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

Question: What city was the author of What We Talk About When We Talk About love born in?

The following are given passages.
Context 1: Passage 1:
Neal Asbury
Neal Asbury (born May 2, 1957) is Chief Executive of The Legacy Companies  An advocate of entrepreneurship and free enterprise,  he hosts the nationally syndicated talk radio show Neal Asbury's Truth for America (now Neal Asbury's Made in America) 

Early life
Neal Asbury attended Jefferson Township High School in Jefferson Township, New Jersey  After graduation he enrolled in Rowan University in New Jersey graduating in 1979 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in music 

Career
After graduating from Rowan University Neal began working in the mail room of a Fifth Avenue as a food service exporter  A year later, Asbury moved on to Manila, working as a director of sales for a large trading company and traveling to capitals in the Far East  Seven years later, he founded Asbury Worldwide  By 1987, the firm had grown to include twelve distribution facilities around the globe   In 1989, he started began FAB Asia, Inc  in Manila, Philippines, an  Asian fabricator of commercial kitchens for McDonald's as well as other American restaurant chains 
After selling his group of companies in July 1999, Asbury established Greenfield World Trade, a global trading company selling and servicing American manufactured products in over 130 countries to both  retail and commercial markets  He acquired J  Cobo (a distribution company with operations throughout Latin America), General (a manufacturer of food preparation equipment), Zeroll (a manufacturer of kitchen gadgets), and Omega (a manufacturer of electrical kitchen appliances) 

Awards and distinctions
Asbury has received the E-Star Export Award and the Export Achievement Award from the U S  Department of Commerce  Asbury's company was recognized as National Champion Exporter of The Year(2008) after they were first recognized in February as Exporter of the Year for Florida, which was preceded by being selected as the Region IV Exporter of the Year, covering the Southeast United States   Greenfield World Trade's Neal Asbury Named SBA's National Champion Exporter of the Year 

Radio show and blog
Each week Asbury hosts a talk radio show, Neal Asbury's Made In America, (formerly Truth For America), produced by Atlantic Radio Network   It is broadcast around the US by Radio America and deals with topics related to America's entrepreneurial spirit and the American Dream Asbury also writes the Conscientious Equity blog, which focuses on his interest for small business, entrepreneurship and the benefits of expanding the U S  role in global commerce  Topics discussed on the blog range from the health care crisis to job creation and international trade  Asbury's blog entries have been syndicated online, appearing on Moneynews com 

Personal life
On December 29 in 1984 Neal married Elizabeth Trixia Gomez Carpio, an actress from the Philippines  They have two daughters 
Passage 2:
Steve Somers
Steve Somers (born April 17, 1947), nicknamed the Schmoozer, is an American talk radio host best known for his work on the New York City sports radio station WFAN (660 AM)  He has been with the station since its inception in 1987 

Personal life
Somers is a native of San Francisco, California, and became a fan of the San Francisco Giants upon the team's arrival to the city in 1958  He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1969  He currently resides in Manhattan  
His nickname is  "The Schmoozer " He roots for the New York Mets (or Metropolitans as he refers to them), the New York Knicks (or Knickerbockers) the New York Rangers and New York Jets (sometimes he even calls them the Jetropolitans) 

Career
Somers began his career in the Bay Area  Before graduating high school, he worked at KYA radio in San Francisco delivering on air high school sports reports   After college, Somers began hosting a news talk show on KNEW radio in Oakland  To that effect, Time Magazine ran a story naming him the youngest talk show host in the country at that period of time  Somers also worked a public address announcer for the NBA's San Francisco Warriors 
In 1970, Somers joined KPIX in San Francisco  as a weekend sports anchor and won a San Francisco Press Club Award  Over the next decade and a half he held other television sportscasting positions at KOVR in Sacramento, WXIA-TV in Atlanta and KNBC in Los Angeles  While in Los Angeles, he also launched a sports talk program at KMPC radio 
Somers joined WFAN at the station's inception in July 1987  He spent his first few years with the station as the overnight host  While he was on the overnight program he dubbed himself "Captain Midnight"  During this time he conducted one of the last ever interviews with Mark Koenig, who was the last living member of the 1927 New York Yankees  He later spent a few years co-hosting the 10am-1pm slot with WWOR-TV sports anchor Russ Salzberg  The program was titled "The Sweater and the Schmoozer " At that time, Somers developed some of the quirks that have been hallmarks of his WFAN tenure, dropping catchphrases such as "schmoooooozing S-P-O-R-T-S" (spelling out the word "sports"), giving time checks in minutes and seconds, uniquely reading the end of the station's phone number as "six-six-six-six" rather than the standard "sixty six-sixty six", joking at the expense of engineer Eddie Scozzare ("THE Eddie Scozzare?" "No, Eddie Maple, who do you think we're talking?"), and reading the catalogue numbers of live commercials ("LV-242, for those of you scoring at home, and I know you are   ") 
He is also known to refer to the New York Mets, by their official name "The New York Metropolitans" drawing out the parts as Metro-Politans, and referring to the Islanders as the Ice-landers 
Currently, Somers usually works during the evening on weekdays  His program can be heard anywhere from 6:30pm to 2am, depending on whether WFAN airs a sporting event that night  He is also sometimes heard on weekends  He is colloquially known as "The Schmoozer " Somers has said of the infrequent scheduling, "Sometimes, just sometimes, I forget what time zone I live in "
In October 2021, Somers stated that WFAN's owner Audacy had requested to move his show back into the overnight hours, a request Somers declined as he was no longer willing to work a graveyard slot  He stated that, because of the request, he was planning on retiring from his regular shift at WFAN "sooner rather than later," with the intention of remaining at WFAN on a reduced schedule as a fill-in host if Audacy allows 

Film
Somers appeared in the 1979 film The Visitor 
Passage 3:
Andy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes
Andy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes is an American talk show hosted by artist Andy Warhol, that aired on MTV from 1985 to 1987  One of the network's earliest series, it featured interviews with up-and-coming musicians such as Courtney Love  Other such talk show guests include Debbie Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie, Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran, Ric Ocasek of the Cars, the Ramones, Grace Jones, Yoko Ono, Judd Nelson, Kevin Dillon, John C  McGinley, and William S  Burroughs 

See also
15 minutes of fame
Passage 4:
Treat Her Like a Lady (Diana King song)
"Treat Her Like a Lady" is a song by Jamaican-American singer Diana King from the 1995 album, Tougher Than Love  It was written by King, Andy Marvel and Billy Mann, and produced by Marvel  In 1997, it was covered by Canadian singer Celine Dion for her album, Let's Talk About Love 

Celine Dion version
Canadian singer Celine Dion recorded a cover version of "Treat Her Like a Lady" for her 1997 album, Let's Talk About Love  It was produced by Ric Wake  Dion changed some lyrics, gaining a co-writing credit  Diana King and Brownstone recorded guest vocals for the track  "Treat Her Like a Lady" was released as the final single in Europe between March and June 1999, to coincide with the Let's Talk About Love World Tour  It peaked inside top 40 in the United Kingdom, Scotland, Ireland, Austria and Iceland 

Critical reception
Entertainment Weekly editor David Browne called Dion's cover an "overarranged stab at reggae dancehall" and "unintentionally amusing"  The New York Observer editor Jonathan Bernstein wrote, "She's fallen on her face before when attempting to be as one with the rhythm, but Celine Dion has never humiliated herself as comprehensively as she does when mashing it up in a dance-hall style on "Treat Her Like a Lady"  As Seinfeld' s George Costanza remarked in a similar situation, "Sweet fancy Moses!"" Steven Wells from NME commented, "Celine raps hardcore radical feminism! Yes she does! She says that we've got to treat women like "ladies"  Otherwise they might go "crazy"  This is possibly the most profound statement on the subject of women's oppression since Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch" 

Commercial performance
After the success of "My Heart Will Go On", radio stations in Quebec started playing "Treat Her Like a Lady" in May 1998  Because of that, it entered the airplay chart on 30 May 1998 and peaked at number nine  The commercial single was released in selected European countries between March and June 1999, to coincide with the Let's Talk About Love World Tour  It was issued almost a year after the previous single from Let's Talk About Love, "Immortality" 
In April 1999, "Treat Her Like a Lady" entered the charts in Austria and Germany, peaking at numbers 16 and 64, respectively  In May 1999, it debuted on the charts in the Netherlands and Belgium, reaching numbers 62 in the Netherlands, 70 in Wallonia and 78 in Flanders  In July 1999, "Treat Her Like a Lady" entered the charts in few other countries, peaking at numbers 29 in the United Kingdom, 33 in Scotland, 40 in Ireland, 54 in Sweden, and as a result number 91 on the European Hot 100 Singles  The song also reached numbers 13 in Iceland and 38 on the airplay chart in Spain 

Music video
The live music video was recorded on 18 December 1998, during the Let's Talk About Love World Tour in Montreal, Canada  It was directed by Gérard Pullicino  The video was included on the UK enhanced CD single in June 1999  In November 2022, it was uploaded into Dion's official YouTube channel 

Track listing and formats
Charts
Release history
Passage 5:
Roamin' Holiday
Roamin' Holiday is a 1937 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gordon Douglas  It was the 155th Our Gang short released (156th episode, 67th talking short, and 68th talking episode) 

Plot
Upset at being forced to do the household chores all weekend long (and the threat of taking dancing lessons), Spanky, Alfalfa, Buckwheat, and Porky decide to run away from home  Taking a breather in the tiny village of Jenksville, the boys manage to cadge a meal from kindly storekeeper Mrs  Jenks  But when she finds out that the kids are runaways, she passes this information along to her husband, Constable Hi Jenks, who jovially decides to teach the boys a lesson  Pretending to arrest the four youngsters, Constable Jenks dresses them in convict stripes and forces them to work on the rock pile, figuring that after an hour or so they will be glad to return home  But an unanticipated swarm of bees brings this little morality play to a sudden and painful conclusion for the four roamin' rascals 

Cast
The Gang
Eugene Lee as Porky
George McFarland as Spanky
Carl Switzer as Alfalfa
Billie Thomas as Buckwheat
Darla Hood as Darla
Pete the Pup as himself

Additional cast
Joe White as One of Alfalfa's twin brothers
Tom White as One of Alfalfa's twin brothers
Otis Harlan as Hiram Jenks
May Wallace as 'Ma' Jenks

See also
Our Gang filmography
Passage 6:
Bangkok Love Story
Bangkok Love Story (Thai: เพื่อน   กูรักมึงว่ะ; RTGS: Phuean   Ku Rak Mueng Wa; literally "Friend     I love you") is a 2007 Thai film written and directed by Poj Arnon  A gay romantic crime action drama, it is the story of a man who falls in love with a gunman assigned to kill him 

Plot
A loner gunman named Maek is assigned to kidnap a police informant named Iht, but Maek has a change of heart when he takes Iht to the 'hit house'  Maek is ordered to kill Iht, but because he only kills scum and has discovered that Iht isn't bad, he refuses, turning the gun on the enforcers who had hired him to murder Iht  A gun battle ensues during which Maek is wounded, but Iht grabs Maek's gun and shoots their way out of the mobsters' headquarters  The two men then escape on Maek's motorcycle  Maek tells Iht to leave at gun point but he won't and takes Maek back to his rooftop hide-out  There, over a period of time, Iht tends to Maek's wound and finds himself attracted to him 
In fact, Maek is also attracted to Iht, but keeps it hidden, while Iht cares for his former would-be killer with great tenderness 
While giving Maek a bath one day, Iht kisses him on the mouth   Maek reciprocates and the two men engage in a passionate sexual experience  The next day, however, a conflicted Maek demands that Iht go away and leave him alone  Iht returns home to his fiancée, Sai, but is no longer interested in continuing a relationship with her  Iht spends his days pining over Maek, and tracks down Maek's brother, Mhok, and their mother  Mhok is HIV positive, as the result of sexual abuse by his and Maek's stepfather, and their mother is dying of AIDS 
Maek remains elusive, hiding from Iht when he visits the hideout, but leaving signs that he's there so Iht will return 
Though Maek avoids making contact with Iht, eventually he goes to visit his mother and brother, and Iht corners him at the entrance to the building, declaring his love for Maek and stressing how much he misses him   They kiss passionately  They are unfortunately covertly observed by Sai, Iht's live-in fiancée 
Maek's dream is to take his mother and brother away from Bangkok to the mountains of Mae Hong Son Province  But after Maek's mother overhears that Mhok has prostituted himself to survive after contracting AIDS from his stepfather, she commits suicide by hanging herself  The brothers take her down, and as they are rushing her from the apartment, she is killed by a gunshot fired by an unseen sniper  The bullet is presumably intended for Maek 
Maek's former mobster employers are gunning for him and Iht  Maek decides to hunt them down first, and he succeeds in killing them  After Mohk informs Iht what Maek is doing, Iht goes to the capo's house to try to stop Maek, but he is too late and misses Maek by a second  Iht is injured when the capo's wife shoots at a clock that shatters in Iht's face 
Maek, meanwhile meets his brother at the railway station to leave Bangkok for good  But before he can board the train, he is apprehended by the police and taken away  Mhok breaks down  He's the sole witness to his brother being apprehended 
Years pass by  Iht visits Maek in prison and reveals that he was left blind in the final gunbattle with Maek's ex-boss  Mhok commits suicide while at a Hospice of Watphrabahtnamphu in Lopburi because he no longer has the energy to fight his disease  Eventually, Maek is released from prison, and Iht meets him  But before the two men can leave to start their life together, Maek is shot dead by a single bullet fired by an unseen assassin  A bewildered, blind Iht collapses over his lover's corpse, swearing his love for him again and again 
Iht eventually regains his sight, and is finally able to view on his mobile phone a video recorded by Maek himself many years before, admitting that all along, he had loved Iht and that he would love him to his last breath 

Cast
Rattanaballang Tohssawat as Maek (Cloud)
Chaiwat Thongsaeng as Iht (Stone)
Weeradit Srimalai as Mhok (Fog)
Chatcha Rujinanon as Sai (Sand)
Suchao Pongwilai
Chonprakhan Janthareuang
Uthumporn Silaphan
Rachanu Boonchuduang

Production
When Bangkok Love Story was in pre-production in 2006, the Royal Thai Police raised objections to the script, which originally depicted a policeman (Iht) falling in love with the assassin Maek  The character Iht's exact connection to the police department was then made ambiguous so that the film would be passed by the Board of Censors, which includes members of the Royal Thai Police Both lead actors, Chaiwat Thongsang (Iht) and Ratanabanrang Tosawat (Maek), are heterosexual, according to a profile of the two actors in BK Magazine  Chaiwat said he took the role because he wanted the "challenge" and to "become famous"  Ratanabanrang simply stated playing a gay man "is an honor" Chaiwat said he had hoped camera angles could be used so he could avoid having to kiss his co-star, but director Poj Arnon insisted the kisses must be real  "It was totally disgusting at first, but we kind of got used to it after a while", Chaiwat said  Ratanabanrang said he had to imagine he was kissing his girlfriend  "Actually, we acted so well, that my girlfriend got paranoid" Both actors acknowledged that the film would be compared to Brokeback Mountain, but Ratanabanrang noted that Poj Arnon had the idea for Bangkok Love Story long before Brokeback had been adapted into a film 

Release and reception
Bangkok Love Story was released in Thailand cinemas on August 13, 2007  The film proved popular, with the Bangkok Post stating it was "the movie everybody has been talking about"  The film earned US$325,000 in its Thailand theatrical run Critical reception was mixed  The weekly BK Magazine stated that the film suffered from being overly melodramatic, but praised the cinematography by Tiwa Moeithaisong, which "turns Bangkok into a character in its own right "Reviews from the Bangkok English-language daily The Nation were characterised as "dismissive" 
LGBT-related website Fridae praised Bangkok Love Story as "the boldest Thai gay movie to date " It additionally praised the film for being a departure from the Thai LGBT genre, which generally features coarsely stereotyped kathoey transvestite caricatures Gay Thai independent film producer Vitaya Saeng-aroon similarly praised the film, saying director Poj Arnon was "brave enough to shake society up" Bangkok Love Story was screened at the 34th Brussels International Independent Film Festival, where it won the top prize, the Grand Award in all Categories  It was also the Opening Night selection for the 2007 Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, and played at the 2008 London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival 
TLA Releasing acquired theatrical, home video, television and video on demand rights for North America and the United Kingdom  The company plans to release the film in those territories in summer 2008 

Soundtrack
The film also produced a popular theme song "Yahk-Roo   Tae-Mai-Yahk-Taam" (in Thai: "อยากรู้   แต่ไม่อยากถาม meaning "I want to know, but I don't want to ask") by Calories Blah Blah (in Thai: แคลอรี่ส์ บลาห์ บลาห์) 
Passage 7:
Glove Taps
Glove Taps is a 1937 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gordon Douglas  It was the 151st Our Gang short (152nd episode, 63rd talking short, and 64th talking episode) that was released 

Plot
Butch explains that he clobbers every kid in school to prove that he is in charge  By a fluke, weak-kneed Alfalfa is chosen to face Butch in the barnyard boxing ring—and he has only one day to train for the big bout 
Spanky volunteers to be Alfalfa's trainer, which consists mostly of Alfalfa pulling him around in a little red wagon 
Porky and Buckwheat have had "this will not end well" expressions on their faces the whole time  They take matters into their own hands once the bout starts; knocking Butch out from behind a curtain and allowing Alfalfa to take the credit 

Notes
After appearing as a peripheral player in several earlier Our Gang shorts, Tommy Bond made a spectacular return to the series in Glove Taps  Here and in all future appearances, Bond is cast as neighborhood bully Butch, the bane of the existence of Spanky McFarland, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer and the rest of the Gang 
Another Our Ganger debuts as Glove Taps Marks the first appearance of Darwood Kaye 
The background music in this one-reel comedy came from Marvin Hatley's Oscar-nominated score for the Laurel and Hardy feature Way Out West 

Cast
The Gang
Eugene Lee as Porky
George McFarland as Spanky
Carl Switzer as Alfalfa
Billie Thomas as Buckwheat

Additional cast
Tommy Bond as Butch
Sidney Kibrick as Woim
Darla Hood as Darla
Darwood Kaye as Waldo

Extra kids
Hugh Chapman, John Collum, Rex Downing, Larry Harris, Joe Levine, Jackie Lindquist, Donald Proffitt, Hugh Sheridan, Harold Switzer, Jerry Tucker, Bobs Watson, Robert Winkler

See also
Our Gang filmography
Passage 8:
Full House (season 2)
The second season of the family sitcom Full House originally aired on ABC between October 14, 1988 and May 5, 1989  From this season onward, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are credited in the opening credits 

Plot
In season two, Danny is fired from his job as a sportscaster and instead is promoted to a higher position as the host of a morning talk show titled Wake Up San Francisco, earning him a co-host named Rebecca Donaldson (Lori Loughlin) and Jesse's potential love interest  Meanwhile, Jesse and Joey become best friends (much to Danny's jealousy) and start doing advertising jingles together  D  J  begins sixth grade and Stephanie enters first grade 

Main cast
John Stamos as Jesse Katsopolis
Bob Saget as Danny Tanner
Dave Coulier as Joey Gladstone
Candace Cameron as D  J  Tanner
Jodie Sweetin as Stephanie Tanner
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen as Michelle Tanner

Episodes
See also
List of Full House episodes
Passage 9:
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is a 1981 collection of short stories by American writer Raymond Carver, as well as the title of one of the stories in the collection  Considered by many one of American literature's most ambitious short-story collections, it was this collection that turned Raymond Carver into a household name in the publishing industry 

Content
"Why Don't You Dance?"
In 1977, Carver submitted a story with this title to Esquire, which Gordon Lish subsequently edited and retitled "I Am Going to Sit Down", but no version ever appeared in Esquire  The story was first published in Quarterly West in Autumn 1978 and later in The Paris Review in Spring 1981  The Quarterly West version incorporated many of Lish's suggested changes, while the final version was 9% shorter  It tells the story of a drinking man overseeing his yard sale  The reader gets the feeling that he may be selling all his possessions, looking to start life anew  A young couple stops by to select furniture for their new apartment  They haggle a little over prices and buy a TV and a bed  The drinking man tells the young woman to put a record on  When the music begins the man asks the couple to dance  Uncomfortably, they comply  Then the drinking man dances with the girl, and she says to him: "You must be desperate or something " Several weeks later, the woman is telling her friends about the man at his yard sale  She mocks the record player and records he gave them, saying: "Will you look at this shit?" The story ends with her trying to make sense of the man's situation before quitting her wondering altogether 
The story was adapted in the 2010 film Everything Must Go starring Will Ferrell and written and directed by Dan Rush 

"Viewfinder"
A hook-handed man takes a photograph of the narrator's house from the street, then sells it to him  The narrator asks the photographer in for coffee  The manuscript version of the same title appears in Beginners (2009) 

"Mr  Coffee and Mr  Fixit"
A man reflects "about three years back" on his struggle to come to grips with a couple of troublesome relationships  He was surprised to see his elderly single mother kissing a man on the sofa upstairs  He says his kids were crazy and so was his wife, Myrna, who eventually fell for another man named Ross whom she met at Alcoholics Anonymous  He remembers how his father died and suggests to Myrna that they "hug awhile" and have a "real nice supper," and she responds somewhat lukewarmly  The manuscript version titled "Where Is Everyone?" appears in Beginners (2009) 

"Gazebo"
Set in a roomy upstairs suite, motel managers Holly & Duane discuss the disintegration of their marriage  Duane has been having an affair with a cleaning lady, Juanita  Duane tries to convince Holly that their love can be rekindled and reconciled but Holly does not agree  Duane is left hopelessly bemoaning the future he had envisioned with Holly  The manuscript version of the same title appears in Beginners (2009) 

"I Could See the Smallest Things"
Nancy wakes up in the middle of the night because of a noise outside  She realizes it's the open gate, and hesitantly she goes to the kitchen to smoke for a while before going out to investigate, leaving her alcoholic husband Cliff "passed out" and snoring loudly in bed  At the fence, Nancy meets her neighbor Sam, a widower, who is spreading insecticide to kill slugs which are ruining his garden  Nancy & Sam talk and it becomes clear Sam and Cliff, once good friends, have had a falling-out  Lonely and wishing to patch up their relationship, Sam asks Nancy to tell Cliff he said hello  Nancy says she will and goes back to bed, realizing she forgot to latch the gate shut  The manuscript version titled "Want to See Something?" appears in Beginners (2009) 

"Sacks"
Les, a textbook salesman, reflects back a year ago on an incident where he met up with his father in a Sacramento airport  It's been two years since his father's divorce from his mother  While the wife was away, the father had been having an extramarital affair with a Stanley Products saleswoman  The father asks Les if everything is okay, and Les lies, saying everything is fine  A fissure seems to grow between the father and son during the uncomfortable, transient, confusing meeting  Fairly sure that his father will play a negligent to nonexistent role in his future, Les boards his flight  The manuscript version titled "The Fling" appears in Beginners (2009) 

"The Bath"
On his birthday, young Scotty is walking to school when he is hit by a car and knocked unconscious  "The Bath" is a predecessor of "A Small, Good Thing," one of Carver's most famous stories, which was published in Cathedral  It is much shorter than "A Small, Good Thing" and ends on an ambiguous note as Scotty's mother goes home from the hospital to take a bath, which is where this version of the story gets its name 

"Tell the Women We're Going"
Two close childhood friends, identified by the author as Bill Jamison & Jerry Roberts, are out of school and have married  After Jerry married, Bill sensed a change in his friend, something that he'd never once shown  One afternoon, the two men leave both their wives and Jerry's kids to go out for a drive, for old-time's sake  They play pool and drink beer at the Rec Center, while reminiscing about the olden days  On their way out, they see two women biking down the road  Jerry proposes turning back and chatting them up, juvenile and excited  They pull up to the women and Bill introduces himself and Jerry, but the girls, named Barbara and Shannon, seem completely uninterested  They drive ahead and wait for the women to pass  The women, when they arrive, drop their bikes and cut down a path away from the men, which doesn't really bother Bill but does angers Jerry, who devises a plan to cut them off  The story ends in a surprise twist, with Jerry bashing Shannon and Barbara over their heads with a rock, ostensibly killing them both and proving Jerry's deep unhappiness with life  The manuscript version of the same title appears in Beginners (2009) 

"After the Denim"
James and Edith Packer, an elderly couple, go out for the night to play bingo at the local community center  While there, James is perturbed by a young hippy-like couple dressed in denim who go on to ruin his fun and evening: they take the Packers' parking spot; James sees the young man cheating and confronts him but the man denies the allegation  Later, when the young girl gets bingo, everybody but James claps  James is certain the couple will use the victory money on drugs  That night as the Packers are getting ready for bed, Edith reveals to James that she's been "bleeding" and "spotting," and she'll require medical attention  Restless and upset over his wife's sickness, James wonders why it isn't the young couple who has all the problems  The manuscript version titled "If It Please You" appears in Beginners (2009) 

"So Much Water So Close to Home"
As she was having breakfast, Claire, is shocked to learn that her husband, Stuart, and his three buddies, found the body of a girl washed up on the rivershore upon arriving in the afternoon for their yearly camping trip, as reported by the morning newspaper that day  Instead of reporting the body to the police immediately, the four rather enjoy their vacation, spending some time fishing, getting to eating, and drinking whisky as they sit by the fire, all the while the body of the dead girl lays there  As the quartet packs up the next morning, Stuart uses a payphone to alert the police about the corpse found by the riverbed  Claire feels deeply distanced from her husband, who she thought she knew, and cannot stop wondering about the dead girl, to whom she feels oddly connected  Inevitably, she starts believing Stuart and his friends could be behind the girl's murder  Claire wonders why they didn't go fishing locally, why didn't they report the body quickly, as she'd have  Later, after the body is identified and Stuart is at work, Claire reads the funeral plans in the newspaper and decides to attend  On her way to the funeral, a man in a pickup truck pulls her over and asks to talk to her, wants to make sure she's safe  Claustrophobic and frightened, Claire clicks her car locks shut and says she's fine  After the funeral Claire overhears a woman saying they caught the killer, but Claire is not so certain they have the right man  The story ends with Stuart making a sexual advance on Claire in the kitchen  As he reaches for her breasts, she hears water running in the sink and is reminded of the girl floating in the river  The manuscript version of the same title appears in Beginners (2009) 

"The Third Thing That Killed My Father Off"
The character of Jack Fraser, in classical Carver style, tells the story of a local outsider named Dummy who worked in the same sawmill as Jack's father Del  Del gets Dummy to fill a pond on his land with bass, but Dummy eventually builds an electric fence around it so people stop coming by  Dummy drifts further into isolation and his wife starts going around with another man, much to his discontent  The story ends with Dummy murdering his wife and committing suicide by drowning in his beloved pond  Del impresses upon Jack what a wrong woman can turn a man into  Later, Jack understands Dummy's plight more clearly  The manuscript version titled "Dummy" appears in Beginners (2009) 

"A Serious Talk"
Burt finds himself incapable of leaving his wife Vera alone  On Boxing Day, Burt comes back to his wife's house to try and explain away his poor behavior from the night before  On Christmas Day, Burt put too many logs in the fire which could've burned the place down, reckless as he always was  On his way out to make room for Vera's boyfriend Charlie, Burt finds it appropriate to steal six pies from the kitchen counter left unattended  On the 26th, Vera does not want to talk to Burt; she doesn't have the time, it's obvious she has plans already  Burt tries again and again to apologize but Vera does not think it's sincere  Burt notices cigarette butts that are not Vera's regular brand collected in the ashtray, "their ashtray," and feels out of place  While Vera is the bathroom the phone rings and she shouts at Burt to answer it  It's a call for Charlie and Burt responds curtly, saying he's "not here" before leaving the phone off the hook  Vera comes back into the kitchen, and it's clear she cannot tolerate Burt sticking around  The phone rings again and Vera says she'll answer it from the bedroom  Instead of hanging up when Vera commands, Burt takes a knife from the cabinet and cuts the cord in two  Vera realizes what's happened and yells for Burt to leave, saying she'll get a restraining order  Burt leaves calmly and, as he drives away in his car holding their ashtray, he is deludedly convinced that in a few weeks they'll have a "serious talk" and get back together  The manuscript version titled "Pie" appears in Beginners (2009) 

"The Calm"
A man sitting in a barber's chair getting a haircut listens as three men waiting their turn argue about a hunting story one of the men is telling  The manuscript version of the same title appears in Beginners (2004) 

"Little Things" (aka “Popular Mechanics”)
The protagonist is seen first packing a suitcase, all the while a woman swears at him and yells loudly, glad that he's finally leaving her  Their baby won't stop crying  The protagonist decides he wants to bring the baby with him but the woman won't let him even get near their baby  The two get into a tussle and a tug-of-war over the baby  The story ends with the man and the woman pulling tremendously on the baby, with somewhat ambiguously grim and dark possibilities  Titled "Little Things" in Where I'm Calling From (1988); the manuscript version titled "Mine" appears in Beginners (2009) 

"Everything Stuck to Him"
A father tells his young adult daughter what life was like for their family when she was a young child, all while on vacation in Milan  The manuscript version titled "Distance" appears in Beginners (2009) 

"One More Thing"
At the kitchen table, L D  argues with his daughter Rae, age 15, about her beliefs  Maxine, the wife, comes home and notices L D  is drunk  Maxine sides with Rae, saying she can like what she likes  In a moment of fury, L D  throws a pickle jar through the window, shattering the glass  Maxine gives L D  an ultimatum: he must pack his things and go or she'll call the police  L D  starts packing, stuffing not only his belongings into his suitcase but also vindictively taking womanly toiletries he could make no use of  Taking one last look around, about to leave for good, L D  says he has one more thing to tell his wife and daughter but, suddenly inarticulate, he is unable to put what he feels into words  The manuscript version of the same title appears in Beginners (2009) 

"What We Talk About When We Talk About Love"
Mel McGinnis is a 45-year-old cardiologist married to Teresa, also known as Terri  They live together in Albuquerque  The narrator, Nick, describes Mel as tall and rangy with curly soft hair and Teresa (who is Mel's second wife) as bone-thin with a pretty face, dark eyes, and brown hair  Nick is 38 years old, and married to Laura, 35, who works as a legal secretary  The four sit around a table at Mel and Terri's, drinking gin in the afternoon 
They soon start to talk about love  Terri has had an abusive relationship; the abuse, she says, derives from love  Ed, Terri's former abusive boyfriend, "loved her so much he tried to kill her " Ed would beat Terri; he dragged her around the living room by her ankles knocking her into things along the way  Terri believes that Ed loved her and his abuse was his way of showing it  No matter what Terri says, Mel refuses to believe that was "love"  Ed also stalked Mel and Terri and called Mel at work with threatening messages  At one point, Mel was so scared he bought a gun and made out a will  Mel even wrote to his brother in California, saying that "if something happened to him" to look for Ed 
Terri's abusive boyfriend eventually committed suicide after two attempts (as Terri sees it, another act of love)  Ed's first attempt at suicide was when Terri had left him  Ed had drunk rat poison, but was rushed to the hospital where he was saved  In Ed's second, successful attempt he shot himself in the mouth  Terri and Mel argued about whether she could be in the hospital bedroom with him when he died  Terri won and was with Ed as he died; as Terri puts it, "He never came up out of it "
Soon afterward, Mel begins a story about an elderly couple struck by a drunk driver, a teenager who was pronounced dead at the scene  Mel was called into the hospital and saw how badly the elderly couple had been injured  He says that they had "multiple fractures, internal injuries, hemorrhaging, contusions, and lacerations " The couple were in casts and bandages from head to toe  Mel's point in telling the story is the husband's consternation when the couple was moved into the intensive care unit  Mel would visit the couple daily, and when he put his ear to the husband's mouth-hole, the latter told Mel he was upset because he could not see his wife through his eye-holes 
Mel strays from the topic with more talk about Ed, his personal thoughts about love, hatred toward his ex-wife, and life as a knight  Mel feels even though one loves a person, if something were to happen to them, the survivor would grieve but love again 
After finishing the second bottle of gin, the couples discuss going to dinner, but no one makes any moves to proceed with their plans 

Earlier version
Carver's original draft of the story "Beginners" was heavily edited by Gordon Lish, who cut out nearly half of Carver's story, adding in details of his own  Carver's original draft, released by his widow Tess Gallagher and published in a December 2007 issue of the New Yorker, reveals the extensive edits  For instance, the character Mel was originally named Herb, and the abusive boyfriend, renamed Ed by Lish, was originally named Carl  Additionally, Herb's story about the old couple was cut nearly in half, with Lish removing the story of the old couple's home life, love, and reunion in the hospital   In Carver's original version, the two had separate rooms, which caused them to pine for each other and eventually led to a scene when they met again   Lish removed all of this, rewrote the couple into the same room, but in body casts that prevented them from seeing each other, and then explained the old man's distress thus:

     "I mean, the accident was one thing, but it wasn't everything  I'd get up to his mouth-hole, you know, and he'd say no, it wasn't the accident exactly but it was because he couldn't see her through the eye-holes  He said that that was making him feel so bad  Can you imagine? I'm telling you, the man's heart was breaking because he couldn't turn his goddamn head and 'see' his goddamn wife "
      Mel looked around the table and shook his head at what he was going to say 
      "I mean, it was killing the old fart just because he couldn't 'look' at the fucking woman "

Lish also cut out eight paragraphs at the end, in which Terri communicates her worry over Herb's depression to Laura and Nick, and another aspect of love is shown as Laura comforts Terri, tying together all the types of love discussed in the story 

Editing
There was some contention between Raymond Carver and his editor Gordon Lish over several stories in the collection; the author complained about the "surgical amputation and transplant that might make them someway fit into the carton so the lid will close " Eventually, the book was published with Lish's extensive alterations, and received critical acclaim 
Shortly before his death, Carver arranged the publication of his own selection of 37 of his stories, Where I'm Calling From: Selected Tales   He included some stories as edited by Lish, some restored  from his original manuscripts, and some unpublished stories  
Carver's widow, Tess Gallagher, fought with Knopf for permission to republish the 17 stories in What We Talk About When We Talk About Love as they were originally written by Carver  These original versions eventually appeared in Beginners, published by Jonathan Cape in 2009, and in the Library of America volume Collected Stories 

In popular culture
The stories "So Much Water So Close to Home" and "Tell the Women We're Going" were adapted for Robert Altman's 1993 feature film Short Cuts  The former was the inspiration for the Paul Kelly song "Everything's Turning to White" on the album So Much Water So Close to Home and was also later adapted for the 2006 film Jindabyne 
The story "Why Don't You Dance?" serves as the basis for the award-winning 2004 short film Everything Goes as well as for the 2010 feature film Everything Must Go 
The 2012 film Stuck in Love uses the quote, "I could hear my heart beating  I could hear everyone's heart  I could hear the human noise we sat there making, not one of us moving, not even when the room went dark" from "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" as the main character's, author Bill Borgens's, favorite quote  They are the last words spoken in the film 
Alejandro González Iñárritu's 2014 film Birdman or: The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance depicts an eclipsed Hollywood star, Riggan Thomson, who mounts a Broadway production of "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" as its central storyline  The Broadway production includes several aspects of the Carver story—such as the four friends telling stories over a bottle of gin, and Mel's story about the couple in the car crash—but also includes other, more melodramatic storylines that are not part of the Carver story  Thomson attributes his choice of acting as a profession to a complimentary note he once received from Carver written on a cocktail napkin 
Passage 10:
Love Is on the Way
Love Is On the Way may refer to:

Love Is On the Way (album), a 1998 compilation album by American R&B/soul singer Luther Vandross
"Love Is On the Way" (song), a 1992 song by American rock band Saigon Kick
"Love Is On the Way", a song by Billy Porter, released on The First Wives Club soundtrack, later covered by Celine Dion
"Love Is On the Way", a song by R  Kelly from the 1995 album R  Kelly
"Love is On the Way", a song by Natalie Cole from the 1985 album Dangerous
"Love is On the Way", a song by Dave Koz from the 1999 album The Dance
"Love is On the Way", a 2004 single by Little Louie Vega and Blaze
"Love Is On the Way", a song by Austins Bridge from the 2010 album Times Like These
"Love Is On The Way", a song by Viktor Lazlo from the 1996 album Back to Front

See also
"Good Love is On the Way", a song by the John Mayer Trio from the 2005 album Try!
"My Love Is On the Way", a song from the 1954 musical The Golden Apple
Passage 11:
WMMW
WBOM (1470 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Meriden, Connecticut, and covering Central Connecticut  The station broadcasts an R&B format, aimed at the Hartford area  The station is owned by Full Power Radio, through Red Wolf Broadcasting Corporation  WBOM's programming is also heard on FM translator W273DS (102 5); the station's branding emphasizes the FM frequency 

History
The station's original construction permit was granted by the Federal Communications Commission on January 2, 1947; it was initially assigned the call sign WMMB, but changed to WMMW on March 4  It began broadcasting June 8, 1947, on 1470 kHz with 1,000 watts of power  The station was licensed to Silver City Crystal Company  An FM sister station, WMMW-FM (95 7), would be added by that December On March 5, 2014, Buckley Broadcasting announced that it would sell its Connecticut radio stations, including WMMW, to Connoisseur Media  The sale was completed on July 7, 2014, at a price of $7,922,035  Connoisseur sold WMMW, along with the other Talk of Connecticut stations (except for WWCO in Waterbury), WDRC-FM in Hartford, and W272DO in New Haven, to Red Wolf Broadcasting for $8 million in January 2018; the sale was completed on March 29, 2018 The call sign was changed to WBOM on April 28, 2020  The station went silent in March 2022, and returned as "The New 102 5" on March 11, 2022 
Passage 12:
Morals for Women
Morals for Women (known in the UK as Farewell Party and in re-release as Big City Interlude) is a 1931 American pre-Code film produced and released by Tiffany Pictures, often considered a low budget studio  The film stars Bessie Love and Conway Tearle  It is preserved at the Library of Congress, has been released on DVD, and is in the public domain 
This film is a follow-up to Tiffany's 1925 silent Morals for Men, which also starred Conway Tearle and is also preserved at the Library of Congress 

Plot
Stenographer and gold digger Helen Huston (Love) has a personal relationship with her employer Van Dyne (Tearle), who has set her up in an apartment on Park Avenue  Her childhood beau visits New York and proposes to her, which prompts her to return to her hometown and seek advice from her family  News of her living situation is the talk of her hometown  In defending Helen's honor, her younger brother injures the town bully and must pay his large hospital bill  Helen returns to her New York boss to get the money  Her hometown sweetheart interrupts one of her parties to see her, and even upon learning about Helen's relationship with her boss, he wants to marry her 

Cast
Reception
The film received lukewarm reviews, and the morality of the story was questioned 
Passage 13:
The Pigskin Palooka
The Pigskin Palooka is a 1937 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gordon Douglas   It was the 159th Our Gang short (160th episode, 70th talking short, and 71st talking episode) that was released 

Plot
Having written of his football heroics in military school, Alfalfa returns home to a hero's welcome  But the fact is that Alfalfa never played a game in his life and borrowed Rex's, a classmate and football player's uniform to take a picture, angering him as well  No sooner has he stepped off the train than his old pal Spanky, manager of the gang's football team, informs Alfalfa that he's been slated to be star player in an upcoming gridiron battle—which is to be staged within the next few hours  Alfalfa winds up winning the game in a total fluke, which Buckwheat and Porky helped cause 

Cast
The Gang
Carl Switzer as Alfalfa
Darla Hood as Darla
Eugene Lee as Porky
George McFarland as Spanky
Billie Thomas as Buckwheat
Pete The Pup as himself

Additional cast
Rex Downing as Cadet (photographer)
Gary Jasgur as Junior (timekeeper)
Cullen Johnson as Scorekeeper
Dickie Jones as Spike
Sidney Kibrick as Spike's sidekick
Delmar Watson as Captain of the military academy's football team

Members of Spanky's team
Daniel Boone, John Collum, Charles Flickinger, Larry Harris, Paul Hilton, Darwood Kaye, Tommy McFarland, Donald Proffitt, Drew Roddy, Harold Switzer

Members of Spike's team
Hugh Chapman, Dix Davis, Barry Downing, Roger McGee, Fred Walburn, Robert Winkler

Game spectators and band players
Barry Downing, Bobby Callahan, Dix Davis, Floyd Fisher, Vincent Graeff, Payne B  Johnson, Henry Lee, Joe Levine, Priscilla Lyon, Drew Roddy, Norman Salling, Joe Straunch, Jr , Fred Walburn, Robert Winckler

See also
Our Gang filmography
Passage 14:
Raymond Carver
Raymond Clevie Carver Jr  (May 25, 1938 – August 2, 1988) was an American short story writer and poet  He contributed to the revitalization of the American short story during the 1980s 

Early life
Carver was born in Clatskanie, Oregon, a mill town on the Columbia River, and grew up in Yakima, Washington, the son of Ella Beatrice Carter (née Casey) and Clevie Raymond Carver  His father, a sawmill worker from Arkansas, was a fisherman and a heavy drinker  Carver's mother worked on and off as a waitress and a retail clerk  His brother, James Franklin Carver, was born in 1943 
Carver was educated at local schools in Yakima  In his spare time, he read mostly novels by Mickey Spillane or publications such as Sports Afield and Outdoor Life, and hunted and fished with friends and family 
After graduating from Yakima High School in 1956, Carver worked with his father at a sawmill in California  In June 1957, at age 19, he married 16-year-old Maryann Burk, who had just graduated from a private Episcopal school for girls  Their daughter, Christine La Rae, was born in December 1957  Their second child, a boy named Vance Lindsay, was born a year later  Carver worked as a delivery man, janitor, library assistant, and sawmill laborer, while Maryann worked as an administrative assistant, high school English teacher, salesperson, and waitress 

Writing career
Carver moved to Paradise, California, with his family in 1958 to be close to his mother-in-law  He became interested in writing while attending Chico State College and enrolled in a creative writing course taught by the novelist John Gardner, then a recent doctoral graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, who became a mentor and had a major influence on Carver's life and career  In 1961, Carver's first published story, "The Furious Seasons", appeared  More florid than his later work, the story strongly bore the influence of William Faulkner  "Furious Seasons" was later used as a title for a collection of stories published by Capra Press, and is part of the collection, No Heroics, Please and Call If You Need Me Carver continued his studies under the short story writer Richard Cortez Day (like Gardner, a recent PhD alumnus of the Iowa program) beginning in autumn 1960 at Humboldt State College in Arcata, California  He chose not to take the foreign language courses required by the English program and received a B A  in general studies in 1963  During this period he was first published and served as editor for Toyon, the college's literary magazine, in which he published several of his own pieces under his own name as well as the pseudonym John Vale With his B-minus average, exacerbated by his penchant to forsake coursework for literary endeavors, ballasted by a sterling recommendation from Day, Carver was accepted into the Iowa Writers' Workshop on a $1,000 fellowship for the 1963–1964 academic year  Homesick for California and unable to fully adjust to the program's upper middle class milieu, he only completed 12 credits out of the 30 required for a M A  degree or 60 for the M F A  degree  Although program director Paul Engle awarded him a fellowship for a second year of study after Maryann Carver personally interceded and compared her husband's plight to Tennessee Williams' deleterious experience in the program three decades earlier, Carver decided to leave the University of Iowa at the end of the semester  According to biographer Carol Sklenicka, Carver falsely claimed to have received an M F A  from Iowa in 1966 on later curricula vitae  Maryann, who postponed completing her education to support her husband's educational and literary endeavors, eventually graduated from San Jose State College in 1970 and taught English at Los Altos High School until 1977  After completing graduate work at Stanford, she briefly enrolled in the University of California, Santa Barbara's English doctoral program when Carver taught at the institution as a visiting lecturer in 1974 In the mid-1960s, Carver and his family resided in Sacramento, California, where he briefly worked at a bookstore before taking a position as a night custodian at Mercy Hospital  He did all of the janitorial work in the first hour and then wrote through the rest of his shift  He audited classes at what was then Sacramento State College, including workshops with poet Dennis Schmitz  Carver and Schmitz soon became friends, and Carver wrote and published his first book of poems, Near Klamath, under Schmitz's guidance 1967 was a landmark year for Carver with the appearance of "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?" in Martha Foley's annual Best American Short Stories anthology and the impending publication of Near Klamath by the English Club of Sacramento State College  He briefly enrolled in the library science graduate program at the University of Iowa that summer but returned to California following the death of his father  Shortly thereafter, the Carvers relocated to Palo Alto, California, so he could take his first white-collar job, at Science Research Associates, a subsidiary of IBM in nearby Menlo Park, California, where he worked intermittently as a textbook editor and public relations director through 1970 Following a 1968 sojourn to Israel, the Carvers relocated to San Jose, California; as Maryann finished her undergraduate degree, he continued his graduate studies in library science at San Jose State through the end of 1969 before failing once again to take a degree  During this period, he established vital literary connections with Gordon Lish, who worked across the street from Carver as director of linguistic research at Behavioral Research Laboratories, and the poet/publisher George Hitchcock After the publication of "Neighbors" in the June 1971 issue of Esquire at the instigation of Lish (by now ensconced as the magazine's fiction editor), Carver began to teach at the University of California, Santa Cruz at the behest of provost James B  Hall, an Iowa alumnus and early mentor to Ken Kesey at the University of Oregon, commuting from his new home in Sunnyvale, California 
Having endured a succession of failed applications to the Stegner Fellowship, Carver was admitted to the prestigious non-degree Stanford University graduate creative writing program for the 1972–1973 term, where he cultivated friendships with Kesey-era luminaries Ed McClanahan and Gurney Norman in addition to contemporaneous fellows Chuck Kinder, Max Crawford, and William Kittredge  The $4,000 stipend enabled the Carvers to buy a house in Cupertino, California  He also took on another teaching job at the University of California, Berkeley that year and briefly rented a pied-à-terre in the city; this development was precipitated by his initiation of an extramarital affair with Diane Cecily, a University of Montana administrator and mutual friend of Kittredge who would subsequently marry Kinder During his years of working at miscellaneous jobs, rearing children, and trying to write, Carver started abusing alcohol  By his own admission, he gave up writing and took to full-time drinking  In the fall semester of 1973, Carver was a visiting lecturer in the Iowa Writers' Workshop with John Cheever, but Carver stated that they did less teaching than drinking and almost no writing  With the assistance of Kinder and Kittredge, he attempted to simultaneously commute to Berkeley and maintain his lectureship at Santa Cruz; after missing all but a handful of classes due to the inherent logistical hurdles of this arrangement and various alcohol-related illnesses, Hall gently enjoined Carver to resign his position  The next year, after leaving Iowa City, Carver went to a treatment center to attempt to overcome his alcoholism, but continued drinking for another three years His first short story collection, Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?, was published in 1976  The collection itself was shortlisted for the National Book Award, though it sold fewer than 5,000 copies that year 

Personal life and death
Decline of first marriage
The following excerpt from Scott Driscoll's review of Maryann Burk Carver's 2006 memoir describes the decline of her and Raymond's marriage 

The fall began with Ray's trip to Missoula, Mont , in '72 to fish with friend and literary helpmate Bill Kittredge  That summer Ray fell in love with Diane Cecily, an editor at the University of Montana, whom he met at Kittredge's birthday party  "That's when the serious drinking began  It broke my heart and hurt the children  It changed everything "
"By fall of '74", writes Carver, "he was more dead than alive  I had to drop out of the PhD program so I could get him cleaned up and drive him to his classes"  Over the next several years, Maryann's husband physically abused her  Friends urged her to leave Raymond 
"But I couldn't  I really wanted to hang in there for the long haul  I thought I could outlast the drinking  I'd do anything it took  I loved Ray, first, last and always "
Carver describes, without a trace of rancor, what finally put her over the edge  In the fall of '78, with a new teaching position at the University of Texas at El Paso, Ray started seeing Tess Gallagher, a writer from Port Angeles, who would become his muse and wife near the end of his life  "It was like a contretemps  He tried to call me to talk about where we were  I missed the calls  He knew he was about to invite Tess to Thanksgiving " So he wrote a letter instead 

"I thought, I've gone through all those years fighting to keep it all balanced  Here it was, coming at me again, the same thing  I had to get on with my own life  But I never fell out of love with him "
After being hospitalized three times between June 1976 and February or March 1977, Carver began his "second life" and stopped drinking on June 2, 1977, with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous  While he continued to regularly smoke marijuana and later experimented with cocaine at the behest of Jay McInerney during a 1980 visit to New York City, Carver believed he would have died of alcoholism at the age of 40 had he not overcome his drinking 

Second marriage
In November 1977, Carver met the poet Tess Gallagher at a writers' conference in Dallas, Texas  Gallagher later remembered feeling "as if my life until then had simply been a rehearsal for meeting him " Beginning in January 1979, Carver and Gallagher lived together in El Paso, Texas, in a borrowed cabin near Port Angeles, Washington, and in Tucson, Arizona  
In 1980, the two moved to Syracuse, New York, where Gallagher had been appointed the coordinator of the creative writing program at Syracuse University; Carver taught as a professor in the English department  He and Gallagher jointly purchased a house in Syracuse, at 832 Maryland Avenue  In ensuing years, the house became so popular that the couple had to hang a sign outside that read "Writers At Work" in order to be left alone  
In 1982, he and his first wife, Maryann, were divorced In 1988, six weeks prior to his death, Carver and Gallagher married in Reno, Nevada 

Death
On August 2, 1988, Carver died in Port Angeles, Washington, from lung cancer at the age of 50  In the same year, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters  He is buried at Ocean View Cemetery in Port Angeles, Washington  The inscription on his tombstone reads:

His poem "Gravy" is also inscribed 
As Carver's will directed, Tess Gallagher assumed the management of his literary estate 

Awards and memorials
Carver was nominated for the National Book Award for his first major-press collection, "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please" in 1977 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his third major-press collection, Cathedral (1984), the volume generally perceived as his best  Included in the latter collection are the award-winning stories "A Small, Good Thing", and "Where I'm Calling From"  John Updike selected the latter for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories of the Century  For his part, Carver perceived Cathedral as a watershed in his career for its shift toward a more optimistic and confidently poetic style amid the diminution of Lish's literary influence 
Carver won five O  Henry Awards with "Are These Actual Miles" (originally titled "What Is It?") (1972), "Put Yourself in My Shoes" (1974), "Are You A Doctor?" (1975), "A Small, Good Thing" (1983), and "Errand" (1988) In Carver's birth town of Clatskanie, Oregon, a memorial park and statue are at the corner of Lillich and Nehalem Streets, across from the library  A block away is the building where Carver was born 

Legacy and posthumous publications
In December 2006, Gallagher published an essay in The Sun magazine, titled "Instead of Dying", about alcoholism and Carver's having maintained his sobriety  The essay is an adaptation of a talk she initially delivered at the Welsh Academy's Academi Intoxication Conference in 2006  The first lines read: "Instead of dying from alcohol, Raymond Carver chose to live  I would meet him five months after this choice, so I never knew the Ray who drank, except by report and through the characters and actions of his stories and poems "Chuck Kinder's Honeymooners: A Cautionary Tale (2001) is a roman à clef about his friendship with Carver in the 1970s  Carver's high school sweetheart and first wife, Maryann Burk Carver, wrote a memoir of her years with Carver, What it Used to be Like: A Portrait of My Marriage to Raymond Carver (2006) 
In 2009, The New York Times Book Review and San Francisco Chronicle named Carol Sklenicka's unauthorized biography, Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life (2009), published by Scribner, one of the Best Ten Books of that year; and the San Francisco Chronicle deemed it: "exhaustively researched and definitive biography"  Carver's widow, Tess Gallagher, refused to engage with Sklenicka His final (incomplete) collection of seven stories, titled Elephant in Britain (included in "Where I'm Calling From") was composed in the five years before his death  The nature of these stories, especially "Errand", have led to some speculation that Carver was preparing to write a novel  Only one piece of this work has survived – the fragment "The Augustine Notebooks", first printed in No Heroics, Please Tess Gallagher fought with Knopf for permission to republish the stories in What We Talk About When We Talk About Love as they were originally written by Carver, as opposed to the heavily edited and altered versions that appeared in 1981 under the editorship of Gordon Lish  On October 1, 2009, the book, entitled Beginners, was released in hardback in Great Britain, followed by its publication in the Library of America edition which collected all of Carver's short fiction in a single volume The Raymond Carver Reading Series at Syracuse University is a reading series program which annually brings 12 to 14 prominent writers to the campus  It is presented by the Creative Writing Program in SU's College of Arts and Sciences 

Literary characteristics
Carver's career emphasized short stories and poetry  He described himself as "inclined toward brevity and intensity" and "hooked on writing short stories" (in the foreword of Where I'm Calling From, a collection published in 1988 and a recipient of an honorable mention in the 2006 New York Times article citing the best works of fiction of the previous 25 years)  Another stated reason for his brevity was "that the story [or poem] can be written and read in one sitting " This was not simply a preference but, particularly at the beginning of his career, a practical consideration as he juggled writing with work  His subject matter was often focused on blue-collar experience, and was clearly reflective of his own life Characteristics of minimalism are generally seen as one of the hallmarks of Carver's work, although, as reviewer David Wiegand notes:
Carver never thought of himself as a minimalist or in any category, for that matter 
"He rejected categories generally," Sklenicka says  "I don't think he had an abstract mind at all  He just wasn't built that way, which is why he's so good at picking the right details that will stand for many things "
Carver's editor at Esquire, Gordon Lish, was instrumental in shaping his prose in this direction – where his earlier tutor John Gardner had advised Carver to use fifteen words instead of twenty-five, Lish instructed Carver to use five in place of fifteen  Objecting to the "surgical amputation and transplantation" of Lish's heavy editing, Carver eventually broke with him  During this time, Carver also submitted poetry to James Dickey, then poetry editor of Esquire 
Carver's style has also been described as dirty realism, which connected him with a group of writers in the 1970s and 1980s that included Richard Ford and Tobias Wolff with both of whom Carver was closely acquainted, as well as others such as Ann Beattie, Frederick Barthelme, and Jayne Anne Phillips  With the exception of Beattie, who wrote about upper-middle-class people, these were writers who focused on sadness and loss in the everyday lives of ordinary people—often lower-middle class or isolated and marginalized people In his essay "On Influence", Carver states that, while he was an admirer of Ernest Hemingway's fiction, he never saw him as an influence, citing instead the work of Lawrence Durrell 

Works
Fiction
Collections
Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? (first published 1976)
Furious Seasons and other stories (1977)
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (1981)
Cathedral (1983)
Elephant (1988) – this title only published in Great Britain; included as a section of Where I'm Calling From: New & Selected Stories in the U S 
Beginners (2009)

Compilations
Where I'm Calling From: New & Selected Stories (1988)
Short Cuts: Selected Stories (1993) – published to accompany the Robert Altman film Short Cuts
Collected Stories (2009) – complete short fiction including Beginners (see section above for wiki-link)

Poetry
Collections
Near Klamath (1968)
Winter Insomnia (1970)
At Night The Salmon Move (1976)
Fires (1983)
Where Water Comes Together With Other Water (1985)
Ultramarine (1986)
A New Path To The Waterfall (1989)
Gravy (Unknown year)

Compilations
In a Marine Light: Selected Poems (1988)
All of Us: The Collected Poems (1996)

Screenplays
Dostoevsky (1982, with Tess Gallagher) (published in 1985)
Purple Lake (1983, with Michael Cimino) (unpublished)

Films and theatre adaptations
Short Cuts directed by Robert Altman (1993), based on nine Carver short stories and a poem
Everything Goes directed by Andrew Kotatko (2004), starring Hugo Weaving, Abbie Cornish and Sullivan Stapleton based on Carver's short story "Why Don't You Dance?"
Whoever Was Using This Bed, also directed by Andrew Kotatko (2016), starring Jean-Marc Barr, Radha Mitchell and Jane Birkin, based on Carver's short story of the same name
Jindabyne directed by Ray Lawrence (2006), based on Carver's short story "So Much Water So Close to Home"
Everything Must Go directed by Dan Rush (2010), and starring Will Ferrell, based on Carver's short story "Why Don't You Dance?"
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), directed by Alejandro G  Iñárritu, depicts the mounting of a Broadway production of "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" as its central storyline  The film's main character, Riggan Thomson, attributes his choice of acting as a profession to a complimentary note he once received from Raymond Carver written on a cocktail napkin  The film also preludes with Carver's poem "Late Fragment " In February 2015, Birdman won four Oscars, including the Academy Award for Best Picture 
Passage 15:
Night 'n' Gales
Night 'n' Gales is a 1937 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gordon Douglas   It was the 156th Our Gang short (157th episode, 68th talking short, and 69th talking episode that was released 

Plot
Though he would rather spend his evening in peace and quiet, Mr  Hood (Johnny Arthur) is forced to endure the offkey harmonizing of The Four Nightengales, a junior singing aggregation composed of Spanky, Alfalfa, Buckwheat and Porky 
After interminable choruses of "Home! Sweet Home!", the four boys are finally ready to leave, but are forced to stay in the Hood home due to a sudden thunderstorm  Both Darla and her mother are delighted, but Mr  Hood is dismayed, especially when he is told that he must share his bed with the Four Nightengales  Driven crazy by the boys' unintentionally disruptive shenanigans, Mr  Hood escapes to the living room and tries to sleep on the couch, covering himself with a bear rug to keep warm  Naturally, the gang mistake him for a real bear, and comic chaos ensues 

Notes
Comedian Johnny Arthur, who played Spanky McFarland's absent-minded father in Anniversary Trouble, returns as Darla's father in Night 'n' Gales  He was so popular with audiences that he played Darla's father once again in Feed 'em and Weep 

Cast
The Gang
Darla Hood as Darla
Eugene Lee as Porky
George McFarland as Spanky
Carl Switzer as Alfalfa
Billie Thomas as Buckwheat
Gary Jasgur as Junior

Additional cast
Johnny Arthur as Arthur Hood, Darla's father
Elaine Shepard as Darla's mother

See also
Our Gang filmography
Passage 16:
Freak Talks About Sex
Freak Talks About Sex, released for home video as Blowin' Smoke (its working title was Syracuse Muse), is a 1999 film starring Steve Zahn and Josh Hamilton  The movie was shot in Auburn and Syracuse, New York  It deals with issues such as love, sex, life after college, and living in a medium-sized city, in this case Syracuse 

Plot
Dave Keenan (Josh Hamilton) left Syracuse for a new life in Arizona  When that didn't work out, he moved back to Syracuse  He works a dead-end job at a department store in a mall, his car has broken down (and the mechanic is taking forever to fix it) and his ex-girlfriend (Arabella Field) wants him to join her in New York City  To make matters more complicated, one of his co-workers, a high school girl named Nichole (Heather McComb) seems to be getting romantically interested in him  His best friend Freak (Steve Zahn) is around for him to hang out with and offer such choice philosophical observations, like "I can't think of a single movie that couldn't be improved by a lesbian sex scene " Dave is stuck in a rut and has to decide what to do with his life 

Soundtrack
Tugboat Annie - "Stay Inside"
The Wrench - "Girl"
Scary Chicken - "Favorite Channel"
Chic - "Le Freak"
The Tortillas You Wanted - "Girls and Cars"
Blondie - "Heart of Glass"

External links
A trailer for the movie
Freak Talks About Sex at IMDb
Freak Talks About Sex at Rotten Tomatoes



ground_truth: Clatskanie

Clatskanie, Oregon

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 2: 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 3: Passage 1:
Con-Test
Con-Test is the fifth album by FM, a progressive rock band from Toronto, Canada, released in 1985 

Background
In 1983, former group member Nash the Slash proposed a future double bill tour with FM, as the two artists seemed to share a common audience  FM's best known previous album was Black Noise which he made with them in 1977   But they had not yet found a replacement for Ben Mink who had replaced Nash in 1977, and then left the group in 1983   Nash resolved the problem by rejoining the band, although work on a new album, even in its demo phase, did not begin until May 1984   Con-Test has the same band line-up as Black Noise 
FM's former record company, Passport Records, ceased operations in 1984   Nash had been signed to Quality Records as a solo artist in 1983, and was about to release his solo album American Band-ages, which the proposed double bill tour was to promote   He was able to use his association with Quality to get FM signed to the label as well 
The double bill concept was retained, with Nash playing a solo set as the opening act for most FM concerts from 1983 to 1989 
Former group member Ben Mink also appears on the album, albeit as a guitarist 

Title and artwork
The album was titled Con-Test after the group ran a contest to come up with something that "FM" might stand for, and its cover art featured fine print listing several hundred submissions including Fluent Monkeys, Flunk Math, Floyd Meddle, Fashion Magazine, Free Money, Forgiven Mistake, Facing Mecca, False Mammaries, and so on   (One intriguing entry is "Framed Mulroney" which would appear to reference the scandals surrounding then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney; however, these incidents did not occur until years later )
Despite the absence of pictorial graphics, the cover art was credited to surrealist painter Robert Vanderhorst, who has frequently collaborated with Nash the Slash on multi-media presentations from 1978 to the 2000s 

Releases
The album was initially available on Quality Records in 1985 (catalogue number SV-2138), but the label ceased operations in 1986, after more than 35 years of business   They had been Canada's biggest domestic label in the 1950s and 1960s 
MCA Records picked up the reissue rights for Con-Test, as well as Nash's American Band-ages in 1986, but the abrupt change in record labels led to a near-absence of promotion for both records 
Duke Street Records would release FM's next album, Tonight on vinyl and CD   This was FM's first CD release   The CD edition included five bonus tracks taken from Con-Test (tracks 1 to 4, and 6)   This acquisition of the rights to Con-Test led to a CD edition of the full album on Duke Street in 1987, but Duke Street did not reissue it on vinyl 

Track listing
All tracks composed by Cameron Hawkins, Martin Deller, and Nash the Slash—except where noted  All tracks arranged by FM and Michael Waite 

Side one"Just Like You" (Hawkins, Deller, Slash, Waite) – 4:05
"We Hold On" – 4:35
"All of the Dreams" – 4:05
"Until the Night Is Over" – 3:50
"The Only Way to Win" – 3:46Side two"Why Don't You Take It" – 4:10
"Distant Early Warning" – 4:08
"Friends and Neighbours" – 4:33
"Stop!" (Hawkins, Deller, Slash, Waite) – 5:00

Personnel
Nash the Slash – lead and background vocals, electric mandolin, electric violin, harmonica
Cameron Hawkins – lead and background vocals, synthesizers, bass guitar
Martin Deller – drums, electronic percussion

Guests
Ben Mink – electric guitars
Rob Yale – Fairlight C M I 
Glen Johansen and David Moses – background vocals on "Distant Early Warning"

Technical credits
Produced by Michael Waite for Eye to Ear Productions
Bed tracks recorded at Manta Sound, engineered by John Naslin assisted by Ron Searls and Mark Baldi
Overdubs recorded at Metal Works, engineered by Glen Johansen assisted by Noel Golden
Mixed at Manta Sound, engineered by John Naslin assisted by Mark Baldi and Mike Duncan
Mastered by Bob Ludwig at Masterdisk, New York City
Robert Vanderhorst – cover art

Singles
"Just Like You" – 1985 (Canadian chart #38)
"All of the Dreams" – 1986 (Canadian chart #86)
"Why Don't You Take It" / "Just Like You" – MCA 52840, 1986 (issued with cover, Canadian chart #90)The latter record was also issued as a 12-inch single on MCA 23634 with alternate versions:

"Why Don't You Take It (Flight Mix)" (Hawkins, Deller, Slash) – total 6:27
"Intro (Taxi)" – 0:50
"The Tune (Take Off)" – 5:37
"Just Like You (Fun Mix)" (Hawkins, Deller, Slash, Waite) – 7:06

Demo recordings
Demo versions of four songs for Con-Test appeared on FM's Lost in Space CD on Cut-throat Records in 2001, recorded at Cut-throat Studios in May 1984   Cut-throat is Nash's own record company and studio   These include a cover version of "It's My Life", a song by The Animals from 1965, that did not make it to the album 
In the liner notes, Nash the Slash heavily criticizes the production of the Con-Test versions, preferring the demos   He states that he reluctantly took over the lead vocals from Hawkins on "Friends and Neighbours" between the demo and Con-Test versions, at the insistence of the producer (Waite), and characterizes the LP version of this song as "bastardized" 
"The Only Way to Win" (Hawkins, Deller, Slash) – 3:05
"Friends and Neighbours" (Hawkins, Deller, Slash) – 4:03
"It's My Life" (Roger Atkins, Carl D'Errico) – 3:20
"Why Don't You Take It" (Hawkins, Deller, Slash) – 4:42
Passage 2:
National Car Test
The National Car Test (Irish: An tSeirbhís Náisiúnta Tástála Carranna; abbreviated NCT) is a roadworthiness test, which all cars in Ireland must undergo  Following a tender process, the Road Safety Authority awarded the National Car Testing Service contract for the operation of the vehicle inspection service in the Republic of Ireland to Applus 

History
The National Car Test (the NCT) was introduced in 2000, since then all cars four years and older must undergo an NCT  The NCT due date is calculated by reference to the date of first registration of the car, with tests due every two years for cars younger than 10 years  Annual Testing was introduced in June 2011 and is now a legal requirement for vehicles that present for their 10th anniversary test and each subsequent test  Vehicles can be inspected up to 90 days in advance of the anniversary of the registration date  The waiting lists have proven to be long, with even the 'priority list' taking in excess of a month 

Procedure
The NCT is available in 47 centres around the Republic of Ireland  and it tests various aspects of cars for safety, including tyres, brakes and shock absorbers  It also tests the exhaust fumes for compliance with EU emissions standards  Other safety features, such as the spare tyre, seat belts and lights are also checked 
As of 2012, the fee for the NCT is €55 for a full test, and €28 for a re-test that requires testing equipment (e g  emission levels, aiming of headlights, etc )  Re-tests that do not require the use of test equipment (such as obscured registration plate, faulty windscreen wiper, etc ) are free of charge  However, if a confirmed appointment is cancelled with less than five working days' notice (Mon  - Fri , not including the day of the test or the day you contact NCTS), or failure to show up for the test, a €22 00 surcharge will be applied when the car is next brought in for testing  A similar surcharge of €11 50 will apply in the case of a re-test 
Upon successful completion of the test a valid NCT certificate is issued and this must be displayed on the front windscreen of the vehicle 
A driver without a valid NCT on their car will incur three penalty points and a fine of €60, if paid within the first 28 days, and €90 if paid within the following 28 days  Thereafter, if the fine is not paid, a court appearance becomes mandatory and if convicted, five penalty points and a fine will be imposed by the court  This system was introduced on December 8, 2014, where previously all offenders were immediately faced with a mandatory court appearance and five penalty points upon conviction, in addition to a fine  Enforcement is the responsibility of the Garda Síochána  Local authorities can (in theory) refuse to issue a tax disc to a vehicle not having an NCT certificate and insurance companies could (in theory) declare cover for an untested (or failed) vehicle invalid 
There are exemptions for certain categories of vehicles such as vintage cars (registered before 1980) and vehicles based permanently on some offshore Islands 
NCTS centres are run by Applus Car Testing Services, who are independent of the motor industry 
If applicants cannot get an NCT appointment within 28 days of applying for it, the test is undertaken free of charge  This is assuming that the applicant:

Has not declined another appointment more than twice at a centre of their choosing 
Has not previously accepted a booking outside of the 4 week period 

Statistics
In August 2017 the Irish Sunday Independent reported that the best performing car in 2016 tests was the Nissan Juke and the worst the Hyundai Trajet  The same article revealed the existence of a data visualisation of 2016 NCT results 

Similar tests
In Northern Ireland, motor vehicles are subject to the MOT test, which is the standard in the United Kingdom 

See also
Vehicle inspection (general overview of roadworthiness tests around the world)
MOT test (UK)
Shaken (Japan)
Warrant of Fitness (New Zealand)
Passage 3:
MCA Records
MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc , which later became part of Universal Music Group 

Pre-history
MCA Inc , a talent agency and television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 with the purchase of the New York-based US Decca Records (established in 1934), including Coral Records and Brunswick Records  MCA was forced to exit the talent agency business in order to complete the merger  As American Decca owned Universal Pictures, MCA assumed full ownership of Universal and made it into a top film studio, producing several hits  In 1966, MCA formed Uni Records and in 1967, purchased Kapp Records which was placed under Uni Records management 

History
The early years
In 1937, the owner of Decca, Edward R  Lewis, chose to split off the UK Decca company from the US company (keeping his US Decca holdings), fearing the financial damage that would arise for UK Companies if the emerging hostilities of Nazi Germany should lead to war – correctly foreseeing World War II  Lewis sold the remainder of his US Decca holdings when war did break out   US-based Decca Records kept the rights to the Decca name in North and South America and parts of Asia including Japan  UK Decca owned the rights to the Decca name in the rest of the world  After the war, British Decca formed a new US subsidiary, London Records 
During this time, American Decca issued records outside North America on the Brunswick and Coral labels  In 1962, MCA acquired American Decca and became a wholly owned subsidiary  In 1967, Brunswick and Coral were replaced by the MCA label, which was used to release US Decca and Kapp label material outside North America  Initial activity as MCA Records was based in London and MCA Records UK was formally launched on February 16, 1968  Among the early artists on the MCA label, around 1971, were groups Wishbone Ash, Osibisa, Stackridge and Budgie, and solo artists Tony Christie, Mick Greenwood and Roy Young Early MCA UK releases were distributed by Decca, but moved to EMI in 1974  As the US division of MCA Records was not established until 1972, the earliest UK MCA Records material was released in the US on either Kapp or Decca  MCA UK also issued American Brunswick material on the MCA label until 1972, two years after MCA lost control of Brunswick, after which American Brunswick material was issued in the UK on the revived Brunswick label  Uni label material was issued on the Uni label worldwide 

MCA Records formation in Canada and the United States
In 1970, MCA reorganized its Canadian record company Compo Company Ltd  into MCA Records (Canada)  In April 1970, former Warner Bros  Records president Mike Maitland joined MCA and initially served as Decca's general manager  Maitland was unsuccessful in his attempt to consolidate Warner Bros  Records with co-owned Atlantic Records which led to his departure from Warner 
In April 1971, Maitland supervised the consolidation of the New York-based Decca and Kapp labels plus the California-based Uni label into MCA Records based in Universal City, California, with Maitland serving as president  The three labels maintained their identities for a short time, but were retired in favor of the MCA label in 1973  "Drift Away" by Dobie Gray became the final Decca pop label release in the U S in 1973  Beginning the same year, the catalogs of Decca, Uni and Kapp were reissued in the US on the MCA label under the supervision of veteran Decca producer Milt Gabler 

Early success
The first MCA Records release in the US was former Uni artist Elton John's "Crocodile Rock" single in 1972, which appeared on a plain black and white label  
Immediately following this, the US MCA label used a black with curved rainbow design until the late 1970s  This design was directly inspired by the US Decca label of the 1960s 
In December 1972, Neil Diamond, another Uni artist, reached  superstar status with his first MCA release, the live multi-platinum Hot August Night  Elton John's double album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was released in October 1973 and was number one on the US Billboard 200 albums chart for eight straight weeks  The management of former Decca artists the Who had formed their own label Track Records in the UK, but were still under contract with MCA for US distribution  The Who's double album Quadrophenia was  released by Track/MCA also in October 1973  Quadrophenia peaked at number 2 as it was held back from the number 1 slot by Goodbye Yellow Brick Road 
Other successful artists on MCA, after the consolidation, included former Kapp artist Cher, and Uni artist Olivia Newton-John  MCA released the highly successful soundtrack album to the 1973 film The Sting  The soundtrack music was arranged and conducted by Marvin Hamlisch and won an Academy Award for Best Original Score (MCA issued many other soundtracks to films from Universal, along with some non-Universal films) 
One of the most successful MCA artists in this era was the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, who would become one of the most popular in the Southern rock genre  The group was discovered by Al Kooper and initially released on his "Sounds of the South" label imprint of MCA  The song "Free Bird" became one of the most popular songs of all time on album-oriented rock radio stations  On Second Helping, the group recorded a song about their relationship with the label called, "Workin' for MCA"  Street Survivors was released in October 1977, just prior to a tragic plane crash in which members of the group were either killed or severely injured  The original Street Survivors cover had a picture of the band members surrounded by flames, but this was quickly substituted for a design without flames  Though a latter version of the group enjoyed success, Lynyrd Skynyrd's streak of hits ended after the crash  Eventually, three Lynyrd Skynyrd albums reached the double platinum sales level and at least two others reached platinum or gold levels 
During the 1970s and 1980s, MCA profited from reissuing classic early rock and roll recordings made by artists who recorded for the numerous labels absorbed by MCA  One notable example was the 1954 Decca recording "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets, which was featured as the lead track of MCA's No  1-charting American Graffiti soundtrack album, and as a single returned to the American top 40 that year, 20 years after it was recorded 

Expansion and struggles
In 1977, MCA president Sidney Sheinberg set up the Infinity Records division, based in New York City with Ron Alexenberg as CEO  Alexenberg had been with the Epic division of CBS Records, now Sony Music Entertainment  The intention was to give MCA a stronger presence on the East Coast  The only big hit the Infinity label had was "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" by Rupert Holmes, a #1 single at the end of 1979  Infinity also had some success with Hot Chocolate, Spyro Gyra, New England and TKO  But MCA pulled the plug on Infinity after it failed to sell most of the 1 million advance copies of an album featuring Pope John Paul II in October 1979  Infinity was fully absorbed by the parent company in 1980 
In 1979, Bob Siner replaced Maitland as MCA Records president  Shortly afterwards, MCA acquired ABC Records along with its subsidiaries Paramount, Dunhill, Impulse!, Westminster, and Dot  ABC had acquired the Paramount and Dot labels when they purchased Gulf+Western's record labels and Famous Music Corp  Thus, MCA now controlled material once owned by Paramount Pictures, the music released by Paramount's record labels, and the pre-1950 films by Paramount as well 
Also included in this deal were recordings controlled by ABC, including albums by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers which were originally released by Shelter Records  Petty was furious about the reassignment of his contract and refused to record for MCA  This led to a series of lawsuits, which resulted in his bankruptcy in 1980  Petty and other ABC/Shelter artists eventually had their contracts transferred to the Backstreet Records label, which was distributed by MCA  ABC Records' independent distributors sued ABC and MCA for $1 3 million in damages for being stuck with unsold ABC recordings they could not return to MCA  The better selling ABC Records catalog albums were reissued on the MCA label MCA distribution in Europe and Asia moved to CBS in 1979, while releases in the 1980s were self-distributed, or through WEA  Distribution moved to  BMG during the 1990s 

The 1980s
The combined effects of the Infinity Records failure, the purchase of ABC, rising vinyl costs and a major slump in record sales produced tremendous losses for the company between 1979 and 1982  It was not until the mid-1980s that the record labels returned to significant profitability  In late 1980, MCA received negative publicity when it attempted to raise the list price of new releases by top selling artists from $8 98 to $9 98  This policy, known as "superstar pricing", ultimately failed  The Xanadu soundtrack album and Gaucho, by former ABC act Steely Dan, were the first releases with the higher list price  Backstreet artist Tom Petty succeeded in his campaign to force MCA to drop prices back to $8 98 for the release of his album Hard Promises, in May 1981 MCA had a distribution deal with the independent label Unicorn Records, which in turn signed an agreement with another rising independent label, SST Records to manufacture and distribute Black Flag's first album Damaged  Reportedly, MCA executive Al Bergman heard an advance copy of the album and refused to let MCA Distributing Inc  handle it, claiming that it was "an anti-parent record " The members of Black Flag found themselves covering the MCA Distributing logo on the first 25,000 copies with a sticker reading "As a parent    I found it an anti-parent record " SST Records partner Joe Carducci later claimed that Bergman's comments were actually a red herring for MCA to cut ties with Unicorn, which had not produced any successful releases; the fact that MCA would, not soon afterward, directly commission a new recording of "TV Party" from Black Flag and SST Records for the  Repo Man soundtrack seems to bear this out  Unicorn would later go out of business after going bankrupt, partially the result of a lawsuit between themselves and Black Flag 

Recovery, further expansion and MCA Music Entertainment Group
Irving Azoff became the head of MCA Records in 1983  Azoff is known as an experienced music industry veteran who received credit amongst MCA management and staff for saving the company from bankruptcy 
In 1983, rock musician Frank Zappa negotiated a distribution agreement for his Barking Pumpkin label with MCA  As the records were being manufactured, a woman in the quality control department objected to the lyrics of Zappa's album Thing-Fish  After this MCA cancelled the Zappa contract  At about the same time, Zappa publicly argued with members of the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) over censorship and warning stickers for albums with potentially offensive content  The experience with MCA prompted Zappa to create a satirical "WARNING/GUARANTEE" sticker of his own  Thing-Fish was released with Zappa's sticker in December 1984 under a new agreement with Capitol/EMI  Despite the conflict with Zappa, MCA later became the biggest label to oppose the PMRC and the use of warning stickers  In October 1985, Azoff said "Never will you find a sticker on one of our records "In the 1980s, MCA became commonly known as "Music Cemetery of America" due to a huge surplus of unprofitable records sitting unsold in MCA warehouses  A number of MCA associates, including Azoff and Zappa, disparaged the company in this way Starting in 1984, William Knoedelseder wrote a series of articles for the Los Angeles Times about the connections between organized crime and MCA  Knoedelseder told the story of mobster Sal Pisello and the corrupt deals he arranged with MCA for the liquidation sales of unsold cut-out recordings that had been deleted from the MCA catalog  The story was later adapted into the book Stiffed: A True Story of MCA, the Music Business, and the Mafia, which was published in 1993 
The Chess Records catalog was acquired from the remnants of Sugar Hill Records in 1985  Motown Records was bought in 1988  In the late 1980s, MCA formed Mechanic Records as a sub-label for releasing heavy metal music  Bands signed to Mechanic included Voivod, Dream Theater, Bang Tango, and Trixter  Another sub-label, called The Futurist Label, was created to release progressive rock and death metal albums MCA created a new holding company in 1989 called MCA Music Entertainment Group, headed by Al Teller, former President of United Artists Records, and Co-Chairman of Turf Classics, a concert production company, run by Producer Richard Flanzer  The same year the MCA Inc  parent company was purchased by the Matsushita group 
Azoff resigned from MCA in 1989 to form his own record label, Giant Records, now defunct   Richard Palmese was named president of MCA Records after Azoff in 1990 

The 1990s
GRP Records and Geffen Records were acquired in 1990  Unlike most of MCA's previous acquisitions, GRP (which began managing MCA's jazz holdings) and Geffen (which became a second mainstream subsidiary) labels kept their identities  MCA sold Motown Records to PolyGram in 1993 

Universal Music Group
In 1995, Seagram Company Ltd  acquired 80% of MCA   In November of that year, Teller was fired and replaced by former Warner Music Group head Doug Morris  Palmese left MCA a week later  Afterwards, Jay Boberg was named as the new president of MCA  On December 9, 1996, the new owners dropped the MCA name; the company became Universal Studios, Inc  and its music division, MCA Music Entertainment Group, was renamed Universal Music Group (UMG), headed by Morris 
In 1997, MCA Records adopted a new logo that featured the parent company's former full name  Many younger people had been unaware of what MCA had stood for in the past, hence the new logo  In conjunction with the new logo, the first MCA Records website was launched 
On May 21, 1998, Seagram acquired PolyGram (owner of British Decca) from Philips and merged it with Universal Music Group  Unlike several labels under PolyGram and UMG, who faced closure and job cuts of employees, MCA was the only label that was not affected by the merger  When Seagram's drinks business was bought by France-based Pernod Ricard, its media holdings (including Universal) were sold to Vivendi which became Vivendi Universal which was later renamed back to Vivendi SA after selling most of the entertainment division (which included Universal Pictures) to General Electric  Morris continued to head the combined company, still called Universal Music Group 

MCA label phaseout
On January 16, 2003, Jay Boberg resigned from his position as president of MCA Records  Boberg's resignation arrived in the wake of slumping sales at MCA, which had seen the label's overall album market share decline to just 2 61% in 2002, down from 9% the previous year  His demise was hastened by the relative commercial failure of Shaggy's Lucky Day, released in October 2002, which MCA hoped would sell well enough to turn around their declining fortunes  Richard Nichols, manager of The Roots, felt that MCA had been attempting to spend lots of money on different projects, and subsequently many acts on MCA were "underfinanced" by the label, leading to poor sales  Rob Hitt of Midtown (who was signed to MCA through Drive-Thru Records) stated that MCA had lost a substantial amount of money that year from investing in several unsuccessful bands Management of the label was subsequently handed over to the Interscope Geffen A&M umbrella label and Jimmy Iovine, although UMG chairman Doug Morris promised that MCA would continue to operate as a "full-service, free standing label"  Craig Lambert, previously the vice president of the label, was named as the interim head of MCA, with a successor expected to be chosen within a few months  Following Boberg's resignation, it was rumoured that MCA could possibly be merged into Universal Records, something which would have given the latter, New York City-based label a stronger presence in the West Coast of the United States On May 20, 2003, insider sources at Universal reporting to Billboard revealed that the MCA label was to be absorbed by sister UMG label Geffen Records by the end of the year  The reported reason behind the MCA brand phaseout was due to declining sales, as well as the MCA brand becoming "tarnished" by "a history of acquisitions and mergers"  On June 9, 2003, MCA laid off 75 of their staff, equivalent to a third of their personnel, although no employees from Geffen were let go  Geffen's president, Jordan Schur, was named president of the newly merged entity, which continued under the Geffen branding  In the subsequent months, the MCA name was phased out entirely  The last album to be released under the MCA Records branding was Twisted Method's Escape from Cape Coma, which was released on July 15, 2003 Today Universal Music Enterprises manages MCA's rock, pop, and urban back catalogues (including those from ABC Records and Famous Music Group) in conjunction with Geffen – UME and Geffen have re-released various albums from MCA in the years since, as well as several compilations  Its country music label MCA Nashville Records is still in operation, and is one of the only businesses using the MCA trademark as of 2016 along with MCA Records France (imprint of Universal Music France)  MCA's jazz catalogue is managed by Verve Records (through the Impulse! and GRP imprints, depending on whether the recording was acquired from ABC or not), while its classical music catalogue is managed by Deutsche Grammophon  MCA's musical theatre catalogue is managed by Decca Records on its Decca Broadway imprint 

Logos
Labels
MCA Records recording artists
Passage 4:
Ace Fu Records
Ace Fu Records is an independent record label founded in 1998 by Eric Speck  It is located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn  The label went on indefinite hiatus in 2007 

Roster
Acid Mothers Temple
Annuals
An Albatross
Aqui
The Dears
Devotchka
Ex Models
Illinois
Kaiser Chiefs
Man Man
Michael Leviton
Oneida
Officer May
Parts & Labor
Pinback
Priestess
Runner and the Thermodynamics
Secret Machines
The Sucka MCs
Ted Leo
Tunng

See also
List of record labels

External links
Official site
Passage 5:
EmArcy Records
EmArcy Records is a jazz record label founded in 1954 by the American Mercury Records  The name is a phonetic spelling of "MRC", the initials for Mercury Record Company During the 1950s and 1960s, musicians such as Max Roach, Clifford Brown, Cannonball Adderley, Dinah Washington, and Sarah Vaughan recorded for EmArcy Today, it is a European jazz label owned by Universal Music Group  The catalogue is managed by the Island Records subsidiary 

Discography
Mono 12" LP series (1954–c  1958)
Passage 6:
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica (Spanish for 'Saint Monica'; Spanish: Santa Mónica) is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast  Santa Monica's 2020 U S  Census population was 93,076  Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to its climate, beaches, and hospitality industry  It has a diverse economy, hosting headquarters of companies such as Hulu, Universal Music Group, Lionsgate Films, and The Recording Academy 
Santa Monica traces its history to Rancho San Vicente y Santa Mónica, granted in 1839 to the Sepúlveda family of California  The rancho was later sold to John P  Jones and Robert Baker, who in 1875, along with his Californio heiress wife Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker, founded Santa Monica, which incorporated as a city in 1886  The city developed into a seaside resort during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the creation of tourist attractions such as Palisades Park, the Santa Monica Pier, Ocean Park, and the Hotel Casa del Mar 

History
Indigenous
The Tongva are Indigenous to the Santa Monica area  The village of Comicranga was established in the Santa Monica area  One of the village's notable residents was Victoria Reid, who was the daughter of the chief of the village  During the Spanish period, she was taken to Mission San Gabriel from her parents at the age of six 

Spanish era
The first non-indigenous group to set foot in the area was the party of explorer Gaspar de Portolá, which camped near the present-day intersection of Barrington and Ohio Avenues on August 3, 1769 
There are two different accounts of how the city's name came to be  One says it was named in honor of the feast day of Saint Monica (mother of Saint Augustine), but her feast day is May 4  Another version says it was named by Juan Crespí on account of a pair of springs, the Kuruvungna Springs, that were reminiscent of the tears Saint Monica shed over her son's early impiety 

Mexican era
In 1839, Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado granted Rancho San Vicente y Santa Mónica to Francisco Sepúlveda II, of the Sepúlveda family of California  As the definitions of the rancho grant were not precise, the Sepúlveda family came into conflict with the neighboring Rancho Boca de Santa Mónica, owned by Ysidro Reyes and Francisco Márquez  A small Californio community grew up on Rancho San Vicente y Santa Mónica, made up primarily of vaqueros working on the rancho and their families 

Post-conquest era
After the American conquest of California, Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which gave Mexicans and Californios living in state certain unalienable rights  U S  government sovereignty in California began on February 2, 1848 
In the 1870s, the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad connected Santa Monica with Los Angeles, and a wharf out into the bay  The first town hall was an 1873 brick building, later a beer hall, and now part of the Santa Monica Hostel  By 1885, the town's first hotel was the Santa Monica Hotel Amusement piers became popular in the first decades of the 20th century and the extensive Pacific Electric Railway brought people to the city's beaches from across the Greater Los Angeles Area 
Around the start of the 20th century, a growing population of Asian Americans lived in and around Santa Monica and Venice  A Japanese fishing village was near the Long Wharf while small numbers of Chinese lived or worked in Santa Monica and Venice  The two ethnic minorities were often viewed differently by White Americans, who were often well-disposed toward the Japanese but condescending to the Chinese  The Japanese village fishermen were an integral economic part of the Santa Monica Bay community 
Donald Wills Douglas Sr  built a plant in 1922 at Clover Field (Santa Monica Airport) for the Douglas Aircraft Company  In 1924, four Douglas-built planes took off from Clover Field to attempt the first aerial circumnavigation of the world  Two planes returned after covering 27,553 miles (44,342 km) in 175 days, and were greeted on their return September 23, 1924, by a crowd of 200,000  The Douglas Company (later McDonnell Douglas) kept facilities in the city until the 1970s The Great Depression hit Santa Monica deeply  One report gives citywide employment in 1933 of just 1,000  Hotels and office building owners went bankrupt  In the 1930s, corruption infected Santa Monica (along with neighboring Los Angeles)  The federal Works Project Administration helped build several buildings, most notably City Hall  The main Post Office and Barnum Hall (Santa Monica High School auditorium) were also among other WPA projects 

Modern era
Douglas's business grew with the onset of World War II, employing as many as 44,000 people in 1943  To defend against air attack, set designers from the Warner Brothers Studios prepared elaborate camouflage that disguised the factory and airfield  The RAND Corporation began as a project of the Douglas Company in 1945, and spun off into an independent think tank on May 14, 1948  RAND acquired a 15-acre (61,000 m2) campus across the street from the Civic Center and is still there today 
The completion of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in 1958 eliminated Belmar, the first African American community in the city, and the Santa Monica Freeway in 1966 decimated the Pico neighborhood that had been a leading African American enclave on the Westside 
Beach volleyball is believed to have been developed by Duke Kahanamoku in Santa Monica during the 1920s Santa Monica has two hospitals: Saint John's Health Center and Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center  Its cemetery is Woodlawn Memorial 
Santa Monica has several local newspapers including Santa Monica Daily Press, Santa Monica Mirror, and Santa Monica Star 

Geography
Santa Monica rests on a mostly flat slope that angles down toward Ocean Avenue and toward the south  High bluffs separate the north side of the city from the beaches  Santa Monica borders the L A  neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades to the north and Venice to the south  To the west, Santa Monica has a 3-mile coastline fronting Santa Monica Bay, and to the east of the city are the L A  communities of West Los Angeles and Brentwood 

Climate
Santa Monica has a coastal Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb)  It enjoys an average of 310 days of sunshine a year  It is in USDA plant hardiness zone 11a  Because of its location, nestled on the vast and open Santa Monica Bay, morning fog is a common phenomenon in May, June, July and early August (caused by ocean temperature variations and currents)  Like other inhabitants of the greater Los Angeles area, residents have a particular terminology for this phenomenon: the "May Gray", the "June Gloom" and even "Fogust"  Overcast skies are common on June mornings, but usually the strong sun burns the fog off by noon  In the late winter/early summer, daily fog is a phenomenon too  It happens suddenly and it may last some hours or past sunset time  Nonetheless, it will sometimes stay cloudy and cool all day during June, even as other parts of the Los Angeles area enjoy sunny skies and warmer temperatures  At times, the sun can be shining east of 20th Street while the beach area is overcast  As a general rule, the beach temperature is from 5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit (3 to 6 degrees Celsius) cooler than it is inland during summer days, and 5 to 10 degrees warmer during winter nights 
It is also in September that the highest temperatures tend to be reached  It is winter, however, when the hot, dry winds of the Santa Anas are most common  In contrast, temperatures exceeding 10 degrees below average are rare 

The rainy season is from late October through late March  Winter storms usually approach from the northwest and pass quickly through the Southland  There is very little rain during the rest of the year  Yearly rainfall totals are unpredictable as rainy years are occasionally followed by droughts  There has never been any snow or frost, but there has been hail 
Santa Monica usually enjoys cool breezes blowing in from the ocean, which tend to keep the air fresh and clean  Therefore, smog is less of a problem for Santa Monica than elsewhere around Los Angeles  However, from September through November, the Santa Ana winds sometimes blow from the east, bringing smoggy and hot inland air to the beaches 
The hottest temperature ever reported in Santa Monica was 100 °F (38 °C) on November 1, 1966, while the lowest is 33 °F (1 °C) on March 1, 1945, and again on March 21, 1952  The highest minimum temperature is 72 °F (22 °C) on October 24, 2007, and the lowest maximum temperature is 51 °F (11 °C) on 4 dates in February 2001 and again March 10, 2006  The snowiest months on record are January 1954 and March 1955, both with trace amounts  They are the only months to ever report snowfall  Many months have reported no rainfall at all  Conversely, the wettest month on record is January 1995 with a total of 17 82 inches (453 mm) of rainfall  The wettest year on record is 1998, with a total of 25 4 inches (650 mm) of rainfall; the driest is 1989, with a total of 4 04 inches (103 mm) of rainfall 

Environment
The city first proposed its Sustainable City Plan in 1992 and in 1994, was one of the first cities in the nation to formally adopt a comprehensive sustainability plan, setting waste reduction and water conservation policies for both public and private sector through its Office of Sustainability and the Environment  Eighty-two percent of the city's public works vehicles run on alternative fuels, including most of the municipal bus system, making it among the largest such fleets in the country  Santa Monica fleet vehicles and buses source their natural gas from Redeem, a Southern California-based supplier of renewable and sustainable natural gas obtained from non-fracked methane biogas generated from organic landfill waste Santa Monica adopted a Community Energy Independence Initiative, with a goal of achieving complete energy independence by 2020 (vs  California's already ambitious 33% renewables goal)  The city exceeded that aspiration when, in February 2019, it switched over to electricity from the Clean Power Alliance, with a citywide default of 100% renewably sourced energy   That same year, the Santa Monica City Council adopted a Climate Action and Adaptation Plan aimed at achieving an 80% cut in carbon emissions by 2030, and reaching community-wide carbon neutrality by 2050 or sooner 
An urban runoff facility (SMURFF), the first of its kind in the US, catches and treats 3 5 million US gallons (13,000 m3) of water each week that would otherwise flow into the bay via storm-drains and sells it back to end-users within the city for reuse as gray-water, while bioswales throughout the city allow rainwater to percolate into and replenish the groundwater  The groundwater supply plays an important role in the city's Sustainable Water Master Plan, whereby Santa Monica has set a goal of attaining 100% water independence by 2020  The city has numerous programs designed to promote water conservation among residents, including a rebate for those who convert lawns to drought-tolerant gardens that require less water 
Santa Monica has also instituted a green building-code whereby merely constructing to code automatically renders a building equivalent to the US Green Building Council's LEED Silver standards  The city's Main Library is one of many LEED certified or LEED equivalent buildings in the city  It is built over a 200,000 gallon cistern that collects filtered stormwater from the roof  The water is used for landscape irrigation 
Since 2009, Santa Monica has been developing the Zero Waste Strategic Operations Plan by which the city will set a goal of diverting at least 95% of all waste away from landfills, and toward recycling and composting, by 2030  The plan includes a food waste composting program, which diverts 3 million pounds of restaurant food waste away from landfills annually  As of 2013, 77% of all solid waste produced citywide is diverted from landfills Environmentally focused initiatives include curbside recycling, curbside composting bins (in addition to trash, yard-waste, and recycle bins), farmers' markets, community gardens, garden-share, an urban forest initiative, a hazardous materials home-collection service, and a green business certification As in other coastal beach communities, coastal erosion due to coastal infrastructure and high human usage is an increasing challenge, and will become worse due to sea level rise  Starting in 2016, local environmental groups began dune and beach restoration projects 

Demographics
2020
The  2020 United States Census reported Santa Monica had a population of 93,076



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: When did the explorer reach the headquarters location of the group Con-Test's record label is part of?

The following are given passages.
Context 3:  This corresponds to density of 11,067 3 people per square mile  The racial makeup of Santa Monica was 63,383 (68 1%) white, 8,602 (9 2%)  Asian, 3,776 (4 1%) Black or African American, 539 (0 6%) American Indian and Alaska Native, 123 (0 1%) Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, 5,347 (5 7%) some other race, and 11,306 (12 1%) people were of two or more races Including all responses for people of two or more races, 73,996 (79 5%) were white alone or in combination with one or more other races, 11,864 (12 7%) were Asian alone or in combination with one or more other races, 5,459 (5 9%) were Black or African American alone or in combination, 1,877 (2 0%) were American Indian and Alaska Native alone or in combination, 415 (0 4%) were Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander alone or in combination, and 11,619 (12 5%) were some other race alone or in combination with one or more other races 13,544 (14 6%) were  Hispanic or  Latino of any race  Of those, 2,729 (2 9% of the total population) were white alone, 153 (0 2%) were Black or African American alone, 410 (0 4%) were American Indian and Alaska Native alone, 136 (0 1%) were Asian alone, 14 (0 0%) were Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone, 4,542 (4 9%) were some other race alone, and 5,560 (6 0%) were two or more races The census reported that Santa Monica had 52,389 housing units  Of those, 47,438 (90 5%) were occupied  12,856 (27 1%) of the occupied units were owner-occupied and 34,582 (72 9%) were renter-occupied  Of the vacant units, 2,540 (4 8% of total) were for rent, 230 (0 4%) were rented but not occupied, 183 (0 3%) were for sale only, 205 (0 4%) were sold but not occupied, 693 (1 3%) were for seasonal, recreational, or occasional use, and 1,100 (2 1%) were otherwise vacant  94 8% of households had a computer between 2017 and 2021, and 91 0% had broadband internet access 

2010
The 2010 United States Census reported Santa Monica had a population of 89,736  The population density was 10,662 6 inhabitants per square mile (4,116 9/km2)  The racial makeup of Santa Monica was 69,663 (77 6%) White (70 1% Non-Hispanic White), 3,526 (3 9%) African American, 338 (0 4%) Native American, 8,053 (9 0%) Asian, 124 (0 1%) Pacific Islander, 4,047 (4 5%) from other races, and 3,985 (4 4%) from two or more races  Hispanic or Latino of any race were 11,716 persons (13 1%), with Mexican Americans, Spanish Americans, and Argentine Americans making up 64 2%, 6 4%, and 4 7% of the Hispanic population respectively The Census reported 87,610 people (97 6% of the population) lived in households, 1,299 (1 4%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 827 (0 9%) were institutionalized 
There were 46,917 households, out of which 7,835 (16 7%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 13,092 (27 9%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 3,510 (7 5%) had a female householder with no husband present, 1,327 (2 8%) had a male householder with no wife present  There were 2,867 (6 1%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 416 (0 9%) same-sex married couples or partnerships  22,716 households (48 4%) were made up of individuals, and 5,551 (11 8%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older  The average household size was 1 87  There were 17,929 families (38 2% of all households); the average family size was 2 79 
The population was spread out, with 12,580 people (14 0%) under the age of 18, 6,442 people (7 2%) aged 18 to 24, 32,552 people (36 3%) aged 25 to 44, 24,746 people (27 6%) aged 45 to 64, and 13,416 people (15 0%) who were 65 years of age or older  The median age was 40 4 years  For every 100 females, there were 93 2 males  For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91 2 males 
There were 50,912 housing units at an average density of 6,049 5 per square mile (2,335 7/km2), of which 13,315 (28 4%) were owner-occupied, and 33,602 (71 6%) were occupied by renters  The homeowner vacancy rate was 1 1%; the rental vacancy rate was 5 1%  30,067 people (33 5% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 57,543 people (64 1%) lived in rental housing units 
According to the 2010 United States Census, Santa Monica had a median household income of $73,649, with 11 2% of the population living below the federal poverty line 

2000
As of the census of 2000, there were 84,084 people, 44,497 households, and 16,775 families in the city  The population density was 10,178 7 inhabitants per square mile (3,930 0 inhabitants/km2)  There were 47,863 housing units at an average density of 5,794 0 per square mile (2,237 1/km2)  The racial makeup of the city was 78 29% White, 7 25% Asian, 3 78% African American, 0 47% Native American, 0 10% Pacific Islander, 5 97% from other races, and 4 13% from two or more races  13 44% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race 
There were 44,497 households, out of which 15 8% had children under the age of 18, 27 5% were married couples living together, 7 5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 62 3% were non-families  51 2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10 6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older  The average household size was 1 83 and the average family size was 2 80 
The city of Santa Monica is consistently among the most educated cities in the United States, with 23 8 percent of all residents holding graduate degrees The population was diverse in age, with 14 6% under 18, 6 1% from 18 to 24, 40 1% from 25 to 44, 24 8% from 45 to 64, and 14 4% 65 years or older  The median age was 39 years  For every 100 females, there were 93 0 males  For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91 3 males 
According to a 2009 estimate, the median income for a household in the city was $71,095, and the median income for a family was $109,410  Males had a median income of $55,689 versus $42,948 for females  The per capita income for the city was $42,874  10 4% of the population and 5 4% of families were below the poverty line  Out of the total population, 9 9% of those under the age of 18 and 10 2% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line 

Crime
In 2006, crime in Santa Monica affected 4 41% of the population, slightly lower than the national average crime rate that year of 4 48%  The majority of this was property crime, which affected 3 74% of Santa Monica's population in 2006; this was higher than the rates for Los Angeles County (2 76%) and California (3 17%), but lower than the national average (3 91%)  These per-capita crime rates are computed based on Santa Monica's full-time population of about 85,000  However, the Santa Monica Police Department has suggested the actual per-capita crime rate is much lower, as tourists, workers, and beachgoers can increase the city's daytime population to between 250,000 and 450,000 people Hate crime has typically been minimal in Santa Monica, with only one reported incident in 2007  The city experienced a spike of anti-Islamic hate crime in 2001 after the September 11 attacks, but hate crime levels returned to their minimal 2000 levels by 2002 
Gang activityThe Pico neighborhood of Santa Monica (south of the Santa Monica Freeway) experiences some gang activity  The city estimates there are about 50 gang members based in Santa Monica, although some community organizers dispute this claim  Gang activity has been prevalent for decades in the Pico neighborhood 
In October 1998, alleged Culver City 13 gang member Omar Sevilla of Culver City was killed  A couple of hours after the shooting of Sevilla, German tourist Horst Fietze was killed  Several days later Juan Martin Campos, a Santa Monica city employee, was shot and killed  Police believe this was a retaliatory killing in response to Sevilla's killing  Less than 24 hours later, Javier Cruz was wounded in a drive-by shooting outside his home on 17th and Michigan In 1998, there was a double homicide in the Westside Clothing store on Lincoln Boulevard  During the incident, Culver City gang members David "Puppet" Robles and Jesse "Psycho" Garcia entered the store masked and began opening fire, killing Anthony and Michael Juarez  Police say the incident was in retaliation for a shooting committed by the Santa Monica 13 gang days before the Juarez brothers were shot down 

Homeless population
In 2022, there were 826 homeless individuals in Santa Monica 

Economy
Santa Monica is home to the headquarters of many notable businesses, such as Beachbody, Fatburger, Hulu, Illumination, Otter Media, Lionsgate, Macerich, Miramax, CBS Media Ventures, the RAND Corporation, Saban Capital Group, The Recording Academy (which presents the annual Grammy Awards), TOMS Shoes, and Universal Music Group  Atlantic Aviation is at the Santa Monica Airport  The National Public Radio member station KCRW is on the Santa Monica College campus  VCA Animal Hospitals is just outside the eastern city limit A number of game development studios are based in Santa Monica, making it a major location for the industry  These include:

Activision Blizzard (which includes Activision)
Cloud Imperium Games (Creators of Star Citizen)
Naughty Dog (Creators of Crash Bandicoot (1996–1999), Jak & Daxter, Uncharted and The Last of Us franchises)
PUBG Corporation (North American station, developed Miramar map in PUBG)
Riot Games, the creator of League of Legends, is just outside the eastern city limit 
TreyarchRecently, Santa Monica has emerged as the center of the Los Angeles region called Silicon Beach, and serves as the home of hundreds of venture capital funded startup companies 
Former Santa Monica businesses include Douglas Aircraft (now merged with Boeing), GeoCities (which in December 1996 was headquartered on the third floor of 1918 Main Street in Santa Monica), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and MySpace (now headquartered in Beverly Hills) 

Top employers
According to the city's 2022 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, the top employers in the city were:

Arts and culture
The Santa Monica Looff Hippodrome (carousel) is a National Historic Landmark  It sits on the Santa Monica Pier, which was built in 1909  The La Monica Ballroom on the pier was once the largest ballroom in the US and the source for many New Year's Eve national network broadcasts 
The Santa Monica Civic Auditorium was an important music venue for several decades and hosted the Academy Awards in the 1960s  McCabe's Guitar Shop is a leading acoustic performance space as well as retail outlet  The Santa Monica Playhouse is a popular theater in the city 
Bergamot Station is a city-owned art gallery compound that includes the Santa Monica Museum of Art  The city is also home to the California Heritage Museum and the Angels Attic dollhouse and toy museum 

The New West Symphony is the resident orchestra of Barnum Hall  They are also resident orchestra of the Oxnard Performing Arts Center and the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza 
Santa Monica hosts the annual Santa Monica Film Festival The city's oldest movie theater is the Majestic  Opened in 1912 and also known as the Mayfair Theatre, it has been closed since the 1994 Northridge earthquake  The Aero Theater (now operated by the American Cinematheque) and Criterion Theater were built in the 1930s and still show movies 
Notable restaurants have included Madame Wu's Garden, Batterfish, Stout Burgers and Beers, and The Misfit 

Shopping districts
Santa Monica has three main shopping districts: Montana Avenue on the north side, the Downtown District in the city's core, and Main Street on the south end  Each has its own unique feel and personality  Montana Avenue is a stretch of luxury boutique stores, restaurants, and small offices that generally features more upscale shopping  The Main Street district offers an eclectic mix of clothing, restaurants, and other specialty retail 
The Downtown District is the home of the Third Street Promenade, a major outdoor pedestrian-only shopping district that stretches for three blocks between Wilshire Blvd  and Broadway  Third Street is closed to vehicles for those three blocks to allow people to stroll, congregate, shop and enjoy street performers 
The Santa Monica Place, featuring Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom in a three-level outdoor environment, is at the Promenade's southern end  After a period of redevelopment, the mall reopened in the fall of 2010 as a modern shopping, entertainment and dining complex with more outdoor space 

Public library system
The Santa Monica Public Library consists of a Main Library in the downtown area, plus four neighborhood branches: Fairview, Montana Avenue, Ocean Park, and Pico Boulevard 

Sports
The men's and women's marathon ran through parts of Santa Monica during the 1984 Summer Olympics  The Santa Monica Track Club has many prominent track athletes, including many Olympic gold medalists  Santa Monica is the home to Southern California Aquatics, which was founded by Olympic swimmer Clay Evans and Bonnie Adair  Santa Monica is also home to the Santa Monica Rugby Club, a semi-professional team that competes in the Pacific Rugby Premiership, the highest-level rugby union club competition in the United States 
During the 2028 Summer Olympics, Santa Monica will host beach volleyball and surfing 

Parks and recreation
Palisades Park stretches out along the crumbling bluffs overlooking the Pacific and is a favorite walking area to view the ocean  It includes public art, a totem pole, camera obscura, benches, picnic areas, pétanque courts, and restrooms 
Tongva Park occupies 6 acres between Ocean Avenue and Main Street, just south of Colorado Avenue  The park includes an overlook, amphitheater, playground, garden, fountains, picnic areas, and restrooms 
The Santa Monica Stairs, a long, steep staircase that leads from north of San Vicente down into Santa Monica Canyon, is a popular spot for outdoor workouts  Some area residents have complained that the stairs have become too popular, and attract too many exercisers to the wealthy neighborhood of multimillion-dollar properties Ishihara Park opened to the public in 2017 and acts as a buffer between the Los Angeles Metro Rail and the surrounding residential community 

Government
Local government
Santa Monica is governed by the Santa Monica City Council, a Council-Manager governing body with seven members elected at-large  The mayor is Gleam Davis, and the Mayor Pro Tempore is Lana Negrete  The other five council members are Phil Brock, Christine Parra, Oscar de la Torre, Jesse Zwick and Caroline Torosis 

Representation
In the California State Legislature, Santa Monica is in the  26th Senate District, represented by Democrat María Elena Durazo, and in the  50th Assembly District, represented by Democrat Eloise Reyes In the United States House of Representatives, Santa Monica is in California's  36th congressional district, represented by Democrat Ted Lieu 

Education
Public schools
The Santa Monica–Malibu Unified School District provides public education at the elementary and secondary levels  In addition to the traditional model of early education school houses, SMASH (Santa Monica Alternative School House) is "a K–8 public school of choice with team teachers and multi-aged classrooms"  The district maintains eight elementary schools, three middle schools, and three high schools in Santa Monica 

Private schools
Private schools in the city include Crossroads School and Saint Monica Catholic High School 
Asahi Gakuen, a weekend Japanese supplementary school system, operates its Santa Monica campus (サンタモニカ校･高等部 Santamonika-kō kōtōbu) at Webster Middle in the Sawtelle neighborhood of Los Angeles  All high school classes in the Asahi Gakuen system are held at the Santa Monica campus 

Post-secondary
Santa Monica College is a community college founded in 1929  Many SMC graduates transfer to the University of California system  It occupies 35 acres (14 hectares) and enrolls 30,000 students annually  The Frederick S  Pardee RAND Graduate School, associated with the RAND Corporation, is the U S 's largest producer of public policy PhDs  The Art Institute of California – Los Angeles is also in Santa Monica near the Santa Monica Airport 
Universities and colleges within a 22-mile (35 km) radius from Santa Monica include Santa Monica College, Antioch University Los Angeles, Loyola Marymount University, Mount St  Mary's University, Pepperdine University, California State University, Northridge, California State University, Los Angeles, UCLA, USC, West Los Angeles College, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Occidental College (Oxy), Los Angeles City College, Los Angeles Southwest College, Los Angeles Valley College, and Emperor's College of Traditional Oriental Medicine 

Infrastructure
Transportation
Bicycles
Santa Monica has a bike action plan and launched a bicycle sharing system in November 2015  The city is traversed by the Marvin Braude Bike Trail  Santa Monica has received the Bicycle Friendly Community Award (Bronze in 2009, Silver in 2013) by the League of American Bicyclists  Local bicycle advocacy organizations include Santa Monica Spoke, a local chapter of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition  Santa Monica is thought to be one of the leaders for bicycle infrastructure and programming in Los Angeles County although cycling infrastructure in Los Angeles County in general remains very poor compared to other major cities The city implemented a 5-year and 20-year Bike Action Plan with a goal of attaining 14 to 35% bicycle transportation mode share by 2030 through the installation of enhanced bicycle infrastructure throughout the city   In 2023, Santa Monica scored near the 90th percentile of cities surveyed in the PeopleForBikes City Ratings, which measures the quality of a city’s bike network In terms of number of bicycle accidents, Santa Monica ranks as one of the worst (#2) out of 102 California cities with population 50,000–100,000, a ranking consistent with the city's composite ranking 
In 2007 and 2008, local police cracked down on Santa Monica Critical Mass rides that had become controversial, putting a damper on the tradition 

Highways
The Santa Monica Freeway (Interstate 10) begins in Santa Monica near the Pacific Ocean and heads east  The Santa Monica Freeway between Santa Monica and downtown Los Angeles has the distinction of being one of the busiest highways in all of North America  After traversing the Greater Los Angeles area, I-10 crosses seven more states, terminating at Jacksonville, Florida  In Santa Monica, there is a road sign designating this route as the Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Highway  State Route 2 (Santa Monica Boulevard) begins in Santa Monica, barely grazing State Route 1 at Lincoln Boulevard, and continues northeast across Los Angeles County, through the Angeles National Forest, crossing the San Gabriel Mountains as the Angeles Crest Highway, ending in Wrightwood  Santa Monica is also the western terminus of Historic U S  Route 66  Close to the eastern boundary of Santa Monica, Sepulveda Boulevard reaches from Long Beach at the south, to the northern end of the San Fernando Valley  Just east of Santa Monica is Interstate 405, the San Diego Freeway, a major north–south route in Los Angeles and Orange counties 

Motorized vehicles
Santa Monica has purchased the first ZeroTruck all-electric medium-duty truck  The vehicle will be equipped with a Scelzi utility body, it is based on the Isuzu N series chassis, a UQM PowerPhase 100 advanced electric motor and is the only US built electric truck offered for sale in the United States in 2009 

Bus
The city of Santa Monica runs its own bus service, the Big Blue Bus, which also serves much of West Los Angeles and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)  A Big Blue Bus was featured prominently in the action movie Speed 
The city of Santa Monica is also served by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (Metro) bus lines  Metro also complements Big Blue service, as when Big Blue routes are not operational overnight, Metro buses make many Big Blue Bus stops, in addition to MTA stops 

Light rail
Design and construction on the 6 6-mile extension (10 6 km) of the Expo Line from Culver City to Santa Monica started in September 2011, with service beginning on May 20, 2016  Santa Monica Metro stations include Downtown Santa Monica, 17th Street/SMC, and 26th Street/Bergamot  Travel time between Downtown Santa Monica station and 7th Street/Metro Center station in Downtown Los Angeles is approximately 46 minutes, while the travel time between the downtown Santa Monica station and the terminal Atlantic station in East Los Angeles is approximately 1 hour and 9 minutes 
Historical aspects of the Expo line route are noteworthy  It uses the former Los Angeles region's electric interurban Pacific Electric Railway's right-of-way that ran from the Exposition Park area of Los Angeles to Santa Monica  This route was called the Santa Monica Air Line and provided electric-powered freight and passenger service between Los Angeles and Santa Monica beginning in the 1920s  Passenger service was discontinued in 1953, but diesel-powered freight deliveries to warehouses along the route continued until March 11, 1988  The abandonment of the line spurred future transportation considerations and concerns within the community, and the entire right-of-way was purchased from Southern Pacific by Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority  The line was built in 1875 as the steam-powered Los Angeles and Independence Railroad to bring mining ore to ships in Santa Monica harbor and as a passenger excursion train to the beach 

Airport and ports
The city owns and operates a general aviation airport, Santa Monica Airport, which has been the site of several important aviation achievements  Commercial flights are available for residents at LAX, a few miles south of Santa Monica 
Like other cities in Los Angeles County, Santa Monica is dependent upon the Port of Long Beach and the Port of Los Angeles for international ship cargo  In the 1890s, Santa Monica was once in competition with Wilmington, California, and San Pedro for recognition as the "Port of Los Angeles" (see History of Santa Monica, California) 

Other
Since the mid-1980s, various proposals have been made to extend the Purple Line subway to Santa Monica under Wilshire Boulevard  There are no current plans to complete the "subway to the sea," an estimated $5 billion project In August 2018, Santa Monica issued permits to Bird, Lime, Lyft, and Jump Bikes to operate dockless scooter-sharing systems in the city  As of April 2023, Lyft, Spin, Veo, and Wheels are licensed to provide micro-mobility transportation in city 

Emergency services
Two major hospitals are within the Santa Monica city limits, UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica and Saint John's Health Center  Four fire stations provide medical and fire response, staffed with six Paramedic Engines, a Truck company, a Hazardous Materials team and an Urban Search & Rescue team  Santa Monica Fire Department has its own Dispatch Center  Ambulance transportation is provided by McCormick Ambulance Services Law enforcement services are provided by the Santa Monica Police Department
The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services operates the Simms/Mann Health and Wellness Center in Santa Monica  The Department's West Area Health Office is in the Simms/Mann Center 

Internet services
Santa Monica has a municipal wireless network which provides several free city Wi-Fi hotspots distributed around the city 

In popular culture
Film and television
Hundreds of moving pictures have been shot or set in part in Santa Monica 

Films
One of the oldest exterior shots in Santa Monica is Buster Keaton's Spite Marriage (1929) which shows much of 2nd Street  The comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) included several scenes shot in Santa Monica, including those along the California Incline, which led to the movie's treasure spot, "The Big W"  The Sylvester Stallone film Rocky III (1982) shows Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed training to fight Clubber Lang by running on the Santa Monica Beach, and Stallone's Demolition Man (1993) includes Santa Monica settings  In Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), the theft of Pee-wee's bike occurs on the Third Street Promenade  Henry Jaglom's indie Someone to Love (1987), the last film in which Orson Welles appeared, takes place in Santa Monica's venerable Mayfair Theatre  Heathers (1988) used Santa Monica's John Adams Middle School for many exterior shots  The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996) is set entirely in Santa Monica, particularly the Palisades Park area, and features a radio station that resembles KCRW at Santa Monica College  17 Again (2009) was shot at Samohi  Other films that show significant exterior shots of Santa Monica include Fletch (1985), Species (1995), Get Shorty (1995), and Ocean's Eleven (2001)  Richard Rossi's biopic Aimee Semple McPherson opens and closes at the beach in Santa Monica  Iron Man features the Santa Monica pier and surrounding communities as Tony Stark tests his experimental flight suit 
The documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001) and the related dramatic film Lords of Dogtown (2005) are both about the influential skateboarding culture of Santa Monica's Ocean Park neighborhood in the 1970s 
Santa Monica (and in particular the Santa Monica Airport) was featured in Roland Emmerich's disaster film 2012 (2009)  A magnitude 10 9 earthquake destroys the airport and the surrounding area as a group of survivors escape in a personal plane  The Santa Monica Pier and the whole city sinks into the Pacific Ocean after the earthquake 

Television
A number of television series have been set in Santa Monica, including Baywatch, Goliath, Pacific Blue (1996-2000), Private Practice (2007-2013), and Three's Company (1977-1984)  The Santa Monica pier is shown in the main theme of CBS series NCIS: Los Angeles  In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the main exterior set of the town of Sunnydale that includes the infamous "sun sign", was in Santa Monica in a lot on Olympic Boulevard 

Literature
Horace McCoy's 1935 novel They Shoot Horses, Don't They? is set at a dance marathon held in a ballroom on the Santa Monica Pier 
Raymond Chandler's most famous character, private detective Philip Marlowe, frequently has a portion of his adventures in a place called "Bay City", which is modeled on Depression-era Santa Monica  In Marlowe's world, Bay City is "a wide-open town", where gambling and other crimes thrive due to a massively corrupt and ineffective police force 
Tennessee Williams lived (while working at MGM Studios) in a hotel on Ocean Avenue in the 1940s  At that location he wrote the play The Glass Menagerie (that premiered in 1944)  His short story "The Mattress by the Tomato Patch" (1954) is set near Santa Monica Beach and mentions the clock visible in much of the city, high up on The Broadway Building, on Broadway near Second Street 

Music
Notable locationsThe band Linkin Park is named in homage to Santa Monica's Lincoln Park (now called Christine Emerson Reed Park) 
The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences is based in Santa Monica on Olympic Boulevard 
Universal Music Group is based in Santa Monica  Several of its labels, such as A&M Records, Aftermath Entertainment (started by Dr  Dre), G-Unit Records (created by 50 Cent & Sha Money XL), Geffen Records, Interscope (started by Jimmy Iovine), and Shady Records, are based in Santa Monica, CA 

Works
The folk Australian duo Angus and Julia Stone has a single titled "Santa Monica Dream" on its album Down the Way 
The ska/reggae band Bedouin Soundclash has a song called "Santa Monica" 
The band Everclear released a song titled "Santa Monica" in 1995, which became their first mainstream hit 
The British singer-songwriter Noel Harrison released a song and album titled Santa Monica Pier (1968) 
In 1948, bandleader Kay Kyser released a 78 record of the novelty song "When Veronica Plays the Harmonica (Down at the Pier in Santa Monica)" 
One of the few songs musical satirist Tom Lehrer has recorded since the 1970s is a tribute to the holidays of the Jewish calendar called "I'm Spending Hanukkah in Santa Monica" 
Richard Rossi released a song called "Santa Monica," celebrating the Santa Monica Pier, on his album Seasons of My Heart 
The band Savage Garden released a song titled "Santa Monica" from its album Savage Garden (1997) 
The modern rock band Theory of a Deadman's song "Santa Monica" is a first-person account of a girl leaving her significant other to start a new life in Santa Monica 
French Rapper Moha La Squale released the song "Santa Monica" in 2019 

Notable people
Sister cities
Mazatlán, Mexico
 Hamm, Germany
 Fujinomiya, Japan

See also
2013 Santa Monica shootings
Aragon Ballroom (Ocean Park, Santa Monica, California)
Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker, co-founder and benefactress of Santa Monica
List of cities and towns in California
List of City of Santa Monica Designated Historic Landmarks
List of people from Santa Monica, California
List of public art in Santa Monica, California
Muscle Beach
Passage 7:
The Right Stuff Records
The Right Stuff Records is an American reissue record label that was part of EMI, which is now owned by Universal Music Group and is based out of Santa Monica, California 
The label primarily released classic rock and R&B repertoire which included greatest hits collections, anthologies, boxed sets and compilations  The Right Stuff's repertoire was sourced from the various labels owned by EMI Records and also leased-in labels such as Dick Griffey's SOLAR (the Sound of Los Angeles Records), the post-1976 Philadelphia International Records, Hi Records, Tabu Records and Salsoul Records  The label also owned Leon Russell and Denny Cordell's Shelter Records and the New  York-based Laurie Records  The label also created many joint venture projects with outside brands such as Harley-Davidson, Hot Rod Magazine, Shape Magazine, and others  The label was started by former EMI and Capitol Records executive Tom Cartwright 

Selected artists on reissues



ground_truth: August 3, 1769