after ranking seventh in 2010 and 22nd in 2000. The sharp increase in population from 2000 to 2010 was led largely by increases in the township's Orthodox Jewish and Latino communities.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: Lakewood is a hub of Orthodox Judaism and is home to Beth Medrash Govoha (BMG), the largest yeshiva outside of Israel. The large Orthodox population, which comprises more than half the township's population, strongly influences the township's culture and wields considerable political clout in the township as a voting bloc.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: The earliest documented European settlement of the present Lakewood area was by operators of sawmills, from about 1750 forward. One such sawmill—located at the east end of the present Lake Carasaljo—was known as Three Partners Mill from at least 1789 until at least 1814. From 1815 until 1818, in the same area, Jesse Richards had an iron-smelting operation known as Washington Furnace, using the local bog iron ore. The ironworks were revived in 1833 by Joseph W. Brick, who named the business Bergen Iron Works, which also became the name of the accompanying town. In 1865, the town was renamed Bricksburg in 1865, and in 1880, it was renamed Lakewood and became a fashionable winter resort.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: Lakewood's developers thought that "Bricksburg" didn't capture their vision for the community, and the names "Brightwood" and "Lakewood" were proposed. After reaching out to area residents, "Lakewood" was chosen, and the United States Postal Service approved the name in March 1880. The name "Lakewood" was intended to focus on the location near lakes and pine forests.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: Lakewood was incorporated as a township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 23, 1892, from portions of Brick Township. Portions of Howell Township in Monmouth County were annexed to Lakewood Township in 1929.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: Lakewood's three greatest hotels were the Laurel House (opened in 1880; closed in 1932), the Lakewood Hotel (opened January 1891, closed in 1925), and the Laurel-in-the-Pines (opened December 1891, burned down in 1967). Lakewood's promoters claimed that its winter temperature was usually about ten degrees warmer than that of New York City and were warmer than points located further south, but this claim is not substantiated by official records of the United States Weather Bureau. During the 1890s, Lakewood was a resort for the rich and famous, and "The New York Times" devoted a weekly column to the activities of Lakewood society. Grover Cleveland spent the winters of 1891–1892 and 1892–1893 in a cottage near the Lakewood Hotel, commuting to his business in New York City. Mark Twain also enjoyed vacationing in Lakewood. George Jay Gould I acquired an estate at Lakewood in 1896, which is now Georgian Court University. John D. Rockefeller bought a property in 1902 which later became Ocean County Park. Lakewood's hotel business remained strong in the 1920s and 1950s, but went into severe decline in the 1960s.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: In 1943, Aharon Kotler founded Beth Medrash Govoha (BMG). In time, it would grow to become the largest yeshiva outside of Israel. In the 1960s, much of the woods and cranberry bogs in the township were replaced by large housing developments. Leisure Village, a condominium retirement development on the south side of Route 70, opened for sale in 1963.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the township had a total area of 25.08 square miles (64.95 km), including 24.68 square miles (63.92 km) of land and 0.40 square miles (1.03 km) of water (1.59%). Lying on the coastal plain, Lakewood is a fairly flat place: three-quarters of it is above sea level, and its highest point is about .


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: The North Branch of the Metedeconk River forms the northern boundary and part of the eastern boundary of the township, while the South Branch runs through the township. A southern portion of the township is drained by the north branch of Kettle Creek. As implied in its name, Lakewood township has four lakes, all of them man-made; three of them—Lake Carasaljo, Manetta, and Shenandoah—are on the South Branch of the Metedeconk River, whereas the fourth—Lake Waddill—is on Kettle Creek.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: Lakewood CDP (2010 Census population of 53,805), Leisure Village (4,400 as of 2010) and Leisure Village East (4,217 as of 2010) are unincorporated communities and census-designated places (CDPs) located within Lakewood Township.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: Other unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the township include Greenville, Lake Carasaljo, Seven Stars and South Lakewood.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: The township borders the municipalities of Brick Township, Jackson Township, and Toms River in Ocean County; and Howell Township in Monmouth County.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: The township, including a portion of its southwestern portion, is one of 11 municipalities in Ocean County that are part of the Toms River watershed.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: Portions of the township are part of an Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ), one of 32 zones covering 37 municipalities statewide. Lakewood was selected in 1994 as one of a group of 10 zones added to participate in the program. In addition to other benefits to encourage employment within the UEZ, shoppers can take advantage of a reduced 3.3125% sales tax rate (half of the % rate charged statewide) at eligible merchants. Established in November 1994, the township's Urban Enterprise Zone status expires in October 2025. The UEZ is overseen by the Lakewood Development Corporation, which works to foster the UEZ and the businesses that operate inside it through loan and grant programs.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: ShoreTown Ballpark, home of the Jersey Shore BlueClaws, is a 6,588-seat stadium constructed at a cost of $22 million through funds raised from the township's Urban Enterprise Zone.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: The High-A East's Jersey Shore BlueClaws, the High-A Minor League Baseball affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies, play at FirstEnergy Park. The BlueClaws, previously known as the Lakewood Blue Claws, have led the league in attendance every year since its formation in 2001 up until 2011, with more than 380,000 fans in the 2001 season, representing an average attendance of more than 6,200 fans per game.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: Ocean County Park offers tennis courts, sports fields, hiking trails, beach volleyball, a driving range, swimming and cross-country skiing. Lakes Carasaljo and Shenandoah have canoe and kayak access, and jogging trails. The Sister Mary Grace Burns Arboretum is located on the campus of Georgian Court University.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: A study of Jewish communities published under the auspices of the Berman Jewish DataBank estimated that Lakewood had a total Jewish population of 54,500 in 2009, about 59% of the township's 2010 population. A 2018 estimate by NJ.com found that two-thirds of the township's residents, or about 90,000 people, were Orthodox Jews.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: The median value of owner occupied housing is $322,000 with an average mortgage of $2,216 and additional housing expenses of $807. The median gross rent is $1,463.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: The Census Bureau's 2006-2010 American Community Survey showed that (in 2010 inflation-adjusted dollars) median household income was $41,527 (with a margin of error of +/− $1,797) and the median family income was $45,420 (+/− $2,296). Males had a median income of $39,857 (+/− $4,206) versus $32,699 (+/− $2,365) for females. The per capita income for the township was $16,430 (+/− $565). About 21.9% of families and 26.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 36.0% of those under age 18 and 5.7% of those age 65 or over.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: As of the 2000 United States census there were 60,352 people, 19,876 households, and 13,356 families residing in the township. The population density was . There were 21,214 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the township was 78.77% White, 12.05% African American, 0.17% Native American, 1.39% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 4.61% from other races, and 2.98% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 14.80% of the population.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: There were 19,876 households, out of which 32.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.3% were married couples living together, 10.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.8% were non-families. 28.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 19.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.92 and the average family size was 3.64.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: In the township the population was spread out, with 31.8% under the age of 18, 10.1% from 18 to 24, 23.5% from 25 to 44, 15.7% from 45 to 64, and 18.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.5 males.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: The median income for a household in the township was $35,634, and the median income for a family was $43,806. Males had a median income of $38,967 versus $26,645 for females. The per capita income for the township was $16,700. About 15.7% of families and 19.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 28.9% of those under age 18 and 7.7% of those age 65 or over.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: Lakewood Township is governed under the Township form of New Jersey municipal government, one of 141 municipalities (of the 564) statewide that use this form, the second-most commonly used form of government in the state. The Township Committee is comprised of five members, who are elected directly by the voters at-large in partisan elections to serve three-year terms of office on a staggered basis, with either one or two seats coming up for election each year as part of the November general election in a three-year cycle. At an annual reorganization meeting, the Township Committee selects one of its members to serve as Mayor and another as Deputy Mayor.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: The Township Committee controls all legislative powers of the Township except for health matters, which are controlled by the Board of Health. In addition, the Committee appoints members to boards, commissions, and committees. Each member of the township committee serves as a liaison to different divisions, departments, and committees.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: The mayor, elected from among members of the committee, presides at meetings and performs other duties as the Township Committee may prescribe. The mayor has the power to appoint subcommittees with the consent of the committee. When authorized, he or she may execute documents on behalf of the township, makes proclamations concerning holidays and events of interest, and exercises ceremonial power of the Township and other powers conferred upon him by law.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: , the members of the Lakewood Township Committee are Mayor Ray Coles (D, term on committee ends December 31, 2023; term as mayor ends 2022), Deputy mayor Menashe Miller (R, 2024), Albert Akerman (R, 2022), Michael J. D'Elia Sr. (R, 2023) and Meir Lichtenstein (D, 2024).


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: Lakewood Township is served by the Lakewood Police Department (LPD), which provides police protection for the township. It has several specialized units: Traffic and Safety, School Resource Officers, Special Response Team (SWAT), Dive Team, and a Motorcycle Patrol and Bicycle Patrol unit in the spring and summer. The current Chief of Police is Gregory Meyer.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: Lakewood Township is served by the Lakewood Fire Department (LFD), a unified combination consisting of four Volunteer Fire Stations and one career fire station which provide fire protection for the township.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: The fire department was founded in October 1888. The Board of Fire Commissioners was created in 1896. The first motorized equipment was purchased in 1915. The largest fire in township history occurred on April 20, 1940, when a forest fire destroyed over 50 structures and burned down most of the southern half of town. The largest loss of life caused by fire occurred on February 12, 1936, when the Victoria Mansion Hotel, valued at $100,000 (equivalent to $ million in ), located on the southeast corner of Lexington Avenue and Seventh Street, was destroyed in a fire and 16 people died. The largest structure fire in department history occurred on March 29, 1967, when the block-long Laurel in the Pines Hotel was leveled by a suspicious fire that also killed three people. The last fire hose was picked up a week later when the fire was finally declared out.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: There are currently 32 career firefighters (Including a Career Fire Chief, 2 Captains 6 Lieutenants) and approximately 40 volunteer firefighters.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: Lakewood Township is served by three emergency medical services (EMS) entities, which include Lakewood EMS (LEMS), Lakewood First Aid & Emergency Squad (LFAS) and Hatzolah EMS. The squads are all independently operated, but work together to provide emergency medical services for the township. Lakewood First Aid & Emergency Squad and Hatzolah EMS are volunteer organizations, while Lakewood EMS is a career municipal service under the direction of EMS Chief Crystal Van de Zilver.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: In the event of a motor vehicle accident, Lakewood First Aid & Emergency Squad are the primary providers of vehicle extrication services for the township and Hatzolah EMS serves as backup.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: The three organizations collectively have approximately 150 volunteer and paid EMTs. Hatzolah also has a paramedic unit by special arrangement with RWJBarnabas Health.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: Lakewood Township is located in the 4th Congressional District, and is part of New Jersey's 30th state legislative district.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: Ocean County is governed by a Board of County Commissioners comprised of five members who are elected on an at-large basis in partisan elections and serving staggered three-year terms of office, with either one or two seats coming up for election each year as part of the November general election. At an annual reorganization held in the beginning of January, the board chooses a Director and a Deputy Director from among its members. , Ocean County's Commissioners (with party affiliation, term-end year and residence) are:


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: As of March 23, 2011, there were a total of 37,925 registered voters in Lakewood Township, of which 6,417 (16.9%) were registered as Democrats, 13,287 (35.0%) were registered as Republicans, and 18,202 (48.0%) were registered as Unaffiliated. There were 19 voters registered to other parties. Among the township's 2010 Census population, 40.8% (vs. 63.2% in Ocean County) were registered to vote, including 70.2% of those ages 18 and over (vs. 82.6% countywide).


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: The Vaad in Lakewood is an 11-member council of elders from the Orthodox community, which greatly influences the way the community will vote, often after interviewing political candidates.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: In the 2020 presidential election, Republican Donald Trump received 82.5% of the vote (30,648 votes), ahead of Democrat Joe Biden with 17.2% (6,397 votes), and other candidates with 0.3% (117 votes). Trump won his greatest margin from any municipality in the whole state. In the 2016 presidential election, Republican Donald Trump received 74.4% of the vote (17,914 votes), ahead of Democrat Hillary Clinton with 24.2% (5,841 votes), and other candidates with 1.4% (333 votes). In the 2012 presidential election. Republican Mitt Romney received 72.9% of the vote (19,273 cast), ahead of Democrat Barack Obama with 26.7% (7,062 votes), and other candidates with 0.3% (87 votes), among the 26,590 ballots cast by the township's 41,233 registered voters (168 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 64.5%. In the 2008 presidential election, Republican John McCain received 69.1% of the vote (19,173 cast), ahead of Democrat Barack Obama with 29.7% (8,242 votes), and other candidates with 0.5% (144 votes), among the 27,750 ballots cast by the township's 39,640 registered voters, for a turnout of 70.0%. In the 2004 presidential election, Republican George W. Bush received 66.4% of the vote (16,045 ballots cast), outpolling Democrat John Kerry with 32.5% (7,852 votes) and other candidates with 0.4% (137 votes), among the 24,152 ballots cast by the township's 35,217 registered voters, for a turnout percentage of 68.6.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: In the 2013 gubernatorial election, Republican Chris Christie received 82.4% of the vote (11,850 cast), ahead of Democrat Barbara Buono with 16.9% (2,427 votes), and other candidates with 0.7% (107 votes), among the 14,921 ballots cast by the township's 41,567 registered voters (537 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 35.9%. In the 2009 gubernatorial election, Republican Chris Christie received 54.9% of the vote (10,528 ballots cast), ahead of Democrat Jon Corzine with 30.8% (5,910 votes), Independent Chris Daggett with 2.6% (506 votes) and other candidates with 0.7% (142 votes), among the 19,171 ballots cast by the township's 37,928 registered voters, yielding a 50.5% turnout.


title: Lakewood Township, New Jersey

text: The Lakewood School District serves students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade, and is broken up into three different stages of schooling. As of the 2018–19 school year, the district, comprised of eight schools, had an enrollment of 6,767 students and 492.5 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 13.7:1. Schools in the district (with 2018–19 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are