prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Which utility holding company did Alfred A. Marcus work as a consultant?

The following are given passages.
Context 1: Passage 1:
North American Light and Power Company
The North American Light and Power Company was a utility holding company formed in South Bend, Indiana and run since 1916 by its president, Clement Studebaker, Jr , of the family famous for the Studebaker automobiles  The utility company remained a major subsidiary of the North American Company, until that conglomerate's 1940s breakup by the U S  Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 

History
Clement Studebaker, Jr  (1871–1932) was born the son of Clement Studebaker (1831–1901), the carriage and automobile manufacturer of South Bend, Indiana In 1911, the company founded by the Studebaker brothers joined forces with Everitt-Metzker-Flanders Company of Detroit to form the Studebaker Corporation  In one of his several executive positions, Clement Studebaker, Jr  served as Vice President of the E-M-F Company By 1916 Clement Studebaker, Jr  had formed the publicly traded North American Light and Power Company, and issued stock, with certificates  printed by the American Banknote Company Clement Studebaker, Jr  also served as President and Chairman of the Board of the Illinois Power and Light Company (and of its subsidiary, the Illinois Traction Company), the South Bend Watch Company, and as Treasurer of the Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad 

North American Company
North American Company had once been one of the original stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average North American Light and Power remained under the ownership of North American Company for the next decade after Clement's death, as a major subsidiary holding company of other lines  
By 1940, North American Company had become a US$2 3 billion holding company heading up a pyramid of by then 80 companies  It controlled ten major direct subsidiaries in eight of which it owned at least 79%  North American Light and Power Company was by then one of the three major holding companies among the ten direct subsidiaries North American Company was broken up by the SEC, following the United States Supreme Court decision of April 1, 1946 
Passage 2:
Southern Company
Southern Company is an American gas and electric utility holding company based in the southern United States  It is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with executive offices also located in Birmingham, Alabama  The company is the second largest utility company in the U S  in terms of customer base, as of 2021  Through its subsidiaries it serves 9 million gas and electric utility customers in 6 states  Southern Company's regulated regional electric utilities serve a 120,000-square-mile (310,000 km2) territory with 27,000 miles (43,000 km) of distribution lines 

Overview
Southern Company is one of the largest energy providers in the United States and is ranked 126th on the Fortune 500 listing of the largest U S  corporations  The company has approximately 31,300 employees  It has more than 500,000 shareholders (NYSE: SO) and has been traded since September 30, 1949 
Southern Company subsidiaries are operating or developing renewable: solar, wind, and biomass facilities across the U S , as well as the first new nuclear units in the U S  in 30 years at Plant Vogtle near Augusta, Georgia 
Southern Company's three retail operating companies—Alabama Power, Georgia Power, and Mississippi Power—serve 120,000 square miles (310,000 km2) in three states  Southern Power serves wholesale electricity customers across the U S  Southern Company Gas serves utility customers in seven states 
Southern Company owns the following companies:

Alabama Power - operating company, based in Birmingham, Alabama  Serves the southern two-thirds of Alabama 
Georgia Power - operating company, based in Atlanta  Serves all of Georgia, except for mostly rural counties 
Mississippi Power - operating company, based in Gulfport, Mississippi  Serves the Mississippi Gulf Coast 
Southern Company Services (originally named Southern Services, Inc ) - Birmingham, Alabama - Common Services
Southern Linc - cellular telephone provider - Atlanta, Georgia
Southern Nuclear - engineering and operations for nuclear power plants - Birmingham, Alabama  (Southern Company is the majority owner and operator of the Farley, Hatch, and Vogtle nuclear power plants )
Southern Company Generation - fossil fuels and hydro operations - Birmingham, Alabama 
Southern Power - wholesale power generation - Birmingham, Alabama 
Southern Telecom - wholesale fiber optic communications and data services - Atlanta, Georgia 
Southern Company Gas - serves gas utility customers and operates natural gas pipelines - Atlanta, Georgia 
PowerSecure - distributed infrastructure technologies - Wake Forest, North Carolina 
Atlanta Gas Light - provides natural gas delivery service to more than 1 6 million customers in Georgia 
Chattanooga Gas - provides retail natural gas sales and transportation services to approximately 66,000 customers in Hamilton and Bradley counties in southeast Tennessee 
Nicor Gas - Provider of natural gas throughout northern Illinois 
Virginia Natural Gas - Provider of Natural Gas in southeastern Virginia 
Sequent Energy Management - optimizes natural gas assets and effectively utilize transportation and storage services 
Southern Wholesale Energy - markets the retail operating companies' surplus generating capacity to the wholesale market 
Southern Company Transmission - conducts transmission business in accordance with the Southern Companies Open Access Transmission Tariff approved by FERC Prior to 2019, Southern Company also owned Gulf Power, an electric utility based in Pensacola, Florida that serves most of the Florida Panhandle  An agreement was reached in May 2018 to sell Gulf Power to rival utility company NextEra Energy  The sale was completed on January 1, 2019  Gulf Power would become the Northwest Florida division of Florida Power & Light (FPL) in 2021, with the Gulf Power name retired in favor of FPL in 2022 

History
Southern Company can be traced back to 1924, when Southeastern Power & Light was formed as a holding company for Alabama Traction, Light and Power (formed 1906), the immediate forerunner of Alabama Power  Later that year, it formed Mississippi Power as a subsidiary, with Gulf Power following in 1925  In 1926, it merged with Georgia Power (formed 1902)  In 1930, Southeastern Power & Light merged into the Commonwealth & Southern Corporation  The new system included five Northern companies and six Southern companies  However, in the late 1940s Commonwealth & Southern was dissolved to meet the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935  Four of Commonwealth & Southern's Deep South operating companies—Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, and Mississippi Power—were deemed to be an integrated system and thus were allowed to remain under common ownership  A new holding company, Southern Company, was incorporated in Delaware on November 9, 1945  It commenced operation in 1949, and moved to Georgia in 1950  In 1954–55, the company was involved in the Dixon-Yates contract with the Atomic Energy Commission, and the associated political controversy In 1981, Southern Company became the first electric utility holding company in 46 years to diversify its operations by forming an unregulated subsidiary  In January 1982, Southern Energy, Inc , began official operations as a global energy company, growing to serve 10 countries on four continents  On April 2, 2001, Southern Company completed the spinoff of Southern Energy as Mirant Corporation 
Another Southern Company subsidiary—Southern Nuclear—began providing services in 1991 to the system's nuclear power plants 
In 1996, Southern Communications Services began providing digital wireless communications services to Southern Company's subsidiaries and also began marketing these services to the public within the Southeast as Southern Linc  Southern Telecom, a telecommunications subsidiary of Southern Company, was founded in 1997  Southern Telecom provides colocation and dark fiber optic lines to network businesses On January 9, 2001, Southern Company received final approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to form Southern Power, a subsidiary to own, manage and finance wholesale generating assets in the Southeast  The new subsidiary targets wholesale customers 
On July 19, 2002, Southern Company Gas received certification from the Georgia Public Service Commission to enter the retail gas market  After nearly four years of operations, the company was sold and customers transferred to Cobb EMC's newly formed affiliate, Gas South 
In 2011, Southern Company and Turner Renewable Energy purchased a 30 MW solar project from First Solar  Located in Cimarron, New Mexico, it began generating electricity in 2011 In June 2012, the Nacogdoches Generating Facility began its commercial operation  The facility is a 115 MW biomass-fueled electric generating plant, located near Sacul in Nacogdoches County, Texas 
In 2016, Southern Company acquired PowerSecure, a distributed energy infrastructure technologies company, and AGL Resources (which was renamed Southern Company Gas)  As a result of the AGL Resources merger, Southern Company doubled its customer base, expanded its footprint and broadened the scope of its business by increasing its natural gas presence 

Plant Vogtle
Southern Company subsidiaries operate hydroelectric, gas, coal, and nuclear generation sources to generate approximately 200 terawatt-hours of electricity  In 2009, coal represented 57 percent of the company's output, followed by nuclear (23%) and natural gas (16%)  Renewable hydroelectric power represented 4 percent of Southern's generation  Coal-based generation dropped significantly in 2009 from an average of 70% between 2005 and 2008  As of 2017 Coal-based generation had dropped to 30% In June 2010, the United States Department of Energy awarded an $8 3 billion loan guarantee to facilitate the construction of two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle, near Augusta, Georgia  A Southern Company subsidiary, Georgia Power, owns 45 7% of the current 2,430 MW facility, with co-owners Oglethorpe Power (30%) Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (22 7%) and the City of Dalton (1 6%)  The plant is operated by Georgia Power  The $14 billion construction project is scheduled to be completed by 2022 and would double the plant's capacity The construction of two 1,154 MW reactors has been hailed by Energy Secretary Steven Chu as "the first new nuclear power plant to break ground in decades"  It is expected to create up to 3,500 jobs during the construction phase, and 800 once operational  However, in March 2017 Westinghouse Electric Company, who were building the plant, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy because of $9 billion of losses from its two U S  nuclear construction projects  The U S  government had given $8 3 billion of loan guarantees on the financing of the four nuclear reactors being built in the U S , and it is expected a way forward to completing the plant can be agreed 

Plant Ratcliffe
In September 2013 the EPA introduced new provisions regarding output of carbon emissions in new power facilities  The proposed emission limit for new energy sources will be 1,100lbs of carbon dioxide per megawatt hour of electricity  Preemptively recognizing the need for these changes, Southern Company broke ground on its 21st-century clean coal facility in June 2010  Southern's subsidiary, Mississippi Power will operate the plant  The Kemper County Energy Facility, or Kemper Project, takes advantage of the abundant lignite, or poor quality coal, available in Mississippi  Additionally, it employs Transport Gasifier (TRIG) technology  TRIG technology is built on the idea of dry-feed, non-slag gasifiers, which operate at lower temperatures than other coal gasifiers  This dry-feed is crushed, heated, and circulated in the gasifier, producing a flammable synthetic gas, syngas  Syngas can generate electricity with fewer emissions  Of course, other byproducts are produced, like ammonia and sulphuric acid  These particular products are sold for commercial use The EPA considers the Kemper Coal Project and other planned facilities like it, to be a lifeline for the coal industry in the wake of the new climate change plan  Between 2010 and 2014, approximately 150 coal plants were shut down As of April 2014, the US Department of Energy had invested $270m in this project  Southern Company, and its subsidiary, Mississippi Power anticipate that the Kemper Coal Plant will generate enough energy to serve more than 187,000 customers  Upon opening, the Kemper Coal Project is expected to be capable of stripping out at least 65% of the carbon dioxide, significantly exceeding the EPA's proposed requirement of 40% 

Partnerships
Southern Company works with the US Department of Energy on a variety of projects including transmission and distribution of infrastructure and smart grid initiatives, environmental research programs, and nuclear generation  One of the more significant joint efforts, the DOE's National Carbon Capture Center, is managed by Southern Company and represents national efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal-based power generation  At this location, Southern Company has been working with scientists and technology developers from government, industry, and universities who are creating the next generation of carbon capture technologies Along with the DOE, Southern Company has been working with KBR, another technology partner, to perfect its TRIG advanced coal gasification technology  This process of breaking down "dirty coal", or lignite, into its chemical components is not only cleaner, but it is also less expensive and more reliable  This technology is currently being implemented at Southern Company's Kemper County power plant, one of the few new coal facilities working to keep the US coal industry alive  This new facility will be built on a lignite seam, is expected to strip out two-thirds of carbon dioxide emissions, leaving emissions at about the same level as natural gas  The Kemper Coal Plant is expected to fall well under new regulations implemented by the EPA, which limits coal plants to 1,100lbs of carbon dioxide emissions per megawatt hour of electricity In an effort to make this technology more attainable, Southern Company has partnered with China's Shenhua Group to collaborate on further research, development, and deployment of clean coal technologies in the US, China, and around the world  This partnership with Shenhua, who is currently expected to add more than 400,000 megawatts of coal-fired capacity by 2035, could lead to wide deployment of TRIG-equipped power plants across Asia  TRIG technology has the potential to not only assist China with their growing carbon issue, but also enable the country to tap into their own low quality coal In 2009, the U S  Department of Energy granted Southern Company a $165 million Smart Grid Investment Grant to implement a smart grid and to make the grid more reliable  Through matching funds and other investments, the company spent $363 million on the initiative, which it completed in 2014  The upgraded smart grid allows Southern Company the ability to monitor and control its electric infrastructure in real time and respond to problems 

Financial data
Carbon footprint
Southern Company reported Total CO2e emissions (Direct + Indirect) for the twelve months ending 31 December 2020 at 75,300 Kt (-13,100 /-14 8% y-o-y) and aims to reach net zero emissions by 2050 

Political donations
In May 2018, it was reported that Southern Company had donated $1 million to America First Policies, a pro-Donald Trump advocacy group 

Controversies
Environmental impact
Southern Company is the third-largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, emitting 86,244,286 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2019 In 2005, the company announced it would open a Mercury Research Center at Plant Crist Pensacola, Florida, hoping to find new ways to reduce mercury emissions On April 25, 2006, Alabama Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company, agreed to pay $200M to settle allegations that its coal-fired James H  Miller, Jr  Plant near West Jefferson, Alabama emitted harmful amounts of SO2 and NOx In response to growing public and financial community interest, the company has enacted assorted environmental measures  Southern Company participates in Renew Our Rivers, a volunteer program to remove debris from rivers and other waterways throughout the Southeast, which claims over 11 million pounds of trash removed or recycled in Renew Our Rivers events  The company also manages and operates the National Carbon Capture Center, a focal point of the US Department of Energy's efforts to develop carbon capture and greenhouse gas reduction technologies, under which various projects to test geologic sequestration are in progress at Plant Gorgas in Alabama, Plant Daniel in Mississippi and other company sites  However, critics have argued that CCS seldom works and prolongs the life of fossil fuels 

Climate change denial
Southern Company has a long history of funding climate change denial and has been a "driving force behind climate disinformation," sponsoring campaigns in opposition to climate science, against limiting greenhouse gas emissions, and slowing the transition to renewable energy sources Between 1993 and 2004 Southern Company paid over $62 million to organizations that spread disinformation about climate change  The utility paid for advertising claiming that climate change was not real and made payments to public relations companies, industry groups, law firms and thinktanks to dispute the scientific consensus for climate change and attack legislative solutions  The utility paid $20 million to the trade group Edison Electric Institute, which creates media campaigns to attack proponents of global warming  In the 1990s, Southern Company and the Center for Energy and Economic Development hosted energy workshops broadcast to schoolteachers through the company's satellite network to promote pro-coal messages about climate change and the environment 

Kemper Project controversies
In February 2015, the Mississippi Supreme Court ordered Southern Company's subsidiary Mississippi Power to restore $377 million to South Mississippi ratepayers for rate increases related to the Kemper Project, a "clean" coal plant  These fees were derived from Mississippi's Baseload Act, allowing Mississippi Power to charge ratepayers for powerplants under construction 
In May 2016, Southern Company and its subsidiary Mississippi Power announced they were being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission related to overruns at the Kemper Project  The project had been repeatedly delayed and costs increased from $2 88 billion to $6 58 billion  In recorded conversations, at least six engineers from the Kemper Project claimed that delays, cost overruns, safety violations, and shoddy work, were in part due to mismanagement or fraud 
In June 2016, Mississippi Power was sued by Treetop Midstream Services over the cancellation of a contract to receive carbon dioxide from the Kemper Project as part of the carbon capture and storage design  Treetop had contracted to buy carbon dioxide from the Kemper plant and had built a pipeline in preparation to receive the gas  Treetop alleged Mississippi Power had fraudulently and "intentionally misrepresenting and concealing the start date" for the Kemper Project, though Mississippi Power stated the suit was without merit 
The company was also found to have unlawfully fired a whistle-blower who had criticized alleged false statements by company management 

Vogtle nuclear power plant
In June 2021, Georgia Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company, was scrutinized by the Georgia Public Service Commission over the lengthy delays and ballooning costs of its new Vogtle nuclear plant in Burke County, Georgia 

Willie Soon
In February 2015, it was revealed that climate change denier Willie Soon had been paid by Southern Company and several other fossil fuel interest groups  Over the course of 14 years, Soon received a total of $1 25m from Southern Company, Exxon Mobil, the American Petroleum Institute (API) and a foundation run by the Koch brothers, the documents obtained by Greenpeace show  At $410,000, Southern Company was the largest donor  The scientist described his studies to fossil fuel executives as "deliverables", and permitted anonymous pre-publication reviews  Soon advanced the widely discredited theory that changes in solar activity are to blame for climate change, and called into question the severity and extent of climate change in all his studies, never revealing his backers 

See also
Jacob Horton
List of United States electric companies
Electric utility

Notes
External links
Business data for Southern Company: 
DOE guarantee press info
PR Newswire release
Southern Company Media Room
Official website
Forbes Global 2000 Biggest Companies Utility Industry
Passage 3:
TECO Energy
TECO Energy Inc  is an energy-related holding company based in Tampa, Florida, and a subsidiary of Emera Incorporated  TECO Energy has several subsidiaries: Tampa Electric, which provides electricity to the Tampa Bay Area and parts of Central Florida; Peoples Gas Company, which provides natural gas throughout Florida; and TECO Services, which provides IT, HR, legal, facilities, and other services to current and former TECO subsidiaries  Previously the company was in the S&P 500 before it became private due its acquisition by Emera 
TECO Energy businesses include New Mexico Gas Company  TECO's three utilities serve a total of 1 6 million customers in Florida and New Mexico  In 2012, TECO exited its business in Guatemala 

History
Tampa Electric began in 1899 to manage electric trolley systems in the city of Tampa  On September 4, 2015, Emera, a utility holding company based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, announced the pending acquisition of TECO Energy  That purchase closed on July 1, 2016, and TECO Energy, Inc  became a wholly owned subsidiary of Emera, Inc 

Environmental record
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2006 identified TECO Energy as the 37th-largest corporate producer of air pollution in the United States in 2002, with roughly 11 million pounds of toxic chemicals released annually into the air  Major pollutants indicated by the study included hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, chromium compounds, arsenic compounds, and nickel compounds In 2000, TECO Energy was fined $3 5 million for making changes to emissions producing facilities without installing new updated pollution controls  This led to the switch from coal to natural gas in one of its plants by 2004 and optimization of pollution controls in another  These changes were enacted to drastically cut emissions, notably sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions On July 6, 2019 People’s Gas a Division of Tampa Electric Company, caused an explosion of a shopping center in Plantation, Florida known as the Market on University because People’s Gas failed to close and lock a gas line after a customer request dating back to December 2018  The failure to close and lock the gas line is a violation of Federal law and Florida law  Peoples/TECO claims that a computer program cancelled the shutoff order unbeknownst to the utility  TECO/Peoples hid the claimed computer error from state investigators  The computer error caused hundreds of gas line shutoff orders to be cancelled system wide  TECO/Peoples also blame the owner of the shopping center for not capping the gas line when the tenant removed a gas pizza oven  Over 60 lawsuits were filed in response to the explosion many of which remain pending 
In 2017, TECO had an explosion at its Big Bend power plant near Tampa, Florida killing 5 workers who were performing a dangerous procedure water jetting molten slag in a coal fired furnace  The workers were killed because an explosion occurred  TECO experienced the same type of accident 10 years prior and developed a policy to prevent future accidents but failed to train workers on the safety policy  In May 2022, TECO pleaded guilty to violating an OSHA safety regulation requiring a meeting to ensure workers are properly trained that would have prevented the deaths of the 5 workers  In August 2022 TECO was sentenced to a $500,000 fine and 3 years of probation  TECO admitted that it willfully violated an OSHA safety regulation as part of its guilty plea  
On September 28, 2017, TECO announced it was adding 600 MW of solar to its electricity-producing portfolio 

See also
List of power stations in Florida
TECO Line Streetcar (No longer operated by TECO)
Tampa Electric Co  v  Nashville Coal Co 
Passage 4:
Xcel Energy
Xcel Energy Inc  is a U S  regulated electric utility and natural gas delivery company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, serving more than 3 7 million electric customers and 2 1 million natural gas customers across parts of eight states (Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas and New Mexico)  It consists of four operating subsidiaries: Northern States Power-Minnesota, Northern States Power-Wisconsin, Public Service Company of Colorado, and Southwestern Public Service Co In December 2018, Xcel Energy announced it would deliver 100 percent clean, carbon-free electricity by 2050, with an 80 percent carbon reduction by 2035 (from 2005 levels)  This makes Xcel the first major US utility to set such a goal 

History
Xcel Energy was built on three companies: Minneapolis-based Northern States Power Company (NSP), Denver-based Public Service Company of Colorado (PSCo), and Amarillo-based Southwestern Public Service (SPS)  Southwestern Public Service Co  (SPS) dates its origins to 1904 and the Pecos Valley in New Mexico when Maynard Gunsell received an electricity franchise for the city of Roswell, New Mexico and its 2,000 residents  The financial strain of creating this new enterprise soon overwhelmed him and he sold the franchise to W H  Gillenwater, who named his utility the Roswell Electric Light Co  He later sold the company to an investment firm in Cleveland, Ohio, which already owned the Roswell Gas Co Northern States Power Company's timeline begins with the organization of the Washington County Light & Power Co  in 1909  When H  M  Byllesby began building his utility holding company across the Northwestern region of the US, he renamed it the Consumers Power Co  in 1910 and which was renamed the Northern States Power Co  in 1916  While the bulk of NSP's territory grew across central and southern Minnesota (starting from the Twin Cities), it acquired territory in North Dakota (centering on Fargo, Grand Forks, and Minot) and extended southwest into South Dakota (centering on Sioux Falls)  NSP's system also extended east into Wisconsin, but because of utility ownership laws in that state, it was operated as an entity separate from the rest of the company 
Public Service Company of Colorado (PSCo) was formed in 1923 to provide an electric generating station for the Denver area   By 1924, it had acquired most of the electric companies in northern and central Colorado  Originally a subsidiary of Cities Service Company, it became an independent autonomous operation in November 1943   By this time, it served 80 percent of Colorado's gas and electricity needs  As demand for energy continued to grow, so did PSCo   Eventually, the company merged with SPS to form New Century Energies (NCE) in 1995 Northern States Power and Wisconsin Energy Corporation had planned to merge into a new outfit that was to be called Primergy - but in 1997, the merger fell through because of the time it was taking to gain the required approvals from state and federal agencies  After the failed Primergy merger, NSP (both the Minnesota and Wisconsin companies) merged with New Century Energies to form Xcel Energy   In 2005, Xcel sold Cheyenne Light, Fuel and Power to Black Hills Corporation   Cheyenne Light, Fuel and Power had been a subsidiary of PSCo since the 1920s, and had become an operating company of NCE after the merger with SPS 
In December 2018, Xcel Energy became the first major US utility to pledge to go carbon-free, aiming for 80% carbon reduction by 2030, and 100% reduction by 2050 Utility industry magazine Utility Dive awarded Xcel Energy its 2018 "Utility of the Year" award for its plans for add 12 wind farms, its project with Google to develop new ways for customers to personalize energy management, and its plan to retire 50 percent of its coal-powered capacity by 2026 (and replacing it with a combination of renewable energy, efficiency, and natural gas) On May 20, 2019, Xcel Energy announced its intent to close all of its remaining coal-fired plants in Minnesota by 2030 while compensating by increasing solar production capacity by 1,400%  It also declared its plans to continue operating its Monticello nuclear plant near Monticello, Minnesota until at least 2040 On March 16, 2023, Xcel Energy announced that a significant unplanned release of radioactive water from its Monticello nuclear power plant took place on November 21, 2022, which was reported only to state and federal authorities but was concealed from the public until now  Xcel estimated the leak to be 400 thousand gallons of contaminated water containing radioactive tritium  The leak occurred in a water pipe that runs between two buildings 

Generation portfolio
Across Xcel Energy's eight-state service area, 49% of the power provided in 2021 came from carbon-free sources: biomass, hydroelectric and nuclear plants, solar panels and wind turbines Xcel Energy currently has 13 coal plants with a capacity of 7,697 MW  Seven of those plants are operated in Colorado  Xcel Energy owns and operates three wind farms  In October 2011, Xcel Energy set a world record for electricity from wind power, with an hourly penetration of 55 6% of production from wind Xcel Energy generates over 500 megawatts of hydroelectric power from 27 plants in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Colorado  This accounts for only four percent of their electricity generation  They also purchase large amounts of hydro-generated electricity from Manitoba Hydro 

Biomass electricity comes from organic fuel sources  Xcel Energy has contracts for about 110 megawatts of electricity from biomass generators  Two in northern Minnesota are fueled by forest harvest residue, such as treetops and limbs  A third facility, brought on line in 2007 in western Minnesota, generates power using turkey litter Xcel Energy's Bay Front plant in Ashland, Wisconsin, is a three-unit generating station that has become a model for the creative use of fuels: coal, waste wood, railroad ties, discarded tires, natural gas, and petroleum coke   Two of the three Bay Front operating units already use biomass as their primary fuel   Xcel Energy recently proposed a plan to install biomass gasification technology at Bay Front  The waste-to-energy facilities use waste that would otherwise end up in landfills  The Wisconsin waste-to-energy plant burns wood waste in combination with refuse-derived fuel (RDF) Xcel Energy owns and operates two nuclear power plants: 

Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant near Monticello, Minnesota
Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant near Red Wing, Minnesotaand stores the spent fuel from these nuclear plants on site in independent spent fuel storage installations  (ISFSIs) 

System information and transmission
Xcel Energy operates the fourth largest transmission system in the United States, spanning 10 states  In 2011, Xcel Energy's transmission system was worth $3 3 billion The transmission system is operated on a non-discriminatory basis under the open access requirements of the Federal Government  This means that all wholesale buyers and sellers of electricity can use the transmission system under the same terms and conditions used to serve Xcel Energy's own retail customers   The transmission lines are utilized to carry 115,000 volts, 230,000 volts, and 345,000 volts   There is also a 500,000 volt transmission line that runs from the Dorsey Substation outside of Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada to the Chisago Substation located in Chisago County just north of St  Paul, Minnesota 

Grid security
In 2017, Xcel Energy partnered with the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center to create a new "threat information sharing community" intended to share cyber and physical security intelligence with the energy sector  The new community is called the Energy Analytic Security Exchange (EASE)  It is run by the FS-ISAC Sector Services team; FS-ISAC is an organization that gathers cyber and physical risk intelligence for the financial services industry  Additionally, the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) manages the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which is another resource that the energy sector uses to gather threat intelligence 

Advanced Grid in Colorado
In 2016, Xcel Energy announced the Advanced Grid Intelligence and Security (AGIS) initiative, a long-term effort related to power reliability, distributed generation, and information sharing with customers  Through the initiative, Xcel would build an "intelligent grid" in Colorado in order to improve grid security  The company filed a request for permission with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission for the program, which would cost $500 million 

Programs
Since 1998, Xcel Energy's Windsource program has allowed customers to designate that part or all of their electricity comes from a renewable energy source  In 2015, about 96,000 people were enrolled in Windsource  In 2011, more than 2 3 million electric and 261,800 natural gas customers took part in Xcel Energy's energy efficiency programs for homes and businesses Xcel Energy also offers customers incentives to install solar panels  At the end of 2011, more than 10,600 photovoltaic systems had been installed, with a capacity of about 121 megawatts (DC)  In early 2011, Xcel Energy suspended the solar rebate program before reaching a settlement a month later with representatives of solar power companies to restore the solar incentive program until it is fully reviewed by the Public Utilities Commission 

Controversies
On August 1, 2002, Xcel Energy Inc  was sued because of engaging in "round-trip" energy trades that provided no economic benefit for the company, and because the company lacked the necessary internal controls to adequately monitor the trading of its power  Xcel paid $80,000,000 in a settlement The Cabin Creek Fire occurred on October 2, 2007, at Xcel Energy's Hydropower Generation plant in Georgetown, Colorado  On June 1, 2011, Federal prosecutors opened their charges that Xcel Energy was criminally liable for the deaths of the five RPI workers  On June 28, the jury found Xcel Energy not guilty  On December 19, 2011, RPI Coating pleaded guilty to workplace safety violations and paid $1 55 million in a cash settlement  The company took responsibility for the deaths of five workers and the injuries to three  The U S  Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board conducted an investigation of the incident  Its report can be found on the CSB website  It is considered one of the worst unmitigated incidents to occur in a permit-required confined space The parent company to Xcel Energy, and later Xcel Energy itself have operated the Prairie Island Nuclear Power Plant since 1973  Over that time, nuclear waste produced by the power plant has been stored adjacent to the Prairie Island Indian Community  The homes of some members of the community are within 600 yards of the nuclear waste containment site and, sitting within the banks of the Mississippi River, the island is very vulnerable to seasonal flooding  While in 1991, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission capped the storage of nuclear waste on the island to 17 casks, the legislature has since permitted this number to increase  Environmentalists and members of the Prairie Island Indian Community have been working since 1994 to have this nuclear waste transported away from their reservation due to the combined risk of the temporary design of the storage facility, unpredictable flooding and single evacuation road in the event nuclear waste is released from containment 

See also
Plant X, Lamb County, Texas
Passage 5:
Electric Bond and Share Company
The Electric Bond and Share Company (Ebasco) was a United States electric utility holding company organized by General Electric  It was forced to divest its holding companies and reorganize due to the passage of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935  Following the passage of the Act, the U S  Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) selected the largest of the U S  holding companies, Ebasco to be the test case of the law before the U S  Supreme Court  The court case known as Securities and Exchange Commission v  Electric Bond and Share company was settled in favor of the SEC on March 28, 1938  It took twenty-five years of legal action by  the SEC to break up Ebasco and the other major U S  electric holding companies until they conformed with the 1935 act  It was allowed to retain control of its foreign electric power holding company known as the American & Foreign Power Company (A&FP)  After its reorganization, it became an investment company, but soon turned into a major designer and engineer of both fossil fuel and nuclear power electric generation facilities  Its involvement in the 1983 financial collapse of the Washington Public Power Supply System's five nuclear reactors led to Ebasco's demise because of the suspension of nuclear power orders and lawsuits that included numerous asbestos claims  The U S  nuclear industry stopped all construction of new facilities following the 1979 nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island, going into decline because of radiation safety concerns and major construction cost overruns 

History
The Electric Bond and Share Group was organized in 1905 as a holding company for electric utility company securities by General Electric using its employees' retirement investment fund  Morgan used his control of General Electric and his position as the country's most powerful financier to set in motion a plan to monopolize the entire country's electric industry via the Electric Bond and Share Group  Until his death in 1913, Morgan was opposed to any form of government regulation  His firing of Samuel Insull resulted with Insull moving to Chicago, where he organized the second-largest holding company in the country, the Middle West Utilities Company or what is known today as Exelon  Insull would actively promote the idea of a regulated monopoly because of the high cost of electrical infrastructure  About the same time as Teddy Roosevelt's trust busting campaign against Morgan, Rockefeller and other elites was gaining national attention, the National Civic Federation (NCF) was formed   It carried out extensive investigations and debates among prominent business men and organized labor over the issue of public vs  private ownership of electric power  Insull's public support for regulation helped popularize NCF's model legislation that quickly spread nationwide after the state of New York adopted its own variation  Morgan's son J  P  Morgan Jr  carried on with the House of Morgan, including his father's goal of a national electric monopoly but was up against the reformist progressive era 
By 1925, General Electric's Electric Bond & Share Group was the largest owner of U S  and foreign electric companies holding over 10% of the country's companies as subsidiaries organized into five major holding companies   General Electric made a purely symbolic gesture to reduce growing public anger by divesting control of the company leaving Morgan still in financial control  The Commonwealth & Southern Corporation, which owned several utility operating companies in the Midwest and the South, some of which became part of the Southern Company, and the reorganized Electric Bond And Share Company (EBASCo) were both part of J  P Morgan's syndicate via his J P  Morgan & Co  In 1926, its headquarters in New York City had over 1,000 employees, and controlled companies in 33 states worth $1 25 billion As public concern continued to mount by ratepayers of private electric power companies, the Federal Trade Commission carried out extensive investigations between 1928 and 1935  The commission's 48,000-page report included entire volumes for each of the country's major utility companies  The FTC valued EBASCo and its five holding companies at $3 5 billion, along with major investments in dozens of other major U S  companies  Within the five main holding companies were 121 U S  subsidiaries, along with a foreign holding company that operated in 16 countries and had 70 subsidies 
Because he was a strong proponent of public power, Franklin D  Roosevelt used the collapse of Samuel Insull's Middle West Utilities electric empire in June 1932 as one of his most important election campaign issues  The failed assassination attempt on his life in February 1933 later became part of U S  Marine Corps General Smedley Butler's claim of a Business Plot against Roosevelt by J  P  Morgan  On Roosevelt's first day in office, following his inauguration, he ordered the closure of the nation's banks, known as the bank holiday of 1933  In a joint session of the House and Senate, he pushed through the Emergency Banking Act along with Executive Order 6102 that blocked the hoarding of gold and stopped the major New York banks from taking gold supplies out of the country   Roosevelt then selected Ferdinand Pecora to investigate Morgan and the country's other major banks  Both Pecora and the Federal Trade Commission investigations  exposed the fact that the electric industry was the most capital intensive industry  The May 24th, 1933 Pecora hearings rocked the country, focusing on J P  Morgan and his financial empire, whose top lieutenants paid no taxes  In his 1939 book Wall Street Under Oath: The Story of Our Modern Money Changers, Ferdinand Pecora stated that "Undoubtedly, this small group of highly placed financiers, controlling the very springs of economic activity, holds more real power than any similar group in the United States "The 1933 Pecora Commission hearings identified the National City Company, known today as Citibank, as the location where Morgan conducted EBASCo's investment operations, which played a prominent role in the passage of the Glass–Steagall legislation  The Pecaro investigation along with the findings from the seven-year Federal Trade Commission investigation into electric holding companies nationwide led to the passage of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935  which some historians say was "the fiercest congressional battle in history "  Following the act's passage, Ebasco sued the United States government claiming it was unconstitutional, but lost the case before the Supreme Court in 1938  Wendell Willkie, who was the president of one of J P  Morgan and Ebasco's biggest investments, known as the Southern Company, ran against Franklin D  Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential race, but lost 

EBASCo, known on Wall Street as (EBS) was included in the Dow Jones Utility Average from  1938 to 1947 

Securities and Exchange Commission breakup of EBASCo
Following the passage of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, the U S  Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) oversaw the closure, re-organization or divestment of EBASCo's holding companies except for its American & Foreign Power Co , making annual reports on its monumental legal breakup case between 1936 and 1961  The act was used to break up the country's electric industry into regions confined by state boundaries so that state agencies could properly regulate each company  Each year, the SEC reported on the compliance status of the industry   As of 1949, 210 holding companies affecting 918 of the country's electric companies had come under the SEC's legal jurisdiction and procedures, with 46 holding companies still active   In its 1949 annual report, the SEC documented the history of their order for EBASCo to break up its five major holding companies' combined assets worth $3 5 billion 
In 1940, congressional investigations of brokerage firms, insurance companies and their relationship to the electric industry exposed that Middle South Utilities, the Southern Group and Ebasco were all financed by Morgan Stanley, with Wall Street having financial influence over nearly 80% of the country's electric industry 
Following the passage of the 1935 Act, Ebasco went into the U S  court system in an attempt overturn the act but failed (see external links for major court cases)  Ebasco was then required to register its holding companies and comply with SEC orders  On August 23, 1941, its holding company known as the National Power & Light Co  was ordered to break up its 27 subsidiaries  On March 22, 1949, the SEC signed off on the final breakup of National that included major holdings in Pennsylvania PPL Corporation, the Carolinas and Alabama (see subsidiary list) 
On August 22, 1942, the SEC ordered the breakup of Ebasco's holding companies known as American Power & Light Corp  that included 35 subsidiaries and the Electric Power & Light Corporation with its 24 subsidiaries  American appealed the ruling but lost before the U S  Supreme Court on November 25, 1946  As of 1949, all but one of American's subsidiaries were in compliance  Electric Power and its sub-holding company United Gas Corporation finally agreed to its breakup on March 2, 1949  Electric Power was then re-organized as Middle South Utilities Inc  and is known today as Entergy 
In 1939, proceedings before the SEC were initiated to break up EBASCo's American Gas & Electric Company  On December 28, 1945, the agency agreed to allow it to retain control of its central region of subsidiaries in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia, if it let go of its companies in Pennsylvania and New Jersey  In 1946, it attempted to acquire the Continental Gas & Electric Corp  but was denied   American Gas & Electric Company was finally spun off in 1958 to become American Electric Power (AEP) 
As part of a national campaign to deregulate the electric industry, the Bush administration and Congress passed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 that repealed the 1935 Public Utility Holding Company Act 

EBASCo holding companies prior to 1935
The following EBASCo holding companies, which includes some of its subsidiaries came under enforcement by the Securities and Exchange Commission with the passage of the Public Utilities Holding Company Act of 1935 

American Gas & Electric Company
Incorporated in 1906, and controlled by EBASCo , American Gas & Electric Company was finally spun off in 1958 and became American Electric Power  AEP currently serves over 5 million electricity customers in eleven states  It is currently the 6th largest gas & electric company in the United States  Check the reference here for a recent list of AEP's  subsidiaries 
Appalachian Electric Power Co  - Known today as Appalachian Power
Ohio Power Co  - Known today as AEP Ohio
Indiana & Michigan Electric Co  - known today as Indiana Michigan Power
The Scranton Electric Co  was sold to PPL Corporation in 1956
Atlantic City Elec  Co  - Is currently a subsidiary of Exelon
Ky  & W  Va  Power Co  - known today as Kentucky Power
Wheeling Electric Co  - is currently a subsidiary of AEP
Indiana General Service Co 
Kingsport Utilities, Inc  - known today as Kingsport Power Company

American Power & Light Company
American Power & Light had over 35 subsidiaries prior to 1935   In 1942, the Securities and Exchange Commission ordered the holding company to be broken up, which was completed by 1951  Many of these companies are still in existence today  

Citizens Power & Light Co , Council Bluffs, Iowa 
Central Arizona Light & Power Co , Phoenix, Arizona, merged with Arizona Edison in 1952 to form Arizona Public Service
Florida Power & Light Co , Miami, Florida  It is a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources
Fort Worth Power & Light Co , Fort Worth, Texas  Became part of TU Electric in 1984 
Helena Gas & Electric Co , Helena, Montana 
Kansas Gas & Electric Co , general office, Wichita, Kansas, merged with Kansas Power and Light of Topeka in 1992 to form Westar Energy
Minnesota Power & Light Co , general office, Duluth, Minnesota 
Missoula Public Service Co , Missoula, Montana, acquired by Montana Power Company in 1929
Montana Power Company, Butte, Montana  is still operating today 
Nebraska Power Co , Omaha, Nebraska 
Northern Power Co , Superior, Wisconsin 
Northwestern Electric Co , Portland, Oregon 
Pacific Power & Light Co , Portland, Oregon  is known today as PacifiCorp and owned by Berkshire Hathaway Energy 
Portland Gas & Coke Co , Portland, Oregon 
St  Augustine Co , St  Augustine, Florida 
Superior Water, Light & Power Co , Superior, Wisconsin 
Texas Electric Service Co , Dallas, Texas  Became part of TU Electric in 1984 
Texas Power & Light Co , Dallas, Texas  Became part of TU Electric in 1984 
Texas Public Utilities Corp , Dallas, Texas  Became part of TU Electric 
Washington Water Power Co  (The), group, Spokane, Washington is known today as Avista 

Electric Power & Light Corporation
Incorporated in 1925 as a holding company for various Electric Bond & Shares Co  subsidiaries  The SEC ordered it sold off, a process that was completed in 1949, when it was renamed as Mid South Utilities, Inc  Today, it is known as Entergy 

Arkansas Power & Light Co , Little Rock, Arkansas 
Dallas Power & Light Cd  Dallas, Texas 
Idaho Power Co , Boise, Idaho 
Louisiana Gas & Fuel Co , Shreveport, Louisiana 
Louisiana Power & Light Co , New Orleans, Louisiana 
Mississippi Central Power Co , Jackson, Mississippi 
Mississippi Power & Light Co , Jackson, Mississippi 
Nevada Power Co , Boise, Idaho 
New Orleans Public Service Inc , New Orleans, Louisiana 
Salmon River Power & Light Co , Boise, Idaho 
Utah Light & Traction Co , Salt Lake City, Utah 
Utah Power & Light Co , Salt Lake City, Utah 
Western Colorado Power Co , Durango, Colorado 

National Power & Light Company
Incorporated 1925 as new holding company for various Electric Bond & Shares Co  subsidiaries  As part of the SEC's order, National Power was combined with Lehigh Power Securities with most of its other companies broken up   Today, National Power is known today as PPL Corporation

Birmingham Electric Co , Birmingham, Alabama 
Carolina Power & Light Co , Raleigh, North Carolina
Holston River Electric Corporation, Rogersville, Tennessee 
Houston Lighting & Power Co , Houston, Texas 
Knoxville Power & Light Co , Knoxville, Tennessee 
Memphis Power & Light Co , Memphis, Tennessee 
South Texas Utilities Co , Houston, Texas 
Tennessee Public Service Co , Newport, Tennessee 
West Tennessee Power & Light Co , Jackson, Tennessee 

Lehigh Power Securities Corporation
The Lehigh Power Securities Company was merged with EBASCo's National Power & Light Company 

Pennsylvania Power & Light Co , Allentown, Pennsylvania  - PPL Corporation today 
Lancaster Group, Edison Electric Co , Lancaster,  Pennsylvania 
Transit Group, Lehigh Valley Transit Co , Allentown, Pennsylvania 

American & Foreign Power Company
Following the failed merger negotiations with Canada's Royal Securities Corporation, American & Foreign Power Co  was created as a wholly owned EBASCo holding company in 1923 that had the goal of owning electric companies worldwide  With its agenda of enforcing patents, General Electric (GE) had been buying up electric stocks worldwide, but also started taking control of companies via its equipment sales and other services formerly performed by its holding company, the Electric Bond and Share Group   In 1917, Electric Bond and Share Group's first major foreign electric acquisition, at the request of the U S  government, to take control of electric production for two cities near the Panama Canal as a counter strategy against nearby German interests    In 1920, Electric Bond obtained control of Guatemalan electric facilities that the U S  government had seized from Germany during the war    This was followed in 1922 by a dramatic burst of purchasing across central and South America that was followed the next year by the formation of the American & Foreign Power Company 
In 1925, GE would dispose of its Ebasco stocks because of negative public opinion, however GE's chairman continued to sit on American & Foreign Power's board of directors while its founding president Sydney Z  Mitchell also stayed as president   In 1929 American & Foreign Power claimed to have worldwide assets of $750 million  By 1931 the holding company was supplying power to just under 1,000 communities around the world  Following the passage of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, Ebasco was allowed to retain control of American & Foreign Power Company as the law only applied to U S  based electric utility companies 
Electric development in Cuba is of unique historic concern   Following the Spanish–American War in 1898 the country was forced into an exclusive relationship with the United States   The U  S  allowed Cuba to be independent, but required it to operate under the Platt Amendment of 1901, turning it into an exclusive U S  plantation colony with its sugar exports only allowed to be marketed in the U S    Business interests deployed a combination of Scientific racism and Scientific management practices that left the country exclusively in the hands of American companies 
It started in 1922 with GE's representative, Henry Catlin purchasing General Gerardo Machado's electric company and then donating $500,000 to the general's successful bid to become Cuba's president in 1924  GE would spend $100 million to purchase control of Cuba's entire electric infrastructure    This led to 40 years of societal stresses, years of military dictatorships, the infamous U S  Mafia operations in Havana and the Cuban Revolution which allowed Cuba to  nationalize American & Foreign Power's control of the country's electric utilities 
American & Foreign Power Company also had operations in the following countries:

Argentina - 100 different electric companies
Brazil
Canada - British Columbia Power Corporation
Chile - all major electric utilities 
China - 1929 Shanghai Power Company purchased for $32 million
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba - Cuba Electric Co  taken public by Cuba in 1960
Ecuador
Guatemala
India
Italy - Italian Superpower Corporation
Japan -  Two Companies
Mexico
Panama - 1917 purchased two companies at the request of the U S  around the Panama Canal
Venezuela

Dixon-Yates Affair
With the election of President Eisenhower in 1952 as the first republican to hold office in 20 years, a major policy shift called "no new starts" began   All federal water and power projects that had been closely tied to local, state or federal ownership were ended   The scale of this policy shift was exposed with the Dixon-Yates affair, identifying the plan's source as the Pacific Gas & Electric Company   PG&E was known for getting conservative politicians to kill all funding to the massive Central Valley Project's grid, forcing the U S  Bureau of Reclamation to rely on the company to deliver the electricity  As a result, cooperatives in communities across northern California that were set up to get the low cost surplus power collapsed 
In 1954, President Eisenhower ordered the Atomic Energy Commission to buy 600,000 kilowatts of electricity for its Oak Ridge National Laboratory from two private electric companies rather than purchase power from the Tennessee Valley Authority in what is known as the Dixon-Yates contract   The attempt to bypass TVA's public power system next door to Oak Ridge stirred a national scandal following the testimony of James D Stietenroth, who was the secretary-treasurer of Mississippi Power Company who said that Middle South Utilities was still dominated by Ebasco Services  Stietenroth was fired the next day   Following the release of a secret report by industry insiders meant only for the president's eyes, Eisenhower was forced to cancel the contract on July 11, 1955 
In 1961, after 26 years of legal cases, Electric Bond and Share had complied with the SEC's orders and was no longer listed as an electric power holding company  In 1967, Electric Bond and Share merged with its former holding company, the American & Foreign Power Co  and was renamed Ebasco Industries the following year   Ebasco Industries held onto Ebasco Services Inc  as a subsidiary 

Ebasco Services
On November 27, 1935, the Electric Bond & Share Company setup Ebasco Services to manage its holding company empire, the day after the SEC filed a lawsuit ordering the company to register as a holding company as required by the passage of the Public Utility Company Holding Company Act  According to the asbestos legal case of FENICLE v  BOISE CASCADE COMPANY, Boise Cascade purchased control of Ebasco Industries and its subsidiary Ebasco Services in 1969  The Plaintiff's suit was countered by a legal maneuver called Piercing the corporate veil  In 1973 Halliburton purchased Ebasco Services from Boise Cascade, but the Justice Department reversed the sale over concerns that it gave Halliburton control over too much of the industry's engineering expertise By the mid-1970s, Ebasco had stepped beyond its 1961 filing with the SEC, claiming its intention of becoming an investment company  It was now actively involved with the construction of nuclear and fossil fuel power facilities  In 1976, according to Encyclopedia com a Texas oil company named  Ensearch acquired Ebasco  Ensearch was originally known as Texas Power & Light Co  and had been one of Ebasco's original subsidiaries prior to 1935, that is now TXU Energy  By 1980, EBASCO had three divisions: A/E Ebasco Services, Ebasco Environmental, which provided environmental services, and Ebasco Engineering and Construction  On November 16, 1982, according to a filing made with the Texas Secretary of state, Ebasco Engineering and Construction filed as a foreign for-profit company  Ebasco Environmental was sold to Foster Wheeler, Inc , becoming Foster Wheeler Environmental 
Ebasco had become one of the major US architect-engineers, coordinating the design of many nuclear power plants both in the US and abroad  On May 22, 1956, Ebasco's subsidiary, American & Foreign Power Co  announced plans to build two nuclear power facilities in Latin America, very likely in Cuba since they held 100% of the country's electric production  Other major nuclear construction plans included the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (units 1, 2 and 6)  It also had the original contract to design and build the Bataan Nuclear station in the Philippines, but was replaced by Westinghouse  Ebasco's involvement with the financial collapse of the Washington Public Power Supply System's (WPPSS) massive five nuclear reactors  led to a lawsuit against the company in 1992 over asbestos contamination Raytheon acquired Ebasco in 1994 and was known as Raytheon Ebasco Overseas Ltd  At this time, Ebasco was known to have subsidiaries in 11 foreign countries  The Raytheon subsidiary, Raytheon Engineers & Constructors that owned Ebasco Services was later sold to Morrison Knudsen Corporation where the combined company was named the Washington Group International, Inc , a firm with more than $5 billion in annual revenues and a backlog of some $6 6 billion, marking it one of the largest in the engineering and construction industry at that time with more than 38,000 employees at work in more than 40 countries  Washington Group International, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2001  At the time of the filing, there were four known Ebasco entities involved in the bankruptcy that included the Delaware-based Ebasco International Corporation   The Washington Group's headquarters were at the World Trade Center in 2001  Ebasco had been at the WTC since 1980 and at one point was its largest tenant with over 2,000 employees, leasing over 600,000 sq  ft  There were less than 20 employees of the 180 still at the World Trade Center on 911  In 2007 Washington Group was purchased by URS Corporation, which was purchased by AECOM in 2014 that is now one of the largest engineering firms in the world 
Following the 2007 takeover of TXU Corp , which included plans to construct two new next generation nuclear power stations at Commanche Peak, the company eventually ran into further financial difficulties and filed for bankruptcy in 2014   On February 27, 2018, Energy Futures Holdings (EFH), formerly known as TXU Corp , which was one of Ebasco's pre-1935 subsidiaries came out of bankruptcy reorganization as TXU Energy  EFH had a subsidiary known as EEC Holdings which owned Ebasco Canada Ltd  that was incorporated in Delaware  Ebasco Canada was shut down on April 29, 2014, as part of the EFH bankruptcy process According to a 2015 Sun Sentinel news story, Ebasco's American and Foreign Power Company is owned by another company - Office Depot  The article says that when Boise Cascade sold off Ebasco Services to Raytheon, it held onto American & Foreign Power Co 's foreign investments   Boise Cascade purchased OfficeMax and took its name in 2003   According to the article, OfficeMax was then purchased by Office Depot in 2013, and was proposing to merge with Staples in 2015  One of the subsidiaries of American & Foreign Power Co   was the former Cuban Power Co  that has filed a $267 5 million claim against Cuba with the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission that still has thousands of investors holding stock in the nationalized company  The Office Depot and Staples merger was abandoned in 2016 after a judge blocked the plan In 2016, The Indian subsidiary Raytheon Ebasco Overseas Ltd  appeared in an Indian court over Tax problems Meanwhile, the Dutch registered CT Corporation is listing itself as the agent for Ebasco in 43 states and the District of Columbia 
See Boise Cascade v  United States for more background on the activities of Ebasco Industries In addition, The law firm of Reid and Priest used to be part of the army of lawyers that failed to stop Ebasco from being dismantled   It became part of Reid, Priest and Thelen LLP which also just dissolved 
Today there is a company Named Ebasco Trading Co  listed in Dubai  Its unknown what its relationship is to the original company 
See Ebasco Services for its whistle-blowing problems  See External links for a list of major legal cases Ebasco has been involved in   Note that this list is no where exhaustive since the company was constantly caught up in legal cases against its own employees, insurance companies and regulatory oversight agencies nationwide 
The Public Utilities Holding Company Act of 1935 was repealed by the Energy Policy Act of 2005
Passage 6:
Spire Inc
Spire Inc  (NYSE: SR) is a regional public utility holding company based in St  Louis, Missouri, providing natural gas service through its regulated core utility operations while engaging in non-regulated activities that provide business opportunities  Its primary subsidiary Laclede Gas Company is the largest natural gas distribution utility in Missouri, serving approximately 631,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in the City of St  Louis and ten counties in eastern Missouri   Its corporate headquarters is located in the 700 Market building in downtown St  Louis 
On April 29, 2016, the company began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SR   It had previously been known as the Laclede Group, trading under the symbol LG 

History
Laclede Gas Company was one of the original 12 industrial companies that made up the Dow Jones Industrial Average but was removed in 1899  On December 7, 2009, executives from The Laclede Group visited the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to ring the closing bell and commemorate the company’s 120th anniversary of trading on the exchange  The Company first listed its stock on November 14, 1889, making it the 8th-oldest listed stock on the NYSE 
On February 1, 2012, Laclede hired its first female CEO, Suzanne Sitherwood  Sitherwood earned a bachelor of science degree in industrial engineering technology from the Southern College of Technology and an MBA from Brenau University In 2013, The Laclede Group acquired Missouri Gas Energy from Southern Union Company, expanding their Missouri holdings to include Kansas City 
In 2014 Laclede acquired Alabama Gas Corporation (Alagasco), which serves the Greater Birmingham, East Lauderdale County, Gadsden, Jasper, Anniston-Oxford, Greater Tuscaloosa, Greater Montgomery, Opelika-Auburn, Tuskegee, Selma, and many Black Belt communities as Spire Alabama Inc 
On April 28, 2016, The Laclede Group shareholders approved renaming the company to Spire   Later in 2016, Spire acquired Energy South, Inc from Sempra U S  Gas & Power, the parent company of Mobile Gas and Willmut Gas   Mobile Gas operates in Mobile, Alabama as Spire Gulf Coast Inc  while Willmut gas operates in Hattiesburg, Mississippi as Spire Mississippi Inc  

See also
Laclede Gas Company - Subsidiary of the Laclede Group
Laclede Gas Building
Passage 7:
North American Company
The North American Company was a holding company incorporated in New Jersey on June 14, 1890, and controlled by Henry Villard, to succeed to the assets and property of the Oregon and Transcontinental Company  It owned public utilities and public transport companies and was broken up in 1946, largely to comply with the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 
Its headquarters were at 60 Broadway in Manhattan 

Holdings
In 1889 New Jersey passed legislation to facilitate the control of other companies by another corporation with a goal of encouraging trusts to convert into holding companies and relocate to that state  To take advantage of these expanded corporate powers, in 1890 Oregon and Transcontinental, which was an Oregon corporation, re-incorporated as a holding company in New Jersey and became the North American Company By 1940, North American was a US$2 3 billion holding company directly and indirectly heading up  80 companies  It controlled ten major direct subsidiaries in eight of which it owned at least 79%  Three of the ten were major holding companies:
Union Electric Company of St  Louis, Missouri
Washington Railway and Electric Company
North American Light and Power CompanyFour of the ten direct subsidiaries were operating companies:

Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company
Pacific Gas and Electric
Detroit Edison Company
Wisconsin Electric Power CompanyThe remaining three of the ten direct subsidiaries were:

North American Utility Securities Corporation
West Kentucky Coal Company
60 Broadway Building CorporationAt various times during its existence, North American also owned substantial interests in these other companies as well:

The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company: Formed in 1896 as a subsidiary of the North American Company  By 1929, it operated within North American Company along with Wisconsin Electric Power Company, which became the consolidated name of the two operating companies in 1938  It now belongs to Wisconsin Energy Corporation (NYSE: WEC)
Capital Transit: Formed on December 1, 1933, in Washington, D C  from merger of Washington Railway, Capital Traction, and Washington Rapid Transit  North American owned it through its holding company subsidiary, Washington Railway and Electric Company, which in turn was the holding company for the merged lines, owning 50% of Capital Transit 
Potomac Electric Power Company
Cincinnati Gas & Electric Company
Union Light, Heat and Power of Covington, Kentucky
Northern Natural Gas Company
Butte Electric and Power Company
Laclede Gas Company
Edison Securities Corporation
Wired Radio, Inc  (Muzak)
North American Edison Company
St  Louis United Railways Company

History
The Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 passed with the intent of breaking up interstate electric holding companies by limiting company operations to a single state, thus subjecting them to effective state regulation  The North American Company fought the legislation in court, and the company was not broken up by the Securities and Exchange Commission until their loss before the Supreme court in North American Co  v  SEC on April 1, 1946 

Dow Jones Industrial Average
North American's stock was one of the twelve component stocks of the May 1896 original Dow Jones Industrial Average, but it was replaced later that same year  In 1928, when the number of stocks comprising the DJIA was increased to 30, North American was re-added to the list but was replaced again in 1930  The two periods when it was a component were:

May 26, 1896 – August 26, 1896, replaced by U  S  Cordage
October 1, 1928 – January 29, 1930, replaced by Johns-Manville

See also
John I  Beggs (former director)
Clement Studebaker Jr  (chairman of North American Light and Power Co)
Passage 8:
Alfred A  Marcus
Alfred Allen Marcus (born 1950) is an American author and the Edson Spencer Professor of Strategy and Technology Leadership at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota and the Technological Leadership Institute  He has worked as a consultant with companies such as 3M, Corning Inc , Xcel Energy, Medtronic, General Mills, and IBM and has also taught as a visiting professor at Technion, INCAE, BI Norwegian Business School, Fordham University, and MIT 

Environmental and energy policy career
Marcus was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and grew up in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood  He attended the University of Chicago for his bachelor's and master's degrees, before finishing his PhD in political science at Harvard University under James Q  Wilson  Outside academy, he has worked on environmental and energy policy analysis during the Carter and Reagan years at the Battelle Human Affairs Research Centers in Seattle, Washington  There he conducted and participated in studies on the commercialization of alternative energy technologies and new energy saving technologies 
Following the Three Mile Island nuclear power incident, he also became involved in the work carried out by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the organization and management of nuclear power plants  Marcus has written many academic articles relating to organizational safety in publications like the Academy of Management Journal, the Strategic Management Journal, and Organization Science 

Published works
His work focuses primarily on  the relationship between public policy, the environment, and American business and his books include: 

Promise and Performance: Choosing and Implementing an Environmental Policy (1980) - Praeger  ISBN 0-313-207070
The Adversary Economy (1984) - Praeger  ISBN 0-899-300553
Managing Environmental Issues: A Casebook (1992) - Prentice Hall  ISBN 0-135-638917
Controversial Issues in Energy Policy (1992) - SAGE Publications  ISBN 0-803-939701
Reinventing Environmental Regulation: Lessons from Project XL (2002) -Routledge  ISBN 1-891-853090
Strategic Foresight - A New Look at Scenarios (2010)  - Palgrave Macmillan  ISBN 0-230-611729
Innovations in Sustainability (2015) - Cambridge University Press  ISBN 1-107-42111X

Selected bibliography
See also
Paul Shrivastava
Passage 9:
North American Co  v  SEC
North American Co  v  Securities and Exchange Commission, 327 U S  686 (1946), is a United States Supreme Court case holding that a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) order under the Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA) directing a public utility holding company to divest its securities of all companies except for one electric company did not violate the Commerce Clause or the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution 

Background
PUHCA was one of a number of trust-busting and securities regulation initiatives that were enacted in response to the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and ensuing Great Depression, including the collapse of Samuel Insull's public utility holding companies  By 1932, the eight largest utility holding companies controlled 73 percent of the investor-owned electric industry  Their complex, highly leveraged, corporate structures were very difficult for individual states to regulate  PUHCA required electric company holding companies to register with the SEC, and authorized the SEC to limit a holding company to a single integrated electric system through the divestiture of its other public utility and unrelated companies 
The North American Company, formed in 1890, was a holding company in a system that by 1940 contained 80 companies operating in seventeen states and the District of Columbia  These included the Union Electric Company, which operated an electric system around St  Louis, Missouri, and subsidiaries in Illinois and Iowa, the Washington Railway and Electric Company, and the North American Light and Power Company with systems in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Iowa and its subsidiaries Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company, Pacific Gas and Electric, and Detroit Edison Company  In addition, North American also owned an investment trust company and West Kentucky Coal Company  Together the various electric systems served more than 3,000,000 customers in a service territory of 165,000 square miles 
North American initially challenged the constitutionality of PUHCA and requested an injunction against its enforcement, but the Supreme Court in Landis v  North American Co , held that the case was premature and that North American should register and then litigate the constitutionality of PUHCA after the SEC conducted its proceeding  North American then registered in 1937 as a holding company with the SEC, reserving its right to challenge the validity of the remaining portions of PUHCA  After initiating an administrative proceeding, the SEC issued an order requiring divestiture of North American's securities in companies other than the Union Electric Company  North American appealed, but in 1943 the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld the order  Arguing that ownership of securities was not interstate commerce within the meaning of the Commerce Clause and that the divestiture ordered by the SEC was a taking in violation of the Fifth Amendment, North American appealed to the Supreme Court, which granted certiorari 

Opinion
The opinion by Justice Murphy first concluded that North American was engaged in interstate commerce and through its substantial stock ownership dominated its subsidiaries  The opinion then noted that North American's argument that PUHCA's divestiture provision was invalid because ownership of securities was not commerce had been previously rejected by the Court in the anti-trust case of Northern Securities Co  v  United States  Under its authority under the Commerce Clause, Congress could regulate to protect the freedom of interstate commerce using any means that were lawful and not prohibited by the Constitution  Under Northern Securities, Congress could deal with and affect the ownership of securities to protect the freedom of commerce, which it did in fashioning the divestiture remedy in PUHCA 
Lastly, the Court dismissed the takings argument, noting that Congress had weighed the benefit to shareholders of efficient, common management of diversified companies against the actual and potential harm to the public, investors, and consumers from the use of pooled investments, and determined that the economic advantages of a holding company atop an unintegrated, sprawling electric system were not commensurate with the resulting economic disadvantages  In addition, it was not clear that there would be a loss necessary for a takings claim under the Fifth Amendment  PUHCA does not require the dumping or forced liquidation of the securities on the market for cash, so the stock of the companies ordered divested could be distributed to the shareholders or sold under a plan that protects shareholder rights  The Court determined that it could not conclude that North American shareholders were disadvantaged by the operation of the divestiture provision of PUHCA 
Justices Reed, Douglas and Jackson did not participate in the consideration of the case  Although Chief Justice Stone had initially recused himself for a disclosed reason, but when he discovered that his disqualification plus those of the other justices would result in the lack of a quorum, he reversed his position 

Subsequent events
PUHCA was repealed by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 effective February 8, 2006 

See also
List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 327
Context 2: Passage 1:
José Daniel Valencia
José Daniel Valencia (born 3 October 1955) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder  He is perhaps most famous for having been part of the 1978 World Cup winning squad 

Club career
Valencia started his club career at Gimnasia y Esgrima de Jujuy but was soon transferred to Talleres de Córdoba, the club at which he would play most of his career 
At Talleres, Valencia suffered the disappointment of finishing runner-up in Nacional 1977, finishing third in Metropolitano 1980, and losing the semi-finals on four occasions 
In 1986, he  had a spell in Ecuadorian football with Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Quito, but only stayed one year before returning to Talleres for a further two seasons 
In 1988, he left Talleres to play for third division club Guaraní Antonio Franco in Misiones, Argentina  After a short spell in the lower leagues, he made a brief return to the first division with Rosario Central in 1989 before moving to Bolivia where he played for Club Jorge Wilstermann and then Club San José 
At San José, he again experienced the disappointment of being a losing finalist on two occasions; in the 1991 Clausura and the 1992 season  He also got his first taste of Copa Libertadores football, but with little success, as San José finished bottom of their group in both 1992 and 1993 
Valencia retired from club football in 1993 at the age of 37 

International career
The highlight of Valencia's footballing career came in 1978 when he was selected to represent Argentina at the FIFA World Cup tournament  Although he featured in the first game, he was dropped due to a tactical reshuffle by manager César Luis Menotti  He was unlucky to miss out on the World Cup final in the Monumental stadium, but he did play a part in helping Argentina win their first World Cup 
Valencia was selected to play for Argentina at 1982 World Cup, but the team had a disappointing campaign, eliminated in the second group phase  He retired from international football at the end of the tournament, having represented his country 41 times, scoring five goals 

Honours
Club
Talleres de Córdoba

Copa Hermandad: 1977
Liga Cordobesa de Fútbol: 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979

International
Argentina

FIFA World Cup: 1978
Passage 2:
Mariano Campodónico
Mariano Alejandro Campodónico (born 4 May 1974) is a retired Argentine footballer who played as a forward and current manager  He is the brother of former footballer Pablo Campodónico 

Career
Campodónico started his career in 1994, his first club was Banfield, he remained with them for four years before joining Platense with whom he made 17 appearances  1999 saw Campodónico leave Platense and complete a move to San Martín (SJ) before subsequently agreeing to join Arsenal de Sarandí in 2000 and El Porvenir in 2001  In 2002, Campodónico moved out of Argentina for the first-team as he agreed to sign for Venezuelan Primera División club Caracas, however his spell with Caracas was short as he soon departed to join Ecuadorian Serie A side Aucas One year later he left to join fellow Ecuadorian team Deportivo Quito  Moves to Gimnasia, Chiapas, Ferro Carril Oeste and Belgrano followed between 2003 and 2007  In 2004, Campodónico, playing for Ferro Carril Oeste scored twice against Sarmiento  Sarmiento's goalkeeper was Campodónico's own brother, Pablo  Mariano told reporters that "this was the worst thing that's happened to me in my football career"  In 2006, while playing for Belgrano, Campodónico was sentenced to eight days in prison for making "obscene gestures" at the opposing team during a football game He joined Nueva Chicago in 2007 and made 12 appearances before leaving not long after joining to complete a transfer to San Martín (T)  6 goals in 10 appearances followed for San Martín (T) before Campodónico moved to Paraguay to play for Cerro Porteño  He was with Cerro Porteño for one season, 2008, before eventually joining Aldosivi, which meant he was at the same team as his brother, Pablo, for the first-time  After leaving Aldosivi, he joined All Boys before then moving to Belgrano (second spell), Temperley and Talleres  Campodónico played for Mitre in 2015 and Cañuelas in 2016 before announcing his retirement 

Coaching career
Retiring in the summer 2017, Campodónico began his coaching career at his last club as a player, Cañuelas, where he was appointed manager on 28 December 2017  However, he decided to resign on 19 June 2018 A few days after leaving Cañuelas, Campodónico was appointed manager of Club Luján at the end of June 2018  After only two victories, four draws and seven defeats, he was fired 15 October 2018 On 3 February 2019, Campodónico was appointed manager of Sacachispas FC  He left his position on 16 September 2019 After Israel Damonte was appointed manager of Huracán on 3 January 2020, Campodónico also joined the club as his assistant coach, alongside his brother, Pablo Campodónico, who was appointed goalkeeper coach  They left in March 2021

Honours
Club
San Martín (T)Primera B Nacional (1): 2007–08
Passage 3:
Luis Artime
Luis Artime (born 2 December 1938) is an Argentine former footballer, who played as a striker, and scored more than 1,000 goals during his career  His son Luis Fabián Artime is also a retired Argentine footballer who played in the 1990s 

Club career
Artime was born in Parque Civit in Mendoza Province  He had a remarkably successful career in club football, he was top scorer four times in the Argentine league, three times in the Uruguayan league and once in the Copa Libertadores  He won one Argentine league title, three Uruguayan league titles and the Copa Libertadores in 1971 
Artime started his career at Club Atlético Atlanta but in 1962 he was transferred to Argentine giants River Plate where he became the top scorer in Argentina on three occasions  In 1966 he moved to Independiente where he helped the team to win the Nacional 1967, he was also topscorer in the tournament 
In 1969, he moved to Brazil to play for Palmeiras, but he did not stay long, and soon left to join Nacional of Uruguay  His first spell at Nacional was the most productive of his career; he won three Urugauyan league titles in a row, topscoring in each tournament, and in 1971 he helped the team to win the Copa Libertadores 
In 1972, he tried his luck in Brazil for a second time, but returned to Nacional in Uruguay after only one season at Fluminense  His second spell at Nacional was overshadowed by the successes of eternal rivals Peñarol  Artime retired from football in 1974 

International career
Playing for the Argentina national football team, Artime scored 24 goals in 25 caps, making him Argentina's 8th highest goalscorer to date  His strike rate of 0 96 goals per game for Argentina also makes him one of the most prolific goalscorers in Argentine international football  He played at the 1966 FIFA World Cup and at the South American Championship 1967, where he was the top goalscorer 

Honours
Club
Independiente

Argentine Primera División: 1967 NacionalPalmeiras

Campeonato Brasileiro: 1969Nacional

Uruguayan Primera División: 1969, 1970, 1971
Copa Libertadores: 1971
Intercontinental Cup: 1971

National Team
Argentina

Taça das Nações: 1964

Individual
Primera Division Argentina Top Scorer: 1962 (25 goals), 1963 (25 goals), 1966 (23 goals), Nacional 1967 (11 goals)
South American Championship Top Scorer: 1967 (5 goals)
Primera División Uruguaya Top Scorer: 1969 (24 goals), 1970 (21 goals), 1971 (16 goals)
Copa Libertadores Top Scorer: 1971 (10 goals)
Copa Intercontinental Top Scorer: 1971 (19 goals)
Passage 4:
José Aveiro
José Raúl Aveiro Lamas (born 18 July 1936) is a Paraguayan former professional footballer who played as a striker 

Career
Born in Asunción, Aveiro played for Sportivo Luqueño, Valencia, Valencia Mestalla, Elche, Ontinyent and Constància He was also a member of the Paraguay national team between 1957 and 1959 
Passage 5:
List of Valencia CF Femenino seasons
This is a list of seasons played by Valencia CF Femenino, the women's section of Spanish football club Valencia CF, and its predecessor DSV Colegio Alemán  The team was created in its original form in 1998, and has represented Valencia CF since the 2009–10 season 

Summary
Passage 6:
Higinio Ortúzar
Higinio Ortúzar Santamaría (10 January 1915 – 8 November 1982) was a Chilean footballer who made his entire career in Spain 

Career
The first Chilean in the Spanish football, he made his debut for Erandio Club in 1935, and next he played for Barakaldo CF, Athletic Bilbao, Valencia CF, Real Valladolid and Real Sociedad  He was loaned to Racing de Santander in 1936 for 4,500 pesetas, but he couldn't play due to the Spanish coup of July While at Athletic (one of few players born outside the Basque region to play for the club under their signing policy and the only from Chile in the history), he won a League and Cup double in 1943, and followed this up with further league titles playing for Valencia in 1944 and 1947  In his 30s he featured for Valladolid and Real Sociedad in successive seasons, helping each to gain promotion from the second tier 
After retiring as a player, he became a football coach, and managed sides including CD Logroñés 

Personal life
Born in Santiago, Chile, his parents were Basques  He returned to Euzkadi at early age, after his mother died He made his home in Areeta and managed a bar in Mayor Street 
Passage 7:
1998–99 Valencia CF season
Valencia CF had a successful season, finishing in the top four of La Liga and thus qualifying for the UEFA Champions League for the first time in almost 30 years, thanks to the extension of the competition to include more teams from the top leagues  Valencia also won the Copa del Rey, ending a long trophy drought and marking a successful end to Italian coach Claudio Ranieri's first spell at the club  Among the main players behind the success included Gaizka Mendieta, Javier Farinós and lethal striker Claudio López 
At the end of the season, Ranieri left to manage Atlético Madrid; he was replaced by Argentine Héctor Cúper, who had led Mallorca to third place and the Cup Winners' Cup final 

Squad
Squad at end of seasonNote: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules  Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality 

Transfers
Left club during season
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules  Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality 

Competitions
La Liga
League table
Results by round
Matches
Top scorers
Claudio López 21
 Adrian Ilie 11
 Angulo 8
 Gaizka Mendieta 7
 Stefan Schwarz 4

Copa del Rey
Eightfinals

Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Final
UEFA Intertoto Cup
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Finals
UEFA Cup
First round
Second round
Statistics
Players statistics
Passage 8:
Mario Kempes
Mario Alberto Kempes Chiodi (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈmaɾjo alˈβeɾto ˈkempes ˈtʃjoði], Italian: [ˈkjɔːdi]; born 15 July 1954) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a striker or attacking midfielder  A prolific goalscorer, he finished as La Liga's top goalscorer twice with Valencia where he amassed 116 goals in 184 league games 
At international level, Kempes was the focal point of Argentina's 1978 World Cup win where he scored twice in the final and received the Golden Boot as top goalscorer  He also won the Golden Ball for the player of the tournament, making him one of only three players to have won all three awards at a single World Cup, along with Garrincha in 1962 and Paolo Rossi in 1982 
Kempes won South American Footballer of the Year, Onze d'Or European footballer of the Year and World Cup Golden Ball in 1978  In 2004, he was named as one of the Top 125 greatest living footballers as part of FIFA's 100th anniversary celebration  Kempes was nicknamed El Toro and El Matador 

Club career
Kempes was born in Bell Ville, Córdoba  His father, Mario Quemp, was of German heritage  His mother, Teresa Chiodi, was Italian  At the age of seven he began playing with a junior team and at fourteen he joined the Talleres reserves 
Kempes' career started at local club Instituto, where he played alongside Osvaldo Ardiles before quickly moving on to Rosario Central, where he established himself as a remarkable goalscorer, scoring 85 goals in 105 matches, prompting Valencia to sign him  At Mestalla he would go on to win the Copa del Rey, the European Cup Winners' Cup and the UEFA Super Cup as well as two consecutive Pichichis, scoring 24 and 28 goals in the 1976–77 and 1977–78 seasons  Famous as a hard-working forward, he used to strike from outside the penalty area with his surging runs towards goal and was not the traditional center-forward operating solely inside the box  Many defenders found difficulty handling his attacking style 
Before the 1978 World Cup, Kempes was the only foreign-based player on the list of coach César Luis Menotti's Argentina national team  when announcing the squad he had selected for the 1978 tournament, Menotti described him with these words: "He's strong, he's got skill, he creates spaces and he shoots hard  He's a player who can make a difference, and he can play in a centre-forward position "
Kempes had been the top scorer in La Liga the previous two seasons and was determined to show on home soil that he could deliver against the best on the sport's greatest stage  However, he had failed to get on the score-sheet in West Germany in 1974, at the age of 20, and after the first round group stage in 1978, his name was still missing among goal scorers in the tournament 
After leaving Valencia in 1984, Kempes spent two years at Hércules in nearby Alicante before spending six years at various Austrian clubs  His play declined in his 30s and he did not compete for top scorer honours in the Austrian top flight  He rounded off his career with stints at more obscure clubs in Indonesia, Chile and Albania during the 1990s 

International career
During his club career he won 43 caps for Argentina and scored 20 times  He represented his country in three World Cups in 1974, 1978 and 1982, winning the competition in 1978  He was the leading goalscorer in the 1978 tournament, scoring six goals in three braces: the first two in Argentina's first semi-final group stage match against Poland, another two against Peru, and the last two in the final against the Netherlands, which Argentina won 3–1  His second goal, in the 105th minute, was the game winner in extra time  However, in the same tournament, he notoriously stopped a goal with his hand in a second-round match against Poland  This resulted in a penalty kick that was promptly saved by Ubaldo Fillol  His goals in the 1978 World Cup Final were his last for Argentina at the age of just 23 
In 1978, he was named South American Football Player of the Year ("El Mundo," Caracas, Venezuela)  He was named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004 

Managerial career
Kempes made his full-time managing debut in Albania  His brief spell with Lushnja was groundbreaking, as he became the first foreign manager who signed a foreign player in Albanian football history  His career in Albania came to a quick end in 1997  The following year, he landed a job with Venezuelan side Mineros de Guayana  In 1999, Kempes moved to Bolivia and managed The Strongest, before taking charge of Blooming in 2000  Previously, he had worked as assistant coach for Uruguayan manager Héctor Núñez in Valencia and as a player-manager of Indonesian League champions Pelita Jaya 

Commentary career
He currently works as a football analyst and commentator in Spanish for ESPN Deportes (ESPN's Spanish-language version)  With Fernando Palomo and Ciro Procuna he provides the commentary in the Latin American version of the FIFA franchise video games FIFA 13, FIFA 14, FIFA 15, FIFA 16, FIFA 17, FIFA 18, FIFA 19, FIFA 20, FIFA 21, FIFA 22 and FIFA 23 

Career statistics
Club
International
Scores and results list Argentina's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Kempes goal 

Honours
Valencia

Copa del Rey: 1978–79
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1979–80
UEFA Super Cup: 1980River Plate

Primera División: 1981 NacionalPelita Jaya

Galatama: 1993–94 Argentina

FIFA World Cup: 1978Individual

Argentine Primera División top scorers: 1974 Nacional, 1976 Metropolitan
Pichichi Trophy: 1977, 1978
FIFA World Cup Golden Boot: 1978
FIFA World Cup Golden Ball: 1978
FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1978
Ballon d'Or: 1978 - Le nouveau palmarès (the new winners)
Onze d'Or: 1978
Olimpia de Plata: 1978
South American Footballer of the Year: 1978
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup top scorers: 1979–80
FIFA 100: 2004
South American Player of the Century: Ranking Nº 23: 2006
Golden Foot: 2007, as football legend
Estadio Mario Alberto Kempes: 2010, The stadium in Córdoba, Argentina was named after him 
AFA Team of All Time (published 2015)
Passage 9:
Claudio López (footballer)
Claudio Javier López (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈklawðjo ˈlopes], born 17 July 1974) is an Argentine former footballer, who played as a forward  Nicknamed Piojo (louse), he is best known for his spells with Valencia in Spain and Lazio in Italy  López also had a notable impact in the Argentina national team, participating in two World Cups 

Club career
Early career
López began his professional career with Estudiantes de La Plata in his native Argentina in 1990 as a 16-year-old  However, he moved to Racing the next year, where he would remain until he transferred in 1996 to Spanish club Valencia 

Europe
After a slow start in 1996–97, Claudio López would enjoy a prolific spell with Valencia over the 3 years that followed, averaging 20 goals each season between 1997–98 and 1999–2000  That included a season best in 1998–99 which saw him find the net on 30 occasions across competitions to become the club's top scorer (3rd best in la Liga behind Raul and Rivaldo, despite taking fewer penalties than his rivals) 
Valencia entrenched their status as one of Spain's emerging clubs throughout the late 1990s, rising from their usual mid-table position to 4th in 1998–99 and 3rd in 1999–2000, which was Lopez's last season with the club  The Argentine formed a devastating partnership with Romanian Adrian Ilie and played alongside such stars as Jocelyn Angloma, Santiago Cañizares and Gaizka Mendieta, who would later be his teammate at Lazio as well 
López remained with Valencia for five years, helping the team to the final of the UEFA Champions League in the 1999–2000 season, when he was transferred to Lazio of Serie A for €35 million  During the first half of his spell in Italy's capital, he was partnered with compatriot Hernán Crespo in the front-line  However, López suffered from injury problems during his time at Lazio  During the 2000–2001 UEFA Champions League, he scored a direct goal from a corner kick against Anderlecht in the Stadio Olimpico 
After Crespo left for Inter in the summer of 2002, López was partnered with newcomer Bernardo Corradi  They formed a solid partnership that yielded a combined 25 Serie A goals as Lazio finished 4th to qualify for the Champions League under new coach Roberto Mancini  The Argentine scored 15 of those goals, his best league tally during his years in Italy; the 4th-place finish for Lazio was also the best the club would achieve until 2011–12 
In December 2002 he made headlines during a Serie A clash with Inter that ended 3-3: after netting a hat-trick that gave his side a 3-0 lead, Claudio López improvised an "Aserejé" goal celebration with teammate Bernardo Corradi, inspired by the dance routine of Spanish band Las Ketchup  In an interview 13 years later, he explained that the unexpected celebration had happened because "crazy Corradi enjoyed doing such things!"In the UEFA Cup, López found the net twice to help his team reach the semi-finals, where they would be knocked out by the eventual winners, Jose Mourinho's FC Porto  The following season was less successful for Lazio as they only finished 6th in Serie A and crashed out of the Champions League at the group stage  Claudio López only found the net 4 times in 36 appearances  He did manage, however, to win his second piece of silverware with the Roman club as they overcame Juventus in the two-legged Coppa Italia Final 

Mexico, return to Racing
López joined Club América for the 2004 Apertura, where he played in 17 games, scoring four goals  The following season, Clausura 2005 brought better results, with López scoring a total of 14 goals overall and helping the team to its tenth League championship in its history  It was his first and only league championship with any team  Claudio was instrumental to the team's success, also helping them win the CONCACAF Champions' Cup by scoring two goals in the Final over Tecos UAG  He played the 2006 FIFA Club World Cup 
In 2007 López returned to Racing, 11 years after his departure from the club, and the country  In most of those games, usually coming in as a late sub, López scored several important goals 

Major League Soccer
On 7 March 2008, it was announced López had signed with the Kansas City Wizards on a free transfer  López fell under the league's designated player qualification, which means only the first $415,000 of his salary counted against Kansas City Wizards’ team salary cap  He later had his contract restructured to take him below designated player status 
 He scored on his debut for Kansas City against D C  United on 29 March 2008 
On 23 February 2010 the Argentine striker left after two seasons Kansas City Wizards  "We would have liked to have Claudio back in 2010, but unfortunately it became clear early in the contract negotiations that we could not give him what he desired," Wizards Manager Peter Vermes said López was later signed by league rivals Colorado Rapids on 2 April 2010 After the 2010 MLS season Colorado declined López's contract option and Lopez elected to participate in the 2010 MLS Re-Entry Draft  López became a free agent in Major League Soccer when he was not selected in the Re-Entry draft 

International career
López had a distinguished career with Argentina  After winning a silver medal with the Under-23 team during the 1996 Summer Olympics, López made appearances in both the 1998 and 2002 World Cups  He scored a goal against the Netherlands in the 1998 FIFA World Cup quarter-final, when he kicked the ball between Edwin van der Sar's legs to tie the match temporarily, although Argentina were ultimately defeated 2–1 

Style of play
A talented, hardworking, and well-rounded forward, with notable tactical intelligence and versatility, López was capable of playing anywhere along the front-line, as a striker, in a supporting role, and on the wing  He was highly regarded for his pace, technique, and dribbling skills, as well as his powerful striking ability with his left foot  He was also an effective set-piece and penalty taker  Throughout his career, he was known by the nickname "El Piojo", meaning "the louse" 

Media
López was sponsored by sportswear company Nike and appeared in Nike commercials  In a global Nike advertising campaign in the run-up to the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, he starred in a "Secret Tournament" commercial (branded "Scopion KO") directed by Terry Gilliam, appearing alongside football players such as Thierry Henry, Ronaldo, Edgar Davids, Fabio Cannavaro, Francesco Totti, Ronaldinho, Luís Figo and Hidetoshi Nakata, with former player Eric Cantona the tournament "referee" 

Career statistics
Club
International
Honours
Valencia

Copa del Rey: 1998–99
Supercopa de España: 1999
UEFA Intertoto Cup: 1998
UEFA Champions League runner-up: 1999–2000,Lazio

Coppa Italia: 2003–04
Supercoppa Italiana: 2000América

Primera División de México: Clausura 2005
Campeón de Campeones: 2005
CONCACAF Champions' Cup: 2006Colorado Rapids
MLS Cup: 2010
MLS Eastern Conference: 2010

See also
List of current MLS players with national team caps
Passage 10:
2002–03 Valencia CF season
Valencia CF did not succeed in defending their La Liga title, finishing in slumped 5th place  Los Che also got to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League, where former coach Héctor Cúper and Inter got the upper hand over Valencia and Rafael Benítez  The main player during the season was Pablo Aimar, who was the only player making waves in the season, where the previously solid defense did not perform as previously 

Squad
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules  Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality 

Transfers
Competitions
La Liga
League table
Results by round
Matches
Copa del Rey
Round of 64
Round of 32
UEFA Champions League
First group stage
Group B
Second group stage
Group B
Quarter-finals
Statistics
Players statistics
Context 3: Passage 1:
Fishing rod tapers
Fishing rod tapers describe how much a fishing rod bends or flexes under pressure   Different tapers are used for different fishing scenarios as well as for personal preference 

Action
The action of a taper is described by the flex of the tip of a rod when pressure is applied perpendicular to the rod   Only a section of the rod starting at the tip of the rod should bend while the remainder of the rod should stay rigid 
Variations can be described in three main categories, fast, medium, or slow with variations in between each   A rod with a fast taper will only flex the top 20 percent  Medium fast and medium tapers will flex approximately 30 to 60 percent of the rod respectively  If the rod has a slow taper, almost the entire rod or blank will bend or flex under pressure 

Usage
Rod taper is important for several reasons  The feel for the lure being used and the fish being caught dictate the appropriate taper use 
A fast action tip will be used when fishing jig type lures   The angler can feel and therefore control what the lure is doing quite easily   Since only the very tip of the rod bends, when a fish strikes the angler has ample rod shaft and backbone to set the hook correctly 
In contrast to fast tapers, the slow flex rods offer the angler advantages when fighting large fish with light fishing line   This additional flex allows the rod to absorb the force of the fish as opposed to the line   This is often the angler who likes to fish split shot rigs or Lindy rigs for walleye 


== Notes ==
Passage 2:
Personal Preference
Personal Preference is a 1987 board game created by Donal Carlston that involves guessing the order in which a player prefers foods, activities, people, and other items compared to one another  The game was published by Broderbund in the United States, Playtoy Industries in Canada, and Parker Brothers International in Britain 
An updated version by the original creator was launched on Kickstarter on May 1, 2023  The new version contains updated cultural references and new categories 

Original 1987 Version
The game contains cards in four categories: Food & Drink, Activities, People, and Potpourri (miscellaneous)  Each card has a photo or drawing on each side and text indicating what that side represents (e g , chocolate éclairs, climbing a mountain, Harrison Ford, spy novels)  Each round, one player draws four cards from one category, or one from each category, depending on the player's position on the board  Each card is placed in a colored quadrant of the board  The player then ranks these four items according to his or her preference using color-coded cards that are placed in an envelope  Next, other players (or teams) use numbered tiles to guess that player's order, and move forward one space for each correct guess when the order is revealed  If players choose to double a guess by placing a tile towards the center of the board, they move forward two spaces if correct and back one space if incorrect  Players take turns drawing and ranking cards until someone reaches the end of the board 

Reviews
Games #89
Best Games of 1988 in Games #94
Passage 3:
Pie floater
The pie floater is an Australian dish particularly common in Adelaide  It consists of a meat pie in a thick pea soup, typically with the addition of tomato sauce  Believed to have been first created in the 1890s, the pie floater gained popularity as a meal sold by South Australian pie carts  In 2003, it was recognised as a South Australian Heritage Icon 

Development
Pea soup with meat has long been part of English culinary history, with mentions in the 19th century, including the "pea and pie supper" (in Yorkshire), "pea soup with eel", and suet dumplings or saveloys   (Dumplings in soup were known as "floaters" )  It may have developed from those dishes, which are useful for feeding groups of people on a budget, such as at a sports match or at harvest time  
A pie floater commonly consists of a traditional Australian-style meat pie, usually sitting, but sometimes submerged (traditionally upside down) in a bowl of thick pea soup made from blue boiler peas  It is often self-garnished with tomato sauce, and the consumer may also add a combination of mint sauce, salt, pepper, or malt vinegar according to personal preference 
Early records in South Australia state that the pie floater was reputedly born in Port Pirie conceived by one Ern "Shorty" Bradley in 1890s, but it remains unknown if he did and how it came about 

Pie carts
Pie floaters were typically purchased in the street from pie-carts as a late evening meal  Pie-carts are typically a form of caravan/trailer/cart, originally horse-drawn, with an elongated "window" along one or both sides where customers could sit or (more usually) stand to eat their purchases  The pie-cart was typically moved into position at lunchtime and in the evening  As traffic became busier and on-street car-parking in demand, the carts evolved to have one window on the "footpath side", and were moved into position after afternoon peak-hour traffic had ebbed  They did business until late evening or early morning, after which they were returned to their daytime storage locations South Australia has had pie carts in the Adelaide metropolitan area since the 1870s  In the evenings, the Norwood pie-cart was located on The Parade adjacent to the Norwood Town Hall  It was also the only place where members of the public could buy draft Hall's "Stonie" ginger beer directly from the keg  In the Adelaide city centre in the 1880s, there were 13 pie-carts operating in King William Street and North Terrace  By 1915 there were nine pie-carts in operation  By 1958 this had reduced to two: Balfour's pie-cart on North Terrace outside the Adelaide railway station, and Cowley's in Victoria Square outside the Adelaide General Post Office  In 2007, the Glenelg tram line was extended from Victoria Square along King William Street and North Terrace past Adelaide railway station, and the Balfour's pie-cart was forced to close In 2003, the South Australian National Trust traced the history of the pie floater back over 130 years  The pie floater was recognised as a South Australian Heritage Icon by the National Trust of South Australia, although it is now available at very few locations; among them are the Café de Vilis, Enjoy Bakery on Norwood Parade, The Kings Head Pub on King William Street  and the Upper Sturt General Store 

See also
List of legume dishes
Passage 4:
Personal Taste
Personal Taste (Korean: 개인의 취향; Hanja: 個人의 趣向; RR: Kaeinui Chwihyang; MR: Kaein-ŭi Ch‘wihyang; lit  "Kae-in's Taste" or "Kae-in's Preference"; also known as Personal Preference) is a 2010 South Korean television series, starring  Son Ye-jin and Lee Min-ho  It is adapted from Lee Se-in's 2007 novel of the same name about a furniture designer, Park Kae-in, who lives together with architect Jeon Jin-ho under the mistaken assumption that he's gay  It aired on MBC from March 31 to May 20, 2010, on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 21:55 (KST) time slot for 16 episodes 

Synopsis
Furniture designer Park Kae-in (Son Ye-jin) is kind, impulsive, clumsy, and is a complete slob in her personal habits  She lives in Sanggojae (meaning "a place for mutual love"), a modernized hanok (traditional Korean house) designed by her father, a famous and reclusive architecture professor (Kang Shin-il)  As an independent furniture designer, she struggles to produce successful products and is constantly trying to impress her father with her works  Her long-time boyfriend, Han Chang-ryul (Kim Ji-seok), breaks up with her, the reason being Kae-in is an easygoing woman and a pushover  Despite being upset, Kae-in attends the wedding of her friend and roommate, Kim In-hee (Wang Ji-hye), only to discover that she is marrying Chang-ryul; and that the two had been seeing each other behind her back for a while  After she finally comes face-to-face with them, the wedding ceremony turns chaotic and is cancelled  Kae-in is heartbroken and determined to never take a chance on love again 
Meanwhile, to keep his small firm afloat, architect Jeon Jin-ho (Lee Min-ho) is desperately trying to win a project bid for the Dam Art Center against Future Construction, the company owned and operated by Chang-ryul's father (Ahn Suk-hwan)  Chang-ryul's father was originally an employee under Jin-ho's father, who stole the latter's company  In order to win the project of Dam Arts Center, Jin-ho has to find a way to dig up more information about the tentative theme of project: Sanggojae, which has never been opened to the public 
Jin-ho decides to rent a part of Sanggojae to get access into the house while Kae-in rents the place to him believing that he is homosexual due to misunderstandings from their previous encounters  After knowing the reason behind his approval, Jin-ho decides to leave Sanggojae to avoid being misunderstood further but is stopped by his assistant, Noh Sang-jun, who convinces him otherwise by reminding him that their chance at revival of their sinking firm lies on their success in Dam Arts Center Project 
After starting to live together, Jin-ho tells Kae-in that she's miserable only because of herself and the lack of concreteness in her personality  He then encourages and helps her transform from an inveterate slob into a better version of herself, who is confident and strong-willed  Amidst the transformation and hidden truths, Kae-in and Jin-ho start developing feelings for each other which they constantly deny 
The DAC director, Choi Do-bin (Ryu Seung-ryong), impressed by Jin-ho's presentation, offers his support to him in the upcoming project  He also finds Kae-in's ideas creative and hires her to design a recreation centre for children  Do-bin, who is homosexual, later finds himself attracted to Jin-ho, which leaves Jin-ho in a tight spot 
What will happen when the man who's pretending to be gay and the woman who thinks he's gay develop feelings for each other?

Cast
Main
Son Ye-jin as Park Kae-inA clumsy, slobbish girl  She is an aspiring furniture designer, and daughter of the famous architect Park Chul-han  After being dumped by her ex-boyfriend, she decides to not open up to love once again easily Lee Min-ho as Jeon Jin-hoAn architect who is earnestly trying to keep his small firm afloat in a fair manner  He moves into Sanggojae to study it for his next project  Neat and organized, he is unable to stand Kae-in's living habits, and tries to change her into a better version of herself after she agrees to it Kim Ji-seok as Han Chang-ryulJeon Jin-ho's rival, and Kae-in's ex-boyfriend  Although he initially left Kae-in for her friend In-hee, he later grows feelings for Kae-in Wang Ji-hye as Kim In-heeA greedy woman who has multiple boyfriends and treats them as dispensable  Despite being Kae-in's best friend and having lived together for ten years, she betrays her and dates Chang-ryul  Later, In-hee falls for Jin-ho and tries to steal him from Kae-in Ryu Seung-ryong as Choi Do-binDirector of the DAAM project  He is homosexual and develops feelings for Jin-ho thinking he, too, is gay 

Supporting
Jo Eun-ji as Lee Young-sun, Kae-in's best friend
Jung Sung-hwa as Noh Sang-jun, Jin-ho's assistant
Lim Seul-ong as Kim Tae-hoon, Jin-ho's employee  He has a crush on Hye-mi 
Choi Eun-seo as Na Hye-mi, Jin-ho's childhood friend  She had a crush on Jin-ho since they were young 
Park Hae-mi as Jeon Jang-mi, Jin-ho's mother
Ahn Suk-hwan as Han Yoon-sub, Chang-ryul's father  He worked at Jin-ho's father's company in the past, but later betrayed him 
Jang Won-young as Secretary Kim
Kang Shin-il as Park Chul-han, Kae-in's father  A famous architect who designed Sanggojae for his wife and daughter 

Special appearances
Bong Tae-gyu as Lee Won-ho (ep  1-2)
Jung Chan as Groom (ep  1)
Song Seon-mi as Bride (ep  1)
Julien Kang as Joe (ep  7)
Yoon Eun-hye as Yoon Eun-soo (ep  8)
Kim Nam-gil as man sitting in the café (ep  11)

Architecture
One of the production's main sponsors was Design and Arts Arcadia of Myungseung, and the storyline contains many references to DAAM as the project that all the architectural firms are competing to design for The hanok used in the drama series (called Sanggojae in the script) is actually Rakgojae, a traditional guest house in Bukchon Hanok Village, Gye-dong, Jongno District  Meaning "a place to enjoy tradition", Rakgojae was renovated by master carpenter Chung Young-jin  It offers a glimpse of the lifestyle of Joseon-era scholars by incorporating fine art, music, dance and poetry through colorful cultural programs such as a tea ceremony, ink-and-wash painting lessons, Korean musical instrument lessons and kimchi-making classes One of the locations frequented by the main characters is Kring art gallery, in Gangnam District, southern Seoul  The creative cultural space showcases a variety of arts ranging from architecture and fashion to installations and digital art  The unique facade of the building is itself a large-scale urban sculpture  Circles are a theme throughout the building, but the front wall is reminiscent of stereo speakers, hinting at the name of the building  "Kring" means "circle" in Dutch 

Original soundtrack
Ratings
In the table below, the blue numbers} represent the lowest ratings and the red numbers represent the highest ratings 

Awards and nominations
International broadcast
The series was a mid-level hit in South Korea  Overseas rights were sold to the Philippines, Japan, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesian, and Thailand 
Passage 5:
Song Ji-hyo's Beauty View
Song Ji-hyo's Beauty View (Korean: 송지효의 뷰티뷰), is a South Korean television program on JTBC2 hosted by Song Ji-hyo, Gong Myung and beauty editor Kim Mi Gu  The show provides a perfect beauty guide to match the personal preference  It was used to air on every Thursday at 9 20pm KST on JTBC2 

Format
Ordinary people are invited as the makeup models on the show  The professional makeup artist uses her brushes and works wonders to show viewers about the fascinating beauty world 

List of Episodes
Passage 6:
Crab trap
Crab traps are used to bait, lure, and catch crabs for commercial or recreational use  Crabbing or crab fishing is the recreational hobby and commercial occupation of fishing for crabs  Different types of traps are used depending on the type of crab being fished for, geographic location, and personal preference 

History in the United States
Crab has been a viable food source since Native Americans lived and fished on the Delmarva Peninsula  The Chesapeake Bay, which is known for their Chesapeake Bay blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) derives its name from "Chesepiook", a Susquehannock tribe word that means "Great Water"  These Susquehannock natives led European settlers to some of the best places to catch crabs  Even early treaties between European settlers and Native Americans included provisions for the rights of "Hunting, Crabbing, Fowling, and Fishing " Since then, generations of watermen made their living harvesting crabs and other resources along the Chesapeake Bay developing the most efficient method to catch crabs resulting in modern crab traps Since early European settlers in America, crabbing was an important food source to watermen of the Chesapeake and continues to be the source of income for many families  The Alaskan king crab fishing industry took off in the mid-1800s, and was one of the reasons Alaskans pushed so hard for statehood in 1959  Alaskans wanted to gain control of the area's natural resources, such as king crabs Benjamin F  Lewis invented the crab pot in the 1920s, patented it in 1928, and perfected it ten years later  The crab pot changed the way crabs are harvested on the Chesapeake Bay  The crab pot is the most common method used to catch and harvest crabs worldwide Commercial crabbing is a very tough and dangerous job, so it is very important that commercial crab traps catch as many crabs as possible to be able to turn a profit  Commercial crabbing is heavily regulated by local state laws to ensure that the crabs are not over fished and that they are given enough time to breed and repopulate Unlike normal traps, commercial crab traps are large in size; some can easily be over 60" in diameter, allowing the trap to hold a larger amount of crabs than recreational crab traps  Commercial crab traps also contain a small stainless steel plate like a dog tag, which identifies who the trap belongs to in case it is missed or swept by the current from its original location After World War II, Japanese crab vessels were competition for Alaskan king crab fishermen in the Bering Sea  Japanese crab vessels would crowd around cod boats, where king crabs devoured the fish waste  Ed Shields, a king crab fisherman was aboard a schooner at this time and recalls the Japanese encroaching on the Bristol Bay fishing area  Ed Shields says that his father sent a telegram to Seattle, ordering one dozen high-powered rifles for each vessel and one case of ammunition each Ed Shields states, "The coast guard didn’t care for this at all, the State Department didn’t care for it, but the news media did  It made good news  There’s no television at this time, but they did get in the national magazines like Time and Life  The adverse publicity to Japanese manufactured goods was so severe at that time from this campaign, the Japanese decided to pull out of Bristol Bay area and he sent a telegram saying, 'Bristol Bay is all clear now, Japanese gone home '"The Derelict Crab Trap Removal Program was created by the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission in 2004  This was created to remove derelict crab traps from state-owned lakes and river-beds and to reduce the potential impact from these traps  There are also similar programs in other states  They are similar to the program in Louisiana where the traps are removed during a 30-day period  There are programs all over the Gulf Coast, including areas like Texas and Florida  These programs have also been successful with the help of volunteers working together, and over 30,000 derelict traps have been removed in Texas alone 

Types
Maryland
The Maryland crab pot is an enclosed framework of wire with four openings  These openings are constructed so that when the crabs enter to eat the bait, they cannot escape, and instead become immediately trapped  Once the crab becomes trapped and cannot leave the same way they entered, they float upward and go through the openings of the inner wire portion, which permanently traps the crab The Maryland crab pot is a cube, generally two cubic feet and when baited and weighted, might weigh fifteen pounds or more  Sometimes it is left on the bottom for twelve to twenty-four hours or more  The end of the nylon rope is attached to a marked floating buoy so the location can be found and the pot retrieved  The Maryland crab pot is baited from the bottom with several oily fish  This is done by turning the pot on its side, stuffing the bait into the wire container, and closing the opening by securing the flap under the rubber tubing  The pot is then dropped into the water and when the crab fisher returns, pulls the pot up and into their boat 

West Coast
West Coast crab pots, which are primarily used for catching Dungeness crabs, vary slightly from the Maryland style crab pot  When the crabs enter either of the two funnel-type openings in search of bait, they are unable to exit through these funnel openings and become entrapped in the pot 

Ring crab traps
Ring crab traps are very popular along the Oregon and Washington Coast  They are primarily used in river mouths and protected bays, but it is possible to use crab rings off the open shoreline  A crab ring is a simple piece of equipment that contains two wire rings that form the top and bottom of a collapsible basket  The lower ring is smaller than the upper ring and connected with a strong netting that forms the sides  Heavy chicken wire, cotton webbing or other suitable materials are used for the bottom After the bait is tied securely to the bottom of the basket, the lower basket sinks to the bay bottom where the sides collapse and the top and bottom rings lie together, leaving only a flat platform of tempting bait that the crab can easily reach



ground_truth: Xcel Energy Inc.

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Which retired Argentine footballer who played as a forward was a main player for Valencia CF?

The following are given passages.
Context 3:  After the ring has been left on the bottom, the crabber raises the ring rapidly by pulling up with a rope, which prevents the crabs from escaping while the basket is pulled to the boat  While ring traps may allow crabs to escape more easily, their advantage is that they remain on the bottom for much shorter periods, typically a maximum of 20 minutes or so, versus the 30-45 minutes required for a crab pot to work effectively 

Pyramids
Pyramid crab traps are flat when lying on the bottom of the seafloor, but when raised to the surface, they form the shape of a pyramid  This trap is similar to the ring crab trap because there are no walls or cage that prevents the crabs from escaping before pulling it to the surface  The benefits of the pyramid crab trap over the ring crab trap is that the pyramid crab trap is slightly sturdier and can be used in waters with stronger currents 

Boxes
Box crab traps are made from a strong non-collapsible wire  The main advantages of this crab trap are that once the crab enters searching for the bait it cannot escape, guaranteeing a catch when the crab enters  Along with this comes the added bonus of not having to regularly check the trap  A downside of this trap is storing and transporting it since it does not collapse 

Trot lines
Trot line crab fishing was used exclusively by commercial crabbers from 1870 to 1929, but this method has since been almost entirely replaced by the use of crab pots and crab traps  A trotline is a baited, hook-less, long line that is usually anchored on the bottom and attached to anchored buoys  This trotline is baited and after some time, the fisherman pulls the trotline up with crabs hopefully biting on the bait 

Environmental effects
A crab trap which becomes lost or abandoned (usually by accidental detachment of the float) becomes an ongoing environmental hazard  Crabs will continue to enter this ghost trap to eat the bait, become trapped, and starve to death, attracting more crabs and other bottom-dwelling sea life; a single trap may kill dozens of crabs in this manner  For this reason, crab traps in many jurisdictions are required to have a "rot-out panel", a wooden panel the size of the largest entrance into the trap  This panel will disintegrate with a few weeks' exposure to seawater, opening the trap and allowing any crabs inside to escape  Other pots use biodegradable twine, that disintegrates within less than a week Whales become entangled in crabbing gear  They get entangled in the vertical lines between crab traps on the ocean floor and the surface buoys  For example, as of 2014 there was an increasing number of entanglements off the coasts of the United States  Management measures have been implemented by NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service 

See also
Fish trap
Lobster trapEnvironment:

The Derelict Crab Trap Program
Passage 7:
Jianbing
Jianbing (simplified Chinese: 煎饼; traditional Chinese: 煎餅; pinyin: jiānbǐng; lit  'pan-fried bing') is a traditional Chinese street food similar to crêpes  It is a type of bing generally eaten for breakfast and hailed as "one of China's most popular street breakfasts"  The main ingredients of jianbing are a batter of wheat and grain flour, eggs and sauces, cooked quickly by spreading the batter on a large frying pan or a specialized flat hotplate  It can be topped with different fillings and sauces such as baocui (薄脆, thin and crispy fried cracker), ham, chopped or diced mustard pickles, scallions and coriander, chili sauce or hoisin sauce depending on personal preference  It is often folded several times before serving 
Jianbing has seen international popularization in recent years and can be found in Western cities such as London, Dubai, New York City, Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto, Hamilton and Sydney, sometimes with modifications to cater to local tastes 

History
Jianbing originated in northern China, where wheat- and broomcorn-based flatbreads, pancakes and pies (collectively called bing) are common as staple foods  Its history can be traced back 2,000 years to Shandong province during the Three Kingdoms period (AD 220–280)  According to legend, Chancellor Zhuge Liang encountered the problem of feeding his soldiers after they lost their woks  He ordered the cooks to mix water with wheat flour to make batter, then spread it on shields, or flat copper griddles over a flame  The dish raised the soldiers’ morale and helped them win the battle  After that, jianbing was passed down through generations in Shandong province and gradually spread to different parts of China 
The raw materials used in ancient pancakes should be millet, and millet cereal pancakes are one of the common foods of the ancient northerners  In ancient times, pancakes were made using griddles (Chinese: 鏊; pinyin: ào)  Archaeological finds have been discovered in ancient times, except for the prehistoric pottery figurines dating back more than 5,000 years, as well as the iron shovel and bronze gongs belonging to Liao, Song, Jin, Western Xia and Yuan dynasty  Yangshao people have created pottery figurines and the like  The cooking utensils, which were later unearthed in various eras, also found a number of murals of pancakes from different eras, revealing the true existence of pancakes in history 

Reasons for popularity
One of the most popular street breakfasts in China, jianbing can be easily found in many cities  The characteristics of jianbing account for its popularity in China and the West 
First, jianbing is never "pre-cooked"  In order to preserve its crispness, customers have to wait for their turn, which often results in a queue, although the preparation time is short  Part of the attraction is that customers can watch the raw ingredients come together to form the dish Jianbing can satisfy different people's tastes as it can be made with many different ingredients and mixed with different sauces, jams and flavors in different proportions  According to the vendors outside East China Normal University, though some customers like spicy flavors and some do not like cilantro, they can create their own jianbing The low cost of jianbing is also one of the reasons for its popularity, as the basic ingredients are themselves inexpensive Besides, jianbing is a type of bing that has rich nutrient values  It contains abundant nutrients as it can be made of soybeans, mung beans, black beans, lettuce, peanuts and eggs 
Jianbing can be made from various grains such as wheat, beans, sorghum, corn, etc  They contain various nutrients of the grain itself  They are convenient to eat, and are the basic food for the body to replenish energy  They are then engulfed with various vegetables, eggs, meat and other ingredients 

Regional variations
The traditional jianbing originated in Shandong and flourished in Tianjin  Jianbing is basically made of flour and eggs with different fillings and sauces  As there are many variations depending on tastes and preferences in different regions, many cities have their own versions of jianbing  Shandong-style jianbing and Tianjin-style jianbing are the two most common versions of jianbing in China 

Shandong-style jianbing
Jianbing from Shandong province tastes crispy and harder as its batter is formed from the flour mixture that mainly contains coarse grains such as corn, sorghum and millet  In the old days, people had Shandong-style jianbing mainly by rolling it with scallions or serving it with meat soup  Nowadays, the variety of fillings are richer and differ according to one's preference, for example, sweet potatoes, lettuce and pork are also used as fillings 

Jianbing guozi
Jianbing from Tianjin is a transformation of the jianbing originated in Shandong  It is also called jianbing guozi and guozi refers to its youtiao stuffing  Tianjin-style jianbing tastes softer as its crepe is made of mung bean flour, which contains less gluten  Also, Tianjin-style jianbing is topped with youtiao (fried dough stick), while the Shandong-style one sold by street vendors is usually topped with baocui (薄脆, crispy fried crackers) 

Internationalized jianbing
Jianbing is also served in the U K , U S  and Australia by Western vendors and young Chinese entrepreneurs  In the U S , it has become one of the newest food trends and gains high popularity among Americans and East Asian customers, particularly Chinese overseas students  Western vendors were inspired to start jianbing business back home after first trying it in China Apart from the traditional Chinese jianbing, some vendors in the U S  offer various versions of it to cater to American customers’ taste, such as vegetarian jianbing and gluten-free jianbing  Culture-crossing fillings like barbecue pulled pork, bacon, cheese, hot dogs, and Spam are additionally provided to let customers create their own customized jianbing Besides, fillings of jianbing are diverse with new innovations  Tai Chi Jianbing from San Francisco carries fish floss jianbing, which is made with dried tuna  A food truck in New York called “The Flying Pig jianbing” provides different filling options such as dried pork floss, pork belly and bamboo shoots  In another shop called Mr  Bing, the crepe batter is made of millet flour, buckwheat flour and purple rice  Many characterized jianbing are also shown  For example, the cha chaan bing with peanut butter and condensed milk, and the Peking duck bing with the duck sauce, cucumber chunks and duck slices are introduced 
In the UK, street food stall Mei Mei's Street Cart brought jianbing into the London and UK street food scene back in 2012 - taking their jianbing to London, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and Brighton and winning two awards  They sell the traditional jianbing alongside their 'London' jianbing with fillings such as fried chicken and char siu pork, to build on the traditional jianbing and make it a more substantial dish 

See also
Crêpe, a French pancake cooked and served in similar fashion 
Dosa_(food), an popular South Indian rice crepe cooked and served in a similar fashion 
Senbei (煎餅), a Japanese rice cracker whose name is cognate to jianbing and is written with the same Chinese characters in Kanji, but is actually a different food 
Passage 8:
Tantrix
Tantrix is a hexagonal tile-based abstract game invented by Mike McManaway from New Zealand   Each of the 56 different tiles in the set contains three lines, going from one edge of the tile to another   No two lines on a tile have the same colour   There are four colours in the set: red, yellow, blue, and green   No two tiles are identical, and each is individually numbered from 1 through 56 

Gameplay
In the multiplayer version of the game, each player chooses a colour, so there are between two and four players   Each draws one tile from the bag, and the person who draws the highest number goes first 

Each player then takes five more tiles from the bag, and places all six tiles face up in front of them  The first person plays one tile, usually with their colour on it  Play then rotates clockwise  After playing a tile, each player takes a replacement tile from the bag, so that they always have six in front of them  Tiles played must match the colour of the edges adjoining it 
When three tiles surround an empty space so that it is effectively half covered this is called a forced space  If the person whose turn it is has a tile that fills that space they must play it  The player repeats this process until there are no more forced spaces that they can fill, at which stage they make a free move, where they can play any tile as long as they don't breach the three restriction rules given below   Once they have had a free move, they must then fill any more forced spaces that they can  Thus one player's turn can consist of several moves  
The three restriction rules are:

Once there are no tiles left in the bag, the three restriction rules do not apply 
The aim of the game is to get the longest line or loop in your colour   Each tile in a line counts as one point, and in a loop is two points   Only the highest-scoring line or loop counts 

Online play
Although quiet and underpopulated compared to the standards of Yahoo! Games and the like, playing Tantrix online has gained a dedicated following with players from all over the world competing against each other or against computer robots  Players are rated out of 1000 points according to their wins and losses and taking into account of their opponents rank  The aim of top players is to get to 1000 points (which only three players have managed so far)  The goal of a regular player is to reach the score of 950 which is difficult to reach  Once this score has been attained the player can gain Tournament Rankings (ELO) and eventually earn the title "Master"  Masters can then play "master games" which have a different scoring system  Only a few players achieve master status, with a limit of 120 total imposed 
Serious players of Tantrix take part in a number of structured tournaments each year  Although the winners only play for bragging rights, and in the major tournaments a small trophy to keep for a year, these events are taken seriously, and are the ultimate challenge for tantricists 
The WORLD TANTRIX CHAMPIONSHIP begins every August, and takes nearly four months to complete  Only 47 competitors took place in the second WTC in 1998, but that number had grown to 200 by 2006  The tournament starts in a qualifying round, where the lower-ranked players compete for selection into the main draw (128-player knockout tournament) 
There are three other "world-wide" tournaments held online each year:

The World Team Tantrix Championship (WTTC)  involving teams of five from one country or region, first in held in 2002
The World Junior Tantrix Championship (WJTC)  a world championship for players under 16, first held in 2002
The World Doubles Tantrix Championship (WDTC)  first played in 2005There are also three continental tournaments each year:

The European Championship (Euro)  the major dedicated continental tournament, first run in 1999
The Pan-American Tantrix Championship (Pan-Am)  first held in 1999
The Afro-Asian Championship (AsAf) the African Championship was first held in 1999 once, then re-established in 2004, incorporating Asian competitors at the same timeAnd many national online tournaments:

The New Zealand Tantrix Championship  first held in 2000
The Australian Tantrix Championship   first held in 2001
The Hungarian Tantrix Championship  first held in 2002
The Hungarian Masters Tournament  first held in 2002
The Swedish Tantrix Championship   first held in 2003
The French Tantrix Championship   first held in 2007
The Dutch Tantrix Championship  first held in 2008
The German Tantrix Championship  first held in 2008
The Spanish Tantrix Championship  first held in 2008
The Polish Tantrix Championship  first held in 2008
The Norwegian Tantrix Championship  first held in 2009
The Czech Tantrix Championship first held in 2010

Face-to-face play
In addition to these online tournaments, offline tournaments (referred to as 'Table Opens') are growing in popularity  The first Table tournament was the 2002 British Open and was mostly a local affair with 13 of the 14 entrants from Britain  As the player base widened, players started traveling more  Table Opens in Europe soon became the most popular because of the larger playing population   By 2009 there was enough demand to hold a World Tantrix Open 
World Opens

2014 World Tantrix Table Open (Bischoffen, Germany)[1]
2013 World Tantrix Table Open (Trosa, Sweden)[2]
2011 World Tantrix Table Open (Almere, Netherlands)[3]
2010 World Tantrix Table Open (Budapest, Hungary)[4]
2009 World Tantrix Table Open (Edinburgh, United Kingdom)[5]National Opens

The British Table Open, first held in 2002
The New Zealand Table Open, first held in 2004
The Swedish Table Open, first held in 2004
The German Table Open, first held in 2005
The French Table Open, first held in 2005
The Spanish Table Open, first held in 2005
The Hungarian Table Open, first held in 2005
The Dutch Table Open, first held in 2006
The Polish Table Open, first held in 2007
The Australian Table Open, first held in 2007
The Israeli Table Open, first held in 2007

History
The first version of Tantrix was created by Mike McManaway in 1988 and was called Mind Game[6]  It used 56 cardboard pieces with only two coloured lines, red and black [7] Owning a games shop, McManaway sold the game directly and following customer feedback continued to change the rules and design  In 1991, the tiles were changed to plastic and two more colours were added, allowing for four-player games 

The tiles were (and still are) hand-painted, featuring different colours to those now used, even pink  The early form of the game featured eight "triple intersections", but these were found to slow the game play as they only fitted into three different forced spaces (compared to six for all other tiles)  So in 1993, the triple intersections were removed from the game Along with the multiplayer version of the game, McManaway created smaller solitaire puzzles using 10 or 12 tiles that required the player to put the tiles together to create loops of certain colours 
McManaway has also created many solitaire puzzles, including 3-D versions, match only versions (requiring players to colour match tiles within a confined space) and loop and line versions (requiring players to use all the nominated tiles to complete a loop or line in a specific colour)  However many of the editions are no longer available 
The main versions sold in most countries are:

Tantrix Discovery: A solo version, consisting of 10 tiles, where players attempt puzzles that take between 30 seconds and 45 minutes 
Tantrix Solitaire: A set of 14 tiles designed to play Tantrix Solitaire combined with expanded Tantrix Discovery puzzles 
Tantrix Match: Tantrix meets sudoku  A number of pre-placed clues controls the difficulty of each puzzle 
Tantrix Game Pack: A bag with all 56 Tantrix tiles, with which players can play all editions of Tantrix Tantrix got its first big contract in 1994 when Air France bought the game to give to children on its flights   In 2003 Tantrix was named Toy of the Year in Hungary and won the British National Association of Toy and Leisure Libraries gold award in the games category 

Tileset
See also
Black Path Game
List of world championships in mind sports
Palago, a hexagonal tile game co-invented by Mike McManaway
Serpentiles
Trax, a connection game played with similar tiles but different gameplay

Notes
External links
Official Tantrix website, including the history of Tantrix and Tournaments and online play 
Tantrix an online Tantrix puzzle
Tantrix   at BoardGameGeek
Tantrix puzzles and their solutions
Passage 9:
Sexual racism
Concepts of race and sexuality have interacted in various ways in different historical contexts  While partially based on physical similarities within groups, race is understood by scientists to be a social construct rather than a biological reality  Human sexuality involves biological, erotic, physical, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors The ways in which people perceive the relationship between these two concepts implicitly informs attitudes toward interracial sexual relationships and sexual preferences for particular races expressed by individuals  Racial bias may involve a sexual dimension, which often takes the form of racial fetishism 

Attitudes towards interracial relationships
In the United States before the Civil Rights Era
After the abolition of slavery in 1865, white Americans showed an increasing fear of racial mixing  The remnants of the racial divide became stronger post-slavery as the concept of whiteness developed  There was a widely held belief that uncontrollable lust threatens the purity of the nation   This increased white anxiety about interracial sex, and has been described through Montesquieu's climatic theory in his book The Spirit of the Laws, which explains how people from different climates have different temperaments, "The inhabitants of warm countries are, like old men, timorous; the people in cold countries are, like young men, brave " At the time, black women held the "Jezebel" stereotype, which claimed black women often initiated sex outside of marriage and were generally sexually promiscuous  This idea stemmed from the first encounters between European men and African women  As the men were not used to the extremely hot climate, they misinterpreted the women's lack of clothing for vulgarity  Similarly, black men were stereotyped as having a specific lust for white women  This stereotype triggered tensions, implying that white men were having sex with black women because black women were more lustful than white women were, and in turn, black men would lust after white women in the same way that white men would lust after black women 
There are a few potential reasons as to why such strong ideas on interracial sex developed  The Reconstruction Era which followed the Civil War started to disassemble traditional aspects of Southern society  Now, the Southerners who were used to being dominant were no longer legally allowed to run their farms by practicing slavery  Many whites struggled with this reformation and they attempted to get around it by searching for legal loopholes which would have allowed them to continue their practice of exploiting black laborers  Additionally, the white Democrats were not pleased with the outcome of this reformation and white men felt inadequate as a result  This radical reconstruction of the South was deeply unpopular and it slowly unraveled, leading to the introduction of Jim Crow laws  There was an increase in the sense of white dominance and sexual racism among the Southern people 
Generally, tensions heightened after the end of the civil war in 1865, and as a result, the sexual anxiety which existed in the white population intensified  The Ku Klux Klan was formed in 1867, an event which triggered violence and terrorism which targeted the black population  There was an increase in the number of acts of lynch-mob violence in which many black men were falsely accused of committing rape  These acts of violence were not just senseless, they were attempts to preserve 'whiteness' and prevent the blurring of racial distinctions; some racist whites wanted to maintain a system of racial separation and prevent the occurrence of interracial sexual activity  For example, mixed race couples that chose to live together were sought out and lynched by the KKK



ground_truth: Claudio Javier López

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Are Tantrix and Personal Preference both types of games?

The following are given passages.
Context 3:  The famous case of Emmett Till, who was lynched by two men when he was fourteen years old, , shows the extent of the acts of violence which were committed against black people who flirted with white people  Till was lynched because the two men who lynched him believed that he had whistled at a white woman, but in actuality, he had whistled for his own reasons  When Jim Crow laws were eventually overturned, it took years for the court to resolve the numerous acts of discrimination 

Challenges to attitudes
Sexual racism is presumed to exist in all sexual communities across the globe  The prevalence of interracial couples may demonstrate how attitudes have changed in the last 50 years  A case that received heightened publicity is that of Mildred and Richard Loving  The couple lived in Virginia yet had to marry outside the state due to the anti-miscegenation laws present in nearly half of the US states in 1958  Once married, the pair returned to Virginia, and were both arrested in their home for the infringement of the Racial Integrity Act, and each sentenced to a year in prison, a sentence which was ultimately overturned by the United States Supreme Court 

Around a similar time, the controversy involving Seretse and Ruth Khama broke out  Seretse was the chief of an eminent Botswanan tribe, and Ruth a British student  The pair married in 1948 but experienced frequent hardships from the onset of the relationship, including Seretse's removal from his tribal responsibilities as chief in Bechuanaland  For nearly 10 years, Seretse and Ruth lived as exiles in Britain, as the government refused to allow Seretse to return to Bechuanaland  Once the couple were allowed to return to Bechuanaland in 1956, they became prominent campaigners for social equality, contributing to Seretse's election as president of the independent Botswana in 1966  Later, they continued campaigning for the legalization of interracial marriage around the globe More recent examples portray the increasingly accepting attitudes of the majority to interracial relationships and marriage  In 1999, Jeb Bush was elected as Governor of Florida, accompanied by his wife, Columba, a Mexican woman he met in León who did not speak English when they met  They were one of the first interracial couples to stand in power side by side  Other prominent interracial couples in American politics are Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and former Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, as well as New York City mayor Bill de Blasio and his wife Chirlane McCray  The political success of these couples is seen by some to demonstrate that attitudes toward interracial marriage (at least in the United States) are much more positive and optimistic than in previous decades  Across much of the world, it is ever increasingly the situation that interracial couples can live, marry and have children without prosecution that was previously rife, due to major changes in law along with reductions in discriminatory attitudes 

Sexual preferences
While discrimination among partners based on perceived racial identity has been asserted by some to be a form of racism, it is generally considered a matter of personal preference  A study by Callander, Newman, and Holts quoted author Laurence Watts from the Huffington Post, who argued that sexual attraction and racism are not the same:
Just because someone isn't sexually attracted to someone of Asian origin does not mean they wouldn't want to work, live next to, or socialize with him or her, or that they believe they are somehow naturally superior to them  This suggests that people find it possible to view larger systemic racial preference as problematic, while viewing racial preferences in romantic or sexual personal relationships as not problematic  Researchers noted that racial preferences in one's own dating life were generally tolerated and that calling them "racist" is not a commonly accepted view 

Heterosexual community
Online dating
In the last 15 years, online dating has overtaken previously preferred methods of meeting with potential partners, surpassing both the occupational setting and area of residence as chosen locations  This spike is consistent with an increase in access to the internet in homes across the globe, in addition to the number of dating sites available to individuals differing in age, gender, race, sexual orientation and ethnic background  Partner race is the most highly selected preference chosen by users when creating their online profiles, ahead of both educational and religious characteristics  Research has indicated a progressive acceptance of interracial relationships by white individuals  The majority of white Americans are not against interracial relationships and marriage, though these beliefs do not imply that the person in question will pursue an interracial marriage themselves  Currently, fewer than 5% of white Americans wed outside their own race; indeed, less than 46% of white Americans are willing to date an individual of any other race  Overall, African Americans appear to be the most open to interracial relationships, yet are the least preferred partner by other racial groups  However, regardless of stated preferences, racial discrimination still occurs in online dating Each group significantly prefers to date intra-racially  Beyond this, in the online dating world, preferences appear to follow a racial hierarchy  White Americans are the least open to interracial dating, and select preferences in the order of Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans and then African American individuals last at 60 5%, 58 5% and 49 4% respectively  African American preferences follow a similar pattern, with the most preferred partner belonging to the Hispanic group (61%), followed by white individuals (59 6%) and then Asian Americans (43 5%)  Both Hispanic and Asian Americans prefer to date a white individual (80 3% and 87 3%, respectively), and both are least willing to date African Americans (56 5% and 69 5%)  In all significant cases, Hispanic Americans are preferred to Asian Americans, and Asian Americans are significantly preferred over African Americans  Hispanic Americans are less likely to be excluded in online dating partner preferences by whites seeking a partner, as Latinos are often viewed as an ethnic group that is increasingly assimilating more into white American culture Another aspect of racial preferences is that women of any race are significantly less likely to date inter-racially than a male of any race  Specifically, Asian men and black men and women face more obstacles to acceptance online  White women are the most likely to only date their own race, with Asian and black men being the most rejected groups by them  The rejection of Asian men was asserted by one author to be due to a hypothetical effeminate portrayal in media  The preference for men of other races remains present even when considering high-earning Asian men with an advanced educational background  Increased education does however influence choices in the other direction, such that a higher level of schooling is associated with more optimistic feelings towards interracial relationships  White men are most likely to exclude black women, as opposed to women of another race  High levels of previous exposure to a variety of racial groups is correlated with decreased racial preferences  Racial preferences in dating are also influenced by the area of residence  Those residing in the south-eastern regions in American states are less likely to have been in an interracial relationship and are less likely to interracially date in the future  People who engaged in regular religious customs at age 12 are also less likely to interracially date  Moreover, those from a Jewish background are significantly more likely to enter an interracial relationship than those from a Protestant background A 2015 study of interracial online dating within multiple European countries, analyzing the dating preferences of Europeans, as well as Arabs, Africans, Asians and Hispanics in Diaspora, found that in aggregate all races ranked Europeans as most preferred, followed by Hispanics and Asians as intermediately preferable, then by Arabs and finally Africans as the least preferred  Country-specific results were more variable, with countries with more non-Europeans showing more openness for Europeans to engage in interracial dating, while exceptions resulted in those with tensions between racial groups (such as in cases where tensions existed between Europeans and Arabs due to Arab Anti-Western sentiment and Western Anti-Arab populism) showed a marked decrease in preference for interracial dating between the two  The researchers noted that Arabs tended to have higher same-race preferences in regions with higher Arabic populations, possibly due to more traditional cultural norms on marriage  The researchers did note a portion of the study was influenced by selection bias, as the data gathered may have disproportionately drawn from people already inclined to engage in interracial dating Currently, there are websites specifically targeted to different demographic preferences, such that singles can sign up online and focus on one particular partner quality, such as race, religious beliefs or ethnicity  In addition to this, there are online dating services that target race-specific partner choices, and a selection of pages dedicated to interracial dating that allow users to select partners based on age, gender and particularly race  Online dating services experience controversy in this context as debate is cast over whether statements such as "no Asians" or "not attracted to Asians" in user profiles are racist or merely signify individual preferences Non-white ethnic minorities, mostly Indians and Asians, who feel they lack dating prospects as a result of their race, sometimes refer to themselves as ricecels, currycels, or more broadly ethnicels, a term related to the incel, who is generally considered to be white  Racial preferences can sometimes considered as a subset of lookism 

LGBT community
Hoang Tan Nguyen, an Assistant Professor of English and Film Studies at Bryn Mawr College, wrote that Asian men are often feminized and desexualized by both mainstream and LGBT media   The gay Asian-Canadian author Richard Fung has opined that he believes that while black and Arab men are portrayed as hypersexualized, gay Asian men are portrayed as being desexualized  Again according to Fung, gay Asian men supposedly tend to ignore or display displeasure with races such as Arabs, Blacks, and other Asians but seemingly give sexual acceptance and approval to gay white men  However, gay white men supposedly are more likely than other racial groups to state "No Asians" when seeking partners Asian American women also report similar discrimination in lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) communities  According to a study by Sung, Szymanski, and Henrichs-Beck (2015), Asian American participants who identified as lesbian or bisexual often reported invisibility, stereotyping, and fetishism in LGB circles and the larger U S  culture Multiple studies in European gay communities have shown, that while many immigrants from the Mediterranean, such as Amazighs, Turks, Greeks, Arabs, Albanians and Romanians tend to be discriminatory towards and avoidant of homosexuals, with many being openly homophobic, they are actively sought after and fetishized as hypermasculine  "Südländer" or "Mediterraneans", as they are called in German subculture, are often explicitly requested, with frequent statements of "Nur Südländer", "Only Mediterraneans" being not too uncommon, though the demand is rarely met Racial preferences are also prevalent in gay online dating  Phua and Kaufman (2003) noted that men seeking men online were more likely than men seeking women to look at racial traits In a qualitative study conducted by Paul, Ayala, and Choi (2010) with Asian and Pacific Islanders (API), Latino, and African American men seeking men, participants interviewed endorsed racial preference as a common criterion in online dating partner selection 

Racial bias
A 2015 study on sexual racism among gay and bisexual men found a strong correlation between test subjects' racist attitudes and their stated racial preferences Philosopher Amia Srinivasan argued for racialized origins of Western beauty standards in her 2018 essay "Does anyone have the right to sex?", and stated that racial bias can shape sexual desire 

Racial fetishism
Racial fetishism is sexually fetishizing a person or culture belonging to a specific race or ethnic group 

Theories
Homi K  Bhabha explains racial fetishism as a version of racist stereotyping, which is woven into colonial discourse and based on multiple/contradictory and splitting beliefs, similar to the disavowal which Sigmund Freud discusses  Bhabha defines colonial discourse as that which activates the simultaneous "recognition and disavowal of racial/cultural/historical differences" and whose goal is to define the colonized as 'other', but also as fixed and knowable stereotypes  Racial fetishism involves contradictory belief systems where the 'other' is both demonized and idolized The effects of racial fetishism as a form of sexual racism are discussed in research conducted by Plummer  Plummer used qualitative interviews within given focus groups, and found that specific social locations came up as areas in which sexual racism commonly manifests  These mentioned social locations included pornographic media, gay clubs and bars, casual sex encounters as well as romantic relationships  This high prevalence was recorded within Plummer's research to be consequently related to the recorded lower self-esteem, internalized sexual racism, and increased psychological distress in participants of color Fetishism can take multiple forms and has branched off to incorporate different races  The theories of naturalist Darwin can offer some observations in regards to why some people might find other races more attractive than their own  Attraction can be viewed as a mechanism for choosing a healthy mate  People's minds have evolved to recognize aspects of other peoples' biology that makes them an appropriate or good mate  This area of theory is called optimal outbreeding hypothesis 

Examples
White women
Rey Chow argues that the fetishism of white women in Chinese media does not have to do with sex  Chow describes it as a type of commodity fetishism  White women, according to Chow, are seen as a representation of what China does not have: an image of a woman as something more than the heterosexual opposite to man Perry Johansson argues that following the globalization of China, the perception of Westerners changed drastically  With the Opening of China to the outside world, representations of Westerners shifted from enemies of China to individuals of great power, money, and pleasure  In a study of Chinese advertisements from 1990 to 1995, marketed solely to the Chinese people, Johansson concluded that, in China, the racial fetish of Western women does have to do with sex  Chinese advertisements depict Western women as symbols of strength and sexuality  The body language of Chinese models in ads expresses shyness and subordination with canting of heads and bodies, lying down and covering of faces, while the body language of Western women demonstrates power and uninhibited unashamedness  Western women more often hold their heads high, stare straight into the camera, and do not cover their mouths while laughing   The study suggested Western women represent a shift in the power dynamics between women and men and are even presented with qualities otherwise considered to be "masculine" in Chinese culture 

Asian women
An Asian fetish focusing on East Asian, Southeast Asian and to some extent South Asian women has been documented in Australasia, North America, and Scandinavia According to a 2008 article from the Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice by Sunny Woan, the "Asian fetish" syndrome is born out of the male desire for dominance and the stereotype of Asian women as individuals open to domination  For example, following the 1970s and a peak in the American feminist movement, many white men turned to mail-order bride companies in search of a loyal, understanding, and subservient partner  They saw women of their own race as too career-oriented and strong-willed  Asian women were the antithesis to their perception of white women  While white women resisted powerlessness and subjugation to the white man, Asian women were seen as open to the subjugation, even depicted as enjoying it The song "Yellow Fever" by The Bloodhound Gang includes lyrics such as, "She's an oriental rug cause I lay her where I please", and "Then I blindfold her with dental floss and get down on her knees " Both of these instances exemplify the stereotype of Asians as submissive  Margaret Cho has labeled Gwen Stefani's Harajuku Girls as a "minstrel show" because they represent fetishized East Asian stereotypes  The girls follow Stefani around on tour and are contractually obligated not to speak English in public  The performer had "renamed" them corresponding to her album title and clothing brand, L A M B : Love, Angel, Music, and Baby Furthermore, there have been many cases of Asian fetishism leading to criminal activity  In one case in 2000, two men, David Dailey and Edmund Ball, and a woman, Lana Vickery, abducted and blindfolded two Japanese women in Washington, one who was eighteen and the other who was nineteen  Vickery said Ball specifically targeted these Japanese students because he thought that they were submissive and were less likely to report sexual abuse  In another case, in 2005, Michael Lohman, a doctoral student at Princeton University, was charged by the state of New Jersey for reckless endangerment, theft, harassment as well as tampering with a food product  Michael had cut locks of hair off at least nine Asian women  He also poured his semen and urine into the drinks of Asian Princeton students more than fifty times  In his apartment, Michael also had mittens filled with hairs of Asian women 

Arab and Middle Eastern women
According to multiple articles, the West's fetishization of fully covered Arab women has led to the stereotype that Arab women and women from the Muslim world are oppressed and therefore submissive  When French armies invaded Algeria, they had anticipated Algerian women to be sexually available and hookah smokers  To their surprise, Algerian women actually appeared to have been more modestly dressed and covered from their head to toes  Many French photographers paid Algerian women to remove part of their religious attire and pose for photos to make French postcards  In his book Desiring Arabs, Joseph Massad talks about how the West's interpretation of Arab culture has painted the stereotype of Arab women being exotic and desirable  Massad's book was largely influenced by Edward Said's book Orientalism 

Mixed race women/Latin woman
In her book Sex Tourism in Bahia Ambiguous Entanglements, Erica Lorraine Williams published the first full-length ethnography of sex tourism in Brazil, including interviews with tourists who come solely to participate in sexual tourism, which may be considered a form of racialized fetishism  One of the tourists interviewed described his experience, "I've had a thing for Latin, brown-skinned women since my early twenties  I'm from [a place] where there are a lot of blonde, white girls  Whatever you have, you like the opposite – they're exotic, intriguing "

Black women
The fetishization of black women expanded during the Colonial Era, as some white male slave owners raped and sexually abused their black, female slaves  They justified their actions by labeling the women as hyper-sexual property  These labels solidified into what is commonly referred to as the "Jezebel" stereotype  The opposite of this "Jezebel" identity or persona is the "Mammy" figure who loses all of her sexual agency and autonomy, and becomes an asexual figure   L  H  Stallings notes that the creation and identities for the Jezebel or Mammy figures are "dependent upon patriarchy and heterosexuality " An example of racial fetishism within the colonial era is that of Sarah Baartman  Baartman's body was utilized as a means to develop an anatomically accurate representation of a black woman's body juxtaposed to that of a  white European woman's body during the age of biological racism  The scientist studying her anatomy went as far as making a mold of Baartman's genitalia postmortem because she refused him access to examine her vaginal region while she was alive  The data collected on Baartman is the origin of the black female body stereotype, i e  large buttocks and labia Charmaine Nelson suggests that every nude painting feeds into the voyeuristic male gaze, but the way black women are painted has even more undertones  "The black female body defies the white male subject's desire for a single subject of 'pure' origin in two ways: firstly, through a sexual 'otherness' as woman, and secondly through a racial and color 'otherness' as black  It is the combined power of these two markers of social location which has enabled western artists to represent black women at the margins of societal boundaries of propriety " Nelson asserts that any black woman is considered a fetish in these paintings and that she is only viewed in a sexual lens One of the more recent popular discourses around the fetishization of black women surrounds the release of Nicki Minaj's popular song, "Anaconda" in 2014  The entire song and music video revolves around the largeness of black women's bottoms  While some praise Minaj's work for its embrace of female sexuality, some criticized that this song continues to reduce black women to be the focus of the male gaze  The 2020 song "WAP" ("Wet-Ass Pussy") by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion received a similar mixed reception, with some outlets praising its embrace of black female sexuality and others claiming it was degrading or objectifying women of color 

Black men
"Big black cock", usually shortened to "BBC", is a sexual slang and genre of ethnic pornography, that focuses on Black men with large penises  The stereotype of larger penis size in black men has been subjected to scientific scrutiny, with inconclusive results  The theme is found in both straight and gay pornography 

In BDSM
There is also a practice in BDSM which involves fetishizing race called "raceplay"  Susanne Schotanus defined raceplay as "a sexual practice where the either imagined or real racial background of one or more of the participants is used to create this power-imbalance in a BDSM-scene, through the use of slurs, narratives and objects laden with racial history " Feminist author Audre Lorde cautions that this kind of BDSM "operates in tandem with social, cultural, economic, and political patterns of domination and submission" creating the perpetuation of negative stereotypes for black women in particular However, race play can also be used within BDSM as a curative practice for black individuals to take back their autonomy from a history of subjugation  One BDSM Dominatrix explains that raceplay provides her with an "emotional sense of reparations"  "Violence for black female performers in BDSM becomes not just a vehicle of intense pleasure but also a mode of accessing and critiquing power "

See also
Afrophobia
Anti-miscegenation laws
Discrimination based on skin color
Discrimination in the United States
Ethnic pornography
Gendered racism
Interracial marriage
Race and crime
Racism against African Americans
Racism in the United States
Sexual capital#Race
Sexual objectification
Stereotypes of African Americans
Stereotypes of groups within the United States



ground_truth: yes