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

Question: When did the party that controls the House of Representatives take control of the branch who determines the rules of the US house and Senate?

The following are given passages.
Context 1: Passage 1:
Standing Rules of the United States Senate
The Standing Rules of the Senate are the parliamentary procedures adopted by the United States Senate that govern its procedure  The Senate's power to establish rules derives from Article One, Section 5 of the United States Constitution: "Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings    "
There are currently forty-five rules, with the latest revision adopted on January 24, 2013  The most recent addition of a new rule occurred in 2006, when The Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act of 2006 introduced a 44th rule on earmarks  The stricter rules are often waived by unanimous consent 

Outline of rules
Quorum
The Constitution provides that a majority of the Senate constitutes a quorum to do business  Under the rules and customs of the Senate, a quorum is always assumed to be present unless a quorum call explicitly demonstrates otherwise  Any senator may request a quorum call by "suggesting the absence of a quorum"; a clerk then calls the roll of the Senate and notes which members are present  In practice, senators almost always request quorum calls not to establish the presence of a quorum, but to temporarily delay proceedings without having to adjourn the session  Such a delay may serve one of many purposes; often, it allows Senate leaders to negotiate compromises off the floor or to allow senators time to come to the Senate floor to make speeches without having to constantly be present in the chamber while waiting for the opportunity  Once the need for a delay has ended, any senator may request unanimous consent to rescind the quorum call 

Debate
The Senate is presided over by the Presiding Officer, either the President of the Senate (the Vice President) or more often the President pro tempore (in special cases the Chief Justice presides)  During debates, senators may speak only if called upon by the Presiding Officer  The Presiding Officer is, however, required to recognize the first senator who rises to speak  Thus, the Presiding Officer has little control over the course of debate  Customarily, the majority leader and minority leader are accorded priority during debates, even if another senator rises first  All speeches must be addressed to the Presiding Officer, using the words "Mr  President" or "Madam President"  Only the Presiding Officer may be directly addressed in speeches; other members must be referred to in the third person  In most cases, senators refer to each other not by name, but by state, using forms such as "the senior senator from Virginia" or "the junior senator from California" 
There are very few restrictions on the content of speeches, and there is no requirement that speeches be germane to the matter before the Senate 
The Senate Rules provide that no senator may make more than two speeches on a motion or bill on the same legislative day (a legislative day begins when the Senate convenes and ends when it adjourns; hence, it does not necessarily coincide with the calendar day)  The length of these speeches is not limited by the rules; thus, in most cases, senators may speak for as long as they please  Often, the Senate adopts unanimous consent agreements imposing time limits  In other cases (for example, for the budget process), limits are imposed by statute  In general, however, the right to unlimited debate is preserved 

Filibuster
The filibuster is an obstructionary tactic used to defeat bills and motions by prolonging debate indefinitely  A filibuster may entail, but does not actually require, long speeches, dilatory motions, and an extensive series of proposed amendments  The longest filibuster speech in the history of the Senate was delivered by Strom Thurmond, who spoke for over twenty-four hours in an unsuccessful attempt to block the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957  The Senate may end a filibuster by invoking cloture  In most cases, cloture requires the support of three-fifths of the Senate  Cloture is invoked very rarely, particularly because bipartisan support is usually necessary to obtain the required supermajority  If the Senate does invoke cloture, debate does not end immediately; instead, further debate is limited to thirty additional hours unless increased by another three-fifths vote 

Closed session
On occasion, the Senate may go into what is called a secret or closed session  During a closed session, the chamber doors are closed and the galleries are completely cleared of anyone not sworn to secrecy, not instructed in the rules of the closed session, or not essential to the session  Closed sessions are rare and are usually held only under certain circumstances in which the Senate is discussing sensitive subject matter, such as information critical to national security, private communications from the president, or discussions of Senate deliberations during impeachment trials  Any Senator has the right to call a closed session as long as the motion is seconded 

Voting
When debate concludes, the motion in question is put to a vote  In many cases, the Senate votes by voice vote; the presiding officer puts the question, and Members respond either "Aye!" (in favor of the motion) or "No!" (against the motion)  The presiding officer then announces the result of the voice vote  Any senator, however, may challenge the presiding officer's assessment and request a recorded vote  The request may be granted only if it is seconded by one-fifth of the senators present  In practice, however, senators second requests for recorded votes as a matter of courtesy  When a recorded vote is held, the clerk calls the roll of the Senate in alphabetical order; each senator responds when their name is called  Senators who miss the roll call may still cast a vote as long as the recorded vote remains open  The vote is closed at the discretion of the presiding officer but must remain open for a minimum of fifteen minutes  If the vote is tied, the Vice President, if present, is entitled to a casting vote  If the Vice President is not present, however, the motion is resolved in the negative 

Committees
Tasks in the Senate are divided among sixteen standing committees, four select committees, four joint committees, and occasionally temporary committees  Senate rules establish the policy jurisdictions of each committee; for example, the Committee on Foreign Relations deals with all matters relating to foreign policy  Committees act, in effect, as "little legislatures", monitoring ongoing governmental operations, identifying issues suitable for legislative review, gathering and evaluating information, and recommending courses of action to their parent body in matters relating to their jurisdiction  Senate rules give committees significant gatekeeping authority over legislation that falls under their jurisdiction, with proposed bills submitted to the relevant committee, which can hold hearings, "mark up" bills, consolidate bills into a "clean bill", or ignore the bill altogether (there exist some workarounds for Senators to circumvent committees, but in general Senators work through the committee system) The size of each standing committee is established by Senate rules  The makeup of committees are established through inter-party negotiations before each new Congress, with the percentage of a party's representation within the Senate determining the percentage of seats it will have on each committee 

Reconciliation
Legislation affecting spending, revenues, and the federal debt limit is governed under a special rules process called "Reconciliation" that prohibits filibusters by limiting debate to twenty hours  Congress can pass up to three reconciliation bills per year, with each bill addressing one of the topics of reconciliation (revenue, spending, or the debt limit)  However, if Congress passes a reconciliation bill affecting more than one of those topics, it cannot pass another reconciliation bill later in the year affecting one of the topics addressed by the previous reconciliation bill  In practice, reconciliation bills have usually been passed once per year at most  Reconciliation cannot be used to enact or rescind discretionary spending (which is controlled through the annual appropriations process) or adjust Social Security spending, and is limited by the Byrd Rule, which allows senators to block provisions that are "extraneous" to spending, revenues, or the debt limit Reconciliation was created by the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, and significantly altered with the introduction of the Byrd Rule in 1985 (amended in 1990)  Originally infrequently used (it did not see first use until 1980) 

Nominations
Selected public positions in the United States are appointed by the president but require Senate approval  Senate rule XXXI governs the Senate process for considering the president's nominations 
For most positions the nomination is passed first to a Senate committee for review  Generally it is the Senate committee with jurisdiction over the topic or department related to the position to be filled A public hearing by the committee is possible  Historically about half of civilian appointees were approved without a hearing  After consideration, the committee can report a favorable recommendation, or an unfavorable recommendation, or it can report no recommendation  It can also fail to act  To simplify the process, and with the support of the committee, the Senate by unanimous consent might discharge a nomination from the committee without the committee having acted It is up to the leadership of the Senate to then place the nomination on the Senate calendar for a vote in executive session  Some nominations are passed by unanimous consent  The leadership may delay putting a nomination on the calendar, in which case it may not be acted upon 

Nomination Time Limit
Paragraph 6 of rule XXXI specifies that if final action has not been taken before Congress adjourns the nomination is returned to the President  By the same rule nominations are returned when the Senate goes into recess for more than 30 days  However, in modern practice some nominations may stay active over long recesses if the Senate holds pro forma sessions during recess or agrees to suspend the rule by unanimous consent  When a nomination is returned without action, the president may nominate a different person or re-nominate the same person 

Rules by number
There are currently forty-four Standing Rules of the Senate:
SR Rule I: Appointment of a Senator to the Chair
SR Rule II: Presentation of Credentials and Questions of Privilege
SR Rule III: Oaths
SR Rule IV: Commencement of Daily Sessions
SR Rule V: Suspension and Amendment of the Rules
SR Rule VI: Quorum – Absent Senators May Be Sent For
SR Rule VII: Morning Business
SR Rule VIII: Order of Business
SR Rule IX: Messages
SR Rule X: Special Orders
SR Rule XI: Papers – Withdrawal, Printing, Reading of, and Reference
SR Rule XII: Voting Procedure
SR Rule XIII: Reconsideration
SR Rule XIV: Joint Resolutions, and Preambles Thereto
SR Rule XV: Amendments and Resolutions
SR Rule XVI: Appropriations and Amendments to General Appropriation Bills
SR Rule XVII: Reference to Committees; Motions to Discharge; Reports of Committees; and Hearings Available
SR Rule XVIII: Business Continued from Session to Session
SR Rule XIX: Debate
SR Rule XX: Questions for Order
SR Rule XXI: Session with Closed Doors
SR Rule XXII: Precedence of Motions
SR Rule XXIII: Privilege of the Floor
SR Rule XXIV: Appointments of Committee
SR Rule XXV: Standing Committees
SR Rule XXVI: Committee Procedure
SR Rule XXVII: Committee Staff
SR Rule XXVIII: Conference Committees; Reports; Open Meetings
SR Rule XXIX: Executive Sessions
SR Rule XXX: Executive Session – Proceedings on Treaties
SR Rule XXXI: Executive Session – Proceedings on Nominations
SR Rule XXXII: The President Furnished with Copies of Record Executive Sessions
SR Rule XXXIII: Senate Chamber – Senate Wing of the Capitol
SR Rule XXXIV: Public Financial Disclosure
SR Rule XXXV: Gifts
SR Rule XXXVI: Outside Earned Income
SR Rule XXXVII: Conflict of Interest
SR Rule XXXVIII: Prohibition of Unofficial Office Accounts
SR Rule XXXIX: Foreign Travel
SR Rule XL: Franking Privilege and Radio and Television Studios
SR Rule XLI: Political Fund Activity; Definitions
SR Rule XLII: Employment Practices
SR Rule XLIII: Representation by Members
SR Rule XLIV: Congressionally Directed Spending and Related ItemsThe latest change was the introduction in 2006 of a 44th rule on earmarks, by the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act 
Passage 2:
Electronic Fund Transfer Act
The Electronic Fund Transfer Act was passed by the U S  Congress in 1978 and signed by President Jimmy Carter, to establish the rights and liabilities of consumers as well as the responsibilities of all participants in electronic funds transfer activities The act's provisions were implemented through Federal Reserve Board Regulation E 

Rights of consumers
The EFT Act recognizes the right of consumers to choose the financial institution to which their payments are directedThe EFT Act also prohibits a creditor or lender from requiring a consumer to repay a loan or other credit by electronic fund transfer, except when there is an overdraft on checking plans 

Financial institution liability
The financial institution must give the customer notice of his liability in case the card is lost or stolen  This notice must include a phone number for reporting card loss and a description of the financial institution's error resolution process 

Limit to customer liability on loss or her of card
If a customer promptly reports a missing or stolen card to the financial institution before any unauthorized transactions occur, the cardholder will not be held responsible for subsequent transactions 
A customer can be liable for unauthorized withdrawals if their card is lost or stolen and they do not follow certain criteria:

Loss is limited to $50 if the institution is notified within two business days
Loss could be up to $500 if the institution is notified between 3 and 59 days
If the loss is not reported within 60 business days customer risks unlimited loss on transfers made after the 60-day period – could lose all money in the account plus maximum overdraft if any 

EFT errors
EFT is not a perfect system; therefore customers should still be diligent in reviewing their EFT statements for possible errors as they would with any other type of transaction  Should a customer notice that there has been an error in an electronic fund transfer relating to their account certain steps must be taken:
Under the Act, the customer must:

Write or call the financial institution immediately if possible
Must be no later than 60 days from the date of the erroneous statement
Give their name and account number
Explain why they believe there is an error, the type, dollar amount and date
May be required to send details of the error in writing within 10 business daysUnder the Act, the financial institution must:

Promptly investigate the error and resolve it within 45 days
Errors involving new accounts (opened last 30 days), POS transactions, and foreign transactions may take up to 90 days
If it takes more than 10 business days to complete the investigation:
Must recredit the amount in question
For new accounts may take up to 20 business days to recredit the account
Must notify the customer of the results of the investigation:
If there was an error – correct it or make recredit final
If no error – explanation in writing, notify the customer of deducted recredit
Customer has the right to ask for copies of any documents relied on in the investigation

What the EFT Act Covers
The EFT Act does not apply to every type of pre-authorized plan  The EFT Act does not apply to automatic transfers from any account held in the name of the institution the consumer uses to the account the consumer uses 
An example of this would be where the EFT Act would not apply to any automatic payments put towards a mortgage held by the financial institution where a consumer would hold their electronic fund's account 
The EFT Act also does not apply to automatic transfers between a consumer's accounts at the same financial institution
The EFT Act also does not cover all transfers  Some banks, other financial institutions, and vendors will produce cards with a cash value imprinted into the card itself
Examples of these include public transit passes, store gift cards, and prepaid telephone cards  These cards may not be covered by the EFT Act 
When using electronic funds transfer, the Act does not give the consumer the right to stop payment 
State law or any contract that imposes a lower liability limit than those mentioned in the “Loss or Theft: Customer Liability” will be preempted (overridden) by the federal EFT Act unless the state law provides protections that are greater than that provided under Federal law  (See Section 919 of the Act) 

See also
Electronic funds transfer
Passage 3:
2014 United States Senate elections
The 2014 United States Senate elections were held on November 4, 2014  A total of 36 seats in the 100-member U S  Senate were contested  Thirty-three Class 2 seats were contested for regular six-year terms to be served from January 3, 2015, to January 3, 2021, and three Class 3 seats were contested in special elections due to Senate vacancies  The elections marked 100 years of direct elections of U S  senators  Going into the elections, 21 of the contested seats were held by the Democratic Party, while 15 were held by the Republican Party 
The Republicans regained the majority of the Senate in the 114th Congress, which started in January 2015; the Republicans had not controlled the Senate since January 2007  They needed a net gain of at least six seats to obtain a majority and were projected by polls to do so  On election night, they held all of their seats and gained nine Democratic-held seats  Republicans defeated five Democratic incumbents: Mark Begich of Alaska lost to Dan Sullivan, Mark Pryor of Arkansas lost to Tom Cotton, Mark Udall of Colorado lost to Cory Gardner, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana lost to Bill Cassidy, and Kay Hagan of North Carolina lost to Thom Tillis  Republicans also picked up another four open seats in Iowa, Montana, South Dakota, and West Virginia  Democrats did not pick up any Republican-held seats, but they did hold an open seat in Michigan 
This was the second consecutive election held in a president's sixth year where control of the Senate changed hands, the first being in 2006  This was also the first time that the Democrats lost control of the Senate in a sixth-year midterm since 1918  With a total net gain of nine seats, the Republicans made the largest Senate gain by any party since 1980  This is also the first election since 1980 in which more than two incumbent Democratic Senators were defeated by their Republican challengers  Days after the election, the United States Election Project estimated that 36 4% of eligible voters voted, 4% lower than the 2010 elections, and possibly the lowest turnout rate since the 1942 election As of 2022, this remains the last time that a Republican has won a U S  Senate election in Colorado  This is the most recent Senate elections where any Republican flipped an open Democratic-held seat  This is also the most recent election where the party winning control of the Senate won the popular vote  It also remains the last time that the president's party has suffered a net loss of Senate seats in a midterm 

Partisan composition
For a majority, Republicans needed at least 51 seats  Democrats could have retained a majority with 48 seats (assuming the two Independents continued to caucus with them) because the Democratic Vice President Joe Biden would become the tie-breaker  From 1915 to 2013, control of the U S  Senate flipped in 10 of 50 cycles, or 20% of the time  Republicans had lost ground in the 2012 elections, leading to an internal fight among the Republican leadership over the best strategies and tactics for the 2014 Senate races  By December 2013, eight of the twelve incumbent Republicans running for re-election saw Tea Party challenges  However, Republican incumbents won every primary challenge  Although Democrats saw some opportunities for pickups, the combination of Democratic retirements and numerous Democratic seats up for election in swing states and red states gave Republicans hopes of taking control of the Senate  7 of the 21 states with Democratic seats up for election in 2014 had voted for Republican Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election compared to just 1 state with a Republican senator that voted for Barack Obama  Democrats also faced the lower voter turnout that accompanies mid-term elections Poll aggregation website FiveThirtyEight gave the Republican Party a 60% chance of taking control of the Senate as of September 28  Another poll aggregation website, RealClearPolitics, gave the Republican Party a net gain of 7 seats  Due to the closeness of several races, it was initially believed that Senate control might not be decided on election night  Both Louisiana and Georgia were seen as competitive, and both states require a run-off election if no candidate takes a majority of the vote 
Two independent candidates (in Kansas and South Dakota) refused to commit to caucusing with either party  In the final months of the race, polls showed them with viable chances of winning, leading some analysts to speculate on the possibility of an "Independent caucus" that could also include Maine Senator Angus King and possibly Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders  However, no Independent won a Senate race in 2014, and King and Sanders continue to caucus with the Democratic Party following the 2014 election 
By midnight ET, most major networks projected that the Republicans would take control of the Senate  The party held all three competitive Republican-held seats (Kentucky, Kansas, and Georgia), and defeated incumbent Democrats in North Carolina, Colorado, and Arkansas  Combined with the pick-ups of open seats in Iowa, Montana, South Dakota, and West Virginia, the Republicans made a net gain of 7 seats before the end of the night  Republicans defeated three incumbent Democrats, a task the party had not accomplished since the 1980 election  Five of the seven confirmed pickups were in states that voted for Mitt Romney in 2012, but two of the seats that Republicans won represent states that voted for Barack Obama in 2012 (Colorado and Iowa)  Of the three races that were not called by the end of election night, Alaska and Virginia were still too close to call, while Louisiana held a December 6 run-off election  Virginia declared Democrat Mark Warner the winner of his race by a narrow margin over Republican Ed Gillespie on November 7, and Alaska declared Dan Sullivan the winner against Democratic incumbent Mark Begich a week later, on November 12  Republican Bill Cassidy defeated Democratic incumbent Mary Landrieu in the Louisiana runoff on December 6 

Election spending
Altogether, at least $3 67 billion was spent by candidates, parties, committees and outside groups in the 2014 election  Spending on the 2014 Senate elections by outside groups (i e , organizations other than a candidate's campaign, such as super PACs and "dark money" nonprofit groups) more than doubled from 2010  In the 10 competitive races for which data was available, outside groups accounted for 47% of spending, candidates accounted for 41% of spending, and parties accounted for 12% of spending  The Senate race with the most outside spending was in North Carolina, at $80 million, a new record The top outside spenders in the 11 most competitive Senate races were the following:

On the Republican side, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Crossroads GPS, U S  Chamber of Commerce, Ending Spending Action Fund, Freedom Partners Action Fund, American Crossroads, and the NRA Political Victory Fund 
On the Democratic side, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Senate Majority PAC, and NextGen Climate Action Committee 

Results summary
The Republican Party made a net gain of nine U S  Senate seats in the 2014 elections Going into the elections, there were 53 Democratic, 45 Republican and 2 independent senators (both of whom caucus with the Democrats)  In all, there were 36 elections: 33 senators were up for election this year as class 2 senators, and 3 faced special elections (all from Class 3)  Of all these seats, 21 were held by Democrats and 15 were held by Republicans 

Colored shading indicates party with largest share of that row 

Source: Clerk of the U S  House of Representatives

Change in composition
Before the elections
After the elections
Gains and losses
Retirements
Four Democrats and two Republicans retired instead of seeking re-election 

Resignations
One Republican resigned four years into his six-year term 

Nomination withdrawn
One Democrat was originally to seek election for a full 6-year term in office but withdrew 

Defeats
Five Democrats sought re-election but lost in the general election 

Race summaries
Special elections during the preceding Congress
In these special elections, the winners were elected during 2014 and seated before January 3, 2015 — except that one was seated on January 3, 2015, the effective date of the predecessor's resignation 

Elections leading to the next Congress
In these general elections, the winners were elected for the term beginning January 3, 2015; ordered by state 
All of the elections involved the Class 2 seats 

Closest races
In seven races the margin of victory was under 10% 

Final pre-election predictions
Predicted probability of Republican takeover
Several websites used poll aggregation and psephology to estimate the probability that the Republican Party would gain enough seats to take control of the Senate 

Predictions
Republicans needed to win at least six in order to gain a majority of 51 seats and Democrats needed to win at least seven in order to hold a majority of 50 seats (including the two independents who currently caucus with the Democrats) and the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Joe Biden 

Alabama
Three-term incumbent Republican Jeff Sessions had been re-elected with 63% of the vote in 2008  Sessions sought re-election  Democrat Victor Sanchez Williams ran against Sessions as a write-in candidate  Sessions won with 97 3 percent of the vote against assorted write-in candidates 

Alaska
One-term incumbent Democrat Mark Begich had been first elected with 48% of the vote in 2008, defeating six-term Senator Ted Stevens by 3,953 votes (a margin of 1 25%)  Begich was 52 years old in 2014 and was seeking re-election to a second term  Stevens, who would have been almost 91 years old at the time of the election, had already filed for a rematch back in 2009, but was killed in a plane crash the following year 
Republican Lieutenant Governor Mead Treadwell, 2010 nominee Joe Miller, State Natural Resources Commissioner Daniel S  Sullivan, and Air Force veteran John Jaramillo ran for the GOP nomination  In the August 19 primary, Sullivan won the Republican nomination with 40% and defeated Begich in the general election 

Arkansas
Two-term incumbent Democrat Mark Pryor had been re-elected with 80% of the vote without Republican opposition in 2008  Pryor was running for a third term Freshman Representative Tom Cotton of Arkansas's 4th congressional district was the Republican nominee  In the general election, Cotton defeated Pryor 

Colorado
One-term incumbent Democrat Mark Udall had been elected with 53% of the vote in 2008  Udall was running for re-election Congressman Cory Gardner of Colorado's 4th congressional district was the Republican nominee; his late entry into the race caused numerous Republicans to withdraw their candidacies  Gaylon Kent was the Libertarian Party nominee  Unity Party of America founder and National Chairman Bill Hammons was the Unity Party nominee 

Delaware
Democrat Chris Coons won in the 2010 United States Senate special election in Delaware caused by Joe Biden's election as Vice President, winning by a 57% to 41% margin  Coons sought re-election  His Republican opponent was engineer Kevin Wade, whom Coons went on to defeat in the general election 

Georgia
Two-term incumbent Republican Saxby Chambliss had been re-elected with 57% of the vote in 2008 in a runoff election with former state Representative Jim Martin; Georgia requires run-off elections when no Senate candidate wins over 50% of the vote  Chambliss did not seek a third term Political activist Derrick Grayson, Representatives Jack Kingston of Georgia's 1st congressional district, Paul Broun of Georgia's 10th congressional district, and Phil Gingrey of Georgia's 11th congressional district all declared their candidacy for the Republican nomination, as did former Secretary of State Karen Handel  In the May 20 primary, no candidate received a majority of votes, so the top two candidates faced each other in a runoff; Perdue narrowly won against Kingston in the runoff primary election on July 22 with 50 9% of the vote Michelle Nunn, CEO of Points of Light and the daughter of former U S  Senator Sam Nunn, won the Democratic nomination  Other declared Democratic candidates included former State Senator Steen Miles, psychiatrist Branko Radulovacki, and former US Army Ranger Todd Robinson  Amanda Swafford, a former Flowery Branch, Georgia, city councilwoman, received the Libertarian Party of Georgia nomination 

Hawaii (special)
Daniel Inouye, the second longest serving United States Senator in U S  history, died on December 17, 2012, after respiratory complications  Hawaii law allows the Governor of Hawaii, to appoint an interim Senator "who serves until the next regularly-scheduled general election, chosen from a list of three prospective appointees that the prior incumbent's political party submits"  Governor Neil Abercrombie did so, selecting Lieutenant Governor Brian Schatz to fill the Senate seat  Inouye had been re-elected in 2010 with 72% of the vote  Schatz was challenged in the Democratic primary by Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa of Hawaii's 1st congressional district, who Inouye had hoped would be his successor  Schatz defeated Hanabusa in the primary with 48 5% to 47 8% Campbell Cavasso, former State Representative and nominee for the U S  Senate in 2004 and 2010, was the Republican nominee 

Idaho
One-term incumbent Republican Jim Risch had been elected with 58% of the vote in 2008  Risch sought a second term Boise attorney Nels Mitchell was the Democratic nominee 

Illinois
Three-term incumbent and Senate Majority Whip Democrat Dick Durbin had been re-elected with 68% of the vote in 2008  Durbin ran for a fourth term State Senator Jim Oberweis was the Republican nominee  He defeated primary challenger Doug Truax with 56% of the vote 

Iowa
Five-term incumbent Democrat Tom Harkin had been re-elected with 63% of the vote in 2008  Harkin announced on January 26, 2013, that he would not seek a sixth term  Congressman Bruce Braley was the Democratic nominee State Senator Joni Ernst was the Republican nominee Doug Butzier, who was the Libertarian Party's nominee, died in a plane crash on October 13, 2014, but still appeared on the ballot 

Kansas
Three-term incumbent Republican Pat Roberts had been re-elected with 60% of the vote in 2008  Roberts sought a fourth term  He faced a primary challenge from radiologist Milton Wolf, a conservative Tea Party supporter  Roberts defeated Wolf in the Republican primary by 48% to 41%  Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor won the Democratic nomination  Randall Batson from Wichita was on the general election ballot as a Libertarian  Also, Greg Orman qualified for the ballot as an independent On September 3, Taylor announced he was dropping out of the election, leading to speculation that Democrats would support Orman's candidacy  On September 18, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that Taylor's name had to be removed from the ballot 

Kentucky
Five-term Republican incumbent and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had been re-elected with 53% of the vote in 2008  McConnell sought re-election to a sixth term  McConnell defeated businessman Matt Bevin in the Republican primary on May 20 Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, with support from much of Kentucky's Democratic leadership, won the Democratic primary  Actress Ashley Judd publicly claimed to be considering a run for the Democratic nomination, but ultimately decided against it Ed Marksberry pursued an independent bid after dropping out of the Democratic field in September 2013 

Louisiana
Three-term incumbent Democrat Mary Landrieu had been re-elected with 52% of the vote in 2008  Landrieu ran for a fourth term Louisiana uses a unique jungle primary system that eschews primaries in favor of run-off elections between the top two candidates; this run-off can be avoided if the winning candidate receives over 50% of the vote  Democrats Wayne Ables, Vallian Senegal, and William Waymire ran against Landrieu in the election, as did Republicans Bill Cassidy (representative of Louisiana's 6th congressional district), Thomas Clements (small business owner), and retired Air Force Colonel Rob Maness  Electrical Engineer Brannon McMorris ran as a Libertarian Because Republican candidate Maness took almost 14% of the votes in the primary, there was a runoff election on December 6, 2014, between Landrieu (42%) and Cassidy (41%)  Cassidy won the runoff with 56% of the vote 

Maine
Three-term incumbent Republican Susan Collins was seeking a fourth term  Shenna Bellows, former executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine, was the Democratic nominee 

Massachusetts
Five-term incumbent and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry had been re-elected with 66% of the vote in 2008  Kerry resigned in early 2013 to become U S  Secretary of State  Governor Deval Patrick appointed Democrat Mo Cowan to the seat  Democratic Congressman Ed Markey beat Republican Gabriel E  Gomez in the June 25, 2013 special election by a 55% to 45% margin  Markey had served the remainder of Kerry's term before running for re-election to a first full term in 2014  Hopkinton Town Selectman Brian Herr was the Republican nominee 

Michigan
Six-term incumbent Senator and Chairman of the Armed Services Committee Democrat Carl Levin, the longest-serving senator in Michigan's history, had been re-elected with 63% of the vote in 2008  Levin announced on March 7, 2013, that he would not seek re-election 
Three term Democratic Representative Gary Peters of MI-14 was the Democratic nominee  He defeated Republican former Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land who was unopposed for the Republican nomination 

Minnesota
One-term incumbent Democrat Al Franken unseated one-term Republican Norm Coleman by 312 votes in a contested three-way race with 42% of the vote in 2008; the third candidate in the race, former Senator Dean Barkley of the Independence Party of Minnesota, won 15% of the vote  Franken sought re-election  State Representative Jim Abeler, St  Louis County Commissioner Chris Dahlberg, co-CEO of Lazard Middle Market Mike McFadden, bison farmer and former hair salon owner Monti Moreno, state Senator Julianne Ortman, and U S  Navy reservist Phillip Parrish ran for the Republican nomination  McFadden won the Republican primary and was the Republican nominee in the general election Hannah Nicollet of the Independence Party of Minnesota also ran 

Mississippi
Six-term incumbent Republican Thad Cochran, re-elected with 62% of the vote in 2008, ran for re-election  Cochran was the last incumbent Senator to declare his plans, leading to widespread speculation that he might announce his retirement Tea Party candidate Chris McDaniel, a conservative Mississippi state senator, ran against Cochran in the Republican primary  Neither McDaniel nor Cochran was able to get 50% of the vote in the first round of the primary, so a runoff election was held June 24  Cochran won the runoff election by 51% to 49%, with the help of Democratic voters eligible to vote in the state's open primaries who chose Cochran as their preferred Republican  McDaniel filed a lawsuit to challenge the results of the run-off, but the challenge was rejected on appeal by the Supreme Court of Mississippi Former Congressman Travis Childers was the Democratic nominee 

Montana
Six-term incumbent Democrat Max Baucus, the longest-serving senator in Montana's history, had been re-elected with 73% of the vote in 2008  Baucus announced on April 23, 2013, that he would retire in 2014, rather than seek re-election to a seventh term  Baucus was appointed as the United States Ambassador to China, leading him to resign from the Senate in February 2014 Following Baucus's confirmation as ambassador, Governor Steve Bullock appointed the Lieutenant Governor John Walsh to fill the vacant senate seat  Former Lieutenant Governor John Bohlinger was defeated by Walsh in the Democratic primary  Amid controversy over alleged plagiarism in a 2007 research paper, Walsh pulled out of the race  The Montana Democratic Party held a special nominating convention on August 16 to choose a replacement for Walsh  First-term State Representative Amanda Curtis won the nomination, thereby becoming the new Democratic nominee Congressman Steve Daines won the Republican nomination over state Representative Champ Edmunds of Missoula and David Leaser of Kalispell 

Nebraska
One-term incumbent Republican Mike Johanns had been elected with 58% of the vote in 2008  He did not seek a second term  Term limited Republican Governor Dave Heineman considered running for the Republican nomination, but ultimately decided not to do so  Former state Treasurer Shane Osborn, attorney Bart McLeay, banker Sid Dinsdale, and Midland University President Ben Sasse ran for the Republican nomination  In the May 13 primary, Sasse won the Republican nomination 
Trial lawyer David Domina was the Democratic nominee 

New Hampshire
One-term incumbent Democrat Jeanne Shaheen had been elected with 52% of the vote in 2008  Shaheen ran for re-election  Shaheen defeated Republican nominee Scott Brown, who had represented neighboring Massachusetts in the Senate from 2010 to 2013 

New Jersey
Incumbent Democrat Frank Lautenberg had been re-elected with 56% of the vote in 2008  After announcing he would not seek re-election, Lautenberg died in June 2013, aged 89, after a long period of ill health Newark Mayor Cory Booker, a Democrat, defeated Republican nominee Steve Lonegan by 55%-to-45% in a 2013 special election to replace interim Republican appointee Jeffrey Chiesa  Booker ran for re-election to a full term in 2014  1978 and 1982 Republican candidate and political operative Jeff Bell was the Republican nominee 

New Mexico
One-term incumbent Democrat Tom Udall had been elected with 61% of the vote in 2008  Former Doña Ana County Republican Party Chairman David Clements and former New Mexico Republican Party Chairman Allen Weh sought the Republican nomination  Weh won the June 3 primary but lost to Udall in the general election 

North Carolina
One-term incumbent Democrat Kay Hagan had been elected with 53% of the vote against incumbent Republican Elizabeth Dole in 2008  Hagan was seeking re-election State House Speaker Thom Tillis was the Republican nominee  Sean Haugh won the Libertarian nomination 

Oklahoma
There were 2 elections in Oklahoma, due to the resignation of Tom Coburn 

Oklahoma (regular)
Three-term incumbent Republican Jim Inhofe had been re-elected with 57% of the vote in 2008  Inhofe sought re-election  Matt Silverstein, an insurance agency owner, ran for the Democratic nomination 

Oklahoma (special)
Two-term incumbent Republican Tom Coburn had been re-elected with 71% of the vote in 2010, and was not scheduled to be up for election again until 2016  However, Coburn announced his intention to resign at the end of the 113th Congress  A special election to fill his seat took place in November 2014, concurrent with the other Senate elections  Congressman James Lankford was the Republican nominee  State Senator Connie Johnson was the Democratic nominee 

Oregon
One-term incumbent Democrat Jeff Merkley was narrowly elected with 49% of the vote in 2008  Merkley was running for a second term  State representative Jason Conger, attorney Tim Crawley, IT consultant Mark Callahan, neurosurgeon Dr  Monica Wehby, and former Linn County Republican Chair Jo Rae Perkins all ran for the Republican nomination, with Wehby ultimately winning the nomination in the May 20 primary 

Rhode Island
Three-term incumbent Democrat Jack Reed had been re-elected with 73% of the vote in 2008  Reed defeated Republican nominee Mark Zaccaria in the 2014 election 

South Carolina
There were 2 elections in South Carolina, due to the resignation of Jim DeMint 

South Carolina (regular)
Two-term Republican Lindsey Graham had been re-elected with 58% of the vote in 2008  Graham won the Republican nomination over a field that included state senator Lee Bright  State Senator Brad Hutto won the Democratic nomination 

South Carolina (special)
Jim DeMint had been elected to a second term in 2010, but resigned from the Senate in January 2013 to become president of The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank  Governor Nikki Haley appointed Congressman Tim Scott as DeMint's replacement  Scott, an African-American, was the Republican nominee to serve out the remainder of DeMint's term  Scott is the first African-American Republican since shortly after Reconstruction to represent a Southern state  Richland County Councilwoman Joyce Dickerson won the Democratic nomination 

South Dakota
Three-term incumbent Democrat Tim Johnson had been re-elected with 63% of the vote in 2008  Johnson announced on March 26, 2013, that he would not run for re-election  Former Congressional aide Rick Weiland was the Democratic nominee Among Republicans, former two-term Governor Mike Rounds announced his candidacy for the GOP nomination on November 29, 2012  Rounds won the Republican nomination over state senator Larry Rhoden, state representative Stace Nelson, and physician Annette Bosworth Former Republican U S  Senator Larry Pressler and Republican State Senator Gordon Howie ran as independents  Pressler did not commit to caucusing with either party, while Howie said he would caucus with the Senate Republicans 

Tennessee
Two-term incumbent Republican Lamar Alexander had been re-elected with 65% of the vote in 2008  Alexander sought re-election to a third term  On August 7, 2014, Alexander won the Republican nomination over six challengers, including State Representative Joe Carr On November 4, 2014, Alexander faced Democratic nominee Gordon Ball, Libertarian Party nominee Joshua James, Constitution Party nominee Joe Wilmothm, and independent Danny Page also ran in the general election 

Texas
Two-term incumbent Republican John Cornyn, the Senate Minority Whip, had been re-elected with 55% of the vote in 2008  Cornyn sought re-election, and won the 2014 Republican primary with 59% of the vote  David Alameel, a dentist, and Kesha Rogers, a volunteer for The Lyndon LaRouche Policy Institute, faced each other in a run-off election for the Democratic nomination  Alameel won the run-off and was the Democratic nominee 

Virginia
One-term incumbent Democrat Mark Warner had been elected with 65% of the vote in 2008; he sought re-election  Ed Gillespie, former RNC Chairman and presidential adviser, ran for the Republican nomination  Robert Sarvis, the Libertarian nominee for Governor in 2013, also ran 

West Virginia
Five-term incumbent Democrat Jay Rockefeller had been re-elected with 64% of the vote in 2008  He announced on January 11, 2013, that he would not seek re-election to a sixth term  Secretary of State Natalie Tennant won the Democratic nomination On November 26, 2012, Republican Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito announced her plans to run for the seat, in hopes of becoming the first Republican Senator elected from West Virginia since 1956  Moore Capito won the Republican nomination and the general election, the first woman to serve as United States Senator from West Virginia 

Wyoming
Three-term incumbent Republican Mike Enzi had been re-elected with 76% of the vote in 2008  Enzi sought re-election  Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, briefly entered the race for the Republican nomination, but dropped her bid in January 2014  On August 19, Enzi won the Republican primary election with 82% of the vote, and Democrat Charlie Hardy, a former Catholic priest, won his party's primary election with 48% of the vote 

See also
2014 United States elections
2014 United States gubernatorial elections
2014 United States House of Representatives elections
113th United States Congress
114th United States Congress

Notes
Passage 4:
Connecticut Senate
The Connecticut State Senate is the upper house of the Connecticut General Assembly, the state legislature of the U S  state of Connecticut  The state senate comprises 36 members, each representing a district with around 99,280 inhabitants  Senators are elected to two-year terms without term limits  The Connecticut State Senate is one of 14 state legislative upper houses whose members serve two-year terms; four-year terms are more common 
As in other upper houses of state and territorial legislatures and the federal U S  Senate, the Senate is reserved with special functions such as confirming or rejecting gubernatorial appointments to the state's executive departments, the state cabinet, commissions and boards  Unlike a majority of U S  state legislatures, both the Connecticut House of Representatives and the State Senate vote on the composition to the Connecticut Supreme Court 
The Senate meets within the State Capitol in Hartford 

History
The Senate has its basis in the earliest incarnation of the General Assembly, the "General Corte" established in 1636 whose membership was divided between at least six generally elected magistrates (the predecessor of the Senate) and three-member "committees" representing each of the towns of the Connecticut Colony (the predecessors of the House of Representatives)  The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, adopted in 1639, renamed the committees to "deputies", the Corte to the Court, and established that the magistrates were generally elected for yearlong terms; the magistrate who received the highest number of votes would serve as governor for the year, so long as he had previously served as a magistrate and had not been governor the previous year  Other magistrates were elected deputy governor, secretary, and treasurer  Although the magistrates and deputies sat together, they voted separately and in 1645 it was decreed that a measure had to have the approval of both groups in order to pass  The Charter of 1662 replaced the six magistrates with twelve assistants, not including the governor and deputy governor, and renamed the legislature to the General Assembly  In 1698, the General Assembly split into a bicameral body, divided between the Council and the House of Representatives  The Council contained the twelve assistants, deputy governor, and governor, who led the body, while the House was led by a Speaker elected from among its members  Because the governor led it and other notables sat in it, the Council took precedence to the House and when the two chambers were at odds, the House deferred to the Council  The 1818 constitution renamed the Council to the Senate, removed the governor and deputy governor from its membership, and removed all remaining judicial and executive authority from it, but it remained largely the same in that it still consisted of twelve generally elected members  It was in 1828 that senatorial districts were established and the number of senators revised to between eight and twenty-four; the number was altered to between twenty-four and thirty-six in 1901, with the General Assembly setting it at thirty-six immediately  Senatorial terms were raised to two years in 1875 In 1814–15, the Hartford Convention met in the Connecticut Senate chamber of what is now the Old State House 

Leadership of the Senate
The Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut serves as the President of the Senate, but only casts a vote if required to break a tie  In his or her absence, the President Pro Tempore of the Connecticut Senate presides  The President pro tempore is elected by the majority party caucus followed by confirmation of the entire Senate through a Senate Resolution  The President pro tempore is the chief leadership position in the Senate  The Senate majority and minority leaders are elected by their respective party caucuses 
The President of the Senate is Susan Bysiewicz of the Democratic Party  The President pro tempore is Democrat Martin Looney (D-New Haven)  The Majority Leader is Bob Duff (D-Norwalk) and the Minority Leader is Kevin Kelly (R-Stratford) 

Current leadership
Make-up of the Senate
As of January 2023, the makeup of the Connecticut Senate consisted of 24 seats for Democrats and 12 seats for Republicans  In the 2022 elections, Democrats picked up District 20, giving them 24 seats to the Republicans' 12 seats 

Members of the Senate
Current members of the Connecticut Senate, as of January 4, 2023 

^ Senator was first elected in a special election 

Past composition of the Senate
See also
Connecticut State Capitol
Connecticut General Assembly
Connecticut House of Representatives
Historic Members of the Connecticut Senate
Passage 5:
Tim Schaffer
Tim Schaffer (born January 25, 1963) is a Republican member of the Ohio Senate   He was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives from 2001 until 2006, and of the Ohio Senate from 2007 to 2014 and also previously represented the 77th District of the Ohio House of Representatives from 2015 until 2019 

Career
Schaffer holds a B A  in Political Science and Communications from Mount Union College, and has also served as chairman of the Fairfield County, Ohio, Republican Party 
With Representative Jon D  Myers unable to run for another term due to term limitations, Schaffer, along with Bryan Fox, vied for the Republican nomination   Schaffer won the nomination with 58% of the electorate  He faced Democrat Dennis Lupher in the general election, and won again with 58% of the votes 
In 2002, Schaffer coasted to a second term unopposed   In 2004, Schaffer again faced primary opposition in Bradley J  Sodders, but won with 85 58% of the vote  He again ran unopposed in the general election, and was sworn into a third term on January 3, 2005 
Schaffer is not eligible to run for re-election to the Senate in 2014 due to term limits   He is instead running for District 77 in the Ohio House of Representatives 

Ohio Senate
Since Jay Hottinger was unable to run again for his seat in the Ohio Senate, Schaffer sacrificed a fourth term in the House to run for the Thirty First District of the Senate  In a three-way primary with fellow Representative Ron Hood and Jeff Furr, Schaffer won the nomination with 48 59% of the vote   Again facing Dennis Lupher, Schaffer moved to the Senate, earning 57 26% of the votes 
Schaffer was selected to replace retiring Senator Hill on May 7, 2019  In his first term, Schaffer served as Chairman of the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee in the 128th General Assembly 
In 2010, Schaffer, again facing Lupher, won a second Senate term with 67 29% of the vote  Subsequently, Senate President Tom Niehaus named Schaffer as a member of the committees on Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources (as vice chairman); Energy and Public Utilities; Insurance, Commerce and Labor; and Ways and Means and Economic Development (as Chairman) 

Tenure
For one of his first measures in the 129th General Assembly, Schaffer has introduced a bill that directs the state auditor to conduct at least four performance audits per biennium of two executive agencies and two non-executive agencies Schaffer has also introduced legislation that allows for holders of a concealed carry license to carry their weapons in bars and restaurants provided that they are not consuming alcohol  The bill was controversial, but passed the Republican-controlled Ohio Senate  Schaffer has stated Ohio is the only state with "specific mandates" on how guns must be carried in vehicles  He said the restrictions are confusing and have led to the arrest of out-of-state residents unaware of the law  The National Rifle Association of America-backed bill was staunchly opposed by law enforcement groups such as the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police and Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio  The bill ultimately passed and was signed into law by Ohio Governor John Kasich Schaffer was the primary sponsor of Senate bill 16, a bill that increases the penalty of assault against "emergency service responders", on or off duty, or their family members to a felony  Someone could also face misdemeanor charges if they threaten them with a weapon as well as prevent them from responding to or leaving an emergency  The bill was designed to protect police officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians and their families 
Passage 6:
114th United States Congress
The 114th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States of America federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives  It met in Washington, D C , from January 3, 2015, to January 3, 2017, during the final two years of Barack Obama's presidency  The seats in the House were apportioned based on the 2010 United States census The 2014 elections gave the Republicans control of the Senate and the House for the first time since the 109th Congress  With 248 seats in the House of Representatives and 54 seats in the Senate, this Congress began with the largest Republican majority since the 71st Congress of 1929–1931 

Major events
January 6, 2015: Incumbent Speaker of the House John Boehner was re-elected even though several members of his own party once again chose not to vote for him  He received 216 votes, a majority of the votes cast, but two votes shy of a majority of the full membership 
January 20, 2015: 2015 State of the Union Address
March 3, 2015: Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress regarding sanctions against Iran  Netanyahu was invited by Speaker John Boehner without consulting President Obama 
March 9, 2015: U S  Senator Tom Cotton wrote and sent a letter to the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran, signed by 47 of the Senate's 54 Republicans, attempting to cast doubt on the Obama administration's authority to engage in nuclear-proliferation negotiations with Iran 
March 25, 2015: Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani addressed a joint session of Congress 
April 29, 2015: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe addressed a joint session of Congress, becoming the first Japanese leader to do so 
September 24, 2015: Pope Francis addressed a joint session of Congress, becoming the first Pope to do so 
September 25, 2015: House Speaker John Boehner announced that he would resign as Speaker and from the House at the end of October 2015  Subsequently, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the presumptive favorite to succeed John Boehner, unexpectedly withdrew his candidacy for the job 
October 29, 2015: Paul Ryan was elected to succeed John Boehner as Speaker of the House receiving 236 votes (of 432 votes cast)  He is the youngest Speaker since James G  Blaine in 1869 
January 12, 2016: 2016 State of the Union Address
June 8, 2016: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a joint session of Congress 
June 22–23, 2016: In the wake of the Orlando nightclub shooting, Congress debated gun control reform  The U S  House recessed for the July 4 holiday during a sit-in protest held by Democrats that halted business in the chamber for more than 24 hours 
November 8, 2016: Donald Trump and Mike Pence elected as president and vice-president in presidential elections, while the Republicans retain majority at both Senate and House of Representatives 

Major legislation
Enacted
January 12, 2015: Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2015, Pub  L  114–1 (text) (PDF)
February 27, 2015: Protecting Volunteer Firefighters and Emergency Responders Act, Pub L  114-3
March 4, 2015: Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2015, Pub L  114-4
April 16, 2015: Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, Pub  L  114–10 (text) (PDF)
May 22, 2015: Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015, Pub  L  114–17 (text) (PDF)
June 2, 2015: USA FREEDOM Act: Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ensuring Effective Discipline Over Monitoring Act of 2015, Pub  L  114–23 (text) (PDF)
June 29, 2015: Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015, Pub  L  114–27 (text) (PDF)
July 6, 2015: Department of Homeland Security Interoperable Communications Act, Pub  L  114–29 (text) (PDF)
September 25, 2015: Gerardo Hernandez Airport Security Act of 2015, Pub L  114-50
September 30, 2015: National Winstorm Impact Reduction Act Reauthorization of 2015, Pub L  114-52
November 2, 2015: Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, Pub  L  114–74 (text) (PDF)
November 5, 2015: Librarian of Congress Succession Modernization Act of 2015, Pub  L  114–86 (text) (PDF)
November 25, 2015: SPACE Act of 2015, Pub  L  114–90 (text) (PDF)
November 25, 2015: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016, Pub L  114-92
December 4, 2015: Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, Pub  L  114–94 (text) (PDF)
December 10, 2015: Every Student Succeeds Act, Pub  L  114–95 (text) (PDF)
December 18, 2015: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016, Pub  L  114–113 (text) (PDF)
January 28, 2016: Grants Oversight and New Efficiency (GONE) Act, Pub L  114-117
February 8, 2016: International Megan's Law to Prevent Sexual Exploitation and Other Crimes Through Advanced Notification of Traveling Sex Offenders, Pub L  114-119
February 8, 2016: Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2015, Pub  L  114–120 (text) (PDF)
February 24, 2016: Internet Tax Freedom Act contained in Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015, Pub  L  114–125 (text) (PDF)
May 9, 2016: Protect and Preserve International Cultural Property Act, Pub L  114-151
June 28, 2016: Frank R  Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, Pub  L  114-182
June 30, 2016: Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA), Pub L  114-187
July 20, 2016: Global Food Security Act of 2016, Pub  L  114–195 (text) (PDF)
July 29, 2016: Making Electronic Government Accountable By Yielding Tangible Efficiences (MEGABYTE) Act of 2016, Pub L  114-210
September 28, 2016: Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, Pub  L  114–222 (text) (PDF)
September 29, 2016: Continuing Appropriations and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017, and Zika Response and Preparedness Act, Pub L  114-223
October 7, 2016: Sexual Assault Survivors' Rights Act, Pub  L  114–236 (text) (PDF)
December 10, 2016: Further Continuing and Security Assistance Appropriations Act, 2017, Pub L  114-254
December 13, 2016: 21st Century Cures Act, Pub  L  114–255 (text) (PDF)
December 14, 2016: First Responder Anthrax Preparedness Act, Pub L  114-268
December 14, 2016: Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act, Pub L  114-274
December 16, 2016: Frank R  Wolf International Religious Freedom Act, Pub  L  114-281
December 16, 2016: United States-Israel Advanced Research Partnership Act of 2016, Pub L  114-304
December 16, 2016: Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (HEAR) Act of 2016, Pub L  114-308
December 16, 2016: Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act, Pub L  114-319
December 23, 2016: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017, Pub L  114-328
January 6, 2017: American Innovation and Competitiveness Act, Pub L  114-329

Proposed
Vetoed
February 24, 2015: Keystone XL Pipeline Approval Act (S  1)
March 31, 2015: A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the National Labor Relations Board relating to representation case procedures  (S J Res  8)
October 22, 2015: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 (H R  1735)
December 19, 2015: A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of a rule submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency relating to "Standards of Performance for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from New, Modified, and Reconstructed Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Generating Units" (S J Res  23)
December 19, 2015: A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of a rule submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency relating to "Carbon Pollution Emission Guidelines for Existing Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Generating Units" (S J Res  24)
January 8, 2016: The Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015 (H R  3762)
January 19, 2016: A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency relating to the definition of "waters of the United States" under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (S J Res  22)
June 8, 2016: A joint resolution disapproving the rule submitted by the Department of Labor relating to the definition of the term "Fiduciary" (H J Res  88)
July 22, 2016: Presidential Allowance Modernization Act of 2016 (H R  1777)
September 23, 2016: Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (S  2040) (Passed over Veto)

Party summary
Resignations and new members are discussed in the "Changes in membership" section, below 

Senate
House of Representatives
Leadership
Section contents: Senate: Majority (R), Minority (D) • House: Majority (R),  Minority (D)

Senate
President: Joe Biden (D)
President pro tempore: Orrin Hatch (R)

Majority (Republican) leadership
Majority Leader: Mitch McConnell
Assistant Majority Leader (Majority Whip): John Cornyn
Chief Deputy Whip: Mike Crapo
Deputy Whips:[data unknown/missing]
Republican Conference Chairman: John Thune
Republican Conference Vice Chairman: Roy Blunt
Senatorial Committee Chairman: Roger Wicker
Policy Committee Chairman: John Barrasso

Minority (Democratic) leadership
Minority Leader: Harry Reid
Assistant Minority Leader (Minority Whip): Dick Durbin
Chief Deputy Whip: Barbara Boxer
Deputy Whips:[data unknown/missing]
Democratic Caucus Chairman: Harry Reid
Democratic Caucus Vice Chair and Policy Committee Chairman: Chuck Schumer
Democratic Caucus Secretary: Patty Murray
Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman: Jon Tester
Policy Committee Vice Chairwoman: Debbie Stabenow
Policy Committee Strategic Policy Adviser: Elizabeth Warren
Policy Committee Policy Development Adviser: Mark Warner
Steering and Outreach Committee Chairwoman: Amy Klobuchar
Steering and Outreach Committee Vice Chairwoman: Jeanne Shaheen

House of Representatives
Speaker: John Boehner (R), until October 29, 2015
Paul Ryan (R), from October 29, 2015

Majority (Republican) leadership
Majority Leader: Kevin McCarthy
Majority Whip: Steve Scalise
Majority Chief Deputy Whip: Patrick McHenry
Senior Deputy Whips: Kristi Noem, Dennis Ross, Aaron Schock (until March 31, 2015), Steve Stivers, Ann Wagner
Republican Conference Chairwoman: Cathy McMorris Rodgers
Republican Conference Vice-Chairwoman: Lynn Jenkins
Republican Conference Secretary: Virginia Foxx
Republican Campaign Committee Chairman: Greg Walden
Policy Committee Chairman: Luke Messer
Republican Campaign Committee Deputy Chairman: Lynn Westmoreland

Minority (Democratic) leadership
Minority Leader: Nancy Pelosi
Minority Whip: Steny Hoyer
Assistant Democratic Leader: Jim Clyburn
Senior Chief Deputy Minority Whip: John Lewis
Chief Deputy Minority Whips: G  K  Butterfield, Diana DeGette, Keith Ellison, Jan Schakowsky, Kyrsten Sinema, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Peter Welch
Democratic Caucus Chairman: Xavier Becerra
Democratic Caucus Vice-Chairman: Joe Crowley
Democratic Campaign Committee Chairman: Ben Ray Luján
Steering and Policy Committee Co-Chairs: Rosa DeLauro (Steering) and Donna Edwards (Policy)
Organization, Study, and Review Chairwoman: Karen Bass
Policy and Communications Chairman: Steve Israel

Members
Senate
Senators are listed by state and then by Senate classes, In this Congress, Class 3 meant their term ended with this Congress, requiring re-election in 2016; Class 1 meant their term began in the last Congress, requiring re-election in 2018; and Class 2 meant their term began in this Congress, requiring re-election in 2020 

House of Representatives
Changes in membership
Senate
There were no changes in Senate membership during this Congress 

House of Representatives
Committees
[Section contents: Senate, House, Joint ]

Senate
House of Representatives
Joint committees
Caucuses
Employees
Senate
Source: "Senate Organization Chart for the 114th Congress"  Senate gov  US Senate  Archived from the original on March 28, 2015  Retrieved January 26, 2015 

Chaplain: Barry C  Black (Seventh-day Adventist)
Curator: Melinda Smith
Librarian: Leona I  Faust
Historian: Donald A  Ritchie, until June 1, 2015
Betty Koed, starting June 1, 2015
Parliamentarian: Elizabeth MacDonough
Secretary: Julie E  Adams
Sergeant at Arms: Frank J  Larkin
Secretary for the Majority: Laura Dove
Secretary for the Minority: Gary B  Myrick

House of Representatives
Source: "Officers and Organizations of the House"  House gov  US House  Archived from the original on July 6, 2017  Retrieved January 26, 2015 

Chaplain: Patrick J  Conroy (Roman Catholic)
Chief Administrative Officer: Ed Cassidy, until December 31, 2015
Will Plaster, January 1, 2016 – August 1, 2016
Phil Kiko, from August 1, 2016
Clerk: Karen L  Haas
Historian: Matthew Wasniewski
Inspector General: Theresa M  Grafenstine
Parliamentarian: Thomas J  Wickham Jr 
Reading Clerks: Susan Cole and Joseph Novotny
Sergeant at Arms: Paul D  Irving

Legislative branch agency directors
Architect of the Capitol: Stephen T  Ayers
Attending Physician of the United States Congress: Brian P  Monahan
Comptroller General of the United States: Eugene Louis Dodaro
Director of the Congressional Budget Office: Douglas Elmendorf, until March 31, 2015
Keith Hall, from April 1, 2015
Librarian of Congress: James H  Billington, until September 30, 2015
David S  Mao (acting), October 1, 2015 – September 14, 2016
Carla Diane Hayden, from September 14, 2016
Public Printer of the United States: Davita Vance-Cooks

See also
Elections
2014 United States elections (elections leading to this Congress)
2014 United States Senate elections
2014 United States House of Representatives elections
2016 United States elections (elections during this Congress, leading to the next Congress)
2016 United States presidential election
2016 United States Senate elections
2016 United States House of Representatives elections

Membership lists
List of new members of the 114th United States Congress

Notes
Passage 7:
Marisa Marquez
Marisa Marquez is a former Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives, having served from 2009 until 2017  She did not seek re-election in 2016  In 2008, Marquez unseated Paul Moreno, the longest-serving Latino elected official in the United States  Moreno was considered the Conscience of the House for his tenure, over 40 years, and his outspoken personality   Marquez became the first woman ever to represent District 77 in the Texas House of Representatives and the second Latina ever elected from El Paso, Texas  She was also the first female Latino to serve on the Education Subcommittee of Appropriations and the first El Pasoan since 1958  During her appointment to the House Appropriations Committee, 83rd and 84th Legislative Session, she was the only Hispanic female on the Appropriations or Senate Finance Committee(s)  Her accomplishments include creating the only county ethics commission in the state, statewide colonia reform and appropriating funding for the inaugural University of Texas at El Paso pharmacy school  Attacked for being a Republican by primary opponents, Marquez proved to be an effective and bipartisan legislator  She retired in 2017 and became a partner at FORMA Group LLC, a public affairs firm based out of El Paso 
Marquez was born in Houston, Texas  Her parents are from El Paso  Marquez and her parents moved back to El Paso  She received her bachelor's degree from University of Notre Dame  She served in AmeriCorps VISTA and worked in health care in El Paso prior to serving in the Legislature 
Passage 8:
Iowa House of Representatives
The Iowa House of Representatives is the lower house of the Iowa General Assembly, the upper house being the Iowa Senate  There are 100 seats in the Iowa House of Representatives, representing 100 single-member districts across the state, formed by dividing the 50 Senate districts in half  Each district has a population of approximately 30,464 as of the 2010 United States Census  The House of Representatives meets at the Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines 
Unlike the upper house, the Iowa Senate, state House representatives serve two-year terms with the whole chamber up for re-election in even-numbered years  There are no term limits for the House 

Leadership of the House
The Speaker of the House presides over the House as its chief leadership officer, controlling the flow of legislation and committee assignments  The Speaker is elected by the majority party caucus, followed by confirmation of the full House on passage of a floor vote  Other House leaders, such as the majority and minority leaders, are elected by their respective party caucuses according to each party's strength in the chamber 

Leaders
Committee leadership
All chairs and vice chairs are a member of the majority party, with the chair serving as the presiding officer and the vice chair the alternate presiding officer  Ranking members are the chief representative of the minority party on the committee  

*All chairs and vice chairs are members of the Republican Party of Iowa  All ranking members are members of the Democratic Party of Iowa 

Current composition
Past composition of the House of Representatives
Past notable members
William S  Beardsley, governor of Iowa from 1949 to 1954
William W  Belknap, U S  Army major general and U S  secretary of war from 1869 until he resigned under threat of impeachment in 1876 
Terry Branstad, governor of Iowa from 1983 to 1999 and 2011 to 2017
Dale M  Cochran, speaker of the Iowa House of Representatives from 1975 to 1978 and Iowa secretary of agriculture from 1987 to 1998 
Abby Finkenauer, former U S  representative, 2019 to 2021
Robert D  Fulton, governor of Iowa for 16 days in 1969
Chuck Grassley, current U S  Senator, 1981 to present
Frank Merriam, governor of California from 1934 to 1939
William M  Stone, Civil War prisoner of war and governor of Iowa from 1864 to 1868 
James Wilson, U S  secretary of agriculture from 1897 to 1913 

Qualifications
A state representative must be at least 21 years of age  Other qualifications include U S  citizenship, Iowa residency for at least one year, and district residency of 60 days prior to election 

See also
List of current members of the Iowa House of Representatives
Iowa Senate
Passage 9:
Ankang Dam
The Ankang Dam is gravity dam on the Hanjiang (Han) River near Ankang in Shaanxi Province, China  The main purpose of the dam is hydroelectric power production along with other purposes such as flood control and navigation  The dam withholds a 2,580,000,000 m3 (2,091,640 acre⋅ft) reservoir which supplies water to its powerhouse located on the right toe  The power station contains 4 x 200 MW generators for a total installed capacity of 800 MW  On the dam's surface adjacent to the power house are five controlled spillway chutes  The dam also houses five mid-level openings and four base openings for discharging water as well He Jing was the chief designer of the dam  Construction began in 1978 and the dam structure was complete on December 23, 1989  Almost a year later on  December 12, 1990, the first generator became operational  It was not until December 25, 1992, that all four generators were operational and by 1995, the entire project was complete 

See also

List of power stations in China
Context 2: Passage 1:
Hughesville, Maryland
Hughesville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Charles County, Maryland, United States  The population was 2,197 at the 2010 census  Truman's Place was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988 

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 11 2 square miles (29 1 km2), of which 11 2 square miles (28 9 km2) is land and 0 08 square miles (0 2 km2), or 0 69%, is water Hughesville was a tobacco market town   The former tobacco warehouses are now used for second-hand thrift stores and boutique gift and craft shops Because Hughesville, though small, is considered the strategic geographic center of the tri-county Southern Maryland region, it houses institutions such as the headquarters for the Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative, an animal shelter, an economic development council, a board of realtors, and a homeless women's shelter, which serve the tri-county area  There is also a Girl Scout camp  The town has no traditional grid-layout streets, but consists of merely businesses along the highway and some very small outlying housing developments  It was announced in 2013 that the College of Southern Maryland is building their fourth campus in the town A 5 5-MW solar farm near Hughesville generates enough power for 600 homes, and offsets the pollution of 1,600 cars 

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 1,537 people, 503 households, and 407 families residing in the CDP  The population density was 137 4 inhabitants per square mile (53 1/km2)  There were 529 housing units at an average density of 47 3 per square mile (18 3/km2)  The racial makeup of the CDP was 82 04% White, 13 08% African American, 0 72% Native American, 2 73% Asian, 0 07% Pacific Islander, 0 13% from other races, and 1 24% from two or more races  Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0 65% of the population 
There were 503 households, out of which 36 4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 68 2% were married couples living together, 7 4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 18 9% were non-families  12 7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 4 6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older  The average household size was 2 97 and the average family size was 3 25 
In the CDP, the population was spread out, with 26 3% under the age of 18, 6 5% from 18 to 24, 30 0% from 25 to 44, 27 3% from 45 to 64, and 10 0% who were 65 years of age or older  The median age was 38 years  For every 100 females, there were 99 4 males  For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97 4 males 
The median income for a household in the CDP was $90,697, and the median income for a family was $103,393  Males had a median income of $49,500 versus $36,563 for females  The per capita income for the CDP was $29,884  About 4 8% of families and 7 1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7 9% of those under age 18 and 5 1% of those age 65 or over 
Passage 2:
Minsk Region
Minsk Region, also known as Minsk Oblast or Minsk Voblasts (Belarusian: Мі́нская во́бласць, romanized: Minskaja voblasć, IPA: [ˈmʲinskaja ˈvobɫasʲtsʲ]; Russian: Минская о́бласть, romanized: Minskaya oblast), is one of the regions of Belarus  Its administrative center is Minsk, although it is a separate administrative territorial entity of Belarus  As of 2011, the region's population is 1,411,500 

Geography
Minsk Region covers a total of 39,900 km2, about 19 44% of the national total area  Lake Narach, the largest lake in the country, is located in the northern part of the region  There are four other large lakes in this region: Svir (8th largest), Myadel (11th largest), Syalyava (14th largest) and Myastro (15th largest)  It is the only region of Belarus whose border is not part of the international border of Belarus 

History
Beginning the 10th century, the territory of the current Minsk Region was part of Kievan Rus', the Principality of Polotsk, and later it was included in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania  With the unification of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland, the territory became part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth 
In 1793, as a result of the second partition of Polish territory, the area was annexed by Russia as the Minsk Region  During the collapse of the Russian Empire due to the Civil War, the western part was annexed to Poland in 1921, while the east became Soviet Belarus 
The Minsk region was established on 15 January 1938, based on the amendment of the Constitutional Law of the USSR  As of 20 February 1938, the area included 20 districts   Following the Soviet invasion of Poland on September 17, 1939, the former Eastern lands of the Second Polish Republic were annexed in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact partitioning Poland and added to the Minsk Region 
On 20 September 1944, by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Gressky, Kopyl, Krasnoslobodski, Luban, Slutsky, Starobin, Starodorozhski districts and the city of Sluck were removed from the Minsk region and transferred to the newly formed Bobruisk Region 
On 8 January 1954, by the decree of the USSR Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the Nesvizhski and Stolbtsovsky districts from the abolished Baranovichi Region, as well as the Glusk, Gressky, Kopyl, Krasnoslobodski, Luban, Slutsky, Starobin, Starodorozhski districts and the city of Sluck from the abolished Bobruisk Region, were added to the Minsk Region 
In 1960, following the abolition of Molodechno Region, its southern part became the northern part of the Minsk Region 

Tourism
The number of travel agencies in Minsk Region grew from twelve in 2000 to seventy in 2010  The most popular tourist destinations of the region are Zaslavskoye Lake, the Zhdanovichi area which has health resorts, Nesvizh Palace and its surroundings, as well as the alpine ski resorts of Logoysk and Silichi 

Administrative subdivisions
The Minsk Region comprises 22 districts (raions), 307 selsovets, 22 cities, 8 city municipalities, and 20 urban-type settlements 

Districts of Minsk Region
Cities and towns
Population of cities and towns in Minsk Region

Demographics
See also
Administrative divisions of Belarus
Villages in Minsk Region
Passage 3:
Hylestad
Hylestad is a former municipality in the old Aust-Agder county in Norway  The 570-square-kilometre (220 sq mi) former municipality existed from 1915 until its dissolution in 1962  It was located in the southern part of the present-day municipality of Valle in the traditional region of Setesdal in Agder county  The administrative centre was the village of Rysstad where the Hylestad Church was located 

History
The parish of Hylestad was established as a municipality on 1 July 1915 when the municipality of Valle was divided into two municipalities: Hylestad (population: 658) in the south and Valle (population: 1,051) in the north  During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee  On 1 January 1962, Hylestad was reincorporated into Valle  Prior to the merger Hylestad had a population of 662 

Name
The municipality (originally the parish) was named after the old Hylestad farm (Old Norse: Hyljastaðir), since the first Hylestad Church was built there  The first element comes from hylja meaning a "pool" (possibly referring to the pool in the river) and the last element is staðir which means "homestead" or "farm" 

Government
All municipalities in Norway, including Hylestad, are responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, unemployment and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads  The municipality was governed by a municipal council of elected representatives, which in turn elected a mayor 

Municipal council
The municipal council (Herredsstyre) of Hylestad was made up of 13 representatives that were elected to four year terms   The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows:

Notable residents
Osmund Faremo (1921-1999), a Norwegian politician
Aani Aanisson Rysstad (1894-1965), a Norwegian politician

See also
List of former municipalities of Norway
Passage 4:
Port Blair
Port Blair (pronunciation ) is the capital city of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a union territory of India in the Bay of Bengal  It is also the local administrative sub-division (tehsil) of the islands, the headquarters for the district of South Andaman and is the territory's only notified town 
Port Blair serves as the entry point for visiting the Andaman and Nicobar Islands  Port Blair is connected with mainland India by both air and sea  It is a two to three-hour flight from mainland India to Port Blair's Veer Savarkar International Airport, and three to four days by sea to reach Kolkata, Chennai, or Visakhapatnam from Haddo Wharf in Port Blair  It is home to several museums and a major naval base INS Jarawa of the Indian Navy, along with sea and air bases of the Indian Coast Guard, Andaman and Nicobar Police, Andaman and Nicobar Command, the first integrated tri-command of the Indian Armed Forces and the Indian Air Force Port Blair is also famous for the historic Cellular Jail and other small islands like Corbyn's Cove, Wandoor, Ross Island, Viper Island and so forth, which were once home to British colonists  Port Blair has been selected as one of the cities to be developed as a smart city under the Smart Cities Mission 

History
Pre-history
The indigenous inhabitants are the Andamanese  Radiocarbon dating studies of the kitchen refuse dumps from the mounds excavated by the Anthropological Survey of India at Choladari near Port Blair indicate human occupation for at least 2,000 years, although they are likely to have diverged from the inhabitants of the mainland significantly earlier 

Modern history
In 1789 the Government of Bengal established a penal colony on Chatham Island in the southeast bay of Great Andaman, named Port Blair in the honour of Archibald Blair of the East India Company  After two years, the colony moved to the northeast part of Great Andaman and was named Port Cornwallis after Admiral William Cornwallis  However, there was much disease and death in the penal colony, and the government ceased operating it in May 1796 
In 1824 Port Cornwallis was the rendezvous of the fleet carrying the army to the First Anglo-Burmese War  In the 1830s and 1840s, shipwrecked crews who landed on the Andamans were often attacked and killed by the natives, alarming the British government  In 1855, the government proposed another settlement on the islands, including a convict establishment, but the Indian Rebellion of 1857 forced a delay in its construction 
However, since the rebellion provided the British with a lot of new prisoners, it made the new Andaman settlement and prison an urgent necessity  Construction began in November 1857 at the renovated Port Blair, avoiding the vicinity of a salt swamp which seemed to have been the source of many of the old colony's problems  The penal colony was originally on Viper Island  The convicts, mostly political prisoners, suffered life imprisonment at hard labour under cruel and degrading conditions  Many were hanged, while others died of disease and starvation  Between 1864 and 1867 a penal establishment was also built with convict labour on the northern side of Ross Island  These structures now lie in ruins As the Indian independence movement continued to grow in the late 19th century, the enormous Cellular Jail was constructed between 1896 and 1906 to house Indian convicts, mostly political prisoners, in solitary confinement  The Cellular Jail is also known as Kala Pani (translated as "Black Waters"), a name given to it due to the torture and general ill-treatment towards its Indian convicts 
The airport at Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar's capital, has been named Veer Savarkar International Airport  The commemorative blue plaque on India House fixed by the Historic Building and Monuments Commission for England reads "Vinayak Damodar Savarkar 1883–1966 Indian patriot and philosopher lived here "
In World War II the islands were occupied by the Japanese on 23 March 1942 without opposition from the garrison  From 1943 to 1944, Port Blair served as the headquarters of the Azad Hind government under Subhas Chandra Bose  British forces returned to the islands in October 1945 Although affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, Port Blair survived sufficiently to act as a base for relief efforts in the islands 

Climate
Port Blair has a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen climate classification Am), with little variation in average temperature and large amounts of precipitation throughout the year  All months except January, February and March receive substantial rainfall 

Tourism
Port Blair being the capital city of Andaman and Nicobar Islands is the entry point for all tourism related activities  Tourists first have to arrive to Port Blair before progressing on to any other islands in Andaman  At Port Blair, the major tourist places to visit are the Cellular Jail, Corbyns Cove Beach, North Bay Island, Ross Island renamed to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Island, Chidiatapu, Wandoor and other museums that are present within city limits  Entry charges are applicable to some of the tourist places 

Demographics
As of 2011 India census, Port Blair had a population of 100,608  Males constitute 52 92% (53,247) of the population and females 47 07% (47,361)  9 3% of the population is under the age of 6 years 

Language
Bengali is the most spoken language of the city, followed by Telegu, Hindi and Tamil 

Religion
The most common religion is Hinduism, followed by Christianity and Islam 

Literacy
Port Blair has an average literacy rate of 89 76%, higher than the national average that is 74 04%  In Port Blair, male literacy is 92 79%, and female literacy is 86 34% 

Administration
The Port Blair Municipal Council, abbreviated as PBMC is the ruling civic body administering the city of Port Blair, the capital and the largest city in the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands  The council came into existence on 2 October 1957 after the assent by the President of India to the Andaman & Nicobar Islands (Municipal Board’s) Regulation, 1957 Act on 11 March 1957  The council comprises a total of 24 wards after the recent delimitation and the expansion of the city limits with the merger of few other villages to the existing 18 wards previously The recent elections for the council were held in 2022  U  Kavitha from ward 24 a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party was elected as the chairperson for the first term which commenced from 16 March 2022  On 14 March 2023, Telugu Desam Party councilor S  Selvi from ward 5 was elected as the chairperson for the second year term of commencing from 16 March 2023 as part of the joint candidature from the BJP-TDP Alliance 

PBMC electoral history
Education
B Ed
Tagore Government College of Education

Degree
Andaman and Nicobar college
Jawaharlal Nehru Government College

Engineering
Dr  B  R  Ambedkar Institute of Technology

Law
Andaman Law College

Medicine
Andaman and Nicobar Islands Institute of Medical Sciences

Gallery
See also
Cellular Jail
Charles James Lyall
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
Ross Island
Havelock Island
Passage 5:
Pak Tam Chung
Pak Tam Chung (Chinese: 北潭涌) is an area in the southern part of the Sai Kung Peninsula in the New Territories of Hong Kong  It is administratively under the Sai Kung District 

Features
Pak Tam Chung was described as consisting of six villages in 1911 with fewer than 405 inhabitants: Wong Yi Chau (黃宜洲), Pak Tam (北潭), Sheung Yiu (上窰), Tsak Yue Wu (鯽魚湖), Wong Keng Tei (黃麖地) and Tsam Chuk Wan  The six villages were all inhabited by Hakka people, with the exception of two hamlets in Pak Tam There is a visitor centre for nature education set up by the Hong Kong Government  Near the centre is a vehicle barrier leading to the restricted portion of Sai Kung East Country Park in Pak Tam Chung  For vehicles, only those with authorisation can enter the area and reach places like Hoi Ha, Pak Tam Au and High Island Reservoir 
There are a number of picnic and barbecue facilities within Pak Tam Chung, including a site designed for physically disabled visitors 
Po Leung Kuk owns a holiday camp site in Pak Tam Chung, the Po Leung Kuk Pak Tam Chung Camp (保良局北潭涌渡假營) 

See also
Sheung Yiu Folk Museum
Historic churches of Sai Kung Peninsula
Sai Kung Town
Tai Po District
Passage 6:
United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York
The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York is the United States bankruptcy court within the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York   The Southern District of New York is a major venue for bankruptcy, as it has jurisdiction over the corporate headquarters and major financial institutions located in Manhattan 
Originally, the District Court itself handled bankruptcies; these and admiralty court cases dominated nearly to the exclusion of all other cases, which were primarily handled by a Circuit Court for the District of New York and its successor Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York, until that court was abolished and its cases handled by the District Court as well   The district became widely recognized for its expertise in handling large bankruptcies, leading companies to seek a way to file in this court   Modern examples include the General Motors Chapter 11 reorganization and the Enron and WorldCom bankruptcies From 1980 through 2014, the Southern District Bankruptcy Court for New York handled over 18% of all large, public-company bankruptcy filings in the United States while the Delaware District Bankruptcy Court handled nearly 36% 

List of judges
The following is a list of the bankruptcy judges, as of May 2023, for the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York 

See also
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
List of judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
Passage 7:
Alamnagar
Alamnagar (community development block) is one of the administrative divisions of Madhepura district in the Indian state of Bihar  The block headquarters are located at a distance of 58 km from the district headquarters, namely, Madhepura  The name of Alamnagar is named for Shah Alamgir  Almost alls caste of Hindus and Muslims live together  Khara Budhama is also attached in Alamnagar vidhan shabha from udakishunganj  Khara is located 12 km from Alamnagar 

Geography
Alamnagar is located at 25°32′56″N 86°54′40″E

Panchayats
Panchayats in Alamnagar community development block are: Bispatti, Basanbara, [Khurhan, Bargaon, Singhar, Itahari, Alamnagar North, Alamnagar South, Alamnagar East, Northua Bhagipur, Kujauri, Gangapur, Kishanpur Ratwara and Khapur 

Demographics
In the 2001 census Alamnagar Block had a population of 129,226 
Passage 8:
Ceres Nunataks
The Ceres Nunataks (72°3′S 70°25′W) are a group of three nunataks located immediately east of the base of Shostakovich Peninsula in southern Alexander Island, Antarctica  They were mapped by the Directorate of Overseas Surveys from satellite imagery supplied by the U S  National Aeronautics and Space Administration in cooperation with the U S  Geological Survey, and named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee after Ceres, one of the asteroids lying between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter 

Geology
According to the British Antarctic Survey's (BAS) aeromagnetic 1975 survey of Ceres Nunataks and nearby Astraea Nunatak, this geographical feature is rich in the igneous rocks Diorite and Tonalite as presumed by the rock samples which were observed by BAS during this survey 

Aeromagnetic Survey of Ceres Nunataks and Astraea Nunatak
In December 1975, the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) (originally known as the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS)) embarked on an 8-week long survey observing the proposed theory of Ceres Nunataks and Astraea Nunatak having an aeromagnetic connection between one another  I  A  Crawford and R  W  Girdler embarked on the survey, along with other accompanists and personnel members, flying at a constant barometric altitude of approximately 1130 meters (3707 feet, with an east–west flightline separation of about 7 5 kilometers  Here, they proved that these geographical features were rich in geologic minerals which shared similar characteristics  Data was sampled at one-second intervals, which, at ground speed of approximately 240 kilometers per hour, equates to 15 data points for every kilometer covered  The total distance traveled on the surface was 2200 kilometers (1367 miles)  The equipment used included a Geometrics G-803 proton precision magnetometer with both analogue and digital recording, a Bendix DRA-12 Doppler navigation system and Sperry C-12 gyro-magnetic compass, and a Bonzer radio altimeter 
Overall, the 2-month long survey was a successful event and contributed to the history of Alexander Island and the Antarctic Peninsula in itself  Former contributors to this survey include:

Barker, P  F  - Studied the Cenozoic subduction history of the Antarctic Peninsula region 
Bell, C  M  - Observed the geology of the southern portion of Alexander Island 
Bhattacharyya, B  K  - Examined the magnetic anomalies due to prism-shaped bodies with arbitrary polarization 
Burn R  W  - Studied multiple fields of Alexander Island, such as the early Tertiary calc-alkaline volcanism on the island and researching the geology of the nearby LeMay Mountain Range due 40-50 kilometers north of Staccato Peaks 
Care, B  W  - Like Burn, Care studied the vast majority of fields involving Alexander Island, such as archiving geographic reports on the Havre Mountains, Lassus Mountains and other miscellaneous peaks within the vicinity of northern Alexander Island 
Coles R  W  - Conducted two magnetic interpretation methods using rectangular prisms 
Collinson, D  W  - Created an anisotropic susceptibility meter, along with Molyneux, L  and Stone, D  B 
Crabtree, R  D  - Constructed a British Antarctic Territory ice thickness map
Crawford, I  A  - Proposed an analysis of aeromagnetic data over the Staccato Peaks region of Alexander Island, Antarctica, along with Girdler, R  W 
Edwards, C  W  - Collected early Mesozoic marine fossils from the central portion of Alexander Island 
Fabiano, E  B  - Observed grid values of total magnetic intensity, along with the help of former geophysicist Peddie, N  W 
Pankhurst, R  J  - Studied the geochronology of Graham Land, Antarctica 
Peddie, N  W  - Former geophysicist of BAS 
Renner R  G  B  - Former member of BAS and accepted the aeromagnetic survey to commence, chief of the 1975 survey 
Smellie, J  L  - A complete arc-trench system recognized in Gondwana sequences of the Antarctic Peninsula region 
Streckeisen, A
Context 3: Passage 1:
Mother lode
Mother lode is a principal vein or zone of gold or silver ore  The term is also used colloquially to refer to the real or imaginary origin of something valuable or in great abundance 

Term
The term probably came from a literal translation of the Spanish veta madre, a term common in old Mexican mining  Veta madre, for instance, is the name given to an 11-kilometre-long (6 8 mi) silver vein discovered in 1548 in Guanajuato, New Spain (modern-day Mexico) 

California Mother Lode
In the United States, Mother Lode is most famously the name given to a long alignment of hard-rock gold deposits stretching northwest-southeast in the Sierra Nevada of California, bounded on the east by the Melones Fault Zone  It was discovered in the early 1850s, during the California gold rush  The California Mother Lode is a zone from 1 5 to 6 kilometres (0 93 to 3 73 mi) wide and 190 kilometres (120 mi) long, between Georgetown on the north and Mormon Bar on the south     
The Mother Lode coincides with the suture line of a terrane, the Smartville Block  The zone contains hundreds of mines and prospects, including some of the best-known historic mines of the gold-rush era  Individual gold deposits within the Mother Lode are gold-bearing quartz veins up to 15 metres (49 ft) thick and a few thousand feet long  The California Mother Lode was one of the most productive gold-producing districts in the United States  Now it is known as a destination for tourism and for its vineyards As with most gold rushes, the California gold rush started with the discovery of placer gold in sands and gravels of streambeds, where the gold had eroded from hard-rock vein deposits  Placer miners followed the gold-bearing sands upstream to discover the source in the bedrock  This source was the "mother" of the gold in the river and so was dubbed the "mother lode" 

See also
Alaska Gold Rush (disambiguation)
Gold Country
Placer mining
Passage 2:
Passage to Zarahemla
Passage to Zarahemla is an adventure film directed and written by Chris Heimerdinger   It tells the story of a young pair of siblings seeking to find a new life following the abrupt death of their mother   Their exploits lead them to a relative's home in Utah and eventually a thrilling confrontation with their past and the merger of time  It is based partly on Book of Mormon people, including the Zarahemla of the title  It is only the second commercial theatrical release of a film with the Book of Mormon as a principal theme, the first being The Book of Mormon Movie (2003) 
This movie is based on the novel by the same name, originally published by Heimerdinger Entertainment in November 2003  The movie version of Passage to Zarahemla, was released to theaters October 15, 2007   Originally intended only as a film, the working title of this film was "Summer of the Nephite", but after unsuccessful attempts to gain backing for its production, the title was reworked and released in novel form as Passage to Zarahemla The film ranked 4th overall in Utah the first week of its release  According to BoxOfficeMojo the film currently ranks 125th on the all-time highest gross box office for a Christian film coming in behind Pride & Prejudice: A Latter-Day Comedy, ahead of Noëlle and 122nd for Fantasy Live-Action The film was released to DVD in June 2008 

Overview
Kerra (nicknamed "Sakura" by her father) and Brock McConnell are orphans on the run   To keep from being separated by state authorities, Kerra flees to the only relative she remembers from her earliest childhood - an aunt and uncle who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and live near a wondrous place in the woods where parallel realities collide and where an ancient people called Nephites cross paths with the residents of a sleepy Utah town 

Plot
The story begins with its focus on a group of hunters illegally hunting game out in the woods   Originally thought to be dead, the hunter's target springs back to life and flees into the heavy brush and trees   Determined not to let the game suffer, one of the hunters decides to pursue the elk in its flight   After some amount of exploration he finds his elk   hanging over a branch, shot by an arrow   Hearing noises he turns around to an arrow shot at him and screams 
Kerra and Brock are introduced to the story line at their mother's funeral   With their father having apparently disappeared for some unknown reason years ago, their mother recently dying, and no other known relatives within the area, the two are set to become wards of the state   In an effort to keep the two together, Kerra decides that they must pack up their belongings and escape before the return of the social worker assigned to their case   Brock, having prior association with a local gang and a criminal record, assists his sister in stealing the social worker's vehicle   The two drive off in a fury in an effort to escape 
Remembering a relative from early on in her childhood, Kerra plots a course for Leeds, Utah, a small LDS rich community in the southern part of the state   Arriving at their aunt and uncle's house, the two concoct a story indicating that they are traveling across the country to meet up with their mother who had recently acquired a new place of employment   With the stolen car having problems, the pair is unable to travel any further until it is fixed, and are offered a place to stay until repairs are completed 
Shortly after their arrival, Kerra is confronted by her cousins with stories from her early childhood days   These stories recall "strange noises" in the woods behind their house and dealings with an "imaginary" being whom Kerra had termed to be "Kid Donni "  One night after the siblings arrival, an earthquake shakes the area with the epicenter believed to be near the property of their Aunt Corrine and Uncle Drew 
Following the quake, Kerra is reunited with her "imaginary" childhood friend Kiddoni, who is in reality a noted being from the Book of Mormon   The earthquake is revealed to have caused a "rift" in time - allowing Kerra contact with the ancient Nephite peoples and their adversaries, and allowing Kiddoni and his people to cross the time gap into the modern world 
As the story progresses, the time portal gap expands and eventually allows the Nephite and  Gadianton armies to exit the past near the  Whitman's home   Brock on the other hand is unaware of this time rift and eventually finds himself captured by the Gadianton armies   It is at this time that he comes into contact with a scraggly-bearded individual from "modern" times named Chris 
Meanwhile, during their escape from California, Brock had been given a bag by a former gang-member to take out of the area, which is later revealed to be a bag full of illegal drugs   Upon realizing who was in possession of the bag, the gang leader decides to make a trip to the small Utah community to recover the bag 
Near the end of the story the two worlds clash as the rift in time grows very large   The Gadianton army crosses the time border into the present day in an effort to find food for their armies   Through sheer coincidence Chris and Brock reunite with Kerra near the Whitman home, where it is revealed that Chris is the siblings father, who had disappeared during a hunting trip many years earlier   A major Nephite-Gadianton battle eventually ensues near the Whitman home while the trio of family retreats into hiding   Shortly thereafter, another quake hits the area and the division between the time periods is restored   Kerra is heartbroken at not getting to say goodbye to her Nephite friend, but both families are happy that they were kept safe and that father and children were reunited again 

Cast
Summer Naomi Smart as Kerra McConnell
Moronai Kanekoa as Kiddoni
Brian Kary as Brock McConnell
Jan Felt as Aunt Corrine
Seth Packard as Spree
Alex Petrovitch as Hitch
Bryce Chamberlain as Grandpa Lee
Spencer King as Lobo
Jose Bacio as Adder
Jenny Latimer as Natasha

Soundtrack
The soundtrack is titled Whispered Visions and is a compilation of songs with music and lyrics by Chris Heimerdinger

Reception
Critic Sean P  Means of The Salt Lake Tribute gave the film 2 5 stars out of a possible 4  He wrote that Heimerdinger made "a few rookie mistakes" in his debut as a film director, but also "squeezes a lot of visual flair from a minuscule budget" and effectively balances entertaining filmmaking with beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 
Passage 3:
List of the 72 names on the Eiffel Tower
On the Eiffel Tower, 72 names of French scientists, engineers, and mathematicians are engraved in recognition of their contributions  Gustave Eiffel chose this "invocation of science" because of his concern over the protests against the tower  The engravings are found on the sides of the tower under the first balcony, in letters about 60 cm (24 in) tall, and originally painted in gold  The engraving was painted over at the beginning of the 20th century and restored in 1986–87 by Société Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, the company that the city of Paris contracts to operate the Tower  The repainting of 2010–11 restored the letters to their original gold colour  There are also names of the engineers who helped build the Tower and design its architecture on a plaque on the top of the Tower, where a laboratory was built as well 

List
Location
The list is split in four parts (for each side of the tower)  The sides have been named after the parts of Paris that each side faces:

The North-East side (also known as La Bourdonnais side)
The South-East side (also known as the Military School side)
The South-West side (also known as the Grenelle side)
The North West side (also known as the Trocadéro side)

Names
In the table below are all the names on the four sides 

Criticism
Women
The list contains no women  The list has been criticized for excluding the name of Sophie Germain, a noted French mathematician whose work on the theory of elasticity was used in the construction of the tower itself  In 1913, John Augustine Zahm suggested that Germain was excluded because she was a woman 

Hydraulic engineers and scholars
Fourteen hydraulic engineers and scholars are listed on the Eiffel Tower  Eiffel acknowledged most of the leading scientists in the field  Henri Philibert Gaspard Darcy is missing; some of his work did not come into wide use until the 20th century  Also missing are Antoine Chézy, who was less famous; Joseph Valentin Boussinesq, who was  early in his career at the time; and mathematician Évariste Galois 

Notes
Passage 4:
Jacob Folkema
Jacob Folkema (18 August 1692 – 3 February 1767), a Dutch designer and engraver, was born and died at Dokkum, in Friesland  He was first instructed by his father, Johann Jakob Folkema, a goldsmith, and studied afterwards under B  Picart at Amsterdam  During that time he worked for Royaumont's Bible, 1712, and Ruysch's Anatomy, 1737  Folkema was also an excellent engraver in mezzotint  He had a sister, Anna Folkema, who painted miniatures, assisted her brother, and engraved some few plates  She was born in 1695, and died in 1768  By Jakob Folkema there are, among others, the following plates:

An Emblematical Print on the Death of the Prince of Orange 
Time discovering the Bust of F  Rabelais, with figures and satirical and emblematical attributes 
The Martyrdom of St  Peter and St  Paul; after Niccolò dell'Abbate 
Several plates for the Dresden Gallery; after Le Brun and Niccolò dell'Abbate 

Portraits
Miguel Cervantes de Saavedra; after C  Kort 
Johannes Ens, Professor of Theology at Utrecht; after Colla 
Petrus de Maestricht, Professor of Theology at Frankfort; after the same 
Humphrey Prideaux, Dean of Norwich; after Seeman 
Suethlagius, Pastor at Amsterdam; after Anna Folkema 
Passage 5:
Étienne Ficquet
Étienne Ficquet (13 September 1719 – 11 December 1794) was a French engraver 
Ficquet was born in Paris in 1719, and was instructed by G  F  Schmidt and Le Bas  He acquired great reputation by a set of small portraits which he engraved of distinguished literary characters of France  They are executed with extraordinary neatness and delicacy, and are very correctly drawn  One of his best plates is a portrait of Madame de Maintenon, after Mignard, now become very scarce  He engraved also several of the plates for Descamps' Vie des Peintres Flamands et Hollandais, of which those of Rubens and Van Dyck are very highly finished  He died in Paris in 1794 

Works
Françoise d'Aubigné; after P  Mignard 
J  de La Fontaine; after Rigaud 
J  F  Regnard; after the same 
J  J  Rousseau; after De La Tour  1763 
F  M  Arouet de Voltaire; after the same  1762 
Pierre Corneille; after Le Brun 
J  de Crébillon; after Aved 
J  B  P  de Molière; after Coypel 
René Descartes; after F  Hals 
M  Montaigne; after Dumonstier  1772 
De La Mothe Le Vayer; after Nanteuil 
F  de La Mothe Fénélon; after Vivien 
J  J   Vadé; after Richard 
P  P  Rubens; after Van Dyck 
Anton Van Dyck; after the same 
Passage 6:
Alma the Younger
According to the Book of Mormon, Alma, the son of Alma () was a Nephite prophet often referred to as Alma the Younger to distinguish him from his father, who is often referred to as Alma the Elder  These appellations, "the Younger" and "the Elder," are not used in the Book of Mormon; they are distinctions made by scholars, useful because both individuals were prominent during the same time period in the Book of Mormon's story and filled a similar cultural and religious role  Alma is the namesake of the Book of Alma 

Summary of his life
Alma the Younger lived in Zarahemla during the end of the reign of the Nephite King Mosiah  Adherents of Mormonism believe that he was born in 126 BC   As a young man, he, the four sons of Mosiah, and others wanted to destroy the church and actively persecuted its members  After they were visited personally by an angel and rebuked for their actions, Alma fell into an unconscious state where for three days and three nights he lay unable to move until he felt within that he had been forgiven of his sins  He later recounted that he had experienced a vision during unconsciousness, in which he renounced his behavior against the church and subsequently received a glimpse of God sitting on his throne (Alma 36:12–22)  He and those who persecuted church members with him abdicated their role as persecutors and became followers of Christ Alma the Younger subsequently became the first elected chief judge of the Nephites as well as their religious leader  He observed that the Nephites of the church were becoming increasingly wicked, proud, disdainful of outsiders and neglectful toward the poor and needy (Alma 4:11–12)  When the "unbelievers" began to follow their example, Alma feared the entire people were on the path to self-destruction (Alma 4:11)  He resigned his post as chief judge and began traveling from city to city to preach to the Nephites  He began in Zarahemla, where his efforts were successful  A thorough purge of the church leadership and membership took place, with those former insiders and leaders who refused to relinquish their pride being "rejected, and their names blotted out" (Alma 6:3) 
Alma moved on to the cities of Gideon and Melek, where his call to humility was also well received   From Melek he traveled three days journey north to Ammonihah, whose inhabitants proved much more hardened than those of the previous three cities In Ammonihah the people were very wicked  They considered themselves superior to outsiders, especially the Lamanites, and gloried in the strength of their city, which they considered indestructible  According to Alma chapter 9, Satan held such control over them that they would not listen to Alma   While trying to speak to them he was abused and thrown out of the city  Commanded by an angel to return, Alma slipped back into the city through a different route from the south  There he met Amulek, a lapsed believer (Alma 10:5-6) of some social prominence who fed Alma and housed him for a time   In the city streets, the two of them joined up and preached to the people, where they were challenged by a lawyer named Zeezrom   After Amulek had silenced Zeezrom through his teaching and aroused his conscience, Alma took his turn, preaching to the people with similar results  When finished, Alma and Amulek were cast into prison and delivered by a miracle  A repentant Zeezrom eventually joined Alma in his missionary work 
Several years later, Alma met up with a man named Korihor, whom the Book of Mormon describes as an anti-Christ  This Korihor tried to lead the Nephites astray  Alma confronted him, confounding his arguments and miraculously removing Korihor's power of speech  The stricken Korihor signaled acknowledgement that he had acted maliciously, knowing all along that he was wrong and bringing destruction upon others  He was reduced to begging and was eventually run down and killed in a city of Nephite dissenters called Zoramites These same Zoramites were found to practice things that perverted the ways of the Lord  This led Alma to extend his missionary work to these people  While among them, he was most successful with the poor Alma's final instruction was to his sons, Helaman, Shiblon, and Corianton   He gave each separate lessons, and finally gave the records of the church to Helaman  He then departed, in the 19th year of the reign of the judges (or 73 BC) as if to go to Melek, but was never heard from again  Both Mormon and Helaman believed that he was taken up like Moses of old, and buried by the Lord 

Descendants
The Book of Mormon narrative describes several of Alma's notable descendants as shown in the following family tree:

Alleged similarities to Saul
Various critics argue that there are similarities in both plot and language between Alma the Younger's conversion story and the conversion story of Saul of Tarsus in the Bible  Critic Grant H  Palmer argues for nine specific parallels between Alma and Paul's conversion narrative plus various similarities in language  FAIR, the Latter-day Saint apologetics organization, argues that the parallels are superficial or otherwise poorly contrived  Latter-day Saint philosopher and historian Alan Goff, in a long paper written for and published in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship, argues that the "New and Old Testaments appropriate an ancient narrative genre called the prophetic commissioning story  Paul’s and Alma’s commissioning narratives hearken back to this literary genre, and to refer to either as pilfered is to misunderstand not just these individual narratives but the larger approach Hebraic writers used in composing biblical and Book of Mormon narrative "
Passage 7:
Johan Bara
Johan Bara or Johannes Barra (1581–1634) was a Dutch painter, designer and engraver 

Life
Barra was probably born in 's-Hertogenbosch or Middelburg  He was active in Augsburg and Neurenberg in 1599, in Middelburg in 1604, in London between 1624 and 1627, in Amsterdam in 1631, and back in London in 1634, where he died He called himself, sometimes, "sculptor et vitrearum imaginum pictor", and published, from 1598 to 1632, several engravings which resemble, without equalling, those of Aegidius Sadeler  His first plate, "Susanna in the Bath", signed Barra (1598), is very rare  His plates are numerous 
Passage 8:
Étienne Fessard
Étienne Fessard, a French engraver, was born in Paris in 1714  He was a pupil of Edme Jeaurat, and proved an artist of sufficient merit to be accepted for candidacy (agréé) at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture (1753)   A protegé of le comte de Caylus, whom he may have assisted in the development of skill in etching, Fessard received the appointment Engraver of the King's Library (graveur de la Bibliothèque du Roi) in 1756, with responsibility for the engravings of the royal collection of paintings and drawings, as a result of Caylus' influence   On his death in 1777, the position was given to his student Augustin de Saint-Aubin  Fessard executed a considerable number of plates, but his efforts to resume the engraving of the King's paintings did not obtain the support of the Acadmie royale and resulted in only two plates: "Feste Flamande" after Rubens and "L'Empire de Flore" after Poussin 

Portraits
Hortensia Mancini, Duchess of Mazarin; after Ferdinand 
Marie Madeleine de Lavergne, Countess de La Fayette; after the same 
J  P  de Bougainville, of the French Academy; after C  N  Cochin 
The Marquis de Mirabeau; after Van Loo 
The Duke de Choiseul; after the same 

Subjects after various masters
Diana and Actaeon; after Giacomo Bassano; for the Crozat Collection 
The Virgin enthroned, with SS  Francis, John, and Catharine; after Correggio 
The Holy Family, with St  Charles Borromeo; after Scarsellino 
The Four Liberal Arts, personified by Children; four plates; after C  van Loo 
Jupiter and Antiope; after the same  1758



ground_truth: January 2015

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

Question: In which county is Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative headquartered?

The following are given passages.
Context 2:  - Gave to each plutonic body its proper name 
Suarez, M  - Credited for having charted a Plate-tectonic model for the southern portion of the Antarctic Peninsula (Palmer Land) and its relation to the southern Andes Mountain Range 
Passage 9:
Beryslav Raion
Beryslav Raion (Ukrainian: Бериславський район, romanized: Beryslavs'kyi raion) is one of the five administrative raions (a district) of Kherson Oblast in southern Ukraine  Its administrative center is located in the city of Beryslav  Its population was 55,976 as of the 2001 Ukrainian Census  Current population: 94,103 (2022 est ) The January 2020 estimate of the raion population was 45,931 (2020 est )  However, on 18 July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, the number of raions of Kherson Oblast was reduced to five, and the area of Beryslav Raion was significantly expanded  Three raions (Novovorontsovka, Velyka Oleksandrivka, and Vysokopillia Raions) were abolished and their territories were merged into an enlarged Beryslav Raion 

Subdivisions
Current
After the reform in July 2020, the raion consisted of 11 hromadas:
Beryslav urban hromada with the administration in the city of Beryslav, retained from Beryslav Raion;
Borozenske rural hromada with the administration in the selo of Borozenske, transferred from Velyka Oleksandrivka Raion;
Kalynivske settlement hromada with the administration in the urban-type settlement of Kalynivske, transferred from Velyka Oleksandrivka Raion;
Kochubeivka rural hromada with the administration in the selo of Kochubeivka, transferred from Vysokopillia Raion;
Mylove rural hromada with the administration in the selo of Mylove, retained from Beryslav Raion;
Novooleksandrivka rural hromada with the administration in the selo of Novooleksandrivka, transferred from Novovorontsovka Raion;
Novoraisk rural hromada with the administration in the settlement of Novoraisk, retained from Beryslav Raion;
Novovorontsovka settlement hromada with the administration in the urban-type settlement of Novovorontsovka, transferred from Novovorontsovka Raion;
Tiahynka rural hromada with the administration in the settlement of Tiahynka, retained from Beryslav Raion;
Velyka Oleksandrivka settlement hromada with the administration in the urban-type settlement of Velyka Oleksandrivka, transferred from Velyka Oleksandrivka Raion 
Vysokopillia settlement hromada with the administration in the urban-type settlement of Vysokopillia, transferred from Vysokopillia Raion;

Before 2020
Before the 2020 reform, the raion consisted of four hromadas:
Beryslav urban hromada with the administration in Beryslav;
Mylove rural hromada with the administration in Mylove;
Novoraisk rural hromada with the administration in Novoraisk;
Tiahynka rural hromada with the administration in Tiahynka Beryslav Raion was divided in a way that followed the general administrative scheme in Ukraine  Local government was also organized along a similar scheme nationwide  Consequently, raions were subdivided into councils, which were the prime level of administrative division in the country 
Each of the raion's urban localities administered their own councils, often containing a few other villages within its jurisdiction  However, only a handful of rural localities were organized into councils, which also might contain a few villages within its jurisdiction 
Accordingly, Beryslav Raion was divided into:
1 city council—made up of the city of Beryslav (administrative center)
1 settlement council—made up of the urban-type settlement of Kozatske
29 village councilsOverall, the raion had a total of 43 populated localities, consisting of one city, one urban-type settlement, 34 villages, and seven rural settlements 

Geography
Beryslav Raion is located in the central part of Kherson Oblast on the right-bank of the Dnieper River and the Kakhovka Reservoir  Geographically, it lies in the lowland immediately before the Black Sea 

History
Beryslav Raion was first established on March 7, 1923 as part of a full-scale administrative reorganization of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic  During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, almost the whole of Beryslav Raion was initially occupied by Russian forces, apart from a few villages in the north of the Raion  However, by late October 2022 the majority of the rural districts had been re-taken by Ukrainian forces, although the city of Beryslav remained in Russian hands as at 29 October  The rest of the raion was retaken on 10 November 2022, when the Russian troops withdrew from the right bank of the Dnieper 

See also
Vysoke, Kherson Oblast
Passage 10:
Kiri Territory
Kiri Territory is an administrative region of Mai-Ndombe Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo  The headquarters is the town of Kiri 

Location
Kiri territory has sandy clay soils, supporting food crops that include cassava, maize, banana, peanut, yams, sweet potatoes, sugarcane, rice, beans, vegetables, robusta coffee, cocoa and palm 
Most of the land is covered with rain forest 
The southern boundary is defined by the Lokoro River, which flows from the southeast, entering Lake Mai-Ndombe at the westernmost point of the territory  
Kiri Territory is divided into the Beronge, Lutoy and Pendjwa sectors 

Economy
The Kiri General Hospital was rehabilitated in 1983, and a farmers cooperative was established in 1995 
As of 1997 Kiri Territory had a population of 121,604 within an area of 12,070 square kilometres (4,660 sq mi), or about 11 people per square kilometer  Trade was mostly with Kinshasa via the neighboring territory of Inongo to the west, handled by a cartel of traders who controlled prices  
Local products such as manioc or fish were exchanged for manufactured goods such as hammocks or machetes As of 2004 the territory lacked electricity and drinking water supplies, and had no telephone, radio or television service 
It does have an airport (Basango Mboliasa Airport) in good condition that is used for occasional unscheduled flights 
Passage 11:
Southern California Edison
Southern California Edison (or SCE Corp), the largest subsidiary of Edison International, is the primary electricity utility for much of Southern California  It provides 15 million people with electricity across a service territory of approximately 50,000 square miles  However, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), Imperial Irrigation District, and some smaller municipal utilities serve substantial portions of the southern California territory  The northern part of the state is generally served by the Pacific Gas & Electric Company of San Francisco  Other investor-owned utilities (IOUs) in California include SDG&E, PacifiCorp, Bear Valley Electric, and Liberty Utilities 

Southern California Edison (SCE) still owns all of its electrical transmission facilities and equipment, but the deregulation of California's electricity market in the late 1990s forced the company to sell many of its power plants, though some were probably sold by choice  In California, SCE retained only its hydroelectric plants, totaling about 1,200 MW, and its 75% share of the 2,150-MW San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, which has been shut down since January 2012; in June 2013 the company announced its intention to permanently close and decommission the nuclear plant  The utility lost all of its natural gas-fired plants, which provided most of its electrical generation  The large, aging plants were bought by out-of-state companies such as Mirant and Reliant Energy, which allegedly used them to manipulate the California energy market Southern California Edison's power grid is linked to PG&E's by the Path 26 wires that generally follow Interstate 5 over Tejon Pass  The interconnection takes place at a large substation at Buttonwillow  PG&E's and WAPA's Path 15 and Path 66, respectively, from Buttonwillow north eventually connect to BPA's grid in the Pacific Northwest  There are several other interconnections with local and out-of-state utilities, such as Path 46 
In addition, SCE operates a regulated gas and water utility  SCE is the sole commercial provider of natural gas and fresh water service to Santa Catalina Island, including the city of Avalon, California  SCE operates the utilities under the names of Catalina Island Gas Company and Catalina Island Water Company 

History
The origins of the company lie with the grand scheme of business magnate Henry E  Huntington and hydraulic engineer John S  Eastwood, developed around 1908, for a vast complex of reservoirs to be constructed in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of central California   Huntington founded Pacific Light and Power, one of the roughly two dozen companies he controlled at the time, to execute what would eventually become one of the largest hydropower systems in the United States, the Big Creek Hydroelectric Project   Pacific Light and Power was one of the predecessor companies to SCE, along with Edison Electric, Mt  Whitney Power & Electric Co , California Electric Power Co , Southern California Power Co , and others 

Settlement for blackout
Southern California Edison agreed to pay a $650,000 settlement for the 2011 blackout with FERC and NERC 

Shooting
On December 16, 2011, a shooting occurred when an employee of Southern California Edison opened fire at an office building in Irwindale  The employee killed two co-workers and seriously wounded two others before committing suicide 

COVID-19 pandemic
In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, 8,000 of the 13,000 employees were shifted to remote work  The US Department of Homeland Security has named utilities like SCE part of the 16 sectors designated “critical infrastructure sectors  The group of remote workers was set up so the company can operate if it faces workforce disruptions or shortages if employees become stricken or quarantined because of COVID-19 
The company also ceased power disconnections for non-payment 

Renewable energy
Southern California Edison allows its customer to obtain their electricity entirely from renewable sources by subscribing to a "green rate" In 2006, Southern California Edison planned to secure 1,500 megawatts or more of power generated from new projects to be built in the Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm area  The contract, which more than doubles SCE's wind energy portfolio, envisions more than 50 square miles (130 km2) of wind parks in the Tehachapi region, which is triple the size of any existing U S  wind farm In March 2008, Southern California Edison announced a $875 million project to build a network of 250 megawatts of photovoltaic solar power generation, making it the biggest solar cell project in the nation  The photovoltaic cells will cover 65,000,000 square feet (6,000,000 m2) of rooftops in southern California and will generate enough power to serve 162,000 homes In 2009, Southern California Edison entered into a contract with Solar Millennium to purchase solar thermal power up to 726 MW  Southern California Edison also entered into a contract with Stirling Energy Systems to buy electricity from a 500 megawatt, 4,600 acre (19 km2), solar power plant which was due to open in 2009  The purchase was canceled in late 2010, as changes in technology reduced the cost of photovoltaic-based solar power to below that of solar Stirling generated power  This would have been the first commercial application of the dish stirling system  A different technology from the more familiar solar panel, the dish concentrates solar energy by the use of reflective surfaces and by the use of the Stirling heat engine to convert the heat into electricity 
In 2014, Southern California Edison installed the Tehachapi Energy Storage Project, which is composed of more than 600,000 lithium-ion battery cells at Monolith Substation in Tehachapi, California in order to test storing power generated from an area that currently has 5,000 wind turbines In 2014 SCE had a renewables mix of 23%  By 2016, 28 2% of SCE's power sources were renewable 

Natural gas and energy storage
In 2017, the company opened two new hybrid electric gas turbine (EGT) units called peaker plants, that combine gas turbines and storage batteries at the same site  Each plant delivers around 50-megawatts; the batteries can provide 10-megawatts and four megawatt-hours of power  Both the turbines and the batteries are designed and manufactured by General Electric’s Power Division The plant runs the battery first in a series of short bursts, saving gas usage for longer power demand  The combination of a 30-minute duration battery improves the environmental impact of the gas turbine   The SCE setup (the first of its kind) cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60%, reduced annual water usage by 2 million gallons and lowered the number of gas starts by 50% 

Electric vehicles
Southern California Edison has a number of resources and a rate designed specifically for electric vehicle users As of July 2018, Southern California Edison plans to add thousands of new charging stations for passenger electric vehicles (EV)  This addition is a component of the company's "Charge Ready" program, a pilot program with the aim of increasing the availability of charging ports for EVs  Since 2016, Southern California Edison has installed 1,000 charging stations throughout their Southern and Central California service area The company also runs a rebate program for electric vehicle purchases  Southern California Edison gives people in its service area who purchase a new or used, or lease, an electric vehicle a $450 rebate  The program will run until 2020 

Energy research and policy
Southern California Edison has a long history of research in the energy arena  Often this includes working with other companies and government entities  One example is the SOLARII feasibility generator, which was a solar-powered energy plant that could produce electricity 24 hours a day  This was done by heating molten salts that would hold the heat during the day and would be used to generate power at night Dr  John Jurewitz served as Director of Regulatory Policy for Southern California Edison for 15 years until his retirement in July 2007  His major areas of research are in oil, gas, and electricity policy and greenhouse gas regulation  He has testified and participated in government-sponsored proceedings addressing electric industry restructuring and energy policy at the state, federal, and international levels In November, 2014, SCE announced a partnership with Ice Energy to provide more efficient energy storage by freezing water at night when electricity is cheaper  (Ice Energy filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in December 2019 )

Labor practice controversy
In April 2015, Southern California Edison laid off about 400 IT employees, with an additional 100 IT workers leaving voluntarily  Meanwhile, the utility company hired  immigrants from India through Infosys, based in Bangalore, and Tata Consultancy Services in Mumbai, which are among the largest users of H-1B visas  About 70% of the work to be done by Tata and Infosys will be completed offshore, according to SCE  The company claimed it had to lay off US-based employees to stay competitive  The layoffs were questioned by members of the United States Senate  SCE was subsequently investigated by the US Department of Labor for potential H1-B visa abuse  In October, Department of Labor concluded Infosys did not abuse the H1-B program in the dealings with SCE, while Tata's case remained open 

See also
Energy use in California
Solar power plants in the Mojave Desert
Wind power in California
List of articles associated with nuclear issues in California
Passage 12:
Dunbar Hospital
The Dunbar Hospital was the first hospital for the black community in Detroit, Michigan  It is located at 580 Frederick Street, and is currently the administrative headquarters of the Detroit Medical Society  It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 

Building construction and description
The building housing the Dunbar Hospital was built in 1892 by the Guy W  Vinton Company as a home for real estate developer Charles W  Warren  The home was constructed in a fashionable 19th century residential district The structure is a three-story home of mixed Romanesque Revival and Queen Anne style, built of red brick and rough-cut ashlar  The entrance is through a recessed, arched first-floor porch and the second story has a double-arch brick balcony  The roof is slate, with a bay-windowed gabled dormer surmounting the front façade 

Founding of the Dunbar Hospital
In 1894, Dr  James W  Ames, a graduate of both Straight University and Howard University, arrived in Detroit after a stint of teaching in New Orleans  He quickly became influential in both Detroit's white community and its then-small black community  Detroit's mayor at the time was Hazen Pingree  During his subsequent re-election campaign, Pingree actively courted the black vote, in part by supporting Ames's bid for election to the Michigan state legislature The nationally famous black poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, popular in both the black and white community, visited Detroit and lent his voice to those supporting Pingree, penning the poem, "Vote for Pingree and Vote for Bread " Both Ames and Pingree won their respective elections, and Ames spent the next two years in the legislature  He was the last black elected until the 1920s Two decades later, in the years following World War I, the black population of Detroit soared  In 1910, fewer than 6000 blacks called the city home; in 1917 more than 30,000 blacks lived in Detroit  The increase in black residents led to a crisis in health care  Hospitals were still segregated, and physicians like Ames were required to ask permission to admit black patients  Often black patients were simply denied care  The increase in the black population threatened to overwhelm the city's 30 black doctors In 1918, Ames led the group of 30 black physicians to form the Allied Medical Society  The area around Frederick street was at the cusp of becoming the center of social and cultural life for Detroit's black community, and the AMS purchased the Warren home on Frederick They opened their own non-profit hospital in the building, the first in the city to serve the black community, as well as an associated nursing school  The hospital was named for the poet Dunbar, who had died in 1906  The hospital had 27 beds and an operating room 

Later history
In 1928, demand led Dunbar Hospital to move from its first home to a larger facility several blocks to the east  The facility was renamed Parkside Hospital, and continued in operation until 1962  Soon after Dunbar moved from its home on Frederick, Charles Diggs Sr , who was later the first African-American Democratic state senator, purchased the home  Diggs's son, Charles C  Diggs Jr , served in the Michigan State Senate from 1951 to 1954 and the U S  House of Representatives from 1954 to 1980  In 1978, the Detroit Medical Society (the successor to the Allied Medical Society) purchased and restored the building  It now serves as their administrative headquarters and a museum 
Passage 13:
Campora
Campora is a town and comune in the province of Salerno, Campania (southern Italy)  It is located in the territory of Cilento and as of 2009 its population was 810 

History
Geography
The village is located in a hilly area in the middle of Cilento, close to Stio and to the area of Pruno, not far from the town of Vallo della Lucania  It borders with the municipalities of Cannalonga, Gioi, Laurino, Moio della Civitella, Novi Velia and Stio 

See also
Pruno Cilento
Cilentan language
Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park
Passage 14:
Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative
The Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO) is an electric distribution cooperative which is headquartered in Hughesville, Maryland, United States  SMECO serves approximately 161,000 customers in Calvert, Charles, Prince George's, and St  Mary's counties of southern Maryland  Under its rules as a nonprofit cooperative, SMECO passes on its costs to its customer-members without markup or profit 

History
In 1937 two committees of citizens from three counties which were seeking aid to construct a local rural electric distribution system under the New Deal's Rural Electrictrification Administration formed the Southern Maryland Tri-County Electric Cooperative Association  This was reorganized as a cooperative under the SMECO name in 1942  Customers were allowed to select suppliers of electricity beginning in 2001 under the Maryland Electric Deregulation legislation enacted in 1999  From 2007 to 2011, SMECO has won the J D  Power and Associates award for best customer service for a midsize utility SMECO owned a 77 MW gas turbine generator located at the Chalk Point Generating Station which began operation in 1990 and was operated and maintained by NRG Energy  In 2015 NRG acquired the turbine plant from SMECO 

FERC solar complaint
SMECO has filed a complaint with the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), alleging that the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) coerced utilities into purchasing excess solar power generated by the state's community solar program at much higher retail rates rather than paying the amount it would have cost these utilities to create the power themselves, also known as the avoided cost  This would be in violation with the federal Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA), which establishes that any payment given to such qualifying power plants equate the utility's avoided cost  In addition, PURPA mandates that these plants do not exceed 80 MW of power Recently, the development of community solar programs has become increasingly prevalent in order to meet the ever-growing demand for new, viable energy sources; however, there has been much controversy regarding the surge in net metering consumers due to the resulting cost shifts which negatively affect the non-solar community now facing much higher payments to even out the increased benefits given to solar projects Because of the continual reduction in the cost of power, FERC has become more concerned with the discrepancy between avoided costs and wholesale prices, which continue to prevail  This has placed more focus on PURPA's roles and responsibilities in the maintenance and balance of the current energy market 
Passage 15:
Poum
Poum  is a commune in the North Province of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean  The small town of Poum (Latitude: 20° 13' 59 south, longitude: 164° 1' 23 east) is located in the far northwest, located on the southern part of Banare Bay, with Mouac Island just offshore  Aside from French, the native language of the Kanak inhabitants is nêlêmwa-nixumwak, an Austronesian language spoken by about 1,100 people  British fishermen came to the islands in 1855 seeking sea cucumbers, and settled and intermarried, and this is reflected in the last names of some clan members and on gravestones (e g  Williams, Winchester)  In the 1850s, a hundred Europeans lived on Mouac Island and John Henry Williams established a presence on Néba island 

Geography
The Poum massif south of Poum and Titch rises to 414 m and is rich in nickel  Other minerals like cobalt have been mined out  The hills around Poum are bare of trees and distinctively rose and red-tinged  Seasonal water shortages and bush fires are common 

Economy
There is one boarding middle school near Poum village  The Kanak population pursue diverse subsistence activities, sometimes combined with paid work  There is one service station and store, opened in the 2010s  Tourists can stay at a western style hotel complex, the Malabou Beach hotel on Nehoue Bay, which is owned by the Northern Province corporation, Grands Hôtels - it has 35 employees  There are also two tourist cottages (Golone and Poingam),  a campsite (Pagop) and home stays are also possible Fishing is still pursued mainly by the islanders, especially from Tiabet, although commercial fish sales are affected by the long distances to market in Nouméa and accreditation systems  Agriculture is practised, and there is some European-owned cattle ranching 
The Poum nickel mine was not heavily exploited fully for many years following its acquisition by SLN after the Accords de Bercy in the 1990s, and had about thirty employees in 2014  In 2015, plans to increase production to 100,000 tonnes of ore per year from 'Spur A' of the mine, with 2 5% nickel content, were announced  In 2019, a further announcement of increased production was made  The mine has been accused by the inhabitants of Titch, west of Poum centre, of creating water pollution problems 
Passage 16:
Menteng, Menteng
Menteng is an administrative village in the Menteng district of Indonesia  It has a postal code of 10310  It is located on the southern area of the Menteng Project 

See also
List of administrative villages of Jakarta
Passage 17:
Elk Ridge (Maryland)
Elk Ridge, or Elk Mountain, is a mountain ridge of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Maryland and is the westernmost of four parallel ridges   It forms the western side of a narrow valley in which are situated the towns of Yarrowsburg and Brownsville   South Mountain is on the eastern side of this valley running roughly parallel to it   The ridge runs from Rohrersville, in the north, to the Potomac River across from Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, in the south   Across the Potomac the ridge continues as Blue Ridge Mountain in Virginia and West Virginia   To the west of Elk Mountain is the broader Cumberland Valley, in which lie the towns of Hagerstown and Chambersburg, and the Potomac River   The southern end of the ridge, which is part of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, is known as Maryland Heights 

History
In the early 19th century, Elk Ridge was the site of numerous charcoal hearths, which produced charcoal for nearby iron furnaces from wood harvested on the mountain   More than 50 hearths were constructed between 1810 and 1840 
The Maryland Heights portion of Elk Ridge was the scene of much activity during the American Civil War   Artillery emplacements and fortifications were first erected on the mountain by Union forces in 1862, during Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign   Later that year, during the Battle of Harpers Ferry, the union fortifications on the mountain were attacked by units under General Lafayette McLaws, who subsequently took control of the ridge and used it to deliver devastating artillery fire against the Union garrison at Harpers Ferry   After the battle Confederate forces abandoned the ridge to rejoin the Army of Northern Virginia at Antietam and the Union army quickly reoccupied the heights 
Following the Battle of Antietam, Abraham Lincoln came to Maryland to review the army, including the garrisons on the mountain   He began the ascent, but because of the steepness of the slope, turned around halfway up, concluding any man who could make the climb would pass his muster   In June 1863 Union forces again took control of the ridge and enlarged the fortifications in response to the Confederate invasion of Maryland during the Gettysburg Campaign 
The "Pinnacle Lot" of the Maryland Heights was purchased by the Maryland Park System from the grandchildren of the last private owner, Judge Patrick Chapman Savin (1820-1889) of Harper's Ferry, MD; the lot was in turn gifted by the State of Maryland to the National Park Service in the 1950s   Judge Patrick and his brother, John Chapman Savin, and a future son-in-law, John Marion Marsteller (1841-1898) were among those who participated in the capture of John Brown and his men   It was during this time that the side of the cliff overlooking Harper's Ferry was leased for advertising seen by the passengers of trains as they entered and exited the tunnel under the Maryland Heights 

Recreation
A trail system, maintained by the National Park Service, ascends Maryland Heights and tours the Civil War-era fortifications and provides access to the cliffs on the mountain which contain views of Harpers Ferry and the Potomac Water Gap   An unmaintained trail leads along the ridge of Park Service land onto private property to Buggy Rocks and views east of Pleasant Valley   Mountain climbing is permitted by the National Park Service along the Maryland Heights cliffs 

Bibliography
Whitman, T  Stephen, Antietam 1862: Gateway to Emancipation, ABC-CLIO, 2012 ISBN 0313397341 

External links
NPS Maryland Heights Brochure
Passage 18:
Pangi Territory
Pangi Territory is an administrative area in Maniema Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo  The  headquarters is the town of Pangi 
The Elila River flows through Pangi territory, entering the Lualaba River to the west 
The territory is divided into the Babene chiefdom and the Beia, Ikama, Wakabango and Wasongola sectors 
Most of the territory is inhabited by the Lega people, as are the adjoining Mwenga and Shabunda territories 
As of 1972 there were still a few Pygmies living among the Baziri tribe of Lega people 
Before independence the territory had 97,380 inhabitants of whom 35,518 were in urban and mining agglomerations 
Passage 19:
WaterColor, Florida
WaterColor is an unincorporated master-planned community located in Walton County, Florida, United States, between Grayton Beach and Seaside  This 499-acre (2 02 km2) Southern resort and residential community was planned by Cooper, Robertson & Partners with Urban Design Associates, in collaboration with Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, under the direction of The St  Joe Company  The St  Joe Company has owned the land since 1927 
WaterColor homes are based on the vernacular architecture of Southern wood homes with features that include large wraparound or screened porches, wood columns and siding and a metal roof with deep overhangs  Community amenities include a swimming pool, fitness center, tennis courts, parks and gardens, shopping and restaurants  Camp Creek Golf Club is available to homeowners for an annual fee 
The WaterColor Inn is a 60-room beachfront resort designed by David Rockwell   In 2006 it was rated the #1 Family Friendly Resort in North America by Travel + Leisure magazine   It is the only four diamond hotel in Northwest Florida   The Inn and Vacation Rentals are managed by Troon Golf and St  Joe Clubs and Resorts as of January 2014 

See also
Celebration, Florida
Prospect New Town
Rosemary Beach, Florida
Seaside, Florida
Tradition, Florida
Passage 20:
Khong Island
Khong Island or Don Khong (Lao: ດອນໂຂງ) is the largest island and the seat of administration in the Si Phan Don riverine archipelago located in the Mekong River, Khong District, Champasak Province, southern Laos 
The island is 18 kilometers (11 mi) long (north-south), and 8 kilometers (5 0 mi) at its widest point  Its population is mainly concentrated in the two villages Muang Saen (west) and Muang Khong (east); the latter is the de facto capital of the island as well as the regional seat of government  There are 19 villages on the island and the main source of income comes from fishing  
The former President of Laos, Khamtai Siphandon, has a residence on the island, which is a possible explanation for the  high quality of its infrastructure, such as asphalted roads and electricity  Locals tend to travel on longtail boats 
Context 3: 
Herminia armed as Clorinda; after J  B  Pierre 
The Birth of Venus; after F  de Troy 
Jupiter and Leda; after the same 
The Triumph of Galatea; after Bouchardon; etched by Count de Caylus, and finished by Fessard 
The Triumph of Bacchus; after the same; etched by Count de Caylus, and finished by Fessard 
The Nativity; after Boucher 
A Flemish Festival; after Rubens  1762 
Psyche abandoned by Cupid; after Le Moine 
Passage 9:
Nicolaes Visscher II
Nicolaes Visscher II (1649, Amsterdam – 1702, Amsterdam) was a Dutch engraver, cartographer and publisher  He was the son of Nicolaes Visscher I and the grandson of Claes Janszoon Visscher  After his death, his wife, Elisabeth, continued the family tradition of mapmaking and publishing  The works, engraved plates, were then sold to Peter Schenk, who also reprinted them 

Works
Passage 10:
Jean Audran
Jean Audran (1667-1756) was a French engraver and printmaker  The brother of Benoit, and the third son of Germain Audran, he was born at Lyons in 1667  After learning the rudiments of the art under his father, he was placed under the care of his uncle, the famous Gérard Audran, in Paris  Before he was twenty years of age he displayed uncommon ability, and became a very celebrated engraver  In 1706 he was made engraver to the king, with a pension and apartments at the Gobelins  The hand of a great master is discernible in all his plates; and without having attained the extraordinary perfection of Gérard Audran, his claim to excellence is very considerable  He died in 1756  His principal prints are:

Portraits
Louis XV; full length; after Gobert 
Maximilian Emmanuel, Elector of Bavaria, with his Page; full length; after Vivien 
Clement Augustus of Bavaria, Elector-Archbishop of Cologne; after the same 
The Duke d'Antin; after Rigaud 
The Abbé Jean d'Estrées; after the same 
Victor Marie, Duke d'Estrées, Marshal of France; after Zargilliere 
Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni; after Trevisani 
François de Salignac de la Motte Fenelon, Archbishop of Cambray; after Vivien 
François Pierre Gillet; after Tortebat 
Francois Robert Secousse, sitting; after Rigaud 
Peter Paul Rubens; after van Dyck; for the Luxembourg Gallery 
Noel Coypel, Painter to the King; after Coypel 
Antoine Coysevox, Sculptor to the King; after Rigaud  [The two last were engraved by Audran for his reception at the Academy in 1708 ]

Subjects after various masters
Our Saviour preaching to the Multitude; after Raphael 
The Infant Saviour regarding the Cross presented by Angels; after Albani 
The Nativity; after Pietro da Cortona; oval 
The Good Samaritan; after Ann  Carracci; arched 
St  John administering the Sacrament to the Virgin; after Lodovico Carracci 
Our Saviour on the Mount of Olives; after Domenichino 
St  Andrew led to Crucifixion; after Guido 
The Martyrdom of St  Peter; after Guido; on the plate improperly called after Domenichino 
St  Paul preaching at Athens; after Ciro Ferri; a small frieze 
The Triumph of Galatea; after Carlo Maratti; for the Crozat Collection 
The Miracle of the Loaves; after Claude Audran 
Six plates — Copies of the large Battles of Alexander; by G  Audran 
St  Augustine; after P  de Champagne 
Simeon holding the Infant Jesus; after M  Corneille 
Moses saved from the Nile; after Ant  Coypel 
Jacob and Laban; after the same 
Athaha and Joash; after the same 
Esther before Ahasuerus; after the same 
The Resurrection; after the same 
Cupid and Psyche; after the same 
Our Saviour curing the Sick; after Ant  Dieu 
Christ bearing His Cross; after the same 
The Elevation of the Cross; after Van Dijck 
The Crucifixion; after the same 
The French Parnassus; after the bronze by Gamier 
The Miraculous Draught of Fishes; after Jouvenet 
The Resurrection of Lazarus; after the same 
The Queen Blanche inspired with the Holy Spirit; after the same 
Acis and Galatea; after F  Marot 
Venus punishing Psyche; after J  M  Nattier 
Psyche consoled by Cupid; after the same 
The dead Christ, with the Marys, St  John, and Nicodemus; after Poussin 
The Rape of the Sabines; after Poussin; his most esteemed print 
St  Scholastica at the point of Death; after J  Restout 
Andromache entreating for her Son; after L  Silvestre 
Henri IV deliberating on his future Marriage; after Rubens 
Henri IV departing for the German War; after the same 
The Coronation of Marie de Médicis; after the same  [The three last form part of the Luxembourg Gallery ]
Passage 11:
Golden plates
According to Latter Day Saint belief, the golden plates (also called the gold plates or in some 19th-century literature, the golden bible) are the source from which Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon, a sacred text of the faith  Some accounts from people who reported handling the plates describe the plates as weighing from 30 to 60 pounds (14 to 27 kg), gold in color, and composed of thin metallic pages engraved with hieroglyphics on both sides and bound with three D-shaped rings Smith said that he found the plates on September 22, 1823, on a hill near his home in Manchester, New York, after the angel Moroni directed him to a buried stone box  He said that the angel prevented him from taking the plates but instructed him to return to the same location in a year  He returned to that site every year, but it was not until September 1827 that he recovered the plates on his fourth annual attempt to retrieve them  He returned home with a heavy object wrapped in a frock, which he then put in a box  He allowed others to heft the box but said that the angel had forbidden him to show the plates to anyone until they had been translated from their original "reformed Egyptian" language 
Smith dictated the text of the plates while a scribe wrote down the words which would later become the Book of Mormon  Eyewitnesses to the process said Smith translated the plates, not by looking directly at them, but by looking through a transparent seer stone in the bottom of his hat  Smith published the first edition of the translation in March 1830 as the Book of Mormon, with a print run of 5,000 copies at a production cost of $3,000 (or 60 cents per book) 
Smith eventually obtained testimonies from 11 men who said that they had seen the plates, known as the Book of Mormon witnesses  After the translation was complete, Smith said that he returned the plates to the angel Moroni; thus they could never be examined  Latter Day Saints believe the account of the golden plates as a matter of faith, while critics often assert that either Smith manufactured them himself or that the Book of Mormon witnesses based their testimony on visions rather than physical experience 

Origin and historicity
In the words of Mormon historian Richard Bushman, "For most modern readers, the plates are beyond belief, a phantasm, yet the Mormon sources accept them as fact " Smith said that he returned the plates to the angel Moroni after he finished translating them, and their authenticity cannot be determined by physical examination  They were reportedly shown to several close associates of Smith  Mormon scholars have formed collaborations such as Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies to provide apologetic answers to critical research about the golden plates and topics in the field of Mormon studies  The credibility of the plates has been a "troublesome item", according to Bushman The Book of Mormon itself portrays the golden plates as a historical record, engraved by two pre-Columbian prophet-historians from around the year AD 400: Mormon and his son Moroni  Mormon and Moroni, the book says, had abridged earlier historical records from other sets of metal plates  Their script, according to the book, was described as "reformed Egyptian", a language unknown to linguists or Egyptologists  Scholarly reference works on languages do not acknowledge the existence of either a "reformed Egyptian" language or "reformed Egyptian" script as it has been described in Mormon belief, and there is no archaeological, linguistic, or other evidence of the use of Egyptian writing in ancient America  Historically, Latter Day Saint movement denominations have taught that the Book of Mormon's description of the plates' origin is accurate, and that the Book of Mormon is a translation of the plates  The Community of Christ, however, accepts the Book of Mormon as scripture but no longer takes an official position on the historicity of the golden plates  Some adherents accept the Book of Mormon as inspired scripture but do not believe that it is a literal translation of a physical historical record, even in the more theologically conservative Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) Non-Mormons and some liberal Mormons have advanced naturalistic explanations for the story of the plates  For example, it has been theorized that the plates were fashioned by Smith or one of his associates, that Smith had the ability to convince others of their existence through illusions or hypnosis, or that witnesses were having ecstatic visions 

Story
The story of the golden plates consists of how, according to Joseph Smith and his contemporaries, the plates were found, received from the angel Moroni, translated, and returned to the angel before the publication of the Book of Mormon  Smith is the only source for a great deal of the story because much of it occurred while he was the only human witness  Nevertheless, Smith told the story to his family, friends, and acquaintances, and many of them provided second-hand accounts  Other parts of the story are derived from the statements of those who knew Smith, including several witnesses who said that they saw the golden plates 
The best-known elements of the golden plates story are found in an account told by Smith in 1838 and incorporated into the official church histories of some Latter Day Saint movement denominations  The LDS Church has canonized part of this 1838 account as part of its scripture, the Pearl of Great Price 

Background
During the Second Great Awakening, Joseph Smith lived on his parents' farm near Palmyra, New York  At the time, churches in the region contended so vigorously for souls that western New York later became known as the "burned-over district" because the fires of religious revivals had burned over it so often  Western New York was also noted for its participation in a "craze for treasure hunting"  Beginning as a youth in the early 1820s, Smith was periodically hired, for about $14 per month, as a scryer, using what were termed "seer stones" in attempts to locate lost items and buried treasure  Smith's contemporaries described his method for seeking treasure as putting the stone in a white stovepipe hat, putting his face over the hat to block the light, and then "seeing" the information in the reflections of the stone According to Richard Bushman, Smith did not consider himself to be a "peeper" or "glass-looker", a practice he is said to have called "nonsense", despite his use of seer stones  Rather, Smith and his family viewed their folk magical practices as spiritual gifts  Although Smith later rejected his youthful treasure-hunting activities as frivolous and immaterial, he never repudiated the stones themselves,  denied their presumed power to find treasure, or ever relinquish the magic culture in which he was raised  He came to view seeing with a stone in religious terms as the work of a "seer"  Smith's first stone, apparently the same one that he used at least part of the time to translate the golden plates, was chocolate-colored and about the size of a chicken egg, found in a deep well he helped dig for one of his neighbors  The LDS Church released photographs of the stone on August 4, 2015 

Finding the plates
According to Smith, he found the plates after he was directed to them by a heavenly messenger whom he later identified as the angel Moroni  According to the story, the angel first visited Smith's bedroom late at night, on September 22 in 1822 or 1823  Moroni told Smith that the plates could be found buried in a prominent hill near his home, later called Cumorah, a name found in the Book of Mormon  Before dawn, Moroni reappeared two more times and repeated the information 
However, the angel would not allow Smith to take the plates until he obeyed certain "commandments"  Smith recorded some of these commandments but made it clear the main thrust of Moroni's message was that he had to keep God's commandments in general  Some contemporaries who later claimed he told them the story said there were others, some of which are relevant to the modern debate about whether or how closely events of early Mormonism were related to the practice of contemporary folk magic  Smith's writings say that the angel required at least the following: (1) that he have no thought of using the plates for monetary gain, (2) that he tell his father about the vision, and (3) that he never show the plates to any unauthorized person  Smith's contemporaries who claimed to have heard the story, both sympathetic and unsympathetic, generally agreed that Smith mentioned the following additional commandments: (4) that Smith take the plates and leave the site in which they had been buried without looking back, and (5) that the plates never directly touch the ground until they were safe at home in a locked chest  Some unsympathetic listeners who allegedly heard the story from Smith or his father recalled that Smith had said the angel required him (6) to wear "black clothes" to the place where the plates were buried, (7) to ride a "black horse with a switchtail", (8) to call for the plates by a certain name, and (9) to "give thanks to God "

In the morning, Smith began work as usual and did not mention the visions to his father because, he said, he did not think his father would believe him  Smith said he then fainted because he had been awake all night, and while unconscious, the angel appeared a fourth time and chastised him for failing to tell the visions to his father  When Smith then told all to his father, he believed his son and encouraged him to obey the angel's commands  Smith then set off to visit the hill, later stating that he used his seer stone to locate the place that the plates were buried but that he "knew the place the instant that [he] arrived there "Smith said he saw a large stone covering a box made of stone (or possibly iron)  Using a stick to remove dirt from the edges of the stone cover and prying it up with a lever, Smith saw the plates inside the box, together with other artifacts 

Unsuccessful retrieval attempts
According to Smith's followers, Smith said he took the plates from the box, put them on the ground, and covered the box with the stone to protect the other treasures that it contained  Nevertheless, the accounts say that when Smith looked back at the ground after closing the box, the plates had once again disappeared into it  When Smith once again raised the stone and attempted to retrieve the plates, he said that he was stricken by a supernatural force that hurled him to the ground as many as three times Disconcerted by his inability to obtain the plates, Smith said he briefly wondered whether his experience had been a "dreem of Vision" [sic]  Concluding that it was not, he said he prayed to ask why he had been barred from taking the plates In response to his question, Smith said the angel appeared and told him he could not receive the plates because he "had been tempted of the advisary and saught the Plates to obtain riches and kept not the commandments that I should have an eye single to the Glory of God" [sic]  According to Smith's followers, Smith had also broken the angel's commandment "not to lay the plates down, or put them for a moment out of his hands," and according to a nonbeliever, Smith said, "I had forgotten to give thanks to God," as required by the angel Smith said the angel instructed him to return the next year, on September 22, 1824, with the "right person": his older brother Alvin  Alvin had died in November 1823, and Smith returned to the hill in 1824 to ask what he should do  Smith said he was told to return the following year (1825) with the "right person" but the angel did not tell Smith who that person might be  However, Smith determined after looking into his seer stone that the "right person" was Emma Hale, his future wife  For the visit on September 22, 1825, Smith may have attempted to bring his treasure-hunting associate Samuel T  Lawrence Smith said that he visited the hill "at the end of each year" for four years after the first visit in 1823, but there is no record of him being in the vicinity of Palmyra between January 1826 and January 1827, when he returned to New York from Pennsylvania with his new wife  In January 1827, Smith visited the hill and then told his parents that the angel had severely chastised him for not being "engaged enough in the work of the Lord," which may have meant that he had missed his annual visit to the hill in 1826 

Receiving the plates
The next annual visit on September 22, 1827, would be, Smith told associates, his last chance to receive the plates  According to Brigham Young, as the scheduled final date to obtain the plates approached, several Palmyra residents expressed concern "that they were going to lose that treasure" and sent for a skilled necromancer from 60 miles (96 km) away, encouraging him to make three separate trips to Palmyra to find the plates  During one of the trips, the unnamed necromancer is said to have discovered the location but was unable to determine the value of the plates  A few days prior to the September 22, 1827, visit to the hill, Smith's loyal treasure-hunting friends Josiah Stowell and Joseph Knight Sr  traveled to Palmyra, in part, to be there during Smith's scheduled visit to the hill Another of Smith's former treasure-hunting associates, Samuel T  Lawrence, was also apparently aware of the approaching date to obtain the plates, and Smith was concerned that he might cause trouble  Therefore, on the eve of September 22, 1827, the scheduled date for retrieving the plates, Smith dispatched his father to spy on Lawrence's house until dark  If Lawrence attempted to leave, the elder Smith was to tell him that his son would "thrash the stumps with him" if he found him at the hill  Late at night, Smith took a horse and carriage to the hill Cumorah with Emma  While Emma stayed behind kneeling in prayer, Smith walked to the site of the buried plates  Some time in the early morning hours, he said that he retrieved the plates and hid them in a hollow log on or near Cumorah  At the same time, Smith said he received a pair of large spectacles he called the Urim and Thummim or "Interpreters," with lenses consisting of two seer stones, which he showed his mother when he returned in the morning Over the next few days, Smith took a well-digging job in nearby Macedon to earn enough money to buy a solid lockable chest in which to put the plates  By then, however, some of Smith's treasure-seeking company had heard that Smith had said that he had been successful in obtaining the plates, and they wanted what they believed was their share of the profits from what they viewed as part of a joint venture in treasure hunting  Spying once again on the house of Samuel Lawrence, Smith Sr , determined that a group of ten to twelve of these men, including Lawrence and Willard Chase, had enlisted the talents of a renowned and supposedly talented seer from 60 miles (96 km) away, in an effort to locate where the plates were hidden by means of divination  When Emma heard of that, she rode a stray horse to Macedon and informed Smith, who reportedly determined through his Urim and Thummim that the plates were safe  He nevertheless hurriedly rode home with Emma Once home in Manchester, he said he walked to Cumorah, removed the plates from their hiding place, and walked home through the woods and away from the road with the plates wrapped in a linen frock under his arm  On the way, he said a man had sprung up from behind a log and struck him a "heavy blow with a gun     Knocking the man down with a single punch, Joseph ran as fast as he could for about a half mile before he was attacked by a second man trying to get the plates  After similarly overpowering the man, Joseph continued to run, but before he reached the house, a third man hit him with a gun  In striking the last man, Joseph said, he injured his thumb " He returned home with a dislocated thumb and other minor injuries  Smith sent his father, Joseph Knight, and Josiah Stowell to search for the pursuers, but they found no one Smith is said to have put the plates in a locked chest and hid them in his parents' home in Manchester  He refused to allow anyone, including his family, to view the plates or the other artifacts that he said he had in his possession, but some people were allowed to heft them or feel what were said to be the artifacts through a cloth  A few days after retrieving the plates, Smith brought home what he said was an ancient breastplate, which he said had been hidden in the box at Cumorah with the plates  After letting his mother feel through a thin cloth what she said was the breastplate, he placed it in the locked chest The Smith home was approached "nearly every night" by villagers hoping to find the chest, where Smith said the plates were kept  After hearing that a group of them would attempt to enter the house by force, Smith buried the chest under the hearth, and the family was able to scare away the intended intruders  Fearing the chest might still be discovered, Smith hid it under the floor boards of his parents' old log home nearby that was then being used as a cooper shop  Later, Smith told his mother he had taken the plates out of the chest, left the empty chest under the floor boards of the cooper shop, and hid the plates in a barrel of flax  Shortly thereafter the empty box was discovered and the place ransacked by Smith's former treasure-seeking associates, who had enlisted one of the men's sisters to find the hiding place by looking in her seer stone 

Translating the plates
Smith said that the plates were engraved in an unknown language, and he told associates that he was capable of reading and translating them  The translation took place mainly in Harmony, Pennsylvania (now Oakland Township), Emma's hometown, where Smith and his wife had moved in October 1827 with financial assistance from a prominent, though superstitious, Palmyra landowner Martin Harris  The translation occurred in two phases: the first, from December 1827 to June 1828, during which Smith transcribed some of the characters and then dictated 116 manuscript pages to Harris, which were lost  The second phase began sporadically in early 1829 and then in earnest in April 1829 with the arrival of Oliver Cowdery, a schoolteacher who volunteered to serve as Smith's full-time scribe  In June 1829, Smith and Cowdery moved to Fayette, New York, completing the translation early the following month 

Smith used scribes to write the words he said were a translation of the golden plates, dictating the words while peering into seer stones, which he said allowed him to see the translation  Smith's translation process evolved from his previous use of seer stones in treasure-seeking  During the earliest phase of translation, Smith said he used what he called Urim and Thummim, two stones set in a frame like a set of large spectacles  Witnesses said Smith placed the Urim and Thummim in his hat while he was translating After the loss of the first 116 manuscript pages, Smith translated with a single seer stone, which some sources say he had previously used in treasure-seeking  Smith placed the stone in a hat, buried his face in it to eliminate all outside light, and peered into the stone to see the words of the translation  A few times during the translation, a curtain or blanket was raised between Smith and his scribe or between the living area and the area where Smith and his scribe worked  Sometimes, Smith dictated to Harris from upstairs or from a different room Smith's translation did not require the use of the plates themselves  Though Smith himself said very little about the translation process, his friends and family said that as he looked into the stone, the written translation of the ancient script appeared to him in English  There are several proposed explanations for how Smith composed his translation



ground_truth: Charles County

Charles County, Maryland

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

Question: Who was the mother of the person who found the sacred writings that became the Book of Mormon?

The following are given passages.
Context 3:  In the 19th century, the most common explanation among anti-Mormons was that he copied the work from a manuscript written by Solomon Spaulding  That theory is repudiated by Smith's preeminent modern biographers  The most prominent modern theory among many ex-Mormons is that Smith composed the translation in response to the provincial opinions of his time, perhaps while in a magical trance-like state  As a matter of faith, Latter Day Saints generally view the translation process as either an automatic process of transcribing text written within the stone or an intuitive translation by Smith, assisted by a mystical connection with God, through the stone  Some Latter Day Saint apologists argue that because of the length of the Book of Mormon (roughly 270,000 words) and the timeframe in which the Book was dictated, it is unlikely that he wrote it or memorized the words from elsewhere  It is also argued that Smith was unfamiliar with the text, often pausing to attempt to pronounce names of people and places that were unfamiliar to him, and therefore it is unlikely that he had read the text before or written it previously Smith's dictations were written down by a number of assistants, including Emma Smith, Martin Harris, and Oliver Cowdery  In May 1829, after Smith had lent 116 unduplicated manuscript pages to Harris, and Harris had lost them, Smith dictated a revelation explaining that Smith could not simply retranslate the lost pages because his opponents would attempt to see if he could "bring forth the same words again " According to Grant Palmer, Smith believed "a second transcription would be identical to the first  This confirms the view that the English text existed in some kind of unalterable, spiritual form rather than that someone had to think through difficult conceptual issues and idioms, always resulting in variants in any translation "

Location of the plates during translation
When Smith and Emma moved to Pennsylvania in October 1827, they transported a wooden box, which Smith said contained the plates, hidden in a barrel of beans  For a time, the couple stayed in the home of Emma's father, Isaac Hale, but when Smith refused to show Hale the plates, Hale banished the concealed objects from his house  Afterward, Smith told several of his associates that the plates were hidden in the nearby woods  Emma said that she remembered the plates being on a table in the house, wrapped in a linen tablecloth, which she moved from time to time when it got in the way of her chores  According to Smith's mother, the plates were also stored in a trunk on Emma's bureau  However, Smith did not require the physical presence of the plates to translate them In April 1828, Martin Harris's wife, Lucy, visited Harmony with her husband and demanded to see the plates  When Smith refused to show them to her, she searched the house, grounds, and woods  According to Smith's mother, during the search Lucy was frightened by a large, black snake and so was prevented from digging up the plates  As a result of Martin Harris's loss of the 116 pages of manuscript, Smith said that between July and September 1828, the angel Moroni took back both the plates and the Urim and Thummim as a penalty for his having delivered "the manuscript into the hands of a wicked man " According to Smith's mother, the angel returned the objects to Smith on September 22, 1828, the anniversary of the day that he first received them In March 1829, Martin Harris visited Harmony and asked to see the plates  Smith told him that he "would go into the woods where the Book of Plates was, and that after he came back, Harris should follow his tracks in the snow, and find the Book, and examine it for himself " Harris followed the directions but could not find the plates In early June 1829, the unwanted attentions of locals around Harmony necessitated Smith's move to the home of David Whitmer and his parents in Fayette, New York  Smith said that during this move the plates were transported by the angel Moroni, who put them in the garden of the Whitmer house, where Smith could recover them  The translation was completed at the Whitmer home 

Returning the plates
After translation was complete, Smith said he returned the plates to the angel, but he did not elaborate about this experience  According to accounts by several early Mormons, a group of Mormon leaders, including Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and possibly others accompanied Smith and returned the plates to a cave inside the Hill Cumorah  There, Smith is said to have placed the plates on a table near "many wagon loads" of other ancient records, and the Sword of Laban hanging on the cave wall  According to Brigham Young's understanding, which he said that he had gained from Cowdery, on a later visit to the cave, the Sword of Laban was said to be unsheathed and placed over the plates and inscribed with the words: "This sword will never be sheathed again until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our God and his Christ "Smith taught that part of the golden plates were "sealed " The "sealed" portion is said to contain "a revelation from God, from the beginning of the world to the ending thereof " Many Latter Day Saints believe that the plates will be kept hidden until a future time, when the sealed part will be translated and, according to one early Mormon leader, transferred from the hill to one of the Mormon temples David Whitmer is quoted as stating that he saw just the untranslated portion of the plates sitting on the table with the sword (and also a breastplate)  Apparently, Whitmer was aware of expeditions at Cumorah to locate the sealed portion of the plates through "science and mineral rods," which, he said, "testify that they are there "

Descriptions of the plates
Smith said the angel Moroni had commanded him not to show the plates to any unauthorized person  However, Smith eventually obtained the written statement of several witnesses who saw the plates  It is unclear whether the witnesses believed they had seen the plates with their physical eyes or had seen them in a vision  For instance, although Martin Harris continued to testify to the truth of the Book of Mormon even when he was estranged from the church, at least during the early years of the movement, he "seems to have repeatedly admitted the internal, subjective nature of his visionary experience "According to some sources, Smith initially intended that the first authorized witness be his firstborn son; but this child was stillborn in 1828  In March 1829, Martin Harris came to Harmony to see the plates, but was unable to find them in the woods where Smith said they could be found  The next day, Smith dictated a revelation stating that Harris could eventually qualify himself to be one of three witnesses with the exclusive right to "view [the plates] as they are" By June 1829, Smith determined that there would be eight additional witnesses, a total of twelve including Smith  During the second half of June 1829, Smith took Harris, Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer (known collectively as the Three Witnesses) into woods in Fayette, New York, where they said they saw an angel holding the golden plates and turning the leaves  The four also said they heard "the voice of the Lord" telling them that the translation of the plates was correct, and commanding them to testify of what they saw and heard  A few days later, Smith took a different group of Eight Witnesses to a location near Smith's parents' home in Palmyra where they said Smith showed them the golden plates  Statements over the names of these men, apparently drafted by Smith, were published in 1830 as an appendix to the Book of Mormon  According to later statements ascribed to Martin Harris, he viewed the plates in a vision and not with his "natural eyes "In addition to Smith and the other eleven who claimed to be witnesses, a few other early Mormons said they saw the plates  For instance, Smith's mother Lucy Mack Smith said she had "seen and handled" the plates  Smith's wife Emma and his younger brother William and younger sister Katharine also said they had examined and lifted the plates while they were wrapped in fabric  Others said they had visions of the plates or had been shown the plates by an angel, in some cases years after Smith said he had returned the plates 

Described format, binding, and dimensions
The plates were said to be bound at one edge by a set of rings  In 1828, Martin Harris, is reported to have said that the plates were "fastened together in the shape of a book by wires"  In 1859 Harris said that the plates "were seven inches [18 cm] wide by eight inches [20 cm] in length, and were of the thickness of plates of tin; and when piled one above the other, they were altogether about four inches [10 cm] thick; and they were put together on the back by three silver rings, so that they would open like a book"  David Whitmer, another of the Three Witnesses, was quoted by an 1831 Palmyra newspaper as having said the plates were "the thickness of tin plate; the back was secured with three small rings     passing through each leaf in succession"  Anomalously, Smith's father is quoted as saying that the plates were only half an inch (1 27 centimeter) thick  Smith's mother, who said she had "seen and handled" the plates, is quoted as saying they were "eight inches [20 cm] long, and six [15 cm] wide     all connected by a ring which passes through a hole at the end of each plate" Hyrum Smith and John Whitmer, also witnesses in 1829, are reported to have stated that the rings holding the plates together were, in Hyrum's words, "in the shape of the letter D, which facilitated the opening and shutting of the book"  Smith's wife Emma and his younger brother William said they had examined the plates while wrapped in fabric  Emma said she "felt of the plates, as they thus lay on the table, tracing their outline and shape  They seemed to be pliable like thick paper, and would rustle with a metallic sound when the edges were moved by the thumb, as one does sometimes thumb the edges of a book"  William agreed that the plates could be rustled with one's thumb like the pages of a book Smith did not provide his own published description of the plates until 1842, when he said in a letter that "each plate was six inches [15 cm] wide and eight inches [20 cm] long, and not quite so thick as common tin  They were     bound together in a volume, as the leaves of a book, with three rings running through the whole  The volume was something near six inches [15 cm] in thickness" 

Described composition and weight
The plates were first described as "gold", and beginning about 1827, the plates were widely called the "gold bible"  When the Book of Mormon was published in 1830, the Eight Witnesses described the plates as having "the appearance of gold"  The Book of Mormon describes the plates as being made of "ore"  In a June 1830 court hearing, Josiah Stowell testified that he inadvertently caught a glimpse of a corner of the plates (making him "the only witness to see the plates 'by accident,'") and said it "resembled a stone of a greenish caste " In 1831, a Palmyra newspaper quoted David Whitmer, one of the Three Witnesses, as having said that the plates were a "whitish yellow color", with "three small rings of the same metal" Smith's first published description of the plates said that the plates "had the appearance of gold", and Smith said that Moroni had referred to the plates as "gold " Late in life, Martin Harris stated that the rings holding the plates together were made of silver, and he said the plates themselves, based on their heft of "forty or fifty pounds" (18–23 kg), "were lead or gold"  Joseph's brother William, who said he felt the plates inside a pillow case in 1827, said in 1884 that he understood the plates to be "a mixture of gold and copper     much heavier than stone, and very much heavier than wood" Different people estimated the weight of the plates differently  According to Smith's one-time-friend Willard Chase, Smith told him in 1827 that the plates weighed between 40 and 60 pounds (18–27 kg), most likely the latter  Smith's father Joseph Smith Sr , who was one of the Eight Witnesses, reportedly weighed them and said in 1830 that they "weighed thirty pounds" (14 kg)  Smith's brother William, who had lifted the plates, thought they "weighed about sixty pounds [27 kg] according to the best of my judgment"  Others who lifted the plates while they were wrapped in cloth or enclosed in a box thought that they weighed about 60 pounds [27 kg]  Martin Harris said that he had "hefted the plates many times, and should think they weighed forty or fifty pounds [18–23 kg]"  Smith's wife Emma never estimated the weight of the plates but said they were light enough for her to "move them from place to place on the table, as it was necessary in doing my work" From descriptions of the plates' dimensions, had the plates been made of 24-karat gold (which Smith never claimed), they would have weighed about 140 pounds (64 kg)  Based on the plates' lighter weight and Stowell's description of its corner's "greenish cast", one scholar has hypothesized Smith made the plates from copper, which weighs less than gold and rusts green  LDS writers have speculated the plates could also exhibit those qualities if it were made of a copper-gold alloy like Mesoamerican tumbaga 

"Sealed" portion
According to Smith and others, the golden plates contained a "sealed" portion containing "a revelation from God, from the beginning of the world to the ending thereof " Smith never described the nature of the seal, and the language of the Book of Mormon may be interpreted to describe a sealing that was spiritual, metaphorical, physical, or a combination of these elements 
The Book of Mormon refers to other documents and plates as being "sealed" to be revealed at some future time  For example, the Book of Mormon says the entire set of plates was "sealed up, and hid up unto the Lord" and that separate records of John the Apostle were "sealed up to come forth in their purity" in the end times  One set of plates to which the Book of Mormon refers was "sealed up" in the sense that they were written in a language that could not be read Smith may have understood the sealing to be a supernatural or spiritual sealing "by the power of God" (2 Nephi 27:10), an idea supported by a reference in the Book of Mormon to the "interpreters" with which Smith said they were buried or "sealed " Oliver Cowdery also stated that when Smith visited the hill, he was stricken by a supernatural force because the plates were "sealed by the prayer of faith "Several witnesses described a physical sealing placed on part of the plates by Mormon or Moroni  David Whitmer said that when an angel showed him the plates in 1829, "a large portion of the leaves were so securely bound together that it was impossible to separate them," that the "sealed" part of the plates were held together as a solid mass "stationary and immovable," "as solid to my view as wood," and that there were "perceptible marks where the plates appeared to be sealed" with leaves "so securely bound that it was impossible to separate them " In 1842, Lucy Mack Smith said that some of the plates were "sealed together" while others were "loose " The account of the Eight Witnesses says they saw the plates in 1829 and handled "as many of the leaves as Smith has translated," implying that they did not examine untranslated parts, such as the sealed portion  In one interview, David Whitmer said that "about half" the book was unsealed; in 1881, he said "about one-third" was unsealed  Whitmer's 1881 statement is consistent with an 1856 statement by Orson Pratt, an associate of Smith's who never saw the plates himself but who had spoken with witnesses, that "about two-thirds" of the plates were "sealed up" 

Engravings
The golden plates were said to contain engravings that the Book of Mormon describes as reformed Egyptian  Smith described the writing as "Egyptian characters     small, and beautifully engraved," exhibiting "much skill in the art of engraving "John Whitmer, one of the Eight Witnesses, said the plates had "fine engravings on both sides," and Orson Pratt, who did not see the plates himself but who had spoken with witnesses, understood that there were engravings on both sides of the plates, "stained with a black, hard stain, so as to make the letters more legible and easier to be read "

Significance in the Latter Day Saint tradition
The golden plates are significant within the Latter Day Saint movement because they are the reputed source for the Book of Mormon, which Smith called the "most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion " However, the golden plates are just one of many known and reputed metal plates with significance in the Latter Day Saint movement  The Book of Mormon itself refers to a long tradition of writing historical records on plates, of which the golden plates are a culmination (see List of plates (Latter Day Saint movement)) 
Some Latter Day Saints, especially those within the Community of Christ, have doubted the historicity of the golden plates and downplayed their significance  For most adherents of the Latter Day Saint faith, however, the physical existence and authenticity of the golden plates are essential elements of their faith  For them, the message of the Book of Mormon is inseparable from the story of its origins Hugh Nibley, a Latter-day Saint scholar popular among church members, said in 1957 that he believed even proof of the actual existence of the golden plates would not settle disputes about the Book of Mormon and the story of its origin 

Other plates
A few other sets of plates have arisen to prominence in various denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement 

Kinderhook plates hoax
In 1843, after reading a missionary tract written by Orson Pratt, three men in Kinderhook, Pike County, Illinois—Robert Wiley, Wilburn Fugate, and Bridge Whitton—decided to collaborate to counterfeit a set of metal plates and "startle the natives," as one of Fugate's sons recalled  The trio forged plates from copper, etched them with acid, and buried them in a mound, digging them up on April 23, 1843, in a pretended discovery  The Quincy Whig published a story on the discovery, and the Times and Seasons and Nauvoo Neighbor, a publication of the church and of the city respectively, reprinted the story  The Mormon community soon expressed much interest in the plates 
By May 1, the plates had been brought to Nauvoo and Smith, apparently believing they were authentic, attempted to translate them  Smith's private secretary William Clayton recorded that upon receiving the plates, Smith sent for his "Hebrew Bible & Lexicon", suggesting that rather than translate the plates by direct revelation, Smith attempted to translate the plates by more conventional means  That day, Clayton wrote in his journal:
I have seen 6 brass plates     covered with ancient characters of language containing from 30 to 40 on each side of the plates  Prest J  [Joseph Smith] has translated a portion and says they contain the history of the person with whom they were found and he was a descendant of Ham through the loins of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and that he received his kingdom from the ruler of heaven and earth 
Scholars examining the Kinderhook plates in retrospect have found that one character coincidentally resembles a character in Smith's Egyptian Alphabet Book, the alleged meaning of which matches Smith's attempted translation of the Kinderhook plates, further suggesting Smith tried to translate the plates as an amateur linguist Apostles John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff, editors of the Nauvoo Neighbor, anticipated Smith would translate the plates in their entirety and promised in a June 1843 article that "The contents of the plates, together with a Fac-simile of the same, will be published in the 'Times and Seasons,' as soon as the translation is completed " However, the plates were returned untranslated to Wiley and Fugate in Kinderhook  Smith did not express reservations about the plates to any of his compatriots, but whether or not he recognized the Kinderhook plates as fraudulent, "he did not swing into a full-fledged translation" as he had with his earlier encounter with Egyptian scrolls In 1886, a signed letter from Fugate was published in the book Joseph Smith the Prophet, His Family and His Friends: A Study Based on Facts and Documents, and in the letter Fugate revealed the hoax and the fabrication of the plates  Nevertheless, many members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (a denomination of Mormons who followed Brigham Young after Smith's death) refused to accept Fugate's confession and defended the Kinderhook plates as authentic and Smith's translation as legitimate until 1980, when Northwestern University materials science professor D  Lynn Johnson examined a plate still held by the Chicago Historical Society and conclusively proved it was a nineteenth-century creation 

Strangite plates
Two other sets of alleged plates, the Voree plates and the Book of the Law of the Lord, were translated by James Strang—one of three major contenders to succeed Smith—who went on to lead the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite)  The Voree plates were alleged to have been written by an ancient inhabitant of what is now Burlington, Wisconsin, while the Book of the Law of the Lord was alleged by Strang to be a translation of the Plates of Laban mentioned in the Book of Mormon  Neither of these alleged discoveries by Strang is accepted as authentic outside of the Strangite community 

Notes
Passage 12:
Jan van de Velde the Elder
Jan van de Velde the Elder (1568, Antwerp – 1623, Haarlem), was a Dutch calligrapher, writing teacher, and engraver  He was the father of the engraver Jan van de Velde 

Biography
According to the RKD he was possibly the pupil of Felix van Sambix  He married Mayken van Bracht from Turnhout, sister-in-law of the publisher Jan van Waesberghe, in 1592 in Rotterdam and opened a French school there  Their son, Jan van de Velde, became a painter  He published his calligraphy in the Spieghel der Schrijfkonste in 1605  In 1620 moved to Haarlem, where he was possibly the teacher of the Haarlem calligraphers Jean de la Chambre or Nicolaes Bodding van Laer 
Passage 13:
History of Joseph Smith by His Mother
History of Joseph Smith by His Mother is a biography of Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, according to his mother, Lucy Mack Smith   It was originally titled Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations and was published by Orson Pratt in Liverpool in 1853 

Background
Shortly following the death of Joseph Smith in 1844, and into 1845, Lucy Mack Smith dictated her recollections and family story to Nauvoo schoolteacher Martha Jane Coray  Coray worked with her husband to compile these books of notes and other sources into a manuscript, which was then copied 
One copy was given to apostle Brigham Young, and the other stayed with Lucy Smith in Nauvoo  Eventually, apostle Orson Pratt obtained Lucy's copy and published it in 1853, to great controversy 

Brigham Young's opposition
After its publication, Brigham Young declared the book to be a "tissue of lies" and wanted corrections made  In the Millennial Star in 1855, he said,

There are many mistakes in the work     I have had a written copy of those sketches in my possession for several years, and it contains much of the history of the Prophet Joseph  Should it ever be deemed best to publish these sketches, it will not be done until after they are carefully corrected 
In 1865, Young ordered the church members to have their copies destroyed  There was no "corrected" version until the church published a 1901 serialization and 1902 book, which were done under the direction of Joseph F  Smith, Lucy's grandson Later historians theorized that Young opposed the book because of his own conflicts with its publisher, Orson Pratt, as well as the book's favorable references to William Smith, Young's opponent and Lucy's son  Lucy Mack Smith portrayed the Smith family as the legitimate leaders of the church, which Young may also have seen as a challenge to his leadership 

Importance
LDS historian Leonard Arrington saw the book as "informative, basically accurate, and extremely revealing of Joseph Smith's early life and family background," and felt it "perhaps tells more about Mormon origins than any other single source   Richard L  Anderson called it one of "the essential sources for Mormon origins "  Non-Mormon historian Jan Shipps identifies this history as being "of central importance in the Mormon historical corpus "

Editions
The book has been republished several times, under various publishers, editors and titles   The following is a list of editions with significant changes to the text or title 

Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations, by Lucy Smith, Mother of the Prophet  Liverpool: S W  Richards for Orson Pratt  1853 
Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet and His Progenitors for Many Generations  Plano, Illinois: Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints  1880 
Smith, George A ; Smith, Elias, eds  (1902)  History of the Prophet Joseph, by His Mother, Lucy Smith, as Revised by George A  Smith and Elias Smith  Salt Lake City, Utah: Improvement Era  
Nibley, Preston, ed  (1945)  History of Joseph Smith, By His Mother, Lucy Mack Smith  Salt Lake City, Utah: Stevens & Wallis 
Nibley, Preston, ed  (1956)  History of Joseph Smith, By His Mother, Lucy Mack Smith  Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft 
Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet  New York: Arno Press  1969 
Tanner, Jerald and Sandra (1978)  Joseph Smith's History By His Mother: The Book Brigham Young Tried to Destroy  Salt Lake City, Utah: Modern Microfilm Co 
Proctor, Scot Facer; Proctor, Maurine Jensen, eds  (1996)  The Revised and Enhanced History of Joseph Smith By His Mother  Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft  ISBN 1-57008-267-7  
Anderson, Lavina Fielding, ed  (2001)  Lucy's Book: A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith's Family Memoir  Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books  ISBN 1-56085-137-6 
Ingleton, R  Vernon, ed  (2005)  History of Joseph Smith by His Mother, Lucy Mack Smith; the Unabridged Original Version  Provo, Utah: Stratford Books  ISBN 0-929753-05-4 

Notes



ground_truth: Lucy Mack Smith